conservative fitness

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It’s About to Get Real

Posted by scalesonfire on June 25, 2012
Posted in: Conservative Workouts, Practice, running, Yoga. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I must reform my life NOW. The truth always surfaces…

Somewhere Holden Caufield is narrating my life, calling me a huge phoney.  I’m in love with exercise, in love with finding new forms of discipline, in love with exposing the truth about fitness to all who want to hear, but I could be better.  Removing my shirt in public already draws automatic attention from men and women.  With the energy, effort, and focus I know I could display in my life, I could be an elite athlete, not just a guy with a great body.  Living with integrity is a lot more than simply doing what others won’t; it is living to YOUR OWN standards.  Creating and keeping those standards is a dreaded part of life in this society, but is what keeps society’s great individuals great.

So as a trainer, an aspiring competitive runner, and a weekend warrior in various sports, I WANT to have the world’s best performing body, not because so many will find me sexy, but because my body is my business.

 

My understanding of this before was that:

 

I know how to exercise and how much

All I have to do is more than fat people do, which is almost nothing

I exercise enough to not totally have to “watch what I eat”

As long as certain body parts look great there’s no real urgency

 

Recently, admitting these deep-down beliefs has caused me to cringe and brought on some deep mental depression, especially because I’ve always stressed that superficial thinking is what has delivered us into an obesity epidemic.  A fitness philosophy based on the idea that it is not as superficial as the average yo-yo dieter’s and not as hopelessly ignorant as an obese person’s is still not a positive one.  My first goal is to overhaul my own philosophy, then my goals, then my habits.  The level that I am seeking is my own, I want things that only small fractions of the population can achieve, so I DO NOT recommend anyone reading ScalesonFire.com following my training routine exactly, that isn’t the point.  I do expect everyone who reads to get a real insight into conservative fitness and how it works.

To start, here are my three goals this week:

 

1) Determine exactly what I’d like to accomplish with my body long-term (One Year)

I will start a road race as an elite runner, which would require a pace below 6:05min/mile.  I’ve been running for three years, competitively for one year, and I’m quite far away from competing at that level.  I’ve got a simple but ridiculous strength goal of 1,000 consecutive push-ups, pull-ups, dips, weightless squats, sit-ups, good mornings, and calf-raises.  I’m incredibly far away from this goal, and I’m yet to find a consistent, effective routine to help practice for this goal. I’d also like to master my own yoga practice and teach yoga.

PLAN OF ACTION-

I am amidst a 200 mile in 40 day challenge that provides my legs with valuable miles they didn’t get during high school Cross Country because quite frankly, I didn’t care about running in high school, I played baseball.  When this is done, I plan to run in more races so that my race performance improves, I will also have the stamina and speed for effective speed training like sprints, plyometrics and speed interval training.

Although I use it a great deal, I’ve owned this piece of equipment far too long to not have mastered it.

Also, I must find a strength workout THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS EVERY DAY, and that also promotes increasing numbers within proper form.  Regardless of the way my body currently looks, my numbers in the exercises I’ve mentioned are poor and pathetic (with pull-ups being my nemesis).  Today I will start with five sets of 5 in each exercise:

5×5 sets of Tri-set Sit-ups (Middle, Left, Right) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Squats

5×5 sets of Good Mornings

5×5 sets of Tri-set Push-ups (Diamond, Standard, Wide) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Tri-set Calf-Raises (Supintated, Neutral, Pronated) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Tri-set Pull-ups (Close-grip palms away, Standard-grip palms in, Wide-grip palms away) for 75 total

5×5 sets of Dips

 

Although the numbers are low, they will be easy to complete confidently with the other activities I do each day.

 

Lastly, I must practice yoga regularly (4-7 times per week) at my regular studio New York Yoga, not simply to improve my practice, but because my body simply won’t stand up to higher volumes of exercise without it.

 

2) Gain full control of what goes into my body

Part of this change is becoming less of a hypocrite, and if I’m stressing to clients and friends that discipline with food and intoxication is one key to fitness bliss, then I must be the embodiment of this bliss.

PLAN OF ACTION-Aim to do nothing that is particularly harmful to my body, my ability to focus on my goals, and my ability to live effectively.  Aim to embrace my personal beliefs on consumption over those of society, not matter how much this alienates me.

There’s no such thing as an effective diet plan, simply things we know we should and shouldn’t eat. Here’s my list, without the emotions that keep us in food prison.

There is no diet plan or belief system that is just right for everyone, but if we all as individuals jotted down two lists, the first a list of things we believe humans should eat because they improve the body, the second a list of things we believe humans should never eat being that they are harmful to the body, these two lists would be a specialized, personalized diet plan.  The only problem is that emotional eating involving friends, family, outings, stress, upbringing, habits, weakness, and pleasure will skew the honesty of these lists.  I do encourage everyone I meet to try making these two lists with the understanding that emotions should not be involved, and if everything on the second list bores them, then living longer, being fit, and personal accomplishment also bores them.

