So, now I’m asking you the same question: What does “get in shape” mean to you? If you were “in shape” would you look good or be good at something specific? Would you have a different attitude? And more importantly, why is that important to you?

If you haven’t got those two things figured out, then I would bet you’ve been struggling to reach your subconsious goals for awhile.

Here is what I came up  with for Dave’s post:

I make my health and fitness a high priority for a lot of reasons. The main ones are the benefits of being healthier, and as a result happier and enjoying more freedom. Everyone wants to look good and feel good.

Although, there are some deeper reasons why being “in shape” is important to me. I like to be an inspiration to others, to show them that anyone can enjoy not just average health, but abundant health and vibrant physical living (and that you don’t have to be a “fitness freak” to do so).

I also feel responsible for those around me, my family and friends, and I would want to be capable of handling potential future situations that arise – not be limited by a de-conditioned body. Don’t worry, it’s more of a preparedness mindset, not paranoia

Lastly, I think that living a physically-focused lifestyle is a dying tradition, a rare practice, and I’m doing everything I can to prevent that from continuing! I meet people all the time who will avoid situations because there is more physical activity involved than they are comfortable with – even if it’s just walking! I see this as a major cultural problem, and it’s going to take a revolution to get it turned around.

In my experience as a fitness coach, what could be labeled “surface motivations” like the vague “I want to look better” generally don’t carry someone to their goal. It’s not enough to just want something – you need to be compelled to achieve it. There needs to be purpose behind it. If you have an inner drive that is fueled by purpose, you can achieve almost anything.

To your health and success,

CST, CST-KS, NSCA-CPT

Fitness Professional

Jason McElway

To your health and success,

CST, CST-KS, NSCA-CPT
Fitness Professional

P.S. More info about our Mt. Katahdin trip next week!

We now know that drinking more water leads to better hydration levels in mice.

RESEARCH…  apparently they didn’t find what they were searching for the first time. Thus, the need to RE-SEARCH for it…

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard of scientific research proving what so-and-so group of people have always known to be true. My specialization is strength training and fitness, and let me tell you… the research is significantly behind the times in this area. Any good strength and conditioning coach will tell you that the research just can’t keep up with what the in-the-trenches professionals are discovering every day. The process of researching is just too slow in the strength and conditioning community, and I’m willing to bet it’s the same for many different areas of study.

Just the other day, I read this headline:

Cutting-edge scientific research now proves what the yogis have always known: deep relaxation can have a profound effect on a wide range of medical conditions. (article here)

No kidding. You mean to tell me that it’s a good idea to take a break from our hectic lifestyles, to actually slow down for a moment, to reflect, to get quiet, to meditate, to focus strongly on our physical nature, to seriously try and relax?

Of course it’s good for us! Anyone who has ever done yoga will tell you that. Anyone who has ever taken a moment to do any of the above can tell you that, too. You don’t have to be a researcher, lifelong yogi, guru, expert, professional, or doctor to know that relaxation has strong and powerful health benefits.

Similarly, you don’t need a degree in physical education to know that vigorous physical activity has positive effects on health like preventing heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and most cancers just to name a few – not to mention improving overall quality of life.

You don’t even need to be a dietitian or nutritionist to know how that eating certain foods will make you healthier than others.

Most of this stuff is common sense – it’s intuitive. Or is it?

Perhaps one of the most blatant examples of the problem we’re facing has come to me while reading a book called Play by Dr. Stuart Brown. This book was written with the intention of showing people that playing is important for a lot of reasons, especially regarding the development of children, physical health included. The overall goal of the book is to get people to play more often. You might be thinking, “what a simple subject, of course play is good for us!” And you’re right, it is a simple subject, but one that needs to be investigated nonetheless because our lifestyles have “put play in a box.”

You see, we have progressed at an incredibly rapid rate as a civilization in the past 100 years or so. Unfortunately, not all progress is forward. Some progress is actually regression. Such is the case with our knowledge of physical living – play included. As a society, we have actually forgotten how to play, how to eat, and how to move.

These things, which used to be fundamental aspects of our lives, are no longer so. Kids don’t play outside, they play video games inside. We don’t eat food anymore, we eat products that appear to be food. We don’t move anymore, we workout.

Times have changed so rapidly that we’re having to re-learn how to get back to the basics. Thus, the apparent need for more research – because humans can’t possibly figure things out by themselves. They need to be qualified, right!?

It’s almost as if we need to filter all of our current lifestyle activities through the lens of “modern research.” As a society, we feel the need to double-check to make sure that exercise is good for us, that real foods are healthier than genetically modified ones, that play is an essential aspect of learning for children. It’s like we don’t trust our ancestors. The average lifestyle of 100 years ago was primitive, after all. There’s no possible way that they knew more about living a healthy life than we do today, they simply didn’t have enough research. Please note my sarcasm.

I think Frank Forencich (interview with Frank here) offers an excellent solution to our modern predicament in his book Exuberant Animal (book review here). This is excerpted from page 217:

Americans have displayed a spectacular level of incompetence when it comes to dealing with lifestyle disease and the decline of human physicality. Our methods and ideas simply aren’t working. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the solution isn’t going to come out of a research facility or a pharmaceutical laboratory. And it certianly isn’t going to come out of a PE textbook. We need to look elsewhere.

When modern-day decision makers ponder the degeneration of the human body, they reflexively reach for modern-day solutions. They seek out data, analysis, accounting, measurement and assessment. At hundreds of conferences every year, experts present their data on the grim condition of the human body and conclude with the words “We need more research in this area.”

I beg to differ. We don’t need more research. We already know the fundamental fact. That is, people become healthy when they engage in vigorous physical activity on most days of the week. We don’t need more knowledge or information on this score; what we need is primal participation. If the afflictions of the human body stem from modernity, it hardly makes sense to look to modernity for a solution. From the body’s point of view, modernity is the problem.

So, how do you tell the truth apart from the trends, noise, and flat-out B.S.?

1) Does it make sense? You have an intuition (aka B.S. detector), use it well. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For instance, spraying food with poisonous toxins seems like a bad idea to me, which is one of the reasons that I eat organic foods as much as I can. If you want to know why eating organic foods is a no-brainer, have a look at this humorous video by Kevin and Annemarie Gianni of the Renegade Health Show: (http://renegadehealth.com/blog/why-eat-organic-foods/)

2) Is it based on a time-proven principle or practice? Ask how long the issue or practice has been used. If something has been around for a long time, then it stands a better chance of actually being useful and safe. On the other hand, if something just came out, is based on the “latest research,” then that should lift some red flags in your mind.

Take yoga, for instance. It’s been around for millenia. That gives me enough reason to believe that there is some value to it. Sure, not ALL yoga may be beneficial, but there must be at least a way to find some benefit from it. It has passed the test of time. Of course, that doesn’t mean what your local health club is offering is really true yoga, but that’s for another post.

3) Look at the people behind it. Are they sincere? Transparent? Qualified? Do they have a good reputation, or have they faced legal problems? What is their primary motivation? If it’s genuinely helping people, then they’re a winner. If they care more about money, which is often the case in the fitness industry, then they’re not helping anybody.

It’s also important to look at the primary motivation of researchers themselves. People tend to believe that what the researchers says is absolute truth, that it’s simply a confirmation or revelation of what is true. That’s not always the case. Perhaps we weren’t told that some research is handed in last minute by partying college students, or even by less-than-enthusiastic employees. It also isn’t unheard of for researchers to be paid to discover a SPECIFIC RESULT. It goes like this… The men in expensive suits say to the men in white coats, “I’ll pay your firm $75,000 if you can host a study that concludes…” – whatever, white men can’t jump.

Yes, it’s true, sometimes research is payed for a specific result – and there’s plenty of research to back that up!

Of these three tips, pay the most attention to number one. You do know what is best for you. Everyone knows when they are eating in a way that is making them gain excess fat or living in a way that is unhealthy. Obesity, and other preventable diseases, don’t happen by surprise. Most people know within 30 minutes that what they just ate wasn’t a good idea – and everyone can tell how they feel after a few weeks of poor dietary habits. Our intuition is there for a reason – survival, among other things.

Wrap-Up

Some of the best advice I can give when it comes to health and fitness is to only act on what you absolutely know to be true. Ancient disciplines can be relied upon, they’ve stood the test of time. We shouldn’t seek to replace the fundamentals of physical living with modern, novel innovation. Instead, use what technology and research offers us to augment and amplify the fundamental principles that we adhere to. Blending ancient discipline with modern innovation and research is the best use of your resources.

That balance must be kept. If you stray too far on the traditional ancient side, then you’ll get stuck in convention and won’t draw on the strengths of modern research. If you stray too far on the side of novelty-driven trends, then you’ll lose the basic fundamentals that keep us strong, healthy, happy, and free.

Knowing the right thing to do isn’t enough though. You must ACT on what you know to be true. Frank’s advice is spot-on, what we need is primal participation in those things which we know to be true about physical living. Sometimes, you can’t wait for the research to confirm your actions, you just gotta suck it up and go go go!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

There’s something about manual labor that really hits home with me after doing landscaping for 10 years. What started as mowing lawns in the summer for some cash, ended up becoming my own professional landscaping business in my college years. Hard physical labor has numerous lessons to teach, not all of which are physical.

Being out in the sun, working beyond the point of exhaustion will certainly teach you about the limits of the human body. If you’ve ever worked construction, or held any other “grunt” type of position, then you’ll know that the human body, if well-fueled and well-rested, is capable of so much more than what is commonly expected. I’ve read that Navy SEAL/S are known for teaching that the body can take 10 times the amount of work we think it can (with a little encouragement, of course). I tend to think the body can take quite a beating, so ten times that is really saying something.

I remember building a retaining wall at a local elementary school. We were using pre-cut blocks, each of which was 91 lbs dry. That wall was 24 feet tall, and over 130 feet long when we were finished. If our estimate was correct, it was made up of over six thousand blocks when we were finished. And it was only the first of three walls that needed to be built.

That’s 6,000 deadlifts, into a carry from the palette to the wall, into a precise shimmy to get it “just right.” – in 2 days. To count repetitions would have been useless. To do “sets” would have been silly and unproductive. It was all work that had to be done, and we were on the clock – being paid handsomely for our project. We took a 30 minute break for lunch, and the rest of the day, from 7 til 5 was spent lifting, carrying, shimmying, and dropping pins into place to hold them.

I remember the first day was brutal, and it was HOT. When you work hard all day, your energy comes in waves. The first few hours aren’t so bad, but as you get into the afternoon, when the sun is high, every step becomes difficult – and the little mind-gremlins come out to tempt you to stop moving, to “just take a little break.” We didn’t have time for breaks. We were on schedule, and our work was needed to precede other work for the school construction.

By any personal training standards we should have flat-out quit after an hour or two. By then, we had already “put in our time.” We certainly had done enough to elicit an adaptation of muscle building, fat loss, and strength. Unfortunately, even a twice-a-day session wouldn’t have been enough to finish that wall on schedule.

We certainly didn’t have the optimal post workout nutrition formula drink, either. We ate food mostly at lunch, and would sometimes devour a snack while carrying the stones – an apple, sandwich, or granola bar. Oh, we didn’t even think about nutrients either. We even ate a lot of carbs – ALL DAY LONG. Dr. Atkins would have been horrified!

As it turns out, we broke all the typical diet and fitness rules when working. If it’s a rule in the gym, we broke it on the job!

This got me thinking about “real life.” You know, this world that we live in outside of the gym. Life never plays by the rules. Things come up last minute. Nothing goes according to plans. Sometimes, we just don’t have time to do the best, ideal thing.

