Teach a Man to Fish...

We have all heard some form of the proverb, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you feed him for life”.  At Synergy AP we’ve adapted that quote to reflect our approach towards working with training clients looking to improve their fitness and performance: “We can teach you an exercise and give you a great workout for that day, or we can teach you how to use your body and move well for life”.  When working to improve your physical performance, too often the focus is on learning an arbitrary exercise or the output of that exercise.  Outside of a gym, when are you going to lay flat on your back and push something off your chest?  So why does every gym rat always ask "How much you bench, bro?!"  Your purpose should not be to just learn a grocery list of exercises but to first reacquaint yourself with the abilities, capabilities, and possibilities of your body.  Your task then becomes to purposefully practice athletic skills to progress those capabilities.  Certain movement qualities like selective tension, weight transfer, and force generation (amongst many others) need to be developed.  Exercises should be used as the medium to challenge you to fully demonstrate movement qualities, not a distraction from your true purpose of the training.  Avoid limiting yourself by getting caught up with “x’s and o’s” of exercises, but focus instead on learning to properly use your body so that, when asked to complete certain exercises, it's just another opportunity for your body to show off what it can accomplish!