Thoughtful Thursdays - Edition 1

On any given week I’ve got a bunch of thoughts that are just not quite there for a full article but something I want to share. Usually these conjure up and I’ll write them down as time goes by, but instead of leaving them as just notes I want to share these with everyone and hopefully spark some discussion for more articles.

1. Get ups

You can’t really go wrong here. Getting good at these, whether it be more diverse versions or just stronger at the TGU, you’re going to see improvement in a lot of different domains. These are probably one of the most underutilized realms of exercises in strength programs.

I think from a standpoint of athletic development, these can do a lot of profound things from movement education, and they don’t tire the athlete incredibly so they can be programmed in a lot of areas. Personally I like to pair these up with some higher neurologically challenging exercise such as jump training and then do a few reps each side for the rest break.


2. Fruit and vegetables don't get the love they deserve

In the past few weeks I've been ramping up my training, getting back into the weightlifting mindset and training. As such my body has been taking in a lot more volume and stress. Concurrently I've also been adding in way more fruit and vegetables and my body has been feeling great. From a health standpoint, I just feel great and not drained like I have in the past.

3. Weighted C.A.R.s

Once you’ve done the basic controlled articular rotation we can progress it either into different positions - such as half kneeling or in a squat for the shoulder or quadruped or tall kneeling for the hip - or we can begin to add some load. Generally I’ve done the positional option and seen it pay off well. However, recently I’ve been playing around with adding some weight into some of the C.A.R.s and been really enjoying it. These have been the last exercise in my training session, so there utilized to help strengthen and enhance the range for further sessions.

4. Ice cube

No not an actually ice cube but the rapper. He’s a hell of an inspiration, the way he has put out so much content - be in it in the music or video industry. I obviously prefer his music, but gotta respect the guy for all he’s done. I’ve been on a real old school rap kick lately and I just can’t get enough of him.

5. Early morning training

If you’re someone who stresses out with finding time to fit in training, I cannot suggest this enough. For myself, between DPT school, work, writing, and prioritizing my family life, training was getting to be a stressful thing. My love for training was in constant battle with the other factors of thing I wanted to accomplish. That is where training early in the day came from. Now I get up usually around 5 am, get my stuff ready for the day, head to the gym and then come home and head to school for the day. Training is accomplished and I feel refreshed for the day. If you're in a similar boat, consider making the change.


A few tips:

- Start waking up earlier gradually, you might not be able to train at first. For myself, I was first getting up an hour earlier than usually and just doing some extra work in the morning. Then I made the jump to an extra half an hour to leave myself the time to train.

- Start going to bed a bit earlier. This may or may not have been obvious from getting up earlier. At first I wasn't doing this and it was a battle, but the moment I made the shift to trying to sleep earlier I was doing way better with it.

- Leave some time between waking and training - this is where I get my food together for the day, brush my teeth, lay out my clothes for the day, etc. Going from waking to immediately training is not ideal for a lot of reasons - disc hydration status, body temperature, wakefulness, etc. Give it a bit of time.

- Have some caffeine ready for yourself at first. When I first started waking up earlier I used a bit extra caffeine to help kick me into gear for the day and wear off the tiredness. After a couple weeks and adjusting to this, I cut it out and was good to go just with waking up earlier.

Until next time,

Lift heavy, move well, stay health,

The Strength Therapist

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