Sports Training and Adult Fitness Training at Upward
“Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.” – Marcus Aurelius
Whenever I reflect back on how and when I got into coaching, I remember my 16 year old self bringing my friends through a workout and how stupid I was for some of the exercise choices I used to make. My knowledge at the time was based on the Rocky series, especially when he went to fight the russian Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (an amazing film and still one of my favorites of all time) and my training was a clear representation of that. I mean maxing out every session, running with sleds until my legs didn’t work, sprints on top of sprints, and if you asked me what an off day was I’d just laugh at you. Although I wasn’t the smartest (I still don’t think I am, but I’ve gotten better) I was very passionate about training and helping others reach their goals through hard work. At my heart I’m still that 16 year old meat head, but I’ve advanced my knowledge to better help the people around me and train much smarter than I did.
Not everyone is going to fight a juiced up Russian in their life, but what we are going to have is a willingness to better ourselves spiritually, mentally, and physically. Upward Human Performance has a very key word in the name, and that’s “human.” At times we forget how important being human is, and it’s pretty awesome to be one. The body has capabilities to do amazing things, and to prove that all you have to do is look at the Guinness book of world records. In the book you’ll see crazy vertical jumps, sub 4 min mile times, breathing underwater for what seems like forever, and how many piercings one person can put on their body. The reality of this, however, is that we all won’t be world record holders, and that’s fine! But what we can be is the best version of ourselves to express the wonders of the human body to our friends, family, and loved ones. What I’m going to talk about next will be broken up into two parts, “for the athlete” and “for the adult” so feel free to either read both or skip to the one that applies to you, I won’t be able to tell the difference.
For the Athlete
Just recently I gave a pretty good analogy to our Upward interns on what my goals are for athletes that come into our facility that I’m going to share. When we are looking at athletes, there are 5 key skills that we want to improve so they are able to perform their sport to the highest level. These 5 skills are:
1. Speed
2. Power
3. Strength
4. Movement quality/efficiency
5. Work Capacity (GPP for you Westside fans)
Now imagine all of these qualities as paint on an artist’s palette they use to create a masterpiece. My job as a coach is to increase the quality of the skills (paint) so the athlete (painter) can use those to express in their sport (canvas). The better quality of paint, the better chance the painting will come out better. Now don’t get me wrong, you can have the greatest paint in the world and still can’t hit a baseball past 85mph (aka me). This is why my job is to increase the overall quality of the skills so you, the athlete, can practice at a higher level. You put in the work in the weight room and then express that on the field, free of doubts and insecurities since you know you have the best paint you could have possibly given yourself.
For the Adult
“Human? Move
Older human? Move more
Injured human? Move most”
Tommy John III
The mindset behind aging I think is what I want to change the most when working with adult clients. Yes I know you aren’t in your 20s anymore, but that doesn’t mean you stop training all together. For athletes, it’s easier for them to realize when training is important since their goal is sport performance, but what happens when you don’t play sports? That’s when you start training for LIFE. Life is full of surprises and no one knows what could happen on a day to day basis. Kids want to play with you outside, carrying laundry up a flight of stairs, caring for your family, moving furniture, and whatever else comes to mind are all things that happen frequently with no set schedule for your convenience. What training does is that it prepares you for the unknown, and it does so by improving on what we call the 5 pillars of human performance. These pillars include:
1. Physical Strength
2. Mental Strength
3. Lifestyle Habits
4. Leadership
5. Spirituality
When you come to Upward and receive coaching from any one of us on staff, you will get way more than physical benefits which can be obtained anywhere. We focus on all aspects of life and improve overall qualities that you will need for long term success. This is a lifelong journey that YOU need to start, so I ask you will today be one day or day one? The choice will always be yours and we’ll be here if you choose the latter.
– Written by Brett Hart, Head Coach
coachhart@performupward.com