Archive for February, 2005
The Lessons We Learn
It’s astounding how many times one can learn the same lesson, and see it fresh and new. A long time ago, while listening to the audio program of Stephen Covey’s 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, I remember hearing the good doctor saying that all the habits were like spiral staircases unto themselves. Once you met with success on the lower levels, through your success you’d be transported up to the same material at a different level. Miraculously, he’s right.
I’m sitting here writing my book. Yes indeedy. After far too long procrastinating about it, I’m doing the grinding stuff and getting all these thoughts down and collected. But you know what? It’s the same lesson as learning to run. It’s the same thing that gets me out the door in the early morning to hit the gym.
Just start. And then, dig in and push. Keep gaining ground a little bit at a time, and believe in the fact that at some point, you’ll hit a beautiful piece of momentum.
Oh, the things we learn anew each day.
(P.S. Does everyone else in the US have this stupid cold, with the fever/dizzy and the throat thing?)
Stretching The Truth
Oh yes, if there’s a way to squeak a bad pun in there, I will.
I was asked about stretching, and I assume the request was something more to do with what I thought might be a good stretching program. Let me tell you this as my first off disclaimer: I stretch as little as possible, because I just haven’t seen much in the way of results from doing so. EXCEPT for my back. That said, here’s what I believe about stretching.
Rare disclaimer: Stretching can really muck people up. Check with your doctor, etc. Etc.
Warm Up First
Someone gave me the best imagery for this. If you don’t warm up before stretching, it’s like taking old chewing gum left in your car overnight and pulling violently at it. What’s going to happen is, the gum’s going to snap. Your muscles will act the same way.
Warming up involves something like doing a boatload of jumping jacks, or walking very briskly for five minutes. You can run in place and do arm circles and the like, too. That’ll get you warmed up enough to be ready to stretch. The point is that you want your muscles to be prepped and ready to accept the stretching you’re giving them. Five minutes of warmup is good. Some say 10’s even better.
Active Stretches Are Better
Okay, that’s my opinion. But everything here is my opinion, so there. Active stretches are things like AIS (Active Isolated Stretching), which involves either using a towel or a rope or some other assistance to help you stretch your body through a range of motion. I found a great site to give you more information on AIS.
Other good active stretches are found in the Movement Prep section of Mark Verstegen’s CORE PERFORMANCE. They involve things like the hip crossover, the scorpion, handwalking, and a variety of other very useful ranges of motion that get your body closer to the flexibility you need.
Stretching Before Running
Most of the running magazines ran big articles on this last year, saying there’s a fairly strong divide down the middle between folks who say you should stretch before running and others who say they never saw a benefit, either way. I’m hard pressed to comment, insofar as I’ve had no injuries to speak of. I’m not nursing any wrecked calf muscles or anything like that. However, with that said, I don’t stretch a lick before running. If you ever see me doing stretches before a race, it’s really only that I’m feeling out of place and nervous, and not because I’m attempting to gain some kind of benefit from the effort.
Exceptions to My Rules
I do stretch my back out after warming up. I sure do. Why? Because I’m still having all kinds of lower back troubles, and I’m trying to see if stretching leaves me feeling any better than when I don’t stretch. In my research, I’ve also learned that sometimes having tight hip flexors and/or tight hamstrings can often be misjudged as bad lower back pain. So what the hell? I’m trying some stretches for those areas too, again with the goal of seeing if this makes a different.
So far, it hasn’t helped me.
Now, I *do* believe that flexibility is definitely a part of athleticism. I believe that perhaps my methods won’t leave me nimble enough to be a competitive martial artist or a … what else… a gymnast or the like. Maybe. I don’t really know yet. So far, I haven’t ever been left with the sense that flexibility has been what’s holding me back.
If I get to that point, I’ll stick with active stretches after warmups, and only then as a precursor to activities that will further stretch the muscle groups in question through exercise or drills.
Above all else on this topic, I believe your mileage may vary. Different people will surely respond with their successes or failures with stretching. I’m certain my opinions will diverge greatly from lots of the other folks you read. Especially, I’m guessing, injured runners will tell me of their stretching regimens and how it saved their running. I believe this is true, every bit as much as I believe stretching hasn’t done much to benefit me.
