Overcome Lack of Motivation the Dynamic Way!

I think the biggest downfall to anybody's progress in a workout program is when they lose motivation. It's a killer and it requires a lot of mental strength to overcome. There are days when I suffer from lack of motivation as much, if not more, than many. However, I've decided that what I love to do is race my bike. Cyclocross comes first, but I also love racing road, and I'm even going to give mountain bike racing a shot this year which I know I will love, maybe even more than the others. In order to be competitive at the things I love to do I have to work my ass off. There are virtually no days off. Since January 1 I have over 1500 miles in the saddle, almost all of them have been in cold, wind, snow, rain. I'm on the trainer when it becomes dangerous to be outside, like when the roads are icy, but I can honestly say I've only been on the trainer about a dozen times out of all my rides. Since early February I've been averaging between 150 and 200 miles a week. Threshold intervals, sprint workouts, tempo intervals, endurance rides, all in generally miserable weather in which I would come across ZERO other cyclists on the road. My recovery rides I would do on the rollers because it's too hilly where I live to get in an actual recovery effort. Ironically, most of my recovery rides have come on the few nice weather days when it would have been great to be out on the bike. I could have put most of my miles in on my trainer like many, but it's not the same. Nothing prepares you for riding on the road like riding on the road. Of the 1500+ miles I've put in, 47 of them have been in nice, wind free (when I say wind free I mean sub 15mph sustained winds), rain free, cloud free, snow free, cold free, weather. Those were this past Saturday. It's easy to get motivated to go out and ride your bike 50 miles when it's 60+ degrees without a cloud in the sky and negligible headwinds. In addition to all this, I have done all my rides in the last 3 months by myself, except for 3. So there is nobody to commiserate with, nobody to share the misery of riding 2 and a half hours in the rain when it's 38 degrees. You want to talk about having a tough time getting motivated sometimes? Trust me, I know what it's like. 

Today was no different, except that in addition to sucky weather it was also Monday which inherently blows. I couldn't ride in the morning because I had sessions to run at the gym. By the time I got everything done that I needed to get done it was after 2:00, the temps had dropped into the low 40's and it had started raining.. The last thing I wanted to do was go for a bike ride. There was nobody telling me I had to go. I wasn't meeting anybody to train with so I had nobody to answer to. Of course I have my coach who gives me my training plan, but he was 200 miles away in Maine, I can answer to him later can't I? Why not just skip this one, maybe jump some rope and do some kettlebell work? Maybe I could ride on the trainer for an hour instead of the 90+ minutes I was supposed to do. Or take a nap? Hell, I've only had 3 total days off from training in the past 3 months. Does any of this sound familiar to anybody? You see how the lack of motivation spawns a number of more attractive alternatives and excuses? So what do you think I did? I did what I do every single time I'm confronted with the same choice. I told myself to HTFU and get on the bike. I donned the rain gear, the helmet wrapped in Saran wrap (not kidding), the iPod loaded with 3 Social Distortion cd's that would get me through 2 hours, a couple energy gels and I headed out. The first 20 minutes of the ride I felt like shit. I ate wrong yesterday and today and was paying for it already. My heart rate was spiking where it shouldn't, the legs felt heavy, and so did all the extra layers I had to put on. I was convinced that this would be the worst ride of the season, but then things changed. The legs loosened up, the heart started responding properly to the short efforts up hills, my body somehow started converting the espresso and the crap sandwich I had for lunch into something that could be used for fuel, and I started to think about cyclocross 6 months away. The rain kept coming and it was pretty raw and cold, but it was no match. An hour forty-five later I'm pulling back into the driveway with a solid effort behind me and a much brighter mental state than just 2 short hours ago when I was dreading another ride in miserable weather. Road racing season is just beginning and I am arguably in as good if not better shape than I've ever been. My threshold power is already higher now than it was at the end of last season and I have 6 months to go till cross season starts... Fuckin giddy up!

