Friday, March 20, 2009

My Fieldtrip to I-FAST

Yesterday was awesome! I had an appointment with Mike Robertson at his and Bill Hartman's facility: Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training.

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning from the moment I walked in the door. I'm not sure, but I think Mike could tell. I didn't stop smiling!

Mike took me through a full assessment. By going through this process he was able to figure out my weaknesses with posture, mobility, and flexibility. I've read about his assessment methods, but it was much more informative actually being a part of it.

Long story short, Mike told me my weaknesses and is going to prescribe the proper exercises, stretches, and mobility drills to fix my problems.

I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Nia, if you say you're a good trainer, why are you going to someone else? Can't you come up with your own programs?"

Yes, I'm confident I'm a good trainer, and I definitely could design my own program. However, I strongly believe in learning from those who are the best in my field (and Mike definitely is). Only by learning from people with more experience than myself can I become a better trainer. Hell, Mike is one of the best in the business, and he'll even tell you he's not done learning.

Think about it this way: if you played basketball and you wanted to improve your game, would you keep playing with the group of people you can totally dominate, or would you rather play with people who dominate you? It's by getting around people who are more experienced than us can we become better ourselves.

Here are a few things I learned yesterday:
1) Every person should be doing mobility drills
2) The importance of tissue quality is greatly underestimated. Everyone should be doing soft tissue work.
3) Corrective exercises are a simple solution to a lot of problems. Nagging shoulder, knee, or hip pain? It could be from muscular imbalances and poor posture, and the right moblity drills and corrective exercises could fix them.

If you are in or near Indianapolis, do yourself a favor and go to I-FAST. You will get far better results in much less time going there then you will at other gyms.

2 comments:

Mike T Nelson said...

Glad to hear you got fixed up!
EVERYONE needs a coach.
Rock on
Mike N

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