Canada's 1st Medal! Congrats Taylor!

Hi Peak Performer!

Are you watching the Olympics?

If you are, you'll know Canada is getting it done in the pool.

And the women are leading the way with a silver in the 4x100 m free relay including Taylor Ruck. What an anchor leg by Penny Oleksiak? Amazing!

This was followed with a gold by Maggie Mac Neil in the 100 m fly. She was 7th at the turn and caught everyone to win.

We've added a medal in diving and judo as well.

What a start!

And more to come.

But here's the thing...

Many of these athletes have spent the better part of their lives training for the Olympics.

For many this is their first Olympics. They may have gone to the Olympic trials before Rio but didn't make the team.

So there was a time of reflection. An opportunity to re-evaluate what was working and identify areas to focus on.

Imagine training from 2013 to 2016 to not make the Rio team. When the next chance comes for Tokyo, it is delayed one year.

The take home message here is to ease into exercise. Don't go all out. Don't get into competition with your training partners. Don't try to get back all of your fitness at once.

Frequency of training is typically better than intensity of training.

It can be exciting and motivating to watch the best athletes in the world put on some impressive performances in Tokyo.

But if you haven't been running don't start out with 10-15 km. Or 100+ km on the bike. Or 90%+ intensity-wise in the gym.

The goal should be to stimulate (wake up) the system to adapt to the training stimulus rather than annihilate as many are prone to do.

By using a smarter, more gradual approach, you will enjoy the process more, recovery more readily and suffer fewer injuries.

Other news to share...

1. Congrats Taylor & Kierra

Taylor Ruck and Kierra Smith have now swum some races at the Olympics. Taylor won a silver with the 4x100 m free relay and finished just outside of the 100 m back final in 9th (the top 8 advance to the final).

Kierra Smith put it all out there in the 100 m breast and came up a little short to advancing beyond the preliminaries in a deep field of 48 swimmers. She is continuing to train in the hopes of being added to the medley relay this weekend.

2. Friday August 6 pm Olympic Viewing Party

Make sure to drop by the gym next Friday August 6 from 230-6 pm for an Olympic viewing party.

We will be celebrating Kierra and Taylor's competing in the Olympics while watching Malindi run the marathon.

There will be food, drink and some games/trivia as well.

Look for the sign up sheet on the desk at the gym

3. Test Yourself

Question for you...

If you train outside of our sport practice, are you getting better?

If you said yes, how are you measuring progress? And are you improving in the areas you need it most?

For example, a cyclist might be following a strength and conditioning program. And they may have coach that has designed a program for them. And in the last block they added 30 lbs to one of their lifts.

The only problem is that the lift where they made this big improvement was the bench press. Would this be an improvement, or a detriment?

So, it's not only important to be training for your sport but doing the right things and the right way.

Frequent testing is a way to ensure things are on track and getting better.

With some of our athletes we will do the following:

• have them do 3 standing broad jumps on the Keiser
• use the timing gates during the warm up
• record all loads in Team Buildr during a session
• periodic testing of main lifts

As the expression goes, if you're not testing, you're guessing.

You're guessing on the loads to use.
You're guessing on the effectiveness of the program.

Don't waste your time. Don't guess.

Get the best results.

Reach out to one our coaches if you'd like some help designing a test protocol based on your goals.

That's all for now.

Go Canada Go!

Chris