advice to an aspiring medical professional

After a few questions about student loans and the state of health care, the aspiring medical professional puts it out there:

"So if you could go back and do it again, what would you choose differently?"

I gave him a few platitudes. Most of this young mans questions are good. At 22-years old, he's thinking through scenarios that were off my radar at that age. Even now, in our everyday discussion I can readily sense that in many ways he's more mature than I, and in others less.

I attempted to answer the question; couldn't think of another career path (physical therapy with personal training on the side) that would be better suited for my talents and inclinations. Teaching would be nice, maybe some day.

The young man comes from a supportive family with kind and intelligent parents. He has the grades and the standardized test scores and the work ethic and the personality and the various experiential learning to impress ANY admissions board. Success is practically guaranteed. I'm sure he doesn't understands how blessed (some would say lucky) and talented he is. These more meaningful words should have been communicated.

Ahhh success. Doesn't everyone define it differently? Here are just a few other thoughts that of course came 8-hours late:

-Commit to a community. Fall in love with a geographical area like it's a person. Choose to serve that community well for all the days you are given to dwell it. Some areas are surely better than others, but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Being needed and needing others is more important than you think, for them and for you.

-Do what you can to not spend a quarter of your life sitting around getting to and from work. Sure, books on tape are good but focused or relaxed reading on the couch or in the back yard is far better.

-Follow your passion? I'm not so sure Lady Gaga. Sometimes you're not going to feel passionate about what you must do to honor your commitments and pay the bills. The work (pain in the ass) parts of work are good for you. 

-Accept uncertainty. Doing your homework and walking forward with caution and care is no substitute for the fact there will always be relevant developments that we don't know or understand. The cost of things will go up and the car will need repairs. Other than that, change is constant and little is truly predictable. 

-Live below your means. If you want to even have a chance at a low stress, semi-sane  existence where you can find joy and see the beauty that's in front of you, find a way to live below your means. There will never be enough money or time. The shiny finer things will always get old and sooner than that they will be old to you.  

Take these for what you will, the thoughts of a 38-year old who does terrible with accepting uncertainty, but is content with weight training in his basement and roasting marshmallows with the various kids who end up in his backyard. In the finances game he wins small and loses small. He drives a '98 Subaru, for Pete's sake, and takes great pride in using an old car but because of other life choices couldn't do much about it if he didn't.

 - - - - -

Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread of my daily need.

an exercise in perspective

I was beating the clock on a timed weightlifting interval in my backyard. Such things make for brief yet effective training if you're willing to push yourself. An appointed rest interval ended. The time to get moving quickly came and went, slipped away like a car speeding down the highway. Instead of starting the task at hand I kneeled and pulled a weed from the lawn.
- - - - -

1. Training: 

Training is select movement with a specific performance goal in mind. Variables like loading and reps, speed and rest are manipulated with intent. One session supports and builds upon the other, and the end goal is much too lofty and specialized for any single bout of effort. Training requires a chunk of time with structured progressions and regressions, recovery and peaking. This type of effort requires the greatest amount of discipline regarding what to do as well as what not to do.

Training culminates in astounding displays of nearly superhuman strength and speed and endurance. This is exercise.

2. Working out: 

Working out requires showing up, and it may require great effort and courage. This is what usually comes to mind when we talk about "getting in shape." You lunge or dance, kick or spin, or maybe follow what an instructor planned for the hour. You fit in a jog or brisk walk. You put in a DVD and repeat circuits of calisthenics. Working out may or may not have much structure. It's formal calorie burning, where you gasp and sweat and go on with your day.  

This too is exercise.

3. Corrective exercise and rehab:

This is highly specific and structured but less intense. You may sweat depending on your fitness base. The primary aim is to use movement as a means to gradually build tissue resiliency, improve joint stability or mobility, and ingrain more efficient movement patterns. You alter the mechanical forces on your bum knee by stretching the ankle in a specific way and building hip strength. This is physical therapy, gait and balance training, and I suppose some forms of yoga.

These count as exercise.

4. Work: 

Work involves a bazillion reps of moderate to low intensity. You lift and sort packages, mow the grass, pick green beans, build a shed, perform stretching and adjustments, wash windows, or pace hospital floors. Work is, well, work. It's the 40-plus hour per week grind that lasts for months and years. Work is also the weekend binge, like loading the barn with hay or painting the house.

A reminder of the obvious is warranted here. Work is awesome because at the end of the day you have achieved something beyond fitness. Your muscles tugged at your skeletal segments and your heart beat fast and it resulted in compensation or some other immediately tangible offering to the world.

Labor is definitely exercise. Every pile of split firewood warms you twice.

