Valhalla Fitness and Performance

Home
United States
Mechanicsville, MD
Valhalla Fitness and Performance

Online, Personalized Powerlifting and Strength Programming, Specializing in Movement Correction and Increased Performance

04/17/2022

Happy Easter

04/04/2022

Breaking news: actually talking to your coach helps you make progress. What a shocker

I’ve worked with people in-person since 2015 and mixture in in-person and online since 2020, and I’m not lying when I say the people who communicate the most are the people who have had the most success.

What an absolute revolutionary concept that is.

The more you communicate, the better adjustments a coach can make to your training to maximize progress.

Communication includes training s**t like how you’re feeling, any aches/pains/injuries, travel or vacation days that need to be accounted for, stuff like that.

But where people f**k up the most is they don’t communicate the stuff like their overall stress levels, how life is going outside of training, how they’re going about “balancing” training with their social life (quotes because I’m a firm believer there’s no real balance, just sacrifices). You know, the real life s**t that happens outside of training.

I have my lifters answer pre-training questions before every session so I have an idea about what’s going on all around, but I still expect them to hit me up when something that impacts training comes up.

Talk to your damn coach

03/30/2022

It’s easy to get lost in the science and fancy ass words people use sometimes,

But the truth is simple:

If you’re not getting stronger, you’re messing up something on that list.

Once you figure out how to get it (back) under control,

The strength is gonna be there.

Is there a lot more technical, scientific stuff behind all this?

Yea, no s**t.

But don’t overcomplicate it. Check things off this list.

If you find you can’t simply it down or don’t know where to start and want somebody in your corner to help you out,

You know I gotcha. Just hit me up 🤝

03/17/2022

Proper peaking leads to increased performance in meet day 🔑

Peaking (the block(s) right before meet day) is highly individualistic and should be treated as such.

Are there blanket peak setups that can help get you set up for meet day?

Yea

Do blanket setups take into consideration things like,

Your frequency,

Recovery,

Potential weight cut,

Injuries / aches and pains,

Or external stressors leading into the meet?

Nah. Not a shot.

A peak block is no different from your regular training,

It should be what you need as an individual to set yourself up for meet day,

And give yourself the best chance for increased performance

03/05/2022

g drive on bench is always something people talk about, and admittedly I’ve done my fair share of posts about it too. But for anybody who might be more of a visual learner, these two slides show where you want to create tension while benching as far as the lower body is concerned.

Slide 1: Down and Back

Regardless of whether you bench with your heels up or heels down, I tend to cue my lifters to always drive their heels down into the ground as hard as possible and push through the big toe backwards into their traps. This should result in a lot of tension in the quads and hamstrings.

It’s also worth noting in the first slide that my knees are below my hips. No matter where you put your feet (more tucked under you or further out in front), get your knees below your hips.

Slide 2: Knees Out

I hate the knees out cue on squats, but on bench I find that it helps lifters create some external rotation at the hips and the glutes light up hard. Again, this is regardless of foot position.

Once you create the tension you need, don’t ever lose it. Leg drive should be 100% at all times. Don’t do the “let me push everything at once when I go to press the bar up” thing. While there are some more experienced or elite level lifters who can do it and get away with it, it’s not something I recommended for novice to intermediate level lifters. 100% at all times.

If you found this valuable, all I ask is you share the post 🤝

03/03/2022

While individual leverages are gonna apply, I coach most of my lifters to create tension in three directions on conventional deads:

1) Straight Down - easy cue to think here is “leg press.” Especially in more novice to intermediate level lifters, the focus becomes so much in pulling the bar (especially if you transitioned from more bodybuilding style and only did deads on “pull day”) and we don’t get as much tension created into the ground resulting in less leg usage

2) Traps Up and Back - literally the opposite of the last cue, thinking “up and back” helps to make sure you’re getting the upper body through. Another good cue here is “crown,” for crown of the head; think about taking the top of your dome straight up into the ceiling

3) Hips Forward - If you’re like me and your body just refuses to use the glutes at all (that doesn’t actually happen so all you biomechanical coaches can chill), thinking “hips forward” is a great cue to get the hips through and use dat ass 🍑

What cues do you use?

