 Feelings are going to be different all the time. They make for terrible direction in life.
A certain news segment, a work situation, a social media post can all cause an emotional change in you. Then that emotion can rule what you do afterward. Purpose is greater than feelings. Purpose can veto, approve or disregard any chaotic attempt on your feelings. Have purpose first. Action will arise without need for "feeling like it."
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 I decided to give a protract/stretch and squeeze/retract long row with locked knee a try. video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsxn6z9l1w6/.
Interestingly enough, with the hip hiked up, thus elongating the lat substantially (low origin is iliac crest), and with an emphasis on pulling “downward” (scap depression) toward the hip and low back, grip was the weak link. I figured I’d be fine without straps, chalk, or belt, since I’ve been handling 210-275lb dumbbells just fine. But that extra pendulum-like movement rocks the dumbbell about in your hand quite a bit. For people who struggle to “feel” the back, in particular the low origin of latissus dorsi near the waist, this variant with attention to the aforementioned details seems to do the trick. Technically, to amplify the intensity (reference lat muscle action), one would want to allow modest flexion and forward rotation of trunk in the reach and extension with backward rotation in the pull. You’re trying to create the greatest distance between pelvis and upper arm at the “bottom” of the movement and imagining mashing the two together at the top. On the other end of the technique spectrum, the excessive hyper-immobile and overbraced-persistent-retraction form I see most people adopt for row is unnecessary for intermediate-advanced athletes. It certainly shortens the range of motion, ignores one main action of lat (trunk rotation), and reduces the actin-myosin stress necessary for maximal function, maximal strength, and/or maximal hypertrophy.  This is cyclic AMP (cAMP). Exercise increases it. C-AMP activates Protein Kinase A (PKA). PKA phosphorylates hormone-sensitive lipase. Stored fat exits the fat cell.
Bear with me. I’m genuinely trying to dumb it down. Try to remember this: Increase cAMP = increase PKA = fat loss Decrease cAMP = decrease PKA = fat gain C-AMP increases in response to contracting skeletal muscle. Increases in PKA starve fat. Decreases in PKA damage the brain. Eating food decreases PKA. This is why a weight lifter can eat more calories than she uses and get leaner. This is why a cardio junkie can eat fewer calories than he expends and get fatter. This is why strength can predict risk of cognitive decline (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2838435/). Regulatory proteins make or break fat, LITERALLY. Calories are a post hoc distraction. Because steps are all that is, all the was, and all that ever will be. If you didn’t work the steps, don’t get on the scale. If you did, don’t get on the scale. Scale is not steps. Fitbit steps are not steps. All of the daily practices and behaviors which benefit you are the steps.
Work the steps. Or don’t work the steps. But do not expect to be atop a staircase if you didn’t climb the stairs. “Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words.”
It’s a proverb. It makes sense. But at the same time, all humans are fools some of the time. From the loftiest erudite scholar to the lowliest dropout panhandler, people struggle not to destroy themselves. People carry vices. People lose self-control. Regardless of consensus or logic, people mistreat themselves. I heard a segment on NPR yesterday that a study conducted by the Weight Watchers organization (they were trying to find why their company is dying, going from over 6 billion net at peak to under 1 billion projected gross) found people are burnt out hearing about dieting. They’re burnt out hearing about weight loss. I agree. And people should be. Because a temporary diet and a centerpiece goal of weight loss never worked for anyone ever anyway. Weight loss for weight loss’ sake is easy. I’ve posted about personal 10lb drops in a 24 hour period. I’ve had clients lose over 100lbs in 8 months. One of my distance coaching clients just logged a 14lb loss in 5 days. But then what? Even the preeminent cash cow Weight Watchers doesn’t have a long term leg to stand on. So what are we really after? CHANGE. Deep, visceral, irrevocable shifts in how we live, our state of interfacing with our landscape and surrounding environment. For fear of having my wisdom scorned, hear me out: don’t diet; don’t try to lose weight; don’t get pumped up about idealized monumental shifts in your life. BE EXACTLY THE SAME. Because, let’s be honest, that’s all anyone ever does once we get past 6-12 weeks... Except... this time alter one tiny, little, infinitesimally almost-undetectable behavior. When you do, never go back. It has to be a shift that is easy, simple - you could almost trip over it. It must take up less than 5 minutes of your day, so compliance will be 100% forever. When you nail it down, pick the next one. Don’t change anything else. Don’t sacrifice. Don’t alter your grocery store. Don’t diet. Don’t lose weight. Just keep it ALMOST undetectable. Your mind is prepared to go full-on fool, and shoot you in both feet if you make a big change. So don’t. Just step. That’s it. That’s literally it. Steps. Simple steps. If you like, scorn away. I knew what I was getting into when I spoke.  While some patients are in their 90s, some patients are in their 50s. Heck, occasionally some are younger. Some have had strokes. Some haven’t. Some have heart disease. Some don’t. Most have injuries, but not the same kind. One guy has Alzheimer’s. Another lady has dementia.
