Fitness – Page 7 – Serenity Through Sweat

Questions

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Election season is upon us, my work group is in the middle of a contract amendment vote, and all of us are analyzing how we adjust to COVID-19 measures in our day to day life. To be successful in any of these or many another endeavors requires asking questions, specifically, asking the right questions.

I just finished reading Freakonomics, the book by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. For a book that claims to have no underlying theme, it is really a book about asking the right questions before accepting information that is provided.

The various topics themselves (while interesting) are really the backdrop for the true value in the book, which illuminates why we act the way we do. Most topics start with some assumption of the outcome, and then examine the incentives in place that help shape human behavior. The authors write, “Incentive is a tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation”.

As the book goes on, the questions asked generally challenge the conventional wisdom on a particular topic. After positing a question that challenges a typically held belief, the authors then go in search of data, that is run through unemotional regression analysis to isolate variables that are correlated. The results often clash head on with the conventional wisdom

There are several examples in the book that studied early learning test scores (K-5) and various parenting statistics both active and passive (age before kids were born, education level, spanking, screen time, one parent home between age 0-5). As a parent I was very interested to find out that the most highly correlated factors affecting test scores were either genetic or socio-economic, prior to your child’s birth. In other words, your life prior to becoming a parent has more impact on your child’s early test scores, than any of the at home pre-K educational work you can do. (Not that it hurts at all, it just isn’t statistically significant)

While this information is both fascinating and relieving (my boys aren’t doomed because I travel for work), it is the question that is far more valuable. The question being, what can I do as a parent to help my children be successful?

El Duderino helping out with the post workout shake, “Ma, where’s the protein?”

The answer is well beyond the scope of this blog, (although I believe being a role model for general well-being is a great start). Asking the right questions and searching for answers, not accepting what is thrust forth against the data, is another great place to start.

The same applies to the personal well-being, diet and exercise world. There are plenty of conventional wisdom trends that have recently been upended, from high fat low carb eating, to high intensity interval training, to intermittent fasting and fat adapted endurance athletes, the data show a myriad of possibilities that were shunned just a few years ago. Again, for the scope of this blog the individual programs are less important than the questions, what am I doing to be a better version of myself? Does the data support those decisions/programs?

For all of my colleagues voting on the contract amendment, I urge you to ask yourself, what is my incentive, and have I examined the data, rather than the popular narrative?

For all of us approaching election season I urge you to ask yourself, have I researched the issues and the positions rather than the popular sound bytes?

For your own personal growth are you doing the things you can to be better than you were yesterday? I hope you will join me on the path of asking ourselves the tough questions, and maybe even getting a little sweaty along the way.

Thanks for joining me, start safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Show Up and Put In

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about this year’s Sober October challenge.

I debated at first about my participation in Sober October this year. Eventually I realized that as much as I didn’t want to do it, that all of the reasons I could think of not to participate, were really just as compelling reasons that I needed to.

“Oh Hi there, I’m 6 months old” (*Speedy said as he popped out from his hiding place)

So this year’s Sober October challenge is no alcohol, no added sugar, and 10,000 kettlebell swings.

There are plenty of things written about the 10,000 kettlebell swing program and nothing I can say will add to it, especially before I have even completed it. You can find the original program here.

Kettlebell swings in and of themselves are not especially challenging. As a triathlete and an Ironman, I can certainly find beauty and serenity in suffering through repetitive motion. That said, I’m 3 days and 1,500 swings in and my forearms are shot and my glutes are on fire.

My Garmin watch died and is being replaced, so rocking the 2013 Suunto Ambit for this week’s running in-between kettlebell days.

I think the biggest hurdle when it comes to taking on a challenge of this kind, or any kind for that matter, is first just to show up, and then put in the work.

500 swings a day, 2 days on followed by 1 day off, for the month, until you reach 10,000. The beauty of the challenge is that it is binary, you either show up and put in the work, or you don’t, there isn’t really an in-between.

On day two of the challenge, speedy decided to wake up at 3:50, and El Duderino followed suit some time after 5 am. My wife was in desperate need of catching up on sleep, so it was on me to show up and put in the work as a dad. Not the ideal prelude to my 1:00pm cast iron rendezvous, but again, this month’s challenge is about showing up and putting in the work, regardless of what circumstances might arise.

Often times fatherhood feels eerily similar to these physical, mental, and emotional challenges we are faced with. Suffering through repetitive motion, with beauty and serenity to be found for those who can appreciate the struggle.

