Resolve not to resolve annually, but daily…

Reflect back to the day you bought your treadmill, joined your local gym, or purchased your new running shoes, or hand weights. Think about the desire, the passion, and the possibilities you felt when you made that purchase – however long ago. What went wrong? Why did you stop? Where were you and what were you doing the day you lost sight of your goals?

It is the New Year’s resolution which, more than any other mechanism, drives people to pursue their health and fitness goals. The new year is seen as fresh start; tabula rasa – a magic opportunity to commit or recommit one’s self to increased exercise and more sound eating choices year after year — after year — after year. Momentarily cleansing, but too often faltered and fruitless, and ultimately demoralizing.

It has been long accepted in the American psyche that each new year provides us a blank canvas on which to paint an image of redemption from goals not met, and opportunities squandered during the previous twelve months. It’s a sort of grown up do-over for each year we exit unfulfilled.

Perhaps because it is only a feel good illusion, the new year’s resolution also serves to push people further back into the dark hole of fitness complacency, more than any other mechanism. Like an emotional boomerang, the new year’s resolution is the throw of one’s unrealistic wishes, into the wind of one’s all but certain reality.

Consider this: that the term new year’s resolution is just a pseudonym for the word regret. We regret that which we have not had the discipline nor the fortitude to achieve or fulfill in the previous year. Within weeks of our commitment, and in the name of passivity, we are likely to forsake the hard hike up the trail toward what we desire, and walk the easier path of television reruns and comfort foods.

We extend these behaviors by a few days at a time after New Year’s Day, then by weeks and months, and ultimately the year slips by us like witchcraft in the wind, leaving us unfulfilled yet again. Then, upon the realization of all the potential which was left unfulfilled, we vow to do better in the coming year.

This breakdown notwithstanding, great successes more often arise from the deepest of adversity. Rarely does adversity come complete with a clean slate date stamped, January 1, at least not the adversities I have known.

New Year’s day does provide a point from which we can take that first step into a better tomorrow, but so do August 3rd and February 12th. The New Year’s Day effort is usually followed by nary a second step, because it is the second step which takes work, and there is much less effort in making a resolution than in fulfilling one. A new year’s resolution it seems, is less a tangible quest and more a release of accumulated guilt.

In all of this, it is most tragic to me that those who make new year’s resolutions usually direct their intentions toward improved fitness and health. Though of sound intent, to relate things of such importance as one’s body and health to something so inconsequential and trivial as a new year’s resolution is to devalue the importance of the a healthy and functional human body.

I’m not trying to suggest that we don’t make new years resolutions; they have their place. Not however, in relation to your fitness and not in proximity to your good health. Your body and your health deserve better. New year’s resolutions should promote things which will not lower your self-esteem or devastate your psyche when they are left unfulfilled.

With every stretch of the arm to withdraw a healthy food from the pantry, with each passing of the sofa and television enroute to do your exercise, with every glance at “lighter fare” section of a restaurant menu, you should resolve to do what you know to be right – and you do know what is right, 365.

Bottom line: I have known many fitness successes through the years, and I’m proud to have aided in more than a few. No fitness success story that I am familiar with was date stamped January, 1st. The best fitness accomplishments I have seen unfold before me have all been the result of strong will, a truckload of effort, and a blazing desire to change on June 26th, just as much as on January 1st.

Your body deserves better than to be a new year’s resolution. Your personal health and aesthetic fitness are worthy of an ongoing resolution; a daily affirmation and commitment to good health and fitness which should be resolved with each moment that thoughts of these cross your mind.

That’s it for me in 2009. I will spend the final weeks of 2009 making a lot of toys, grooming my reindeer, making flight plans, getting the wrinkles out of my red suit, and when that’s all done, I will be moving business to a larger facility.

 

For those who have taken time to read this every-so-often column, thank you very much.

 

I sincerely wish peace for all during this holiday season – and remember, peace is not to be found, but to be created.. Be well. rc

The Holiday Fat-Fire Traingle…

Heat, fuel, and oxygen; my Coast Guard training taught me that these are the three necessary elements of the fire triangle. Eliminate any one element, and prevent a fire from ever happening. Intermingle all three elements, and a fire is certain.

