What I've Learned So Far

Good workout today. Details:

Warmup 1 — Spin bike for 5 minutes.
Warmup 2 — Foam roller.

A1 — Dumbbell bent-over rows: 8 x 40# warmup, 8 x 50#, 8 x 55#, 8 x 55#
A2 — Incline dumbbell bench press: 3 x 10 x 60#’s (barely got last set)

B1 — Rotator cuff exercises: bands, Swiss ball against wall
B2 — Barbell squats: 8 x 95# warmup, 3 x 15 x 135#

C1 — Standing barbell military press: 10 x 45#, 10 x 55#, 10 x 65#
C2 — Standing EZ-bar curls: 3 x 10 x 75# (failed on last rep of last set)

D — Box jumps: 3 x 12 @ 18″ box

Finale — Steam room.

The letter groupings indicate that I did those exercises in alternation, i.e. I swapped back and forth between rows and bench press before switching over to rotator cuffs and squats.

A gym trainer and I talked through some variations on the box jump, e.g. doing jumps from a squat position instead of standing tall. For the last set of them, I held a 6# medicine ball in my hands. While I think this is a good challenge for balance, I’m not quite ready for it in terms of my coordination. (No one ever accused my of being highly coordinated.) I landed a little sour on one of the reps in the last set, and tweaked either the vastus medialis or the sartorius above my right knee.

Oh, well — live and learn.

Since it’s the end of January (and does anybody know where January went?), I’m thinking back on what I did this month, what I failed to do, and what I want to do better for February.

• Good things in January: Introduced some Crossfit-style work with box jumps; launched a squat routine; finally started doing Turkish get-ups for shoulder stability; did more work on flexibility.
• Missed opportunities in January: Because I was under the weather for a week-plus in the middle of the month — and because I simply took my eye off the ball — I did just nine workouts during the month. Worse, I did two proper cardio sessions. (Note that I’m not counting short cardio warmups like the one I did today.) Because of the inconsistency, I didn’t (apparently) drop any body fat, and I didn’t stay on the steady weight-and-reps progression for the bench press that I had been on during December.
• Intentions for February: Better consistency, aiming for 20 workouts total in 28 days; much more cardio and closer attention to nutrition, with visible effects in terms of body fat (the picture of Arnold = motivation); continue to work in more aspects of the “300″ workout (context here); resume progression on bench press; establish sound progression in squat and deadlift.

What do you think? And what are YOUR training goals for February?
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(Image via David van der Mark, used under a CC-Share Alike license.)

If you want to be successful, you will rearrange your priorities, and put your focus where it belongs: on the one thing you want to obtain. Results will follow.

–Dave Tate, powerlifter and fitness entrepreneur

Be advised: the page just linked has foul language, plus a gory picture of a soldier’s arm after it got shredded by a bomb in Afghanistan. If that doesn’t put you off, the story of the soldier’s recovery and return to powerlifting is an inspiring one.

That’s a picture of Tate on the right. His philosophy is uncompromising both because that’s how he’s wired, and because that’s what has worked to make him successful as a strength athlete and a businessman. As he says elsewhere, “I don’t do moderation.”

You can find out more about Tate, and sample from his highly knowledgeable but frequently R-rated observations on strength training and life, via TMuscle, EliteFTS, and the “One Movement” series of weightlifting videos.

In fact, over-tip them handsomely. If you’re dining alone and paying diner prices, it’s not amiss to tip them as much as your meal cost.

My father taught me this when I was young. He also taught me to make steady eye contact with breakfast servers, and to strike up friendly conversation with them when they have the time.

Why go to this trouble?

• They don’t make much money. Their wages are low, and — unlike your server when you sit down to a fancy dinner — they can’t expect a lot of large tickets that will call for large tips at 15%.
• It’s often the best job they can get. Think about how you’d make ends meet if you lived off of tips from breakfast patrons.
• They get up early. By the time you roll into the diner, they’ve already gotten up, maybe taken care of their kids, cleaned up, traveled to work, and served however many patrons got there before you.
• You’re a perfect sweetheart, but some of their patrons aren’t.

When I was traveling earlier this week, I had a kind waitress who kept a smile on her face while she did the work of a couple of people. I had the cashier add a $10.00 tip to the cost of my food.

I’m hoping it put a smile on her face when she found out. She deserved it.
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(Photo by Sarah Gilbert, used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)

Inadequate planning on my part meant that I missed Wednesday’s workout,* but the sessions on Monday and earlier today were pretty good.

Monday, 25 January 2010

• Foam roller to loosen muscles.
• Barbell squats: 15 x 45#, 15 x 65#, 15 x 85#
• Hammer Strength lat machine: 8 x 180# warmup, 3 x 8 x 235#
• Incline d.b. bench press: 3 x 8 x 60#’s
• Seated d.b. military press: 3 x 6 x 40#’s
• EZ-bar curls: 3 x 8 x 75#

Friday, 29 January 2010

• Roller.
• Barbell squats: 15 x 95#, 15 x 115#, 15 x 135#
• Hammer Strength lat machine: 8 x 180# warmup, 3 x 8 x 240#
• Box jumps: 3 x 10 @ 18″ box
• Incline d.b. bench press: 3 x 8 x 60#’s
• Rotator-cuff pulleys: 10 x 15#/side
• EZ-bar curls: 3 x 8 x 75#
• Dips: 2 x 10

The dips at the end were nice for blasting the triceps and chest; I have to be careful with that exercise because it tends to aggravate my right shoulder.

The box jumps are a first step toward someday doing the whole “300” workout, designed by Mark Twight as a physical and psychological challenge for the cast and stuntmen he trained for the film 300.

Twight’s approach to training those men, along with the specifics of that final, harrowing workout, is outlined on this page at his gym’s site.

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* I drove up to Dallas on Wednesday to make a business presentation. Although I did have plenty to keep me busy before I left town around lunchtime, I could have squeezed in a workout if I had kept a better eye on the clock. One general principle of fitness I would urge you to embrace is this: except in truly extreme circumstances (you just broke your leg, you have lupus, you’re in solitary confinement, etc.), you miss workouts because you don’t make them a high enough priority — not because circumstances “forced” you to miss them.

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(Image by Sebastian Mary, used under a Creative Commons Share Alike license.)

I am filled with what some call SQUEE.

And why, you may ask?

I’ll tell you why: because Doc Searls — yes, THAT Doc Searls — made a Twitter list called “postcluetrainians” . . . and he put ME on it.

Believe me when I tell you that the recursive nerditude of this (Searls, Twitter, The Cluetrain Manifesto) has not escaped me. But believe me, also, when I tell you I haven’t had this much nerdcrush squee going on since Kathy Sierra commented on a post here back in October.

That is all. You may now carry on with your normal activities; I hope you’ll bear with me, though, if I remain mooney-eyed for a little while.

Real training means committing to the process: showing up at the keyboard or behind the lens or in the ring or on the rope, and doing it religiously, even when you’re tired, even when you’ve got nothing to say, even when it’s too cold, too hot, too hard.

People wish they had talent. They see it as a practice-free ticket to crowd-stunning skill. But talent doesn’t exist. “Talent” doesn’t get results; practice and devotion do.

–Scott Semple

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Updated, Thursday evening: Thanks to Semple himself for providing the link to the original — I’ve corrected it above. I originally came across his essay “The Talent Myth” on the Gym Jones site.

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(Photo by lecercle, used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)

Here’s your inspiration:

Go.

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(Image by Andreina Schoeberlein, used under a CC-Noncommercial license.)

In the old days, soldiers marched behind a standard bearer, who’s flag or sigil represented the nation or the military unit. The symbol was up at the top of a pole so everyone, friend or foe, could see it. It gave courage to those marching behind it — and sometimes struck fear in those facing it.

The “standard” I’m talking about is your own dream or goal or vision for what you want from life. It could be primarily about work and job titles and money. It could be primarily about happiness and fulfillment and connection with loved ones. It could be your dream to travel around the world, or to run a marathon. Don’t let me or anyone else tell you what it “should” be — it’s your standard.

If you’re anything like me, you know it’s easy to take your eye off the standard. You mean to focus better, work more diligently, write every day, exercise regularly, spend quality and quantity time with your kids, track your finances better, et cetera et cetera. But you avert your gaze.

Sometimes it’s unintentional: A work project blows up right next to you, and your whole week — when you were going to get your inbox cleared out and spend some real time thinking about Gamebreaking Project X — goes to the dogs.