Your mileage may vary. Yes?
Enough Rope to Hang Myself
It arrived last night. 20-something feet of 1 1/2 inch thick climbing rope with a big eye spliced in one end for easy loopthrough. After a dozen attempts, I got it up and over the beams in my loft’s ceiling. So now, I’ve got a sixteen foot climbing distance.
First off, I put knots every 20 inches for now. Because there’s no way I’m strong enough to master climbing *and* that leg-based shimmy thing that they teach marines. But even with them, it’s just amazing!
Climbing rope worked my shoulders, my chest, my back, my abs, my legs, and my glute. Because, unless I’m doing it *really* wrong, it’s this whole system. You take a firm hold up high. You get your feet onto the first knot and push yourself up as straight as you can. Grab higher, and then support all your weight on the rope by your arms until you can wrap your feet onto the next highest knot.
It took a few tries to get to the ceiling. On the first few attempts, I just couldn’t figure out how to let go with my legs, but stay attached with my arms. But then, I made one really good ascent, and grabbed the beams 16 feet above my floor. I contemplated briefly moving from the rope to the beam, but then reality set in, and I’d have felt pretty stupid needing help back down. I’m a little bigger than a kitten.
But pain?
Man, I could really feel it all this morning. My front deltoids (shoulder area) hurt more than anything, but it subsided after a little stretching and also after my first warmup set of benching at the gym.
Oh, and do you want to try something different than your average curls? If you’re able to curl a pretty decent amount of weight, try one-arm curling a barbell. Either olympic size or the smaller ones. It’s amazing, because the balance elements make the curl even harder still. But I could see where this would help the climbing stuff I’m trying to build towards.
I’m trying to think of another post like the last two I did, because they seemed well-received, and because they’re fun to think about. Any questions I can try answering in a similar fashion?
Motivations for Fitness
Deborah asked me what I might say about tricks and motivations for exercising. I thought it was a neat thing to consider, so here’s what I have.
#1: Tie your shoes. This is a flat out theft from Matthew McConaughey’s recent article in Men’s Health. The notion is simple. Just make that first step towards doing the workout and getting out there. I take it a step further. Because I work out very early in the morning, I do my prep before going to bed. I throw my gym clothes, my towel, and my iPod in my bag, and put the bag by the door. I set the alarm (because I can’t naturally wake at 4:30AM). Getting my stuff together means I’m one step closer to hitting the gym.
(Tracy hates this guy). This image used without permission of Men’s Health magazine. I’m just trying to point people to an article I liked, dammit.
#2: Buy a pedometer. If you’re not running regularly (or cycling, or something with some serious distance and calorie burning involved), a really sneaky great motivational trick is to buy a pedometer and live your life such that you get 10000 steps a day from walking. Why? Because if you do that religiously every day for 10 weeks, and with a decent diet and caloric intake level, you shed 10% of your bodyfat without any other effort. Seeing that 10,000 number on my pedometer is a great trick to keep me moving.
#3: Write it down. Okay, you don’t have to buy a special book to write down your workouts in, but even if you take a notebook, throw dates down, and throw down what you plan to do for a given week, it is a STRONG motivator. Seeing a plan motivates you to attempt to execute the plan. Missing on your plan is a negative (but effective) reinforcement to remind you what you’re shooting at, accomplishment-wise. The key here is to plan realistically. If you are a couch captain, and you’re saying, “I’m going to write in here that I’ll work out seven days a week for two hours a day, and that I’m going to go from bench pressing two gallons of milk at a time to benching 500 before the end of the month,” well guess what? You’re going to fail. Start medium, and build up.
#4: Make it Fun. This should be so obvious, but it’s not. You kinda have ta WANT to do the exercise. Right? I know that sounds stupid. Especially to people just starting out with central motivations that might be different than wanting to be fit and healthy. (Let me sidebar myself for a moment: if your motivation is about LOOKING better above-and-beyond wanting to FEEL better and PERFORM better, this might be a problem in and of itself.)
“Make it fun” means mixing up your routine. Do you run the same 3 mile course every day? Sick of it? Pick somewhere new. Or, make a new training goal, like saying, “I’m going to run between this mailbox and that parked car as fast as humanly possible.” Whatever.
