the next step…

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when someone asks me for “the secret” i try to talk to them about the program. if they ask about the program, we can talk about the lifestyle, if they ask about the lifestyle then we can talk about the philosophy.

– paraphrased from mark twight

 

training is about stress. about the artful application of force. we say art because there are too many factors – there can be no formula… this is like talking about love. the more specific you get the further you are from being useful. we can say “find the problem, fix the problem” – when we start to go past that, we start to hedge our bets a lot… we say “usually” or “it depends” – we answer questions with more questions, we push and pull – we try and get to the next step. to find the weak link, to address the thing that is holding us back. it can be a small muscle. a movement pattern. a timing issue. one of the many forms of psychological weakness… each problem has number of solutions, each with a cost and with side effects – the “right answer” is , at best, right for that person at that time in their struggle. this is where paths diverge, where selling things and truly helping seem to be mutually exclusive, where a discussion on working out turns into a self help seminar…

 

it comes down to a decision. how far do you want to take this? how far are you willing to take this? i am impressed by physical feats insofar as they are the reflection of this willingness. of the hard work and attention to detail. to stare into that mirror, to seek out critical feedback, to realize that the only way to improve is to explore your weaknesses – to dig into the most uncomfortable places, to poke and prod that the things we hate and the things we are afraid of. to realize that we train to maximize our potential. we work to express the very best of ourselves, to hone the edge, to grind away everything that does not make us better. we seek stress. we seek dissenting opinions and challenging moments. we do this to get better. training is a discussion, a conversation – pressure and adaptation. it is a cycle of problems and solutions and side effects and new problems. cause and effect are often intertwined, we can solve the problem – we just need to act. feedback loops. two way streets. they are all threads, a web… tug on one long enough and you will touch the whole, but only if you are willing to be wrong, only if you are willing to be uncomfortable, only if you are willing to let go of your favorite thing and examine the one that actually has a chance helping. it is a curious blend of focus, dedication, and ADHD. of knowing when to pursue, to persevere, and when to step away. this is when it helps to have a coach. a sounding board. anyone really, as long as they care enough to not care about your feelings. to not nod their head and tell you you are doing good but to ask questions, to pick and prod and demand that you make sense.

 

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 how will this change me? am i better because of this? closer to my goal? why did i chose this movement? this interval? did it have the desired effect? am i moving in the right direction? am i moving at all?

 

we are often too close to our own problems, we warp them with our perception. emotion clouds judgment. the simple question you should always ask when training is “why didn’t  i do better?” – “what stopped me from achieving X?” – “what did that training session accomplish?” –  “how have i been changed?” and after all that, you must ask yourself how full of shit those answers are. questions lead to questions because the goal here is to change. to become. here is the rub – no  one can feel what you feel, therefore no one is as qualified in dictating your training as yourself. in the same breath i will assert that, when it comes to your own progress, you are probably the most biased and untrustworthy source of information available. i feel that the problem often lies in the framing. we don’t know how to think about solving our own problems, too often we look at other peoples process – the prescriptions one specific individual used to get themselves from point A to point B. we are not that person. we are not in that place. we have to learn how to progress. to assess ourselves and make appropriate changes. we have to listen, to learn and to filter. to understand our strengths and weaknesses. to understand what makes us who we are and what is holding us back. only when we understand (or at least can start to comprehend) how our own lens warps the facts can we start to make use of others. to talk to people who are smarter than us. watch people who are better than us. most of us dont have to worry about being innovative because there is already someone out there solving our problem if we would just listen. if we are able to filter out our own distortion and make use of the information. remember to strive. to search the next step. watch video of your movements. talk to friends. talk to enemies. find out where you are and where you want to go. spot the difference.

