PR Friday: Post your training PR’s and updates to comments. This gives you chance to communicate with like-minded readers, get encouragement or tips, and to be a part of our community.
There are several different things that I’ve responded to this morning that result in today’s post. They all collide into a common theme: people who are unwilling to do what they need to do to be successful.
This is a timely post on 70’s Big. In December I made the point that waiting for the New Year to start a new habit was stupid; “If something is important to you, do it right. fucking. now.” Then I asked everyone to commit to a competition and explained what to do after committing. This is the time of year when gyms swell and nutrition challenges are everywhere.
Yet everyone looks for a short cut. And it drives me fucking insane.
I’m currently reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography. I’ve read his previous biography and have always been a fan of his drive and determination. But reading this recent, more in depth life account shows two things: 1) Arnold always did everything he could to achieve his goals, and 2) None of us are anywhere near that level of commitment (including me). Even in the first decade of his acting career, he was diversifying his portfolio by investing such as investing in Indianapolis real estate, buying and selling properties, running his mail order business, and traveling the world to promote every movie he made. He is the epitome of undying motivation.
While Arnold fights to succeed, all of us accept laziness and sloth. When Arnold heard businessmen talking about how hard they worked for 10 or 12 hours, he’d say (and this is a direct quote from the book), “What the fuck are you talking about, when they day has twenty-four hours? What else did you do?”
Right now there are paleo challengers who want to know if they can use artificial sweeteners, there are veteran lifters going to bed late, and there are sedentary people considering exercising but not actually doing it.
These are the same people — some of you, even — that look at someone successful and think, “They are a genetic freak,” or “I wish I could have as much money as them.” And that is such bullshit. I’ve gone on this rant before, but all my life I’ve been accused of using steroids or just having superior genetics, but I’m the one who has squatted every week with hardly any breaks for 12+ years. I’m the one who made the decision to stop drinking soda at 13 years old. I’m the one who felt like shit, but woke my ass up at 7 in the morning or walked into the garage at 10 at night to train. And I’m not even anywhere near Arnold’s motivation!
Write your goals down. What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to have or know? WHO do you want to be? Do you think squatting 405 is a big deal? Then do it — because I believe every man can squat 405. Do you want to drop your body fat below 15%? Then do it. Anyone can accomplish these basic training tasks. But they are harder than being a slack-jaw piece of shit, they are harder than deciding to eat the candy, and they’re harder than being content with a sub 350 squat.
In last weekend’s seminar I made a reoccurring joke about “the naysayers”, something Arnold has talked about in various speeches. These are the people that think your dreams aren’t possible, that they are too lofty. The naysayers aren’t always out there in the world talking you down. In reality, the naysayer is you.
For gods’ sake, when you have that moment of weakness in managing your time, going to bed, eating the junk food, or going easy in training, have the courage to tell the naysayer — yourself — to go fuck himself. When you’re done telling yourself to go fuck yourself, stop whining, stand up, and start productively working towards your goals. I leave you with a quote from Arnold:
“When you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hahd. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning, just remember that.
“You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
Last Friday you were tasked with pulling your balls out from between your legs and committing to a competition. The day you sign up will be one of the greatest days of your life because your training will suddenly have new meaning. You won’t understand this until the end of the competition. You’ll either walk away from the competition’s last effort thinking, “This was one of the best experiences of my life and I can’t wait to do it again,” or “I could have been better, I should have been better, next time I will reach my full potential.” Either way, you will be of the mindset that your life craves competition, needs it.
If you haven’t signed up for something: do it. There’s no better time to sign up. It’s like cleaning a toilet; the longer you wait, the more it stinks and the less likely you will be to do anything about it.
Assuming you’ve signed up, it’s now time to ensure your training is efficient so that you have a fun and successful first competition. Most likely you can just keep doing whatever program you’re doing now, but just do it better. Increase your bar speed on every rep. It’s easy to go through the motions, but when you actually grit your teeth, clench your B-hole, and attack every rep like it owes you money/sex/bacon/chocolate, you’ll accomplish much more. Make the bar go fast; make the weights go boom.
I found this when Googling “B-hole”
If your program has a lot of dicking around — activities that will not improve your performance in the competition — then cut them out. This is, of course, an individualistic and circumstantial thing, but you don’t need to do conditioning or irrelevant assistance exercises in the six weeks before your lifting meet (other competitions may have different guidelines). Let this be a time where you train primarily for something, and you’ll be rewarded with good progress. Especially if you put a premium on spending all of your recovery resources on specific training (i.e. recovering from compound strength lifts instead chest flyes and wiener lifts).
