Long Live Strength

Effective training is hard training

You’ve always heard “work smarter, not harder”

As someone who’s worked and qualified within the “tradie” world I couldn’t agree with this more

However when it comes to strength training, smart training is hard training

If you want to work “smarter”, generally implying the need for being more efficient with your time then you’ll want to train HARD in the gym

This means;
Heavy loads for working sets
Pushing working sets close to failure
Doing enough sets to cause adaptation

But maybe we can make that process smarter as well, adding in adequate warm up sets, movement preparation and strategic programming

This ensures your hard work doesn’t go to waste and you know when it’s appropriate to push the limits and when you can back off to leave room for further progression

If you want to learn more about how you can create longevity for yourself in strength training, send us a DM and we’ll help you out 🤘

Work harder AND smarter

“It is better to destroy, than to create what is meaningless”

One of the most common answers we here from the boys in the gym about why they lift is for mental health

One of the biggest reasons I () lift is for my mental, physical and emotional health and firmly believe it’s all connected

The storage of negative and aggressive energy can be detrimental if it is left untamed or suppressed

Boys are often told to sit still, be quiet and to adopt less aggressive behaviors

However that energy cannot simply disappear, as energy must always be transferred, never destroyed or simply told to go away

My passion for training has been developed by learning to use my deconstructive energy and behaviors for more constructive purposes

Having an outlet like strength training not only is an opportunity to express that energy, but learn to better control and harness it, rather than let it control and harness them

At least with training we can destroy, only to rebuild stronger and more capable than before

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Why your goals mean nothing to you

Often when we ask gym goers what their goals are we get a series of vague and generic answers

It could be put on size, build strength, lose weight or “tone up” etc

Often we can dig deeper to find out more specifically what these goals mean to them and WHY they’re important

Sometimes people don’t have specific goals they want to achieve in mind

Some people aren’t forecasting success and glory, they’re predicting what will happen to them if they don’t make a change... now

They’re not opting to achieve big dreams, they’re trying to avoid a darkened future

Motivation can come from many positions and aims, sometimes we don’t need to become the best version of you and succeed like the top 1% of the world

Sometimes we just need to do better for ourselves, so we don’t continue down a path of self destruction and create a little version of hell for ourselves

At least then you have a sound reason as to WHY you are here.. putting in the work to better yourself

Because you don’t want to know what happens to your life if you don’t.

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Do your hips feel tight as nuts?

A common complaint for the fellas is the feeling of tight hips, opposed to the warm buttery hip feeling we like to experience

A quick reminder from the legendary movie Happy Gilmore.. “it’s all in the hips” makes us consider the fact we want to be able to move and control the hips effectively

Sometimes assessment may be necessary to determine what structures of the hip are the limiting factor, or contributing to feelings of tightness

Sometimes the culprit is proximal stability or control of the “core” musculature

Stacking the ribs over the pelvis and holding good alignment may relieve the feeling of tight hips altogether

At the very least, now we know with a good core position, that testing the hips may now result in finding out what the culprit is, now that we have a good foundation

If you were trying to stretch a band from points A to B, but point A is always moving and unstable.. how would we know were actually stretching at all?

Get the inside right and the outside will start to fall into place

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“Reach for the sky”

All the boys in the lifting world know that Monday is chest day and nothing else matters except a dirty chest pump

It could almost pass as gym religion and one of the lifting commandments

However we often find that multiple days end of being chest day and most of the lifting is performed in the form of pressing with the upper body

This can lead to imbalances of the system which can lead to p**s poor posture, rounding of the shoulders like a gorilla and even lead to injury

The use of pulling helps balance out the equation but the shoulder blades which the shoulders sit into, move in many directions and we need to satisfy loading all of the to balance out the system

Reaching is often a missing component of most gym programs and involves the shoulder blade wrapping around the ribs into upward rotation as we go into our over head positions

The landmine press is a great variation to reach and thinking about armpit following the hand as you press with long arms and lean into the movement

