5 Things I Like: Brandon's Picks

Rogue R-4 Power Rack
I put this beast in my garage so I can get seriously strong without leaving Disruptive HQ. It has Westside hole spacing for the bench press range, comes with some band pegs, and will still be kicking when my grandchildren are gone.

The AeroPress Coffee Maker
This thing is magic. In fact, I gave up my french press coffee when I got the AeroPress. Home brewed Americanos for about 30 bones. That's hard to beat.

Inov-8 f-lite 192
These are my go to athletic shoes. Super comfortable, zero drop, fiery styles. What else could you ask for?

OlyCustoms Weightlifting Shoes CHECK OUT THIS LINK!!!
What's better than training in a solid pair of weightlifting shoes? Training in a solid pair of Iron Man weightlifting shoes. A buddy of mine is customizing your shoes, to your theme, and does a quality job. Check his work out on instagram @olycustoms.

Captains of Crush Grip Trainers
These things are the top of the line crush grip trainers. If you can close the #3, you are probably strong enough to pick up Mjolnir. Sorry Thor.

3 Ways to Stop Missing Lifts in the Gym

I wake up pretty early to get to work. I usually try to get ready in the dark to avoid disturbing my wife. This morning as I was leaving my bedroom to get the morning coffee going, in the dark, I missed the door and walked right into the door frame. It's not quite like hitting a brick wall, but it hurt, and it momentarily stopped my progress.

Some of you guys and gals are doing the same thing in the gym. No, you're probably not running into door frames (if you are, I bet it's embarrassing), but you probably are missing too many reps in your training. When it happens, sometimes it hurts your body, it always hurts your confidence, and it definitely hurts your progress.

Body

Failed lifts always seem to be more taxing to my body than made lifts. On top of that, you tend to be out of position when you miss. I rarely see someone miss simply because the weight was too heavy. It is almost always the combination of a heavy weight and bad form on that particular lift. Putting your body in compromising positions with heavy loads is a recipe for disaster in the gym. Even when you save bad lifts, it's inefficient and therefore puts a higher stress on your body which is harder to recover from.

A good example of this in my training is muscle ups. I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be (give me some credit though, I've done muscle ups over 250lbs body weight) and when I miss, it hurts my shoulders. Miss enough and I end up with some pretty achy shoulders for a few days which impacts the rest of my training.

Mind

As a competitor, missing lifts in the gym can get into your head before a competition. I had a few rough days before my last meet that resulted in some shaky expectations going into the bench press. For a lot of the people, a missed lift can lead to fear of that weight or that exercise in general.

Sometimes we talk about a lift or a weight "getting in your head." That essentially means you're afraid of it and instead of you working with the barbell to get stronger, it becomes your adversary. When the bar is your enemy, it always wins. It can always be heavier, it never gets tired, it doesn't need to recover, and you can't psyche it out.

Progress

You don't get stronger from the reps you don't complete. If you are doing a simple 5x5 program to build strength and you aren't getting all of your reps, you might not be getting sufficient stress to drive adaptation and progress. Even worse, if you're injured by missing a lift, you have time away from training where you not only don't progress, you actually regress.

Progress is one of the biggest motivators for people to keep training. When you hit a plateau, if you don't know what to do to get moving again, it can be a slippery slope back to the couch. No one likes banging their head against the wall trying the same lifts with the same weights over and over again only to fail over and over again.

So what do I do?

Here are three things you need to do if you consistently miss lifts. 

First, you must address your weaknesses. Are you missing lifts because your lower back is too weak? Lower back weakness is a huge culprit in missing the big lifts like squats, cleans, and deadlifts. If you can't keep your back extended under a load and tend to round or fold forwards, there's your sign. If that's you, it's time to start doing some weighted back extensions, banded good mornings, or other low back exercises to build up that link in the chain.

As a general rule, your weak links will be hamstrings, low back, abs, and triceps. I know that because, as Clint Darden says, everyone has weak hamstrings, low backs, abs, and triceps. Start chipping away at your weaknesses to stop missing lifts in the gym!

Second, back off the weight a little bit. This is almost too easy to give as advice, but it's something frustrated lifters need to hear sometimes. Don't let your eyes be bigger than your biceps. It's okay to back off the weight a little bit. You're not a failure, you don't suck at lifting, and constantly banging your head against the wall missing heavy weights isn't going to help anyway.

By resetting the load, your body will have some time to recover and allow you to come back to the heavier weights refreshed and ready to work. This is a common tactic, especially with newer lifters to keep adding weight to the bar over a longer period of time. As a rule, it's hard to get unstuck at a plateau than it is to keep moving intelligently forward by taking planned periods of reduced work to let you recover. It's better to take 3 steps forward and 1 step back for a long time than to take 10 steps forward and fall over dead.

Third, you need to improve your technique. This is the key to being more efficient and improving your lifts while staying healthy and safe. If you're experiencing pain in your training, 10 times out of 10 your technique needs work. Being more efficient in the lifts, or doing them as technically perfect as you can, lets you express all of your strength on a particular lift. It also lets you lift in the safest positions. As machines, we are designed so that the strongest positions we can put ourselves in are also the safest ones.

Really making strides in improving technique usually requires some coaching. I am a coach, and when my squat wasn't feeling right, I hired a coach to take a look at it and help me fix it. You can do a lot by filming your own training and coaching yourself like a client. On the other hand, I tend to second guess my coaching for myself, I can't be as objective as another coach can be looking at me, and I just flat don't always make time to look at my own training. By paying someone else to look at it, they have a pretty good incentive to spend the necessary time.

Conclusion

If you're regularly missing your lifts in the gym, you aren't going to make progress in your training. It's probably been very frustrating and can drive you to distraction. In order to stop missing all the time, address your weaknesses, back off the weight, and get some coaching to improve your technique. This path has worked for countless lifters, and I promise it will work for you too. By taking ego out of the equation and putting in the work now, your training will not only start moving again, but it will keep moving because now you know what to do when things are getting rough in the gym.

Goals: Are you too busy...

Go ask 5 people how they're doing. They'll probably all say, "Good." If you ask them one more time chances are they'll say, "I'm really busy." I bet you've told several people that you're really busy in the last week. And, I get it, you probably are really busy.

We have the mentality that if something is sitting empty that it needs to be filled. Don't believe me? Look at all the closets in your house. Are they full? Yep. Can you remember the last time you used something stored in them? Nope. Are all the flat surfaces in your house covered in stuff? Probably. Do you go by them thinking, "I really need to clean that stuff up?" I know I do. Why don't you go ahead and do it? Probably because you feel like you're too busy and there are too many other pressing concerns.

