Better Is Better

Super Availability

 

There’s just TOO MUCH FOOD available.

I’m on my way back from the big Circular Strength Training® Certification event in Bellingham, WA. I’ve decided to fast on the voyage home. It’s just the easiest way to avoid eating a bunch of junk.

I’m one of those people that can easily plunge down slippery slopes. Give me one piece of somewhat junky food, and the next thing you know I’m eating an espresso brownie from Starbucks.

It was my buddy Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, who first gave me the idea to fast while traveling. And I’ve had good success with it on many occasions. For me, it just seems easier to turn off the valve completely than to try regulating the flow of crappy travel food.

But the problem is the sheer volume of tasty, but empty, food that’s all around me. I’m not particularly hungry. But the lemon cranberry scone over in the Starbucks display is weighing on my will power with the heft of a Bruiser Clubbell®.

So I’m thinking, no wonder we’re having so much trouble maintaining the kind of health and physique that we’d like and we deserve! We were never meant to have so much abundance. This Super Availability of sheer calories is completely counter to the bodies that our evolution has provided us with.

So the next time you bow down to “just one” espresso brownie (and you will–so will I) just give a moments thought to how long it would take you to gather that many calories if you were dumped into the wild. Assuming you had the skills to do it, how much energy would you expend to gather that much “food energy”?

It’s an interesting experiment...

Will You Achieve Your Health & Fitness Goals?

How likely are you to succeed?

Before you read this post, you need to complete a little task. Don’t worry, it’s not complicated (but it may be hard). Pick one goal that’s been ruminating in your mind for a while. It should be something that you really want to achieve. Now, rate your level of motivation to execute on that goal. Your rating should be a number on a scale of 1-10 where a 10 is utter commitment.

Don’t read on until the task is done…

OK, have you picked your goal and rated your motivation? If it was a 10, congratulations. Your chances of success are extremely good! In fact, you’re wasting your time if you continue to read this post. If it was less than a 10, what would it take to bring you up to a 10?

We all have dreams. Whether we allow them to manifest themselves as conscious thought - not to mention verbalize them - or leave them buried in our subconscious, each of us has goals and aspirations. What makes the difference between those that seem to consistently reach those aspirations and those who simply dream?

Why do some people lose the weight and keep it off? How do some people manage to transform their lifestyles and pursue more healthy habits when others languish in energy draining habits that sap their health and vitality? Why do some people soar to great professional heights while equally or more talented or intelligent people stay stuck in the mail room? What’s the difference?

Well, some people wish they could achieve their goals or hope that they’ll be able to make the grade. Other people simple decide that they're going to reach new heights. And that's the number one difference between those that achieve great things and those that don’t. There is no magic secret.

Success is the constant drip of small actions towards something magical. And the only way to stay the course and maintain that constant drip is to believe 100% that you will achieve your goal - that you will become the person you have decided to become.

This cumulative effect of small things is something that may be easier to understand with a physical example. If I took you through one session of Intu-Flow joint health & mobility, you may be tempted to think it’s just an odd collection of interesting looking movements. Some people will immediately feel benefit from that one session, but more often than not it’s the cumulative effect over a week or two that gets people’s attention. And after consistently practicing for months or years the true magic in the system is discovered.

But what if you didn’t believe after that first session? Would you have the staying power to continue your Intu-Flow practice? If your motivation for improving your joint health was a 7 out of 10 (which sounds pretty good), you might stick it out for another session or two, but chances are you’d give up on it before you really started to see results. However, if you were a 10 out of 10, you’d probably have the gumption to stick it out and reap the rewards of that constant drip of personal practice.

And that simple principle holds true for any goal. If your motivation is high enough, you’ll start to believe that your goal will come to fruition. And it’s that belief and drive that will allow you to do the daily personal practice that brings the goal to life. The secret isn’t something mystical. In fact it’s very practical. It’s the accumulation of daily effort.

But only those who start with the belief, have the motivation, and focus on the process will end up with the staying power to make it all the way to the finish line. They’re the only ones who will have the perseverance to make the tough little decisions on a daily basis. Because when it comes to short term comfort or long term happiness, consistently opting for the latter is only possible when you have a vision for the future.

