I have a little confession to make...

I train my adults (High Performance Clients) very similarly to how I train my athletes.

While it's obvious that athletes need to train to play, so do adults!

So much of the health and fitness advice is related to vanity purposes for adults.

Look good in your swimsuit...
Look better in photos...
Increase arm size and decrease waist size...

That stuff is all awesome, and even my adult clients love when that happens to them too!

But it sells on short term pain points, not worrying about your long term longevity.

Training for vanity reasons alone isn't good enough, as an adult, you deserve more!

Here's another little confession, better yet, a hard reality...

If you just train hard and follow a sound meal plan, those things above will happen for you. So while you train, you might as well gear it to feeling and performing better too. And when I mean feeling and performing, I'm talking about outside of the gym.

I want my clients to have a life outside of the facility. Whether they have children, grandchildren, or hobbies, I want them to truly enjoy those moments for as long as humanly possible and not losing the aspect of PLAY in their life! 

How do we train our adults to play here at JYT?

Just like with our high level athletes and racers, we follow many of the same principles with our adult clientele...

• We perform squat, push, pull, and hip hinge movement patterns
  • Why? These are normal human movement patterns you use every day.
• We train abs/core
  • Why? To help with posture, back pain, and stability.
• We train some bodybuilding exercises to help stack some lean muscle mass
  • Why? Good for aesthetic reasons but the added muscle helps as cushion to your frame.
• We train aerobic outputs 
  • Why? Good for heart health but also good to recover and endurance throughout your day.
• We eat lean protein
  • ​Why? So that muscles can grow/recover and help yields in fat loss.
• We eat healthy carbs
  • Why? Great source of energy and nutrients throughout the day to keep you going.
• We limit snacking and alcohol​
  • Why? We limit, not eliminate for balance, but overindulging equals to bad health and recovery.

These things above are the same things you'd say to a high level athlete...IF you're an adult, these same principles apply to you if you want to feel good and move good! I mean, play good ;)

I understand you want to feel confident in your own skin as an adult. But I ask of you that if you're going to put the time in to look better in some photos, that you consider also spending that time feeling and performing better too!

With our group coaching clients, we run a flex schedule. This allows for adjustments to stay on track when life throws you curveballs. AT JYT, we believe in consistency and we want to see our clients win!

However, for people who have trouble finding time to workout to begin with, I have some advice for you… If you’d like to hear me out!

This isn’t what I think works, it’s what I’ve seen work, time and time again, with my clients who do these things for themselves…

Create a non-negotiable schedule for yourself!

This is a time block for YOU that you are going to the gym. No matter what!

When it’s time to train, your world stops and everyone in your life knows that what you’re doing and you’re not to be bothered with. You will/have communicated to your people that you're at the gym these days/times; so when they “need you,” they’ll say, “oh yeah, it’s their gym time.”

It’s similar to having that hair appointment, hunting season, or church on Sundays.

I understand, time is really valuable for you and it’s hard to spread it around. In your head you may be rolling your eyes at me, but you're still reading along right ;) And this is what my most successful clients do to make training possible for themselves. They have similar challenges and responsibilities in their life just like everyone else...

And the coolest part, nobody in their life thinks they’re being selfish.

I hear stories all of the time of how their family/friends support them going because they actively see the positive changes...I won’t get into specifics of these, but lets say their support system really encourages them to keep going because they see the positive changes!

Training is sort of a selfish thing. It’s time for you, whether you’re an athlete, racer, mom, dad, business owner, company manager, but what if the couple selfish hours out for the week for you, create a better you for everyone else!?

There are racers who train...

And then there are racers who don't train...

I know, super biased to break down racers into these two categories :)

But it's honestly, from my vantage point, it's so true!

Let's discuss those who don't train first.

Racers Who DON'T Train

These are racers who either don't care to train because they're just happy to ride and race their dirt bike, or they didn't get into riding/racing to also have to train off of the bike for it. They're just happy to shake off the first four or five tough rides of the season until they work out the arm pump and get past the body shock of stressing your body on the bike. 