Keep your shoulders healthy and balanced and you will have much more longevity for the almighty “chest day” when it comes around

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Render beings in your care competent

One of the biggest travesties in the fitness industry building dependence between coach and client

It’s like the overprotective mother who doesn’t let her child play with the other kids for fear of getting hurt

The gym is and always will be one of our biggest teachers to building competency of the physical self that translates to the real world

We like to train majority of our clients within the semi-private system where the athlete can learn to navigate their training plan under coaching guidance

We want to build autonomy, independence and competency through strength training

We don’t want to hold their hand every step of the way, because then they’ll be looking for the hand with every new step they take

We are building more competent individuals through strength to compete with the world

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Do you stand proud & tall, or rounded and small?

We all know the one bloke at the gym who looks like a gorilla and winces as he grabs his shoulder after a heavy set of bench

One of the most common issues seen among avid gym goers is poor upper back posture and a lack of movement in the upper back and T-spine

Funnily enough one of the biggest complaints of injury and pain comes from the shoulder joint

Instead of cranking on those shoulders and pulling and bands to get those shoulders “looser” you might try the following
- Open up the T-spine through extension
- Open up the T-spine through rotation

Get into a quadruped (all 4’s) position, lock the hips in and with arm at time, pull your elbow into your opposite hand and then push away reaching your elbow to the roof as you drive through the floor with the other

You might just get those shoulders feeling nice and buttery, at the very least you might have some better posture to be proud about

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“Get as skinny as possible”

No this is not an advert for skinny tea or some detox juice cleanse fasting fad

This is a cue we use for our athletes to attain a good contraction of the internal core musculature

This helps attain better alignment of the rib cage and diaphragm, over the pelvis and pelvic floor

Everything works from the inside out

So it makes sense for us in order to get the best performance based outcomes, we need to have the best alignment from the inside, out

This will give us a strong, stable core that we can more efficiently transfer forces through it

You cant shoot a cannon out of a canoe, as the old adage goes

If you want to lift big, you have to breathe big

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Is nutrition or training more important?

Let me know your thoughts below 🤔

You might have heard from your local “health” guru it’s 80% diet and only 20% training

He also has never lifted anything heavy in his life

Then your local PT says who needs protein and gives you sets of burpees until you lie in a pool of your own spew on the floor

The fact is you need both, not independently of the other but both play important roles in growth, development and body composition

Let us not argue which is more important, because without either or... results will come very slowly, if at all

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Do you remember your first time in a new gym?

You we’re probably nervous and had no fu***ng clue what to do, or where to start

You might shy away from the boys yelling at each other in the squat rack and the girls taking selfies of their butt in the mirrors

It’s a pretty weird world out there and the gym is no exception

But it’s also a wonderful place where all your dreams and ambitions can be realized

It’s a place to build competence and confidence

It’s a place to build a body you’re proud of and lift some s**t you never could have lifted before

It’s an intimidating place, for sure.. but so is any place you haven’t yet conquered

Perhaps it’s time to conquer a little more of the world around you

So that you feel that the world isn’t conquering you

It’s a pretty damn good feeling when you’re doing the yelling and butt selfies

But maybe then you could help someone else on their first day in the gym

Send us a DM to learn how you can improve your existence through strength training 🤘

Where all walks of life are equal

How do you get yourself in the zone for a big session?

Are you the person that talks to themselves?

Are you the person who puts on the kind of extreme metal that throws you off a cliff?

Maybe you need quiet and focus, zoning in and blocking out all distraction

Maybe all you need is good people around you for support, motivation and to bring the vibe

The beauty of the gym is all walks of life come together in the one space to work on common goals

One of the things we love about strength training is the culture and community that is created through taking on adversity

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from, everyone is on the same playing field looking to better themselves through training

Training is very rewarding, but it is difficult.. so we may as well suffer in good company

Send us a DM to learn how you can improve your existence through strength training 🤘