Some people take an escalator to the gym’s doors only to walk on the treadmill once inside. Some of these same people add to the mental mushroom cloud by commuting in a car for thirteen minutes only to reach the same escalator and same treadmill. Been thinking a lot about the dichotomy between “exercise” and [...]
Some people take an escalator to the gym's doors only to walk on the treadmill once inside. Some of these same people add to the mental mushroom cloud by commuting in a car for thirteen minutes only to reach the same escalator and same treadmill.
Been thinking a lot about the dichotomy between “exercise” and “life.” Started when I broke my foot in 2011. I found out that functioning like a human being supersedes “training.”
I used to be super worried about giving muscles 48 hours to recover after training. Lots of people are worried about over-training. Someone jammed a needle into our forearm when we were sleeping and intravenously ensured us having this mindset.
We have a dichotomy between “training” and “non-training.”
- Not in the gym? Exercise doesn't exist. Drive. Take the escalator.
- In the gym? Exercise is all that exists. No shortcuts.
I hate the word “exercise.” I mentally swash Listerine after saying it. (Maybe I need to dip my fingertips in Listerine when writing.)
You are a moving, breathing, living human being that is training 24/7 and recovering 24/7. You are a complex organism using your biological systems at all hours.
Sometimes you're driving on the highway. Sometimes you're idling in the driveway. Either way, you're always turned on.
So…gradients.
- You “use” your legs every time you walk up steps. Walking up steps every day isn't far fetched.
- You “use” your legs when you squat in the gym. Squatting every day is far fetched.
Walking up steps is closer to idling. Squatting is closer to highway driving.
There are gradients within stress and recovery.
If you're a high Level, you can fight small enemies in the woods without worry. They can't do enough damage to kill you.
Boss battles can kill you. You gain more EXP, but you lose more HP.
What kind of battles are you confident in fighting when your HP is close to 0? What about with your HP half-full?
So it's not that you're rendered useless with low HP, it's just that you might not be able to take a large hit like you would with full HP.
Whatever Level you are, there's a bucket of things you should be able to do even at the lowest of lows. This changes with your Level, of course. A complete beginner can't frolic through the woods with low HP because small enemies are more dangerous.
You at the lowest of lows = what you, as a human, can do without question at any time of any day.
Every male should be able to squat deep with their feet flat on the floor. Should be able to do five chin-ups, no questions asked. Should be able to do ten push-ups upon rolling out of bed in the morning.
No warm-up. No preparation. Just go.
These things shouldn't be stressful. You can do them with 0 HP because they don't damage you.
You bake these abilities into yourself like a chocolate chip gets baked into a cookie. Prior to getting thrown in the oven, the chocolate chip is separate from the cookie. After baking? They're fused together.
Baking something into you makes for comfort, not stress. And something weird comes from comfort: strength.
We don't often think about comfort when it comes to strength. Instead, we look at sets, reps, loading schemes, methods that come from the Soviets or Bulgarians…
But the more comfort you have in the position in which you're trying to apply strength, the stronger you'll be.
With comfort comes strength.
Ido Portal, a few months ago, challenged his followers to sit in a deep squat for 30 minutes every day. As I write this, his newest challenge is to hang for 7 minutes every day.
Squatting and hanging aren't lonely chocolate chips. Squatting and hanging are apart of Ido's chocolate chip cookie.
I've done a lot of chin-ups and pull-ups and muscle-ups. I've even thought about baking some of these movements into my own cookie. But I never thought about hanging. Never thought…just how comfortable am I hanging?
But now I have. And I realized that my quest for the one-arm chin-up was probably a bit premature because I'm so not comfortable hanging from one arm let alone pulling myself anywhere from the hang.
I'm thinking about positions more and more. Especially the ones we often tax in the gym and training — the ones we take for granted. And I'm thinking about comfort in those positions.
How comfortable are you balancing on your forefoot in a calf raise position? On one leg? How high in that calf raise can you go and still be comfortable?
How about taking it a step further and doing the ballet thing: getting on the tip top of your forefoot in full plantar flexion? In other words, supporting your weight just about on your toes? (Tip: don't claw the ground with your toes.)
Me? When I try getting on the tip top of my forefoot of my bad foot, my calf cramps. And when I think about why, I can't help but ask myself…when was the last time you've even tried to do this?
What about a position with your arms overhead? How much comfort do you have there?
There are positions we expect to hit when we train and perform, but these same positions aren't ones first world life demands. We live in a world where it's common place to be sedentary (commute) in order to travel to a place where we can be active (gym).
And what do we know about the body?
It doesn't like old clothes.
So here's where I'm going with this — my challenge to you. If you want to get better at something, think positions. Which positions are needed? How comfortable are you in those positions?
Now think about how your body is adapting. Is it against those positions? (Hint: yes, it probably is.)
You half squat in your chair for hours. You half squat on a toilet. These things are negative rock bottom squat comfort.
You slouch in your chair for hours. You slouch in your car. Negative arms overhead comfort.
“But I squat in training! I do overhead movements!”
Consider how long you hang out in the extreme positions when doing normal training. Say you do overhead pressing twice per week, thirty reps each training session. How much time during those reps do you actually spend with your arms completely overhead? Maybe one second per rep?
That's 60 seconds out of 604800 seconds in an entire week.
How comfortable can you really be?
Think about any movement you want your body to comfortable in that you're probably adapting against.
A big one for me is back bridging. I do a ton of strength training, which requires keeping a stable spine. I do a lot of computer work. My spine is locking up most of the day.
But I want my spine to be able to flow and move.
Hit the positions you want to be comfortable in often. Bake them into you slowly over time. Could be something as simple as hitting a few positions during every commercial break of every TV show you watch. Or after every two hours of computer work.
Remember, this isn't gym work. This isn't training. Don't warm-up. Just go.
What are you going to bake into your being?
What are you going to be able to do when you're one hit away from losing all your HP?
Stop thinking about shock training. About what the Bulgarians and Soviets are doing. About the next “thing” hidden on a scroll alongside the Holy Grail.
Maybe you need some time away from the glitzy gadgets.
Maybe, instead, you just need a little comfort.