“I really want to be in better shape, but I don’t want to work out. To be honest, I’m terrified to join the gym… You’re all so fit, I’m sure I’ll probably just wind up looking stupid to you. Really, you have no idea who you’re working with here- I’ll never be able to do all of those crazy exercises. I just want to get fit, and not look like a fool in the process.”
We’ve heard statements like the aforementioned one many times before. Believe it or not, looking “stupid” is the biggest fear that many people mention during their initial consultation.
Maybe, as you’re reading this, you realize that you feel the same way.
No one wants to look stupid
When it really comes down to it, who would want to look stupid?
No one.
That is just one of the reasons why we approach fitness, fat loss, performance, and goals of all types with a pursuit of mastery > variety.
Mastery > variety means that we start with the basics, layer skills on a solid base, and all throughout we show up consistently, letting momentum take care of the goals.
But that can’t be right, can it? Is it really that simple?
Don’t we have to confuse our muscles, and grind ourselves into the ground?!
I mean, we’ve seen the infomercials, listened to the experts, and watched what the latest and greatest Instagram stars are doing.
Lucky for everyone, and incredibly sad at the same time, that’s all a show.
“Look what I can do! And you’ll have to, if you want to look like me, as well.”
No- no, you won’t.
World renowned physical therapist and strength coach Gray Cook recently explained why mastery of basic movements leads to better results in the long run:
If I introduce you to a completely new activity, in the first 3-4, some say 5-6 weeks of that new activity, your strength graph shoots up, and then it tapers off. Your greatest gains are always going to be in the introduction of a new movement pattern. And yet in that 3-4 weeks, your body change is not.
Your bone density hasn’t changed yet, your fascia hasn’t had a chance to remodel, your muscles aren’t doing anything different, and they’re no bigger, and you probably haven’t even lost that much fat.
What happened?
Your timing, your coordination, your processing, and your behaviors got better.
Just in that amount of time, you have refined your software, because your body is not going to allocate its precious resources, i.e. “calories,” to making new tissue, or developing your legs, or removing tissue from your upper body because now you’re a runner. It’s not going to organize anything architecturally, until it maximizes software first.
Isn’t that when you should probably upgrade a device? When the software hits the limits of what the hardware can hold?
That’s when the body gets a ping and your bones get a little denser, and your arches get a little higher, and your core gets a little tighter, and your shoulders go back, …
[see Gray’s entire talk at bottom of this post]
So we don’t throw a bunch of crap at you, and change it up often. We take a better approach- one that allows you to master movements, progress on your foundation, and that allows the time for adaptations to be seen, and have lasting, real change.
We won’t make you look stupid
We’ll welcome you into our BSP NOVA family with open arms.
We’ll assess you and make sure we put you in the best positions to be successful.
We’ll take an individualized approach, being sure to give you the time you need for mastery of movements.
We’ll coach you every step of the way.
We’ll give you appropriate progressions of the basics, when we see that you’re ready, to keep you cruising to and through your goals.
Because, not only does no one want to look stupid, but this is how progress is made!
Gray Cook has been a HUGE influence on the way that we do things. This video will give you a great idea of how we approach fitness and performance:
