Save Yourself From Injury

I know we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic right now, however, I want to address those who are already doing. This is in hopes that those who are already doing reflect and save themselves from having to take time away from what they love. For those who aren’t doing anything, realize that most of the crazy stuff that you see people doing is unnecessary for general health benefits.

Time n time again I see people doing wayy too much. High-intensity boot camp classes, high-intensity yoga, high intensity running, high-intensity you name it. This is a lot. Not everything you do should be done at max intensity. Are you trying to be a high-level athlete or trying to live? Either way, some planned work and rest are needed. Even high-level athletes know to take care of their bodies. High-level athletes (Lebron, Steph Curry, James Harrison, Serena Williams) spend a ton of time and money on their recovery not just their “workouts” because they understand injury will lead to time away from their sport. Often times those athletes or people who are all go, no off, are beat down, hurt, injured or just in overall shambles. How nice would it be to not have some of these preventable injuries? If all you had to do was focus on your off as much as you focus on your on. Not having any sort of plan, just showing up and going as hard as possible, would be the habit to change if you were going to change anything. Without a plan, you are just throwing s**t against the wall and hoping it sticks. Having a goal will help you come up with a plan. If your goal is to be healthy you should start by defining WTH that even means. Without clear definitions, we are easily led astray. If you exercise for your health. Wouldn’t it make sense that you don’t want your exercise to lead to injury? Having an injury is technically unhealthy.

We have long moved away from the idea of no pain no gain. You do not want pain while exercising or after exercise. Soreness is one thing, pain is another. Neither should be a goal. The issue is, most people chase soreness which oftentimes leads to future pain. Constant soreness is a sure sign that you are doing wayyy too much. Without any planned downtime, that chase for soreness will lead you to a destination of injury. Another thing you may want to think about is the notion that you have to do a given move. This is not true, there is not a single universal exercise that everyone can do. If a certain movement creates pain, it may not be right for you at the moment. When you perform a movement that creates pain, try to do it differently and see if the pain goes away. If it doesn’t, stop doing that move and find an alternative, you do not have to do that move. So many people push through pain because they think they have to do the move. They think if I don’t do this I won't get any results. That is simply not true. What is true is that if you push through the pain until that pain turns into an actual injury, you will be sidelined because that’s often what the doctor prescribes. If it hurts to be in a push-up position, don’t be in a pushup position, for now. If it hurts to lunge, don’t lunge, for now. Notice for now. This is not a life sentence. Only temporary. Do the moves you can perform pain-free and work towards getting back to doing whatever you wish to do down the road.

None of this can be done without a plan. Hard to adjust when you don’t know what path you are heading down. This is why I like to say keep exercising and start training. If you want to continue doing the exercise you love, whether it be tennis, pilates, running, biking, etc, then adding some planned training into your weekly routine is highly advised. We cannot expect our bodies to continue to perform at the same level when all we do is kick the s**t out of it.

Compounding Behavior

The power of compounding interest for habits. Many of us know about the power of compounding interest when it comes to our finances. Oddly enough, our habits work in this same seemingly magical way. This can be a great thing or a not so great thing depending on what your habits are. The more time spent doing anything the more it compounds. At first, we may not notice the effects because they are so small. Year one it may be so minute you don’t notice, you may think you are staying the same. Year two, you notice a slight difference. Year three and you notice a substantial difference. Do you want this difference to be one you are happy about finally noticing or kind of bummed out about it? Often times many of us are so short-sighted when it comes to our actions, which usually leads us down the path of instant gratification. Usually, the easy choice to make is not the best choice to make. This makes the future not as pleasant as we would hope because we left it up to hope and that’s not how life works.

Life is about actions and consequences whether good or bad to those actions. Every action has an equal or opposite reaction as Newton once said. So if your actions, according to nature, will lead you down one path don’t be surprised when you end up miles down that path. Leaving things up to hope leaves us with zero power. Remember the quickest way to lose power is thinking you don’t have any. Sayings like ugh I used to be able to eat anything when I was younger and “not gain weight”, I used to be so much more flexible when I was younger and so on may be true statements to a certain extent. However, both of these statements are usually an example of compounding interests on behavior. Time. Time can either be our enemy or best friend. Usually, we haven’t given enough time to see the result of our behaviors. Eating whatever when we were younger and habitually doing so for years will eventually show you what nature rewards for that behavior. But most people chalk it up to being older. There is no responsibility for blaming it on age. If you want to change you must take ownership of the behavior.

