Go Big

CAMPVS Athlete Profile #1

Introducing Tommy Cachia

he has played rugby union at a national competition and also at a state level. He has competed at a regional level in swimming and could hold in his own on the volleyball court . Struck down from a persistent patella tendon injury cut the endeavours of playing semi-profession/ professional rugby short. He then found the art of Muay Thai and has been training for 6-8 months now and is looking to have his first fight in September. He is looking to return to rugby union next year to fuel the passion that's very real.

Tommy spends a fair bit of his time at CAMPVS being coached by Benny and is in full training mode to step into a coaching role at CAMPVS. Above his very clear achievements he's backed by one the best characters iv seen for a young man his age and he's showing all the clues for a successful career. Keep an eye out for this up and coming coach and athlete.

When You Stop Chasing Opinions You Attract The Wise

Opinion Vs. Laws

 

In this day and age in training, nutrition and business everyone has their opinion of what will work and what wont. Social media is a festering living organism that gives everyone a voice on topics they have no idea about. It makes it worse when we have social media “celebrities “ that have quite following pushing products, opinions and philosophies.

 

Here is some advice for anyone wanting to learn more about any topic on planet earth, if someone is trying to explain to you a concept, model or framework and he or she use end reference e.g. “This is the only way it can work” or “ if you apply it in this way it will never work”. Tread carefully if you’re taking it on board.

 

If this doesn’t land with you it’s ok, just recognize that the outcome you want to achieve has 294874 (literally that many) ways to get there, some roads may be tougher than others but you will arrive if you utilise a few LAWS along the way.

 

The Law of hourly rate.

 

This can be called a law because its always happening whether you like it or not, the question is whether you are taking advantage of it. You seem to like electricity although you have no idea how it actually works. Think about this, if you were your own boss and you were being paid for every hour in the day would you still have a job? To put it bluntly what are you doing every single hour of every single day taking tiny steps toward your ultimate outcome?

 

Now this has been said over and over but here is something that will make it hit home. What if a professional bodybuilder just an hour a day gave him/herself a “break” from his/her personal legend where they sat on the couch watching TV eating ice cream? Here’s the worst part of this situation, the sitting and eating can be rectified but now this person has lost an hour where he/she was not thinking about and feeling what standing on stage in first place is like. This cannot be regained. It sounds ridiculous for a bodybuilder to do that so why are you doing it? Maybe you don’t know your ultimate outcome? Here’s a start, what is that one thing you do that all of life’s stressors and worries go out the window? Start there.

For those chasing an outcome or a result you may be waiting on others or most definitely navigating some challengers, your going through hell your on the perfect path if you give up your back at square 1 with nothing. When your stuck on the waiting game and you feel you are doing everything you can. Turn to yourself and learn more about you, see yourself achieving whatever it is you want, learn to ask beautiful questions, act as if you have already achieved it, and pull others along with you.

 

The Law of Gratitude

 

When was the last time you sat and focused on everything you have, everything you have created and everything you have achieved? All of the best leaders and athletes in the world do not operate for self-satisfaction. Ask any of the top athletes what it meant for them to win. “ I had to win this one for my team mate, for the coach, for my family” how many times have you seen an athlete win the whole way through a tournament only to fall in the final bout? It’s a pattern and it goes like this. Lets take a tennis player for example

“ I have an opportunity to share my talents and show my team what it means to me for them helping me out this whole preparation” this psychology = smart decision-making, smart strategies and patience. When the player gets to the final match

“ What could I do with all the winnings, people will see me as a champion, I will be respected in the sport” this psychology is extremely internal and selfish, this = rushed decisions, short-term gains, anxiety.

The player loses the match.

 

It doesn’t make sense on any level to receive more of what you do not express gratitude towards. If you are wanting/needing more clients be there 100% and give everything you can to the clients you have currently, they are putting food in your mouth. Feel grateful for every dollar you have, every chance you get to train.

 

Try this.

If you wanted to be grateful for 20 things what would they be? Write them down and notice how much good you have. Spend 5 minutes expressing gratitude before your next meal and see how good the food tastes even if it is chicken and broccoli.

 

It’s so easy to sit back and find things we are not happy with I challenge you to challenge yourself and see how much good you can find, that’s the magic.

more fun things.