It means trying some new ways to exercise. On that Celebrity Fit Club thing, one of the people went to a fitness class that used stripping as a means of getting fit. Originally, I thought, “this is just stupid.” But then, when I saw what was involved in actually swinging around that pole, I thought, “can *I* do that?”
(Sorry to everyone who just accidentally flashed on the notion of me being a stripper. Not a chance.)
Last point on this one. Y’know what’d be fun? Adult Dodge Ball.
#5: Consistency Trumps Volume. If you can GUARANTEE you’ll exercise 2 times a week at the same time of day EVERY week for the next few months, that’s WAY better than being able to sneak in two or three workouts at random times. I say that because one part of trying to get fit involves developing new habits. Surprise surprise. Repetition breeds success. Those nuns were on to something, I guess. Just in the sense that exercise habits must be built, it’s better to try and pick a consistent method and time frame, because you’re more likely to stick with it.
#6: Do a time audit. Can’t find time to work out? People say that to me always. How can you get to the gym (or out running) four times a week? Well, when the mileage starts getting up there, it’s a challenge for most everyone, but in general, and for fitness levels only, if you can manage to scare up an hour per session and have three or four sessions a week, that’s great. Where do you find it?
*Get up an hour earlier. Of course, this also means going to bed one hour earlier.
*Kill three TV shows a week. Face it. You will NEVER need to know forensic science, and if you do, CSI already knows you and has contacted you to ask what you think about a plot with a guy who likes to poop in his oversized diapers.
*Schedule family exercise. My 2.85 year old likes to jump around and dance. Well, oddly, that’s aerobic activity. She loves to fidget with dumbells (she REFUSES to use the 2 lbs, and only wants the 5s and 10s. Aieee). Any exercise (hike, skiing, bike ride, etc) where you can sneak the whole family out to do it is a great exercise.
#7: Make a Power Poster. I said this on the food motivation one, too. My power posters have all kinds of really fit people doing really fit things. I have two up at work (little 11×17 posters) and one huge posterboard up at home. It’s really hard to want to do snail-things when I’m looking at all these fit people. It reminds me to stay focused and motivated on my interests in fitness.
I dunno. Seven seems like a great number for now. Anyone want to add a few ideas for YOUR motivation to exercise?
Attacking Emotional Eating
An online friend was asking me for tips with emotional eating, and this was my reply:
Here are a few tricks I’ve used to keep myself in check with emotional eating.
#1: Don’t bring the bad shit home. No, you won’t eat just one.
#2: Fat free is still not a guarantee of health. Several surveys show that fat free foods are often consumed in multiples of their fat-laden friends, upping your calorie intake. Oh, and another thing. Fat free usually means sugar or sodium high. Neither are good for you.
#3: Pre-protect yourself from vending machines. Not sure your working environment, but if you’re in cubicle hell, there’s a drawer or bin for you to fill with healthy snacks. Try putting some oatmeal (not instant) in there, and some honey, and some walnuts or almonds. A little oatmeal and water cooks in a microwave in 45 seconds. Squirt just a teaspoon of honey and sprinkle about a dozen nuts on top, and you’ve got a fairly low calorie, high fiber, and healthy fats snack. *Way* better than a Snickers.
#4: If you feel your stress rising, and you want the evil treat, try taking a quick walk around the building first. Can’t spare a few minutes? Bullshit. Unless you’re a surgeon, you should be able to get up and take a quick break. Walking, especially somewhat briskly, will get several of your body’s systems going. Try taking a brisk walk and ending with a drink of water.
#5: Put up a power poster or two. What do I mean? Put up a little collage of healthy people in your cube or at your workstation. Try sneaking a little list ( like a top 10 reasons Brent wants to be healthy forever) into your area so that you can refer to it throughout the day. (I say “sneak,” because I’m a little shy about sharing my inner motivations with my colleagues).
#6: Eat more. If you’re on a reduced calorie diet, double check that you’re not taking in too few calories, and/or that you’re spacing out your meals appropriately. The way I lost 60 pounds involved eating breakfast, a snack two hours later, a lunch two hours after that, another snack two or three hours later, and dinner a few hours later. I ended with a 50 calorie treat (anything you want in 50 calorie size) around 7:30PM. Six meals. Yep!
