The Best of Us

I'm a big fan of the sport of strongman.  It's all about men and even women exerting physical persuasion on seemingly impossible sized objects and situations.  It's a sport dominated by men like this:

This is my favorite strongman, Brian Shaw.  He's 32 years old, 6'8" and weights over 400lbs in competition.  This is the ideal body of a professional strongman.

I am 30 years old, 5'10", and 175lbs.  An Atlas Stone would absolutely smoosh me and I could not even get my hands around the handles of most strongman equipment.  Mine is not a body made for strongman competition.  No matter how much I tried, I could not become a professional strongman.  If I ate more to gain weight(which is a big factor in the sport) I would simply get fat because my frame was not created to carry mountains of muscle.  If I were to train and train to become superhuman strong, I would still not go beyond average strength because I am not genetically gifted with a great strength capacity.  And let's face it, I'm not getting any taller(I might even be getting shorter)

So many of us, myself included, are trying so hard to be someone else.  We want the body an actor or athlete we know; or maybe a friend of family member, or even a rival.  One look at someone we perceive as being better than us and we are suddenly very aware of our "shortcomings".

I forget what I can do and focus on what I can't or how I measure up compared to someone else.  I hear this from women mostly but men feel the same way, we just don't verbalize it like women do.  We all want to be better than we are, but the problem is that we look outside of ourselves to find that.

I am speaking of the physical body in all this.  At first reaction, better for me means that I need to gain 200lbs, 6" taller, and the ability to sling a beer keg 25 feet in the air.  When I sit and think about it, better really means becoming the best version of myself.  This is all anyone can hope for.  I'm not saying it's okay to settle, but we need to be realistic with our goals and means of meeting them.  When you take a look at yourself and calculate what you are capable of realistically, you are freed from the unrealistic expectations that society and our own minds put on you.  How comforting to know that you don't have to kill yourself figuratively and in some cases literally, to look like Jessica Alba, Simpson, or Beil because you can't look like them! Only one person can look like one person unless they are twins.  That is how life works.  People have different bone structures, different muscle fiber types, different fat storage genetics, different everything.  This is what makes a person unique and this should be embraced.  I might not have what Brian Shaw or Derek Poundstone have but I've got things that they don't and that is something unique to me.

What I can do is work to become the best me that I can be.  I hate to say it but in the quest to be a more like someone else, the personality often suffers too and that is not being a better anybody.  Focus on what you have to work with and don't try to duplicate another person; the world is big enough for billions of individuals so be one!  Find your strengths and play to them.  There is a reason why certain people are at the top of their game, whatever it may be.  There is talent and there is skill.  The elite were born that way and worked in the skill I get where they are.  If you don't have any talent, you can at least develop skill but don't expect to outplay Lebron James on skill alone.  Skill takes the average to good and elite to legendary.

This is my body and this is what I can do.  I can get better if I work hard but I will still have my own body, not someone else's and my unique attributes.  I will accept that this has been, is, and will always be true and I will embrace and work with what I have to become the best version of myself I can be.

Painless Lifting

Here is a flare-free instructional video I created to outline the basics of how to properly lift an object off the floor safely!

Furniture Slider Fitness

Hello! It has been awhile since I've added a new workout video; reason being that our camera's life came to an end.  Well I've got my hands on another one with hopes of producing videos with greater consistency now.  Here is a video of what a few furniture sliders can do to challenge your fitness!



The New Desk Jockey Syndrome

I was out shopping the other night and I had a revelation.  I saw a group of teenage girls walking in a parking lot and they all basically look like this:

No, they don't resemble an Olsen twin, but they do have her terrible, terrible posture.  I see this a lot in young people, namely teen girls and young women.  Though I have seen this many times, on this particular night I matched this terrible posture with a recently new activity that has taken over the lives of kids ages 10(maybe younger) and older:

Maybe your mother said that if you make a funny face for too long it will stay that way.  Mom was on to something.  When the business computers came out, we started seeing this terrible posture in the good folks who work the cubicle.  This is caused by the spine and shoulder girdle molding to this hunched position because of the hours it spends in that position.  Kyphotic thoracic and cervical spine, scapular protraction and abduction.  This leads to great muscle imbalances, back pain, inability to active the posterior chain(namely the glutes and hamstrings) properly, and the inability to sit up straight.

