Firstly, welcome to the first blog on the Performance Personal Training website. Keep your eyes on this page for blog posts in the future.
This past weekend I attended the Strength Essential’s: Real world strength training seminar hosted by successful strength coaches Keegan Smith (head of strength and power at the Sydney Roosters), and Corey Bocking (strength coach for athletes ranging from State, through to national and olympic level).
Here’s the TOP 10 points that I took away from the seminars.
Note: these are in no real specific order, just jotting them down as they come to me.
#1 – Quality sleep is one of the most important factors to monitor when training for health and performance. Aim for 7-10hrs of unbroken sleep per night, with NO artificial light, or electromagnetic devices (mobile phones, TV’s or WiFi connections) close to you.
#2 – Have a ‘Worthy Ideal’ in life. Something that you could dedicate your life to, or be remembered for. Although not a strength related topic, this was something that stuck out for me, and something that I’ll be working towards myself.
# 3 – Monitor your athletes/clients fatigue with grip strength. A quick and simple assessment that can be done with a dynamometer. Definitely something that I plan to implement with my own high level clients and athletes in the very near future at PPT!
#4 – Strength basics (squat, deadlifts, overhead pressing) performed at high levels translate well to athletic performance. Keegan also showed us some stat’s on what he believes you would need to achieve to place yourself in the top 5% of gym goers. Impressive lifts, and something that I plan to work towards.
#5 – The overhead squat can be used as an assessment for athlete/client mobility. We performed this with either a dowel rod or light barbell to look at the each others potential mobility issues. Another quick and effective tool that I’ll look to use in the future.
#6 – Relating to that last point.
“You can’t make chicken soup from chicken shit! Current injuries and imbalances need to be addressed”
#7 – Olympic lifts. Other than for a little fun or variation in my own training, I haven’t found myself using Olympic lifts a great deal. I definitely plan on improving this myself heading forwards.
#8 – “You can’t give what you don’t have” – Not really something new to me, but something that I feel should make the TOP 10. I’ve always felt that trainers and coaches who don’t train themselves for the most part, should probably get out of the industry. It was great to see that Keegan and Corey felt the same way. If anything, I now feel it’s time to step my own game up to stay ahead of the curve.
#9 – “Put the garbage out” – My take on this was to focus on the positives. To create a healthy and positive environment for my clients, athletes and myself, ‘throw out’ the negatives or distractions. These things aren’t going to help you move forward to achieving your goals, so don’t give it any of your time.
#10 – To achieve the best results, you need to create the best environment to do it in. There’s no point killing yourself in the gym with the ball-busting workouts, or supplements if your sleep is horrible. Make sure you’re assessing all aspects of health and wellness if you’re looking for optimal performance!
Sean O’Shea