Beautiful FL fall day for some smoked picanaha and veggies on the Z grill

After all the excuses and the doubt, what Sober October is really about, is showing up and putting in the work through the repetitive motions of the day. Showing up for your spouse, showing up for your kids, and showing up for yourself. Putting in the work to be a better husband, father, and person, and maybe find some serenity along the way.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

My new best friend for the month, a 54lb cannonball

Galanin to the Rescue

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about galanin, what it is and some of the many ways it helps us.

Galanin is a neuropeptide, which is fancy word for a protein produced by neurons. (don’t worry I had to look it up because it sounded more like one of king arthur’s knights to me). Galanin is found in many different parts of our brain as well as our GI tract.

A recent article in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows an increased galanin level (derived from unfettered access to cardiovascular exercise) was correlated with a conferred resilience to stress in mice.

Two groups of mice were observed after a stressful event (foot shock). The respective galanin levels were measured in each group, with the experimental group having access to a running wheel in their cage and the control group having none. After three weeks there was a correlation between the elevated galanin levels, the amount of time exercising, and the degree of stress resilience, in the group of mice who used the running wheel. (After building in the first week they were averaging 10-16km per day, if you needed some motivation for your own running)

The test then went on to elevate galanin levels in otherwise sedentary mice and the observed the same stress resilience effects. It is obvious but worth stating that people are not mice, but we do have very similar galanin receptors. This experiment shows that repeated cardiovascular exercise increases galanin, and increased galanin helps us deal with stress.

Doing further research on galanin, I found this article in Nature, which shows that increased galanin levels are responsible for regulating aggression toward pups in male mice, and increasing their tendency towards parental behavior.

I’ve always felt that I’m a better father, husband, and overall person after a good sweat session. There are obviously multiple chemicals in play there, but galanin has a big role to play. This is especially true as stress levels have been elevated these past few months, as has time with my sons without daycare.

Increasing galanin levels seems like a great thing to do no matter what, but an especially great thing with all the stresses of Covid life, and the best way to do that is some good old fashioned SerenityThroughSweat.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Shut Up Legs

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Albeit a little later with all of the craziness that is 2020, this is one of my favorite stretches of the year, Le Tour. Hundreds of riders hammering the pedals across miles of the world’s most spectacular countryside is awe inspiring and motivating in a way that is hard to compare.

One of the color commentators on the broadcast, a former pro cyclist Jen’s Voigt, is famous in the cycling community for his remark Shut Up Legs! It is his brand, the title of his book and the name of his company and website. It is also something that all cyclists at some point or another can relate to.

Music man on our visit to Grammy’s house

SerenityThroughSweat for me has always been about finding peace, in large part through exercise. I think the ability to feel discomfort and then push through it. To realize the discomfort is only temporary and it is superceded by whatever the goal is, is a gift given to us by exercise. It is also what Jens so eloquently states in much fewer words when he says, shut up legs.

Anyone who has found themselves in the saddle, legs burning, and contemplating quitting knows the internal struggle that goes on. There are always an endless number of good reasons why calling it a day is a justifiable decision. Miles already ridden, lack of proper sleep/nutrition/hydration, inclement weather, other obligations at home. Honest self assessment, especially in times of discomfort, is a true virtue.

Getting ready for our upcoming mountain adventure

I try to think about it like Tyler durden would. “These are your burning legs, don’t go to your cave and find your power animal, what you are feeling is premature enlightenment.” Recognize the source of your discomfort, stay with it, not blaming it or hiding from it, and then say shut up legs.

The uncertainty I (and much of my aviation family) face is no different. Our metaphorical legs are burning with the threat of furlough and a long arduous climb of industry recovery looms on the horizon. We can unclip our pedals and call it a day, or we can say shut up legs, and take on the long hard climb ahead.

It doesn’t make the climb ahead any less daunting, or the burning feelings of uncertainty any less scary, but facing it head on saying Shut up legs! and progressing forward is the only sure path I can see for my family.

I hope that all of my brothers and sisters in the industry, as well as anyone else who is facing Covid related job loss, will join me in saying Shut Up Legs, and hammering forward in a way that would put the peloton to shame.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends. (And Vive Le Tour)

Routine

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about the value of routine, and the power that it holds especially in these uncertain times.

Three months ago I purchased a membership to The Ready State for myself as a birthday gift. I had already started to read Becoming a Supple Leopard, and I was starting to develop a morning mobility/yoga routine, and the 14 day mobility challenge they offered drew me in as a perfect evening wind down routine.