One has MS. One has Parkinson’s. Some had cancer. Each person is unique. What do they all share in common? They don’t lift. They don’t have lower body strength. They can’t produce force with the hip, lower limbs, and core. This is not a coincidence. There are several solid studies (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00336/full?utm_source=G-BLO&utm_medium=WEXT&utm_campaign=ECO_FNINS_20180607_leg-exercise) now showing that allowing the legs to get weak amplifies the deterioration of the brain and all the systems (everything) your brain runs. Stretch. Go for walks. Be active. Not enough. You’re training to be in a nursing home and counting on good fortune to keep you out. Squat at least 1.5 times your bodyweight. Deadlift at least twice your bodyweight. You’re training to stay out of the nursing home.  Hormones and preconscious triggers run the show. Any fitness franchise or weight loss program which doesn’t mention the hormonal cascades which DICTATE physical change and progress is missing the point entirely.
“Burn more calories than you consume” is as helpful an explanation as “Jeff Bezos saved more money than he spent.” It’s true, but entirely useless information. I’m amazed at just how popular certain gurus or programs are which fail to mention THE very critical hormonal and enzymatic cascades which DICTATE outcomes. They’re so silent on the subject, I have to wonder if they actually know ANY biology, biochemistry, or physiology. I’ve been seeing these signs advertising “best workout in the” town, state, country, fill-in-blank here. Not only is this demonstrably false. It’s pointless. Working out hard has no correlation whatsoever with successful fitness. “Best” for 99% of the populace would be 80% of the time spent in Zone 1 with an emphasis on breath work and all of the time spent on form, technique, skill development, and proper body mechanics. Letting people’s postural distortions amplify in order to get them to sweat is part of the problem. For most of the population, reducing perceived stress is the only thing which will improve their health prospects. We can walk through the specific incontrovertible biological facts on this if need be. If a hard workout contributes to stress management, great. It can. But it usually doesn’t. Statistics on American populace show that people are chronically overstressed. This means that people should be exercising in a manner which improves resilience and reduces duress. The same should be said about nutrition. If the program ADDS excessive stress, the reason why most people “fail” at it is because of its methodological flaws. They’re actually succeeding at the incredibly flawed program. Occasionally I see newbie coaches talk about frustration with client compliance: “if they’d just follow the plan, they’d succeed.” Oops. You missed it bro. Coaching IS finding for someone HOW they WILL comply. Coaching is not YOU succeeding at YOUR program while being absolutely clueless on how to communicate with the “difficult” clients. You aren’t a good coach just because you work with high compliance athletes who would be as or more successful without you. About 9 years ago, I began this practice of drawing the steroidogenesis tree for people so that they could understand exactly why stress and insufficiencies prevent progress. Sometimes I’d chart beta oxidation so they could see really how stored fat is broken down in the body. But I get it: Bezos spent less money than he made. Just do the same; and you’ll build a similar influential business empire.  There was one guy in particular I'd always sort of worried about. He "had it together," was very intelligent, acted tough, was a respected professional. And these types, I've found, are the frailest of frail. They're usually very successful by worldly standards, but always on the ledge.
