Epic training montage of the past year! Let's also talk about what it takes to be an athlete.
Athlete is the highest ideal anyone can aspire to become in fitness. It is the highest potential a human being can reach.
In the Become an Athlete -article we listed the attributes that constitute the athletic ideal:
Being universally strong and adaptable are the major attributes of the athletic ideal. You want to be strong everywhere and be able to thrive in any environment you participate in.
Skill plays a great role in all sports, but the athleticism is the underlying meta-quality that will transfer to all sports and all physical activities known to man.
Take Kobe Bryant and basketball for example. There is a set of skills that you need to have in basketball, but basketball is not just about "basketball".
Basketball is also about the most efficient and effective ways to move in space, to stabilize and to explode.
When you look it that way, there is really not much difference between MMA, basketball or football. The goals of the games are different, but a great deal of the human movement is the same across the sports.
Basketball consists of series of human movements and specific basketball skills. It involves hundreds of universal meta-qualities and skills that are universally transferable.
If Kobe Bryant started MMA or any other sport tomorrow, he would already be hundreds of miles ahead of everyone else thanks to his athleticism.
These meta-qualities that are universal and transferable are what VAHVA Fitness is about. We want you to develop qualities that you can carry to any aspect of life even when your interests change.
If you look at any other style of strength training, they are more focused on skills than actually building strength or other attributes in their muscles.
Calisthenics practitioners don't focus on strengthening the muscles - they focus on the skills such as muscle ups, pull ups and dips.
Powerlifters focus on the lifts of powerlifting and they aren't focused on strengthening the lateral glutes.
Even many movement practitioners are missing the point and their focus is set externally on handstands and many other skills, instead of internally strengthening the body.
You can't fake it, you have to do the work!
The athletic physique cannot be reached by trying to fake it by focusing on aesthetics and looks alone.
The athlete's body is the reflection of the athlete's physical attributes.
In other words, the only way to achieve the athletic body is to focus on well-rounded functionality, posture and performance.
This is why we are not doing pure bodybuilding or why none of our training programs focus primarily on size or aesthetics. Size and aesthetics will come but only as a nice side product.
The appearance of the body is the side product, the reflection, of your physical capabilities. Once you grow stronger and more mobile, your body will naturally reflect that fact! All the bodybuilders like Arnold that looked "good" were also athletic.
Aspiring to be an athlete is in everyone's reach. It's not about your current level of fitness - it's about the limitless mindset towards fitness.
It's about aiming in the right target and changing how you see and construct your training. It's about prioritizing the right things and doing the necessary steps to move closer to your highest ideal.
To be honest, bodybuilding and "aesthetics" are getting out of style. Why settle for poor results when you can be the "real deal"?
