PR Everyday: It is reality, not marketing!

For months now I have told you it is possible to set a new personal record (PR) every exercise, everyday.

I have led from the front. I was the first. I have wrote articles. I have offered coaching calls, workshops, DVDs. I have taught many people to do this- and everyday we are seeing INCREDIBLE RESULTS, and not just in the weight room.

With this all said, some of you obviously believe this is slick marketing- it is not. This is the absolute reality of the situation.

PR everyday. PR in every single exercise, everyday. Everyday is marked by BETTER.

Everyone of the contributing authors to this blog are setting PRs everyday. Every Movement Biomech Candidate is setting PRs everyday. Everyone of their clients is setting PRs everyday. Look to the Twitter feed, and see how many people are setting PRs daily. I get email daily from all of the people who bought Grip and Rip 2010- they PR everyday.

What do they PR in? Body weight drills, Barbell lifts, Kettlebell movements, grip drills, ab drills, Maces, hammers, power lifting, Dragonboat racing, bodybuilding, yoga, clubs, lifting big stones, running marathons, skate boarding, Boxing, ju-jitsu, soccer, gymnastics, hand balancing, juggling, baseball, parkour, swimming, bowling, tennis…must I list them all?

I want to make this perfectly clear- If you are not setting PRs in every lifting in every work day, you’re doing some things wrong. I say “wrong” because you could be setting PRs daily. EASILY. Maybe you are using too much tension, maybe you are pushing too far, maybe you are working with low quality drills. All that really means is you are NOT listening to your body, maybe you are ignoring your feedback and most likely you are not doing the best you could be.

Why Do We Train?

Fat Loss, Physique Transformation (You want to look better NAKED) To Feel Better, More Strength, More Speed, More Endurance, Heal an old injury, develop better posture, resolve stress, have FUN.

Some people have told me it is not required to get better everyday to accomplish these things- That is true. You do not have to get better daily- for years I didn’t. But consider what happens when You DO get better everyday? When you do better without evening having to try to do better. Take away all the sticking points and simply improve in whatever direction you are moving in?

That is my question to you. What IF? What If It Is Easy to improve day to day? Why is that so hard to imagine? Maybe because we are so used to making things harder than they need to be that we are unable to make things easy?

In your Gym Movement practice, you have several things which derail your fastest gains. These things are roadblocks to your progress. Ignore this and you will be put in the slow lane. I am going to touch on these topics right now. This is critical to me. I did not promote all this information to see people make “ok gains” I promote this because it delivers the fastest, safest possible gains.

Things you do which are sabotaging your gains

#1 Excessive tension

Let me be clear: Tension is not the goal – movement is.  For that reason, seek the minimal effective tension.  No matter how many people try to explain we are wrong on this, we still keep finding the same things in testing– excessive tension is associated with negative performance. We are getting better at whatever we do often- Do you really want to be better at being excessively tense? If you do please send me your name and city, I have friends who do massage, body work and ART who would love to lighten your wallet weekly.

Excessive tension is the first biomarker to stop the set. if you are unable to do something without excessive tension you are working too heavy, too complicated, or too hard.

• Too Heavy: Consider there is a weight we can lift, but it requires great strain/high risk of failure. This is often Too heavy. If you are not a competitive lifter in a competition or in an emergency situation I see few reasons to train on the nerve. There is extensive research which you can easily find relating to this topic. “Training to failure is training to fail” from Pavel—I will add that excessive tension is the FIRST SIGN of too much resistance
• Too Complicated: we display excessive tension we are doing things which are at the end of our grasp. You maybe be able to swing a KB very well, but if you try to juggle like Logan Christopher you may find a 12kg bell crushing you. It is not the resistance per say, it is the demanding complicated motor task which is outside of your current skills. Keep things easy and you will make all things easy.

#2 Pushing too far

This is tied to the first part. Too far is the point where we observe excessive tension, excessive breathing patterns, and posture changes. This is weight training 101 stuff – getting sloppy and you will get hurt. What is interesting is every person who tells you “You need to PUSH IT! This is the way to train!!” is a car wreck. I have yet to meet one person who advocates training to this point of failure who moves well, is not hurt, and is strong.

You draw your own opinions, but I promise you this: Seek your limits and you will find them. Most people break themselves looking for the edge. All of the warning signs will appear- ignore them and there will be a cost!

If I have published anything in the past which has gotten anyone hurt, I am trying to right that wrong. Pushing yourself is not required! There is no reward in the weight rooms of America for the person who completes a “do or die” set of anything. I used to train in my garage in Minot, North Dakota in the winter when it was negative 50 degrees with one space heater–No one gave me a damn thing for the extra suffering. No one has yet run into the room and handed me a giant check for struggling for one more rep.

