The Worst Part of the Race

(This is you. This is you punching fear in the face.)

I was talking with some classmates about long distance runs when one said, "the most difficult distance of that whole race is the six inches between your ears." Boy, that says it all doesnt it? That is also true for ANY race, competition, event, problem, project, endeavor, dream, lift and pose. So while you may consider yourself a weightlifter, a CrossFitter, a runner, a yogi, a dancer or what have you we are always wrestling with that six inches between our ears.


What is the number one reason I have found for attempted, but failed, lifts? Fear. Fear keeps us from dropping under the snatch. Doubt nags at us and makes your brain freeze mid-pull. How many times have you seen someone, or yourself, go for a clean only drop the bar from the top of the triple? That's just that six inches messing with you. Sometimes it's justified and rational but there are times that it's just fear. JUST fear.

A lift is just a lift. Trikonasana is just a yoga pose. But we LOAD these things with meaning. I can't begin to list all the times that I've thrown or wanted to throw the jump rope across the room because I was screwing up on double-unders, judging myself (wrongly) for it, getting emotional and allowing the Thing to become shameful judgement of Me. It's just not right! Here's a quote from Swami Karmanada Saraswati about approaching your practice with fairness and without fear. He's specifically discussing yoga, but oh how this applies to any of our crafts!

"Do not fight your body. Do not carry the world on your shoulders like Atlas. Drop that heavy load of unnecessary baggage and you will feel better. Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach toward it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun." -Swami Karmanada Saraswati

Oh the things we could accomplish if we had no fear or doubt, if we could access our body and will's full potential! If we weren't carrying the weight of judgement on our shoulders maybe we wouldn't drop our shoulders on the dip-drive. Maybe that bar would feel lighter at the lockout if we weren't inhibited by imposed responsibilities. Maybe you could kick up into a handstand if you weren't afraid you'd crumble, literally and figuratively.

Remember that your craft, your practice, is yours. When you're in the moment BE. IN. THE. MOMENT. Because the six inches between your ears doesn't just give you fear and doubt. A tremendous source of power lies there waiting to be spoken to. The power though wants to feel loved, it needs to be inspired to come out. Power needs a muse.


Interact with power; be power's muse!

 

With fittest intentions,

Michelle

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A Paleo Mattress: A Pain In The Tookus?

I came across an article, and thereby a series of them, about the ergonomics of sleeping which I found intriguing. The originating question is, when did we adopt mattresses as we know them today? Mattresses have evolved greatly since sleeping on sacks stuffed with horsehair. But still, who is the regulating body that says that they can improve our quality of life or our health as the manufacturers claim they do?

Today mattresses are bigger, fatter, fluffier and gimmickier than ever. Mattresses move and bend at the touch of a button. They are made of space material, or inflate to your "ideal" firmness, or come with pad covers to improve softness or to improve circulation while you sleep.

So I guess the underlying question is, have these so-called improvements actually improved our health? Or have they harmed us: is that possible? After reading Patrick Clark's article on The Ergonomics Of Sleep, I thought I too might try sleeping on the floor and see what would happen.

Now first off, I have been camping plenty in my lifetime. I have laid on soft forest floors, packed desert sand, soft desert sand, frozen tundra, hard linoleum floors and uneven dirt speckled with roots. But I had never slept on my back on the ground and thought about how I felt in the morning. So I had to redo the experiment :)

So on Friday I decided that I would take my afternoon nap on the floor, pseudo-futon style. I took the fluffiest comforter I have and folded it once and laid it on the floor, it was about 3" thick. I laid down under another comforter and first found it comfortable. But just like Clark points out in his article, I felt not physical discomfort but mental discomfort due to lack of familiarity. I usually crawl into bed and immediately curl up on my side, but the floor is not so forgiving as the mattress, making side sleeping less desirable.

An hour later I woke up still on my back. I was refreshed and completely cozy and comfortable. So much so that I repeated the experiment that night. Even with the extended time I was on the floor this second time I again woke up refreshed and comfortable without so much as a single kink.

The real comparison came LAST night when I went back to sleep again on my mattress. It's a pretty average mattress, more firm than soft without any gimmicks. Even still, I laid down on my back under the covers and immediately noticed how my hips had sunk into the mattress and I could feel a slight muscular tension in my low back as my body absorbed the misalignment. This morning I woke up, not with the immediate *ta-da! that I had when I slept on the floor but with the same slow and bleary wake-up I'm accustomed to.

Okay, so one nap and two nights sleep does not a conclusive scientific study make, but it does make an interesting point wouldn't you say? So what I'm thinking is that sleeping on the floor just may be beneficial for those of us that are front-loaded from sitting all day long and then want to exacerbate the postural problem by curling up at night. Now that I know that sleeping on the floor is not an uncomfortable thing to do, I am certainly going to take advantage of that. Bonus that it may have substantial health benefits including improved spinal alignment and circulation! I don't know about you but I could use a bit more of both!

