1.) you must move evaluation away from the terms “good” and “bad”
The guilt-shame spiral DOES NOT WORK. Behaviors are productive or counterproductive/unproductive. When we observe a day or week and discover anything unproductive toward one’s desired health or fitness improvement, the only reasonable questions to ask have no moral judgment inherent. Stop using "good" and "bad" to describe yourself, as if we're watching a children's television show. Life is far more robust than heroes and villains. It’s more powerful and prudent to ask something along the lines of, “SPECIFICALLY HOW WILL I place myself in a better position to avoid those counterproductive thoughts and actions, while improving chances of productive ones?” 2.) you must give yourself a low resistance entry/re-entry point Five minute daily practices. A daily multivitamin. An auto-timer on the power strip to your cable box/router with a hard stop to devices and screens at bed time. Something, anything which appears to your mind to represent NO EFFORT and very little decision-making budget. Impractical entry points for most people look like 60 minute per day efforts, hardcore dieting, and most popular fitness ideas. 3.) you must accept that as nice as motivation feels, you cannot always be motivated, but you can always be disciplined Life will get busy. You will feel defeated. You will get sick. Something substantive and tangible will happen that supersedes the feelings of motivation. For many people, this occurs far more often than not. That is, your every day obligations may materially be greater than any height of inspiration or motivation possible. You can’t rely on motivation ever. But you can always rely heavily on discipline. 4.) you must recognize that you are, in fact, a disciplined individual I’ve performed thousands upon thousands of meet-and-greets and initial intakes. Even people who think of themselves as totally undisciplined have showcased incredible discipline somewhere in their lives. Recognition of this is key, because, as stated above, people are going to hit a tough spot and guilt and shame won’t motivate. Motivation itself will wane. Now what? Discipline will reign, if you let it. But if you keep telling yourself that you can’t be disciplined and aren’t disciplined, how will that ever work? If you have even once completed a course or series of courses, you have shown superhuman discipline. Think accreditation or licensure. Think marriage. Think parenting. Think loyalty in friendship. None are always easy. You keep it together out of discipline, out of duty, out of honor, and NEVER out of motivation. Not everyone can resonate with this example, but college is a good one. You set out to obtain one or more degrees (or, let’s call it “lose 60lbs”). You know precisely how many credit hours you’ll have to achieve (or, let’s call it “healthy behaviors”) and at what acceptable performance level (or, let’s call it “nutritional compliance”) to obtain that degree in the next 2-5 years. When, at week 14 in a semester, you are totally demotivated, does it matter? Of course not. You acknowledge that your feelings have zero universal significance. Discipline is all that matters. You study for the final WHEN you don’t want to. That’s a bit more concrete. But there are more peripheral examples, with a hobby or some practice which someone has done thousands and thousands of times. There are disciplined video gamers. There are disciplined readers. There are disciplined conspiracy theorists. Even the most flimsy people flailing about in life have developed outrageous discipline somewhere, somehow, at some thing. Motivation played little to no role. Your life purpose is superior to your momentary feelings. Your 12 month purpose is superior to your 9 months of unrelenting depression. Your 10 year goal is superior to your holiday, party, etc. You are disciplined. And you must view yourself this way. 5.) you must be going somewhere We aren’t robots. Though discipline must reign, we are permitted to enjoy. Nay, we must enjoy. And for that, you must be going somewhere. A daily practice is grounding. Low resistance entry/re-entry points are necessary. But this is not SUFFICIENT. People have a utility budget for the day and week. They can suffer long. But they must experience some form of joy, no matter how slight or ethereal. The health and wellness journey, therefore, MUST yield some joy. There are “tough” people who talk a “tough” game about persistent unending drive. They slave for their craft. But they also are wired in such a way as to experience joy in the pain. So they aren’t very good examples. You are not going to just flip a switch to have joy in the pain today or tomorrow. In fact, that just doesn’t jive for most people. Instead, you will experience joy when there’s direction. This is why I so harp on strengthening. You DO experience skill improvement and strength progress with an appropriate program at any age, with any health difficulty, with any barriers. And this excitement or joy is important. It’s important for many reasons. One, it’s important that we shift your joy toward productive activities. That way, the empty excitement which comes from binge eating and victim narratives and drama crusades can lessen (perhaps even end). Two, looking FORWARD to something has a self-reinforcing draw. I WANT to get up at 3:45am on Monday morning to see how much more I can squat than the prior week. I have joy in coming in early, seeing just how much progress there’s been, BEFORE taking on that work day. Your experience need not be like this. In fact, it should not. It should be whatever can gift joy and positivity to you in the way you’re wired. But this is a critical evaluation to keep having: am I viewing X as drudgery? Make no mistake. You must stay disciplined. But if the discipline has no obvious direction, it’s only suffering. Your utility budget won’t be met, and you will GET HIGH in whatever counterproductive way seems easiest. It’s an empty joy you’ll reach for, but reach you will, nonetheless. Usually, for people who failed to plan appropriately, as their suffering crosses a threshold, they get high off of drama. It may sound silly, and it is, but people get high from quitting everything beneficial. And the biggest high comes from quitting THE most beneficial practice. Getting high from dramatically damaging self and others is a common coping mechanism when frustration sets in. You see it in yourself and others in political debate. When we can’t get someone to move in the direction we want, we may default to insults, yelling, name-calling and other unnecessary personal attacks in order to at least get high from choosing a direction: that is, driving the two of your farther apart. And that is actually an apt example for health and fitness. Your habitual self is like one political extremist. And your health goals are on the opposite side of the political spectrum. These five “musts” are the dialogue which works to help them coexist. These five “musts” are the moderate diplomatic negotiations to benefit all. When one side feels that things aren’t going their way, or that things don’t have a direction, that’s when we see division, strife, and discord show up. Then, we must merely return to the five “musts”. Calm. Reevaluate. Renegotiate. We must.