This is something you need to examine for yourself. Do not take my word for it, try it– see how much faster you get better when you stop pushing the letter.

#3 Low Quality Movements

Please note “good form” with low quality does not equal a positive net gain. My reverse bending form right now is better than Yours, unless your name is Mike Hadley, “Gazza”, “Terminator”, or Paul Knight. So if I use good form I am good to go right? NO.

As I have wrote about in the past- I get to reverse bend big stuff less than once a week. It is only a high quality movement every 15-21 days. No amount of cuing, coaching, mental preparation, anger, resolve or protein powder has changed that. It is simple–a matter of tissue.

The solution is so easy- do what tests better. Each person who asks “What if movement X does not test well in X # of days” only reveals they have not acted. I post my training here daily- What Do I like to do? Grip and Long cycle. What Have I Been Doing? Grip and Long Cycle.

“What if” questions are best used to entertain kids on road trips and amuse posted sentries during the night shift. For YOU, the better question is “What experiment can I run to find an answer to this question?”

I implore you to look into this: “Does Good Form make it ok to do?” and follow up with “Is My Form Good?”

This is so interesting- If your form does not match the expectation of someone else- is that because you are trying to make them upset?

NO, of course not. Your form you use is the best you can use. If someone finds barbell squats rounds there back, and no cue fixes it- well that means they are not able to squat in the text book form as someone else wants them to.

Solution? Easy- use the best testing squat and work within your limits. No need to kill yourself today just because your deadlift is not as beautiful as Ed Coan’s. I can’t say you will get there, but I can say you will get where ever you can go if you continue to follow your body and do what tests best for you.

#4 Not honoring your body

You don’t care if you get hurt? You are not worried about improving? I have so little left on this topic. If you are not willing to take care of yourself then I hope no one else in the world tries to care for you either. If you are not willing to think for yourself I have nothing left to share with you.

We are asking you to question things and put them to the test. Not just ask questions. This is not a place of answers, this is a place of experiments. If you are unwilling to think, just drop a line and I will send you 5 websites which will happily take you in. There are those who love it when you obey.

As always- I expect you to question everything I have put on this website. Question every word on every page. Draw your own conclusions!

Stand up, be your own man or woman! You don’t need anyone else to tell you what to do-because you have a brain and you are able to think.

I love freaks, geeks, free thinkers, and crazy people.

If you are not one of the above you should not read this page. It is not for you.

What is a good starting point?

Do what tests better. If you have seen the gym movement protocol and are not applying it I have some words of wisdom: Stop waiting.

Stop waiting to see if someone else you know is going to do it. Stop waiting for a head nod from the current crop of fitness gurus. Make no mistake, You will not see Gym Movement being publicly applied by anyone who has products on the market promoting a specific rep scheme, a limited range of movements, a set schedule, a favored tool (which of course they sell) or a dedicated routine. You will not see anyone advise you to follow your body if they are working to get you to follow their instructions!

It is not happening. Some people are driven to protect their product lines, some people are working to protect their job. Others are busy defending systems, not results.

In my opinion none of that matters! In my opinion the only thing YOU should concern yourself with in YOUR results. Why worry about anyone else and their bullshit drama?

If you are so driven to be accepted for the workouts you do:

- then go to the gym and do lots and lots of curls and bench pressing. All you need to do is curl 25′s in front of the mirror and bench press 135 for sets of 7-8 reps while screaming.

There – now you fit in. It WILL work. You will make some progress. You will at some point have to curl the 30′s. You will add some 5′s to the bar.

We can’t stop ourselves from getting better! We can only slow it down by doing things the hard way, or we can allow it to happen as fast as possible by listening to our body.

I am not about “OK” results, I am about the best possible results I can teach you to get. In this case, I am not going to do much for you other than help you learn to educate yourself. I do not care how that sounds, reads, or whatever- You are your own problem. You are the one who is in control of every move you make.

If you succeed it is 100% because of you, if you fail it is 100% because of you.

If you go on to become the worlds best “whatever” I do not want any credit, I want you to credit yourself. You did the work, you put in the reps. Not me, not Frankie, not anybody but you.

If you are still in pain because you insisted on doing something even though it hurt, felt wrong, made you tense, and was hard- well that is your fault.

“It’s Your Fault” is the popular catch phrase of the RKC concerning safety. I used to love that. I think I still do.

So if you are following anything else besides your own feedback and you get hurt- It is your fault.

But I wish you all the best. Is your best what you want?

ATG