 

figure out why you are doing what you are doing. our choices, our actions move us either closer to our goal or further away. Kate Moss said that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” – Conan had his own feelings on “what is best in life”  –  sort yourself out. find out where you’re at, what you expect, and what you are willing to pay. balance that equation. in short –  start the arduous process of unfucking your head. basically, you have to learn how (and why) to change. it is just as simple and just as complicated as that. the more general the audience, the more likely any specific advice would be wrong. trying to be generally helpful can only help so much – trying to figure out an overarching explanation seems to be falling into the same trap. the important thing is to ask questions. to find peers, serious, passionate people to talk to. to learn from. don’t forget the lessons you bled to learn, but don’t forget that you are not necessarily that person anymore.

do not mistake the container for the contents, or the symbol for the source.

if the goal is to change, what you want to do and what you want to be will, at times, be mutually exclusive. deal with it.

every tool has a time, a place, a purpose, and a price. armor that saves your life in battle will guarantee you drown in the ocean. choose wisely. change when appropriate.

your toolkit alters your perception. we see what we expect to see and we see what we know how to fix. be aware.

make progress. a car will get you to the beach, but it will keep you from experiencing the ocean. necessary does not mean permanent. learn, grow, and move on.

dont be lazy. dont be stupid.

ask questions, lots of questions – but not at the expense of actually doing something.

 

cowardice

 

 it is a 2 way street, interconnected feedback loops… there is precious little we can actually control in this life. do not waste an opportunity to make a choice and to do the right thing. 

re/program

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we talk so often about the physical being the easy part, about it being a mere manifestation of the way we see the world, of the decisions we have already made. training, the gym – it never made sense to me until the problem was framed as a psychological one –  but now what? if you have made the decision to be better – decided to change and accepted the premise that this is a mental game more than anything, what do you do next?

this thread is a constant. we at the station are always trying to find better, more effective ways to manage our progress, to control our growth. the beauty of a project such as this is the diversity – the bringing together of so many individuals, so many viewpoints and skill sets towards a common goal. Here is a short list, a few key points distilled from countless hours of exploration. These are building blocks, tools that we have found useful. I hope they can function as a primer of sorts, to start the flow, to be a spark, for none of us evolve in a vacuum, this is one path i would be happy to see more crowded.

Onward, to the real work…

 

1: create distance

as a culture we spend so much time focused on the immediate, the problem at hand, excluding all else. sometimes the intimacy we have – with our problems, with our abilities, blinds us to the greater picture. when you are uncomfortable it seems as if nothing else in the world matters, your one little problem becomes everything. the ability to keep perspective in such a situation, to see beyond the next thirty seconds, is an important step in creating meaningful change. there are a number of studies about delayed gratification, about “present bias” and procrastination (a wonderful summary is available here) – to grossly oversimplify, your brain basically views your future self as a different person, as an “other” and all the work you are doing presently benefits them, not you.  in every iteration of the study, it seems to show that the ability to delay gratification allows an individual to succeed – so how do we build that? in practice, i have found re-framing the problem to be helpful – if my mind looks at that future self as a different person, then so will I. to take it even further, I try and think as that future self and work backwards – treating the present self as the “other”. basically, try and think from the perspective of the person you wish to be, and of your current self (your body, your habits) as what is holding you back. think of it as something like a puppy – in need of training. it does not respond to logic or argument, it responds to conditioning. work and reward. punishment and bargaining. it throws temper tantrums and must be handled, coddled, and dealt with.  realize when you are having a tantrum. realize that giving in will just reinforce that behavior. we call this part “rolled up newspaper” training – the decision to treat yourself like you would treat a 200# toddler that wont listen to logic.  when i am not feeling well, i will still go to the gym, i tell myself i am just going to do my warm-ups, that if i don’t feel well i can cool down and go home. 99% of the time, as soon as i am warmed up i feel fine, i was just being lazy.  it is amazing how many other situations this type of bargaining works for – sometimes giving yourself a “way out” is what gets you moving in the first place, then every time you approach the finish line, just ask “can i do more?” 1 more rep, 1 more interval. if i can do one, then why not five? when i felt hungry, i would take a second to make sure i was actually hungry and not just bored – sometimes i would make myself wait 30 minutes, just to see if it would pass, just to see if it was a want, or a need. i would ask myself these questions as if i were talking to a child, and i am still amazed at how often it worked. whenever i had a sweet craving i would take a small square of dark chocolate – 99% cocoa and let it melt under my tongue. bitter and rich, it would quell my cravings, as weeks went on the cravings became less, i had to switch to unsweetened baking chocolate, but i managed to (mostly) kill the sweet tooth. it is about stimulus and response – have a tantrum and here is what happens – training, in the most basic sense.

