Packing Light and Living Large

Here is my issue. I have three weeks in Europe, and I need to pack everything I might need (except for my competition equipment) in one travel bag. It is exactly 2807 cubic inches. That's a bag 22"x 14"x 9". Known throughout the world as the maximum size for a carry-on piece of luggage.

For scale those are my size 13 Nike's in there.

What to bring? I have to be dressed appropriately for all the activities we are going to do. So how do I pack my entire wardrobe in a carry-on?

Time to introduce the 80/20 rule. Pareto's Principle. As an Italian economist, he observed 80% of all the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the total families in the 1906. Later, people confirmed this by reviewing business records.  Leading to other similar confirmations:

• 80% of profits come from 20% of customers
• 80% of complaints come from 20% of customers
• 80% of profits come from 20% of the time you spend
• 80% of sales come from 20% of products

In my case, 80% of everything I wear will be represented by 20% of everything I could bring. Attempting to be smart about this, I figure we will be spending the majority of time in cities walking, eating, sightseeing, eating, shopping and eating. The notable exceptions will be the occasional workout and the nice romantic dinners where you don't look at any prices on the menu, you just order.

The plan is simply to bring:

• 2 pairs of shoes. One for workouts and travel, the other for walking and more formal dress.
• 4 polo collared shirts. Nice enough to wear for fancy dinners and casual exploring of cities.
• 3 pairs of Khaki shorts. Good for everything but working out and fancy dinners.
• 2 workout shirts. 
• 2 workout shorts.
• 1 pair of linen pants. Light enough for city activities and dressy enough for formal attire.
• 3 pairs of socks and underwear.

Anything else can be bought or borrowed. It's a weird thought for me. For years I had to plan for any and all contingencies while working out in the weightroom or on the field while working out athletes. Now I have to only pick 16 things. It's making me sweat and my blood pressure is up.

Actually, its not all that bad. I learned an idea from Tim Ferris' book, The Four Hour Work Week a few years back and have been working it in where and when I can. During my workouts and programming for athletes, this really is evident.  Looking at a typical workout, I realized there are three main exercises with some active recovery or mobility work added in. It has been a process, and mistakes have been made along the way, but I have a good idea what the minimum effective dose is for not only exercise selection, but what actual sets and reps are for the different training cycles. Of course, some people think they need to do more, but with over fifteen years of data backing me up, the return on the investment of their time and energy does not justify the change of their performance.

In working with competitive athletes, weightlifters, and strongmen, it comes back to a few basics things. In the weightroom: get the hips right (both strong and stable), pull vertically and horizontally, press weight overhead, hammer the hamstrings, and because you are only as strong as your hands--work the grip. Nutrition is easy: eat more protein and vegetables, and drink more water. Get the basics done and you are 80% there to being strong and fast!

For Those About to Rock

I love loud music. And by loud I am talking about the type that will shake your fillings outs. In an effort to replicate this at home, in my truck, or in the weightroom, there is just not anyway to duplicate the sound and volume you can get at a concert.

So I find myself in a concert hall last week getting ready for one of my favorite bands, Godsmack, a rock band out of Boston, to take the stage. Fighting all questions in my head about being too old, out of place, and being too tired to be up late on a school night, it happened. Light go out. The guitar rift kicks in from AC/DC's classic: For Those About to Rock, and the music shakes off all those doubts and then I am lost in the excitement of live music.

Time floats by unmeasured, during the 15 songs and as the set is winding down the lead singer has his moment to thank the audience and explain how much better we are compared to every other city they toured at. I know the set up and line, but it doesn't matter, a roar of approval emerges from deep inside and I have fully become part of the group identity. The next part of the soliloquy was the inspiration for this post.

"I don't care what type of music you listen to, just get out and experience it live. Unplug. Feel the energy that happens. An iPod can never duplicate this feeling. Take your family and share that gift with them."

Looks like I am not the only one who has been growing up. The message of getting away from the computer and experiencing things live, resonated with me. People my age have been fortunate to remember life without the Internet, smart phones, GPS, and the rest of the convinces we take for granted. Don't get me wrong, all of those things are great tools that I take full advantage of every day, but every once in a while there has to be time to get away from those crutches and stumble around life because you can.