Take a look around and you will probably see it in someone you know, or even in the mirror.  The good news is, there is help!  Through consistent corrective exercise and stretching, posture and imbalances can be improved dramatically.  Here are a few exercises to add to your daily life along with being conscious of your posture.  Think of taking 5-10 minutes out of your day to improve years of your life!

 

Upside-Down Eating

When do you tend to "over-eat"? The American standard today seems to be a small breakfast or no breakfast, then a slightly larger lunch followed by a pre-hibernation style dinner and then have someone else roll us off to bed.  I would estimate that 50% or more of our daily calories are consumed during dinner.  I love a good dinner myself; it's usually a time to finally relax and be with my wife.  It's easy to sit and enjoy much food and much company.  This is often when we make nutritional choices that we regret later.

well, maybe no regrets here

I believer that calories are the same, no matter when you take them in.  It doesn't matter if it's one meal a day or five.  The problem with dinner is that it is often a time to over-eat because we seek comfort after a long day, we often have more options to choose from on the plate, and dinner is often social eating.  If you ate hardly anything throughout the day, this isn't much a problem, but I know very few people who can make it until six o'clock without wanting something.  I myself can't even make it to nine in the morning.  We are in a rush so it's a bowl of cereal in the morning or a yogurt.  Lunch might be a salad with some chicken a piece of fruit.  Finally, dinner rolls around and most of us are thinking "finally, some real food!" and we pig out on all that we can see.  Three or four hundred calories for the first two meals combined and then 2000+ for dinner.  How will all that energy get expended while you are asleep?!

My suggestion is this: we turn the food triangle upside down and start with a hefty breakfast of meat, vegetables, and some fruit.  Lunch rolls around and you consume a smaller size meal, and finally dinner resembles just enough food to quite the stomach rumble for about an hour our two.  Go to bed slightly hungry.  In the morning, you will have no problem wolfing down the omelet.  This is especially important for those of you out there who skip breakfast completely.  Learn to eat it! It is your friend and will supply you with energy for the day. 5-hour energy is for people who don't sleep or eat breakfast and that doesn't have to be you!

If you were going on a long road trip and you weren't sure when you'd be able to stop again, would you just dribble half a gallon into the gas tank or would you make sure that sucker is full?  Your day is like a long trip and for some reason many of us prefer to run off fumes for the first half of the it.  I have a hard time understanding this myself.

So if you have troubles in portion control during the evening, give this method a try! The worst thing that could happen is you have more energy during the day!
 

Gym Class Zeroes?

Lately I have been hearing about schools ditching physical education, music, and arts classes due to lack of funding.  I can't speak for the benefits of music and art (which I am sure have much importance) but I can speak for the importance of physical education.  I believe that P.E. or gym class, if taught correctly, ranks near the top of the chain in importance in the education system!

Let's think about it this way.  School systems drop everything that is not related to proficiency testing so that our districts, states, and nation as a whole can compete with world standards and produce an intelligent work force.  I failed with a capital "F" trigonometry class.  That's okay though because I can function in society without knowing trigonometry.  I did pretty well in English and History.  So far, very few people have asked me house to distinguish between 3rd person omniscient and 3rd person limit and no one needs me to structure a sentence either.  My history knowledge is impressive to some, but doesn't really get me anywhere.  Science was hard and I think the take away message was to wash my hands really good after I touch something nasty.  These are all the things the school is required to teach kids in order to graduate.

What I see a lot of though is people whose brains are filled with stuff they learned but their bodies are wasting away because they don't know how to move them, they don't see the benefit of moving them, and they don't know what to fuel them with.  Movement is not just for the kids on the swim team, it's for everybody!  Our bodies were made to move and move frequently and when they don't there are consequences.  I had good gym teachers.  I didn't care about a lot of the things we did in gym but I did learn that moving is a good thing and it keeps you young and keeps you happy.  Somewhere out there athleticism was taken from the populace at large and placed on the backs of students who were interested in hitting a ball or catching one and everyone else said "oh, someone else has this one" and decided to give up moving in exchange for sedentary lifestyles.  I can't blame the school system for taking away P.E. when the money isn't there; that's what the people want.  It's not what the people need though!

at least this poor guy can identify phenotypes of fruit flies, right?

