Quality = Honesty (Pt. 2)

There is often talk of the physical benefit of working thru the full range of motion (which there is), but we don’t often hear about the carry over it (or the lack there of) has in our daily lives. When we train, we develop habits. Those habits carry over. If we are honest with ourselves and where we are at in our training, that will translate into being honest with ourselves and where we are at in our life. We then have a much clearer picture from which we can move forward. And it doesn’t stop there. It starts this domino effect. When honest with ourselves, our actions are no longer motivated by our need to please, impress, overpower or compete with others. They are motivated from inside us, by our desire to improve upon our current state or condition, based on the measuring stick that is essentially ourselves. Working based on THAT measuring stick, whether anyone is watching or not, detached from what the result means to others, develops integrity. A strong sense of honesty and integrity builds confidence in ourselves and who we are as a person. Confidence leads to strength and courage. This allows us to then leave ourselves alone and open up to those around us, without judgment or defensiveness. Patience, understanding and respect start to flourish. And because we started off with honesty, we also find humility, recognizing the lessons we learn from others and how much more we still have to discover as we travel along our path. Cooperation, service, enthusiasm and purposefulness become an invigorating part of our lives. A domino effect. Who would have thought cutting corners in ones workout could have deprived us of ALL this.

s.

Quality = Honesty (Pt. 1)

I’ve wanted to share some thoughts on the importance of quality in the workouts. Quality meaning, moving thru the full range of motion. Not just how important it is in the workout, but also in the process of developing honesty with ourselves.

Physically it is very important, because if we train our body’s to move within a shorter range of motion, then when we find ourselves in a situation (in sport or the need for physical exertion in our day to day life) where we need to use that full range of motion, our body stops us from benefiting doing so. It also sets us up for injury. If we don’t have time to think about it and end up going beyond how we’ve trained, we move into a plane of motion that is not strong or flexible enough to deal with the movement or load being presented to us. Translation: snap, crack, chip, pull, strain, tear……OUCH! This, in and of itself is motivation enough to follow thru in training.

And the other reason: continued development of honesty with ourselves. The measuring sticks we use in exercise: how fast could we get it done? How much weight could we lift, push or pull? How many repetitions could we complete? Etc. Let’s look at a scenario: Joe can do 28 pull-ups in a row and Dave can do 20. By all intents and purposes, Joe is stronger and has greater muscular endurance. Joe gets bragging rights. Joe gets the attention because we always gravitate to those who, in our estimation, are successful or farther along the path of the activity we are striving to become proficient in.  Others see his numbers and aspire to be as strong as he. Joe is feeling good about his accomplishment. Unconsciously, the attention starts to feed his ego a bit. The thing is, as Joe was progressing, he came to a point where he really became focused on the result, on the number and that being the most important thing. And now that he has all this attention and he is viewed as “excelling”, it feels really good. We all want to be in a place where we are recognized and acknowledged for our accomplishments. The thing is, he’s fallen into a bit of a trap. As he became more and more focused on “the number” he started allowing himself small shortcuts. Coming down only ¾ ‘s of the way, becoming content with coming not quite all the way up and stretching his neck way up and extending his chin to just touch the top of the bar. Why? Because he was able to push out 2, maybe 3 extra reps, thus upping his overall number. And now he’s being given all of this praise for an “accomplishment”, that deep down inside, he knows, he feels, he hasn’t quite rightfully earned. But he can’t back out now, because to do so would be to say to everyone, and himself, “I was wrong”. And I think we can all be honest with ourselves right here and acknowledge that that is one of the hardest things to do. Dave on the other hand can only do 20. But he extends all the way down and when he comes up, touch’s his chest to the bar. And he is content in the fact that he can’t do as many as others, because he knows that he has done each rep to the best of his ability and is honestly working to his limits and striving to surpass them, increasing his capacity.

There is often talk of………

……..to be continued.

s.

Couting Away (need help)

So. If you have read Shane’s last posting you know that I make a big mistake. In essence I did double what I was supposed to for the workout that day and as a result, I felt sick the entire day and my arms were about to fall off.

