Month: January 2018

“Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?”  This was a question asked of me in class recently.  This is certainly what we have been taught over the recent decades.  In short, my answer is more of a “depends.”

There is no definitive research on this question.  A popular approach to dieting presently is “intermittent fasting”—restricting food consumption to a small window of time, usually less than 6-8 hours.  The idea is to deplete the liver of stored glycogen and force the body to rely on stored fat for energy.  It is a form a ketogenic diet.  There may be some health benefits—particularly pertaining to brain function—but it is a challenge to get through the day without eating.  There is also some question as to its effects on physical performance.

In my experience and opinion, it is more a matter of carbohydrate management.  The typical American breakfast is heavy on carbohydrates—the bad kind, like pancakes, cereals, breads, and fruit juices (and sugar, in general).  These spike insulin levels leading to sugar crashes and midmorning hunger—and overall excess calorie intake.  If one is exercising hard in the morning, these carbs are less detrimental, indeed, necessary (provided the remaining calories for the day are within the target calories).  More so, they are essential for those who are trying to gain muscle weight.  If losing fat is the goal, though, breakfast is important—but not like we have been taught.

The key is the choices we make.  Whether we “break fast” early or later, we should start with protein and healthy fat.  These are more sustaining and set the metabolism on burning fat.  For most, with careful meal planning and the distraction of work or school, it is possible to reserve the bulk of the day’s calories for the end when one is more likely to “binge”.

I find buttered coffee a good start to the day.  If you drink coffee, adding a tablespoon of grass-fed butter and coconut oil gives it some added flavor and fills you for the better part of the morning.  At about 220 kcal, it is a rather low-calorie breakfast.  If some protein is desired, a couple eggs or a whey protein shake can round off the meal.

A light lunch and healthy protein snacks can carry us to dinner.  Most of us are busy enough that we barely have time to think about eating during the day.  If we are tempted to eat during the day, the key is to keep healthy snacks handy.  Avoid the fast food/junk food trap and stick to low-carb (low glycemic) foods.  Save the higher glycemic carbs for the post-workout window.

I am not a fan of the ketogenic diet or hard-core intermittent fasting for those involved in intense exercise.  If trying to lose fat weight, these approaches can help keep the diet hypocaloric.  The key is to find what works for your circumstances.  Remember: calorie balance is most important, followed by macro-balance, and, then, nutrient timing—in order of magnitude of significance.  Managing breakfast is important in setting the course for the day. 

Be your best today: be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

Appreciation.  Gratitude is essential.  As we go through our days, we have the opportunity to embrace what comes and accept that it is all part of our path.

I have written several times about trusting the path we are on.  I had a conversation recently (I have had it several times) about accepting everything that has happened in one’s life—good or bad—without regret.  I like to call this “grattitude”.  As Dan Gable puts it: “Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have.”

It is easy to dwell on what we don’t have or what we perceive to be going poorly in our lives.  In reality, we have what we are supposed have and be in the circumstances we are supposed to be in (at least for the moment).  As we look back over our lives, we can see that these events have brought us to where we are.  Moreover, these events have an effect on the lives we touch (and, in turn, the lives those lives touch).

I struggle often with my path.  Inevitably, though, I am forced to consider what is going on around me.  The bible teaches that “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).  It is my experience that this is true.  It is always true—as hard as it might be to accept sometimes.  What I have learned is that I am not at the center of the Universe and “I am third”.  So, I am learning, and I am appreciative.

Carpe momento!

“You can’t control everything, but you can control a lot.  Keep the unknowns to a minimum.  You should be completely confident with what you can do and should have very few question marks.  Have backup plans for any question marks you may have.”—Dan Gable

Unknowns.  We cannot control everything that happens to us.  There is little certainty in life.  Nevertheless, we have to embrace the unknown and live outside our comfort zone.

The unknown can restrain us or excite us.  It is a matter of choice.  In the face of uncertainty, one needs to prepare for the possibilities—to remove the question marks.