And yet, we try to setup an ideal environment and system for exercising our bodies. Take a trip to the gym with me, and let’s see what we’ll find, shall we…

-Smooth surfaces everywhere
-Mirrors
-Perfectly sized hand grips on all machines and free weights
-”Motivational” Music (HA!! my local gym plays nothing of the sort!)
-Machines than do half of the work for us through leverage, pulleys, etc.
-Smoothie bar
-The gym guru’s that tell you what you should be doing
-Air Conditioning

Now, let’s step back into reality, what is the REAL WORLD really like?

Real world terrain is rough, rocky, dusty, various, and definitely only smooth where man has made it that way.

Unfortunately, we don’t have mirrors everywhere to show us if we’re using proper technique when doing something outside the gym. Well, except maybe posing in front of the mirror at home – a very practical and useful activity.

Not everything has a human-specific hand grip to make easy work of picking something heavy up. Most things are downright awkward to hold.

It really is too bad that we can’t have our favorite music flip on everytime we need to “do something serious” – that’s what iPod’s are for though, right?

Yeah, we’ve got machines to make our lives easier. I love em! (only some of them). Unfortunately, moving heavy things like furniture doesn’t involve pulley’s or leverage – you just gotta pick that piano up and don’t let go no matter what!

Even if you’ve just worked your butt off for hours, nobody is going to ask you if you want a banana berry smoothie on your way home from work.

What fascinates me is that there are even people OUTSIDE OF THE GYM who tell you what you should be doing. It’s the craziest thing… (OK, you got me!)

It’s funny, there’s no A/C outside. It’s the weirdest thing!

In the real world, our bikes actually travel when you pedal them. Rowing a boat will help you get somewhere and enjoy being on the water. The steps of stairs don’t actually move up and down – we walk over them. And no, we don’t walk on a constant conveyor belt to get to where we have to go. We can’t read a book while we ride a bike, and we don’t watch TV while walking somewhere (except maybe from the kitchen to the living room!). We don’t enjoy the luxury of gloves, chalk, or lifting belts. Our support beams aren’t covered in dense foam. The ground isn’t all rubber, either!

Hmmm, this just doesn’t add up…

So, I must ask myself, what is the gym environment preparing us for?

I think, in many respects, that the typical gym environment is preparing us for safety – a cushioned existence. It doesn’t mimic the wild, real world. The gym environment keeps us comfortable, even when one of our goals is to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone.

So, each of us must ask ourselves – is our current training program helping to prepare us for the real world?

Honestly ask yourself: could I carry someone out of a burning building? Could I climb over an 8 foot wall? Could I perform hard manual labor for 8 hours straight? Could I scamper up a tree while carrying a child to safety? Could I outrun an assailant? Could I survive a fight?

We need to be more prepared than the challenges we face. Even with excellent physical skills (like climbing, defending, etc.), poor conditioning will lead to your not having access to those skills. If we don’t have the conditioning to do something, then guess what? We can’t do it, no matter how willing or talented we are.

Just because you can clean and jerk a 100 kg barbell over your head, doesn’t mean you can hoist an unconscious man to your shoulder. It just doesn’t work like that.

So, it’s time for a reevaluation. The more we can align our training program with the real world demands of physical living, the better. Here are a few simple steps you can take to head in the right direction:

5 Tips for Breaking Outside of the Gym Environment

1) Take your training outdoors. This will be the single most important and positive step you can make to mimic the demands of real life in your training program. You won’t have A/C, rubber flooring, or mirrors. You’ll be out in the elements and your training will change out of necessity. (it seems going outdoors has been a common theme lately)

2) Get away from barbells and dumbbells and start using “real world” weights. This can be stones, logs, sandbags, buckets, old tires, water jugs, or even furniture. Anything that you would pick up when cleaning up the yard or house. You’d be surprised how much you can do with a few heavy rocks – deadlifts, squats, cleans, jerks, presses, rows, various throws, etc. Many traditional gym exercises can be performed with heavy and odd objects.

3) Do something you’ve never or rarely done before. This is a direct approach for getting outside of your comfort zone. Putting yourself directly into the position of novice or beginner will challenge you in new and fresh ways. It can be anything from rock climbing to ultimate frisbee. The important thing is that you seek those things which you know will be difficult for you. Facing your fears is one of the fastest routes to self-growth.

4) Test Your Limits. There’s rarely something as self-revealing as a true test of your physical limits. This can be any physical activity, but it must challenge you to your maximum threshold. For example, a one rep max strength test, a maximum repetitions within a certain time limit test, climbing a mountain under a certain time, running or cycling for time or distance. This is where you reach true HIGH INTENSITY through an extraordinary effort.

5) Train in the moment. Give up your TV, magazine, book, cell phone, mp3 player and just train. Forget the extras, and just focus on your movement and the effective execution of your training session until you are finished. Don’t stop to talk with others, don’t take an extra long rest. Stick to your plan and make the most of the time you’ve given yourself. It’s your time.

The Bottom Line

It’s ok to break the rules once in awhile. In fact, I’ve often found the most personal benefit when breaking the rules of conventional wisdom, especially when it comes to physical living. What is most important is that we find a healthy medium between balancing comfort/discomfort with adequate training stimulus and pushing to our limit. Our training MUST prepare us for the challenges we face. It’s not enough to look healthy and strong. We need to BE healthy and strong, be capable and useful for more than just average physical living. The years of looking strong at the expense of being athletically and functionally dumb are coming to an end. At least that’s what I hope, seems we haven’t learned too much in almost 2,000 years…

Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumbbells? To dig a vineyard is worthier exercise for men. – Marcus Valerius Martialis (40 AD – 103 AD)

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. If you want to break free from the chains of your local health club, there’s no better way to start than by becoming completely non-dependent on strength training equipment. The Bodyweight Exercise Revolution is one of my top choices for equipment-free strength training:

QUESTION: John, how do you transfer that information (teach people about how to become true physical living enthusiasts rather than prescribe cookie-cutter programs – read the article above if you want a more clear description) when, 1. Your ‘job’ as a trainer is to ‘tell them what to do,’ and 2. Most people have little interest or care regarding the workings of their inner selves? Any thoughts on that?