Certain too is what I call the fat-fire triangle – especially during the holiday season. Just like the fire triangle, a fiery gain in body-fat from a holiday meal can be prevented if one or more elements of the fat-fire triangle is eliminated. Actually, the holiday meal isn’t the sole culprit of the fat-fire triangle. It’s also the lingering conditions; the next several days and weeks after the holiday meal.  During what we gleefully call the “holiday season”, the conditions are just right for a fat-fire. Put several holiday celebrations back to back to back, and the fat-fire hazard is very high. Here’s what I mean:

A holiday meal will certainly be heartier than your average meal, because it’s special – I guess. Heartier, in all likelihood, due to more carbohydrate and fat laden foods, side-dishes, and desserts such as potatoes, stuffing, buttered rolls, pies, cookies, and the like. These carbohydrates in particular will richen and heighten your blood sugar when eaten. To offset that increase in blood sugar, your pancreas will increase its production of this magical stuff – let’s call it insulin, to keep up with the increased blood sugar.  Minimally speaking, insulin is what helps convert blood sugar into glucose.  Guess what? That sudden increase in insulin production can make you hungry, and that increased hunger will carry well into your next day. Element number one, hunger, is in now place, and the fat-fire triangle is beginning to form.

After your holiday meal is complete, your nap is over, your team has won the big game, and Aunt Rose and Cousin Vinnie have gone back upstate where they belong, you take irresistible note of all the fire starters that have been left behind.  Your kitchen counters are adorned with this ready-to-go kindling for your fat-fire.  We’ll call these leftovers, and they are calling you by name while you are in your weakened state of increased hunger. Your leftovers are the fuel, another element of the fat-fire triangle.

Element number three? Opportunity. It’s a day after your holiday meal and you’re hungrier than normal due to your increased insulin production from all your eating the day before.   These leftovers which surround you and capture your eyes like sparkling fairies in the forest, are of little danger without opportunity.  Opportunity?  You’re home instead of at work because you’ve taken the week off for the holidays.  Many people take time off of work during the holidays – I guess.  Opportunity is the 3rd and final element of the fat-fire triangle

Our fat-fire triangle is in now place; hunger, fuel, and opportunity. Yikes! Me thinks me hears a disaster brewing.

No, there’s not tip here from me to you. No lesson to be learned which you don’t already know.  No moral to the story, nor recommendation by me of how to handle these circumstances, or how to eliminate any one of these elements. I just want to point out, from my perspective, why so many people gain weight during the holiday season; it’s the fat-fire triangle.  It’s a cycle only you can avoid – yours to enter, or yours to evade.  But it is your choice alone.  Blame not the cook of the ham, the bringer of the pie, nor the seller of the stuffing.  It is up to you to be strong, to be disciplined, and to make the right choices.  Me? I don’t play with matches. Be well.  rc

A Call To Think, To Lead, And To Show Compassion

A Re-Post This Week.  Originally posted 4/29/09 

Each day I witness fitness minded people; enthusiastic devotees of the movement, quick to judge – snap opinions exerted against those who might not appear to be so fit. If they dare to be honest with themselves, they could almost think to be ashamed – but shame does not compliment the fit look. If a picture of fitness were to be hung on our national wall, what is labeled as fitness in the modern era should be framed by insignificance, matted by the ridiculous, and the empty space in-between would be filled with triviality.

At worst, fitness minded people can be disrespectful, if not hateful towards those who don’t think and live the fitness way. I witness this daily as I move about and observe between my circles of exercise and clean eating, and my life among normal people. At best, it seems they are simply judgmental people – even towards those less fit people in their own families. I often wonder if the so-called fit, sincerely attempt to understand those on the other side of the fitness dilemma.     

 

And then, depression set in...

We can make the argument (and few do this better than me), that taking ownership of our bodies and living as fit, healthy social stewards is our inherent responsibility on behalf of our families, our communities, our employers, and of ourselves. The true fitness agenda should be that we should strive to take care of ourselves first, so we can do more for others. In the modern fitness agenda, that virtue has been eclipsed by the binary suns of the quest for hotness, and the taste for bigotry.

Let’s be honest, most do fitness merely so they can look good, so they can have better sex, so they can have the upper hand should they fall out of their present relationships, and because the media tells us all we suck unless we’re hot. I am drawn to exercise first because I enjoy it, because it helps keep me stable, and because I find that I am able to better contribute as a result of my daily action. Still, in this age, I feel a minority in all of this.   

Clearly they workout to stave off the impending loss of bone density...

Too many lack attempt for understanding those who might not be as fit, look as fit, and live as fit as others appear to live. They criticize, mock, whisper, and point fingers. This behavior is emotional vandalism. I am no longer convinced that people who are so fitness minded, are contributing that much more to the whole of society than does the 400 pound unemployed couch potato who, while eating a Ho-Ho and staring at Jerry Springer, is still mindful enough to stop and tell his wife he loves her very much.

There is also the argument that so-called fit people are a lesser drain on the medical, governmental, and community-social orders. To suggest though, that one is a lesser architect, a lesser physician, or a lesser mom, for their lack of exercise, or for the Cheetos in their hands is just bigotry. I have little doubt that on a good day I would eat more clean, run faster, and out lift the historic Jesus of Nazareth – were he to rise up and visit me at my studio. Yet, what have I done for you lately, that compares to all of that really good Jesus stuff that he did…? 