So if you didn’t give your goal a 10 out of 10 on the motivation scale. Your homework is to figure out how to fill in the gap. Where are you going to go get those other 2 or 3 points to bring you up to a 10? Once you figure that out, your chances of success are through the roof.

As a society we’re obsessed with wellness but we keep getting sicker. The information we need is out there. But our ability to embrace it seems to lack zeal. Do you have any advice for achieving big things? What has worked for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments. We’ll all benefit.

You Can't Reap What You Don't Sow

Many cultures around the world measure mastery in decades. Ancient professions and arts require patience as a fact of life. In the west, we pay lip service to patience as a virtue, but it is far from a revered and required element of our daily lives.

We live in the land of the mail-order black belt and the instant ab machine. We expect the 10 Minute Trainer to change our lives. We believe in the power of the $15,000 Range of Motion Machine to deliver our dream body on only 4 minutes of exercise per day.

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't require hours per day of incessant repetitions on the bench press and interminable miles on the treadmill. That's not efficient or effective. But at the same time, getting fit and healthy takes time and it takes commitment.

We're coming from an evolutionary past where our forebears were constantly on the move. They walked up to 12 miles per day. And that's when they weren't running away from something, running after something, lifting something heavy or throwing something really hard. And what do we do all day...?

So we don't live in caves anymore, and that's great. I don't think we'd want it any other way. But we have to somehow supplement for that. Just like we judiciously supplement our nutrition to make up for any insufficiency in our food supply. We need to supplement our movement in the same way.

But that means putting in some work. You can't make up for a day's worth of activity in four minutes. You need to sow some seeds if you want to reap lasting benefits. It CAN be done in 30 to 45 minutes a day of focused and efficient training. But you should also pepper your day with as much movement as you can muster outside of your training.

Walk down the hall to talk to your colleague instead of sending an email. Walk or bike to work if you can. Take a stroll after supper. Take the stairs instead of the escalator. Instead of circling for the closest parking spot, take the the furthest one and walk.

Do a few rounds of FlowFit on your lunch hour and some Intu-Flow periodically throughout your day.

Not only does this stuff add up, it mimics the way our bodies evolved to move. Start methodically sowing some seeds. Spend a bit of time tending them each and every day. Before you know it you will be reaping a harvest that you could never have imagined.

Domino Fitness

I'm starting to think that Seth Godin should go ahead and start a health and fitness blog! In case you don't know, Seth is probably the most popular blogger in the world.  Nominally, his blog deals with marketing, but his insights apply so universally that anyone could benefit from reading it.

Recently, he posted about what companies can learn from dominoes (the game). To often, businesses go for the big score and the game winning deal.  Instead, they need to line up one domino at a time, starting with the one that's easiest to topple.  Once they get that first one past the tipping point, the resultant show of toppling dominoes will be an impressive and monumental sight.

What Can Dominoes Teach Us About Our Fitness Goals?

Have you ever tried to lose ALL those ten pounds in a week?  Have you ever gone so hard on your first workout or your return to the gym that you couldn't walk the next day?  Have you ever gone to a big family gathering, not touched a morsel of the delicious spread, and regretted it a week later when you're back to eating everything in sight? If any of that sounds familiar - I'm guilty of all of it at one time or another - then you know what Seth is talking about when he refers to going for the big score.

Sometimes Less Is More (but Better is always Better)

It's great, even essential, to have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).  But you have to break it into steps and compenents that allow you to steadily creep towards your objective while staying under the radar of any negative adaptations. Circular Strength Training provides us with a number of tools to help us make the most progress possible without the resultant breakdown that often comes with typical quick results.

Pairing the principle of Incremental Progression with the monumental Training Hierarchy Pyramid tool, you can plan out a program that will get you to where you are going one small step at a time.  But the funny thing is, you'll get there more quickly than by trying to race to the finish line.  Hmm - Isn't there a popular kids tale about that...

