Be The Student

Last weekend I had the great opportunity to be the student to a great coach, Mike Burgener. For those of you that may be unfamiliar, Coach Burgener has coached numerous Olympic level weightlifters as well as putting forth together one of the best high school strength and conditioning programs available. Coach Burgener has been around the strength training community for more then forty years and has "been there, done that".



I can't emphasize enough the value of being a student. Many can get caught up in their own egos and experiences and forget that the way we grow and progress is by learning from those that have had more experience or other experiences. Everyone has great insights to share, whether they make you rethink your current ideas or show you a new way to see old concepts.

One of my own personal mentors, Dan John, often says that no one is an expert if they are under the age of 40. I believe there is some truth to that. When I think of my own growth I am amazed how much I have grown in three years. My hope is that in three more years I will have evolved my philosophy to an even greater level.

It is not always so easy to be a student as you have to consider being open-minded, yet critical. While we visited Coach Burgener and Greg Everett we also attended a popular certification. I was eager to see what this certification had to offer, having high expectations I put my student hat on and was ready to see the potential of this program.

Unfortunately, it did not take long to find out that the program was not what we expected. It was not because there was not value in some of the concepts, rather the fact that when you questioned some of the teaching methods there was no substance behind the response. Very disappointing as this makes me doubt the confidence and validity of what is being taught.

There is a huge difference between being a student and taking in new ideas and blindly following a class. Such experience reinforce my goal of demonstrating an effective system of training, not just "cool" exercises to perform. Exercises without purpose tend to be pointless whether it is with a great implement like a sandbag, kettlebell, barbell, or bodyweight. My goal will be to help many of you see how you can apply CONCEPTS to many varying goals to achieve a variety of training goals. In fact, if you would like to ask me specific questions on why we recommend specific methods email me at josh@sandbagexercises.com. Being a teacher can be almost as valuable as being the student!

Thank you to Coach Burgener and Greg Everett for a wonderful experience!