Nice workout guys. Anyone for bread and wine...?

A part of what has kept me (most often) grounded in all of this, is my understanding that whatever religious and philosophical implications might be surrounding my existence, I recognize that in the end I will not be judged by the shape of my abs, the size of my biceps, the speed at which I can run a mile, nor the amount of time I can hold myself in Downward Dog. Nor will anyone else.

As concepts, these may have (some) benefit, and I suggest that they have helped enhance and improved my life so that I am better able to help others. These fitness virtues though, are but shimmering trinkets, adorning the charm bracelet of my here and now, and have no bearing on defining who I am as a friend, neighbor, father, or member of my community. Nor does my fitness level demonstrate how I have fulfilled my potential for the betterment of he who might have created me. 

Let's see, good father, good business man, you're in. Oooops! 13-minute mile? Guess again...

I ask this of the fitness minded reader; before you rush to the judgement of others who you deem as less fit than yourself, take note of these things – note them of yourself first, and then if you wish to continue judging another based solely on how someone looks, you can apply these questions to them:

• What kind of neighbor are you?
• What kind of family person are you?
• What do you give to your community, without asking for anything in return?
• Does what you look like, how fast you run, how much you lift really matter in the heart of a creator?

The hardest actions to control in the human condition are subconscious non-actions. The ability to not judge others based on how they look definitely falls into the non-action category. Since we are habitual creatures of judgement, perhaps making a habit of asking these questions of ourselves, can help offset the error of our prejudicial ways.

Whether you are fitness hobbyist, or a leader in the fitness community, we who strive to look, feel, and act at a higher level, we have a responsibility to walk with dignity, to lead by example, and to keep ourselves available to help others rather than criticizing them – that is what fellowship is all about. Be well. rc

The real gift of fitness….

How deep will you reach into your pockets this gift giving season? Not as deep as last year I would say. Will your list of holiday recipients be shortened in this difficult economy? Very likely. And those for whom you do buy for, is it safe to suggest you will choose your gifts more wisely than in years past? Indeed.

The economy is slowing down. Still, the American requirement to give at holiday time is now a habit deeply etched deep into our psyche; one forged in the red, white, and blue traditions of consumption, guilt, and one-ups-manship. Giving from deep pockets, even if those pockets are empty, is a habit not easily stopped.

It’s the time to give again. Expectations born from history are at an all time high. Pockets, ironically born of that same history, are more shallowthan they have been in decades. Decisions are difficult. Guilt grows. Stress increases. What to do?

In recent years, fitness related gifts have been pretty big during the holidays. Retail exercise devices such as strength training machines, cardio equipment exercise balls and mats, DVDs, and even personal training sessions have been placed under the tree, stuffed into stockings, and placed beside the menorah with the best of intentions.

Take a quick inventory of your house; check your guest room, your garage, your basement, or your patio for a moment. Those are the areas where home workout gear is usually stowed – lost, to be truthful. Go ahead, measure the dust on the BowFlex. Pick the boxes of tax returns up off the treadmill and see if the sales tag is still attached. Has that exercise ball even been inflated yet? The exercise mat has certainly made a great dog bed, hasn’t it?

With that glimpse of history, I suggest that giving fitness related items this holiday season would not be a wise investment of your weakening dollar. Still, fitness should be at the very top of your giving priorities – most everyone needs improved fitness and wellness. Though your past intentions have been good, you may have been placing the wrong fitness gifts under the tree. You have been giving things, which are the wrong things. The things you give are expensive, unused, and not what the recipient has ever really needed.

This year, the economic conditions are just right for you to change directions, and give creatively, economically, and from the heart. This season, give your loved ones energy, time, and commitment, to aid them in tier quest for improved fitness. These are not only free, they will offer much more meaning – and utility.

Below are just a few examples of possible giving, that will cost you nothing, and will likely help your loved ones more than any BowFlex or any Pilates ball ever would. These are just examples of gifts that give, but do not cost. Consider that; gifts that give, but do not cost.

• Encouragement

Go out on a limb, give the gift of encouragement. A treadmill is nothing without a reason to use it. Skip the $500 – $4,000 price tag, and give your loved one a $1.25 greeting card; one with a hand-written list inside of the many reasons to take a long walk, to go for a jog, or to do push-ups, squats, and crunches during TV commercials. Remind them, in your own handwriting, of why it is important to move. Let them read your words, from the outside looking in, of who benefits from, and what the dividends will be paid from exercise had. Encourage them to just do it, and on behalf of their loved ones as well as themselves – and don’t be afraid to name names. Encouragement might be a beautiful gift.