Confidence gives us the strength to face the unknowns.  We “gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face” (Eleanor Roosevelt).  So, we must face our fears and, simply, be our best today.

Carpe momento!

“Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.”—Charles de Gaulle

My friends at Wrestleology.com recently shared the above meme.  It struck me as a reminder that most of us are unwilling to pay the price of hard work.  Now, I can’t say that I want cauliflower ears (most wrestlers really don’t, I would believe), but I am envious of what they represent—years of hard work and dedication.  Cauliflower ears come from putting the long hours in the wrestling room practicing and battling with one’s training partner.  So, “Don’t worry.  You never will.” suggests that one is not likely to have what it takes to get a wrestler’s ears.

A number of terms ago, I was asked by a student how to respond to a woman who says she “doesn’t want big muscles.”  Ordinarily, I would respond with references to testosterone, genetics, etc., but this particular day caught me in a sarcastic mood, and I responded: “Tell her she isn’t willing to put in the work.”  The more I considered my response, the more satisfied I was with its accuracy.  Sure, genes and hormones play a part, but the reality is that people with big muscles have put in a lot of work to get them.  If you don’t want big muscles, you don’t have to work very hard to not get them.

The reality is that any great success comes with scars, bruises, humility, and “cauliflower ears”.  We all want to be successful, but very few are willing to put in the effort it takes to get there.  So, when we look at “successful” people, do we see the road they have travelled or just the laurels of success?  If we want success, we have to accept all that it requires—including cauliflower ears.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow!

Carpe momento!

Prevention.  Prevention requires foresight.  Preparing for success is invariably preventing failure.  Preventing failure requires that one understand the potential causes of failure.  Thus, to succeed we must allow ourselves to fail.  Sound confusing?

In practicing for sport or anything challenging in life, we have to know what can happen when we don’t execute perfectly and/or the opposition counters our efforts (as we should expect they will).  Remember, “Murphy’s Law”?  Thus, we need to exercise every possible scenario.  Where we are vulnerable, we need a defense.

Prevention is everywhere in life.  We (should) prevent injury or disease.  We (should) prevent the unexpected.  We (should) guard our weaknesses.  Success is simply preventing failure.

We should not enter any opportunity ill-prepared.  Seeking well-centeredness (i.e., Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social preparedness) is our best prevention.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

Help.  As I consider my thoughts on the “Gable Trained” principles.  If find it challenging to not repeat what I have written previously.  Partly, I find the principles to be very much in line with the well-centered fitness principles about which I have been writing for quite some time.  Additionally, the Gable Trained Principles all time together in some way–specifically, mentors, communication, examples, and teamwork are inseparable from the principle of “help”.

Brian Tracy has said, “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”  When we look to help others, invariably others will be willing to help us.  The practice of mutual support makes all parties better.  There is a certain synergy that comes when we work as a team and collaborate.  If we look only to help others when there is some reciprocal benefit, we miss the point of helping.

The irony is that we don’t have to ask, “What’s in it for me?”  There will always be a return.  “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want” (Zig Ziglar).  We must all be willing to help someone in need when opportunity presents itself and not worry what we have gain. 

We do not go at anything in life alone.  Maybe it feels like we are alone at times, but there is always someone willing to help.  Sometimes, we just have to ask.  Asking for help takes humility.  It takes admitting that we need to get better.  The thing is, we can only get better if we have help.

In sport, the athlete who seeks out tougher competition gets better.  The athlete who does not risk failure does not improve.  Likewise, the successful athlete identifies his or her weaknesses and works on these.  The successful athlete has a coach and training partners.  There is no athlete who has been labeled the “greatest of all time” who did not have help.  Likewise, success in all areas of life requires help.

We must not only seek help, but we must acknowledge it, as well.  Practice grattitude!  Give and receive help in equal measure.  Live to improve yourself and to improve others.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow!

Carpe momento!

