Brief Shift in Focus

 WELCOME BACK!

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I last updated everyone on what is going on and my oh my life is still busy as ever...

Books

In the last 2 weeks I have put a small dent in my book list (3/28 read and 1 on the go). These books have been insightful and quite good reads. Of the 3 that I have read the best laid out one had to be The Millionaire Next Door by Tom Stanley. As a whole it is well written, flows nicely and one feature that I really liked was that you could read any chapter in any order because they were stand alone for the most part. Reading it in sequence the first time through is definitely beneficial but to go back to certain chapters you did not need background knowledge to capture the picture the author was painting. 

School

The last 2 weeks have been quite a hand full for classes. For context if you are just joining the feed, I am in Teachers College currently. Most of my classes want us to complete entire unit plans with a variety of lessons and resources. The time it takes to build there tend to be a couple hours but to ensure they are uniform and flow nicely take significant thought and revisions. The most recent unit I have been working on is my grade 10 academic science: physics. I have not taken any physics that is not related to human anatomy and exercise physiology since grade 10. It has been a lot of searching. Thankfully it is slowly coming to a close and I can begin focusing on my own personal goals once again.

Teaching Preparations

I have been in a little bit of a slump as of recent with school. It is that time of the year where it feels tedious and pointless. I like to be mentally stimulated and the continuous repetition of the same content is starting to be challenging. In this mind set it is hard for me to be productive. By reflecting on this I have decided to start preparing for when I am out of teachers college and bein to teach on my own. Many teachers I have talked to that are new and veterans have said the first couple years are the hardest because you are making all of your lesson plans while settling into the new role. Knowing this I have sorted through all of the content that I can possibly teach based on the credentials I will have after finishing teachers collage and begun to make unit plans and lesson plans for myself.

It is only the beginning but I have all of my files organized and begun with my grade 10 science curriculum since I have already started the physics unit. It is nice that I can use the same outlines for all of my lesson plans and just need to fill in the information. I have started to work on creating a hand full of slide shows and to be completely honest the first couple were rough. They were boring and ugly. I started to play around with the format and much like video creation they are starting to be more appealing and engaging.

I have gave myself a time line and I am hoping to complete all of the grade 10 academic science curriculum, lessons, and outlines by end of April. Additionally, I plan to get a wide variety of games, sports and other resources organized for my physical education open classes as well.

Coaching

Coaching has been on the back burner other than working with the hand full of athletes that I now have. It is an exciting time because I am helping one to prep for a mock meet coming up in 2 weeks. We have been working together for the last couple months and it is nice to see his numbers steadily climbing. We hope to have a strong performance in our mock meet and begin the next phase of training with some updated one rep maxes. 

Content Creation

This week has been moving at a miraculous pace! I feel like I have been sitting at my desk working, training, editing videos, and doing research all week. I have lost track of what day it is and that is ok since I am in school. So long as I meet due dates I feel free to work at my own pace.

Videos Creation

My videos are almost always revolved around my lifting. If I plan to do any video work it is around the times that I work out. It is nice in a way because I kill two birds with one stone if you will. I started off taking video of my top sets and first working sets for my powerlifting coach over three years ago. Since then I have continued to shoot these kind of update videos every session since. Only recently have I started to get a little more creative in how I video. I have been changing angles, videoing for longer periods of time to get my reactions and thoughts and the odd video with my siblings doing some wacky things when they come to spot me.

Video Editing

From the videos that I capture I start to edit them. The software that I have been finding great success with is CapCut and VideoLeap. CapCut is fun to use because I can scroll through TikTok and find different ideas and they have the template right there. At a click of a button I am redirected to CapCut with the template and all I need to do is fill in the content. The only downside is when creating your own videos that are all original, with no template it is a little tedious and hard to use for new video creators like myself.

This is where VideoLeap came in and saved the day! If I had to make a guess I have put in probably 25 hours worth of time video editing in the last week trying to learn what is popular and how to be more seamless in the transitions. I have found quite the enjoyment going through and creating videos. At times it is frustrating but one very nice thing within VideoLeap is that there is a back or forward button! Much like working on word documents if I make an error or add something or delete something I can click back instead of having to go through the process of getting back to the stage that I was just at. 

Informative Videos

The informative videos I have been working on for the exercise library have been quite a challenge. I was finding doing voice overs felt less authentic and during the takes for videos where I was talking were not coming in clean enough. In the last post I mentioned that I had bought some Bluetooth microphones and they are fantastic! The sound is crisp and clear. Additionally, I have learned that angles and video quality is a big thing. The old case had a slice across the camera coverings which made the videos blurry, since the new case came in the quality is night and day. 