I honestly have zero ill will towards these people at all. You think I may because I know what they're all leaving on the table, but it's totally cool if that's their choice. I have many friends who are all really good riders, and they know exactly what I do, who I work with, and they're just not ever going to work on their fitness aside from seat time. I hold nothing against them for that.

There's also another sub-group of racers who are really good, they race for money as pros, and they still don't train. Maybe they say they train because they go to Planet Fitness a couple times in the off season, took a couple mirror pics, and said "they're grinding." These are also the same people who share memes and promo videos of moto being the most physically demanding sport but yet barely do anything to physically prepare themselves. Kind of ironic huh?...

But these racers aren't who I am here for... and that's okay, I'm not for everyone nor have I ever been...

Racers Who DO Train

Now we're talking!

These are my people. The racers who want more. They not only get their suspension done and get their bike set up right for themselves, but they also are committed to getting their bodies set up right too! They work out (or try/want to), they actually practice and maybe have a riding coach or hit up riding classes to sharpen their skills. They're in it to win it (whatever winning looks like to them)!

I have a small little feeling that if you're still reading this right now, you're either that racer, or maybe you have a kid who is that racer...

This group also has two sub groups too. I know, very complex stuff right?!

Sub Group 1: These racers train on their own. They dabble in different programs, they have tried various styles of training, and when they workout they GO HARD IN THE PAINT! These racers usually over do it. They use a fully automatic machine gun to hit the can off of the post. They treat their workouts like they treat their riding, WIDE OPEN! They throw everything they got at it until they get wore and tired and then are forced to stop training. When they stop, their performance usually improves on the track.  I love getting these racers and showing them that they only need a good scope and riffle and only one shot to knock that same can off of the post. Training for them gets better, and more importantly so does their riding!

Sub Group 2: These are the racers who want to be training, or at least know they should be training. The challenge for them is that they don't know where and how to start. They don't really know what to do, they're maybe not naturally comfortable with training, and they don't want to waste their time guessing their way along. So they just wait until they find something that they can buy in to. These racers are also great to start with because once they found their fit, they can mentally relax and just focus on working...and wait for it..."trusting the process." They found their solution to their problem and they just do what their coach tells them to do and everything works just the way it should!

So which racer are you?

And then...

Which sub group are you?

Let's just cut to the chase and end your dilemma on who to hire as your next coach (trainer) and choose us at JYT LOL. Obviously, we love to think we can help everyone, but we're ultimately not for everyone. WE focus on the few, not the many. And because we're not for everyone, we're still here to help YOU find your next coach that you're looking for. So I'm going give you my professional opinion on a few things to look for when shopping around for your next coach of your choice to help you get to where you want to be.

The first thing you need to know about any sort of fitness related training coaching...

In the private sector of Fitness Training, it's literally the wild west. Anything goes!

The industry is not overseen by any governing body. There's no regulations on who can coach and how you can coach. You reading this right now, even if you have zero experience training or coaching, you can literally become a "trainer" tomorrow if you'd like and start trying accumulating clients. Congratulations, you're now a coach too haha! 

And honestly, this is how coaches are created in the industry far too often. Someone gets themselves into shape, they do some "research and learning," and want to start helping people because they've helped themselves. Their heart is in the right place, but their experience and knowledge isn't yet. I mean, I cut my own hair and my sons hair, but it 100% doesn't mean that I'm capable of being a barber by any stretch! But in the world of fitness, it doesn't seem to matter to people as much.

I suppose you can say I'm writing this Lifestyle Blog  for your sake and for our industries sake as well...

You may be asking yourself, "well Joel, don't you need to go to college and at the very least, or be certified with some sort of fitness training certification?" The answer is also no you do not have to have either in the private sector of the industry. And even if you went and got certified, it doesn't mean you're ready to start training clients in all fairness either. It means you paid some money and passed a test. That test may have also have been a daily/weekend/online course that you signed up for. There's some learning materials and a test, but nothing to do with internship experience or hours/years working.