He did train with two of my employees about 12 years ago. That outreach for their help was one of his very few times in life he admitted to enlisting the help of others. Overall otherwise he was loathe to admit any need for help. Long story short, a couple years ago he committed suicide. I seldom followed up with him, because when I had he would always respond coarsely. It's a tough balancing act, because some people just don't understand another human genuinely caring about their well-being. Part of that cynicism is borne out of their own inability to care for others. He was one of those. And his responses were brittle, always suspecting that I was looking to get something out of the interaction. I hate to break it to people, but 99 out of a 100 people I follow up with I would never take on as a client (even most of my own former clients). I built a habit in 2004 of just making a call, sending a card, shooting an email to people I'd met along the way. Many of them had worked with employees or peers of mine. Some were my own former clients. Some were just people I chatted with briefly once or twice. Just my two cents: but when I follow up with people and they admit to an injury, a struggle, a human experience, I always think - "this guy is gonna be alright". Just the admission that you need help is evidence that you are honest, willing to grow, and able to cope. When I follow up with someone who is telling me how great they are, how complete of a product they are, how "I'm good on my own," I know there's some deep pain (so deep it can't be shared). So, follow up, just for the simple act of seeing how they're doing, and maybe providing an example that there are people who give a rip. You don't need to overextend yourself, and take them back on as a client, partner, coworker or other designation where they'd simply be wearing you down. But what kind of world do you want to live in? Lend them an ear and a care. Follow up.  There are 240lb people with 28 inch waistlines. I’ve been there. There are 100lb skinny-looking people with over 30% body fat composition.
Weight matters, sure. You don’t get a bigger set of lungs as an adult if you weigh 300lbs versus 150lbs. You don’t get bigger effective knee joints. You don’t get a beneficially larger pancreas or adrenal glands. You will get a bigger heart and liver (but these size increases correlate to a DECREASE in effective function). So, yeah, weight matters, insomuch as you are forcing certain structures to do more work than they can or need to. And that reduces your relative work capacity, structural integrity of organs and tissues, enjoyment, and/or lifespan. But here’s the thing: if your composition doesn’t improve, and your physical capability doesn’t improve, WHO CARES ABOUT WEIGHT? This is precisely what happens by the way. People who train capability on average maintain better weight and composition. People who train for weightloss on average have worse comp and ability in the long term. Lean tissue loss and strength loss IS aging. Work capacity is life. Remind me again, where does a few pounds of stored body fat fit into this equation? I guarantee that the average weight loss resolutionist would benefit dearly from a 10-20lb weight gain in hip extensor and overall back muscle/tendon/ligament/skeletal/fascia density. With THAT change in comp, fall risk decreases, orthopedic pain and injury decreases, the effective burden of total bodyweight decreases, and so on. Work capacity improves. LIFE improves. Guess what: potential for weight loss improves, because they can do more. On the flip side, EVERY SINGLE PERSON who puts strengthening on the back burner in order to “focus” on weight loss ends up accelerating deterioration. I only have a sample set of 12,000 to 20,000 people I’ve observed, assessed, or directly worked with in my 15 years of professional experience. But I don’t have ONE EXAMPLE of someone who gave up focusing on improving strength ability and is better for it on 2, 5, 10 year followup. However, I have hundreds of examples of people who focused exclusively on ability and their composition was improved 2, 5, 10 years later. Please end the Cult of Weightloss. Please.  I once attended a specialty movement workshop where the moderator told all in attendance that if they didn’t know all 632 pairs of articulating muscles in the body they had no business being in this profession.
He looked accusingly at me, as if something about my “look” appears I’d be one of the more likely culprits. Afterward, a colleague of mine said, “you have one of the best poker faces I’ve ever seen.” I said, “no poker face at all; I actually have memorized the replete human anatomy and physiology.” Though I ultimately finished my undergrad with degrees in history, religious studies, classics and linguistics, I had purposely taken premed sciences (just to challenge myself) and obtained THE highest score in lecture halls with hundreds of students. In 2012, just for fun, I studied the entirety of the USMLE1 medical lecture series. Lately, I’ve been going back over chemistry and the molecular structure of amino acids. That’s just how I’m wired. I suspect it’s why 13 of my 40ish one-on-one clients are MDs, while as many others still are nurses and therapists. Researchers have uncovered a lot of mechanisms about which we need not speculate. It doesn’t mean there is no more debate or discussion to be had. But it does mean that oversimplification can be an enemy. |
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