the distancing step also works for emotions. i always try and see emotions as a vehicle for information, usually things too fast or too subtle for my conscious mind to recognize. the problem is that the emotional information is messy, interconnected and riddled with triggers and potential landmines.  filtering that can be tricky, to say the least. the first step is often trying to decode your feelings, to try and separate the information from the vehicle. i always try and think about usefulness; years ago i saw a poster that read – you are the result of 4 billion years of evolutionary success, fucking act like it –  this stuck with me, thinking about emotion as being something selected for, something that provided an edge, and in accepting that, learning to use it as a tool. cravings, frustration, mood swings, the knee jerk like/dislike that overcomes you when you first meet a person – these are usually indications of patterns, of imbalances, warning lights preparing you for what is about to come next. these are teaching moments, if you can recognize them. it is simply your body trying to communicate with you, trying to get something. the “what” is the information, the emotion is the vehicle –  it is just another form of training to teach yourself not just to react, but to respond to these feelings with curiosity, with pragmatism and attention to detail. the emotion is often simply an envelope, by creating distance we can avoid being overwhelmed and make use of the contents.

2. get uncomfortable

station515 073bi was once told that the secret to being comfortable in bad situations is to realize how uncomfortable you can be and still survive. this is a discussion is about limits; about thresholds. that whole “the work never gets easier, you just get harder” mentality. it is about stress and response. we are adaptive creatures, our bodies do what they have to and nothing more. our bodies and our minds seek comfort, they seek stasis, they will rise only as far as we force them. want to get stronger? tell your body it is not strong enough. tell your body that getting stronger will make your life easier. tell your body that it will be worth it. draw a line in the sand, just out of reach. strive, stretch, work hard and reward yourself. control your growth. like the cultivation of a bonsai tree – bend, but never break, tie off and cut clean, all according to a plan. be a little bit better, every day, every week. make sure you are just a little bit uncomfortable, that you are telling yourself if you were just a little bit stronger, a little bit lighter, a little bit… whatever, that life would be easier.

whether we are aware of it or not, we are always trying to make our lives easier. most times, our initial reaction is to try and alter our environment, it allows us to avoid any personal responsibility, and any of the truly difficult change. we find different surroundings that enable us to maintain our comfortable, familiar behaviors. shitty people move do a different city and carry out the same actions made their current lives unsustainable. only when we ignore that initial flight response, when we tell our bodies that changing the environment is not an option, do we begin to change ourselves. when that stress comes from training or from the gym, our body makes us sore to tell us not to do the thing anymore, to tell us to find an easier way. keep grinding, keep moving forward and it feels like your body accepts that this new stress is now going to be normal. necessary. now the easiest thing to do is to change. to fit. to adapt. if this increase in physical stress is also coupled with ample food and rest, you are essentially telling your body that the change is working. that it is successful. that it is earning an advantage as long as it keeps moving in the direction you tell it.

this increased stress is a little like patience, it never becomes easy, it just gets cheaper. you can handle more stress, larger steps. but mind your spending; overreaching has its cost, and dramatic changes are usually only temporary. willpower is a finite resource – so start small. for example, a study by case western reserve university showed that brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand increased your stamina for focusing on tasks. basically, you are priming your brain – making it a little bit uncomfortable by breaking a habit, but then rewarding it immediately. completing the task relieves the discomfort and prepares it to accept higher levels of temporary discomfort expecting that the reward (completion) will come. managing your spending is critical. a certain level of stress functions as a primer, but too much quickly becomes self sabotaging. some psychologists refer to it as ego depletion –  David McRaney makes a useful analogy – think of your actions as some sort of plane on autopilot, the mere act of steering it, of any variation to the pre- programmed path causes it to burn fuel at a wildly accelerated rate. the first main point is to accept that going anywhere other than exactly where you are headed will be costly and uncomfortable. once that is out of the way, you can start to develop a plan to conserve fuel.