6 Tips For Creating The Domino Effect

1. Define your goal - Imagine exactly what the end result will be.
2. Dissect your goal into pieces - Slice that end result into as many little pieces as you can. When you become that person... What are you eating? How are you sleeping? What training are you doing? What recovery work are you doing? What skills do you possess? What attributes do you have? Now take all those things and slice them up even more. For example, what training will you need to do to support the training you'll be doing when you reach your goal?
3. Line up your "dominoes" - Now, take all your slices and put them in order. Which ones need to come first to support the rest.  Those early slices are part of your General Preparedness (from the THP model).
4. Make a macro plan - Take all those lined up slices and build yourself a macro plan.  This is a large scale plan that allows you to visualize all the steps it's going to take to get you where you are going. This can be a mind-map, a pyramid, a list, an essay or whatever format most speaks to you.
5. Make weekly micro plans - Every Sunday night, spend some time mapping out the next 7 days. Use your macro plan as a guide. Assess which dominoes have tipped and which are next in line.
6. Adjust the macro plan as needed - It's essential to have a big picture plan, but fatal to assume that it is immutable. You will need to adjust it constantly as you go in order to reflect the realities of your life and your progress.

Look Back & Admire The Results

What I've learned about the THP and Incremental Progression over the last few years is that anything is possible. Not only that, REAL results will come faster than you could imagine. But you have to get those dominoes tipping in the right order and with the right timing. Then the magic starts happening.

[image courtesy of  Mirko Macari on Flickr]

Happy Father's Day

"Papa"

Of all the words in the world, that's the one that gets me the most.  It can mean so many things. 

• I need you
• Look what I've accomplished
• Where are you
• I hurt myself
• I'm happy
• I'm sad
• I wanna play
• Protect me
• Fix what's wrong
• And so much more...

It's amazing how much power one little word can have over a man.  It encapsulates the entire array of responsibilities you take on with Fatherhood.  I'm not sure I'll ever have a more important role in life than husband and father.

I'm not perfect, but I have my role models who continually inspire me to do better.  My "Pop" and other men from a bygone age were icons of sacrifice, integrity and steadfastness.  When they gave their word, they meant it - no matter the cost.

We seem to live in a more relative world now, where gray has overtaken black & white.  And I'm not immune.  But the imprint of the men from those golden years of Fatherhood still spark my imagination and spur me to action.

Take a second to honor our fathers and grandfathers today.  And a very special Father's Day wish to all of you Dads, Papas, Daddies, Pops and Old Men out there. 

Also, congrats to the father's who won themselves a copy of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution over at the Fit For Fatherhood Giveaway.  All the entries conveyed great stories of how fitness and fatherhood intermingle and interact.

Finally, my buddy Ryan sent me a link to this video which captures some of the essence of being a Papa.

Enjoy.

What Can You Learn About Fat Loss From Stacking Wood?

Here we are, still early June, and already I'm preparing for next winter.  That's just a fact of life we have to live with in Quebec I guess.  Anyhow, 10 cords of wood was dumped into our driveway this morning.  And I vowed that this year it was all getting stacked on the day it arrived!

So that's how my day was spent.  And as I stacked those last few logs, it dawned on me that there is a big parallel between a task like stacking wood and the journey that most people have to face when trying to lose fat or achieve some other health or fitness goal.

When that pile first gets dumped in the driveway, it looks so big that you're sure - even though you know better - that it's going to take at least a week to get it stacked.  You dig into those first logs with a slightly doubtful attitude.  Even though you are fresh and motivated to get the job done, there is a nagging feeling of being overwhelmed.

After a few hours, the pile is noticeably smaller.  You gaze with satisfaction at the ground that you've liberated.  But then you look back at the pile and realize just how far there is to go.  You toy with leaving it for tomorrow.  Of course, if you leave it for tomorrow it could drag on for days or even weeks.  So you dig back in, weary but determined.

By the time you're three quarters of the way through, you're tired and starting to get sore.  You've come a long way and the results are there.  But man, that last part of the pile still just looks so big!  This is where the gremlins really kick in.  It wouldn't take so long to polish this off tomorrow would it?  I could just relax and enjoy my evening.  This is where you need to give yourself a kick in the rear and just do it.

Finally, there are only a few loads left and you know that you've made it.  You start to feel a bit euphoric.  You stack that last log and you even think to yourself - before you raise you arms in victory - that you could probably even keep going if you had some more wood to stack.

So, what's the big lesson?  That wood got stacked one load at a time and one log at a time.  That is the biggest secret to sustained success in anything.  You've got to drip, drip, drip away like water on stone.  Eventually you'll wear a grove in that stone and change the shape of your destiny.