There are few reputable certifications out there for sure, abut majority hold very little to no merit at all and they're just a money maker course for trainers to buy into unfortunately. I have a 4 year degree, coached at the college level, but yet I never even did any of these certifications...Why? Because 1.) 99% of people don't care if/what you're certified. 2.) Insurance companies don't care to insure the business. 3.) Nobody is overseeing my work to tell me otherwise in the private sector. My clients have the ultimate say so. The fact I have a 4 year degree and that I can help them is all they ever care about. They probably can care less about a college degree to be honest, because it's not about the coach it's about the clients needs and if they're getting the help they need.

So as you can see, the prerequisites to becoming a coach a extremely low. This reality makes it convenient for professionals to get started and to be flexible, but honestly, overall it's not good for the industry. It over populates the market with a million unqualified "coaches" like how we discussed earlier with a low barrier to entry. 

As you can see, this makes it even harder on the consumer while browsing the market for their fitness coach.

• Should I got with the person who works at the gym down the street?
• Should I work out with the person who looks like they're in great shape on their social media?
• Should I work out with the cheap person who trains people out of their garage?

There's a lot to choose from. Not to mention the style of training that you'd be into.

But I also do not want to sit here and scare you out of even hiring a coach LOL...There are a bunch of really great coaches available all over and in all disciplines, whether it's Strength & Conditioning, CrossFit, Yoga, Triathlons, etc. that have taken the time to earn their experience, done the real learning and actually "know their stuff" and work day in and day out on helping their people by doing some really great things! These are the kind of coaches that you will want to hire for yourself!

Lets get into the 3 Tips that I have for you. As someone who has over 10 years of coaching experience in the industry, and as someone who does this full time as a living, let me give you some details to look for to consider your next coach.

1.) What type of training do you want?
Above, I mentioned that we aren't for everyone. At JYT we focus on traditional training methods and we offer small group individualized training as well as private training too. We cater to Athletes, Racers, and Motivated Individuals. But we're not CrossFit, we're not a fitness class, and we're not kick boxing. So you want to get clear on what type of training you want and need. So whether that is part of your shopping around process or you already no what you're looking for, start narrowing down your search into which category of fitness are you looking for. This may sound obvious, but I found more often than not, a lot of people are not clear on what they even want to do!

2.) Does the coach have a good reputation?
Beyond certifications, does this coach have a good reputation with success rates? Do their clients refer people to them? Do their clients stay long periods of time or do they only stay a couple months? Has this coach been in the industry for at least more than 3-5 years? Does this coach work full time or is coaching only a part time gig for them? These are the qualifications that you want to be looking for when looking for a coach. All the new "instant coaches" love to flex their latest certifications, but the real coaches in the game are practitioners putting in the hours actually helping people. The reputation really does matter and it will/should matter to you as well!

3.) Does the coach seem like a decent person?
When you meet with your potential coach for the first time, use your best judgement to asses if you even like the person. Once you hire them as a coach, you will be spending a lot of time together. You will see them multiple times a week. When you're under duress from a hard workout, having a bad day, or need some advice, is this the type of person you want to try to connect with? Do they seem like a good leader? Do they have that "I got you vibe?" For your next coach, you should feel like you know, like an trust them!

Bonus Tip: Price Traps
DO NOT hire based on who is cheaper. Have your price point on what you can and cannot pay. But a lot of new and bad trainers/coaches will purposely undercut their competitors to persuade you into choosing them. Remember, what they say, "you get what you pay for." Also to be fair and noted, just because someone is really expensive, DOES  NOT always correlate to their coaching skills and knowledge. So what should you do with this information? Easy, just circle back to the 3 tips above and you'll be okay!