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/a-good-sign-youre-just-about-to-break-through-is-when-it-seems-nothing-is-happening.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/05/why-you-may-be-suffering-at-workchoosing-rewards-over-environment.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/spirituality-for-performacne-tactical-breathing.html

 

Nat

 

 

 

Its Provocative ... Gets The People Going!

 

 

The majority of people start out in the gym with a buddy that has some sort of experience. Its rare that your lifting journey starts with a well informed, well educated established coach or athlete. When we first step foot inside a gym the first-person that gets recognition is the guy with a huge chest or arms are shoulders. This gives the young gym goer some purpose or aspiration then the training begins…usually consists of training the muscles that the young lifter can see Chest, Shoulders, arms, back and legs (unintentionally neglecting hamstrings).

 

This approach will yield a result, some strength in the bench press some overall hypertrophy of major muscle groups. During this time undoubabtly this will be said somewhere along the way “ squats, deadlifts and lunges will hit your glutes hard” By no means is this statement wrong but there has been some advancements lately by a brilliant guy and coach by the name of Bret Contreras who extensively studied the activity of the hip girdle and surrounding musculature namely the glutes (glutei maximi, glutei mediei and glutei minimi) The role of the glutes has always fascinated me as they are always unseen but always talked about and I couldn’t wrap my head around why my glutes only became sore after uni lateral lower limb movements not the already mentioned back squat and deadlift. A few notable authors and coaches have claimed that the king of the gluteal is the squat and deadlift…

 

The repeating theme here is that axial loaded (top to bottom) is the key to getting lovely lady lumps. Here is an easy to understand example of why this doesn’t make sense, all muscles have a line of pull, which is on display when competitive body builders become very lean. The striations of the muscle dictate the pennation angle and line of pull, notice a body builders striated glutes the fibres run predominantly mediolateral (side to side). . Yes of course the glutes are hip extensors but in combination with other hip extensors during compounds movements are they really being worked as hard as what we think? EMG research has proven this to be the case that smaller side-to-side movements and anteroposterior (front to back) movements have shown far greater EMG readings then a 1rm back squat (Contreras, 2013).

 

Here is a list of glute exercises in order of progression that everyone should be doing

 

Supine hip extension (glute bridge)

Single leg Glute Bridge

Fire hydrants

Clams

Band clams

Quadruped hip extension

Quadruped hip hyperextension

Light band pull through

Reverse hypers

KB swings

Hip thrusts

Barbell hip thrusts

Back extensions

Band back extensions

 

Please notice that all exercises listed are either anteroposterior or mediolateral loaded.

 

IMPORTANT

90% of the population cannot access there glutes as we have slowly progressed to a society of seat dwellers , it is imperative that hip flexors , ITB (Illiotiobial band)and TFL (tensor fascia Latae) , hamstrings , adductors and erectors be addressed with stretching mobilisation or manual therapy to allow for glute function . If a client or acquaintance

You know likes to squat and their predominant DOMS are in quads and low back please advise them to read this or any of the work by Bret Contreras.

 

Training when you are a poor student

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/03/8-ways-to-get-your-arse-to-the-gym-as-a-student.html

 

 

Different approach to strength

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/02/unconventional-client-unconventional-coaching.html

 

 

Nat

 

 

4 Key Elements When Starting a Training Facility

 

 

I keep hearing all these gym start stories about people who sound like they were living in a third world country when they opened their gym. Here are some of the classic lines

 

“I had to sleep in my gym for the first 3 months”

 

“We never put the lights on”

 

“ I was eating tuna and rice for weeks and weeks”

 

“ I nearly lost the gym because of un paid bills”

 

“I had to remortgage the house”

 

What the actual f%^& where you doing then? Clearly these people put themselves in un reasonably risky position. Do not get me wrong when you take a risk there is no better way to get you up early and going hard but what’s the point of these stories? Because its wrapped as “inspiration” are we supposed to think “oh my god, that sounds terrible but look at you now making SOME money and your lights are on “ ….do these stories make people excited? Ummm No!

