The sporting life has begun.

I’m on the Free Agent team, made up of guys joining the league who are without a team.  That’s generally my story in adult sports leagues and I’m not really proud of it.  I simply don’t have a bunch of friends who are awesome at sports who want to join leagues and have fun.

Adult Sports Teams in the New York Area:

Are managed poorly by individuals who are way too self important for leagues where the players pay to play.

Consist of players still hanging onto the dream of playing professionally even though they were too lazy and stupid in high school to play at the next level.  If they played in college or in some sort of professional league, they didn’t have the head to stay there.

Have games that are scheduled too sporadically, so you’re never in rhythm especially as a new player.

Involve too many emotions, again, for leagues where the players pay to play.

After my first game in the NYC Flag Football League, I’m happy to say that this isn’t the typical adult sports league in my area.  My team is enthusiastic, helpful, and they communicate.  I caught an interception in my first game, a 28-0 rout of The Bronx Team.  I’m happy with this league and I hope to continue in it, maybe on a team that plays in multiple leagues, maybe with some of the guys I’m going to battle with now.

My stamina and strength throughout the game were good, but I was particularly upset with my speed during the game and in warm-ups and my recovery.  About a month into 2013, I still don’t love my training habits and my work ethic and making the things I want to do fun is all about training harder.

This league is also played on turf fields and the commissioner warns against detachable cleats on turf, so I took it to Ebay and got these gems for a great price:

Nike Zoom Flyposite td

It’s time to go be athletic.  Why gas up and wax up the car just to show it off and never take it anywhere?  This body(and yours) should be put to use.

I can do a great deal of repetitions, enough to look good without weights.  But this isn’t about looking good, or getting to a certain point and stopping.  This is about being super-human, and being a super human.  That’s going to take a level of strength that regular humans, even ones who exercise regularly simply never have the discipline to build.  So one of my goals will be to build it.

Then I found out about this:

I was looking up books on Amazon.com about body weight exercises and supposedly this is one of the better books.  What I found after it arrived is that Paul Wade and I share some core view about fitness.  The fitness industry is out to build dependence on “extras.”  Weights do more harm than good.  Progress is progressive.  But in terms of calisthenics, I thought there would be no way I would have to start at the first steps of the program being that I can do most of the step five exercises.  Then the most basic of exercises brought me back to reality…

The Wall Pushup

You see, each of the core movements in this program: Pushups, Pullups, Leg Raises, Squats, Bridges, and Handstand Pushups have progressions.  The initial progression of pushups are wall pusups: feet arms-length from the wall, three sets of fifty.  The book says to build up to the three sets of fifty and that this number indicates that you can progress to the next level.  One set of fifty made me feel like my arms were on fire, the second set was a lactic acid fiesta, the third was numb, but I made it.  The other step one exercises, Shoulder Stand squats ( upside down air squats in a yoga shoulder stand), Knee tucks (think of bench crunches), Half-Bridges (think “bridge pose’ in yoga), static headstand, were much more terrible and the only easy one was the back exercise, Verical Pulls (think the exact opposite of the wall pushup).

Here’s how that workout looked:

This workout was far more challenging than I expected and I’m giving myself a week to actually complete it, as some of the exercises are more difficult than others.  It was humbling and made me quite excited about what the future of this program will be.  I’ll be spending this first week perfecting these movements and building toward consistently executing the progression standards here in the above picture.  Doing headstands every day is also going to improve my yoga practice and eliminate my difficulties with inversions.

For so long, ScalesonFire.com has been about attacking a fitness industry that preys on the weak and ignorant instead of uplifting them.  Personally, I’ve felt just as weak and ignorant as those people in that time I’ve been writing because I know what to do and my life could be better, and it simply has not been.  Exploring discipline is a long process when you weren’t raised to show it.  Changing who you are based on who you want to be is doubly difficult because the people around you will not understand and respond negatively to these changes.

I’ve had to transform too many times to count, in body, in mind, I’ve changed who I was to be something I thought suited me over and over.  This process has gotten me here, with a strong, lean body, a positive outlook on my own life, and a real vision of how I can help society and not just attack its faults.  There are twelve months in 2013.  Here are the twelve things I will do to change my personal culture and feel some of the greatness I’ve always craved:

1.  Get 25 race t-shirts and 6 medals

This means running two or three races a month, running NYRR’s entire 5-Borough series of half-marathons, and one full marathon.  This will also mean qualifying for the 2014 NYC Marathon.

2.  Dramatically increase my strength

This means staying with a more structured, disciplined calisthenic regimen.

3.  Practice yoga daily

This means combining a home practice and studio practice to build a body that is infinitely flexible and a personal tranquility that I’ve never had consistently.

4.  Run 2000 miles

This means a progressive number of miles run and a running practice that is equally as consistent as my yoga practice.  No matter how slowly these miles must be run, they MUST BE RUN.

5.   Build my brand

In order to be the person I need to be, YOU need to know who I am.  I must be more dedicated to writing about fitness and my own training.  I must be more dedicated to self-promotion and the promotion of my beliefs.  I must take more pictures of this body I’m building and what I do to build it.  I must connect with more like-minded individuals.  I must always think in  terms of the safety of the brand.

