student of strength - Arv' Musings

Unravelling the Reasons Behind My Passion for Teaching and Fitness Coaching

Why couldn't we have had better teachers? What goes into recreating my grad school experience? Why couldn't I have learned physical education? These are a family of questions that I've wondered about for a long time.

coaching

separating the coach from the trainee

But in the early stages of my career, I made one huge mistake. I didn't separate out my lifting from my coaching. I didn't realise how much I squat has little to do with how well I can guide someone on their journey.

coaching

pick one thing to get on the path of Mastery; 4/4

There are no shortcuts. The successful path to mastering anything is to practice for the sake of it, to enjoy it, and enjoy being on a plateau.

coaching

do we strength train to the exclusion of everything else?

Strength work need not be done to the exclusion of everything else. But done smartly, if you are struggling for bandwidth, it is a good one-stop shop.

framework

two simple things to aim for in strength training

We can get confused when we over-think the technique in many parts of strength training. I want to talk about a rather different way of approaching lifting weights - with grace and rhythm.

coaching

how strong should one aim to be?

For regular folks like us, it is never going to come down to "Add 10 kilos to your bench press numbers and see your discus fly further" or any such thing. From the world of weights, we are looking for general physical preparation (GPP). We want to be able to do most things that life throws at us

coaching

on failing Starting Strength (and why it was amazing)

I went in to learn and getting a certification would've been a bonus. While it was still a huge hit to the ego when I realised I failed, I quickly realised I knew diddly-squat to have an ego in this and had amongst the best weekends I've ever had.

training is my sandbox for life

on one rep at a time

There are many lessons that I did not learn, or completely missed the point on. Either they were too abstract for me, or I was not ready for it, or I did not have enough wisdom and/or context to understand them. Viewing them though the lens of strength training clarifies much larger lessons.

coaching

de-clutter or else!

Strong and healthy people who set wrong/unfair benchmarks or yardsticks for themselves, and feel less positive than they should be. Doing short-term diets that are unhealthy, and see short-term results. But eventually the weight comes back on.

ArvTraining

If only there was a fat loss pill

You pop that pill, and you are (eventually) at whatever weight or body fat percentage you want to be at. And you never had to worry about not eating junk ever again. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.- Arthur C Clarke’