You are your priorities.

I wrote the bulk of this blog post yesterday, and then went and saw 12 Years A Slave last night.

It's a hard movie to talk about, but also one of the best I have ever seen.  I suppose I could tell you about how incredibly beautiful the camera work is, or how captivating the main character, Chiwetel Ejiofor, is.  Or that Brad Pitt makes a cameo, or how the music pumps through the film like a heart moving barely enough blood.  I could tell you about how succinctly Michael Fassbender, the main antagonist, distills evil, or how effectively the screenplay puts you in the period, with long looping sentences and antique vocabulary.

But mostly, I felt like I had been strangled.  All those cinematic pieces pulled together into a weapon that stabbed me like few pieces of art have before.  It's a movie that makes you gag, a movie that has you clutching your hands, but one that leaves you immobile, too, having nailed you to your seat for long after the credits have rolled.   See it.

Needless to say, a little blog post about priorities and optimizing the daily choices we make seems a little pale in comparison.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's an important topic, and one that each of us can and should work on.  But mostly, I think it's a topic that we have the incredibly luxury to be able to care about.  In the world of 12 Years..., choice does not exist.

On that sunny note, Happy Sunday!  As always, I love hearing your thoughts...

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That word, priority, gets thrown around all the time.  It reflects what or who you care about the most, or what needs to happen first.  But the most importantly, a priority represents a specific organization of limited resources so that one thing (your "priority") is achieved more assuredly than others.  Notice that I didn't say more quickly.  While there are definitely situations where accomplishing the top of your list has a time-sensitive component to it, the true nature of the "priority" only becomes clear when you think big picture and long-term.

Think about the parent whose highest priority is raising their kid well, or the dancer whose highest priority is having a successful career in dance, or the chef whose highest priority is making tasty food.  For these folks, time is not really the driving principle behind how they have organized their own ranking of importance.  Instead, every decision that comes down the pipe is treated to a selection process: which option, which path, lets me align myself with my priority most fully?

Let me step back for a second, because it's important to realize that our priorities exist with or without us consciously making decisions about them.  That dancer from the example above can say whatever they want about what their priorities are, but only the series of decisions that trail into their past really show what their priorities are.  In fact, that series of decisions about your priorities, over the span of your life, show's who you are. You are your priorities.

There is no judgement in that statement, by the way.  I'm not making some St. Peter at the Pearly Gates argument about how you must satisfy the guy upstairs by making the "right" decisions if you hope to add up to anything.  I am literally saying that when it comes to defining a person, pretty dicey ground to tread on if you ask me, I think our best option is to look at how they have handled the big forks in the road of their life.  Taken as a whole, those decisions paint a rich picture.  

I saw a movie recently in which the protagonist, a psychiatrist, points out that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, and I think he's right--to a point.  In my business, be it on the trumpet or in the gym, where I deal almost exclusively with helping folks forge futures that represent departures from their established normal or past life, violating the truth of that statement ends up being pretty important.  Basically, I think about priorities a lot.

Now, an important piece of the priorities puzzle is how we are dealing with limited quantities, of time and money and energy.  Much of the time, I am just encouraging people to think about how focusing and achieving priorities is as much about what you don't do as it is about what you do.  Whether it's talking about the SAID principle ("Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands"), or about the Pareto principle (or "80/20 rule"), smart allocation of resources and not just crazy, herculean efforts, always win the day.

But I think the critical bit is that line where priorities hover between consciousness and unconsciousness, that place where your choice about what is most important to you is cemented into actual decisions made.

An example might help: my client Lauren said she wanted to run a half-marathon in a few months, so she ran 2-3 times/week during that time.  As her trainer, I had her do other things, too (none of which occurred on a Bosu ball), but her priority was clearly defined and was reflected in the weekly decisions she made about how to spend her time.

Now, if she had said she wanted to run that half- but had proceeded to, week after week, chosen to spend that time studying about dinosaurs (a reasonable pass-time, if you ask me...*), her stated priority would not have been her real priority.  Most importantly, she wouldn't have run that half- (or at least, wouldn't have done well if she did), and that half-marathon would not make up the picture of who she is.  

Having a significant hand in crafting your own life is, not surprisingly, incredibly empowering.  The experience of stating a priority and then following through with your daily decision-making effects you in a way that is contagious and delicious, and it usually inspires more life-priority aligning.

