Training with the Pitbull

A Facebook Fitness Fail Thread

2011-12-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

Being Smart

2011-12-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

My Intent Behind My Writings, Postings and Comments

2011-10-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

My intent behind my writings, postings and comments about the various fitness trends offered by McGloboGymWorld is to show that many current (as well as past) trends including BodyPump, an ever increasing percentage of Crossfit Boxes, ZUMBA and other similar programming is that they are guilty of the typical fitness industry issue of ignoring what works and subsituting, instead, what sounds like it will work.

"reject the awful normal"©

Workout Meets Reality - Week Seven

2011-10-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

The seventh week of Workout Meets Reality ended yesterday. It’s been three weeks of hard work and gains have been made both physically and mentally.

In the strength program we are following the goal is to be able to lift more weight “once” in the foundation movements. Mark Rippetoe says that strength is defined by the amount of weight one is able to lift one time. I agree with 100%. The BodyPump / Pilates herd is led to believe that they are getting stronger by shaping and toning and initially there is a “feeling of strength” but the feeling is actually one, especially for the deconditioned population, of the muscles being activated and turned on and is confused with strength. In short if all one does is bridge their hips up on a Swiss Ball 10 times that is all one will get good at. To make the muscles involved with a hip bridge truly strong one needs to place a loaded barbell and then bridge the hips. But I digress.

The week prior I failed at board chest press. I listened to Ken on what I needed to work on the and the next week came back, met the weight I had previously failed at for two singles, then added 10 more pounds and met that for a single. Then I failed with another 10 pounds for a single. I listened again to what Ken told me and worked on the weak points this week.

This week was a week of singles on certain days, working up to a max effort. On Tuesday I improved my single squat by 30 pounds and then failed when I added another 10 pounds. I now know why I failed. We’ll hit that topic later.

The big story on squat day was getting to see Clar use the “wheels” (plus some) for her singles. I can’t be proud for her, only she can be proud of her accomplishment but she’s working hard and it’s an honor to be able to rack weights for her. That’s my payment.

Board press day went well for singles and Ken got in both our faces a bit. It’s in a good way but when he told Clar that using the weights she was using for DB press put her in the upper 10% for women half her age he wasn’t shooting fairy dust out his woo-hoo at her. Women are led to believe that lifting heavy weights will make them “bulky” which is a load of crap.

Yesterday was the end of week. The wheels (plus some) also came up for Clar on deadlift day. Deadlifts are often talked down in the McGloboGym, even banned as “dangerous” mainly because the shake and bake personal trainers can’t do them themselves (along with squats) but I prefer to believe Jón Páll Sigmarsson when he says: "There is no point in living if you cannot deadlift." My deadlift improved as well, adding 10% to my single over 3 weeks ago. And as I said in an earlier post I know I won’t see big jumps all the time but 5% at 405 pounds is still more than 10% at 100 pounds. Again I’m honored to be able to help rack the wheels for my Iron Maiden.

The other day I was working on my KB swing and a voice from across the room said “wait for it” as I began to swing the KB up. So I did and the voice went “away”. But as I worked KB swings later in the week I heard the voice say “wait for it” even though I was alone in the gym. That’s what a good trainer does. They imprint. I must choose to pay attention.

So yesterday was the end of our week. As I said earlier in this post I had failed in my last heavy squat single. It wasn’t that I didn’t improve but I still failed and I walked out of the rack feeling that I had done something wrong, incorrectly that had contributed to it. As I was doing band squats yesterday I heard a voice say “spread the floor”. It was just Clar and I in the gym and I knew she wasn’t channeling Ken and then it slapped me upside the head that I had failed because I hadn’t truly spread the floor on my last single attempt. Now I know.

Lift heavy things. Spread the floor. Choose wisely who you listen to. Never sacrifice who you are just because someone has a problem with it.

“reject the awful normal”©

Workout Meets Reality - Week Six

2011-10-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

Over the course of years I have officially finished single ironmans, double ironmans, triple ironmans, 3 UltraMan triathlons, ridden my bike 451 miles in 24 hours, run marathons many times under 3 hours, won my class in bodybuilding shows and so on and so forth.

I have never learned to jump rope. It was never on my radar.

As I moved into my sixth week of learning a new way of lifting I have added some new dimensions to my training – learning how to hit a heavy bag and learning striking drills. I don’t plan on climbing into the boxing ring or MMA octagon anytime soon nor do I plan on adding a fourth discipline to triathlon – I just felt it would be a good way to open my mind as I return to racing.

Last week I went down to train with Ken. I had learned that hitting a bag is not just putting on a pair of gloves and jamming out to the words of Carl Douglas and his one hit wonder song “Kung Fu Fighting” in a session the week earlier. This time Ken was with a client and told me to go warm-up with 200 rounds of jumping rope and he’d be down soon.

So I found a jump rope and tried. And tried again and again and again. When Ken came down I told him that I had never learned to jump rope and he laughed out loud. He said that he found it curious I had done all the things I had but had never learned to jump rope. So he showed how it was done. He’s very dainty on his feet, it’s a little bit frightening, that cat’s as fast as lightning…

After our session I went out and bought a jump rope. I still suck at jumping rope.

Week Six marks the second week of our current four week cycle. The principles remain the same with the addition of tailoring the plan to address specific weaknesses. My benching is getting better and my squat working weights are up over 30%. I know the gains made in the amount of weight lifted will be great at first and then it will level off. It will take continued application of the lessons learned to see gains. That’s just a simple fact many overlook. I do like knowing I can squat, dead, military press and bench increasing amounts of weight safely.

It’s also good to feel as though I fit in at The Anvil. I never really felt like I fit when I was in the McGloboGym World. I was always told that I couldn’t say things like the time as a trainer in a gym I was asked for a quote to put under my picture on the staff wall. I submitted “Go Hard - Go Long - Go Home” and it was rejected as inappropriate. So I submitted “Everyone Is a Winner” or “Kool-Aid for Every One!” – something sanitized and safe and that was accepted.

So after my session with Ken last week I worked out on my own. There were lots of people in lifting as I went through 5 rounds of 3:00 Schwinn Airdyne / :30 KB Swings/ AbWheel Rollouts x 10 / 250 meters Concept II ergometer / GHR x 10. among the people there working out was a little boy with his Dad – the same little boy Ken stopped to show how to execute KB swings safely as we came out of the MMA room.

For you see the way we learn is to not let ourselves or others convince us that we can’t or shouldn’t by drinking a big glass of Kool-Aid but by handing ourselves or others the jump rope, the textbook or the kettlebell and learning how to use it.

That is what it means to “reject the awful normal”©

Workout Meets Reality - Week Five

2011-10-10T07:27:00.001-07:00

I stopped in at the end of last week at The Anvil to connect with Ken about scheduling for sessions on the heavy bag and to mention that I had referred a client to him. There I ran into Tom, one of the real people Clar and I have gotten to know over the years. We talked about his upcoming powerlifting meets and my program to return to racing. He was benching heavy (or it sure looked that way to me) and I said that perhaps we would see him on Saturday. He told me he was working his back and I’m guessing I looked a little surprised when he told me how many sets of pull-ups he had scheduled for he told me “You gotta do the work”.

I understood what he meant.

“You gotta do the work”. In the de-loading week of our first 4 weeks, September 28 I was tempted to not do the work. I had convinced myself I was tired and blah, blah, blah. (Or would it be bleat, bleat; bleat because that’s what sheep do?)One person said to me after reading my last post that I probably did the work because I didn’t want someone the size of Ken pissed off at me. I told them while Ken may care if I do the workout ultimately I would be the one pissed at me if I had blown the workout off.

I am not a sheep and Ken is not my shepherd.

Now fitness clubs will attempt to convince you that you need them to be successful. They sell the idea of “accountability” to the masses, using charts, check-in trackers and of course t-shirts, water bottles and other shiny things to generate camaraderie and market their personal trainers.

You do not. You need you to be successful.

So week 5 ended last Saturday. We had been lifting on S/M/W/F but shifted the sessions to M/T/Th/S to better accommodate Clar’s work schedule. It felt kind of weird not to begin a week with squats but instead we’re kicking off the week doing speed bench with bands, standing military press, face pulls and lateral raises plus at least 15 sets of a mix of pull-ups and chin-ups. Tuesday is better because we get to squat and RDL – I like the way our squats now play off the squats we did in the first four weeks. My squat weight is up about 15%. Thursdays are new to us as we are doing board press and then our lifts diverge a bit as we work on weaknesses to improve our strength. Saturday was new as well and those little red bands are deceptive buggers. Our requirements for improvement have increased and we are doing the little things, “the work” that will add up to success in the end.

Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand talks of the prime movers and the second handers in her writings. The prime movers care if they do the work. The second handers want someone else to care if they do the work.

I choose to be a prime mover. I know “I gotta do the work”.

Workout Meets Reality - Week Four

2011-09-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

“You’re pussyfooting Bibby”.

I heard these words over 38 years ago when I was taking drivers education in high school. A group of us were in the car with our instructor learning how to drive on the Interstate. As we came onto the Interstate we were traveling 25 MPH and Mr. Kramer bluntly told the individual that he was “pussyfooting”. He was telling Bibby and the rest of us that pussyfooting when getting on the Interstate could get us killed.

I am unsure as to how many people in the world are pussyfooting as I write this. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is if I am pussyfooting – an action I have been guilty of for the past several years. So I have made a change. I didn’t want to die.

Week Four of The Workout Meets Reality began as usual on Sunday. Week Four was a de-loading phase and it felt natural as over the past years of racing I have always trained in a 3:1 block. It is what has kept me injury free for the last 30 years and able to do events like a triple ironman, a double ironman and UltraMan in the same year.

I felt the squats went well and I didn’t stumble around as I did the week prior. I moved onto the deadlifts and they too went well and though tempted to do more I pulled back and stuck to the plan. It’s always been one of the things that pisses me off about clients I have worked with, in that they come to me and I write them a program and then they read Runners World or Muscle and Fiction and deviate from the plan totally. That’s one of many reasons I don’t train people anymore.

Monday went well too. I was feeling charged and I simply worked through the plan. No great shakes and in the words of Buzz Lightyear it was “all quiet and nothing to report”.

Wednesday was a different animal. I woke up and felt totally unmotivated to go in and lift. I pussyfooted around the house, I let Clar and Lennox sleep in, I began to attempt to justify to myself that I could skip the workout as it was after all, “de-loading”. I almost had myself convinced and then it slapped me upside the head. I had become a herd animal, much the same as many of those McGloboGym crushed souls who rally the excuses and never get anywhere. So I had another cup of coffee and we got it done.

Thursday we worked with Ken. He explained to us our next four weeks and we worked on the movements. He also critiqued my KB swings and he way I bench. Coming from a bodybuilding background I tend to bench higher on the chest and he had me get my elbows down to get the bar lower. He gives good feedback and the next four weeks will be good.

Today the week closed out at The Anvil. We did speed bench with chains, close grips and the like. I concentrated on getting my elbows down so the bar hit lower and dang it if Ken wasn’t right! I am stronger there. It has always cracked me up how in the past people will ask me to write them a program or ask for advice, I give it and then they ask me if I “am sure”. No lambchop, I just like the sound of my voice…

Pussyfooting. Here’s the deal. Pussyfooting is the same as “doing something”. I absolutely hate the evaluation “at least they are doing something”. I loathe it too. I might as well throw in despise too. That covers my feelings. Think about it… how happy would your employer be if you said that today you were going to “do something”. Or if you went in and your boss said “today I want you to do something” so you could stick beans up your nose and you would be “doing something”.

Newton’s Second Law states that Force = Mass x Acceleration.

Pussyfooting is not an example of Newtons’ Second Law.

Living life like you mean it is.

“reject the awful normal” ©

Workout Meets Reality - Week Three

2011-09-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Some things really don’t matter.

People yes, some things, no.

As I was heading home meditating last Saturday aboard Occam’s Razor after a therapy session with my friend Crazy Pete I was passed by a locally known cyclist (in full regalia) who made their presence known by saying “on your left”. I bridged up and alongside easily and knowing who they were and in having never met wanted to introduce myself. They replied they knew who I was and sped up a bit. I rode alongside and asked about future plans. There was no interest returned in conversation and we parted.

In sharp contrast was my experience Sunday while beginning Week Three of my strength program at The Anvil. As I was moving into my deadlifts some of the local MMA fighters from Team Hard Drive were coming in for their workouts. Some of the fighters I had met before and we said hello. Some went to the sparring area. A couple of the guys were in the weight room along with one of their dogs. As I deadlifted the fighter who owned the dog began climbing up one of the warehouse’s support I-beams, reaching out to the top cross beam, doing chins and then climbing down. I continued to dead. Then he would kneel in front of a plyo box, jump to his feet and then jump on top of the plyo box. A 36 inch tall plyo box. Back to the I-beams. Then he put on a 20 pound weight vest, and began knocking out pull-ups, pulling up with enough energy to clear and then release from the bar, clap his hands and then grab the bar on the way down.

This is, in my opinion, bad ass.

However you would never know it. As I was deadlifting his dog came over and wasn’t quite so sure about me being in her gym. He came over and we talked dogs. We talked about dogs in our life, our dogs and his dogs. We talked about how hard it is to lose a dog and the role dogs have played in our lives.

I trust dog people.

We went back to our respective workouts, Clar came back to pick me up, met Nova introduced herself to his owner and we left.

It all mattered.

Sunday was the beginning of Week Three of my strength training program to return to ultra racing. It started out jumbled. We warmed up and began with speed squats with chains. Even as I was setting up the chains I felt clumsy. I set the bar up for my warm-up sets, stepped in and began to unrack the bar almost tipping over. I realized I had put a 25 on one side and a 35 on the other. Holy crap! Had I slipped into some XTREME wormhole in the space time continuum and become a globo-gym dork? What was next?!! Biceps curls in the power rack?!! This was no way to find the active edge! Stop the madness!

So I said to Clar I’m going to begin again. I went through the whole warm-up and began again.

Why?

It mattered.

I found the groove and went through the workout. I had a specific goal for deadlifts and I met it. It is the workout meeting reality.

Monday brought bench day, doing 5 x 1 for bench plus other work. My bench is embarrassing to me. I told Ken this today. He agreed my bench is poor in relationship to my deadlifts and squats and we’ll begin working on this next cycle. I wasn’t offended when he agreed with me my bench is poor. Part of everyone’s workout should be meeting reality.

Wednesday was box squat day. The sets and weight has remained the same but the number of reps per set has increased each week. I felt good and my Iron Maiden shined. She came to the box strong and in control and back out of the hole like she meant it. I have been practicing using the GHR and we worked through it together – Clar really nailed her last set there. She made her reality. She knows no one can manufacture your reality for you unless you let them.

It's taken me a while longer to realize that.

Today we closed Week Three with speed bench with chains, close grip bench and Kroc Rows and other work. Ken was in and we discussed further our next four week cycle. Week Four is a deloading phase and I am looking forward to it. My running has taken a back seat for the last couple of weeks – although I am still running strong and my cycling has improved there’s something about 8 x 5 squats that takes a little starch out of my legs and I’m just not that excited about running but want to get back to it.

Coach Dan John quotes Olympian Dan Gable is his book Never Let Go “If it is important do it every day. If it’s not important, don’t do it at all.”

It is important to me to be stronger. It is important to me to say hello to others. It is important to me to learn about other dogs and their owners.

It’s not so important to worry about people who just can't be bothered as much as is it not important to me to do biceps curls in the power rack for I now know you can’t manufacture reality and I have always known biceps curls in the power rack is a manufactured reality.

On to Week Four…

Too Cool

2011-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

We get it.

You’re too cool.

There are those of us who know who you are as you pass by on your bike and can’t slow down to exchange a few words or to introduce yourself.

You’re too cool.

And you twitter on and on about how your child’s soccer team won the game even though the ref was an idiot – you’re too cool and now your children know they are too cool as well.

Or maybe you drop a few pounds and you get a sleeveless tank so that after every set you get in on the preacher curl bench you can walk by the mirror and grab a quick glance at your “guns”.

Cause you’re too cool.

Perhaps you feel a 16 hour certification over two days coupled with a pair of knee socks or a 16 hour certification and a pair of aero bars and high dollar wheels gives you an elite background.

You’re too cool.

Maybe it’s your very average marathon time surrounded by your follower’s below average marathon times that lets you think you’re too cool.

I don’t know.

But I do know there are people who can climb up an I-beam in a gym, grab ahold of the top cross beam and knock out chins and then climb back down and never sneak a glance at their “guns”.

I’ve talked with them.

And I also know they are not the kind of person to tell someone at the local YMCA they shouldn’t use the treadmill that they want to use or tell a father in front of their child that he doesn’t know how to teach swimming because the father is not a “triathlete”.

That is not cool.

And I know there are people out there who ride plenty fast and still can turn around or slow down to say hi – be it to the kid on the K-mart mountain bike or to another rider. I know as I’ve been on both the giving end and the receiving end.

Which is a far sight better than hunting down a rider ahead and blasting by all tricked out in extreme aero glory coolness without uttering a word.

And maybe that woman in the baggy sweats and t-shirt in the corner of the gym is a mom that got up, made her children's breakfast and lunch, walked them to school and told them she loved them as part of her fitness.

I have talked to them too.

And while you may surround yourself with all your little minions who feed your “cool” know there’s someone out there working really hard to be a sportsman or sports(wo)man.

That’s cool.

Workout Meets Reality - Week Two

2011-09-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago when I realized I wasn’t going anywhere as a result of my depression I sought out the help of a professional. I met with my therapist a few times and learned some strategies for moving past my depression and also some to prevent myself from returning to my depressive period. It works. I have my rough days but they are outnumbered by the good days.

For some time I have wanted to work with a trainer who would push me and provide me a challenge. The majority of trainers around here are Kool-Aid swilling McGloboGymMcFitness trainers complete with BOSU’s and other parlor tricks of the trade. They are not for me.

I had talked with Ken via e-mail last fall and quite honestly I had tire-kicked. But I began to realize I wasn’t going anywhere and was stuck in a rut so I hired Ken as my therapist. Actually Ken is our couple’s therapist as my Iron Maiden joins in as well.

So we began with KB instruction and gradually morphed into our current practice of training with him 2 days a week. The other days of the week we follow to a “T” the program we asked him to design for us. I still get asked by people why I, a personal trainer would choose to train with him. There are lots of reasons but here’s a recent realization… Ken is a big guy, a shade over 300 pounds and both of us have seen him step into the MMA octagon and trade punches to the face with another guy his same size. I figure a guy who is willing to do that can teach me a thing or two about not being a pussy IF I choose to pay attention. And I have chosen to pay attention.

The second week of our program ended this morning. I am beginning to wrap my head around strength. I knew what strength was but had never really applied myself to finding it. For as Mark Rippetoe says “Strength is the amount of weight you can lift once”. He’s right. There is no shaping and toning in real life. In real life one is not called upon to do leg extensions.

But strength is not just about being able to trade blows or how much one can squat. The Warrior does not seek out confrontation but knows when it is time to use their strength it will be there. The Warrior does not use their strength to climb atop another’s shoulders for their own gain. As Rollins writes in his essay “Iron” “Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional.”

I am quoted as saying “The gym is a metaphor for life (or what life can be) while the modern day fitness club sadly represents much of what life has become”.

The months ahead will involve balance and work as I train to return to ultra racing next year. I appreciate being able to find and define my strength at The Anvil Gym.

Workout Meet Reality - Week One

2011-09-09T07:20:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Chris Davis began charting his Smolov protocol workouts and posting them – including thoughts not just about sets, reps and weights but also his thoughts on balance, finding time and the like. His thoughts prompt me to share my thoughts on Week One as a “recovering bodybuilder”.

After 30 plus years in the fitness industry, in roles as a group fitness instructor; group fitness coordinator (that was time of freaking hell dealing with a largely dysfunctional group of male and female diva group fitness instructors); as a personal trainer both with fitness club clients and private clients; as a consultant and presenter to corporations and businesses on fitness I have pretty much seen it all. Couple this with a personal practice that includes a bunch of iron distance races, multiple iron distance races and ultra runs, plus competing and podium finishes in natural bodybuilding competitions (often in the same year) I have pretty much done it all.

And because of the time spent dealing with my own personal depression I have pretty much become a participant in life. That bothers me. I am working to change that.

I am smart enough to know what the mainstream fitness industry is presenting to the public isn’t working. All it takes it a little observation at any party when you hear people tell you they “belong to a fitness club” and “go to the spinning class with the great music” and “work with a personal trainer” and then they jam cheesy poofs in their mouth and wipe their hands on the cardigan covered expanse beneath their chest.

When I said that what the mainstream fitness industry is presenting to the public IS NOT WORKING over 5 years ago, the local McGloboGym-GloboGrocery-FitnessSh'Bam-Sham industry made Clar and I pariahs but then again wasn’t it was Groucho Marx who said “ I sent the club a wire stating, "PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".

A little more than 5 weeks ago we began training with a local trainer at an independent gym. He’s the real deal. I knew enough to ask if he would write us a program to get strong. He did. For I know that being strong in a key component to life, be it in a triathlon or in the office. So we follow his program to the letter. We pay to work with him 2 days a week and have adjusted our schedules to make it work. We ask questions and apply what he teaches us. We research and prepare for the next session(s). For doing 20 reps of “stripper deadlifts” in a BodyPump class won’t make you strong. Even if your instructor is so fun and wears the cutest outfits. So we don’t “stripper deadlift”.

So our first week of weights is over. We squatted 8 x 3, we benched 5 x 5, Clar learned the warm-up sets don’t count – she already heard that before from me but Ken is way bigger than me and it sunk in. I worked on improving my hamstring quality and in doing so using the GHD isn’t quite such a surprise. I’ve been able to send an e-mail to Clar and say “I hope your legs hurt half as much as mine”. And sales of the “little blue pill” would fall dramatically if men would learn to squat!

Week Two is ahead. The reps change a bit in some exercises – it’s still four scheduled days a week plus the other days when we kettlebell, run, bike and grind out yards with Dottie. I am going to work on the step-back from the rack when I squat and use my hips over a "knee-clean" in the squat. We have specific goals and will meet them.

Find your crucible! I'm finding mine.

Workout Meets Reality III

2011-08-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

I have been prone to saying recently to people that I am a "recovering bodybuilder". Those who know me or know of my path are aware of my years in the "hell realm" of the McGloboFitness World. And while I was not doing anything intentionally wrong or deceitful those years I was fundamentally wrong - for I had bought into and was selling the McGloboFitness philosophy and programming. It is time for me to return to the fundamentals. To squat, bench, press, clean and dead.

Perhaps the musing I wrote that got Clar and I kicked out of Aspen Athletic Club, denied membership at the Rockwell Employee's Recreation Center and then kicked out of the MAC was the spark. People have said to us that the owners and management did us a "favor" and I agree with my wife that it was not a favor. Being lied to and about seriously messed me up for a long time. I don't want a favor bestowed upon me like that ever again.

(I have a dirty little secret... I did the training to teach BodyPump. I thought that it would perhaps be a gateway for people to get into the weight room but honestly BodyPump is a complete waste of time. It's flawed programming. And it hurts people. It is not fundamentals, it is FUNdamentals and there is a big difference)

I still feel I have the strength that has seen me through 27 Ironmans, UltraMans, double and triple ironmans and years of running. I am turning to the weight room to find that strength. I have asked Ken McClelland to be part of that process.

So anyway... back to reality. There is no leg press in real life. No leg extension. As a bodybuilder I did plenty of leg press and hip sled and yes, I could do a lot of plates and reps but it made me little girl weak. Maybe not physically but it made me little girl weak mentally. How many times have you asked or been asked "how much does the carriage weigh on the hip sled?". No one knows. And it doesn't matter. An Olympic bar is 45 pounds and plates are clearly marked. That's reality.

I have been Personal Training for a good number of years. Very few ever reach the goals they express to me because they aren't will to commit. Or follow the plan they asked me to provide them.

So this morning I got under the bar with the help of Ken McClelland. Clar and I have done some sessions with him and he knows about strong. I don't. So I asked him if he would train me. To be blunt, he knows his shit. He also lives his practice.

He gave me a program for the next month. I squatted today, lunged, extended, as he told me. I won't as some of clients have done with me only do part of the workout because to do so would be disrespectful to all involved.

I'm lifting 4 days a week. I will lift on the days he specified, next Friday, September 10 I will need to get up at 4 AM to lift as I am going out of town. To miss a day would be disrespectful to all involved and simply show poor planning on my part. My goal is to make every workout he has written for me. It will take sacrifice.

I'm going to eat right because if I don't I'm disrespectful to all involved and my workouts are going to suck.

I have committed to 11 weeks - Ken gave me the first month of workouts today. He told me to call him if I had questions. I will. I don't know how many times I have asked my clients to keep in touch and I never hear from them.

I have committed to 11 weeks - I am not going to change plans in the first month and tell Ken that now I want to do something else. It would be disrespectful to all involved.

I have committed to 11 weeks of meeting with him twice a week. I will be on time, warmed up and ready to go. If not am I being disrespectful.

And the first 11 weeks is only the beginning.

I have never done less than 10 reps my entire life. Today I did 8 x 3 for squats as part of my workout. It's a start.

Friday is going to be awesome! More later...

Our new home for the next few weeks...

What is Your Commitment to Personal Training?

2011-08-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I remarked in passing to a bodywork client that a couple of months ago my Iron Maiden and I had started working with a trainer on a weekly basis. My client seemed confused as to why we would work with a trainer and I explained that this trainer had different skill sets and we wanted to learn from them. They were also surprised that we worked with them on a weekly basis and I explained that to me this was the bare minimum commitment of working with a trainer and that I was planning to schedule a regular second weekly session as soon as possible.

In my years of being in the fitness industry I have had clients come and go. They will call me and set up an appointment and I’ll meet with them, talk with them about their short and long term goals, taking notes from which I create an individual program tailored to their goals. I then present them with their program and encourage them to open a dialogue with me, to communicate with me on a weekly basis and also offer them the chance make an appointment and work with me at The Crucible.

Rarely will I will back hear from them. On occasion I will hear from them, perhaps a question or two are directed my way, a single training appointment will be made but it is often hit and miss and because I feel that the role of a trainer is not to be a babysitter I don’t call and bug them or send cute little postcards offering a “come back and see me” personal training special so often it is the last I will ever see or hear from them.

And more often than not people will continue to use the same program week in and week out even though I tell them and write on their program that if you do a program completely through it should be changed up every 6 to 8 weeks. IF YOU FOLLOW THE PROGRAM THROUGH. However I have come to find that programs are seldom followed through and maybe that’s why that program always seems new to them and is also why they don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

I do know that you need to practice in between your sessions with a trainer. Every day - not just the day before your session - not skipping the day after your session either. As Pavel says you need to “grease the groove”. And take some notes and read them. And change your program after you completed and mastered the one you began.

