6 min read
Whether you want to look good, be a competitive athlete, recover from an injury, or prepare for old age… you must have a strategy for physical performance.
This article is going to explain many important concepts and guidelines to respect in regards to physical training and performance.
Exercise vs Training
Exercise implies general activity involving moving and breathing. Training implies implementing a strategy for achieving a specific goal. Examples of exercise are; gentle walking, swimming, biking, squatting to rest, hanging and touching your toes. Examples of training are; preparing for competitive events, preparing to break personal records, developing proficiency of specific skills, practicing combinations of movements for variety or learning, etc.
Generally, in the past anything more physically vigorous than general exercise would come naturally from the demands of a person’s lifestyle; things like hiking, carrying and chopping wood, hunting, gathering, etc. But in the modern western world, we are without the demands of our ancestral lifestyles. Therefore we train to mimic our ancestral lifestyles to increase our Vitality and Performance. But the modern and specific Performance training has nothing to do with Health.
Health is achieved from general exercise.
It is simply unnecessary to have a high level of physical performance in the present day western world. All one needs to do is go for walks, perform basic stretches (touching toes, reaching up to the sky, twisting, etc.) and occasionally perform gentle calisthenics (pushups, situps, hanging, etc.).
The rest of achieving ‘good’ health comes from one’s diet, self-therapy practices, mindset and emotional state. And even all of these things in some cases do not matter. We all know individuals who smoke, drink and live sedentary lives who live to +90 years of age. There is an element of genetics that is out of our control when it comes to health.
Training is not about health it is about vitality.
“I want to train for performance, but I want to be healthy.” The reality is a lot of people don’t like what modern western living feels like (sitting at a desk all day, staring at a digital screen for +8 hours, communicating through text messages, etc.), and going for a walk and doing a few pushups does not leave us with physical abilities that embody strength, grace, control and youthfulness.
Therefore, if one wants to train for performance beyond general exercise there must be a strategy and long-term vision created for both their training process and training results.
How BARUCHealth addresses Performance.
Training creates a response in our bodies and many training programs are destroying our health in the name of Performance or ignorance.
BARUCHealth’s guiding principal of training and Performance is balance. When a person loses balance they must make adjustments to their training program. This balance incorporates more than just strength, speed, size or mobility. Balance in each person is vast and complex.
Before we go any further, a balanced body looks like this,”BARUCHealth Training Goals“. There are 4 Stages of training goals, and each stage ensures your training process keeps balance as your training foundation.
Beyond the 4 strength stages, the greatest limiting factor of performance is body position. This fact is why the BARUCHealth Training Program spends a great deal of time dedicated to mobility, flexibility, technique and drills that improve body position.
An example of body position limiting performance is: When a swimmer is perfecting the swimming stroke it is the physical condition that limits achieving the most efficient body line. It is not the strength, speed, coordination, etc., it is the state of each joint, ligament, tendon, and muscle tone that creates the efficient body position.
Another example of body position limiting performance is: When a person is squatting maximal weights, it is not their strength, power, speed etc. that prevents them from successfully lifting the weight. It is their body position that determines whether they are able to successfully lift their absolute maximum weight.
True peak performance is achieved from understanding physics. There is always the most mechanically effective position for our bodies to take to produce the greatest amount of force. This means that by first developing a broad foundation of body position and body mechanics you will potentially achieve the greatest level of performance when training.
*In a future article we will discuss specific training protocols and progressions.
I’ve been going to the gym for years and still can’t do a pushup, pullup, dip, headstand, full squat with weight, deadlift more than a 100lbs, overhead press more than +50lbs, run, etc.
Generally, anyone between the ages of 16 and 75 should be able to do things like pushups, pullups, dips, headstands, squats, deadlifts, presses, running, swimming, jumping, etc. It is very common for people who go to gyms to avoid their “weakness” and guard their problem areas. It is equally common for people to perform exercises with improper technique and create stiff and patterned bodies that are unable to perform both basic and advanced training movements.
If people follow a logical and personal plan they can achieve the movements discussed above. It is simply a matter of time, effort, knowledge and adaptation.
Performance does not automatically mean competition or fitness.
Just because you want to run fast, jump high, lift heavy weights and look muscular, doesn’t mean you have to be in a rush to get there or force yourself to compete outside of your abilities. It is very possible to achieve great physical capacity in a patient and personal way that does not dramatically detract from your health.
Every person that participates in the BARUCHealth training programs are encouraged to achieve great Performance, but again balance is our barometer and determines when one is doing too much too often. Subjecting yourself to competition and fitness only thinking will destroy your health in the long term. Simply speaking, don’t be weak, but don’t be obsessed with training and performance, it’s just not healthy.
Wrapping Up
The three main pillars of BARUCHealth are Health, Vitality, and Performance. The trick for most people is connecting the dots and finding the proper balance for all three. It is too common that programs attempt to address one pillar, but completely neglect and negatively affect the other. BARUCHealth addresses each pillar as one part of a system that is functioning together.
Performance plays a big role in feeling great, stimulating our metabolism and blood flow/circulation, lifting our mood through breathing and keeping us in tune with our bodies. But remember, to much exercise or training or the wrong type of exercise or training can do the complete opposite. Be smart about your goals, think long term, and achieve something new with your body that means something personal to you.
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All the very best,
Dan Baruch
BARUCHealth: Founder
info@baruchealth.com
BARUCHealth Programs For Health Vitality & Performance
Step By Step Programs:
Nutrition
Movement (Training)
Self-Therapy
Meditation