• Time

Dig deep; give the gift of time. Don’t have $400 dollars to buy your loved one a gym membership this year? Be their baby sitter for 2 evenings per week so they can hit the fitness trail at the local park, do the afore mentioned jog or walk, or the TV time workout. Buy them a card, and in that card place an IOU for an amount of time that they would not otherwise have. Cover for them at work if you can. Pick up the kids from them and take them out to dinner. Or, take over their car pool one day per week if you can. Offer to mow their lawn, do their grocery shopping, do their laundry, and just give ‘em some time. Time doesn’t have to mean time to exercise either. Perhaps they already exercise but struggle to find time to pre-cook or prepare healthy meals for the week. That kind of time could be just as valuable for some.

• Partnership

Give the gift of partnership. Even if your fitness is more advanced than that of your loved one, give of yourself and workout with them. Don’t have them do your workout, do theirs with them and encourage them along the way.  You will both benefit from the investment of your time and partnership. Lead by example and go with them for a walk, or a run. Give of yourself and show them the way. If you don’t know the way yourself, give them the gift of your commitment – your partnership, participation, and assure them that you will learn fitness together.

In troubling economic times, when we really need to check ourselves – to take inventory of how we live, how we spend, and why we spend, could there be any better holiday gift than a gift that gives but does not cost? Sounds downright old fashioned to me, and profoundly appropriate under the current economic circumstances. Make this holiday season an old fashioned one; give of yourself and make a real difference. Be well. rc

 

Thoughts on Chris Whitley…

If Chet Baker represented all that could go wrong with the beautiful mind of a tortured artist, and the vices which can bring him down, it took Chris Whitley to give torment, cigarettes, and heroin a good name — I guess.

Today it has been 5 years since Chris Whitley died of lung cancer.  Beautiful.  Gaunt.  Tortured.  Raw.  Pure.  Poetic. Rough.  Artist.  Smoke.  Trance. Bony.  Genius.  Compelling.  Torment.  Expressive.  Sweet.   Hypnotic.  Historic.  Impish.  Gracious.  These are only some of the words that I see when I think of, and when I listen to Whitley. 

He was infinitely beautiful, always testing his reach, and profoundly allowing in his process and presentation.  His lyrics reflect the world within him, every bit as much as the world about him.

He could tune a guitar oddly, and play it smoothly and sweetly.  Or, he could tune one roughly, and still play it sweetly.  Obscure tunings, and radical adjustments in process were his platform.  Purity was draw.

Not only could he bend a guitar string round enough to throw a chair through a note, but he could bend his voice in equal portion, and that was his secret weapon.  Chris Whitley’s voice was an instrument unto itself — like no other I have heard.

This has absolutely nothing to do with exercise, fitness, or mindful eating – but that between the years 2001-2003, I listened to know other artist – none.  Cardio, weightroom, running, driving, working, playing, paddling – anything, his interpretations of historic blues, and incarnations of modern blues were the soundtrack of my life.

If you had lived a healthier life Mr. Whitley, and not been a smoker, you might still be around today, and I think your gift would have come through just as clear, and reached more people. 

If you are reading this, and you don’t know Christ Whitley, seek him out on i-tunes or on www.youtube.com — you will not be disappointed.  A fan named rc.

In Winter Part I…

Winter is almost here.

Bears hibernate in Winter; shorter days, colder temperatures, less food to prey upon, and so-on.

Bears lose weight when they hibernate — lots of weight.

People gain weight in Winter when they hibernate — often times too much weight.

Why are people different than bears?

Bears sleep while they hibernate, and though their metabolism slows way down, they are still able to lose weight because they don’t eat (at all) during their hibernation season. Bears are smart, and know to be gluttonous in eating only when they are gluttonous in their activity.

People stay awake during their hibernation season — they hibernate from activity only, but not from life – and certainly not form eating.  During the human hibernation season the human metabolism may slow down a bit due to the lesser activities pursued during the colder and darker cycle of the year.

We humans gain weight though, because unlike bears, we’re gluttons even when we are inactive. Even with less activity in our lives, we continue to eat, and often times eat more than we do during our active seasons of Spring and Summer, because we have little else to do – and more to celebrate.

Yes, with Winter at hand, it is hibernation season yet again. I’m hopeful though, that we can all remember to keep active – even if it means indoor exercise during these darkened times. I’m also hopeful that we remember the example set by the bear as he keeps his dietary intake consistent with his activity level during the Winter. I’m not suggesting we starve, but it is a good idea to be dietary intake relative and proportionate to the energy output of the season.

