Pity and Scorn...it's Leg Day.

The dreaded leg day.  The bane of male gym goers everywhere.  In the quest for the pecs that make her swoon, guns that bring a tear to her eye and abs that beg for a slow mo shirt removal (a la Ryan Gosling)....men neglect the collection of the largest major muscle movers, the legs.  This leads to muscle imbalances that have created their own gym sub culture.  The Chicken Legs.

We've all seen these guys.  Sometimes they try to confuse us with the subterfuge of sweatpants, track pants, lulu's (if they dare) or, in the rare circumstances, we will even see the appearance of the man capri.  An elusive creature that should be hunted out of existence and it's DNA wiped clean from our planet.  (read that with the National Geographic British accent)

I'm not that bad.  It's true that I am one of those guys that spends little to no time on my legs.  My rationale is not the same.  I genuinely hate working legs.  They heal slow, I stay stiff, and the burn is not one that I enjoy.  Granted...I have killer calves though (people who know me will roll their eyes and scoff, but they won't disagree).  They're like granite, same cannot be said for my quads.

Proportionally though it looks like someone took a short He-Man figurine torso and arms and put them on a set of barbie legs.  The only difference is the total package measures in at 5'7".  Think brick on chopsticks...running.  It only hurts a little when someone comments "I can't believe you can move so fast with those little things."  (thanks mom)

Friday was a leg day.  As stated I hate leg day.  However, it's a start to a brand new me and this is a "voyage of discovery and challenge" (it sounded better in my head).  So, on with leg day.  My training partner mentioned to me "I want this to hurt." This is a mistake.  Any comment like that is a challenge, a gauntlet that you have smacked the crap out of me with and then dropped on the ground.

Fair is fair.  We're gonna walk funny for a week.

1. Bikes first - Spin to max intensity out of saddle and then back to spin.  Repeat for 14 minutes or 6km.

2. HIIT Circuit - Plyo Jumps 24" boxes to TRX rows, pulls and bicep curls, split squats with kettle bells, kettle bell pushups and repeat 4 times.

3. Core Rotations on BOSU with medicine balls working on balance and rotation.  Band pulls while in a partial BOSU balance/squat.

4. Swiss ball reverse plank with kettle bell (max weight) 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and then weight free for 5 minutes.

5. Jacobs ladder - 2 minutes (tried to find another machine after...couldn't), Jacobs ladder again 2 minutes.  (cue partner whining)

6. PNF stretching (off color comment from workout partner.  P.S. - I know who my dad is)

Done.

Granted.  People who train legs often will look at this with something between pity and scorn but for a recovering non-leg guy it was a bit of a beast.  No rest, all repeat.  Go till it tingles...in a bad way.

Today it hurts to giggle and my stairs and I are taking a bit of a break (it's not them, it's me).

But, what's the point of wanting to be better unless you are wanting all of you to be better?

Nike Fuel Band

The Nike Fuel Band.  A nifty little addition to any training kit.

If you haven't seen it before and you are in Canada, fret not.  It's not readily available here.  The "gist" is as follows.  You set up the band to your body specs (more or less), charge it up and wear it while you are active.  The band has hidden LED's that when activated by a small push button tells you your "Fuel" points, your calories burned, your steps taken and the time.

Day 1 - nifty little thing.  Wore it around and thought I would start it off right with a two hour workout starting with a 15k bike ride.  Fuel points 163.  Walking to the water fountain and back. Fuel points 178.  What the hell?

Right....it's got an accelerometer that measures movement....of the arm.  Bike ride got me diddly.  I love to ride the stationary bike so my options to keep my points up are limited.  Jazzersize on the bike while I ride and risk having someone tackle me during my "seizure" or add some arm movement cardio.  My training partner is going to wonder why running is my new best friend.

Stupid band...

With a smart phone you can upload your information and if you reach your goals there is a little party in your phone.  There are goals for just about everything so the party never stops.  Little digital guy gets down but seems to be physically inept for someone employed (artificially) by Nike (he is continually crushed by falling awards banners).