Take your fat loss one meal at a time, one day at a time and one week at a time.  All of a sudden you'll wake up one morning and your proverbial pile of wood will be so small that you'll wonder how it is that you got there.  But now you know, you got there one load at a time...

Ruby Slippers - 4 Ideas For Mastering Your Fitness Destiny

This morning, Seth Godin wrote about Ruby Slippers.  I see so many people at the gym who just spin their wheels for hours on end, week after week, and don’t seem to make any progress.  They don’t know how to use their Ruby Slippers.

I’ve talked about this before.  It’s the difference between training and working out.  You train for a goal.  You want to achieve a specific end.  You work out to pass time in a vague attempt to “improve” in some way.  You’re spinning your wheels.

A training goal is kinda like the wish you would use your Ruby Slippers for.  If you don’t know what you want, what’s going to happen when you click your heels?  Nothing.  If you don’t know why you’re in the gym (or park, or track, or rec room, or wherever you do your exercise), are you going to achieve anything meaningful?  Nope.

You may think goal setting is something reserved for elite athletes, but it doesn’t have to be some lofty or complex goal like winning an Olympic medal.  Not long ago I wrote about how I designed an entire cycle about getting one of my small coaching groups to the point where they could do 5 Rounds of Forward Pressure in 5 minutes.  The first time I introduced the material, they did three rounds in 20 minutes!  I set a target of 6 weeks to achieve the goal.  They did it in five!  All their energy was poured into that goal.  They would tell me stories every session about practicing the routine at home or about trying to teach it to their husbands.  It was great.

It’s easy to set a goal around an athletic pursuit.  If you want to win a canoe race or get the MVP award for your Ultimate team, there’s built-in motivation and focus.  But if you don’t have a specific competitive target in your life, there is a tendency to flounder in your health and fitness pursuits.  But there are many ways to come up with goals that don't require formal competition.

4 Ideas For Determining A Fitness Goal

1. Density - Like the Forward Pressure example above, choose a routine or an exercise, determine a volume you would like to accomplish and a time you would like to do it in.  Some great ideas for this are FlowFit®, Clubbell® Swings (or any other Clubbell® exercise), my Sandbag In 6 Degrees routine or this CST Bodyweight routine.  You’re only limited by your imagination as to what you can choose.
2. Sophistication - This is an oft forgot option.  Take what you are doing now, and set yourself the goal of learning and perfecting a version that requires more motor sophistication.  If you are doing push ups, learn the Screwing Press Up.  If you are doing deadlifts, learn and apply the Bruiser Clubbell® Swing to your training.
3. Stats - Play the numbers.  If you are looking to lose fat, set a measurable target.  A lot of BER success stories have used belt sizes to measure their progress.  You can also go a step further and take on a coach who can accurately measure and follow your bodyfat percentage. 
4. Feat - After discovering CST, and coming to realize that there was more to training the pressing heavy weight in two dimensions, one of my proudest moments was when I first achieved the Elbow Lever.  Picking and working towards a “Feat of Physical Mastery” is an outstanding way to bring focus and motivation to a training regimen.

Scott Sonnon performing elbow lever

Whichever path you choose, make sure that it is enough of a challenge to drive you forward, but realistic enough that you don’t become despairing of your ability to achieve your chosen goal.  This old acronym can help you with the process of clarifying your objective - S.M.A.R.T.

Specific: Define exactly what you want to achieve.

Measurable: How will you determine if you have achieved it?

Attainable: You know you can get there, but it’ll be tough...

Realistic: Does it fit into your life? Can you do what needs to be done?

Timely: Set a deadline!!  When will you cross the finish line?

And if you really want to accelerate your progress, in a future post I’ll teach you how to be a S.M.A.R.T. - A.S.S.  This add-on deals more with the process of actually playing out the achievement of the goal.

Don’t leave your results to chance.  Make sure that when you click your heels, something wonderful is going to happen.  What will you wish for when you click?

4 Steps To Unlocking Your Potential

I just did a merciless triage of my RSS Reader (if you're not sure what that is, ProBlogger explains it here).  I sliced about three quarters of my subscriptions in one fell swoop!  And I was very attached to reading a lot of those blogs.  But I realized that they were taking more than they were giving in terms of the goals that I have for myself.  So they didn't make the cut in my Priority Hierarchy. (Note - please keep Better's Better in your Reader... LOL)

One of the strong points of the Circular Strength Training system is it's Value Hierarchy.  It puts health clearly and unequivocally at the top of the pyramid of values.  So everything in the system has to pass the test of health before it moves on down the pipeline.