And when your trainer corrects you or makes an adjustment don’t stand there and argue with them. Take a breath, connect your mind to your body and do it again, right. Our trainer told me that my Iron Maiden’s technique in some movements was better than mine and I didn’t pout or say he was playing favorites – I simply “manned up” and applied.

When it’s time for your session arrive on time and prepared. And arriving on time doesn’t mean if your session begins at 7 am that you arrive at 6:59 am. It means that you do like we do, arrive at 6:30, open the gym (we have a key to the gym) and warm-up, stretch out and get out the gear you want to be trained with. To be prepared means having your own towel and waterbottle, a notebook and pencil, an open mind and a willingness to apply. Plus a checkbook or cash because trainers have bills to pay too.

Anything less is an insult to yourself and your trainer.

We train at a gym that is home to a MMA club. As we were setting up our weekly session there was a retired UFC fighter who now coaches in there working out. Our trainer offered a time that was in my Iron Maiden PhD’s work window. She said she would schedule the session into her work day and the UFC fighter looked up and simply said “Nice. You don’t see that kind of commitment very often”.

No, you don’t.

.

Baltika #4 Dark Lager Marinade

2011-08-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

I enjoy cooking a variety of foods including those foods one can grill. Recently I have ventured into making marinades for grilling beef, chicken and pork. I had looked at many commercially made marinades but most contain HFCS which I avoid like the plague and McFitness clubs! Here's a marinade I created last evening. You will need:

1 pint bottle Baltika #4 Dark Lager beer
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh basil
1/2 to a whole head of garlic, finely diced
4 green onions, finely diced
1 Hungarian sweet wax pepper, finely diced
2 T balsamic vinegar
a dash of salt and pepper

Open the beer and pour into a medium size sauce pan, add the rest of the ingredients and gently bring to a slow boil, then reduce heat and stir on occasion. Allow the marinade to reduce slightly.

Pour over your choice of meat. In the picture I used it to prepare 5 pounds of boneless pork ribs for grilling, letting them sit and soak for 30 minutes before grilling via indirect heat.

Приятного аппетита !

Don't vegetate, INNOVATE!

2011-05-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

I spent part of yesterday afternoon with my father moving eight yards of shredded mulch, spreading it around the gardens he and my mother planted around their home here in Cedar Rapids. The time I have spent over the past few months with my Dad have been enjoyable and I have learned from it. At times we talk at about Mom, remembering the good and in doing so process the emotions that come along.

Often I write of fitness, in how I have defined fitness, in that “Fitness is the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring one joy and happiness”. Our neighbor from across the street, age 82 comes over usually on Tuesdays to have me start her lawnmower so that she can mow her own lawn. I know not to offer to mow the lawn for her as a part of her fitness is being able to be independent and take care of herself.

I had two choices to find fitness with my Dad yesterday as we moved mulch. We had two wheelbarrows and I could have moved my mulch faster than him but then I would have not been able to talk with him at the ends of the trips. In that awareness I learned a little bit more about what Dad had planned for the summer, how his week had gone, the like. On that day, in that time it was clearly the most appropriate way to move the mulch. It was part of how we would find fitness that day.

How we find fitness changes from day to day. There is no one best way to work out, if I were to say that working out at The Crucible was the best way to work out I would be in the same room as the fitness clubs, recreation centers, on-line training services and late night infomercials who hawk their systems as the end all for all of one’s fitness woes. I would be as Jeff Spicoli says, “bogus”. I am not willing to embrace “bogusity”.

I spent many years within the “hell realm” of the fitness industry. It, along with some of the some of my choices almost killed my ability to innovate. My choice recently to move away from the noise and the vitality that came with that choice only serve to confirm the observation detailed in the WSJ by Christian Crandall, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kansas – Lawrence, that “being too much a part of a group may constrain one's ability to think outside of convention”.

This week we have had 6 great open sessions at The Crucible and today’s session was particularly strong - in that everyone attending had been a regular at our sessions last year and it showed. People simply used the skills they had gained in previous sessions and simply applied them to their own workout – using cinderblocks, sandbags, chains, fence posts, and even wheelbarrow and their own bodyweight to get after it, finding fitness on their own terms, finding their crucible.

How do you or will you innovate to find your fitness, to find your crucible?

Reject the awful normal ©

KonaKruiser II - Okole Squeezer!

2011-04-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

Coming down Hina Lani Street in the rain was a real okole squeezer!!!

KonaKruiser II Ups and Downs

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Kailua-Kona, HI

KonaKruiserII (1)

2011-04-07T19:02:00.001-07:00

KonaKruiser II (1)

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Kailua-Kona, HI

KonaKruiserII (2)

2011-04-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

KonaKruiserII.2

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Kailua-Kona, HI

Me and The WTC...

2011-04-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Jim,

No, I did not feel you hijacked my page; it's just that I wanted to make a statement about the true meaning of aloha there.

I did get your instant message and choose not to respond immediately because I was quite angry at / with your comparison between giving a child cancer by letting them smoke and those who choose to volunteer at The Ironman World Championships despite their dis-ease with the WTC as not exhibiting the true spirit of aloha. I was deeply offended by it.

For when you live out on a rock in the middle of the ocean and your ohana is taking part in the race you are there to support your family, you know that they might not have a problem with the WTC so you want to be there for them, regardless if you have a problem with the WTC as you're doing it for them not the WTC. No amount of business model discussion or analysis will ever be able to put a price on that. It’s unfortunate for the world more don’t get it.

I know you talked to Jane about UltraMan Hawaii and I hope she mentioned the foundations of ohana, kokua and aloha which make up the spirit of UltraMan Hawaii. Family, to give help or aid, and love are how I see these words and they are not separate, they are intertwined. You can't put a price on that either. You just value it.

In 2006 my wife Clar Baldus and I were asked by Jane Bockus and Sheryl Cobb to crew for an individual in UltraMan Hawaii. We didn't know the guy but we knew Jane and Sheryl and said yes.

Crewing for UltraMan is no easy task and this person made it even more difficult. The rules state the entrant is responsible for a car, lodging, food and etc. during the 3 days of the race. This guy was not on with the program despite having an impressive race resume and contacts with others in the ultra-community.

* He didn't have a car. So we used our rental car. We drove him to the store prior to the race to get supplies; He criticized our car because it didn't have power windows.
* He handed me a big bag of gear for the race, all jumbled and asked me to set it up. Then he asked me for a pre-race massage for free. Which I did because that’s how I see it.
* He used a race food he had never used. He told me he wanted 1000 calories in a bottle. I did as told; it was like white glue in there. He threw, not tossed, threw the bottle at me and told me I had mixed it wrong.
* He threw a banana back at Clar, telling her it was too heavy to carry up the hill.

That was Day One. The tip of the iceberg, even here in Hawai'i. We could have walked away but we had made a commitment to the spirit of Ultraman Hawaii.

On Day Three he went out too hard and blew up. I don’t take aspirin when I race so I didn’t have any so I asked another competitor for some and they shared. The other competitor asked our guy how he was and he shrugged his shoulders and grunted.

He wanted to drop out and I said if that is what you want OK but you could walk it in and be an Official Finisher. So that’s what we did. I walked 7 hours on the Queen K Highway with a guy who was total jerk to Clar, me and the spirit of UltraMan Hawaii.

At the finish line he never said thanks and while he paid for the food and the like during the race it took several months for him to pay us for 3 days he used our car.

Would I crew again for someone I didn’t know? Maybe, maybe not, that’s part of the caution towards people now in my life I have mentioned to you. However if Jane asked me my gut says I would.

Around the islands you will see bumper stickers on cars that say Live Aloha. Now I'm not a big fan of bumper sticker philosophy in general but I'm using this to illustrate a point in that it says LIVE Aloha, not just "aloha", it is a union of ohana, kokua AND aloha. You live it every day here, not just when it is convenient. I do it back home on the mainland.

NOW as for getting a petition or a meeting with the WTC to air concerns that perhaps their business is not as ethical (and maybe that’s not the right word here) as it could be I’d like to tell you an experience I had in the fitness industry, of which the WTC and LAVA are part of.

In 2005 I, along with Clar, was kicked out of the first of three fitness clubs for publically expressing my opinion that the “fitness industry” was partially responsible for America’s obesity epidemic”. I am a very good personal trainer and group fitness instructor, not only based on the letters written about me by PT’s, supervisors but by the fact my classes were always full. In addition those with whom I have worked and have chosen to truly work with me have met their goals. (There’s a little more K. Anders Ericcson there for you, it ties in with the 10,000 hours rule we have discussed)

Again I digress.

The new club we joined immediately began asking me if I would teach there, primarily Group Cycling and Yoga. I declined at first. Then a bone was dropped in my lap, a challenge, as the Director of the Mind Body Program asked me to help them build solid Yoga program.

I picked up the bone and ran with it. Within 16 weeks I had full classes, a waiting list, people asking me if I was going to add more classes.

Then I mistakenly touched the owner’s money.

The Yoga studio was adjacent to the Group Exercise class where they began conducting a HipHop dance class at the same time my Yoga classs was being held. The lyrics and the beat bled through the walls and my students were unhappy. I listened to their complaints, not responding as I had been instructed and instead forwarded them through the proper channels as I had been instructed to do.

They fired me. For as my Iron Maiden had noted, “You touched their money”.

It was shortsighted on their part. See if they had cancelled the HipHop class or moved it to a different time they would have lost money. Instead they fired me, brought another teacher in who was willing to teach while hearing the “mindless love chant” (Nobel Prize winner Alvin Shockley said that about rock and roll, it seemed to fit) bleed through the walls.

In the same light I seriously doubt the WTC is going to want to sit down and talk about how they should change their business model, to align with perhaps the writings of Buddhist scholar David R. Loy in his book Money, Sex, War, Karma – Notes for a Buddhist Revolution.They don’t and certainly wouldn’t want their money touched.

Perhaps we have been discussing two different issues here and they have muddled things. Business is business and feelings are feelings – and so on. I see the WTC as unfeeling. Many of us do.

As you know I signed up for IM KY, a WTC event. I’m going down there only because I walked away from it in 2008 and I’m looking to close a door. It will be my last WTC event. A good friend of mine from Canada, a member of the UltraMan ohana did IM WI last year with a friend who had cancer and after the race he told me he felt numb, he wore the medal for a couple of minute and took it off because it felt stupid. He’s done with WTC events.

And so Jim, I end this thread, I could rage on but have come to find while the rage is relentless the RAGE reminds us to take the power back. For me to take the power back is to call my wife, ask her how her day is going, tell her I love her after asking how the dogs are (order is a priority) and enjoy the energy that is contained within The Big Island of Hawai’i.

Malama pono,

CJ

Ironman® Britney?

2011-03-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Recently Ironman® World Champion Mirinda Carfrae did a photo shoot for new sponsor SHEEX... At about the same time pop star Britney Spears released photos for her new album ... Is an Ironman® in the future for Britney? Or will Rinny be launching a singing career? "Enquiring Minds" want to know!

Some thoughts on Lava™ magazine...

2011-03-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Recently I posted on my Facebook status some throughts about receiving Lava magazine...

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=184333771611017&id=100001031868751

The thread has grown long and unwieldy so I moved my reply here. While it is directed to a triathlon publication many of the points have valid transfer in other domains. I will let you, the reader decide.

CJ

Dear ,

Thanks for your replies to me. I agree with you regarding your comments about PhD’s, if you will remember my Iron Maiden is one herself. Like Thoreau, she often “falls a-thought”. It is one of the things that makes her good at what she does but at times frustrates the hell out of me. (She said I could say that) It has been to my benefit that her area of study and research has lead me to work of many researchers in the field of deliberate practice such as K. Anders Ericsson or of the development of gifts and talents through reading the works of Gagne. (Perhaps Lava magazine would be interested in a piece co-authored by us…)

This morning as we walked our dogs Clar and I discussed yours and mine recent interchange regarding Lava, Kool-aid and Ironman as a “hobby” vs. Ironman as a “lifestyle”. I will admit the first time I saw Lava magazine I felt it was a magazine that was mimicking the recently launched Inside Triathlon as a larger format magazine, lots of pictures and little editorial value. I put it back on the newsstand rack.

I come from a day when Lew Kidder was the driving force in triathlon publications and when VeloNews was printed as a newspaper… I looked forward to cartoons and articles by Sundown Slim and was intrigued when Winning began to publish Triathlete. I subscribed to it for a few years but let my subscription lapse when they began to fall into the “Runners World formula”… “Eight Weeks to Your Best 10K!”, “The Shoe Review”, “The Adventure Racing Issue”, “Eight Weeks to Your Biggest Tomatoes Ever!” and so on. I tossed in the last to illustrate a point, it was the formula, in that Runners World was published by the same company publishing Organic Gardening. (I don’t subscribe to any triathlon magazines at present by choice)

I spent some time looking at both the Lava magazine and the Lava website. I am, at best at dis-ease with Lava and its’ parent company, the WTC’s efforts to shift “The Ironman” from a “hobby” to a “lifestyle”. In one of the blog links I sent you I talk of how my Iron Maiden noted that “the Ironman mentality” has crept into UltraMan and I feel the same way. The Ironman originally was a race for the “ordinary man” and now there seems to be a sense of entitlement among many Ironman triathletes. The last time I checked I put my bike shorts on the same way they do, one leg at a time.

I appreciate your efforts to work at shifting the paradigm. When I returned from Kailua-Kona over 10 years ago my goal was to write pieces that approached fitness from a more intellectual basis however it seems that many of the magazines are not interested in these types of pieces. As you know I worked in the mainstream fitness industry for many years and once was told by an “appointed superior” that I read too much. Now if I said “you read too little” that might have caused an uproar. However their comment explains to me the lack of interest from magazine editors.

I digress.

I am unsure as to what is meant by a triathlon “lifestyle”. It seems to me few of us actually make our living from the sport, either by competing or writing about it. To me “lifestyle” parallels closely to vocation and I am of the opinion that triathlon should be part of one’s life as opposed to controlling one’s life.
Or pocket book. Or marriage. (Jordan Waxman) As I told you I purchased the April 2011 of Triathlete for comparison purposes for our discussion and laughed out loud when I read the suggestion in “The Modern Triathlon Family” by Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg that placing your kids in daycare was a way to include them and expose them to one’s active lifestyle. First “kids” are the offspring of goats and really, this is inclusion? (Jordan Waxman)

As a fitness catalyst I am often approached by people interested in “doing triathlons”. I am always taken aback that after I begin working with them the spouses begin to blame me for their spouses new found “lifestyle” and the strains it places on their relationships. However those who truly know me know I have a specific order to my life, in that my marriage comes first with my family a close second, my dogs third and working out a distant fourth. Perhaps it is this organization that has allowed me to compete in triathlon for over 30 years and more importantly be married for 28 plus years.

Triathlon is a hobby, an avocation, a part of my life. It is not my lifestyle.

I was intrigued by the use of a Yoga asana as an illustration in Lava's current issue. Having been a Yoga practitioner and teacher for over 10 years I often find the need to remind people that Yoga is a philosophical system, that to do “yoga” on Thursdays is akin to doing “existentialism” on Thursdays. The use of the asana in the photograph lacks a foundation, it is just hanging out there with nothing to tie it in. In many ways it unintentionally illustrates my concern with foundation, in that asana is merely one of the Eight Limbs of the Path of Yoga as described by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. There is so much more to Yoga than the postures, the fancy clothes and trendy studios.

In the same way there is more to triathlon than $800 aerobar cockpits or $2600 carbon wheelsets. However many of these readers think this is the path, the way to create a foundation and they buy these kinds of trinkets and then ride their bikes 13mph in a sprint triathlon as a result of not having a foundation.

I agree that Lava needs advertising to keep the lights on. I understand Fi’z:ik’s ad in the current issue with Rinny standing there holding her saddle wearing a little camisole and lace trimmed panties butt (sic) I wouldn’t buy a saddle because of the ad, I would buy the saddle for the features. However I wonder how many of the readers (in any of the magazines) "buy the saddle" simply because “that’s the saddle that Rinny rides” or the bike “Macca rides”. Recently I had a person tell me they were buying a Trek because “Treks are awesome”. I asked if they had ridden one and was told no. Hopefully the detailing on the new bike will match their MDot tattoo they have for their 16 plus hour Ironman finish.

Last year I was told by a friend I am Ronin. Like your three points that you use to judge the quality of your work, I am led by my heart. To that end I consciously evaluate the path, thinking of Castaneda’s question and advice to the reader, in that the path with heart makes for a joyful journey, the other does not. If I have learned anything in the past few years it is that drinking the Kool-aid, regardless of how little you drink or how much one attempts to justify or dilute the poison is futile. The bad taste will always be there.

Am I drinking the Kool-aid in offering to write for Lava? Some might even feel I am drinking the Kool-aid in writing this or that I am drinking the Kool-aid in signing up for the 2011 Ironman Louisville. I feel not.

And in rereading (squeezing) your articles in Lava I was unable to get any Kool-aid to drip from them. My good friend Crazy Pete, with whom I have had many discussions over MDot Mania told me yesterday he feels you are a kindred spirit. I agree.

If Lava truly wants to be apart from the herd then they should do so by writing articles apart from the herd. Publish articles with foundation to help those interested make triathlon part of their foundation and structure rather than their entire world.

CJ

LAVA™, Serious Triathlon™, IRONMAN®, IRONMAN TRIATHLON®, M-DOT®, IRONMANLIVE®, IRONMAN.COM™, and 70.3® are trademarks of World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).

Workout meets Reality III - A letter from a friend

2011-02-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

I remember a few years back when I made an off hand comment that pretty soon as the non-fitness and social centers upgrade old equipment that power racks would be replaced by Smith machines; I sure wish I wasn't always right about these things.

I am, by default largely relegated to training in the 'Globo-gyms' (trademark, registered) due to my extensive travel through out Asia and occasional forays into Europe. I am at the mercy of not only their equipment, but the atmosphere (inane music; why would one want to train to the hard pounding sounds of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple when you can listen to supercilious repetitive tracks of nothingness ), complete bufoonery and (specifically anywhere there are Chinese people) a gym in disarray with dumbells scattered hither and thither, Olympic bars with a 10 lbs weight on one side and a 45 on the other, people milling about and (specifically anywhere there are Chinese people) invading my immediate training space. I have over come and adapted. I now wear my I-pod whenever I can, although I have not been able to find a way to do sets of power cleans with this configuration. I have purchased my own collars which I dutifully drag with me, I take taxi's, busses, or walk in order to find the most appropriate setting for my training needs. I'll pay close to 30 dollars (and rising, thank you US Federal Government, starting with GWBush) to train at Golds Gym in Narita, Japan; without question the best gym I've been to in all my travels abroad. Unfortunately Shanghai seems to continually be a moving target, the run down place which had everything I needed has been replaced by a new glitzy Gap clothing store as the Shanghaians continually morph their city into one giant shopping mall and drinking establishment. I have been told by one Globo-gym (near Cambridge, England) that they do not take day passes. So I got back into another taxi and found another place...thanks for hanging on that one Jeff!

Throughout all of this I could always count on the California Fitness Singapore for a good training session. Today, like most of my layovers here, consisted of enjoying an early morning cup of Starbucks in front of the exit to the subway. Here I can sit comfortably, pretend to read the morning fishwrap and gawk at the never ending stream of slim Asian beauties in their pumps and skirts as they disgorge from the escalator and continue past on their way to the office...but I digress. A quick stop into the grocery store for some yogurt, fruit and granola and I have the makings of my usual pre-training meal. Always looked forward to training here. The free weight area had (that's right...had) a power rack and a squat rack. The power rack was located at the far end and there was enough room to do any type of real strength training exercise that I needed. Squats, dead lifts, cleans, snatches, burpee pull ups...etc. Not necessary for today's session, yet essential for Friday's when I come back for another layover. But today...instead of the old school power rack there was in it's place a Smith machine, which brings the total Smith machines to THREE. (Refer to my opening statement.)

I fancy myself a simple man in the weight room, all I need is an Olympic bar, an array of plates (preferably metal) and a power rack. I began to silently seethe, understanding that anything I may say to management would be useless, and in the grand scheme of things this is pretty meaningless. However I took it out on the first personal trainer that brought his (continually out of shape) client into the area. Why, I asked, was the power rack replaced with a piece of junk Smith machine? I was told they brought it over from the other gym. I replied, that did not answer my question. I was then referred to management. BTW...his 30 something y/o client, an Aussie 6'0" and about 185 lbs was doing bent over rows with the Olympic bar. (Then yawning between sets) Really???? REALLY!!!???? HEY MATE...go home and slit your wrists you fkkn pansy.

I dropped the issue as useless...again I am left to over come and adapt. So when I am doing dead lifts underneath the cable cross overs, or cleans in front of the bench press, or squats on the back end of one of the Smith machines (using the rear protruding weight racks for placing the Olympic bar on) and another out of shape patron deems me in their way or what not...I'll refer them to management.

Train hard, get hard, stay hard or get the hell outta the way.

Riding up countless mountains with fat scoutmasters: A parable of sorts

2011-01-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

I was out for a walk our Gordon Setters Brodie and Lennox one day last fall. As we were walking down a hill a group of school children came up the same hill riding their bikes home from school…there was an out of shape fat young boy forced to dismount his bike and walk it up the remainder of the hill. As he walked up the hill out of breath I was transported back many years when I as a young boy, fat and out of shape was at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

At age 13 I was the youngest in a group of all active Scouts, I was the lone fatty. I made the trip to hike about 80 miles in 7 days, carrying all my gear through the Sangre De Christo mountains.

The hike on day 5 day included a trip up and around the Tooth of Time, a rugged and exposed peak. The hike was known to be difficult and I had struggled in the days prior. The scoutmasters had met with rangers at the ranch on the day prior this hike for one of our scoutmasters was a fat, out of shape adult who needed to arrange a ride for the fifth day because he felt he could not make it. They offered me the same “opportunity” and I refused. They asked me if I was sure and I stood my ground.

I struggled the next day and finished the hike exhausted but at weeks end I was able to say I had completed the entire trip without accepting an “opportunity” that I would have possibly regretted years on down the road.

It was not until my early 20’s that I figured out a way to keep myself in shape. However it is those crystallizing experiences in our lives that end up creating who we become.

In life one should learn which opportunities to accept and which ones to let slip away. Sadly many let the wrong opportunities slip away.

When I work with a client I expect them to be able to generate their own motivation. Should they have a limited amount of time in the gym due to schedules outside the gym they should come to the gym prepared to lift and / or do their cardio. When in the gym, one “gyms”, that is focuses their energy on their workout and eliminates or limits distractions. These are some components of what is known as deliberate practice.

Likewise there comes a time when my clients must realize they are in control of their own destiny or success. This means while I may call you to see how things are going it is up to you to know that the phone goes both ways. It also means there comes a time when a client must realize that excuses are exactly what they are, excuses, and that excuses negatively impact ones destiny or success. It is for that reason I do not accept excuses.

I only work with clients I believe have the mental and physical strength and intelligence to succeed. I prefer to work with those who have achieved success in one domain for they are more likely to be able to transfer the traits which led to their success in the first domain into a second domain. Most importantly one should realize that success achieved despite adversity is the sweetest.

To stand apart from the herd one must learn to recognize the true opportunities in their life as these opportunities are presented. Failing to recognize those opportunities only serves to relegate them to a life of riding up countless mountains with their fat scoutmaster.

"There is no room for the arbitrary in the affairs of man,
least of all in the realm of cognition"
Ayn Rand

The intersection of cocktail parties, little black dresses and marathons and the Ironman®

2011-01-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Since the 26.2 mile fitness debacle now known as the 2007 Chicago Marathon ended I have been asked by many people what happened at this event – why did so many people, in other words, crash and burn?

My answer was simple…it was due to cocktail and dinner parties. In the day running a marathon was unique and was something one wanted to do. Now running a marathon (and sadly, completing an Ironman®) has become the cocktail and dinner party fitness goal of conversation.

Many of us know how it goes…you are engaged in polite conversation with another “attendee” and they find out that you compete in triathlons. Between alternately scarfing down pigs in a blanket and cheesy poofs you are told that they would like to do an Ironman®. You politely ask what triathlons they have done so far. With breath that smells like bait they tell you they are thinking about doing the Pigman in the spring and then proceed to ask you the distances…you tell them it’s a sprint race and hope the conversation ends there. (Don’t laugh…once I had a guy tell me in April he was going to do the Ironman® Hawaii race that October, I inquired to where he had qualified, the blank stare that served as his response was strengthened when he told me he did not own a road bike yet!)

Like to do and want to do…there is a big difference here. People who want to are prepared and finish, in contrast those who like to are left sitting by the side of the road, ralphing their pigs in a blanket and cheesy poofs into the gutter.

An Associated Press article that appeared in our local paper around the time of the marathon stated that big city marathons are big business. A more accurate statement would be that fitness, including marathons and triathlons has become big business. Over the years I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of organizations that solicit marathon and triathlon participants as fundraisers for their organizations. They offer “support” to these participants but having viewed the condition and level of preparedness exhibited by many of these participants they had no business toeing the line in these events. A couple of years ago along with my friends Crazy Pete and The Reverend, we watched a guy walk around the swim start at the Pigman sprint triathlon with his wetsuit on backwards, completely oblivious to the fact that he had the only wetsuit there with a zipper in the front!. At Ironman® Wisconsin I watched a fundraising participant attempt to put on a wetsuit for the very first time ever and at Ironman® Kentucky saw a participant from the same fundraising organization standing by the side of the road with a flat tire that they did not know how to fix! Locally I had a fundraising participant call me looking for advice on how to train for a 100 mile ride in the Rockies four weeks prior to the event. When I talked to them further I discovered they were having difficulty completing 30 mile rides. I told them I could not help them get “into shape” in time and suggested they wait a year but was told this was not an option. I really feel these people did not know what they were getting into and had, like many in the 2007 Chicago marathon bitten off more than they could chew.

The bottom line is it was not that hot in Chicago that year. Times may have been slowed down for those who were prepared but at recent Ironman® competitions that many of us have taken part in the temperatures have been hotter at the start of the run (keep in mind this is after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike) and I have not seen the mass carnage similar to what was described to me from the 2007 Chicago marathon. Given reports that some “experienced” local runners reached the 16 mile point in 4 hours leads me to question their and others preparedness for the event. The bottom line here and is at many events people are not prepared for the events they choose to compete in.

I imagine we’ll see lots of concerns expressed and a plethora of hand wringing in an effort to lay blame on the race organizers. Race fees will go up to cover liability insurance costs and waivers will take hours to read and sign. Personal responsibility will again take yet another hit and be shoveled into a hole and covered with more dirt.

