That is the question of the day. When is enough just enough? This question can apply to almost anything, but lets focus it on some different areas where people measure their health.
First - weight loss. When is enough lost weight enough? Is it when you've gotten to the range of what someone in the American Health Association determined is the "ideal" weight? Is it close to that? Is it what you see someone else weighs that has a body image that you would like to have for yourself? (insert 6 pack abs here) How do you define "this is good enough"? Or do you keep chasing things that may not be all that important to the bigger, underlying goal?
For me - I am on the high end of my range for what is considered my "ideal" weight for my height. This time last year I was 8 or 9lbs lighter. My Dr said to me during my physical in January that he would like to see me about 5lbs lighter. To that I respond with... why? How did you determine that I should be 5lbs lighter? Sure I'm 175/176lbs on a 5' 11" frame. You know what though? I also have over 130lbs of muscle on this frame.... so... since muscle weighs more than fat, is it that important that I hit your range you have on a piece of paper? Or is it good enough for me at this time? I'm comfortable in my own skin. I'm healthy. Physically, mentally I'm healthy. I practice healthy habits. Exercising regularly, eating healthy, not smoking or taking drugs and not consuming alcohol in excess. Everything in moderation. Who's to say that enough is enough? ME - that's who. I am not trying to hit a particular weight. I'm being driven by my capabilities and how I feel.
How about strength? When is enough just enough on that end? For that I would say it depends on your goals. What is it that you want to do that you aren't strong enough to do now?
Again - FOR ME, I believe I am strong enough. Strong enough to be able to live a healthy, active life. Am I going to try to increase my strength at any time? Yes - probably. As I get interested in doing new and different things. See things that I want to do or learn how to do, if my body isn't quite strong enough in all areas to achieve that then yes, I will absolutely focus on improving my general strength.
What I won't do anymore is this.... I won't go back to a gym and just start lifting weights kind of mindlessly. Re-reading this sentence I can totally see someone reading that and saying "What a dick. I lift weights and does that make me mindless? Does that make what I'm doing mindless?" No - absolutely not. If that is your thing then by all means, go ahead and do it. If you are training for the sake of just being stronger then go for it. That isn't my goal. When is strong enough enough? For me that is right now.
OK then smart ass, then what is your goal? My goal was to stop beating up my body and instead increase the capabilities of my body. Learn how to use my body to do some really cool shit. I guess you could label it as "gymnastics" type stuff with handstands, handstand push ups, walking on your hands, cartwheels, jumping with precision, pistol squats, bridges, etc...
What I've learned though is for the past couple of years, all the various workout routines I've worked my way through - my body was taking a beating. T25, increased my lung capacity. Helped me lose a decent amount of weight. Made my knees hurt like hell. P90x3 got me stronger in a lot of different areas however I kept injuring my traps. Body Beast - DOMS. Muscle soreness forever. lol Running - back to the hurt knees.
Why was I getting hurt? Well, not being in shape hurt. Perhaps not keeping perfect form all the time can definitely get you hurt. Rushing to keep up with the folks on the video you are following, well - yup, you can get hurt that way too. Picking up weights and trying to move them and your joints not being strong enough to handle it, well, that would hurt too. Trying to push my body beyond what it is currently capable of doing. "Increasing work capacity" as they call it. I've been injured quite a bit over the years (IMO) and it makes you talk to yourself. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself what are you doing wrong? Ask, what can you do better? I've done all this.
Back in January 2016 (roughly 4 months ago) I started to change my mentality. Focus more on bodyweight and calisthenics workouts for my strength and conditioning. This started with Convict Conditioning. Then I moved onto YAYOG (You Are Your Own Gym) and Yoga. Convict Conditioning was great, but you were still stuck in that sets/reps mentality and it gave you ZERO cardio. YAYOG also stuck in the sets/reps mentality but it was at such a pace that you got your heart pumping and definitely sweating. Yoga - well, I never sweat, but it had some really tough days. My flexibility and mobility was not what it needed to be. I pushed through it and saw improvements in my flexibility and mobility, which is fantastic - but I felt like from a strength perspective, the routine itself wasn't challenging me enough. Then I set my sites on GMB.
Why GMB? Well I had been following them for a couple of months as they preached about mobility, flexibility and finding what your body can do for you. Moving in ways that allows you to do different and fun things. Things like the gymnastics things I had mentioned before. Exercises like bench presses, while can help to make your chest stronger and help with your triceps, forearms, I didn't feel were helping me "move better". I was still waking up with aches, pains, etc... and I was honestly past that. Tired of it. I know that stretching can improve performance and help your body get past some of these nagging injuries, but honestly I simply didn't want to spend 30 - 60 min a day stretching. I wanted it to be part of my routine, whatever the hell I did. SO I dove into the starting point for GMB - Elements. I've started week 5 and have done everything that has been laid out for me to this point.
