The Importance of Good Coaching

Everyone likes to think that they know best. We live in a society that breeds narcissism. The modern selfie has become an ego's necessity; 100 likes later, your sense of self returns to homeostasis, but make sure you post another one within 48 hours, or else you'll go hypo-selfiemic.

Hey, it's me! 

I've dubbed this the #melfie. 

I like to think it's clever; it's probably not.

This makes it hard to admit that you need some proper guidance. After all, you've been making progress, right? You've gotten stronger, more muscular, leaner, and you're able to do things that you weren't able to do a year ago. But now that you've flown past the newbie stage of lifting, you find that your progress has stalled, you're spinning your wheels, and the gains don't come as easily. How can you face instagram knowing full well that you have nothing new to show the interwebs?

Not to worry, that's what a coach is for. And I'm officially announcing that I've taken the plunge.

I've been pretty apprehensive about hiring someone to do my training and nutrition program. I've had very lackadaisical coaching in the past, and with the amount of free information out there, I didn't feel that it was necessary to pay someone to tell me what I *think* I already I know.

The more I researched, the more I realized how little I actually do know. And the more I realized that the progress I'm making can increase exponentially with proper guidance and a good eye along with a caring heart.

The trend that most intrigued me in my research for a coach, is that most coaches have coaches. To me, this means that even though these individuals know their field well, they still find comfort in having another set of eyes watching them and not allowing them to slack off. If a coach truly believes in the value of coaching, then it only makes sense that they lead by example.

I'll be posting update videos for my coach on YouTube with some general stats every week. It should turn out to be a fun little mini-series transformation. The goal is to lose roughly 18 lbs in 18 weeks while maintaining or increasing strength. My current competition stats:

@148lbs

Squat: 242

Bench: 126

Deadlift: 336

Total: 705

There is a USAPL meet that I will consider doing in February of 2015. I'm confident that I can add 45lbs to my total by then, I just need to fix my form. I'm training to go deeper with every squat, and I'm working on paused reps with my bench press. And since USAPL has different rules for benching than I'm accustomed to, I will have to switch from benching on my toes to benching flat-footed. Goodbye, arch gains! Yikes!

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Until next time.