Some of the first 14 day mobility challenge, working on the bottom of the squat position

I started waking up about 10 minutes earlier in hotel rooms to make sure I could do some breath work and mobilize first thing in the morning. I made the mobility challenge part of my night time down regulation to help me get better sleep in those same hotels. (With the exception of some mobility work after particularly long runs instead of before bed)

When I was at home I would mobilize at night after El Duderino was down and my wife and I were watching TV before bed. First thing after waking up I would do my morning flow routine and drink a liter of water before anything else.

Overhead mobilization with banded shoulder distraction

I did most of the first 14 day mobility challenge in hotels since I was trying to fly a lot at the beginning of March. At ist completion, I am incredibly grateful for the improved squat position, not only for it’s impact on my running, cycling and Jiu Jitsu, but especially since it puts me at eye level with El Duderino. (A place I’m spending more and more time as the terrible twos progress)

As a pilot my schedule changes day to day and month to month. Bedtime, wake time, what city I’m in, what time I workout, what food I have access to, the only constant is change. So, controlling variables that I can, in order to make some semblance of a routine helps me maintain good habits and keep my sanity.

Simple and sinister followed by some overhead mobilization with the lacrosse ball

What a difference three months makes. The second 14 day mobility challenge from The Ready State started a few days ago on June 1. I haven’t flown an airplane, been to a hotel, or for the most part even left the house since completing the first mobility challenge. My sleep is wrecked, (although that’s mostly due to newborn Speedy and stress, rather than hotels and travel).

I’m pleased that I put in some of the upfront legwork to develop a mobility routine before the pandemic wreaked havock on everyone’s plans and schedules. I’m grateful to The Ready State for providing a platform and motivation to further my routine. I’m indebted to my routine for the stability, sanity, and serenity it provides.

Deputy Dad, laying down the laws of the sandbox

Without a mission around which to set a schedule, it is easy for routine to devolve into disarray. While establishing and maintaining a routine takes dedication and commitment, I believe a good routine breaks the laws of physics, in that it gives back more than what is put in. There is no better time than now to start your own routine, and as an added bonus, it’s hard to be stressed about Covid-19 with a toddler on your chest and a lacrosse ball in your back.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, a couple of rainy runs, some S&S kettlebell work, the 14 day mobility challenge working on overhead position, and grandma comes to visit Speedy and El Duderino.

Multisport Social

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As we continue through various forms of social distancing and reduced contact I want to talk about my appreciation for the social interaction of multisport athletes.

The triathlon community is one that I have found to be incredibly welcoming. Everyone likes to talk shop and compare gear, training plans, nutrition etc… But, it is also a largely solo sport. Yes there are teams, and yes you can run or ride together, but drafting rules and the nature of training time required ensure that a lot of miles are covered alone.

Quarantine baking Irish soda bread and naan

This solitude can be a blessing for the large number of type A personality multisport athletes. It can be a place of self reflection and you guessed it, serenity. It can also be a little lonely. Intervals and miles can tick by with no other contact than your own thoughts.

Especially in Florida, we have not only a very robust multisport population but also large number of runners and cyclists. So at any given time you can have countless athletes all on their own training sessions and individual journeys.

Speedy and El Duderino 2 month comparison

Here is where we find my favorite part of the multisport social interaction. Next time you are out shopping or running errands see how many people wave, nod, or otherwise acknowledge you. Now keep that same count on your next training activity.

The nod, wave, smile, salute, or general acknowledgement, while a simple gesture, is a powerful proclamation. It is the recognition from one athlete to another. An endorsement and an affirmation of two different but parallel purposes. A support system that strengthens spirit on even the dreariest of training days.

Isn’t that what we need as a country and as a species in these troubling times? A simple and quiet acknowledgement of parallel purposes. Running already brings us towards Serenity, the simple acknowledgement can help us pass it on.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, Speedy turns 2 months old, El Duderino “helps” with quarantine baking, team TriGoodBeer puts on a virtual Covid-19km run, and some much needed mobility work and projectile meditation.

Movement medicine after a long run, and some hits and some misses

The Briefest of Moments

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about some of the origin story of Serenity through Sweat. This last run got me feeling the same way I did all those years ago, and then thinking about how far we’ve come.

Serenity through sweat was born as a tagline in November of 2010. It was part of my grieving process after the loss of some close friends.