6.  Become a better planner, preparer and execute more

This means scrupulously attending to my past, current, and upcoming affairs so that I can give myself the opportunity to make the most out of them.

7.  Eat a fuel-only diet

I can not expect to succeed athletically if I make poor food decisions.

8.  Non-stop involvement in sports leagues

Whatever sport is in season, I need to compete in an organized league playing that sport.  This should be a year-round process.

9.  Get faster

In 2013 I will run a sub-7:00min/mile pace during a race, I will also build fast-twitch muscle fiber to display a new quickness and power translating to sprint speed, leaping ability and improved agility.

10.  Attack every day

To see my goals, I need to treat every day as if it has limitless possibilities and use each passing day to get more done.

11.  Get sponsorship

I use a lot of products, and plan to use and try more.  Some I really believe in.  I want to connect with those companies and build lasting partnerships.

12.  Live the world’s most active lifestyle

Because nothing would make me happier than to inspire others to greatness by showing them that discipline makes the impossible, possible.

This should be my last year of struggling, scrambling to be better and feel better.  After sitting down to plan out who I really want to be to and for this world, I’ve arrived at these twelve things, and the superathlete that emerges from this change is going to change the way you view fitness, athletics, and discipline.

Clean

“Look, look, he’s barefoot!”

Mid-Race

Humans weren’t meant to wear shoes…

A work of art

All of the comments I heard about going barefoot were annoying, but expected.  It wasn’t really your typical race crowd, each quite focused on the race.  Most walked, many stopped for pictures.  So may wore costumes.  I’m really tempted to go barefoot in a serious race, possibly one in Central Park with flat terrain.

As for today’s run, early morning yoga set the energy tone, but a whole day of walking around the Billie Jean King Tennis center yesterday brought the fatigue.

I didn’t check the watch once, and just ran to my ability, the sweet, sweet sweat didn’t come on until three miles, which means that the run felt cold and tough until then.  Evidently now seventy-five degrees is cold for me.

Today’s Calisthenics:

Pullups-6, 5, 5, 4, 6

Squats-18, 24, 16, 18, 24

Situps-33, 37, 32, 32, 46

Pushups-27, 20, 20, 17, 27

 
I enjoyed it so much today that I went out twice, first for a fiver, then a three-spot.

After my half-hour home yoga practice this morning and my thirteen-mile death quest on Saturday afternoon, I had no push on the first run, so I did what I could, reminding myself that completion is the key to these runs (especially completion of tomorrow’s), and working on form and breath.  The second was a fun run that was purposely slow, and the torrents of rain during it actually felt good.  Boy I love summer.

 
Today’s Calisthenics:

Pullups-Test

Pushups-27,20,20,17,27

Situps-33, 37,32,32,46

Squats-17, 24, 18, 16, 24

Personal training is a broken industry that fails the consumer purposely.  Instead of giving clients what they need, clients are given what they want, making the entire industry about the things the novices think and not what the professionals know.  This is great for business, but even better for business is the notion that personal training could be structured to not exist in fifteen years if approached properly.  Our current industry feeds the potential client’s ignorance and hence, assures that there will always be a client.  I say, change these five things and strike out obesity as a health problem altogether.

1. The “Market”

If you’re looking for a new landscaper or housekeeper, it isn’t because you know exactly what you need to do but you need someone to come by and fix things up.  It is because you’re in over your head and have no idea how to maintain the appearances you desire.  Wealth is measured in out society by one’s ability to pay for services that we should do ourselves but lack the discipline to execute.  Today, personal fitness is treated like home or vehicle maintenance.  Most want a nice looking home or a reputable make of vehicle but the maintenance of that home or vehicle is far too much work especially since they’ve all already done so much work to obtain these material possessions.  A body is not a material possession that a person can come into your life and fix for you, but the fitness industry is built around this thinking.

2. Money

Mostly, the wealthy get access to effective personal training, or training where all the thinking is done for the client.  Those without money are simply trying to spend less to say they have a trainer, to say they are trying to maintain things.  Not unlike the example of the home and vehicle, most envy the wealthy and own things not because they genuinely should have them but because they put on an air of wealth.  Personal training is a useful business, for people with real dedication looking to learn the physical and mental tools they need to see their goals.  For most though it is the way those with discretionary income justify destroying their bodies.

3. Myths

Guess what?  All of the stupid things people think and say about this business have roots in this business.  Things that require real dedication and commitment like say, exercise, religion and parenting break down easily in the average person’s mind.  So cliches, myths, fads, quick fixes, wives tales, they’re things people hide behind instead of obtaining real knowledge on the subject, taking risks because they’re evaluated the current times, or best of all, setting personal goals based on personal need.  Out of fear of the unknown, people will group themselves with the rest of the world instead of intelligently evaluating their situation.  The fitness industry makes its money creating catch phrases, fad diets, and planting the seeds of superficial passiveness in order to keep people from doing real thinking the ways fit people do.

