Your Journey at Intentional Fitness

[Digging Into Your Muscular System]

The journey to improving your muscular health and fitness is a huge deal. As we embark on this journey of growth, we must first learn about your body and how your system operates. We must assess your bodies current state, explore areas where you are strong and stable and also where your body could be breaking down. The assessment is our first opportunity to get to know your body from a movement and control-based standpoint. Everything that we discover in this assessment is significant to your tailored rehabilitation and training experience.

For us to make the best decisions possible when it comes to building our game plan for your muscle care roadmap, we must first do this in-depth assessment of your muscular system. This assessment helps us to accomplish several crucial things. First, the assessment helps us to establish a current baseline - our starting point. Second, the assessment gives us insight into how well your body can tolerate stress - from a control and stability standpoint. Third, it gives us all the preliminary information we need to make the best decisions going forward on our journey to improve control deficits, stabilize your system and reduce symptoms like pain, stress, and fatigue.

Once your assessment is complete, your specialists will get to work synthesizing all the data and information collected from your assessment and health history questionnaire. This information will be expressed on your Muscular System Blueprint (MS Blueprint). This blueprint is the template for developing your treatment process. Once we have your blueprint drawn out, we take that information and create our game plan. We call this sheet you’re Report of Findings (the steppingstones of your muscle health journey). This is our guide and our north star throughout our process.

The report of findings is about information and education, it is about shedding light on your current situation, and it is about paving a pathway for growth. At this point you’ve been thoroughly assessed. We’ve processed all your data and information. We have diligently worked to create a sound game plan. Now is the time for us to begin our exploration of your system!

This session is our opportunity to explore the blueprint and outline of your Phase 1 muscular health and fitness journey. Our primary goal with the report of findings is to educate you on what we’ve discovered. We will outline in detail and clarify the steps that we plan on taking to stabilize and improve your muscular system. We’ll also discuss approximately how much time and how many sessions we think it’s going to take for each stage of this process.

Next, we’ll take some time to go over any questions and/or concerns you have with the process and dive in on our first treatment hypothesis. During this part of the session, our goal is to get you comfortable with our treatment workflow.

Last but not least you will be introduced to your muscle health journal. This will be a crucial tool throughout our journey. We will briefly cover the muscle health journal in the report of findings session and then dive deeper into its use and functionality in our first full treatment session.

Once your assessment is complete, your specialists will get to work synthesizing all the data and information collected from your assessment and health history questionnaire. This information will be expressed on your Muscular System Blueprint (MS Blueprint). This blueprint is the template for developing your treatment process. Once we have your blueprint drawn out, we take that information and create our game plan.

We have built up and nourished your system. Your metaphorical roots have begun to grow, your leaves are receiving light and your trunk is thickening. But… Our growth and progression is only as expansive as our environment. In the planter pot our roots can only grow as far as the walls allow. In order for us to further our growth and development, we must take you out of the nursery and test your system against the elements of the forest. The beauty of this progression is that even though we will be pushing your limits you will have the support system of the grove.

Your Phase 2 Dynamic Assessment (MS-Optimize) is the culmination of phase 1. You’ve been grinding, putting in so much hard work, dedication, and commitment to this process. We’ve been fine tuning each individual part of your system with the goal of moving toward a dynamic whole. By us getting to this point, it means that we’ve built your system out and significantly increased your body’s ability to tolerate stress. We have confidence that your body and muscular system is in a stable place. We’ve mitigated most of your control issues and unwanted sensations (pain) and we’ve taught your body how to optimize isolated systems, the next step in our progression is holistic integration.

The majority of Phase 1 has revolved around gaining control and improving low quality motor patterns in a more confined setting (the table/treatment room), now is our opportunity to see how your body operates in real life scenarios. It is time to test the sapling in the elements. The Phase 2 Dynamic Assessment is designed to see how your body handles dynamic, loaded, gravity filled activities as well as exploring your range of motion from a functional/less isolated standpoint. This assessment will typically consist of dynamic range of motion assessments, strength and endurance screens and a cardiovascular assessment.

The goal of MS-Optimize is to set the stage for a lasting and sustainable progression revolving around control, strength, and endurance of your muscular system. Phase 2 is the glue that holds it all together. Get prepared to move and be ready to learn!

(Your Roots Grow Deep)

We have tested you against the elements. We have discovered where you excel in your environment and where you have vulnerabilities. Our Phase 2 training bolsters those vulnerable areas and leverages and optimizes our strengths. The training wheels are off! This is where the body begins to flourish and exponential growth occurs.

Using the data that we collected from your assessment, we have a complete MS-Optimize profile built out for your system as well as Phase 2 report of findings.

In our Phase 2 report of findings, we will discuss any functional range of motion issues we’ve found as well as any muscular strength and/or endurance issues. Our main goals in our Phase 2 process revolves around:

1. Finding a form of exercise that is sustainable and resonates with you

2. Inspiring lasting passion and drive to train and continue to build out your muscular system

3. Educate you on safe and effective training systems

4. Improve your strength, your cardiovascular endurance, your muscular endurance, and build out your overall dynamic mobility and control.

Going forward with our process we’ll be working within a hybrid training model, navigating between resistance training, endurance screens, cardiovascular training and table work until we get to a sustainable point where we can move you into Phase 3 (MS- ProMaintenance).

Progressive maintenance can come in various forms. You can continue one-on-one training, you have the option to follow an at home tailored training program with progressive check ins, you could train at the grove during open gym time (following a tailored training program that your specialist has built out for you), or move into our intentional resistance academy (our tailored group training classes). As we progress through this Phase 2 process, we’ll learn which avenue is most suitable for your training style and build on that.

Just as our MS-Stabilize process is heavily tailored to your system, MS-Optimize is the same in that regard. The only difference is that we will be challenging and stimulating your system with training that pushes your bodies limits and thresholds even further. The greater the challenge the greater the adaptation. This is where we begin to see exponential growth in the system.

Congrats on your progression and keep up the great work!

[Grow Your Canopy Wide]

Making it to the MS-ProMaintenance Phase is a huge step!!! It means you that you’ve put in a ton of work and built a heck of a foundation. You have gained copious amounts of knowledge regarding the human body, learned preventative techniques to mitigate pain and stress in your system, and you’ve developed positive daily habits to ensure your body is functioning optimally.

You are flourishing in the grove, your metaphorical redwood tree is expansive, and your root system is wide. We have momentum on our side. The next step in your muscular health and fitness journey is to make sure that that these systems stay locked in. It is imperative that we stay intentional and consistent with our training progression to ensure that our canopy continues to grow and thrive.

Just like brushing your teeth, your health and fitness training regimen should remain consistent throughout your life. Just because your system is stable does not mean you can give it a break. Our bodies will always take the path of least resistance and without appropriate and consistent training it will gladly revert back to square one. That is why a Progression Based Maintenance program is so important.

At this point in your journey, you’ve been exposed to many forms of exercise and training, the goal now is to set you up with a maintenance system that is effective, impactful, enjoyable and sustainable. You and your specialist will create a plan and lock you into one of the following options to continue optimizing your muscular system. These options consist of:

A. Tailored at home training programs with progressive check ins.

B. Training in the Lab during open gym time (following a tailored training program that your specialist has built out for you)

C. Moving into our intentional resistance training academy (our tailored group training classes),

D. And as always, you are welcomed to continue one-on-one training with your specialist.

You can choose to continue with one of these options or mix and match as you and your specialist see fit. In reality, all of these options are fine. The important part is staying consistent with some form of muscular system training. Once again, congratulations on your effort throughout this journey to get to this point! You are truly an inspiration!