Sleep

Here is an interesting article about biphasic sleep (two sleep session per day vs. monophasic - one large sleep block).

Sleep is uber important for a few reasons, the how part is not totally understood so don't get hung up on that part.  Just know that it's important for:

Generally, lack of sleep may result in^[3][4]

• aching muscles^[5]
• dizziness and nausea
• dry mouth^{[citation needed]}
• hallucinations^[6]
• hand tremors^[7]
• headaches
• increased blood pressure^[8]
• increased risk for diabetes^[9]
• increased risk of fibromyalgia^[10]
• irritability^[3]
• memory lapses or loss^[11]
• nystagmus (rapid involuntary rhythmic eye movement)^[12]
• obesity^[9]
• slowed word recall^{[citation needed]}
• temper tantrums in children^[3]
• yawning^[3]
• symptoms similar to:
  
  
  • Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder^[3] (ADHD)
  • psychosis^[13]

From Wikipedia

For more about sleep deprivation click here
Or check out this site Sleep Depreivation
Our National Govt. Recommendations
Why we sleep
An alternative approach

Plandomization

One of the better articles

This one is about having a plan in your workouts. 

As Greg says in the article:

 Let me go ahead and distill this entire article to its essence: If you have no plan with regard to your training, you’re an idiot. Abrasive, I know, but this point needs to sink in.

Or said a little more tactfully:

"If you have no plan with regard to your training, you have no regard for your fitness"

Either way, the point is to take personal responsibility and put a little thought into your health, fitness and life.  You are more powerful than you think, you have more power over your life than what others want you to believe.  Here is a little opportunity to exert some of that power and chose how you are going to live.

The transformation always starts in your mind, your identity, everything else follows that.  

Leadership - Beliefs

This came up on CrossFit.com the other day.  It's simply one of the best video's I've ever seen on leadership.

A few keys

There are things to pull from every source.  Even a Jackass (donkey) can have something of value to offer if you have the humility to hear it.

From an unlikely source, in context of CrossFit, bodybuilding, I learned some very important pieces to fitness.  From Mike Mintzer and his unique approach to High Intensity training I learned 7 key principles and after watching today's workout, I think it's time everyone in this gym learn them too.

The First Principle: Identity
Often you hear the idea of "muscle confusion."  Especially in ads.  What is ridiculous about this statement is the blatant violation of identity.  A muscle does not have a brain, and cannot become confused.  It might seem like I'm being overly picky about words, maybe, but the issue is that a muscle is only a muscle and as such it will respond accordingly.  Everything has it's own identity, it's own being.  This might be too philosophical for a lot of people, but it's important to remember this overarching concept.  It literally guides everything else.    

The Second Principle: Intensity
Intensity can mean only one thing.  Maximum.  The math of intensity is simple, (force X distance)/Time.  So what this means in simple terms is to increase intensity you can either increase the force, increase the distance, or decrease the time, or a combination of them.  Intensity is important to understand and a proper understanding a few key things about muscles and their identity.  The short version is that only when intensity is increased does a response follow.  Without the proper intensity, you will not get results.  How do I know when you've met this proper level of intensity?  When nothing more can be done.  A real quick and easy observation to know whether max intensity has been met is, after the workout do you sit down on the erg to pull a 2k at a new PR?  Pretty clear that the workout was not done at proper intensity. 

The Third Principle: Duration
Intensity and duration are inverse.  Meaning, the higher the intensity the shorter the duration, you just can't go very long at max intensity.  Keep workouts short and intense.    

The Fouth Principle: Frequency
There are two things that happen after a workout, a general stress and a specific stress.  Both must be recovered from in order to see progress.  If you work at max intensity frequently, you will burn out.  You must rest and recover.  

The Fifth Principle: Specificity
Cause and Effect are very real and ever-present.  When you workout, depending on what you do, you will get a specific result.  When you lift heavy, you will get stronger.  You will never see a result that does not follow directly from a cause.  However, the true cause can sometimes be difficult to find and can cause some confusion, as evident in the current nutritional advice often proposed by nutritionists.  The observation that people were eating saturated fat and experiencing heart disease was confused to be cause and effect.  Other observations fit better, but I digress.  The point is, there is a specific response to a specific stimulus and you can never escape this fact.     

The Sixth Principle: Adaptation
Given all of the above, your body will adapt to the stress you put it under, however, there is a limit to how much stress it can effectively handle at any given time.  It will adapt to that too though, meaning, if you continue to push the edge of how much stress you can adapt to, it will get better at adapting to more and more stress.  There are two types of stress Eustress (good stress) and distress (bad stress).  If you give the proper eustress your body will respond.  As an example, when you are exposed to the sun, you will develop a sun tan, your skin will darken.  If you are exposed to too much sun, your body will be overwhelmed and blister, if it continues you can become burned.  This is too much and more then your system is capable of adapting to.  The same things happens in workouts.  Too much of it combined with inadequate recovery and you have a recipe for problems, just like a blister or burning from the sun.    

The Seventh Principle: Progression
The culmination of all 6 principles is progression.  If you are progressing, then you have the right level of intensity, duration, frequency, etc.  If there is not progress, there is usually too little intensity.  That's the hard stuff, the painful stuff.

So, lift heavier, run faster, push harder and results will happen faster!

See you in the gym!

For further reading see:
Hans Selye
Reishi
Adaptogen
Mike Mentzer

PS. don't confuse the analogy, I do not consider bodybuilders or Mike Mentzer to be a "jackass."

Goals

When I hear people express to me their goals the first thing I want to ask is why.  Why do you want that?  My problem is I have a "low-level" case of aspergers and my tone comes off all wrong.  It takes years to bounce back from that!  My intent is to get them to think about what the core motivation is.  The first answer is usually not the deeper more personal motivation and I believe that it's this deeper, 2nd and and even third level motivations that are the true motivational part of the goal.