ANSWER: Josh, I don’t know if I’ve found the perfect way to do this in a client/trainer relationship yet. I don’t know if it’s possible with the current model set in the fitness industry. It may require a completely new method of approach, which is what I’m exploring via these articles. There must be another way!

When I was a personal trainer in a popular local health club, I had clients paying me for sessions. Essentially, what would happen is they would pay me money to help them achieve their goals, and then many would tell me how they wanted to do it. They would say, “I want to lift weights like this,” or “use those machines over there.” So, they hired a professional and didn’t want to take his professional advice – dumb, I know, but it happens to many personal trainers all the time.

I quickly learned that I couldn’t truly help these people in the way a personal trainer is really meant to. Sure, I could offer a workout program that would help them achieve their goals, and teach them exercises, and check in with them for accountability, but I couldn’t transfer my joy for physical living to them – which is my ultimate secret and the most valuable knowledge I could ever offer someone about physical living.

In that position, the customer was looking for something specific – usually a vaguely “good workout program.” Sure, they want to achieve their goals, just like everyone wants a million dollars. The problem is that many don’t TRULY want to do what it takes to get there, and OWN their results. They just want the results without the effort, and they want to believe that what they are doing will work for them – even if a professional tells them it won’t.

It’s a much bigger problem than we initially realize because the entire fitness industry is sending mixed messages and signals…

lose 20 lbs in 10 days
take this pill and you’ll get skinny forever
cleanse your colon and your entire life will get better!

None of those are a stretch at all, and the problem is that people have been fooled into believing them. So, what needs to happen is an entire RE-EDUCATION. If the knowledge of how to live a lifestyle of vibrant health and abundant vitality does not continue to be taught, then people will never climb out of the hole we have dug as a society. Literally, the fate of our health is in the hands of physical educators – not doctors.

On one hand, as a fitness professional your job is to offer your clients what they’re paying you for – to help them achieve their specific goals. Whatever needs to be done to do this should be your main priority. At the same time, you job is to educate them about what is best for them, with the intention of making them less dependent on you. I think this is a good selling point for some people, because they want to feel empowered and know that they can take care of themselves without professional assistance long-term. Nobody wants to pay a personal trainer for the rest of their life, and in a perfect world nobody should have to.

If a client has no interest in truly bettering themself and taking responsibility for their own health and fitness long-term, then you probably can’t help them to become independent of you. That’s fine, it’s just the way it is. Perhaps they’ll open up more as they experience people who are truly happy and free. For now, they’ll just be a great customer. It’s not your job to change them – they need to do that themselves. You’re a guide, a coach – not a dictator.

Naturally, the only solution that seems to present itself is to seek those people whom are deeply concerned about their physical health. They are out there, even if few and far between. These are the people who will question convention, test theories on themselves, and play an ACTIVE role in the pursuit of better physical education for themselves, their families, and their communities. Some people are already doing this without even knowing it. What we really need are less trainers, and more activists. I talk about becoming an activist for physical living in this post: What the Fitness Industry Needs Most.

I think each personal trainer will find his own way to solve our dilemma, and I won’t pretend to know them all. I’m mostly using this blog and the personal relationships I develop locally to build a love in people for physical living. I’m the guy who usually suggests a trip up Mt. Washington, or a day at the lake, or some fun and games over the weekend. I show people through my lifestyle that active physical living is AWESOME!

Other professionals have alternative solutions as well:

• Frank Forencich is applying the art of play and games to get people to fall in love with movement.
• Mick Dodge is currently walking barefoot across Washington State, delivering the Antidote to the modern human dilemma.
• Erwan Le Corre is deliberately challenging the status quo with his MovNat (Natural Movement) coaching system that will be coming to the States as early as next month (he just received his O-1 visa to teach MovNat for 3 years – congrats Erwan!).
• The Circular Strength Training faculty, coaches, and instructors are also challenging the conventional model of fitness, while at the same time trying to bridge the gap between conventional and revolutionary. What they’ve come up with is one of the most comprehensive do-it-yourself fitness systems I’ve ever experienced.
• There is a quickly growing Primal Lifestyle community.
• CrossFit has their community.

Parkour and freerunner athletes, Martial artists, barefooters, Underground Strength trainees, outdoorsmen, and even bodybuilders all have a common theme of being intimately connected and passionate about physical living.

Progress is being made, albeit slowly. People are figuring out that the conventional model of health and fitness is severely lacking. One common theme that I’ve noticed is always present in those people who actively seek a change is a community aspect – even a tribal aspect. People want to BELONG to something they believe in, and part of my job is to help people feel like they belong to something bigger than us.

I see my role as being to: inform, educate, connect, inspire, empower, and lead you to a more fulfilling lifestyle through the active pursuit of naturally physical living.

So, those are my thoughts. Now, I want to know:

What do you think is the solution to our modern predicament? And what advice would you offer Josh about how to reach out more to his clients?

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Physical Living Activist

Only 4 minute workouts and $14,615 - what the heck is it, again?

More guru’s, experts, and professionals would be nice – someone who can help ME.

Another supplement line with all organic ingredients would be excellent! (if it were even possible)

How about some new gadgets to buy on late night TV? I hear the booty-plasmatronic machine is a real good deal. Plus it only takes 10 minutes a week to get a chiseled body.

No? Well then certainly we could use some more websites that teach us about fitness, exercise, nutrition, and personal development. More information is always a good thing.

How about an online GROUP just for fitness – that’s a GREAT IDEA!!!

