By VAHVA Fitness on December 11, 2019

Learn the 3 ESSENTIAL areas of fitness to master. Find out the benefits, techniques and mentality behind all of them.

As many of you may know I was never a gymnast or an athlete growing up. I did martial arts as a teenager but got into more serious training near my 20s.

For us here at VAHVA Fitness it has been a very long learning process to reach the level we are at now. 

We’ve gone through many different phases, mastered many different training styles and developed many methods that would work for us and for people who didn’t grow up with athletic backgrounds.

We also did lots of mistakes in the beginning. One of the big mistakes I did and what I notice affecting many people is that we often tend to stick to a confined box of training. 

Moreover, we would like this box to be the be-all and end-all of training and then imagine that we’re prepared for everything.

This tendency to oversimplify our training and overestimate our prowess is real and very few are willing to get the reality check by going out of their chosen box.

For example, at an early point in my training journey I gave a disproportionate amount of emphasis to strength training and lifting heavy because most big guys and big lifters presented themselves like "they had it all".

Yes, I became "strong" but within very narrow boundaries of performance and strength. It also made me stiffer and rigid with very few attributes that could carryover to other physical activities.

I came to soon realize that the heavy strength training wasn't the be-all and end-all of fitness – or even the best for getting athletic for that matter.

Since then, I’ve done lots of different types of training.

I came to discover more well-rounded and smarter training systems. Systems that were designed to build universal and transferable strength among myriads of other vital attributes. 

But none of these 3 training systems that I’m about to present to you is complete on their own. However, together they form a very large base and are essential parts of complete fitness. They will help you enormously in all physical activities.

The first essential part:

MOVEMENT TRAINING AND FLEXIBILITY

(Overview:)

Just move a lot. In all kinds of ways possible. This is the movement we were born to do. Although it sometimes looks “easy” or that it should come naturally, nowadays this is rarely the case.

We’ve mostly lost touch with our natural expressive movement. This is why this sort of movement can make a massive difference in your physical development and well-being.

(Techniques:)

You can crawl, jump, dance, squat, do a cartwheel and practice skills. You can imitate your favourite animal, create your own movement patterns and resonate with the freedom of your physical expression.

(Benefits:)

Moving doesn’t develop one specific thing and that is the beauty of it. Holistic movements build strength, mobility and flexibility in multiple different positions and work the body as a whole.

You can stretch and open up your joints through dynamic moving. This is an excellent way to become limber and start feeling agile and healthy.

(Mentality:) 

Movement training is playful, it's about letting yourself explore and stumble. It also allows a lot of room for personal interpretation and expression.

Consistent movement makes you mobile so keep at it!

ATHLETIC TRAINING AND PRECISION TRAINING

(Overview:)

In a way, this training is more “scientific”, analytical and systematic in its approach. We learn to isolate either a specific area or a function of the body. We still need to coordinate the whole body but with clear a purpose and target in our minds for every task.

(Techniques:)

Athletic training can utilize very basic exercises with strict attention on the form. You will also come to know unique exercises when it comes to stability and power training.

It gets extremely challenging when you need to simultaneously coordinate individual areas to either stay still or move according to the goal of the exercise.

Almost any exercise can serve athletic purposes if it's done by following correct principles and methods.

(Benefits:)

This training allows you to target areas that otherwise would get very little attention. It allows you to refine your movement patterns and focus individually on attributes like strength, mobility, stability, speed and explosiveness.

This kind of training is also needed to take these attributes to the next level.

(Mentality:)

On a conscious level, this is about understanding how the body moves and not about moving itself. All of this demands precision and focus.

STRENGTH ENDURANCE AND CONDITIONING

(Overview:)

Strength, mobility, power and other attributes alone aren’t sufficient because how functional can a person be if his or her performance is not sustainable?

In fact, the most important quality an athlete can possess is strength endurance and conditioning, not raw strength by itself.

(Techniques:)

While slow tempo and control are very important principles for building strength and mobility, strength endurance and conditioning focus less on the form and more on the intensity and fast pace.

The idea is to move the body and keep moving it until you break through mental and physical barriers. Once you do, you become a new person.

(Benefits:)

This type of training is the best for burning fat because it’s high-intensity but it’s also great for muscle gain. You will improve your cardiovascular health and build machine-like conditioning which will make you an unstoppable and relentless warrior.

(Mentality:)

Everything is about intensity and mental grit. Push harder and never give up! It’s all in the mind. Without learning how to push yourself mentally, your body will never reach its fullest potential. 

BUILD LAYERS ON LAYERS

My physique is built with layers that I have accumulated during many years of training.

These 3 training forms are the 3 essential areas to train in order to reach your full physical development. You shouldn’t and do not need to focus on all of them at once. It’s smarter to master one area before moving onto the next.

Layer by layer you are building yourself and your physique to resemble the highest ideal and your fullest potential. 

Complete training like this leads to both physical and mental confidence because you know you are adaptable and capable to prevail in any environment. 

This is what true confidence and preparedness are all about.

I can help you with all of this. All of my programs were designed to pass my knowledge and experience to others and you too can take advantage of all of this.

Now, go out there and claim your strongest physique. It happens with hard work, commitment and proper training.

Eero Westerberg
Head Coach of VAHVA Fitness

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