The issue, I later realized, is when I start repetitive things I have always let my mind wonder because I get bored. The issue here is how to become more process oriented and stay in the moment. I am a very goal driven person. If there is something to be achieved, I will devise the shortest and most effective way of getting there and start off. I will also improve on the systems on my way to increase efficiency as well (so if you need someone to help your company to improve its current processes I am your guy . )

The lesson I have to learn is how to be able to stay in the moment and concentrate on each of the rep individually.

The issue is I have no idea how to do it. If you have any suggestions please let me know. Maybe you could share how you do it.

Thanks in advance!

ae

Learning to count….

This morning, as part of our workout, we were to do Renegade Rows, 5/arm. Chris in his enthusiasm powered thru and did 10/arm on the first round. I responded with”……uuhhhh…” and Chris said “did I not do enough, here I can do a few more”. I went “no,no,no….you actually did more then you needed. And that’s okay, you looked strong doing them. So we’ll do 10/arm…..you’ve set the pace”.

On the third (and final) round, just before Chris was to do his last set of Ren. Rows, this is what was heard…….”this is it right? (breathing really hard)………and 20 more of these (10/arm) (breathing hard)……..I really have to learn how to count…….” (as he grabs a hold of the KB’s and starts to power his way thru;)

s.

Passing of Aram Adlparvar

I would like to make mention of the passing of my cousin Aram Adlparvar. He was a awesome guy who was not afraid of pain.

We will miss him dearly! ae

O SON OF THE SUPREME! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?

O SON OF WORLDLINESS! Pleasant is the realm of being, wert thou to attain thereto; glorious is the domain of eternity, shouldst thou pass beyond the world of mortality; sweet is the holy ecstasy if thou drinkest of the mystic chalice from the hands of the celestial Youth. Shouldst thou attain this station, thou wouldst be freed from destruction and death, from toil and sin.

The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh
http://bahai.org/

Chasing Pain

Most of our lives we are constantly trying to get away from pain, but pain is just a part of life. Without it there would be no way of knowing how good things could be. Let me stop here before it gets too cheesey! I heard a friend tell me recently that in Russia, they looked at him weird when he complained because it was silly to fuss about things you could not change…. I have to admit that it made me stop and think.

So what does this all have to do with discipline? Well, over the last few weeks, the requirements for our hikes have been increasing. Our last hike was 8:35 min! We were lucky this time to be joined by my father-in-law, who is in his 50’s and runs marathons! So the idea of this hike is to gain about 1000 meters of elevation, then walk in the snow for an hour, loose about 600 meters of elevation and then gain about 800 meters of elevation (not to mention walking back they way you came from.)

If you are still wondering where pain and complaining come into the equation, I am sorry, I might have not fully conveyed the extent of the situation. So first you go up PAIN and then you walk through PAIN and then you walk down a slope(and all you can think about is the PAIN of going up the slope on the way back) and then you go up PAIN and then you walk back they way you came from.

What I discovered on this hike was the need for self-restraint. I needed to take control of my emotions and while still being exhausted, not allowing myself to complain or loose focus of the goal. At this point enters patience since it is what you need when things don’t go your. I also figured out that I need to have more fun and stop hurrying to get home to the family.

It seems that time and patience don’t seem to be able to coexists peacefully. If one is overly concerned about time or in a hurry, it becomes next to impossible to be patient. So when I stopped being in a hurry to get home and started to be ‘mindful of my thoughts’, the hike became fun and I had less pain.

I guess the moral is that our reality is created by our thoughts and thus complaining can only bring us down.

ae

Week 12 ( July 2- 8)

DAY 1 (Interval, Strength)

c-WU-SJ + 2HSW (# 35 KB) x 20

WO- Tabata Swings (#35 KB) Score: 11 Rest, Then Tabata SU Score:

s-WU-SJ + 2HSW (# 35 KB) x 20

WO- PLU(rings) 10 + 10 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 3 = 50, had 2 min R/set (eg: 10, 2min, 10, 2min, 6, etc.)

End: FW (#125) x 6, 5 rds

Note: As he did not get a chance to go for a hike or do a workout yesterday (day 7 of week 11), of his own initiative, Chris threw in the extra Tabata SU, to make up for it. Nice Buddy:) I was back from travel today and got my workout in after I got home.