The band is great because it keeps you motivated and keeps you pushing.  You become dependent on reaching your "fuel" goal.  It's sleek so it doesn't look like you're under house arrest and doubles as a watch in case you don't want to look like you are wearing man-bangles (or lady bangles).

All in all a great little tool that keeps me driving towards my goals and to see if the party ever stops.

Methinks I doth protest too much.

Alright.  Rubber meets road time.  Training days.  Or. Training Daze.  Getting to the gym can be a challenge.  We all work, we all have lives outside of the gym, and we have families.  This provides us with a plethora of excuses that we use to "get us out" of meeting our fitness commitments.  I run into this issue myself all of the time.

It's Friday afternoon.  I've just finished my staff meeting, followed by an extended phone conversation and a weeks worth of coaching.  I'm exhausted.  The fine line between training and going home has just become a tightrope over a chasm full of excuses.  It's so easy to just fall to either side and let the excuses cushion me on my way down.
"I'm too tired."
"I deserve a break."
"I'm a whiny baby who deserves some pout time."
"Chocolate, the Juliet to my Romeo, is calling me."

 Then I remember a video I once saw featuring Warhawk Matt Scott.  It's a Nike commercial but the message is all too clear.

It's puts a lot of things into perspective.

These excuses that we make for ourselves are just that excuses.  This doesn't belittle how real the excuses may be (you may really be tired...and I may be a whiny little baby).  However, excuses can be refocused to determination.  If you're tired, exercise will rejuvenate you.  If you're a whiny little baby, your fitness can reveal your true character.

It's usually a lot more than you give yourself credit for.

Greatness

You…are the Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Confidant, Bon Vivant, friend, buddy, crush, and/or training partner.  This is who you are…not what you are.  You are the first time figure competitor training for her first show, you are the weekend hockey player honing your edge, you are the matriarch of your household catching their breath…you are me.  Or at least, like me.  We all have our reasons for finding the time for our fitness.  They are as varied as the people working out next to us. 

The reasons don’t matter as much as the fact that we are there.  We, us, you, have made the decision to place your fitness at the top of your agenda.

This decision has determined the outcome that you wish to achieve.  You are driven to succeed and lay waste to any obstacles in your path.  It’s not easy.  Often, it isn’t pretty.  You are doing it though.  Next stop is a different you.

You are changing.  Making choices that impact you in a myriad of ways, from what you’re going to train to how you’re going to train it.  These decisions are impacted and driven by your interests, environment, accessibility and level of risk (real or imagined).  These choices challenge and change you physically and mentally.  In short, you’re evolving.

This evolution used to be relegated to fitness centers or gyms spaced sporadically through your city like sweatband confetti.  However, as fitness has evolved so too has the gym.  Fitness is becoming a pandemic.  People are constantly finding new and innovative ways to better themselves and creating the equipment or resources to do so.

It’s pervasive, omnipresent, unique and adaptive.  Its step class on Mondays and spinning on Tuesdays.  It’s that 5km you just signed up for or the 10km you’re being dragged to.  It’s yoga today and Crossfit tomorrow.

I am where you are, where you want to be, where you were.  I am continually trying to make myself better and that will only begin as I evolve.  You, too, are evolving.  You, who makes the effort to book your training appointments or the healthier choice in the grocery store, are the deciding factor.  The apex predator of your fitness world.

You are the vehicle for your own success.  You determine if you will get knocked down or if you’ll kick the door in.  You decide where and when.  You just need to decide.

You need to find your pillars to greatness.  Here are three.  1. You need to be accountable.  2. You need to set reasonable goals. 3. You need to find your equilibrium.

1. Accountability – you are your own boss.  Set your meetings and keep them.  Met your expectations? Give yourself a raise.  Not meeting your expectations.  Re-evaluate how you are accountable or to whom.

2. Goals – they are your map…your muse.  They give you something to reach for and something to celebrate when you achieve it.

3. Equilibrium – it’s your balance, your ability to work towards your fitness, health, nutrition, rest and all of the details that make up your life.

