One of the characteristics that define living things is that they respond to stimuli. In other words there is a response as a result of some external cause or action.For example blow in a baby's face and they will blink and hold their breath. Swim instructors will use this technique before a baby is submerged in a pool.***By the way, you may notice more references to babies in coming blog posts. It's what we talk about at our house these days.***Anyways, we need this stimuli for there to be a response. And the more varied the stimuli the better. This helps us develop more complete neural patterns.Think of all the things we do the same way everyday.We probably brush our teeth with the same hand. We use the computer mouse with the same hand. We probably get dressed the same way. And mow our lawn in the same pattern.You get the idea.So if the stimuli is infrequent or not varied there is a reduction in the response of the nervous system. Our brains get to take a shift off. And we don't grow as much as we could.In order to be your best you need to constantly challenge yourself. You need to step up to the line and see where you stand. Where are you at with your training? What do you need to work on? What could be better?While we can self assess to get an idea of where everything is at this doesn't compare to entering a race or event. When you compete you can't have any excuses. You have to battle through conditions that are less than ideal. You have to work with the way things unfold on a given day.Sometimes this can be malfunctioning equipment. Or cold weather. Or a change in the schedule. Or travel complications.There...

Do you enter competitive events? For example, if you don't play a sport what are you doing to assess yourself?For many, the days of playing competitive sports is long gone and a thing of the past. Now just the thought of getting in a workout feels like a accomplishment let alone thinking about actually entering a race or competitive event.But there are huge advantages to entering some type of competitive event. Here are a few.1. You'll zero in on the weak points of your training.Let's say you entered a powerlifting competition and tested your squat, deadlift and bench. And you put up a personal best in your squat and bench but not in your deadlift. You would know where to put more of your attention in the next phase of your training.You can also get very specific about certain aspects of your lifts. I won't go into all the details here but let's imagine you had difficulty locking out the arms to finish the lift. That would be a clue as to how we could modify your training so this is not an issue for you.2. You'll get a better appreciation for tapering.For example, if you were to enter an 8 km race on a Sunday it may not make a lot of sense to go out late on Thursday night and run intense sand dunes and initiate a swim program on a Saturday (more details below).If doing something you routinely do for a race feels difficult on race day, chances are you didn't back off on the training enough, increase your rest enough, or both.The higher the level you attain in your sport the more you'll appreciate the benefits of tapering and adjusting your training as race day approaches.3. You'll be more clear of what you're capable.If I weren't a runner...