Go to the source…

In all things, go to the source.

It’s extremely popular these days for people to treat symptoms of disease, or to address perceived causes of illness, without digging deeper to find out what the real source of the problem is.

Coach Mike Boyle recently posted about ditching back squats in athletic training programs in favor of single-leg squats (thanks, Aaron, for linking to this).  His reasoning?  The low back is the limiting factor for building strength in the legs of athletes.

While that sounds really good, it ignores an important point.  THE LOW BACK IS THE PLACE WHERE LEG POWER TRANSFERS TO UPPER BODY POWER-EXPRESSION AND MOVEMENT.

Coach Boyle is saying that his athletes don’t back squat because it’s dangerous for their low backs, or that their low-backs can’t tolerate it.

Well, yes, if they’re substituting hip mobility for low-back mobility.  Or if their thoracic spines are so inflexible that they can’t rack a bar on their traps properly.  Or if their hamstrings are so tight that their hips dive under when they sit down.

Thing is, the problem could be any OR ALL of those.  Or it could be calf/ankle ROM limitations.  Or it could be that they just have poor motor-patterning.  Etc. etc. etc.

Bypassing the back squat because an athlete has functional limitations is like staying away from vegetables because they’re hard to chew.

You aren’t solving the problem.  If anything, you’re going to make it worse!

You have to address the problems before you start loading the body.  You can’t slap load on a dysfunctional frame and expect it to iron itself out.

If anyone wants to know how to fix their dysfunctions, go get Pete Egoscue’s book “Pain Free” and read it and apply it to yourself.  Or, go to an Egoscue clinic and get a e-cise menu from one of their practitioners.  DO IT.  It works.

I’m not saying single-leg exercises are bad.  I think they’re great!  Taking an athlete who is fully capable of deep (full) and heavy back, front, or overhead squats, and putting them through a rotation of single-leg squats, is a wonderful idea!

Just don’t try to shortcut dysfunction by creating new exercises and making dogmatic statements about “always” and “never.”

No Free Lunch

People want to slash their workout times, by doing Tabata protocols, or taking an exercise pill.

“Short but tough workouts,” as outlined in the article linked above, may be good for getting some high-intensity work in – but they’re only as good as the quality of the effort you can put behind them.

Training regimens such as Crossfit, and other high-intensity protocols (like Tabata intervals), usually show the best results in people who are already very well-conditioned.

People who are poorly conditioned can’t maintain that workload.  What ends up happening is burnout, or worse – injury, caused by form deterioration during the session(s).

Quality and Quantity
Quality of movement is just as important as quantity – or intensity.  If you practice doing a particular exercise with bad form, guess what – you’ll get better at doing it improperly!

Form in weightlifting exercise is designed to spare your joints – to put the load on your bones and muscles, and take the load off of the hollow spaces in between.  Doing something with improper form will lead to injury.  If not now, then down the road – either due to repetitive (negative) strain, or due to bad movement-quality in the moment (for instance, not knowing how to decelerate with your knee in a good position = blown ACL).

You have to move, regularly, often, in many ways, with different (and preferably, incrementally increasing) intensities, in order to see long-lasting, healthy change.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

The Adult Playground

There’s more to The Philosophical Baby that piqued my interest, and really resonated with some things I’ve been experiencing recently.

On page 206, Alison Gopnik writes – “As babies learn more about how minds work they automatically extend those discoveries both to themselves and to others.”  She then discusses a quality that most animals share – empathy – the inherited natural response to feel what others of your kind feel.

Empathy leads to “altruistic” action, and to the framework through which a baby will create its unique understanding of how the world works.  As Ms. Gopnik points out, when a baby smiles and their caregiver does not smile back, the baby creates a theory of World that accounts for that discrepancy in action.  When a caregiver leaves at an early age, that creates its own unique outlook on relationships.

On page 209, she describes studies that explore the way children make judgments.  Usually, these snap-judgments are based on a combination of the child’s own “hard-wiring” and their idea of relationships from their upbringing/environment (nature and nurture).

From the very first interaction a baby has with another person, it creates this understanding.   It begins to form who it is, who it will be, its Self.

