Aesthetics & Performance

Joel Younkins

Physical Preparation Coach

In the world of training, there lies two different categories. One being Aesthetics, one in  which you visually see physical stature and its results. This would be comprised of someone's body composition (their lean muscle mass and body fat levels), as well as their physical proportions. We see the focus of training for Aesthetics primarily in areas like Bodybuilding, Modeling, and people who simply want to look good in the mirror. These individuals train to optimize the goal of physical appearance. On the other hand, we have Performance. This is what we see with our eyes as we watch humans move their bodies. This can be anyone from Athletes, Physical Therapy Patients, to anyone in the gym trying to increase their workout performances. These types of individuals train to optimize the goal of human performance and what we often see is their strength & speed as proof of their results.

Why Are These Not The Same
These two different approaches must be looked at differently in their approach to training. Someone who trains for Aesthetics shouldn't place primary focus on what their physical performance is doing. For example, a Bodybuilder who is cutting down for a show will most likely watch their lifting numbers decrease as they are training with fewer calories than normal. This often times creates a false sense of failure, but in reality they should be weaker due to a caloric deficit that these athletes are in to burn off the final percentages of body fat away for a show.

On the other side of the spectrum, people who train for Performance shouldn't place primary focus on their aesthetics. For example, the High School Football player who lifts weights by Benching and doing Bicep Curls all off season may look as if they're becoming a better athlete by filling out his tee shirts, but if he doesn't improve his Speed and Power to become a better player, then his arms will only look good standing on the sidelines on Friday Nights.

If you focus too much on the wrong things for the wrong people, you can easily give yourself false perception of success during the process of training.

The same goes for a false sense of failure. You may witness an individual in training that may not look like they are achieving "success" due to your standards, but they may in fact be knocking it out of the park for what their intended goal is.

These are examples of the two realms on each end of the spectrum of training. When furthering this conversation and understanding the whole picture, this isn't an all or nothing conversation...

We will soon uncover, that both of these areas are related to one another.

What is JYT's Stance?
At JYT, we primarily focus on Performance. My background in coaching is heavily influenced by Sport Performance. How I train all of my clients stems from training principles of developing a high level athlete. In my belief, whether you're an athlete or not, you should be able to move and function well first and foremost. The systems of the human body in movement, along with the energy systems (cardio) we use to produce energy, is really awesome and unique, and this fascinates me. Being able to improve these systems for each client is even way cooler. Helping people receive these training results so that they, too, can experience power, is the best!

Does this mean I don't like Aesthetic type of training? No, of course not! I believe Bodybuilders are some of the most dedicated and disciplined athletes you may ever find. I've also learned tremendous amounts of knowledge from this side of the industry. But at the end of the day, whether you are training to stand on stage or just want to drop 25 pounds by any means possible, those means of doing it are not all that intriguing to me as a coach, simply because there are a lot of different roads that you can choose to change aesthetics, but will severely hinder optimizing physical performance.  And I prefer performance capability.

Moving forward, you must understand that both Aesthetics & Performance co-exist in the same arena.

Body composition is very critical to understand and realize it's importance in Performance and Aesthetics.  For athletes, no matter how fast, strong, or conditioned you think you are, if you're carrying excess amounts of body fat on you as an athlete, you're holding back performance from yourself whether you'd like to admit that or not. You can't deny the fact either, that if you have ten more pounds of lean muscle mass on you, that maybe you could have avoided an injury due to extra muscle mass to protect your frame from a sport impact. These are assessments and considerations that must be made in regards to performance.

On the other hand, the Bodybuilder must be able to have some sort of level of human performance, or they wouldn't be able to train effectively to build levels of muscle and burn the body fat that they need to in order to achieve advanced features of aesthetics. Same goes for that person in their Fitness Class trying to lose 25 pounds; they must be able to have enough athletic ability to perform exercises like burpees and mountain climbers to burn those calories off to achieve their goals.

JYT's Approach
Since my philosophy comes from a Performance background, I stick to my guns and what I truly understand and how I can best do my job to serve my clients. 

When it comes to my Athletes and my Racers, you better believe that Performance is on the very forefront of my mind. I much rather them pass the competition test, than have them pass the eye test. I don't really care if they look like a monster, but I want them to perform like one! This does not mean that we don't care about their nutrition or what their body composition levels are doing, but nutrition is just seen in a different light as a tool to increase performance and to improve body composition as a bi-product of hard training.

For our working professionals, we take a similar approach. These individuals whom are Success Stories at JYT, truly understand that improved performance in the gym, correlates with improved performance in life. They understand that when you do the things that you need to do to increase your human performance, that equates to more energy, feeling better, moving better, and gives you an improved sense of confidence and well-being! 

From what I know and from coaching experience from developing athletes, that if you train hard and eat for performance, YOU WILL receive aesthetics results as a bi-product of these behaviors and efforts. You can have the best of both worlds and that the two worlds don't have to be exclusive to each other nor should they have to be. When you become a high performing individual in the gym or your sport, you too should show from some aesthetic outcomes as well.

In my eyes, it doesn't really take much to look better in the mirror. It just takes a mindset and dedication to achieve those types of results. To gain muscle, lift some weights and eat protein and carbs. To lose body fat, burn calories and eat less crap. But the reality is, if you're going to be dedicated as an individual or an athlete in improving your body composition to look better in the mirror, you might as well place those efforts so that you're ensuring that you feel and perform good as well. You can become stronger, more mobile, improve your conditioning, improve your daily energy levels (by avoiding hard core dieting). You can feel good and look good, too! 

It's not very hard to look better in photos, but it takes more precision to ramp yourself up to incredible physical performances!

How We Do This
First things first- all of our clients are put on a performance based program. We want our athletes to be more explosive, our racers to have a strong internal motor, and working professionals to be high performers. Once we get them off and rolling to these Performance based outcomes through hard work in the facility with daily coaching, we include and add in other values that will not only yield aesthetic results, but also help with recovery and healthy lifestyles to support their performances.

We provide our clients with Meal Plans based on their goals. We do weekly body weight check ins for accountability, but more importantly, to track their long term results. We do body measurements every month to see what the inches are communicating to us. We also do quarterly/bi-annual progress pics to eliminate day to day visual biases. 

Between training hard and eating to perform consistently, we know that our clients will not only feel strong and healthy, but they will also look strong and healthy. There's nothing like a great physique that can back it up with awesome physical performances!

What To Take From This
No matter what your primary goal is, I want you to understand that there is an importance on not only looks, but also feels (haha you like one?!).

If you got into training to look better in the mirror or pictures, that's totally cool. But I challenge you to push yourself with your overall physical performance as well. This will help create an atmosphere to train and really push yourself. Chase performance, just as much as you're chasing aesthetic changes. This will only accelerate your aesthetic results! 

If you're an athlete, pay attention to the foods you're putting into your body. Is your normal diet helping you recover, perform, or hindering your body fat levels? Fuel your body to perform at peak levels!

If you're a gym enthusiast who likes to see their workout performances increase, are you neglecting your diet because you can pat yourself on the back walking out of the gym? Be sure to understand that you can be strong and lean...You can also be strong and healthy by taking care of yourself and adding some accountability to your healthy lifestyle. Crush your nutrition just like you crush workouts!

No matter what it is that you do or who are, if you're in this game of training, you, too, can both acquire aesthetics and performance gains! ​

Email Joel