Fitness – Page 8 – Serenity Through Sweat

Faking the Funk

I picked up archery as a new hobby a few months ago and I’ve been consuming a lot of archery related information online. YouTube, podcasts, blogs, there is a ton of wonderful information available for free, what a time to be alive.

One of the podcasts I listen to frequently is the Bowjunky podcast by Greg Poole, and Greg frequently says something that makes me chuckle. Used in a variety of situations Greg will caution his listeners against “faking the funk”

All alliteration aside, faking the funk is a fantastic description of the majority of social media posts and fits in with the overall theme of the last few Serenity through Sweat posts. This week we have talked about measuring metrics and data, logging and posting those items for others to see, and now to bring it full circle, based on the content you put out, are you faking the funk?

This concept of faking the funk is something I’ve been aware of and have danced the line of since highschool. My nickname on the wrestling team in highschool was Woody, as a tribute to woody harrelson’s character in “white men can’t jump”. I would show up to tournaments in tye dye pajama pants and a ratty worn down hoody and look like a chump. This was a style all my own and I could back up my questionable fashion choices with my performance on the mat.

In college I continued the trend in my ultimate frisbee days playing on a team clad in Speedos. The message was always don’t take yourself too serious, but be able to back up your bravado. This tradition has continued to be passed down to the team through the alumni group and the message is consistent.

A lot of those same alumni from the speedo teams ventured into the triathlon community, another area rife with people taking themselves too serious and faking the funk. So we’ve come together to form the TriGoodBeer triathlon team and the BadAssRaceFans (BARF) cheering and morale section. This group is composed of some serious athletes with some incredible athletic achievements, but all of whom can have fun with themselves in the moment.

It’s easy to get wrapped around the axle tracking training metrics, logging workouts, and sharing to social media, especially if you have some sort of incentive to do so. It’s easy to start putting out a persona and eventually faking the funk.

That being said, you can’t fake a marathon. You have to put one foot in front of the other until all 26.2 are done. You can’t fake an archery scoring round, you shoot all your arrows and hold yourself accountable for where they land. When you show up to train, only you know whether you trained or whether you sat on the sidelines.

Wrapping up this three post series, measure what you want, and post what you want, but you can’t fake your way to serenity, and you can’t fake good old fashioned hard work and sweat. If you are true to yourself and don’t take yourself too serious, serenity is probably already one step closer.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Pictures or it Didn’t Happen

This has become a mantra of sorts for the millennials and has been unwittingly adopted by the fitness community. Whether you choose Strava, MapMyRun, Endomondo, Garmin, Fitbit, Apple… There are endless ways to count and track your activities. It is easy to feel like an activity that isn’t tracked, or that you don’t get “credit” for, doesn’t count. And, if it doesn’t count, did it ever really happen?

For those of you who are regular readers, (first off, thank you) you may find the irony in putting a post about the dangers of “Pictures or it Didn’t Happen” right after “What Gets Measured gets Managed”. Rest assured, both the irony and the order is intentional, there is a method to the madness and an important lesson and balance in both.

Earlier this week I talked about not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. You can find the post in it’s entirety here (What Gets Measured Gets Managed), but the gist is, metrics help us improve, and hold us accountable, but it is easy to get lost in the weeds.

The same mindset applies to pictures or it didn’t happen. Have you ever not gone on a run because your watch wasn’t charged and you wouldn’t get credit? I definitely have. I used to take my vivofit off my wrist and tie it into my shoe laces so I would get credit for stationary bike rides in hotel gyms. (There were HSA dollars and company wellness incentives involved, buts it’s still a bit silly)

Then there is the gym selfie crowd. If you workout but you didn’t take a gym selfie did you really workout? How else do you show the rest of the world that you earned your #serenitythroughsweat without that picture?

I’ll start by saying this is again something I’m guilty of. There is an accountability aspect, and there is a data/metric aspect, but I would be lying if I said their wasn’t a vain attention seeking aspect.

Just like our metrics, I think that there is a happy balance to be found. Posting that sweaty picture, uploading those miles, showing how tight your arrow grouping is getting after some practice, these are all accomplishments, even if they serve to puff up our egos maybe more than they should.