 

Its so ridiculous and amusing, some gym owners might get a bit out of joint and say “well you don’t know what its like!” and they would be right I don’t know what its like because my gym turned a profit the first week it was open. Since day 1 we were having so much fun and create so much energy around the gym that it was infectious. I would go home at a reasonable hour and have time to play with my dogs, cook dinner and get in some down time either reflecting, writing or thinking and not in the noble pretentious way in my personalized library where I have many leather bound books [Ferrell] but in a mans way on the toilet. A quote from my business partner and me “ A man does his best thinking on the toilet, between clients “

 

So why do people feel the need to share such stories?

 

Because it fulfills a human need inside them! The story is not for the audience. It’s a selfish way of gaining some significance. “Look how hard I had it but look at me now”

 

Currently I’m sitting at a market and its early, people are slowly wandering in with bed hair and both hands double-parked with Coffee. I can hear a fresh juice maker ticking over as it crushes oranges and the crackle of a barbeque browning chicken skewers. There is a tall guy with a well-groomed beard, very stylish slick hair and a tight Hawaiian shirt selling “raw treats” he looks miserable. Next to him is a greased up hot plate with fat German sausages trying not to explode and a vender with a cheeky smile on his face. I’m over looking this interesting mess en scene actively trying not to laugh at the image of a gym owner cross-legged between the squat rack, in the dark, eating tuna in spring water because the flavored ones are too expensive but fuck it because he’ll die by the iron and he has 22inch arms. The German sausage guy is in his element.

 

I digress,

 

Here’s some real inspiration for people in limbo trying to decide whether to open a gym or not.

1. If you’re already in the industry put all your efforts into gaining a reputation for getting a result number one. Another way to get people to listen to you is do not put other gyms or professionals down, do not gossip or talk shit, do not complain or make excuses.

2. Calibrate yourself honestly with this tool

How do you see yourself? How do others see you? And do they match? If not get that aligned

       3.   Peel back the layers of the reasoning why you want to open a gym and find the core, if    your thinking goes straight to money, say goodbye to every cent you have. If your thinking is “I just want to help people” again say goodbye to all your money not because its false but because it lacks detail. The real reason is emotional it should either bring tears or give you Goosebumps and the only way to feel this is if the reason you started is because of something bigger then just yourself.

4. Keep your structure and services simple with 3 options; less is more in this case. It appears that having multiple payment and service options confuses and makes people question what your about when just because someone comes into the gym in the middle of the day they pay less? (Off peak & peak times)

 

Hodges

 

 

 

Spirituality For Performance & Tactical Breathing

Spirituality for performance and tactical breathing.

 

Only only a few things will determine the constructs of your reality or “the” reality depending on your beliefs. One will be your intention, what do you intend on doing or being or feeling or having?? The second will be what you focus on, is it one thing or multiple things? There have been numerous accounts in which peoples contribution to the world have been overlooked because they have had more then ONE focus and their name in the history books has fallen by the way side. If your mind is giant cloud of seemingly endless “stuff” how many things are you trying to focus on? Using lasers as a metaphor…all its power concentrated on 1 point will cut through anything in due time.if the forces of the laser was hitting separate components then there would NEVER be a breakthrough.

 

It’s only in the down time that you can really grasp anything remotely spiritual. When everything is traveling exactly how you want it then please continue doing that and being happyJ there will always be troughs and unpleasant surprises. In these times is when we can discover our true impermanent s and irrelevance that we are here for the merest moment. It is only when we can wake up to the reality that there will be billions of people after us and before us that we know nothing and that “self” goes out the window. …This is when you can leave your blueprint on this world to experience all the joys and wonder this existence has to offer.

 

We all will encounter very large and very small challenges during our time here but the solution to all existing challenges does not live in the same atmosphere. We are conditioned to experience reality through the extremely limited 5 senses. Touch, taste, smell, sight, sound. What would your experience be if you maintained the 5 senses but removed all notions of thought? …. Weird? Wonderful? Liberating? I don’t know. Keeping in mind that we are creatures living on this planet with a s%^& load of other creatures that have insane abilities like sonar, light recognition, frequency and vibration recognition ….so what information, data and other forces are we potentially missing out on that could be the answer to that irritability you have been feeling? This is my version of spirituality.

