My father, Gary Younkins just retired from his family owned business at the end of 2023. He was a decorated dirt bike racer back in the 70's and a lot of people know and remember him for racing for Team Penton and being a gold medal winner in the 6 Days ISDE. But through all that and after that, my dad was a worker...A hard worker!

Him and my grandfather, Ted Younkins and along with my grandmother Laverne Younkins owned a family fireplace business called Four Seasons Fireplaces. And after 50 years my dad decided to hang up the boots and enjoy his retirement playing with his toys, going on hikes, and doing what he does best, being Papa to his 5 grandchildren!

My early memories in my youth of my dad was someone who worked hard. Most days started with my sister and I heading off to school and my dad leaving for work around the same time. After school, he'd often be there to catch the end of football practice or whatever we were up to after school. He'd take us home, we'd eat dinner, and then after dinner he'd go upstairs in his loft office and do paperwork getting the next job ready. 

Being his son, I did work a lot for the business. I worked mostly part-time from the time I was in junior high all the way through my mid to later 20's while building my coaching business. I got learn a lot about fireplaces obviously, but also about the construction world, and what it means to work with your hands. 

Early on, I thought maybe I'd work for the family business and maybe take it over one day. Obviously I went on to do something else, and a lot of people asked me why didn't I stay in the family business. And I think there's two reasons, because it certainly wasn't because it was cool or didn't want to work with my dad.

One, I remember my dad telling me to focus on going to college and to basically don't do what he was doing as it "wasn't the same as back in the day" kind of talk.

And secondly and probably the more realistic reason: I think subconsciously I knew following in my dads footsteps would've been an extremely tall task, not just for me, but for anyone looking to fill his shoes...If you read the book The 48 Laws of Power, Law 41 states, "Avoid Stepping into a Great Man's Shoes." It basically means don't get lost in their shadow by always having to compare yourself to them, instead make your own trail and become your own person. I believe by my dad being so good at what he did his whole life, ultimately led me to find my own thing and allowed me to try and blaze my own trail. 

But in getting to work with my dad and learning from him, I did get to capture a lot of awesome lessons as any son would from a guy like my dad. So I feel it's only right to share some of these things with the world. It's not just my duty to learn from these lessons passed down, but to share them with you so that maybe they will have a positive impact on you as well in some capacity.

Lesson 1: Every Day is the Super Bowl
One thing about working for my dad, you had to bring your A-Game every day you showed up for work. It didn't matter how you felt or what you had going on in your life, when you showed up to work, you were expected to do a job. Now that way sound a little insensitive to some, but you were either all in for the day or go home. The job wasn't about you, it was about business, it was about the person who hired you for the job, it was about the people who were going to move in the house and enjoy their fireplace.

Lesson 2: Chase the Work, and the Money will Follow
A lot of the way business is taught and thought of is that you make money decisions first, and then make the work fit into that. I'm not sure, maybe that's why a lot of businesses fail? But my dad and Four Seasons made a great living working their asses off, doing great work, building a great reputation for a long time. All the way to the point people started getting upset when they found out my dad was retiring and they needed him. My dad told me early on when I created my business, to just focus on hustling and getting work and doing good work, if you do that, the money will come.

Lesson 3: Don't Live in the Past
I remember when I was playing football in high school, my dad told me that a lot of people will say high school is the best years of your life. But for him, he felt like life in that moment was the best part of his life. Meaning, life keeps getting better if you let it. 

Like I stated earlier, my dad was a big time dirt bike racer and he could have easily hung his hat on that reality and sat around and talked about the good ol' days. And sure, he likes to reflect and talk about the past here and there, but he doesn't live in the past by any means. My dad has always been focused on the present and planning for the future. He's probably at home right now in his office planning out his next hiking trip he's going to take. And he was the same way with work.

When we were on a job, the only job that mattered was the one we were currently on. Once that one ended, the focus became about the next one. Things that happened in the past were cool and fun to talk about, but that's over. The world keeps spinning and it's not spinning time backwards by any means. Today is happening and tomorrow is coming, what does that look like for you?

There were many other lessons I could share, like be sure to step back and look at your work once you're finished, the story of the worm learning its lesson from being shocked, and never live west of where you go to work but I leave you with these 3 lessons that my dad shared that he probably either didn't realize he was sharing or that I wasn't even listening haha! 

But all in all, congrats dad! You did it, you didn't just put fireplaces in and put stone up around it, you served people and made their home a better place to live! You earned everything you got, you made an honest living, and I hope one day when the show is over for me, I can say the same thing!

Motocross Racers like have a sense of completing a Monday-Friday checklist to feel confident on race day.

Usually they word it as “I like to know I did enough during the week so that I know I’m ready to race on the weekend.”

At first this seems like reasonable logic and I always applaud the willingness to give effort and to put in the work.

But training/preparation is way more comprehensive than completing a checklist.

If your checklist doesn’t make sense, it's too much volume/intensity, or you don’t recover from it during the week, you can easily impact your race day performance in a negatively way.

Day to day, your body fluctuates its levels of “how ready are you to go” based on overall stress loads from the previous day(s) of training, recovery, and general life events.

The goal is to land on race day feeling at least 90% or more ready to go.

Why 90%?

Well like in school, 90% is an A. So we want you to bring your A-Game to the race! And it unrealistic to expect to be your true 100% for the course of a full season of racing, but 90% or better will be good enough to put forth your best effort that day.

There have been countless times where I had to tell my racers to take one or more days off or even limit their normal weekly workload.

At first they think I’m crazy because of the “checklist mindset” thought process. But once they go out and race and actually feel rested and energized on race day, they change their tune real quick!

Working hard, checking off checklists, and out working your competition is cool and all! But what’s really cool is planning it all appropriately so that you show up on race day with your A-Game!

So what are a couple things that will give the best chance to show up with your A-Game on race day?

1.) Give yourself at least a 48 hour window to recover for your race. This doesn’t mean you do nothing, but all hard training should be completed for the week within 48 hours of competing.

2.) Make sure you’re recovered from your previous race before training hard again. If you do ignore this advice, you will string your stress from the last race into your next race.

3.) Prioritize your sleep, hydration, nutrition, and supplementation on a daily basis. This will allow you to not a dig yourself into a deep recovery hole during the week that you’ll need to climb out of right before the race.
​

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