3. embrace ritual

like most things, your willpower is affected by how you individually view it. look at your own life – most often the most self motivated people, the most resilient, don’t see it as anything special. it is normal for them, habitual, comfortable.  it is not a surprise that it is easier to do what we are comfortable with; it is also reasonable that on a long enough time line anything can seem comfortable. a ritual can be thought of as something of a “proto-habit” – it is a deliberate action, undertaken mindfully to create an unconscious action. the simplest example is driving to work – the first time we drive to a new job or meeting place we are constantly looking at addresses and cross streets, checking the clock to make sure we are on schedule, we are moving with purpose and awareness. but make that drive enough times and one day we find ourselves in our driveway at home after work and don’t remember a thing about how we got there, or stranger yet, we show up at work on a Saturday because we took a couple turns and fell into autopilot. our brains are startlingly lazy. conserving energy has always been evolutionary advantageous – our brain automates tasks that it sees as repetitive and makes a “program” of sorts. running a program is cheap, writing a new one is expensive. ritual is simply a method of writing a new program.

willpower is the act of resisting an unconscious action. ritual is a way to consciously construct an action – how we automate and make them unconscious. rituals are used in practically every religion in the world, they are used because they work. a ritual is simply another tool. it can be a checklist, or a way to deal with stress. the keys are being consistent and being deliberate. realize that you are building a program, and the more times you run it, the stronger it will be. the problem is most of us are trying to rewrite programs we have run literally thousands of times. lets say that we can undo 1 year of bad habits with 1 month of perfect behavior. how long will we have to behave before we are back at a level playing field? this is not to be discouraging, it is to give a little perspective. this is a long haul. ritual is the stopgap. it is a measure we can engage between deciding to change and becoming fundamentally different.

4. play to win

quitting is just another habit. the more often you quit the less cognitive dissonance it causes, basically if you quit enough times you start to see yourself as a quitter, and expect that outcome. the same can be true about follow through. stacking the deck – creating situations where you are set up to win can create momentum. i am not talking about t-ball here, they still have to be victories – real, hard fought victories – for this to work.  the idea is to ramp up your goals, to create momentum by making a habit of following through. this is a difficult balance – choosing goals that are hard enough to elicit the proper stress, but reasonable enough to not risk derailment. find out what motivates you – use it. fear or challenge, reward or consequence, the only useless tool here is the one you refuse to use.  this is where things can get interesting, can get mercenary…. make a list of all the things and people in your life, a cost benefit analysis in relation to your goals. what helps and what hurts. who adds to your momentum and who robs you of your energy.

cut accordingly.

5. suffer better 

a good friend sent me a shirt, all it said was “suffer better“. 20140326-IMG_20140316_172318_329needless to say, i appreciate the sentiment.  change is hard. we get it. suffering better can mean a lot of things, one point is to keep our lamentations to a minimum. venting about how hard something is just convinces us that it is difficult and we are special because we are doing it. realize that, in the grand scheme of things,  what you are doing probably isn’t that hard. convince yourself of it. lie to yourself it if you have to. suffering better involves finding a reason, something worth suffering for. it is about framing, seeing the discomfort as something worthy, something to push against, to savor even. your sense of self is a tool here – who do you want to be? do you want to be the person who is constantly bitching about their situation, or the one who quietly handles business? do you want to be the person who quits when things get uncomfortable or the person who follows through with what they say, every time? if you can convince yourself that quitting is more costly, more damaging than following through, the small and momentarily “suffering”, the short term discomfort pales in comparison to accepting that you are not the person you claim to be.

do things that remind you who you want to be. be around people who make you strive to be better. build a self image incompatible with the bullshit you wish to avoid – one brick, one decision at a time. remember that there are some bridges worth burning. remember that the discomfort you feel now is temporary. is worth it. is making it easier for next time. remember that this “suffering” is small. is personal. is yours and yours alone. make it count. make it mean something. have some fucking grace. some humility. work through things. own your mistakes and do better next time. this feeling is the price of change, this is what you asked for. this kind of suffering is merely the cost of becoming the person you wish to be. let it do its work, burn through the layers of bullshit and posturing. difficulty will strip us down, grind and polish and expose us. for what we are. for what we have made of ourselves. take action, take responsibility, and take pride in your work.

 

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this is not suffering. this is empowerment.

 

Conditioning.