I ran my first marathon in 1978 at the Drake Relays. No one held a gun to my head and forced me to enter and there were no dinner or cocktail parties involved. I began preparing 26 weeks out and went and ran my race. Plain and simple. Just like a black dress. Because that’s what belongs at cocktail and dinner parties, not hearing “I’d like to run a marathon…”

The Independent Personal Trainer

2010-12-22T03:57:00.000-08:00

The GLOBO - Fitness Club personal trainer takes the writings, ideas and concepts of others, repackages them and presents them as their own. The Independent or Gym Personal Trainer is a Warrior in that as they create their own Way when using or sharing the works of those on the like path credit these sources and inspirations.

This I have learned.

The Pitbull

Stop chasing after so many things...

2010-12-14T06:32:00.000-08:00

My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;
Every year the green ivy grows longer.
No news of the affairs of men,
Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.
The sun shines and I mend my robe;
When the moon comes out I read Buddhist poems.
I have nothing to report my friends.
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after
so many things.

Ryokan

It was once said of Janis Joplin that "she burned her candle at both ends and it did not last the night". In fitness I see this burning of the candle at both ends, this chasing after many things all too often. Unfortunately this constant stimulation of our primordial being causes us to not achieve our goals and desires because we never know for sure what our goals and desires are.

In fitness clubs I often witnessed this leaping from goal to goal, idea to idea, concept to concept all too often. Never mastering the basics, "going old school", I see people attempting complicated movements in the weight room without mastering the basics. I have witnessed "certified" group fitness instructors teach an entire Group Cycling class with their bike set up incorrectly - is not having the bike correctly set up a basic concern - something one would master before teaching others? The pre-political Arnold, Franco Columbo, Frank Zane all mastered the basics before moving on to the complicated.

I first began lifting weights in 1978 at Iowa State's Beyer Hall. My mentor was John Zowastowski, a big Polish guy from Des Moines with a top quality physique. The first movement I learned from him was the bench press. I bench pressed an EMPTY bar for 2 weeks - feet flat to the floor, CORE engaged and CORRECTLY before he felt I was ready to add weight. 32 years later I carry that education to everything I do, mastering the basics before moving on. Not chasing after so many things.

Sure you can select many goals, chase after many things. I once witnessed, in the span of 18 months, someone who changed their goals from wanting to become a bodybuilder, moving on to wanting to lose the fat off their thighs, moving their goal to becoming a triathlete, dyeing their lifting straps pink to be special, meanwhile buying lots of cute outfits from the Finish Line, then moving on to wanting to teach Yoga and Pilates and becoming a personal trainer and a Spinning instructor and so on and so on but honestly that individual should buy a really big pink adidas gym bag to carry the fire extinguisher to put out that candle!

There is a scene in Rocky IV where Rocky, training in Russia, is running up a mountain in the snow. A single goal, to get to the top, he runs up the spine, one step following another. He focuses on the task, not looking to the left (the past?) nor to the right (the future?) but being in the Now, allowing the moments to link together to bring him to his goal, not looking ahead to Ivan Drago but to the next step... (and hopefully get back down the mountain to wash that leather coat he wore for the last 8 weeks, phew!)

so once again…

If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after
so many things.

© CJ Ong, Jr. / The Crucible, 2010

Birthdays and change...

2010-12-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

I sit at my computer today, dressed in long pants, wool socks and a sweatshirt. I hear the furnace kick in, helping to keep me warm against the cold. Soon enough I will need to add more layers and shovel the driveway for hopefully later today I will travel to Des Moines to celebrate my nephew’s fifth birthday.

Sitting here I find myself made aware of the changes that have occurred in my life over the past three weeks. Three weeks ago this morning I was drinking coffee with Clar, watching the Pacific ocean roll in against the North Shore of Kauai. Today my coffee stayed warm for a few brief moments as I stepped outside to head to the gym with Clar. I was thankful she warmed the car up as I finished packing my bag for our workout together! Returning to the car a couple of hours later the unfinished coffee was frozen solid to the bottom of my cup.

When I called Andrew this morning to wish him a happy birthday I was made aware of the changes that have occurred with him. His communication has changed, either that or I speak child a lot better! When Andrew was two I traveled to Washington, D.C. to “nanny” for him while my sister, who was restricted to bed rest, along with her husband awaited the arrival of my niece Anna. Andrew and I communicated well then and we communicated well this morning, it is just the manner in which we communicated that changed. A positive change.

People are often scared of change and uncertainty. Failing to see change for the positive, they instead resist change, instead exchanging change for comfort in sameness. The “chain restaurant approach” to life… (a pizza from a Pizza Hut in Hawaii is going to taste pretty much the same as a pizza from a Pizza Hut in Iowa). This resistance to change and the consequent ignored opportunities for change limits one and will never allow one to set themselves free.

Pema Chodron offers the following insight on change taken from paths of the separate yet connected paths of Yoga and Buddhism… “The teachings encourage us to relax gradually and wholeheartedly into the ordinary and obvious truth of change. Acknowledging this truth doesn't mean we look on the dark side. It means that we begin to understand the reality of life, and find acceptance in the ebb and flow”.

Our world constantly changes. From the warm sands of Hawaii to the sub-zero snowy cold of Iowa. From a two year old who I couldn't quite understand three years ago to a five year old who clearly replied “Thank-you” to my happy birthday wish.

Living in Iowa it will snow. I can stand outside, face my palms to the sky and make a futile attempt to stop the snow. Or I can shovel it and go sledding with Andrew. I can't change the fact that when he is 20 I will be 63. However maybe I can stay in decent enough shape to go sledding then as well…

Hawaii to Iowa…age 2 to age 5… fall colors to a blanket of white… the winter silence to the songs of spring… changes I appreciate and enjoy. I hope you will to.

© CJ Ong, Jr. / The Crucible, 2010

I originally wrote this in 2005, it never made it to my blog until now.

UltraMan Hawaii 1997 from Triathlete magazine

2010-10-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

In July of 1997 I raced for a second time in the German 3 triathlon, a triple ironman, consisting of a 7.8 mile pool swim, a 336 mile bike and 78.6 mile run, done non-stop and in consecutive order.

The night before we were to leave for Lensahn, after we had gone to bed, the phone rang. I slipped downstairs and answered it, speaking with our UltraMom Jane Bockus, RD of UltraMan Hawaii, a three day journey about the Big Island of Hawai'i.

I returned to bed and asked my ever enduring Iron Maiden how she would feel about going to Hawai'i in November. She turned to me and said "Why, is there a race there?".

This is the article about the race, for me a beginning of a relationship, not just on The Big Island of Hawai'i but with a community across the world with whom I have always loved and held close in my heart, my extended ohana of UltraMan Hawaii and Canada.

Note: Clicking on the images will open them and make them easier to view.

Insights from UltraMan Canada 2005

2010-10-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

UltraMan Canada July 30, 31, August 1, 2005 Penticton, British Columbia
Day One 6.2 mile swim, 90 mile bike
Day Two 171 mile bike
Day Three 52.4 mile run

Brancusi once commented on experience as it relates to the eye of the mind..."that which they call abstract is the most real, because what is real is not the exterior form but the idea, the essence of things". For me UltraMan Canada 2005 allowed me to return to the essence of things. In the catharsis over competing for three days I was able to rediscover my soul and return to the root of my being.

As I stood on the shore of the lake on July 30 I looked down the lake. I was joined by 15 others, all there for varied and for some, myself included, intensely personal reasons. As the race began I walked into the water and began to swim 6.2 miles, simply to swim, once again, 6.2 miles. Stroke followed stroke, breath followed breath. I embraced the feelings in my muscles, not suffering in the least for I knew the source of my pain.

Once out of the water I began to ride 90 miles. I simply rode, knowing that I was returning to a place that was good for me. I settled back and rode the bike, trusting that Clar and Logan would be there, with their help I simply rode the bike to ride the bike. At no time did I suffer, perhaps feeling pain but understanding the source and enjoying the liberation I felt.

Day Two was a 171 mile bike, with climbs of up to 10 percent. The heat was as the previous day, 95 degrees. Before the stage began I needed a last minute bathroom stop. I simply walked to the bathroom, not hurrying, because to hurry would not make the bathroom magically move closer. My goal was to feel the race, unencumbered by the demands we place on our lives by frantically existing. Again I trusted my crew, Clar and Deb. The only outside input was my HR monitor, occasionally finding out how far we had gone from Clar and Deb. I was able once again to return to the essence, the joy of riding simply to ride my bike.

Day Three was my adventure day. I went into the run ill-prepared. However that was my own responsibility, a personal choice I made. I was aware of the possible consequences. Once again Clar and Deb crewed for me. The first 40 miles were great and the last 12.4 allowed me to feel the essence of the Canadian Rockies with every step of the washboard gravel roads! Like Peter, age 7, Deb and Logan's son, who ran with me I ran for the joy of running, speculating with Peter on the possibility of "wrinkling time" to run "ahead" of ourselves.

Waiting to cross the line with all my crew allowed me to arrive and return to the path, it was not about time but rather completion of one step and looking forward to the next.

I once remarked to a friend that "at times it feels that our existence is but a tenuous grasp for reality". For me, my experience at UltraMan Canada allowed me to know once again, the idea, the abstractions, the essence that forms my reality. My grasp on reality is no longer tenuous but firm.

Thanks to all those who helped me strengthen my reality.

The Pitbull

Leaving Crucible Gym - The Alpo Diet...

2010-10-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

People go to wild places to search for their true nature.
Where is your true nature?
Zen koan...

In the summer of 2000 I entered a period of severe depression.

My depression began with frustrations revolving around my inability to help my mother with her overall health, the "smiling faces" I encountered in the "hell realm" known as "the fitness industry" and manifested into a full blown depression in 2005 when my relationship with my parents fractured entirely while at the same time getting kicked out of the first of three fitness clubs in a two year period for publicly expressing my opinion that the "fitness industry was partially responsible for America's obesity epidemic".

It grew more and more severe until in 2006 I finally came to grips with the fact I was not strong enough to exit it without help. In much the same way one works with a personal trainer I worked with a mental trainer and gained tools to help me work through my depression. Unlike many people who hire personal trainers and then ask them "if they are sure" or totally disregard the trainers advice I listened to my therapist and her advice.

Like working out, I now practice every day what I learned from my therapist, keeping ahead of depression, for keeping the "depression weight off" is not something you do to get ready for vacation, there is no such thing as a January resolution challenge for depression.

I used to be a good athlete. I have done a lot of crazy hard shit and while I have never "done" CrossFit's FRAN I feel doing UltraMan Hawaii ( a three day stage triathlon covering 6.2 miles of swimming, 261 miles of biking and a 52.4 mile run on day three) in the same year I won a bodybuilding show to qualify as hard shit. And to prove it was not a fluke I did the same thing again 7 years later with UltraMan Canada and qualified for bodybuilding nationals.

I have learned to put up some serious boundaries. Lots of people pretended to be my friend to get free personal training, massages, borrow books they never returned and so on. The same people had no problem kicking me out of their fitness clubs, recreation centers and the like when I published my opinion that I felt the "fitness industry" was partially responsible for America's obesity epidemic.

Somewhere along the line I became really good at drinking wine and beer. Eating like shit. Going through the motions of working out. And I became dull, like the herd, willing to accept 15 hour Ironman©™® finishes and covering myself with a fat suit. I became one of them. I hated it.

There's a lot of crap out there accepted as passing, normal. A whole lot of awful normal crap. I know, I was part of it. It has made me a better fitness catalyst. I hate the title "personal trainer".

Some people will say "Oh CJ, quit being so hard on yourself, you are a good guy" I appreciate that. But sometimes that's like taking your sister to prom or knowing that even if you are totally crappy artist your mom will hang your art on the fridge and love your doggie picture even though you have to tell her "no mom, it's a kitty!".

Truth is sometimes you have to tell yourself you suck and then nut up.

Being depressed is hard. I used to feel lonely much of the time. Like I said above having people only call you when they need to borrow a wheel to race at The Pigman and return it broken and never offer to fix it makes you feel lonely. Giving someone free personal training to the tune of over $1000 because they told you they don't have the money and then walking into the fitness club and seeing them training with another trainer they are paying makes you feel used. Lonely. XTREMELY used, like you are wandering around in the ASPENS or on the edge looking down into a ROCKWELL.

However I have learned there is a difference between be lonely and being alone. For I would rather be seen for who I am and be alone than have "friends" and be lonely. The realization came from a quote from Steve King: "I`d rather be seen for who I am and be alone, than to be accepted for someone I am not and be lonely"

Some people thought and still think it's funny that we got kicked out of three "fitness clubs" for my opinion. It isn't. Absurd perhaps but certainly not funny. I was once "that guy" and coupled with knowing I had been used by the staff of three "fitness clubs" only made me more depressed. It drove me down. I let it.

It really wasn't until the last couple of weeks - almost 5 years - that I have been finally able to put it behind.

Only I can drive me up.

So here's my 2 cents. If you are depressed tell someone. And if someone you know is depressed and they tell you talk with them. You don't need to be their therapist, in fact much like training someone with Oxygen magazine in the fitness club, you shouldn't be their therapist any more than Oxygen magazine should be considered a training resource. Be their true friend. My Iron Maiden was and is still.

But don't use them.

I have true friends. I rode with a few this weekend. It was the first time in a long time I felt like riding. I rode the other day with my friend The Betram Brawler. I'm slow, far off my race speed but it's OK for now. For now.

During the American Gothic Gravel Invitational Big Al asked me about the Alpo Diet that I am on. Big Al is my friend.

The Hawaiian Tropic Killer whale sits atop my can of Alpo. The whale reminds me of my ohana.

The Alpo Diet was created by Coach Dan John in his book Never Let Go. Coach Dan John is not a meathead. To say his book is just about weightlifting would be, well, simply put, ignorant.

My practice does not match my goals. It shows. I entered the 2007 UltraMan Hawaii ill-prepared. DNF.

I came to UltraMan Hawaii 2009 and really feel the powers above looked down on me and saved my ass by letting me rip my toenail off my big toe three days prior to the race. In my heart I know it would have been a DNF.

Like I said I am ashamed of my 15 plus hour finish at Ironman©™® Wisconsin, ashamed of a 14 hour plus finish at Ironman©™® Louisville. Some might think it's OK but they are the ones who think the 5150 Ironman©™® brand series being launched is a good idea or that a 2.5 hour sprint triathlon finish entitles one to "bragging rights".

I don't.

So here it is... My year of 2011 ...The Alpo Diet...

Train "crucible style" and finish officially for a third time UltraMan Hawaii 2010"crucible style"...no bells, whistles...
or
dine on a can of Alpo on 11/26/2011.

In closing... The Crucible project was a turning point for me, I thank my ever enduring Iron Maiden for helping me get it going.

The Crucible Crew, who showed up, donated to the project, you all allowed me to find once again my gift for teaching that had been taken away. It helped me to move forward. I look forward to the continued sharing and community.

The honest and true people out there, all of you Crazy Petes, Kona Girls, Bluebirds, Team Silverback, Man-Tis, MLB, BDU, Mark Klein, Steve Platek, The Gorilla Pit, Kevin O'Connor at Gear West, my Ultraman ohana - you all helped me make sense of it, you reached out, to Ryan Minney asked me when I was going to eat my Alpo or not eat it....thanks for being part of those who "reject the awful normal"...

For as I have defined fitness for many years "Fitness is the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring one joy and happiness".

For I don't think I would be too happy eating a can of Alpo. Even with extra gravy.

on the eve of The Ironman®™© World Championships, a bit of history...

2010-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

As some of you know the first mainland iron distance triathlon was held in Iowa City, IA with two familar faces to the local Milky Way Masters swim club being competitors at this race, Mike Van Horne and Nick Gearhart. USA Olympian and future Ironman®™© World Champion John Howard also took part in this race.

For many years following the end of that race Mike Van Horne put on the Iowa Triathlon which included an iron distance event, a half iron and quarter iron distance event. It was held at Lake McBride State Park near Solon, IA.

Many of us remember racing on bikes that today we would consider "beater bikes", training in sweats, fabrics that today seem as ancient to us as black and white TV's with rabbit ears. As the fabric of the Ironman®™© brand continues to change with the recent creation of the 5150 series I happened across the postcard above sent to me and my wife, Dr. Clar Baldus, from Tim and Tony DeBoom, prior to their competition at the Ironman®™© World Championships in 1993.

Their thanks to us was for organizing a race around Cedar Lake, a race in which many of you came to run in and graciously donated to their travel expenses. As most of you know Tim, now a 2 time Ironman®™© World Champion, is racing today and his brother Tony is busy with their clothing line and cheering for Tim. While my organizing a race was to answer a challenge to me put forth by one of my sponsors, that of "to put more back into the sport than I had received", it was the people of Cedar Rapids who helped us meet that challenge with their donations of time and money.

Today, on the eve of The Ironman®™© World Championships we may know of many people for whom competing in the Ironman®™©World Championships is reality, those who have qualified to compete or those who are working to compete in the future.

All of you who have helped are to be congratulated.

Think of this as an "electronic postcard".

CJ

The American Gothic Gravel Invitational™

2010-09-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

12 jars of homemade "Gothic Goodness" jam await presentation at the first The American Gothic Gravel Invitational™ being held next month in the area.

PowerBar ® and the Iowa Gravel Society™ present
The American Gothic Gravel Invitational™
Saturday, 9 October 2010, 9:00 am

A 60-mile, balls-to-the wall, dust-in-yo-teeth, winner-take-all, free-of-charge bike race across the gravel roads of Linn County, Iowa. Yes, IOWA!

Everyone gets: Dirty, satisfaction, camaraderie, the attached cue-sheet keepsake and BONUS! poster (suitable for framing, fun for the whole family), and a get-together of some sort afterwards (but only if you stick around for the last finisher. Bring a few bucks to chip in if you're hungry. Zoey's or Tomaso's pizza is sounding good).

One person gets: The grand prize (but only if you stick around for the last finisher).

Rules: Sign the notebook before the start. We roll out as a group at 9 a.m. Once we hit gravel, the race is on. Follow the cue sheets ‘til you hit the finish. Sign the notebook with your name and finish time (there’ll be a stopwatch by the notebook). No aid stations. No outside help. Don’t be stupid. Don’t cheat. Ride safe. Stop, look and listen. When you cross the highway(s), look and then look again. Don’t be a tool. And don't, don't, don't litter. The roads are open and the farmers are working harder than any of us. Stay to the right and outta their way. Wave and they’ll wave back.

Cue sheets: Attached. These are the only directions you’ll receive. Print ‘em. Bring ‘em. Lose ‘em and you'd better find someone to ride with. If you bring a buddy, then make a copy or make sure your pal doesn’t get lost.

Start/Finish line: Indian Creek Elementary School parking lot (by the football field), Marion, IA

Fine print: You’re receiving this because you’re one of a select group… or someone we thought really had nothing better to do. This is an invitation-only race because we’ve seen what happens when FREE events are opened to the inconsiderate masses. That said; if you want to bring along a kindred spirit, that’s cool, too. In fact, we encourage it.

In the event of a tie, the 1-Mile Grant Wood Tiebreaker will be held at the adjacent track to determine the winner. Frankly, we’re REALLY hoping for a tie. Bring your running shoes… just in case.

Finer print: YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. There is no sag wagon (though Crazy Pete will ride DFL and pick up the pieces)... so choose your weapon wisely. If you get a flat, fix it; if you break down, wing it or start walking... no one is coming to save you. You got into it, you get out of it. That said, offer a helping hand if someone needs it. As mentioned above, don't be a tool... but feel free to lend one.

Changing Your Physique Workshop

2010-07-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Since the early 1980's and continuing on today Quantum Performance and its' genesis, The Crucible has been involved in the community through various workshops and clinics. These presentations have always been free and open to the public and have been to children in grade schools on topics such as bicycle safety, to beginning triathletes, free races and fitness workshops. Here is one such example...IF you or your business is interested in hosting such an event feel free to contact us.

Like the current Crucible Series our workshops will always be free and open to the public!

Where to begin...

2010-07-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

At a certain part in your life. Probably when too much of it has gone by. You will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, "But I am this person." And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love.

From the movie Phoebe in Wonderland, where our tag line "reject the awful normal" for our gym project and The Free Fitness movement originated.

Where to begin...

I was a fat kid. I was fat until November of 1979 when I was home from college, stepped out of the shower and caught sight of myself in a mirror. I thought to myself "well, no shit wonder why you are not getting laid". I went out, bought a pair of running shoes and never looked back. The following spring, 50 pounds lighter I ran my first marathon.

Since that time I have run countless marathons, ultramarathons, triathlons and the like. I have also competed as a natural bodybuilder, qualifying for bodybuilding Nationals a few times and competing once.

I have completed 27 ironman distance races, 3 double irons (4.8 mile swim, 224 mile bike, 52.4 mile run), 2 triple iron races (7.2 mile swim, 336 mile bike, 78.6 mile run), UltraMan Hawaii twice and UltraMan Canada once. I've run 120 miles in 24 hours, ridden 451 miles in 24 hours and so on. Hell, I'm 52, I have had lots of time to do that. It's all a bunch of numbers.

I am most proud that I have been married to my wife for 28 years this fall.

In 1995 I entered the mainstream fitness world, working as a personal trainer in 5000 member corporate fitness facility. It was good at first and I learned much. However I was always curious as to why "fitness" seemed to be such drudgery to people. I also saw flaws in the presentation to the members of "fitness" and began to openly question this presentation. I got scolded once in awhile but kept thinking and watching.

During that time my wife and I hosted free events for people. Runs, duathlons, all kinds of stuff. We funded it ourselves. Having been involved in triathlons since the early days I was concerned as to how the equipment had become the yardstick of success rather than working with what one had at hand.

In 1999 as my wife was completing her PhD in addition to teaching. I moved to Hawaii to train as a massage therapist, my occupation now and worked out a Gold's Gym. I did some personal training but mainly watched people and the trainers. I saw many of the same actions (or lack of actions) in that gym as well. Trainers who watched TV while with clients, couldn't squat themselves, so on and so forth.

It dawned on me. Most really didn't care, trainers or clients. The life had been taken out of fitness.

I came home and went back to teaching at corporate facility while building my massage business. I saw people who I had not seen for a year simply spinning their wheels and never moving ahead. The trainers were doing the same old crap they had always done, buying into whatever trend came down the road and foisting it off on their clients.

It sickened me.

It also dawned on me as we went back to Hawaii every fall that the people in the Gold's there were doing the exact same things as they had been the year prior, with thier trainers or without!
In 2002 I got a call from a fitness club looking to hire me as a Spinning instructor and Yoga teacher. I was also offered a Personal Training position. It was my descent into the "hell realm" of the fitness underworld. Cheesy classes, sniping aerobics instructors, deception right and left. I thought well maybe if I led by example I would shift things. But educating people in fitness doesn't keep the chained to the fitness club. If they become unchained they might workout on their own, maybe even workout in their home. And that means I was touching the owners money. The cash cow.

I spoke up with my piece in 2005:

http://trainingwiththepitbull.blogspot.com/2010/01/22505-friday-fitness-musings.html

Three days later we got kicked out the fitness club by e-mail.

http://trainingwiththepitbull.blogspot.com/2010/02/non-athlete-testimonials.html

I asked to meet with the owner and he never replied. I got over 300 replies in favor of what I said. 5 people disagreed.

We applied to rejoin the corporate fitness facilty where I had been before. Our application was denied because of the views I expressed in my musing. As one of my clients said "you kicked them right in the balls". The staff actually voted as to whether let us join or not.

So we joined another fitness club. I was just going to workout but the director of the Yoga program kept after me to teach. Big mistake. Should have listened to my wife!

My musing made it to their management in 2006, someone sent it to them. They kicked us out.

For a while we lifted in this small hotel fitness center that sucked even more life out of us. It was like lifting in someones living room, like with doilies on the table...then we found out about an underground gym here in town called The Anvil. It saved us.

Sadly he got flooded out in 2008 in the floods that hit Iowa. So Clar and I began The Crucible project. We began to figure stuff out, we built a small dedicated place in our basement. Gradually we added equipment, made some of our own, etc.

People would ask us if we would be opening a gym soon. We would reply we have a gym and you can come and join us anytime. But people are so ingrained into this BOSU Booty Bootcamp XTREME kettlebell Vibram Five Toe horse hockey they just don't want to leave the safety of the fitness club.

I figure the people who want to show are those who will. You should read the book On the Warriors Path by Daniele Bolelli, he addresses this very well. Here's a quote :

http://trainingwiththepitbull.blogspot.com/2009/03/singing-pigs.html

I was reluctant to join Facebook, I was on for awhile, got off and then created Crucible Gym and The Crucible as a tool to get the word out. Some people know who I am - very few actually know me, hell somedays I am not sure I know me.

Our workouts are good, I share them because I want people to see there is more out there. If they want to do Ultimate Vibram Five Toes BOSU Shakeweight Bootcamp I'm not going to judge. It's not for me.

I have two simple rules about training:

1. "The introduction of many variables compromises performance"

and

2. "Fitness is the ability to enage in the day to day activities that bring one joy and happiness".

I don't connect as to how taking a EXTREME kickboxing class is going to help a middle aged woman who wants to play with her kids and look good in a bathing suit is going to help her connect to fitness but like I said I am not one to judge.

This will be an ongoing post, check back occasionally as I continue on...

The Crucible Philosophy

2010-06-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Knocking out some triceps emphasis push-ups, the log chain adds progressive resistance, the tire has some give to create an awareness of postural engagement.

Over the course of the past 30 years I have provided many workshops, clinics and presentations to the public on various topics involving fitness. At times my presentations were solo and other times my wife, Dr. Clar Baldus, PhD presented with me, sharing her expertise on many of the psychological constructs related to effective change. Our audiences have ranged from grade school children, local triathlon clubs, Physical Therapy Clinics and members and employees of nationally known fitness clubs, Yoga students at the park. Never did we charge a fee, instead choosing to share our knowledge gained through experience and education in the hopes of shifting the present fitness paradigm to a model that would yield better results for the American public.

In the fall of 2006 I was fired from the fitness club where I was teaching several Yoga classes. The management informed my students that I had been fired prior to informing me and then refused to meet with me to discuss why I was being fired. It’s all water over the dam. My students were upset and as I had been fired part way through the current session many asked for and received a refund for the classes. One of my students asked if I had plans to teach anywhere. When I told them I did not have a place to teach or the financial means to open a studio he offered me his home to finish out my classes. So on our regular night we met and shared a Yoga class together. The class offered to pay me but I declined. In my heart I saw the gift from my student of a place to teach as payment in full.

Since that time Clar and I have been working on our project known as The Crucible. It began with the odds and ends left from assorted weight sets and has grown into a wide variety of equipment that we use ourselves for our workouts. It is our gym and where we workout. All are welcome.

