Tag: athletic lab

Athletic Lab

Working with @coachmatthunter at @athleticlab has been game changing (13 months). Matt is not your ordinary coach, he was super interested in my sport as well as knew that a strength and conditioning program for any other sport wouldn’t fit my needs. He started with a traditional evaluation of my goals, history, sport, injury past, etc., then came to the park to watch and record all aspects of my riding to really analyze what he needed to know in order to write my specific programming.

Matt trains and competes in his sport while coaching other athletes full-time. As a fellow elite athlete, he understands the demands of sport and how specific each sport is in regards to an individualized approach.

This understanding and analytical athletic mindset has manifested in great results from the programming and testing we’ve done together. We both are into data and seeing what’s working and what’s not. We use @trainwithpush bands and @polarglobal heart monitors to track our progress and monitor our goals and progression.

As a professional athlete going on 12 years, you’d think this would all be common practice for me. Contrary to that belief, BMX is just now breaking through the shell of conditioning to think of itself as not a sport. It was very common to be mocked, judged, and/or made fun of for training and eating well within the bmx community. Now as our sport as been accepted into the @olympics and the @usacycling has a BMX team, this old mindset is shifting.

I’m excited to see what changes come from within the sport of BMX as the years go on but I do know I’m stoked to have found this new passion for fitness over the last few years and will continue to learn, work, and share it with others. 💪🏽💚✌️

-Josh P.

Athletic Lab Member of the Month: Josh Perry

I am honored to have been picked for the member of the month for the sports performance gym I train at in Cary, NC, Atheltic Lab. I have been attending for the last 9 months in order to strengthen my mind, body, and my riding.

 

Training isn’t a very common practice for the sport of BMX freestyle and is fairly new to me in the last 2 years after suffering an ACL tear. It’s becoming more well-known of its importance and benefits, though, and I think we will start to see new levels of athleticism in the sport of BMX.

 

Here is an interview I responded to for the athletic website:

 

“For the month of June, we’ve selected Josh Perry as our member of the month. Josh has been an inspirational member of our community for the past year. Josh is one of our many professional athletes but his story goes beyond high-level sport. Check out his story and read about our previous members of the month here.” 

  • Name: Josh Perry
  • Age: 28
  • What city were you born in? Cape Cod, Massachusetts

 

  • What do you do when you’re not working out at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc)? I ride BMX bikes professionally, enjoy hiking and playing golf. I am starting a non-profit geared towards financially supporting brain tumor, brain injury, and other brain disorder patients through BMX, entertainment, and education, in the process of writing a book sharing my story of overcoming brain tumors, BMX, etc., and am working on a longer-term goal of creating an online webinar based nutrition coaching program.

 

  • What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite? Honestly, I love everything I am doing in The Lab as it’s all so new to me. If I had to pick one exercise that is my favorite, I would say either the K-Box or any ring workout due to the difficulty of strength you put into the workouts and have to counterbalance back. Least favorite would have to be the assault bikes. Haha, they always kick my butt, but it’s so worth it.

 

  • What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training at Athletic Lab? My greatest accomplishment would have to be getting my arms to bend more on power cleans. Sounds funny but when I started, it was such a mission to get them to bend enough to raise my elbows up in the air. I love getting into the Olympic weightlifting exercises because it’s so new and a skill I can practice.

 

  • What motivates you? My goal to protect my health and prevent injuries in my sport is what motivates me. I want to perform the best I can on my bike while also being as healthy and fit as possible. I also want to be a positive role model to the kids in my sport, as well and children and adults elsewhere. I believe in leading by example and do my best to walk my talk.

 

  • How long have you been riding? How long have you been a professional? I have been on a bike since I was about 3 or 4 years old. I started riding BMX freestyle at the age of 13 where I wandered into a park with it. I have been fortunate enough to make a living off riding my bike for about 11 years now.

 

  • What started you on learning more about health, nutrition, and fitness? I fell one day in 2010, from about 10 feet, attempting a new trick for the first time. I over rotated the spin and hit my head off the ground, which led to an MRI to make sure there was so no TBI (traumatic brain injury). I never imaged the news they would give me resulting in a brain tumor 8cm long by 2 cm wide and 2 cm deep, taking up a good portion of the left side of my brain. This was a turning point in my life to seek out what I could be doing differently with my lifestyle choices to prevent it from coming back and becoming resilient as possible to other health issues.

 

  • What are your goals? (fitness related or otherwise?) My goals within the fitness world are to protect my knee after having ACL surgery in November of 2015, stay as strong as possible so tricks become easier, I don’t get fatigued as easy, and to prevent injuries as best as I can, and I also want to lower my heart rate while still riding as hard as I do in order to recover quicker in between tricks and runs.

 

-Josh P.