I've found it very helpful to do something similar with priorities.  Mapping out a pyramid of priorities renders decision making much simpler and allows you to tap into your true potential by eliminating indecision along with actions that take you away from your goals.

It's important build a Priority Hierarchy to guide your life, your health and your fitness.  What matters to you most?  Here's a little exercise to help you find out.

Build A Priority Hierarchy Pyramid

1. Take the time to list 10 things that are important to you.
2. From your list of 10, pick the 5 most important priorities.
3. Rank your top 5 priorities in order of importance to you.
4. Every time you make a decision, filter it through those priorities in order to determine if the proposed action carries you towards your goals or not.

A great example is a family who chooses to place time together during dinner at the top of their list of priorities.  Participating in sports may be second on that list.  If an opportunity comes up for one of the kids to join a new soccer team, they have to filter it through the list.  Do practices or games fall during dinner hour?  If so, the opportunity doesn't even make it down to the second of the priorities.  Even though sports is on the priority list, the soccer team wouldn't make the cut because it didn't make it through the first filter.

This is a very powerful tool in getting perspective on the decisions we make in our daily lives.  A small decision, in isolation, may seem innocent enough.  But if it is not aligned with our priorities, eventually it will build, along with countless other seemingly insignificant decisions, until we are living a life that is not at all what we want for ourselves.

I think the implications for health and fitness are pretty clear.  The foods you choose to eat, the exercise you choose to do or not do, the wellness practices you partake in–these are all, in isolation, small things.  But when you bring them all together they turn into a single mass with great inertia.  And once they get rolling, they're hard to change course.  So you're better off to tackle them one better choice at a time using something like a Priority Hierarchy.

I think it is important to make the distinction here with a Value Hierarchy though.  CST places health at the top of their hierarchy of values.  Like the rocky landscape in the photo above, values don't change easily.  Like the flowing river, priorities can shift from month to month or year to year as goals and situations change, but are constrained by the relative permanence of your values.  Your Value Hierarchy should underpin your Priority Hierarchy.  Your priorities must not undermine your values.

If you take the time to use the 4 step process above in order to tap into the power of priorities, I'll think you'll be amazed at the personal potential you'll be able to harness.  Give it a try and let us know how it goes.  Better yet, tell us below what your priorities are, then check back in a few weeks and let us know how well you've been able to align your actions and decisions with those priorities.

Friday Inspiration - Remember The Titans

Remember The Titans is one of my all time favorite movies.  Just watching this little compilation gave me shivers of inspiration all over again.  There's a certain power in connecting with something larger than yourself - something like a team.

My memories of being on the football team are still vivid in my mind.  Being part of that group - putting myself on the line for them and having them do the same for me - was an incredible source of motivation.  I actually looked forward to showing up for grueling workouts and practices, just to be part of the strength which the team represented.

Drawing on something inspiring for strength and drive allows us to accomplish amazing things.  Take a gander at this compilation:

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My football days are long behind me (at 5'6" I never had much career potential...).  But now I get that same feeling of camaraderie and challenge through my participation in the Circular Strength Training community.

As you finish off your week, take a moment to reflect on what inspires you.  What makes you want to be more than you are today? Tap into that this weekend and do something great!

Laugh Your Way Into The Weekend

Pressure, deadlines and financial worries can pile up throughout the week, leaving you feeling stressed.  It's important to cut the chords, if we can, and move into the weekend with a clean slate so we can enjoy family, friends, hobbies and sport.

One of the best ways to make that happen is to indulge in a good belly laugh.  The scientific evidence isn't all that deep yet, but there seem to be pretty solid links between laughter and our overall well being.  It seems to boost the immune system.  And it's even been associated with improved insulin sensitivity.  But all that aside, it just makes you feel good, and can help you make that all important transition from work to play.

So as you finish your week, give the video below a watch.  If you're able to watch this without laughing (or at least smiling) then you are one grouchy bugger...  I had tears welling in my eyes as I laughed along with the second guy.

Enjoy!

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