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we call it conditioning for a reason.

simply put, physical fitness is boring.

not boring, just not what i am looking for. it is the tool. the hammer, not the house.

physical work is exciting to me not as a goal in itself, but as a tool to craft the type of man i wish to be. it is useful, both as a test and as a grindstone – but like any tool, possessing it is useless. its worth lies in the application.  the beauty of the gym is that we can fine tune the stress – we can push, just right, just to that place where things get scary, just to our breaking point and then hold on, and teach ourselves to improve.  teaching. learning. that is the point here. to become more than we are, to improve in a meaningful way. and that is where things can get messy.

because this is conditioning in its truest sense. deliberately crafting our unconscious response. we change the meaning of commands, we unpack and repack their contents, distill complex neurological responses, train ourselves to react to simple thoughts. we test this, build this, and own this. it was that fact more than anything that made me realize what training could be; what it was, regardless if we recognized it as such.

we must always question the lesson we are sending – both physical, and psychological.  from a physical prospective- what would have to be different to make this workout less stressful? what is the weakest link? am i not strong enough? not fast enough? does my form degrade as i fatigue? what breaks and am i fucking fixing it? but those are the simple questions. easy to measure. easy to test. it is the other conditioning that intrigues me more.  how are you training yourself to respond to stress? how do you respond when things are scary or difficult? do you move the goalpost? change the work to fit your strengths? are you training yourself to quit? or to redefine a loss as a win? how do you respond to failure? to success?  are you training to get better or to convince yourself that where you are is acceptable? even desirable? simply put, are you becoming the person you wish to be? it is difficult for those without true outside tests to avoid this trap. it is so easy to stay in our comfort zone, to delude ourselves into thinking that we are doing something difficult, something new, when we are simply spinning our wheels.

vigilance. vigilance and hard questions. friends and training partners who call you out. force you to defend your actions. question your logic and your conclusions. arguments over dinner and uncomfortable silences. be aware of the behavior you are reinforcing. realize that there are many forms of uncomfortable, and even more ways to hide. the gym is an experiment, it is an environment where failure comes pretty cheaply. utilize that fact, understand that these failures are only teaching you. understand that your fears are probably the greatest indicators of where you should be headed. all things have their place, every tool is useful in its own way. but just because it is your favorite tool does not mean it is the best one for the job. scarcity breeds necessity, and as soon as you “like” a particular lift or exercise or energy pathway, you are probably at the point of diminishing returns*. try new things. fail. leave your favorite tool on the shelf, go without it for a bit and see what you can come up with. after all, this is the gym, for 99% of the population it is really unimportant. what is important is how we let it affect us. who we become and how deliberate and invested in that construction.  are you using it to its full potential, or are you just reinforcing your comfort zone?

be honest, and make better decisions.

-the station

 

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these are merely the tools. you are the weapon.

*this is specifically addressing the gym rats (myself included) who do not have a specific sport that we are training for.  sport – specifically competition – tends to wash away the misconceptions we create about how “fit” we really are. the road, the mat, or the mountain is a true test of your plan and your execution, as long as you are still willing to learn.

charlatan, martyr, hustler.

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see the poster that sparked this whole thing here

 

i have heard it attributed to many people, but usually it is bukowski –  “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

this phenomenon has actually been studied and is formally referred to as the Dunning-Kruger effect. a quick and dirty summary basically states that confidence is often a result of ignorance. that when we learn a skill we suddenly begin to understand the requirements of mastery, and gain an understanding of the depth of the field. to put it simply – when someone says they are good at something it usually means that they have no idea what being “good” at that thing really means. they are, as mr. roth would put it, fucking charlatans.

we all know these people. mouthy, arrogant, and often with some level of success. there are always people willing to believe. people who want to believe. believe in shortcuts, in promises, in a quick path to greatness. the worst part about charlatans is that they are not called out enough. they operate, in part, because of the martyrs.

the martyr is one who has some competency, or at least the willingness to work, but hides their knowledge.  while infinitely preferable to charlatans, i am starting to get tired of the martyr game. i feel it is a stage of growth. the swing of a pendulum. children are the first charlatans, we all once made grand plans and wild promises. as we aged we became more realistic (at least most did) and decided to grind it out. the problem is that too many good people are unable to articulate their skill set. too many competent people downplay themselves to the point of dishonesty, and because of that allow the bullshitters to thrive. this can be from the fear of looking like a charlatan, the fear of not measuring up to their peers, it could be a number of things – but the fact is as long as they are quiet they are not fulfilling their potential.