I don't mean to overwhelm you with the cluster of industry that is called the Fitness Industry. But now you know that when hiring a coach, on what qualities to begin looking for. If you stick to these 3 things (and the bonus tip), you will and should definitely find the a really good fit for you, at the very least narrow down 1 or 2 options in your area. Coaches have track records for a reason. Find out the details about them and even ask their clients if you have the opportunity. If their clients (and their past clients) speak highly of their coach and especially if they've been with them for a long time, it's a really good sign you'll be in good hands. The rest is up to you and your gut instincts to determine if it's the right fit or not.

​Best of luck!

Today’s junior high and high school athletes are busier than ever. In the sports world, we’re living in this time where kids are playing sports all year round. Whether it’s one main sport that they have specialized in and they play for their school team and then for their travel teams the rest of the year. Or they play multiple sports but end up playing 2-3 of them at the same time for even part of the year.

If you’re a parent of one of these athletes, you’re living it right now driving your kid around all week.

If you’re a coach, you’re competing against other sport coaches for time with your athletes.

Everyone wants to win, everyone believes they need to do more, and everyone is looking for that edge.

But, as a Physical Preparation Coach, I see many problems existing with the way of the sports world right now. I’m not going to try to go down the rabbit hole just yet trying to solve all of the world’s problems in one Lifestyle Blog post (if you want to discuss this more, please feel free to reach out to my). But I will make a conscious effort to advocate for your athlete...And more quality is what we need for them, not just more work for the sake of more work.

You see, most of these athletes go from sport to sport, coach to coach, all looking to get the most out of each athlete. The kids are getting passed around from one adult to the next without consideration of what the athlete is going through. You may have a baseball pitcher who is asked to pitch a no hitter against the teams rival one night, but the night before he was running 400-meter races for the track team.

This is only one example, but when your athlete performs at a high level, in a game/match/meet, a practice, a workout, the next day they will not be 100% ready to go…Heck even 90% ready, in which we consider their “A-Game.”

With less than stellar planning for not allowing these kids to recover outside of a Sunday off, we’re asking them to give us A-Game performances while only operating at their 70-90% if we’re lucky because their busy schedule just keeps asking for more and more. 

To be honest, this whole more is better model is really all out of whack for athletes to truly excel, let alone trying to avoid overuse injuries, and hopefully not burn out. But again, this isn’t why I’m writing this to convince people to change this model, yet.

I’m all for kids playing multiple sports (I actually tell parents of athletes younger than 12 to sign their kids up in different sports and wait until they come to JYT), it’s the only time in their life to play the sports they want. But it must be a methodical approach. Not, let’s play the same sport(s) all year long with no breaks or time to develop their bodies.

In the past few years, we here at JYT on our end have had to make certain adjustments to our programming for these busy athletes. Majority of our athletes that we work with, currently are always in some sort of sport at any given time. Most never have a true off season anymore. These adjustments were meant to not just keep pouring on more and more work onto them and make changes to fill in the gaps so we can still develop them as athletes.

But, if you’re a coach or a parent of a junior high and high school athlete, I have a few action steps to make sure your athletes are doing these things in order to help them keep up with the current demands that we call athletics these days.

1. Sleep: Make sure they are getting at least 8 hours of sleep, more will be better! Keep their rooms cool, dark, and quiet. Make adjustments around the house to make sure they’re getting quality sleep. Sleep is the number one priority in their recovery!
2. Hydration and Nutrition: They should be consuming at least half of their body weight in ounces of water each day. When they are in their sport or training it should be even more! Also, most of these athletes are not eating nearly enough to keep up with their activity levels let alone being in school. They should be eating at least 4 times a day, Breakfast, Lunch, After School Snack, and Dinner just to get them in the ball park of proper nutrition.
3. Physical Preparation: I know I sound biased, but the more you ask your athletes to do, the more they have to be prepared to handle. Majority of these athletes are over worked and severely under trained for what is asked of them. How many more times do we need to look around and ask why they get hurt so much? Almost all injuries are noncontact related, hence this means they're overuse injuries. You get overuse injuries from dysfunction and the body being unprepared for the demands of the sport. So, you have to make time for them to be training. In a perfect world, they should be working on their bodies 50 weeks out of 52 a year. But even if you can get 8 months out of the year consistently attending training 2-3 times a week, I promise this will pay huge dividends to their athletic experience!

