Fitness is a life-long endeavor. In a way, it is a competition. A competition to be not only better tomorrow than yesterday, but to be better in a decade from now. So we borrowed a phrase from 1441.us to help us articulate it. "Train Harder...Train Smarter!!...accept we reversed the words to better fit our population.... "Train smarter...Train Harder!!"

The key to all of this is the implementation after initial assessment. Assessment of what?  Joint Range of Motion (ROM) Muscular control and strength through ROM, injuries, and poor/bad biomechanics.

You must have an honest assessment of where you are at, not where you were in high school /college.  Not where you want to be by spring vacation. Not where you are when you ‘eat clean’ or after ‘a few weeks’.  Stop, just stop. You are your average. True, Toby Keith sang…”I am not as good as I once was, but I am as good once as I ever was”. This might be fine if you are an aging professional wrestler pulled back on stage for one match to earn 2 million.  However, for daily existence, going to that dry well is going to make you older. If you were at all active in any rough and tumble sense, you have injuries you do not remember. They will reappear when you can finally generate enough force to wake them up again. That can be through fatigue or poor movement at weight/speed.

When I claim, “you are your average”, what I mean is that sure you can still sprint down the street and beat the neighbor kids.  Could you do it for 3 days straight? Could you actually increase your running speed by 10% from your current “good once as I ever was” within a few weeks? The answer is NO. Let me say that again…THE ANSWER IS NO.  We both know you will wreck yourself. I am just willing to say it out loud. Why? Because your average includes several years desk and car bound making good money for your precious family.

As I write this, we are 2 weeks out from Thanksgiving 2014. All over America physical therapists offices will be booked up for the next 3 months due to ankle sprains, torn meniscuses, wrenched lower backs, and torn rotator cuffs. Why? Thanksgiving Morning Football, Baby! Males from all over converge in the cold Thursday Morning with Starbucks in hand at local parks. Stare longingly at browning grass field from their high school football days.  The actually see the field from the vision inside of their old helmet. Proper warm up be damned. A few arm circles, hip circles, leg swings and “throw me the ball(s)” and we are 45 minutes away from $30,000 in rehab and a lifetime of activity that will be forever impacted.

Here is the deal. Elite athletes are elite for many reasons…talent, genetics, hard work, touched by the Hand of God, etc.  However, the ability to stay elite takes one factor not listed. Quality. Watch a top end sprinter train. They appear to be the laziest people on the planet. 6-10 high quality runs with a crap-ton of rest and visualization. Why are they resting so much? Don’t they know INTENSITY, BABY!?  Don’t they know they have to keep moving to stay in shape? An elite sprinter remains so by only executing quality.  The sheer forces he is generating create a neuro-muscular path so narrow that even the slightest deviation can harm the very material (muscles, connective tissue, and bones) doing the movement.  These are people who largely only do high performance, actively recovery and rest.

Then there is you. Hard working American, making the world a better place for you and your family.  Most of your movement is low quality and there is inadequate active recovery work. That being said, you decide to join a gym and kick boxing class, Spinning, CrossFit, ‘Boot Camp’ or anything else where trying hard is encouraged above any other tribute including common sense. A few days in you start reliving your younger, more nimble years with increased intensity.  No dedicated cool down. No dedicated active recovery. No regard for getting physically capable first through time/volume. No regard for reality. Just a quick shower to knock the stink off, a quick Starbucks run to celebrate your effort. Then one day… SNAP CITY.  There it is.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Seriously.

Here is great rule of thumb…if you have been working out regularly and take a break, take one workout going through the motions for every week off. Off a year? 52 weeks off / 12 workouts a month = 4 month+1 week.

Over 2 years?  Expect a full year to truly be up to speed and be resilient to injuries. Just sayin’.  If that were not the case, you would have paid for college at a D1 school with your athletic prowess in the last 10 years.

To be sure, the accomplishment of this must be a task set out by following process with your specifics in mind, not just purpose. Hence, why a training center such as CrossFit Prescott / Praxis Athletics exists. We aren’t just known as the lead fitness trainers in Prescott or the best fitness center in Prescott.  We are known for making fitness a longevity based concept and as making elite performance available for anyone who will put in the time and patience.

You are worth doing it right. Right for a lifetime.

- Joey Powell