Philosophy

Our Mission at Shield is to provide clear, practical, and sound fitness content and education. We want to provide you with the information you need to succeed in your fitness goals that is easy to understand, simple to implement, and based off of what we best believe to be the most effective way to do so.

However, let’s be clear about something up front: There are many ways in which we (and other similar companies) could succeed in accomplishing our mission. In other words, there is no One True Way to reach every fitness related goal that is out there. The “Shield” way is not the only way; it is just our way. Because of this, it is incumbent upon on us to outline our particular philosophy as it relates to training and exercise.

Just like any other pursuit of understanding, our philosophy on training and fitness is influenced by our knowledge, our experience, and, yes, our biases, and it will continue to grow, and change, as we do.

We sincerely hope that we can help make a difference for you along the way.

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What’s in a name?

Let’s start with the name, Shield Training Systems, and why it’s more than just a cool (in our humble opinion, of course) sounding name.

SHIELD – To shield is to protect. In the context of fitness, we have two objectives:

1 – To always prioritize fitness in such a way that it improves our health and wellness, shielding us (to the best of our abilities) from the woes of inactivity and aging. This is our primary objective, and it applies to all populations. It means that we design all of our training programs to be comprehensive, we promote healthy eating habits and maintaining a healthy body composition, and we advocate for other positive lifestyle choices.

2 – To provide specific fitness content to first responders that will enhance their physical capabilities as it relates to their profession, adding a layer of protection to reduce the risk of some negative physical outcome. This is our secondary objective, and it is born out of our unique knowledge and experience. Our niche, if you will.

We will spend much more time on #1, as it will allow us to better accomplish our mission for everyone.

TRAINING – Training implies purpose. To train is to have a reason to be doing something.

All of our training programs will have purpose and a reason behind the way they are designed. You will know WHY you are doing something.

Training implies some level of specificity. You’re doing X to accomplish Y. It’s not just random. You wouldn’t set out to learn to play the guitar by just randomly picking lessons on a whim with no structure or defined progression. Physical training is no different. Even if your only goal is “to be healthy”, your training program should be designed to get you there efficiently and effectively.

The specific purpose of a fitness program can vary wildly. Depending on what your training goals are, we will likely be able to help you reach them. We also may not be! We would be lying if we said that we could help you reach your training goals no matter what they are; no one is an expert at everything, despite what he or she may tell you.

We will not pretend to know something that we do not know, and if we are not adequately equipped to get you where you need to be, we will help you find someone who is. They’re YOUR goals, after all.

SYSTEMS – Systems give us a framework to work from. We identify and define our training principles (ie – what’s important to us) based off of our knowledge, experience, and personal biases, and then we build our training off of those principles. We have (or should have) a set of rules that guides our decision making and helps us make sense of what we’re trying to accomplish. Every successful coach/instructor/trainer does this, no matter the discipline. The differences you observe between coaches in the same discipline are influenced by their level of knowledge, the length and quality of their experience, and the degree to which their biases influence their perspective, for better or for worse.

We feel that this is an important concept for you to understand. When you observe a particular coach, or company, or organization, can you get a grasp of what’s important to them from the way they organize their training? If you asked them how they came to decide to prioritize the things that they do, would they be able to tell you why? Do they understand themselves why they are doing things the way they do, or are they, one, just making things up or, two, copying (ie – stealing) from someone else in the field who has been successful?

Like others, our training will be based off of what we have decided is important to us, which also means that we have decided that it’s probably important for you as well. This also means that it’s not perfect for everyone, because, one, we do not know everything, and, two, our training principles may be different than others. This is totally ok, because it is true of all coaches, whether they admit it or not.

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What’s important to us?

1 – All of our training programs will be comprehensive, with the goal to improve health through fitness.

Using the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans as a guideline and basis for our training, all of our programs will include the following:

-Daily sessions of low to moderate physical activity (ex – walking).
AND/OR
-At least two independent sessions of moderate to vigorous physical activity (ex – traditional “cardio” exercise).
AND
-At least two independent sessions of strength training.

There is evidence that the health benefits from exercise increase with the total volume of exercise completed. Because of this, we want you to be physically active more often and for longer duration. For most folks in most scenarios, they should be training more.

We won’t write programs in which you strength train but don’t do conditioning or do conditioning but don’t strength train, because they are both necessary for improving health. How much of each will depend on your goals, but we feel that it shouldn’t ever be “zero” for either.

Given that less than a quarter of American people meet the recommended guidelines for physical activity, we have much work to do.

2 – Our content will primarily focus on strength training.

–Experience – Relative to other disciplines of fitness, it is what we know the most about and have the most experience coaching.
–Personal preference/bias – We love strength, and getting people stronger. We believe in it more as a tool to improve health and fitness than we do in, say, yoga, for instance. Not that there’s anything wrong with yoga; we just wouldn’t enjoy writing about it.
–Demand – Few Americans meet the suggested guidelines for aerobic activity. Even fewer Americans meet the suggested guidelines for strength training. We can potentially make a larger impact by focusing on strength.
–Safety – Strength training is one of the safest forms of exercise, as it has one of the lowest rates of injury compared to other types of sports/physical activities.

3 – Our programs will prioritize multi-joint free-weight strength exercises over machine based exercises.

–Accessibility/Versatility – Free weight (barbell, dumbbell, etc..) exercises require less equipment than machine based exercises. We can write programs that more people can use.
–Efficiency – Compound multi-joint exercises work a larger number of muscle groups per exercise, and can improve training efficiency. We can write programs that are feasible for anyone’s schedule.
–Personal Preference/Bias – We just like free weight exercises more than machines. There…we said it!

4 – We will promote and encourage a healthy body composition.

Obtaining and maintaining a healthy bodyweight is key in reducing your risk for a number of different adverse health conditions, whether you may be underweight or overweight. If your primary goal via training is to improve your health, we will not promote excessive weight gain or weight loss outside of normal ranges just to increase some form of a fitness metric (ex – gaining a bunch of body fat to be able to squat more). We would be doing you a disservice by doing so, and that’s just not cool.

5 – We want to give you the tools to be self-reliant.

We don’t want you to have to rely on us. For your interests, you will have greater chances of success if you improve your self-efficacy with regards to your training, and for our interests, we will have a much larger reach for our mission. “Teach a man to fish”, as they say. Not to be too cliché, but we want to educate and empower you!

6 – We will keep an open mind and not be dogmatic.

We will not pretend that we have all of the answers.
We will not be afraid to say that “We don’t know.”
We will admit when we’re wrong about something we thought we knew.
We will never say that our way is “The Best Way” or “The Only Way”.

Are we right for you?

Are you new to exercise and fitness and looking for a place to start?
Are you wanting to use exercise as a way to improve your health?
Are you interested in improving your strength?
Are you interested in training with barbells?
Are you a first responder looking to improve your field performance?
Are you tired of misleading, fictitious, and/or unrealistic fitness content?

If so, maybe we can help 🙂