There is also serenity to be found in miles untethered by an electronic tracking device, in throwing around weights with no one watching, and sweating in solitude.

The choice to take pictures is up to you, but let the sweat speak for itself and don’t feel the need to prove your serenity to anyone other than yourself. Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Yesterday’s serenity through sweat, some self love middle miles on Valentine’s day. I try to put up my workouts on these posts to be accountable to you the reader that I practice what I preach and actively seek Serenity Through Sweat

What Gets Measured, Gets Managed.

This quote normally attributed to management guru Peter Drucker had me thinking about some of my fitness metrics. But after doing some research it seems that there is some controversy on whether he ever said it and/or what the overall context was. However the similar quote below applies even better.

“not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

This quote from William Bruce Cameron in his paper A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking has been on my mind as it relates to fitness, Parenthood and our lives in general.

After spending years of my life cutting weight for both wrestling and rowing, I realized that I had been living in a perpetual state of dehydration. So starting to count my water intake was a natural step to help make sure I developed healthy habits.

During my Ironman training program one of my most useful metrics was heart rate and heart rate zone. For all my rides and runs I payed attention to this metric to help me train smarter and longer, especially if I was on a two a day schedule. My resting heart rate also gives me some insight into the quality of my sleep and the amount I’ve recovered from training.

Heart rate and water consumption are two easy metrics to both measure and manage, and provide some real insight into your health and well-being. There are countless other fitness and wellness metrics that can be measured and managed and lots of them are useful, but it is easy to get overwhelmed in the data.

If you have been a reader of this blog for a while you might remember the episode on Zach Bitter (Mastery of the Aircraft) Zach is a world record holder for both the 100 mile and 12 hour distance runs, who trains primarily based on level of perceived effort. Now obviously he is doing something right and level of perceived effort “counts”, but it’s probably a little more difficult to formally measure.

As a parent it is super easy to get caught up in developmental milestones for our children, and that can lead down a dangerous rabbit hole. They are relatively easy to measure (is your child walking, taking, counting, potty trained, etc…) By a certain age. But how much do they really “count”?

I think most parents would agree that their top priority is to make their children feel loved, but how do you measure that?

So, how can we evaluate what is worth counting, and what we should focus on that maybe can’t be counted, in all the various aspects of our life?

I think there are some obvious no-brainers out there, do everything you can to make sure your kids know you love them. After that, I’ll refer you to the wisdom of another quote from one of the songs I listened to on every long bike ride I did preparing for Ironman. In her own immortal words Sheryl Crowe says “if it makes you happy it can’t be that bad”. If it makes you happy to track it, and it helps you be a better version of yourself, then rock on, and manage what you measure.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Embrace the Middle Miles

There are a ton of different workouts that make up an effective training program. My Ironman training program consisted of runs, rides, and swims of different varieties including: low impact, interval, endurance, and time trial. Each of these individual workouts has their own important place in the training program and each one has smaller goals and benchmarks associated with it. My favorite goal that spanned across all those workouts, and the one that I find myself coming back to, is embracing “middle miles”

It is human nature to take large complex problems and break them down into smaller manageable chunks. Most of us are generally excited to start a new project or training plan, and approach it with that level of enthusiasm and focus. And, most of us can find that little extra in the tank when we see the finish line ahead. But the “middle miles” when the honeymoon period has worn off but before the finish line is in sight is an easy place to get lost or lose focus in.

The middle miles represent the most challenging part of the activity, but also the most rewarding. The Zen or flow state that runners talk about, that’s only available in the middle miles. But, that state is only available if you can maintain focus and form throughout those middle miles. When new personal records are set, it’s almost always improvement in the middle miles that drives those new records, because there is the most room to improve.

Embracing middle miles can apply to activities outside of fitness as well. That college course, that home construction job, that new project at work, potty training toddlers, are all subject to doldrums in the middle. Embracing that plateau and leaning in to it in the middle is a great way to push through and keep making progress or even breakthroughs.

Next time you find yourself in a training plateau, or you are dragging through a work project, try to embrace those “middle miles” and refocus your effort. There is Serenity to be found in all parts of our life, sometimes it’s just requires a little more focus than others.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends

Yesterday’s run focusing on some middle miles, and today’s Serenity Through Sweat focusing on form throwing arrows down range.