You probably do the same thing with your free time. I tend to look for things to do if I have some down time. I can tackle this project for work or do that big task around the house. Someone invites me out for lunch or we have people over for dinner to entertain for the evening. Somehow all of my time gets taken up before I realize I even had some free time. The result is that rather than doing the things that I think are really important, it all gets crowded out by being busy, busy, busy.

Are you doing the same thing with your body? I've heard this countless times as a coach. I'll tell someone that I train people for a living and they tell me all about how they used to go to the gym when they had more time. I usually don't press the argument with strangers, but when I have time to dig a little bit with friends I tend to find a common theme.

The simple truth is that people do exactly what they want to do. If they want to stay up late watching their shows, they will, and then tell me how they are too tired to get to the gym in the morning. If they don't want to cook food at home, they won't, and then they'll tell me how they just can't lose weight eating on the run.

Unfortunately, I've found that rather than being too busy, we're just too lazy to do what's important. Instead of spending the necessary time preparing meals ahead of time so they're ready during your busy week, I would really rather just sit and do nothing on Sunday afternoon. Instead of going to the gym in the morning and supercharging my day, I'd rather hit the snooze button a few more times. (Sorry if that stings a little, I didn't brand this  disruptive fitness for nothing.)

So what's the answer? A little bit of toughness and a little bit of planning. Set yourself up for success by preparing what you need beforehand. Make tomorrow's decisions today. That way all you have to do is walk the path.

Leaving the decision to wake up early to get to the gym is very difficult at 6am in your warm bed. Deciding what you will eat when you're hungry and have no food at lunch time leaves you open to all kinds of bad choices. Deciding what you will eat when you cook your food in advance lets you eat food you like that will actually fuel performance without having to leave it to will power.

Keep an eye out for more on budgeting decision making and tracking daily performance in a very simple way soon.  You can hang out with us at our facebook group and throw out questions there, follow me on instagram @disruptivefit, or drop a line in the comments.

You want me to do what!?

Have you ever been to the doctor for an injury? Maybe you jammed a finger playing pick up basketball or sprained an ankle on the curb at the grocery store spilling groceries all over the landscape. (No one ever gets hurt doing anything cool.) What did they tell you to do? I bet they said RICE it and take some over the counter pain medication. But what does it mean to RICE an injury? You savvy readers already know that it stands for Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate the affected body part. Are there more effective ways to deal with the injury? What is the best way to apply RICE to an injury? This is the difference between teaching and telling. The doctor will usually tell you what to do. It will be the best advice that they know how to give, because doctors do really want you to get better. This is where you really want to enlist the services of a teacher.

Here's a story to illustrate the point. I have a super awesome client who was having some serious shoulder issues several years ago. She went to the doctor who made a diagnosis that there was some damage to the shoulder that needed to be surgically repaired. She went under the knife only to discover that the diagnosed damage wasn't there and put her in pain for over a year while she recovered. She was told to rest and ice the shoulder, but never taught how and when to do it. She was told to stretch and improve mobility, but never taught how to do it. She knew she needed to strengthen the shoulder, since she couldn't even hold her morning coffee with the injured arm, but no one taught her how to train. Then she found a yoga teacher who took the time to teach how to stretch and stabilize her shoulder. A good physical therapist who taught her how to apply RICE in a regimented and productive manner. And I like to think she has a pretty good coach now who is working on building strength and work capacity so she can continue to enjoy a healthy active life now. (It's me.)

So why do I tell you the story? Because when you're looking for experts to help you take care of your body, you don't want someone who is going to just tell you what to do unless you're already pretty well educated. Instead, you want someone who can teach you what to do and WHY you're doing it. They can show you technique and explain it in a way that makes sense to YOU the client and student. The difference is huge! After learning some self care strategies like intelligent stretching routines, strength training, and injury prevention (I like to call that prehab) the client above is able to stay on top of what was once a life stopping problem.

If you are tired of being told what to do and never taught how to do it by experts who are not teachers, stick around. You can hang out with us at our facebook group and throw out questions there, follow me on instagram @disruptivefit, or drop a line in the comments.

Supertraining: 3 types of maximal strength

Being strong is more popular today than it has been since bodybuilding dropped the lifting component in the 70s. Guys are tired of being small and wearing skinny jeans, girls are tired of guys being small and wearing skinny jeans, and everyone appreciates the difference. Athletes in every sport from Tiger Woods to Walter Payton to Rich Froning, Jr. know the value of being stronger than the competition. So what are we talking about when we talk about strength? It seems like a pretty simple thing to define, and in some ways it is. Starting out simply, strength can be defined as the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to produce force in certain circumstances. This is intuitively how you would define strength. Let's nuance this just a little bit by splitting the idea of strength into 3 categories: absolute strength, maximal strength, and the training maximum.

Absolute Strength

Researchers talk about absolute strength which is represented by maximal involuntary muscle contraction. You would reach that state if we hooked some electrodes up to your muscles and turned it up to 11. Your body won't let you contract with absolute maximum force because you would literally break bones and tear muscles apart. For our purposes as athletes interested in getting stronger, absolute strength does not have much bearing on what we do in the gym or in sport.

Maximal Strength

In real life, we usually measure strength in the amount of weight you can move in different planes or exercises. Competitors in the strength sports measure strength in squats, deadlifts, clean and jerks, odd object lifting, and a variety of other tests. This is typically represented as maximal strength or the maximum amount of weight you can move with a voluntary muscle contraction. Voluntary muscle contraction means you are willing yourself to move, for example, flexing the muscles in your arms to do a pull-up. Maximal strength is also represented as a competitive max, since it is usually tested only in competition.

Expressing maximal strength through the competitive lifts takes a huge toll on the body and can take days or even weeks to fully recover from. For this reason it is normal for more experienced strength athletes to take time off immediately following a contest to allow for their body to return to normal after the high physical and emotional stress of a meet. In many cases returning immediately to training after setting new competitive maxes can lead to injury as the lifter is over stressed and does not have time to recover for the new training cycle. Trying to set new competitive maxes day after day would very quickly lead to overtraining and quickly going backwards in your training.

Training Maximum

Unlike the competitive max, the training max is the most weight that a trainee can move on any given day without significant psychological excitement. The training max will change daily based on a number of factors including fatigue, sleep, nutrition, and emotional state at the time of the training session. Training in this state is usually preferable. By calmly approaching your bar each lift, you can continue to train at a high level for the rest of your life. Getting psyched, screaming, and being slapped in the face might work for a competitive max, but it will generally lead to burn out or become a crutch for training in the gym.