It starts simply…it’s started already.

Your marathon awaits.

Goal #1: Read this article.

To be “resolute” is to be driven, purposeful, determined and unwavering.

This time of year, it has an almost antagonistic ring to it for many.  In some it fosters thoughts of change, rebirth, growth and a new beginning.  For others it is a reminder of past failure, desires not met and goals not achieved.  Many people who have had these negative outcomes look at resolutions and think “better luck next year” or “I’ll never make this stick”.  This reminds me of a quote from Lao Tse that I use with my young athletes.  It states: “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”  I do paraphrase it a bit.

This article is not going to change your destiny, your character, your habits, your actions or your words.  I just hope that it changes your thoughts.

Regardless of your resolution the most important thing is to be resolute and resolved to the thoughts that you have, or want, for yourself.  It starts with you and it starts small.  It’s the conscious effort to change some part of your daily life for the better.  It’s choosing water over pop.  It’s taking the stairs over the escalator.  It’s you making the time for the gym when you want to go home.  Maybe this change does not happen all the time…but at least once.  That one change resonates exponentially to others.

We are lofty people.  We set impossible goals.  Not because they are, in fact, impossible, but because we set them in a way that allows us the opportunity to fail.

I challenge you to set goals that do not allow you to fail.  This means setting them small and being accountable to your goals.  Instead of the resolution “I will be…..by 2014.”  Set the goal “I will be…by tomorrow.”  I will be…by next week.”  Through this you create success and success breeds more success.

I used to set those same resolutions.  I never succeeded…not once.  Not because I wasn’t passionate about my goals or motivated, but because they were too much.  I was pre-destined to fail.  I started thinking about those small goals and how utterly pointless they must be.  I would say to myself, “What is one glass of water or an extra 10 minutes of cardio going to do when my goal is so much greater?”  Then I had my moment of clarity; my epiphany.  My life wasn’t a sprint.  None of our lives are.  They are a marathon where we are only racing ourselves and victory is determined by our quality of life.

All of a sudden those small (insignificant) goals seem to have a lot more value.  You no longer look towards the distant future and instead look towards today, tomorrow and the day after.  If you look at your small goals and their results you begin to notice something, change.  Change is subtle but it is always present and always carrying you towards your goals if you let it.

Move towards a new resolution starting today.  Set the following five (5) goals by filling in the blanks.

I will ________________________________________________ by this morning.

I will ________________________________________________ by tonight.

I will ________________________________________________ by the end of the week.

I will ________________________________________________ by the end of this month.

I will ________________________________________________ within three (3) months.

Then try it.  See what happens.  You are smart and motivated.  You are looking for answers and for results.  You are doing your homework.  You are ready to achieve your goals.  You read this article.  One goal accomplished.  Your marathon awaits.

Dropping the ball to lightspeed.

False starts happen.  From an aborted dive into a cold Alberta lake to the Millenium Falcon dropping the ball to light speed in Star Wars.  False starts happen.  Han Solo was so pissed.

Mine happened in October.  I had made the call after two earlier Obstacle course races that I was going to be in better shape for myself and the family.  My cardio was somewhere between someone close to death and someone actually dead.

Instead I fell victim to my arch nemesis and BFF...chocolate.  Like Romeo and Juliet, Chocolate and I are two star crossed lovers never destined to truly be together.  It's true, I did what I could (and can) for our relationship.  Late night walks, stolen moments in the pantry...even that one time in Vegas.  We had a destructive cycle.  A love hate relationship.  Buoyed by the prospects that "some chocolates are good for you", I tried relentlessly to keep us together.

If chocolate was the golden idol in The Temple of Doom, I would have gotten it, gotten out and kept my hat the whole time.  I am uniquely motivated.

Now to the (False) Start.
1. Positive affirmations...check
2. Self Pic on my phone...check
3. Mocking by wife about said self pic...check
4. Self Pic round two...check
5. Adjustment of lighting for Pic 3...check
6. Victory dance from "okay" looking self pic...check
7. Return to mocking by wife due to dance...check
8. Discussion about who wears the pants...ongoing (but it's starting to look like I'm not going to win)

At this point, everything is going my way.  Training is going good, wobble pop consumption has ceased and even my healthy eating is coming around.  I'm starting to look lean-ish and like what's happening with everything coming together.