3. Sex and Superficiality

There are a lot of different clients out there, and here, I’m not discussing smart clients who have real needs, work with good trainers, and approach this correctly.  This is something like half the paying population.  Personal training’s problem is that good clients love to point out overweight, lazy, potential clients for their trainers, and all the trainer can do is shrug and say “that person has to want it.”  The problem is that the person will only “want it” when their sexual emotions have been impacted, they can’t do something they once did (We aren’t talking climb the rope in gym class.  More like “he won’t let me get on top anymore”), or the doctor says they will die early.  In a way, all of these things are superficial.  Real fitness maintenance brings on lust and envy from others naturally, it keeps you sexy for loved ones, and keeps the doctor off your back before its too late.  Only we use sex to sell fitness way before we’d use health or accomplishment to sell fitness.

4.  Respect

People don’t respect personal training as a profession.  Again, people don’t respect personal training as a profession.  Most choose a trainer because of looks, their energy (yes, yes I know, you just need someone to get you motivated, you’ve got it from there), or their rate, because sometimes simply saying they have a trainer to others gives them enough satisfaction.  Can a trainer get a client in bed, ruin their own meal ticket, destroy a person’s psyche and view of this industry?  If the client made their choice based on looks, then HELL YEAH.  If I’m ugly and fat, I get no clients.  If I’m handsome and muscular I get a bunch of female clients who think “of course a guy like him can motivate me to get fit.”  Understanding this dynamic must be even tougher for female trainers-The attractive ones trying to act professional with snide male clients and catty and jealous female clients.  The unattractive ones always pushing knowledge and credentials to keep the clients’ respect.

5.  “I know my body”

No you don’t.  You know how to get your body fatter.  Most who say this have never seen their bodies healthy, or at minimum body weight and haven’t exercised since they got graded in school for it.  Since that time their bodies have settled, broken down, grown abnormally, and internally, ugh.  A huge problem in this is that so many trainers, especially ones with a specific background, train all clients one way, turning some clients off.  The potential client would rather take the power back by saying they know what they need (I wonder how this particular fitness self-evaluation looks) instead of giving the power to a person who may not take these FEELINGS into account.  The bold and intelligent trainer must leave no room for feelings: I evaluate you, I tell you what is wrong with you as a human, you tell me your goal, I tell you how to first live as an effective human and then how we will  get your goal.  This is personal training.

Change these things, and personal training might be real, and relevant for the first time ever.

Only, my behavior doesn’t inspire all, and when you’re faced with the notion that a co-worker, family member, friend or even spouse doesn’t share your vision and drive on a subject so dear to you, not being intrusive is a difficult task.  My goals of being an elite athlete, the world’s greatest personal trainer, and the world’s most prominent fitness writer come with the same price as other “ultimate” goals: Loneliness.  My greatest fitness struggles don’t come from repetitions and sets, because when things get started, as we all know, they don’t take long to finish.  My real issue is at times being voiceless on an issue others pay me to speak on.

Ideally, I’d like my quests to mean so much that I do not consider others and their negative emotions toward the ways I live life, still appreciating those who do gain inspiration from what I do.  Recently, I saw an interview where legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson said that the word inspire literally means “to give breath” which is why he instructed his players to take one breath in times of crisis.  When I see those my environment resist activity, good health and personal vigor, I’m saddened and I want to “give breath” to a vitality in others that only I have.  Even now, I’m writing this therapeutically, hoping that it helps me to go about my quests understanding that I should set out to change myself so much that it changes the world, and that if I really set out to change the world hoping it will change me, I may be left with an empty feeling.

Reblogged from Scales On Fire:

Customs are killing the English language.  So much so that words have meanings, and then they have particular meanings in our society.  The most underused word and virtue is "resolution."  This word isn't simply a reason to reflect on negatives and negligence in your life when the calendar turns to a new year, it's a window into the ways we should live. 

Read more… 548 more words

Maybe the real goal is to do it every day and never stop

The worst part of fitness goals that involve daily work (like my current two hundred miles in forty days goal) is missing days, and as if missing days isn’t terrible enough, cramming to make up work is even worse.  The type-A in me lies in bed after days where I’ve failed to get it all done and says “oh, the miles will be run, and I will not fail.”  The type-B in me says “why  does the exercise have to be micro-managed?  Are such small goals so important that I won’t get the the results if every goal isn’t met?”  But type-B has no idea how to be so consistent that nothing needs micro-managing.

As we can see, the type-B voice is the stupid one.  Of course every goal is important or else setting them wouldn’t be so important to us.  My problem is that failure leaves type-A distraught and enraged.  As much as failure can not be an option, acceptance of failure has to be much less of an option.  With that said, goals are time-sensitive, and it is just unrealistic to think that you can buy or make up time that you should have saved by putting your goal first. When type-A takes over the right way is when the goal becomes to change your living habits and you do not need to set small goals.  When this happens consistency is expected, but missed days become smaller deals in the big picture of a lifetime goal.

Goals come first.  When they don’t you find yourself wondering if they should be taken so seriously.  You should hate this person.