In that light we are offering a series of workouts begin on July 3 and continuing on July 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30...5:30 AM, corner of E Ave and 20th Street here in Cedar Rapids, IA. It is how we workout, these are not “fitness classes”. If you like you are welcome to join us for our workout. If not, we’re good with that as well. All you need to bring is a towel, water and maybe a notebook. The workouts are planned for an hour and if some of you haven’t had enough we could go longer. Leave your wallet at home.

A recent workout involved wide-grip pull-ups, narrow grip pull-ups, step-ups, lunges and various types of push-ups using a PVC pipe and quarter mile runs to effect different muscular responses. Another workout used our drag sled, sandbags and 6 foot log chains to work our legs and cardiovascular system until most of us just didn’t want to work our legs or cardiovascular system anymore.

Last year I invited a client to come and join me for a session in The Crucible. When I invite someone to join me in The Crucible it is an invitation, one does not charge for invitations. Later he told me it was one of the best workouts he had had in a long time. I invited him back for a second workout, the appointment was made and then cancelled due to family commitments. Casual comments were made about getting another session in but never followed through on. The Crucible philosophy is that I’m not going to beg someone to workout with me. Either you’re in or you’re not. It’s pretty simple.

The only way to wrap one’s head around the philosophy of The Crucible is to find it and embrace the test of self-belief. I have many letters on file from various people in the fitness industry, for instance a local physical therapist said “CJ is a wonderful trainer and unfortunately misunderstood by many”. At first when I read this it pissed me off. Now I view it as a compliment. I am misunderstood by many. Another fitness program director for a large corporate facility said “I believe his abilities are among the best in the industry”.

Perhaps.

Several years ago I partially stepped away from Personal Training and last month completely stepped away. When Nick Mallet gave me my nickname “The Pitbull” I realized I was no longer a Personal Trainer but rather a “Fitness Catalyst”. To me much of Personal Training has denigrated a glorified babysitting, where the Personal Trainer leads the client around the fitness club, looks at a card and says ‘biceps curls are next’. For eight hours a day. This is not me.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow tells us that attraction to and exploration of the unknown is a component of good psychological health. (Maslow, Journal of General Psychology, 68:111-125) For some the philosophy of The Crucible might be unknown to them and it will remain that way, unknown, sadly perhaps forever.

For others it could be an examination of self-belief as it was for me.

Find your crucible.

The Five Place Podium is for The Herd

2010-05-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago The Iron Maiden and I stopped in to visit a new fitness facility here in town. We were intrigued by their kettlebell training, a service this facility offered. My skills with a kettlebell are largely self-taught and I was interested in having a RKC certified kettlebell instructor teach me the mechanics and execution of swings, get-ups and the progressions. And I wanted someone to kick my posterior a bit, to challenge me along with teaching me.

The facility offered one to one training and that was what we were interested in. I wanted someone to critique my form as I learned the proper mechanics of kettlebell training. One CAN NOT get this type of feedback in a group of 20 people!

My desire to learn the mechanics first went back to my early days of lifting, 33 years ago when the guy who taught me to lift weights made me bench press an empty bar in a crowded college weight room until I got it right. Only then was weight added. This was a serious bitch slap to my 20 year old male ego and that bitch slap to my ego pushed me to learn it right. I can still hear is voice saying “that was not right”, then explaining why it was not right and having me do it again and again until I got it right. The same was taught to me in all the work, the Vertical Pushes, Vertical Pulls, Horizontal Pushes, Horizontal Pulls, Posterior Chain, Quad Dominant Lower Body and so on, the common thread was that only until you mastered the basics through deliberate practice could one safely move on. I have him, my teacher, to thank for 33 years of injury free training, 33 years of Ironmans, Double Ironmans, UltraMan’s, countless running races and bodybuilding competitions.

When I expressed to this RKC Certified Instructor my desire to learn the basics and do them over and over again until I had them down, that I was willing to come in 2 or 3 times per week for sessions with him and then practice on the off days as dictated by him he seemed to be reluctant to do this. ‘Most people want to come in to get a workout, they don’t want to do the same thing everyday ‘ was his general response. I calmly explained to him I did not want to be entertained with kettlebells, I wanted to learn about kettlebells. My explanation fell on deaf ears.

And once again that bolt of lightning struck me smack dab in the middle of my forehead. We went home and once home as The Iron Maiden, PhD put yet another Strawberry Shortcake band-aid on my forehead we talked about what happened.

There’s nothing wrong in wanting to be entertained but in order to learn, really learn, one needs to taught correct practices. And then after class one needs to deliberately practice some more. (For the "how" of deliberately practice I suggest reading The Road to Excellence by K. Anders Ericsson)

However if a client (customer) learns and masters a set of skills there is a chance they might move on their own. While I feel that’s a good thing as through the years my goal of Exercise Prescription has been to teach all my clients the basics and once those are mastered allow them to move on if they wish. It’s perhaps not the best business plan for if a client moves on with their education in hand their wallet goes with them. But Exercise Prescription is, in my opinion, far superior and beneficial in the long run than Exercise Subscription. And there needs to be far more Exercise Prescription taught to the public because it is evident the Exercise Subscription approach just is not working as well as it is believed.

For you see simply walking under a sign proclaiming that the workout area you are now entering is for “champions only” or being told “you guys are ALL doing great” is not specific or direct feedback. Without specific and direct feedback delivered to the individual the likelihood of becoming part of the herd is at its’ greatest.

And the herd believes there are five places on the podium.

Floyd Landis...Eat My Dust!

2010-05-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

I often find myself conflicted. Perhaps it is because I live in a society that has become itself conflicted. As the world flattens and the pace increases individuals often resort to means, often any means, to keep up. As some of these individuals keep up and accelerate the honest man is left behind, his achievements obscured and left in the dust.

One of the conflicts in our society right now focuses on Floyd Landis. Stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title he is now unleashing a wide variety of balderdash masquerading as facts in efforts borne of intentions to move the spotlight off his dishonesty and onto others.

Having not personally witnessed Mr. Landis, Mr. Armstrong or any of the other people actually doping I do not know if these allegations are true. I have my opinions and that is what they are, like this musing, opinions. However these actions by Floyd Landis and others like him leave the individual achievements of the honest individual obscured and in the dust.

And that pisses me off.

Many years ago Clar and I went to a 5K race in her hometown. An acquaintance came along for the run. It was a small crowd and at registration our acquaintance observed the crowd and asked me if I thought he could list his age as 40 even though his 40th birthday was a few weeks away. I told him it was his choice but asked why. He noted his age division was tough but the 40 plus looked easier and that way he could win a trophy. And so he did place and win a shiny plastic trophy. He was by choice, a cheater. And the honest individual in his age group who finished one place behind him was denied his achievement, left in the dust. I wonder what our acquaintance thinks as he dusts his trophy…

For a short time I worked in a nutritional supplement store selling bodybuilding products and the like. One of the customers frequently purchased pro-hormones, a banned substance in natural bodybuilding competitions. Much to my surprise I found myself on stage against this individual in a natural bodybuilding show, a show where during the polygraph we were asked if we knowingly took pro-hormones in addition to signing an affidavit before the show that we were clean. I quietly accepted my second place trophy, knowing I was clean and what I presented on stage was honest.

The conflict I see is that we live in a T-ball world, in a created world in which there are five places on the podium, a world where parents hold their children back in school a year so they will be larger on the football field. Everybody is a winner, at all costs and this winning is especially costly to the honest individual as their achievements are left in the dust, obscured by those who create these winners at all costs, be it in the fostering of and resulting conflict from the “everybody is a winner / all men are created equal” mentality and the “win at all costs” mentality.

And so in closing I’d like to give a moment to two friends, not acquaintances, who in my opinion deserve recognition, the honest individuals who Diogenes of Sinope would see with his lamp.

This weekend my friend Kevin O’Connor will be racing in the time trial at the Tour of California. Clar and I have known Kevin and his family since the early 1990’s and is an inspiration to me. He is an accomplished athlete and respected business man. I wish him the best as he rides this race and many more with honesty and integrity I have come to know him for.

And secondly to my friend Ebe Boettcher…even though I told him I wasn’t “Personal Training” anymore he refused to take no for an answer. I provided him some books and told him to figure it out for himself. While I served as he puts it "as a fitness catalyst" he mostly did it for himself. Over the course of 15 months he lost 40 pounds, ran a marathon in difficult conditions and 5 weeks after completing his marathon completed his first sprint triathlon. He continues to find his crucible, he is far from done.

Floyd Landis…eat our dust.

© CJ Ong, Jr. / 2010 This article is copyright protected and deemed intellectual property and may not be reproduced without express written consent of the author.

Understanding the breath

2010-05-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

The act of breathing or respiration is something most people take for granted. Respiration is controlled by the autonomic nervous system and occurs without conscious effort on our part. Inspiration serves to bring fresh air into the systems of the body while expiration helps clear waste from the body. However there are several factors we should be aware to make our breathing more efficient and beneficial.

When asked what muscle is responsible for our breathing most people reply “the diaphragm”. They are only partially correct, as there are actually three primary muscles of respiration (diaphragm, intercostals, and abdominals) and fifteen accessory muscles of respiration (scalenes, sternocleidomastiod, serratus anterior, pectoralis major / minor, upper trapezius, latissimus dorsi, thoracic erector spinae, iliocostalis lumborum, quadratus lumborum, serratus posterior superior / inferior, levatores costarum, transverses thoracis, and subclavius). Knowing this makes it easy to see why it is so important to have well conditioned muscles in terms of strength and flexibility! The conditioning processes for these muscles need not be complicated. Programs incorporating a well-balanced approach including functional strength training will yield the needed results through consistent application.

Another factor essential to efficient breath is posture. Poor posture and the resulting misalignment of the body segments leads to increased strain on the muscles and supporting structures. If prolonged it can result in overstretching and weakening of the muscles and ligaments, adaptive shortening of the muscles, increased pressure on discs and decreased lung capacity.

While analysis of posture usually involves lateral, anterior and posterior assessment one can be easily made aware good posture and its’ role in the breath by learning the yoga poses Tadasana, Sukasana, and Sarvasana. All three of these poses have valid applications in a variety of sports including weight training, running, and triathlon. The application of good posture in athletic pursuits will yield increased cardio-respiratory efficiency in addition to having a calming effect on the body’s ten levels of cellular organization.

When exercising one should be aware that body mechanics affects the breath. Poor body mechanics often has a negative effect on the breath and in turn lowering cardio-respiratory efficiency. Some examples include: the cyclist with their seat too high who is forced to use several of the muscles of both respiration and inspiration in an attempt to stabilize the body, the weightlifter who fails to keep their hips on the bench while bench pressing or the person who pulls themselves “along” a treadmill by placing their hands on the control panel in an effort to achieve “a better workout”.

Finding the correct way to breath is not difficult. After allowing your posture to come into proper alignment allow the breath to enter your lungs through your nose, allowing your stomach to rise as the lungs expand and the diaphragm presses the internal organs down. Then allow the breath to leave your lungs through the nose, allowing your lungs to deflate and stomach to fall.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes in The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975), “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” The time invested in learning to breathe correctly may provide one with many possible benefits including better workouts, stress reduction and an improved quality of life.

References:
Kendall, F.P., McCreary, E.K., Provance, P.G. (1993).
Muscles: Testing and Function Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins
Simons, D.G., Travell, J.G., Simons, L.S. (1999).
Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins

© CJ Ong, Jr. / 2010 This article is copyright protected and deemed intellectual property and may not be reproduced without express written consent of the author.

Further from the noise...

2010-04-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

People go to wild places to search for their true nature.
Where is your true nature?

- Zen koan

In my opinion, as the world moved from an agrarian society to an industrial and then industrial / technological society we have lost our fitness, in fitness being as I have defined it over the past couple of years, as” the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring us joy and happiness”. Forgetting how to play, we chase the ball called happiness only to kick it away once we reach it, hoping for a better ball, perhaps a more colorful, bigger or more bouncy ball.

Those responsible for marketing to our fitness “needs” recognize this and capitalize upon it, selling us bigger and better balls, certifying some to teach us how to bounce our balls by ourselves and with others. But are we happy? Are we finding fitness? I think not for many of us, including myself.

In the late 1970’s a drunken bet evolved into the Ironman® triathlon. Now the Ironman® is a multi-million dollar industry in which entrants pay upwards of $1000 to enter an individual race, an event which in its’ first year cost $3.00 to enter. As the need for challenge increased double, triple and other variations of the Ironman® were created, including my beloved UltraMan Hawaii and UltraMan Canada. Sadly as those interested in making a living from sports came into the ultra world the “ground” of the ultra world shifted – and in this shift I became distracted by the noise.

When I began doing ultra events in the early 1980’s no one really made a living off of doing ultras. The occasional boxes of shoes made their way into a runners home, electrolyte potions were provided as samples and legends like Al Howie planted trees for a living in Canada, saved his money, then ran from Canada to Sacramento, CA to race in and win the Gibson Ranch 6 Day Race simply because that’s what Al Howie did. He didn’t host ultra tree planting camps or run to raise money for the Gay Baby Transgendered Harp Seals as a means to “justify” his racing. He didn’t bill or promote himself as the “first tree planting Canadian to do this or that in the ultra world”.

Now it’s real noisy for me in the ultra world. The noise began for me in 1998 when Joey Kelly was entered in the UltraMan Hawaii. Kelly was part of the “famous in Europe” Kelly Family, a singing group likened to Boyz to Men. He was in the race and as of part of his race he was making a documentary about the race. (Now I love UltraMan Hawaii but honestly you would need to hold a really big gun to my head to make me watch a documentary of UltraMan Hawaii, it’s great to live the race but reliving it on a TV is torture to me.)

From the start he never felt like part of the ohana. He arrived late for meetings, he seemed sullen and didn’t greet many of the other athletes. He had a great race and a fine finish but as he came across the line his film crew blocked the finish chute. A race official politely asked Kelly’s crew to move aside, a brouhaha erupted and culminated with Joey Kelly, a trained martial artist, delivering a roundhouse kick to the officials head, sending the official to the hospital for treatment. Kelly was disqualified. (I recently saw an article on him in the Wall Street Journal, Kelly is apparently getting his ya-yas out by racing woks down Olympic bobsled runs)

Clar summed it up when she said to me “the Ironman® mentality has infected UltraMan Hawaii”. And the noise confused me even more.

In 2006 we came back to the race as crew for a person we had never met. Crewing for UltraMan Hawaii is hard work, plain and simple. I was a bit confused by the attitude of our athlete, he seemed logistically ill-prepared and felt that his bananas weighed at least 100 pounds. But even if his bananas were really heavy it didn’t justify him throwing his banana at Clar. And even though he had the fastest Ironman® time in the field that year it didn’t excuse him forgetting to say thank-you. At all. Even at the end of the three days. And the noise grew louder and more confusing.

Last year I came back to UltraMan Hawaii. It was a good experience. Unfortunately one of the individuals who completed the race made poor choices in following the rules and was disqualified. Earlier this year I directly questioned them as to why they would imply on their blog that they were official finishers of the race when in fact they were disqualified. In their reply to me I was told I was an “old timer” and that “you could die tomorrow and I would not blink an eye”. The roar of the noise became more deafening.

I am an old timer. I’m OK with that. I’m not ready to die or even get hearing aids for that matter. But I’ve decided to walk away from the noise. Retreat. A recent essay by dharma teacher Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel describing retreat prompted me to work on my practice through retreat: "Sometimes people feel that one should teach if one's had instructions and practice. Haven't all the accomplished practitioners sought spiritual development through intensive practice? People often think retreat practice is a withdrawal from worldly life and I suppose it can be. But as I watched myself running around, distracted, thinking only of myself, I wondered if going into retreat practice wouldn't be the most meaningful thing I could do. I can't express the joy I felt in retreat. I knew I was making the best use of my time when I was there. At times I felt isolated, but this lonliness stirred my heart and in the end I never felt so engaged and connected to the world. Somehow that has never left me."

For me, my personal practice has suffered from distraction. In retreat I step back and learn to engage first with Self, then layer the engagement carefully with others only if that path is clear to me. Realization, gained in learning to do for Self then offers a Way to do for others.

See you on the roads.

The Pitbull

Barefoot Cycling

2010-04-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

As of late I have been asked a number of times about “barefoot” running, the latest fad circulating about the running world. Being an “old timer” I reply that I see nothing all that new or exciting about the fad. In 1994 when I officially finished the Double Iron the winner John Quinn ran the entire 52.4 mile run in Nike AquaSocks. Earlier that year he had won the LeDefi Triple Iron in France, running 78.6 miles in Nike AquaSocks though most likely in a different pair… In some of the same ultra events I have taken part in, such as the UltraMan Hawaii World Championships fellow competitor Sergio Corderio ran much of the races barefoot.

After the publication of Born To Run by Christopher McDougall “barefoot” running has now become legit. Even Dr. Oz, physician to Oprah, has read the book according to my most recent AARP magazine. (I get the AARP magazine for the articles, not because I am 52) McDougall’s book, though not especially well-written, raises some valid considerations I have long believed in. I feel running shoes are often over designed and the orthotics industry is largely lubricated with snake oil. However I am anxious for a chance to cash in on the barefoot craze and realize there is an untapped market for barefoot cycling. I was in the market for a new pair of bike shoes but after looking at the ridiculous prices bike shops want for shoes I decided to simply take the cleats off my old shoes and bolt them directly to my feet. Barefoot cycling is closer than you think!

You will need the following: A new drill bit index with correct sizes for your cleat bolts, 750 ml bottle of Jack Daniels, 3/8 variable speed drill, antibiotic ointment, old towels to soak up the blood and wipe away tears, a large Hartz rawhide chew bone or a bullet to bite on (use a bullet, not a cartridge), duct tape, Magic Marker, bushings, bolts and wing-nuts.

Begin by taking a pull or two on the bottle of Jack Daniels. If Jack is not around, his friend Jim Beam will work fine. Take the cleat and duct tape it to your foot in the correct position. (Note: These are directions are for Shimano cleats, other brands may require process modifications) Use the Magic Marker to write the number of your HMO on your arm. Sterilize the area with some Jack. Have another pull of Jack. Chuck the correct bit in the drill. After another pull of Jack either bite down on the bullet or the rawhide chew. This is very important: Measure twice and drill once. Repeat for the other two holes, breathing deeply as needed. Slip the bushings into the hole. Disregard the blinding white light, it will dissipate, another pull or three will speed up the dissipation. Disinfect the foot with some more Jack. Apply antibiotic ointment as needed. Repeat process for the other foot. DO NOT consider waiting to do the other foot at a later date, such as when your eyes uncross. Place bolts through cleats and thread through bushings, use wing-nuts to secure, wing-nuts will allow fast transitions. There may be point tenderness for a spell but a second bottle of Jack will help.

See you on the roads.

The Pitbull

New Bo Fest Half Marathon, September 5, 2K10

2010-04-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

For those with computer "savvy" you probably can figure out how to create this entry form or you can visit www.newbohemia.org/halfmarathon.htm for more details.

Pedal and Puke©®™, April 17, 2K10, I.W.B.I.

2010-04-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

There will be a Pedal and Puke©®™ beginning at the 4 Way in Robins, IA (Council and East Robins Road) at 7 AM. Join the Usual Suspects of The Guilty Party for a Show and Go, no phee, phrills or phretting group ride. There has been no explanation offered as to why attendance has been taken or XTREME send-offs provided for this non-sanctioned event.

Michelangelo's David ends USA stay

2010-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo's famous sculpture, "David" recently ended a two year tour of museums in the U.S.A. The tour was sponsored by:

Museum curators in Italy were saddened over the changed David upon his return to the Academy Gallery in Florence.

As the label notes this piece is written as sarcasm. If you choose to believe this actually happened you probably would be better off not visiting this blog and watching Tiger play a round on TV. The rest of you get my point...

The Hydraulic Effect

2010-04-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

This past week a client asked me why his local fitness club would offer a "fitness program" to the members that would take a total non-exerciser and thrust them into a rigorous 10 week program to punch them into “shape”. As I explained that these types of predatory practice are unfortunately quite commonplace in the “fitness industry” I also explained to my client that ideally a non-exercising individual would be offered a program based in exercise prescription, looking at the individual’s requirements and creating a foundation on which to help the client build a lasting commitment to fitness.

There is a phenomenon which exists in our society known as the “hydraulic effect”. This effect can be illustrated by a circumstance many of us have experienced or engaged in at one point in our lives involving elevators. We observe ourselves or others standing in front of a bank of elevators and in an effort to make an elevator car arrive faster the buttons summoning the elevator are pushed repeatedly, harder, faster or any combination thereof. However the mechanism of the elevator button does not sense this, it is a mechanical device and despite our most aggressive efforts the elevator car will arrive no faster.

Unfortunately the “fitness industry” has chosen to capitalize on this phenomena, recognizing that the masses buy and will buy into the idea that one can pound the fat off through the use of the hydraulic effect. And while there are outliers in the group for whom this method does work the majority find themselves injured physically and emotionally from the abuses in the name of “fitness” they are lead to believe will effect change. Ask yourself how many people have you known who have taken on one of these programs and either dropped out part way through for the aforementioned reasons or made it through the entire program, lost some weight and inches and then completely lost interest in working out, only to put back on the weight and inches they have lost plus some?

I teach clients that fitness should be approached in a manner similar to painting a house. One takes the time to scrape the old paint and then look for rotted boards (dysfunction). The identification of dysfunction(s) allows one to repair or made accommodations as needed to the structure (body). It is then the first layer of primer (fitness) is placed on the body. The subsequent layers of fitness (primer and paint) are applied properly so that when finished the fitness does not bubble, flake off or peel away requiring one to scrape away the improperly applied fitness and begin again.

Pushing harder, repeatedly or faster will not make the fitness arrive faster but instead will often lead to emotional and physical injuries, preventing one from finding fitness and making it part of one’s life. Instead the correct selection of and application of challenges will allow the individual to find fitness, with fitness being “the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring one joy and happiness”.

The Pitbull

XTREME Daisy...

2010-04-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

On Canadian TV there is the comedy Corner Gas in which the (mis)adventures of the community Dog River are captured. One episode details the efforts of the townspeople to increase tourism by building “The World’s Biggest Thing”. Drawing inspiration from “The World’s Biggest Moose” in Moose Jaw and in competition from neighboring Wullerton’s “The World’s Biggest Magpie” the townspeople decide to honor and celebrate their agrarian roots by building “The World’s Biggest Hoe” for after all, they (hoes) “do attract people” and generate tourism dollars.

http://www.tv.com/corner-gas/worlds-biggest-thing/episode/301376/recap.html

Lately I have noticed an increase in the use of unsubstantiated superlatives in advertising. For some time now the phrase “The World’s Largest” was used by business owners in an effort to draw in consumers to their businesses. However as years passed the phrase “World’s Largest” wasn’t quite “big” enough and given many easily made observations we are able to make here in the USA nothing is ever quite “big” enough and size does truly matter. So marketing executives created a whole new set of phrases, much bigger and better than simply the “The World’s Largest”. Over the past years we have seen the advent of the words ultimate, premier, the best and extreme applied to consumer goods ranging from ½ pound cheeseburgers and women’s undergarments.

This is the latest in Xtreme wear from Daisy Fuentes. Ms. Fuentes’ claim to fame is that she was an MTV video jockey (VJ) during the brief period when MTV actually played music videos. Now she has an entire line of clothing including women’s undergarments which she sells through exclusively through Kohl’s. In the name of research I looked at other push-up bras available for purchase here in the USA. While not an “expert” on bras it appears to me there is really nothing that Xtreme about this push-up bra. It looks pretty much like a plain old regular everyday push-up bra to me. Given Ms. Fuentes’ recent foray into the “sport” of high stakes poker perhaps if this bra had an spy camera built in to view her opponents cards it might warrant a name change but for now unless you can launch water balloons with it a really long way – like across the border into Moose Jaw, home of the “The World’s Largest Moose” let’s consider a name change here.

Target advertised an X-treme notebook yesterday in their back to school circular. I found my curiosity piqued, wondering if perhaps there was an alligator between the pages and if your attention wandered during class the alligator would help you recapture your focus…I don’t know but it makes me wonder what is really ultimate, premier or extreme anymore.

I once had an appointed “superior” tell me that my pursuit of ultra events was extreme. I never really considered what I did to be extreme but simply rather what gave my life substantiation. I really wondered if she knew what extreme really meant but in a rare moment of political correctness I refrained. However please remember that if one decides to build the “World’s Biggest Hoe” you should refrain from using a recycled telephone pole for a handle. For as it splinters and cracks all one is left with is a dirty, crack(ed) hoe…

Respectfully submitted by The Pitbull.

A Geranium is Just a Geranium

2010-03-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

A Geranium is Just a Geranium by Clara Baldus

Some people, including Mom, might say it was just a coincidence. Others of a less practical nature would suggest this was a metaphysical, romantic gesture. Mom’s best friend, Vivian, summed up the situation with, “People can believe just about anything they want to.” A cousin once told Dad that he had seen spirits of dead relatives in a vision while visiting a holy place. This cousin wanted to know if Dad believed this revelation had happened. Dad’s reply, “I believe you believe it’s true.” So here’s the story. You can form your own conclusion.

Dad had passed away in April so we all spent some time sorting things and taking care of a few household odds and ends for Mom. In June 1999 I spent some time glazing and fixing some of Mom’s windows. While searching for tools in the basement we came upon many “treasures” that Dad had stored in drawers previously stuck shut by flood waters. There were lots of things Mom thought she could easily part with. We had just had a huge garage sale a few weeks before but there always seem to be a few things we miss. These items would become seed for the next sale or the trash. At one point Mom nudged a bucket with her foot and said, “Oh, there are those dead, dried geraniums your father wanted me to winter over. Guess I’ll have to carry them up and throw them out.” I offered to take them out then, but Mom said she’d do it later.

On July 14 Mom called to let me know she had finally gotten around to hauling the geraniums out of the basement. As she was carrying them up the stairs something pink caught her eye. Much to her surprise one of the “dead, dried” geraniums was blooming!

This could have been a natural coincidence. From another viewpoint, Dad had sent Mom flowers. After all, he had insisted she keep the plants for the spring. Regardless of the circumstances, Mom’s geranium grew into a beauty and was loaded with blossoms all summer.

Believe what you want to.

Get on your bikes and ride!