- - - - -

With this as a reminder, here are a few thoughts:

-The vast majority of human activity has always been in the realm of #4. Only in recent times have many of us needed #2 or had the time and means to take #1 very seriously. Most with a career that requires even moderate manual labor cannot comprehend why anyone would want to spend their limited leisure time and energy on #1 or #2. These days, the #1 and 2s just assume those folks are neglectful or lazy. Maybe they are. Or maybe they're just tired.

-On sports: Playing the game where winning is the primary intent is #1. Playing where the main goal is to have fun or exercise is #2. Pay heed to this and do not mix the two.

-The #1s often fail to realize that doing time with #3 will help them resist injury and achieve new levels of performance. It goes for #2 and 4 as well. In fact, excessive anything outside of #3, without attention to #3, will often result in taking you to #3. But as Ronnie Coleman would say, ain't no one wanna do no boring-ass corrective work.

-There is sometimes a fine line between #1 and #2, but often there is not. Currently there is a LOT of confusion between the two. Athletes who have a specific performance goal in mind are caught running around, giving their body too much variety, going through unnecessary random draining workouts, with all the effort serving to stifle their advancement in #1. On the other hand, those who aspire to simply be active and get in shape are isolating their muscles on resistance training machines or, even worse, performing relatively technical and heavy movements they don't need or want.

-The funny thing is when a person who is all about the workout and gym culture imagines their #2 is some kind of magical greatness when in fact almost any #4 would be a lot more demanding and beneficial for them. Pay someone to plow the snow so you can go to the gym and work bis and abs.

-Military personnel, police, and other public servants are the only true #1s. Or at least they should be. Where else in modern times may life and death truly depend on high level performance? Professional athletes are often impressive genetic freaks with sharp intellect and superhuman work ethic. But at the end of the day, win or lose, they go home and eat, sleep, and hang out with their friends and family.

-The point, I think, is to clarify exactly what you want out of your fitness program (and life). I will point you to the enjoyment of pursuing a purposeful #1 rather than merely suffering through workouts. Do not discount the myriad of psychological benefits that even a light #2 provides.

-Right now I waver between #1 and 4, and except for casual mountain biking, usually altogether avoid structured #2. There's no need for random energy burning with all the work, housework, children, semi-rec sport. I remain fascinated with the idea of being a serious athlete, the discipline and diligence, structure and progression of #1. But could this be fading? I did pull the dandelion when I could have set a PR.

Sucker didn't come easy.

Deconstructing the BOSU

I'm not sure what it is about the BOSU half-ball. By the looks of it, there are a LOT of athletes, average Janes and Joes, soccer moms, personal trainers, physical therapists, and other professionals who believe the BOSU has some kind of mighty mystical properties.

Is there something in the BOSU ball that I'm not aware of? Is it filled with a slurry of emu oil and electromagnetically charged ground up unicorn horns?

I think the far majority of exercises on the BOSU are simply, well...dumb. At best they are a waste of time relative to other aspects of performance and fitness that you could be working on during training. For the most part, they are a pointless test of your ability to remain uninjured.

Here's a case of high injury risk with little, if any benefit. Tuck jumps demand a lot of the legs and core. When many athletes have difficulty jumping and landing on flat ground with adequate control, this guy is having his clients do it on a BOSU.




Truly, there are so many dumb things you can do on a BOSU.

These are not going to improve your strength, stability, or mobility any more or less than pretty much any activity that does not involve you sitting in front of a TV or computer. These are not even going to improve your balance in a way that is relevant to functional athletic performance. The one thing that such BOSU exercises achieve is a fairly fast and drastic improvement in performing that BOSU exercise.

If you're going to load your muscles, bones, and joints with resistance, do it in a way that encourages your brain to practice proper control through a full range of motion. When that gets easy, make the exercise more difficult (and beneficial) by gradually increasing the load. The far majority of athletes desperately need to improve their functional mobility (stability and range of motion) on solid ground.

Whether your primary goal is weight loss, conditioning, strength gain, or what-have-you, most of us will stand to benefit the most from plain GETTING STRONGER, something that the BOSU inhibits relative to training on the flats.

Single leg squat on a BOSU? Single arm plank for time? I promise that you can do almost any of those ridiculous looking BOSU moves and poses if you have good strength and you practice that move.

I will grant that balance training on the BOSU and other unstable surfaces is indeed beneficial in the context of physical rehabilitation. The BOSU is a decent tool for when your primary interest is sending proprioceptive input to the brain. Here are a few examples of appropriate use of the BOSU.

 

But please understand that there is a relatively narrow window here. Once you establish good control of these type of movements, you're far better off gradually increasing the speed and/or resistance of movement on flat ground.

