Tagged: crossfit
What’s Your Excuse?
Recently on social media I got called out for telling a woman feeding her child TimBits (for those of you not in Canada, this is sugared donut holes) and chocolate milk at 7am in the morning for breakfast to not feed her kid garbage. Apparently I’m not an empathetic trainer since I don’t know the background and I’m just judging a mother for feeding her kid garbage for breakfast and I should lay off. This bothers me for so many reasons.
Here’s the thing. There’s a whole lot of overweight people out there and they aren’t getting any thinner. In fact, obesity continues to climb, and along with it degenerative disease and drains on our health care system. Now the problem is that kids are growing up overweight because of terrible parenting – yes, I said it – if you feed your child garbage and they grow up fat and unhealthy, that’s your fault as a parent. You ultimately have control over what your child eats and whether or not they get any type of physical activity. Making the excuse that you don’t have time because you work too much or you’re just being a lazy parent isn’t an excuse in my world. My two year old has literally never had sugar (unless it is from fruit), and she eats a ton of vegetables that we prepare for her, so she doesn’t even know what she’s missing and hopefully never does. The lack of responsibility in today’s parents is a topic for a whole other rant, but you can imagine how little patience I have when I see an obese child.
Recently I read about an FDA approved device that is surgically implanted into obese people in order to allow them to control hunger signals from their stomach and make them feel not hungry. This takes gastric bypass to a whole new level. Now people don’t have to actually cut off part of their stomachs because they have no self control, they can use a remote to help them out. I’m quite sure that surgically implanting electrodes into your stomach and throat is much better for you long term. My immediate thought was why not just implant something right into your brain to prevent the pleasure response from food, that way all of the emotional eaters can have their feelings removed and lose weight that way. It would be much more effective.
Why is it so difficult for people to prepare meals themselves, buy groceries from the vegetable section of the grocery store, and not overconsume regularly? Or get in 15 minutes of physical activity every day?
Well, I’m way too busy at work.
Well, my kids are a handful.
Well, House of Cards was uploaded last night and I have to watch it.
Well, eating healthy is too expensive.
Well, my partner didn’t do the dishes and I have to cry about it.
Well, it’s only one time.
Well, I’ll do it tomorrow.
Well, it’s none of your business. Lay off and stop judging me.
Well, I could look like that but they’re just obsessed. I’m not like that.
Well, I’m embracing my curves. You’re fat shaming you horrible person.
Well, it takes too much time to cook that.
Do any of these sound familiar? Guess what they are? Excuses. That’s all. When you really break it down, people will justify whatever they need to in order to feel okay about their decisions. And if something isn’t going the way that they want? It isn’t their fault. It’s definitely someone else causing me to behave that way.
It’s way too easy to not do anything about it. And that’s the problem. Something that is actually quite easy to do is also quite easy not to do.
If you feel like crap, if you’re overweight, if you’re unhealthy and you actually want to change it then you don’t need a surgical device implanted in you, and you certainly don’t need to embrace it. What you really have to do is realize that ultimately you’re happy being that way otherwise you would probably change it the easy way, which is by taking really simple steps. If you want to own being unhealthy and unhappy then that’s fine, but don’t have the audacity to complain about it or say that it is someone else’s fault. It’s not. It’s yours. Nobody held a gun to your head and told you to go through the drive through instead of buying something else. Nobody lit the cigarette in your hand. And your poor child has no idea what you’re doing to them because they don’t have a choice – you do.
Where I want to come from with these harsh words is that I know people can change. I’ve helped people do it many times over the years, but really when it comes down to it as a society in general we need far, far more personal responsibility for our choices and to stop blaming others for our issues, whether it is obesity or anything else. You have the power to change and it’s right inside you right now. Just go do it. Start by making a choice to do something different if that is truly what you want to be.
And don’t feed your kids garbage. They deserve better.
A Concept of The Ageless Person
When I was getting into fitness and health I read a lot of books. One of the most interesting ones I ever read (and have ever read to this day) was one called Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra. Now, whether or not you believe in metaphysics or not, one of the principles of his anti-aging formula was the fact that your mind ultimately controls your body. I tend to believe in this, so about twelve years ago I decided that age was just a number and that I was going to do my best to simply stop aging.
There is a confirmed difference between chronological age (the age on your birthday cards) and your biological age. Your body tissues can either age faster or slower based on what they receive in terms of nutrients and stress. Obviously things like smoking, eating unhealthy foods or having a high level of stress is going to age you faster. That’s why your friend in the cubicle behind you who might be a year or two younger can look like they are about to keel over and have to retire while you remain relatively the same.
I’m now going to reveal something that some of my readers may not know. I just turned 40 years old. Not a massive milestone in terms of age, but I also know a lot of forty year olds with hair loss, wrinkles around their eyes and who can barely climb up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath.
So I’m going to show some interesting pictures that I have – note these were taken over 10 years apart:
Taken over ten years ago at a birthday party
Taken last week.
