Iron Meditation

The best investment one can ever make is in oneself! Not from a selfish, but from a loving and cherishing perspective. The flight rule - put the oxygen mask on yourself first - is a life rule. Taking care of yourself, and investing in your emotional, psychological, spiritual, and physical ecology bring huge ROIs into your personal and professional life! We all, especially those who have kids, are familiar with the state that you "suddenly" break. You lose your shit, yell for no reason, agitated, aggressive, tired, and feel suffocated! PUT THE OXYGEN MASK ON YOURSELF FIRST. At least you should have. You didn't. Now you feel suffocated and overwhelmed by life. As in training, knowing when to DELOAD is often more important than adding another plate, as small as it may seem. Here's my portfolio (pic) - As with any portfolio, I sell and trade my stocks from time to time, depending on the market, ergo my life. At the end of each month, I set quietly alone and... FEEL. Feel...

  Having a passion and practicing it is great! But when you see somebody doing something, be it a result, rank, etc., and your Ego raises its ugly head saying: "I want that goody too!" - that's the "overspecialization" I warn you from. Here's a truth we must admit: WE KNOW IT! The numbers in a powerlifting meet the ranks in girevoy sport, the average time to finish a race. Then why after seeing somebody we don't know and care about do it, we "suddenly" got our mojo working? It's our Ego, performing a "James Dean" stunt on our life and health. We begin to focus and train for "that goody" neglecting and leaving out good things behind. We stop growing and evolving. We're deaf and blind to our own souls and body. We begin to "overspecialize" for... for what my friend?  Who's life we're trying to emulate, dumping our own ?... This is a crossroad one should be very careful about! It's either being tru...

In pt.1 I've talked about an Athlete Development Sequence (ADS) regarding two basic Human patterns - the Squat and the Hinge, leaving you with homework doing the same for Push & Pull patterns. Did you do it?... In this part, we'll dig deeper into the Vertical Periodization (VT) Model, and how to integrate ADS into the framework of annual or quarterly planning. You'll have some homework, aka Thinking   to do on your own, and as always, the choice is YOURS -  - How deep down the rabbit hole you're willing to go?.. Get a pen and paper - Old School Style, baby! - a cup of coffee and hit the  ▶️ button. Enjoy!

Vertical Periodization (VP) is a term coined by late and great, sprinting Coach Charlie Francis . In a nutshell, VP is about co-developing bio motor abilities aka Fitness Components, rather working on each separately, as in Linear or Blocked Periodization. In this article (pt.1 and pt.2) I'll share the use and inner logic of using VT in correlation to an Initial State of Athlete Development, ergo a client that walked into a weight room for the first time. NOTE: Arguing what is best, is like debating the question - of which religion is better. Allow me to leave this one (as the latter) to the "politicians" of any kind. Pt. 1: Athlete Development Sequence: A man or a woman walks into a gym.  What should start from? What exercise will benefit them in a long-term pathway? I'll demonstrate the rationale using two basic movement patterns - Squat and Hinge, aka "Deadlift". 1) Squat sequence: a) Split Sq  b) BSS  c) Dynamic Step Lunge - backward first, then forwa...

One can learn much, by listening "behind" questions asked.  One of my favorite questions is: - "What system do you use?" or, "Is that ____?" Just by listening to the intonation, you can spot whether it's a genuine question of curiosity and further education or the "What's you bench, man?" question, that indicates a lack of confidence and the need for self-affirmation. Answer this one for YOURSELF (nobody's watching, nor will know what your HONEST answer is): - Are YOU using systems as scaffolding or a crutch? It's not as intuitive as it sounds. It takes balls to dig deep, where darkness lurks, to the kingdom of the "other" part of you - that you (nor anybody) prefer not dealing with. Any system is merely a door. If you paid - a token of appreciation and honoring his work and effort - its creator, in contrast to stealing "free stuff" from the web, the system is YOURS to keep, use, modify, evolve, change, etc... ...