Going Back to Basics

A lot of athletes think that they need the most advanced programming out there to get them to whatever goal they have. If you want to just get strong, you might think that you need to go hardcore in the conjugate system or if you’re a CrossFitter you want to do whatever Rich Froning is doing, and that applies to all sports. People think they need the most advanced things ever. Admittedly I used to think that. I thought that if a beginner program was working then an advanced program would work even better and my results would sky rocket. Well, I was oh so very wrong. The key to making fast gains is to do the most basic thing possible, assuming it works, and ride it out as long as possible. If you can keep adding weight to the bar each week, DO IT! Keep adding weight and ride it out.

I feel like going back to basics can not only benefit those who are interested in fitness, but also those just in regular life. In so many situations people want to go to extremes to do something or use advanced techniques. It just isn’t worth it. The basic techniques are the foundation for everything we do. In everything we do, cooking, computer science, comedy, writing, everything. The basics are called the basics for a reason. You need to master them and use them up before it is worth moving on to the more advanced techniques.

YOU THERE! READER! Stop reading for a second and think about something that you do and like to do…..still thinking? Ok I’ll give you a second…..Done? Good! Whatever it was I’m sure that you had to master the basics before you move on to advanced techniques. If you haven’t then go do that, go master your basics.

In everything, going back to basics and truly mastering them is truly the key to advancing the best. Plus, mastering the basics will also allow you to advance the farthest in the shortest period of time. Going back to the basics is so important to do for everything.

That is why I am vowing to go back to the basics with my strength training. After testing the main lifts this past week, I have established a reliable 1 rep max for my front and back squat, my strict press, and my deadlift. What is the most basic strength “program” one can do? Linear Progression! I am going to start a linear progression program. I am going to take 70% of each of those and do 5x5 (3x5 for deadlift, I don’t need as high of volume for that, plus my back can’t always take it) at 70% the first week and I’m thinking I’ll add 5 pounds to my lifts each week (I'm considering doing the same weight for strict press for 2 weeks at a time because otherwise that is advancing very quickly, much faster than the rest of the lifts). Once I can’t do all 5 sets, I will attempt the same weights the next week just in case it may have been a fluke. Once I officially stall out at 5x5, I will then drop back to 75% and do 3x5 and do the same thing. Once I finally stall after all of that, then I will finally retest. I expect this to go on for about 12-14 weeks, and I am sure that my lifts will increase a pretty good amount. I don’t currently have plans for a strength cycle after that, but I actually think that is a good thing. It will all be based on how I feel.

In addition to those 4 main lifts, I am also going to try and get better at strict pull ups, eventually working on my weighted pull ups, but I think as of now it will be just strict. I am also going to work on dips. They are an incredible accessory movement that helps strengthen the deltoids, pecs and triceps very well. I will also work on my close-grip bench press, but not on a specific cycle, I’ll be treating it more as an accessory instead of as a main lift.

For my conditioning I plan to do mostly interval based conditioning. Whether it is running or rowing, or even doing every-minute-on-the-minute (EMOTM) training. It has less beating on the body than a traditional MetCon and I think will benefit me better while still allowing me to gain strength well.

As a kinesiology major at Maryland, we are also required to take an activity class, and this semester I am taking jogging. Based on everything I have heard regarding it, it is a traditional long-slow-distance based program taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As such, I will try to also run on Saturdays then, but do those as intervals alternating long and short intervals. I’m hoping that the jogging class won’t impact the strength training too much.

I hope you all can look back and maybe see where you can advance by just picking the low hanging fruit. Good luck to you all!

Is Setting Goals the Best Thing For You?

With the New Year come New Years resolutions. Generally when people think of a new years resolution, it generally has something to do with weight loss or getting fit. In fact, according to the University of Scranton in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, weight loss is the number 1 resolution of 2014 and getting fit or healthy is the number 5 resolution. Unfortunately though, only 8% of people who make a resolution are successful. This begs the question then, is setting a specific goal really the best thing to do, and especially setting outcome-based goals. For example, many people will want to lose say, 40 pounds over the year. Is that better than saying that they would like to cut out some of the sugar in their diet, sleep an extra hour a night, and make sure they exercise 4 days a week? Who do you think will really achieve better long-term success? If you ask me, setting that behavior based goal is much more beneficial.

