5 Ways to Create a More Powerful and Energetic Training Environment

If you have a poor energy and intention within the training session, even the best program and the best plans will likely fail.

Not everyone can resonate with the term “energy” the same way, but regardless, the methods in this quick article and video have a lot of power to improve training output as well as enjoyment and fulfillment in the process and there are multiple roads to link to why each are effective.

About 5 years ago, I went down to a seminar in Orange County, CA, put on by Chad Wesley Smith and some of the Juggernaut Training Systems Crew. Brandon Lilly and Blaine Sumner were also there and some other really strong and jacked individuals, as well as a lot of intelligent coaches. It was kind of like a crew of superheroes were on hand coaching us all. I remember the energy in that place just seemed to breathe “strength”.

One of the cool things about the seminar was that the talks and lectures were interspersed with practical lifting and breath work sessions… which is such a better way of doing a conference for coaches than the typical mold. In one of the practical series, I was doing a series of squats with 275lbs, being coached by Blaine, and the bar easily felt 50lb lighter. People were PR’ing in deadlift left and right with Brandon Lilly coaching them. I also tied a lifetime PR in the split jerk that day despite not having put nearly the time into it I had in the past.

I had heard about the importance of environment, atmosphere and energy in training before, but this experience was a significant threshold in my own training life, as it was the most clearly I’ve seen performance improved being in the presence of greatness.

I’ve heard similar things about places like “The Dunk Camp” that Andy Richardson puts on in Utah, and I’m sure a myriad of other gatherings where individuals with very powerful energy and passion for their craft gather together.

An idea I like in reading through the work of Joe Dispenza is that you won’t ever truly change personally until your “energy” changes. Although this term seems like an estoteric turn-off, and would cause alarms to go off in some individuals, we can all agree that a seasoned coach, regardless of belief system, can know whether or not a training session is going well from a basis of feeling the general “vibe” of the room and individuals during a session. If the energy is bad, the session is bad.

I’ve spoken with other coaches of this idea, that based on the attitude of a team in the weightroom the day or two before a big match, you can already tell whether or not they will win or lose, or at the very least, over-perform or under-perform.

Another quote I always like and try to think of in training as much as I can is Nikola Tesla in:

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”

In terms of getting the most out of your training, the first consideration is the mental, emotional and energetic direction of where you are heading with your training. Ask: Do you have the mindset and environmental factors that are going to be conducive in achieving your goal?

When it comes down to it, the energy in each and every training session will have a cumulative factor in building success. To this end, I often ask myself how to “raise the energy” or vibes present in each training session if they are lacking. One thought I’ve had recently along these lines is the idea of tapping into an energy that is higher than myself in the process of a workout.

Some methods and ideas I’ve been thinking and working with lately to raise energy have been the following:

Breathing and breath work (at beginning or end of a session… or both)
More work where an athlete works with a partner… combative work is particularly effective
Increase and improve your own energy and presence as a coach/leader
Understand the motivational dynamics of the group
Implement constraints on the workout that give athletes ownership

Breathing/Breath Work

Breath work is a key factor in improving either energy level, awareness, or both. Doing breath work as a group always results in things changing in the room. This could be anything from Wim Hof breathing (rapid inhales, and a “charging” style of breath) to recovery and precision based “box” breathing where you’ll inhale and exhale for a set period of time, such as 8 seconds, for example.

You can also utilize forms of breathing within the exercise itself, such as nose breathing only or a particular amount of nose-breaths at particular hold points of each exercise, such as doing a set of 10 pushups with 3 nose-breaths at the top of each repetition.

In forms of activation such as “Be Activated”, breath work plays an extremely important, initial role in the system.

Working With a Partner

When you train with a partner, your energy and motivation can merge with theirs to form something greater than the sum of the parts, so to speak. Each person can make the other better.

In the year of track and field I was at my highest level of performance, I had a fantastic training partner (the only year we worked together the entire season).

Having someone else to train with is a key element of high performance environments. Even within a larger group, working pairs of individuals emerge (or you can facilitate this). In a group, pairs of individuals stick together on exercises motivating and pushing each other and building on each other’s energy. In these cases, the gains are significantly greater than those who tend to be more of a loner through sessions.

