Fitness thoughts
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Loading ...I’ve done a fair bit of training in my short lifetime. You know, I really have a hard time remembering the last time I was really out of shape–not the “oh, I’m not up to my standards” out of shape, the “my god, I can’t finish this run/exercise/etc” out of shape. I’ve been a lightweight and a fast one for a good while, and I’ve more or less run with that (pun intended) all my life.
Point is, I’ve learned a fair bit about being athletic. Training for cross-country, swimming, and track–particularly swimming, as our coach was also a biology/anatomy teacher and would often fill us in on exactly how doing sets of 50s at fixed intervals so rest was at most five seconds and at worst nonexistant helped get the most work out of our muscles without building up lactic acid (oh, anaerobic threshold workouts…)–provided me with a lot of experience working and getting stronger as a result of it, with some solid results to show for it.
I’ve also done a lot of reading into the topic of fitness–a few years ago I started studying Bruce Lee’s life and what he did to maintain his high level of fitness, and man, was that man ever in shape. He remains my fitness role model; we’ve similar builds (Lee was 5’7″, 135-140 lbs at his fittest; I’m 5’8″-ish, 135 lbs) and he was the sort of man who started with no particular genetic predisposition towards athleticsm and essentially molded himself into something great though years of rigorous training–and not just the same old sets. He was ahead of his time in terms of his regimen, always researching newer and more effective ways to challenge his body while simultaneously streamlining his workouts, eliminating anything that wasn’t contributing fully towards his goals; the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, which incorporates a lot of ideas from zen, it seems (reading into that further is on my to-do list), guided his training. Really, he embodies everything I want to be from an athletic standpoint.
But I digress. I just wanted to go over some of my opinions about fitness and working out and getting stronger, really so I can get them down somewhere–I’ve not really taken the time to define what fitness really is to me.
Firstly, I’m a huge proponent of ample rest. I learned the hard way that sometimes it’s better not to always do the extra sets, straining my achilles’ tendon my sophomore track season as a result of overdoing it with the jumping workouts (Triple Jump is ridiculously high-impact). It came shortly after a 3-foot PR, as I jumped 41′ flat at a meet, and then the following practice took a few jumps and found that it got progressively harder to keep the same momentum. Had to get taped for the rest of the season, and I think I only came close to breaking 40′ once thereafter (though I did enjoy increases in my long jump and sprinting ability the following season).
With any sport, there’s always a tendency to want to always do more, to get stronger and faster sooner, and it’s this sort of mentality that leads to inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and injury. Simply working at your full capacity for a limited amount of time will lead to ample development when given enough recovery, particularly when it comes to high-impact stuff like plyometrics and weightlifting.
Which leads to the next tenet I have; working all-out is really the only way to go beyond your limits. I don’t adhere to this anywhere as much as I’d like; I more often fall into the trap of doing a fair amount of stuff that’s “safe,” stuff to “stay in shape” and the like, as opposed to training for improvement, to reach a tangible goal (another one of my problems–I’m horrible at setting goals). But just thinking back to so many of the workouts I did in high school where I’d finish one set, and be perfectly content to be finished, only to have another hard run/swim set ahead, and just buckle down and do it all-out, not half-assing to conserve energy for whatever might be next–after workouts like those I really got a great sense of accomplishment, not just in the physical sense but mentally as well. I distinctly remember powering through a particular cross-country race, telling myself “it’s not as bad as swimming workouts” as motivation to keep pushing it.
Of course, to maintain fitness it’s imperative that one does the right workouts and has balance in the workouts. Doing the right workout means making sure that I’m working the muscles I need for whatever I’m training for–generally speaking, my legs (particularly the quads, as a jumper for track and for pushoffs in swimming, and now for sky-ing in ultimate) and core (always important, crucial to good running/swimming form), with some upper-body work being secondary. Having balance means not neglecting the lesser groups–for example, I added a ton of quadriceps strength over a relatively short time my junior year, from a combination of lots of lunges/squats and the like as swimming training and many a plyometric/jump squat set, but more or less completely neglected my hamstrings. As a result, I had great acceleration and good power during track, though deceleration was never a sudden thing, but then doing cross-country I developed knee issues because of my overpowered quads pounding with little counterforce from my hamstrings. I’ve since done a lot to develop the hamstrings and I’ve become much more well-balanced (though knee issues still crop up when I slack off of strengthening the area).
In the vein of the right workouts I’ve all sorts of opinions on what makes for a good workout; in terms of lifting, it generally means lots of compound, free-weight type exercises, with progressive weight increase so you get elements of conditioning and strengthening, very similar to the ultimate routines we have. In terms of running workouts and the like, any workout that incorporates peak effort over short-mid distances and some (though not full) recovery are the way to be. I’m really not a huge fan of the long, slow run anymore, partly because I’m lazy, partly because I’ve read in many a source that the benefit is minimal compared to shorter, more intese work, and partly because I feel like there are simply better routes to improvement. I do enjoy the occasional run of a few miles for the theraputic effect it can have, and I suppose it does help to build aerobic fitness, but quite honestly, my chosen sport (and generally speaking, being athletic in general) is less about aerobic fitness–being able to work effectively over long periods at sub-maximal effort–than it is about being able to exert oneself fully over short periods and recover from it quickly/still be able to maintain a high level of athleticism despite the lactic acid buildup. Again, this agrees pretty well with the type of workouts we’ve been doing as a team–generally speaking, I’ve really no complaints with our fitness program.
Variety is also important. With anything, repeating the same old thing can get boring. Mixing it up helps to keep fitness engaging, and at least in terms of lifting it ensures you work out as much of your body as possible in as many ways as possible–different exercises, though they might target the same muscle groups, nonetheless exert different forces, working out the same muscles in different ways and making them still stronger.
Finally, mentality is important. Being able to focus on the workout at hand, wanting to go workout, commiting to doing the workout despite the difficulty–it’s not always easy to do these things. Distractions are many. Finding the motivation, having the desire to improve, to become better, to reach one’s potential, is perhaps most important of all. Lee was never content with his fitness–he was always working to improve it, never was satisfied with what was working and what he had, and that is why he was able to become so great. Not getting trapped in the idea of a finish, of an end to improvement, is essential to becoming the best you can be. I’m eventually going to make a post about some of the general philosophies I have–this sort of stuff.
On the lines of improvement, I took home the bacon with the “Most Improved Player” award at the fall banquet. Definitely unexpected, though I guess it’s not surprising. I was expecting something more along the lines of “most capable of procrastinating via the blogosphere,” but when one of your captains is trying to be the next Jim Parinella of blogging, it becomes more of a positive than a novelty when it comes time to make up awards. Who knew?
Let’s do an unordered list (so many neat toys in the WYSIWYG editor) of my main thoughts for later’s sake:
- Make sure to get ample recovery
- When you do work out, work all-out
- Do the right workouts, and keep it balanced.
- Make sure to mix it up every now and then
- Keep a progressive, upbeat, restless mentality. Never be content.
I was expecting something more along the lines of “most capable of procrastinating via the blogosphere,” but when one of your captains is trying to be the next Jim Parinella of blogging, it becomes more of a positive than a novelty when it comes time to make up awards.
1) I am NOT trying to become Parinella. He’s too boring.
2) Blogging’s a novelty, but it’s also very useful, do you not think? Gets you thinking about the game. Shows your dedication to it.
3) You are the most improved player from last year. It’s tough jumping on the A-team as a rookie, and you’ve done a fine job.
1) I am NOT trying to become Parinella. He’s too boring.
And prone to ego-surfing and holding a grudge, so I’d watch it if I were you.
Wow Jim. No place on the Internet is safe….
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