[I'm not listing references here, but certainly let me know if you want to see evidence for some of these claims. For the most part, they all say that unstable surface balance training is modestly helpful for rehab after injury or surgery but offers very little benefit in the area of sport performance].

A one-size-fits-all parable for health care reform

Today's entry come courtesy of David Drinks at the Carlisle M.O.G.
What's a MOG? Well, you can check that out HERE.


The story has been told of a civilization that lived by a lovely river at the base of a waterfall. One day a stranger suddenly plummeted over the edge of the waterfall into the foaming water beneath.

The people were alarmed and sent their two best swimmers out to rescue the person. Although they succeeded, it was not long before another person washed over the falls. As the people staged another daring rescue, they decided to station a boat at the base of the waterfall.

As time passed, strangers continued to wash over the falls. Rescue efforts increased. Soon, a small building was erected which contained emergency supplies. Designated people were on call for rescues.

Despite their efforts, the number of strangers being washed over the falls continued to rise. A hospital was eventually built and rescue efforts became more sophisticated.

The people were perplexed, but continued to respond to the demands of the victims of the waterfall. An even larger hospital was set up, along with a fleet of professionally trained rescuers. At long last a true visionary posed the question.

“Why don’t we go upstream and see why these people are falling over the water fall?”

- - - - -

While there is wisdom in going upstream to resolve the source of a problem, our health care system remains largely focused on reactive care. In fact, the U.S. Federal Health Care dollar spends ninety-five cents to remediate problems and only five cents to prevent them from occurring. We're scratching our heads, staring at the base of the water fall, while the system is being overwhelmed.

There is no question that there is great value to many of the modern healthcare advances. However, the problem we face is one of proportion. Many choose to disregard their own health and well-being only to rely on medical professionals to “fix” them when something goes wrong. This approach is convenient for some, costly for all, and unsustainable.

Now, more than ever, there is need to shift to a new level of thinking. Our society must leave behind the idea that personal health can wait while we pursue everything else in life. Instead, there has to be a focus on a living well balanced, where no part is sacrificed at the expense of others.

Over the past several decades there has been major growth in the field of wellness. The widespread benefits of healthy lifestyle choices continue to be refined. Beyond merely recovery from illness, the goal is to help guide individuals further into a state of awareness, education, growth, and ultimately high level wellness.

The wellness trend is bound to continue. However, individual responsibility is essential. You and everyone else truly does stand to benefit (and save) when you shift your gaze to the top of the water fall!

It is refreshing to seriously consider exercise and nutrition as important for not only avoiding illness, but as part of a bigger well life vision.  More than preventing disease, these are essential components of a well life that fosters growth and all around wellness.

A well life is more than being saved from the waterfall. It's thriving above the cliff!

The BEST core exercise to WOW your lady

Guys - if you REALLY want to make in impression on your lady, you're going to have to dig deep and push beyond your comfort zone. Here it is, THE exercise machine that will give you a core to make her swoon.

Feel the burn...




Apply to floor, 3 sets of 30 to 90 reps should get you results.

In all seriousness, I could write at length regarding the fact that an intense vacuum session burns far more calories and demands more of the core muscles than the typical gimmicky crunch and twist machine. I could go on about our misguided notion that extensive fitness equipment is required to get healthy or have sharp abs (it is not). It would be fun to explain how the ab machines and other various exercise gadgets are unnecessary at best and may possibly be hindering your progress.

But this post is not about that.

This is about her; your wife, girlfriend, significant other, what-have-you. If you truly want to get her attention, think less about your abs, biceps, and really anything that has to do with you. Concern yourself with serving her well.

[This is assuming you pass the low mark for basic hygiene and slobbishness. She definitely appreciates your health and your appearance!]

http://themoggroup.com/carlislepa/

I'll concede that a firm mid-section may get a females attention for a while. But other things can do that. Not even sharp abs atone for a self absorbed fitness bro. Sooner or later, what you do with your body will reveal the truth.

I personally don't believe that a person can will themselves into transforming who they are. A well balanced, selfless (and fun!) man of integrity is the core of what others are attracted to. That, my brothers, requires infinitely more fortitude than your (typical) Team Hercules Chest Workout. And that is what we have been after all along.

 - - - - -

I don't have time to exercise

Are you overwhelmed by health and fitness information overload? Do those images of perspiring fit people beside a motivational quote actually help you? Or are they a shameful reminder of the fact that you're not in "the best shape of your life?"

There is one obvious point that many trainers, coaches, and others inside the fitness community fail to consider. You can't have it all.