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People: “What should I eat before exercise?”
Gurus: “BCAAs, meals, carbs, etc.” Science: “nothing, plus maybe caffeine and salt.” For the average person who wants to breakdown body fat, it’s non-controversial: insulin low plus epinephrine releases stored fat to be used in the citric acid cycle. What does that mean? You have to have glucose low enough, be fasted enough, and then be excited/moving enough, or there is no biological mechanism for lipolysis (the breakdown of fat). This is not opinion. Please consult the chart. This is a non-debated fact. The NSCA eating guidelines for competitive athletes stop at 60 minutes prior to training. That is, if they are COMPETING in 4 hours, carbohydrate intakes should be high (up to 4 grams per kilo of bodyweight). If they are training in 2 hours, 1 gram per kilo. If they are training in 1 hour, 0.5 gram per kilo. STOP. This is for high level athletes, mind you, who don’t care if they GAIN a small amount of weight. Meanwhile, I watch the average person who wants to lose fat walk into a workout (0 minutes prior to training) while sipping orange juice and eating a banana. Then they’re confused about why they can’t get leaner. There’s no confusion necessary. You blocked the biological pathway. There isn’t enough discussion in athletic training and the fitness industry about proper landscape. That is, there’s no talk about how in the effort there must exist nothing else. I’m not just talking about distractions. I’m not just talking focus. I’m talking total commitment to that moment.
People tend to be shocked when they see my or client notes with details about foot placement, angles, tensions, breathing, frame of mind, and how that person was thinking and feeling about the lift. Load, sets and reps are nice. Notes on range are better. But cover the whole landscape. Monday morning I came in around 4am to squat. It was lackluster. I had not taken into account thought patterns, pre-breathing, and just the right intensity of mental effort. 500lbs felt heavy. I scooted through some other movements, then got ready for the day. I went through my 6am to 3pm appointments, all the while with a “what if” chirping in the back of my mind. It ate at me. I knew I hadn’t surveyed the landscape. I knew I hadn’t brought the right intentionality. So in a break around 330pm, this happened (video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CHc0ZOpH-Ik/). It still wasn’t 100% dialed in. But 11 hours into a work day, having already worked out that morning, I could take 620 x 4 (and it would’ve been more, but the friggin bar setup kept twisting on my shoulders). I do enjoy other coaches’ emphasis on periodization, mobility, deloads, nutrient timing, etc. But, in my experience, all of it combined pales in comparison to the landscape. Landscape notation make the difference THAT DAY by 20-70% performance differences. One client achieved a 300lb split stance one week, only to fail on warmup the following at 120lbs. Setup, bracing, stance, breathing, and frame of mind are indispensable. According to study with 842 patients:
https://www.escardio.org/.../Spouses-shed-more-pounds... I ponder outcomes a lot. Thinking back on big wins and hard losses, I wonder what factors came into play. In fitness, many people do it alone. Even if they have a partner, we, the fitness professionals, often see them arrive at the gym alone, prepping meals alone, meeting with nutritional guidance alone, attending doctor’s visits alone, posting questions on online message boards alone. Personal improvement is a lonely sport. So, it makes sense on all kinds of levels that a spouse doing the same would improve outcomes. Certainly, I’ve seen it backfire too, wherein the husband perhaps more quickly and easily loses weight while the wife toils. But, on the other hand, I think about some of the couples I’ve coached jointly, and how their overall trajectory is on average better when they walk the journey hand-in-hand. Not to be dismissive, but this study only has 842 participants; and I’ve observed tens of thousands of gym-goers and thousands of clients. Inevitably, the path will separate. One will be more serious than the other. One will be more driven than the other. One will be more honest with himself than the other. One will be more committed to the success than the other. BUT, I think it still is worthwhile to request a supporter on the difficult road you begin. The vast majority of my coaching is simply clearing out the white noise for people. There are so many self-styled gurus, experts, online celebrities, who all give competing advice. It gets noisy. But no matter how different their sermon, there’s no escaping 5 principles:
1.) manage stress 2.) reduce glucose/insulin volatility 3.) move quite a bit 4.) contract skeletal muscle intensely 5.) stay consistent All prepackaged “plans” fail to balance these. The guru selling their solution emphasizes 1-2 items which can produce short term change, hoodwinking the public, and ultimately yielding no long term consistency. These principles must coexist in a balance. Too much suppression of glucose (“hard dieting”) increases stress. Too much movement isn’t sustainable. Excesses will harm other principles, even if it “feels” productive in the moment. I don’t have an ideological agenda or camp. Whatever works works. However, categorically I can guarantee you that until you feel an overall improvement in stress management you will not be consistent. Until you get blood sugar consistently between 75 and 85, don’t expect improved health, and certainly don’t swear by your nutrition program. Until you move around regularly, don’t expect much. Until you contract skeletal muscle intensely, don’t be surprised at physical deterioration. Until you’ve had a solid maintenance program for 2-3 years, be careful claiming that something “works.” And when feeling lost, just return to fundamentals. No shortcuts, tricks, 12 week programs. Just foundations. I have a lot of people I coach who are pretty private. At least, they don’t want to go around sharing with others the deep troubleshooting we do in our sessions. The discussions run the gamut, and we cover mental and physical health issues few want to telegraph to the world. It’s the nature of the style of coaching I began moving toward almost from the beginning, back in 2004.
Throughout the week, people will send awesome updates, or just drop a simple “thanks.” Lately, I’ve heard a whole lot of, “I’ve got to give you credit.” My response: you did all the work. I just cheered you on. I appreciate the thanks. But thank YOU for putting in the work, trusting in the process, committing to the long term, checking yourself on unrealistic expectations. Somebody out there may thank you. Let ‘em know: No. Thank YOU. Get much stronger. If your tissue can always produce more force and bear more tension than it used to, why would your body ever have to feel older or worse? What people mean when they say, “I feel older” is “I’ve been actively training to get weak af; and I’ve been very effective.”
This isn’t pie in the sky. This isn’t a joke. Think long and hard about that prior paragraph. My body doesn’t just feel good. It feels better than any time in my whole life. This isn’t hyperbole. Maybe when I was a very young child. But nowhere in my teens or 20s did I feel this great. I have distinct memories of joint pain and tendinitis all through my teens. People’s short memories paired with the obliviousness of youth leads them to think they always felt great as a kid. Not true. I have kids. I work with youth athletes. Kids don’t pay as close attention to clicking knees and tight backs; but they have them all the time. I clearly remember even really fit peers of mine nursing aching ankles, wrists, groins, elbows, back strains. All that’s happening now is you are finally paying attention to how weak you’ve become; and you’re calling it “age”. As with all my clients, my personal program emphasis is on recovery and progression. As you can see, it works. The photo above is from a video (here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CG2v77QnLZ9/) wherein recently I hit a life time personal record. The same week I hit PRs on my squat day as well. Personal record becomes the norm when you are balancing recovery and strategically plotting progress. To put this in perspective, the nordic leg curl pictured above is held in such high esteem in the athletic training community that to do a single half-way decent rep is considered worthy of praise and a cause for celebration. A scan through Youtube will return hits for NFL players doing five to ten reps. I do them weighted. People say they want to be fast, but train low speed. They say they want to be athletic, but never encounter a sense of high muscular tension and high effort. They say they want to feel younger, but train like decrepit elderly. Raise tension. Increase force. Get stronger. Then rest and recover. For maximum muscle size and density, that's a different game altogether. For most people to carry as much muscle size and density as possible will take a lot of training volume, which means a lot of time and food, which means a lot of energy, which means the risks of accelerated aging go up, which means the risk of not feeling great goes up. That doesn’t work well for high achievers, super busy and productive people, if they want to protect their energy for family and business, and keep the body feeling good. You want to feel great? Just get much stronger. This is what 15 years of training looks like. The focus has always been on becoming stronger. Obviously, her outcome is superior to every person whose stated goal is “weight loss.” When your sole intent in training is to become more athletic, to become better, to fight for every single ounce of muscle gain humanly possible, you will BE better. As a side benefit, you will look better. When your sole intent in fitness is to lose weight, generally you achieve neither weight loss nor any health and fitness improvements at the 15-year-later mark. There are substantive reasons for this which have to do with mindset, correct thinking, physiological mechanisms, and biochemical laws.
