Why work with a personal trainer? What is Melgaard Training?

Why work with a personal trainer?

• Most simply put, by working with a personal trainer you outsource the maintenance of your body to a professional. You don’t need to worry about doing the right exercises, whether you are using enough weight, doing the correct number of sets and reps, or if you are performing the exercises with proper technique. Keep reading for the long answer.

• Personal trainers know things most people don’t.

  • I’ve spent countless hours taking courses from some of the best and most cutting edge in the industry about anatomy, and exercise selection, application, and programming. These topics were covered through both performance and corrective lenses.

• Personal trainers have experience most will never get.

  • I have spent several decades TRAINING, not just “working out”, improving my performance in athletics, my physique, and my max strength in the power-lifts, as well as correcting muscle imbalances and chronic pain developed over years of abuse and many injuries.

  • I have been stronger than not just most people, but also most people who go to the gym.

    • Having competed in powerlifting I understand the utility of focusing large amounts of effort on just a few exercises and the real world consequences of that effort, both good and bad.

  • I have since lost much of that strength due to injury and taking stock of the cost of maintaining advanced levels of strength. I have also recovered from many common injuries and a few not so common, so not only do I understand what it is like to live with pain and injury I also have an understanding of what is required to overcome injuries and pain.

    • Injuries lead me to GOATA, WeckMethod, Functional Patterns, FRC and other systems of training not often seen in common gyms and exercise routines.

    • These systems and the injuries that lead me to them changed the way I think about training and more broadly the human body. I now consider the unintended consequences of different styles of training andhow these consequences may manifest over a lifetime.

      • For example, GOATA was created by someone looking for a solution to why many of the best trained athletes are rupturing their achilles and other ligaments in non-contact injuries. Based on my understand there are two possibilities that a trainer or strength coach can influence.

        • Driving the heels into the ground during the powerlifting teaches the body to produce force in this manner, however when this is done in a sport involving running the heel goes backwards and down to the ground when the leg is driving the body forward and away from the ground. The achilles tendon has a tendency to rupture in these scenarios.

        • Strengthening the legs with the heels on the ground leads to legs that can produce more force than the feet can handle. This has the possibility to create a similar scenario as above with the body going forward and the heel driving back due to relative weakness in feet compared to the strength of the legs.

        • There are many other possible contributing factors to the above scenarios and injuries and this topic is debated in training circles. It is likely a combination of factors including training inputs, use of PEDs, overuse and lack of recovery due to schedule and travel demands, improvements in speed and output of players, and even “improvements” in playing surfaces (turf is much less forgiving than grass, I speak on this one from experience).

        • By giving these muscles attention outside of time of injury, those injuries can not only be minimized but a stronger foundation is built with which to build on performance.

      • Becoming too stiff from overuse of bodybuilding and or powerlifting techniques

      • Becoming too flexible from overuse of yoga and other flexibility exercises

      • Doing exercises without proper preparation which is common in many group fitness settings where people don’t want to get “left behind” or are even encouraged by an instructor who wants to feel successful (in the short term) by pushing clients beyond their limits, in a bad way.

        • The second scenario involving a trainer can even happen in one-on-one personal training sessions with trainers who don’t consider the “barriers to entry” or prerequisites for certain exercises.

• Personal trainers are focused on and some even obsessed with training in a way most will never understand.

  • I think about training, exercises, programming, health and many of the topics discussed above. A lot. Not quite constantly but close.

    • This allows a client of mine to save themselves the time and energy that could be spent designing a program for other tasks in their life.

    • Clients can all but guarantee progress and success in the realm of strength, performance, and hypertrophy. Or at least minimize the chance of failure and injury. (I can’t control how well people eat, sleep, and otherwise recover from training which matters at least as much if not more than the training done.)

• A good personal trainer keeps all of the above in mind and uses exercise to correct postural imbalances.

  • This again has long term implications not only for the health of joints but also mental health and social health as standing up straight, even if forced, will improve perceived confidence of the person doing the standing both from their own perspective and the perspective of others. This improves, or at least changes, other relationship dynamics in ways that I’m not qualified to go in to much more detail.

What is

• Functional training

  • Training in a way that corresponds to and transfers to your sport or daily activities

    • This is why much of the training I do centers around using muscles in the ways they would be used when we are walking or running since this is the exercise that gets the most reps per day other than breathing.

  • Training each part of the body with respect to the whole

    • integrating the strength gained in isolation with the rest of the body so that strength can be expressed outside of a gym setting.

    • Prioritizing compound movements with the inclusion of isolation exercises as necessary.

• Corrective training

  • Training in a way that restores balance to the body

  • Stretching muscles that are “stuck” in a shortened position, not necessarily what is “tight”.

    • Muscles can be tight for several reasons.

  • Strengthening muscles that are “stuck” in a lengthened position.

• Internal Training

  • Taking an internal perspective of the body and selecting exercises, and quantities based on what is best for each individual muscle, with respect to the whole body and the goals of the individual. This is opposed to making choices based on latest fitness trends or what “so and so” said is best for “big biceps” which may have some truth to them but the decision making process is based in much more superficial reasoning.

  • Training the body from the inside out, from deep muscles to the more superficial muscles.

    • Prioritize and train deeper and smaller muscles closest to the joints that may not be as noticeable in the mirror but play a major role in joint health and stabilization.

      • Teres minor in the shoulder or obturator externus in the hip for example

        • These muscles are nearly impossible to isolate however internal training brings more attention to that layer of muscle and addresses the rotator cuffs of the shoulders and hips more directly than other training methods.

      • Many of these exercise look like exercises done in physical therapy

        • Many of these muscles only receive attention in physical therapy or when injured

        • By giving these muscles attention outside of time of injury, those injuries can not only be minimized but a stronger foundation is built with which to build on performance.

• GOATA

  • GOATA stands for Greatest Of All Time Athletes or Greatest Of All Time Actions

  • GOATA is a movement system that was born from the question of “what is causing this increase in non-contact injuries in sports?”

  • From that question GOATA was discovered by observing the movement patterns of four main groups

    • Indigenous tribes - people who live closest to how our ancestors did and aren’t plagued by modern bodily ailments such as knee, hip, and back pain

    • Developing children - again these are humans who haven’t spent a lifetime in chairs, and cramped shoes

    • Multi-decade super athletes - Athletes that had long, high performing careers, and competed at that level with out much injury. Micheal Jordan is the prime example.

    • 70 and older age group athletes - people who are still able to perform at a relatively high level even in to advanced age

  • What was found in studying the movement behaviors of these groups was that they all exhibited common patterns of movement. Patterns that don’t show up or are even reversed in cases of injury and chronic pain.

  • These patterns and behaviors were then distilled in to a system that re-teaches the body to move naturally in these patterns to bring us closer to “Nature’s movement code” that is present in us at birth but becomes corrupted through modern comforts and conveniences. A code that allows for greater possibility of life-long pain-free performance.

• Melgaard Training

  • Functional, corrective, and internal training, based on the principles of GOATA and geared towards pain free performance, strength, and endurance.