I'm writing this because I think it's important to understand that everybody has to overcome the same barriers to attaining goals and staying on track. Yes, I understand what it's like to struggle with a lack of motivation to train. I overcome it on a regular basis, I have to. Nobody is going to train for me, and the Lactate Threshold Fairies aren't swinging by my house any time soon to magically enhance my legs with the extra 30 watts of power that I need to be really competitive come cyclocross season. So I drop an HTFU on myself and get to it. It works for me. I haven't missed a scheduled workout unless I've been injured or sick in years. But everybody has different goals and everybody is motivated in different ways. At Dynamic Strength and Conditioning I try to make it easy on you. All you have to do is show up and I'll take care of the rest. I give you the program, and it's a killer program :). There's people there to commiserate with and share the pain with. They are also there to cheer you on and share in the "high" you get from getting yourself in better shape than you ever have before. It is almost a 100% guarantee that your mental state is better upon leaving than when you got there. And when you commit to the program and make it in for your 3 sessions a week you are guaranteed to get results. Don't let a lack of motivation be your excuse to missing your workouts with us. Tell you what, if you're ever about to skip one of my workouts I want you to ask yourself, "what would Kevin say if I told him I was going to miss today's workout because _________". If the answer comes back, "rest", then you should rest. If the answer comes back "Harden up!", then you need to get your ass down to 100 Factory! The new sessions start Monday April 5th. I'm looking for people who are going to commit 100% attendance at their workouts, if you are unable to be at the workout then I want you to tell me that you got your workout in that day somewhere else. Hell, if you know you're not going to be able to make it then let me know ahead of time and I'll give you a workout to do. Obviously if you're sick or injured, then rest. Other than that? No excuses! Who's in?

How Hard Do You Work When Nobody's Looking?

How hard do you work when nobody's looking? Does it elicit involuntary screams that nobody can hear? Does it force you to question whether you really want it that bad? Do you collapse, pick yourself back up, and do it again? Do you come close to tears because you know it's either harden the fuck up and bury yourself or quit? Is it all or nothing for you? How badly do you want it? How hard do you work when nobody's looking?

Ice = Adrenaline

Today's session from Coach Perham was a 90 minute endurance block (2hrs, weather permitting). As I was zipping up my jacket and strapping on the Camelbak I looked out the window and the snow had just started coming down at a pretty good clip and had already started to accumulate. In this case, "weather permitting" meant I wasn't going to be able to ride on the roads so I was heading out on the trails on the mountain bike for 2hrs instead of slogging away for 90 minutes on the rollers in my garage. I always get up for rides like this because of the added elements. Today's ride would have a nice mix of elements with snowmobile trails that have been turned into glare ice bobsled runs that were now being covered by the falling snow. As slick as ice is on its own, it gets that much slicker with a half inch of fresh powder on it. 5 minutes into the ride while crossing an apple orchard both wheels shot out from under the bike, somehow leaving me standing while my bike slid away from me. This was going to be interesting.

For two hours I was alone in the woods, grinding up hills that were so steep and icy that the only way I was getting up was if the studs on the tires were able to hold the ice. It would have been impossible to get enough traction on foot to push my bike up the hill. Bombing down the other side of the hills was a huge adrenaline rush. As long as I heard crunching under the studs I knew I had traction, but as soon as the tires went silent I knew the studs were floating about 1/4 inch off the ice due to the fresh snow and that my ability to stay upright was going to be as much luck as anything. A couple times my tires went silent on fast descents. Braking would have caused an instant crash. All I could do was hold on and hope that the next turn would have a built in berm from the snowmobiles so that I would be able to hold the corner without flying into the woods. Many times my tires would start to slide out and I would somehow get the bike under control, seemingly by magic, and avoid crashing into the woods. I would get that instant adrenaline rush like when you used to be in the classroom leaning back in your chair just a little too far and all of a sudden you would practically fall over backwards and somehow catch yourself at the last second. Yea, it felt just like that..

Those were the moments that made me feel it. Made me feel alive. Made me realize how great it is to be active and in shape. How much better my life is when I push myself and test my limits. Seeing how far I can lean back in my chair without falling over....

You Can't Crunch Your Way To Core Strength

In my opinion, the best thing about functional strength and conditioning is that it builds phenomenal core strength and the gains you make translate to real world activities. Doing isolation exercises on weight machines and benches make you better at doing isolation exercises on weight machines and benches. They build strength, sure. But it's a non-functional strength that comes with bulk and limited mobility. Not only that, but you don't build any core strength because when you perform exercises that isolate one or two muscles at a time, the rest of your body is being supported by the equipment you're working on, whether it's a machine, a bench, a leg press, a lat pulldown, a preacher curl bench, whatever... Core strength comes from forcing your body to stabilize itself. This comes from training full body movements with and without resistance. Swinging kettlebells, doing true-form pushups and pullups, rope climbs, medicine ball work, or any of the other 100 or so exercises we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning.

There's a misconception that "core strength" comes from doing abdominal crunches or doing off-balance training on Swiss balls or Bosu balls. The abdominal crunch is one of the single most useless exercises ever created and I'm still trying to figure out why anybody would consider off-balance training "functional". Regarding the abdominal crunch, think of it this way. The Rectus Abdominus (six-pack muscles) primary function is to support the spine, it is not to "crunch". So if you want to strengthen the R.A., why would you do it in such a way that the spine is completely supported by laying on the ground? Regarding off-balance training, is training the ability to be off-balance specific to anything other than cirque du soleil? If you want functional training to translate to the real world, then stick with natural movements, loaded or unloaded, and don't try to get too cute with goofy off-balance exercises. 