But the actual doing is really a tough thing, because there is always internal resistance between what have always been priorities (that "prior behavior") and what you have decided are your new priorities.  It is a daily struggle, but one that truly defines who you are; where else can you get that kind of bang for your buck?   And it sure beats the alternative that Yoda mentions, if you remember that classic... When it comes to priorities, it's always "Do or do not, there is no try."

dinosaurs!

*Happy (day-after-day-after-day-after) halloween, everyone!

Life is easier when it rolls.

As part of my continual process of settling into this new place (the Bay), I have begun riding my bike again. I have more and more things to get to, and the bike always seems to be better option than driving, or even public transit (although sometimes bikes and transit join forces for a super-hero of transportation efficiency-joy). Now, I’d like to get out of the way right off the bat that I am no longer interested, personally, in riding my bike as a way of working hard. I’d much rather throw a bar or a kettlebell around, or explore movements beyond my comfort zone (gymnastics, martial arts, sport, dance, etc.), if I want a training effect. I know some people who do enjoy this way of challenging their fitness, and I applaud them for it! It’s just not for me.

However, this should in no way imply that I have something against bikes in general--quite the opposite. I get on my bike for one reason or another almost every day, and have for a few years now. This post is about why.

1. Mega cost- and time-efficient: Like most things, a commute shows it’s true colors only after consistent observation over long spans of time. And biking wins out for almost all of us.

First, while I know there are folks out there who measure their commute in hours, not minutes (poor souls), I think it should be a major goal for all of us to try to live closer to where we work. Mr. Money Mustache has written extensively and hilariously about this, but mostly it’s better for our bank accounts, our happiness, and our communities when we live and work in the same vicinity.

So living nearby takes care of the main time-suck of sitting in your car or some train/bus. But even having to start your car for at all, even for a 2 mile zip up the road, ends up being a totally shitty way to spend money. I’ll let you check Mr. MM for the numbers, but I just feel like any amount is money I don’t get back.

This becomes especially apparent when you realize it doesn’t need to be this way. Getting on a bike to ride 2 - 5 miles to work one-way will take you between 10 and 45 minutes (a totally reasonable commute time in car-speak; any longer and public transit fits in nicely with your biking), cost you almost nothing (purchase and repair costs end up being in the cents/ride), and have major upsides (discussed below) even beyond, you know, getting you where you're going.

Oh, and one other note for all you cold-weather debbie-downers: any regular bike commuter will tell you that other than making sure you arrive dry and that your ears and hands are warm, biking in inclement/cold weather is actually pretty enjoyable. Of course, this means a little steeper investment for cold-weather folks, but you would be committing to higher car-care costs living in the snow, etc. anyway.

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2. Cheap cardio: One of the real joys of working at a commercial gym (and one particularly good at getting newbies without much confidence to come in) was getting to positively impact peoples’ notions about cardio work. Now for a long time, people took the “cardio base” concept to mean “cardio fundamental,” and therefore “most important,” or “when I only have a few minutes I’ll get some cardio in.” Since that is pretty far from the truth (especially the last part), I made many new connections with clients just by talking to them about the greater benefits that came from strength training and intense conditioning.

But even after writing them programs that got them huffing and puffing and getting strong, inevitably they would ask--between gasps--about cardio, as in, “But when do I do cardio?” The-not-so-obvious answer is “ALL THE TIME!”

And I meant that both literally and facetiously. First, any time you are alive (which I really advocate for with all my clients :) your heart is pumping the product of your lungs' work (air) all around your body and back out. You are doing aerobic (cardio) work. Then, when you layer challenging tasks on top of that, like deadlifts, squats, sprints, sled work, kettlebells, etc. your cardiac system has to work extra hard just to get you back to the normal state (when you’re doing cardio).  Martin Rooney speaks very passionately about why this type of training is so effective.

And for many untrained folks, that extra work layered on top will be enough “cardio” to get them moving in the right direction. At some point though, especially for athletes or exercise junkies, having a stronger cardio base can be pretty helpful (mostly for recovery reasons--Molly Galbraith explains beautifully here). At that point, I do start to program in sporadic (~1x/wk) sessions on the treadmill or elliptical that aim for easy, long-distance effort. This allows the client's cardio system to adapt toward more efficient cardio output without the CNS/joint strain of intense conditioning work alone.