Next, pay attention to the “outside the gym recovery”. Improve your daily protein requirement, hydrate, sleep, do your mobility (this post is a little dated, I’ll write a new one), and eat well. If you do any of these things poorly, you will not be as prepared for your competition as you could be. If you don’t go 9/9 in powerlifting or 6/6 in weightlifting with PR’s, then you could have done something better. To be clear, PR’s are not necessarily the goal in competition because competition lifts are different than gym lifts. But, if you walk away from a good or bad competition thinking you could have done better, chances are that these “outside the gym recovery” variables could have been improved. And they can’t just be worked on a few times a week like lifting — they have to be done well every day.
Summary
Commit to something. Bash the shit out of quality reps in training and then start good habits outside of the gym. Eliminate the fluff in your program. Have a week of reduced training leading into the competition and be smart with weight choices (there are many resources on this site pertaining to meets), and you’ll walk away knowing that you busted your ass for something, and it paid off. Is there a better feeling?
PR Friday: Post your training PR’s and updates to comments.
This morning I’m travelling to DC for this weekend’s 70’s Big Seminar, so there won’t be a lot written here. Check out the MopeilityWOD video by Brent below; he makes an intriguing point and then easily squats 405×5 (Chris then squats something a lot heavier than 5).
In 2009 my friend Gant asked website readers to commit themselves to achieving something through competition (Letters of Intent – 2009, 2010, and 2011). This isn’t merely a list of “resolutions” or meager goals — the point is to get your ass into a real competition, especially if you’ve never competed before. There’s no better time to sign up for a powerlifting, Olympic lifting, strongman, highland games meet, Tactical Strength Challenge, the dying CrossFit Total, or other strength and power events. We would prefer that you prevent in something that would take advantage of your strength and conditioning training so that you have the direct benefit from your training. In other words, flag football is competition, but it isn’t as dependent on your training as doing a meet. Adults will probably get more out of solo sports (like martial arts) than team sports since we don’t have the time to commit to proper team practice.
As Gant said in the original post:
I don’t want to hear any crap about how you can’t win. Competition isn’t all about winning at the amateur level as much as it is learning about yourself. Hell, I don’t win most of the stuff I compete it (in fighting, you have the added benefit of possibly breaking something or being choked unconscious), but I keep going back, and I get better every time.
Competition is helpful for more than just the introspective learning. Again, from Gant:
Competition puts your training into focus. A date on the calendar forces you to taper your program (hell, HAVE a program), tweak your nutrition (especially if you’re in a weight class), and arrange your schedule (sleep comes to mind).
You also get instant feedback on your training program. You will quickly find out if you did too much or too little conditioning, spent too much benching and not enough squatting, or didn’t work your technique enough.
You also learn game day management. I’m talking about how to pick lifts, when to warm up, what and how much to drink before your event, and the myriad other things that don’t come up during training. This can ONLY be learned by competing. Most of it is learned by watching and asking other competitors, many of whom will become your friends.
Gant has a focus these days on performing and teaching Judo, but he will always use proper strength training with high intensity conditioning to prepare for the sport. It’s easy for all of you to jump into a powerlifting meet since you’re already performing the lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift), but if you’re jaded with that sport that perhaps you should try learning something new, like Judo, and compete in a local tournament. There are Judo forums that could provide you with basic information, but find a local place and get started.
Today is about committing to a competition. Search the internet, find what is near you, and circle the date. Commit to it today. You don’t need to be a certain strength or skill to compete, but you do need to have a pair of balls (or ovaries) to actually commit to it, and that is much more meaningful. Committing to competition will immediately make each training session meaningful.
What is your intent?
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who strives…who spends himself…and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
If you’ve read this site for a while, you know that some of what I try to teach is based on learning a lesson the hard way. This is one of those moments.
Las Vegas is a terrible wonder. For a guy who doesn’t like intense partying, large crowds of people, smoking, people who don’t lift, gambling, or destroying his body, Vegas wasn’t an adult playground. There are many sights to take in — the Bellagio fountain, the porn strewn across the sidewalk, and the flashing lights — but I’m more of a “let’s go look at mountains” kind of guy. But there are people that actually deal with addiction issues and they should be admitted into addiction treatment riverside. 1 Method Luxury Rehab in Los Angeles is where personalized care meets luxury. Their high-end addiction care programs are tailored for transformative recovery. A Partial Hospitalization Program Los Angeles is also a great alternative for those who need help with their substance abuse but are unable to commit to an in-patient program.
