running

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Transforming

Posted by scalesonfire on December 21, 2012
Posted in: Lists, Motivational, Practice, Race Recap, Virtue, Yoga. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Culture indicates so much about success and failure.  If I could meet my former self and give them one bit of advice:  change the culture of your life.  I could have used that advice fifteen years ago, or five years ago, or last year.  Even when I knew and understood that a culture of discipline is the only type that brings on plentiful, consistent and secure gains, I didn’t live the life I knew I needed to live.

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.

Getting Some Color

Posted by scalesonfire on September 1, 2012
Posted in: Barefoot Running, Race Recap. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I’ve never done an extreme race, but I’m a pretty extreme dude.  I knew that the Color Run is a fun, untimed race that might leave any sneakers I wear wrecked, so I made it my first barefoot run ever.  Aside from some rocky points, I stayed light with my steps and got through it without any real pain.  When the trail became too rocky I ran on the grass, but I learned during this race and in some of the reading I’ve done recently that our feet are made for any surface, and when we take the proper stride, a sharp rock is no big deal.  Thanks to the powdered paint people for such a fun race.

 

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.

 

 

 

An Apology

Posted by scalesonfire on August 29, 2012
Posted in: explanations, Obesity Apocalypse, running. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I apologize.  After many mid-run meditation sessions and a lot of self-evaluating, I don’t see the point of putting fat people down with the word “fat.” Not because I think that the word is particularly reprehensible, but because pointing out aesthetic flaws feeds fitness’ aesthetic aim.  So name-calling is officially against my beliefs.  With that said, the sedentary lifestyle is hindering the prosperity of the human race.  All of those who practice this lifestyle must wake up and understand that in order for future generations to be greater than we are, they must be at least slightly more disciplined.  The deterioration of personal dignity and integrity in our society has led to the deterioration of humans.  Get fit NOW!

 

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

Double Duty

Posted by scalesonfire on August 27, 2012
Posted in: Practice, running, Sports/Athletics. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I recently read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and it has really changed the way I view running and running goals.  I went from hoping for a five hundred mile year, to trying to run two hundred miles in forty days, to now, truly wanting to disregard numbers and just run for hours every day until I’m fast.  There’s less of an emphasis on speed and numbers and more focus on consistency, form (mastering the barefoot strike), and getting my runs done as early in the day as possible before outside forces make it a struggle to get out and run.  Maybe its the abundant summer sunshine, but running has become a whole lot about feeling out my body and enjoying nature like a real human.  Right now, even though I’d like to win a race one day, building a strong running practice and learning to enjoy running pain-free is enough to keep me positive about the future.  I’ve gotten through various levels, but to get to the highest level I’ve got to enjoy this as I am.

 
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

On a Goal

Posted by scalesonfire on July 8, 2012
Posted in: running, Virtue. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

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.

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.

 

 

The One Percent of Fitness

Posted by scalesonfire on April 23, 2012
Posted in: fitness Politics. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

In fitness, its about being in the 1%

In fitness, being a part of the 99% means, you’re unhappy with your body in some way, you either exercise or your don’t but you only associate exercise with changing your appearance, and you’d rather buy something to fix the problem momentarily than explore the practices that fix the problem permanently.  That’s all liberal fitness, and sounds awful to those who do it right.

ScalesonFire.com is not all negative, and I’m not the most harsh trainer out there, but this is conservative fitness.  I don’t apologize for pushing buttons.  Why?  Because Bill O’Reilly and Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh don’t do it.  Most issues that inspire passion in the public like politics, religion, choice of cellular phone provider, and even fitness have its conservative and liberal sides.  Generally, the elite, successful, one percent conservatives both control and are the envy of the ninety-nine percent liberals.  This is common, understood, and the backbone of every liberal/conservative argument around us.

In America, we teach our children to come down on the elites before trying to be elite ourselves.

In fitness though, since there is no participation in the argument from the conservative side, liberalism is simply the way.  I am simply here to preach conservative fitness to combat liberal fitness as Fox News preaches conservative politics to combat networks they feel preach liberal politics.  In America, we need a balance.  By coddling the overweight and out-of-shape, by allowing quick-fix and celebrity-obsessed ideals to run rampant through our media, by going out of our way to simply accommodate the consumers who consume more, we have all contributed to the notion that obesity and fitness mediocrity are an accepted element of today’s society.

We need voices that will help everyone understand that first, complete fitness inadequacies are unacceptable in any normally constructed human being.  This is because effective fitness methods are incredibly simple.  Liberal individuals make fitness complicated by first, making the process about superficiality, then by refusing to participate unless the activity is fun to them and easy enough to complete, then they quit and try the new thing.  Over a lifetime, liberal fitness can become extremely expensive and create all of the lasting negative emotions about fitness that we see in hopelessly overweight individuals.  If we have given so many the choice to be overweight or obese, but tell them to buy a particular product or to buy into a diet or method, then we should hear from those who think we should be independent of diets and methods and make the choice every day to be healthy.

In fitness, for those who are liberal with their bodies, everything productive feels unjust.

Conservative fitness represents the deepest fear of those ninety-nine percenters who could never imagine real exercise and in result, have no concepts of the benefits of real exercise.

“Real exercise” is first, practice-based, meaning that it is done with a frequency, consistency, and encourages improvement.

Second, real exercise does not end.  Acting as though there is a finish line to the fitness process is acknowledging the fact that a person began the process to achieve a set, superficial result instead of looking to simply live as a fit person indefinitely.

Last, real exercise is independent.  It is independent of diets, gyms, workout plans, friends, doubters, anything.  It is independent of all the things in a person’s head, and independent of all of the ideas being placed into heads.