The superfit guy or girl in the motivational image has a down-side. I can tell you with complete confidence why the vast majority of us fail to live up to our health and fitness potential.

First, the cold hard truth:

We fail to live up to our best because we simply don't want it enough. Or at one point in time we made a decision or were forced to neglect our own health. Some of the damage from years of living in this mode may be irreversible. Putting your own well being aside may indeed have been the more noble, selfless decision. But it was a decision nonetheless. And now you earn the wages of that decision.



If you truly want a more healthy and fit version of you, something of your everyday existence probably has to go. The blood-sweat-and-tears of exercise and healthy eating are easy compared to this process of cutting.

There's a reason for everything that we do. We find some kind of value in even the most useless, brain numbing activities that we return to. Even playing Candy Crush or watching Fail Army (I STUDY the Fail Army) offers some kind of value.

[Outside of Fail Army, I recommend time praying or being still outdoors, for all that's worth.]

Many neglect their own health for the sake of family and work demands. While there are certainly seasons when this may be legitimate, the spotless and organized house, the chronically quadrupled work schedule, and the must-see TV shows (or sporting events) are no excuse.  Surely you realize that serving your family and workplace well over the long haul will require you to be mentally and physically capable over the long haul.

Next, a gentler, equally important truth:


After facing the fact that while we may want to be the most healthy, fit version of ourselves, we don't want it more than other things. And quite honestly, maybe that's just fine.

You value taking extra time as a nurturing and available mother over taking extra time to look spectacular. You want to spend time developing your business. You'll get into a formal exercise program after finishing off the house projects. These are fine so long as you're active and health is intact.

On the brighter side, the road to accomplishment is wide. It isn't so much this precise nutrition plan or that specific workout routine that makes someone finally get their well being and fitness in order. It was the person being committed to rearranging what is important to them. A committed person who wants it will do what it takes to find the right training methods, coaching, and accountability, and they'll see results on just about ANY training and diet.

Identify what is most important in your life. Hint: your health should be absolutely is one of those things. If your employment involves written or oral communication or really any creative work, you should find out what your brain can accomplish on exercise!

Proactively create some space for your physical and mental health. Don't try to have it all.
And the guy or girl in the motivational poster with the chiseled physique? Find what good you can in it, knowing there are worse things than a soft midsection.

more than a PR

Last Friday I set a tuck jump personal record.

[A tuck jump is jumping off two legs over or onto something and landing on two legs.]

Here's a shot of me posing like people do with their trophy "buck," Grammy award, hole-in-one, or what have you.

After one failed attempt I put on the PR shirt and easily cleared 5 feet, 4 inches. Last year I barely made 5'2" after many fails. To celebrate this achievement, I'm NOT creating a top ten list of things that I can jump over ; )

I was pretty excited about this. It's not like I'm 18 or even 28. It would be a lie to say that my knees never ache. I sleep too little and have plenty of responsibility. I've missed more than a few precious training days over the summer. But over all I've been feeling great.

[The weekly schedule of two weight training days plus one sprint/plyometric day where I devise elaborate and ultra high-tech top secret training methods as outlined here is more than I can afford.]

If I can jump the stick, I don't feel the need to run a marathon or even a 5K. I have something to look forward to, train towards, and gauge. When I can jump the stick, I bring energy and enthusiasm to work and to the party. There's no need for concern over weight or triglycerides. I don't even need to spend hours driving and hours more to ski or seek thrills on the beloved mountain bike.

My wife says of the PR, "That's great but don't tie your identity to it." She knows that it's my passion and hobby to FUNCTION to my best ability and help others do the same. And she's right. Why did it never occur to me that strength, speed, endurance, or a big dead lift is something you own? Doesn't it make sense that taking heed be applied to physical attributes? Especially to physical attributes?

Of course the ship is going to sink! It will be relatively soon, when you think about it. For sure. Definitely. Like, not even a chance of continuous improvement. Most people seem to understand this and move on while others always want to improve. Everyone wants to look good. But quite honestly, I'm in it to DO stuff.

And so that's how your arrive at the place where you need to be told not to tie your identity to jumping over a stick in your front yard.
... ... ...

My hope is that helping others to their new heights will be enough for me. That arthritis will one day render me brittle but not helpless. That the friendships forged along the way will carry us through.

That I'll use my limited time, interests, and abilities wisely to bless others however I'm able.

Oh how I love seeing you improve your PR. This sounds rather ridiculous in writing, but the people who work and train with me (I think) know this. Now there's something I can tie my identity to! 

Everything we own and achieve truly is like chasing after the wind. Some of our pursuits will be more meaningful or last longer than others. But everyone needs more than a PR.

"Take heed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 

     -Luke 12:15