the third stage, the third column in the poster is the hustler. talk and action exist on a 1:1 basis. not a braggart. not a boaster. just a person who does exactly as they promise. who doesn’t feel the need to play up or down their abilities. someone who knows the field and their place in it. this is what i aspire towards. this is my goal. to be a true hustler.

it’s not arrogance if it is true. it is possible to know how far from mastery you are, and still admit that you are better than 90% of the population. it is fair to call people out on their shit. it is actually helpful. it is ok to be competent at something.

almost every time someone tells me they want to do something. to be “good”, i ask them about scale. about how “good” they want to be and what kind of costs they are willing to incur. in general, standards are dismal and i honestly feel if you are willing to do something, anything, with some intention for an hour a day you will probably be in the 90th percentile within a year. maybe a lot sooner. now, if you want to excel… that is where it can get expensive.

being a hustler doesn’t mean you are the best. it just means you are honest. that you can take criticism, and dish it out. we have a copy of that poster hanging in the gym, as a reminder. a reminder to own your victories as well. we all travel through stages. this work is about constant growth, re-evaluation and stimulus-response. the physical work we do is an analog to the greater lessons we wish to learn, of the changes we wish to make. make small steps. build your confidence one well fought victory at a time. own your victories. own your defeats. take heed, correct the course, and keep moving forward.

-the station.

 

“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.” -Bertrand Russell

also worth remembering: it has been a long road, and most things have been done and said before. don’t get hung up on it, and if you can’t be original, at least be sincere.

negative.

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we have a saying in the gym – it’s not mean if its true.

we become who we hang around. on a subtle level, the people with whom we spend the most time create our expectations, our normal – water seeks its own level. more actively the people we care about shape us. they challenge us, they pay attention and ask questions. they have expectations.

there is a balance to be sought, but in general too many social relationships tend towards acceptance rather than challenge.  people (for the most part) are quick to silently accept bullshit excuses and, after long enough, we start to believe the same stupid, made-up reasons we hide behind – we convince ourselves to stay the same. too many excuses only seem valid because they continue to go unchallenged. there is a value in negativity, in challenge. there is a value in learning to defend yourself, your ideas. there is also value in learning to accept being called out. to be thankful for the friend who points out your weakness, the crack in your argument. in the art world, it is called a crit. a critique. stand before your peers, display your work, and hold on because you are about to be questioned, challenged, and torn apart. it can get ugly. tears and broken friendships – but in the end you know more…

knowledge, and the will to act on it. encouragement as well as challenge. a group of peers who expect you to improve every day. friends who will not accept half measures or mediocrity. the discussion has been going on in the media – about how easy it is to only see stories that reinforce your current beliefs. how many of us seek challenge in our social circles? or even tolerate it? how many people have you heard make the claim that they are done with negative people? that they will not allow negativity in their life? there are very few things in life that are one dimensional. there is a reason the most common answer i give people is “it depends”. there are many forms of negativity, and learning to listen, learning to accept challenge (and challenge in return) can make us all better.

we need negativity. we need critics. there is no reason life should be easy. it should be valuable. it should be worth it. encouragement is nice,  at the beginning. once the goal matures from “start” to “improve” it becomes apparent that positive reinforcement is an emotional asset and (mostly) a tactical waste. positive reinforcement gives us precious little information. challenge, however…. negativity will show us how we are weak. misplaced negativity will show us the agenda of our attacker. it is all information, and is valuable – if we use it.

edit. remove. replace. be aware of your surroundings and of their effect on you. have an agenda. reinforce said agenda in every facet of your life. learn your social value. learn your cost. learn to say no. no. NO. some of you need to learn to be selfish. some of you need to pull your head out of your ass. all of us need more people to tell us which camp we are in at any particular moment.

here is a new years resolution i can get behind – defend yourself.

