StrengthMetric

30/03/2020

02/03/2020

|| The Monday PUSH #5 || The fear of starting is a common occurrence amongst people and this is not limited to fitness or nutrition. We see that almost on a daily with individuals telling us about excellent ideas they had or have to start a business/platform/service...what keeps them back from starting? I can imagine that one can get lost in the planning phase and become intimidated while realizing what it would take to make your idea come alive or possibly the voice of doubt starting to creep in when you are low on energy...
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To quote Nike, "Just do it" ...I mean, be a kid again. Feel the freedom to try..and if you fail you try again with a different approach. We all fell off the bicycle the first time, then we got up again and tried again and again while gathering scrapes. As long as you don't follow the exact path/method as before, you are learning and adapting and that ladies and gentleman is = progress.
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For me, this translates perfectly to the journey to overall health and wellbeing: People might say, they WANT to start but don't know WHERE to start?! The solution is to just start and enforce the progression method. i.e. when starting at zero - start with walking around the block and make that a habit, next you walk around the block 2 times or aim for jogging at least one section. Continue this progression until you become confident and then include more exercise. Step 1: Just start. Step 2: build healthy habit Step 3: Keep yourself accountable Step 4: Progression.
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What do you struggle with? What is your sticking point? Why don't you just start?

26/02/2020

| Education | Beginner & Intermediate |
Number twooooo on the "5 things newbie lifters should be aware of"
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2. Control the dumbbells before it controls you..(and gravity brings it down on your face )

This observation is a common occurrence when beginners start training with more “advanced” lifters or “bros” and the name of the game is “lifting s**t because I am forced to”..we have all seen this and reminiscence back to the first time you lifted a dumbbell and felt your scrawny arms wiggle like a jelly man as you perform incline dumbbell presses. The fact is, it takes a while to truly become comfortable with managing an object that you lift away from your body thereby introducing several other forces into the mix. Take your time and become comfortable with lowering the weight in a controlled manner and pressing it (any press exercise) with intention. Personally, the hand/wrist is the best place to start: aim to keep your wrist solid with the dumbbell balanced close to your palm and grip especially tightly with your pinky-side of the hand. In addition, it might be a good idea to warm-up properly by using twisting-abdominal movements and scapular control movements such as Y-T-Ws before commencing with pressing movements.
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Let me know how your current warm-up process and which movements you are struggle with?

25/02/2020

Education #1 : Homeostasis
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Home-what? Well homeostasis little one...it is the core concept in understanding a living organism, especially the human body. The main function of homeostasis is to maintain an internal environment that is of benefit to the organism. The human body is pretty good at doing this if the person is healthy. This balancing act is made possible by several sensors and receptors within the all systems of the body and keeps track of features such as temperature, pH, substrate availability, energy balance, oxygen saturation and so forth. Within the body there are resting norms for these values, for example temperature would be around 37 degrees Celsius while pH could be between 7.2-7.4. One of the main reasons for this tightly bound values is protein..protein you say? Well yes,proteins form very important and functional parts of the body that include structures (such as muscles and connective tissue) and enzymes, which are basically the worker bees of the body. Now both temperature and pH has a powerful effect on proteins and if the pH decreases too much or the temperature increases beyond the normal range, it will negatively affect the structure, and therefore the function, of the protein (we will get to that in another post). So, homeostasis is constantly maintained by several systems within the body that receive information from sensors and respond if need be. --to be continued
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Please feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

24/02/2020

|| The Monday PUSH #4 || When you take that first step out of bed, you need to have that BOSS / GOAT / OG mentality (whichever one floats your boats) and although you might open up the fridge and the milk falls out or you spray water all over the kitchen as you try to wash dishes, or that might only be me, just own the day regardless of the mishaps.
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I would say that your day shouldn't be judged on everything that went wrong, but your response within that moment. You can become overwhelmed and paralyzed, or you can stand up and put on your BOSS attitude and deal with it. fix it, find solutions and most of all, put steps in place to reduce the probability of it happening again. Your choice. You can make the most of the hand that you were dealt with.
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Share your BOSS moments? What did you feel at that moment? And how accomplished did you feel?!