I’m not doing this to brag, and if you looked closely at those pictures you would see the streaks of grey in my hair (although I still have all my hair unlike many of my 40 year old compatriots). But the point I’m trying to make is that I think we are all capable of arresting time and our physical well being if we are smart about it.
By the way, in terms of fitness level, I’m about the same as I was in 2005 – maybe even a bit better in some respects only because I have gotten away from heavy lifting and severe long distance training. I can still pick up 200 pounds without throwing out my back and squat and do pullups and bench press the same I could ten years ago. I can jump on the highest plyo box I can find several times. I can run a 22 minute 5k even though I had a heart problem that seems to have resolved itself over the past year. My clothes are the same size and so is my scale weight. As long as I keep an eye on it, my body fat is relatively the same as well. I am injury free. Some people would say it means that I haven’t improved, but our bodies after 30 are always in a constant state of decline, so 10 years later to be able to do the same or more than I could is actually quite ahead of the game.
My grandmother turned 101 about a month ago. Before you jump on the genetics bandwagon, however, my grandfather from the same side died of a heart attack when he was in his 50’s and both of my other grandparents passed away in their 70’s. I often wonder how my Grammie managed to live so long, and I can only pinpoint one specific thing – she lived a relatively stress free lifestyle. I try my best to do that as well.
So can we reverse the aging process or arrest it? More evidence is coming into light that the answer is yes – as recently as November 2014 scientists reversed the aging process in mice and it has shown potential for human trials as well by gene manipulation. However, gaining technology towards reversing your age isn’t going to happen any time soon. We can all take responsibility for our lifestyles and how they impact the again process.
My take on it is that we should all strive to lead a lifestyle that allows us to live with as minimal stress as possible, and this means even things that are considered positive activities like over exercising, dieting to extremes and working until our bodies start to break down. There is a fine balance to all things in life. Also remember, adding things into your daily routine like extra sleep, meditation and just doing things that you enjoy or get good feelings from (an example for me would be music) can also help with staying young.
Feel free to throw in your two cents on the topic, and who knows – maybe I’ll post another picture in ten years and see how things are coming along!
What Did We Learn From Kevin Ogar?
Apparently there is a certain portion of the fitness community that has learned nothing about the tragedy that took place about a year ago. Kevin Ogar, who was competing in the Crossfit OC Throwdown in January of 2014 severed his spine during the competition and is now paralyzed. A video of the moment it happened went viral and the whole fitness community mourned along with extensive analysis of what happened. By many it was considered a freak accident, unless you consider the fact that he was three workouts into a ten workout regime, likely already exhausted and throwing a heavy weight over his head. I’m not posting a link but it is easily found, and is disturbing.
First and foremost, this is not an article about CrossFit, bashing anyone or doing anything other than taking a look objectively at the situation. From what I have read nobody can seem to properly determine if Kevin’s spine was just ready to snap, or if he was hit by the bar (or both) – either way, it is a horrible accident and my thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.
However, apparently the people who run the OC Throwdown didn’t learn anything, as this year they decided to have their participants jump over successive hurdles that were set at heights way too difficult to get over, resulting in many competitors falling – it is unknown if any of them seriously injured themselves but judging from what I was watching it was highly likely. There was a video that went viral about it and many people within the community complained that it was irresponsible and idiotic (which it was), and you would think that the organizers of this event would have known better. By the way, if you want to see the video, it’s here.
Maybe if just one person had stood up and reminded them of what happened the year before and simply refused to do something so risky they might have changed their whole workout and everyone could have done it safely. But that’s not cool, and it’s not hardcore, and it’s not something that you can post on YouTube.
This article is about the responsibility we all have towards our bodies, and the stupidity that sometimes arises when people get competitive. I can’t count the amount of people I have dealt with who have experienced major injuries, usually because they decided to “push through it” or they wanted to “suck it up”. Your body sends you signals for a reason, and it usually isn’t to tell you “hey, maybe you should think about stopping.”
I have many people on my Facebook feed who perform (to be blunt) horrible lifts. Absolutely brutal lifts. But they get the weight up and cheer themselves and get tons of likes on Facebook and Instagram of course. One poor girl who is all of 21 regularly hurts herself and almost brags about it, and then two days later posts videos of herself lifting, and the only thing I can see is her knees buckling and her spine ready to collapse. She doesn’t realize that in 20 years – or sooner – she’s likely going to be suffering.
This is way too common on my internet feed.
Tragedy comes in many forms, but to me one of the most tragic things is seeing a mistake made and then doing absolutely nothing to correct it simply for the sake of ego. You only get one body and one life. You have a choice if you want to let yourself live it to its’ fullest for the whole time you’re on the earth, or possibly have that one moment of glory (or one moment of stupidity) and pay for it for years. I’ve fallen victim to it myself when I was younger and stupid. Many of my friends who have “tweaked” things 20 years ago have recently had to have surgery to resolve things and can’t do what they want to do any more. It’s inevitable if you keep treating your body like a punching bag.
