Why are we Soul Trainers?

A few days ago my friend, fellow trainer and mentor Jonny Hinds wrote on his blog about what he called “ego-less training”. Sometimes we get so caught up on training for numbers, whether that may be time, reps, weight, all of those things we used to measure our so called success. He was talking about getting back to training for the joy of movement, for the most important reason of all…FUN!

I related right away because that’s how I attack my training regime. To me it’s more about getting better at whatever I decide to do, and that has worked out great for me. I figured, if this is the approach we use in sports, why the hell don’t we look at our training this way? If we want to become better at basketball, we don’t keep score about how many assists we had this week, or points, rebounds, steals or any other stat. We just go to the basketball court and try to play better every single day, we practice, but we don’t necessarily keep these stats on a piece of paper.

And that’s where I told him what I consider myself to be, a SOUL TRAINER. I wrote about how there are surfers that make a living competing on tour, worrying about traveling schedules, wave conditions, and autograph signings at stores and all that comes with that. And how there is another breed of surfers, the ones that might have the talent to be on tour, but decide to work on their craft on their time, by their rules. They surf for the love of movement, for the dance with the ocean. Yes, they want conditions to be great of course, but if there’re no waves, they go out anyway and paddle, kayak or dive. It’s all about becoming one with nature, to enjoy every single gallon of the element they depend on to live a happy life.

I've been training this way for the past few months and my numbers have actually gone up! I've just been doing whatever I feel like doing, not worrying much about reps or sets. I've just been playing like a kid with all the pull-up bars, kettlebells, bands, indian clubs, sandbags, power wheels, rings and all the other cool stuff we have at our gym. Of course, this doesn't mean I'm not pushing myself...I'm just not worrying about the other stuff, I'm just thinking about moving better and getting better at whatever it is I'm doing.

If it becomes second nature to do something, you’ll do it. You’ll do it just as you’ve practiced a 1,000 times before. It doesn’t matter the stage. That's why martial arts work. In training I've seen this with a few guys, one of them is Chris Spealer. Spealer practices with great form and through out his CrossFit Competitive career he has competed with great form. He depends on technique to overcome his lack of size. That’s why he leaves no margin for error. That’s the approach you gotta have.

You gotta have fun with what you're doing because if not, then it's just not worth it! You can be competitive and still have fun. You can go after a title and have fun. And if you work on your "game" everyday and have fun while you're at it, you'll get better sooner...I guarantee it!

You just go out and play, have fun, work on a few things you might thing you need to get better at, and that's it. That's what I do with my training and that's how I believe everybody should be looking at their training. Yes, we want to be better athletes...but let's not forget that it's all about moving better, being fluid, more efficient, just like animals. That's bigger than a medal or trophy that you put on a shelf somewhere and throw away a few years later. Performing better, moving better stays with you forever if you're doing what you love.

That’s why I always go back to surfing to make my point. Years ago the now legendary KELLY SLATER was in a showdown for the ASP Crown with his good friend ROB MACHADO at Pipeline. Conditions where perfect and arguably the two best surfers at the time where battling for the World Title and while paddling back to the line up Kelly saw Rob come out of an unbelievable tube ride and he “high fived” is buddy. I remember reading some guy’s comment about how that should never happen in a competitive stage, that it was war time and that Kelly should’ve never done that. Well, I disagree. It was war! Kelly was going after his waves and so was Rob, but they never forgot (‘till this day) what it was all about…SURFING. To these two guys, Surfing was bigger than the Crown. It was about being out there with your buddy, just the two of you in the best wave in the world, 10 feet solid and glass.

That’s when you know the sport is inked in someone’s soul. That’s when you know that person will do that forever, because he needs that feeling in his soul to stay alive. He’ll search forever the ultimate “ride” and that trip, that journey is what it’s all about. Rob retired from the tour and became the ultimate “soul surfer”, remaining not only one of the most recognizable figures in surfing but still being considered as one of the best surfers in the water and certainly the one with the best style. That comes with being at peace, with having the soul at peace. Kelly went on to win 10 World Championships and having the most fun while beating surfers from 3 generations. ‘Cause for Kelly, it’s all about the little kid from Cocoa Beach Florida that had to learn to surf in shitty wave conditions and appreciates every single peak, left or right, because he never forgets where he came from.

Let’s learn from athletes like these. Let’s not forget where we came from. We where born to run, crawl, jump and lift, let’s try to get better at doing all of these things we’ve been doing since the beginning of time, but let’s not forget to have fun while doing them.

Let’s make a commitment to train for the love of movement and to never forget that good form should never be compromised, regardless of the environment. If someone looks at us training on video 10 years from now someone should be able to say: “…and that’s how you do a 500 pound Deadlift with perfect form, son”.

Let’s try to be the best at whatever we do, but let’s try to do it the way someone taught us years ago. Why did we change? When did it become more important to beat someone’s time instead of doing it the right way? This has happened to a lot of us at one time, it’s normal; the thing is to go back to our roots when we take our time to settle down.

Let’s all be SOUL TRAINERS and not worry about times, scores, stats…and just go out there every single day and give our all in every workout. Eat powerful foods that make us stronger, healthier and take our time to chill and help our body recover from all the hard work, so we can go back at it with all we got the next day.

This note is dedicated to all the SOUL TRAINERS going at it every day with all they got at their local gym, garage gym, basement, school park or any other place they workout and dream about being the best athletes they can be…and to the others we’ve added to the movement after reading this note.
Like Jonny said: “Soul trainers UNITE”!


Stay strong & God bless!