Smooth Seas

There is an old proverb that says “smooth seas do not make skillful sailors”. When I think about Serenity through sweat, this is something that always comes to mind.

Obviously hard times make hard people. Some might say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. There are a dozen other cliches we can use to say the same thing. The bottom line is, we are made stronger by the challenges we face. Those can be challenges that we take on willingly, or challenges that we are forced to take on.

We are living in the most advanced and prosperous time in human history. Obviously there are still problems, and many of has have struggles, but most of us (especially if you are reading this with on your smart phone with a roof over your head and a full belly) have only first world problems.

With a society suffering from mostly first world problems, where does a prospective sailor go to find rough seas on which to test himself?

I’ve always found a unique sense of fulfillment in pushing my personal limits athletically. From long term goals that require training and preparation, to just grinding out that last interval or roll, pushing our own personal limits is a great way to manufacture rough metaphorical waters. Most athletic endeavors tend to be a controlled environment, with only small sections of chaotic variables, and the result is stormy seas on which to test ourselves without the metaphorical drowning risk.

There is no denying that people coming back from war, refugees forced to flee a homeland, patients who have to fight a terminal illness, are all forced to navigate rougher water in life than most of us, and will probably come out better people for it. But for the rest of us, (the vast majority) manufacturing our own struggle in a productive manner is a safer, and essential step in the right direction towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Modern Ideas of Self Care

I’m very blessed to have a job with a flexible schedule that makes it easier for me cultivate good self care habits. Getting to the gym, finding ten minutes to meditate, reading material that challenges you intellectually, is all easier if you aren’t pressed for time.

As it does for us all at some point, life catches up and gets in the way. There simply aren’t enough minutes in the day to accomplish everything and some things need to be dropped. The question is what are we dropping, and why are we dropping it?

I’ve always been of the opinion that I’m a better person, father, husband, friend, etc… when I am consistently training (or at least working out, if you read my last post). Physically, mentally, emotionally, I am in a better place and better able to meet the other demands of my life.

If you have the flu and the doctor told you that you needed to rest, no one would look down on that decision. But physical exercise, intellectual growth, spiritual/emotional strengthening activities aren’t afforded the same societal ranking.

For some reason reading a book, or taking time to go to the gym, has become classified as an indulgence. I have to go to work, I have to finish the honey-do list, but I might get to go to the gym if I move fast.

Self care is the most important thing you can do and should be elevated in our thought process from an indulgence, to an essential daily routine.

I challenge all of you to carve out a small chunk of your day for positive self care. It could be ten minutes of meditation. Maybe listening to an audio book instead of the radio. You could use an educational app to learn a language instead of scrolling social media. Maybe it’s a couple of push-ups waiting for your coffee to brew in the morning. Whatever it is, make the time to invest in yourself.

It isn’t always easy and sometimes life gets in the way, but changing our perception of self care will be one step closer to Serenity Through Sweat.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Working Out or Training

When I was preparing for Ironman Florida in 2013, I remember enjoying telling people I couldn’t stay out late, or have another beer, or whatever the activity was, because I had to train in the morning.

People that knew about the traithalon community or where familiar with the race understood, but inevitably, someone would ask what are you training for. For me this was a little bit of a way to brag on myself, but it was also a carefully chosen word.

I had a training plan, that was well designed and crafted. I had specific short and long term goals, I was measuring, logging, and assessing key metrics. These were not just a series of physical activity done for their own sake, these were goal oriented, focused, purpose driven workouts.

And there in lies the conundrum. If I was doing an interval ride, or a tempo run, those were both workouts. So when do we cross the line from workout to training? Can an activity be both, or one without the other?

This is a question I think a lot of BJJ practitioners struggle with/can benefit from, and something wrestlers (in my humble opinion) do a lot better with.

In generic terms, here is how I view the two. Workout: an activity done to improve physical fitness. Training: an activity or course of action undertaken in preparation for an event. So the key difference is the specificity of the goal, and I think both are important and both have their place.