Pallof Press - YouTube

Fun Videos

The fun videos I have been making are just to try and spur up page interest. If you are able to hit the algorithms of different platforms you can draw a lot of eyes to your profile. TikTok and other short videos are some of the best forms of advertising that is free! I have been playing around with a variety of videos and have found some of the ones that have gained a little more popularity. End of the day my posting on social media other than YouTube is for my enjoyment and if I am not enjoying it odds are I will stop. The mix between informative and these more fun videos keeps the work light and enjoyable.

zbint_Training - Instagram

Life is Like a Video Game

The past 2 weeks have been very hectic. I have lost track of time while trying to balance school, working on Dedicated Development, and trying to learn on my own. I have spent a lot of time trying to implement the idea of "leveling up."

Level Up

When I talk about leveling up I think of playing video games. In many games you level up your character or profile to obtain new items, skills and so on. The same idea I have began to implement to my own life. I am but a character in this world trying to level up. Right now I am in my early stages while still in school and trying to start a small company and brand.

I have neglected reading for a very long time because I am not a strong reader. It took me watching YouTube videos of motivational and educated individuals who said that knowledge has one of the highest return on investment (ROI). I have also learned that money is not the only thing that you can waste on useless things. Time is your most valuable resources and by wasting your time doing things that do not improve your character it is a waste. You only get one life, you may as well put it to use for your enjoyment or gain. 

Dedicated Development

It is crazy how things can morph in a matter of weeks. I have thought long and hard about what I am passionate about. I have decided that I am passionate about powerlifting and functional strength. Therefore I am trying to mold my company to those niches. 

I have taken some time to begin investing in myself and getting a better set up. I have bought a microphone set up for my desk top, a wireless microphone and am looking into cameras to begin recording more content. I think with all the tech available it would be a waste to not start analyzing online content and sharing my opinion and expertise. I have found OBS a great software for video creation and streaming. I hope to dive a little deeper and create my first video with myself casted in the corner analyzing some online content in the coming weeks.

Socials

I have spent some time starting different social media pages and chat boards to being building a community. I will link them here in the bottom of the post.

Instagram: Dedicated Development

Facebook: Dedicated Development

Discord: Dedicated Development

Trying to Make Sense of it All

Research

Being a student and constantly searching for information I knew that resources were endless but I had no idea the scale to which people have been posting fitness content. I have been having trouble finding what is accredited and what is BS. On top of that everyone is different and what works amazingly for one person may not have the same results for another.

I am a big believer in practicing what you preach and I have not had nearly enough time to practice all the information I have been finding. I plan to slowly try out different ideas and make my own personal assessments. That being said I have found some resources that I think are worth while to test out which is half the battle. 

This generation loves their quick information. Google and social media are at the tips of our fingers and all the information is right there. This being said it is important to choose what you digest and are always critically thinking. One form of social media that I have been hooked on lately is Tik Tok. They are great for wasting time but there are some amazing content creators that provide easy to digest information and are seeking to improve others. My page is filled with physiques, lifting, and coaching which are constantly trying to push the next best thing or the tried and true ways of training.

Here is a short list of content creators that I feel are exemplary

Squat University

Red Performance

JPG Coaching

Peaking

Looking more closely at powerlifting especially as I begin prep for a meet in April I have been very curious about how to effectively Peak. I want to get the absolute most out of each of my big 3 lifts on competition day and have had my coach do the programming the last couple times. I have not quite wrapped my head fully around what peaking entails. 

What I knew initially was that I had to prepare my nervous system for maximal load and begin to slowly ramp up the intensity. It is no longer a strength focus but to output as much force as quickly as possible. Most of the programming begins to drop reps down to below 4 reps and increase the load based on the percent of 1 rep max. The goal tends to be practice singles often and have the body adapt. This being said it is ideal to do this once per week for each lift and keep the supplementary work load at a moderate to low intensity. All of the focus and resources should be put on the singles and recovery.  

The one thing that I am unsure of no matter how much I look at resources is what is the optimal length of a preparation. Some prep for 12 weeks while others see a 6 week prep period. I have a feeling that it is sub optimal to prep for less that 6 weeks because the body needs time to adapt. 

The one common thing between almost every resource I have found is that there is a deload period 4-7 days before meet or singles. The week prior to there is a work up to a top single for each of the lifts on separate days going to nearly maximal effort. This seems to be to allow the body to have adequate time to recover and expose the body to the top end of stimulus that it will see during the singles.

I certainly have a lot more research to do.

In the mean time here is an example of a peaking program I was able to find

Cast Iron Strength 12 Week Peak Program

Personal Update

Throwing a small change up and decided to touch on my own personal training to give some context to my own training and personal passion.