 

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the weight never lies. challenge and honesty. the opportunity to improve. all it requires is the willingness to meet it half way. to listen. and to offer challenge in return.

the right to ask…

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sta·tion

verb
1.
Put in or assign to a specified place for a particular purpose

 

this is not an accident.

all things have their order. there are stages of progression, requirements for advancement… too often though, people put the cart before the horse. we want so badly that we forget what we have. where we are. our hearts and heads tweak tiny knobs as if we have earned the right, like adjusting the star on a tree we never bothered to put up…

i am not being clear…

this is the time of year for plans. for quick tips and ten easy ways. we make promises. we plot and we scheme… we spend so much time looking for the advantage, the secret, the shortcut. we want to feel special. we want a program…

the truth is, if you suck at something you don’t need a program, you just need to do it. seriously… if there is something that you are terrible at, something you want to learn how to do, you probably do not need lessons or a coach – you just need to show up and do the thing. sure, it helps to ask questions, to watch someone who is truly proficient, but chances are you are not even good enough to make use of formal training. this is not an insult – all things have their order. their cost. there are big, simple lessons that are only really learned in the doing.  people call me because they want to do a triathlon  – not win one, not place better, but simply finish one. they do not need a gym; they need a bike, a pair of running shoes, and a place to swim. they just need to learn not to quit. over and over, not to quit. make it a habit, not to quit. they would do well to have a friend to work with them, but that’s it. it is startling how proficient you can become when you stop looking for shortcuts and start spending that time and energy on doing the fucking work.

the fitness industry, the diet industry, so much is built on selling plans to people who will never execute them. on cashing in on someones hopes instead of telling them the truth, telling them to step back and build a bit of a foundation. dont get me wrong, plans often help – but in this age of cell phones and youtube, i dont believe anyone who claims that they cant do something because of lack of information. we over think things. we paralyze ourselves with data points and search for the newest trick, for something to give us an edge – forgetting that we are trying to sharpen a tool that we don’t even possess. to put it simply, when you truly suck at something it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters that you do it. if you want to get better at writing – write. if you want to be a better runner – run. dont talk about it. dont post about it on the fucking internet. just do the thing. do it a lot. do it for a couple months, silently, diligently, consistently. some days will be hard. you will have questions. try and work through it, try and solve your own fucking problems. do your fucking homework and then ask someone for help.  having that base will allow you to make use of information instead of simply consuming it. you may also be surprised by how many charlatans there are, so called experts are selling advice on shit they know nothing about. being able to ask good questions will help you spot the bullshitters, and it will get you noticed by people who can actually help. willingness to work will open doors. will make the right people take you seriously. because the people who know what they are doing are busy. their time has value. they know it, and nothing is more offensive to a busy person than wasting their time.

 

20131007-station515 044supposedly, Einstein suggested we “make things as simple as possible, and no simpler” things are just as easy and as difficult as that.

interval

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warmup:

2×5 wall squats
2×5 RDL
2×10 squats

workout:

6 way BB complex – 3 rds

2:00 AD 15/15 – over/unders3:00 rest
3 rds

100x KB swings

 

station515 173the man of steel mass gain program starts week 3 tomorrow. it has been interesting, a new stressor – going to failure, the food, the sleep… it wears differently, i am not used to dealing with this specific type of discomfort. if for no other reason, i am glad to have taken this path…

Recovery

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workout:

1 hour on the airdyne bike, easy pace.

 

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the gym is important to me. wildly important. it is important because i see it as a transformative process. to truly transform, to grow with direction, one must control the environment in which the process unfolds. typically, as this project has grown, etiquette has been a “soft lesson”. water seeks its own level. inviting one person to join an established group has been an effective way to uphold certain behaviors and discourage others. i find this to be the ideal situation, learning by coming to your own conclusions, by understanding as opposed to being told….

there has been growth lately. alarming growth. and there is danger in growing too fast – the risk of diluting the pool, of loosing what made you successful in the first place…

since i first saw it, i have appreciated the video 10 bullets. the idea of working to code. it may become required watching, but in the mean time this is an attempt to outline the code in place at the station.

 

sacred space.

show up on time to your scheduled sessions and to no others without express permission. the space exists solely for those individuals working. if you arrive early the space does not belong to you yet. minimize your presence. do not interfere. no one wants to hear you laugh or talk about your day when they are fighting through their work. respect the space. do not wander aimlessly. if you need to use the restroom, stick to the perimeter. move quickly and quietly. do not try and read the board or figure out your workout. reading it will not make it any easier, but i reserve the right to make it harder if you are willing to interrupt someone elses work in order to try and ease your own curiosity.