 

I don’t choose to believe in God because it places a symbol on something that means a million different things to different people. I do believe we are connected to all living things, pretty hard to deny when we are literally made of the same 4 key components J so why can we not have access to all phenomena? Truth is we can but we are taught to be obedient, compliant, and play by the rules…. we get rewarded for the above which is a nice way of saying THNK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THE MASSES AND CONTINUING THE MARCH OF MEDOCRITY. Anything described by science has to travel through the 5 senses to be understood by our very limited version of reality and not to mention the bias and opinions of the scientist conducting the research (YouTube Neil Degrasse Tyson BRILLIANT). On the thinking of NDT he notes something very thought provoking. We are only 1% different to common apes and it seems as though we are worlds and worlds ahead. What if there existed another consciousness that was 1% higher than us?? Do you think they would want to be involved with us? With no trust in the political parties with any TRUE leaders, no trust in what we get fed with on television and a constant state of “threat” with the economy and “terrorism” hahahaha nope because it’s a train wreck

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/02/10-overlooked-components-of-powerlifitng-preparation.html

 

A Deeper Observation Of High Performers ...what are you missing out on?

Exposure µ Performance

For years I thought the more I locked myself away, worked on myself and ensured I wasn’t influenced by people who would bring me down, I thought I would surpass everyone else.

When my youngest brother made the biggest move of his life to chase his dream in futsal and relocate to Brazil practically broke, amongst all the fear he encompassed he shared probably one of the greatest gifts. He told me, if you were to graph performance, it would be linearly proportionate to exposure. He went on to explain that, “the more one decides to expose himself/herself to life’s experiences, the higher they will perform indefinitely.” Figure 1 below illustrates the relationship.  

Figure 1. Performance vs. Exposure

 

 

When this image was placed in front of me, it made me think of the greats. Robert Kiyosaki served the military and became one of the greatest educators of all time; Donald Trump served the military and eventually became one of the greatest property developers ever; Bill Gates dropped out of college and opened his own business that eventually served to be one of the greatest computer company’s ever; Arnold Schwarzenegger served the military and moved to America where opportunities flourished in front of his eyes before he could even imagine them, and the list goes on.

In order for a powerlifter to maximise their strength capacity, deadlifts, squats and bench press cannot be the only exercises performed on a training basis – it simply pays no benefit. There is no coincidence a powerlifter undertakes pendlay rows, chin ups, box squats, paused squats, cleans, glute hamstring raises and all the other accessory exercises you can perform. The fact is, powerlifters require exposure. The more you expose the athlete to exercises that they have not yet experienced, the higher their performance increases. The same phenomenon applies to all activities, and in general, life.

For years I practiced the general hypertrophy training recommended by most training institutions, ‘8-12 reps x 3 sets.’ I saw minimal change, and whatever change I did experience was within the first month; from there the change was just maintained as my body became accustomed to the habitual routine. Once I experimented and went against the current norms with things like low rep squats for multiple sets and sets of 50 curls.

My performance as an individual started to match those who I struggled to challenge, and in most cases, I excelled past them. What was learnt from being an athlete was soon applied to the idea of living, and with that barriers were torn down faster than I could keep up. Opportunities were being thrown at my face and all I could do was take; there was no room to think, just act. It was the fact I chose to expose myself, accept that there was no perfect, just experience.

We think that the most important thing is to serve others, be selfless and be a contributor. The fact is, we have to be selfish. We can work as a team for so long but at the end of the day, if we do not have a sense of ourselves, we will become lost in a world that is infinitely growing. At the end of the day, what is important is what we think of ourselves. If we cannot wake up early in the morning smiling with ourselves, there is no point to continue doing what we do. It is happiness that defines where we are as people, without happiness we all may as well die.

Before you go on to believe that performance is the result of hiding yourself away from the crowds, remember that with exposure comes performance.

Unconventional Client = Unconventional Coaching

Before Kitty and I started this project I asked her a few questions.

 

1. Do you trust me 100% to leave the training to me?
2. Is it ok if most of the concepts go completely against current norms?
3. Is it ok if I base a large portion of your training on what I can see in the middle of sessions?

Every response was “yes of course”

 

So the foundation of all kitty’s programming was biasedly based on maximizing recovery and regeneration while adding muscle and gaining strength. Key component is regeneration.

 

Instead of only considering recovery of muscle I chose to focus deeply on recovery of CNS. This means far more time out of the gym then in the gym when it comes to conventional “comp prep”

 

Rough breakdown of a typical session with Kitty

Average training time 45 mins

Session per week 3 sometime 2

Cardio, none

Average exercises per session 3

Each session is always full body.