I’m not sure where the inspiration for the tagline came from. Maybe I had been watching Firefly on Netflix, I’ve always been overly sweaty individual, and almost every activity that induces sweat has some sort of ability to change your mental state. Wherever it came from, I put it in writing twice in the weeks following that tragedy.

What I do know is there was something in my mental state that changed, enough for me to perceive it, analyze it, and for the concept to stick with me. “Serenity through sweat, if only for the briefest of moments”. Despite the grief, despite the loss and the depression, physical exertion past the point of sweat, was a mental and emotional oasis, even if it was a temporary destination.

I remember one of those first two workouts was going to play Ultimate frisbee at our Wednesday night league. We played on a set of soccer fields under the lights from 8-10 pm, out in the middle of nowhere. On cool enough nights (like this particular one in November) with a low level temperature inversion, all the sweat would evaporate and form a low fog over the fields.

On that particular night, full of grief, full of anger and denial, I remember thinking it was a field of dreams. This soccer field lighting up the darkness in the middle of nowhere, shrouded in a fog produced from sweat. I felt as though crossing the invisible barrier of the field somehow kept all the emotion on the other side, and I was free to run, to sweat, and to heal.

This memorial day run reminded me of those first visits to serenity. The anxiety of not knowing the future of my job, the stress of sheltering in place with two young children, the sleep debt continuing to accumulate with a newborn, fear over a potential health threat to my family that can’t be seen. All of these emotions have been brewing for weeks now, and my mental state was in need of alteration.

Being a particularly rainy and dreary day thanks to the tropical weather from Bertha was perfect. The outside picture matched my mental state, and the rain would help keep the temperature down and blanket some of the wind. Plus, there is something cleansing about rain, especially running in it.

As soon as El Duderino was snuggled down for his nap I made my getaway without waking him up and strapped on my running shoes. My sunglasses were splattered with rain droplets and fogged up before I even got out of the neighborhood, and my shoes were starting to squish with each step before the first mile, but none of it mattered. I had crossed that same imaginary barrier, and for the next fifty nine minutes and seven seconds, I was in an altered state.

While I don’t think it is a place you ever get to fully stay, I’m very grateful to be able to go back and visit often, if only for the briefest of moments.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Speedy turns 8 weeks old and El Duderino doing his best Evil Knievel impression

The Importance of Play

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about the importance of play. For toddlers, for kids, for parents, for everyone, play is more important now than ever.

El Duderino isn’t really old enough to understand what’s going on in the world, but he is very smart and incredibly perceptive. Most kids pick up on social cues and read the room far better than adults and well beyond what they are given credit for. So when I’m feeling stressed by everything COVID-19 related, he might not understand the nuts and bolts of it, but he reacts to my emotional state.

At the end of the day all he really wants to do is play. Play takes on many different forms depending on the day or mood. The current play du jour is digging in the dirt with his work trucks. Each truck has a name and a job and then when they get dirty they go through the car wash (hose, sink, bath, etc).

The only limit is his imagination, and maybe the weather or daddy’s bladder bringing us inside. That imagination and creativity is the beauty of play. It’s a release from reality and whatever stresses are there, even if they are just picked up from his mother and me. It is mentally stimulating. It helps him grow and come up with new ideas.

I think it’s safe to say most adults struggle with play, especially in the current lack of social climate. How many adult activities leave room for creativity, improvisation, experimentation, and just room to play? Maintaining a balanced approach to overall wellbeing is one of the core tenets of this blog (and one of my top priorities), and play is a huge part of that.

That is one of the many reasons I miss Jiu Jitsu. Running, lifting, cycling, archery, mobility work, have all played a huge roll in my sanity from home over the past weeks. But each of them lack the dynamic playful environment that Jiu Jitsu offers.

Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu offer an incredible mix of physical stressors, mental stimulation, and a plethora of opportunities to be creative and innovative. In other words perfect, a perfect adult play environment. For my brother’s and sisters on the mats you don’t need any further explanation, but for those of you who haven’t ever tried it, I will try to explain as best as I can.

Grappling tends to present itself like human chess. You are always thinking multiple moves ahead (mental stimulation). Each of those moves or techniques requires complex and coordinated physical movement, often under pressure or resistance from your partner (physical stressors). And, there are an endless number of techniques that pair together in different orders, or varitions of those techniques that allow each practitioner to develop his or her own style or “game” (creativity and innovation).

