Camilo Gutierrez

I would like to talk about general physical preparedness. I’ve just recently had the opportunity to work with few new people, that are getting back into movement and they are ready to make some real changes in their lives. These changes include becoming aware that their health is very important to themselves and their families, friends, people at work and loved ones. If our bodies don’t function right then our lives are not going to be fulfilling as they could be. We have one body and it takes cares of us no matter what, even through dehydration, under eating, overeating, no sleep, over work? you get the picture. These two people have removed enough roadblocks that they put in front of themselves to make it back into the gym. It all starts with the desire to change, once that desire grows into action, then we can make progress toward improvement. The first step is the hardest to get back into the gym. Surrounded by smiling people of all ages, races, color, body fat percentages and ability levels, in essence we are all different yet all very much the same. We all want to get better, we all want to reach our goals. Theses two new people are now surrounded by a team of coaches and people that are making changes and it shows by their performance in the gym. The stronger and fitter you get means you are making changes. The first change that occurs is that you have been consistently showing up, which is huge progress in itself. It now means you have started a training program which includes scheduled workout sessions with a coach and other which include your team that you train with. It takes about twenty one days to develop a habit to form and grow. The next step is to develop goals for your training. When I work with new people that first want to just lose weight, then I say well I can write up a diet that will work for you and you won’t even have to work out. Then I explain that the diet consists of eating the same foods daily and yes seven days a week for the rest of their life, if they decided that movement wasn’t for them. Then they rethink it and I also let them know that with movement the metabolism works better and releases endorphins which are feel good chemicals. The reason we train is to make gradual changes to our nutrition, mobility, sleep, work, relationships. All these changes can occur if we have an indicator as what should change. This indicator is working out, in order for us to progress in training we must dial in our nutrition, sleep and relationships. So our workouts and coaches give us feedback as to what adjustments need to be made. To continue to get stronger and fitter we have healthy foods that are right for our bodies The one size fits all diet doesn’t always work, so taking time to learn about what goes into our bodies helps create long term healthy eating habits. Well this blog is a lot more than I wanted to get into but, I felt it needed to be expressed. Now let’s get back to my main point of this super long blog.
General physical preparedness to a beginner is very important. It helps with bring up the fitness levels and also helps with correcting any muscular imbalances, that may have been created over time or an old injury needs addressing. The lady I’m working with mentioned that she competed in weightlifting back in 1992, and would like to one day compete again and I said yes you can. Her dilemma was her goals of getting fit but also getting back onto the platform. I said lets get you generally fit first and into the habit of working out for the first few months and then we can make a better assessment on wether or not her body is ready for moving a barbell around. She actually moves pretty good. So she has decided to get her GPP up first then head to the platform with a durable and healthy body to approach the snatch and clean and jerk. It doesn’t take much to get started but we must take that first step.