From a purely time-efficiency standpoint, I always prefer that people spend that time not in the gym.

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If that means taking a run/walk outside, or going on a hike, beautiful. But that still takes some time. If you can get in by riding or walking to and from work, you are completing your commute and your cardio at the same time. Does this replace lifting heavy shit? Absolutely not. Does it replace watching Lifetime movies on an elliptical machine at 9:15p on a school night? Let’s hope so.

Now, I would often run into one objection that took me a while to work through: “But I just like the me-time that comes from parking on a treadmill and drooling!” While this would usually comes from people who are not lifting heavy but are thinking that their long slow cardio alone will get them where they want to be, I could help just by making the weights-are-more-effective argument.

But really, I get the other bit too. Sometimes it’s just nice to zone out and feel the monotony of movement. Hell, I have run two marathons and totally got down with the meditative part of that practice.

But biking takes care of that too. You get on and ride, not worrying about how fast you go but just cruising. And I would even argue that the little bit of consciousness required to, you know, stay upright and out of the way of oncoming traffic actually stimulates that non-thinking-but-thinking state that is so beneficial. This is especially true the more you do that commute. Zen bike.

3. The GOOD part!: ...Which brings me to my last bit. I have been most surprised getting back on my bike in the last few weeks how fun biking is. Obviously, I get on the bike in the first place for time and money reasons, and I can groove on the cardio bit when I’m thinking about my weekly programming. But when it gets to it, the thing that brings me back is how good cruising around is for my soul.

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Whether I get to fly silently through an early morning, or slice-and-dice rush-hour city-center traffic, I love how smoothly my efforts push me over the road. I read somewhere once that the bicycle is the most efficient mode of transportation when all input (gas) and output (speed) is calculated, and I totally feel that. Add to that the gradual increase in efficiency that chronic biking does to your body and you have the makings for a seriously effective human-machine combo.

The final part that I have fallen in love with, though, is the change of pace that biking everywhere demands. Sure, a light bike and some fitness get you there pretty damn fast, but there is a groove that you find that is most definitely not a sprint. It’s like a mega-efficient stroll everywhere you go. During each trip, there’s time to look at the clouds, and the new cafe on the corner, yet  not enough to check your phone or to try to speed-walk (yuck).

Over the long-term, I feel more in touch with the weather, and the passing of the seasons in general. And it has made me rush everywhere less--if only because I don’t want to show up a sweaty mess--while giving me an appreciation for space and distance that I’m totally divorced from when I play the car video-game.

In general, biking just ties you in more. It gives you access to more of the juicy, fleshy parts of our every day. It might cost less, but it also makes everything else around you feel more valuable. See you out there.

A Stronger Industry

The fitness industry needs to pull its head out of its ass. Did I get your attention? Excellent.

Now, I will be the first to say that this can be one of the most gracious and supportive professional communities going. I’m talking about the side of the industry that opened its arms to me in a way that helped me get up to speed on the “state of the art” in about a year-and-a-half.

Along with my own study of important books (Anatomy Trains, Netter’s, everything Pavel), the meat of my learning was made up of the incredibly rich websites of Tony, Eric, Bret, Dan, Wil, KStar and his project, Dr. Berardi, Dean, Todd, Shon, T-Nation (useful, despite its ridiculous pictures and jokes), Mike, Dan, all the incredible ladies out of Girls Gone Strong and a dozen others that fit in around the edges.

I feel beyond grateful for what these people--most of whom I will never meet--gave me, willingly and for free. The intention obvious in those folks’ collective gesture is to pay forward your knowledge so that we might all prosper. You won’t catch me badmouthing that for a second.

But what I’m talking about is how most trainers, even as they draw from the same excellent body of knowledge, screw up the moment of integration with the rest of the world. The vast majority of people, the so-called general population (gen-pop for short), that the vast majority of trainers see deserve better.

I think the problem is three-fold:

- Industry folks are skewed by their own passion! Weird, I know.

- Fitness sees itself as the center of the universe. Understandable, but still not cool.

- The industry buys into, and therefore sells itself as, a luxurious habit that each of us should pay for. Fuck that.