I am currently in my first week of meet prep for a competition coming up in April. I now have singles programmed at a low RPE to get use to warming up to a single and begin working on all the meet commands. For context there are commands at powerlifting competitions to make lifts successful. There are 3 judges and everything is standardized to ensure that lifts are legitimate. I have been working with a physiotherapist on top of my powerlifting coach to work on stability as much if not more than strength for the last couple months to ensure that my body is in a good place to being increasing intensity.

Any time intensity is increased there is a heightened change for injury. This being said it is my passion and I want to perform the best I can. It is important to listen to your body and seek out additional support when needed.

I will continue with little updates as we approach the meet date!

Webpage Launch!

 I have officially launched the webpage! 

I have been afraid that my webpage would not be perfect. I have been sitting on what is posted for nearly 2 weeks with minor changes and more focus on other things like programming and learning some new skills related to coaching. It was not until relaxing and playing some video games with a couple friends that they brought up the point that nothing will ever be perfect. This insight made me think that if I post my webpage I can start working on getting traffic to it and learn. I can always edit the webpage and publish the edited site at any time. My fear of feedback and not having it done perfectly the first time was holding me back. Having a friend group that gives you perspective is very important. 

Dedicated Development

Videos

In the last post I was sharing that I began an exercise library. This library is compiled of exercises for workouts but will always be growing. Waiting until it is finished to post would not be possible since it is always in revision and editing. The videos I have been making for it have been a lot of learning. I got feedback from some friends and strangers on the information that I have been providing. The overall feedback has been good but a lot of them say at the end of the positives that it seems robotic; I would have to agree. I looked back and I am monotone and walking through the exercise very unenthusiastically. If I am not happy explaining the exercise then why would someone want to do it?

From this point I had to step back and think about what I am going to do. I need to be more alive, more vocal, more exciting! This can be quite challenging talking at a screen. It made me think how do youtubers do it? They talk for hours on end to their live streams and in their videos but they are just that screens and cameras. I had to throw caution to the wind and not care if I felt dumb having a conversation with my phone to create the videos. This made them in turn just a little bit better. I need to get feedback to see if there truly was any progress in the eyes of the viewers but to me its a step.

Webpage

Looking into the domain name and that kind of stuff has been hurting my brain a little. I need to solidify this business and get the site domain down to something easy to find. I am not sure what type of pricing this entails or what I need to do but that will be one of the next steps in this journey.

What does Next Week Hold?

This upcoming week will be a focus on learning how to set up a prep for a powerlifting competition. I currently have an idea because I have been trained through a prep and will once again be starting one next week for April. This being said I have not coached anyone through one and want to make sure I have all my bases covered. This upcoming week along with the domain and business questions I have, I want to start to dive into Competition Prep for powerlifting.

I want to learn the specifics behind how much one should train, what they should focus on, the RPE, the percent 1RM, how to prime the nervous system, what one week out from competition should look, and all the little nuances in between. I want to ensure that I can not only help someone achieve strength and power goals but to help them achieve optimal results for a competition if that is what they desire.

Putting in the Time

The Business

GUMROAD

Over the last week and a half I have moved most of my attention to creating sellable goods. I have created a variety of programs now and have moved to selling on a free website called GUMROAD. The Site provides you with your own link (https://zachbint16.gumroad.com/ )and from there you can begin creating and publishing products. As of this post I have put up a total of 6 programs and am in the works for 2 more. 

The website itself is quite interesting with tens of thousands of products at your finger tips. I have seen some fitness programs that are monthly subscriptions, whole books, mini programs, and so much more. It was very user friendly and allowed me to put together my profile in minutes. The best thing was that I no longer needed to think about the logistics of handing out receipts for programs that I was selling. The website does that for you, gives you record of sales, tracks activity on your page, and gives you analytics referring to what you have been looking at as well. 

Google Sites

The website has come to a screeching halt as I am yet to finish the exercise library and need to collect photos and videos for the home page. I anticipated the webpage to be up and running by now but when making individual exercise videos and voicing over each one takes nearly 10 minutes a video it is hard to allocate enough time while at school and working. That being said, I have made great progress and think that I will have the exercise library done in about 2 weeks time. 

The athlete videos have been good but are quite a lot to ask of my clients currently as they are also working and in school. The goal of the videos is to give open feedback about the services I provide as an online coach and fitness programmer. The feedback will help to improve my coaching and allow me to see what I am doing well or not so well for certain clients. 

The end goal for me and this webpage is to have a one stop shop for my business. I want those who visit to see who I am, what my company is all about and if nothing else gain some resources that will help them on their fitness journey. There will be a page for personal training inquiry, personal programming inquiry, a link to the GUMROAD with a variety of programs, and a resource section with free resources.