Let’s say you are getting ready for the local BJJ tournament. You might set up a training plan that has four days a week in the gym rolling and two days a week with some sort of cross training, lifting weights or running. These could all be considered training because they are planned out, specified, and helping you towards your goal of preparing to compete in a tournament. They are also all individually workouts.

Now let’s look at an individual BJJ class where you don’t have a tournament you are planning for. Based on our earlier definition, it is clearly a workout, but can it also be training? The answer depends on how you approach it. Are you putting yourself in specific positions or situations repeatedly? Then it is probably training. Are you just letting the roll take its own form? Then it is probably a workout. Both are great, just understand what the value of each is.

The same ideas apply to running, riding, lifting weights, etc… Sometimes it just feels good to sweat. (I do a lot of that incase that wasn’t clear, and I’m a huge fan). Other times a more measured and calculated approach is appropriate, and will probably help you reach your goals better.

As January starts to close out, and those new year’s resolutions start to look a little hazier, ask yourself. Are you working out, or are you training? And is that the right choice for today?

Thanks for joining me, stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through Sweat: throwing arrows down range at Orlando Archery Academy and then rolling with my homies at Orlando BJJ

Fundamental movements

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the Serenity Through Sweat blog. Today I want to talk about fundamental movements, things that we all do and we all “know” how to do. Or do we…

One of the lightbulb moments in thinking about fundamental movements came when my son started learning how to walk. He was a little later to the party than some of his cousins taking his first steps after his first birthday. As soon as he took his first steps, he wanted to pick things up and carry them.

Parents of small children will instantly recognize the position of a toddler picking something up. It is the functionally correct “ass to grass” neutral spine deep squat. The butt touches the ankles and there is enough stability and power in the position, for someone who literally just started walking, to pick things up and put them down. This motion requires proper hip and ankle flexibility and mobility, and proper sequencing of muscle movement, yet it is fundamental and I would even say genetically programed. Most parents have lost this mobility and flexibility so they aren’t teaching it and the toddlers can’t be modeling a behavior if they haven’t seen it before.

So if proper squat technique is pre programmed and we are born with that mobility and flexibility, what happens as we get older?

The next obvious step for toddlers as soon as they get the smallest bit of confidence walking, is running. Now, unlike squatting most toddlers have seen running and a lot of it is of questionable form. Running is a weird one right. Running is a fundamental movement, but how many people run, and how many people run. Toddlers and the vast majority of us run, but go watch a national track event or an ultra marathon and you can tell there are people running, and they are on a different level.

The vast majority of us have lost the flexibility and mobility that was our genetic inheritance, and have never explored the plethora of information available to enhance these most fundamental of human movements. The good news, is that this is the best time in history for the dissemination of information and there are more resources to improve human performance than ever before.

Whether it is diet/nutrition, running, martial arts, or just basic mobility and fundamental movements, there are plenty of experts who have dedicated their lives to providing education and resources to help us all be better people.

Right now I’m working my way through Dr. Kelly Starrett’s book Becoming a Supple Leopard, and it is a step in the right direction that I would recommend to everyone from aspiring athletes to couch ridden grandparents.

With a little bit of effort we can all start to get better at some of the fundamental movements that define us as humans. What can you do to be a better human today, tomorrow, and the rest of your life? The only way to reach Serenity is through constant forward progress, and probably a little bit of sweat.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through sweat was a 10k run including a Tour de stade of Doak Campbell stadium

If you drop the cake…

Happy New year, and thanks for stopping in to Serenity through Sweat. I hope 2020 finds you all in good health, happy disposition and appropriately sweaty.

I was training Jiu Jitsu with the owner of my gym the other day and he said something that has stuck with me well beyond our roll

Brad is a business owner, a black belt masters world champion, an incredibly gifted athlete frequently training with people half his age, and he likes to talk. It’s not uncommon for our training rolls to be 60% rolling 40% talking. And most of it is pleasantries or whatever the topic of the day is, but this particular comment has me thinking about its value beyond a grappling context.