The easiest way to try this is to venture out to the local farmers market. For years and years I solely did all my grocery shopping in the standard grocery stores and the giant Sam's Club. In that cut off world, void of any connection to how or where your food is produced, has given way to countless answers of "Just build more grocery stores." as the solution to combat food shortages. Now each week, my wife and I head out, sometimes with other friends, and see what is in from the fields. When we check out our town's farmer's market, we make sure to stop by our farmer's table and talk about what's new, get our 5 dozen eggs, pick up the weekly farm share, and talk with other people about what they are cooking with what they've been getting in the farm share.

It took some time before I was comfortable in that crowd. I just keep telling my self that Arnold, Franco Columbu, Sergio Oliva, and Dave Draper were some of the first advocates for organic foods which helped sooth the nerves of being seen out it a group where people are picking banjos, playing spoons, and selling their homemade wears. Now, I am happy to say I have come around to the idea of knowing the farmer by name and am OK with a few spots on my vegetables because I want to know who is helping me prepare for competitions with the food I eat.

So next time you have the time, grab a few bucks and come find me at the farmers market. Who knows, you might just end up in the next blog post!

Train Slow Be Slow

So I've been around long enough to see things come full circle in many aspects of life, and life in the weightroom is no exception to this. As I get questions from the athletes that I work with, I am seeing a trend of one of my old nemesis beginning to make a return to the weightroom: super-slow training.

This thought became mainstream in the 1940's in the bodybuilding culture, reappeared in the 80's with Nautilus, sporadic review in scientific literature and vernacular books. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Guide to Modern Bodybuilding was the first time I was exposed to this idea and if it worked for Oak, it should help me out. Right?

Quick summary, take 10 seconds to lower the weight and another 10 seconds to bring it back up. The longer the muscle is under tension the more it will grow. The concept makes sense at first. Using every one's favorite exercise, the bench press, doing a regular rep from the start of the decent of the bar to touching the chest, to lock out it might take 2-3 seconds each rep. Say you do 8 reps then your muscles are under tension for 16-24 seconds compared to the 160 seconds in the super slow method. Do this for a few weeks and you will be hulking out of your clothes!

Hold on there turbo. Think this one through. Compared to your 1 Rep Max (1RM), how heavy is this? For most people 8 reps is realistically between 75-80% 1RM, but that is for that lower time under tension. So how much do you need to take off the bar for almost 8 times the duration? The first time I tried a bench the super slow method I thought I had a good strength base, benching 300 pounds (which would have gotten 3 reps in any competition). OK, lets try 225 for 8 reps. Crushed, only got 3 reps. Rest and dropped to 185. Little better, 4 reps. Ego in hand, and many failures later I ended up with 95 pounds on the bar and small children laughing at me.

At the time I didn't get it. Then came along Dr. Siff and Dr. Zatsiorsky and their books. Out of the darkness came light and it was good. Their two ideas saved my pride and brought me back on track with my training. 

from Science and Practice of Strength Training Second Edition

Here is the big one. The Size principle of Motor Unit Recruitment, and the nickle version of it. Our bodies are lazy. We don't want to do any more work then is needed so at first the muscle fibers that contract are the low hanging fruit of body, the Type I motor unit. In comparison, these fibers are small, don't contract very fast or hard, very limited in growth potential but can keep working for a long time. Soviet block countries called this oxidative work, but in the New World the term of aerobic exercise entered the vernacular. These Type I fibers, are targeted by the super slow method compared to the big, fast, quickly fatigued fibers that need to be recruited with super heavy weights.

The muscle recruitment issue is one concern, but not as important as the changes the nervous system goes through. The human body is amazing in its ability to adapt to nearly any stress it is put under, the catch is just to make sure the stress is what you want to be come adapted to. When our nervous system tells a muscle to contract it is called Rate of Force Production. The faster the muscle contracts the more force it creates, and the faster you can move a weight, the faster you can move without extra weight. So as we consciously move the bar slow in the super slow training method, your nervous system is learning how to move your body slowly and that leads to your muscles unable to have an explosive change of speed that is needed to run, jump, or lift something heavy. 

So to sum up. If a body part is a little smaller than you want and running or jumping is not as important to you, the super slow method might be something for you. For those who compete in anything that you have to move fast, run away from this idea just as fast as you can!

Time: The free currency. Are you spending it right?

