Ventura Training & Athletics

You ever wonder what it means to be healthy?  I don’t think anybody really knows.  I don’t think it’s those six pack abs, being able to run that marathon (just look at all the recent deaths occurring lately), it ain’t the guys in the Tour De France (just look at Lance and testicular cancer), it ain’t those crossfit guys (talk about plagued with injuries).  So what is it?  You think you are doing all the right things like eating “healthy” (whatever that means these days), exercising (whatever that means these days), getting “enough” sleep, have a “strong” immune system, try and live a “stress free” life.  How do you know?  Well I think I’ve found a perfect definition so far that encompasses what it means to be “healthy”.  Now this is just my bias and my process of how i’m trying to approach my life and my health.  And by the way this definition is almost impossible to achieve but just look at it as something to strive for.

This is taken from Henry Bieler’s Food is Your Best Medicine (courtesy of Matt Stones Diet Recovery: Restoring Hormonal Health, Metabolism, Mood, and Your Relationship with Food)

“The physical energy of the adrenal type is seemingly inexhaustible, as is the nervous response of the sympathetic system, a result of perfect oxidation of phosphorus in the nerve tissue.  Oxidation of carbon in the muscular system gives the adrenal type his great warmth.  Thus, the temperature of his body is scarcely ever below 98.8, with hands and feet always pleasantly warm.  As digestion and detoxification of food poisons depend greatly upon oxidation in the liver and intestines, it follows that the typical adrenal type, with his perfect oxidation, has thorough digestion.  In fact, he may and often does boast that he can eat any and all kinds of food without discomfort.  The exogenous uric acid products as well as the indoxyl compounds are completely detoxicated in the liver, do not accumulate in the blood, nor are they found in the urine.”

“The skeletal muscles are well developed and have splendid tone.  Fatigue is practically unknown to the adrenal type.  His muscular endurance is spectacular.  And the perfect tone of the involuntary muscles is evidenced by complete and rapid peristalsis, resulting in several bowel evacuations daily.  He can dine on the most impossible food combinations imaginable with no evil results…”

“The quality of the blood is characteristic.  A slight to marked polycythemia (more red cells than usual) occurs; leucopenia, or abnormal white cell count on the low side, is never noted.  The blood, which is of a rich, red color, clots quickly.  Fatal hemorrhage seldom occurs.  The immunity against bacterial invasion is spectacular.  The typical adrenal type hardly ever becomes infected, even with venereal diseases…”

“A member of the adrenal-type group has a phlegmatic disposition- easygoing, jolly, slow to anger, never bothered with insomnia,  fear or “cold feet.”  He will often go out of his way to avoid a quarrel.  Customarily, he has a wide circle of friends because he is warm-hearted and surrounded by an “aura” of kind sympathy.”

“Splendid circulation gives him warm, magnetic hands…”

“He never worries…His digestion is good and he is seldom constipated.  It is possible for him to stand more treatments, operations and even more lung hemorrhages than any other type of patient.  He is the patient most often discharged as arrested or cured.  All the treatment necessary for his recovery is supplied by bed rest and fresh air.”

Sounds pretty unatainable huh?  But does it really?

Well here we are.  Finally made the move.  For those of you that don’t know me, I was originally located in Downtown Ventura on Chestnut right next to the Ventura Theater.  My company was called Sportfit Proformance.  It didn’t really roll off the tongue easily but I did like it nontheless.  I operated there for about 3 and a half years (most people didn’t even know I was there), but when the opportunity presented itself to make the move I figured it was time to upgrade.  I also felt it was time to change the name to establish myself in the local community.  That’s why Ventura Training and Athletics was created (VTA for short).