 

I know what your thinking, how can you drop fat and increase muscle and strength with only2-3 hours in the gym a week? What about the volume? Or the cardio? Or the longer rest periods for full regeneration of strength?

 

The magic is in the execution and quality of each individual rep. We literally take our sessions rep by rep and ensure they are done with technicality, speed, power and precision.

 

Lets contrast it.

 

A typical protocol of 3x12-15 reps we all know the first 10 are easy and are done with increasing effort, it’s only the last few reps that we push. Funny enough it’s these last few reps, which kicks into gear the fibres associated with strength and have the most potential for size. The next set you are fatigued and it may only take 8 reps to find the same level of intensity. There is no doubt racking up this volume has solid effects and stimulus on muscle but it also greatly increases the time needed to recover. Not only that if we take a set to complete failure it is highly taxing on the CNS, which is once again responsible for recovery.

Here is what we aimed to remove from kitty’s sessions because the following list is what makes comp prep and training life in general miserable and very easy to fall off the wagon. Don’t get me wrong I don’t shy away from a good 3 hit out at my local commercial gym but is it actually achieving the outcome or is it momentary pleasure?

 

Grinding reps

Cardio

Extremely high volume

Long session times

Long recovery times

Risk of injury

Giant list of exercises

Stagnation

Loss of muscle size and strength

Decrease in POMS (profile of mood state)

 

 

 

So how do you make session’s fun, increase strength, ensure 100% recovery, drop body fat and always look forward to training? That is the million dollar question right…

 

There exist a zone for each movement that will house the heaviest weight that can be accelerated as fast or if not faster than lighter percentages. It normally occurs between 70-85% depending on the client. This is what we are aiming to find each session. To find this zone we use triples because its been found in many professional and research circles that when moving weight as fast as possible rep 3 on average will have the highest EMG reading.

 

We start at 40% and build the weight up gradually with each set until we find a weight that looks dramatically slower. Using this method for our primary lifts achieves a few things (keep in mind our guidelines above)

 

We will average 10-14 sets of 3-4 reps = between 30 and 60 reps for primary movement each session of which we will do this 3 times a week. Therefor sometimes reaching over 150 reps of this movement per week. I think our volume is covered J

 

Each rep is lifted as fast as possible therefore stimulating our primary fibres for strength and size without the burden of performing 8-10 reps just to get there and because we are only performing 3 reps our recover is based on “feel “ whenever kitty feels as if she can give the bar the same amount of intensity of effort she will lift again. Sometimes that’s 10 seconds and other times its 2 minutes. Either way we are purely fatiguing the fibres that have the greatest response. That’s our time component coveredJ

 

Because we are largely limiting metabolic stress (the burn) we rapidly increase muscular recovery and regeneration. Maximizing recovery covered J

 

Because we are working largely with the sympathetic nervous system and never pushing grinding reps it keeps the following brain chemicals flowing. Nor epinephrine, dopamine, anandimide, serotonin and endorphins. These are all performance enhancing drugs not only physically but jack up learning, motivation and creativity. We all know Kitty loves her business and her 4 million clients so we have to keep her sharp so she can continue to deliver her passion everyday.

If at any point I feel we are pushing the limits of the nervous system through slower then usual reps, longer rest periods then usual, misfiring and lack of coordination during common lifts we will cut the session early and focus on recovery therefore reducing risk of injury.

 

There is always a downside to something that sounds so great…. Training like this will not give you a pump, you wont feel exhausted, you will hardly sweat and your social gym time will be cut in half because your training time will be 3 minutes.

 

Judge the result not the process…

 

Kitty’s results to date.

Starting weight 73.2

Current weight 72.7

 

Total mls started at 116.4

Current mls 87.2

 

Starting deadlift 160 kg (broken arm healing)

Current deadlift 185x2 (pro raw in 4 weeks)

 

Starting safety bar squat 100kg

Current safety bar squat 130kg

 

Training like was was a development of my many years in the gym, finding the patterns in people who clearly rose above current gym and training norms and who were in it for the development of people not just to check at there local gym and get an arm pump.

 

To explore this in further detail and how it can work for you please feel free to message me.

