Ninja Warrior Training

Just looking at Mt. Midoriyama makes me nervous

I love Sasuke. The Japanese came up with an awesome physical test that no one was even able to finish for the first four years of the competition. Now called Ninja Warrior because of a huge international audience; we also have the American Ninja Warrior with a series of regional competitions that lead to a final round in Vegas. I've watched the show for years and every time I see a few contestants run through the course, I have to rush out to a playground to practice the moves myself. TV that motivates you to move is excellent television indeed!

Obstacle course training might be the most perfect form of physical conditioning. It taxes all the major muscles; stresses aerobic & anaerobic metabolic systems; develops coordination, agility & balance; creates body awareness for overcoming real life physical challenges; and most importantly, it motivates you to exercise because it's fun!

Finding an obstacle race is easy; training on playgrounds & "nature's obstacle course" is fun

Fitness is a multifaceted concept. I look at it as developing the physical components & skills to live a long life doing the things that make you happiest. When your body lets you down by holding you back from your dreams, you have to work to overcome the weakness (there's no quit in any of you I know). Obstacles and movement training highlight weaknesses but by maintaining a playful heart, they can inspire you to higher levels of fitness than you ever thought possible.

Running is an essential human movement, as is swimming. Goal setting & accomplishment is key to happiness--marathons and triathlons are brilliant personal accomplishments. These activities don't encapsulate total fitness however, and even can be counterproductive to developing or even maintaining other key fitness components like joint mobility, strength, agility, coordination and balance.

You also won't develop the physique that you desire by just running. You'll drop pounds initially but almost any activity will create noticeable body changes in the first months as your metabolism has to compensate for the new stress. After the initial months, our bodies adapt to the stress, it becomes a new normal and no further body composition changes occur. People also become bored with the same activity, dread working out and fall off the wagon. Incorporating obstacles to climb, hurdle, balance on, etc will keep your training interesting. Run backwards, shuffle sideways, vary speed--this will make your runs more interesting for your body and mind.

Running is an essential movement but taken to an extreme can hurt total physical fitness

Physical activity is a daily part of a long and happy life. Move in a variety of ways. Try new things. Explore!

Too much of a good thing is too much.

Find Your Obsession

Remember what keeps you committed to your goals

No Point in Even Trying

Sad but true?

Maybe the Onion was correct in their recent spoof news article. Losing weight, writing a book, breaking up with someone, learning another language, changing careers--all these choices are made more difficult by the inertia of life. Change is hard, intentionally changing yourself is impossible.

Bullshit.

We all start out life at the same place as naked, helpless, poor, dumb babies. We immediately start to accumulate experiences, knowledge, & stuff.  We also start developing habits--both good and bad.  Learning to speak and understand our first language seems like a natural process from a position of being an adult who is already fluent but think about how frustrated kids are by their inability to understand or to be understood.  No wonder kids pitch fits all the time; they want something specific but are incapable of getting it! There's nothing easy about developing language skills, but children have no other choice than to struggle through picking up words and phrases little-by-little everyday. They develop the good habit of studying their first language until they can be understood as they would like to be.

He'll be speaking Swahili in no time

Necessity drives kids to try new things. As adults we benefit from the ability to reason and forecast with rational thought.  We can look at our struggles to become fitter and healthier through the lens of a child struggling everyday and see that immediate results are not possible. We can see the reward in the effort itself.  We know that diligent effort over time pays off in the end. We know that babies learn to speak eventually because they work at it everyday and don't let minor setbacks derail their progress.

Changing your life isn't impossible. You have so much more going for you than any helpless, ignorant baby, and they change their lives all the time. Find your internal driving need as babies do. You have to want to do something the way that a baby wants to talk or walk. Commit to a healthy lifestyle and little-by-little you'll get the results you want.

If a helpless, dumb baby can do it so can you.

Being fat is (not) your fault

Check out the series of maps starting from 1985

I love having a fit body and feeling good about how I look.  I really want other people to experience this for themselves because I know they will be happier for it.  Happiness begets happiness and I want to help inspire such a positive feedback loop in others.  Unfortunately the trend, in this case, is not our friend.  We are getting fatter not fitter.  It is my challenge to help remedy this situation.

