My wife and I got our first dog earlier this year. She came to us with minimal training but is the biggest lover ever. Of course, she's a pitbull and stubborn as hell, so after a few months of trying to train her ourselves, we enlisted the help of a professional. You're probably reading this wondering how us getting a dog is even remotely related to fitness. I'm not sure how many of you have ever tried to train a dog, but there are a lot of similarities between training Josie and surviving in a fitness journey. I'm pretty sure if you're reading this you're either in the beginning or know someone that is in the beginning of their fitness journey and when you're done, hopefully, you'll see the link and learn a few things to make the journey better.
Dog trainer, Brandon McMillan, believes in teaching the dogs he works with 7 common commands and teaching them to do them extremely well. Without good control of the 7 commands, teaching any more complex commands will not be beneficial. While we have a goal to pass a rigorous canine exam at the end of the course, we don't advance or build on a command until Josie can do it correct most of the time. In a similar manner, one should develop proficiency in basic lifting technique. The basic movement patterns should be performed with proficiency before moving to more advanced movements. The basic patterns are: squat, hinge, horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pull. Additionally, one should be able to perform at least 10 minutes of uninterrupted steady state cardio. In my opinion, the lifts that work best are the front squat, rack deadlift, dumbbell bench, seated cable row, dumbbell overhead press, and parallel grip pulldown. Some will argue the cardio isn't necessary, but for heart health and to have an aerobic base to help build muscle and burn fat, cardio is necessary.
Lesson: become proficient at the basics before adding on or advancing the skill level.
With obedience training, the dog should be able to follow the basic commands: sit, stay, down, come, heel, off, and no. Right now, all of our energy should be focused on helping Josie learn those commands and execute them effectively. Spending time teaching her to rollover, play dead, or any other list of assorted tricks doesn't make her better at the commands she needs to be good at. Essentially, it is a waste of her time and ours. Now look at this in terms of training. If your goal is to get strong, lose weight, gain muscle, etc., the best use of your time is spent on the big, multijoint movements. Everybody likes the show muscles and wants to build them up, but focusing on them won't get the job done without a pre-existing base.
Lesson: focus on the big stuff, not the minutiae until you've gone as far as you can with it.
In our three sessions training Josie, it has been emphasized there are several mistakes we make in dog training. The biggest and easiest to avoid is have unclear expectations. A dog does not have a vocabulary or an education that allows it to interpret the words we are saying, they only know to associate a response with a word. When they receive a positive response, the action they performed following the word is correct. However, when we don't follow through or offer the reward for something that is "close enough", the dog can't be expected to get better. When we're working on our fitness, allowing our technique to get sloppy, being undisciplined and inconsistent will lead to shoddy results.
Lesson: set guidelines for your goal and hold yourself to those.
As a dog owner, it is also extremely important to have realistic expectations while going through training. We can't expect Josie to perform the commands perfectly after 1 day or 1 week, some commands may take more than 1 month, but with realistic expectations, we won't get frustrated. Frustration only serves to make the training process harder for both dog and owner. In fitness, having realistic expectations may be a challenge with all the embellished stories of exceptions to the rule making unbelievable progress may be a challenge, but it is a necessary element in success. Setting an unrealistic expectation, lose 30 lbs in a month when you have 50 total to lose or increase your bench by 50 lbs in 6 weeks are good examples for most people, only leads to frustration.
Lesson: dream big and set goals high, but know what is achievable and be realistic about achieving them.
As you can see, training a dog isn't much different than training yourself. One of the main lessons I have yet to mention comes in the intro to this; when you don't know what to do or how to do it, seek knowledgeable help. Nothing can be more frustrating and tougher to overcome than feeling helpless because you don't know where to start or what direction to go. Whether you pay a professional or have the assistance of a knowledgeable group, the experience can make all the difference between success and failure.
Lesson: seek the help of knowledgeable people.
Not all of us are fitness minded and sometimes the similarities we find in some of our other life activities (like training a dog) can help us get and stay on track to our goals.
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