TOP DOWN, NOT BOTTOM UP

One of the best things I get to see using the viiivPRO is the frustration a client displays when they don't beat their all-time best force output.

And that's a good thing, you ask?

Hell yeah.

That's a competitor, and make no mistake about it, the 80-year old lady with osteoporosis is just as competitive as the 20-year old elite athlete.

The competitor keeps coming back for more; keeps chasing; keeps striving to raise their ceiling.

That's what we do at STRONG WOMEN ROCK.

We perform.

Performance (what you can do at the extremes), is what it's all about. It's the path to the very best physical fitness results possible.

As legendary basketball coach John Wooden said:

"Never confuse activity with achievement."

Everything I see in the exercise world is just an accumulation of grossly underperforming-comfort-breeding-false-sense-of-productivity activity.

Sure, it's worthy of a participation trophy, but where is the achievement?

Anything less than performance level effort does nothing to raise your level of performance at ANY effort level.

And make no mistake about it, the results of high performance effort absolutely crushes the results of the activity grind...

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

So what do I mean when I say performance level?

Five seconds of maximum effort; effort that prioritizes the achievement of maximum neurological impact every second, every time.

That's one of the best things about the viiivPRO; it measures and gives immediate biofeedback about your performance.

You not only get to see your immediate performance in real time, but how your performance trends far into the future.

But that's a galaxy away from the approach we have always taken.

I'm no fan of the traditional model for "getting in shape" or "physically fit."

It encourages working from the bottom up; erroneously thinking that high volumes of low to moderate level effort is adequate preparation for higher levels of effort.

It doesn't work that way.

I'm proposing a new model; one where you work from the top down.

Consider this example:

Let's say someone is going on a backpacking trip that requires a hike 12 miles up 3,000 feet in one day with 25 pounds of gear on their back.

Conventional thinking says that in order to accomplish that type of challenge you need to "train" for it.

And how do you do that?

You get on a stairmaster or inclined treadmill several days a week, maybe lift some weights; do many repetitions of squats and lunges, and maybe hike up a few hills before it's showtime.

Seems reasonable.

Sadly though, this doesn't do much to increase physical fitness for hiking up a mountain.

In fact, all those hours can reduce fitness because low levels of effort have a detraining effect.

Why?

Because you don't simultaneously lower your floor and raise your ceiling; you don't expand the gap between what's hard and what's easy for you.

You can only do that by performing at your highest possible level of neurological impact because that is what increases your capacity.

When you raise your ceiling - work from the top down - you are automatically physically fit to do anything without "training" first.

You don't need to waste time at the bottom because it will never improve your top.

Think of it this way: Performance level effort on the viiiiv is like the "go bag" of exercise.

Buckminster Fuller said:

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

A top down model is by far the simplest, easiest and most sustainable way for every single person to be physically fit to accomplish what they need, or want to.

It makes the existing model obsolete.