The good news. Healthy behaviors work the same as unhealthy behaviors. If you make a conscious effort to change your unhealthy habits little by little to healthier habits you can see a great deal of change. In the same way, you didn’t notice the effects of the negative habits for years, this may be the case for healthy habits as well. There is a known and an unknown as far as experiences go. You know where your past 5-10 years of habits have placed you. You can guarantee if those behaviors continue, the interests will continue to compound in that direction. The unknown is when the fruits of your new labor will show up or what the results will look like. This is a mystery that takes a grave amount of patience. Lucky for us, if we really don’t want our current situation, we have no choice but to change. Right?

Remember guilt is an emotion most people do not deal with well. Do not try to guilt yourself into changing. It probably won’t work and you will just feel kinda lousy. Instead, accept your current situation as the one you chose to be in, and now you are choosing to be in a different situation. Nothing wrong with where you are but know that you have the power to change if you choose to. Your behaviors are not you, you are separate from your behaviors.

SOHO STRENGTH LAB

Soho Strength Lab (SSL). What a great gym, great space, with great owners, coworkers and best of all, great clients. The roster of coaches is made up of amazing individuals who are well practiced and studied in whatever their given field. Whether it was physical therapy, olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, kettlebells, or more often than not, each coach had a mix of it all. An environment like that can only help lead to your own individual growth. You want diversity? This place has it. From clients to coaches it strikes off every box imaginable. A true representation of America being a melting pot. I was exposed to lifestyles I never gave thought to, careers I didn’t know existed, and a plethora of people chasing after their dreams, doing exciting things almost weekly. My time there was truly inspiring.

A goal of mine when I moved to New York was to find a place where I wouldn’t be the smartest person in the room (not hard to do.) I wanted to be able to learn from my coworkers daily. Continuing education is such an important part of the fitness industry, being able to learn from people around you is crucial if you want to continue to grow and be better. Also, I did not want to be the strongest person in the room. They say if you are often the strongest or smartest in the room, you are in the wrong room. While I was at SSL I was never the strongest or smartest in the room. Every coach had their strengths and they were constantly on display. I mean strong, strong people who all moved extremely well and were super technical with both their movement and that of their clients. It’s wild the collection of great coaches who teach under their roof. At SSL you were able to bounce ideas off one another, really talk shop and get down into the philosophicals of fitness and health. No one was afraid to challenge you if they thought you were doing something dumb so you always needed to have a why behind the what. Besides clients and coworkers that I could learn from daily, I was able to have access to everyone’s library. Often I would find myself knee deep in some random book that I would not have known about if it wasn’t for my coworkers really having an insatiable appetite to learn and apply their knowledge. Seeing how much my coworkers were doing and the quality that they accomplished it with really inspired me to do more with my time. It was my time in New York that gave me the cajones to take a leap and to start something of my own.

I find it important to give praise where praise is due. Soho Strength Lab deserves all of the praise in the world.

Age Ain't Nuthin But a Number

“Age ain’t nothin but a number.” This probably pisses some people off considering it’s coming from a 20 something year old. Doesn’t matter what experiences I’ve had or anything like that, there’s no way I can know. Not old enough.SIKE! I too once believed that age was more than a number. I once thought that with age came wisdom and just because you were a certain age you were more knowledgeable than anyone. I also thought that once you hit a certain age (age unknown) bad shit physically would start to happen. In all actuality, age is nothing but a number that lets people know how long you have been alive for. That’s it. It does not account for the experiences you’ve had. It does not account for whether you have a growth mindset or a closed mindset. It doesn’t account for the fact that you learned from failures or habitually made the same mistake over and over again. It doesn’t account for whether you have taken care of your health or not. Your age just lets us know when you were born. To assume much else from that number would be doing a great disservice. Age is not a reason to move away from free weights, if anything it’s a reason to move toward them, under proper guidance of course.

