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The personal training environment has traditionally
been very conservative in terms of exercise prescription. Everyone is afraid of hurting someone and law suits. Therefore,
many of the workouts you see in gyms are chat sessions with a few bicep curls mixed in. Not only has the traditional bodybuilding
methodology ruled the “standard” training protocol, the 3 sets of 10 is still the volume of choice for just about
every exercise. Well, although 3 sets of 10 reps will provide a good reference for hypertrophy, it falls short of the goal
in many other aspects. At Positive Lifestyle and Xfit , we take a very different approach to training. Although we will perform
bodybuilding exercises when indicated, we emphasize “gut check” conditioning. We asked ourselves a very simple
question a long time ago. How can everyday heroes and weekend warriors get the extraordinary results they want? The answer
was simple, many did not like it, but it was still simple; “hustle behind the muscle.”Lack of physical conditioning is responsible for most of the ailments that plague
our society. We see most of the conditions ‘magically” disappear after about 4-6 weeks of our
“gut checking extreme” conditioning program. We don’t believe it’s any one exercise or modality that
does it. It is purely a conditioning phenomenon. Most injuries also occur when fatigue sets in and the coordination of the
stabilizing system falters. For example, most skiing injuries take place during the later part of the day. Tendon tares are
also believed to have a high fatigue component as part of their mechanism of injury. Knowing that a high level of conditioning
plays such an important role in performance and well-being, increasing our client’s functional capacity to OPTIMAL levels
becomes our first call. Regardless, of where we start with a client in their training progression, optimum performance is
always our final destination. There is no doubt
that our training is extreme, but on our way to optimal performance we do slow down and “smell the roses.” That
is, we take our time progressing clients through the proper progressions needed to do a couple of things. First, we obviously
want to develop good movement skills and an appropriate physical training base. So we start our clients at a pace that is
challenging –but always well within their capacity. This is crucial for developing the trust that will surely be needed
later on. Second, and just as important, we want to develop the psychological profile of a winner; a person who believes they
can do anything they set their mind to. This is often the toughest aspect of training anyone, and is surely the greatest gift
a trainer can give a client; the power to believe they can do what was previously thought impossible. The physical adaptations
often come much faster then mental shift –the power of belief. We take out time in acquiring both. After all –
most of our regular clients don’t have deadlines to get better.The protocols used for the advanced clientele of PL can be best characterized as medieval-supersets. They
are centered around pushing the envelope on “metabolic tolerance.” We train individuals to be very strong to short-high-intensity
work. This work produces high levels of the feared lactic acid. However, it’s not the lactic acid that should be feared,
because lactic acid does not remain lactic acid after it is produced. It disassociates into hydrogen and lactate. The increased
hydrogen concentration is what everybody feels and what everyone should fear. It is hydrogen that lowers the pH of the blood,
gives you the “burn,” increase respiration and eventually inhibits muscle contractions. So – if you want
to make your clients indestructible, you have to train them to tolerate, utilize and buffer high levels of hydrogen and deal
with the pain associated with this metabolic condition. I know what people are thinking. What about strength and cardio training? Are they not also important? Yes they are,
and we can get them from the super, power-circuits we perform. You see, when one performs lots of work in a short period of
time, speed is usually a major variable in the equation. Speed provides momentum and controlling (i.e. reducing and producing)
momentum requires strength. The more speed, the more momentum, the more momentum, the more strength needed to manipulate it.
Therefore, strength development is a natural by-product of power circuits. High work output also produces the high hydrogen
concentrations and low blood pH we previously mentioned. This metabolic state requires aerobic metabolism to regulate it,
especially during the recovery periods (Excessive Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption). Therefore, the cardio you are looking
for is built into the performance and recovery of the power circuits
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