I met some of my fantastic Australian friends at one of the gigantic, maze-like hotels, and proceeded to fill my body with poison. Let’s skip the grisly details and acknowledge that I cleverly started 2013 by vomiting most of the contents of my soul to the presumed horror of my Aussie friends (who stoically never complained).
I spent New Year’s Day contemplating jumping through the hotel window, but knew the effort was too grand. The company was good, but the walking was…just too much. The following day I drove seven hours home, so my bodily destruction was off set by a day of driving — something that is heavily debilitating to training efficacy. As I sit here on the third after a good night’s sleep, I still am not right.
Not as glamorous as it looks.
The obvious solution is to not binge drink, but if we do, what can a lifter, athlete, or trainee do to mitigate the baneful effects?
Prepare for the event by hydrating and taking vitamins, particularly the water soluble kind like the B vitamins and Vit-C. The over the counter “hangover cure” products tell you take a pill before you drink, during, as you go to bed, and when you wake up with “a glass of water”. The pill just has water soluble vitamins and the water helps combat the eventual dehydration that the alcohol will cause.
Try to drink water while drinking. If you’re truly binge drinking, this will be an after thought so let’s move on to the day after…
Hydrate. This should be obvious, but hydrate anyway you can. It’ll be best if you can get a gatorade or powerade since water won’t be appealing. Juice is fine. Get 16 oz of fluid in you as fast as possible (unless you feel like you’ll puke it up). Do this even if you’re still drunk.
Eat something. Even if you’re not hungry. If you avoid eating, you avoid calories, and you’ll start fading and soon turn into a wraith like them. Since we don’t have elvish medicine, eat. Don’t worry about paleo and carb content — you just went full auto on your liver and system.
Take more vitamins, especially the water soluble kind. If you take too much of water soluble vitamins, you’ll just urinate them out. So every 2 or 3 hours, take some more. You won’t be in danger of taking too many and you’ll keep them in your body for use.
Drink coffee. The caffeine may help by increasing metabolism, you’ll probably feel better and more alert, and coffee is a tasty treat that is nothing like alcohol.
Continue hydrating, eating, and taking vitamins throughout the day.
Don’t train the day after. If you didn’t get too drunk and aren’t as wrecked, then you can probably train. If it was bad, then avoid it. Just rest.
Speaking of rest: sleep as much as you can. When the body is strung out, malnourished, dehydrated, under-fed, and lacking sleep — regardless if it was from drinking or not — then getting as much sleep as possible is incredibly important.
When you are ready to train (maybe the day after the hangover), make it a light session. You’ll probably find out that you are physically diminished and can’t perform as normal anyway, but follow the “light-medium-heavy” advice from the “Don’t Train Sick” post. However, if you can expedite the process and train “medium” on the first day, it won’t be a detriment to your system like if you were ill from a pathogen. Training with an illness can provide too much of a systemic stress that weakens your defenses and allows the pathogen to start winning. Doing too much when you’re hungover won’t necessary result in feeling worse through the recovery period, but you could depress your system and open yourself up to get ill if you do. Being hungover is like trying to protect Helms Deep without the walls — the advancing orcs and Uruk-Hai (bacteria) will just trample right into your fortress (body) without as much resistance. And if you’re in a dodgy place like Vegas, you’ll definitely be exposed to orc-like filth. This is why if you string several drinking days together, you’ll probably start getting sick.
As a general rule, a person can eliminate .5 oz (15ml) of alcohol in one hour. That’s about one 12 oz (355ml) can of beer in an hour. More from the How Stuff Works article:
Once absorbed by the bloodstream, the alcohol leaves the body in three ways:
The kidney eliminates 5 percent of alcohol in the urine.
The liver chemically breaks down the remaining alcohol into acetic acid. (source)
As you can see, it can take quite a while for you to fully remove a lot of alcohol from your body. Therefore we want to do everything possible to efficiently recover: sleep well, eat well, hydrate well, consume vitamins well, and so on. In other words, shift back into the habits that you should be performing flawlessly to perform well in training.
If you don’t eat Paleo, I’d suggest hitting a week of it after a very bad binge drinking. Personally I feel like I need to cleanse my body, and that’s done with copious amounts of quality protein, vegetables, fats, and nutrients. Your body is a temple, so don’t let the man-killing Uruk-Hai barge in to butt-rape your soul.
