CEO Robert Forster, PT
Stop the Insanity! The gym should be a place where we get better; better health, better performance and achieve a better state of mind.
It certainly should not be where we get injured and become frustrated with the loss of health and fitness. Everyday our physical therapy clinic see’s more clients who fall victim to the extreme “fitness programs” advertised as high intensity workouts.
The volume of intense workouts (that even my elite athletes would never hold up to) are programmed by ill advised trainers influenced by fad and not science; they wonder why their clients just quit.
Well, high intensity high volume exercise and training protocols are not sustainable for a variety of health reasons. The first and most important reason is human adaptation. Because we know that every 8 weeks our hormones adapt to our exercise routine, we must allow time for recovery, or any hope of fitness gains will be dashed. This period of recovery is where fitness elevates. In the race for fitness and weight loss, trainers will stack intense workouts week after week and sometimes lengthen the duration of intensity without factoring in the critical time for recovery. The natural consequence is over-training, cortisol (stress hormone) overload, weight gain, burnout and injury. It’s consistent and its dangerous and it keeps the lights on at my physical therapy practice.
Everyday we see the injuries in the clinic that define these workouts as ill designed, dangerous and unsustainable. What most weekend warriors and fitness buffs don’t realize is that elite athletes spend over 50% of their time in training on injury prevention, and the rest of the time on performance enhancement.
Safe and effective stretching and injury prevention workouts might not be “sexy” or “trendy” but they are proven successful in the highest levels of human athletic achievement. Results driven personalized exercise is always less pain and more gain, not “No pain. No gain,” that’s insane.
Health and fitness is not based on what looks good in a mirror; prescription exercise begins with strengthening the joints and bones you can’t see. These structural miracles move the muscles that must adapt metabolically to intense exercise over periods of time. The science is called Periodization. The origin of every periodized exercise program at PHASE IV begins with the integrity of your joints and the strength of your bones.
PHASE IV professional athletes and Olympian champions as well as our 89 year old clients like Norm Wallack reach their health and performance goals because we begin to build fitness from the inside out at your metabolic and structural level. Its insane to chase a six pack of abdominals if your joints and bones, especially your spine, aren’t even strong enough to allow you to stand up straight. Its insane to begin any fitness or performance endeavor without a periodized plan to increase structural and metabolic health to prevent injury and overtraining.
The importance of structural and metabolic integrity, recovery, and injury prevention should always be at least 50% of your mission in the gym. Everyone knows how to work hard; it’s those who work equally hard on stretching, recovery, and injury prevention that reach their highest genetic potential in sport and health.
Research has proven that exercise and nutrition is the best medicine to prevent and treat many of the lifestyle diseases that plague our population. However, many people are not sure what to do in the gym and have no idea where to begin to adjust their nutrition. They are rightfully concerned about getting injured in the gym, and are equally confused by every fad diet and weightloss program that claims to work in two weeks.
I guarantee your best first step toward your goals is calling PHASE IV. We will do more than anyone else to eliminate wasted time and effort. Make all your exercise and nutrition 100% effective, and take out all the risk and wasted time guessing where to start. Contact PHASE IV today 310-804-5228 and schedule a free health and fitness consultation with Shelby and Chelsea, our master physiologists, they will prescribe and support you through your personalized, periodized, safe, efficient, fun and results driven path to sustainable structural and metabolic health for the rest of your life.
