October 2017 - Snyder Strength & Conditioning

Micro decisions

October 18, 2017

| Categories: Blog

I was browsing Instagram today and came across a great topic and piece of advice from the highly respected fitness marketing and business guru, BEDROS KEUILIAN. I’ve gained so much value from Bedros, so if your interested about business/entrepreneurship, or just success in general, you should check this guy out immediately (He’s brilliant).

Bedros talked today about the importance of “MICRO DECISIONS” and their effect on progress and success in reaching a goal. When you think of success, you typically would believe that it is a result of BIG decisions, or larger turning points in the path of progress. However, in the grand scheme of things, it’s truly the smaller day-to-day decisions that we make, that make the most impact on our journey.

Think about it.

The decision to hit the snooze button, instead of getting up and starting your day at the time that you had originally planned.

Making the choice to watch television in the evening, instead of reading a book or article.

Snacking on potato chips instead of choosing a healthier alternative.

Going straight home after work rather than going to the gym and getting a good workout in.

Ok, you get the point.

But seriously, when you think about it, Bedros is right: Success comes from making a series of small decisions that add up to pay big dividends. Sure, you will have to make some big decisions along the way, but the largest deciding factor in any measure of success (wealth, relationships, career, etc.) is a person’s ability to consistently make the right decisions on a micro level.

When we start to think about success with this mindset, you will begin to see the importance of commitment to good habits. You will also see small accomplishments as important, instead of constantly focusing on the end goal, which is especially important in the realm of health and fitness.

Say your goal is to do 20 pull-ups, but you can only do 1 right now.

You are not going to work on pull-ups for an hour, go home, go to bed, wake up and bust out a set of 20 the next day. It’s going to take days, weeks, or even months. But I can GUARANTEE that after a few months of consistently making those small decisions to put in the honest work, you will achieve your original goal.

I could sit here for another hour and make up endless examples of how this simple ideology of “micro decisions” will work for you, but in the end, it must be YOU that makes the small decision to apply this lesson to your own scenario. If you have already made the choice to get this far into this article (instead of browsing mindlessly through your Facebook news-feed) you’re already better off. Now go use this information, build better habits, make better small decisions, and keep making progress, one small step at a time.

It starts with movement

October 5, 2017

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| Categories: Blog

When someone walks into my gym, and we begin to discuss goals, the topic usually tends to head in the direction of weight loss or muscle gain. This conversation usually ends up with animated descriptions of specific target areas:

“I want to get rid of my belly.”
“I need to tone and tighten my upper arms.”

Even with higher level high school and collegiate athletes, their goals tend to be specific to abilities that are expected in their respective sport:

“I need to work on my first step speed and explosiveness.”
“My son needs to work on his footwork and agility.”

While these are all VERY respectable ambitions, and are definitely key components to our BIG PICTURE goals, we need to start with the fundamentals of basic human movement. Once we develop the ability to access full ranges of motion and stability in dynamic movements, then we can start working on those target goals.

Skipping the initial step of assessing and achieving proper movement patterns is like building a house on sand, eventually the whole thing will crumble. Without mastering the foundational movements, imbalances and weaknesses will lead to pain and/or serious injury. If you work with a coach and he/she didn’t start with some sort of functional movement assessment, you should start looking for a different coach.

Yes, it is that important.

Take the deadlift for example. Most healthy people can get into some form of starting position and pull a light barbell to complete a fully locked out deadlift with very little risk of injury. They are able to do this even though they are unable to hold a bodyweight deep squat position for more than 10 seconds (if at all). However, when we start to add weight or increase the amount of reps performed without first developing the mastery of a weightless deep squat hold, the lack of mobility is going to lead to poor form and eventually pain and/ or injury.

Pain and injury are both obstructions that will keep us from achieving our original underlying goals, whether it be weight loss, muscular development, or performance enhancement. So essentially, by trying to skip steps to make faster progress, you are actually creating a situation that will put you even further from your goals.

A solid foundation of proper movement is a tool that can be used to achieve a toned, muscular body. Mastering a full range of movement will also lead to performance goals in your athletic arena of choice. No matter which way you look at it, it starts with movement.