 

3) Schedule all of this so that it isn’t stressful

Because this process only stresses the fat or lazy.  As a fit person, I should be able to live as active a lifestyle possible without my world crumbling and do things at times they won’t be interrupted by people who don’t share my passion and by things much less important.

PLAN OF ACTION-I’m a personal trainer, and again, my body is my business.  Other trainers feel that YOUR body is their business, but as the barber with the bad haircut should never be trusted, neither should the trainer with the beer gut.  I teach discipline, consistency, and virtue.  Teaching exercise is secondary.  Teaching these things to myself first will improve the quality of what I do.

 

The things I’ve outlined here are my own, but anyone reading can understand that figuring out your goals (they should be all about accomplishment and never superficial) and creating plans of action, taking a hard line on things you should and shouldn’t eat, and making it an important part of your schedule is a way to achieve any fitness goal conservatively.  In our society, it is the only way.

 

 

Loving Lululemon

Posted by scalesonfire on April 23, 2012
Posted in: fitness Politics, Product Review/Endorsement. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

This is Conservative Fitness

For me, experiences inside the yoga world are conducive to the stigmas the outside world has about yoga.  Places aren’t straight-male friendly, with tiny male changing rooms and tons of incredibly forward gay men.  Yogis do have different personalities, displaying some things I share and some things I simply don’t.  Plus, yoga is difficult and it is discouraging to see women half your size show more control over body weight and respiratory stamina than you can.  But I’m an athlete.  I practice yoga for many reasons, but mostly because I’m interested in heightening the overall performance of my body and mind together.  I believe strongly that such aims are the cornerstones of fitness, so I make my yoga practice, as well as the calisthenics I practice, the running I practice and the sports I practice about mastery of skill, endurance, and triggered performance.

One thing I do love about the yoga world is Lululemon.

From the perspective of the average American, Lululemon is filled with nauseatingly-cheery salespeople (cutely called ‘educators’), incredibly overpriced but deliciously comfortable clothing, and like everything else in the yoga world, accommodates women and boxes in men-In the stores, on the website, naturally, without thinking of it.  Why?  The company still attracts an overwhelmingly female consumer, and companies go where the money will be spent in their field.

To me, Lululemon is a corporate embodiment of Conservative Fitness.

Last fall, Lululemon gave itself a chance to get conservative, and the world was outraged to find out that Lululemon’s goal-coaching, and inspirational quoting and educating was a quest to deliver the world from mediocrity to greatness.  People threatened to boycott.  Liberal hatred for Ayn Rand surfaced from every angle.  You know what I did?  I bought some more Lululemon.  I joined their Research and Development program.  I went to stores and had conversations with educators.  What I found out was that this was my first encounter with organized conservative fitness.

One small example of the world misunderstanding Lululemon.

Those pushy educators, they’re doing two things:

First, they’re telling you what the product does, because any liberal-minded, superficial idiot can understand that a pair of pants will make your butt look better, but it takes a human being with real integrity to buy something because it is an effective tool for your task.

Second, they’re conversing with you to find out if you’re one of them.  Basically, everyone in that store wants to know why you’ve walked in to see their product because if you’re like them, you can make this product an effective tool in your life.

In an Ayn Rand sort of way, they fully expect the John Galt of fitness to walk through those glass doors, round up the most selfish conservatives in fitness, and stop the fitness world.

And there isn’t one problem with that to me.

I though, am in the minority.  Many think that a brand that is yoga-inspired should be a compassionate, liberal, accepting one.  These people forget that before compassion, before release, before the liberal aspects of yoga are explored, the practice must happen conservatively.  My in-class intention for a long time has simply been “control,” because I believe that yoga is about control over body and mind.  To me, taking that control every time is what separates me from the individual trying to get into shape for all of the wrong reasons.  At Lululemon, the focus seems to be control, turning weaknesses into strengths, and preparing yourself for success.  The problem is that the average individual has no idea that fitness even can be about these things, much less that they should.

My idea is to expand Lululemon’s vision to become the first yoga-inspired organization to embrace and highlight the goal-oriented, fit, healthy American male and much as they do females with the same attributes.  The idea is not to compete with the expansive Nike empire, but to give men a product and voice that helps those men with conservative fitness philosophies who would usually wear a Nike, Reebok, Adidas or Under Armour product made for a professional athlete, treat their Lulu with the same love and trust.  It may mean more generous cuts in the shirts, and pants more suited for high-speed movements, or it may even more simply mean highlighting elite-looking, hot-bodied, success obsessed male ambassadors like the female ones to push their product.  If you think I’m wrong, go take a look at the marketing of coconut water in the last year.

I wear and endorse Lululemon because more than any other athletic wear brand, they understand that their product, their philosophy, their personality, isn’t for everyone, and it isn’t so bad if that discourages those who don’t want to get it.  Now its time to find some men who get it, some fitness conservatives who buy products because they improve tasks, who practice yoga because it will help them to build a position of control in their lives and in the world, and who compete at life because you play to win the game.