As it turns out, the best time for me to think is between sets in the weightroom. There is something special that happens when you are just finished being focus on your lift and sit down with nothing else to fill your mind. Then something happens, as best quoted from Dr. Ray Stantz in Ghostbusters, " I couldn't help it. It just popped in there." And that it was a bountiful stream of clarity happens from where ideas start flowing. The most vivid today was from a conversation I had with a few athletes from this past Monday.

Understand that for the majority of the day I am surrounded by 18-23 year old college students, and for better or worse I enjoy their trust and the need for them to relay every turgid piece of information that happens outside the time we spend training. Coming off the Fourth of July rest week, the majority of stories we based around people visiting with friends or family, cookouts, fireworks, and typical knuckle-head events. But then there were a few tales from the gym and the workouts people put themselves through. As I enjoy hearing about their creativity, I always follow up with my one-two punch. What's your goal? And did this get you closer to accomplishing it?

With as many times I have asked those questions, it's amazing that people still don't know how to respond. The typical answer is a shrug of the shoulders and " I don't know." Which is surprising since the groups that I work with are committed athletes working on improving their performance in their sport. What I try to impart to them is how time is the most valuable resource they have. It's something you cannot ever get back and once you spend your time, it's gone. The result of your time investment determines if that was a good decision or not.

Don't misunderstand that statement. Playing video games (which my parents have always claimed as a waste of time) is still my number one me time event and has been since getting my Nintendo in 1988. When you are truly enjoying your activity (or lack there of) it's never a waste of time. If you are not hurting yourself or others and you have completed your jobs for the day, it's your life do what you want. We all have our own way to recharge and blow off the day.

What I am getting after, are how your choices impact your goals. I've had it in one shape or another from everyone who has been important in my life, and it sums up to: Do it right the first time!

One of the habits I've picked up in my adult life is to observe and study how things happen, in a very non-stalker sort of way. I see it time and again, people who are successful do things right the first time, while people who aren't successful often have to redo what they are working on. This means that they have to take time they could be using on other efforts to fix something that you could have done once. This thought extends to everything that you do in life. How do you think you are going to be successful at sports or manage a Fortune 500 company if you cannot do something simple as washing the dishes right?

So remember, get it done the right way the first time. If you are trying to get stronger or faster train that way, and not waste your time getting ready for a marathon. Need to add some muscle or drop some pounds, prepare your food when you have time on a slow night or weekend so you don't stress out after work and fall into temptation.

Until next time. Keep doing it right and be amazed at the free time that you will have on your hands!

This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!

Well I've done it. After all the emails, phone calls, text messages, and random conversations it was time to start putting some thoughts out in cyberspace to add to the human and workout experience.

So this is the first. Number one with a bullet. The watershed moment where life is divided into everything that happened before and and after this momentous event. And yet I am staring at my computer screen nervous as can be and looking for any and every distraction that I can find. But that is enough of that, time to focus.

During my workouts yesterday and today I keep thinking about the one piece of information that I wanted to share for this first post. Of everything that came flooding into my mind it came down to one thing. Goals. Just over a year and a half now I have been focused on taking the steps to travel to Italy this August and compete at the World Masters Games in Weightlifting and representing the USA. It was a big goal considering that I had not ever formally competed until October 2011. With the help of my amazing wife, we laid out a plan and set a budget, and then it was up to me to develop a training plan to put me in a position to be competitive.

Like anyone who has every had a lofty goal, there were set backs and people who tried to minimize what you want. What kept me going was knowing that even if I failed, got injured, or was laughed at none of that mattered because I was doing what made me happy and it was the right thing for me. We had a plan, set markers to measure progress, and was in a constant state of using evidence to make decisions. Each day the grind began, and each day the excuses or distractions tried to pull me away. But it all came back to the goal and the plan. Each step was defined and just needed to focus on what was right in front of me. Complete the workout goal so you can complete the competition goal. It's like driving at night. You may not be able to see past your headlights, but you'll make it 500 miles by doing so.

Decide on what your goal is and attack it. Find people that share your passion and feed off of each others' passion. Guard it and protect if from the doubters since most of them live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory or defeat. Take your chance. Revel in the excitement or the heartbreak and share it with the people that are important to you. Then get to bed. Tomorrow examine everything that effected the outcome, make changes, and lace up your boots. It's time to go to work!