2010-03-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

Cycling Schedules and Links, 2010

2010-03-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

Mondays 5:30 PM This "show and go" ride meets at BBQ This on Boysen Road NE. In the past it has been generally a small group and is of a faster pace (21 - 24 mph)

HBA Racing Team Tuesdays
5:15 PM Sharp Green Square Park Show and Go Format

HBA Racing Team Thursdays
5:15 PM Sharp Boysen Road Trailhead of CVNT Show and Go Format

http://hba-racing-team.blogspot.com/

Wednesdays at 5:30 beginning April 7, 2010 The HBA club, not the race team, runs a ride on Wednesday nights beginning April 7th. The rides are at 5:30 and start at the Boysen Road Trailhead of the CVNT. They are open to anyone. The HBA bike schedule can be found here: http://hawkeyebike.org/

Wednesdays at 5:30 PM This ride is a regular ride but switches between two locations: The Red Frog in Czech village is our South Route, this route has more hills and pizza and beer afterwards OR BBQ This on Boyson Road NE and with BBQ and beer afterwards. This ride will have the starting location posted on the Midwest XTREME triathlon club website prior Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning) to the ride at www.mwxtri.com This ride tends to be faster with the ride dividing into groups and then regrouping every so often at 4 Way Stops and the like.

Wednesdays meeting at 6:15 PM with a 6:30 ride start time
Boyson Road Trailhead of CVNT
18 to 22 miles... pace to be determined by those who show up!
www.mwxtri.com

Saturdays at 7 AM Gravel Goodness©®™ and Pedal N' Puke©®™ Training Rides Show and Go Format, No Phee, Phrills or Phretting. These rides are the areas ORIGINAL group training rides having been in place since the early 1990's.

From the first Saturday in November through the last weekend in March we ride Gravel Goodness©®™. Cyclocross, Project, Mountain and FRANKENBIKES all equally welcome. Rides include 300 Cat Farm and other points of interest.

From the first Saturday in April through the last weekend in October we ride Pedal N' Puke©®™. These rides are on road and triathlon bikes and riding a straight line is encouraged. As these rides are Show and Go the pace is usually determined by group dynamics. Regrouping occurs on regular intervals at locations such as 4 Way Stops. Distance is determined by individual training needs.

Other rides may occur and some special rides are scheduled through the season. These rides along with ride reports are listed as time permits on this blog under the headings Local Outdoor News and Ride Reports.

Son of A Nietzsche

2010-03-18T10:17:00.001-07:00

(Right click on above image to enlarge for easier viewing)

In the fall of 1991, at the inaugural Pewterman Pentathlon I first proposed the idea of the Friedrich Nietzsche International Duathlon. Created under the influence of heat exhaustion from running 5K, a 100, a 440, a mile and 10 mile races in the span of an Indian Summer afternoon in Iowa the FND came to fruition the first Saturday of June 1992. Several athletes toed the line including adventurer Stefan Schlett of Germany, ultra running legend Don Choi of San Francisco and several local athletes including “Iron” Mike Skopec who would win all of the 155 mile bike, 32 mile run duathlons. Over the course of the five “official” FND’s and one “Son Of A FND” there were many official men and women finishers and of those finishers Richard “Bikini Boy Wanna Be” Anton, “Iron”Mike Skopec, Brad “Bladerunner” Janey and CJ “The Pitbull” Ong, Jr. completed all the editions of the race including the 1997“Son Of A FND”.

The race was borne of call to see a return to when racing was less “pre-digested”. There were no FND Level One Certified Coaches and those who came to race were ready to race with what they had. Bladerunner befriended a local farmer one year to solve mechanical issues on the bike and went on to finish the bike and run. There were no support vehicles and we all took the time to help each other, to share our resources in what was known then as sportsmanship.

Sadly as the race garnered exposure the wanna-be’s, the poseurs, the phretters, began to latch on to the event. One local athlete came to the event and completed one 78 mile bike lap and 20 laps of the run. Later he referred to this as a “mini-Nietzsche”. (That what does not hurt me gives me a little Boo-Boo? Sorry I can’t buy that and I’m reasonably sure Nietzsche wouldn’t have either) One day I was in a bike shop when a person I had never met told me “he had done the Nietzsche in Cedar Rapids”. I asked if he was sure and when he said he was I introduced myself as the co-race director. He stammered something as he walked away. Another athlete called me and told me he would need at least 24 hours to complete the race. I told him I couldn’t accept his entry despite his 6 hour marathon "PR" and he called me among other names an “elitist”.

The race “officially” ended in 1997. In that year an athlete I casually knew had entered and I had given them one of the 25 spots in this free self-supported event. The form stressed the importance of personal responsibility, that to ride 155 miles on a bike and then run 32 miles is a long way and no one would be there to wipe your nose or other body parts. No one held a gun to your head and made you enter this race. Remember it used to be we were all “big people” and acted like “grown-ups”.

Shortly before the race the entrants spouse contacted me and verbally expressed their displeasure with me for conducting this race, in that my race had caused their spouse to never be home as they were out training all the time and this training had caused the children to inquire as to why they were “not loved by Daddy anymore”. And I’m thinking in my head about these problems being attributed to me that “it’s not about the race”… Mercifully for me the exchange ended but not before the final nail was driven in the FND's coffin with the statement that “you better have insurance because if something happens I’m going to sue you”.

The story and the rest is history. Occasionally I’ll hear of“underground events” but they don’t remain underground for long. People want trays of cookies, huge medals and endless buffets of support and rules for their “efforts”. They want to be told how to train, what to wear when they train, the same holds true for racing. People need to be told “how” to play fair for somewhere along the line they never learned.

That’s unfortunate. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to make a midnight burrito.

The Pitbull

Thinking of and Remembering My Friend John Giordano...

2010-03-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

I have had the good fortune to meet many extraordinary people over the years. One of these individuals was John Giordano. I met John while I was working at the Rockwell Employee's Recreation Center as a Personal Trainer. An avid outdoor athlete he often included running as part of his workouts. He would meet up with others to run over his noon hour and the bond he and many of his fellow runners shared was a joy to observe. Closing my eyes I can still remember his running style best described as "unique".

John was a senior technical writer for Rockwell International and we often discussed the "politics of the day". He always took the time to thank me for editing and putting together the local running club newsletter for he knew such a position is often a thankless position.

In 1998 he gave me the cartoon below. We had often discussed the "win at all costs" mind-set curiously juxtaposed with the feeble-mindness of the "everyone is a winner" mind-set that was infecting our country. On the post-it note he attached he suggested I pin it up on a bulletin board. I asked the management but was told it was inappropriate.
(Clicking on the cartoon will enlarge the image for easier reading)

In 1999 I moved to The Big Island of Hawai'i to attend massage school. John and I stayed in touch and he told me he was coming to the islands in the spring of 2000 for a family vacation. Having bagged several of the "Fourteeners" in Colorado he was looking forward to hiking the trails of Oahu.

One morning I opened the West Hawaii Today and read that a hiker from Iowa had died in a fall on Oahu. My heart fell as I read his name.

John was a husband, father, pilot, runner and friend to many. He was an influence to me. Thanks John. It's difficult to believe it's been 10 years...

CJ

The Furry News

2010-03-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

Thirteen years ago a group of us would meet at a park on the northeast side of town on Sunday mornings to ride long. On this particular day the group of six or so included Kevin Drake, a gifted and talented triathlete at all distances from the sprint to ultras, (placing second in the 1996 Double Iron in Huntsville), some other triathletes and myself.

As we rode north and out of town we met up with another local triathlete. This particular individual was always pissed off at the world and there was a rabid rivalry that teetered on hatred between him and another member of our group that morning. It was way more than "bad blood". He joined our paceline.

At the first hill going out of town the recent addition (let's call him Scott One) to our group came to the front of the paceline. It is protocol in a paceline that when one is at the front one does not "jam the foot down on the pedal and give her more gas". However this is just what happened. The paceline stretched like a rubberband and we closed the gaps and regrouped. Unfortunately the next rider in the rotation was "Scott One"'s opponent. (Let's call him Scott Two) Scott Two did the exact same thing as Scott One, stepping on the gas, stretching and distorting the paceline and making the rest of us wonder what the hell was going on.

This "squirrel tossing" went on for about 25 miles. Finally Kevin Drake turned to me and said he had had "enough of this". Kevin could have easily simply schooled both of them but that was not what we were out there for. As we watched them ride off into the distance, beating the "scott" out of each other the rest of us had a day of fitness.

The next day I asked Scott One what was going on. He said when he saw Scott Two he wanted to see "what that f#*k#r had him him". The piece, The Furry News was born of that day. (The original piece was made on old Apple, the image of the squirrel was cut from a paper and pasted mechanically as was the name of my company, then copied and mailed out via US mail.)

(Click on the image to adjust the size for easier viewing)

BLAST OFF the Winter Fat Diet

2010-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

This diet is perfect for shedding that excess weight that has been hanging on all winter. Catabolic in nature and flawed in design, this diet will provide you with results. Not necessarily the results one would want but results never the less – or more!

Preparation: Go into the yard and scoop up as much snow as you can into a Rubbermaid container. You will want to stay on this diet as long as possible so collect as much snow as you can. Ditches along the higway will hold snow for a long time. Avoid the yellow stuff unless you like a little “wang” on your food.

Breakfast
1 cup of snow
1 red grape
1 baby carrot
5 big gulps of air

Lunch
1 cup of snow, “wang” optional
1 green grape rolled around in an empty tuna can for flavor and protein
1 leaf of iceberg lettuce
10 big gulps of air

Dinner
2 cups of snow, with or without “wang”
1 green grape
1 brussel sprout
1 baby carrot
400 big gulps of air

The snow consumption provides a thermic effect to your advantage by causing the body to use calories to melt the snow in your stomach. The final meal causes you to hyperventilate and pass out – then you don’t notice how hungry you are.

Best results are achieved by doing at least 2 hours of cardio every day regardless of common sense. You will achieve that really ripped up look by adding at least 2 hours of high intensity weight training every day as well.

Now get out there and SCOOP SNOW like there’s no January!!!!

Ask the Coach...

2010-03-15T13:43:00.001-07:00

Dear Coach,
I am in serious training for the half-ironman here in Iowa in late August. I’ve been having some problems with my Achilles tendon and was wondering what you would suggest I do.
Sincerely,
‘Serious Trainer’

Dear Serious Trainer,
Here’s what I suggest: Get out there and train hard! In all three sports! And add a fourth. Achilles tendon problems rarely amount to anything like plantar fascitis, complete ruptures of the sheath or other painful and dehabilitating problems. So ignore the pain and the fact you can’t walk right and suck it up wimp. (You didn’t say what your gender was but I assume it is female because a real man would never complain about something so trivial as dysfunction of the Achilles tendon!)

Common sense suggests you maybe take some time off from running and cycling but screw common sense. In addition to your regular workouts get into the weight room for some serious calf raises. You want to go AS HEAVY as you possibly can, in fact I suggest doing the stack on every piece of calf equipment plus get the biggest guy in the gym to stand on top of the weight stack for added resistance.

After your weight workout you’ll need to do some cardio so you should run on a treadmill at the highest grade possible for at least one hour as fast as you can run. This will really stretch the muscles out and make them feel “alive”. Especially when the Achilles tendon lets loose and your gastrocnemius muscle writhes around your knee like a ball of snakes. If the run didn’t finish off your Achilles tendon then go out for a bike ride. Ride an impossibly high gear so your RPM’s are NO HIGHER than 60. (Remember: Guys with really strong legs can’t spin) Make sure you press your heels down as you ride. Try to scrape the ground with your heels. You may have the tendency to want to lift your heels due to the shortened calf muscles and adhesions in the tendon sheath; you must fight this at all costs!

You will find with the additional time spent in the weight room you are not going to have time to stretch. Don’t worry about stretching! Stretching is for those losers who like to walk easily and without pain. You workout hard and you want it to show. So what if you walk like an old lady, you’re a triathlete, right? Screw stretching!

Some people say what about ice treatments? Ice is for gin and tonics and to keep beer cold when you are fishing. The time spent doing two or three 15-minute ice sessions would be better spent getting in more training miles. Besides that’s what anti-inflammatories are for. So what they wreck your liver, kidneys and eat holes in your stomach! That’s why dialysis and organ transplants were invented. And training in the heat and humidity in July and August will increase the risk of side effects associated with anti-inflammatory use so eat them like candy.

Should you consider massage therapy treatments? Nah. Keep in mind massage is for rich people who have nothing better to do with their money. You need your money to buy the latest editorial rehash in some triathlon rag.

In a nutshell don’t take any time off from training, in fact you need to train harder, don’t do the RICE treatment and mask your symptoms and pain with drugs. Imagine how good you will look in the cast they will put on your leg after your ruptured Achilles tendon is repaired. Cool thing is you can get your friends to sign it after they cross the finish line at the half-ironman.

Ask the Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer...

2010-03-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

Dear Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer,
My wife and I are going away for a cruise and we would like to tone the backs of our arms up. How do we do it?
Sincerely, The Flappers

Dear Flappers,

I am so glad you asked the Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer! Many people don’t know this but male triceps and female triceps are worked differently even though the anatomical construction is the same.

The correct name for the triceps is the triceps brachii. The triceps brachii has three heads, the long, lateral, and medial heads with three separate origins and one common insertion. Their action is extension of the forearm and arm. (Remember in most movements extension is the increase of the angle of a joint while flexion is the decrease of the angle of a joint.) These statements are true for both men and women but the similarity ends there!

While there are many ways to work the heads of the triceps space prevents me from addressing them all. So we’ll look at two tricep movements.

Tricep pressdowns are a common tricep exercise. Often you will see some poor misguided soul standing in front of a weight stack, keeping the spine in its’ natural alignment, elbows close to and slightly ahead of the body and paying attention to the concentric and eccentric contractions of the muscle and actually extending the triceps. What a loser!

For men the key is to select an impossibly heavy weight and drive the stack up by bringing the trunk into forward flexion, the shoulders into ADduction and then let the weight fall down totally out of control so the handle hits you in the chin. Scars make you look tough!

For the ladies the first thing is to stand with your butt sticking out. This is best achieved by bringing the trunk into forward flexion at the hips. Right from the get-go your Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer will be right “behind” you to spot you through the set. This is the difference between men and women when working with the Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer. Men need me to say “You are HUGE” while women need me to work closely behind them with my special motivational and encouragement techniques.

My favorite tricep exercise is the French Press. (I love the French!) This is done on a bench laying supine on it. (many ladies get confused with the difference between supine and prone and your Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer would be glad to help you learn the difference!) But I digress…

Our aforementioned loser would take an E-Z curl bar and hold the bar with a pronated shoulder width grip. He then extends the arms so the bar is overhead and slowly bends the elbows so the bar travels to the forehead or nose. He would return the bar overhead to the starting point by extending the arms. The lowering of the bar (the eccentric contraction of the muscle), ideally would take about 4 seconds with the raising of the bar, (the concentric contraction), taking about 2 seconds. His CORE is stable, spine in the natural alignment and at NO time does his head bob, elbows flare out or body flap around on the bench like a carp on a riverbank.

Again I say: What a loser!!! Let those arms flare out, bring the teres into the motion, arch your back and for crying out loud never engage the muscles in a full contraction! And let me remind you another name for this exercise is “nosebreakers” so never actually be in control of your weight because I don’t think I need to remind you that the ladies LIKE rugged features like a crooked nose on their men. Screw form! Form is for those who actually want to succeed!

The ladies need to do French Press or Nosebreakers differently. It’s too hard to explain here so you’ll need to make an appointment with me and we can talk over drinks some evening. You'll love the way I spot you for squats!

Now roll those shirtsleeves up and let's get to work!

Your exercise expert,

The Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer (DDPT)

Premier issue of Argon magazine now on shelves

2010-03-15T09:34:00.001-07:00

Rarely do I get excited about fitness magazines - there are - like fad diets and Oprah approved exercise programs - so many to choose from - besides as a slave to fashion I'd rather spend my hard earned dollars on a new outfit for the gym! Don’t forget those outfits are available in plus sizes – much easier to buy big than exercise and eat smart – making sure that Lycra becomes a right, not a privilege!

This past week I ran across the premier issue of Argon magazine and it is awesome!

In it's first issue there are so many excellent articles that I would be writing ALL day if I had the time - but I don't because I need to get some cabbages for the new CABBAGE SOUP DIET so I can get cut up for my next show.

But here are some highlights...

Tempo, Form and Proper Execution for Weight Training Apparently I have been doing it all wrong and I am so glad to finally wake up and smell the ephedra! I have always instructed clients to pay attention to technique as I always felt this would pay off greater benefits in real life. Was I wrong! In an exclusive the Dirty Dancing Personal Trainer tells us that avoiding vertebral alignment and related nonsense will pay off BIG TIME, especially for those training for injuries! Guess I have muddled through those 27 iron distance finishes INJURY FREE on good looks and charm.

The Helium Diet Again a BIG EYE OPENER for me. I had always worked with diet clients by advising them to lose about 1 pound a week - anymore than that tends to get rid of muscle as well as fat - and to avoid diets that advise a caloric intake of less than 1200 calories a day. Was I wrong. The all new Helium Diet makes you lighter than air. Several gyms on the cutting edge of fitness attach helium filled balloons to their equipment so members can take hits off them while working out to speed weight loss! Apparently this will help you reach a new fitness apex especially at the end of the month!

Certified for Experience! In an education filled 8 hour day one can develop a background in any format taught in group fitness classes allowing the instructor to claim to bring the members of their classes an extensive background in their newly certified area! And once you are certified you are good to go for life! Politics and group fitness have their spin doctors!!! Rookie on Saturday, expert on Sunday morning! Did I mention it is not about technique, proper instruction and class format but making sure your hair looks good, your outfit is totally kicking and the bitchin’ baseball cap is perched jauntily on your head so no one worries that you don’t cue hand positions in a bike class or your bike is set up incorrectly. And if your lips are wet enough you can whistle really loud and draw attention away from the fact your form on the bike resembles a chicken bobbing up and down in a barnyard scratching for insects.

What To Look for When Joining a Gym Talk about three strikes and you are OUT!!! I always assumed a good gym would have well maintained equipment with competent staff. Send me to the showers! Apparently the real key to a good gym is smartly attired staff in matching uniforms and easy to read name tags showing members how to perform exercises incorrectly and group exercise classes filled to brim with happy members having fun, fun, fun and beaming with the knowledge that they are on their way to fitness nirvana. Or at least a free bagel the size of a hubcap on their way out the door, sideways... It also suggested AVOIDING AT ALL COSTS trainers who practice what they preach, tell you to lighten the weights to execute movements correctly and other such nonsense. It also emphasized how important it is to choose a gym with lots and lots of trainers so you can solicit as much free advice as you can so you can create a smorgasbord fitness plan that will lead you to your... WAIT A DAMN MINUTE!!! isn't smorgasbords where fat people eat - OH WAS THAT POLITICALLY INCORRECT, they are not fat people, they have a SLOW METABOLISM.

For subscription information contact Argon magazine at:

800 – 293 – 2274 (800-BYE-CASH) or www.argon/say.bye.to.your.cash.com

Quit Dumbing It Down!

2010-03-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was out for a ride with Crazy Pete and The Reverend. Rides with The Guilty Party are always good for my head. In discussing the recent broadcast of NBC's coverage of the Ironman World Championships and NBC's bile arousing coverage of "invited celebrity triathlete" Matt Hoover, Season Two winner of NBC's hit television show The Biggest Loser failure to cross the finish line in under the time limit of 17 hours making him...Matt Hoover, YOU ARE NOT AN IRONMAN! I offer the following piece...

Gunter glieben glauten globen...

Alright, I got something to say… Quit dumbing it down!

I recently ran across a “fitness challenge” that a health club was promoting for their members called the Ironman® Challenge. Apparently the members are be “challenged” to “complete” the distance covered in an Ironman® indoors, using a rowing machine to cover the 2.4 miles that is usually covered by swimming, the 112 miles are completed using a variety of indoor bicycles and the 26.2 miles can be run on a treadmill. And to further add insult AND offend all of us who have paid our dues to actually do an Ironman® or an iron distance race the participants are given a full 30 days to cover the distance required to “meet” this challenge, not the 17 hours that is the time allotted to be an official Ironman® finisher.

Enough!

I agree that not everyone needs to complete an Ironman® triathlon to be fit or healthy or a good person or whatever. But please let’s stop this damaging effect on our society known as self-esteem building through the use of “everyone who participates is a winner” and “false praise “ mentality.

In 2005 I did not finish Ironman® Wisconsin. As I was walking back from the 2 mile mark where I made the decision to drop I was still wearing my race number on the front of my singlet. The spectators kept cheering me on for as the run course of the race is an out and back course, they assumed I was merely finishing one of the legs of the run, heading back in. Out of respect to those who were completing the race I stopped, removed my number and walked in. I did not deserve their praise. For I was not an Ironman® that day. The race announcer does not say your name and you are a 116.2 mile triathlete when you cross the line – no they say your name and you are an Ironman® when you complete a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run when you cross the line in under 17 hours. No more, no less.

This self esteem / false praise “everyone who participates is a winner” and :”average is a top score” mentality is killing our country. Ribbons to for up to a 10th place finish? Don’t laugh, it has been done. It’s hurting our schools. Those who achieve academically are often scorned – and now with The No Child Left Behind “educational philosophy” offered to us by our current administration those who are able to and wish to achieve academically are often overlooked, made prisoners of time, bored to tears of frustration or “challenged” to do an Ironman® indoors. It is time to stop the madness! (And for the record I voted for Bush)

When I taught group cycling I taught with a blend of sound motivational techniques, science and correct cycling technique. Once another instructor told me that “not everyone wants to be like you, C.J.” when I shared my frustration over the poor technique being taught in the bike classes. I walked away realizing that “good enough and false praise” was their approach to achievement. The philosopher Osho tells us that “average does not exist”, that “average” is simply a construction of mathematics. And I agree. I feel that the indoor Ironman® self esteem / false praise approach to life should not exist. For it, like this self esteem / false praise mentality infecting our country is an insult to those who realize average is a merely mathematical construct and wish to aspire to higher goals than an indoor Ironman®.

It’s time to rise up, gather round, burn it up, go for broke and watch this place go up in smoke… Rock on!

Gravel Goodness mit essence DuChamp, 13 March Twenty -Ten In the Year I.W.B.I.

2010-03-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

Three members of the Guilty Party shared a Gravel Goodness™©® ride on 13 March Twenty-Ten In The Year of I.W.B.I.. (The day also coincided with the rarely noted "Daylight Savings Time Eve)
In attendance were Bluebird, Big Al astride Dre and The Pitbull. After waiting an extremely brief momment for others to arrive we began our surreal experience as we left the bicycle friendly community of Robins, IA and rode north on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail. The mood was light as was the rain coming down and after skirting the barricade near County Home Road we soon found the trail providing some strength work as our tires bogged down in the soft trail side. Topics discussed included plastic vegetables, the recent developments in the 4G networks and the mirage of Crazy Pete and The Reverend that appeared as the rain increased and the glasses fogged up even faster. Soon we were onto Terra Cognito and as we rolled along the road Big Al made Dre sing...as I made my way home I saw a couple of runners out for a run, reminding myself there is no such thing as bad weather, just poor choices for clothing. The next Gravel Goodness™©® is scheduled for 20 March Twenty-Ten In The Year Of I.W.B.I. beginning at 7 AM at the 4 Way in Robins, IA. As always Show and Go Format, No Phee, Phrills, Phretting, Poseurs or CoPHee.

Workout Meets Reality II

2010-03-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Many years ago there used to be an ad for a protein company, featuring a newborn infant being held by a skinny, wrinkled old man. The caption read ”We are born small and weak and we die old and weak, how we look in between is up to us”. How we look in between is up to us...

How many people would benefit from a new take on that line? Try this on for size...
How we live is up to us. How we live is up to us...IF (and it is a BIG if) there is one thing I have learned over the last few years is that the only person who can change us is us. I know many have been led to believe by both sides of the aisle that Personal Responsibility, Common Sense and Coventional Wisdom are someone else's job,
CAUTION THE BEVERAGE YOU ARE ABOUT TO CONSUME IS VERY HOT. I should hope so! I ordered a HOT COFFEE! Once I got asked a diet question, "how do you feel about black pepper in a sound diet?" I was polite but seriously should have asked "EXACTLY how much pepper do you plan on consuming?". Or I could have taken a faraway look in my eyes and said, "Ah Black Pepper, she was my first true love"... So often over the years I have had people come to me for fitness programming and expect me to change them by waving the magic fitness wand over them. Once I had a school teacher come and meet with me. She wanted to do a “fitness show” and having trained some successful fitness competitors I laid out the details. I’ll be open here, I would rather train for and compete in a triple ironman triathlon (7.8 mile swim, 336 mile bike and 78.6 mile run) than do all the work that is needed to step up on the bodybuilding stage and not have people in the audience remark “what are they doing on stage?”. I know, I’ve done both, several times AND in the same year(s). So this teacher has terrible diet habits along with a moronic workout plan that she got out of Oxygen so I lay it on the line. Do the workouts we have created together, record everyday how you are following the workouts we created together with your input, OH, did I mention that already?...record what you eat and turn the records via e-mail to me every Monday. I will make notes and return them to you later the same day at no charge. She agrees. The first Monday goes by and no e-mail. The next Monday goes by, no e-mail. So I bite my tongue, gird my loins and shoot off an e-mail and politely ask where her input is. At the end of the week she replies with ‘I’ve been really busy and I forgot to send them to you” “Could you send me a reminder on Fridays to send them to you on Monday?” Oh, yeah and why don’t I come over to your house and sweep the floor too. Needless to say she never got on stage. And the people who care about riding outside are going to show up for Gravel Goodness tomorrow. I used to get asked what should I wear and I would send out suggestions. The people who ask this question time and time again are the ones who don’t show up time and time again. You can teach a pig to sing but it’s not going to sound very pleasant and you are going to annoy the pig. Free refills on your coffee Mr. XTREME? How we live is up to us. The poster in the fitness club proclaims “Maximum Results With Minimum Efforts” and the CEO of the Big Business says we need to get LEAN and maximize profits. And all the dutiful employees say Hallelujah and Hosanna and feel the CEO or the Ptokemin Fitness Club Poster is for them and if they follow the lead they will be part of the TEAM and the TEAM will succeed. My brother, a man of few words and of carefully chosen words, a man I would want in my corner, analyzes and pragmatically sums the Less Is More line of BS as follows: Less Is Less. The “second – hander” masquerades as a “prime-mover” to draw the prey into their web for indoctrination. “Working with our Personal Trainers will guarantee you 100% success” says the billboard in the club. Here’s my billboard “Only YOU can guarantee you 100% success”. And I wonder how many illnesses that go on and on in our country would be magically cured if the doctors let fly “If you don’t lose weight, quit smoking, quit eating all the crap you are stuffing in your face YOU are going to die” And the doctors would actually provide an exercise prescription with specifics. Not “you need to exercise more” or “do something” or “move” or “lose weight” or “eat better” or “eat 5 times a day”. If I eat 3 Krispy Kreme donuts at breakfast, lunch and dinner and then have 2 Krispy Kreme donuts for a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack that’s "eating 5 times a day". I would be doing what my doctor said. How often do we hear that from an obese person”I’m doing what my doctor said”? So say I eat a piece of fruit instead of one of the Krispy Kreme donuts at breakfast, lunch and dinner and then replace one each of the snack donuts with a carrot then I am “eating better”. And as I type this I am both “doing something” and “moving”. I’m doing what my doctor said… But when the doctors just whip out endless pill prescriptions for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity they are themselves getting Maximum Result$$$$ With Minimum Effort. It’s quite a business model, with fitness being non-existent. Fosmax, a popular bone density prescription is being investigated by the FDA along with Boniva (endorsed by Gidget and The Flying Nun, Sally Field) for their roles in contributing to femur fractures in users. Are those pills a catalyst in effecting true change or a mask, are they truly denying instead of allowing one to find fitness, the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring one joy and happiness? Change is difficult, the only person who can change you is you. I’d rather change for the positive than die small and weak or large and weak, a curious oddity on a TV show...

