Interactive Fitness Systems

Interactive Fitness Systems (IAFS) was founded in 2016 with the goal of empowering health and fitness professionals with the ability to help clients improve their well-being and imbue them with the knowledge to better their own fitness, their interactions with others, and in turn to help others improve themselves. Our mission is to create a better society one individual at a time.

IAFS is dedicated to developing open source/access, collaborative, and low/no cost fitness development systems. Part of our goal is to draw a deeper connection between virtual systems (spreadsheets, websites, apps, etc.) and physical fitness in order to create an integrated and modern fitness system which is broad, encompassing, well organized, and unparalleled by any other modern system by virtue of its collaborative and service oriented nature.

IAFS as a business model is based on the principles of empowerment and mutuality as laid out in the mission statement of Interactive Systems (IAS). Our goal is to not only improve the fitness and health of the society around us, but to inspire and empower others to do the same.
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Core Training Principles

Intention: an exercise is only as effective as the focus you place on its proper execution.

Body Awareness: proper execution hinges on motor control, which itself hinges on a constant progress towards a deeper consciousness of what each body part is doing at any given time.

Effort: key to moving closer to one's goal is exerting a maximal effort toward the proper execution of a task. This is not to be confused with a maximal exertion, which isn't appropriate in most training instances, but refers rather to understanding the proper execution of the task at hand and performing it to the best of your ability.

Consistency: physical fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. Months and years of consistent, principled, progressive training will ALWAYS trump a few weeks of "brutal beatdowns" followed by a layoff.



Keys to Motor Control

Breathing: breathe into 1. low back, 2. belly, 3. upper back, 4. chest. The harder the exertion, the bigger the inhale and the more crucial holding one's breath throughout the range of motion becomes.

Hollow: midsection (particularly deep abdominal wall and glutes) engaged, rib cage and pelvic floor drawn toward each other, no noticeable posture breaks from head to toes.

Grounding: (standing exercises only) three points of pressure: big toe, little toe, heel, feet screwed in, big arch in foot, weight distribution generally even.

Retraction: roll shoulders back, draw the lower, inside border of the scapula down and together and hold them there.

Foundational Movement Patterns

There are a tremendous variety of movement patterns, many of which can serve different purposes in different circumstances. There are no “good” or “bad” movement patterns, exercises, etc., only means and ends. That said, the following list refers to basic movements and a breakdown of the motor patterns within each which lead to the greatest return:

Pelvic tilt: For any squat or hip hinge movement, apply the principles of the hollow position at the outset, initiating the movement by tilting the top of the pelvic bone backwards. If done properly, the muscles of the glutes and hamstrings should begin to feel a stretch/load.

Thoracic extension/rotation: For movements which involve the shoulders or spinal loading, the ability to extend and rotate the upper back is a prerequisite.
Strength Principles

Progress movements in the following manner: 1. Basic skill building, 2. Hypertrophy, 3. General max effort strength with basic movements, 4. General skill building with complex movements, 5. General max effort strength with complex movements, 6. Peaking.
Assume someone is a rote beginner until they prove otherwise.
Address the weak links in the chain before progressing.
Apply all core training principles and keys to proper movement especially during the skill development stages.
For maximal strength use Prilepin's Table as a guide.
Peaking is goal and task dependent. For example, for powerlifting or weightlifting this can mean dropping the majority of training into the 1-4 rep range, whereas for gymnastics and muscle endurance work this can mean taking sets above 12 reps and/or closer to muscular/metabolic failure.

Metabolic Progression

Build an aerobic base sufficient for the client's goals. Only emphasize other factors after this is established.
Add intensity with aerobic intervals.
Develop anaerobic systems appropriate to the athlete. For example, if predominant use of alactic system will be in lifting weights, sprinting will be of far less utility.
Anaerobic systems benefit from/are recuperated by the aerobic system. The same cannot be said for the reverse.