#7: Make your biggest meals between breakfast and lunch. Filling up in the earlier part of the day ensures that you’ll have a better sense of fullness for when your snacking most likely will manifest. Times that are most common for snacking are around 2:30PM, 4PM, 5PM, and 7PM. Those correlate with your wearing out times at the office, the commute home, and most people’s TV viewing time.
#8: While I’m on the subject, television is a killer. More people put more horrible things in their mouth while watching a glowing box than at any other time. I am a SUPER offender on this account. Give me a TV and some time to forget about life, and you could sneak a chocolate-coated fat sandwich into me without me even noticing. Why? Because the blinking lights stimulate parts of our cerebral cortex
like the pineal gland, which controls two impulses: sex and hunger. Well, sex sells? Sure does. It sells hunger, too. You can’t get a little aroused without getting the least bit hungry. Stay extra vigilant around your TV set, and if you followed #1, it won’t matter as much anyhow.
#9: There’s precious little at the drive thru that’s good for you. Wendy’s chili is actually not so bad. Chicken sandwiches are usually worse than burgers. The buns are always sugar-laden and highly processed white flour. The lettuce is almost always iceburg. Fries? Oh shush. If you’re at the drive thru looking at fries, you’re already halfway to hell anyway. But… BUT! Sometimes, you’re stuck at a fast food place. Make the best choices you can, don’t lament, and do NOT just eat things because they came with the meal.
#10: This should be #1, but I’m lazy. FIRE YOUR INNER CRITIC and HIRE AN INNER COACH. The “Inner Critic” is the voice inside you that acts like it’s trying to help. It’s the one that gets down on you when you say the wrong thing to people. It’s the one that reminds you why you’re in a stupid job instead of hosting a reality show. The Critic is the first to point out your inadequacies, and usually with logic that you can’t refute. The Inner Critic acts as your mind reading power, which is when you assume what other people think about you based on your own internal reasoning.
Fire this guy. The Critic *thinks* he’s doing you some good. He’s trying to sedate you from the pain. He’s trying to suggest that he’s got better ways to deal with things. That he’s only trying to help. Well, he’s trying, but he sucks at it. Fire the critic. How? Try replacing those thoughts with an Inner Coach.
An Inner Coach is someone who’s encouraging. They hold you to the standards you want to hold yourself to, but not in a cruel way. They believe in discipline, not punishment. An Inner Coach knows how to comfort you when you have a setback, while at the same time not coddling you, forgiving you, and still finding ways to encourage you to take another shot.
Anyone want to add a few more?
iPods and Stuff
Now that I’ve remembered to actually charge the damned thing *and* bring it to the gym the last few times, I’m really happy to have my own music on board while training. I believe the recent articles saying that it improves intensity. At least it does when you’re rocking things that make you move.
A Current Sample of the Mix:
System of a Down — stuff from Toxicity
Limp Bizkit — My Generation and Rollin’
House of Pain — Jump Around and a few others.
Public Enemy — stuff from Fear of a Black Planet.
Eminem — Mostly newer stuff.
Soundtrack — The Scorpion King. (cheese!)
But I tell you: I sure move when this stuff is threatening my ear wax.
Today, I came to one of those realizations. That old saying about insanity being about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Well, whoever said that’s an asshole. Because he’s right. Man, I’m such a doofus.
I twanged my back again, doing deadlifts and squats. I’m starting to believe (and will confirm this eventually with my doctor) that I might have a curvature of the spine or something. When I do this kind of work, my lower left lowest lumbar area is what ends up hurting. Looking in the mirror, I believe maybe my body is doing some twist to the left thingy that’s resulting in pain when I’m lifting heavy weight.
If I hadn’t twanged my back, I would’ve been raving about the fact that I deadlifted 200 pounds in dumbells this morning. Holding those 100 pound suckers and dragging them down my legs and back up was thrilling. Until it hurt five minutes later. Rat Bastid!
So, I’m going to carry on with my other lifting, and try even harder to shore up my core muscles, my lower back muscles, etc. I’ll shift my squat days into a diversity of methods: bodyweight exercises for squats and lunges, and machine-assisted lifting for leg-centric exercises (doing leg presses and leg curls instead of squats). Once I figure out things with the doc (an xray at the least; maybe an MRI), I’ll see if there’s any way to salvage the good old fashioned exercises.