Using a training max is very useful for newer trainees especially. Programs like Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results* by Jim Wendler and Brandon Lilly's The Cube Method* both encourage lifters to work with 90% of their competitive max as the basis for training percentages. This allows you to make progress while using submaximal loads which are less stressful to your body, especially your joints and connective tissue. It is also less emotionally and mentally taxing than knowing you have to go to the gym every day looking for a training 1 rep max. If you have ever trained in a system that requires that kind of performance, you know how it can take over your life. I recommend it only for the most dedicated competitors who will give the required effort to recovery and have time to train at that level on an ongoing basis.

Moving Forward...

Here it goes... we'll have a handful of other articles on the nerdy stuff and then start moving into topics like periodization, methods of training, Prilepin's table, and other Russian strength training secrets! If you have questions on this article, post to the comments or ask in our facebook group.

*If you choose to purchase either of these strength training books, I will receive a small portion of your purchase through an affiliate program. That being said, I have and recommend both of them to people looking to strength train intelligently. I will never recommend anything that I have not used and seen results from in the past.

I'm just not that into you

You know that guy right? The one that no matter what you want to talk about, somehow it's always going to be about him. That guy is your favorite... right? He can turn any story about any topic in life into a story about how he did it bigger or better or first. That's bad enough all by itself, but what if you were paying him your hard earned cash to talk about something else? What if you hired *that* guy to talk to you about your mental health? Imagine sitting down with a counselor and all he wants to talk about is his day, his interactions with his spouse, his friendships... you get the picture. It would be ludicrous! You're paying this guy to help you think through your own life, and he won't even let you talk about it. He should be paying you!

If that picture is so crazy, why do so many people do the exact same thing when it comes to hiring a coach? (Pay attention to this if you're a coach!) If you've ever hired a personal trainer to coach you, chances are good that this is exactly what you paid for. You had some very cursory meeting where you got to talk about your goals, and then they were soundly ignored in exchange for the only program that the trainer knows how to implement.  Or even worse, the trainer just superimposes his goals onto you. If he's training for endurance sports, then that's the only way for you to lose fat. If he's a bodybuilder, you better start liking long heavy sets of weights. Everything you said you wanted went out the window after your first 10 minute consultation before he grabbed the clipboard template and got to work remaking you in his image, because let's face it... he's just not that into you.

That is so frustrating, right? I got frustrated typing it out! So what should a good coaching relationship look like? A real coach is a listener first and an expert second. All the expertise in the world won't do you any good if it doesn't apply to the problem at hand. A good trainer will actually listen to you when you tell them what you are hoping to accomplish by hiring them. When you tell them, "I'm not looking to compete in powerlifting, I just want to get a little stronger and be able to keep up with my kids." They actually listen and design a program that will let you slowly build strength and work capacity while staying safe. On the other hand if it's building serious strength and sport performance, they will get you on track.

A great coach will even tell you if you're talking to the wrong guy! If you came to me and asked for an ultra distance running program, I would find someone who knew what they were talking about and connect you with them. It's your coach's job to get you to the goals that are important to you. It's their job to help you refine and articulate your goals. It's your job to make sure you find a good coach.

I like to think that I'm a pretty good coach. If you're looking for someone to help you refine and reach your fitness and training goals, keep an eye out. We'll be releasing an introductory program at a limited time monthly low price for training just as soon as the details are ironed out. In the program you will receive daily training tips and programming, personal access to me through google hangouts to talk training and goals, and nutrition tips to help you build the body you want. The group will be limited in size to maximize the amount of attention you can receive from a coach. If you are going to the gym, but have no idea what to do, or you've hit a plateau and need a few tweaks to start making gains again, keep us in mind. In the meantime, head over to facebook and join our group and start following me on instagram @disruptivefit.

Crush Your Monday!

I woke up this morning well before the alarm was set to go off.  I'm usually up at 4am to get to work on Mondays.  I looked over and the clock said 2:20am.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up, made some coffee, and sat down at the computer.  While I was sitting there, sipping coffee, I thought to myself, "Self... why would you waste this opportunity on hulu and facebook? Let's go train!"  And that's what I did...

Started with some squats up to 480...

Then a little less fun on the bench...

Overall, I got in a pretty productive training session before 5am today.  How are you going to go out and CRUSH your Monday!?  You can follow me on instagram @disruptivefit and check out our facebook group.  Get busy!

Supertraining for Supertrainees

There are books, and then there are books. You pick up a book when you want to enjoy a good story or pick up a few pieces of useful information. You look for a book when it's time to get serious about a subject.  It should be comprehensive, chock full of proven information, and perhaps some innovation. If it's good enough, it becomes the standard by which all other books in the genre are judged.

Supertraining is a BOOK. The upside is that it contains nearly everything you could ever hope to know about building strength and sport performance.  The downside is that it contains nearly everything you could ever hope to know about building strength and sport performance. It's the kind of book most people start reading but never finish because they don't have the lengthy amount of time necessary to read and absorb the information.

So what? Am I writing a book review to scare you away from buying and reading Supertraining?  No way! If you have the time, background knowledge of exercise science, and desire you need to read this book. But let's be realistic, if you're going to read it to really know it, it's going to take about a year of your life. That's where I come in.  We're going to set sail together for distant shores as I take on a pretty big blog project simplifying, applying, and explaining the lessons of Supertraining in terms so easy anyone can crush it.

Like I said, this is a pretty big project, so I'm going to need your help. Pitch in with questions about the topic. If it's a good article, share it with your friends (unless you're competing for new PRs, then keep the secrets to yourself).  If you do go out and buy Supertraining, start reading it and post questions to our facebook group page if you have any. We're all going to get a lot out of the process, so stay motivated and get ready to get STRONG.

P.S. If you want to buy Supertraining, and you don't mind supporting me through an affiliate link, snag it below.

Supertraining [Paperback]

P.P.S. - I guess it's time to let you guys know I'm working on an ebook on building Disruptive Strength.  Keep your eyes peeled for a release sometime in 2014!

The Arrow and The Airplane

When you're thinking about direction for training and the outcomes you are trying to achieve, it can be helpful to think in metaphorical terms.  To that end, let's compare and contrast some of the traits of an arrow and an airplane.

An arrow is a short distance tool.  A quick google search showed that the world record arrow shot is just under 500 meters, roughly the length of 5 football fields.  Historically arrows allowed people like the Mongol nation to take over the known world.  They have put food on the table of untold numbers of hunters throughout the history of the world.  In spite of their usefulness, arrows do have some draw backs.  What if your food is walking by at a distance of 600 meters?  You'll need some other tool to harvest it.  What if your target moves after you've fired?  There's no opportunity to change the course of your arrow once it's in flight.