 

respect the signal.

each workout is designed to send a signal. sometimes multiple signals. this is about physical fitness. this is about behavior modification. simply put – always remember why you are doing this. we occasionally use weights and percentages in an attempt to send a specific signal – we use those numbers as a guess because most of us lack the self knowledge to understand the appropriate weight intuitively. when we are working on certain attributes – power, strength, endurance, or any combination – we are trying to send a signal. be willing to use an appropriate stressor. check your ego at the door.

 

struggle well.

we get it, the work is hard… the gym is about stress response, and not just physical. this is all training, it is about building habits – and not just physical. we are training ourselves to respond to stress – how do you want to respond? do you want to complain? do you want to throw a tantrum? do you want to yell and scream and be dramatic? do you want to train yourself to add stress to a stressful situation or do you want to respond with confidence and grace? do not focus on other peoples workouts to try and escape your own. recognize your delay tactics, and fucking stop it. do not drop weights unless it is necessary. do not lie down after an effort unless absolutely necessary. to quote a friend and mentor “show up, ask questions, don’t quit. ”

 

struggle well.

the station.

 

power-endurance

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warmup:

5:00 easy AD
5:00 30/30 (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds less hard)

workout:

2:00 work, :30 to switch

gimme-gimme +40# of chain10x bulgarian bag spins each direction
2×25-45# DB bridge press on BOSU (rest must be taken at full extension)

5 rounds, rest 3:00 between each.

IMG_3678to execute a gimme-gimme: sprint with a 30′ fat rope over one shoulder (extra weight hooked to the opposite end)
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turn, square your feet, and coil the rope by pulling hand over hand (enough weight will reinforce proper body mechanics

 

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when you get to the end, throw rope onto the opposite shoulder and repeat.

 

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kevin recently started training regularly again, he was feeling “soft” from working a desk job and answering phones all day…IMG_3641

a few months back in the saddle and the hard edges start to come back

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mass gain

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oh the irony…

in all the years i have been training my goal has always to be smaller. my focus has been on strength and power output. recovery ability and work tolerance. my size was simply the packaging, and the less i weighted the less i had to carry around. i loved to push my power to weight ratio. i loved to be underestimated…

when i worked at anytime fitness guys would ask me about mass gain all the time, and frankly i was kind of a dick to most of them. i would ask them why they wanted to get bigger? what were they training for and were they willing to do the work to actually get results? if i was in a particularly pugilistic mood i would ask them what weight they considered “heavy” for a deadlift or a squat… because of this it is a surprise to a lot of the people that i train now that i am embarking on a mass gain program… this post is to explain a bit of the why and how.

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why:  short answer – because it will be hard and it will make me uncomfortable. the long answer holds a bit more, but not much… one other part is i hate giving secondhand advice. i hate to tell someone i train that “this is what i have heard”. in some cases it is unavoidable. in this case, it is something that i have the opportunity to do, and it was about time i took it. another reason is the self imposed discipline. what most people dont realize about mass gain in the 6-8 hours a week spent in the gym is the easy part. the hours themselves are grueling, but if you cannot push hard for an hour a day then we are going to make that  your goal until further notice – no. the truly hard part is the other 160 hours a week. 10 hours of sleep a night. 5000 calories a day. foam roll. deep tissue work. the support structure to make a meaningful change – especially in a short time – requires absolute commitment. or at least it does if you want to be successful.

i do also have a deep appreciation for the transformation. the experiment. to carve out 2 months and set one goal. to focus and to weigh every decision. to bring your entire will, your very being to bear on a singular outcome – and to see what happens…

bench
 court failure.

how: it should be no surprise to anyone that i am using a plan written by the team over at GYM JONES based on the training they put Henry Cavill through to prep for his recent role as superman. specifically – well, it is not my place to give specifics – but it is about consistent signals. about convincing your body that it will be worth the cost to tack on size. it is about filling out a “sleep journal” every morning. keeping a food journal every day. it is about examining relationships. asking questions. fine tuning…. mostly it is about food and failure. it is about heavy and often. it is about recovering and repeating. and as Rob says, it is also about the fact that there has never been a superhero with narrow shoulders.

pullup 
force. change.
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grind it out. dont quit.
the results. bench press at 135# till failure chased with
strict dead-hang pullups to failure. rest 3:00. 5 rounds.