Blog 35 – Our Workouts Should Have a Training Bias… AAARRRRRR!
A follow-up thought to the pull-up blog. What we’re really talking about here is encouraging individual members to create their own training bias within our general programming; whether that be within the hour or so we spend together or sometime in between. PDX Strength’s goal isn’t to “prescribe” you what a one-size-fits-all program (though I understand the conditions that make it seem as such). The goal with our programming is to “prescribe” to you a framework in which we offer you a well-rounded group exercise experience, based-in a foundational pattern, and rotating intensities. Could you just take that at surface level and produce some sort incremental gains across the board or varying levels of success? Absolutely. Frankly, Nigel is the most thoughtful programmer I’ve worked with.
But, alas, something funny happens in this process. A variable shows up, one as old as all living beings. That would be us – you, me, and the rest of the wild gang of rapscallions that hangs out down by the train tracks. You see, we are an ever-evolving being. When we throw ourselves into a structured process (like Nigel’s programming), we will often take it for a spin, dissecting what we like and don’t like, and come out the other side with newly formed opinions – a change in perspective if you will. Then the cycle repeats. And again. And again. And this could actually work for a REALLY long time if we keep a similar focus and perspective on what we are entering and engaging with. But what kind of humans would we be if we didn’t act out irrationally in the name of self-centered individualism and change?
In this light, it’s important to recognize that Nigel’s program (or any of the other class programming) is not for you. It is for us. Nigel acts as this pirate ship’s captain; keeping our course through sunny skies and nasty seas. But he also understands that sometimes his little swashbucklers need the ability and freedom to jump in a little skiff to explore new lagoons and beaches. (For those of you, that are now thinking, “What the fuck are you talking about, Dylan?!” I’m not sure to be honest. I’m just running with an analogy that I enjoy, and is making me laugh to myself while I write this blog as my shoulder pet, Fritz, sleeps soundly next to me dreaming of adventures past…. No? Ok, what I’m talking a giving you the freedom to explore a training bias – the beautiful beach – and what that might look like in the larger scheme of the programming – the pirate ship. )
For example, you personally might idolize a pull-up or muscle-up or whatever. You got your first taste in Groups Strength and Conditioning and you loved it. But then, “Nigel didn’t program it for another 2 months.” And you’d be right, he didn’t, because on the whole it’s no more important that any of the other ways our bodies are capable of moving. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t (or don’t) have the freedom to jump on that little skiff and explore that movement more often via accessory work, substituting movements within a structured class, asking for a periodized training plan, etc.
Yes, you’re inevitably giving up some of the time spent on the larger ship (or within the general programming for those of you that still can’t get behind my pirate analogy), but you’re also going to be happier for it. We are all going to be happier for it. You get more direct work as it relates towards YOUR goals, and we (the ship’s officers aka coaches) get to nerd out about what we really love – helping people explore their individual capacities.
More questions? Pen a letter with quill and ink.
AAARRRRRRR! – D