It doesn’t take a genius to prove that the current model for how to live a healthy physically-oriented lifestyle is severely flawed. All of the above solutions have been pounded into the dirt, again and again. We have no shortage of solutions like the ones above, yet we are still facing some of the most daunting crisis’ in history. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and obesity rates are climbing faster and faster. Depression is affecting MILLIONS of American’s – that’s a lot of people that are upset about how their life is going. The statistics are frightening and the state of our health is only one of our problems!

Even with all the above quick-fix solutions, and many others, these problems are actually getting worse. Most people are walking wounded, sick regularly, and are on their way to dis-ease for the rest of their lives. A lack of resources isn’t the problem. We’ve got resources coming out of our ears, and we STILL have major health problems that aren’t getting better anytime soon. We have a fundamental problem on our hands!

So, what do we really need in the fitness industry?

That’s a hard question to answer, but I know who to ask. Ask the people who are living a life of vibrant health and abundant vitality already. Ask the people that wake up refreshed and eager to start their day. Ask the people that live and breathe pure physical living. And most importantly, ask the people that know how to help others best.

You see, we don’t need more guru’s, experts, or professionals selling supplements, fancy (read useless) training equipment, or membership websites. Those things can all help us, but in the big picture, they’re more of a hindrance than anything else. They take our eyes off of the process of pursuing a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle. They have us chasing after beneficial results, or running from consequences, instead of chasing after intrinsic rewards and the joy of physical living.

So, take a balanced perspective when listening to guru’s, taking supplements, or trying new diet or fitness programs. Realize that your problem isn’t a lack of nutrients, or a lack of activity. Your problem is a disconnection from your physical nature. Your problem is a lack of love for physical living. Instead of trying to cure your problem with a quick-fix solution, prevent the problem before it even starts.

I’d rather see more activists than guru’s out there. More leaders than experts. More revolutionists than traditionalists. I’d rather see fitness professionals who would share their love of physical living with others, even without the promise of gain for them.

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -Howard Thurman

The fitness industry needs much more than a quick-fix solution – or any number of them. The fitness industry needs a complete overhaul. Call it a revolution, call it a revival, but what we need is something huge – far beyond what any single person or organization is able to solve.

The good news is that change is possible – it’s happening in people’s lives already. I look around and see people in sub-cultures getting upset about the conventional model of health and fitness. People are getting downright angry about it, actually. RMAX, Exuberant Animal, MovNat, the RKC, the IYCA, the IKFF, the Paleo and Primal communities are all beginning to realize that the current model of health and fitness is flawed. People are starting to wake up, but it’s happening slowly. But it IS happening. And you can be a part of it, too. You just need to choose to jump onboard.

Here’s how you can get started…

1) Realize that this is something much bigger than we can handle on our own. We won’t change the world, but we can change ourselves and begin to help others do the same.

2) Commit to changing your life first, before trying to share the love of physical living with others. You can only bring someone to a place of physical living that you have gone to yourself.

3) Get involved with an online community that shares your passion. AND…

4) Get involved with people from your local community to share your passion of fitness, athletics, exercise, cooking, hobbies, etc. Online communities are great. I’m apart of several. But they are nothing like getting to know people in person.

suggestions: find a training partner, join a fitness group, lead a summer hiking group, plan a beach day and invite all your friends, have a weekend BBQ with games, or get a dog that loves to explore the great outdoors.

5) Take a deep breath, because we’re about to dive into a sea of possibilities.

The revolution is coming. It’s already started in some communities. I hope you’ll get on board.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I go over how I’ve made the transition in my own life.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional and Revolutionary Thinker

Nikhil Rao wrote in his article What Your Doc Doesn’t Know About Weightlifting (article here):

medical education is extremely intense, and extremely broad. It has to be. That said, there is a lot it doesn’t cover. We learn the atomic structure of every amino acid (most of us promptly forget all of this after the biochemistry final). We learn the equations for cardiovascular physiology. We learn the branches of every nerve, the origin and attachment for every muscle in the human body.

But we don’t learn the basics of healthy nutrition. We don’t learn about cardiovascular and musculoskeletal adaptations and responses to exercise. We don’t learn about how insulin facilitates the utilization of protein and creatine.

Rao makes a good point in his article that doctors are taught about how to treat the symptoms of disease, usually with drugs and/or surgery, but they are NOT taught about how to prevent it through healthy lifestyle strategies like physical activity and a healthy diet.

Now, wouldn’t it make sense that our culture should place a stronger emphasis on the study, education, and practice surrounding the topic of DISEASE PREVENTION, rather than disease treatment? You would think so, but it’s not the case – and that’s a story much too long for this article to tell. Basically, my opinion is that it all boils down to the love of money, and how that contributes to the medical industry.

Instead, most of our culture’s resources are spent on the research and practice of DISEASE TREATMENT, not prevention. Now, I see a similar theme present in the fitness industry – except it’s not doctors that are to blame, it’s personal trainers.

Personal trainers know all about exercise. Some of the good ones know a little about nutrition, too. Somehow, these personal trainers have figured out a way to keep in shape. They’ve figured out what works for them and their clients, which is why they are healthy all the time and do good business year round.

The problem I see is that many personal trainers will PRESCRIBE a fitness program much like a doctor prescribes treatment for a disease.

“You’ve got __________, so you need ____________.”

That’s generally how the rationale goes. You’ve got a weight problem, so you need to eat less food. You’re weak, so you need a strength training program. You’ve got lower back pain, so you need to stretch more. You’re too skinny, so you need to eat more.

This prescription format isn’t helping people in the way they truly need it. The advice may solve the symptoms of the problem, but it won’t solve the SOURCE of the problem, which could be any number of things – lack of knowledge, personal responsibility, motivation, or discipline to name a few.

For example, chemotherapy may get rid of cancer (while it poisons the rest of your body), but it won’t prevent it from coming back in the future. Similarly, an effective fitness program may get rid of excess bodyfat, but it won’t prevent it from coming back in the future. Much more has to change to ensure that results are natural, sustainable, and permanent.