The good news is, being a young athlete they can recover fast from a lot of physical stress. And when the athletes are highly driven, they bring their best efforts forth every time. This is how the flaws of maxed out busy schedule gets masked by youth and competitive natures. But this reality shouldn't be excuse to not do what's best for them by 1.) expecting more and more from them or 2.) neglecting their recovery needs whether their sports schedule is busy or not. Take action today, so that it pays dividends weeks and months from now.

Lastly, sport coaches I know you may not like this because it may be your sport, but if the athlete is involved a current sport, it’s okay to keep them out of a second and especially a third sport especially if it’s only open gym. Let’s have these athletes focus on one sport at a time and let them focus on themselves so they can produce at a true 90% or better when it matters for them and their teammates. They will be able to give back to their team way more if they’re healthy, rested, and motivated!

If you want to see your athlete(s) staying healthy, not getting burned out, and just simply excelling when they compete, then you will implement these 3 things as soon as humanly possible for them to give your busy athlete(s) the real edge that you are looking for!

​With the Winter Olympics going on and the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, it brings up a good reminder for myself to share with you. It's funny, the longer you coach, the more gems you build up and store away in the back of your mind. And then out of nowhere, they somehow pop up and circulate back to the forefront of your brain again...And yes that just happened earlier today... 

I remember having this realization many years ago, that the same things that are good for Elite Athletes to do for preparing for their sport, are all the same things that anyone else should be doing to either prevent, perform, and fix for their physical selves. It just may happen on a scaled down version.

Now, maybe you're reading this and you're saying, "slow down Joel, I'm know where near being an Elite Athlete." 

But are you?!

Don't click off of this yet and go back scrolling your timeline!!

Still here? Good! You see, my background in coaching has always been about Sport Performance and getting the most out of my athletes. Whether they are high school athletes, motocross racers, powerlifters, mothers, fathers, business owners, etc, I have always applied the same training and fitness principles to all of them. Not the same programs, but the same principles.

Elite Athletes lives may look a little different from your life. They train hard, and they focus on recovering for their next workout, practice, or competition. At least they should be...So, because of this lifestyle, they have to pay attention to the little details, they can't live like a normal person and get away with 5 hours of sleep, eating honeybuns for breakfast, and sipping on a Coke in the middle of the day. They turn up the pressure to perform, so the stakes get higher. Their life doesn't look exactly like the normal American Lifestyle as you would expect. Here's a brief glimpse of how an Elite would/should be living to maximize physical performance...

• They sleep 8+ hours
• They drink a lot of water
• They eat breakfast 
• They eat multiple meals a day (4-6)
• They eat lean protein sources
• They eat complex carbs (at every meal)
• They eat fruits and vegetables 
• They train really hard a couple times a week
  • They lift heavy weights
• They have some lighter workouts in between their hard workouts
  • They all perform light conditioning and aren't doing HIIT Workouts
• They put a lot of focus into recovery (naps, massages, scheduled down-time)
• They go to bed at a decent time of night

Realize, this is extremely general of how elite athletes spend their time getting ready for competition. So don't take this all out of context. But it's certainly in window of reality of how they are living their lives. And I understand that these athletes may not have half of the responsibilities that you may carry (it's supposed to be that way for them), but almost all of these things above should be very realistic for almost everyone to obtain themselves at some capacity. 

Outside of high level athletes that I work with, a lot of people that come to JYT suffer with so many similar things. All too often I hear of symptoms like...