As soon as pieces of the framework are laid, interactions will be interpreted as supporting that framework.  That’s how all systems work – a system sees everything external to itself as supporting it.   It does not waste time dealing with things that are “inconsequential.”  Time = survival.  It looks for evidence that confirms what it believes.  If it does not find it, it looks elsewhere first.  The last thing a system does is attempt to change itself.

You can see this type of behavior at work in the “denial” of people dealing with deep-seated issues.  Most often, they do not even know or care that they have an issue.  Hence the saying “the first step is acknowledging that you have a problem.”

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
It’s not because everything is a nail.  Nor is it that a hammer is incapable of seeing things other than nails.  It’s simply because a hammer can only use a nail.  It has no reference point for a bolt, or a screw.

Similarly, young children, when confronted with other children who may be “hostile” or “aggressive,” will interpret that child’s actions as threatening or non-threatening based on their past experience with that type of behavior.

Importantly, that child will react to the situation based on those past experiences.  Children coming from environments that do not provide security (self-security) will be highly reactive to the behavior of other children (in general).  Children who come from an environment that provides a greater sense of self-security will be less reactive.  Both “types” of child are interpreting their environment based on the “world” they’ve constructed for themselves from their experience.

When you look at the outside world, you see your own mind.
When you walk down the street and see a large, disheveled-looking man lurching toward you, your first response might be to think that he is a threat. You might, on the other hand think that he is a harmless drunk. Or you might think that he is in need of some help.

All three of these interpretations might be correct. Or, all three could be completely wrong.

But what you see, when you see that man, is you.

You see your mind.  You see your framework for the world.  That is what you think about that person – you think your framework…in some ways, your framework thinks you.

The only way to know for sure about that man, is to watch his actions, or to ask him directly what his situation is, or both.

The longer a system exists, the harder it becomes to change at all.
This is the reason for things like national revolutions.  A massive disruption, a complete destruction of the original form is necessary, and a brand new creation takes its place.  This is the reason why alcoholics talk about hitting “rock bottom.”  Everything is gone – the house, the wife, the kids, their health, etc.  It took the loss of everything in order to be able to change.

You may be asking yourself why I’m spending so much time on this, and what it has to do with fitness?

The Definition of Fitness
First, I think it’s important to understand how our body/minds work, and how we function in the world.  Then, I think it’s important to consciously apply that knowledge to our daily lives.  That, to me, is the definition of “fitness.”

Many people struggle with weight loss.  They go to the gym, try different diets, work with trainers, have surgeries – to no avail.

What has not changed for these people is their framework.  They carry the habitual mental attitudes that brought them to the state they’re in.

When you walk down the street, you see faces that tell you something…they tell you who you are, or who you think they think you are.  You also make judgments about who they are – who you think they are.

But do they really see you?  Is that possible?

And do you see them?  As who they are, as who they are to themselves?  Do you see what they would hope to be?

When you speak with other people, you hear specific tones in the conversation.  You take offense to some slip of the tongue, or to what seems to you like an oddly-emphasized word.  You also take pleasure in something that seems like a compliment.

But were they really talking about you?  Were you really listening, or was your framework listening?

This isn’t a silly game.  This is reality.  This is “adult play.”  Playing with the forms you’ve become accustomed to.  Questioning them.  This is the adult playground.  Not because children can’t do this – they can, and they do – but because now you know how to do it.

And knowing is the first step.

What is fitness?

I have to post this.  I can’t avoid it.  I want to.  But, as Father Karas says in the film “The Exorcist” – the Power of the Spirit Compels Me.

Well, he says something like that.

Anyway, fitness, simply put, is the degree to which one is capable of performing a task or function.  You are fit to be a linebacker.  You are not fit to be a cornerback.  You are fit to be a Senator.  You got caught lying.  You are no longer fit for that position.  Etc.

Fitness isn’t static, and isn’t applicable across functions.  You are not “fit” in general.  You are fit to a particular degree, in a particular area of function.

So why do we toss the word around so liberally?  And why does it end up meaning ridiculous things?

I suppose it makes it easier for everyone to be “fit.”  If you work out in a powerlifting gym, you are not fit until you can bench press twice your bodyweight.  If you work out in an Olympic gym, you are not fit till you can clean and jerk 1.5x bodyweight.  But neither can do what the other can do, unless they change the focus of their training.

For me, fitness means that you constantly strive to achieve greater and greater levels of synchrony in your life.

