SHARING INFORMATION

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a great passion for learning and my career. If it was an operatic baritone, I totally threw myself in to it. I wanted to be the best and worked hard.  With my new career as a personal trainer/strength coach it is certainly no different.

I get inundated with information daily. I read my mentor’s info and anything else that I think will make me smarter and better.

So, having said this…My younger son, Jake and I were in Nashville for a few days. First, we saw some sights and then we visited Vanderbilt University.  He’s a smart kid and Vandy is a great possibility.

So, Thursday we got up and saw the sights.  Later we went back to the hotel and relaxed. After a short rest we went over to a big health club to train. The place was called Urban Active. It’s a well equipped and rather large commercial gym… fairly typical with an aggressive sales staff and trainers ignoring their clients. 

My agenda was legs.  It started out pretty routinely.  Squatting was second on my agenda.  Now, as I was saying, I get inundated with information. What that means is that I need to try everything. So, when I program for a client I don’t send them into a workout without first-hand knowledge.

Coach Poliquin talks about pausing in the bottom position of the squat.  On that particular day I decided that was going to be on my agenda.  So, I did 5 reps, lowering 4 seconds and a 2-second pause at the bottom. Apparently, I was being watched by four guys who were training together. After one of my sets, a guy comes over and asked what I was doing and why I was training in that particular fashion. 

I explained Poliquin Tip 144: Pausing in the bottom position on front squats forbids the use of the stretch reflex, thus increases intra-muscular tension, a great way to vary the strength building stimulus.

They asked some decent questions…was that bad for your knees? No, it isn’t…just don’t relax. Why did you descend so slowly? I talked about time under tension, rep range and the desired training result.  Before you know it I had about 15 people standing around me as I’m talking about these things.  I didn’t mind. And, quite frankly, I enjoyed it. But, that’s when the party started.

A very nice young man named Brandon wearing an official Urban Active shirt and a name tag came over to look at the commotion that was happening. He asked, “What’s going on here?” One of the people listening explained that I was lecturing based upon questions that were asked.

Well, Brandon didn’t take very kindly to the mini-lecture going on…the end result…”Either workout or get out”. 

Well, so much for Southern Hospitality.

Mark