• Having little energy
• Unwanted body fat levels
• Lacking muscle definition
• Stiff Joints
• Body Aches/Pain

And honestly what's super funny/awesome, when they start adapting these same principles as above that our high level athletes follow, all of these symptoms start to go away for them. Energy levels rise, body fat levels decrease, strength and definition show, they're aches and pains dissipate and they overall feel better in their daily lives.

You may not be as strong, or as fast, or as good at athletics as high level athletes, but the same things that work for Elite Athletes will probably work pretty good for you too!

With POWER comes RESPONSIBILITY

We (I) started watching Formula 1 Drive to Survive on Netflix. It's a really good show, especially to see insights on how elite athletes and teams operate at the highest level...Lots of pressure and expectations are put on themselves and the others around them!

But with watching this show, it made me think of a comparison often made in the Sports Performance world...

Are you a sedan or are you a race car???

You see, sedan cars that you see everyday driving to work, to the  grocery store, and to JYT, these cars operate on a low performance level. They're fast enough to do the speed limit, to get from Point A to Point B, and they're usually meant to be pretty comfortable to be in.

They also can still be driven for many miles on bad tires, bad alignments, past due oil changes, etc and you probably wouldn't notice much difference in the cars performance while driving it...And this is totally fine, at least until your mechanic gets mad at you!

But, on the flipside of this, a race car like a Formula 1 car, would maybe end a drivers life if they took the car on the track with bad tires, bad alignment, and old oil in the engine.

The Formula 1 ("race car") car demands much more attention to detail. And to be honest, they are way more high maintenance than the sedan car in order to perform at what it's meant to do.

So this is the part where we spin the conversation back to humans and performance.

You may have started out your training journey (athlete or not) as a sedan. But as you've morphed yourself into the high performing race car, you need to pay attention to the little details more carefully. The days of getting very little sleep, living on poor nutrition, and not factoring rest into your training can wreck havoc on you and worst case scenario can lead to injury or illness. 

Sometimes training hard gets a bad rap because of people not realizing, you can't be a race car living like a sedan.

When a "race car" gets a tweak from training hard.

People may say something like this...

"Ahh see you shouldn't have been pushing yourself that hard, that's what happens."

No, maybe they just need to dial in life outside of training or training in general because now they have such higher outputs compared to a non trained individual (a "sedan").

And what really happens, is that person is performing some AWESOME THINGS that most people can't do without hard work! There's a reason we think race cars are amazing vs sedans being a normal car. Race cars are built with may more work and detail while a sedan is built on an assembly line in no time. Doesn't make one overall better than the other, but there's differences.

But let's not forget the sedan comparison from earlier...How many people do you think are walking around with issues in their bodies, but they never push themselves hard enough to even find out how jacked up they actually are? Lets not forget that problems are still problems until they become symptomatic. 

So anyways, think about where you are on the spectrum from sedan to race car. The further you slide the needle towards race car, the more responsibility the athlete AND COACH have in order to harness that power and make sure everything is ON TRACK for that person to continue to operate at their full potential! 

With Power Comes Responsibility

On the surface, most people, coaches, and athletes look at training through a very binary lens. Meaning they think in a way of like this..."Go to gym, work hard, get results."

And while yes this is all very true, you must understand that training has MANY MANY MANY layers to it!

When you train, you're building up or improving different levels of fitness. Realize, that fitness means a lot of things. And for everything it means and the physical abilities it provides, there's all these sub categories to them as well. 

For example...

• Strength- Maximal Strength, Strength Endurance, Isometric Strength, Eccentric Strength
• Power- Speed, Velocity, Reactive Power, Acceleration
• Conditioning- Aerobic, Latic, Alactic
• Flexibility-Mobility, Stability, Static, Dynamic
• Agility- Spatial Awareness, Change of Direction, Balance
• Core- Stability, Flexion, Extension, Rotation, Anti Rotation

These are just some examples of the levels to this training stuff...

As you can see, there's a lot of good training abilities that can improve on for any individual. But the reality in the training world is that WE CANNOT IMPROVE ALL OF THESE QUALITIES AT ONCE!