How does the arrow relate to training ideas?  In some ways it's like a short term goal or strategy.  Is there a use for arrows in training?  Of course there are.  You might be a MMA fighter and your 8 week training camp leading you to peak conditioning for a fight is like an arrow.  You aim at a target a short distance away and fire.  There isn't much time to tweak and adjust your aim.  You fire the arrow and hope for the best.  For a powerlifter it could be the body weight cut leading into a big meet.  You know you have to shave off 10lbs in a relatively short time to make weight so you aim the arrow and fire.  These are some short term, quick strategies that are useful in the right context.

On the other hand, we have the airplane.  The longest passenger flight recorded was a 2005 Boeing voyage covering 13,423 miles without touching down.  That's just about 236,245 football fields.  This is like setting your overarching goal for training.  If your airplane goal is simply to be active for life, then it can make lots of connecting flights.  Maybe you start out in high school sports, try out powerlifting or weightlifting or running for awhile, make another stop in recreational sports or hiking, and continue picking up new physical hobbies as you move through life.  That's awesome, and if that describes you, keep it up!  It could mean setting a course for a particular target like becoming as strong as you can in the snatch and clean and jerk so you can compete, or being as fast as you can at a marathon.  The pilots (your coaches) can fine tune the course so that the airplane arrives on time, in the right place, and in one piece.

Whatever your goals are, make sure you're using the right tools to reach them.  If you aren't sure how to reach your goals, reach out to a coach who will work with you to help you.  My number one criteria for a coach is that they should be able to tell you why you should do what they are telling you in a simple, clear fashion.  If it's all big words and mumbo jumbo, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.  You want the best co-pilot for your flight that you can get, so don't settle for sub par coaching.  Whatever you're doing, whatever goals you're chasing, enjoy your flight!

Goals: Lasagna, Onions, Parfaits, and Ogres

What do lasagna, onions, parfaits, and ogres have in common?  Layers.  They all have layers.  What's so important about layers?  They make your goal setting manageable and appropriate to where you are all the time.  People are more alike than different in my experience, and when faced with a list of goals they would like to accomplish, most will try to accomplish them all at once, in one day.  That's very nearly impossible for all but the most unusual people.  To put that another way, if you put those kinds of expectations on friends and family, no one would want to be around you.  It's unfair, unreasonable, unrealistic, and about 11 other uns that you don't want applied to your plans and expectations.

So how do we start thinking in layers?  It's simple, but requires a little bit of patience.  If you haven't read my post on setting SMART goals, you might want to bounce over there and read it before you continue.  Layering goals doesn't make as much sense when you don't have clear goals to work with.  I'll use a real world example to try to make this as clear as possible.  I've been talking with a friend about her goals and plans for the year.  She did a pretty good job of making them concrete and clear. Now she has to figure out how to put them in motion in a complementary fashion so that it will work.

Here are the goals:

1. Lose 10lbs of body fat in 6 months achieving 18% body fat and maintain that indefinitely.

2. Do a Crossfit workout of the day or cardio session lasting at least 20 minutes 3 times per week.

3. Strength train at least 2 times per week with a progressive plan which is TBD at the moment.

4. Cut out mindless snacking.

5. Increase water intake to half of body weight in ounces per day.

6. Increase hip mobility to the point where I can sit cross legged on the floor with knees 20 degrees off the floor or less in 1 year.

7. Mobility work 2x per day (AM/PM) every day.

8. Mobility workout at least 1x per week.

9. Complete a yoga class at least 2x per week.

There are a few ways to approach this, but I like the idea of starting with the easiest steps first.  What is easiest will be different for everyone, but here is one way to layer in these goals in order to be more successful in the long term.

First, I would suggest hitting the daily hydration goal.  Drinking half of your body weight in ounces per day is a good starting place for people in temperate climates.  If you live somewhere very dry and hot, you probably need to up that a little bit to keep up with the environment.  After hitting that goal for 2-3 weeks, add another layer.  Second, choosing one of the training goals to start tackling.  I'm of the opinion that if you only have time to train either strength or endurance, you should choose strength.  In short, a task is only an endurance task if you're strong enough to complete it more than once.  In this example that means layering in goal 3, to strength train in a progressive manner 2 times per week.  For less experienced trainees, strength training twice per week can make a big difference.  Once that becomes consistent I can add another layer.  Third, I would add in some cardiovascular training.  In this example that is CrossFit workouts that will help her to burn fat and stay "in shape".  You can see how adding a layer at a time and allowing it to stick is a more helpful way to approach this than just doing everything at once and almost immediately running out of gas.

The real magic of this system is what happens when life gets hectic, as it will from time to time.  Time off is unavoidable.  Maybe it's travel for work or a vacation that derails your expectation to strength train twice per week.  Maybe it's an illness or injury that keeps you from doing your cardio.  It could simply be flagging motivation, you could be tired of working so hard all the time.  Whatever the cause, we all have the challenges and pressures of real life to deal with.  The trick is knowing how to deal with them while still accomplishing your main goals.  When your fitness goals all require a time investment, you have to know which ones are most important, and when to pursue them.

When I think of my training and goals as layers, I remove a layer or two and strip my training down to the bare minimum during the chaotic periods of life without doing away with the core habits that will help me to stay healthy and fit.  When things have settled down I can reintroduce the layers that I had to strip away and get back to pursuing a broader range of goals.  So next time you're thinking about what you want to accomplish and the list looks to big to get through, be an ogre.  Implement your goals in layers and find out that you really can accomplish what you set out to do without being completely overwhelmed in the process.

The Minimum Effective Dose

More is always better right?  Well... not always.  In fact, maybe not very often.  An age old trap for lifters is thinking that if I just do a little more work every time I go to the gym, I'll keep getting closer to meeting my goals.  So you keep going to the gym and hitting it hard, sometimes twice a day, week in and week out. You start to notice that your shoulders are aching when you wake up in the morning, but you've got a deadline for your goals so you have to keep adding weight.  Then your knees start to hurt, but you need to get a few extra sets of squats in.  You're not sleeping that well.  Even worse, your progress has come grinding to a halt.  Now what?  It seems like adding even more work is the ticket to get the numbers moving again, but where is the motivation to train?  You're hurting, tired, and stuck.  So let's rewind, what should you have done?

