Knowing your Enemy and knowing Yourself

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Ella Patterson
5 years ago
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After coaching thousands of athletes to their peak performance within different exercise regimes I now, more than ever, believe that reaching true innate genetic potential requires individual

1 Knowing your Enemy and knowing Yourself Competing and fueling is about YOU! I want to share a thought about this entire lifestyle of fitness. I have always been a firm believer in individual instruction for fueling and exercise prescription. After coaching thousands of athletes to their peak performance within different exercise regimes I now, more than ever, believe that reaching true innate genetic potential requires individual attention. We are not all the same being. We are made up of such different elements that taking responsibility for finding what works best for each of us is truly the most authentic path to success in any form of growth. Now that we know that we have to think about, what will work the best for each of us and not anyone else? As Sun Tzu says above If you know your enemy. Knowing your rival is quite important and on game day the enemy that you, the fitness warrior, will be matched against is the recipe or combination of exercises comingled together to make a workout. A single day s competition might have 1 to several workouts in the day. If possible, knowing these elements will help drastically: The layout of the day including:

2 Exact times you will be working out so you are able to calculate rest periods between workouts and be able to fuel or not fuel appropriately between workouts - This is highly individualized based on who the athlete is and how they react to the workouts. What are the workouts comprised of? Knowing this is majorly beneficial when trying to plan a lucrative game day nutrition course of action - This is the part of the enemy that could have one of the largest influences that make game day nutrition so different from athlete to athlete. The response induced by a workout has the ability to be completely different from one athlete to the next. To better understand some granularity in these examples, let s take a simple example of two warriors (athletes in this case). Athlete 1 = good aerobic capacity and great muscle endurance - excellent at pacing. Athlete 2 = powerful, poor aerobic capacity and poor muscle endurance - lacks experience in pacing Stimulus Challenge 1 Power Tri 1,000m Row 800m Run 2,400m Ride In this case we must remember that each pull on the rower is considered one repetition, each step on the run has a concentric and eccentric repetition, and you just flat out can not hide from the bike. Athlete 1 was able to stay aerobic for the majority of the challenge utilizing O2 (oxygen) until the later stage of the workout where they had a kick to finish resulting in a chain of circumstances leading to small levels of sugar utilization, aka anaerobic work, but was able to keep it for the most part in the hands of their aerobic potential. He finishes and walks away from the workout. Athlete 2 holds a row pace of 28 strokes per min rowing a 1:50/500m pace finishing the row in 3:40 but already reached an anaerobic state three quarters of the way through the row about 80 stroke reps in. The athlete's lack of aerobic capacity has left them burning sugars for the remainder of the workout inducing a suffering affect also known as in the mud totally fucked or on the struggle bus. Athlete 2 finishes multiple minutes behind Athlete 1 and lays on the ground in agony while waiting to become functional again. Sun Tzu s second line Know yourself. Based on the two athletes I m telling you right now their fueling post workout should not be the same and obviously their recovery will be comprised of

3 two totally different experiences. Knowing who you are as an athlete has the potential to set you up for success from the beginning. Four little things that makes you the athlete you are? 1. What is biological age? How old are you? a. Whether we like it or not things change as we age and our life choices take a toll as we age. 2. What is your training age? a. How long have you been doing this style of competition. Many athletes come from a sport background but have never done power cleans, snatches and butterfly pullups. If we have only been competing in fitness for 6 months then we are a 6 month old if we have been doing it for 3 years then we are just a toddler in the sport. 3. How adaptable are you as an athlete? a. We see some people come into the sport and progress much faster than others. This could just be as simple as them having great skill adaptation. Some people progress faster than others based on coaching and their past experiences but some people just have the ability to pick things up and hone the skill at an accelerated rate. This can vary from movement to movement or even energy system to energy system. 4. What is your essence as an athlete? a. There is no good or bad here it just is. You could possess speed strength and aerobic power but lack absolute strength and muscle endurance. I could go on for days with examples but we just have to know what type of athlete we are. I like to talk about athletes fitness spirit animals. This is just whether or not you are aerobic, powerful, strong, have great muscle endurance. There are never any judgments about this. It is what it is and if you know it you can make a better plan while simultaneously training your weaknesses. Are you a hummingbird, a water buffalo, or a cougar with a low training age?

It doesn t matter what or who you are but knowing these things about yourself

prepare for competitions. As Sun Tzo said in Art of War.

Preparation is key and is always a key element for athletes to learn.

4 It doesn t matter what or who you are but knowing these things about yourself can aid in your knowledge of how you need to train, pace, recover, fuel, and prepare for competitions. As Sun Tzo said in Art of War. If you know your enemy and yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles. Preparation is key and is always a key element for athletes to learn. This takes experience. I always have the goal to help athletes take 100% of responsibility for everything that happens to

5 them. The athlete is the one in control. The Coach is here to ask the right questions, give guidance, and help when needed. If the athlete knows these simple aspects about the enemy (competition) and about themselves they will be set to do their best or know exactly what they need to work on to see their innate genetic potential in the chosen sport.

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