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”—Pat Riley

Excellence.  Vince Lombardi said: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”  The pursuit of excellence is the very heart of “be your best today; be better tomorrow.”  Certainly, it is epitomized by Dan Gable and Iowa Wrestling.

What are we here for if not to be excellent?  Sadly, though, we tend to want to be excellent in areas other than those in which we are gifted.  We each have very specific talents.  We need to be excellent—(extra)ordinary—in these.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).  There is no room here for anything less than excellence.  As I write my thoughts on the “Gable Trained” principles, I find a significant amount of overlap.  I find myself wanting to repeat myself.  All of these principles (mentors, simplicity, communication, consequences, focus, examples, teamwork, adversity, improving, remembering, peaking, talent, excellence, help, prevention, unknowns, appreciation, tools, current, normal, victory, recovery, and the longer, the longer) relate to one another in countless ways.  I find it interesting that, of this list, “talent” sits at the middle, followed by “excellence”.  Central to one’s success is talent.  Excellence is beyond average—it is beyond the “successful side of mediocre”.  Excellence is taking our talents to new heights and beyond.

There is nothing successful about merely doing that which you are capable of doing.  Excellence is taking one’s talents and opportunity and developing them.  With talent comes expectation.  Excellence exceeds expectations.  It requires hard work and dedication.  It requires expecting more of one’s self than others expect.

For some, it may seem unduly stressful to have expectations of excellence.  That is a pity.  Our expectations must never be unreasonable, but they must extend our reach.

Ralph Marston wrote that “excellence is not a skill, it is an attitude.”  I would say it is a grattitude.  Excellence is an expression of gratitude for our blessedness.  If one has a talent—and we have many—one should grow and use his/her talent.  We are not here to be mediocre or to hide our talents.  We are here to grow them and to use them.  Booker T. Washington told us that “excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way”.  In other words, be (extra)ordinary!

Be your best today; be better tomorrow!

Carpe momento!

O.K., the title might not be what you think.  Hopefully, it caught some attention.  No, I am referring to “WOD” or the concept of the “workout of the day” that has become quite popular in fitness.

My students know well that I am not a fan of the WOD.  True, it has some benefit in the general sense.  For example, team coaches might plan workouts as such—that is, in a more broad, all-inclusive fashion.  These are purposeful, however, and should be well thought out.  Your average WOD at Joe’s Gym—scrawled on a whiteboard at the start of the day—is not necessarily so.  Too often these are overly general and simplified—and often biased by the trainer’s own likes and interests.  It neglects one or more of the important principles of adaptation—in particular, specificity and individuality.  Frankly, I find it lazy.

WODs neglect the fact that no two exercisers are the same.  They may have similar needs, but they are different are far too many counts.

Skill.  WODs assume that everyone is able to perform the exercises with the same level of skill and expertise.  That there is a huge gap between beginner and even intermediate opens the door for injury and/or overuse.

Need.  WODs assume that everyone needs to perform the same exercise in the same proportions.  They assume that the individual goals are the same as the trainer’s.  In reality, the exercises need to be prescribed on the basis of individual need.  Otherwise, we waste time doing one less necessary activity at the expense of another more critical activity (“opportunity costs”).

Effectiveness.  Not all WODs are even that effective when it comes to specific adaptations to the component part of fitness.  Many, for example, are so general that they benefit overall fitness sub-optimally but no specific area of fitness optimally.  I have a great struggle with the “Tabata” label that gets thrown around a lot.  “Tabata”?  You can’t handle Tabata!  (To be read aloud in one’s best Jack Nicholson impersonation.)  Tabata (i.e., the IE1 protocol proposed by Dr. Izumi Tabata) requires 20-second bursts at 170% of VO₂max—all-out effort.  This intensity can only be reached by extremely well-trained athletes (the original study was performed on Olympic speedskaters, and some were excluded from the study because they could not maintain the intensity for the prescribed duration) and, certainly, cannot be sustained doing burpees, air-squats, and the like.  This is not to say that these workouts (I prefer to label them “high-intensity interval resistance training” or “HIIRT”) aren’t of some benefit.  These are great for fat-burning.  They are less effective for cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle strength/hypertrophy.