I’d rather see people lifting 50 pounds less and able to do it for 20 more years, which is why I run my practice the way that I do. I’ve taught women in their 50’s to lift over 150 pounds, but do they really need to do more than that? My people squat and lift and push and pull just like anyone else, but they do it with care and responsibility to the body, and funnily enough they rarely have a problem, now and ten years from now. I fix people who have had crippling injuries on a regular basis – the only people I’ll refuse to work with are those who haven’t learned the rules of the body and to respect what it tells you and do something about it.
Strength isn’t something that you can easily define. Figure out for yourself what it means. Hopefully it doesn’t mean sacrificing your long term joint health for the sake of making one massive lift, or almost killing yourself to be able to pose on a stage for 30 seconds, or dehydrating yourself so you can have abs just that much more visible for a photo shoot, or doing something idiotic to be able to post an edgy video on the internet. Wake up.
As always, comments are welcome.
How To Set Your Year Up Right
On my recent podcast with Dan T and Canadian Minds on Health I spoke about resolutions, and how 88% of people fail at them. There are some simple strategies you can use in order to be more successful in your fitness and nutrition life this year, however. This article is all about the big things that you can change and some strategies that you can use in order to get your year off to a good start and keep it that way – until NEXT Christmas.
#1: Think Long Term
When we set goals the problem is that we don’t think about things in a long term sense most of the time. We want immediate gratification like everything else in society today. The problem with that is not only are you not really setting a well defined goal, it isn’t long enough to have lasting impact if it is only in place for a few weeks.
All of my athletes have their yearly goals typically planned by February, and successful fitness people do this all of the time as well. It allows you to then break up the year into smaller chunks and makes it more manageable. You can then set short term goals to move towards, and then even shorter ones. In athletic vernacular this is called periodization, but for the average person it just means that you always know what you’re going to be working on from start to finish in 2015.
You also need to factor in changes to things like weather, vacations, any major family events and think ahead to manage these things. If you set it up long term then you’re much more likely to succeed.
#2: Make Small Changes, Not Big Ones
Big changes like trying to work out five times a week and completely overhaul your diet also just sets you up for failure – because it isn’t realistic. Lots of people think they need to throw out everything in their pantry and suddenly find an extra 5 hours a week to spend at the gym, which isn’t totally necessary.
If you’re going to cut something out of your diet – make it one thing. And that thing should be fairly easy to do. An example would be processed sugar – easy to cut out and easy to maintain once you get over the withdrawl and taste of your coffee. Another good one might be a processed carb like pasta. Tell yourself no pasta for 30 days, then after 30 days pick something else and remove that too – by the end of 6 months you can remove pretty much everything major that might cause a problem.
When it comes to exercise, start simple. 20 minutes is my general recommendation. Whether it be walking, cycling, weightlifting (which would be my number one choice), yoga at home in front of YouTube, set your timer for 20 minutes – you can even get away with doing one exercise if it is the right one (see my article on deadlifts for this). Will this turn you into an Adonis overnight? No. But it will start a good pattern. Find that 20 minutes isn’t a problem? Bump it to 30 – then 40 if you can or add another day if your time allows.
#3: Find Something You Really Want To Do
We are all motivated by different things, but for many people at this time of year it comes down to vanity and looking better. In my opinion as I always say, health first – looks second.
So what’s a good example? I want to run a 10k in the spring. I want to fit into my dress for that upcoming wedding. I want to climb a mountain in the fall. I want to rock that bathing suit at the resort I go to next year.
Or how about I want to get off my medication? I want to stop thinking that I’m awful looking every time I look in the mirror? I want to be a positive example for my kids? I’m single and I really want to have sex with someone? These are more emotionally motivated but you get my point.
Bottom line is if you don’t really want to do it you’re not likely to – so find out what that thing is, make it stick for a long period of time and set the goal for the long term.
#4: Put Together a Team
This can be your family, friends, or experts in the field like myself or Dan – or even starting to blog online and getting support through that. Ongoing support is vital towards success in any stage of the game.
Women are 20% more likely to achieve a goal if they tell their friends about it – so do that. Guys prefer to do things solo generally but they like to learn, so hire a good trainer and sit down with a dietician and go over everything, with a way set up for support and constant feedback. Some of my clients are completely virtual (I’ve never met them in person), but we correspond through email and I track them online. Dan meets with people via Skype and with modern technology there is no excuse for not reaching out and finding someone you can trust with your goals.
Are you a group person? Join a meetup workout group or a running group or a sports team locally if you can manage the time. Not into groups? There are tons of tracking apps and anonymous ways to support yourself with whatever physical thing you are doing.
Family is typically really important for these things – my wife and I trade off care of our daughter and you can too. We also plan ahead for meals and make sure that even if things go off a bit they come back quickly. But even telling your family about what you want to do can be enough for them to support you at meals and with your activity outside of the home.
So before you set a resolution, take the time to plan ahead and set things up properly. If you need help with anything feel free to contact or email me. Good luck and before you know it, 2016 will be here, and a whole new you as well!
Therapy and Exercise Refined 