Why do you do it?

Back a couple months ago, i was working out at a gym in Rochester Hills. I imagine it's what many gyms around the nation to be like. Its not a big Lifetime Fitness, or was it a Planet Fitness cookie cutter. It was locally owned.

I was at this gym for 6 months. It's my only basis for what a "normal" gym is like. I usually workout at home, or more recently at an off the beaten track gym. 

You start to notice common trends about people. Tank the meathead (no joke, his nickname was Tank.) would groan like his nuts were on fire every hamstring curl he did. There was the 50 year old cougar who painted her face like it was the renaissance, taking extra care not to sweat, so she could still hit on guys half her age. There was the man in his mid-forties with graying hair with a horrible look of pain on his face after repeating his daily workout for the 10,000th time. He would never switch anything. It would be the same old med-ball slams for X number of reps then right on to some sort of pathetic jumping up and down, then knocking out a bastardized bench press for 50 reps. 

                                                                  Face palm.

All these things make you chuckle, but they're also very sad.  It's real peoples lives.

Why do you do the things you do?

If I was a friend of theirs, I would ask these people why they were here, and what they were doing. I can almost guarantee the answers I would get are, "I'm tryna' get big"said by a kid who looks like he should have a TV commercial for you to donate a nickel a day to or "i'm trying to drop my pregnancy weight" said by a women who has clearly not ovulated in the last 15 years.

Do you know why you use it?

If you've got a goal of dropping weight, what the hell are you doing alternate arm rows on the free-motion machine with no pin in the weight stack?

Why are you running for 8 miles on a treadmill?

Truth is, most people don't even know why they are doing something. Yeah, thats cool that you do a neat little trick on a stability ball. I'm not interested in tricks. Hows your foundation? If you can't perform at least 40 pushups in two minutes, and you're a man, i don't care how fun something looks, we're not doing it till you have a solid foundation.

                                                Let me know how getting strong goes, bro.

You don't build a house in a swamp.

The same workout the actors from "300" did to get into shape for the role, might not be for you. You wouldn't try to put a square peg in a round hole, would you? Not everyone is the same. Just because some thing else works for someone, doesn't mean it will work for you.

Are you progressively getting stronger? Are you doing better and better each session? Do you even know how to track that?

These are questions of progress. Everything is an opportunity for measurement.  

Know your goals. Even the general fitness enthusiast should have goals. "Get in shape" should not be one of them. How will you know when you get there? Do the plan.

Is exercise your primary, or secondary focus? 

You better know, because that will shape your training.

Are you recovering enough?

Any results you hope to achieve are a direct result of proper recovery. Adaptation is recovery. If you don't recover, you don't adapt.

What are you putting in that hole between your chin and nose? Is it taking you further, or closer to your goal?

                                                                     This one.

Am i trying to lift like the hulk, when i've got less than 6 months of experience?

Safety is primary. 

Learn to question everything. If you have a trainer and he can't tell you how what you're doing is taking you closer to your goals, in a simple, clear manner, then you need a new one. If he needs to use fancy terms to try and trick you into thinking somethings working, you need a new trainer. 

See all these questions leave a lot of unknowns. If you've got some crazy workout plan, its only going to make it harder. The simpler and more down to the point your workout is, the less likely it is to spring holes. 

If i can pick between two movements that will make me strong, or 14 that will also make me strong, what the better plan?

How do you measure 14 exercises with the close to 11 different variables and questions i previously asked?

Answer is, ding ding ding, it's going to be hard. 

When i was traveling in Europe for two months i thought i was going to be miserable with out my workout plans and equipment. I know how to plan out a workout, but lets face it, doing Tabatas ( high intensity training, 20 sec on, 10 off, 8 rounds) in the middle of the park for everyone to see your pain, and then repeating it for 6 exercises, seemed a little weird. Even if you don't care if your a public display or not, your workout gets changed. 

Theres a saying i learned from my Yoga teacher, Johnny Kest, "The observer changes the observed."

So no matter how into the zone you think you are, you're still going to suffer because of the temptation to be something different in front of people.

I also didn't have a heart-rate monitor, so any kind of cardiovascular tracking i wanted to do could be inaccurate, partly due to the fact i refused to wear a watch, and inconvenient for the 10 second rest intervals to see if i was on track.

These are a few of the unknowns among many.

I needed something spartan. I needed something simple and effective. 

So while i reading  Pavel Tsatsouline's book, "The Naked Warrior", i found myself set onto a modified program mentioned in his book.

It came down to two things...

One-arm pushups.

And Pistol squats

That was it. 6 days a week. Both movements.

And i found something rare that i hadn't often experienced. I had measurable, trackable results. Any error in technique i might of had was quickly fixed because the focus i could deliver onto the two simple movements.

I would often journal and take notes of things i could notice in everyday life that i could easily narrow down to one of the two movements i was doing.

"Legs felt very strong climbing up this mountain today."

Ah, well i would say that was the pistol squats.

All these things were measurable, because it was simple. I knew why i was doing it. I wanted to maintain strength while traveling, and then possibly add some more. 

I knew what i was doing and why i was doing it.

I hit on all those questions i asked at the start of this article, because there were no leaks. 

I didn't try to build my house (foundation) in a swamp.

                            "Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication"- Leonardo Da Vinci

Martin Rooney of Training for Warriors fame brilliantly came up with what he calls "The illogical four"

People do things for 4 reasons in the fitness world.

1. It's new.

2. It makes me sore.

3. It makes me fatigued.

4. It looks cool.

If you're work out includes one of these, its not necessary wrong. I'm just trying to get you to probe your decisions, and really figure out if what you're doing is helping or hurting you.

It's only these two things. Something is either helping or hurting you. Theres no middle ground. So question everything you do, and why you do it. 

 Feel free to contact me anytime on facebook, or send me an e-mail at ctwigg@cstcoach.com