17:53

17:53 is how long it took me to do a circuit this morning. But I thought that I would be able to do it under 10 min! So… I guess I have not reached my goal of great strength and endurance. It must seem that I am obsessed with time! Half of the titles I have written start with time.

There was disappointment when I was done. After all Shane can do it… why can’t I. ‘Wait a minute!’ I had to stop myself there. I had to ask myself the same question I ask every time. Why am I doing this? and then I remember the purpose of it all. I have learned discipline and now I am learning honesty. If I really want to be able to have discipline I have to be honest. Plus, if I wanted to show off to other my endurance and strength I would not bring doing it at Gym Jane.

My competitive nature gets away from me sometimes and it tries to make me compete with people who have committed years of their lives to something. And even though that has helped to achieve things that most don’t attempt, I am learning to balance it a little with reality.

To be honest with myself, I need to pause and take a moment to think about my achievements in 13 weeks – which have been substantial. Then, and only then, it might be ok to sometimes use benchmarks of those who have demonstrated excellence, as goals for my achievements.

I wake up and try hard. That is all I have.

ae

PS: forgive Shane for the last entry… he is just gitty because summer has finally arrived in Vancouver!

baabaabiddybiddybop!

……..hhhhmmmmnnn……..

….bop,bop,bip…….bop,bop,bip…….

baabaabiddybiddybop…………Bust it!

Here we are getting started in the AM,

At the crack of dawn ready to raise a little mayhem,

Some iron, some rings, some tires and rope,

Running hard and fast makes you feel dope,

uhuh, uhuh…….uhuh,uhuh,uhuh…..

Jumping as high as we can,

Throw’in around stuff like bags of san….d,

Going all out as if against us the cards are stacked,

No problem for us, ’cause we’re wiggity, wiggity wack,

And now we’re cruis’in, cause it’s summer time,

Summer, summer, summer Tiiiime……Summer Time

Bring’in it to the ghetto we…..WHAA!!!

Ha,ha……hauuhhhh…..you scared me. I mean, of course, you didn’t scare me, it’s just, I didn’t….hear you come in…that’s all….hahahahahhhhhhhhhhow long have you been standing there? Not long! Haha, that’s great! I mean…..it’s great that I didn’t leave you standing there long….that you’re here now…….haha…………

You didn’t…….hear any of……anything did you? No. Okay well……oh…..just from when I was humming. Haha, listen, I was just goofing a little, I wasn’t reeeeaaally trying……don’t tell ANYONE okay! If word got out I’d probably lose what little credibility I may have had. PLEEEEEEAAAASSSSE! What do you mean “what is it worth”?! No I don’t have 50 bucks. I need that for the next set of weight plates. “Free Membership to Gym Jane”? But there’s just Chris and I and we don’t charge for anyonnnnnnnnooookay, deal can do. NO?! (damn I should have shut my big mouth while I was ahead). Tell you what……I’ll give you credit for writing the rap! Seriously, I’m detached, go for it, it’s all yours……..pleasepleasepleaseplease don’t tell anyone, pleeeeeaaaassse, they’ll think I’m a total dork, pleeeeaaassssee…………..

The Ghetto Gym

This morning, while I was putting all the weights away, I thought for a moment that it would be nice to have proper places for our equipment, such as a rack for the weights. It would be so much easier and faster if all the equipment was just in one room and we could quickly access it without having to do anything.

BUT then! I realized that I would be in a gym… and in one of those gyms with towels and fancy amenities. The monetary implications alone would be prohibitive (way too expensive)! but what would be worse is that they would be pushing ‘body image’ on me! I would also be socially forced into purchasing extra services to keep up with friends and needing to create a new social network. All this so that I can workout!

The more I do exercise, the more I realize that it is an activity that is meant to help one’s body and mind and not means for social acceptance. As a consequence, I quickly was brought back to reality. Gym Jane is really what I want! A gym where I have to bring the weights out in absolute silence every morning and set everything up in such a way as to not wake up the kids. And again, at the end, bring all the equipment back in stealth mode to keep the peace of the house.

The back alley gym is were I need to start to learn some of the most important lessons and here it were I will continue to learn and grow.

ae