Real exercise is exercise that has not been repackaged to fit the desires of people who don’t have the will to do the boring, tedious things it takes to be truly fit.  All other exercise methods, diets, gyms, trainers, they all require full dependence for lasting results, or are designed to take an individual’s money before the goal is met.

The goal of personal trainers, athletes, yogis, and all other practice-oriented fitness enthusiasts should be to understand and accept that they are the one-percent of society, because those who are active but are so because of superficial reasons are also a part of the fitness problem.  These individuals should lead their practices and businesses with this understanding in mind.  Those who exercise to understand deeper levels of focus, discipline, accomplishment and strength are the ones who obtain what one might call permanent results from exercise, they’re also the individuals in our society with the most desired after bodies and who soak up crowded rooms with their sexual energy.

Taking control of your body is about fighting liberal urges.  When it comes to fitness, no outside power can help you more than you can help yourself.  I tell it to bewildered clients all the time: My goal is to cure obesity, so that in fifteen years I’m out of a job.  The liberal needs the help and begs for the help and is dying for the help, but when the help comes, they aren’t as passionate about doing the work.  They’d rather pay to have the work done for them.   If not, they’d rather do something to keep up appearances.

Conservative fitness is about constant exercise, so that appearances don’t need to be kept up.  Let the liberals worry about appearance.

Fat people and fitness liberals are already trying.

Nikeid Love

Posted by scalesonfire on March 12, 2012
Posted in: Product Review/Endorsement. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment
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The Nike ID process takes quite a while, and is a bit pricey, but worth it.

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The black is for the simplicity of this process, the electric green is for the power we get from the use of the earth in this process, the red is for the burning desire to improve and the embracing of discomfort.

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The Free 3.0 sole is far more barefoot than any free I've used, but this shoe is NOT exactly a "barefoot" shoe.

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More characters and different spots to ID would be great...

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I also got the "element shield" upper, so these will be versatile in various elements. I also did it in hopes that these would continue to look good over a few runs and work days.

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I've got low arches and flat, wide feet. These are a 12.5 wide and fit great, but the inner arch support is poor, so I find myself continuing to slide my feet to the outsides of my shoes so that they don't rotate inward. Something I've always dealt with when buying new running shoes

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Overall, more shoes in widths would be a way to get me to use this service more. A good-looking shoe that's exactly the colors you chose isn't enough when you plan to actually use the shoe. I do wonder if this could be an adequate race shoe. What do you think?

Showing Discipline

Posted by scalesonfire on February 23, 2012
Posted in: Motivational. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

In February, I set out to change some things…

 

More vegetables

More running

More calisthenics

More yoga

More DISCIPLINE

 

I turned February into ‘discipline month’ and for the most part, it has felt awful.  Sickness, fatigue, stress, failure.  One good week of running turns into the next two weeks of laziness.  Throwing up after yoga classes.  Extreme cramping.  Oversleeping.  Finding stability in everything that I want to do has been harder than actually doing these things.  I’m doing this to eliminate feeling, to eliminate softness, to eliminate acceptance of failure.  I WILL be the person I aspire to be.  I AM NOT everyone else.

Everyone else is fat and lazy and really fears improvement.  They are undisciplined in life and exercise and do not really love themselves.  My recent struggles have been nothing but fun for me because I know that I am still seeking improvement through resilience.  I already have a fit appearance, but I’m looking for performance.

I will bounce back.  I will not give up on my goals.  I will be elite and understand my peak physical condition.  My reasons for fitness are clear and unlike any of the silly, superficial, or ambiguous ones out there.  If it were simply about looking better, I doubt I would ever exercise.  People should feel shame in exercising simply for looks, not because it doesn’t “work,” but because the concept of it “working” is the problem.

Show more discipline than that.

Set some real goals, let those who look and don’t do care about appearance.

A Full Schedule-Day Six at Bikram Harlem

Posted by scalesonfire on July 12, 2011
Posted in: running, Yoga. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Thank you, yoga...

I ran my first race on this day, and for a person with terrible knees and hamstrings that hate me, I have to thank yoga for a 23:51 5K race.  I’m not just talking about the five Bikram Yoga classes I took leading up to the race, but all the yoga I’ve done since I first stepped into Bikram Yoga Union Square in September of 2008.  Yoga has changed the way I approach physical activity, my body-internally and externally, and the way I feel about levels of strength-mental or physical.  If a person can gain deeper understandings of these things then of course they can apply them to their own lives and will themselves to do great things.

Great things like running a 5K at 9am then making Bikram Yoga at 4:30pm.  Oh, and let’s not forget the class is again led by Miss Megan (who at this point has no last name or background), the Clock Nazi.  She wants you to know that you came out of the posture early, that you’re destroying the cohesion of the class, and you are mentally weak because you can’t hold the postures in Bikram’s Beginning Yoga class.  Well she at last scolds students for coming out early and worrying about her holding the postures for too long, and when I first started practicing I couldn’t stand teachers who did those things.  Now, I find myself agreeing with teachers like Miss Megan.  Everyone should be moving together.  This is the essence of a debate I’m going to tackle in this thirty-day block of yoga: is this practice mine, or Bikram’s?  It’s a complicated question, especially for individuals who have practiced styles of yoga with a set series of postures, like Ashtanga, Iyengar, or Bikram and are loyal to the guidelines.  It’s also complicated for yogis who practice vinyasa yoga or with free form, where the teacher or student may modify the postures and sequences at their discretion.  Really, it’s the first question an aspiring yogi should ask, should I be loyal to the teacher, the guru and their style, or my needs?