Marketing

I have found it challenging to gain traction and really pull interest to my page. I have social media accounts but by no means have a large following. I have been researching how to market and have found some success in word of mouth but that has not helped with my webpages gaining more views. The big thing right now from what I can tell is doing short clips that are within a set trend. 

For example someone who blows up on TikTok because they edited themselves onto a boat. The video itself is not special in any way but there is enough people doing the trend that the algorithm pushes it. The goal is to possibly do some trends related to the fitness niche and start to gain a following. This is by no means a full proof plan and I will need to begin networking and seeking out other options to grow the company.

Currently I have had 28 viewings on GUMROAD and majority have been from posting my URL under my social media. My goal by end of February is to have 100 views on my page.

Squatting

Squating is one of the more intimidating lifts in the gym. The coordination and thinking involved in compound movements are significatnly higher than isolation exercises. There are so many different moving parts and variables. It is important to learn the basics and work your way up to a barbell squat. Initially I would work on getting my body weight squat to a point that is sufficient for adding weight. I would do this by squat to a chair or something slightly higher, get the basics of the movement and remove the fear of falling. Once the individual is confident I would work on the standing up from the chair without any assitstance from the hands. After this is complete doing a full body squat where the induvial holds their hands out in front of them and squat to above parallel and stands back up. If you are reading this you may say that is not a squat! I am getting there, we want to build up strength periodically throughout the movement. It does not help with confidence and safety if you jump straight into squatting to depth. For some you could and that is amazing but I am thinking about those who have never squatted before. Confidence and consistency is key. 

Getting to the fun stuff. If when doing a body weight squat you are unable to keep your chest upright or parallel with the wall in front of you then it may be time to assess ankle and hip mobility. If there are previous injuries or lack of mobility it is best to see a professional before moving forward. Last thing we want to do is to push it and injure ourselves. This blog is about self growth and our fitness journeys. It will grind to a stop with an injury. Once this is looked at and our heels are leaving the floor while squatting we need to add a small weight or wedge to our heels. This will reduce the range of motion our ankles will need to go through to squat to an adequate depth without our heels leaving the floor. Once we are able to do this we can begin to add weight to our squats. 

Adding weight to the squat or any exercise for that matter is exciting, but how? Initially we want to load it lightly keeping the weight as close to our center of gravity as possible. This is where the goblet squat comes into play. A goblet squat has the weight held with both hands on the top end of a dumbbell in a cupping orientation or holding onto the bottom of a kettle bell the same way. That weight will be chest height and resting against our bodies or just slightly off. We then can perform the squat we were so diligently working on. Once you are able to perform this squat confidently and in control it is time to move up in weight until you reach 45 pounds or more. Once this occurs we can move onto different variations of squats. 

The front squat is personally the most challenging. The bar sits across you front delts with your elbows pointed to the sky. This squat tends to want to pull your upper body forward so you need to work on creating a strong core and have good bracing. This form of squat does how ever allow for great range of motion for depth. I find I can use the weight to help me sit down and into my squat more effectively than a back squat does. The squat tends to have slightly more narrow stance and you grab the bar just outside shoulder width. You do not hold onto the bar firmly but loosely in your fingers and allow your front delt to handle most of the weight. 

The high bar back squat is a close variation to the front squat and tends to be the most popular inside commercial gyms. This variation has the bar resting across your traps and you will grab the bar firmly one hand width outside of shoulder width. Based on shoulder mobility and comfort this can change. Your feet will be in the stance that you would do a standing long jump and you proceed to squat. This is the first time weight will have been on your back for a squat if you have followed along until now. It is going to feel weird. Take your time and be patient. The goal is to still maintain an upright torso and lower yourself in control. 

Lastly the low bar back squat. This is where things change ever so slightly. Lifters who are in low bar need good shoulder mobility and external rotation. The bar sits across a shelf made of your rear delts. The chest of someone lifting in the low bar position is going to be more forward. We are no longer looking to be parallel with the front wall but more focused on bracing. Bracing is what holds everything together and in the low bar position bracing is the key. The stance is going to be slightly wider, reducing the shin angle and the torso is going to look as though it is at a 45 degree angle. Play around with this variation but do not load heavy until confident in your form and bracing. Lastly some things to remember. Squating is one means of growing strength and power. It is not the be all and end all. It is a phenominal compound lift that can skyrocket progress if done correctly. The down side is that there are inherint risks as there are with any lift but especially with compound movements. Please inform yourself with form and see a professional if anything is sore or you are unsure about previous injuries. 

Here is a more in-depth look at my low bar back squat as a powerlifter.