When this idea popped into my head last week while driving up to Joe DeFranco and Smitty’s 'Power Seminar'(which was awesome), I kept hearing a voice in my head saying, “Don’t be a tree dummy.” I wasn’t quite sure what it meant exactly, but I knew it would apply to a few areas of my life. Check it out and see if any of this can apply to you (meatheads and philosophers).

You can’t get optimal results without the mind/body connection in life. Period. I often come up with analogies that I will ponder and try to relate to both circumstances. Let’s start off with success in life. Too many people go through life firmly planted in all their beliefs. They refuse to uproot themselves and try a new area, thought, or idea. If you only stay in one spot, like 99 percent of the people, you will only be exposed to the same sunrays day after day, year after year. Think of the sunrays as people, books, and thoughts. You will have the same experiences over and over again and essentially you will relive everything year after year. To me, this is kind of like being Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. You will stay the same and therefore you will remain average. As Arnold said, “To me, the worst thing is to be the same as everybody else.” I agree.

It is imperative as a human being to continue to challenge your ideas and yourself in order to grow into a fully mature being. This means that you can’t stay rooted in the same spot forever. Think about Groundhog Day and when Bill Murray finally got out of that terrible situation. It was when he decided to change the way he looked at the world. Then the world changed to him. Think about coaches and physical education teachers (I'm both, so I'm allowed to talk about them) who use the same programs and the same lessons year after year. How much experience do they really have after 10, 15, or 20 years? Uproot yourself and move around. If you happen to come back to the same spot, at least you know what else is out there. Don’t be a tree dummy!

When it comes to lifting, we can also use the tree analogy. It's really pretty basic. Keep it simple stupid (KISS). No matter what sexy machines and ‘new’ ideas come out such as reverse tempo  dynamic stretch lifting (OK, I made that up), you will always be able to fall back on the roots of lifting. For example, body weight exercises will always be effective for beginner athletes and clients. I don’t think sprinting, jumping, push-ups, body weight squats, and pull-ups will ever go stale. From the roots, you will move up to the trunk, which consists of the ‘big three’ or variations of sorts as well as basic hypertrophy (bodybuilding) training. These will always work in some sort of fashion. You could do much worse if these were the core or trunk of your program.

From there, you can keep going out to different branches. Sometimes those branches will work for you and sometimes they will snap and you will have to go back to your base program. Some branches will give you better results than others and you may visit some repeatedly until they become part of your core program. Some branches will agree with some athletes and body types but not others. The higher up you go in the tree, the less branches there will be and the more the view will change. This spot is reserved for the elite and few people will ever know what the view is from up there. But think about it—even when you get to elite levels, you have fewer options and you will spend more time on your base program, although the schemes may be different. It usually takes years of experience and wisdom to reach this level. All the while, you will also have more rings in your ‘lifting tree,’ meaning more experience to share with others. The analogy of a tree will always be a good one for strength coaches to fall back on. KISS.