I was a fleshy kid in my youth but I was never really all that fat.  At the time, I felt fat though because I was thicker than my friends and my family told me that I was fat. I remember being encouraged to jog with my mom before class during middle school. This was in addition to gym class during school and outside play after school.  I don't feel like I ever made a personal decision to be active and lean; that decision was made for me by my social group and societal pressures during my formative years.

Circus "Fat Man" circa 1900.  You don't have to pay money to see people this size anymore.

I write this because I am conflicted about why it is that we have so many overweight people today.  Food and activity level definitely matter, but I am fortunate to have had a good body mass set point established for/by me as a youth.  I learned good habits early and to some degree my body continues to benefit from that.  Today I'm not fat, but I am aware of my weight and body shape.  I workout, eat, and sleep with maintenance of both of these in mind.  While I may have started at a good place, I now make a conscious effort to stay on path.

While personal observations may not translate well to other people or society as a whole, the fact is that individuals in the US are fatter today than ever before.  Obesity is undesirable on a personal level because it makes you feel bad about yourself and has negative impacts on your health and mobility.  Obesity is undesirable for society because it leads to higher health care costs and requires expensive modifications to public places and transportation among other impacts. Passive acceptance of obesity is a bad idea, and we should be encouraging ourselves to get and stay in shape.

It's hard to lose weight as an adult just as it is difficult to learn a second language as an adult (I continue to struggle with Spanish).  We learn patterns that become habits which are difficult to break.  While external forces might be working against us, internal forces are what really do us in.  You have to acknowledge that personal effort is essential to achieving the body that you desire or you will never get anywhere.  Here's how I suggest that you get started:

1. Admit that you are fat and not at your ideal body shape.
2. Commit to a lifelong lifestyle change; you aren't going to go back to the old way ever again.
3. Set a specific goal (clothing size, ideal weight, visible arm muscles, etc).
4. Tell other people your goal.
5. Take a picture of everything you eat to document it as a food journal.
6. Drink more water.
7. Pick a low intensity physical activity and do it everyday.
8. Try a new activity every few weeks and strive to accomplish something physically that you've never done before.
9. Check in periodically by weighing yourself, looking at yourself naked in the mirror, and feeling how your clothing fits.
10. Enjoy your progress or repeat #1

We may not have chosen to get fat, but we chose to stay fat everyday that we don't make an effort to change.

How to stay motivated to workout

Here are a couple of tried and true methods to stay motivated to workout:

• Train with a friend
• Get a dog to walk
• Set a reach performance goal (marathon, 20 pullups, lose 30 pounds in 3 months, etc.)
• Look at yourself naked in the mirror everyday (thanks Jack for this one)
• Have a health crisis caused by lifestyle problems
• See a friend or family member have a health crisis caused by lifestyle problems
• Surround yourself with fit people and images of fit people
• Surround yourself with fat people and images of fat people

Choose whichever image motivates you better to stay on track

All of these can and have helped people keep on track.  The one I find to be the most effective for me is to keep a training journal.  Having to log your workout forces you to do it, shames you when you skip one, and gives you an added sense of accomplishment when you get to enter in the details post-workout.  I've been using a Google Docs spreadsheet for the last 5 years.  I can share it with people and access it from my mobile device or any computer.  I track Date & Time (sometimes if I do 2 workouts per day or if I need to vary time of day for an event), type of workout (Run, Bike, Swim, Strength, HIIT, Skills/GPP, etc) and log the actual workout.  I count everything that I do that is physically active above my basic life and work requirements.  If you walk somewhere, log it.  If you're on your feet all day for a convention, log it. Not only does this motivate you, it becomes a record of performance that can help tune your training or weight loss plan to prevent burnout and injury.

My Training Log is a Google Docs spreadsheet

If you don't log it, it don't count.

Core Principles for Exercise

Exercise science can be rather technical.  Kinesiology, while intuitive in many cases, can get rather scientific especially when someone is training with specific goals in mind.  If you just want to maintain general health and wellness, keep extra pounds off, and live longer & better, then the exercise formula you need is rather simple:

1. Move every day
2. Get outside often and in all weather
3. Do a wide variety of activities focusing on the basic human movements
4. Vary intensity and duration
5. Spend time with others while you move

More is not better in exercise but consistency is key.  Just as you can't catch up once per week on sleeping, eating, or brushing your teeth, you have to move your body everyday.  I'll spend time on the other core principles in coming posts.

Move through life