In Winter Part II

I have been living in a state of denial for the past several weeks – denial that Winter is butting it’s cold steel shoulder up against the boundaries of my beautiful Autumn. I had to let that denial give way to acceptance this morning when I turned my cars’ heater on for the first time since March.

Winter; the season where even the best laid fitness intentions most frequently fall to the ground like the dry brown leaves from the sleeping trees around us. Winter is the time of year when we cover up with more clothing and we eat more calories. Cover up more? Eat more? After all, we are covered more so we rationalize the action of eating more because we can get away with carrying a few extra pounds under those heaver clothes, right?

Winter – where shorter days, longer nights, and cooler temperatures make the very thought of exercising… well, uninspiring to say the least, right? After all, we are pretty warm and cozy under our woolly sofa blankets, and in front of our fire places watching all those fit looking actors and athletes on TV entertain us.

Winter – when the new TV season is full-on at its prime, holiday parties are the weekend norm, and new hot food & hot drink recipes are floating around the office and the family to be shared, tried and embellished upon, to then be re-circulated some more.

Winter – where 90% of our annual calories are consumed, and 90 of our annual excuses to not burn those calories are created? After all, Winter is the time to celebrate our favorite basketball and football teams, celebrate our Religious beliefs, and ring in our New year, share our chocolaty Valentines, and bathe in Easter candy.

Yes, between these built in excesses and the excuses we use to carry them with, Winter is where a lot of damage gets done to the waistline, the digestive organs, the heart, the pancreas, and most of all, the ego, right?

No, I have no special “Winter” plan for staying in shape – none. No secrets nor special Winter-only tricks or workouts to keep those clothes from shrinking and to keep us motivated. Motivating ourselves in Winter is our individual job.

Simply, this is to shout out and remind us all that exercise and mindful eating matter more in the Winter than in other times of the year. It is discipline and fortitude, however, which matter most in the Winter – when there are so many more excuses and excesses, and more reasons to forsake our fitness agenda.

Discipline is as functional a utility as a Swiss Army Knife, and just as portable – it can be carried with us everywhere we go, even in Winter.   It’s time to start loading up discipline once again, because the Winter is upon us. Be well. rc

A Personal Discourse On Fitness…

There are moments in life that can define us by revealing our courage or our humility, in pursuit of growth.  Or, those same moments can haunt us, ongoing, for revealing all we are not willing to do to affect change within our self.  This might be the story of one such moment:

My daughter was 9 years old.  Chelsea had swimming pool hair, golden skin, and she had a best friend named Holly.  We lived down the street from Holly, on a greenbelt loaded with greenbelt things; swings, slides, those rocky-horse things on thick springs, tennis courts and more.  Chelsea loved the green belt, and often asked when I walked her home from school, if we could stop and play there.  I don’t ever recall saying “no”, because I loved the greenbelt too.

On occasion, we would walk home from school with her friend Holly, and Holly’s father Derek.  Holly was like Chelsea, young, full of energy, and always ready to play.  Derek – not as much.  He was perhaps 100 lbs. overweight, and though he was a few years younger than me, he was doing well just to walk his daughter home from school without sweating excessively.

One afternoon while Derek and I navigated the girls through the greenbelt, amidst the sea of red ceramic roof tops, we decided to stop and let the girls play at the playground for a while – and they did.  Derek and I sat on a bench beside the jungle gym and watched while Chelsea and Holly participated in a kids’ life.  Eventually, I was called upon to participate as a swing pusher.  Pushing swings soon merged into playing on the jungle gym and I thought nothing of it.  I was willing, I was able, and I was having fun.

Eventually, even a guy in good shape has to concede to the exceptional fitness level of 9-year old girls, and I did that also, exhaustedly rejoining Derek on the park bench.  As I approached him, I saw a small tear run from one of his eyes, and heard a sniffle accompany the tear. That’s when I recognized the impact of what I had just done – that I could do with Derek’s daughter what he could not do; physically play. 

No words were spoke between Derek and I when I sat back down beside him, nothing could really be said.  I had it, and he wanted what I had; physical ability. For me, the moment  was humbling and gratifying – simultaneously.  Humbling that my friend was not fit enough to slide down a slide with his own daughter.  Gratifying, that I was.  How does one reconcile such a moment?  Internally. 

If the story ended there it would be a great example of the value of exercise and living a fit life – a testament to the virtues of discipline in regular exercise and healthy eating. A man cries because he’s unable to play with his own child, but an older man is fit enough for the job.  Hooray, fitness wins!!!

But the story does not end there.  Later that evening, Chelsea and I settled in to our evening routine together – she doing her homework, me exercising in our garage gym.   When I came in from the workout, she asked me why Derek had been crying on the park  bench that afternoon.