I met Tiffany (@deadlifts.dogs.donuts) early on in my career, circa 04/05. I’ve worked with her a few times. One of my peers coached her intently at one point. She and I were running the math yesterday, and figured she’s netted about 25lbs of lean tissue increase in those 15ish years. When you’ve worked in the fitness industry for some two decades, you just meet tens of thousands of all kinds of great people. And you get to see truly what works and what doesn’t in the long haul. Notice she “aged” 15 years only to improve, progress, become better. The average American in that same period LOST 15-25lbs of muscle, tendon, ligament, and bone density, while GAINING 15-25lbs of fat. Really dwell on this point. The average person loses 1lb of healthy tissue per year after age 25, and they replace it with 1-2lbs of fat. Strength made her better. Average thinking made people 30-50lbs worse. That’s a 55-75lb disparity. There’s a lot more that could be said here. But I want to simply reflect on consistent strengthening. Nothing is ever going to change the fact that heavy progressive lifting and protein sufficiency produces improvement. No wishful thinking will change this law of physics. No hoped for magical 30 day detox will make it untrue. No walking, jogging, yoga, dance, cardio, or other common/popular default is going to create an uncommon outcome. Westerners are losing lean tissue every year. That is the rule. Each loss slows metabolism and makes you fatter. So you are going to have to embrace the uncommon behaviors to fight the common trends. Consistent strength defeats all. I think we can generally agree: most modern people are... what’s a word that means weaker than feeble?
Your day was challenging. But tough? Nah. The girl in this video is tough: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGqRtD8nUuK/. For most people out there, all you have to do is show up. Don’t eat like a jerk. Physically exert yourself on occasion. That’s about it. That’s not tough. Sure, life is going to come and knock you around a bit. Who ya gonna emulate then? Someone like this, with more challenges than you? Someone whose resourcefulness and discipline convicts your lack of toughness? Or some famous person with a personal chef, unlimited resources, and an in-house team of assistants? Someone who helps you play the victim narrative? Someone whose example keeps you weak af? Every challenge we in the modern industrial world face, someone somewhere has done 1000 times more with 1 million times less. Scratch that. MANY people EVERY WHERE have done more with less. No matter how bad it gets, you don’t have it THAT bad. Study the history of the slave trade. Study the history of child armies. Study history. Period. People are ready to leap off the ledge because an email got lost or WiFi is running slow. Try to think of what it felt like storming the beaches of Normandy, knowing you will LIKELY die, and there is a very good chance that it’ll be for nothing, while a totalitarian takes over the world. I get it. Putting down the cake is unfamiliar. Training in a way that makes your better than when you were younger is uncommon. Hearing the news is frustrating. But none of that is tough. Your belief that progress is a product not a process is hubris and a mental defect. The fight for decency and humanity was never over, nor should our effort ever be. Thinking we should rest on laurels is immoral. It’s base. The girl in the video is tough. She’s got a smile ear to ear while facing more difficulty than most people imagine. No product. She’s working the process. Likewise, we have got to be tough enough to KNOW that no matter how bad it gets, we can overcome. We WILL overcome. Make people tough again. And why your squat sucks or isn’t as good as it can be. Ankles cause knee pain. Not all knee pain. But healthy loaded dorsiflexion is about 35 degrees off of neutral (effectively a 55 degree angle). Most ankles don’t do this, which makes the sliding joint of the knee excessively pressured. With an ankle which won’t readily move into full dorsiflexion, the force at the knee cannot be distributed across as much tissue or surface area. Thus, the same few structures keep getting hammered, and it hurts. This keeps athletes from achieving top speed, lifters from optimal squats (and lunges,cleans,snatches,etc.), and laypeople from painlessness.
There is a quick way to assess your ankles (video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGnF348nRlU/). Put your big toe 5 inches away from the wall. Press the heel strictly in contact with the floor; and work your knee toward the wall. Touch is pass. Miss is fail. The mobility drill showcased has a very firm tether across the talus, which allows you (along with manual downward pressure at the heel) to more readily train proper range via reps or long holds. Contract anterior tibialis in order to actively draw yourself into optimal dorsiflexion. A more accurate method of prescribed distance from the wall (because, please do remember anthropometry: adult tibia lengths range from 11 to 19 inches) involves measuring the distance from medial malleolus to medial condyle (hypotenuse), some simple geometry (90/55/35 degrees), and then a variant metric from medial malleolus to wall (bottom leg of triangle). To wit, 40 degrees or more is possible. For clarity on the math or more tips on fixing knees, both for pain management or maximal athleticism, feel free to contact through the website. |
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