Since age aint nothin but a number, don’t let any age stereotype stop you from trying because you think you are too old to start or too young to know. Assuming the status quo to be a set in stone path for you is a sure way to make sure that all of the normalities of aging come true. If you think it is inevitable that you are going to have to stop doing the activities you love then of course that’s the reality that you will see in due time. If you think that you have to just learn to deal with hip, knee, or back pain instead of finding a solution to resolve those issues or to prevent them to begin with, then that is what is going to happen. People say, “man I used to be able to do XYZ when I was younger.” My response is usually ok and what have you been doing to ensure that you can continue to do XYZ? The answer is usually nothing. Not working towards something will usually move you further from that goal, you won’t stay still. This is the norm. Nothing wrong with that but when we look at statistics do you want to be just another one of them or do you want to challenge that status quo? Do you want to be an outlier?

Due to my line of work I am able to see a mass amount of people who are living their best lives. They’re older and according to society they should not be as strong as they are, as flexible, or as active as they are. Yet they are thriving. They are accomplishing feats of strength that I haven’t seen people half their age accomplish. Hence, there is a reality that you can be an outlier by doing a little bit of something everyday. That something just has to be something that is not in the norm. Learn how to move and strength train.This will vastly improve your life, but what do I know being a 20 something.

No matter your age, start thinking about what you are currently able to do and what you want to be able to do 10/20/30 years down the road. Think “what steps do I need to take in order for these wants to happen”. Thinking in this long term manner can allow you to not rush when wanting to reach a goal and also allows you to be patient. Often times people take the shortcut or the quick fix. Usually what happens when taking this route is you end up right where you started off because it wasn’t sustainable. It wasn’t a long term investment, it was very much high risk low reward and you ended up with the low reward. Usually people don’t want to hear that what they’ve been doing won’t work and they need to change. We as humans hate being wrong and we hate change because often our EGO drives us. Don’t allow your EGO to bully you. If it is something you want, do the right steps to make sure it happens.

⚖️

Fitness. Health. Strength. Longevity. Exercise. Train. Life. Movement. Unhealthy. Death. Lethargy. Weakness. Immobile.

Run your ass off. Issues arise.

Excessively stretch. No stability

Lift mountains with no form. Back blows out.

Cycle ‘til the wheels fall off. Bad posture. Hip issues. Knee Issues.

Stuff your face. You’re fat.

Sit on your ass all day. Closer to death.

Work yourself into the dirt. Broken body.

Anywhere in the middle. Balance.

Life is all about balance. Tip the scale too much in one direction and you’re guaranteed to be out of balance. Have to figure out a strategy to tip the scale back in the other direction. All you young bucks more than likely haven’t seen the consequences to your daily habits. However, those of you who are a little older have more than likely begun to see where your actions or inactions have brought you. The good news, there are plenty of people in this world who can help bring you from where you currently are, to where you want to go. Bad news. You’re going to have to change. I know how people are when it comes to change. It’s like Voldemort. We don’t even want to talk or think about change for the fear that it will show up and mess our whole ish up. As I’ve said before, when change comes, lay down the welcome mat and let that sonofa in. It will be hard I won’t lie. It will be challenging for a bit. However, like Will Smith said, the best things in life are on the other side of fear. There’s no way around it. If you want something you do not have, whether that’s a better mindset, stronger body, leaner body, healthier relationships, better job, you will have to do something new because if you continue to do what you have always done you will not get a different result. Have to have a growth mindset or else you’ll stay stagnant or even worse, move backwards. Things will start to deteriorate if what you are doing takes a while to show the negative effects such as stuffing your face daily, not moving, smoking cigs. None of these things will immediately affect you but give it enough time and it will start to show you just where these habits get you. We all know what drinking soda, eating fast food, not moving, and drinking daily does to us yet many of us combine all of them together into a ridiculous cocktail and then are surprised when some ish arises down the road. Don’t wait for your health to force you to pay attention, that’s never a fun road. Instead, have some introspection. Observe your behaviors, take note of the consequences and act before you start to see what repercussions come from your actions. If you indulge in any of the behaviors and are currently suffering the consequences as a result of years of your actions, this does not make you a bad person. You are still a good person. I am not judging you. I just want to help you. Let me help you. Act today, act tomorrow and continue to act for the rest of your life.