So here we are.  You might be wondering what is VTA anyway?  Well ultimately I’m just a trainer, but that’s not the full story.  I’m a trainer with some very unique tools in my toolbox.  Let me ask you a question.  How do you know how your body is doing other then how you are feeling?  You ever wonder that?  To me the “feeling” thing is a little too biased.  A lot of people think they’re feeling pretty good but don’t realize that underneath all of that is a time bomb ready to explode.  I needed something that took the biasness (that might be a real word) out of the equation.  A way to assess someone regardless with how they thought they were feeling.  Come to find out you do have something built into you that is very unbiased.  That thing is your nervous system.  This is where Muscle Activation Techniques comes into the picture (click on What is MAT? on the right sidebar for more detailed info).  MAT allows me to assess the neuromuscular system to see if how you were feeling was matching up with how you were actually doing.  You see your nervous system (I’ll try and keep it basic here) controls everything.  Most importantly in regards to what I do the nervous system controls your range of motion.  It controls what’s tight and what isn’t as tight.  Where there’s tightness, on the other side of the joint you’ll potentially see weakness.  If you have pain you will have 100% of the time a range of motion issue somewhere, and it may be far from the painful area.

So let me back out for a second and explain why this even matters.  I mean who cares anyway?  Well you see when I have someone come in and they want to workout I feel it is my job to figure out what this person is even capable of.  We need to first figure out what those tightnesses are doing to you, and why those tightnesses are even there.  And more importantly are your tightnesses asymmetrical.  Basically do you have one side that is tighter then the other side in various range of motion tests?  If you do then that is a red flag to figure out why that is.  As a professional trainer (whatever that means) I feel it is my duty to most importantly DO NO HARM to somebody. This industry is filled with yahoos that just shout out exercises and push people til something goes wrong.  In my eyes THAT IS OUR FAULT. I hate to tell you but that isn’t supposed to be happening.  You should NOT be in continuous pain from your workout program.  If you are then I suggest you fire your trainer.  (Sorry for the rant but back to the story) So these asymmetrical tightnesses give us a ton of information about how your nervous system is perceiving things.  If I just decide to place loads and force on top of an asymmetrical body then it’s not a matter of if but a matter of when there is going to be a problem.  I sure don’t want to be the root of the problem.  We are supposed to be here the better someones health, not destroy it.

So in a nutshell that’s what I do.  I assess someone to see how their nervous system is perceiving things.  If there is a problem then we need to first get things back up to speed.  Then PROPERLY progress that individual with the PROPER amount of force.  You see any monkey could read a list of cool new fun kick your butt exercises, but the real art to this whole deal is making sure what we are doing to you is doing what it’s supposed to be doing and not creating more problems.  That’s what VTA is about.  A VERY detailed specialized individualized progressive program tailored to a specific individual.  I will tell you that this isn’t for everyone.  If your the type that doesn’t really care about undoing some of the crap your body has gone through and taking a proactive approach to getting it better then this is not for you.  Not everyone wants to go down this rabbit hole of REALLY trying to figure your body out.  Exercise in not about the exercise, it’s about the individual, exercise is not a program it is a process.  An ever changing evolving process.  Everything works until it doesn’t work anymore.  We have to be able to challenge the body appropriately and we have to know when you back off.  Most people think it’s as easy as going to the gym and moving around a bit, or getting your ass kicked in bootcamps or Crossfit, or just going for a run, or yoga, or pilates, or yogalates, or whatever.  Well I’m here to tell you that there are actual professionals out there who take this stuff seriously and are dedicated and passionate about doing this stuff correctly.  VTA is that place.  That being said this is for anyone and everyone, the highly competitive athlete to the aging baby boomer, young and old, very active to sedentary. If you ever had questions about why you’re maybe not making the changes you want to make, or why these certain pains keep nagging you, or why you may have plateaued in your workout process, this may be your answer.  Whatever your goals is we could collectively come up with a plan that will get you there properly.

This blog is not going to be a place where I’m going to recite tons of research info (although I can), but it will just be a place for MY thoughts on things.  A place where you could see inside my head and get an idea what training for 14 years worth of experience is like.  Most of my views will be the opposite of what you may know.  It’s only that way because of the mistakes i’ve made in the past and the questions I’ve asked along the way.  So come along with me down this rabbit hole called Ventura Training and Athletics.