I haven't done abdominal crunches since I was a misguided kid that didn't know how to train. My only use for a swiss ball is to sit on it as an office chair since it forces good posture. For bulletproof core strength I do pushups, pullups, kettlebell work (swings, turkish getups, windmills, getup situps), hand balancing (which is incredible for core stability), and power wheel work. I've developed incredible core strength as a result which directly translates to performance increases in my cyclocross, road and MTB riding, trail running, nordic skiing, rock climbing (which I need to do again in 2010) and playing.. I can pretty much out-play anybody, trust me :)

Crunch-free for 15 years...

Not only that, the core strength I've developed has made me virtually indestructible. I've had some wicked crashes on the bike, including a 20MPH ass-over-teakettle crash straight into a ditch which left me surprised to be standing and riding my bike home, a direct shot to the shoulder as I crashed into a tree in a race leaving me with just a mild AC separation, and most recently a fall off the rope ladder at the gym where my elbow took the full force of a 9' drop as I came down sideways. Things should have been breaking in each case, but they weren't. I'm definitely going to credit the upper body strength I've developed through functional conditioning for two reasons. First, if I was a beefed up mass of non-functional muscle from doing bench presses and biceps curls I wouldn't be able ride my bike as hard as I do and I certainly wouldn't be traversing the rope ladder at the gym two rungs at a time. Second, because I train my muscles to work together, when my brain sends the message to my muscles, "2 milliseconds to impact!", my muscles know how to work together to protect my body. If I did my strength work with isolation exercises I can guarantee you that I would not have that neuromuscular capability.

Functional strength and conditioning like we do at Dynamic builds superior full body functional strength and a bulletproof core. If you're into training for vanity and a non-functional muscle mass then it's not for you, you wouldn't be able to handle the workouts anyway.. But if you're into building a seriously strong body and mind that allows you to push the limits in your real world activities then I have just the place for you...

Relax? Do I Have To?

Why is it so hard to rest? In a society where 90% of the people are overweight and underactive I find it hard to bring myself to actually relax. (90% is not actual data, it's my way of saying "most" with emphasis)... In the last 3 months I've had 17 cyclocross races, in the last 6 weeks I've had a total of 3 days off the bike, I've been trail running and doing strength and conditioning work 2 or 3 times a week never mind the unintentional workouts I get on a daily basis from just running 4-6 sessions a day at my gym. I have literally beat the living shit out of my body, waking up on the Monday mornings after double race weekends feeling like I got hit by a truck, sick to my stomach from the race efforts, nursing injuries that haven't had time to heal. Contusions on both hips, forearms and elbows, a separated shoulder, a sprained thumb, a hypothermic episode in the NBX race that has left me unable to make a fist without pain. So after my last race of the season this past weekend it was officially time to rest. It was even built into my training schedule that my coach gave me. For 8 days in a row my training plan says "Complete Day Off From Training". I was really excited to actually spend some time off the bike. The cross season was intense and brutal and incredibly enjoyable. But I was sooo ready for a break from the bike. Sunday I did nothing. I picked out a Christmas tree with my daughter. No training, no watching what I eat, no guilt about it. Monday came and I felt lost. Kind of depressed. The race season is over. Now what? I'm not even supposed to train this week. I felt like shit. I ran my sessions at the gym from 6a-10 and after the last people left for the day I figured I needed to workout. Nothing major, it was my rest week after all. Figured maybe I'd do some easy jump rope for a little bit just to get the blood going and clear the head. It just kind of escalated from there and 25 minutes later I had done 1500 turns on the jump rope finishing off with 100 double unders, 200 Hindu Squats, a bunch of sets of pullups on ropes and some core work on the power wheel. So much for resting. Tuesday I relaxed, it was rest week after all. Wednesday I was a bit stressed out and needed a release so I joined in a killer workout at the gym with kettlebell front squats and long sets of kettlebell swings. I haven't done squats in many months since I limit my leg work to the bike during race season and I haven't done any kind of kettlebell swings since before I separated my shoulder. So this workout torched me pretty good. Not too smart for rest week. Thursday, I was pretty stiff and sore from Wednesdays session so I went out in the sub-freezing windchill for a 45 minute trail run in the snow to "loosen up". I got home and emailed my coach to let him know that I have failed on resting this week, but I stayed off the bike, and I kept my intensity really low (which was 90% true, well maybe 70% :).... Kurt was on the phone within about 10 minutes tearing me a new butthole for not taking it easy... And I knew it was coming, because I know how important rest is. So I ask again, why is it so hard to rest?

