Assume Total Responsibility

What does that mean exactly? It is acknowledging that you created your life, your failures and successes, and anything else in it, and that you refuse to blame anyone or anything else for the things that went wrong. You accept this 100%.

How can you benefit from this? If you accept that you created all your successes and problems, then it’s likely that you can recreate them also. Usually, most people don’t know how to recreate whatever successes they may have, yet, they’re all too successful at recreating the failures or the wrong things, and that usually comes down to apportioning blame in the wrong place.

Now, some may argue that they encountered a problem where some external event or person completely stuffed them up, and they couldn’t prevent the bad results from occurring despite their best efforts. This is true for all of us. Everyone has encountered such events, but it’s a matter of how you respond to the experience. It all comes down to choice. Do you bog down or get on with it? By choosing to blame external causes, it robs you of the chance to learn, to correct any mistakes, to solve problems. These are valuable skills, but many choose not to practice these skills when the opportunity arises.

And so it is in fitness. The amount of excuses is almost comical. If it’s not your trainer, then it’s the program you’re on, or your spouse, the kids, the weather, the gym, work, stress, money, injuries, it’s uncomfortable, dirty, too hard, you don’t know what you’re doing, they don’t know what they’re doing, can’t be bothered… whatever. The real reason for not losing weight, not gaining weight, missing sessions, eating unhealthy, missing meals, poor routine selection, poor technique in exercise, injury, laziness, apathy, lack of commitment, or anything else, is simply the individual not assuming full responsibility. Everyone has an excuse, except for winners.

It’s now time to act.

So, just how badly do you want to improve; real bad, or not really? Does it matter? The idea that you need to be fully pumped up and passionate about going after your goals is a misconception. The fitness industry is all about selling dreams, a lifestyle a lot are intimidated by. It doesn’t have to be this way. As long as you have your goals and sufficient motivation to do something about it, then you’ll be right. You can deal with any problems when they arise. Educate yourself. Do not rely solely on what others say. Use your common sense. If you only have a fraction of your time to invest then so be it. Trust in the long run that you will achieve your goals. If you’re not getting results don’t just automatically blame someone else, ask, or work out why not.

Yes, it is difficult, but so is everything else. Is it not difficult to think back after years that you could have done something but chose not to? Is it not difficult to be angry with yourself for having let things slip away from you? Is it not difficult to accept frustration and mediocre results? I know I’d rather the difficulty of striving toward goals, than the difficulty of dealing with the lingering bad taste of the “could’ve beens”. Remember, it is hard work, and sustained, persistent effort will get you what you want.

Dare to dream, don’t give up till you reach your dreams, so do something about it. You are the only one responsible for your achievements.

Building the Aerobic Base - LSD

Who needs long slow distance training? Unless one is in exceptional shape, or has an insufferably high self-opinion of their conditioning, then that basically means everyone.

For the most part, training is conducted with a view to improving many qualities at once. This is known as the conjugate method. It is also the main programming system used by the majority of trainees whether they realise it or not. Seems everybody is training for strength, increased cardiovascular capacity, improved movement patterning, greater flexibility and so on. The body is under great stress to adapt favourably, and it can be difficult to set up a training system where the many qualities being trained do not interfere with the development of the other qualities. It is always wise to train efficiently. In this case, that means using the lowest intensity and the least volume that will achieve results.

So how do we apply the above philosophy to our training? If the aim is to generate results in the most efficient manner, then focusing on the characteristic that will yield the greatest gains will be most optimal. For the majority of trainees, and some athletes, the greatest gains come from building a solid fitness foundation. The aerobic system is that foundation. 

The body utilises three modes of energy production- aerobic, anaerobic lactic, and anaerobic alactic. The aerobic system is the one we use the majority of the time for low intensity work, and lasts hours. The anaerobic system takes over when the intensity picks up, and usually lasts for a minute or two before fatiguing. And the anaerobic alactic system is for all out, maximal intensity efforts, and lasts for ten to fifteen seconds. Together, they represent the continuum that is energy production, and contrary to popular belief, the aerobic system functions continually, even when the body is calling upon the more powerful systems.

Cardiac output is stroke volume multiplied by heart rate. It is basically how much blood your heart pumps. Exercising with too much intensity or with an overly high heart rate means that the heart can’t fill to capacity to force an increase in stroke volume. The benefits of increasing stroke volume are a lower resting heart rate, increased work capacity at high heart rates and an increased efficiency for recovery. To increase cardiac output, training should be at a heart rate where it can fill the heart maximally on every beat, and can be sustained for an extended time.

This means;

·         Perform low intensity exercise- walking, jogging, swimming, calisthenics etc.

·         For durations of 30-90mins,

·         At heart rates of 120-150bpm.

LSD training can be performed several times a week, although you would want to get in at least one session per week. Mixing LSD with other modes of cardio during a training week is also beneficial.

The good news is you don’t have to train at 100% every session. It’s not an excuse either for slacking off, but there is a role for easier training. Sensible programming lets you build up a base of conditioning without compromising gains from developing other fitness qualities at the same time.

The Functional Bench Press

Some people are divided as to the benefits of bench pressing. They say the regular flat bench is;

·         Not “functional”, as you are lying down, and you normally don’t encounter this position in sports and in most life situations, and therefore has little carryover.