If you found this post informational, helpful, or got value from it, do me a favor and share it. Or if you didn’t like it, tell me I suck. Whatever. Algorithm likes engagement either way 😂

01/27/2022

Shrugging While Bracing For Squats

Common issue that a few of my clients have had, and really just a common issue overall.

If you shrug first when you’re bracing, chances are you’re not getting as much of a real brace as you can.

The goal is the fill the “lower torso” (core, stomach, low abs, what the hell ever you wanna call it) with air first, and then allow that extra air to aid in filling out your belt in all directions.

Shrugging is gonna mess with the upper back tightness you’ve created prior to getting under the bar and not allow for maximum pressure during the brace (intra-abdominal pressure).

“Belly breathing” is a great way to work on getting air into the proper area first before allowing the “upper torso” to move.

Ignore my rambling ass at the end of the video, it’s a one shot take and I’m no Will Smith in front of the camera.

If you found this helpful or you got value from it, all I ask is you share the video 🤙🏼

01/25/2022

“Burn the boats”

01/17/2022

Training Update: “Off-season” work going well. Pushing volume higher and higher each week to strengthen the foundation.
Body feels fantastic right now. The daily cardio and strict eating while on made a huge difference real quick. Sleep is way better. Digestion is perfect. Haven’t felt this good in a long time.
I’m not photogenic at all, so this is as good as it gets for you all

Nutrition:

01/13/2022

FREQUENCY

Just like everything is this sport, frequency is based on the individual. Some lifters are gonna need a lot of frequency, some are gonna need less.

I’ll get into this later in the post, but for the next couple rules, I’m gonna leave total volume and intensity out of this equation.

If you always feel fresh headed into a session (if you do multiple comp lifts per day, you might feel good for one life and more fatigued for the other based on your training split) but seem to underperform from week to week, the weight always feels heavier and slower than usual, or you consistently feel out of the groove, you might need to increase the frequency. As far as deloads go, if you feel WORSE after a deload week and it takes a couple weeks to get back into the groove, you might wanna consider increasing the frequency.

On the other side of that coin are the reasons to potentially decrease frequency. From the recovery standpoint, if you never feel fully recovered (intensity variables aside) on a certain lift, a decrease in frequency might be a viable option. If you feel fantastic after a deload but that feeling goes away pretty quickly as you start the new block, that’s another reason to consider desecrating the frequency.

That all being said: before you add or subtract a session, consider total volume. Personally I tend to always manipulate the lifters volume first before changing frequency. Once the volume gets increased/decreased, we pay attention to those factors mentioned above and see if there’s any change.

And lastly there’s intensity. Regardless of your frequency, and really regardless of most training styles, intensity should vary from session to session to allow for recovery. So before messing with frequency, make sure your intensity on each session is setup properly.

From my experience, most lifters are going to be close to the following:
Squat 2x per week
Bench 2-4x per week
Deadlift 1-2x per week

01/12/2022

Do it for the right reasons
…..
Not for the state records
…..
Not for the chicks/dudes
…..
Not because your friends do it and you don’t wanna let them down
…..
Not because it was part of your New Years Resolution (12 days into the New Year. How many of y’all have already fallen off)
…..
Do it for the right reasons - because you said you would and it’s gonna make you a better person
…..
If you’re doing anything for any other reason than that, you’re lying to yourself and you’re gonna fail. I know because I’ve done it too; I’ve been that guy
…..
Do it for the right reasons. Because they’re the only ones that matter.

01/10/2022

75 Hard, Day 1/75

-No Cheat Meals or Alcohol
-Gallon of water a day
-Two, 45min workouts with one outside
-Read 10 pages non-fiction per day
-Progress pic everyday

Powerlifting is still my training focus. Honestly, from an aesthetic standpoint, I’m sure I’ll lean out which is always cool, but I’m more interested to see the mental growth and mindset shift that’s gonna occur.

I’ve been listening to that inner bitch voice for longer than I care to admit.

Turning 30 years old next month, so here’s to starting the 30s better than ever.

Nutrition:

Address

Mechanicsville, MD

Website

http://www.valhallafitnessandperformance.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Valhalla Fitness and Performance posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Gym/sports Facility in Mechanicsville?