Archive for February 2008
The Ubiquitous, Workplace “Fitness Challenge”
I mean, c’mon! What’s not to like about a workplace fitness challenge? Am I some kind of a “find fault in and/or ridicule each and every proposal for self-improvement championed by the enthusiastic (albeit, naive)”, cynical curmudgeon bastard? Well, not exactly. Though I’ll readily admit to being a cynical, curmudgeon bastard for reasons other than this. Especially during the political season — but I digress. In any event, though, I do both appreciate and applaud the effort by the well-intentioned soul responsible for this particular challenge. Any step, in my opinion — even a faulty step such as this — if it can entice someone to get up and after it – well, all I have to say is, bravissimo! Once we get ‘em in the ball park, we can teach ‘em the required technique; that’s my attitude.
So why the cynical sneer over such a rich and beautiful thing? And why did I have to be — shall we say, “ever so gently coaxed” — into participating? Well, the thing is this: the “challenge” revolves around a celebration of who can accumulate the most time spent working out over a given period (which, in this case, I believe, is 6 weeks). OK, very well, all fine and admirable. Except that I vehemently disagree with the implied premise that the “time” variable (read, biased toward an accumulation of the “slow and steady”) is (1) any indication of true fitness, and therefore (2) a goal worthy of pursuit by one seeking a higher level of fitness. Well, “what is?”, you might ask. And to that I would answer, “well, what about a measure of one’s peak power production increase as measured over the same time period?” or how about “a time betterment for a given sprint distance? An increase in one’s verticle or standing long jump, maybe?” I would even go so far as to advocate choosing something along the lines of a Crossfit workout at random, then having a two-pronged challenge — (1) the best time, straight-up and (2) the best time improvement over a given period.
I know, I know, it’s my nature to deconstruct. Everything I do, say, or advocate has to come wrapped in nuance and topped with a pretty little bow of disclaimer. Just shut the hell up, you say. Support the co-workers who’ve been so nice and supportive to you, and keep those gosh-damn lunatic-fringe thoughts to yourself and your stupid little blog that no one reads. Which, ultimately, is what I’ve done. I’m full-in, diligently keeping track of my hour here, half-hour there and throwing my support to anyone who’ll have it. Of course, I got ulterior reasons. My hope is that, as the challenge progresses, people will come to realize how little time I actually do spend working out. My hope is that I’ll be given the opportunity to evangelize the Evolutionary Fitness lifestyle without coming across as “preachy” or ‘dogmatic”. It can be a fine, fine, and often-times ill-defined, line.
The Art of Smart, Thorough Planning
- set up a workout log on an excel speadsheet. After each (each!) workout, enter all pertinent information (exercise, sets reps, weight used and what adjustments need to be made for the next outing). Here is a typical entry, lifted from my own spreadsheet. Try to be consistent in the use of your chosen shorthand since, unfortunately, the find function can’t read minds.
| Power Clean/Push Press | ||||||
| 135 x 3, 3 | ||||||
| 155 x 2 | ||||||
| 165 x 1 175 x 1 185 x 6:1’s 195 x 1 | ||||||
| Front Squat | ||||||
| 195 x 3 | 205 x 2 sets of 3 | |||||
| Incline Hammer Press (seat at 5), hierarchal | ||||||
| 180 | 200 | 200 | ||||
| 12 | 5 | 3 | Go 180, 190, 200 | |||
| BOR, Hierarchal | ||||||
| 230 | 250 | 270 | ||||
| 12 | 5 | 3 | ||||
- Maintain an “at the gym” notebook for 1) your planned objective/workout, and 2)what was actually accomplished in the workout
Now, you won’t have to toss the spreadsheet into the mix until you’ve accrued quite the ensemble of exercises from which to select. It is an absolute time killer to fiddle around trying to figure out the proper weight/configuration for an exercise you want to do, but that you haven’t done for some time, and therefor can remember what constituted an adequate challenge. Why an Excel spreadsheet? The ctrl+f command, that’s why. Thumbing through week’s worth of illegible handwriting in your notebook (which, midway through a workout, will come to resemble the scribblings of a crack addict) is a pain and the ass and an absolutely avoidable FWOT (fuckin’ waste of time). So, to get the most bang for your precious sliver of eeked-out workout time, we’ll endeavor to Plan, Note and Record. It’s just that easy, but so very few do it. Why? Hell if I know. Maybe I value my time more than others. Maybe wanting more bang for the workout minute places me in a Ron Paul-like minority. Hell, maybe my brain is friggin’ shot and no one else needs this kind of crutch. I can tell you one thing, though. The small amount of invested time that it takes to maintain such a system is well worth it. By utilizing a system of smart pre-workout planning and in-th-gym progressions (more on these later), I can squeeze more into a 45 minute session than anyone else I know.