Everyone's favorite part of a yoga practice is doing Savasana at the end. The favorite part is letting your muscles melting into the floor, the difficult part is staying awake and present and focused. So sleeping on the floor is the ultimate way to get the structural benefits of Savasana (Corpse pose) without needing to stay awake. Just let go and let your muscles melt off your bones into the floor for eight whole hours!

Sounds pretty, pretty sweet to me! Try floor sleeping as a nap first to see what you think, and then email me and let me know how it went!

With Fittest Intentions,

Michelle

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GPS says We're At the End of the Road!

"Living each day in a similar way can have its benefits, but sometimes an escape is exactly what you need! Having a rhythm, a routine, can be comforting and can be an effective way to make sure you’re getting all your bills paid and chores done. Unfortunately, lines can blur, edges get soft and after too long without a self-review and we can find ourselves in a rut. Here’s where a temporary escape can be a life line!"

Read the rest of the post here.

With fittest intentions,
Michelle

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Braised Cucumbers...Who Knew?

Ever seen the film Julie & Julia? I was intrigued by one line, "braised cucumbers, who knew?" Now for someone that prefers slightly grilled lettuce to completely cold, the concept of cooked cucumbers definitely piqued my interest.

Let me remove the mystery. These are essentially cucumbers sautéed in butter. Sounds weird but promising doesn't it? Once I looked up the recipe and saw how simple it was I had to try it.

Braised Cucumber

1 huge cucumber (or 2 regular sized)

1 tablespoon butter

1 dash salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 pinch dried mint

Peel cucumber. Cut into quarters and remove seeds. Cut into 1 inch pieces.

Melt butter in a pan and add cucumber. Cover and cook about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Stir in salt, lemon, and mint. Cover and cook another 2 minutes.

The recipe is Julia Child's, so how bad could it be?! She knows a few things about cooking. So next time I'll try this out with coconut oil just to see what happens, but as I happen to love butter as much as our dearest Julia, I can't see that it'd come out any better by substituting OUT the butter. I mean, that's crazy talk!

Recipe Review

First off, it is delicious. However, if you are one that doesn't like avocados, bananas or melon due to textural issues this is NOT for you. Stick to raw cukes in that case.

The cooking softens the cucumbers just slightly, so be careful not to over cook or this could get ugly. The sweetness is certainly highlighted, the lemon & salt brighten the flavors so that this dish can stand alone. I dare say that it makes the cucumber taste almost complicated!

Typically cucumbers are relegated to the supporting role of just adding crunch & bulk to a salad. It's amazing how this simple little recipe will remind me to grab these at the farmers stand more often. I just may be more inclined now to buy a cucumber to cook! Weird :)

With fittest intentions,

Michelle

 

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Avoid Overload

I posted on my Chalk & Chi Facebook page today an image of an article I grabbed from a magazine (sorry mag, can't recall which one you were). The article is entitled "This Is Your Brain On Nature." It reminds us to get outdoors, not just for exercise but because our brains and hormone levels depend on nature's ability to regulate them.

This goes along well with the message I received in a newsletter this morning that addresses overload. Now, I'm not talking overload as in "overload the muscles or body to elicit positive gains." I'm talking overload as in being over worked, over stressed, over taxed, over tired, under nourished, and yes, even over trained.

"If you overload a circuit, it blows.

If you overload a boat, it will sink.

If you overload a truck, it won't roll.

If you overload a plane, it won't fly.

If you overload a train, it won't stop.

If you overload a bridge it will
collapse.

If you overload a flash drive, you get
an error.

These simple laws of physics are easy
enough for children to understand.
What's not so easy to understand is
why -- as grown adults -- we think our
bodies and minds are any different.

Your personal overload is increasing
your risk of getting sick, whether you
feel the weight or not.

A 2011 report from the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development
found that "stress has become the most
common reason for a worker being signed
off long-term sick."

The "21st century equivalent of the
Black Death" they said.

So today, it might be a good idea to
put some distance between you and the
Black Death.

Take a breath.

Take a break.

Take a walk.

When you do, please remind yourself
that when you do feel the pressure,
you have the right to say no, hit
delete, or hang up -- guilt-free.

You're the only one who can lighten
your own load." -Kevin Gianni of Renegade Health

So do what you can today to release a bit of the stress and mania. If you can at some point, get outside and go for a walk. Even if it's simply around the parking lot at the office. Even if it's hot out, feel the warmth on your body without being grossed out. Just feel it for a moment. Look up at the sky and notice the color. Take a deep breath and release it with an audible, "ah."




Like Kevin rightly said, only you have the ability to lighten your load. You can start right now.

 

With fittest intentions,

Michelle

 

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Life Isn't a Valid Excuse to Miss Out!

