Spending over 60 hours a week surrounded by college athletes has given me a unique perspective on life. Every freshmen who crosses the threshold into the weight room looks the same every year: wide eyed, and ready to pee a little if I look at them the wrong way. As the years go by, workout clothes are still the standard shorts, t-shirt and sweats. Sure, the fabric has changed from cotton to Dri-fit, and the length of the shorts sway from "so short my Grandma will blush" to the "4 sizes to big" extremes as the fashion demigods declare, but I don't notice the youthful appearances nor experience the shock of "they look like babies" as much as friends and family who work outside of the educational systems experience. Freshmen just look like they always do.
Every once in a while I become Icarus and realize only too late and much to my dismay, the protective wax of has melted from my wings and I am headed into the abyss. Except this is not a Greek myth and my physical well being is not at risk, just my mental health. I drown in the realization that I am old (sort of) and that time has marched on.
This happened the other day when I was talking to some people about the 3 R's of education, or at least what they were when I was going to middle and high school. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic (otherwise known as math). The silence that followed made me feel that I could have been talking about hitching up old Betty to the carriage, going to my one room school. They had no frame of reference to what I was talking about. Those three things that were drilled into my head as the attributes that every successful high school graduate needed to master. And if those three academic standards were unknown, what can I expect them to know about workouts?
Now I get to have my Morphius moment. I offer them a choice: the truth, nothing more. Chose the red or blue pill. Do you want to choose between embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality or the blissful ignorance of illusion. The truth, nothing more.
I recently experimented with intermittent fasting (IF). I read as much information I could get my hands on, talked with people that tried it themselves, and understood the science behind most of the IF protocol. I gave it four long weeks of calorie restriction and extreme exercise bouts lasting 45 minutes with my heart rate between 180 and 210 beats per minute for 4 days a week. The science predicted that I should have averaged about 1 pound of weight loss a day ( I was hoping for mostly body fat, not just total body weight). Application of the IF concept seems to have a sense of humor. Not only did I gain weight (5 pounds), but my skin fold body fat analysis went up 10 millimeters. Bad news. I ate less, worked out harder and got fatter.
Now, I am a man of science. Fourth generation engineer, to-boot. Of the many metrics I observed, sadly the only one that showed any improvement was my resting heart rate came down to 48 beats per minute from its starting point of 51. Everything I measured was worse. I was sleeping more and felt worse after waking up. Mental stress levels increased, productivity at work decreased, constantly irritated (family and friends stayed away), all jumps were lower, strength levels were down, perceived difficulty for everything was significantly higher, soreness was through the roof, and for the first time in 20+ years of working out I did not look forward to my lift.
Granted we all have bad days from time to time. This was different. Going back into my earliest records from the mid 1990's, there was never a period of time like this before. I am not saying that IF is good or bad, just that it was not right for me. And that is what is called making an evidence based decision. It comes down to the fact that you are part of an experiment of one, and if things are not working for you, then figure out what will.
That is were the 3 R's come together. Read good information and see what is working for other people and how they are doing it. By the way, good information is more then doing a search on Google or asking the biggest guy in the gym. Find someone who has been lifting longer than you and have read more than the lastest issue of Muscle and Fitness. Usually people with these acronyms after their name are a good place to start: C.S.C.S., M.S., M.E.d., R.D., or A.C.S.M.-H.F.S. All of those means that they have had some formal education and have passed a nationally recognized certification. Anyone with those credentials can point you in a good direction for more information.
Once you have an idea of what you want to try, you have to find ways to measure changes. Record things that are important like body weight, body fat percentage, strength levels, stress levels, quality of sleep, duration of sleep, social enjoyment, and perceived difficulty are my go-to measures. Find out what is important to you and measure it. And don't think that you need to look like a lab tech either. For most of my information I just write down in my workout book with a scale of 1-5. Where 1 is kick ass and 5 is like I got beat like I stole something. This way you can quickly draw a connection between what you are trying and how that is effecting your workout.
Last thing. Results are what we are all after. Self-experimentation is something that I encourage people to try, but never at the cost of sacrificing your goal. Using results to make decisions is a sane way to improve during the insanity of working out. You have witnessed the insanity yourself. Think of the same guy/girl that comes to the gym, does the same workout time and time again and is complaining at the drinking fountain that they never seem to progress. Insanity at its finest. Use results to guide your decisions, just understand that you need a solid two weeks of data before you should make any changes. The body can be slow to respond, so give it time to adjust.
There is the door, but you have to make the choice to walk through it. Understand that if you do, be ready for some heartache. The realization that after an experiment you got worse, hurts. Bad. It's not ever easy, but neither is life. And yes, there are times when you wonder why didn't I take the BLUE pill. Then there are the other times that you understand how everything fits together, which makes it well worth the pain.
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