Sometimes the aversion grows from our own weakness: You’re scared of how badly the first draft of your Great American Novel is going to turn out, so you never even get started on it. You’re so scared, in fact, that you can’t even admit that you’re scared. You just hide your eyes like a small child.

What’s the antidote? I think you have to plant your standard somewhere obvious so that you can’t help but look at it. In his essay “Do It Now,” Steve Pavlina talks about the simple tricks he used to enforce clarity on himself when he was starting out as an entrepreneur:

Years ago (during the mid-90s), I went around my apartment putting up signs in every room that said “$5,000 / month.” That was my monthly business income goal at the time. Because I knew exactly what I wanted, I achieved that goal within a few weeks. I continued setting specific income goals, even amidst occasional setbacks, and I found this process very effective. It wasn’t just that it helped me focus on what I wanted — perhaps even more important is that it made it easy for me to disregard those things that weren’t on the path to my goal. For example, if you set a goal to earn $10,000/month, this can help you stop doing those things that will only earn you $5000/month.

Whether you reach your goals in a few weeks, as Pavlina did in this case, or just make steady progress toward them, the lesson is clear: plant that standard.

If you don’t know what that standard looks like, then you have your first task already cut out for you. Pavlina addresses this in the very next paragraph of his article:

If you aren’t yet at the point of clarity, then make that your first goal. It’s a big waste of time to go through life being unclear about what you want. Most people wallow way too long in the state of “I don’t know what to do.” They wait for some external force to provide them with clarity, never realizing that clarity is self-created. The universe is waiting on you, not the other way around, and it’s going to keep waiting until you finally make up your mind.

You need something to fight for — to work toward — in this life, or you’ll be forever coasting toward . . . whatever happens to come along. You might achieve the clarity you need with just a few words on an index card that you put in your wallet, or by drawing a picture, or by tacking up a photo clipped from a magazine above your desk, or by writing a treatise that only you will ever read. Use whatever works, but get clear on what you’re after, and then stay clear by planting that standard, literally and figuratively, right in the big middle of your life.

What can YOU do to plant your standard where you’re sure to see it?

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(Photo by Alan Jones, used under a Creative Commons Noncommercial license.)

Finally some placekickers had a good day in the NFL playoffs. Last night during the Vikings-Saints game, Fox answered my question from last week — “Is it just me, or has the kicking really been that bad?”

The answer: “No, it’s not just you.” During the regular season this year, NFL kickers hit more than 80 percent of all field-goal attempts; to that point in last night’s game (i.e. not including Hartley’s game-winning kick in overtime), kickers had barely broken 55 percent as a group during the playoffs.

Anyway, I picked right for both of the conference title games, and now we have the matchup called “Archie Manning’s Nightmare.” I expect 5,000+ stories on Manning in the next two weeks, and 50+ live shots of him when his son leads the Colts against Archie’s longtime team in Miami.

By the way, my buddy Kyle and I have matched each other round for round — pick for pick, in fact — up to this point in the playoffs.

And now, my Superbowl pick . . . Colts by 3, which would cement Peyton Manning’s historical reputation beyond any doubt.

That said, I’m hoping the Saints will pull it out. Even 4+ years after Katrina, New Orleans still needs all the love it can get.

What’s your pick?
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(Photo by Alysha Jordan, used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)

So, it will be obvious that I write here — and maybe it will be obvious that I’ve been writing here more steadily in recent weeks.

I also write every weekday at my professional blog, the Hoover’s Business Insight Zone.

Lately I’ve begun posting a weekly column on fitness and wellness on the CareOne “Life Balance” blog.

Thanks to the kind hospitality of some fellow Red Sox fans, I also share thoughts on sports at Big Papelbon. (Yes, I also write about sports here, but if it’s Boston-specific, or the kind of thing I know my buddies at BigP will like, I usually publish it there instead.)

When I can, I also write in other venues — blogs, magazines, what-have-you — and when that happens I often link to it or republish it on this blog or my professional blog. For example, I recently posted something on my Hoover’s blog to let people know about a feature of mine in the alumni magazine of UT’s McCombs School of Business.

Is that enough self-promotion for you? Because, you know, I’m sure I redouble my efforts, if the public cries out for it.

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(Photo by Ryan Sandridge, used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)