Pumpkin Delight Cake

2010-03-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

After presenting a fitness workshop recently and giving those who attended the first of several follow-ups one participant shared with me this recipe...

PUMPKIN DELIGHT CAKE
From Baking without Fat, by George Mateljan, Pres. & Founder of Health Valley Foods

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I have used regular whole wheat flour—works fine.)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground allspice
1 cup honey
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 can (16oz) pumpkin puree (I have used canned pumpkin @ 15oz – works fine.)
2 egg whites, unbeaten
1 cup raisins
½ cup chopped dates
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325-degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and allspice.

In medium bowl, mix honey, applesauce, pumpkin puree and 2 unbeaten egg whites. Gently stir into flour mixture and mix until just blended. Stir in raisins and dates. Gently stir in 2 lightly beaten egg whit4es. Do not over mix!

Spoon batter into 10-inch nonstick fluted tube pan. Bake at 325-degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes, and remove cake from pan. Delicious and moist!

YIELD: 15 servings

Calories: 199
CHO: 47g
Pro: 4 g
Fat: .5g
Chol: 0mg
NA: 170mg
Dietary Fiber: 2g

On Mexican Food and Attention...

2010-03-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh often writes on the importance of attention in our lives. He feels that in some ways attention should be looked upon as a gift, a gift we can first give to ourselves and then to others.

Several years ago I was, along with Clar standing behind my in-laws garage. We were alternating the slap of mosquitoes with the slap of a paintbrush as we painted their garage. It was late in the evening as we maneuvered around volunteer lilac bushes, cast off cinder blocks and such, hurriedly trying to finish before the mosquitoes carried us off for some insect ritual sacrifice. Our finish was soon delayed for around the corner came Clar’s dad, Frank with two aluminum foil covered paper plates. Beneath the foil was a Mexican dinner he had carried back from the Malibu, the tavern a couple of blocks away.

Frank lived in central Iowa the majority of his life. Along with his wife he farmed and raised six children. While serving our country during WWII he jumped out of truck and jammed his hip. This along with years of riding in the tractor caused one hip to sit different than the other but he always paid attention to his hips by unloading his spine by the use of the dishwasher and the corner of the countertop – placing his palms on the corner of each and raising his feet off the floor and executing a spinal twist and release that I often called the “dishwasher dance of death” for the dishwasher was mounted on casters! It would have never worked for me but he knew through attention to his body what worked for him.

When Frank and Christine moved off the farm he brought his farm to town with his ever expanding garden. This garden symbolized how he was grounded to the earth and in paying attention to himself and others. He knew when it was time to plant and when it was time to harvest - when the green beans would be ready to eat. And even though he did not care for cucumbers he knew others did and would plant them in his garden for us to eat. And he knew I really liked Mexican food. He paid attention. Simply put, he was mindful. To himself and others.

Over the past few years as my overall understanding of fitness evolved I began to realize I had let my attention to fitness lapse. Rather than obsessing on my fitness, attempting to change everything at once I began with a simple starting point and gradually added to my fitness landscape, a pointillism approach to overall fitness for as I now realize by not being mindful I had started to separate my body from my mind. So I began to simply pay attention. Point by point, I gradually yoked my body to my mind. As my fitness shifted to the positive I came to realize so was the attention I was giving to myself. Gradually I became ready to give my attention to others, returning to teaching Yoga, spending time helping others with their attention by sharing my attention with them.

With the correct intention attention to our Self and others can be a wonderful gift. A gift we can carry with us forever. Even though Clar’s dad passed away in 1999 I still occasionally have a can of Hormel chili with him when Clar is gone on business. I am glad I paid attention to the brand of chili he liked – as I am glad he paid attention to my enjoyment of Mexican food – a better understanding of the true meaning of attention was provided to me as a plate of Mexican food on a Iowa summer evening.

C.J.

Past the Box

2010-03-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

Last week I made a couple of batches of jelly to give as Christmas gifts to friends and acquaintances. As I stirred the first batch, waiting for the Sure-Jell and fruit mixture to come to a sustained boil before adding the sugar I thought about the day I learned to make jelly from Clar’s mom Christine.

Christine has lived most of her life in central Iowa. She farmed alongside Clar’s dad Frank, together raising six children and involved in their community and church. She also worked outside the home and farm including several years working in a retirement home where she said she learned all the tricks she would play one day on her children when she moved into a care center. She has always been very kind to me, treating me as a son and always making sure to let me know when I was home to visit “there’s ice cream dessert in the upright freezer in the basement”. I’ve always called her mom.

A couple of Christmas’s ago Clar, Brodie, Lennox and I went up to Jewell for a visit. Earlier in the fall the grapes in the garden had been picked and squeezed into juice for jelly. Equipped with packages of Sure-Jell, pounds upon pounds of white sugar and of jars I was going to learn how to make jelly.

When one makes jelly the liquid is measured into a pot and the Sure-Jell (fruit pectin) is added. One heats the mixture until it comes to a boil that can’t be stirred down and then the sugar is added. It was at this point that I learned to think past the box by listening to the authentic experience given to me by mom.

The directions in the box tell you to cook the final mixture for exactly one minute past bringing it to a second rolling boil. And that’s what I was going to do – follow the directions in the box exactly. However from the chair alongside the kitchen table mom told me to stir and cook the jelly longer. Given she had countless hours of experience in making jelly I continued to stir – and stir – and stir. My big tough weight trained arms began to weaken. Finally I was told to take a saucer and spoon “a dab” into the saucer and bring it over to her. She tilted the saucer and the “sheeting” of the jelly was observed. I was sent back to stir some more and later a second dab of jelly was placed into the saucer and evaluated. It now was ready to be poured into the jars. Although fatigued from the “stir-a-thon” I marshaled my energy and made another batch of jelly under the guidance of Christine. I learned how to evaluate the sheeting of the jelly in the saucer and on the stirring spoon and began to feel how the mixture felt ready in terms of viscosity as I stirred it in the pot.

Perhaps the jelly would have been OK if I followed the directions in the box. But to me OK is kind of like giving in and not thinking for myself, OK is average and OK will never lead to authentic self knowledge and potentially to wisdom. Bruce Lee teaches us in Tao of Jeet Kune Do that when looking for and working with a teacher we should look for authentic experience and wisdom and remember the true meanings of experience and wisdom. When we are fortunate enough to recognize these sources it is up to us to listen, absorb and learn these teachings before developing our own system, be it in the making of jelly or in any of a wide variety of pursuits.

I have learned from both of Clar’s parents, such as the meaning of attention as contained in a plate of Mexican food, that when you are loading pigs you will find that pigs mysteriously develop a head on each end of their body and when you make jelly for the first time it’s good to listen, learn to think past the box and in turn gain some of knowledge others have acquired through years of authentic practice and experience.

These are gifts which last beyond seasons.

CJ

A Postscipt...I originally authored this piece on December 26, 2008. Christine, Clar's mom, passed away in the fall of 2009. She led a full life.

Please Don't Hide The Sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup

2010-03-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

About a year ago I was asked by the Iron Maiden “how much more are they going to write about the USA’s obesity epidemic before they actually do something about it?”. At the time she was referencing a syndicated columnist in our local paper who was writing about recent adult and child obesity data released by the CDC showing once again that some of our waistlines are continuing to expand at alarming rates.

I shrugged my shoulders and purported not to care. I was reminded of a time where I stood up to a bully in the fitness club where I worked and later was told by management I had acted inappropriately. There was this guy, a pretty big guy with an overdeveloped upper body disproportionate to his lower body who would go around and take all the half plates off the Eagle Cybex machines and pile all the weights on one machine so he could get enough resistance to tug and yank his body into shape. After he was done he would leave all the plates piled on the machine or floor. I had asked management to speak with him in private but they failed to act. Finally, tired of having my own personal workouts interrupted by members complaining to me about Johnny Bravo’s antics I spoke with him and reminded him that his mother did not workout here and he should 1: Leave the half plates on the respective machines for their intended purpose and 2: learn to pick up after himself. Needless to say this was not well received by Johnny Bravo but given the thanks received from the members that morning I had acted correctly.

About a week later I once again opened our local paper. The paper’s editorial concerned the obesity epidemic facing our country and Iowa in particular. I agree with the views expressed in that editorial and agree that drastic changes are needed before we eat ourselves to death as a nation.

In February 2005 I offered the following opinion: I often wonder why the USA is the fattest nation in the world. At the time with 60% of our adult population considered overweight or obese I offer the following opinion: The fitness club or facility industry is partially at fault. As many of you know this opinion was met with mixed responses, while the majority of readers agreed there were a few within the fitness club or fitness industry who found my opinion alarming enough to take drastic measures.

After continuing to read the paper this morning I now realize I must revise my opinion to the following: I often wonder why the USA is the 9th fattest nation in the world. With over 71% of our adult population now considered overweight or obese I offer the following opinion: The fitness industry is partially at fault. And while it would be convenient and considerably less stressful to purport not to care in the long run I would feel like a quitter. I do care.

For what we eat, how we act, what we say, the business we are in, those who we chose as business associates - they are all about our choices. As I continued to read the paper today I looked at the advertising circular contained within that ad for a grocery store that has chosen to enter the fitness industry by offering fitness advice and tips. While I choose to believe that their intentions are good and that they mean well in offering fitness advice and tips to their customers their fitness tips and advice is often misleading and confusing, serving to lead their consumers astray rather than educating their customers towards self-guided healthy selections that will actually help the USA begin to stem its obesity epidemic.

The American Dietetic Association says that sugar, consumed in moderate amounts, has its place in a healthful diet. The USDA suggests we consume no more than 10 teaspoons of sugar per day. (Source: Blue, Summer 2007, Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa publication) However the grocery store which has chosen to enter the fitness industry offers its consumers the following healthy bites…

• Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail…”made from real cranberries this cocktail is good for your health!” A single serving (8 fluid ounces) of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail has 32 grams of sugar or approximately 8 teaspoons of sugar in it.

• Their store brand low-fat yogurt…”yogurt is a delicious way to add a dairy serving…” While I was unable to find a nutritional listing for the store brand yogurt a popular national yogurt in the same serving size has 7 teaspoons of sugar in it.

• But the final straw came when I saw their store brand sugared soda pop listed as a healthy bite…”If you are looking for some expert nutrition advice, there is a (insert name here) registered dietician in a store near you!...Sugared soda pop has 10.25 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounce serving!

So if the consumer was to in one day be guided to have one serving of each of the aforementioned healthy bites they would consume over 25 teaspoons of sugar in one day. It is easy to see how consumers in the USA take in on the average 53 teaspoons of sugar per day and are confused along with getting fatter.

One of my readers told me in February 2005 that he was going to nominate me for the Presidents Fitness Council and I am still waiting for that nomination to come through. I am still willing to be part of the process – be it meeting with the Presidents Fitness Council or corporations that could positively impact consumers through presenting sincere healthy bites.

People are confused as to how to approach becoming fit. The continual mish-mash of conflicting information being presented to the public regarding fitness only serves to advance our obesity epidemic rather than stop it. To see an immediate change in the obesity epidemic facing our country (and for all intents and purposes the world) is unrealistic. Like the January fitness “resolutionaries” who flock to the fitness clubs each year and futilely attempt to eliminate pounds accumulated over the years in a mere 12 weeks it is unrealistic to expect the USA to turn around a problem in a decade when the problem has been ballooning since our shift from an agrarian society connected to the earth to a industrial society totally disconnected from the earth.

The USA is being misinformed partially by the fitness industry. This must stop! However I guess it is better than finding out that Soylent Green really doesn’t come from the oceans…

The Pitbull

© C.J. Ong, Jr. / Quantum Performance, 2010

Finding Fitness...

2010-03-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

Season Two winner of NBC's hit television show "The Biggest Loser" Matt Hoover and Season Two runner-up Suzy Preston address local fitness seekers in Cedar Rapids, IA in September 2009.

Yesterday I presented a free Fitness Clinic to 55 people who in giving me 3 hours of their time on a Sunday afternoon provided me with insights and raised questions challenging me to look at how I can be part of the solution, in presenting fitness as a way of life borne of choices that will help people find their goal of personal fitness.

While I did discuss what I view as the foundations of fitness, that being cardiovascular conditioning, resistance or weight training, nutrition and flexibility additionally I drew on and presented what I have learned my wife, Dr. Clar Baldus about the psychological strategies needed for fitness and to effect change. The current psychological model presented to the public in fitness clubs and in the fitness industry is largely flawed, relying on the excessive use of and created dependence on extrinsic motivators; T-shirts, money and so on which dulls intrinsic motivation. Additionally the ineffective and vague methods for effecting change offered to the public by both the governmental agencies and the fitness industry are doing nothing to help stop the growing obesity epidemic much less reverse it! Advice such as "Just Move!" or the analysis of peoples time spent "working out" in fitness clubs as "at least they are doing something" serves no use for this "advice" says nothing, which is exactly what is happening, nothing. For when one goes into a fitness club and "does something" expecting to get results from "doing something" it is due to the lack of direction contained in the advice to "do something" that the individual becomes frustrated when no progess is seen and consequently loses interest or drive and becomes yet another "lost soul of fitness".

(For an more in-depth analysis look at Chip and Doug Heath's examples in Switch and Made to Stick , their example of the shortcomings of the USDA's Food Pyramid is illuminating and illustrates the flaws illustrated in the above paragraph)

I was pleasantly surprised when I presented Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's diagram of Flow and The Flow Channel (pg 74, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi )as a example of the importance of balancing skill and challenge correctly against each other to find fitness and saw eyes light up and heads nod in recognition of a concept never before presented to them. And it is such a simple and elegant concept! People want to learn, they are starved for direction gleaned from sources known as research and textbooks, not sources such as Oxygen, Muscle and Fiction or Cosmopolitan!

At the clinic there were many faces in the bleachers. I recognized the looks of those wanting answers and a valid process for effecting change on some of those faces, the faces similar to the faces of the "lost souls of fitness" from a facebook photo album posted on our local YMCA's fan page after the YMCA had brought in Matt Hoover and his wife, Suzy Preston in as motivational speakers last fall. Matt Hoover winner of Season Two of NBC's hit television show The Biggest Loser and and his wife, runner up of Season Two of The Biggest Loser were brought in to promote healthy living and lifestyles.

It goes without saying I disagree with the YMCA's choice to bring in winners of the The Biggest Loser as examples of fitness programming and a fitness lifestyle. Did I mention The Biggest Loser is a hit television show on NBC? Not only is The Biggest Loser flawed from an exercise physiology point, it is flawed from a psychological point. In addition I see it as another way for corporate America to prey on the "lost souls of fitness", those poor individuals who grasp time and time again, in much the same manner as the son of Zeus, Tantalus, grasped time and time again, thirsting and hungering for change.

There is nothing healthy about NBC's hit television show The Biggest Loser. I am always only slightly surprised and consequently extremely disgusted at the number of Group Fitness Instructors and Certified Personal Trainers locally who endorse The Biggest Loser and its' practices in their own fitness practice and subsequently influence their clients into believing that NBC's hit television show The Biggest Loser is a model for fitness.

(In addition I have difficulty in seeing how the YMCA can rationalize having motivational speakers from a show who "celebrity trainer" Jillian Micheals is known for her frequent dropping of the "F-Bomb" as a way to reinforce her persona of "toughness". Doesn't the YMCA stand for Young Mens Christian Association?)

All that aside, what bothers me is I recognized the looks on some of these faces present at my clinic yesterday over 25 weeks past the time from when I looked at the facebook posting on the YMCA "fans" page and took a look at the photo album and saw them sitting there once again hoping to find answers to the questions they have so they may effect change. Perhaps I reached some of them...I would feel fortunate if I did. But why am I seeing these looks time and time again? If the present model and presentation of fitness were effective and working I would not see these faces with the alarming and increasing frequency that I do now!

This morning as I walked Brodie and Lennox I felt pleased that 55 people cared enough to take time out of a Sunday afternoon and come to hear me speak. While I find it interesting that myself, kicked out of three local fitness clubs for expressing my opinion that "fitness clubs and the fitness industry are partially responsible for America's obesity epidemic" would draw that many people to hear me speak, perhaps it is because these people are not being reached by the current fitness model presented in the modern fitness club and the those in charge of the current fitness model need to admit the model needs to be completely rebuilt as opposed to being repaired.

While the "old CJ" used to think IF he applied enough force he would change all 55 people. Now I realize IF I change only one person that's a start, a place to build on and while the field may not shift in my lifetime I will have helped it shift towards my definition of fitness, in that "Fitness is the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring us joy and happiness"

The Pitbull

Paris Hilton observed using Bike Lanes

2010-03-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

03 March Twenty-Ten

Paris Hilton was cited for unsafe passing after police say the heiress was trying to pass several cars on Santa Monica Blvd. by using the bike lane.

Ms. Hilton was pulled over Tuesday afternoon when L.A. County sheriff's deputies claim they observed Hilton's black SUV entering the bike lane in an attempt to get around slower cars on the road. After being cited for "unsafe passing" she was sent along her merry way.

It is the opinion of The Pitbull that given Hilton's history and contributions to society she should be offered some latitude for her alleged illegal behavior... NOT!

Healthy Bytes

2010-03-03T09:29:00.001-08:00

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Meals approved by Weight Watchers are going on sale at McDonald's in New Zealand, the companies said Wednesday, in a deal trumpeted as an enjoyable way to lose weight but that nutritionists criticize as a marketing ploy that doesn't promote healthy eating.

As part of the deal — which the company says is the first of its kind in the world — McDonald's will use the Weight Watchers logo on its menu boards and Weight Watchers will promote McDonald's to dieters.

Several items on the fast food giant's menu — the Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets and Sweet Chilli Seared Chicken Wrap — have been approved for the Weight Watchers program. Each meal is worth 6.5 points on the program, which assigns points to food items and allows dieters to consume 18 to 40 points each day to achieve their goal weight.

Chris Stirk, Weight Watchers director of business in Australia and New Zealand, said the partnership between the two companies reflects "part of our philosophy that you can enjoy life ... while still achieving your weight loss goals."

But nutritionists and obesity experts said the menu items are merely a marketing ploy to lure customers into the restaurant. "It's all about sales really," Australian Obesity Policy Coalition senior adviser Jane Martin said. "It implies this food is healthy ... when often it is high in fat and salt. Chicken McNuggets are Chicken McNuggets whether its got Weight Watchers on it or not," she told The Associated Press.

Mark Hawthorne, chief executive officer of McDonald's New Zealand, said the country was the only one to have a McDonald's that offered Weight Watchers meals. McDonald's New Zealand has "no knowledge of any plans to roll this out in other countries," spokeswoman Kylie Taylor said.

The fast-food chain, widely criticized for selling a high-calorie, high-fat menu that includes super-size meals, was "making every best effort to generate a change in behavior, to create an awareness in consumers about making healthy choices," Hawthorne said. McDonalds has made changes to its menu, adding healthier products such as entree-sized salads, fruit and grilled chicken sandwiches.

Stirk of Weight Watchers said the weight-loss company would not have partnered with the fast-food chain unless it was committed to change.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/mcdonalds-weight-watchers-partner-to-offer-diet-approved-fast-food-in-new-zealand-86120132.html

Alert Status McDonalds

2010-02-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2010 marked the five year anniversary of Clar and I being kicked out of the first of three fitness clubs here in Cedar Rapids, IA as a result of me publicly stating the following:

I often wonder why America is the fattest nation in the world. With over 60% of our adult population considered overweight or obese I offer the following opinion: The fitness club or fitness industry is partially at fault.

Five years later the obesity epidemic continues to balloon with 70% of our adult population now estimated to be either overweight or obese. The fitness club or fitness industry continues to play a contributing role in this unfortunate change, sadly accelerating the epidemic as they blindly continue to attempt to effect change through flawed practices in both the physiological and psychological domains. A local fitness club’s choice to bring in Matt Hoover, winner of The Biggest Loser, Season Two (a hit television show) as a motivational speaker to its’ members serves as just one of many examples of both the flawed physiological and psychological practices currently used in the fitness club and fitness industry.

It is important to note I have stated that the fitness club or fitness industry is only partially at fault. There are many contributing factors to the epidemic including fall-out from the over emphasis placed on self-esteem, circa 1960’s. Self-esteem is a valid tool for development but as with the over consumption of any product, be it cookies or self-esteem the over consumption will result in dis-function and dis-ease. Additionally the blurring and consequent loss of definition between “fault” and “responsibility” warrants examination, for example it is ones responsibility to understand the rules of a triathlon race prior to beginning such an event and is not the fault of the race director when one gets caught breaking them. The same holds true in fitness, especially when one keeps in mind my definition of fitness, “Fitness is the ability to engage in the day to day activities that brings one joy and happiness”. However these are concerns I shall address another day.

Fitness clubs and the fitness industry are not about fitness. Gyms, when they were around and you could find one were about fitness. Fitness clubs and the fitness industry are about money and maximum profit. The model of many of the current fitness clubs and much of the fitness industry is not based in true fitness, instead using fitness as a commodity to sell and market for profit. Their goal is like McDonalds, but instead of selling as many hamburgers and French fries as cheaply as possible they want to sell as much McFitness as possible, placing quantity over Quality.

I have taught Group Fitness classes for the last 20 years. A common thread between all the fitness clubs where I taught Group Fitness classes was that the success of the class was determined by numbers, quantity as opposed to Quality. (And like Pirsig, the emphasis on the capital “Q” is intended) At one fitness club which I taught at for over two years I was never once reviewed by my supervisor for safety or the Quality of my teaching! I knew my classes were of Quality but my careful observation of other classes noted that many resplendent with quantity were completely devoid of quality.

As an instructor I was paid at the last facility I taught at $28 per hour for teaching Group Cycling. Now if I have three people attending the class over a period of time that means the management sees I am reaching each individual member at a cost of $9.33. However if I have a class of 30 that means I am reaching each individual at a cost of $0.93. It is these numbers that management used to determine the success and viability of the class. Quantity over Quality.

The same holds true with Personal Training. The last facility I personal trained at the trainers were never reviewed on their ability to train with Quality, instead the success of a trainer was determined by how many Personal Training packages they could sell. I recently reviewed the letters and memos I have on file from this fitness club, in not one letter or memo is there ever made mention of the Quality of a trainer, instead emphasis is placed and success determined by how much training a Personal Trainer could or did sell. In addition one’s employment duration as a Personal Trainer was directly related to a Personal Trainer’s ability to sell packages.

In the six years I have been writing my Friday Fitness Musings none have approached the level and degree of response my musing of 2/25/05 did. Throughout the year I take the time to review the 300 plus replies I received, including the 5 who disagreed with my views. Several people were curious as to what the response from the management and staff of the fitness clubs and recreation centers would be, needless to say Clar and I certainly found out!

I find my voice has changed, I now understand I will never change the existing model of how fitness is presented to the consumer and attempting to do so would be a waste of my time and energy. Like a roof on home once incorrectly applied a roof will always continue to leak and despite attempts to repair it and “fix” the problem it will never be quite right. The same holds true for the existing models used in fitness clubs and the fitness industry. The only way to correct the problem is to tear the "roof" off completely and begin anew. I also now know there are those who exist in a "home" and know there is a problem, yet choose to continue to allow the"roof" to leak, choosing not to speak up for fear of ending up out in the street. That is a face I personally cannot see in the mirror. To me the choice to exist in such fear is akin to the banality of the phrase “all things in moderation”, an acceptance of average as the highest level of achievement one looks to meet, an acceptance of an existance of desperation.

Instead Clar and I have placed our energy in a direction and constructs in our project known as The Crucible a bit over a year ago. We looked at what worked in fitness and more importantly looked at what did not work in fitness, both in our own personal practice and in others personal practices. We look forward to continuing to work with those committed to working and finding The Crucible.

The Pitbull

Go get 'em Tiger!

2010-02-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Britney Spears and her child. Ms. Spears is what is known as a celebrity. Her actions and those like her sadly dictate the downward spiral of our society and what is "accepted" as rational behavior because Ms. Spears and her kind hold the credentials of distinction and expertise of being a celebrity.

This a picture of Tiger Woods and his family. He too is a celebrity. Yesterday he apologized publicly for his actions towards his family. I do not know Mr. Woods personally and am curious as to what led Mr. Woods to believe I wanted to hear his apology. I find myself offended by Mr. Woods' arrogance in assuming his apology matters to me. I am also offended by the press in their assumption that reporting Mr. Woods' apology constitutes front page news when it is not newsworthy at all.

You, who are on the road...

2010-02-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

I came across Kim's post this morning prior to taking Brodie and Lennox out for a walk. As we walked I considered the letter, understanding quite personally the pain and anger expressed in the letter.

As we walked along a street near our home, facing traffic as required a mother driving her sport utility vehicle towards us made no effort to slow down or move over. Cell phone in hand, her attitude reflected a selfish person, too busy or important to slow down and pass safely, for her life, at least to her, is apparently more important than Lennox, Brodie and mine.

And I am disturbed and saddened that the children in the backseat of the car are unfortunately learning this disregard for others well-being from her.

Non-Athlete Testimonials

2010-02-19T11:21:00.001-08:00

An e-mail response to my Friday Fitness Musing of 2/25/2005, click on the image below for larger view...

on leaving the herd known as facebook...

2010-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

Shortly after the first of the year Twenty-Ten I began a experiment of one, first joining the social utility known as facebook and then paying attention to the changes in my Self as I logged on to facebook and soon came to find out I had signed out on my Self. Over the duration of my experiment I came to find, for me, that facebook as a utility ceased to be of a useful quality and instead became a detriment, a dis-ease to my Self, as I once again found my Self feeling depressed and alone.

Over the past few years I have learned much about friendship, in what it means to me and what now constitutes “friendship” in today’s society. I have come to find it is the porosity of boundaries that leads many to create these “friendships” and is the case with facebook one can create an “instant friendship” simply by clicking a cursor. It is the same porosity of boundaries that also creates these “friendships of convenience” or “friendships of utility”; those friendships initiated for personal gain and then discarded when the personal gain is realized by the predator.

