Awaken, Thrive, and Conquer Your Way to Physical Excellence

Awaken, Thrive, and Conquer Your Way to Physical Excellence
By Terrence Thomas

Twenty three years of coaching exercise and physical performance has convinced me that to be your best a developmental approach to fitness, exercise and physical performance must be taken. I have created a 3 step system that follows the natural developmental process of human movement and performance. I call it Awaken, Thrive, Conquer (ATC )

These three steps are critical to building a body that not only looks good but also performs at a high level. Before you can achieve optimal physical strength and performance you must first be able to awaken the body.

Awakening the body means having all of the basic reflex patterns and abilities in tact. Many of these basic reflex patterns are developed early in life. I mean really early such and pre birth and during infancy. For various reasons, these fundamental reflex patterns can and often become dysfunctional. For most people a small glitch in one’s developmental reflexes will not be a major cause for concern. However during high performance situation such as in sports or combat, developmental deficits can and often does make a massive difference in safety and performance.

The purpose of “thrive” phase of the system is to bring all physical abilities back to baseline. After the body is awakened, it can now progress to moving and performing at a level that supports life. The thrive phase develops what are known as primal patterns and biomotor abilities. The system of primal patterns was developed by Paul Chek and the gist of it is that there are 7 movement patterns that human beings must be able to perform. They are Squat, lunge, bend, push pull, twist and gait. Gait consists of walking, jogging and flat out running /sprinting. These movements were they to being able to survive and thrive in the wild. The concept of bio-motor abilities was developed by sports scientist Tudor Bompa and they are (strength, speed, power , agility, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility).

The “Conquer” phase of the ATC system is your where all of the advanced methods of exercising and training fit in. This phase is only warranted after you have successfully awoken your body and are thriving. If you try to Conquer while your body is still asleep and not thriving, you will set yourself up for injury and frustration from a lack of progress.

By following this progression you lay yourself a solid foundation for achieving long lasting and sustainable health and fitness. You must first awaken the body and then bring it to a point where it can thrive and ultimately bring it to a conquering aspect where you’re able to execute high performance tasks without destroying the body. This is Physical Excellence at it’s finest. ###