A friend recently asked me why I am so against making a New Years resolution with a specific outcome. It’s actually quite simple; you set yourself up for failure. Imagine that person again who wants to lose 40 pounds over the year. They may not be the most informed person so they decide to cut out some of their fat and red meat thinking it is the best thing for them to do, and they hop on an elliptical for 30 minutes 3-4 times a week. Depending on their starting state, they may see weight start to fly off; in that first month they might lose 8 pounds, and that is awesome and they will just continue to do that. Eventually it will slow down though, so naturally you up the volume, right? So now they start eating even less, maybe as little as 1200 calories a day for a male and 800 for a woman, and they decide to go on the elliptical for 45 minutes every day. They can’t figure out why they aren’t losing much weight anymore. Eventually, they may get to that 40 pounds, but it nearly killed them to do it. They look at the scale though and once they see they have lost it, they think they can start eating a little more now, maybe have an occasional beer or donut, maybe not go to the gym as often, and then within the next month they have gained 10 pounds. What happened? Well, they were killing themselves. It isn’t sustainable, and they get disappointed and have failed.

In my opinion, you’re much better off setting behavior-based goals. Let’s say I’m working with someone who wants to lose those same 40 pounds, and that is their only goal, well it becomes my job to help them set better and more effective goals. It could be as simple as that first month, stop drinking pop and eating candy; something that would generally be accepted as good to do, do your best to eliminate sugar, especially refined sugar. Next maybe start getting in the gym 3 days a week and include some strength training. Eventually, you get them to set those short term behavior based goals that will have them living a happy and sustainable life where they may lose that weight, but if not, they feel happy and healthy because they are.

That’s just one specific goal related to weight loss, but it can be applied to anything. For example, you have 2 people who run a marathon in 4 hours. One wants to run the next one in 3:30 and the other simply wants to improve on those 4 hours. They do the exact same plan and then on race day they both run a 3:38 marathon. The person who wanted to run that 3:30 marathon is incredibly disappointed in himself and feels like he failed even though he made an incredible improvement, whereas the runner who just wanted to improve is ecstatic because he was able to drop 22 minutes off of his marathon. Setting that specific goal only hurt the first runner, whereas the behavior goal set the second runner up for success.

I don’t want this to seem like goals are bad, we just need to be setting goals that are sustainable and can set us up for success. Regardless of if it is fitness related or not, setting a specific outcome goal is rarely the best motivator and idea. We should be changing our lives by changing our behavior.

Here is the ultimate goal for every single person no matter what you want. Try and be 1% better than you were the day before. Improve everyday. If you are able to be 1% better than the day before every single day, then after 70 days you will be 100% better. Doesn’t that sound pretty great? Being 100% better in just 70 days? That sounds amazing to me. Instead of focusing on being better down the road, focus on being better today.

To a better day, week, month, year, and most importantly, to a better life.

My Daily Programming and a Detailed Fitness Journey

I've decided that I now am going to hold myself accountable to other people and post whatever workout I do every single day. I'll show both what I planned to do and what I actually ended up doing. I keep a log already of my workouts, but I want it to be public to the world so you can see where I am starting at in the beginning of the year, and where I end up at.

Hopefully this will encourage me to work harder and smarter to achieve the optimum results. I am going to have basic goals over the year, but I don't have anything super specific yet. In general it will be to simply become more fit across all 10 recognized general physical skills: Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

This will be mostly self programmed, but I draw my programming from various sources in the hopes that I can create the best program for myself within the restrictions that I will have.

As of now, you can look at the tab that says "My Daily Program" and it is one long post of each day. As of now I can't figure out how to make each day a separate post without it showing up in the "Home" tab. If anyone knows a way, please let me know.

To a fitter 2014!


*Update*
I figured out a way to be able to post individual days' programming, just click on the "My Daily Programming" tab and it will lead you right there. Sorry for any confusion.