In this day and age the voice of physical activity is getting louder, but I almost think it's too late for our young people in school.  All it takes one generation missing out on something for that value or trait to be lost.  It is up to the older generation; the parents, the grandparents who do or did value movement to instill the importance and value of it to the youth.  There will always be kids who want to do sports, but it seems now that if you are not in sports then it's a free pass to be lazy.

Here's what I'd like to see in the future:

1. Gym class in elementary school is great as long as it remains.  Don't let the school board drop these programs because they are NOT useless "recess" activities.  I learned to read in 2nd grade and I still read now.  I learned to move in kindergarten and I still move now

2.  In junior high, let's teach kids how to move about without injuries our bodies.  Proper posture while sitting and standing.  Proper bending at the hip and not the waist.  How to feed yourself and types of exercise.  The parachute was fun in 4th grade but let's get serious and learn about how to keep our bodies healthy through proper movement through a full range of motion.

3.  In high school, gym is more important than ever!  As the workload increases, it's easy to say the kids are too busy to be bothered with activity.  Doesn't that sound like your adult life and mine?  Two semesters of gym out of 4 years on school is not enough, and a lot of schools are removing it completely and saving money by firing the gym teacher.  This teaches young people that being active is just not important and that is the kind of adults that are produced and it shows.  I believe physical education should be mandatory 4 years just as history class is mandatory 4 years.  A healthy body can get you a job doing something, but now days a college diploma only might land you a job.

As a disclaimer, this is merely my opinion.  I am not in charge of education in any place but my own home.  I don't deal with school budget cuts or curriculum make-up.  I do know that movement is important though and the lack of movement is dangerous.  I just wish school boards would see that too and give our youth a chance at being healthy!   

 

The Problem with Pinterest

About a year ago, my beautiful wife started using an app on her phone called "Pinterest".  If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a pictorial index of this, that, and the other.  There are many categories on there, one being health and fitness.  Me, wanting to know what all the hype is about got the app for my phone and started looking at what it's all about.

I found all sorts of pictures that read like covers of women's gossip and "fitness" magazines:

"Tone butt, legs, abs, and arms with these 5 muscle-sculpting yoga moves!"

"Lose 10 pounds with these 50 diet and workout tips! Imagine if you did one of these each week"

"Kiss love handles goodbye with this sexy-abs routine from (fill in the blank)

"Lift and tone buns in 3 easy movements"

"8 moves that melt fat"

"She lost 25 pounds in 4 weeks using this detox diet" 

And each caption went with a picture of a pencil-thin girl who supposedly does the workout or miracle diet being written about.  When you click on the picture it sends you to the (usually) sad, sorry workout that you might find near the checkout line at Walgreens.

There aren't too many industries out there that can claim false and foolish information baked in with the good stuff like the fitness industry.  The most unfortunate thing as that the falsehoods often rise to the top as being the go-to for change because they become the most popular due to television, magazines, Pinterest, and other media outlets.

I have a theory on why these things circulate so much: because they are EASY

Crunches and curls and downward facing dog aren't going to do a thing to change body composition, but they are easy enough for the average and even below average person to cling to for 3 weeks until the next vine of kegels, leg lifts, and kickbacks swings by.  And then this person says "I've been working out for 8 weeks now lifting weights, running the treadmill, and eating the whole-wheat cleanse and I think I'm getting worse than I started!  Just forget it, I'll stay the way I am."

The truth is this:

The hours of cardio will indeed burn lots of calories.  The problem is that this kind of training puts your body in catabolism, which means it is going to break down muscle tissues to use for energy.  When you lose muscle and fat at the same time, you just get a smaller version of yourself with a diminished ability to expend calories due to loss of muscle.  No only that, the "toned" look, that is muscles appearing hard at a relaxed state, is lost completely because muscles under the skin (and fat) are now even smaller.  If you don't believe me, look up marathon runners on Google images.  Even most of the Olympic caliber athletes look like bags of skin with bones bouncing around in them!  If that is the look you are going for,  you know what to do.  I am in no way saying that high endurance events are not athletic in nature, I am simply stating that not many people are look for a physique like this:

 

If you enjoy running and the challenge of going the distance, then by all means run!  If you are looking for changes in body composition though, there are better methods available.

