Fitness Message – The Blog

Mums the word.

I had just finished working my back. Deads, pull-ups, rows. At the end of it I was both energized and pooped.

 Adam, the front desk guy, saw me and said, “Tom, you’re looking good”. Either I actually didn’t hear him or, I wanted to hear those words again (subconsciously, of course). So I said, “what was that”? He said it again, adding that I looked “cut”.

You know what?… That made me feel GOOD! For two reasons. First, Adam didn’t add “for a man your age” to his compliment.
And secondly, getting a complimented is unusual, especially from another guy.

As a rule, men don’t compliment the physical appearance of other men. “Great putt”, or “good lift” is okay, but complimenting another man’s body in our culture, is most often, taboo.

Those of us who are driven to get, and to stay fit, spend a lot of; time, dollars, and energy, to do the thing we love to do…. work out. And we don’t do it to make our doctor happy, we do it because we want to look and feel good! Yes, for the opposite sex, but also, for ourselves. When we like how we look, we relate to the world in a better way. We are more self assured, and confident, and our self-talk is positive.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind over-hearing some occasional, sincere, compliments in the gym. We all work hard to better ourselves. 

Let’s reinforce each other with a little praise.

 

 

 

I’m going to make an un-studied guess and say that only 2% of the population of the entire United States can do even just one bodyweight (BW) pull-up. I will further guess that less than 5% of all the members of Lifetime Fitness Gym, even though most members are hard working, regular exercisers, I will guess that less than 5% of those people can do a set of 12 good pull-ups!

Just looking at the exercise you would expect the pull-up to work all the usual “pulling” muscles (latts, traps, delts, subscapularis, forearms and biceps) but you might not give much thought to the fact that pull-ups also engage: hamstrings, glutes, adductor magnus, pectoralis minor, and a multitude of “core” muscles .

So… if pull-ups give us so much “bang for the buck” and work all those muscles, why do people avoid doing them?

We both know the answer to that. Bodyweight pull-ups are very tough to do. And unlike other “tough to do” exercises, with pull-ups, you can’t start at a lower weight and work your way up. Either you can do one, or… you can’t. In fact, the BW pull-up is as much a strength tester as it is a strength builder. Being able to do pull-ups gives testimony to the fact that you have put in your sweat-time and that you have achieved for yourself, a favorable strength to weight ratio.

So… how do you get started doing pull-ups?

Phase 1: build some base strength by working the back muscles using traditional bodybuilding exercises. Those include; latt cable pull-down, seated cable row, T-bar row, single arm row. Work heavy enough to fail at about 8 reps. Once you can do a set of 8 latt pull-downs with about two thirds of your bodyweight, advance to phase 2.

Phase 2: begin doing “assisted” and “hop-up” pull-ups.

How to do assisted and hop-ups:

1) Assisted: This method requires the help of a training partner. First, do as many pull-ups on you own as possible, even if it is just one or two sloppy ones. Then, have your training partner step in and give you an assist by lifting some of your weight (you pull up the rest) to the top part of the pull-up where you then perform a negative contraction as you lower yourself, very slowly, resisting all the way, to the bottom of the movement. Repeat this for reps (or until your training partner poops out).

 

Assisted Pull-Ups

 

2) Hop-ups: this is my favored method because you can do it with no outside help. First, you perform as many pull-ups as possible on your own, even if it is just one or two sloppy ones, then, use your legs to do a ”hop-up” off of a bench to the top of the pull-up bar, where you then perform a negative contraction as you lower yourself, very slowly, resisting all the way, to the bottom of the movement. Repeat for reps.

Hop Ups

Over time, assisted pull-ups and hop-ups will increase your strength and ability to do full pull-ups on your own.

I promise you…  the first time you do a perfect pull-up on your own, you will be smiling from ear to ear! And you will have every right to do so because you will have joined the 2% of us who CAN!

Your personal trainer, Tom.

 

Two stories for you: 

1)Bill Morgan, a kinesiology professor at the University ofWisconsin tells a story about an Ivy League, record holding, pole-vaulter.  As good as this athlete was, his coaches and teammates could see that each time he cleared the bar, he did so with a foot to spare! But when they would raise the bar up, even just an inch, the pole-vaulter could not make it and would hit the bar. One day, when he wasn’t looking, teammates raised the bar six inches! This time, the man cleared it! Again, with a foot to spare! 

2) A runner toward the end of a triathlon was going all-out to finish the event and set for herself, a new time record. Even though she was going at her fastest-ever pace, when she detected another runner gaining on her, somehow, she was able to go even faster, in order to beat her competitor to the finish line. 

What was going on there? 

Obviously both athletes had the ability to achieve more than they thought was possible. Each had spent countless hours working on their skills. But as well trained, physically, as they were, it was their subconscious mind that would make the difference.

We all know that everything we do is the result of both our physical and our mental self. And we know, too, that if we doubt our ability to do a thing, we will almost always fail at doing it. Our mind is a critical factor for success. But few of us spend time training our mind to support our ambitions. 

So how do we “trick” our mind to stop holding us back? 

Many athletes use a technique known as “disassociation”. Dr Morgan, from the vaulter story, tested disassociation in a research study after hearing of Tibetan monks who reportedly ran 300 miles in 30 hours, for an average speed of six minutes miles! The trick  these monks used was to fixate on a distant object, put their breathing in sync with their locomotion, and mentally say a mantra each time their foot hit the ground. To test the theory, Dr. Morgan’s conducted a study that statistically proved that there was a significant increase in endurance with treadmill runners who would say the word “down” as their foot hit the tread. 

What does this mean for us “average” aerobic junkies? 