Training is like medicine.  You administer a dose and look for a response.  You don't prescribe chemotherapy to someone suffering from a cold.  You tell them to go take some over the counter decongestant and wait it out.  It's the minimum effective dose.  If you start at the nuclear option, there's nowhere else to progress if that doesn't work.  In addition, most drugs have side effects.  The less of a drug you can take to get the desired effect, the less you have to deal with the side effects.  Thinking of training in this way means, I'll do the least amount of work in the simplest possible way that will garner a training effect.  It limits the side effects (excessive soreness, joint pain, potential injury) and it leaves me with options for increasing the dose when the current dose stops working (different set and rep schemes, more sessions, etc.).

We can look at this from a variety of angles.  If you're training for strength and a simple progression of 3 sets of 5 reps will allow you to make progress, why make it any more complicated than that?  Pick all of the low hanging fruit you can, because progress is going to be much more difficult in the future.  There's no need to add bands and chains and specialty bars when you're a new lifter.  There's no need to rotate workouts every week or to do odd lifts to build your basic movements.  Simply practice the basic movements with enough weight on the bar to allow you to make progress.

If you're a crossfitter, do the WOD with weights and movements that allow you to move with the highest possible quality.  Get used to your body and learn how to use it.  You probably don't need to be training 2-3 times per day, 6 days per week at this point.  Get your 3-5 training sessions in per week and allow time for recovery.  When the progress stops, then you can address the reasons and perhaps the next step will be to up the dose.

If you're a runner, follow a plan that doesn't run you into the ground 365 days out of the year.  I think the reason so many runners are injured is that they don't have an off season.  Repetitive pounding on your ankles, knees, and hips is going to take its toll.  Build your running to your competitive season and then bring the dose back down to allow your body to recover.  Couch to 5k programs are great, if they get you off the couch and prepared for a 5k.  However, it could be that you should take a slower progression towards being the runner you want to be to allow you to make progress over a longer period of time.

So take a step back and look at your training.  Are you doing too much?  Do you go into workouts recovered and ready to work hard, or are you feeling beat up and tired?  If the goal is progress, and it should be, then you need to keep the goal the goal rather than just doing work for work's sake.  Look for the minimum effective dose that will carry you towards your goals.  Be smart, stay healthy, and train hard!

If you enjoy these blog posts, please take a minute to click the little buttons below and share them with your friends.  I think these are training messages that can make a difference to help you reach your goals, and would love to share this knowledge with as many people as I can.  You could also take a moment to join our facebook group.  Last plug, follow me on twitter and instagram @disruptivefit for updates on training and new posts. It's full of trainers and lifters who enjoy some discussion and are a great resource for training questions.  Thanks for reading!

Reset

"...have you tried turning it off and then back on again?"

You can hear the tech support guy's tired voice intone over the phone the first step of every technology troubleshooting process ever.  He's said it so many times to so many people, many of them inexperienced enough with technology that turning it off might require a few steps, that the phrase has lost its meaning to him.  It's a wonderful thing to keep in mind that it's almost always possible to reset the system.  It seems like that is part of the natural process of things in life, although sometimes it can be forced upon you if you are not diligently keeping tabs on what's important.  Because everything in the world falls apart when energy is not being spent to keep it together and we have limited energy and attention to keep it all moving, we'll be faced with the need to reset a variety of things at various times.  So what does that look like?

As a husband and a dad, I need constant resets in family life.  It's easy to take the people who are always around you for granted.  So I need to reset my attention and where I spend my energy to make sure that I'm working on keeping family a priority both in day-to-day life and in the big 30,000 foot level decisions we make.  Otherwise people tend to drift apart due to the universal principle I mentioned above, everything tends towards falling apart.  In this case I like to reset by unplugging from the nonessential parts of life, focusing on my family, and then plugging in the other stuff little by little.

As a business owner and as an employee I need constant resets.  If you aren't diligent in what you are doing as your trade, it's pretty easy to get in a rut and start mailing it in.  Once things get stale, you aren't doing your best work, no innovation is likely, and someone who is still hungry and having fun will be vying for your spot.  My favorite reset from working is camping, but we all need some kind of break to turn it off so we can turn it back on again.  Recreation is literally re-creating yourself through play and various pursuits you enjoy so that you can return to work refreshed with some new perspectives and ideas to keep things moving forward in new and interesting ways.

As a lifter I need regular resets.  If you continuously load your body with more and more work, you will eventually either bench press a school bus or you will break.  While I've seen a few guys who looked like a bus was not out of the question, it's more likely that you'll develop tendinitis or tear a muscle or some other malady if you never reset your training to give your body a rest.  If you don't respect your body and always ask more and more of it, it will let you know that that is unacceptable.  You can't treat your friends and loved ones like that or you won't have many left hanging around you.  While an injury can be a huge set back, sometimes it's your body's way of forcing a reset.  If it happens to you, take the time to consider why it happened.  Are you pressing towards your goals with too much haste, not allowing for things like recovery and rest?  Are your goals even realistic?  Have things been hurting for awhile, but you're ignoring it or treating it with your daily regimen of vitamin I (ibuprofen)?  Maybe it will go away is a five word phrase that leads to failure.

Since this is mostly a training blog, let's think of a few ways your training could be in need of a reset.

1.  You've stopped making progress.  This is the clearest sign you need to rethink things and take a new angle on your training.  If something you were doing was working and now it is not, you need to assess and make adjustments.  Dan John famously said that everything works... for about six weeks.  When you stop getting stronger, it's time to reset.  That could mean changing exercises or doing the same exercises with different implements for a little while.  More likely just changing the load, sets, and reps will do the trick.  The newer you are as a lifter, the less variety you need in your training to keep making progress.  The simplest reset is just to knock about 10% of the weight off the bar and then build back up.  It seems like your going backwards, but the reset gives your body some much needed recovery and allows you to train long term rather than burning out in a few months.

2.  Your technique is falling apart.  It's pretty common for technique to suffer as you approach 100% effort on a lift.  While some small changes in technique might be okay, big changes under a load can lead to injury.  The easiest example for this is squatting. When I have a lifter who is making great progress in bar weight but they stop squatting all the way to proper depth because they are afraid they'll be stapled to the floor at the bottom, it's time for a reset.  In this fashion a trainee can unload the bar some, get a little rest, and practice the exercise for more reps with less load on their body.  As they progress back up in weight the rest and the skill practice lead to new personal records.

3.  You've lost interest.  Let's face it... squatting every week for your whole life might be a little boring for some people.  It's probably the best way to be really strong and durable, but only if you do it.  So if your program is so boring that you're avoiding the gym, it could be time to step back and reassess what you're doing and why you're doing it.  Then you can reset by setting up a new program that adds in a little variety or perhaps add a training partner for a better training environment.  This one also requires a critical eye for program hopping.  If you're making progress on your current program, don't hop around looking for shortcuts.  There aren't any.