Improving Your Own Energy

A big question I ask in coaching is how my energy matches the energy of those I’m working with, and how does the energy of athletes complement and enhance (or detract?) each other? Athletes can amplify each other, or they can reduce each other with attitudes and energies.

Whether in the coaching or training setting, your attitude, emotion, energy and presence dictates a lot of what is going to happen. Improving this energy takes time, awareness and mindfulness of how others perceive you.

In your own training, you can improve your own energy and intention through a variety of means, such as goal setting, hypnosis, visualization, music selection, creative application of training means and more.

Understand the Dynamics of Group Energy

Some of my favorite anecdotes are things like Tony Holler’s “Gauntlet 40’s” where athletes will line the track and then motivate, yell and cheer for each athlete running a 40-yard dash. On that training day, PR’s abound, and it’s the majority factor who set a lifetime personal best, some athletes doing so by a LOT.

We can say the same thing perhaps of “1-Rep Max Day” in training. Even though from a philosophical standpoint, maxing out in lifts if you aren’t a strength sport athlete is a waste of training time (you’ll need time to recover from the efforts), as well as risky, these factors can be easily outweighed by the group dynamics on these type of days, where a similar cheering situation to the “Gauntlet 40” exists. This is pretty organic in the weightroom, so it was really incredible how Tony Holler ported it out into the world of speed training.

Giving Athletes Ownership of the Work

Finally, there exists the important idea of giving athletes ownership of the training day. In anything, the more you feel you have a part in it, the greater your motivation becomes. I remember an idea I heard from Stuart McMillan on this idea in the sense of, instead of having set, 6 sets of 3 on a clean, you’ll just set a time, such as 8 minutes, where athletes can do clean triples, as many as they feel like doing. Some athletes may do 3, others may do 8. Using time as a constraint, rather than reps, can offer a unique energy to a session.

In a sense, think if track or speed workouts were assigned like the weightroom… if you had a workout that said 4×20 steps, instead of 4x40m sprints. This could seem a little strange, although not entirely related to the initial point. For an acceleration session, you could offer up something similar having 12 minutes to run 30m sprints, or something similar.

And then some more traditional methods here of cultivating intention such as:

Gamifying portions of the work
Put a number on the work (i.e. timing sprints vs. just running the distance with no time)
Very high velocity movements (requiring a big reactive demand)
Match work to the rhythm of music, etc.
Incorporate group challenges (at the beginning or the end of a workout)

I’ve written about these before, such as in my training sessions with my friend and colleague Paul Cater, who is a master of “vibe” in training. I’ve learned a lot from him as it pertains to the mind-body and energetic aspects that make up this thing we call training.

Finally, the following aren’t some elements I really use but I’ve been part of training sessions involving them… and it works well!

Doing the Haka
Yelling
Chanting
Screaming “I AM THE GREATEST” or a similar affirmation at the top of your lungs

Even if you don’t agree with everything in the article, I hope at the least you found it entertaining, and perhaps, at the most empowering to help the connection of yourself and athletes to a greater and more powerful training experience each and every training session.

About Joel Smith

Joel Smith is a NCAA Division I Strength Coach working in the PAC12 conference. A track coach of 11 years, Joel is also a coach for the Diablo Valley Track and Field Club, and also has 6 years of experience coaching sprints, jumps, hurdles, pole vault and multi-events on the collegiate level.

Joel has coached 2 national champions, multiple All-Americans and school record holders in his time as a track coach. In the realm of strength and conditioning, his programs have assisted 5 athletes to Olympic berths that produced 9 medals and a world record performance at Rio in 2016.

In 2011, Joel began Just Fly Sports as a central platform to promote information for athletes and coaches to reach their highest potential. In 2016 the first episode of the “Just Fly Performance Podcast” was released, now a leading source of education in the sports performance field.

Prior to working in the PAC12 conference, Joel spent 6 years in the realms of coaching, college lecturing, personal training, and thesis research. Joel’s certifications include Neurological and Physical Typing from BATI, CSCS, MAT Jumpstart, and NKT level 1, as well as USA Track and Field credentials. Joel is also well-versed in the Be-Activated protocols as taught by Douglas Heel, and has been extensively mentored by sprint and sport movement coach Adarian Barr.