20/02/2020

| Education | Beginner & Intermediate |
Here we expand on the "5 Things that newbie lifters should be aware of" post by starting at number one.
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1.When using a barbell, or any bar for that matter, always make sure that your hands are evenly distributed.
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Most barbells will have some kind of reference for you to gauge where to put your hands or align yourself. Pay attention to any small marking that is symmetrical which can be used as a guide. This will allow you to place your hands evenly from the midline of your body and doesn’t lead to rotational loads as you try to balance a wonky bench-press attempt (as example) . The same counts for exercises such as lat pulldown where individuals tend to just grip the bar and start pulling, which allows for an unbalanced, and mostly weak, pulling attempt. It could be helpful to ask your training partner to check and assess your grip before continuing and soon you will get accustomed to doing it yourself.
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Keep in mind, stability is one of the key factors in transferring force to a movement/exercise. Be stable and prepared when using weights..Iron doesn't bend, but it may bend your bones.
Be clever 😁💪
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#2020

17/02/2020

|| The Monday PUSH #3 || This one might seem a bit deeper, but to keep it light-hearted, I would say it is associated with the thought process of waking up and starting that internal dialogue with yourself concerning the training session you scheduled in the morning or class you booked. There have been several times where I have planned sessions for early the next morning and on waking up I thought about the most random excuses..then one morning I realized, "I GET to exercise and train"..it is a privilege that I possess with soo many other individuals on this earth. Why aren't we taking that opportunity to be active and healthy..and at the same time be grateful for the ability to think, ask questions and enjoy the experiences?
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The fact that you are able, should excite you to move and be active. Make time and I can almost guarantee you that if you take the time to be active, and choose any type of activity you prefer, you will be able to think more clearly and enjoy life more gratefully.
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What do you think when you read this quote? Are you motivated?

10/02/2020

Interesting insight!

So the question is simple should you train hard. In this video I go over just that. I will take you through a chest workout and show you how your training sh...

10/02/2020

|| The Monday PUSH #2 || "Work Work Work"...following in the words of Rihanna, although the song has nothing to do with this quote, I just needed to warm-up my voice..
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The words of this quote really resonated with me, as I have recently changed my whole approach when thinking about WORK. I understand that for some people work is sacrificing time to survive, but if you are so lucky or privileged to do something you are passionate about you should cherish it and within that feeling of enjoyment is the motivation that drives you towards success. If you are not yet there, ask yourself "what am I doing to get there, am I the results of my surroundings/environment or do I have the ability to take control".
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The essence of the previous paragraph definitely applies to health and fitness as well. You can either see going to workout as WORK-out or view it as an opportunity to feel good, ride that dopamine- and BDNF- high to once again fuel yourself until your next workout. With this energy, you literally build every week and with this progression and accomplishments follows. You will soon see the WORK-out as something to appreciate and fall in love with the sweat, the effort, the work.
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What do you think?

10/02/2020

About SM || StrengthMetric (SM) was born, like most ideas, when friends with similar interests and a passion for science discussed this idea of working together and creating a translational layer between published articles and the general public. The idea was basic, can we convey complex concepts to individuals with no and/or intermediate training experience. Our intention became the education of individuals and empower them to make their own decisions pertaining to their training based on an understanding of first principles and progressive education. We overhear conversations on the daily where bro-science is spread and the recipient of this information has no understanding of training or physiology or nutrition and naively comply. In a sense, we are not aiming to build a passive platform of knowledge but rather a collective movement of educating everyone we can reach, from beginners to more experienced individuals on concepts that everyone should understand. We hope to bring more coaches, researchers, therapists and sports stars on board to create a collective effort and create momentum. We are also excited to share our personal journey of discovery and improvement in all aspects from life to training to nutrition and hope that we can assist our audience in some way or another
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Our focus is to “educate”, “inspire” and “perform” so that you can become the best version of yourself. For us, the word “Strength” in StrengthMetric is based on ANY form of progression. We know that strength would be associated with people asking each other “ how much can you bench press?” etc, but for us, we encourage any form of self-improvement. You might never be the strongest, but you could be the strongest version of you pertaining to physical attributes, knowledge and influence. While “Metric” could be seen in any way you deem important, how do you measure yourself or your achievements and success? We can all agree that weight lifted or time for a 5km run is objective, but bringing in your psychology into the equation adds a subjective measure.
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The basic explanation of what StrengthMetric embodies is the ability to complete a task you couldn’t do yesterday by using your growing understanding of the physiology and psychology encompassing why it is important and use your success to encourage someone around you.

03/02/2020

|| The Monday PUSH #1 ||
We moved from using the "Monday Motivation" tag to "The Monday Push", mainly because of the "...uugghh" thought that is associated with the term "motivation". Our intention is to provide you with a simple string of words that evokes a thought in your mind that leads to positive, progressive action in your life when pertaining to health, professional and fitness goals. In my own experience, the drive and discipline from one section of life are highly transferrable to another. It is up to you to see the comparison.
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Our thought when we read this quote is PLANNING! There is some level of planning that needs to go into achieving any goal or objective you put forth. This could be a simple mindmap of what needs to be done to obtain success or even clarification of what the goals are and what you would perceive as success in this context. In my own experience, planning/goal setting provides a destination, while the path can still be figured out along the way. Also, by stipulating your goals it is easier to investigate what is the requirement to reach success. In fitness/training, for example, this could be your personal strength targets for a specific exercise every month and then create a break-down of how you will achieve this.
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What do you think of when you read this quote?