Make disassociation work for you by taking your mind outside of your running body. Ignore the discomfort and don’t think about the miles still to go. Working with hundreds of marathon runners, Dr Morgan found that every one of them had some form of disassociation strategy. One concentrated on pumping his arms, many counted, others stepped in sync with their breathing. Any of these rhythmic thoughts and actions can have the effect of putting us into a light trance. And, hopefully, the miles will fly by.   

What about us strength-training “muscle-heads”? 

Disassociation can improve strength training, and, it is often used.

As you get ready for a lift, don’t think about how heavy it is or what you did the last time. Visualize it happening in your mind. Keep positive thoughts. Say “I can do this”, totally believe it, see it again in your mind again, then, tell your muscles to turn on! And GO! 

Do not give in to lowered expectations. 

Set up for success: We sometimes insure failure, even before the workout starts. The worst thing to do on “leg” day, for example, would be to remind yourself that you dislike training legs. Someone said “believe it = achieve it”. Set up for success by telling yourself; “legs today… I LOVE training legs”! 

Mid-workout danger: Sometimes we lower expectations in the middle of a workout. On a cold, windy day you are having a fairly good run. But you begin thinking about the cold, and that you must be crazy to run on a day like this. Suddenly, you feel very cold, and tired, and you want to stop. Had you disassociated yourself from the weather, the outcome may have been different.

Subconscious danger: Those around us can impact our expectations, on a subconscious level. You’re feeling good on a run when your partner complains and is falling back. Suddenly, we start to feel fatigued too. Or, our weight-training buddy failed to make his lift, we begin to consider the possibility that we too, could fail. In each scenario, expectations were lowered! 

Solution; Disassociate, visualize, trust in yourself, and              EXPECT to succeed.  

What’s the down side?  Worse case: injury.

There is always a risk of injury when we push ourselves beyond our usual limit. Look, there is a fine line between pushing hard enough to trigger body adaptation, and pushing ourselves into an injury. Problem is that our limits can change from day to day. We all have days that are “great” and we have days that are “just okay”.  And knowing where that line is on any particular day can be uncertain. 

So how do I know what to do?   Know your history and use it as a guide to set your higher expectations. Always do a thorough warm-up. Always use safety equipment and spotters. Always back off when anything more than ordinary muscle soreness occurs. 

I wish you the greatness we all deserve!

Tom Fortunato, your personal trainer.

 

And this is my first article… Am I nervous?

Naaah! I’m a fitness trainer! I don’t get nervous. I sometimes get stupid, but never nervous.

When I first decided to replace Fitness Message Newsletter with Fitness Message – The Blog, I thought I could do the whole thing myself. Hedging my bets, I borrowed “Blogging for Dummies”. That book may as well have been written in Mandarin! I just was not getting it.

As I said above, I sometimes get stupid, but then, I get smart!

I got smart, and called up my friend Scott Fegar, who runs SKE Computer Learning Services (see blog “links”), and thank goodness I did. With the exception of the articles, most of what you see here was a result of Scott’s work. (Thanks Buddy!)

 

Fitness Message – The Blog

What is it?

Fitness Message – The Blog, is an interactive site where we as a fitness community can; share stories, ask questions, and tell answers. Most of our conversations will be fitness related, but we may occasionally share the sometimes deep, sometimes hilarious, conversations that friends have while working out, or at other times.

I hope you will check in with us once in a while to read new posts, and to add comments to existing posts.  (Do this at work, or when you are supposed to be doing homework. Your boss or parents will never know.)

 

Add comments to any blog post.

Comments are appreciated and will help keep Fitness Message, a living entity.

But…  you must follow the rules.

Rules for adding a comment: Have fun and say what you think, but know that I will delete spam or anything that I feel is offensive. Also, use your personal name or a handle, not a business names or URL which I will consider spam.

Learn how to add a comment by clicking one of the  “How to add a comment” buttons which are located just below photos at top of Blog, and in “Pages” section in the right column of the blog.

Tom

 

Okay new readers of

Fitness Message - The Blog

here is a challenge for you.

Practice adding a comment to this article by answering the question below. There are no “wrong” answers. Be as serious or as funny as you like (funny is better).

Here’s the question:   “What made you decide to get fit?”

A few answers to get you started…..

        A photo of me freaked me out

        My doctor scared the heck out of me

        I look like a sausage in clothes

 

Okay… now it’s your turn.  Click “Comment” below and type your answer. Tomorrow, check back to see what others have said.

In the article “The Almighty Pull-Up”, found in the “Exercises” category of this Fitness Message Blog, I talk about how tough pull-ups are to do. Well… how would you feel if you were challenged to do 30 of those suckers? 

That is exactly what I do at FitMAX class from time to time.

In case you don’t know, FitMAX is a non-competitive, fun, group training experience that blends speed, strength, endurance, balance and aerobic training in a workout that will sometimes require you to dig deep within yourself to find the drive to continue when you body wants to quit. The workout is scalable to most fitness levels but even so, they are challenging. Intentionally so.

And yes, we completed our 30 pull-ups. 

The way we did this was by doing exactly what I described in the pull-up article. That is, we each did as many pull-ups as we could on our own and then we relied on team members to assist us to complete our 30 reps. 

It was tough, and challenging, and we were all sore the next day, but working as a team built within the group, a feeling of partnership. It was such a good feeling the first time we did this, that my heart swelled like a proud parent!  

Are you looking for a workout challenge? Stop in for FitMAX, held at Lifetime Fitness, 9:30 AM most Saturdays. Phone me for more info.

I promise you that FitMAX will give you a run for your money! And speaking of money… FitMAX is free for your first visit, and reasonable after that. 

Hope you join us, soon.

Your personal trainer, Tom