Interview with Jim Bathurst – Part I
Jim Bathurst
One of the guys who can for sure tell you what bodyweight excersises, acrobatics and gymnastics can do for you and how to combine them with some serious lifting is our guest today. His Name is Jim Bathurst, and he’s the founder of beastskills.com. Jim works as a personal trainer in Washington DC. Check out both websites and follow him on Twitter if you like (@Beastskills).
Marc: The first time I saw you was on this picture . How does it feel to dip 180 lb?
Jim: A 180 lb dip was tough for sure, but I knew I had it. You train long enough and there are times when you are positive you can move a weight. It’s about learning your limits. I haven’t dipped heavy in ages, but I have been pushing up my low bench numbers recently.
Marc: You work as a personal trainer. What’s your favourite excuse why clients weren’t able to reach their goals before they contacted you?
Jim: My favorite excuses aren’t the ones I hear at the beginning, but the ones I hear once we start working. I can’t recall any outrageous ones, but there are common ones that come up all the time. No one in the world seems to have time for breakfast or working out by themselves. I have long days and very early mornings, and I always make sure I eat something. How long does it take to make a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder? As long as it takes to boil water. That’s my bare minimum breakfast. Even an apple walking out the door would be better than nothing.
Also, no one has time to go to the gym. Everyone is too busy. I definitely have it lucky in the fact that I live across the street from my gym, and spend 90% of the day in there anyway. But to those who can’t make it to the gym, I give them a list of bodyweight exercises to strengthen and/or condition themselves at home. If you can’t even do that, your problem is you’re too busy making excuses.
Marc: How do you avoid injuries?
Jim: First let me say that if you train long and hard enough, you will get injured at some point. I truly believe that. Even overuse injuries occur to the smartest. To avoid injuries, first and foremost, I make sure I use to use proper form on all exercises. Even if you’re not injured the first 10 or 100 times you lift improperly, it will catch up with you. Second, I make sure to keep my training balanced – pulling as much, if not more than I push, as well as keeping plenty of posterior work in the mix. Third, I am a huge believer of soft tissue and mobility work. Whether that’s foam/tennis ball/lacrosse ball rolling, ART/deep tissue massage, Theracane, stretching, or upper/lower mobility drills – anything you do will help you feel better, move better, and cure or avoid injuries entirely. Lastly, I listen to my body and know when to back off. I talk to too many people that tell me about an injury, then tell me of an exercise they’re going to do that day that’s surely going to aggravate the injury further. An injury doesn’t mean you have to stay at home, you can definitely work around the injury or training something else. But be smart enough to listen to the aches and pains in your body.
Marc: There’s a testimonial by Bob Vastine on your website. Please tell us a little bit about your work with him.
Jim: As I mentioned on my site, my work with Bob had been minimal when he gave me that testimonial. He’s been working with Blair Morrison up until recently. Blair’s a fantastic trainer and phenomenal athlete (he just placed 7th in the 2009 CrossFit Games!), so I can’t take credit for Bob’s work. As Blair is moving out of town, I’m working with Bob more and more. He needs a lot of flexibility and mobility work for his chest and shoulders. We’ve been working on increasing his numbers for powerlifting. This involves the previously-mentioned mobility work, along with technique analysis, and of course a lot of movement with the lifts (minus the squat) and assistance exercises. Nothing revolutionary, just powerlifting style workouts.
Marc: What’s the most important lesson you learned in school?
Jim: Most important athletic lesson? Or life lesson? In life I learned how you really can do anything you want. You can pursue whatever it is you’re passionate about. Anyone who says otherwise has compromised. In athletics, I’ve learned to never doubt your potential. Too many people shy away from the hard work and heavy weights because they doubt themselves. Of course you don’t start off lifting heavy, no one does. It’s the ones who actually commit and push themselves further and further that succeed. That’s a life lesson too, and the reason training in any form is so beneficial.
This is part I of the interview, I’ll post part II on saturday.