4. You're injured.  It happens, and when it happens if forces you to reset.  This could be a car accident that was an acute and totally unexpected injury, but more often for trainees it's something that was totally avoidable.  You've been ignoring all of the warning signals and pushing your body to failure.  You haven't been eating enough of the right foods or sleeping enough or drinking enough water.  That knee has been aching for months, but you haven't stopped to try to figure out why.  When something finally breaks, your body is forcing you to slow down and reset your training.  Early injuries in lifting tend to be smaller than when you're strong enough to move weights that will really break your body when your technique is sloppy or you're over-trained.  Listen to your body and respect it by taking advantage of the above resets and you can probably avoid this type of reset.

Resets are a natural part of life and required to continue making progress.  While it seems like a step back, a simple adjustment to the way you think about resets will make them a constant companion and friend.  Rather than thinking of it as losing ground, think of it as an artist who upon finishing a part of his masterpiece steps back to see how it fits with the whole.  If it adds something to the piece, it stays.  If not, it gets reworked to bring everything together.  Stand back, take in the whole picture, and reset what is necessary.

Every Rep Is Practice

I spend a lot, maybe even most, of my time in gyms.  I'm blessed to coach and lift in environments where people are really working hard, but even though I get to train in solid gyms, it's pretty common to see people going through the motions.  It can happen for a variety of reasons, but I think the biggest one is inattentiveness.  When you are not present for each and every rep of a training session, you will get less benefit from your training and you will create bad habits that have to be retrained in the future.

Every rep you complete of every exercise you do is practice.  Whether you are practicing for grace and perfection in your squat or for wobbly broken knees and a back that is out of position on your heavier sets is up to you.  The biggest offender is warm up sets.  As you unrack the empty bar, you should move with the same precision and purpose as a world record attempt.  Ed Coan talks about the methodical nature of his squat set up in a recent podcast with Mark Bell.  He made the point that because every rep was identical and intentional that when he came to the heavier weights (and he knew about heavy weights with a 900lb deadlift at a body weight of just 220lbs) it was just like the light ones in technical execution.

Musashi, famed Japanese swordsman and author of the Book of Five Rings, when talking about training said essentially the same thing, only about 500 years before me.  He wrote that when one trained they should do so strongly and with purpose.  There is no sense in wasted reps done without attention to detail, striving for perfection.  In weight lifting they build bad habits that can lead to injury and missing your full potential as an athlete.  In sword fighting, it can get you killed.

Knowing that just going through the motions sucks the life out of your training, how do you stay present for each and every rep in a training session?  Start by simply making an effort to be aware of what you are doing.  Feel your breathing, your balance, your position as you move through your warm up sets.  Strive for perfection as you prepare your body to work hard.  Intentionally set aside intruding thoughts as you train.  When it's time to squat, it's time to think about squats.  When the work report or assignment from school starts to creep in, set it aside and practice focusing on the task at hand.  When your attention is divided, you will not work as hard and the work will not be as effective as a result.  Realize that this is a practice and it will take practice to master it.  When you are making an effort to stay focused on one thing, you will probably notice how distracted you tend to be as you move through a training session.  With time and discipline, you will be able to be fully present and fully immerse yourself in your training.  That kind of 100% effort, stretched out over a long period of time is the way to maximum results.  Remember, every rep is practice.  As you practice, you will develop habits.  Your habits will dictate your results.  Put your full attention into every rep, every day and watch your training take off.

Goals: Direction

Direction is one of the most difficult things to find in life, just ask any 23 year old college graduate.  For the last 16 years someone else has been setting their goals.  It starts with colors, shapes, and letters and ends with some pretty complex arrangements of colors, shapes, and letters.  But now you're a graduate.  No more teachers and institutions directing your path.  So what will you do now?  It's up to you.  For a few motivated grads, this means that the world is their oyster, full of opportunity.  For many, it's a paralyzing task to try to determine the direction for the next 50 years of life.

I find the gym to be a pretty decent analog to life.  One of the most difficult things for many trainees is deciding on a direction to take their training.  Sure, there are a few who seem to effortlessly glide into an intelligent program and solid goals, but for the most part that is not the case.  In my case, I trained for nearly 10 years before really understanding what I was doing and why I was doing it.

At its worst a lack of direction can lead to rampant program hopping, over-education, and a discouraging lack of progress.  At best it leads to mediocre training that is too diluted to bring any real results.  Couple this with poor habits outside of the gym and you have a recipe for landing back on the couch in 2 months or less.  While we all secretly wish we could just lay on the couch instead of going to the gym from time to time, we all know that it will not end well.

Your direction in the gym should be determined by your long term goals.  If the direction of your training is not relevant to what you are trying to accomplish, it just doesn't make any sense.  You might need to hire a coach to help you think through and plan the action steps to move you towards that goal.  Setting the direction of your training is a lot like investing, most people don't do that without good advice from a qualified professional.  While what happens with your money is pretty important, I'd argue that keeping your body healthy and ready for any necessary task is probably a little more important.  So don't skip working with a qualified coach to keep an eye on your overall program and to help keep your training moving in the right direction.

Once you've set your course, it's time to put your head down and grind it out.  Stop reading all the fitness magazines offering you 3 weeks to huge guns and a tight butt.  Stay the course and continuously move in the direction you have chosen.  Don't be in a hurry to see results.  Instead, focus on the process of getting a little bit better every single day.  Direction is a long term process.  It will guide the next 20 years of your training.  That means there might be small tweaks and course corrections, but huge shifts should be fairly rare.

In summary, setting the direction of your training is hugely important.  Start with your goals, talk with a coach, put your hand to the plow, and get to work.  Don't constantly watch the scale or become preoccupied with numbers on the bar.  Do be preoccupied with doing the next right thing, every single day, for the rest of your life.  If you miss here and there, it's not going to be a problem because the overall direction of your training is going to keep you moving.  It's when you lose your direction that you find yourself back on the couch. 

Focus on the Process

We live in a results oriented society.  Everything you buy, you buy because of what you expect the results of that purchase to be.  You bought the minivan because it would result in more space and easier transportation for a growing family.  You bought the big screen tv because it would result in more entertainment or a better view of the big game.  You bought the gym membership because it would result in a trimmer waist and bigger guns.  This is a pretty reasonable way to think about things.  You only have so many resources to invest, so investing them in things that will result in outcomes you want is pretty smart.

