Badass Training 101—Start here - How do we begin training to be badass?

We need to wake up our super powers within!  It happens in phases.  Over the first seasons of our life, we may have lost some of the springiness, balance, and vital strength we enjoyed naturally as younger people.  Phase 1 training brings back our feeling of aliveness!  

By stimulating the nervous system, waking up the core, and all of our muscles and joints, we whisper to our bodies that life ain’t over.  It’s about getting the muscles and soft tissues surrounding the joints into the optimal length-tension relationships for movement.  Sounds technical, so what does that mean? 

Ever see someone with rounded shoulders, or a head that leans forward?  A belly that sticks out? 

These common examples indicate that the length-tension relationship of the muscles surrounding the joints is other than optimal.  Some muscles have shortened, others have stretched out from lack of use.  So backs round, heads come forward, bellies sag.  These positions show how we spend our time, because we tend to get frozen into them from inactivity, sitting, and other repetitive movements.  Over time, we get used to it, our bodies adapt.  And the adaptation produces a cruel old age.  

Nah, this ain’t for us!  We want to wake up!  We need to get our joints moving into an optimal position for...springing out of bed...pulling ourselves up...saving the world...reaching the can of paint off the top shelf in the garage, picking up that heavy bag, and squatting to get the job done!   We are primed for the Phase 1 challenge.  Lasting around 6 weeks, these movement patterns form the springy, athletic foundation of all fitness aspirations.

The core forms the basis and the heart of Phase 1 training!  We activate the core through focusing first on the innermost layers, the transverse abdominis.  Wrapping our midsection like a corset, connecting the ribs and pelvis, this muscle suffers the main abuse of our sedentary lifestyles.  In strengthening this muscle, we activate the enteric nervous system, which resides in our bellies and torso, helping us find our balance.  Balance is critical to all movement patterns.

Second, we extend our awareness into our back muscles and glutes (butts), waking them up from their slumber.  These large muscles keep us in an upright posture.  With specific attention to mobility and muscle activation, we recover decent hip and back function.  

With focused training, we begin to feel the core extend through the legs, shoulders, head, and arms.  This connects our body into a unit, allowing us to organize our joints in ways that support pain free living, and maybe even hints of greater things to come.

Phase 1 exercises develop the core and nervous system by challenging our balance.  Using a computer analogy, picture that our bones and muscles are the hardware, and our nervous system is the software.  We work with balance and the core to stimulate the neurons in the muscles, ligaments, connective tissues, and the joints.  Through training, we continually upgrade our operating systems, the software interface…our nervous system.  The ability to feel our bodies moving (called proprioception) continually improves as the sensory receptors in our joints awaken.  This will enhance our balance, our feeling of aliveness, and a dynamic posture that makes having a body fun again.        

Each of us has our own way forward to unwind poor postural habits and strengthen our nerve and muscle fibers.  In general, though, we first need to check in with and develop the abdominals, back, and glutes, and open our chests.  A focus on proper breathing during Phase 1 training also engages our nervous and circulatory systems, the tides of breath helping us activate the diaphragm and lungs, further bringing the core into all of our movements. 

One of the great joys of training people through Phase 1 is hearing the new goals that pop into a client’s mind.  Maybe they finally fess up to wanting to do their first pull up, or a handstand.  Maybe they’ll start imagining that plank they are so proud of going up and down off the ground in a push up … on their toes!  Maybe having really nice looking, strong shoulders and chest development becomes attractive and authentic to their new badass experience of their body.  It varies from person to person.  These goals lead us into Phase 2, the first Strength Phase, and the adventure continues!