Thursday, June 9, 2011

The irritation of the "I want you to..." coaching cue - and alternatives

 "I want you to..." How often is that about the first thing we hear coming at us working with a trainer? or coming from us if we train folks? "I want you to..." This post is a wee meditation on a pet peeve: how the words we use working with others can have a profound effect on building or not building rapport.

Rapport of Domination?
I've worked with a lot of coaches in training and teachers in training - folks who are already practicing their professional craft. If there's one phrase that occurs more than anything else,  as the most constant training cue when the coach wants the athlete to do something, it's: "I want you to..."

How do you feel, if someone you have no rapport with yet, have no trust with yet, where this is perhaps your first time working together says to you "i want you to do..." whatever it is they want you to do? Do you feel willing? Do you feel inspired? Or do you feel a little threatened, a little defensive, irritated, even? Me, i'm annoyed. If this session is about me, why am i doing what you want? So, right there, i'll ask: "Why?" Why should i do this thing you ask me to do? And why should i do it for you?
More often than not, that question is a wrench in the wheel. The coach can't really explain either why i should do the thing, or they are flustered that they are being called on their authority. Or they could explain it, but they're not prepared to do so right at that moment, so flustered again. And for me to come back with "why" can be heard as pretty confrontational. And sometimes, they don't get it: they don't understand what i'm asking.  And there's a great rapport problem right there.
 Why the Irritant?
More often than not, coaches (and teachers) are thrown because they don't realize that this trope "I want you to..." that is constructed of words that have real meaning has become a space filler in inter-personal communication that has no meaning other than as something that sounds seemingly nicer than the more blunt "bend your leg" or "do ten push ups." But i think it's other than just space filler.

I think it's sloppy. Thoughtless. It means we've taken our communication for granted, and i don't think we can do that when our role is a coach. Let's consider the client perspective.


Whose session is this anyway?
My time with a coach is not about me working FOR that (unknown quantity) coach. I am not there to fulfill that coach's desire of "I want you to..." I am not extrinsicly motivated, nor do i wish to be so. As a teacher, i get freaked out when occaisionally a student says "i had to get this in on time; i was really worried about disappointing you."  Oh wow.  That one really makes me nervous.

As a supervisor, as a coach, i'm *just* the facilitator here; i've got some skills to pass on and some work we can do, and there's a cycle here in terms of a student learning from me till i start learning from them, and there's an agreement around practice and consequences of either party not sticking to the terms of that agreement (like getting something in on time for assessment; getting something back on time assessed; making a scheduled appointment; being ready for the client), but this rapport is not personal. It's not about whether or not i care. Yes, I will do the best i can for my students to create opportunities for success for them - that is what i see as part of my job: training of highly skilled personel. But it's not personal, and their session is not about me. 


Who cares what I want? What's received?
If someone wants to become a professional researcher, super. I know how to do that and can help someone develop the skills to do that really well. If someone wants to become better in their sport, super. I can help with that. If someone wants to move out of pain and perform better in life, super, i can help with that. But that goal has nothing to do with me. Dosen't mean i don't care about how someone does - and whether or not they are getting what they need, and thriving.

Indeed, in my heart  or aloud i am saying "my fond hope is that you will succeed, excel, and do way better than i have." But it does mean i'm not the focus of the process. And you know what? I'm pretty reluctant about expressing my personal wishes at all when working with folks - whether grad students or athletes. Personally, i try to present things in terms of what THEY should be able to get from a session - you know, goals/objectives for them. I mean, wouldn't it be weird if you picked up a text book and instead of the goals for the chapter, we saw "what i really want you to go away with from this unit is a deep passion for the field of anatomy"? Really? My student goals are since this chapter covers joints, preferably to learn about joints? How 'bout that? Will this material do that or not?

So i don't want to use a language with folks that goes anywhere near engendering an extrinsically focused and largely amorphous practice of "do this because it's what "i want" " rather than try this because, as best we can judge, it fits with what we're trying to accomplish together that are YOUR goals.

Language is a Virus
There's pretty good evidence that the language we use has a strong impact on how we create our realities.