 

The Yoga, the Pilates, the 5-pound curls and inner/outer thigh machine are all non-intimidating fitness venues that women (yeah, I said it!) feel comfortable doing.  These things can be quite challenging in the beginning stages as well.  I don't think there is anything wrong with any of that, but to bank body composition change and physical wellness solely on these sorts of things would be leaving much on the table.  To think that a neoprene dumbbell the size of a cell phone will create a training effect greater than using the hair dryer or washing dishes daily or even standing up from a chair is mind blowing to me, and yet women's magazines will tell you all you need is some high kicks, a few  4-pound shoulder raises 8 minutes per day and the fat will drip off you so fast that you'll have to buy a whole new wardrobe by the next week.  And yet there is a new "end-all" routine that comes out the next month??? If it works so well, why must they put out a new one?  Exercise must be progress.  Our bodies have been created with the amazing ability to adapt to change, and for a new training response to occur, the stress that produces change must be increased.  If you started with 5-pound squats in January, there should be a 50-pound dumbbell in your basement by December and hopefully much, much sooner!


Even the right exercises aren't enough unless the proper nutrition is in place.  Imagine a house being built.  The builders are your exercises.  Good exercises make skillful, productive workers.  Poor exercises (or no exercises) make lazy, haphazard workers.  Nutrition is the supplies that are being dropped off.  Good nutrition brings the right kind of supplies in the right amount.  Poor nutrition brings whatever.  The builders are still there working as always, so what are you bringing them to work with?  Is your house a finely sculpted home, efficiently built and working or is it looking more like a hotel or a slum?  Get your nutrition in order as well as your exercise.

Sit ups, crunches, side raises, and other abdominal exercises will not decrease the size of your abdomen.  In bodybuilding, the key to increasing muscle size is to hammer the muscle groups with high volume work, that is lots of sets and lots of reps.  This bombardment causes the muscle fibers and tendons to break down and grow back larger to handle the new stress.  The abdominals and obliques are muscles that respond just like any other so doing 500 crunches or whatever else contrived just creates bigger abdominal muscles which creates a larger waist (albeit a stronger more muscular one).  This is really good news if your body fat percentage is low and that 8-pack is showing up.  If you are not though then you are just working yourself into a larger midsection.

Diets don't work; behavioral changes do.  If you interrupt a steady diet of cheeseburgers and cream puffs with a month of fish, water, and salad you will definitely see changes.  The problem comes when you realize that you can't eat only those things for the rest of your life.  A behavioral change is what is needed for lasting results.  I suggest to list your top 10 worst eating habits and eliminate them one by one over the course of a few months.  We know that in order to eliminate a bad habit, a good habit must be put in it's place so it is also necessary to replace bad foods with good ones.


 As a side note, our camera is broken so I haven't been able to film any at-home workouts in quite awhile.  I am sorry for the inconvenience!

General Physical Preparedness

As some may know, my wife and I along with my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and several other from our church went on a mission trip to Haiti last summer.  Our mission was to build houses for unfortunate people from local churches whose houses were destroyed in the earthquake a few years back.  For seven days we worked in two teams outside the village of Fermathe to build two houses for two different families

Life in Haiti is very difficult. Just getting around is a hard task on its own. I observed that those of us who were active in our daily lives, and/or exercises regularly didn't get sore from our jobs in Haiti. The ones that didn't felt a feeling they might not have felt since high school sports.

General Physical Preparedness (GPP) is a term uses to describe being capable of performing tasks beyond daily activities without undue strain on your body and nervous system. Strength, endurance, power, and conditioning all play a part in GPP.

During my time in Haiti, I discovered that I had the strength and power to do any of the tasks but my endurance was lacking. A trip up and down the near-shear side of a 2,000 foot mountain showed me my conditioning was okay, but carrying bucket after bucket of building materials led me to consider working my grip endurance a little more.

I didn't get the least bit sore the entire week and I accredit that to my time under the bar in the gym. While my life doesn't require me to climb mountains, hanging on for my for my life on a 25 minute bumpy truck ride on the side of a cliff, or clean and press dozens of buckets of concrete, I do feel good to know that if called upon, I can deliver those things.

Have you ever thought about what your body can do? I want to be able to say that football with my grandchildren is more than probable. I want to be able to chase down someone or sprint for help in a case of emergency. I want to be prepared for adventures should they come and I don't want my age to slow me down.