Year in Review: Personal

This is the first time I have really ever looked back at an entire year a personal level on and reflected on it, so bare with me if I happen to go on random tangents, forget things, or anything else that some may find to be ridiculous.

Spring semester had a lot of ups and certainly a lot of downs, but I feel that I did come out of it for the better. First thing that comes to mind is that I was able to do my first stand up and improv show for my comedy group. The first show after the “New Jacks” (it’s what we call people that just got into the group the entire semester until we have new New Jacks) they don’t perform, they are just introduced and then we had a sketch show. The sketch show was a ton of fun, but my main interest is improv, so when I was able to do improv at our first show that semester, I felt like I was really in the group at last. My comedy group, The Bureau, has been a huge influence on my college experience and I wouldn’t change it at all. I love being a part of it and I hope I can continue to contribute well until I have to graduate.

The next big thing was spring break, yea I know it’s cliché but it was a ton of fun and way more than just getting super drunk on a beach for a week. Ok, so admittedly I did go to a beach, but still. There were a bunch of brothers who decided to drive down to Panama City Beach and rent a condo for the week right on the beach, but we were around a mile from what we described as “douche beach”, you know, the beaches that you imagine where everyone is just running around crazy and drunk. The beach we were on still had plenty of people but it was so chill and we were still able to head over to “douche beach” if we wanted to. Anyway, back to the beginning. My car was me and 4 other people; 3 of which I knew but didn’t know great and wanted to get to know better because they were going to be graduating. Driving down should normally take around 15 hours or so, we did it in 23. We made weird stops and ended up going 8 hours out of the way for this barbecue restaurant we read about in Raleigh, North Carolina called The Pit. It was the best brisket I have ever had in my entire life, ever. Even better, that is NC State territory and we got there right after Maryland had beaten Duke in the ACC conference tournament so they were happy to see us and congratulated us. I will say though about the whole week, yea it was a fun spring break, but most importantly, I got to know some brothers really that I didn’t know that well beforehand and it was phenomenal.

I’m not sure if it’s sad or not, but those were the only 2 really significant things that are worth mentioning that I can remember from that semester.

Next was the summer where I was back at my camp for the 9^th time. It should have been my 10^th summer, the summer where you get an awesome fleece recognizing that you’ve been there for 10 years, but I took a summer off 2 years prior thinking I was done with camp, but it just calls you back there. This summer I taught an activity that I never even took as a camper, Outdoor Living Skill (OLS). The name sounds a lot cooler than what it actually is. It is mostly just outdoor cooking which is pretty cool, except for when the kids don’t want to make fires or when it is a brutally hot day and you are creating even more heat. While it was rough, I really liked the people I worked with and it was a fun summer. I also ended up meeting this girl who at the time, I didn’t think was going to be anything special, and by the end of camp, it wasn’t. In fact, we didn’t even talk much at all, but somehow through this semester we ended up talking and talking to the point where if a day goes by without hours of texts or a couple days without a long phone call, it is a surprise. We talk all the time, and she is absolutely amazing. She lives far away though, but visited Chicago over winter break for a weekend, and even for the day we were able to be together, it was absolutely incredible. It was as if everything was just easy with her, and now we are at the point of figuring out what exactly our relationship is and is going to be. All I know is that this girl is special, and is going to do amazing things in this world.

This past semester, well it was rough, and that is an understatement. My classes didn’t go well, I was getting sick at terrible times, and I had freak injuries. Nothing really went right this semester, and I am just glad it is over. Sadly, that’s really all I have to say about it. I did however get a little in my fraternity. It is actually kind of a funny tradition now. When I found out who my big was, I didn't really know him that well, and when I found out who my little was, he didn't know me too well either. Just a funny coincidence.

I am looking forward to this new year; I feel like it has a lot in store for me and will be really great. All we can do now is hope, do our best, and just see what comes to us.

To 2014, may it be great for us all, and let’s all be great.

Year in Review: Fitness

This has been a pretty crazy year for my fitness, and while I like to think I have learned from it, I don’t really ever want to have another year like it. Lots of ups and lots of downs and lots of that somewhere in between, either way, it has been a year for the ages.