In addition to physical stressors, mental stimulation, and opportunities for creativity and innovation, grappling requires extremely close physical contact. Often times claustrophobia inducing contact. And while this may be an acquired taste, after several weeks of lockdown I think we could all use some claustrophobia inducing contact, whether we are grapplers or not.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

As excited as I am for my local gym (OBJJ) to be opening tomorrow, I will not be in attendance just yet. Speedy hasn’t reached the two month mark yet, and his developing immune system trumps my need for play.

This week in SerenityThroughSweat, El Duderino plays in the mud, does his best salt bae impression baking bread, some interval running, and a sweaty sandbag session.

This Country’s Healthcare Problem

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. If the title is any indication, I might have bit of more than I can chew. Healthcare is a hot button issue, only made hotter by being an election year in the face of a global pandemic. Here’s my two cents, take it for what it is worth, ( but you should take it we are headed for a recession after all and every penny counts)

Finding uses for our quarantine Amazon habit

This country has a huge problem with healthcare. There I said it. But not the problem you think. This country has one of the most robust hospital networks in the world, some of the most talented practitioners, and some of the most innovative medical scientists. The overall cost and access point might be a bit askew but that’s not really the major problem either (although it does need addressing). So what is the problem?

All of these items just mentioned are “sick care” not Healthcare. The system currently in place is designed to help you get healthy from a point of injury or illness, rather than cultivate you as a healthy individual from the start. Taken in that context, America’s sick care although expensive is tremendous. But it doesn’t take a long look to realize our healthcare is in the trash. Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyles, and a plethora of highly processed garbage food options are there not for far too many of us.

If you’ve been a reader of the blog for any length of time, the message (although it is likely lost in my lengthy lecturing) is one of total well-being, and largely by taking steps that are within our reach. Diet, exercise, sleep, hydration, mental and emotional well-being, these are life skills that everyone has room for improvement in, and lead to this hazy concept of Serenity.

There is no time like the present to start the work on your own Healthcare. If extra time home and a global pandemic isn’t the kickstart you need, what is?

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, STEM challenge with Amazon boxes and matchbox cars, some quality backyard time in the kiddie pool, some solo miles sans stroller, and I even went back to my roots for an old jump rope workout I did years ago.

Bad Mood Rising

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. As COVID-19 continues to direct our everyday lives, and quarantine and social distancing measures carry on, a lot of negative emotions that normally run in the background are bubbling up to the surface.

Just like the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song, many of us may find a bad mood on the rise during these times. I think it’s important to recognize we are not our thoughts or emotions, but we are largely defined by our actions and choices.

Having negative thoughts, having a bad day, feeling angry, depressed, afraid, jealous, etc… Does not make you a bad person. Thoughts and emotions are natural parts of being human, and the “negative” feelings have their place. It is up to us to be mindful of these thoughts and feelings and choose to act on them with purpose.

We carry these negative emotions with us all the time. They are a natural and normal part of us. Most of the time they are a small fraction of the whole. Like an ounce and a half of yeast in six cups of flour. But with the right environmental stressors, that tiny amount of yeast can cause us to bubble over. But those emotions can also help us create something beautiful.

Many times over the course of this last week, I’ve found myself jealous of my wife. She went back to work as a teacher two weeks after giving birth, and is maintaining caring for our family with her new work schedule like a rockstar. I on the other hand, am still adapting to what my self identity looks like staying at home and not flying. I know this emotion is based on my own uncertainty and insecurities. It is a constant battle to be self aware enough to remind myself that this is a natural, (even if uncomfortable) feeling, and that my outward demeanor as a husband and father is my choice.

I think any of us at home with kids, particularly toddlers, are finding new limits to our patience. El Duderino, at two years old doesn’t understand why we can’t go to the playground, or the library, or to see his friends at daycare. And those frustrations, along with the normal two year old toddler temper tantrums, are enough to test anyone’s mood. It’s my job as his father to maintain composure despite the uncertainty, and throughout the temper tantrums, to foster a nurturing environment.

Now more than ever, Serenity Through Sweat, is a vital part of my mental health regimen. Especially for grapplers, who are normally used to relieving stress by consensual choking, finding alternative and positive physical outlets is crucial. Those negative thoughts and feelings can control us, they can define us, or they can fuel us. The choice is ours, and the path to serenity is long.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s Serenity Through Sweat, my second go around and homemade bread, (the first batch didn’t have yeast) some stroller run miles with El Duderino, and throwing some arrows down range in the backyard happy place.