Brad had asked our new head instructor Alec (new to our school and fresh off an ADCC competition) about how to escape a position and Alec replied (I’m paraphrasing) “sometimes if you drop the cake you don’t get to just pick it back up, you have to go back to the kitchen and make a new one”

From a grappling context I totally understood the idea. The best defense for some positions is to never be put there to begin with. We need to learn to sense the danger in positions before it is too late, and if we don’t, then you tap, reset, and try to learn for the next time. But what about outside Jiu Jitsu?

How many times in my personal or work relationships have I “dropped the cake”? And then my initial reaction is that everything is fine, I’ll just pick up the cake off the floor. I know when I screw up, especially if I’ve hurt someone I care about, I want to fix it ASAP. But the cake is on the floor and baking a new one takes time and effort, (plus I’m not a great baker so probably some more practice)

On the same note, if someone I love “drops the cake” am I giving them the opportunity to go back and make a new one, or am I kicking them out of the kitchen?

With the arrival of the new year the majority of us probably have some resolutions to better ourselves, improve our relationships, etc… How are we going to respond when we inevitably drop the cake on one of our new resolutions?

Forgiveness is a tough ask and a two way street. Whether you are forgiving a friend or co-worker, or even forgiving yourself, or you are asking for forgiveness, at some point we all drop the cake. Finding serenity is a much easier journey if we can learn to forgive ourselves and others, (and stay out of any leg reaps).

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

today’s Serenity through Sweat was 30 minutes with RobinNYC on the Peleton and then some one handed 24kg swings

Redefine the relationship

With New year’s right around the corner I’m thinking about New year’s resolutions. Most perennial gym members hate this time of year. The gym is full of fresh faces that often lack gym knowledge and/or etiquette and will most likely be short lived members. And while this is a real source of frustration, I would urge you to use this time to redefine your relationship, not just with your gym, but across many areas of your life.

The idea of redefining the relationship came to me earlier this year while participating with Joe Rogan and his buddies in Sober October. If you aren’t familiar with that tradition, basically abstain from booze for the month of October and then generally make better choices about your health and well being. The idea being at the end of the month you can look back and redefine your relationship with booze, food, fitness, etc…

For my sober October I decided to refrain from drinking but also anything with added sugar for the month. I then called off the month with a 24 hour fasting period.

For me it’s not uncommon to have a beer with dinner and another while winding down after my son goes to bed. It’s also not uncommon to have a small piece of chocolate or a mini Klondike bar for dessert (I know they are garbage calories but they are so good, and as the saying goes there is a long list of things I would do for a Klondike bar). The first 10 days or so without beer or sugar I felt somewhat grumpy and irritable at night. Like I was entitled to something for making it through the day and now it was being taken away.

The beer I would normally have wile winding down after my son went to bed I replaced with hot tea, this gave me something of a nightly ritual and something to look forward to, instead of just removing items I was replacing them. I also noticed I was sleeping better, and my resting heart rate was about 2-4 beats per minute lower on average over the course of the month.

October came and went (the 24 hour fast was not a great idea but more on that later) but at the end of the month I no longer felt like I was owed a couple of beers and dessert every night for successfully adulting through the day. I still enjoy craft beer, and my wonderful wife made me an advent craft beer calendar, but celebrating and counting down to Christmas feels different than popping a top because I finished a day. I still enjoy dessert (probably more often then I ought too especially during the holidays), but it feels like my relationship with both has changed after taking some time away from them.

Back to New year’s resolutions. They are what you make of them, and even if you only stick to something for a short time, maybe it can help you redefine your relationship with it.

Hate exercise but made a resolution to get in shape, maybe you can find an activity you enjoy and change your relationship with fitness. Have a sweet tooth and want to stay off sugar for a week, a month, a year. Maybe you don’t make it all the way or you slip up occasionally, but redefining your relationship with sugar is progress.

Maybe you you are that perennial gym goer who is angry at the world because someone is doing curls at the squat rack. Can you redefine your relationship with your gym peers. Maybe take someone under your wing in a helpful and non-condescending manner (I know that’s a tough ask if they are curling in the squat rack but come on we are all trying to get better around New year’s)

I hope the new year brings all of you happiness, health, success, obviously some serenity through sweat, and a positive paradigm progression. All alliteration aside thanks for joining me, happy new year, and stay sweaty my friends.