This is me on my trail run in the snow the other day. While it may look effortless, it was the opposite of what I should have been doing which was resting.

Here's why. For those of us who take care of ourselves and get ourselves in truly good shape, we know how hard it is to get there and we know how hard it is to stay there. I spent years abusing my body with poor nutrition marinated in bourbon and beer. I was a fucking mess. I know how hard it was to get where I am today. There's something inside my head that tells me to drive, drive, DRIVE! Relax? Are you kidding me? My head tells me that if I take a week off I'll lose all kinds of fitness. I'll also lose the stress-relieving benefits of a kick ass workout which has become my coping mechanism. So all the work I've done that has gotten me to the point where I'm at today can be undone with a week of inactivity? I know how stupid that sounds. But it's the mentality. If it's good for you to do it, then stopping must be bad, right? Wrong...

Without getting scientific, because I'm not qualified or smart enough to get scientific, I'm going to put this in terms that even I can understand. First, the perception is that the workout makes you stronger. The fact is that the workout destroys your body. Why do you think a tough workout makes you so sore? It's because you've damaged your muscles. Think about it, are you ever stronger at the end of a workout than you were at the beginning? Of course not, you're beat up and tired (but in a good way if you did it right)... The recovery period after the workout is what makes you stronger. When you work your muscles hard, your body perceives this as an attempt to kill it. Due to the magic of self-preservation, the body adapts to the demands you're putting on it by making itself stronger so that next time you do it it doesn't hurt so much. This is also known as the SAID principle, Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Look at it this way. Let's say you work in an office 40 hours a week, eat doughnuts and wash them down with chocolate milk, go out for pizza and subs every day for lunch. You're a load. Then one day you get abducted by a group of flannel clad lumberjacks from Maine and they bring you to their logging camp for hard labor. The first day you're swinging an ax until your arms are ready to fall off and your back feels like you just piggybacked a gorilla up Mt Washington. You get up the next morning and you're in so much pain your fat hurts. But the lumberjacks will have none of your incessant whining, man-tears, or begging and they put you right back to work. The first 4 or 5 days are the most miserable days of your existence. But as the days go by, the pain subsides. You start feeling pretty good actually. You're producing 3x as much work in 1/3 the time compared to when you first got there. Damn, you're getting lean, you're getting strong. You're a beast! The lumberjacks present you with your own flannel. How did this happen? Your body adapted to the demands you put on it. It made itself stronger so that every time you go out to chop down trees all day it's not a near death experience.

Belonging

Works the same with exercise. You crush your body with hard, intense workout sessions, whether they are at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, on your bike, skis, on foot running hill sprints, it doesn't matter. You damage your body. Then you rest and your body rebuilds. It gets stronger. Then you do it again. If you take the rest out of the equation, then your body can't rebuild. It can take the abuse for a certain amount of time and you can continue to make gains for a while, but eventually if you don't give your body the proper amount of rest it requires to adapt to the demands you're putting on it then you will stop making gains. You plateau. Then if you keep doing it you start taking steps backwards. Your workouts start to suck. You feel like shit. You get sick. Your tired all the time. This is your body saying "Hey asshole! Enough already. If you're not going to shut it down I'm going to do it for you.". This is overtraining. Most of us never get to this point because most people don't actually work hard enough, long enough to get to that point. But there are many that definitely get into the "over-reaching" stage which is where you hit plateaus and feel an overall sense of fatigue and inability get effective workouts. You have to listen to your body. If it's telling you it needs a rest then give it a rest.

This guy has it right, with the glaring exception of the 80's porn-star moustache.

Ok, let's recap, it's not the workout that makes you stronger, it's the post-workout recovery period. I'm just getting off an intense racing season and my body needs some time to recover, so that I can get stronger. That means I need to do nothing. No running, no biking, no kettlebell workouts. In fact, if somebody drops a heavy kettlebell on their face doing turkish getups at the gym I'm not even going to help them get it off because, well, I'm selfish and my recovery is more important than their looks. Sorry. If you don't like it, don't drop a kettlebell on your face. 

Coach

You're all grown up (physically anyways), you have a wife or husband, you have kids, you have a day job. Or maybe you have none of those things. Maybe you're 38 years old and used to be a hell of an athlete in high school but have found that the soft parts are starting to outnumber the not-so-soft parts. You go to "the gym" and do retarded bodybuilding routines that didn't even make sense when you were in your early 20's. But it's not your fault, society has been brainwashed into believing that everybody needs bulging biceps and six pack abs and the way to do it is through isolation exercises. But you don't know anything else and it's easy to figure out a workout schedule that goes something like this:

Warmup: 20 mins on treadmill or exercise bike

Mon/Thu: back and arms

Tue/Fri: chest and legs

Wed: cardio

Sat/Sun: eat and drink whatever I want because I "worked out" all week...

