A way into the work.
Physical preparation supports the work you want to do, on and beyond the mat. Strength, mobility, conditioning, and recovery are considered together. Through Ergo Vita Athletic Training, the practice can connect martial arts with strength-focused work, endurance, and other personal movement goals.
Contemporary / international
This is a contemporary field of physical preparation with international influences, not a martial art with one geographical origin. Here, “athletic training” describes fitness and performance coaching. Its place in the Lyceum is to support sustainable participation and the demands of each person’s chosen practice.
What are we really practicing?
Start with the demand
Training becomes more useful when it has a purpose. The capacity to maintain posture during a grappling round differs from the demands of a long endurance effort. We begin by identifying what the activity asks of you and where your present capacity makes that difficult.
Adaptation needs room
More work is not always better work. A plan needs an appropriate challenge and enough recovery to benefit from it. Strength sessions, conditioning, and martial practice all contribute to total load, so their relationship matters more than how impressive any one workout looks.
Progress should travel
A higher number in a training log is useful when it supports the life and activities you care about. We look for changes you can use: more control through a range of motion, steadier output, or better tolerance of your chosen training. Goals and methods can change with the season of your life.
A question to take to the mat:
What would greater physical capacity allow you to do more comfortably or more consistently?
Lyceum’s approach, adapted from The Big List and our notes on learning and partnership.