This, by the way, was probably the catalyst for quitting the program I did a month or two ago. Now, with reflection, I was reacting to the twanging I gave my back at that time, and decided to blame it on doing heavy lifting. This time, I’ve recognized what’s going on, and I’m just going to update/modify what I’m doing.
I’m thankful that I’m logging everything workout wise on paper, including my moods, the little notes that come from the lifting days. I find that going back to it is helping me find trends that I wasn’t connecting together before. This thing, for example. I didn’t realize that every time I hurt my back doing squats and deadlifts, I blame the lifting program and shift it. It’s a good reason to write down the workouts.
Foodwise, I had a weird experience last night. I was lying in bed reading when Kat came home from the movies around 9. I said to her, “I just realized something. I thought I was hungry because I’d forgotten to have my late night snack. I’m hungry because I forgot to eat supper.” Trust me, this is a first. I’m usually pretty hungry all the time. But this time, nothing. I didn’t bother having supper *or* the snack. It seemed novel.
And finally, I’ve been having some great conversations in email with people I’ve met through this website. It’s really exciting talking about fitness and nutrition and the like. It really gives me something back in return every time. I feel more and more motivated when I read people’s thoughts and opinions. When I’m asked for my opinions, I actually get something out of the process of composing my thoughts to make a decent reply. So, it’s a cycle that feeds me back something, even though sometimes someone will comment that they feel they’re wasting up my time. Never. It’s some of the best time I spend in a day.
Thanks to everyone who’s persisting and working towards their goals.
Odd Motivation
I was at my parents’ house and found myself with control of the television for a moment. This is dangerous. So, I saw the last part of some show where Public Enemy’s Flava Flav is dating Brigette Nielson (aieeeee!), but then it went into a show called Celebrity Fit Club.
There’s not much reference for me, here. I don’t watch TV, so I didn’t know this thing existed. I guess it’s the celebrity version of The Biggest Loser. Which, hey, if I’m only going to watch one episode of a show, I might as well watch a bunch of neary famous fatsos instead of the average ones, right? (shrug). This show has the Fat Baldwin (Danny), Mia Tyler (Liv’s sis and Steven’s kid), Wendy from Snapple (who’s the nicest lady the world ever made), and uh… well, a bunch of oh! Biz Markie (Youuuuuu, you got what I neeeeeed…). Remember him?
I loved the show. I loved the premise. I loved seeing Baldwin act all crazy and stuff. It was like a car wreck. And I felt so much love for Wendy from Snapple, and the super-big guy… uh… Richie? He really put his heart into it. I know I’ll never see another episode, and I don’t *really* care how it ends, but I’m thankful for the little shot in the arm.
Anyhow, the point of this post was that I found myself motivated by these guys. Why? Because I thought, “Man, here are a few things in one. These guys were FAMOUS and still let life fill up their bellies. On the other side, listen to them WHINE about how HARD it is to lose weight.”
Yes. It’s hard to lose weight. It’s *really* hard. But, no one wants to hear that, do they? They want to hear that you’re working your FACE off, that you’re making the right decisions as often as you can, and that you’re ACTIVELY ENGAGED in making yourself into what you want to become.
So, I’m motivated. I thought of those guys when I wanted ice cream FIERCELY yesterday during our little snowstorm. I thought of those guys when I wanted to skip part of my workout yesterday. I thought of that marine guy who tells them he’s disappointed in them. Sure, that’s a negative motivation, but I’ll take it. I want to earn my success, and that means hearing the yucky truth, doesn’t it?
Your mileage may vary.
Power Forward
Oh, did I mention I did 3 chinups in a row yesterday? And, just because I was feeling cocky, I did 1 pullup, too. (Definitely harder, so that’s the next progression). I credit using negatives to get me to that level. Doing a negative means getting up on the bar, standing where I’d be at the top of a chin-up, and then slowly (SLOWLY!) lowering yourself back down to the beginning of the motion. Ever since starting this effort, I’ve done 15-20 negatives in between the few positives I’ve managed to get out. I feel the more work I do with negatives, the better my success.