So first, I think the very thing that makes so many trainers charismatic, motivated and useful to their clients alienates them from a huge number of people. Someone who thinks about and lives for fitness, their own and other people’s, every day will have a hard time understanding the situation that most non-trainers are in, almost just by definition.

Obviously, being an expert is important, and that should involve serious immersion. But if you’re committed to making this person’s life better, a significant amount of effort must also be paid toward how your ideal programming is going to interact with that client. Can they execute? Will the habit stick? Will they like it? Why or why not? That shouldn't be the only dictating influence by any means, but it should be part of our planning!  Humans are not just a bunch of blood and collagen and levers.

But the part that really gets missed, and that spurned this post in the first place, is the critical moment when a trainer has learned enough. They have studied and worked long enough to know more than their clients--they have achieved the minimum. At this point, most trainers take one of two paths. 1.) They stop studying, and become annoying lumps on the log of fitness-industry-wastefulness, or 2.) they keep studying, but about the finest minutae of percentages and accommodating resistance and optimal timing of supplementation L-carnitine.

For maybe 10% of the whole population of gen-pop, this second group has something extra to offer in terms of knowledge. But for everyone else (9 out of 10 people), those little bits of knowledge are useless--but in the hands of Eager-Trainer McSmartypants they become dangerous tools of distraction, leading folks away from what is most important.

Many, many people have written about this using terminology taken from the field of economics. I’m talking about the Pareto Principle, here, which states, roughly, that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Now, while most days you’d hear me rambling about that 20% group of causes (the “big rocks”: squatting, deadlifting, pressing, etc.), I think it’s also important to remember that there is a flip-side to Pareto.

Another way of saying the principle is that there is a segment of causes (80%) that contribute only 20% of the effects. That means, if you keep looking for effects after working hard on those “big rocks,” you are now in fine-tuning territory. And if you are a competitive athlete, or a professional model, or military special forces, than you should be working on the minutae.

But what happens too often is that a trainer, fashioning themselves to be athletes, begins thinking and reading about those “little rocks,” and is excited at the possibility of extracting that final 20% of effects out of their bodies. And then they bring those ideas straight to their clients who have never touched a barbell, let alone flung said barbell overhead 2.78 times per minute.

This sort of dysfunction very easily morphs into my second point: the fitness industry is self-centered. While many of the passionate, intelligent trainers and coaches out there are doing their best to help, even the best ones seem to forget that many folks who train don’t want to become the world’s strongest woman or sexiest man. Usually, these folks merely want to be healthier--they want to feel better, and keep up with their grandkids, and maybe slim down a few pounds.

This is not to say that Strength & Conditioning can’t help them--in fact, I would say just the opposite. But those people invest a lot of time and energy into their own field or career, and we as fitness professionals should respect that. We should respect it by training them in them most efficient and effective way that we know--with the “big rocks”--and leave “little rocks” (the 80%, the minutae, etc.) on the shelf. And we should respect it by working to fit that great training into their lives, and not demand that it is the other way around.

I can hear the salient disagreement now: most gen-pop folks just plain don't put enough stock in their own health! And it’s true that most of the time we as trainers are trying to convince people to take their wellness more seriously, by eating better and sleeping more and lifting heavy shit on a regular basis. But along with that convincing is a mega-dose of selling.

And this brings me to my final point. The way I see it, we can’t as an industry keep saying that fitness is an integral part of any life and then sell training and gyms generally as a luxury item. It is disingenuous, and ultimately destructive to the premise that would really help people get to where they are trying to go with their fitness. It recalls for me many conversations I have had with manual therapists about the fractured way that massage operates today: clients come for a massage because they see it as a luxury, feel-good session, and therapists feel compelled to give that session. In reality, though, a more effective approach would almost always be less-comfortable--and the client would leave unsatisfied. This is broken.

But of course, revenue is important in this capitalist society. However, back to fitness, I have to believe that money will flow when previously unsatisfied individuals are getting trained in a satisfying way. Being effective (“big rocks”) is one part of creating this flow, obviously, but so is being honest, and portraying fitness as a luxury expense destroys that honesty.

I love this industry, and I think that it offers a way for everyone involved to get ahead: clients improve, trainers make a living, and collective knowledge carries everyone forward. But unless we also work on making the system better in it’s integration with the rest of the world, we will always be stuck either preaching to the choir or deluging the public with big-font marketing. Let’s make fitness something more real than that.