 

Or check out

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/spirituality-for-performacne-tactical-breathing.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/02/10-overlooked-components-of-powerlifitng-preparation.html

 

Nataniel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Overlooked Components Of Powerlifitng Preparation.

Powerlifting preparation. Other things to consider besides the program

 

Since powerlifting is heavily on the rise in Australia I thought id would cool to share this. Everyone who decides to compete will inevitably get bit by the iron bug and the long road ahead begins to continually post bigger numbers here a few thins to consider when you believe you have hit your strength ceiling.

 

As a natural lifer competing in a non-tested federation sometimes can be deflating but personally I only ever compete against myself and the fact of the matter is the federation I prefer is full of my mates from all over Australia. The comradely runs deep and I have developed friendships all over the country.

 

The last 2 years my total has floated from 620kg-660kg between the 82.5kg at the lower end and the 90kg class towards the upper end of my totals. I believe there is a point where your powerlifting total will equate to roughly the same but the ratios can change e.g.: you may find your squat goes up at the expense of some bench numbers or any combination of the 3. I am speaking from a drug free point of view and personal experience of my own. Throughout the years I have managed to figure out that I can train my squat with a lot of intensity, frequency and intensiveness, my bench has to either be frequent and moderate or once a week and intense. Finally my deadlift can only be trained once every 10 days moderate or high intensiveness.

 

Here are some terminologies I use with my lifters

 

Intensity: fairly wide spread among coaches that intensity is the load used during training normally identified as a percentage of 1rm. I mean lifting 50% of your 1 rep max with a force that just overcomes the load is not very intense at all.

 

Intensiveness: training methods that facilitate a lot of fatigue either in the nervous system or in the contractile tissues egg: working till failure, drop sets, low range cluster sets.

 

Intense: the feeling or mind set going into the training session.

 

I am writing this article coming of the back the best meet I have competed in. I had a goal for over 3 years of a total of 700kg at 90kg body weight. This comp I weighed 93 but the weight class was 95 and under. I achieved this total with a 285/142.5/272.5 Squat, bench and deadlift and while I was warming up my one of my heavier athletes and I pulled a personal best deadlift of 280 after the comp in the warm up room haha.

 

I try to approach competitions with a different lead each time to get a gauge of what worked and what didn’t so I can better help my lifters and athletes .So finally here are some factors to consider outside of program

 

1. Out of a 13-week preparation I did no powerlifts for the first 5 weeks, and had a general hypertrophy approach all with the goal of increasing the storage of glycogen. I also used this time to fix a strength imbalance between my back squat and front squat. I packed a crazy 40kg on my front squat from 140-180kg which I believe carry’s over greatly to a sumo deadlift
2. After the 5 week prep block I had a deload 9 days in the middle of the 13 weeks to increase my adaptive reserve for the strength cycle.
3. I swapped my chicken, rice, oats, protein powder, avocado for steak, chicken thighs, coconut milk, cheese, ice cream…. higher calorie foods with good amounts of saturated fats will work wonders in a strength cycle…did I put on fat? Yep, did I get stronger? Yep. What was the goal of the program? Get stronger and not embarrass myself against the best in Aus.
4. This should be number 1 but I ran the numbers in my head exactly what I needed to total 700 every time I trained
5. I saved the “psych up” for only big attempts in the gym out of the 13 weeks I really only completely switched on about 3 times
6. The 2 weeks leading into the meet I spent roughly 20 minutes thinking about the comp haha I had a heap of external things going on but this was a blessing. I also took an extra 4 days off on top of the normal 7 days.

 

ON THE DAY

 

7. Once again after not obsessing over the meet I was a heap more relaxed and only completely fired up for the 3^rd attempts, slaps, ammonia the lot. This left far more in the tank for bench and deads
8. I made a conscious effort to keep the food high on the day even though I never feel like eating, I had a good combination of carbs protein and fats all the way into the dead’s 7 hours after my first squat
9. This is absolute luxury but because it was a large Australian event all the lifters had access to an active release therapist in between lifts. After my back cramped on my 3^rd bench this was a huge help for my deads.
10. Finally as cliché as this sounds prioritise the fun and the environment. In all seriousness when your having fun your head is clearer, when you cheer your competition it drives you and puts in a peak state all while removing the “ pressure”

 

I think peak performance is heavily impacted by general personality but this list could help you hit an all time meet in your own books.

 

Nat