The Power of Consistency: Unlocking Your Fitness Potential

When it comes to achieving your fitness goals, there's one factor that stands out above all others: consistency. Whether you're aiming to lose weight, build muscle, improve endurance, or simply boost your overall health, showing up regularly and sticking to your routine is the real key to success. In this post, we'll explore why consistency is so important and how it can help you reach your fitness goals. Building Habits and Momentum Consistency breeds habits, and habits are the building blocks of long-term success. When you consistently engage in exercise at the same time each day or week, it becomes ingrained in your routine, much like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. This habit formation is crucial for maintaining momentum in your fitness journey. Just like pushing a heavy object, it's often the initial effort that requires the most force. According to Psychology Today, once you establish a consistent routine, however, maintaining it becomes easier over time, gradually propelling you closer to your desired outcomes. Progressive Overload and Adaptation Consistency allows you to gradually increase the intensity, duration, or frequency of your workouts over time. As your body adapts to the demands placed upon it, consistent training enables you to progress to more challenging exercises or higher fitness levels. This principle of progressive overload is essential for building strength and endurance. Research supports the idea that consistent exercise, even if not intense, is more beneficial than sporadic but intense workouts when building muscle strength. Mitigating Setbacks and Creating Accountability Inevitably, there will be days when motivation wanes, or life throws unexpected challenges your way. However, a consistent training schedule acts as a buffer against these setbacks. Even on days when you don't feel like working [...]

By |2025-03-29T17:14:01-04:00March 29th, 2025|Training Info|0 Comments

How Posture Impacts your Progress in the Gym by Renee Perkins

[This is a guest blog by Renee Perkins. Renee is enrolled at App State University and is currently taking part in the Athletic Lab Coaching Mentorship program.] Back pain affects 60-70% of people in their lifetime (Burton, 2005). The majority will experience this discomfort impacting mood and capacity to focus during daily activities. The cause of this back pain can stem from multiple root issues. That said, a key component to a healthy, pain free back is keeping it in good postural alignment. “Exercise can lessen the behavioral, cognitive and disability aspects of back pain syndromes” (Rainville, 2004). This research indicates it helps lower the intensity of back pain from 10% to 50% (Rainville, 2004). If prescribed appropriately, exercise can be the cure. But performed in an improper fashion it can add to the negative stress on the back. It is important to maintain ideal posture during exercises when the body is placed under a heavy load and excessive physiological stress. Prioritizing posture will help ensure the intended muscles are being worked to achieve the desired benefits and avoid injury (Hlavenka, 2017). The Link between Posture and Pain Posture is the way one's body is positioned statically or dynamically throughout the neck and spine. Posture is a part of form, but form is going to be more specific to each movement and focus on the extremities. Good posture can be simply defined as the alignment and ability of one to maintain a neutral neck and spine position (Harvard Health, 2014). The spine has a natural curve to it, the first thoracic vertebra is the most anteriorly tilted vertebrae while the first lumbar vertebrae is the most posteriorly tilted (Lafage, 2020). These tilts appear as a [...]

By |2024-08-14T08:50:46-04:00November 30th, 2023|Training Info|0 Comments

Rounded Back Deadlifts by Isaac Smith

[Isaac Smith is a Senior at North Carolina State University and is currently enrolled in the Athletic Lab Coach Apprenticseship Program] When it comes to powerlifting, or even exercise in general, the deadlift is regarded as the king of all exercises. There isn't anything more satisfying than walking up to a loaded barbell and lifting it with all your might. While you can cheat many different exercises in the gym, there is no shortcut to deadlifting you either move the weight, or the weight moves you. While the goal of the deadlift is to raise a barbell from the floor and lock it out right below the hip, many people use different techniques to achieve this end position. Some may pull sumo style (wide feet and hands placed inside the thighs) and some may pull conventional style (feet approximately shoulder width apart and hands on the outside of the thighs). Among those who pull conventional, some tend to maintain a neutral spine throughout the duration of the lift while others may decide to blatantly round their upper backs before they initiate the deadlift and this may raise a few eyebrows. The reason many people oppose rounded back deadlifts is due to their concern for the lifter's safety. The spine can be delicate and prone to injury. When you begin to place it under heavy loads in positions that aren't optimal, this could be a recipe for disaster. When lifters round their lower backs during the deadlift, they could have the tendency to herniate disks due to the compression of the front side of the spine. In addition to the safety aspect, rounding your lower back makes completing the lift that much harder. Although the weight [...]

By |2017-04-12T19:36:08-04:00February 19th, 2016|Training Info|1 Comment

Plyometric Training, Sport Specific Training, and Functional Training: How they are Misused by John Vilardi

[John Vilardi is a recent graduate of Slippery Rock University and an Athletic Development Intern at Athletic Lab] What is Plyometric Training Plyometric training was first introduced in the United States by a Track and Field coach, Fred Wilt in 1975. The core idea behind plyometrics is the idea of reactive power; essentially, an aggressive lengthening of muscle fibers (eccentric phase), followed by a powerful shortening of muscle fibers (concentric phase). Reactive power is another way of saying stretch shortening cycle. The stretch shortening cycle utilizes sensory receptors in the belly of muscles called muscle spindles. Muscles spindles are sensitive to change in length and the speed of the change in length. The faster the muscle spindles are stretched, the faster and more powerfully the muscles contract in response to the stretch. The stretch shortening cycle has three primary phases: (Baechle, 2008) Eccentric loading phase: Muscle stretching. The amortization phase: The transition after the eccentric portion, and before the concentric portion. Concentric phase: Muscles contracting in response to the change in length. There a couple ways of making the concentric phase more powerful, they are a fast eccentric loading phase, and a quick amortization phase (so, no pause). How we commonly mess up plyometric training There are plenty of ways that we commonly mess up plyometrics in our training, some of the common ways are: Calling anything that involves jumping, such as box jumps, plyometric training The problem with calling jump training plyometrics is the lack of the eccentric loading on the muscles, tendons and ligaments. There is little, or no loading phase. Plyometric jumps are defined by the incredibly small ground reaction time, or the turnover from being in the air, hitting the ground, [...]

By |2017-04-13T10:54:05-04:00July 23rd, 2015|Training Info|0 Comments
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