So ask yourself why you want it.  Be real, be honest, there is no one there to judge your answer; why do you want it? 

The next thing I think of, if we even get this far, is to ask why they don't have it now.  If a person comes to me and says, I want to lose 10 lbs this year.  I think, why do you want to lose 10 lbs; then I think, why haven't you done it in the past?  Most goals are not new goals, they are unattained old goals.

Once we can talk about the 2nd level of why you want this, we need to get to the bottom of what's stopping you and this is the part that everyone is usually really good at; all the excuses.  Let's use the 10 lbs example and take a look at some common responses.

Why do you want to lose 10 lbs?  "Because I want to look better."
Why do you want to look better?  (seems like an obvious question, but its not) "Because I want to feel good about myself."


No think about what's being said here.  If I lose 10lbs I'll feel better about myself.  Seems like we found the motivation, but let's dig one level deeper to really get the good stuff.


Why do you believe that losing 10lbs will make you feel better about yourself?  "Because I will have control."


Ah-ha!  So it's not really about losing the weight is it, of which we have no idea what the test for that is?  No, it's about power over self and control.


So what's really happening in this person's mind, is if they lose 10lbs they will feel powerful.  Now that is the real motivation.  Next step, "how long has this been a goal?  What's stopping you from having it?" 

"Every new year's resolution for the past 10 years."

"OK."  "So for 10 years, you've been trying to lose 10 lbs?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing to reach your goal, what's been your strategy to get there?"

To paraphrase here, "set the goal and hope."

"OK.  How's that working for you? (I know that it's not working; for 10 years it hasn't worked!)  So what are you going to do different this time?"   

"Try harder."

"Let's take a step back and look at this again.  What are you trying to get here?"

"Lose 10 lbs."

"Really?  Because a min. ago you said that you want to lose the 10 lbs to feel more attractive so you can feel powerful.  So you don't want to lose 10lbs you want to feel more powerful, right?"  (We could dig deeper here, but then this really turns into a counseling session.  Why does this person feel powerless?  What else is going on in their life to make them feel powerless?  Why do they tie weight loss to power?)  In my experience, I would be guessing though, this person has been emotionally or physically abused at some point in their life.  They were told that value and self worth come from how they look and they were repeatedly told they are fat, ugly and worthless.   

"Right."

"So based on what you said, losing 10lbs would show you that you have power over your life, right?"

"Yes."

"So what's stopping you?"

"Well, I like to drink, and I smoke when I drink, to fit in with my friends."

"Oh.  So let me see if I have this right.  You want to lose 10lbs to feel more powerful, but you want to fit in with your friends so you eat garbage, drink and smoke, is that right?"  Just let them marinate in that for a bit.  This is where most people find me offensive.  Internal conflict is painful to resolve.  It requires humility and strength.  Not an easy combo.

After a minute or two of though.

"Well, they are my friends though."

I don't even know what that means at this point.  I wasn't part of the internal dialogue that came to this statement, but I do know this; the ego (for lack of a better term) fights tooth and nail to protect what is old and familiar.  Including these friends that represent what might be feelings of inclusion, familiarity and acceptance and yet the are exactly what is holding this person in their prison.  What is being presented is change, excluding the old and familiar.  To stand alone, to exert power, of which they don't believe they deserve (my guess).  One of my favorite quotes: "the greatest con that [the ego] ever pulled was making you believe that he is you."  That voice has been there so long, telling you what you should do, in your own voice, you mistakenly think it's actually you!  Those things that were said to you in passing by a parent or friend become so ingrained in you that after awhile, you think it's you.  

"So based on what you're saying then, being accepted by your friends is more important than feeling powerful?"  See the circle we going on here?

This person's quest remains unresolved because of a reluctance to deal with the heart of the issue.  My solution would be to find new friends that support your goals and lifestyle you want to live, seek some counseling from a profession about the unresolved feelings of a lack of self-worth.  Until then, you will live in a prison of your own building.

At the end of the day, if you want change, if you're tired of the results you have in your life, here's 10 steps to get there.  They are not easy and they hurt.  Do you deserve the life you want?  Simple question, not easy.   

1. What do you want?  What exactly do you want?  Why do you want it?  Why do you want that?  Why do you want that?  Dig in at least 3 deep.  
2. What's stopping you from having it?  What you do think of people who already have it?  Want a lifted Chevy truck but think people who drive lifted chevy's are d-bags?  Gonna be tough to do what needs to be done then.  What to be shredded and abs pop though but think they are self-centered egotistical gym rats?  Not very motivating to when you equate the two.  
3. What are you willing to give up to get it?  Friends?  Do you really want this?  It's OK to change your mind at this point, just be honest.   
4. What are you not willing to give up to get it?  Alcohol?  
5. What are you willing to now do, that you didn't do before to get it?
6. Why do you want it again?
7. Scale of 0-10, 10 being 100% possible, do you believe the goal is even possible?
8. Scale of 0-10, 10 being 100% capable, do you believe you are capable of reaching the goal?  Do you have the resources you need? 
9. The whooper, scale of 0-10, 10 being 100% worthy, do you truly believe you deserve to have it?  If you have been told all your life that you don't deserve it, how are you going to prevent your usual self-sabotage? 
10.  How do you know when you have it?  What will you see, smell, taste, hear, feel?  Who will be there with you, where will it be, what's the weather like, the sounds, the smells.  Make this REAL.  

Until these things are identified, you will NOT reach your goal, ever.  No matter what movie you saw that makes you think different, it's not going to happen unless you do some serious work to get there.  Movies have a tendency to show us that in life, luck will prevail, but in reality only hard work prevails, only the wise strategy.