Pretentiously, I explained to her that Derek had been saddened by seeing me playing and enjoying moments on the jungle gym with his daughter – something he could not do, though his heart clearly desired to participate.  I told her that seeing this made me sad too, but also made me feel good about my ability to be a participant dad.

Astute to a fault even at the age of 9, Chelsea immediately asked me if I ever cried –  when she’s with Holly and Derek at Baskin Robins or Hometown Buffet, enjoying wonderful treats and the laughter and the moments that go with them – moments she reminded me, that I was never willing to participate in.  She knew that in my heart I clearly desired such moments, but I regularly chose not to participate in something that Derek, Holly, and Chelsea always enjoyed.

And that is where this story really ends; at the point where I was reminded by a 9-year old that there are two sides to every story – even the story of fitness.  I have not been able to wholly embrace the concept, nor even the term fitness since that moment.

Fitness is my livelihood.  I regularly attempt to make the case that living fit, and eating healthy are important for every man, woman, and child in America.  Still, I reflect on that moment daily – and the moment still haunts me; the day fitness was exposed to me as just another sacrifice in the name of non-sacrifice. It’s been ten years since Chelsea asked me that question, and I still wonder what fitness is or, if it even is. 

I might die tomorrow.  If I do, what moments will I have missed of sharing ice cream and cake with a side order of smiles?  What flavors and accompanying moments might I have I passed upon, in favor of a cardio-session or a plate of broccoli in the name of living well?  Like questions of politics, philosophy, and faith, there are no clear answers here.  But there should be some thought, a bit of discourse, some compromise and some understanding – in my case anyway.

In hind-sight, I reflect mostly that on that day, Derek had shed tears for his inability to play with his daughter on the jungle gym.  In further exploration, I reflect that I had never shed a tear for my unwillingness to enjoy a cake or a buffet with my daughter, and for that I am ashamed.  So who’s more fit now?  Be well.  rc

Exercise v. Recreation…

Strength training isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure.

Strength training is done indoors. Golf is done outdoors.

Strength training is hard work. League softball is social, and fun.

Strength training might wreck your back. Walking is low-impact.

Strength training is for people who like to look in the mirror. Biking is for people who like to look at the scenery.

No, strength training isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. Ah, yes it is, and if you’re not currently including 1-2 days of strength training in your exercise regimen, you might be well advised to begin – today!

People who regularly engage in physical activities other than weight training as their primary form of exercise often spew these gasses at me from their volcanic mouths, often passionately opposed to the concept of strength training.

The afore mentioned assertions always end or start with this phrase; “I don’t need to lift weights because…”

People too often can’t identify, or won’t acknowledge the broad line between recreation and exercise. Or, they view it Americanly, through the eyes of rationalization. In fact, most of what people tell me they do as a means of improving their fitness level is recreation, and not exercise.

Rigorous exercise can be joy, poetry, prayer, therapy, and success, all rolled up into one sweaty ball of you. Exercise can be cleansing and beautiful. But understand that recreation is not always exercise, and that strength training is rarely recreation.

Recreation doesn’t always burn calories in bunches. Recreation doesn’t always strengthens muscles, tendons or promote balance. Recreation doesn’t always stave off the loss of bone density. Recreation doesn’t foster an increased flexibility and an increased metabolism. Not all recreation helps minimize blood pressure, cholesterol, and decrease body fat. Conversely, strength training, done correctly, isn’t always recreation – it can be work.

Strength training might make you sweat, may make you breathe hard, and can cause a person to become fatigued – in the short-term. Strength training can also be invigorating, in macro ways that general recreation can never reach. Done correctly, strength training, in my opinion, is the single most efficient form of exercise there is. To me that is the best part of strength training – its utility in a busy and modern world.

Yes, there are other forms of exercise that are not recreation, and they are good: Yoga, Pilates, and group classes such as Step, ball classes, kickboxing classes, and just plain old cardio and calisthenics. I’m never going to talk down about any form of exercise. Exercise, like music, sex and pizza, knows no bad, only different levels of good.

Strength training can be superior to all of the others because strength training, done correctly, can be all of the others. With proper management, a consistent strength training regimen can bear all the depth, width and breadth of the entire modern exercise spectrum.

If you work a strength exercise through a complete range of motion, the act of strength training is simply the act of yoga – intensified. Intensified because the resistance is serving to help you achieve your stretches and postures more completely.

No different than Pilates, strength training is the act of flexion and contraction. If you hold your muscular extensions, and muscular contractions at either end of a strength training movement, then you are attaining what those who engage in Pilates seek to attain; a greater command of your muscular body.

If you select challenging (but never excessive)weights, keep your rest minimal between the sets of your strength training exercises, and seek to engage all the major muscles groups throughout your workouts, you can be take your strength workout into a cardio state – one unequalled by those hi-impact group classes.