Now, wouldn’t it make sense that our culture should place a stronger emphasis on the study, education, and practice surrounding the topic of FITNESS PROBLEM PREVENTION, rather than fitness problem treatment? Why don’t we just avoid the problems in the first place by nipping them in the bud? Again, we would think this is a no-brainer, but it’s just not the case with most personal trainers.

I’ve been there myself. I’m a certified personal trainer through the NSCA, and I have worked in health clubs, homes, parks, and churches one-on-one and as a group fitness instructor. I used to prescribe fitness programs to people who needed them, and the clients who followed my advice reached their goals. But I knew that my clients needed something more than just a good program to follow, they needed something that they could put into practice themselves, something that would make them less reliant on a fitness professional. Something that they could OWN.

My fitness program prescriptions were quick-fix solutions to their problems, and it was my solution, not theirs. You see, I’ve found what really works for me. I know how to keep myself in tip-top shape, how to achieve specific goals, and how to enjoy the process. But my way isn’t necessarily the best way for everyone. For me, I’ve cracked the code of how to maintain high fitness levels and enjoy abundant health in my lifestyle. It isn’t even hard work anymore, and I look forward to pursuing my goals because I enjoy the process. I’ve actually fallen in love with the process!

Now, as a personal trainer, I would have a hard time imparting that quality to my clients. What I love to do is probably different than what you love to do. Therefore, I’ve discovered that it takes a lot more than just personal training to give people what they really need and desire. A rote training program isn’t the solution. A personal trainer can easily prescribe a program that will treat the symptoms of an unhealthy lifestyle – that’s their specialty, but even the best program won’t cure the source of the problem.

Sure, my personal fitness program would probably be an effective solution for many people trying to achieve common fitness goals. If an average Joe put effort into a comparable fitness program catered to their goals, they would probably achieve them, no problem. But would they OWN those results and would they be able to sustain them long-term because they utterly enjoy the process? I doubt it. Not everyone will enjoy swinging clubbells, hiking, rock climbing, or Prasara Bodyflow yoga like I do. And I wouldn’t want to guide people into only sticking with those physical activities. There’s a diversity of choices out there that can’t even be measured. There are infinite ways to get into great shape, and the last thing I want to do is tell someone that they NEED to do it a certain way, and not to explore other paths.

The Solution

People need to be educated about how to live a healthier lifestyle, how to make abundant physical living an active part of their lifestyle, and how to prevent dis-ease through lifestyle strategies. More importantly, people need to take responsibility for their own physical education. If you don’t want an education, or rather, a re-education, then you’ll never understand the joy to be had in physical living. You can’t do it without first learning how – you won’t find strength, health, happiness, and freedom in a pill, in a magazine article, or in a special workout program. It doesn’t exist.

I’m sorry, but a cookie-cutter workout program won’t cut it. Most people hate working out, and won’t sustain that type of physical activity long term. They need something more, something exciting, something that they’ll dream about when going to sleep at night. They need something that they will ENJOY, that makes them feel happy and free, like a kid again. Now, some people have a genuine interest in lifting weights, cardio, aerobics, etc. Some people DO like to workout, and I’m all for it when that’s the case. However, for those that don’t enjoy working out at the gym, there are limitless options.

As detrimental to my career as it sounds, I wish nobody needed to hire a personal trainer. I wish my profession would go extinct! Fitness should not have to be a complicated subject, and it’s not when you strip it of all the cultural baggage we attach to it. Anyone can become physically fit with a very simple traditional formula – engage in vigorous physical activity regularly and eat good food most of the time. That’s the straightforward path to physical fitness. Add in some habits like avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol, and other toxic substance exposure, and you’ve got a recipe for good health for a lifetime.

With that simple fitness advice, there’s so much potential to play around with. So, shame on any personal trainer who dictates closed-minded, dogmatic beliefs about fitness to their clients. The goal of a good coach should be to teach their trainees how to embody their own expression of physical fitness, not to regurgitate a pre-set path to fitness that has been outlined by out-dated textbooks.

Which do you like better in regards to fitness training?

a) being told what to do, even if you don’t understand why
b) knowing why and how to do something, so that you can do it better for the rest of your life

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

Think about it…

Is being able to run a 10k in 50 minutes good general conditioning?

What about being able to do 10 pullups, 30 pushups, and 50 bodyweight squats?

How about being able to carry an 80 lb rucksack through moderate-difficult terrain for a weekend?

Aren’t those all qualities of general conditioning?

So, the first problem is that general conditioning requires a definition – which immediately makes that conditioning SPECIFIC. Even if you make the definition of general conditioning very broad, you still have specific means of obtaining it.

For instance, the MovNat domain of fitness includes:

12 natural capacities of movement: walking, running, jumping, balancing, moving on all fours, climbing, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, swimming and defending.

This is a VERY broad definition of conditioning that spans many different and unique skills – each of which can be quantified and qualified to fit specific criteria and categorized as “good” or “poor” conditioning. And yet, the only way to improve the “general conditioning” of those skills it to practice them. You won’t get better at moving on all fours by running more.

It’s common knowledge that training for one movement skill will seldom (or never) transfer to improved performance in another movement skill. This is true because of the SAID Principle – Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands.

Lance Armstrong is an excellent example of this. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that Armstrong is the worlds greatest road racing cyclist in history. He has won the Tour de France for a record-breaking 7 consecutive years, from 1998-2005.

In 2006, Armstrong decided to try a different type of road race – the marathon, a 26.2 mile foot race. At the New York City Marathon, Armstrong finished in 856th place – hardly the position of a world-champion.