·         Also, due to the scapula- or shoulder blades, being essentially trapped against the bench, they can’t maintain the normal movement they exhibit during pressing movements.

·         The real clincher is the evidence that points to the excessive numbers who injure themselves whilst bench pressing. The amount of trainees suffering pec and shoulder injuries on the bench press makes it seem inevitable that if you bench, then at some stage you will be injured.

Let’s address some of these concerns.

·         The bench press is as functional as any other exercise or lift. If you are trying to isolate your pecs by curling up on the bench like a dying cockroach then you won’t find much carryover to any other useful activity. Plant your feet. I’ll explain how to bench properly in a moment.

·         You are supposed to fix your scapula with the upper back muscles. Even on mundane push ups your upper back needs to stay rigid. You need to press from a firm base; including strong activation of the lats. If not, your pressing power will diminish and can lead your shoulders into an unsafe position. Connect your arms to your body. Balance your upper body strength development with good technique and don’t neglect working on your upper back strength.

·         Most trainees injure themselves on the bench due to overly ambitious weight selection and poor technique. How many times do we see the buddy doing barbell rows while the bloke on the bench is pressing? Or another trainee squirming under the bar as they struggle to put up their eleventh rep?

Seems the common theme here is technique, and usually the absence of good technique. This is also what separates the powerlifter from the usual gym rat. How else do these lifters put up several times their bodyweight on the bench, and suffer fewer injuries? Powerlifters also use more sensible rep and set schemes, and cycle the weights. More on that another time.

Let’s review the technique.

·         Lie down on the bench, expand your chest, draw the shoulder blades together, pull the shoulders toward your feet, and plant your feet.

·         Brace your whole body, force your feet into the floor, as if you are doing a bridge, and unrack the bar. Your choice on the grip; close grip forces more work onto the triceps, whilst a wider grip forces more work on the pecs.

·         Pull the bar down to your sternum with the lats. Think of a barbell row.

·         Pause the bar on your chest for a second. Don’t relax with the bar on your chest, but stay tight.

·         Flex the lats, glutes and your abs hard, and squeeze the weight of your chest. Imagine the bar is stationary and you’re pushing yourself into the bench.

·         Imagine the bar is connected to your elbows, push from your elbows until lockout.

A couple of tips;

·         Be aware of the suicide grip. What’s a suicide grip? You’ve seen them, trust me. It’s the thumbless grip, where the bar kind of rests on the palms. It does nothing for your power, and can be really hazardous to your health. Grip the bar like you mean it. The proprioceptors in your hands let your body know to increase the tension elsewhere, therefore lifting more and increasing safety.

·         Keep your wrist in neutral position. Don’t let them hyperextend. Project the force of the barbell straight down your forearm. Position the bar over the heel of your palm.

·         If you are having trouble connecting the lats, tighten your grip, and imagine you are trying to bend the bar.

For those worried the bench press overly develops the lower pecs, therefore giving the appearance of sagging breasts, switch from the regular flat bench to an incline bench press. You might not be able to lift as heavy, but your pecs will have a more aesthetic look, that of a greek statue of antiquity. Or supplement your bench routine with lots of incline dumbbell presses. This has the benefit of upping your regular flat bench numbers in the process.

Think of performing a standing military press, only lying on a flat bench. The military press demands full body tension, for safe and effective pressing. When benching, apply the same full body tension.

It’s easy to knock something as having little benefit if it is applied incorrectly- take the squat as another example. Learn, and master the technique, develop your skill, and you will earn your rewards of increased upper body pressing strength and increased performance in your sport.

Efficient human enhancement

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

How many reps or miles does it take to achieve your fitness goals? The answer- not one more than is absolutely necessary. Anything more would be a waste of your effort, right?

How do you know where to draw the line? For starters, clear and specific goals will determine the approach. The question to ask is; how much, and by when? It needs to be measurable. At the end, there can be no uncertainty, was the goal attained or not? Once you have a clear and specific goal, the means towards the end will reveal itself.

Now, with the sheer mass of information available, how do you decide exactly what it is you need to achieve your goal? Search for the most efficient solution. An effective trainer or coach can help. Recognize that your body has finite capacity for work and recuperation. Efficiency is training only enough to trigger the adaption required to achieve the goal. If that means three sessions per week, and you want to train five times a week, then those extra two sessions are unnecessary. Or you might be doing eight exercises in the gym, but you may only need two to increase performance in a certain sport, then what will those extra six exercises do for you?

Training to failure is also inefficient use of your time, unless you’re a bodybuilder. Why train your body to fail? Observe that all Olympic athletes train pretty hard, but never to failure. Top level athletes train optimally, to trigger the necessary adaptations for increasing their performance. The key word here is optimal.

The Firebird approach to performance is this; efficient human enhancement. Do no more than necessary to obtain optimal performance. Identify and bring up your weak links. Enhance what needs enhancing. Everything else, leave for the moment of truth, for competition.

Sounds like an effort, why not just mindlessly exercise, then go home? Simply, what standard do you want to hold yourself to? Mediocrity, or high-achievement? Not many are happy with mediocre results, yet not many are prepared to do anything about it. The less time you waste in training, the more time you can spend elsewhere. Efficiency is the mark of high-achievers.

Vague goals produce vague results. Be specific. Dream to achieve and then do what you need to do.