This is why there is NO PERFECT PROGRAM!

However, in a solid training program, you have to realize that in order to improve something, something else will have to be given up on a little bit. 

For example, you cannot be at your absolute strongest potential while being at your best aerobic potential at the same exact time. They are two abilities that directly complete with each other. This doesn't mean they both can't be in a great place at the same time, but it just means they won't be in their absolute superior form of performance.

So what do you need to know after reading this?

You need to be sure that you know how your program fits together. Timing, sequencing, methods, exercise selection and so on...IT ALL GOES TOGETHER!

You also need to know that your training cannot fully optimize every element of every fitness ability at the same time. Something needs to be put aside in order to make progress elsewhere. If you do not structure your training this way, then you will only develop all of these qualities to be average at best (jack of all trades, master of none).

This is why in training you have to understand what you're giving up (the step backwards), in order to propel yourself forward (the 2 steps forward).

If you do not have a pulse on this concept, then you will be training like how most frustrated people train. 1 step forward to go 2 steps backwards...
​

​I'm not going to lie, this is a tough question for someone like myself to answer...

You see, since Junior High, training has been a part of my life. I don't have some kind of epiphany moment, or some deep emotional story to explain why I got into the fitness industry. I was an athlete, I had goals, I wanted to win, so I fell in love with training because of something deep inside myself that I can't truly explain. I just knew that training was a gateway to make things happen for what I wanted to achieve. And when it came time to decide what I'd do for a living, I was just hooked and wanted to share this world with other motivated people! 

So when people ask me questions like this, it's tough for me to really give a straight answer. Because I believe you have to have some sort of internal motivation that can't be created from someone else. If it is created from someone else, it will be short lived.  I truly believe you have to have that willingness for self improvement. 

I'm not in the business of motivating people, I'm in the business of coaching motivated people!

But I will share a few cool things that I think can really help you if you find the motivation in yourself if you're in this situation. And these ideas are real world practical things. Not some abstract motivational quotes that will help motivate your for the next 5 minutes of your life. These are things to take action on, that will get the ball rolling for you! 

So check these out. These same things are used to help even the motivated people when even they're not feeling it or find themselves out a groove. I truly believe they will help you if you're lacking in the motivation department.

1.) Just Show Up and Complete the Warm Up
I got this idea from my good buddy, Brian Scott who is a competitive powerlifter. He says that if he's not motivated for his workout, "to just have a plan to complete the warm up and nothing else. And afterwards, you'll realize it's not that bad and while you're already there, you might as a well just get your training session in." Sometimes it's daunting thinking about everything you need to do at the gym that day and that can kill motivation for wanting to start. But if you can just start off with just focusing on the warm up, it will help take the pressure off of the rest of the workout.

2.) Light a Fire
I don't mean a real fire, but when you're working out, your goal should be to do just enough every time, to see or feel improvements. You don't want to just work for the sake of working. Walk out of the gym feeling accomplished, not destroyed. If you're feeling accomplished, then you will be motivated for more! If you're feeling destroyed, than it probably means you've pushed too far and that's not good for results, but it will leave you dreading the next workout. By stimulating progress, this will not only help your fitness result skyrocket, but it will drastically help build momentum!

3.) Do Things You Enjoy or You're Good At
This is not an excuse to skimp out on the things that you need to be doing. But, this always means that if you prefer Back Squats over Front Squats and feel like you can get more out of them, then just stick with Back Squats if that's what is working best. You see, my goal is to obviously work and push my clients. But, we also take notice of which exercises they do well and seem to thrive within the best. Because if you're thriving in these exercises, you will get a lot more out of your workout and it will leave you wanting to feel that success even more!
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Conclusion
So these 3 things will help get you motivated and staying motivated. If you're on that fence right now, of "I want to fall in love with training but it's just a been a challenge for me to get to that place," then try implementing these same 3 things and I think you'll see that training can be this positive and rewarding experience gift that you can give yourself! 

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! ​