(Pretty proud I was able to replicate all of those "no face" shots)

Then baby two arrived and I found comfort in my old flame...my mistress.  Lady Oh Henry (sounds Scottish but that's just what she tells people).

It wasn't baby two, or baby one or even wife (one?...can I say that?...might be my last post).  It was me.  I was the nagging voice telling you not to jump into the lake, the Millenium Falcon, the big rolling ball...I was the weakest link.

False Start.  Black October.  Rebound love with my Juliet (and we all know how that turned out).

Bummer

....I want to be hot.

I'm a pretty average person....I'd lead you to believe otherwise but, as this is the start to a new way of thinking, it's important to understand my motives.

I've always been active.  Whether it was sports, spending time outside or working out in a gym.  My motives are what drives me.  I enjoy the competition of sports and pitting myself against others.  I enjoy the outdoors and it's sense of freedom.  I enjoy the gym...cause I want to look hot.

The last motive has been a big evolution for me over the past three years.  As an athlete I always had a certain level of fitness and this level of fitness led to a certain level of notoriety.  Through University that changed and I found myself overweight, out of shape and slowly falling apart.  Then I had an epiphany.  This wasn't who I was.  I was a charismatic guy trapped in a shell.  I changed myself and found my niche...I was a trainer.

I took what helped me and used it to help others.  Think Jillian Michaels with a bad crew cut and a penchant for tight t shirts.

I was the trainer who knew the ins and outs and I could exploit any training modality to find the goals that people needed.  I was really, really good at what I did (do) and I was very successful.  I knew exactly where I was going...or so I thought.

Over time I lost why I was working out and I noticed that I was losing my motivation to help others.  I just didn't care.  My last motive came back to bite me.  The desire to be "hot" and make others "hot".  That's what training became for me.  It sucked.

Then, as all good stories do, I had my moment.  My daughter was born.  Training changed almost overnight for me.  Gone was the desire to be "hot".  It's hard to be "hot" when you are sleep deprived, covered in baby goo of various types, reek of diaper and your greatest form of cross training is eating at the same time as your spouse.

It was great.  I was invigorated.  I wasn't training to be "hot".  I was training to live.  To truly live.  I came up with a highly mathematical formula based on years of research and experimentation....seriously, I think I came up with it in the bathroom.  1 hour of training would give me 1 day of a healthy, active lifestyle where I could do everything my daughter asked of me and never see the disappointment on her face when "daddy" was (or is) too tired to play.

This may not (probably isn't) be true, but it doesn't matter.  It's what I believe and what has changed my perspective.

So here we go.

I am eating blueberries.

After reading a fitness personality's blog I got to thinking...why do people write blogs?  Is it blatant self interest?  Hubris?  A desire to go to the next level of "Facebook Status Updates" and share with the world..."I am eating blueberries?  Or could it be something more.

To this end I started thinking about creating my own blog.  One that would serve a definite self interest as an outlet for thought, but would also create two additional outcomes.  A check/balance for myself and, if all works out, a motivation for others.

My goal is to create a blog that is, in fact, a "FLOG".  A Fitness blog (and I thought the term "Flog" sounded pretty funny in relation to the amount of damage and change I intend to put myself through).  This in turn led me down the garden path to the term "FLOGing" which I thought was an apt description of what the majority of my posts will discuss.

Photos, training tips, programs, schedules and open invitations for fitness will all find a home here.

The purpose is simple.  At this stage of my life, as compared to where I want to be, I need a kick in the pants.  Mentally, physically, emotionally, and as a parent, I want to be better.  By publicly posting my results, thoughts, goals, motivations, recipes, successes (and failures) I hope to change myself and learn in the process.

If you're interested in change yourself...or like a good laugh.  You're welcome to join me.
M