Loving to Learn
Student of LIfe
When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you think about? When you are busy during the day, what are you thinking about? What is your library like at home?
I am not suprised that most people don’t even have a collection of ten books at their house. It is also no coincidence to me that most people never become truly great at anything and despite what they think of themselves, they are pretty much average in all regards. I have an addiction to studying and learning, pretty odd considering I swore off reading and studying when I graduated college in 2003. Somewhere along the way I realized that if I wanted to be great, even if to no one else but myself, then I owed it to myself to learn as much as humanly possible about the human body and strength.
I realize that many of you that read this aren’t strength coaches, so I will make this so it can apply to anyone. Until you love what you do so much, you will never be great at it. If you are working a job you only kind of sort of like, good luck to you. When I am teaching all day or even relaxing with Devon, the deepest parts of my brain are still working on different ‘strength questions’. I don’t do this consciously, but strength training is who I am.
You could sit me down and lock me in my home library and as long as you gave me water, I’d be deliriously happy to stay in there for weeks on end. I love what I do. Do you? I often have people that see me reading a book ask if they can borrow it. First of all, not likely and if I do lone it out I ask that it be back to me within 2 weeks. Second, if they were really a serious student, they would go buy their own. That type of question only tells me they aren’t passsionate about the topic. I am constantly jotting down notes while driving around listening to audio books or educational material about which books the author recommends. As soon as I get to a computer, I order them. I am always practicing the principle of the ‘slight edge’. In fact, I am writing an article for EliteFTS about the slight edge right as soon as I am done with this.
I also love it when people ask me when I have time to read or study and they tell me that they don’t have time for it. Funny thing is that I can almost guarantee that 99% of the people I meet wouldn’t make it through a day of my schedule if we were to switch schedules. Its called being driven. If you are, then god bless you.
If you are really serious about your strength, body and health, you should be studying it relentlessly. That is how my whole quest began, it was personal and selfish and then I had more and more people asking me to write them programs.
I always keep the mindset that no matter how much I study or learn, I still no nothing. The principle of the ‘empty cup’. I do know that I heard at a seminar a few years ago that if you study for one hour per day in your field of passion, that in 5-7 years you would be one of the world’s leading experts.
Stop talking and take some action!
The Newell Strength Learning Express
I went 600 miles in my car this past weekend, traveling from seminar to mastermind. The first seminar was in up-state New York and my mastermind meets down at the Jersey shore. I traveled far more in the fall of this year, but decided to really cut down on my traveling this Spring. I am also happy to say that Gabe and Drew came along with me, exactly what I want in and from my Coaches, a desire to grow.
3 amigos...
However, I will always make it a point to continue my education. Once you stop learning, you stop growing. I was happy yesterday when I spoke with one of my best friends who had referred another friend to my gym. He told me that the friend had some questions about membership and my buddy told him, “If you thought Kyle was good a few years ago when he wrote your programs, he has stepped up his game like 10X since then!” It made me reflect that it was ironic that he told me this as I was driving through the snow to the Jersey shore after a full day of learning, getting ready for another full day of learning and grilling. Ok, stage is set, lets get to what I learned…
The first seminar was with Smitty and Coach Steve Maxwell. Let me state that I am a very experienced trainee and coach and can honestly say that I am in the top 1% of strength experts in the world. The mobility warm-ups that Steve did with us were things that I have never seen and they were a very welcome injection of ‘lubrication’ to my joints. Coach Maxwell then went on to teach the kettle bell, which blew my mind. I learned combos that I had never seen before and that will be sure to be a key tool in my arsenal when the time comes to get shredded.
A great role model
Smitty put us through the bench, squat and dead lift and the funny thing was that my perceived weakest movement, the bench, was actually my strongest. Smitty went to town on my lower body movements and it was evident that my hips are not nearly mobile enough or hydrated enough. The simple reason is because I do not have the time nor take the time to perform as much maintenance work on myself as I should be doing. That is going to be changing which you will see in one of my upcoming videos. I also suspect that this is adding to the cause of my back issues. Interesting thing is that I have rather large and muscular legs and as much as I thought my squatting was bringing in my posterior chain into play, it really wasn’t.
Coach Maxwell and Kyle
My hip flexors were inhibiting this. After some squatting with the bar and deadlifting with the bar, but really pulling with the hamstrings, in essence making it a leg curl, my hamstrings felt that like they were going to pop. Who knew….
To finish that seminar, Steve went over some hypoxia training (without oxygen) and some cool ass top secret Russian recovery stuff. I am always looking for obscure tricks of the trade and I can’t wait to unleash this on my gym!
As I finish this up, I am sitting at my mastermind meeting overlooking the ocean. I got some clarity on some key topics with my business and life and it is definitely time to re-evaluate, which you will be hearing about.
Mastermind down the shore
The reason I tell you this is that nothing can stop you if you don’t stop learning. Become a dedicated machine of learning. With that said, just a heads up, I will be having an exclusive new seminar, of never before seen things to get you ready for the seminar. Stay tuned…