How do I feel? Honestly I feel really frigin good. I don't have the normal aches and pains that I've had. The debilitating shoulder/neck pain from doing too many push ups or pull ups. The knee pain from all the jumping in a plyometric routine. No back pain. My quad injury that I had which would prevent me from even going into Child's pose? Gone. My strength is still there. I haven't lost it. I feel just as strong as I did back when I was lifting weights. What has been returning though is my flexibility and mobility. Running and chasing my kids without knee pain. Practicing cartwheels with no ill effects. Do you ever just sit there and watch your children play? Watch what they do and how happy they are doing it? I do. They are happiest when they are running around. Practicing handstands, doing cartwheels... performing for their parents. Trying to do splits. They are learning what their bodies can do and how to get them to do more. Exceeding their own expectations and surprising themselves. Being someone that they look up to, that is what I wanted. I wanted to be able to be active with them. Doing the things they like to do. Challenging myself and in turn challenging them to be better too. Having fun together, without pain and discomfort. So far so good.
After all... what good is it all if you can't enjoy it? What good is being at the "healthy weight" the Dr says you need to be, if you can't still enjoy the foods that you enjoy? What good is it to just keep working out and lifting weights, if you don't move better. Moving freely and without pain and having fun like you were a kid again. To me - it isn't worth shit. Hence why I changed my mentality and changed my exercise routine. Right now, honestly - it doesn't seem like a chore at all to get up and do this. It is fun. It is mindful practice. I'm enjoying it. Having fun while challenging myself. Isn't that the point of it all?
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Injuries..GMB...Mobility
So what's new here? Where do I start? I should probably start with re-reading my last blog post so I know what I've said and what I haven't. lol Not going to happen though.
What is new? Not a hell of a lot. I had been battling a lot of injuries. I had a quad/knee injury with my left leg that was really prohibiting my range of motion. I wasn't able to get into Child's pose as an example. I could no longer just sit on my knees with my butt on my heels. The shooting pain through my left knee just wouldn't allow it. I had shoulder/neck nerve type pinch that would 1) cause pain 2) seriously impact sleep 3) prohibit me from turning me head much. As I researched it more it turned out the injury was related to my "trap" muscles in the back. Muscle relaxers and aggressive massages took care of that.
What have I been doing to resolve these issues? At first I had switched to YAYOG - You Are Your Own Gym, which is a total bodyweight routine. Unfortunately though that was just a 3 day program and I prefer to workout 5 or 6 days a week. To mix it up and give my body more stretching that it so desperately needed to progress I started Yoga with Adriene - 30 Days of Yoga, which is available via YouTube. FANTASTIC! I can't say enough good things about her and her instructional methods. I really liked it. The routine was working pretty good and it was helping me continue building strength and also improve my flexibility... heal my body a bit. I did this for about a month but wasn't really loving the combination. I did really like it, but I didn't like going to one place for one workout and then YouTube for the other and keeping track of it all. Really really minor thing, but it wasn't my ideal situation.
Fast forward - I've just started week 3 of GMB Elements (http://gmb.io/e) and I love it. COMPLETELY different from any other thing I've tried. I start my workout by stretching for warmups and I do that for anywhere between 30 - 60 minutes. Then I'll spend maybe 5 - 10 minutes practicing a certain movement, whatever movement is for that day. It could be a bear walk, monkey or frogger. Let me tell you something. These moves are not easy. It challenges me. Each move challenges me and that doesn't even touch on when they throw in variations to each of these moves.
Has it helped at all? YES! A resounding YES! My mobility, flexibility have improved significantly. I feel my balance is improving. Strength... it's funny, I'm not sure if it is improving in a traditional sense as if you were doing push ups or pull ups, but yes, I don't think my strength has decreased at all. My body feels really good. My shoulders, traps feel great. Left knee? Also great. 100%? Nope, but I can rock a child's pose again. Getting to the point where I can almost sit with my butt on my heels again. My squats? Pretty good! I can sit into the squat to the point where my butt is less than 10" from the ground. Something I definitely couldn't do before, even before my quad injury. It is a good thing. A really good thing.
I've been so impressed with the changes I went ahead and bought 3 more programs of theirs. Focused Flexibility, Vitamin and Integral Strength. While I'm very excited to see what those other programs can offer me the reality is today was day 1 of week 3 for a 7 week program. Meaning I still have almost a full 5 weeks left. Not a bad thing. I'm not complaining, especially if I can continue to improve these areas where I'm focusing. The flexibility, mobility and strength. It is pretty interesting stuff. Unorthodox compared to the other more traditional training methods I've tried. The thought has always been if you want to be stronger you either lift weights or figure out bodyweight routines. If you want flexibility you do Yoga or Pilates. You want to improve your lung capacity you do Cardio or start running.