Good old' Michael Port strikes again, writing this short & sweet post reminding us that life doesn't get in the way because it IS the way. He basically says, how can we use living life as an excuse to be excused for missing life? Like, "sorry I couldn't be there but life got in the way." I know I've said that before and having to take a good look at the phrasing I totally get how this makes no sense.

Another place I see this happen is in my business of coaching & personal training.

"Sorry I missed my session, life got in the way."

"Yea, I stopped going to the gym. Life got in the way and I couldn't make it."

Seems like life may be the Grand Interrupter! But that sounds terribly negative doesn't it, like life gets in the way of fun and is something you're forced to deal and contend with on a daily basis. How about we stop that and instead choose to respect and revere life by giving it attention? What if life was this amazingly positive and beautifully creative event (hint: it IS an amazingly positive and beautifully creative event) and all things fell into it. Anything negative was simply a catalyst for positive change or to create an opportunity you may not have seen otherwise? Kind of like how you can't see the stars at noon.

What if?

Nuh uh. It IS!

 

With fittest intentions,

Michelle

 

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Fail Please: Improve By Leaving Your Comfort Zone

We're all admittedly trying to get better, in everything it seems. Every day someone posts in FaceBook an update that they're cleaning up their Paleo diet...again. Every day someone posts how they can't wait to get back to the gym, or how they PR'ed...again. It's great! But sometime I'm going to need you to fail. On purpose. Let me explain.

I'll never forget coaching a WOD and mid-way through I stopped at one woman & quickly reminded her to drop under the power cleans she was doing (instead of struggling to muscle it up to her shoulders). Even though she knew I was trying to help, she yelled, "But I can't DO them if i do them RIGHT!" I laughed pretty hard but haven't forgotten that.

The Trouble

We've got some strong people in this community and we all get excited to see how much we can lift. Sometimes we can muscle (ie force) more weight than we can finesse. You know, you see someone that can pull and wrench a heavily weighted bar up their shoulders for a "clean" but they can't properly squat clean the same bar because they lack the form and balance to move and receive the bar correctly at the bottom of the squat.

Left: slight early arm bend, hips open. Right: no triple and early arm bend. Both got job done, but not ideal! It's nice to be strong eh?

Next you'll see the same person adding weight to the bar because, well, they "got" the last one so it isn't their max right? Um, wrong. This is where I'll be asking you to fail. On purpose. For the sake of all your future lifts.

What happens is we see the workout of the day on the board and get stoked, "I can so do this sub 10min...those power cleans will get tough but I just have to get it done." And so "just getting it done" becomes our primary goal. If your body knows it can get the work done, when you're exhausted, form is likely to revert back to the old incorrect "adrenaline only" method. So all the pointers you'd learned and have been drilling, because they aren't habitual yet, drop to the wayside in favor of "just getting the work done". Truthfully, you can't turn off the Lizard brain that controls this type of fight-or-flight approach to lifts in WODs. What you DO need though is the awareness and humility to remain in control and not allow Lizard to take over.

What To Do

Yeah, I asked you to fail a lift. What I mean is that we are so well trained now to get the work done that I'm re-phrasing the assignment. Find the weak spot in your lift, whether it's lack of speed under the bar, inability to stick the bottom of the squat clean, or not hitting triple extension. Do some lighter lifts focusing on HITTING whatever it is you need to. DARE to fail in order to progress!

*check the pic, correct individual start positions. Due to varying body proportions they look quite different on first glance, but look at the angle of their femurs!

So if I'm working to stick the bottom of a squat clean let's say, I'll start light and make sure that I STICK each rep. If I don't, maybe catch it a little high or lose balance at the bottom, the the rep doesn't count. Do it again. If I have a tendency to short change the triple extension and pull under the bar without opening my hips, I'll put some lightish weight on the bar and start drilling making sure to HIT that triple. I will likely screw up & miss it many times. Sometimes I'll hit the triple but miss the lift because my timings all off (because trying something new). Sometimes I'll get so excited about getting under that I'll forget the triple again. Do it again. This is why we call it practice :)

We all come together at the gym with different backgrounds (football, track, dance, gymnastics, channel surfing), different muscle imbalances, different body proportions, different favored learning techniques and so on. So we all learn and translate our lessons slightly differently and we all end up doing our lifts a little differently. In each class then, we end up with a ton of shades of each lift or movement. My job (our job as coaches) is to get you to YOUR most ideal form, taking into consideration limb length and flexibility etc etc. What YOU need to do is dare to have a worse time today so that you don't continue to add glass bricks to your ceiling with each incorrect lift you engrain into your being.

An Olympian Olympic lifter once told me that form is everything because "your muscles will NEVER lift these weights you want to lift." You have to exploit lever angles and technique. If you insist on doing the lifts wrong (ie just muscling weights) there will always be someone that was willing to develop form that will pass you.

So please, I'm asking you to fail. Dare to fail so that you may learn and learn so that you may kick ass!

With fittest intentions,

michelle

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