Synchrony means “simultaneous development.”

I mean, you don’t just try to increase your bench press strength (or any other type of strength), you try to increase your ability to perform handstands from a seated position.  You strive to develop the ability to completely relax your body.  You attempt to feel your body as deeply as possible – down to your bone marrow.  Your life is an extension of your body.  And so your life becomes a target for similar development.

For me, that is fitness.  It is unbounded.  It is limitless.  It requires constant work.  But the work looks like play most of the time.

This post brought to you courtesy of a classmate of mine who told me this evening that you don’t need to squat below parallel, and that it is, in fact, harmful to the knees.

I’d like to add, in case you were wondering, that she is absolutely wrong.

Step 3 – Design a program to accomplish your specific goals

This is the hardest thing to do for someone who has no experience with exercise or acute exercise variables.

First, let me explain what “acute exercise variables” are. They are the stimuli that directly effect the outcome of your work. Here they are:

Intention

Exercise selection

Load – including “intensity” and “repetitions”

Sets

Rest/Recovery

Tempo

I may have missed some, but I think not. Let’s consider each one in turn.

Intention – Your intention is the first most important exercise variable. If you intend to achieve a certain thing, the chances of you doing so increases exponentially. If you go to do something with no clear intention, you will have no vested interest in the outcome. You may or may not achieve the outcome at all. And your level of performance will not be as high as possible.

Exercise Selection – The next most important exercise variable. The exercise you choose will have an effect not only on which specific muscles get worked and how they develop/adapt, but also on how much time you need to spend in each workout. For example, if my goal is to lose fat, and I decide I’m going to do a circuit-type resistance workout, I could choose to do Squats, Bench Press, Bent Row, and Lat Pulldowns. However, I could also do Squat-Press, Bench Press, and Bent Row – expending the same amount of energy in less time, by combining the squat and press into one movement, and getting rid of the pulldowns. Similarly, I could do Pullup Burpees and Bent Row, combining the squat, pullup, and chest press movements in one exercise. Granted, your exercise selection will be determined in part by your training age, but you see what I mean here.

Load – including “intensity” and “repetitions” – The load you choose to work with will be determined by your goals, and will determine how many repetitions you can achieve (and to a large extent, how many sets you do). High loads result in lower reps possible, and elicit a maximum-strength response. Moderate loads typically elicit a hypertrophy response, and light loads elicit an endurance training effect in the muscles worked.

Sets – Sets are partly determined by the load you’ve chosen. Typically, you should not do more than 8-10 sets for each muscle group, per workout. Split it up however you like. Normally, if you have a heavy load, you’re doing fewer repetitions, but more sets (for example, 8 sets of 3 reps, or 5 sets of 5 reps). With moderate loads, do moderate sets (e.g., 3 sets of 8-12 reps). And, with lighter loads, you can typically do more repetitions, and therefore fewer sets (e.g., 2 sets of 20, or 1 set of 50).

Rest/Recovery – Rest periods between sets are determined by the work time (for the set and for prior work that day or week) and the load used. For heavy loads (3-5 repetitions), optimal recovery is somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes. One study has shown that recovery does not improve after 2.5 minutes. Moderate loads require about a minute of recovery between sets. Light loads typically require 30 seconds or less recovery between sets. That being said, if you decide to do three sets of bench press, and your last set is going to be heavy, that does not mean that you should wait 2.5 minutes between your first (light) and second (moderate), or second (moderate) and third (heavy) sets. A frequent mistake is to apply the same rest period to less time under tension or load.

Tempo – The speed at which you perform a movement has a distinct impact on its training effect. Tai Chi is a good example of this principle. Performing an entire sequence of Tai Chi at slow, meditative speeds, requires SIGNIFICANTLY more energy than doing the same sequence at fast speeds. That being said, tempo should be specific to your goal. If you want to move very slow, exercise very slow. If you want to move fast, exercise fast. It is frequently not recognized that the martial art of Tai Chi is practiced at three speeds – slow, medium, and fast. The meditative Tai Chi that most people are familiar with is only one aspect of a larger martial art system.

Hopefully this doesn’t muddy the water. I will cover each of these in more detail in their own post. These are the first things to consider when deciding what your specific workouts will look like.