Train FoR Success

Lots of people want to look like athletes but they don't want to take the time to train like it.  My position is this: you can train for failure or you can train for success, but whichever you end up choosing do not be surprised with the outcome.

You can make excuses or you can get results but you can't do both! - Tom Venuto, The Body Fat Solution

Time Well Spent

Most people are at a disadvantage in that when they step into a gym they just don't know where or how to start.  I consider it my obligation to give my clients the tools they need to get the most out of their time in the gym.

It's not about how much time you spend in the gym, it's how you spend it...

Attention to details

It is not enough to just show up to the gym expecting results.  When you start anything in life you are effectively making a commitment to yourself and/or others, no matter how grand or small that commitment may be.  Likewise, exercises should be performed with purpose, and focus.  It is not enough to simulate a movement and expect a desired outcome.  Proper biomechanics and good joint organization must be adhered to for the desired effect to occur.

...when you sacrifice good joint position, you effectively change how your muscles act on your skeletal system to accommodate load, as well as the exercise itself...

Attitude

At BSN we form a network of positive and hardworking individuals committed to our own and eachother's success.  We encourage a sharing of ideas and personal experiences to broaden our approach to self-improvement and to foster community.  There is no room for ego in the gym, nor is there any room for baggage.  We need to respect the fact that many athletes come here to escape their personal dilemmas, not to dwell on them.  

Training is our meditation...

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

We do not advocate arbitrary loading, and workouts are not a race (unless they ARE a race!).  In order to make progress in weight lifted, technique must be the primary focus of the athlete.  I've taken a 16yr old female soccer player having never snatched a dumbbell before, trained at a resistance no greater than 30lbs, and in one session had her successfully ladder up to a solid 50lb dumbbell snatch by the end of a two-month mesocycle.  Athletic ability can be described as a sliding scale where technique and RPE(rate of perceived exertion) are inversely proportionate; the more you can perfect the movement, the less of a role weight plays in your ability to complete it.

We want progress, not perfection - Coach Burgener

variety is good, but consistency is better

You may have been told at one point or another that in order for you to see progress you need to constantly shock the body with a veritable cornucopia of exercises, foods, implements, or whatever.  Is this true?  Well, yes and no.  The body is designed to adapt, and in order to keep it adapting (improving), it is essential to prolong this process of adaptation.  This may require gradual increases in net training volume, cycling resistance or intensity, or rotating conjugate exercises.  Whatever the wild card is its implementation must be rooted in a methodical approach.  You can't just do whatever you want whenever it suits you, just in the name of variety.  Besides, exactly how random is your approach unless you have a reliable frame of reference?  You may indeed discover that your randomized approach is actually much more limited in scope than previously thought.  This is because if you do not write down all the different exercises you know or should perform, you will automatically default to the classics or your personal favourites.  This kind of training encourages training bias, which should be avoided.

Find a plan, find your maxes, and go from there.  Add variety only when you need to.  It is the only way to avoid designing workouts that lack focus, programming that is at the mercy of how you 'feel' that day, making too many or too few changes at once, adding too much or too little weight or volume, revisiting training intensities too often or too seldom, or just completely losing track of where the heck you stand!  Consistency is predictable, measurable, and reliable, and that is its beauty.  Variety for variety's sake is just sweating for the sake of sweat (i.e. bootcamps).  You deserve better than that.

Bootcamp?

Top 10 Reasons Bootcamps Suck

1. Completely arbitrary programming.
2. Impossible environment for cultivating proper/safe technique.
3. High risk : reward ratio.
4. Random and tedious exercises that demand little from the central nervous system; busywork.
5. Low instructor : client ratio.
6. Style of training designed to tax the glycolytic system over the period of an hour (usually).  This requires optimal nutrition, hydration, sleep, and scheduled off-days to be sustainable.  Any trainer knows this is not the case with most clients.
7. Clients are often afforded more freedom to slack off without correction.
8. Quantity at the expense of quality, and often encouraged by the instructor.
9. Skills develop faster than fat comes off or muscle accrues.  It is logistically impossible to train a skill and reinforce technique in a bootcamp.  Furthermore, aesthetics and skill work  are both secondary attributes of training that must always take a backseat to fundamental mobility and stability training.  This does not occur in a bootcamp, but is precisely what the target demographic needs.
10. Poor substitute for athleticism, counterintuitive to injury prevention, and for most novices a complete waste of time and money.