travel log: day 3
Day 3 in Santo Domingo
That rooster is waking up earlier. I think he must have subscribed to my updates and has taken offense to my shenanigans.
It’s a Monday so people are back to work. The street were a little more crowded, and the traffic was a little heavier but not by much. It seems like one day flows into the next. That may be the Caribbean lifestyle. At least that the vibe I’m getting.
The breeze is nice, but don’t get caught without it because this humidity down here is serious. The good news is that I’ve been upset for months about not having access to a sauna due to the “pandemic,” but now I don’t have to worry because I can just walk outside if I want to sweat my ass off.
I’ve never drank so much fucking water in my life. I’m up to almost 2 gallons a day.
Today was the first day of my mentorship — the entire reason for this excursion. The last few times I’ve left my native country have been for educational purposes. I enjoy seeing the world, almost as much as I enjoy learning from people around it. It’s all for a purpose, just like the way we should structure our training.
“Mobility provides Stability. Stability delivers Strength” To optimally improve your strength, you need to create mobility in and around the joint. That mobility provides enough freedom to get into a stable position. And from that stable position you can deliver forceful contraction that will elicit a strength gain.
“Evidence based training > Science based training” This has been covered before somewhere on the internet but it is worth repeating that if you are doing something that is providing you with the results you are after, you don’t need research to back it up. Keep doing it and let the research catch up to you later.
“The best way to learn something is to experience it.” I couldn’t agree more. This goes with most things but in an industry that thinks it can deliver quality through a screen without the recipient actually knowing what they are supposed to feel is ridiculous. To learn you must first be properly taught. To be properly taught you must seek out someone who can teach you how things work, where they should be working, how they should feel, and why they (the teacher) is offering this recommendation. I’ve been in the strength training game for almost 10 years and I’m still learning new things, but that is because I seek out the best that I can find. Go see them and experience all they have to offer.
“EveryBODY is different. The key is individualization.” The key to training, nutrition, and anything really is to make it individualized. No two people are exactly the same, nor will any protocol that puts you in peak condition be the exact same as anyone else’s.
“You biography becomes your biology.” Everything you do, consume, say, think, etc. becomes a part of the story that is you. We are the accumulation of all our inputs, both good and bad.
“If you feel it, then you can grow it. If you can grow it, you can show it.” Most people just go through the motion when they are performing an exercise without really feeling the muscle that should be working. In order to grow in strength or size, you need to feel the muscle that is being worked. This goes beyond the mind muscle connection in the sense that, yes you need to think about the muscle, but you also need to be conscious of the rest of your body, is it in the best position to deliver the stimulus to the specific muscle you are looking for? If not, you’re not going to feel the muscle properly, therefore you aren’t going to be able to grow it optimally, and will fail to see it in the mirror.
“You’re only as strong as what you can recruit.” Most people are weak because they lose tension through their body when performing a particular lift. Instead of focusing on the entire body as a whole, that is in the best position to provide the most powerful stimulus to a given movement, they are only focused on one movement, and that is how you get hurt. Focusing on picking someone up from the ground, without being aware of your core/lower back and where the weight is place in your feet can easily lead to an injury if you’re not careful. Forgetting to keep tension throughout the body is how most injuries happen, both inside and outside the gym.
“Your natural hypertrophy is indicative of how you are executing any given exercise.” If one body part is larger, or another muscle group is weaker, be mindful of how your body is moving through the exercise you are using. Everything from grip, hand width, wrist position, sternum position, speed of action, and joints used to initiate the movement can play a factor in where you see specific gains, or not. It comes down to biomechanics.
“Machines allow you to play around with your biomechanics, while free weights make you use your natural biomechanics.” Playing off the previous point, if you are trying to develop a specific body part, but by default your mechanics while using free weights don’t let you move in a particular way as to create enough tension in a muscle, you can use a machine to get into a more specific movement pattern, utilizing different anchor points, so that you can feel the muscle in a way that you previously may not have been able to based on your natural biomechanics.
“Show me how you do the exercise before you ask for my recommendation.” People always want to know how to best perform an exercise but the thing is everyone is different. We have different needs because we have different structures, recruitment patterns, habits, and limitations that play a factor in how we can best perform an exercise. What may be helpful for one person may not work for another and vice versa. The best way is to help someone improve execution is to see what their limiting factors are. The same thing goes for life.