Mental Roadblocks
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wuacademia.orgDiet and fast Twitch Muscle Fiber
In the realm of diet, as in most things in life, I abide by a combination of the Pareto Principle (otherwise known as the 80/20 rule) coupled with the “best choice in a given circumstance” rule (i.e., “Keith’s rule”). More specifically, I am an unabashed Evolutionary Fitness evangelist, and although I am not a shill for Arthur DeVany (actually, he really has nothing to “sell” and therefore I’ve nothing really to “shill”) I will make repeated references to his diet and exercise theories. I can personally attest to the results of following (with slight adjustments, allowing for my own theories and life circumstance) his overall plan. I will flesh-out what I mean by all of this as time allows and my blog continues to take shape.
Anyone involved in a true sport (i.e., not bodybuilding, which is not necessarily a “bad” thing in and of itself, just that it’s an anomaly in the sporting world) should be concerned with the acquisition and maintenance of fast twitch muscle fiber. Art DeVany has a blog entry today with a link to a good article explaining the benefits of (and why my eating patterns and work-outs are geared toward) the acquisition of power and the pursuit of fast twitch muscle fiber. It’s a highly recommended read; a good primer for the layman and a nice refresher for the anointed. Check it out.
The Regenerative Nature of Sprints
I hadn’t sprinted in approximately 6 weeks prior to this morning’s workout, due to the weather conditions here in eastern North Carolina. Okay, that’s a flagrant cop-out. The reality is that the winter here has been pleasantly mild and, for the most part, dry. This, though, is what generally happens: I get complacent(thinking I’m jammin’ right on along) and tend to fall into work-out ruts. Lack of time (lack of initiative?) to devote to my work-out pre-planning leads toward performing the same type of work-out repetitively. I get too focussed on bettering some previous lifting best; this, I’ve found, is mostly a winter-time phenomenon. Although this isn’t the worst mistake one can make — a work-out of the same type is better than none at all — but, as we’ll see, this “repetitiveness” has a tendency to contribute to the occurrence of repetitive injuries.
Having cut my front squat work-out short last week due to a muscle tweek in the left shoulder blade area of my back was exactly the thump in the noggin I had to have to force the “better get things swapped up” realization. I hate the fact that, after all these years, I still fall victim at times to a lack of forethought in my work-out planning. The “look for the positive” in me says, “well, at least the injuries are minor now AND you know when to call a work-out quits.” This is true; I am older, wiser and at least a tad bit smarter than the days when I’d just blow past a minor muscle pull, only to compound the problem ten-fold.
So, this was the gig this morning at 6 A-friggin’-M in the morning, Rocky Mount YMCA:
- enough of a warm-up to break a decent lather (1/2 & 3/4-speed 40’s, hip-flexor stretching)
- 5 all-out 60 yard sprints from a sprinter’s start
- a set of 10-rep (5 each leg) slosh-tube lunges
- 5 all-out 60 yard sprints from a standing start
- a set of 10-rep (5 each leg) slosh-tube lunges
- inside the gym for — 1 set of hierarchical DB curls and 1 set of flat bench EZ-bar tricep “nose crunchers”
- showered, shaved and punchin’ the work clock at 7:25
That’s it. It doesn’t sound like much, but as I write this tonight, I can feel a nice tightness to my hamstrings and glutes. Not achy, but I can tell they’ve been pushed in a good way. And the best part? My back is good-to-go. I don’t claim to know all the “why’s” — and quite frankly, a lot of times, the “why’s” are neither here nor there to me — I just know that, empirically-speaking, sprinting works wonders.