When I joined facebook I had a few friends. Then friend requests began coming in and likewise I began to send friendship requests out into cyber world. facebook even went through my e-mail account to find me friends and suggest them to me. One friend they suggested was woman who had an active facebook account even though she had died three years ago. Talk about a long distance friendship! Within a few days I had over 300 friends, including a “friend” who was the General Manager at the time of one of the “fitness clubs” that had kicked Clar and me out a five years ago for my Friday Fitness Musing of 2/25/2005 in which I publicly stated my opinion that the fitness industry is partially responsible for America's obesity epidemic. (The musing is under the "Labels" heading on the right of this blog) Curiously enough one of the Group Fitness Instructors at the same “fitness club” accepted my friendship request and then a few days later “de-friended” me. Is this what “frien-emies” is all about? Only Paris Hilton knows for sure! I had always felt this Group Fitness Instructor, one of the hens in the herd at the “fitness club”, was indeed a mistress of “the friendship of convenience”.

Several months ago I read an article on James Austin, professor emeritus of neurology at the University of Colorado and long time Zen practitioner. It was not Austin’s Zen practice that intrigued me but instead the fact that at age 72 he authored the first in a series of texts investigating the neural correlates of Zen experience. Now 84 he recently published his third volume, Selfless Insight: Zen and the Meditative Transformations of Consciousness. Austin dictates or writes by longhand his manuscripts, eschews e-mail and does his research in the library near his home in Columbia, Missouri. I should see if he’s on facebook. I bet not.

(This makes me think of a comment I made a few years ago after listening to Dr. Julian Stanley of Johns Hopkins speak at 2002 Wallace National Research Symposium on Talent Development. He had an brilliant and intriguing verbal exchange with another presenter and after listening to the discourse I leaned over to Clar and said “I bet he doesn’t watch much TV!” He was 84 at the time.)

Once again I have come to find I am not comfortable in the herd. My time in the facebook herd left me feeling depressed because even though I had 657 friends on facebook I began to feel more alone. (The neural effects of the distractions and dysfunctions caused by activities such a facebook, instant messaging and the like are well documented and present themselves in varied ways and degrees in different people, for me the depressive feelings I had finally overcome began to manifest themselves once again with frightening intensity.) There is a difference between being lonely and solitude and for me being a member of the social utility known as facebook left me feeling in much the same way I felt when I was a part of the “fitness club" or “recreation center” social utility. For they are similar social utilities in that they are filled with distractions drawing one in multiple directions, serving to confuse and resulting in an inability to complete a task or action or reach a goal.

And so I am choosing to step away from the herd, the social utility. Just another step in my transformation of personal consciousness through awareness.

(facebook, twitter, “fitness clubs”, “recreation centers” and the like all draw one into the herd. facebook offers instant friendships in much the same way “fitness clubs” offer instant success when one chooses to join the herd at the “fitness club”. There is an implication by the marketing types that if one does not join a fitness club, the herd, one is doomed to fitness failure. They create a condition known as “learned helplessness” which actually works to their financial benefit over the years of an individual’s membership. A recent offering from a local club is such an example: “Come bike inside with a group at the… a new "High Tech Cycling" class…they will lead you through a professional video from…we'll mix it up each week to keep you entertained and working hard! There's no better way to train and a let's face it, a lot more fun when you do it with someone else!” Besides the obvious flaw that why one would need an “instructor” to lead them through a video and it’s really not much of an instructor who needs to use a video to “teach” there is the statement that there is “no better way” to train. Really? As a cycling instructor I would ride a double century with my chamois replaced with 80 grit sandpaper before I would teach a class with a DVD. But supposedly there is entertainment and fun in the herd…)

Many years ago my friend Shawn “Dog” Shaw chastised me for being part of the herd. I am glad he did. For if one looks for change by “living” in the herd it will never happen. It takes courage, resolve and an understanding of Self to leave the herd. And in Self one finds the strength to leave the herd on one’s own accord. Change will never happen if you look to have someone create change for you, this type of herd mentality makes one weak and open to culling.

And as I deactivated my facebook account I was told my 657 friends would miss me. To quote Vonnegut, “So it goes”.

I have a few friends, that’s how it should be because not everyone can be (or should be) your friend. I call my friends by their names and nickname. We get together on occasion, to ride because I know they ride a straight line or perhaps we even delaying packing our car to have a glass of wine or two before heading off to Canada for UltraMan Canada the next morning. Then it’s all good.

The Pitbull

"It is fear that drives them to seek the warmth, the protection, the “safety” of a herd. When they speak of merging their selves into a “greater whole,” it is their fear that they hope to drown in the undemanding waves of unfastidious human bodies. And what they hope to fish out of that pool is the momentary illusion of an unearned personal significance."

Ayn Rand, from the essay Apollo and Dionysus, in Return of the Primitive

Workout Meets Reality

2010-02-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

I first read Kerouac’s On The Road in high school. Published the same year I was born it had taken Kerouac several years to get his book published. Legend has it Kerouac, fueled by Bezendrine, coffee and most importantly inspiration from within sat down to write his novel, start to finish in three weeks, using a typewriter and an endless scroll of paper to write the classic that became the manifesto of representation for the Beat generation.

A few years ago Clar called me at home to let me know that the original manuscript was coming to the University of Iowa’s Museum of Art. A few days later Clar and I drove down to see it. In a darkened room, laid out in a glass case 120 feet long was the original manuscript. No page breaks, no paragraphs, simply a record of one man’s arrival to philosopher Ken Wilber’s ‘witness consciousness’. It was there in all its’ glory and the energy was amazing.

As I come up to five years of writing my Friday Fitness Musings©™®, my own personal witness consciousness of time spent in addressing and solving a 10 year span of deep personal depression, my frustrations as an athlete and my own athletic performance and my disgust with the corrupt and predatory corporate practices of “fitness clubs” upon a American public longing for honest answers to their fitness questions and concerns across all domains I find a need to, at times, change my voice and share my own personal time on the road, time on the road not always happy but not always angry, headwinds and tailwinds both, unpolished, raw and to the point.

So on this link I will post from time to time unpolished thoughts borne of experience, for while Kerouac may have written his novel in just three weeks he had plenty of life experiences prior to sitting down to write On The Road.

February 5, Twenty-Ten... Gym Jones, 300, everybody wants it/some but they think you can get it standing on a BOSU and doing cable curls in the middle of the cable cross-over machine. Well, here’s the deal Johnny Tire Kicker, if you want to get strong like a Spartan you ain’t gonna get it lifting in a fitness club. They don’t teach deadlifts and squats in fitness clubs not because doing deadlifts and squats isn’t safe, it’s because those shake and bake trainers don’t know how to teach them safely because they themselves don’t know how to do them at all. This is where the workout meets reality. Because the reality of it is if you want to be an Indian Chief then one should become the best Indian Chief they can be. And lest this sound like a self-righteous rant from some self-righteous prick, the truth is Marty Liquori said the line about the Indian Chief long before you ever stepped foot on your first treadmill or bought your first pair of Nike Princess Nookie Air Pillow shoes available in a wide array of colors to fit your workout moods. And now the workout leaves reality? So you want a Gym Jones body? First learn about the founder of Gym Jones, Mark Twight, a world class alpinist and what makes him tick. What makes someone a world class alpinist? They are still alive, that’s what! He didn’t do some cheesy Boot Camp Booty Blast workout either. This kind of stuff cracks me up. You can buy a franchise to teach Boot Camp classes. You want a Boot Camp class? Join the Marines. There’s the real deal for Boot Camp classes! WWCD? What Would Chesty Do? So back to Mark Twight, some people don’t like him because he’s honest. Blunt. Not politically correct. Did I mention he’s a world class alpinist who is alive and not frozen in some crevasse at 8K meters? To me he is the voice of preparation. And in turn this preparation leads to performance. For when one is prepared properly performance and results will follow. And when one is prepared properly one becomes respectful of the challenges as opposed to being scared of the challenges. Because if you live a life and approach challenges scared you are going to die. Maybe not the physical body but you will die inside. Working out as well as working within have helped me meet reality. Trust me here on this, I know, I have spent a lot of time over the last ten years dead inside. Last week I had an exchange with a first time triathlete who is training for our local early season sprint triathlon, The Pigman. He said he found the prospect “scary”. I told him if he was following a proper training schedule and arrived at the starting line properly prepared why would he then, find it “scary”. Or I wonder if it is similar to what the modern media does when a winter storm approaches in their whipping the public into a frenzy of fear and impending doom of catastrophic proportions? And so the fitness clubs do the same…creating this team in training that are all scared they won’t finish the triathlon if they don’t have a high dollar bike, wheels, helmet, a special towel for transitions, a special footbath for rinsing ones feet, endless hydration systems (at last year’s Pigman I saw a competitor have on their bike with two filled frame mount bottle cages, a front aero bar water bottle and a Camelbak…for a 25K bike), special training plans, shoes, clinics, transition backpack and whatever else the fitness marketing types convince people they need. Hell, the honest to “whatever higher power one believes in” reason I beat Crazy Pete last year at the Burrito Union 10 Hour triathlon was that he came to ride on a single speed fixie, roached his legs and said enough. When he dropped out he was well ahead of me because he was far better prepared than I was. And I know Crazy Pete realizes I am gunning for him because I just dropped a wad of cash up at Gear West on a new bike and wheels but like Crazy Pete told me he’s cool with that because he knows I will actually ride my new gear. It’s kind of like this workshop I’m doing for the Milky Way Masters Swim Club. Now I know some people think attending this workshop will change their life but truth be told it’s only a catalyst for change. A vehicle for change. Buying a new bike isn’t going to help me go one up on Crazy Pete next year if all I do is let that bike sit in the basement, in much the same way attending my workshop or buying another book isn’t going to help you lose weight or make your goals if you don’t open the book and read it. Going to church on Sundays and then being a total wanker to people the remaining six days and 23 hours left in the week really isn’t going to help you either. Even if you do advertise in the local church magazines. Offering up excuses on the Altar of Accountability isn't going to help on bring about change either, for change will only happen if you make it happen. Like Tallahasse said in Zombieland "Time to nut up or shut-up!"...

On anger...A Friday Fitness Musing...

2010-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

Day Two, UltraMan Canada 2005, a 171 mile bike race

A Friday Fitness Musing, 4/16/2006...On anger...

A couple of years ago a friend of asked me “Why are you so angry?” The question stopped me in mid rage…it took me until recently to realize the question, like the anger, was a gift. (It took my friend a tremendous amount of courage to ask why I was so angry. But then again she’s been my friend almost 25 years)

Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine sings in “Freedom” that ‘your anger is a gift’. However it is definitely not a gift that one wants to keep, like an ugly tie or a Chia Pet. For me, anger was the gift giving me reason to consider my choices and concerns.

Seven years ago a series of events in my personal life caused me to begin a downward spiral into a hole of depression. Confused, I began to replace exercising with exorcising. No longer were my workouts filled with joy and happiness – instead they become a way to suppress the feelings that made me angry. As my personal satisfaction with my performances began to disappear so did my appearance in the triathlons. I signed up for races, intending to train and race again, only to donate money to race directors for races I failed to start.

The cycle of anger and depression is difficult to break. Oddly the body becomes addicted to these destructive emotions so often when presented with a difficult situation I acted out in anger. Then in an effort to thwart the feelings of anger I would crawl back into that hole of depression, pulling the covers over my head and escaping the emotions of anger. Missing life. Feeling angry.

Missing things like riding my Kestrel KM40, watching the ears of my dogs, Brodie and Lennox blow back while going for a walk on a blustery day, crossing the finish line of a triathlon and feeling good about my performance. Enjoying life. Feeling good.

This past winter I began to effect a change. Instead of worrying about those things which really did not matter and being in love with my sadness and anger, I instead began to fall in love with enjoying life. Appreciating the goodness in my life allowed me to live in the present moment, looking at my existence as Choygam Trungpa describes by using calligraphy as his metaphor in Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala…”what comes next is the appreciation of that first good thought, which is called the stroke. Coming out of the dot is the brushwork, just like when you touch an actual brush and ink to the paper. First you touch the ground, the canvas or the paper, then you create a stroke. The stroke of goodness is connected with the second thought. From the first thought, the dot, you extend the second thought, which arises from gentleness. You are not trying to fight with your world or to destroy anything, nor are you trying to gain anything personally. There is just the first flash, and there is a sense of continuing that”.

The Buddha teaches us "Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned". I have taken that lump of coal and tossed it in the hole representing my depression. I know there are times ahead where I may be tempted to retrieve it. Rather than climbing down into that hole I shall instead take a breath and listen to my inner wisdom. That is my fitness resolution for 2006.

A closing note...I returned to triathlons with the support of of my wife Clar Baldus as the top USA finisher at the 2005 UltraMan Canada triathlon, a 3 day triathlon held in the Canadian Rockies and covering 319 miles by swimming 6.2 miles, bicycling 271 miles and running 52.4 miles. And I await the blustery days of an Iowa spring as do Brodie and Lennox. I look ahead to new experiences and times on my new Felt B2 triathlon bike.

“Malama i kou kino e me kou olakino”…

2010-02-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

I often wonder why our society has become so messed up about the food we choose consume. I frequently hear from clients that they have eaten “bad” food and I find myself curious as to why they feel food can be “bad”. Does “bad” food steal cars or drive around without fastening their seatbelts? Probably not, for food as a largely inanimate object is incapable of bad actions, in short food is neither good or bad, it just is and it is our perception and emotions of what is good or bad that we choose to attach to our food that makes food “good” or “bad”.

A popular fitness “expert” encourages his followers to “allow” themselves a “cheat day” each week in which they eat what ever they want on that day. To me the word cheat implies doing something wrong. One can choose to cheat on their taxes but to cheat on their diet makes no sense to me.

Often people will read of what is known as comfort foods. Comfort foods are those foods eaten to make one feel better after a trying time, a problem filled day at work and so on. The plan usually goes like this…grab a big bowl out of the cupboard, open the freezer, view the choices present and fill your bowl with ice cream. Scarf. However when you are done is the problem gone or is just the ice cream gone?

There are times we will then attempt to mitigate our sins through exercise – looking at the number of beers we chose to consume the night before and then running a mile for each beer in an effort to establish some form of sweat penance. I personally witnessed such a cleansing involving a treadmill and 14 miles. It wasn’t me but keeping in line with my honest and forthright approach to fitness I have been there and done that. However the bottom line here is that the beers were simply unwise choices for whatever reason and perhaps it would be better to identify the reason and accept the fact that 14 beers was just an unwise choice.

The other morning I was listening to a radio advertisement from the American Dairy Council in which they encourage mothers to serve to their children 3 servings of dairy a day. In an attempt to explain to her daughter the concept of what is a serving the mother reminds her daughter of the time she had a strawberry smoothie as a reward for getting ready to go to sports practice. She is then reminded of another time where the reward was a choice between of a glass of chocolate milk or cheese sticks was given because the daughter agreed to wear her yellow dress to school instead of sweatpants. I found this confusing, much like the time “fitness club” members brought in a cake loaded with fat and sugar to celebrate one of the group exercise class participant’s loss of 100 pounds. Like the above sweat penance food need not be offered as reward for being good for in doing so food becomes good or bad.

Many times I will hear back from clients that their friends view the diets they are “on” as strict. To a large degree this is because many view the word diet as a verb, something one does. I encourage you to look at diet as a noun. When this is done it becomes a part of our lifestyle, an everyday occurrence. Most importantly I encourage you to become mindful of what you eat. Don’t limit your mindfulness to just portion sizes but perhaps engage the senses when you eat. Take the time to chose fresh fruit and wash it. Place a portion of ice cream in a bowl and add in the blueberries, the raspberries and so on. Take time to allow the senses to become involved, notice the textures, the seeds, all of it. Make a salad with fresh greens and choose different different fruits and vegetables for it. Don’t cover it with some cold laboratory dressing out of the refrigerator that just dulls the senses but use some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to lightly dress the salad and let the flavor come through.

For you see the food we eat begins with a choice.

The choice and how you percieve your choice is up to you. The food,well, just is.

“Malama i kou kino e me kou olakino”… Take care of your body and your health.

Introduction to Hatha Flow

2010-01-31T06:28:00.000-08:00

Yoga has in the recent years become very popular in the West. B.K.S. Iyengar brought Yoga to Europe and America over 50 years ago. Most people look to Yoga for physical health – which is a good thing! However when one keeps in mind that Yoga is not meant to be a religion or a dogma for any one culture but rather a path, a philosophy that allows one to open themselves to physical health, emotional stability and mental clarity the potential benefit of a regular Yoga practice becomes more apparent.

In these classes we shall focus primarily on the asana and pranayama, the posture and the breath. This is by no means “all” of Yoga – for the practice of Yoga offers us a chance to experience the eight fold path of Yoga as described by Pantanjali in his Yoga Sutras. They are:
Yama: restraint or abstinence
Niyama: observance
Pranayama: restraint or control of life force
Asana: posture or seat
Pratyahara: withdrawal of senses
Dhrarana: concentration
Dhyana: meditation
Samadhi: bliss or superconsciousness

Some sample asanas and basic cues are as follows:

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) Feet fall beneath hips, outside of feet parallel to each other, lift arches, stand on outsides of feet, inner thighs rotate out, glutes contract, shoulders above hips, ears above shoulders, crown of the head aligns to the sky, inhalation allows the chest to lift and the exhalation allows the scapula to retract and slide down into the “back pockets”.

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Down Facing Dog) From the floor the exhalation drives the hips up as far as they will go before pressing back to Down Dog. Arms extend straight from shoulders, palms engage to floor with fingers spread wide.

Virabhadrasana One (Warrior One) Feet fall hip distance apart. One foot steps back and back knee releases to the floor. Hips remain square. Arms sweep to the sky with chest open and lifted. Switch sides.

Uttihita Trikonasana (Triangle) Feet come three to three and one-half feet apart. Right toes turn out, left foot comes in about 45 degrees, right heel aligns to left arch. Inhale arms parallel to ground, palms down. Exhale and slide over to right as far as possible before tipping over to right. Use block as needed. Inhale up to parallel arms, let arms come down. Switch sides.

Vrksasana (Tree) Feet fall below hips as in Tadasana. Sole of left foot comes to the inside of the right ankle. Inhalation brings foot up the inside of left leg as far as possible without turning knee open. Hands can come to prayer or completion. Switch sides.

Variation of Supta Padagusthasana with strap (Hand to big toe) On your back bring heels as close to glutes as comfortable. Tuck chin to chest, lengthen spine. Place width of strap across ball of foot, avoid the arch. Engage quads as exhalation lifts leg straight and away from floor. Knees do not fall open or shut. Release a bit of the tension, extend opposite leg to floor, calf and heel must remain in contact with the floor. Exhalation lengthens hamstrings. Switch sides.

Shavasana (Corpse) On your back let legs roll open with ankles apart about 18 to 2 inches. Arms extend along side the body while coming away at a about a 45 degree angle. This is the anatomical position. The breath flows in and out of the body in cycles, linking the inhalation to the exhalation in a seamless fashion. The idea behind Shavasana is to remain fully aware but at the same time allowing the breath to sweep the mind, in essence emptying our mind of the distractions we may hold within.

Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind, the element which reconciles our body and mind and which makes possible oneness of body and mind. Breath is aligned to both body and mind and it alone is the tool which can bring them both together, illuminating both and bringing both peace and calm. by Thich Nhat Hanh, from his book, The Miracle of Mindfulness

The information in this article is considered proprietary material and is the intellectual property of the author. It may not be shared, copied or distributed without the express permission of the author. © CJ Ong, Jr. /2010

Yoga: Eastern Practice in Western Sports

2010-01-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years the practice of Yoga in many variations has come to the west. Often considered by the uninformed to be a religious practice, Yoga is recognized as one of the six philosophical systems to arise out of India, founded by the Indian sage Patanjali in approximately 300 B.C. Yoga yields the greatest benefits when approached as a way of life, offering one a chance to experience an integrated system of education for the body, mind and inner spirit. For the athlete Yoga can provide a way to synthesize the processes of a well-rounded fitness program in several ways. They can include:

Improved use of Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence The neurological location for the skills needed to execute movement in any or all of the three planes of movement lies within the motor cortex of the brain, with each hemisphere dominant or controlling bodily movements on the contra-lateral side. An asana in Yoga recruiting Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence would be Ardha Matsyendrasana (the spinal twist), an asana requiring movement in all three planes of movement. Developing the skills to execute an asana correctly can transfer to improved sports performance. When mastered the 12 positions contained within Surya Namaskar (the sun salutations) integrate each hemisphere of the brain and provide one with a total stretching routine.
Calming of the Sympathetic Nervous System For many athletes workouts become back to back races and challenges, either with themselves or others. These “workouts” create constant state of stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system with a negative effect on the body. In an effort to protect itself the body releases cortisol, a catabolic hormone consuming lean tissue. Engaging in regular Yoga practice will allow the body to recover faster, improve sleep (quality sleep is when the production of the body’s natural growth hormones is at its’ highest levels) and lead to lower body fat levels when incorporated into a sound training schedule.
Optimal Performance Through Improved Posture For the body’s ten levels of cellular organization to work together in an optimal manner the correct alignment of the body segments is crucial. Postural faults often lead to compensation injuries and the resulting sub-par athletic performances. Learning the asana Tadasana (mountain) can bring one to an awareness of correct posture. Improved posture allows the nerve plexuses/chakras to enter into correct alignment with each other, in turn allowing the river of energy contained within the body to flow easily.

In the beginning the practice of Yoga may seem confusing, even perhaps daunting and improvement may seem miniscule. Attending a class with those who have attained a certain level of mastery might make one feel out of place at first. It is at these times one should keep in mind the words of Bruce Lee, one of the first athletes to integrate Eastern and Western practices into athletics: “Success lies in the process rather than the completion”.

Texts used to reference this article include:

Gannon, S. and Life, D. (2002) Jivamukti Yoga
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center (1998). Yoga: Mind and Body
Lee, B. (1975). Tao of Jeet Kune Do
Kaptchuk, T. (2000). The Web That Has No Weaver
Myss, C. (1996). Anatomy Of The Spirit

This article was originally written as a courtesy for the Rockwell Employee's Recreation Center newsletter.

Triathlete Magazine

2010-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

What is a MET?

2010-01-30T06:56:00.001-08:00

Originally written as a courtesy for the Rockwell Employee's Recreation Center monthly newsletter this piece demonstrates the importance and validity of understanding units of work output for athletes looking to improve their performance...

What is a MET? You may see this reading on one of several pieces of cardiovascular equipment here at the fitness center where you belong. A MET is a unit used to estimate the metabolic cost of physical activity. One MET equals the uptake of 3.5 ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. (Tabers Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary)

You can determine your approximate top MET expenditure value by dividing your measured VO2 max by 3.5. Using METs can provide you with a very useful way to measure and manipulate your exercise intensity. Here’s how:

Many of you may have had a fitness assessment during your time being a member of your fitness club. Hopefully you were tested on your cardiovascular fitness in addtion to muscular strength and flexibility. On your results print out there should have been a suggested MET range for exercise intensity. Let’s take a person whose top MET expenditure is approximately 18 METS.

When said person is working out their training range should be between 11.7 to 15.3 METS. The lower value represents the intensity used in aerobic conditioning workouts while the higher value represents the intensity associated with anaerobic or interval training. However please note that too much time at either end of the range may not give you the results you want as a result of under or overtraining.

METS can also help you figure out how many calories you burn while exercising outdoors (since most of us don’t have a digital calorie readout built into our bodies somewhere!) Get out your pencil and calculator. The formula used here is: METS x 3.5 x body weight in kg/200 = kcal/min. (ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription)

Obviously the activity and the intensity applied to one’s activity will affect the MET expenditure. Some MET expenditures for various activities are given below:
Running 12 min/mile, 8.7 METS; 8 min/mile, 12.5 METS; 6 min/mile, 16.3 METS
Bowling 2-4 METS
Cycling 10 mph, 7 METS; 20 mph, 13 METS
Dancing (aerobic) 6-9 METS

So let’s take a person who weighs 154 lbs and see how many calories they burn by running the Fifth Season 8K in 29:45.
1. Convert the weight to kg by dividing by 2.2. (1 pound = 2.2 kg) Our 154 pound person converts to 70 kg.
2. Plug the numbers into the equation shown above.
16.3 x 3.5 x 70 / 200 = 19.9675 kcal/minute.
This runner would burn approximately 594.03312 kcal doing the race.

(By comparison our same subject would only burn 109 kcal in 29:45 minutes of bowling. Hmmm...is bowling truly exercise or perhaps better classed as activity?)

There are many methods in which to measure cardiovascular fitness. If you would like to learn which method is most appropriate for your specific goals or exercise program feel free to contact me at cjongjr@aol.com.

Performance Nutrition

2010-01-30T06:43:00.001-08:00

In today’s busy world operating at peak energy levels is crucial, hence the title of this article; Performance Nutrition. There are wide variety of diet plans to choose from; some sound and many not. A good nutritional program is based on the areas listed below.

Caloric Values Both carbohydrates (CHO) and protein (PRO) contain 4 calories per gram. Fat (FAT) contains 9 calories per gram. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram and is metabolized by the body in the same fashion as fat. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are considered macronutrients. Though not considered a macronutrient adequate water intake is essential to caloric utilization. Any diet excluding a macronutrient should be avoided.

Macronutrient Balance The current USDA food pyramid provides for a macronutrient balance of 60% CHO, 10% PRO and 30% FAT, with 10% or less of the total fat intake coming from saturated fats. (Curiously these ratios are the same as those used in feedlots to fatten livestock for slaughter!) Hole’s Human Anatomy and Physiology suggests a ratio of 60% CHO, 18% PRO, 22% FAT. I begin all my clients at 55% CHO, 25% PRO, 20% FAT and adjust the values according to their needs.
Meal Frequency The old adage of “three squares a day” does not cut it in today’s world. A more useful plan is to consume the calories you need per day by spreading them out across 3 larger “meals” and 2 smaller “meals” per day. I often use the analogy “that a fire goes out when you dump a big log on it but will burn hot when you stoke it with small sticks”. Your metabolism reacts in the same way.
Meal Importance For an active person who works and works out the two most important meals of the day are breakfast and the post-exercise meal. Both serve to elevate your blood sugar and insulin levels. Insulin has been proven to have an anti-catabolic (muscle sparing) effect on the human body . Breakfast should include all three of the above listed macronutrients. The post-exercise meal should contain a CHO to PRO ratio of approximately 4:1, that is 4 grams of CHO to every gram of PRO. This meal should be consumed within 60 minutes of finishing the exercise session.
Caloric Needs The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed; therefore, body weight is lost when caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake (negative balance) and weight is gained when the opposite situation exists. A pound of fat contains approximately 3500 calories. While shifts in caloric balance will result in body weight loss, the method in which the body weight loss is reached relates directly to the type of body weight lost. Fasting and semi-fasting diets (starvation and semi-starvation, The Biggest Loser, Greed Diets, etc.) result in substantial losses in water and fat-free tissue (muscle).

