Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
H.Jackson Brown Jr.
As a coach this is my favorite line to hear, “I don’t have time”. I get it, I do. However, here is the thing; you DO have time, it is how you spend that time that either gets you to the numbers that will make you great, or keeps you at those numbers that make you good.
This time it is not just about mobility, although setting aside at least 30 minutes a day to work on your mobility weaknesses is a must (especially if you want to be a better weightlifter or keep power lifting without any injuries). This time it is about deciding what is important. To many times do I get to hear as a coach “I had a bad day and I am tired”, unfortunately while I fully understand that, the game does not stop.
We had a member of the gym the other day post about how she came into the gym having an awful day, wanted to do nothing but cry the entire time she was there, but still manged to get in and bust out arguably one of the better training sessions she had in a long time, and I could not have been more proud of one of my athletes.
This is what training is about, finding a way to push past a shitty day to come in and keep grinding toward that goal. You don’t get to give up on life when you feel down, just like you don’t get to drop your goals just because you had a bad day. The gym is an outlet. It is the place you get to push your frustration. It is the best therapy. It is the only place that despite your day, despite your boss yelling at you, and despite things being out of control in your life, it will be the same. When you get to the gym, you get to decide how the session is going to go, no one else gets to make that decision for you!
So make time for the things that matter. Make time for the things that will make you better. Make time for partying and having a good time, but make sure that these times don’t hold you back from what is truly important to you. Make time for these things because you enjoy them, but also because if you want to be the best you have to beat others that are willing to put all of these things at the top of their list.
Since we are in a pretty hard cycle at the gym leading up to the competition, we decided to shoot a video of a yoga flow late last night that incorporated almost all the major joints in the body that come under stress with heavy training. While this is intended to aid in the recovery and mobility of our powerlifters and weightlifters, this yoga flow can also be used in many other applications and for various sports. The purpose of the video is to be used during off days, mobility sessions, or pre/post workout to increase the range of motion in the joint or to aid in recovery from a long stress inducing workout. The video is only a minute or so long, but we encourage you to hold the poses a little longer to get the benefit of the stretch (especially if one or more of the poses target an area that needs improvement).
Moon Salutation Breakdown:
We included a couple of stills to show the breakdown of the moon salutation for anyone that is not familiar with it. Moon salutation is great for opening up the hips, lats, obliques, and shoulders (which means it is great for pretty much all of lifters)!
If you are using this as a warm-up for a training session or to start a mobility practice, I would suggest moving through moon salutation 2-3 times each side. If you are using this as a cool-down to a training session I would do 1-2 times each side, holding the poses a little longer (20-30 seconds) to get the stretch desired.
The next couple poses are to help specifically with mobility in the wrist, hips, lower back, and shoulders:
Standing Straddle Split (Prasarita Padottanasana):
Take as wide of a stance as you comfortably can, working your feet out toward the edges of the mat. Take your hands and place them on the floor so that your fingers are facing through your legs and lean forward (giving your wrist a nice, deep stretch). Hold this pose for 20-30 seconds going back in and out of it at least 3-4 times.
Garland Pose (Malasana):
Garland Pose is a great pose to show you where your squat mobility is (obviously). Are you pitching forward? Do you have the ability to sit in a complete squat? Can you hold it for longer than 5 seconds? All of these are problem areas that can be addressed by sitting in this position for a couple of minutes a day (especially if you sit at a desk). Start standing with your hip a little wider than hip width apart, with you toes pointed slightly outward. Sit back and down until you are in a comfortable position that you can maintain for a while (make sure your heels are still on the ground). Hold this pose for 20-30 seconds, going back in and out of it at least 3-4 times.
Reclining Hero Pose (Supta Virasana):
We have previewed this pose once before (since I am not gummbie girl, I cannot get into the last two modifications for this pose and use a Dynamax ball to help support my torso.). This pose will help with tight hip flexors that might cause you to pitch forward during garland pose, or use this pose if you have a hip pain during squatting heavy. Start as shown in the far left picture, driving those hips up toward the ceiling, making sure to feel a deep stretch in your quads and hip flexor area. If this is comfortable to you, you can start to lean further back, intensifying the stretch. Hold this pose for 20-30 seconds, going back in and out of it at least 3-4 times.
Couple of updates for the event:
- The rules for both the Weightlifting portion of the event and the Powerlifting portion can be found HERE. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules we will be following to make this as smooth of an event as possible (and for the safety of the judges if we have to call a lift no good).
- You can sign-up a couple of different ways:
- Paypal: Send to purehealthperformance918@gmail.com. Make sure to include name, event, and box affiliation (if applicable).
- Google Wallet: Send to daniel.west.pt@gmail.com. Make sure to include name, event, and box affiliation (if applicable).
- In person: We can take cash, check, or credit card up at the gym, just stop by during gym hours and get signed up!
- We will have Pure Health Performance T-shirts going on Pre-order sometime today and tomorrow, so keep a look out on the Facebook page if you would like to order one and help support your local gym!
- The medals for the competition will be ordered next week, so make sure and get everyone you can signed-up so we can order as many as possible!
- We are 3 weeks out from the competition, so I would advise finding some type of max this week and knowing what your openers will be for the competition!
If you have any questions about the event or just training in general, email one of the emails above or contact us via Facebook! See everyone tonight for lifting and yoga or in a couple of weeks at the competition!!
PURE HEALTH PERFORMANCE 
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