Shocking that this program doesn't get 99% of the population the results they're looking for, I know. But, like I said, everybody's doing it so it must be right. Right? Ummm, wrong.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people are not getting what they want out of their workouts. For some people, this is because their workouts suck. For other people, it's because their lifestyle doesn't complement their goals. For many it's a combination of the two. For those who are serious about achieving overall health and wellness goals but are unable to get the results they are looking for on their own, the best solution is to hire a coach.

I don't care how fit you are, whether you are 150 lbs overweight or a world class athlete, everybody can benefit from the right coach. A good coach takes the uncertainty out of how you're going to go about achieving your goals. They put a plan in place for you. They answer your questions. They motivate you. They provide guidance and feedback. They adjust your plan as necessary to make sure that you're getting the results you want. They listen to you. They care about you. A good coach's success is measured in the results of his students.

A certified kettlebell coach is a necessity to ensure proper form and effective kettlebell training programs.

Most people don't think they need a coach. "A coach is only for athletes" is a common argument. That is patently false, a coach is beneficial to every person who wants to be in the best possible shape they can be. Most people think hiring a coach costs too much. If hiring a coach costs 5x as much but yields infinitely better results than your gym membership that you either: (a) don't use, or (b) use, but get lousy results; then does it really cost too much? If your lifestyle leads you to several doctor visits per year and a cabinet full of expensive medications, then is it really too much to hire a coach who will help eliminate those medical costs? It's a matter of perspective and value. 

I've been playing competitive sports and working out my whole life. I've been coaching athletes for 18 years and have been running a personal training business for two years. I recently hired a coach to help me with my cyclocross racing. I'm 42, and I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. I know how to train myself and I know how to train others but I still hired a coach. Why? Because hiring a coach makes me even better. Without question, being coached has made me a better athlete and cyclocross racer. My workouts are more focused, my diet is more balanced and complements my training better. It's had a positive impact on my focus, conditioning, competitiveness, nutrition, and my lifestyle. The most important thing in life to me is my health and wellness because without it, nothing else exists. Hiring a coach has increased my health and wellness. For me, this is not a luxury, it's a priority. 

My coach helped me become a legit elite masters cyclocross racer.

When you come to Dynamic Strength and Conditioning you are hiring Michele and I as your coaches. We put different programs together depending on the level of assistance and attention you need. For those looking for a great workout program for overall increases in general strength and conditioning to complement their already healthy and active lifestyle we've put together the Dynamic Performance and 90 Day Challenge programs. For those looking for a more customized program or more individualized attention we have semi-private and private training. We offer sports-specific coaching. We offer nutritional and lifestyle coaching to help you better complement your activities, workouts and overall goals. The people that come to our gym have realized better results than at any gym or in any other program they've ever been involved in. 

There is nobody around that is going to go to the lengths that we will to make sure you're getting the results you want. It's what we do, it's what we're passionate about. If there's something that we can't help you with, we'll be the first to refer you to somebody who can. This is a very important distinction and not something that every coach will do for you. In the past 20 years I've been coached and trained by some of the best coaches on the planet. I've also been subjected to some of the most pretentious self-proclaimed "fitness experts" who couldn't train a rock to stay still. I know the difference and I've learned from every interaction. I learn something new every day and always strive to make my programs better. The next offering of the Dynamic Performance and 90 Day Challenge programs will be better than the last because Michele and I have learned from the last sessions. Each subsequent program will be better than the last. The people in our semi-private and private training sessions have gone through life altering transformations both physically and mentally. Our programs change lives. Our guarantee to you is that we are dedicated to getting you the results that you expect.

Do you have goals and don't have a plan in place on how you're going to get there? Or maybe your plan didn't get you the results you wanted. Is your health and wellness a luxury or is it a priority? If it's a priority then you owe it to yourself to do what it takes to make sure you're getting the results you deserve. Get yourself a coach :)

new blog

I've decided this "Redefining Fitness..." blog has strayed from it's original intent, which is to focus on the benefits of functional conditioning and the lifestyle that we encourage at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning... But I'm having some fun with my race reports and other stuff so I started a new blog here.. Check it out if you've been enjoying the race reports, (or even if you haven't)

I will be back here to post with more stuff related to functional conditioning on a fairly regular basis :)

Best,
kevin