You see, Armstrong may have had the cardiovascular conditioning for both race events (at least in regards to how they’re measured in a clinical setting), but that doesn’t mean his whole body was conditioned for it. In simpleton terms, his heart and lungs may have been conditioned for both types of races, but his muscles, joints, and nervous system were not. And sure, he didn’t do that poorly. I mean, he broke the 3-hour mark in his performance, which is nothing to scoff at – but needless to say, he wasn’t ranked in the competition. (and I will give him credit because his next marathon in 2007 was a major improvement)

Being the best cyclist in the world didn’t transfer over to being a talented runner. I’m sure it didn’t hurt his performance, but it certainly didn’t help him as much as we’d like to think. That’s because his conditioning was specific to olympic-level cycling, not for running.

We run into the same problems with our fitness programs. Depending on who you talk or listen to, everyone has a different definition of what general conditioning is.

Circular Strength Training has 3 wings of fitness in which fitness is subjectively measured.

CrossFit has the 10 domains of fitness: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.

The Russian Kettlebell Club has a different definition from the American Kettlebell Club who has a different definition from the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation. Even within these organizations, each coach has a slightly different take on what “general conditioning” entails.

I’m sure you see the problem – general conditioning sounds pretty SPECIFIC to me, too.

So, how do we tackle the question “how do I train for general conditioning?”

Well, the obvious answer is that “whatever you do, you’re conditioning yourself for that activity – even if you don’t want that conditioning.” Yep, if you sit all day long, your body will get conditioned to repeat that activity more efficiently and effectively. This means tighter hips, rounded shoulders, and a protruding neck among other things. So, if you spend a good majority of your day in front of the computer, even if reading up on blogs like mine – get your butt off the chair and get MOVING.

On the flip side, if you practice running, you’ll get better at running. If you practice lifting heavy things, you’ll get better at doing that, too. The issue is that most people want to get good at a lot of things. Most guys want to be able to bench press 600 lbs, run a marathon while carrying an injured girl on their back to safety, fight like Bruce Lee, and move over urban terrain like a parkour athlete. You’ll find comparative examples for most women, too. This obviously puts a personal trainer in a mind spell that’s more complicated than quantum physics.

How the heck are we supposed to train for all of these things at once?!?

I’ll tell you – you CAN’T.

You’ll have to practice each skill, one at a time. Sure, you can mix things up in an individual session, but each skill must be practiced exclusively. If you want to get good at all of these skills, then you’ll have to practice ALL OF THEM, fairly regularly. That’s the only way you’ll get good at all of them. Training for the Tour de France won’t help you run a marathon much better, just like lifting weights won’t help you perform in a mixed martial arts fight much better. It doesn’t work like that.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

“I can’t possibly train for all the things I want to get good at.”

And maybe you’re right. Henry Ford knew what he was talking about when he said, “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” If you don’t think you can train for all of the physical skills you want to master, then you won’t be successful at doing that.

I’m sure the excuses are already bouncing around your head.

“I’m too busy…”

“I don’t know how to start…”

“I’m not strong enough…”

“I need a good coach, I can’t do it alone…”

“I can’t…”

The truth of the matter is that YES, YOU CAN begin to start practicing what you’ve always wanted to master. You can master many different domains of movement and fitness skills. You can become a specialist of “general conditioning” – and fit for almost every possible fight. It will take a lot of work, more than you’ve ever done before probably. Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always got. There’s no hidden secret to getting to this point, you just need to go out there and do it, EVERY DAY.

Obviously, this is a higher call to physical mastery – this goes beyond every gym rat, every weekend warrior, and every half-hearted attempt at “getting in shape.” This is the REAL McCoy, folks – a lifelong study of physical mastery, a worthy study indeed.

Now, if you’re deconditioned – if you’re not already in “good shape,” – then you’ve got plenty of work cut out for you. If you’re DEconditioned, then you need to UN-DEcondition yourself before you jump right into a vibrant physical lifestyle. Many people get started on a new fitness program and have to drop out due to injury because they try to tackle more than their sedentary-loving bodies can handle. If you’re not in good shape, then you need to REHABILITATE yourself until you are in a healthy position for long-term physical mastery. Now, that’s a medical term that carries a lot of weight, but unfortunately, your doctor probably can’t tell you anything about what you need to be doing to get out of this position of needing rehabilitation. It’s likely that you’ll have to walk the journey alone.

The good news is that you can get started today.

One of the first steps I took towards obtaining movement mastery was to work on the mobility of my joints – just trying to recover and coordinate the natural range of motion that my body was capable of achieving, but had lost. I used the Intu-Flow program to get me to where I am today, and I still use it almost daily as my method of “cleaning the slate” and now PREhabilitating myself from injury or worse.

Pick up a copy of Intu-Flow here:

Now, hear me out. I’m not saying that I have THE answer to YOUR problem. What I AM saying is that there IS an answer – and it’s out there, waiting to be discovered. And only you can find it.

For instance, if you present a laundry list of physical goals to a personal trainer who works at the local Gold’s Gym, he will likely either tell you…

1) this can’t be done – he will say this because he’s only thinking “inside the box” of Gold’s Gym. His little mind can’t possibly conceive anything outside of lifting weights and cardio.

2) you’ll have to tackle these goals one at a time – this is because he’s only ever helped people work on one goal at a time, like the most popular goal of “looking better,” which is usually achieved through fat loss OR muscle building based training. Strength and conditioning specialists are a little better off in this regard because they work with real life athletes that likely have many distinct, and equally important goals in the same season.

How do we specialize in many things?

I would suggest you take a balanced approach to this revolutionary way of physical practice. We all have goals that are very important to us, goals that take a priority. Make them your priority, but don’t forget about all of the rest of your less-important goals that you still want to achieve. For these other goals, I want you to employ the BACK BURNER STRATEGY.

Outside of your primary goals, you have some secondary goals. You will pursue your primary goals as usual, but you’ll also be practicing skills for your secondary goals with a submaximal intensity level – nothing that would push you over your training threshold. Think less than 60% intensity.

