Culture is Everything - Chad's Experience with us at EHP!

Me & Chad (all the way from California)

As you know I hosted an trainer all the way from the States who is travelling the WORLD visiting Strength Coaches to athletes & or clients who are athletes of life!

Well it's been 2wks since Chad Skrederstu left us where we invited him into our home to stay with us as a family & see me behind the trainer mask.

This is taken from his own blog that you can visit here Sand, Snow & Street

The big picture by Chad Skrederstu

After spending a week with Spida Hunter in Christchruch, New Zealand I still find myself processing the lessons I learned. Spida Hunta is a coach/trainer (for MMA fighters and general population), a father, a soon to be husband and an overall good guy (unless he’s ground and pounded you). Spida like many of the other veteran strength and conditioning coaches I’ve met on my trip makes complex ideas simple to understand.

So after spending a week with Spida at his house and at the East Side Barbell Club in Christchurch I came away with three major take homes:

1. It aint where you’re from it’s where you’re at (CULTURE IS EVERYTHING)

2. A good coach instills new beliefs and helps break negative ones

3. A strong tribe (group)brings out the best in it’s members

1. It aint where you’re from it’s where you’re at (CULTURE IS EVERYTHING)

I was amazed with the first session of women I saw Spida training at the Eastside Barbell at 6am on Monday morning by how strong they were. These women were dead lifting 155lbs for 8 reps super setted with 70lbs log cleans (in the video below). My first response to Spida was “damn the Kiwi women are strong dude,” and we talked about the difference in upbringing of kiwi women compared to other countries. Spida and a few of Kiwi women he coached explained to me many of the women grew up and still live on farms. As a result when something needed to be moved they moved it!

So I jumped to a conclusion that Kiwi women as a whole are stronger than women from the U.S. (I know really American of me). But……………………… I was wasn’t exactly right and it didn’t hit me until I was on a bus to Queenstown that it doesn’t matter where in the world you from it’s the culture (environment) that your in that will determine how successful you are.

(CULTURE IS EVERYTHING):

• If you look at cultures around the world they are very unique as societies but when you look at successful gym cultures around the globe ( east side barbell club, smart fitness, underground training station, College of the Canyons, Joe Defranco’s and Results fitness they share a few similarities:

Take homes

o Hard work-General public and athletes’ just blend together you can’t tell who is who everyone works hard.

o Competitive- It doesn’t matter if it’s MMA fighters or 60 year old femail they all want to out do others ( usually men) and out do themselves ( usually women)

o Simple/No Flash- It doesn’t matter if you’re in New Zealand or in Santa Clarita Ca the ideas are the same…… People push,pull,squat,sweat and do work sprinkled with some science and shit load of great coaching!

2. A good coach instills new beliefs and helps break negative ones

One of Spida’s great traits is that he is trustworthy. As a result he gets his clients to believe in him and believe in what they are working towards (like the placebo effect but with the results). Spida has this amazing ability to help clients get over their fears i.e. of lifting heavy weights, getting injured to accomplish work they had no idea was possible ( must be that Kiwi Haka he does before you do a lift). Very simple points but tough to master….

Take Home

• If you believe it’s more likely to happen then if you don’t


• Understand the person and basic human nature to move forward

Fiona how no idea how much she lifted

After a failed first attempt

3. A strong tribe (group)brings out the best in it’s members Spida comes from a strong Maori background and has implemented a few of these cultural ideas into his Enhancing Human Performance (EHP) training systems.

Spida trains his clients and mma fighters in small groups. I got to go through training sessions with both groups and felt the power of the tribe atmosphere when I wanted to lay down and quit.

Take homes: * A group is more motivating then training one on one (i.e. higher levels of extrinsic motivation, helps break negative beliefs and provides accountability

* Groups offer a learn by doing approach ( i.e. if 4 people are training and 3 people are doing the exercise correctly the 4th person will learn visually).

***********************

Thanks Chad for keeping it real & taking life by the balls & inviting other people's worlds into your own so you can learn through their eyes & then filter what you like (or don't) & carry on the "Art of Coaching to the Human Spirit, Body, Mind & Soul"

To learn more about Chad please visit his sites below!

Chad's Facebook

Chad's Youtube...

Chad's Website

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Girl Power, Defined

Rachel Cosgrove is an awesome trainer who is a great example for other woman, she promotes lift the tin and give life a nudge! Check out the ladies age, go girls!!
(Side note: I do get the sh#ts when people use age as a reason not to push their personal boundaries of excellence. Don't ever stop living, sure your physical body maybe slowing up but your mind, spiritual, emotional parts of you are just maturing aren't they?)

Girl Power, Defined
by Rachel Cosgrove

On November 15th, 2008 five inspiring women challenged themselves by competing in their very first powerlifting competition, for which they had trained for the previous three months. They had all been lifting weights for a couple years, building up a base of strength, and took on this challenge to give them a focus for their training.

None of them had ever considered doing something like this before. After they made the commitment and had each other to keep motivated, the training began. They worked with Coach Craig Rasmussen, the powerlifting expert at my gym, Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California.

As the weeks of training went on, they were all lifting more and more weight. The numbers were going up and up. The thing that surprised them most was that they were all losing body fat, getting leaner, and even losing some weight while training for this event.

Joni, one of the competitors, had this to say: "This is so crazy! I lost another pound today, and I'm eating like crazy! Everyone keeps commenting on how my body is changing and how good I look, and all I've been doing is lifting more and more weight: dead lifting, squatting and bench pressing!"

The day of the competition, the girls were extremely excited to compete in what was for some of them their first athletic competition ever. They were less excited about the outfits.

In powerlifting, you're required to wear a singlet and knee high socks, which isn't the most flattering or feminine look. Karen made the best of it, however, making the outfit as feminine as possible with a pair of pretty pink knee socks, pictured below.

Meet the Girls: Feminine and Powerful!

From left to right: Joni, Janelle, Cindy, Karen, and Jan.

Let's get to know three of the girls a little better.

Joni

Please, God, let me make all of my lifts!

Joni recently celebrated her 50th birthday. About three months before the competition, she said to me, "Someday I'd like to try something like a powerlifting competition, maybe in a year or two when I'm ready."

"Why wait?" I asked her. "Do it now!" She was shocked. "Really?" she asked, "You think I could?" And the rest is history.

Click here to read these awesome examples of living life....