If you strive to increase concentration and body-awareness from strength workout to strength workout, you promote a Zen-like mental clarity similar to that you might experience in intense prayer.

If you have done all of the above in a 30-40 minute workout, you have used efficiency to rinse your body with the warm waters of health, longevity, and clarity.

Bottom line: Keep your bowling night. Play softball. Golf. Ride your horse along the trail. Ski the black diamond’s of Vail, and conquer croquet. If you are looking for recreation, you have found it. If you are looking for exercise, may I suggest strength training…? Rhetorical. Be well. rc

Hog Tied: Fitness, Illusions, Ownership, and Brief Thoughts On Baseball

No doubt, the CDC has some statistic that says that the odds of me being attacked and molested by a gang mutant jackals, dressed in Kevlar pajama pants, with whiskey on their breath is 90% greater than the odds of me dying from the H1N1 virus. This may be true. I will continue however, to view the events of the past week and a half as a near-death experience. I have a statistic for the CDC; last Wednesday evening, 100% of me was knocking 99% at death’s door.

If that seems like an exaggeration, it’s really not. In my life, I have been lightening struck, rattlesnake bit, survived a parachute malfunction that cost me a couple of years of my life, and been a life-long a Red Sox fan, so I feel adequately qualified to use the term near-death, and determine the context.

I have just done battle with an invisible swine. Not much of a battle really, the virus found me running on little sleep, scurrying within a maze of planes, trains, rain-blown Chicago sidewalks, hotel rooms, and it proceeded to raise me up and body-slam me right back into my own bed – end of battle.

I have been as humbled by the wit and severity of this virus, as I have been humbled by my own lack of fight against it. I got caught where I always get caught; hiding behind my own complacency – born from thinking that I am invincible due to my rigorous fitness regimen.

Somewhere between the delirium of Wednesday night’s cold-sweats, and Thursday morning’s burning-chills, I recall asking Patti to drive me to the funeral home “now” so we might save money on the delivery expense later – surely I was going to die. And there were still the Yankees to deal with.

I had originally intended to weave together a tapestry of metaphor and circumstance, that I might translate and share something profound or insightful about my experience with the H1N1 virus. I wanted to include the usual humor, fitness perspective, and religious body shots, but there is really nothing to share. No lessons learned, no personal experience which might translate well, that others might benefit.

This flu just sucks. H1N1 is the worst flu I have ever experienced. Aches. Heat. Cold. Weak. Dying. Bleak. These are the only words I can think of to describe those long hours in bed praying to be taken back. There was one moment in particular when I believed I was about to pass. I felt weak – could not reach to the table beside me to retrieve a glass of water. Barely breathing shallow breaths. Lights grew bright, but images around me more blurry. Transcendental. I felt I was just about to take my last breath, when Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee turned and back-handed a ball hit straight to the mound, as he continued to make the Yankees look like children. No, this would not be my time to die. I must live, that I might see the Yankees die again. Red Sox fan.

Oh, and there’s this: I eat better than most. I exercise more than most. I contemplate the function, and the possibilities of the fit human body more than anyone I have ever met. I bathe ten times per day in the concept of fitness, and pray to the altar of whole foods 6 times per day – always facing Boulder, CO. For all of fitness’ virtue, and all I do to promote my so-called fitness lifestyle, being in-shape did nothing to stave off H1N1, nor make it easier to live with – nothing!

Three weeks ago I had joked to a client;

“Swine flu won’t catch me, swine flu ain’t fast enough.” (Franklin Ajaye paraphrased)

Now I could argue that had I not been well conditioned physically, this virus might truly have killed me. Or, that I recovered more quickly due to the physical condition of my body. Maybe, but I don’t see it that way – not this time. All of last week, I was Yankee hitting, and H1N1 was Cliff Lee pitching.

As I contemplate life and death on this day of increasing wellness, and from surviving several near death experiences, I have learned one thing above all others; to truly live each day as though it were my last. Now that’s been said for millennium, and there is a certain banality about that statement in this era. Living each day though, as though it might be my last, might be the only thing I have ever succeeded in – it’s the ultimate Roy thing.

Wednesday night last week when I thought I was dying, I was grateful for every single day of my life – even the ones that sucked. I was grateful, even parked at death’s door, for every smile, every tear, every ounce of pain or torment I have ever felt, as well as for each moment of joy – and that I might see the Yankees lose just once more.

I am alive today and I am so damned glad because I may truly be dead tonight. Laugh with exuberance, cry with intensity, move with purpose, and enjoy every sandwich. rc

Suspended in an un-fit hell…

Scarce is the day in which I don’t stop three or four times, and consider that the moment I exist in, at the point when I stop, might never end – and this might be my eternal hell.  In this context, I regularly fear that hell might be the capture, protraction, and subsequent exaggeration or intensification of any moment that I’m not particularly enjoying.