Weight? I'm still hanging around 175 - 176lbs, which is about 8 or 9lbs above where I was a year ago. I have a lot more muscle than I did back then. As usual the biggest problem area is belly, but I'm comfortable with where I am right now. I'm no longer pushing to have this magical 6 pack and saying that defines my fitness level. It doesn't. It doesn't at all. My ability to adapt and do new/different active things and not feel limited or crippled after doing them. So far that is working for me. I'm looking forward to a summer of practicing cartwheels and handstands in the backyard with the kids. Learning how to jump rope. Doing awesome things.
Words of wisdom here? Listen to your body. Explore. Find new things, don't just judge them and rule them out without trying. Practice mindfully. Not just trying to keep up with a video, but mindfully paying attention to your body and how it is reacting. How it is feeling..... That's all I've got. Until next time.
What is new? Not a hell of a lot. I had been battling a lot of injuries. I had a quad/knee injury with my left leg that was really prohibiting my range of motion. I wasn't able to get into Child's pose as an example. I could no longer just sit on my knees with my butt on my heels. The shooting pain through my left knee just wouldn't allow it. I had shoulder/neck nerve type pinch that would 1) cause pain 2) seriously impact sleep 3) prohibit me from turning me head much. As I researched it more it turned out the injury was related to my "trap" muscles in the back. Muscle relaxers and aggressive massages took care of that.
What have I been doing to resolve these issues? At first I had switched to YAYOG - You Are Your Own Gym, which is a total bodyweight routine. Unfortunately though that was just a 3 day program and I prefer to workout 5 or 6 days a week. To mix it up and give my body more stretching that it so desperately needed to progress I started Yoga with Adriene - 30 Days of Yoga, which is available via YouTube. FANTASTIC! I can't say enough good things about her and her instructional methods. I really liked it. The routine was working pretty good and it was helping me continue building strength and also improve my flexibility... heal my body a bit. I did this for about a month but wasn't really loving the combination. I did really like it, but I didn't like going to one place for one workout and then YouTube for the other and keeping track of it all. Really really minor thing, but it wasn't my ideal situation.
Fast forward - I've just started week 3 of GMB Elements (http://gmb.io/e) and I love it. COMPLETELY different from any other thing I've tried. I start my workout by stretching for warmups and I do that for anywhere between 30 - 60 minutes. Then I'll spend maybe 5 - 10 minutes practicing a certain movement, whatever movement is for that day. It could be a bear walk, monkey or frogger. Let me tell you something. These moves are not easy. It challenges me. Each move challenges me and that doesn't even touch on when they throw in variations to each of these moves.
Has it helped at all? YES! A resounding YES! My mobility, flexibility have improved significantly. I feel my balance is improving. Strength... it's funny, I'm not sure if it is improving in a traditional sense as if you were doing push ups or pull ups, but yes, I don't think my strength has decreased at all. My body feels really good. My shoulders, traps feel great. Left knee? Also great. 100%? Nope, but I can rock a child's pose again. Getting to the point where I can almost sit with my butt on my heels again. My squats? Pretty good! I can sit into the squat to the point where my butt is less than 10" from the ground. Something I definitely couldn't do before, even before my quad injury. It is a good thing. A really good thing.
I've been so impressed with the changes I went ahead and bought 3 more programs of theirs. Focused Flexibility, Vitamin and Integral Strength. While I'm very excited to see what those other programs can offer me the reality is today was day 1 of week 3 for a 7 week program. Meaning I still have almost a full 5 weeks left. Not a bad thing. I'm not complaining, especially if I can continue to improve these areas where I'm focusing. The flexibility, mobility and strength. It is pretty interesting stuff. Unorthodox compared to the other more traditional training methods I've tried. The thought has always been if you want to be stronger you either lift weights or figure out bodyweight routines. If you want flexibility you do Yoga or Pilates. You want to improve your lung capacity you do Cardio or start running.
Weight? I'm still hanging around 175 - 176lbs, which is about 8 or 9lbs above where I was a year ago. I have a lot more muscle than I did back then. As usual the biggest problem area is belly, but I'm comfortable with where I am right now. I'm no longer pushing to have this magical 6 pack and saying that defines my fitness level. It doesn't. It doesn't at all. My ability to adapt and do new/different active things and not feel limited or crippled after doing them. So far that is working for me. I'm looking forward to a summer of practicing cartwheels and handstands in the backyard with the kids. Learning how to jump rope. Doing awesome things.
Words of wisdom here? Listen to your body. Explore. Find new things, don't just judge them and rule them out without trying. Practice mindfully. Not just trying to keep up with a video, but mindfully paying attention to your body and how it is reacting. How it is feeling..... That's all I've got. Until next time.
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