The problem is, when applied to training, it can be a little frustrating at times.  You've probably been frustrated with the results you expected from your training in the past.  Some dvd set or personal trainer promised you 6" off of your waist in 21 days and in spite of your zeal and good intentions, it didn't deliver.  You tried a crazy fad diet for 30 days, but it didn't deliver the advertised results.  You bought the next neon green supplement that said it would get you completely jacked and tan, just like the guy in the ad, and it didn't deliver.  Chasing results can be expensive and frustrating.  I think there is a better way than trying to buy results or expecting a quick fix.  Instead of focusing on the results, I think you should focus on the process.

What does it mean to focus on the process?  First you have to realize that it took you your whole life to get where you are today.  Get up, and go look an a mirror.  The result of the x number of years you have lived and the decisions you have made and the habits you have formed is looking back at you.  You didn't become you overnight, for better or for worse.  Second, you have to realize that any kind of significant change you want to make is going to take time.  Unless you're starting out fairly lean and muscular, you're probably not going to see your abs in 6 weeks, especially if you haven't seen them in 6 years.  You probably won't be the fastest or the strongest, which leads us to the next point.  Third, leave ego and pride behind.  Everyone starts, or restarts, somewhere.  Join a gym where people will help you think through your goals and create strategies to meet them.  When you get there, you might not stand out. You will need to change your habits, a little at a time, to be the habits of someone who can do what you want to be able to do.  So that's all well and good, but how do you do it?

When you set your focus on the process, you set goals, and then you do the simple things every single day.  You drive to the gym.  You eat enough of the right things to support your goals.  You go to bed on time.  You take your fish oil. Every day you do the next right thing that will move you towards your goals.  It's profoundly simple to get leaner, stronger, and fitter.  So simple that instead of just putting your head down and pushing through it, you want to look for the next best thing that promises results.  All the advertising is flashy and exciting, but the products rarely deliver, so try this instead.  I'll give you a 100% guarantee that if you focus on the process and do the next right thing that supports your goals every day, you will crush your goals.

If you want some help nailing down your goals, or creating some action steps to carry you towards them so you can focus on the process, I'll be happy to help.  Comment below or send an email to disruptivefitness at gmail.com for some assistance.

Change of Pace

I'm taking a break from the normal 3 and a half training days per week focusing on the big three for a 5 week challenge/rehab program.  After some friends tipped me off to a new Dan John article on the program, I decided to give it a go.

The program involves 20 training sessions, 4 per week for 5 weeks.  You could do it 2 days on and 1 day off, but I like having the weekend "off" since I tend to play around in the garage gym Sunday afternoon.  In each training session you will complete 500 kettlebell swings.  That's right 500, it's not a typo.  They are to be executed in 5 rounds of 10, 15, 25, and 50 rep sets.  Between sets you can add a barbell or other lift to round out the program.  The barbell lift should be executed in sets of 1, 2, and 3 reps.  A bodyweight exercise could be done for 2, 3, and 5 reps between sets of swings.  A beginner could just forego the extra lift per workout if the overall workload is too much.

The workout I completed this morning looked like this:
KB Swing 55 lb bell/Press 135lb barbell

5 Rounds for total time:
10 Swings/1 Press,
15 Swings/2 Presses,
25 Swings/3 Presses,
Rest 1 min.
50 Swings.
3 minutes of corrective work (stretching, rolling, etc.)

1 down, 19 more training sessions to go.

Here's my rationale for the break from my normal training, in bullet point fashion for you speed readers.

• I'm currently eating a paleo-ish diet with my wife which will inevitably lead to me leaning out a good bit.  I expect to lose about 15lbs this month without going hungry.  Doing a workout that will encourage me to shed fat while maintaining and possibly building lean mass is a great complement to the diet.
• I'm in pretty lame cardio shape.  You just don't need very much cardio to be a powerlifter.  That being said, I'm okay with a little balance and this program hits what I want.  I can do cardio while training for strength without running.
• Since I injured my hip a year ago in a powerlifting meet my left side has been lagging.  I'm looking at this as an opportunity to retrain my body to fire the whole left side with 10,000 reps of 55lb kettlebell swings.
• I can hold onto some strength and build up some weak points in the process.  I plan to use standing overhead presses, front squats, L-sit pull-ups, and bench presses as my lifts to offset the swings.  Each of those will be building a particular weakness for me to prepare me for better overall performance upon my return to regular training in November.
• 5 sets of 3 minutes of corrective work mixed into the training session.   I'm notoriously bad at doing mobility work on my own.  This builds in some opportunities to rehab some pain I have and get healthy.

Anyone want to take the challenge with me?  Comment below and join in at the facebook page to share your experience with other movers and shakers.  (I almost said swingers, but that wouldn't have been correct...)

Do It Anyway

Yesterday was a bad day for training.  I was up too late the night before, so my sleep was cut short.  I really don't like it when I don't get enough sleep.  I didn't eat enough the day before.  You can't blame anyone but yourself for those problems.  I've been working more and later and earlier and I'm a little tired.  So is everyone.  So after that set up, here's how the day went.

Alarm went off early AM.  I didn't want to get up, had time to sleep in.  Did it anyway.

I was hungry, but didn't feel like making breakfast before I went to train.  Did it anyway.

Low energy, not feeling very motivated to even drive to the gym.  Did it anyway.

Wanted to cut the warm up short because I just wasn't into it.  Did it anyway.

My training partner showed up, he was feeling pretty beat up and didn't want to work that hard.  Did it anyway.

Finished our main lift for the day and didn't feel like doing our assistance work.  Did it anyway.

What did I learn from all of this?  That it doesn't matter that much how you feel.  It's what you decide to do that matters.  No one on the platform, the field, the court, or the office cares that much how you feel today.  They care what you do.  At the beginning of college football season in the US there are zero fans who care how their team's head coach feels about the game this weekend.  If their team isn't winning, they want him fired.  If players don't produce, it doesn't matter to the fans and coaches that they didn't sleep well last night or eat enough to support training and playing.

What can you take away from my bad day?  That you aren't going to have the best training session of your life every time you enter the gym, and that doesn't really matter.  Some days are going to be really bad, and that doesn't matter.  What matters is that you do the work.  Consistently.  Day-in, day-out you show up and work hard.  You're tired?  So is everyone else.  You don't feel like it today?  Quit tomorrow.  Never let what you want right now get in the way of what you really want.  Don't be ruled by the tyranny of desire.

I'll see you at the gym.

23 Hour Rule: You Can't Outwork a Bad Diet (Part 1)

In the last installment of the 23 Hour Rule, I introduced the idea that what you do outside of the gym matters for your progress in the gym and in competition.  Since many training programs call for about 3 hours of work per week in the gym, we found that the ratio of time outside of the gym to time in the gym is about 56 to 1.  What that means to the average gym goer is that your training is just a drop in the bucket of life.  While you can accomplish a lot, and I do mean a lot, in just 3 hours a week of training, you cannot undo 165 horrible hours in that short of a time.  So where are we going with that idea today?  Your diet.