The following guidelines should be followed when estimating caloric needs:
1. At least 1500 calories should be consumed daily. It is impossible to obtain the micronutrients needed for proper body function on less than 1500 calories per day.
2. Permanent weight loss is best achieved at a rate of 0.5 lbs. per week. Weight loss should not exceed 2.2 lbs (1 kg) per week. Weight losses (The Biggest Loser, The Greed Diet) of greater than 2.2 lbs. per week often result in dabgerous and permanent metabolic derangements such as ketosis .

Estimating Caloric Needs To calculate person’s caloric needs and to able to figure the ratios of macronutrients needed the total number of calories needed daily must be determined. There are several methods available. For simplicity the following formula gives a good starting point.

1. Multiply the person’s current body weight by 10. This figure will give you a rough estimate of this persons Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). The BMR is the amount of energy (calories) needed for the maintenance of life when the subject is at digestive, physical and emotional rest.
2. Factor in a persons daily activity needs. Items to consider include job description, activities such as exercise, etc. The Textbook of Work Physiology by Per Åstrand contains accurate listings of caloric expenditures for many activities.
3. Add 1 and 2 together. Divide this sum into the correct ratios (%, calories and grams) of macronutrients.

There is no way the subject of performance nutrition can be summed up in two pages. Hopefully this will give you a place to start looking and creating your own sound nutritional program. Remember: “Garbage in, garbage out. If your diet consists of garbage, your performance will be garbage.”

On American "Yoga"...

2010-01-30T06:23:00.001-08:00

I originally published this piece in 2006. The tenets remain valid four years later...

It is with great happiness that I return to sharing what I know about Yoga in a classroom setting. It has been over 16 months since I have led a Yoga class. The break has allowed me the time to reflect on my own personal practice and return as a more enlightened human being.

I was first drawn to Yoga in 1999 while beginning my education as a massage therapist. During that time I began to realize the importance of spiritual awareness in ones life. I had entered into what Ken Wilber describes as a “witness consciousness”, asking myself “Who am I”.

Having had the advantage of a liberal arts education I turned to books. Once while working in a corporate fitness center it was opined to me by a supervisor that “you read way too much”. I also listen to way too much music so in return I answered with a quote from Zach de la Rocha “where ignorance reigns life is lost”. As I began to study I came to realize there was much more to Yoga than the asanas. I came to realize that Yoga offered me a path to come to an understanding of my consciousness and it’s potential.

Unfortunately many people who take Yoga classes will never see this path because of what Georg Feuerstein writes in his book The Deeper Dimension of Yoga “As one Yoga teacher observed: Yoga has been reduced to fitness, more specifically stretching, and yet more specifically of the hamstrings. This comment would be funny if it were not sadly true”.

This distillation of Yoga becomes more alarming as Yoga is offered to America as a panacea for all our problems. Jennifer does Yoga to get over Brad. (One does not do Yoga get something, one simply does Yoga to do Yoga) A physical therapist states in a local paper “Yoga and Pilates are beneficial for people who don’t like to stretch because it forces them to do it”. (Yoga should never be about force) Furthering the distillation is the lack of knowledge by those in offering Yoga to public, like the instructor unable to educate a superior when told they felt that Yoga was voodoo. (voodoo is a religion practiced in the Caribbean, Yoga is a way of life) Taking America even further away from the path is fear – I have witnessed reluctance to allow classes to end in a universal namaste – what is so frightening about telling another human being “the divine in me recognizes the divine in you”?

As means to stop this distillation I offer reading books. There are many amazing books on Yoga, just as there are many types of Yoga. B.K.S. Iyengar is a wonderful author to begin with. Take time to explore the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Called by Osho “an Einstein in the world of Buddhas” Pantajali’s Yoga Sutras offer us a way to understand the relationship between the body and the mind. I encourage everyone to feed their minds with some classic Yoga readings! An education in the classics is not such a bad thing. Explore the path of Yoga.

K. Pattabhi Jois shares with us the following: “If we practice the science of Yoga, which is useful to the entire human community and which yields happiness here and hereafter – if we practice it without fail, we will attain physical, mental and spiritual happiness and our minds will flood towards the Self.”

Gradually as I become more like Lao Tzu’s water, flowing around obstacles rather than smashing into them, I too move more towards Self. Insights gained from my teacher Tara Mala (my Yoga teacher in Hawaii) have allowed me to experience the joy of surrender and my first true taste of “yuj” – the Sanskrit word for yoke or unite. Yoga has offered me a way to begin to understand who I am. Indirectly it has made me a better athlete but more importantly it has helped me grow as a human being. Perhaps it can provide you with the same opportunity.

On Group Cycling...

2010-01-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

In the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school I sustained a serious injury to my face while bicycling. I received over 100 sutures to close the wound and over the next three years had three operations to align my nose and reduce the scarring. I also received a series of weekly steroid injections directly into the scar tissue to soften the scar prior to the first operation. Not owning a car, I rode my bicycle down to the plastic surgeons office to receive these injections. It was not an inconvenience for I have and will always love to ride my bike.

20 years later I began teaching Group Cycling. This was a few years after Johnny G. had introduced his Spinning program to the world. At that time I had accomplished several things in cycling, among them qualifying for the e solo division of thRace Across AMerica (RAAM), riding a personal best of 451 miles in 24 hours and officially completing a Double Iron triathlon, a race twice the distance of the famed Hawaii Ironman. Johnny G. came from a martial arts and an extensive cycling background himself, using his experiences in RAAM to create the Spinning program and share it with the world.

However as I have come to find time brings change and unfortunately not all change is good. Attending a large fitness trade show in Chicago about two years after I had begun teaching I saw every conceivable (and often laughable) offering of Group Cycling offered by those companies looking to cash in on the newest fitness craze to sweep the nation – or something like that. The day I carry hand weights and rubber tubing with me on an outside bike ride is the day I’ll eat Eddy’s bike shorts. (Actually I’m not worthy to hold Eddy’s bike shorts let alone eat them and if you don’t know who Eddy is take the time to find out!)

I came home and continued to teach in the manner taught by Spinning. After a few years I left the facility I was teaching at to return to school. In her letter of recommendation to future employers the Program Director of this 4000 member recreation center noted “he has been our most popular group cycling instructor”. I planned to return to teaching Group Cycling one day.

A couple of years later I did return to teaching, this time in a chain fitness club. It was not a Spinning licensed facility although I did return and attend a Spinning certification to renew my understanding of the Spinning program. (Please keep in mind that the term Spinning has become synonymous with all Group Cycling classes, much in the same way Kleenex has become synonymous with facial tissues. In order to truly be a Spinning class the facility must be a licensed facility otherwise it’s not truly Spinning!)

My new position was at one of the new clubs with bright lights and lots of lycra. Slogans proclaimed the intent of the club to help you to heights you never dreamed you were capable of reaching. The certification we were offered was through a competing program. The presenter came to certify us one winter morning. She was accomplished cyclist however not all certifications are created equal as I was soon to come to find out. Part way through the certification process the Director of Group Exercise asked the presenter to leave and I agreed with this decision – in fact I was asked for my input before she was asked to leave. After the presenter left the Director of Group Exercise continued to provide us with "education" in Group Cycling that I began to question as well. At the end of the day we were all presented with Certificates of Achievement attesting to our successful completion of our training. We were now all Certified Instructors! The fitness club proclaimed to the members that they were taking a class taught by certified instructors and the class they were taking was “nationally known to be the best in cycling”. I now must formally apologize for this certification deception on my part.

I continued to teach Group Cycling, using the foundations learned in my Spinning training to teach a class that was well though out and most importantly safe for the participants as well as myself. By then I had officially finished many more events outside the fitness club such as UltraMan Hawaii, several Double and Triple irondistance events as well as helping others prepare for and complete challenging events outside the fitness club.

As time progressed I became increasingly troubled by the, for lack of better words, tomfoolery and shenanigans foisted upon the participants in these classes by these supposedly certified instructors. After a while I resigned my position for I could not be part of this façade any longer. I did however remain as a member but was later told I was not permitted to use the Group Cycling studio unless I was attending scheduled classes. Shortly thereafter I attended my final Group Cycling class. Here’s what happened:

1. The class never received any cues regarding hand position during the entire class.
2. The class never received any transition cues regarding hand position while changing body position.
3. The certified instructor told the class one keeps their foot flat through the entire pedal stroke.
4. There were no cadence cues offered during the entire class.
5. There were no cadence checks performed during the entire class.
6. The only HR check offered in the class was accompanied with the instruction that everyone should be over 180 BPM.
7. There were no methods offered to manipulate or monitor exercise intensity for those not wearing HR monitors such as RPE.
8. The instructors bike itself was set up incorrectly. The seat was much too high causing the instructor to rock back and forth at the hips and her upper body to sway as well. The thoracic spine had a pronounced kyphotic curve.

And finally…a member of this class asked the instructor for advice on bike shoes. She replied she did not know much about the use of bike shoes. I found this confusing given the instructor themselves was wearing bike shoes!

Time goes by and I stayed away from Group Cycling. Other clubs asked me to teach but I declined as I didn’t want to be associated with it. Some counseled me to teach anyway, telling me that I needed to share with people my love and knowledge of cycling. However to be perfectly honest, as members that what you may want but I had come to find out that’s not what the management wanted. I had written a letter detailing my experiences in the last class I attended and sent it the clubs management. I received no response.

It’s now spring in Iowa and it’s a time when a cyclists thoughts turn to riding outside. Frozen extremities await us and I have been getting calls from people looking for advice in preparing for their first triathlon. I’ve been doing bike fits and it’s been fun meeting new people. In the past I knew there were a few really good Group Cycling instructors teaching locally and I could without hesitation suggest their classes. However now the number has fallen to near zero and it makes me sad. Really, I know it sounds silly but it’s just plain sad.

One of my clients told me he took a class where after a 5 minute warm-up they STOOD THE ENTIRE CLASS. This is so wrong. Another client told me that classes have been instructed to “lean to the left and right to simulate turns”. Classes that incorporate 100 jumps in a row, all using hand position three, a hand position contraindicated for jumps! One client asked me about how much resistance should be used during class and I asked what cadence they riding, that essentially the cadence helps determine the resistance. He asked me what cadence meant. He also did not know how to count his cadence. The certified instructor never taught this in class. Four weeks later he told me he had yet to attend a class where the instructor provided cadence cues or cadence checks. Last week I was asked why every class seems to be high intensity without ever offering steady state work. Well to be honest a good instructor plans a series of classes based in periodization and a truly good fitness club would coordinate the classes to promote periodization, a method of training that is beneficial to all, beginner or experienced cyclist.

Over the past few years I have been advised to move on, to let go of my frustrations surrounding the fitness industry. However I will never move away from bicycling.

On certifications: It used to be that a Spinning certification was a credential of distinction. Sadly those days are long gone. I have witnessed Spinning instructors claim to “have a background in cycling and fitness” from their certification training alone! Nothing could have been further from the truth. Also there are many other certifications that are of dubious value. If your class sounds like what I described above or what I experienced in my last class ever find another class.

In keeping with making attempts to offer solutions to my concerns I offer the following basic hints to help you have a safe class:

Seat Height, Fore / Aft positioning, Handlebar Height: This encompasses 5 pages in the Spinning manual. Basically the knee should have a slight bend when the leg is in the 6 o’clock position, the kneecap does not come ahead of the center of the pedal with the front leg in the 3 o’clock position and there is a slight bend in the elbows with the hands in the comfortable position. Handlebar height should be equal to or slightly above seat height. Check the seat height against each leg as very few of us have legs of exactly equal length.

Cadence in Group Cycling Classes: There are two ranges used. They are 60 to 80 RPM, used in seated and standing climbs and 80 to 110 RPM, used in seated and standing flats. The too often seen “crazy and out of control bounce and spin as fast as you can” method of teaching is unsafe and no practical use in classes or outside on the road. It will hurt you.

Hand Position in Group Cycling There are three, #1 is the most common and is used when seated, # 2 is used in seated climbs and sprints, # 3 is ONLY used in standing climbs. The “triathlete” position, described as when one places their forearms on the bars is contraindicated.

Jumps and other such things: The Spinning program encourages proficiency in riding a studio bike in the sitting and standing positions before moving on to jumps and other techniques. Jumps have their merit, however a jump is a fluid movement, not the flinging of the bike with reckless abandon so often foisted upon unsuspecting class participants.

This is only a brief synopsis, I would be glad to answer more questions to the best of my ability. Please feel free to contact me at cjongjr@aol.com

I was once told by an appointed superior that people taking Group Cycling classes preferred classes taught by non-cyclists. I beg to differ. For one of the first things one is taught when taking part in a Spinning certification is that one does not perform movements on a studio bike that one would not do while riding a bike outside. And unless one has ridden a bike successfully outside how would one know what movements, doughnut holes aside, are contraindicated?

I await Spring in Iowa and rides with The Guilty Party. I hope you will come and join us and experience the joy of actually riding a bike outside.

Rubber side down,

CJ

Nutrients for Performance

2010-01-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

Many people in today’s society are looking for an answer to feeling better, leading more productive lives and living longer. The answer may be contained in the balance of the foods you eat: the macronutients known as carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Carbohydrates provide the easily accessed energy your body needs. A good carbohydrate source is one that is low acid, minimally processed and is low glycemic. Remember in most instances the further a food is from its’ natural state the higher the glycemic value will be. Carbohydrates should represent approximately 55% of your total caloric intake.

Proteins are essential to optimizing performance be it on the playing field or in the office. Adequate protein consumption has been shown to optimize lean tissue development, elevate metabolism and accelerate fat loss, minimize recovery time and muscle soreness, bolster immune system functions and help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis. Protein sources can include meats, dairy products in addition to protein supplements. Proteins should represent approximately 25% of your total caloric intake.

It is quite possible that fats are the most misunderstood of the three macronutrients. Perhaps it is because people underestimate the vital role fat plays in the human body. Oftentimes it is not the amount of fat one eats that is crucial but rather the type of fat one eats.

Saturated fats (items like lard, butter and hydrogenated vegetable oils) and polyunsaturated fats (items like corn, safflower and sunflower oils) should make up no more than 10% of your total fat consumption. Trans fats (items like margarine and oils frequently found in snack foods) should be avoided altogether. Both saturated and trans fats have been linked to heart disease, increased cancer risk, hormonal imbalances and promote inflammation.

Monounsaturated fats (items like olive, canola, and almond oils) and essential fats (omega –3, –6 and –9’s found in items such as cold water fish, dark green leafy vegetables, certain nuts and wheat germ) are what are commonly known as “the good fats”. The monounsaturated fats should represent 12 to 20% of your total caloric intake and one should try for 3 to 6 grams daily of essential fats. The consumption of these fats has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, increase immune function and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Fats should represent approximately 20% of your total caloric intake.

Eating the foods one needs for performance need not be difficult.. Often it is as easy as engaging mindful practice when choosing what you are going to eat, selecting the apple over the nacho chips, a bowl of whole grains over the refined cereal, eating foods as close to their original state as possible and keeping in mind the old adage: You are what you eat.

Clar's Enchiladas

2010-01-28T07:02:00.000-08:00

This fall at the 2009 UltraMan World Championships I had the good fortune to meet Sheena Miller, the 2009 UltraMan Canada womens champion. Sheena represents the good in sport with her positive energy and enthusiasm for "hamburgers as big as her head" at Splashers. Originally created a couple of years ago these enchiladas can be as big as one's head!

I have come to find many people have become disconnected from the food they eat. What joy can be found in a sealed for your protection paperboard box meal that has “existed” in a Big Box freezer for who knows how long? Clar’s brother Andy is in town visiting and when asked what I should serve for dinner last evening she said “make those quinoa enchiladas, I really like them”…I hope you do too.

Clar’s Enchiladas
You will need the following ingredients:
1 can Muir Glen organic Chunky Tomato Sauce, 28 ounce
1 bunch of cilantro
Red pepper and spices to taste
1 can Westbrae organic Black Beans, 15 ounce
1 cup of brown rice
1 cup of quinoa
1 large yellow onion
Lots of garlic cloves (amount used depends on local vampire concentration; I use a whole head as I strongly dislike vampires!)
16 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese, grated
8 large tortillas, I prefer white flour organic over whole wheat organic as they are easier to roll.
1 bottle of Fat Tire Amber Ale

Open the beer and have a sip. In separate pans cook the rice and quinoa. Quinoa cooks faster than rice so pay attention. Meanwhile have another sip of beer and finely dice the onion and several of the garlic cloves. Toss the onions and garlic in along with the rice during the last 15 minutes of cooking. When the rice is done place the rice/onion/garlic mix, quinoa, black beans with the juice and 1 cup of chopped cilantro leaves in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.

In a blender place the tomato sauce and 1 cup of chopped cilantro leaves. Creatively add some red pepper and spices. Have another sip of beer, cooking is hard work! Spray a 9 x 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s hot in the kitchen, have another sip of beer.

Place about 1/4 cup of sauce on a tortilla and spread out. Take 1/8 of the filling and place in the middle. Sprinkle 1/8 of the cheese on top of the filling. Roll the enchilada and place in the pan. Do this seven more times. If you have leftover sauce spread it out over the enchiladas. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Open a bottle Casillero del Diablo Carmenere, 2007 and allow to breath. While the wine is breathing and the enchiladas bubbling make as fruit salad. Cut up three different varieties of apples, one orange, a banana and place in a bowl. Add a handful of chopped walnuts and a cup of Brown Cow Vanilla yogurt and mix well.

In much the same way we feel it is important to know your food we also feel it is important to know who sells you your food. We shop at the New Pioneer Coop as often as possible. Tom the Wine Guy is cool. They offer a wide variety of foods that are free of growth hormones, High Fructose Corn Syrup and other nasty stuff that just is not good for you. While organic foods sometimes cost more money initially we have come to find they taste better and we eat less. More importantly, it is quite possible that organic foods won’t cost you down the road so perhaps going organic is good way to invest in our own personal and individual eco-system, our bodies!

Enjoy!

Do You Know The Muffin Man?

2010-01-28T06:54:00.001-08:00

I am often asked for advice on how or what to eat. My answer is yes. I like these muffins as an complement to my post-workout protein drink. The complex carbohydrates are essential in the recovery process as is the protein, the fiber from the whole grains helps in protein utilization in addition to other known benefits.

C.J.’s ULTRA Muffin Recipe

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine the following dry ingredients:

1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oatmeal, old fashioned
½ cup wheat or oats bran
½ cup flax meal
1 T baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon

In a blender blend smooth 3 bananas (the riper the better), ½ cup plain yogurt and 2 cups of water.

Add ½ cup of raisons and chop up slightly to distribute flavor through muffins.

Add the wet mixture to the dry, stir until mixed but do not over stir.

Spoon mixture into muffins tins sprayed with PAM. Bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool on a rack. Keep in the refrigerator.

Makes 12 muffins.

Breakdown per muffin:
153 calories
5 grams Protein
31 grams Carbohydrates
2 grams Fat

Mother of Four loses 90 pounds and keeps it off!

2010-01-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

"Do EXACTLY as he says and you will be successful."

So says Erica Menke, wife and mother of four who lost 90 pounds several years ago and has kept it off as detailed in her before and after photos...

Above are two photos representing 16 months of deliberate practice. Erica came to me weighing 225 pounds. This was her weight after delivering her fourth child. Now being three days away from her first bodybuilding contest she weighs 135 pounds, representing an actual weight loss of 90 pounds at a rate of approximately one pound per week per ACSM guidelines for permanent weight loss.

She did this while engaging in 30 minutes of cardiovascular training per session for a total of 180 minutes per week. All of her cardiovascular training was done using a HR monitor using the values I determined for her.

Her weight training program was a modified three day split using Bompa's principals of periodization. Her technique has improved dramatically over the past few months and she has educated herself on the principles off movement as they apply to training for athletes. To some this may sound brash but I would have no qualms in placing her against the majority of personal trainers for she would outshines them in the weight room. For when I work with clients it is my goal to educate them about fitness - for I believe fitness needs to be presented primarily from an educational model.

In addition her knowledge of what constitutes a quality diet has improved as well. She eats about 2500 calories per day from a variety of foods contained within a balanced diet of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. With four children she is using her change to help educate them in how to eat correctly and maintain a healthy lifestyle. She eats fruit, pasta, rice and even a serving of chips at lunch. A dozen M&M's are eaten mindfully as opposed to eating handfuls with mindless abandon.

She has made bodybuilding part of her lifestyle. Not once did she deviate from the plan we created together - she determined her priorities and made it fit into her existing life as a mother and spouse. I enjoyed working with Erica as she reached for goals and am sure she is sharing her knowledge at her new home on the West Coast.

Barry Breffle, AKA "The Gentleman Farmer"

2010-01-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

I have been fortunate to have known CJ Ong Jr throughout most of my triathlon ‘career’, spanning over a decade. During that time, CJ has played many roles in my life.

In my more competitive phases, he has served as a key advisor in my support network. His contributions to my development as a competitive elite age-group triathlete include massage sponsorship, consultation on strength training, injury prevention and rehab. Whenever I’ve had a question or problem, he’s been quick to draw on his vast experience and knowledge to propose a plan of action for me to resolve my dilemma. If he doesn’t have a solution readily available, he falls back on his extensive library, from which he graciously loans out titles that catch my eye. His support has helped lift my performance to the point that I’ve been able to qualify for and compete at three triathlon world championship events: 2001 and 2007 Ironman Hawaii World Championship and the 2003 Age-Group World Championship in New Zealand.

Whether I’ve been in a competitive cycle or just enjoying the triathlon lifestyle, I’ve also benefited from CJ’s expertise as a Yoga instructor. He is a source of motivation, a favorite training partner, and not least of all, a dear friend.

Barry Breffle

My wife, The Iron Maiden

2010-01-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

In 2003 at the age of 49, I took a good look at myself in the mirror and decided I did not want to continue the next 50 years of my life in this kind of shape (35 pounds overweight, frumpy, and totally out of shape). Years of completing a doctorate and working a full-time office job had taken a toll on my once athletic physique. I missed the energy and satisfaction of setting and being able to attain athletic goals.

I think of all the hours I wasted “thinking” I was working out. Beyond goal setting and determination, best practice is to seek out someone with the talent to guide us in attaining our personal goals. CJ’s detailed prescription for deliberate practice workouts and dietary plans were designed specifically for me. Yes, I did the work, but without his expert guidance I would not have gotten very far. I was able to not only find my former athletic self and feel more alive, but actually accomplished more ambitious athletic goals that involved successful competition in natural body building at the national level.

Here I am in August 2004, 8 weeks out from my first bodybuilding show at age 50!

Thank you, CJ for all your excellent work!

Clar M. Baldus, Ph. D.

The Pitbull and The Iron Maiden on show day!

Peter Mueller, Switzerland, 5 Time UltraMan Hawaii Finisher

2010-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

CJ,
You are a great athlete and excellent massage therapist - I wouldn't have been able to finish Ultraman 2009 without your professional knowledge and positive attitude! An unforgettable experience - to meet outstanding people!

Thank you CJ!

Peter

Peter Mueller, Switzerland, 5 Time Ultraman Hawaii Finisher and Shanna Armstrong, multiple time UltraMan Hawaii World Champion find the energy to share some aloha at the finish line of yet another UltraMan World Championship.

Jochen Dembeck, UltraMan from Germany

2010-01-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

Jochen and his wife Judith Hartl prior to the start of Day One,

2009 UltraMan World Championships

Hey C.J.,

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your kokua during this years Ultraman. Without you I would have finished in a much slower time and who knows maybe I would have never seen the finish line.

In the last two hours of Ultraman Hawaii Day 1, (a 10K ocean swim and 90 mile bike) I had such serious lower back problems on the bike that it was not possible to stand upright without horrible pain. It was not planned to get a massage after each stage of the race but due to the problems I decided to get one and landed on your massage table. Your 'magic' hands makes it possible that I was able to walk without pain after the massage and have the chance to sleep without problems.

Furthermore you come to me in the morning of Day 2 (171 mile bike)and give me a few minutes of massage with your magichands + helpful hints to survive the day. Without confidence after Day 1, that treatment gave me energy and the belief to have a better Day 2. I was able to bike Day 2 with 22mph (for 171miles) and finish SECOND --what a miracle :-))

Jochen Dembeck enroute to a 22 mph average for 171 miles on
Day Two of the 2009 UltraMan Hawaii

Further massages from your magic hands at end of Day 2 and Day 3 let me finish FIFTH overall at the UltraMan World Championships and help me to recover quickly after that challenging competition.

Again THANK YOU for that great job & and I will try everything to have you on my team for the race in 2010 !!

Mahalo nui loa,
your friend,
Jochen

Jochen Dembeck officially finishes another UltraMan Hawaii World Championship!

Ebe A. Boettcher, AKA The Bertram Brawler

2010-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

In life, I have had many amazing experiences and adventures. When I seek to do something new, I seek out those who have the same passion for having experience based knowledge. A great lesson from CJ Ong, Jr. has to do with training with people who live what they do, so as CJ told me when we first talked, "if you want to learn how to swim, find someone else".

I started using CJ as a fitness mentor in February of 2009. The relationship was built on trust, work, and accountability.

Trust, it does not come easy to many of us. I needed a mentor who would help me succeed in the long road I had planned for myself. One who would not bail on me after I had reached some goals on paper, or that person just didn’t care about my path any longer. Along with that trust come's his knowledge. I wanted to learn from someone who had fought in the same trenches I planned on doing battle in. I refuse to pay someone to tell me what I can read in a book. CJ guided me to the experiences to help me learn lesson’s that only personal experience can provide.

Work, I love it. If you are willing to work hard to reach your goals, CJ is the man for the job. Rarely in my life have I met people who are willing to work on my success as much as I am. CJ has been vested in my journey from Day 1. CJ has pushed me to new levels at the crucible and I am grateful to have reached them.

Accountability, I live by it. No tire kickers allowed. That is the lesson I learned on Day 1. CJ gave me workout sheets, diet sheets, and heart rate training information when we first started. In return, I was expected to return those workout logs, diet sheets, and where I thought my heart rate averages were. No excuses, I had to do the work to continue on my path.

With all of this combined, I have lost 35 lbs, 14% body fat, and 3 inches of my jean size. I have also completed a ½ marathon (15 seconds per mile faster than my goal when I started the race), raced in several 5 and 10k races, and am now training to run the St. Louis marathon in April. I am also training to do 2 sprint, 2 international, and 1 ½ iron triathlons this year. CJ has given me the tools to take my drive and goals and turn them into reality. Fitness is a great journey for all to enjoy. CJ has made the journey more productive and more fun.

Ebe A Boettcher