Risk of injury.  WODs present a higher risk of injury.  For one, they push people to compete against others.  It is easy to go beyond one’s limits—do one more rep, go faster (despite a breakdown in technique), etc.  They also don’t account for individual differences in joint structure, stability strength, fatigability, etc.  Frankly, they lack a level of control that is necessary to assure that each exercise benefits most optimally.

Responsiveness.  Genetically, we all respond quite differently to exercise stimuli.  Thus, while the WOD may greatly benefit one, it may quite useless for another.  Exercise must be prescribed to the individual.  There is also the matter of recovery.  WODs do not take into account the present training state of the individual (has he/she recovered from the last workout) or the extent to which the individual will be able to adapt to the scheduled workout.  The landmark volumes (see How Much Should I Train? by Drs. Mike Israetel and James Hoffmann)—maximum recoverable volume, minimum effective volume, maximum adaptive volume, and maintenance volume—are pretty much ignored.  WODs also do not consider the effects of other training and non-specific daily activities will have on adaptability.

WODs are not the worst of trends in the fitness industry, and some find them beneficial.  One should be cautioned to examine the place that they have in their exercise and ask whether they are the best use of the available opportunity to achieve one’s goals.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”—John Wooden

Talent.  We all have talents.  It is our responsibility to use them.  If we don’t we are letting others down.

There is an expression in sports: “leave everything on the field” (or in wrestling: “leave everything on the mat”).  Without a doubt, this is what every athlete should do.  I like to relate this to the parable of the talents—if you hold anything back, you are letting down your team.  Every game.  Every practice.  The athlete has to “bring it”.  The same applies to work, relationships, etc.

“Leave everything you have in this room” is the very essence of carpe momento.  It could just well be the “classroom”, the “office”, the “family room”, etc.  It is what I mean when I say: “be your best today; be better tomorrow.”

If ever we are not our best, we cannot be better tomorrow.  We cannot make others better.  We owe it to ourselves and our “team” to give 100% one-hundred percent of the time.

We are all talented in our own way.  We need to accept that we are not all talented in the same ways.  We should never look at another with envy.  We should accept who we are and the path we are on.  We should work to be the best “me” we can be.

Be grateful for your gifts.  They may not be the gifts you desire, but they are the gifts you have.  Use them!

Be the best you can be; be better tomorrow!
Carpe momento!

“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”—Benjamin Franklin

Peaking.  Any athlete knows the importance of peaking.  We want to be at our best performance when it is most critical.  Peaking is seasonal, though, and it is not a one-time opportunity in life.  It is true that peaking can be task specific or circumstantial.  Athletes will have a career peak.  Individually, we will have personal peaks.  Nonetheless, we can always move on to the next opportunity.

Dan Gable advises to “stay focused and peak correctly.”  In sport, training, recovery, and nutrition are carefully managed to maximize performance.

Strength and conditioning coaches speak of “periodization”.  Periodization refers to the cyclic phasing of training to optimize the adaptation.  In life we, likewise, focus on what is most important and maintain a growth plan.

In A Wrestling Life 2, Dan Gable makes repeated reference to his wrestlers claims that they would be better wrestlers if they didn’t have to go to class—if they could wrestle fulltime.  In his wisdom, Gable disagrees.  Train hard when it is time to train, but there must be time for recovery and the other aspects of life—school, friends, family, leisure, etc.  It is important that we have such balance in life.

A well-centered growth plan (Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social) is essential to proper “peaking”.  Our focus on success requires some time for recovery.  Recovery includes planned vacationing, a morning ritual, exercise, socializing, reading, etc.  A well-centered growth plan requires a year-around plan.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!