When people say diet, what they usually mean is some fad they've adopted for weight loss.  As I've mentioned before, I think weight loss by itself is a terrible goal because it's too short sighted.  What do I do once the weight is off?  Generally, I go back to the habits that resulted in me being overweight enough to make radical changes in lifestyle.  That doesn't do anyone any favors.

What I mean when I say diet is the habits you have around food consumption.  Most Americans eat a diet of convenience, meaning they eat what is easy.  That results in most people being overweight or obese.  (That's not hyperbole, click the link.)  The idea seems to be that, I work so hard and I'm so busy that the only way to get the 3 meals a day that I NEED, is to hit the drive through for a couple of them and then microwave something out of a box when I get home.  How else can I possibly survive?

Before we go any further, I need to challenge 2 ideas mentioned above.  The first is that eating should be easy.  That is entirely dependent upon what you mean when you say it.  If easy means carrying around a 3rd grader worth of body fat and using the CPAP when you sleep, then that doesn't feel very easy to me.  It sounds like making an already full life more difficult.  If it means you can generally attempt to shake off any and all personal responsibility for what goes into your body, then I don't see how that will end well.  What about having sustained energy to get you through your busy day?  What about being healthy and looking healthy?  That sounds a lot easier when I start to think in the long term.

And what about the people who depend on you?  Many of my readers are parents.  Is it going to be easier to teach your children to eat by your example and see them thrive, or to feed them from drive-through windows and watch them join the ranks of the overweight and obese?  I understand that you're very busy, but are there things that could be trimmed out for a healthier lifestyle?  This is in no way an attack on already very busy, tired, and overworked parents... I am one, and we only have 1 kid in our house.  Instead, it's a call to evaluate your habits, and look for ways to make better habits, both for your benefit and for those who depend on you.

The second idea I want to challenge is that you absolutely must eat at least 3 meals per day, every day, for the rest of your life to survive.  Humans are survival machines.  No matter what belief you subscribe to, we've been around for a long time.  There were long periods of scarcity throughout human history where people lived off of less food than some people eat in a week for long periods of time.  If you don't have 3 meals a day, you will not die.  If you do not eat for the next week, you will be just fine.  This means that if your option for a meal is low quality food or don't eat, you certainly have the option to not eat until a better choice comes available.  Life in the first world means that a better choice will come available in about as much time as it takes to drive to the nearest grocery store.

Start evaluating how you are eating.  In my experience, people tend to thoughtlessly form their dietary habits.  Give it a little thought, and stay tuned because in the next part we'll talk a little more about what to eat to support your training and your healthy lifestyle.  Following that post there will be some thoughts on how to make healthy eating a little more convenient for you.  

If you need a little help with your diet sooner than the next post, you can reach me through the comments or my email disruptivefitness@gmail.com.  Further, there are other goal oriented trainees and trainers hanging out at our facebook group who would love to get you know you and help you out.  As always, thanks for reading and supporting this blog!

Enjoy it!

I've been under the weather enough that I haven't even been able to get out to the gyms to coach.  Without being dramatic, I really miss being under a heavy bar and seeing others struggle and succeed.  Being sick for the last week has given me some more perspective on training.  Enjoy it!  You don't know what might happen to remove you from the training hall for a few days, a week, or forever.  Be in the moment.  You aren't doing workouts just to do workouts.  We don't exercise here, we train.  Each time you enter the gym, it's a sacred space where you set aside the day and just live for an hour or so.  Hopefully, it's not the only part of life where you get to do that, but it's certainly one of the easiest.  Have fun with your training.  Train with people you like.  Make all the progress you can in the time that you have.  Most of all, just simply appreciate that you have a body and mind that can do the things we do day-in and day-out.

From now on, when presented with a workout that looks rough, erase phrases like, "That sucks!" and "I don't want to do that" from your vocabulary.  Instead look at every hurdle as an opportunity to learn something about yourself and improve.  You're doing everything you can to be more awesome every time you slay the dragon in front of you.  So never stop fighting.  When faced with the choice between training and watching one more episode of whatever on netflix, cancel your netflix and get to the gym, or on the trail, or the road, etc.  Work your tail off while you have time to do so, because there is a time coming when you will not be able to train like you do now.

While my illness is a minor and very temporary set back, it provides some focus.  What is important to me and why?  I'll tell you this, the first priority is not the gym.  I haven't been able to play with my infant daughter or spend much quality time with my lovely wife for most of the week due to my consistent elevated temperature, and that's a way bigger bummer than missing a training session or two.  It's reminded me that I do really enjoy lifting and coaching, and besides being bored out of my mind on quarantine, I'm beyond ready to get back to the gym.  I hope I'll see you there!

Exercising or Training?

When you think of the word exercise, what comes to mind?  Walking in circles in the woods carrying heavy stuff on military duty?  A thought experiment?  If you're like me, the first thing that comes to mind is the cardio theater.  25 treadmills lined up facing televisions to keep you entertained while you burn calories.  That concept alone is pretty crazy.  Think about this: if you are reading this blog, you likely live in a place where calories are so available and affordable that it's nothing to you to spend money on a gym membership to go and burn them.  That logic should shake you up a little bit.  Are you just exercising so you can burn calories, essentially wasting the energy that you consume on a daily basis?  I hope not, that's a pretty circular and pointless exercise, at least to me.

So what's the alternative to exercising and burning calories?  Simple, it's training.  So what's the difference?  As I noted above, exercising is essentially just moving around aimlessly.  Training is working towards a goal.  What is the point of basic training?  It is to produce something, a baseline capable soldier.  When you talk to a triathlete who is preparing for a big race, they will tell you they are training for it.  A strength athlete getting ready for a big meet?  S/He's training.

Consider why you're heading to the gym in the first place.  It is not my goal to get the exercisers out of the gym, although that could free up many occupied squat racks.  (Unless you own it, don't curl in it.)  Instead, I want to infuse their exercising with purpose and transform them into trainees.  If you want to think more on setting goals to give your training value, I recommend that you start here, with my article on setting SMART goals.

Need help figuring out how to apply the SMART principle to your training?  I'm always happy to help.  You can reach me through the comments or my email disruptivefitness@gmail.com.  Further, there are other goal oriented trainees and trainers hanging out at our facebook group who would love to get you know you and help you out.  As always, thanks for reading and supporting this blog.