Ryan Turner – RTurner85
On January 2nd, 2018 I began a journey of training, spiritual development, internal growth and accountability. I officially signed up to do a 1 on 1 personal training with Zach Homol, gym owner of Iron Valley Barbell who resides in Indianapolis, Indiana. The training included a detailed weekly workout plan, video cues, nutrition guidance, goal planning and goal setting. Thus far, the experience has been an education and an enlightening one to say the least. Educational, in the sense that Zach taught me lift knowledge such as leverages, rotations, accessory movements, and successful mindsets/approaches which lead to reduced joint issues, efficient lifting (thus increasing my load and volume), gym PRs, and ultimately, the most important, confidence.
Confidence, a word that I believe, gets thrown around without being explained or defined. Zach helped me understand it as the key to success, hard work’s coveted reward and our ability to mentally concentrate. My gym education this past month has enabled me to properly conduct lifts, feel confident and FOCUS on my goals. You see most people, myself included, struggle with reaching our goals because we do not have the foundation or blueprint to get us there. Zach gives you that, he’s the coach, and you just have to put in the work; you’re the athlete. The logistics are as simple as it sounds, but putting in work? That’s a different story. A process that can eat you up, or define who you are, which it has for me.
As I mentioned earlier, I specifically called this process an enlightening one for an intentional reason. Enlightenment is self-found through other’s stroking or guidance, but ultimately relies upon yourself to be discovered. Zach has helped me achieve enlightenment with my spirituality, aggressiveness towards the weight room and paramount, life. Everything I have learned with Zach can be translated outside of the weight room and there exists a plethora of evidence to support this claim. Routine meditation has developed mental concentration that is crucial to personal and physical development. Aggressiveness to attack the bar like it’s the last fight of my life and the endurance to persevere when I want to give up. These are the defining moments I have encountered through the situations Zach has put me in with the mapping of his workout plan and routine motivation/guidance.
Zach sends a weekly email to define your short term goals (week), long term goals (month), and any update to current outstanding ones. This forces the athlete to remain aware of his progress, his goals, and primarily, his accountability. Awareness is a large component to self-development and I applaud Zach for making this a pillar of his 1 on 1 experience.
This past month has been one of, if not the one, the greatest investments that I have made in a product that is frequently neglected; the human body. A mental and physical connection has been established/developed, muscle growth has been significantly increased and spirituality has been redefined, all within a month. Thank you Zach Homol, and Iron Valley Barbell, for what has been an unforgettable experience. I am excited for the rest of the journey and so far, it’s been one hell of a ride.
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