Archive for the ‘Physical’ tag
Building the Perfect Home Gym (Without Going Too Far)
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to workout alone. While my first “official” workouts didn’t start until my 18th birthday – not coincidentally about 6 weeks after arriving at Cornell as a freshman – I spent a lot of time in my teens messing around with weights in the basement of my childhood home. We had a beat-up old bench with rusty plates and a few bars to go along with it… and it was heaven. Some of my best workouts to-date were in that (usually flooded) basement, and they didn’t require a Power Rack, a treadmill, or Freemotion cables.
Here I am, many years later, still longing for the same. They say some things never change. Over the last few months (and the next few really) I’m piecing together the home gym setup I’ve been thinking about for almost two decades. Below is my list.
First, a word about the investment required. Depending on your bank account and your tolerance for spending, the list below may seem extravagant… or perfectly reasonable when compared to a pricey gym membership. No matter how you slice it, different people have different priorities and not everyone wants to spend money to improve their overall health, mood, or strength. You can tell where I fall on that spectrum.
The great thing about having the ability to workout at home is that you have no excuses. Not a one. You can get a great workout finished in less than 20 minutes and you don’t have to wait for your turn to use any equipment. You can listen to whatever you want, you can wear whatever you want, and you can be in the shower 10 seconds after your last rep. The convenience simply can’t be beaten.
Strength Training 101
Physical conditioning, emotional strength, and mental focus are interrelated and natural precursors to one another. A strong body drives intestinal fortitude and a focused mindset just as a clear, focused mindset can develop a strong body. All three sides of the triangle are a requirement for the kind of focus this blog is all about; it’s hard to achieve self-actualization if you’re missing one of these prerequisites. This counter-balance is often described as mind-body-spirit in various spiritual practices.
It’s clear that training the mind in various ways (NLP, visualization, meditation) can help develop physical skill as much or more than rehearsal of the activity itself. But just as the mind drives the body, the body can drive the mind as well. Confidence and real strength can be derived from physical activity whether it’s through enhanced coordination, a sense of empowerment and control over something, or as an avenue for achieving flow.
Looking at empowerment and control alone, it’s clear that overcoming challenges – small and large – can increase self-esteem and confidence. And having confidence in your abilities in one area can translate to other areas of life, effectively parlaying success in one controlled arena to other potentially less controlled ones. Tony Robbins has his conference attendees walk on fire on day one of a retreat to show them how their limiting beliefs have been holding them back, and once they’ve done something they previously thought was impossible, they’re more open to tackling more personal challenges.
In many ways building muscle has this same effect on people.
Introduction to the Flow State (part 2 of 2)
This post is part of the Introduction to the Flow State series. Read the first part.
"In the groove", "in the zone", "in the bubble", and "on auto-pilot" are all ways to describe what the Japanese call "muga", and what Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced CHICK-sent-me-high-ee) dubbed "flow" in the 1980s.
Flow can be defined as a period in time in which one becomes so completely involved in an activity that all other thoughts and emotions – what some consider the "self" – are excluded from consciousness.
Raise the stakes and improve your skills
Whatever the immediate activity we’re participating in, we need to continually find a way to 1) set clear goals, 2) find ways to measure progress and 3) raise the stakes when we become bored. In order to consistently achieve the flow state, we must continue to increase our skill set as well as the challenge, in order to avoid becoming disinterested, overwhelmed, or apathetic. This means striking a unique balance in which Dr. Csikszentmihalyi and Dr. Susan Jackson label the “C/S Balance” (challenge/skills) in their book “Flow in Sports”. The activity needs to be challenging, but not so challenging that it’s perceived as an impossibility. As your skill level increases, you’ll need to continually increase the level of personal challenge in the activity.
Introduction to the Flow State (part 1 of 2)
This post is part of the Introduction to the Flow State series. Read the second part.
"In the groove", "in the zone", "in the bubble", and "on auto-pilot" are all ways to describe what the Japanese call "muga", and what Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced CHICK-sent-me-high-ee) dubbed "flow" in the 1980s.
Flow can be defined as a period in time in which one becomes so completely involved in an activity that all other thoughts and emotions – what some consider the "self" – are excluded from consciousness.
It’s during this episode that an athlete or artist is in the much desired yet elusive mental state required to push his or her limits in the quest for peak performance. While most people view flow strictly as an afterthought, there are some who deem it as the sole purpose of any type of activity or training due to the fact that it enhances their awareness, improves their mood, and most importantly, enables them to perform at a level of proficiency they wouldn’t otherwise be capable of.
Bruce Lee was an ardent believer in the flow state (he referred to it as wu-hsin, flow’s Cantonese counterpart) and stated, "The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action" (Tao of Jeet Kune Do, p7). He believed that "physical stoppage", or the opposite of wu-hsin, could create many problems for a martial artist, as it would almost always result in hesitation and self-doubt. It’s also said that he planned to use wu-hsin as his alibi should he ever have to legally defend a violent act, by simply stating that he did not do it, "it did it all by itself".
4 Steps to Learn Any Physical Activity
Interested in learning a new dance step or knitting pattern? Always wanted to learn how to throw a curveball or how to surf? Learning something physical comes naturally to some people. We all know the type of person who can be shown how to do something quite elaborate and within 3 minutes is doing it themselves. For most of us however, doing something physical may not come naturally or easy even if the motivation is there.
Learning a new physical activity can be hard. You feel clumsy and awkward, you feel like you’re being watched like a hawk, and you consider quitting when you’re not getting it right. But remember: everyone starts where they are, and the best dancer/fighter/runner/juggler (or insert your interest here) was where you are now once in their life. No one is born with near-perfect coordination over their body, it always takes some time to build it.
A number of years ago I did some training at the Straight Blast Gym, one of the best mixed martial arts gyms in the world. Other than being thrown around the mat like a ragdoll by UFC champ Randy Couture (yes, I’m a name dropper), I had the privilege of training with someone who has had a profound impact on the way people train in modern martial arts. His name is Matt Thornton and the steps I’m going to outline are based on his steps for learning a new martial arts movement as covered in his original Functional Jeet Kune Do series. But this is certainly not limited to punching, kicking, or choking – as you’ll likely see, the same steps work just as well for learning just about any physical activity provided you want to do it well and do it “for real” (i.e. you don’t just want to pretend you can pull it off, you actually want to be able to pull it off in a real setting).
