Must Have's for Performance

April 6, 2016

There are thousands of things you can do to increase your performance in life or in the sporting arena. The problem is many of us get confused on what to do or choose an advanced method before we even have the basics dialled in. Here are some things I think you need to have to reach world class performance:

You have to constantly and consistently work towards progress. It doesn’t matter if it is in the gym or at work, you have to try and be better than you were the day before. This could mean increasing the weight on the bar, doing an extra rep or an extra set, or increasing the amount of work you do in a given time frame. It sounds simple but this is what it is all about. Too often you see people lift the same weight, for the same amount of reps, day in and day out. They are just spinning their wheels. Don’t just go through the motions.
Get your nutrition in check. If you eat crappy foods you will not perform optimally. If you have brain fog at work and can’t think properly you won’t be able to be at your best and won’t reach your potential. In the end this could cost you a promotion or you may miss opportunities to make good money. If your goal is putting on muscle mass then you have to eat like it is a training session. You can’t grow by dreaming about it, you have to actual do something. Don’t complain if you aren’t growing and you are only eating 2 meals a day.
When things get tough you have to be able, and willing to push through uncomfortable situations. To increase performance in any field you have to be mentally strong. Anyone who is the best in the world in their field has this quality. Nothing stops them from achieving their goal. They train around injuries and they are willing to do what others won’t do, they push themselves past the point of comfortable.
You have to be passionate about what you do. Reaching the top requires hard work for years. Without passion it is unlikely you will stick in there long enough to see the ultimate result of your efforts.
You can’t have any excuses. If you want something bad enough you will find a way. Your job getting in the way, lack of money, or poor genetics for example are no reason why you can’t succeed. If you truly want something you’ll find a way to get it done. If not, did you really want it or was it just a nice thought?

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Attitude

desire

motivation

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Why I Like to Use Phases of High Volume in Training

January 19, 2017

Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

A lot of strength coaches are concerned about overtraining these days and tend to stick to a moderate training volume to be on the safe side. While I think having a conservative approach and taking care of your athletes is a good idea I feel there are definitely times when a cycle of high training volume can be of benefit. You just have to know when to apply it and to which type of athlete.

When someone needs to put on some muscle mass quickly then a high volume of training can be very beneficial. By exposing the muscle fibres to the same movement for a high volume, it forces the muscle fibres to grow. It is good to use if you have hit a plateau in muscle mass gains, it shocks the body and forces it into adaptation.

You can also use a high volume of training to get leaner. By using big compound lifts, a high number of sets and reps, and using shorter rest periods you are able to generate a lot of lactic acid in the blood which can in turn help accelerate fat loss. This is due to the release of growth hormone and also the impact this type of training has on heat shock proteins (another great tip I learnt from Charles Poliquin). William Kraemer has done research on the best protocols for the release of growth hormone and showed that high reps and short rests of 30 to 60 seconds produced the greatest increases.

Increased fitness levels are another benefit you see with a high volume of training. As mentioned above the lactate you produce is very high with this type of training. By training this way your body gets used to the high levels of lactate and also gets better at clearing it from the blood. When you go back to your sport, you are much fitter from these benefits. My favourite thing about it is you don’t have to do any additional interval work when you are training with a high volume, the amount of work you do is more than enough. So you have the benefit of added muscle mass and increased levels of work capacity.

Mental toughness is another benefit of an increased training volume. If I ever feel as though I am being, or starting to get lazy in my training, I tend to increase the volume. It is the fastest way for me to get my mind back into a state of focused training. You can’t get through some of the workouts if you don’t have that burning desire inside yourself. It’s a great way to bring it back out if you have been sitting in a comfort zone. It tests how bad you really want something and how hard you are willing to push to achieve it. Also, once you go back to lower volume with increased intensity it feels a lot easier, your work capacity is better, and you can repeat more sets and reps at a given load.

As mentioned above it is important to time these cycles correctly and apply them correctly for maximum benefits.

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