Here’s an example of the BACK BURNER STRATEGY from my current training plan…

I have some specific goals that I need to meet in preparation for an upcoming Circular Strength Training seminar. Namely, I need to meet some performance goals with clubbell training, and the FlowFit program. These are my primary goals and I am focusing on them in my program, among a few other things like Prasara BodyFlow Yoga.

However, I’m also working on several minor goals, that don’t bear the same importance, but I’m still very interested in achieving long-term. For instance, I’m doing a lot of barefoot walking and running, and I’m also trying to improve my swimming and diving skills, along with many other similar less time-sensitive skills. These are all on the back burner, but I’m definitely making forward progress on them, just not as quickly as my primary goals.

Ideally, you want all of your physical practice to work together to help you achieve both your primary and secondary goals, so think of this when trying to setup a plan. Do keep in mind that you can’t just practice a random variety of skills and expect to make progress – that would be cock-tailing your fitness program. Instead, you’ll want to balance the variety of your physical practice with enough progression in your skills and conditioning. You’ll need to find the sweet spot between variety and progression.

The Bottom Line

General conditioning doesn’t exist – all conditioning is specific. Fortunately, we can train for a broad base of skills. Although, it requires  a higher level of discipline than most people are willing to commit to. Almost anyone can have the conditioning of a world-class athlete, or specialize in broad physical skills, it just takes a tremendous commitment far beyond the traditional approach to fitness. The back burner strategy is one of the best ways to get there safely and naturally.

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional

P.S. If you want the most effective fitness system for practically all general conditioning goals, then I highly recommend you check out 4×7: The Magic In The Mundane Program I’ve heard of athletes setting new personal records as often as every 4 days using this protocol. Best of all, it’s perfectly suited for instituting the back burner strategy long-term:

I responded with a smile and said “I sure hope so.” I wouldn’t want to be unhealthy after all.

This short interaction got me thinking about our culture and what we have evolved into. Healthy people are a rarity in our society and tend to stand out in a crowd. This is a really sad truth, but I’m not going to gloat over it for a minute.

You're a WHAT?!?

Ask yourself: Have we come so far from natural health and physicality, that we label people by their physical vibrance or lack thereof? Oh, the shame! Tell me it isn’t so! But that’s EXACTLY what we do. We put people into imaginative boxes when trying to figure them out. We actively label each other in an attempt to feel better about ourselves. I’m shamefully guilty of it, too.

We all have relationships with people whom we consider the workaholic, the unambitious stay-at-home-mom, the gossiper, the over-achiever, the under-achiever, the religious guy, the healthy one.

The truth is, we aren’t those boxes we like to put people in. Ryan Murdoch says it best in his personal manifesto…

I believe that we are not our boxes, and that we’re free to assume whatever form suits us at that moment.

It’s a simple idea, certainly not profound, but it’s the product of utterly revolutionary thinking.

As a representative and educator of physical culture, it is my duty to embody what physical living can and should be like. Naturally, this puts me in a position of going above and beyond the call of duty. So, it makes sense that I would receive comments and gestures suggesting that I’m different, awkward, or atypical. However, it should be my goal and yours to blend in with others, so as to prevent them from mis-labeling us as a “health nut” or “fitness freak.”

The truth is, I’m not those things – and neither are you. There’s nothing that makes me different from the next guy. This type of labeling isolates people and keeps them inside their comfort zones – unable to experience new things, to learn and grow more. In general, if someone isn’t interested in fitness, they won’t hang out with “fitness people” – and therefore, will miss out on many of life’s best experiences.

No, I’m not using my lifestyle to try to convince anyone that trudging away on a stairmaster for an hour or grunting in the squat rack under a heavy barbell is one of life’s best experiences. On the contrary, I’m trying to convince people that vibrant physical living is something that everyone can and should enjoy. If the stairmaster doesn’t work for you, then try something else. I can’t stand stairmasters. I’d get bored to tears if I forced myself to use that silly contraption – or practically any other exercise machine for that matter. So, I do things that are inherently fun. Play can take so many forms, and vigorous physical activity can be a part of almost all of them.

Don't be fooled into thinking that this is merely a picture of two children playing. In fact, this is a glimpse into the joy of exuberant physical living and movement in action by some of the worlds top experts in physical education, play-based learning and development, along with critical and creative thinking. Watch and learn folks!

The truth is that if people really knew what it was like to live an abundantly healthy and physically active lifestyle, they would strive to continue seeking after health and joyful movement everyday. Trying to explain what exuberant physical vitality feels like is like trying to explain color to a blind person – you can’t explain it. Words are no justification, not nearly enough to convey the magnitude of the experience. I’m sorry, but if you haven’t experienced this yourself, you just won’t get it.

Unless we actively try to help each other overcome our personal boundaries together, we may not break free of our presuppositions. Luckily, I think we have a viable solution to our predicament. Frank Forencich (I conducted a great interview with Frank here) is known for saying that it is his goal to help people fall in love with movement. I’d go a step further and say that it is our goal to help people fall in love with physical living. And there are many many easy ways to do this.

Just a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to play some physical games with friends and family. They were all silly games really, devoid of rules, and filled to the brim with individual expression and enthusiasm. We were bumping hips, chasing each other around, laughing and roaring at each other uncontrollably. I would doubt that anyone in that group has ever played games like that since they were young children – adults just don’t do these things. But it was just some simple games that were the solution to getting past our individual boundaries and opening ourselves to free expression and truly joyful physical living. It wasn’t awkward at all, even to the onlooker. It was just a close-knit family having fun together.

Sadly, most people don’t have the interest or patience to listen to such reasoning or entertain such a simple idea, and they content themselves with a false understanding of another persons lifestyle (or of their own). So, in many people’s minds, we will remain forever misunderstood as “the healthy ones.”

But I won’t give in to them, and I’m going to continually challenge their belief systems throughout my lifetime. I hope you’ll join me!

To your health and success,

Fitness Professional