PDXStrength News

Blog 36 – Fall Goals 

Welp. The smoke is clearing. Fall colors have appeared in Forest Park. And we’ve rotated the schedule and added more classes/options at PDX Strength starting next week – just in time for the fall rain to drive us inside. With all these changes, we’re also going to start talking about goals, or as the last blog called them, beautiful beaches and lagoons. 

We do this every-so-often at the gym, sometimes we all have a group goal or others we allow you to select them yourself. This fall is going to err towards being all about you, with perhaps weekly and monthly challenges for all of us – a la the wildly successful team challenges that we started at the beginning of the shut downs (Results are still being calculated, if you are wondering which team “won.”).

I’m going to avoid repeating the SMART formula here. Not because I don’t think there is value to it, which there is, but I assume you already know the formula AND I assume you’ll hear it from someone else. I could be wrong in both of those assumptions, but now I assume you’re reading this on some device that includes Google. No, this blog is more or less going to be a list of questions to ask yourself as you think through what’s a good idea AND what’s particle. This, to me, is the crux of goal setting (it should also surprise no one at this point that the only thing structured goal setting does for me is structurally plan for shit that just isn’t going to happen.)

So in light of that, I’d rather let you have an open dialogue with yourself or, perhaps, your coach around the following – This is not an extensive list:

• Why do I want this goal? 
• What will achieving this goal allow me to do? 
• Could I achieve this in a different way?
• How will I have to change my current routine to reach this goal?
• Am I willing to change what I am currently doing to prioritize this goal?

After you’ve filtered your thoughts through these questions, you should have a smaller and more attackable list of goals. At this point, go nuts with whatever structure you need – SMART formulas, color codes, phone reminders, et al. 

More questions? You know whom to call. 

D

Hi there campers!

With the Pandemic and Poor Air Quality Conditions we know it’s been a challenge to get to the gym.

Here is a compiled List of past Zoom Workouts:

HIIT Workouts:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/-idXfSsox_rtQZyiJ_Roez0xLhbC2NzrlwHpLeee7eexHgGbhaSENmCOaoW_3RiF.y43m7CVxqFGGLndO?startTime=1600196715000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/S3gKR0-zcq8dhFLcsgXM0wf7AFyvXW6A980-CN6skaaKcUD2wj9Sv4c42bjBkSmz.D2dxS4H-dJc8EBN7?startTime=1599592112000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/r2e2EbQfA3IAe1EGXrprsg5X8pSuPcGU5dwvznmj4CvEXkbC-m9CCOPIoCa4kW-7.fjsvNF9cUWvER0vY?startTime=1586109888000

Kettle bell Cub and Bodyweight Strength Workouts:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/i7q2jukYEVb91ipL0nMHUDmbeF94qaXSBx8S1fyd3u4bCp314fskrv5jK8AB_qfy.C7P8thUTBC1gAlv9?startTime=1600888002000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/6h1wMq1s_Q9BZnp5WlmcaqN-yQmBAhWQMhF8eRsuzztrrT7Ph9wU0rvJeLVw5Yel.1Er43fPt51e7KHVq?startTime=1600715015000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/LfwV4XWKvzKo-nDcL9T6a-T8B6iOpdPbEi4MAnepwLov7aSeO5JgJ8ZdarnYcaCH.sLtI3-vmaUY3ecld?startTime=1600283216000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/OdNF6Tufqg3YIfcn0WzLl9XEel18V9Ce7NLZzRsWRIknVwUjVrH54VmC3EjacNp5.QYdPOkJZmMXVEuXq?startTime=1600110436000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/qhSNUm4OfTjbNsXdQGa3tPV1vfMYfpXD1zZIH6KBpKhiinvU6o7hO8EChQBqSNdc.LJOca85RK6XIUlQs?startTime=1587064131000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/j43IQgjbg-TKFgdaITCGHFeK5rntf70-0nVnzML9przasRw55mMtBeXE0x-fDHce.Wv55i74VusFAJbad?startTime=1585681205000

Yoga: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/r4NzdrbdI06ipf0td-kPl0_y8cih-Z5ipXovz7W-njDY5pS9I8Gth_9C3P9F6ve_.zl_O1nFagifwFm2d?startTime=1585497399000

Butt and Gut

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/lEHKvXeGt9yqPrjYlFDKDq3r90iLYMwbJ02sh-CfnMa_EvCEI8Rzl1-D6fAHCiZ6.4u64vmm1pcKSjYSb?startTime=1600974402000

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/8DdpI3VluuqY2AAjpUo6BoWkgD_fwFA67NAJcEsbV0WJuE3dTDavb_8McMIKqOfY.O7jqj7KfZkVyuADy?startTime=1600369500000

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