Back in the beginning of the year when I was home for winter break, I was still kind of just getting into CrossFit. I had already “drank the Kool-Aid” and thought it was incredible. I was watching every video on YouTube or the CrossFit games site, really anything CrossFit, I was either reading it or watching it. The best part about being home though was that I was able to finally work out at a CrossFit affiliate and actually do everything instead of just trying to make things work at the school gym. Since I was only going to be home for about a month, I honestly just looked for where I could get the most for my money for the month, and I found CrossFit Haven. It turned out to be way better than just a place to work out for the month. The coaches there are great and know what they are talking about; the programming seems to be quite solid and everyone that goes there is really nice too. I loved going there, and it was sad when I had to go back to school because I would have to go back to just kind of figuring out what I could do that wouldn’t get me in trouble at the gym.

Also in January I got my personal trainer certification in hopes that I would be able to get a job either at the school gym or somewhere to get some work experience. For those who don’t know, I eventually want to get into more elite level strength and conditioning coaching instead of personal training, but I can say that I do enjoy personal training and it is incredible to see people achieve their goals and do things they didn’t think possible. Since I want to do that coaching, obviously I need to have experience so personal training is the best way, plus getting paid isn’t too bad either.

For the rest of my spring semester, I was doing well. I was making progress on all my lifts with fairly basic programming, my conditioning was getting better, and I really wasn’t sustaining any injuries, not even minor ones. I loved working out; it was so much fun, plus my dorm was a 2-minute walk from the gym so it was so easy. Unfortunately though, new rules were being implemented, especially that of no more Olympic lifting. There were forums (which is where the assistant director of fitness and the coordinator of fitness staff got to know me) where I was very vocal while, I like to think, still being respectful in why we should still have the Olympic lifts allowed in the facilities. In the end though, the lifts were banned. By the end of the semester though, I ended up getting a job as a personal trainer and as weight/fitness staff (the people who walk around the weight room and supervise) so it was almost ironic that I went from being so against the staff and their rules to being a part of it, but I needed work experience, and getting paid for that stuff is just a bonus.

After school let out I had a phenomenal beginning to the summer. I was back at CrossFit Haven and I was going to be volunteering at the CrossFit Regionals that were taking place in Chicago. I already wrote about that experience here if you’re interested in more details, but it was amazing. I then went to work at my overnight camp and the absolute best intentions of still working out and not only maintaining but still increasing my lifts and conditioning. Things took a change, and being busy at camp happened so I was already working out less and less, but then something happened, and I just kind of stopped enjoying working out. I still loved the idea of fitness and learning about it and the idea of programming, but doing it myself, I stopped losing interest, and as such, I lost a lot of strength and my conditioning went down considerably.

Getting back to school in the fall, I had a rejuvenated desire to actually start working out again, but I had a strength focus instead of just regular CrossFit, so I did mostly strength work with the occasional rowing interval and regular metcon. I was doing well and getting near where I was before the summer but then I started having issues with my shoulder so I had to focus more on my legs and right around the time my shoulder started feeling better, you guessed it, my left knee started acting up. I wish I could say that my knee is completely better, but that would be a lie. It is getting better and stronger, but there are still days where it does hurt even from doing nothing at all. I will say though, I got the original Rehband knee sleeves, and they are phenomenal. They warm up my knees and give me good support without much restriction, and I think with those I will be able to make a lot of progress; I just hope I don't use them as a crutch and that my knee does get better. 

Now, I’m starting the new year, I’m focusing on technique while trying to build my strength back up and get back to a good level of fitness. I have also realized that while I do care about my fitness and want to be fit, that my main priority, and interest for that sake, is programming and coaching. Coaching someone else to their goals and finding what works and doesn’t, that absolutely fascinates me, and I hope that I’ll be able to do much more of that in this upcoming year. I have a feeling that this year is going to be much better for my own fitness, but also for the sake of coaching, training, and programing for people.

To 2014, may it be great for us all, and let’s all be great.