Well, here it is: my very first post. Writing this is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. Because after years of being in the field as a (personal) trainer and educator of trainers, I have learned that there’s only one thing that I like more than training itself: talking about training. So with this blog I've found another way of doing just that. Yes!

"it was about time that some of those stubborn fitness dogmas sang their swan songs."

What I will write about in future posts is simple: training. Training and all its concepts, problems, and more importantly: solutions. Some of these concepts will be common, some uncommon, and some of them I think are just commonly misunderstood. Where did I pick up my opinions on these matters? I've got a Master’s degree in Human Movement Sciences, have won multiple national powerlifting championships in three weight classes, and I have spent about 10000 hours of training, coaching, and writing programs for people of all sexes and sizes. While these notions separately don’t mean very much (and might sound like I’m trying to toot my own horn a bit), they do mean to state that I aim to unite theory and practice. I like to think of myself as a funnel of information; always reading, listening, observing, experiencing, and then passing it on to others in order to hand them a shortcut through fifteen years of dedicated training and education. I do however, not (pretend to) own the truth.

Only a decade ago the training industry used to be mostly hearsay and intuition, while over the last years there has been a tremendous shift towards a more scientific approach. Finally, because it was about time that some of those stubborn fitness dogmas sang their swan songs. However, the now fashionable evidence-based trend likes to lean completely the other way, often leading to endless discussion and paralysis when the answers are not directly found in measurable details and variables. I feel that this neglects the value of personal experience and intuition, while it ignores the fact that we’re still very far from comprehensively being able to measure and predict how our bodies work. Science has an important place, but lest we forget: no athletic body has ever been built without sweat and passion.

For this reason, I decided to keep my posts kind of in between, on my own sweet spot. Some of it comes straight from research, some of it I learned from others, and some of it is plain personal experience. I may sometimes refer to ‘research’ in general, but have decided to stay away from citing references (that no one feels like reading anyway) in order to be able to cut to the chase. When I do refer, though, it usually means that there is tons to find out there if it interests you.

"lest we forget: no athletic body has ever been built without sweat and passion."

So, if you’re looking to pick up on a thing or two about training that has passed the bullshit filter of my critical training vision, then read on. With these weekly five minute articles I aim to inspire you to think a little more deeply about your training, and hope that you will be able to take it to the next level.

Bryan

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