The other side of sports training

by | Mar 6, 2023

How you are leaving more than 50% of your potential untapped.

 

Doesn’t matter what you train.

If its gym for the gains
bike for the pains or
basketball for the faims.

At one point, you are doing power training.

Or maybe that’s all you do.

Meaning that you are either using your body weight or some sort of resistance-producing-apparatus that will help you squeeze your muscles under more extensive pressure allowing for hypertrophy to occur.

Hypertrophy = strenght

Right?

Half right.

Hypertrophy only allows you to squeeze/shorten that muscle harder than before.

What if there is another muscle on the other side, not relaxed enough to let it shorten to its maximum potential?

Every movement has an agonist that shortens and an antagonist that lengthens

Wouldn’t that hinder your ability to push as hard as you could?

It could even hinder your ability to move precisely how you want to…

A muscle unable to relax can easily hamper your ability to move freely.

Uncontrollably tight muscles are not only causing chronic pain but also crippling your sports results.

This just might be the realization that will take your sports performance to the next level.

You see…

What makes the most dangerous fighters, the fastest sprinters, and the most eloquent dancers?

Is it their ability to squeeze their muscles the hardest?

We all know that is not it.

It’s their body control.

Their ability to move the right way at the right time.

And their ability to do it with the smallest amount of energy possible to preserve the rest so they can do it again.

Again…

…and again…

No matter what the situation and the pressures from the outside world are.

Muhammad Ali said:

»Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.«

Didn’t he?

Then why do you spend so much time training the stinging and so little training the floating?

If we come back to body control.

Body control = muscle control

Muscle control is your ability to shorten (squeeze) one muscle and lengthen (relax) the other.

Do that at the right time in the right way, and you have yourself a fancy movement.

The ability to perform sets of those and you have your self good body control.

The ability to not only correctly squeeze your muscles but also lengthen them will help your sports ability in three ways:

  1. You can excerpt more force as one of your muscles is not pulling in the other direction.
  2. Use less energy because all your effort will be concentrated in a single direction of movement.
  3. Perform »fancier« movements and better adapt to unpredictable situations bound to happen.

And you see, it’s that last part where the magic hides.

Better muscle control is the basis for better self-control.

Better self-control allows for more confidence.

And confidence lets you take responsibility.

Even in a decisive moment.

Maybe especially in a decisive moment.

In simpler terms: The mind knows what the body is capable of and when it can trust it.

And that’s regardless of the field of endeavor.

It might be sport, might be business, or could even be the relationship with your significant other.

Better muscle control lets you better control and understand your emotions, habits, behaviors, and personality.

The power of will is trained by training the body – through intelligent use, learning resourcefulness, and progress.

And progress doesn’t mean pushing around bigger and bigger weight.

You must stop viewing your muscles as a means to an end.

<They are you, and you are them.

To utilize them better, you must find the balance between shortening and lengthening them.

As this balance is constantly changing, you must be able to feel them to adapt to any given situation.

Doing hard, repetitive power training will not help you to achieve this.

It is slow body movements, with your attention on the feelings these movements produce within your body, that will strengthen your ability to feel the body.

As your ability to feel the body improves, what muscles are flexing and shouldn’t be will become more apparent.

New information will allow for adjustment of your movements.

And this will have much better results than doing another set of squats at the gym.

And this is where AEQ exercises® come in.

They are slow, guided, non-repetitive movements practiced with your attention on the sensations these movements produce in your body.

A guided dynamic meditation.

The crucial part here is »your attention, on the sensations these movements produce in your body.«

Your attention differentiates between subconsciously repeating a movement without changing anything and using that movement to grow, adapt, and better yourself.

Let me ask you a question:

Why doesn’t a blacksmith that uses the same arm, day in and day out, to hitting away with his hammer not end up with the body balance of this crab?

Left to right claw balance is way off.

The standard sports training logic would make you think this is what will end up happening.

But it doesn’t.

How is that possible?

It’s his attention.

The blacksmith focuses on his work.

The muscles are just a means to an end that repeat subconscious movements.

And those don’t change your body.

It’s your attention that drives change.

Understanding these will explain why doing AEQ exercises® will let you:

Progress faster
• Endure fewer injuries
• Increase stamina
• Batter your performance

Never forget:

Better ability to know when and how to relax and tighten muscles when needed

=
Increase muscle control

=
Increase body control

=
Better sports performance