The reason I bring this up is prior to each chapter there is a quote from various philosophers and other great minds of the past. The one I liked the most was from Aristotle. The Quote went like this, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.". I liked this because it instantly reminded me of the 4 Laws of training and the fact that we are a living adaptive organism that constantly changes based on the stimulus we give it.

This also reminded me of a Robin Williams quote from a movie, it might have been Patch Adams but don't hold me to that. He was talking to someone who was thinking about quitting smoking. In the scene he looks at the person and says, "Are you a smoker, yes or no?" The person gave him a puzzled look but then said, "No." So Then Robin Williams then asks the Person," Then why are you smoking?" It was a funny scene because it was so true, you either are or you are not. Being caught in between can prove to be very unsuccessful.

I have always felt this way about exercise. Either you are someone who likes to exercise or you are not. The fact is that we all ned exercise but many of us simply do not want to do it. It is impossible to ignore the basic laws of the human body that it responds to stimulus, changes based on the stimulus it receives, is designed to receive stimulus in a progressive manner, and is always trying to achieve homeostasis.

If you are not someone who is currently exercising you are what you repeatedly do. In this case it means you are a person who is in a state of constantly losing your muscular systems efficiency which leads to lack of strength, flexibility, balance, posture, and enables pain symptoms such as arthritis, tendonitis, and many other skeletal and muscular issues to take over your body.

If you are not someone who exercises I highly encourage you to become one. There are so many different options for how to get some form of fitness that I believe everyone can find something to do. A little bit can go a long way so if your current activity level is zero, try taking it to a one.

ShareThis

I want to take a chance to also show you the opposite. What if the stimulus we most commonly gave our body was a lack of physical demand but rather placing it in a seated position for long periods. I have trained literally thousands of clients over the years that have been computer programmers or other desk employees. Many of them come in with similar issues, most commonly is back pain. Upper back pain and neck pain is almost a given for those that work at a desk for extended periods of time.

So like I said in the title we become what we are. If we are a person who sits at a desk for many hours at a time and that becomes the dominant stimulus we give to our muscles, we slowly turn into a body that is designed to sit. Look at the picture of this guy. Pretty typical posture that we see of anyone working at a computer. As I type this I am kneeling and doing as many exercises between sentences as I can. If we spend multiple hours at a time in this position, eventually our body will become permanently stuck in this position.

We must constantly give our bodies the necessary stimulus it needs to maintain our natural posture and our muscular efficiency. Make sure if you are someone who needs to spend a significant amount of time in a seated position, or any fixed position for that matter, try to get up and move as often as you can. This will not only drastically slow down the process of your body conforming to this stimulus, it may complete prevent it if you work at it.

ShareThis

Regardless of what progression you want to believe in , the fact is they are all the same. Think of a young child as they develop from infancy though the toddler years and then into the early school years. First obviously an infant starts out on his or her back. We realize they lack the strength necessary to support their head so placing them on their stomach risks suffocation. So as they lie there on their backs we play with them by making faces as they wiggle their arms, kick their little legs and wiggle all over the place.

This is the first stage we call supine meaning they are on their back. Secondly the infant is able to accomplish the big monumental task of rolling over. How is this accomplished? The wiggling cute little movements they did on their back wereactually building strength in their little arms and legs and throughout their core. Once they have established a high enough level of muscular control they are able to roll onto their stomachs in the prone position.

In this position, babies are able to accomplish a completely different level of stimulus to the muscular system since they are now able to put pressure into their joints. Also the first levels of movement are established as they begin to rock back and forth and then eventually crawl.

Stop and think for just a minute the last time you did any movements that would emulate an infant. When is the last time you crawled around on your stomach or laid on your back and initiated various movements in the hips or the shoulders. We simply do not train like that anymore. Instead we sit on thousand dollar pieces of equipment and isolate the muscles in the body. How far away is that from the way our bodies were intended to be trained?

Eventually the infants are able to stand, walk , crawl, jump, skip, climb and other the other fun things we loved to do growing up. None of this requires stairmasters or nautilus machines or giant round balls to do dumbbell presses on.

Now we have trainers that are doing a much better job of understanding that we need to do more total body training and even body weight training. This is a great pattern developing in the fitness industry and trainers are becoming more efficient in these practices. However I notice that the introductory level into these is much higher than the client is capable of performing correctly.

This is where we try to make sure we completely follow the 4 laws of training by using the strength progression. This means we will spend time in supine, prone, and loaded positions every workout we do. This, in our opinion is the way it is intended to be.

ShareThis

We looked through everything we talk about from God's strength progression to us being living adaptive organisms. I could talk for hours or in this case type for thousands of words on this but I realize you would all fall asleep on me. So the guys and I have come up with a new simpler version of explaining the philosophy of our training system.

Technically it is not our training system, my personal belief is that we had a creator and in my opinion that creator was God. I realize however many do not believe that way but you must believe that we were created somehow. In that grand design of how we were created there are a few simple laws that to us dictate everything in regards to how to train the human body.

Here is a brief overview of each law, then for those of you who find it interesting I will dedicate a post to each of the 4 laws individually.

Law #1 – The first law is simple. We were created to be an organism that responds to stimulus. Everything we do in our daily routine is in response to a stimulus. An alarm goes off triggering sound waves that our body interprets and we wake up. Some of us look forward to summer so we can get a tan because the sunlight triggers chemical reaction in the body that changes the color of our skin. Even your heart beat is based upon the stimulus of an electrical impulse. So Law #1 is that our bodies respond to stimulus.

Law #2 – If our bodies respond to stimulus than we can elicit specific responses from our body based upon the type of stimulus we give it. By doing exercise that increases our heart rate and causes enough oxygen debt that we begin to breather harder, we will in turn burn more calories since there will be a higher requirement for fuel sources to keep up with the new demands we are placing on our bodies. So Law #2 simply says that we can elicit specific changes in our bodies by giving it specific stimulus it must respond to.

Law #3 – This is where some training systems begin to miss the boat. The third law is that in regards to training the body for optimum performance the stimulus you give it must be done in a progressive manner. Many trainers or training systems think they do this by using easier exercises than others or a lighter weight to introduce someone to a move. This is true but we think progressive means the amount of demand relative to an individuals current anatomical position is more important. This is the God's Strength progression I mention earlier. Think of an infant growing through the first 5 years of their life. That is truly the model that is in essence perfect for how to progress the body. It worked for everyone who was ever capable of standing and walking around. So law #3 says that the stimulus we give our bodies must be done in a progressive manner relative to an individuals current level of ability.

Law #4 - The final law is to remind us that the body is designed to at all times operate from the anatomically correct position. The 4 major structural joints of the body (shoulders, hips, knees, ankles) are all designed to be vertically stacked on top of one another and horizontally directly across from the opposing joint. With this the muscles should be able to fully articulate the skeletal system to produce proper, efficient movement. So Law # 4 says that our bodies are designed to be in the anatomically correct position.

This post is getting a little long as well. Like I said I could go on for thousands of words here but i will add to this tomorrow.

ShareThis