Example:

As I write this, it’s 4:45 a.m.  I’m sitting in the San Diego airport among dozens of middle class zombies, babbling incessantly and emotionless into their cell phones, while juggling crying babies, briefcases, Starbucks cup lids, scones, personal electronic devices, and bad dispositions.  The number of whom, and intensity of, increases.

God forbid something might happen to time at this moment, that I become eternally stranded here in a never ending continuation of right now – suspended at the will of a force I would be unaware of, with no possibility of an exit.  

I suggest many people feel this way with their bodies; suspended in a hellfull moment, feeling as though they have no control of their situation but to exist within it.  Be it excess weight, a lack of flexibility or strength, or a lacking aesthetic, they feel suspended in their body-now, beyond their control.

I will also suggest that in a majority of such cases, the suspension in the moment might be lifted, and that an exit is plausible, even likely with proper planning and execution.

Escape Plan

Escape from non- fitness hell is an endeavor. In any endeavor there must first be the thought of conclusion. If there is no thought of what outcome lie, then the term endeavor will turn the word drift. Drifting is probably not the best course or method for exiting hell.

Pick a goal; plan an exit strategy from non-fitness hell, but be realistic. If your objective is to be a size smaller than your teenage daughter, or is to be built like the tight end you admire on Sunday afternoons, then your goal is likely beyond you.

If however, your goals are to earn your way to a better place; to harden up your muscular frame a bit, to drop some body fat over a period of time, to become more flexible, stronger, or to slow the clock of aging down a bit, in time, you might just earn your way out your current suspension in non-fitness.

1) Set realistic boundaries

Before you can set your fitness goals, understand that you must first establish the boundaries of your lifestyle; family, job, church activities, etc.

How many days per week are your truly willing to commit to a fitness program. Over committing often leads to frustration and failure. Better to start with one days per week, and prove to yourself, during a month’s time, that you can exercise once per week. Then, after a month, add one more workout per week if it seems reasonable. If you start by working out six days per week and realize you can’t keep that pace, statistics show that you will likely get disillusioned and give up. 

2) Establish realistic goals within a sensible time frame

Once your boundaries are established, then conceive your goals, based on the limits of your boundaries. Take regular inventory of your goals; remember them, write them down, recite them as you drive to work, or as you shower.

Don’t expect change overnight. Accept from the beginning that you are probably months, if not years away from fully realizing your goals. However, with your workouts eating in proper check, you should see and feel some changes in your body within weeks.

3) Balance your workout

Assemble a comprehensive plan including a variety of fitness values. Include:

1. Balance work
2. Stretching and flexibility work
3. Strength training
4. Cardiovascular/cardio respiratory activities such as: treadmill, StepMill, stair-stepper, elliptical trainer, or stationary bicycle.

4) Don’t pamper yourself

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the road from hell must be paved with effort.  Exercise, to be successful, should be rigorous if not intense. There is a direct relationship between intensity and success in any endeavor. Fitness; the changing your body’s capacity and aesthetic look is no different.

5) Make sound eating choices

Don’t attempt to change your eating all at once.  Gradually take control of your dietary boundaries by incorporating inclusions and exclusions into your lifestyle.

Inclusion Example: An inclusion is to add 1 item into your diet at a given time each day for three weeks. Oatmeal, for example, each morning at breakfast. After three (successful) weeks, and exclusion would then be incorporated.

Exclusion Example:  An exclusion is to remove one (existing) item from your diet each day for three weeks. That second glass of wine in the evening, for example, or the candy bar at lunch. Exclude that item each day for three weeks. Then, add in another inclusion, such as having 1/2 a protein bar in the mid afternoon instead of the candy bar.

Over a period of weeks and months, you can gradually change your eating structure without crashing head first into a fad diet, or starvation therapy.

Inclusions and exclusions, approached sensibly, are your best option for successful, long-term dietary changes.

There you have it, the basic framework to release your from your fitness hell.  In my professional life in fitness, I have seen many people try many methods to facilitate their escape from non-fitness hell. Some have succeeded, most I have known though have failed.

Those who have succeeded seem to have had two things going for them; a realistic goal, and a healthy respect for the word commitment, in pursuit of that goal. No fitness trainer, no fad diet, no device or apparatus sold at 3:00am on cable TV will help you change your body without a reasonable goal, and the decision to fulfill that goal.  If you are one who lives in a non-fitness hell, this might be a hgood exit strategy for you.  This airport scene?  I’m not so sure.  It could be a long eternity for me.  Be well.  rc