More neato news. For the first time since somewhere in high school, My weight is in the 220s. 229 to be specific, so let’s not get crazy, but hey. That’s the first 22X I’ve seen on the scale since Poison, Cinderella, Ratt, and Bon Jovi topped the Billboard charts. Of course, this still means a hell of a lot of hard work between me and that 210 interim goal. This also doesn’t mention the slip back upwards to 234 and the subsequent scissorfight to get the weight back down again.
I ran a 5K to start my process to be ready for Margaret. Man, I should’ve listened to my Inner Coach. Here was the conversation.
Coach: You’ve been away from this a while. You should ease in slow.
Me: You kiddin? I’ve been doing sprint drills, baby. I’m tough as nails.Coach: Uh, sprints are brief. You’re running 5K today.
Me: Yeah, whatever. Watch THIS!
And what do you think happened? Yep. I ran a BLAZING first 1/2 mile, then wheezed through about a 1/4 mile of walking to recover, and then everything else I did for the rest of the 5K was a slog. I pulled my second worst 5K time ever, and that’s even counting the several attempts I made to shove the speed back up and finish strong. At this point, Margaret will blaze past me, take the ribbon, go home and get changed up, and then come back to thank me for supporting her first ever 5K.
Sorry, Coach.
This is day 2 of my super-huge new training program. Day 1 started with doing something I haven’t done for over a decade. Max reps. Yep. I did a warmup set with a lower weight. A few trial sets with more weight. And then… POW, all that I could muster for one rep. Two sets of single rep maxes.
Now, I’m a bit of a sissy still, so I didn’t really blow any blood vessels doing this. I don’t ask for spotters, so I use tricks to get around it (like smith machines, dumbells instead of bars, etc). But whatever. I’m doing super more weight than I’ve used in the last decade. And still no injury.
Sore? Hell, yeah! But I’m getting it done. And I’m doing it smartly according to a plan. I’m getting in better and better shape, and that’s the goal: to be in a better position, such that I can actually do those CrossFit workouts I read about with envy every day.
Oh, don’t bother buying Sylvester Stallone’s new magazine. It’s uh… well, there’s lots of issues telling divorced guys how to get laid. The rest is mostly advertisements for other things Sly’s doing. Fairly sad mag, in general. But great concept. I think the more interesting celebrity rag to look for will be Gene Simmons Tongue. It’s a weird world, people.
Whiners?
I just read this huge but interesting article about when a bunch of professional food people (critics and stuff) followed the new US guidelines for eating for a few weeks. It’s pretty interesting once you read all the way to the end (it’s a LONG article, though).
However, I was struck by the fact they seemed a bit like whiners. Maybe that’s really what the non-fitness-focused world thinks of the healthy eating set. No, here’s what I think it is: I think the guidelines must still be flawed, in that they don’t explain enough of the thinking behind HOW to eat. Know what I mean? It’s not just what you have to put in. That’s like saying it’s easy to make lobster bisque. Just throw that stuff in a pan and put it in the oven.
Hmmm. Something to think about.
3rd Shift
I worked 3rd shift last night, and am in the office today, so I missed the gym in the middle. I’m going to hit it around lunch time, and see how that goes. Thankfully, this is a fairly non-technical lifting workout. I’ve got some deadlifts with dumbells, and some squats, but nothing where my lack of sleep will have me dropping a bar on my head.
Last night, I read a book by a woman who’s a certified personal trainer in my town. It was pretty good stuff. There weren’t any “oh WOW!” moments to the reading, but that’s sometimes a nice feeling, too. It’s like you actually feel knowledgable about something when you see someone else’s advice matches what you’re already doing. I liked the writing style, and it gave me some ideas as to what I *don’t* want to do with my stuff. Essentially, you guys were all right. I should do a memoir style instead of a “how to” style.
I ordered a 20 foot rope with an eight inch eye spliced into the top. I’ll be throwing this over the beams at my place and using it for rope climbing. Then, for my birthday (April 8th, for those of you keeping track, as I’m a birthday ho), I’ll prolly ask for rings. The kind gymnasts use. (If I don’t buy them beforehand using my Xbox sale money– anyone want to buy a gently used XBOX and a boatload of games?). The rope should be neat. I have no doubt I’ve not enought strength to do climbing without knots in the rope and using my legs. So far. But it’s a step.
Are you mighty?