If every client i see i say "i want you to..." what do those words mean? What am i telling myself all day? what am i telling them?  That my desire is primary in working with others rather than secondary to their needs?

Also, the word suggests i'm not very successful: want describes a lack. To have a want is to be deficient. I want you to do this: i have a personal emptiness or insufficiency of your doing this. No, i don't. My life is surely complete without someone doing a lunge.   Do i *want* to reinforce a lack? Build a dependency?

In z-health, we talk about the SAID principle all the time: that we adapt always and exactly to what we practice.  Is practicing want, and i want, an adaptation i want/lack/desire? big N.O. there.


So what are "I want you to..." alternatives?
It really is pretty easy to get out of the "I want you to..." mode. Here's a couple examples i've found work well:

If the goal is to help someone learn how to do a movement, why not coach the movement? For example,
"So movement X will support this part of your goal to do Y, so let me model it, and then you follow with me: from the forward lunge position, internally rotate the back foot like so...."
If working through a part of a set, why not make the set relevant to the goal?
"Since we've said we're focusing on this part of your stroke, we can build up this part of the stroke with some loaded mobility here, and for that, we need to get some fatigue happening, so let's go for 5 reps with a 10rep load for a set  - what is that for you? ok, great, and do X amount of recovery between sets, and we'll go till fatigue starts to show- i'll watch you for that. Ok? let's go.

Now some folks may say "i hate 'we' like 'how are we doing today'" - i understand - i get that. So the above example could be easily broken into a me/you framinging too:

We (cuz it is an agreement) have said we're focusing on X and a technique to do that is Y. And since to get there, a certain adaptation is required that's best induced by partial recovery, an option is to use shorter set rests, and appropriate load. So pick a weight that you could do ten reps with; the sets will go for five, and will have 30sec breaks between them. Ok? I'll keep an eye out for fatigue signs while you work. Let's begin.
Something like that. The differences are, it seems to me, that by getting forced out of "i want you to" we need to think about why we're asking someone to do something. Can we communicate why/how this makes sense in terms of a target. If we can't is there some deficiency in our knowledge? That can be fixed. Or is there a lack of a target? That too can be addressed. Or we feel awkward trying to explain stuff? There are strategies to develop skills for that too. If we don't want to develop those skills, what does that tell us about the focus of our coaching?

Off the "I" and onto the "Why"
On the client side, some folks may never notice the "i want you to..." or care. Or they may be fine with their coach saying "i want you to hold your foot here" or their teacher in a lecture saying "tonight i want you to read..." And sure, if there's sufficient rapport and trust that's been built up, one may be ok with the "I want you to..." But at that point, my bet is that it's just as easy to say "For this move, go like this" or "to get this concept, read the following." Simple phrases take the focus of the I and put it on the WHY. I think practicing that Why rather than I as a coach is important to rep.

mc with recent MIT PhD grad just
after his defence. Yes, very happy
for Max's success. It's *his* success,
and has been great to be part
of that process.
Maybe it's because i have a background in words, and theories of wordage that i get a little insistent that words we use have meaning. And when they're spoken, i take them seriously (maybe it's a Jesuit upbringing...).  They are part of that SAID specific adaptation to an asserted/imposed demand

And if that's the case, and we work together, i'd rather demonstrate in everything i do, including my words, that you're the star of the show; i'm there for you, on the terms we've agreed: times, payment, notice of change, all that mutual respect stuff. And that anything in that session is there to support your goals not my desires, gosh dang it.

ok? ok.

Thanks for listening.
I'm better now.
How are you?

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Posted by dr. m.c. at 17:36 5 comments

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Fat Tea: like guiness but tea (Including a descant on fat types like coconut oil)

ResearchBlogging.org There's an old saw about Guiness - it's the beer that drinks like a meal. That can certainly be true. But if one's passion is less for beer, and say, more towards tea, and let's also say we're keen to get our protein and fats in, and also want to enhance our satiety, and maybe improve our energy expenditure, i may have a drink for you. To the best of my knowledge, i think i've concocted this, and call it Fat Tea.

Fat Tea consists of 
The makings of Fat Tea: black tea, organic
whole milk, ginger and organic coconut oil
  • steeped Yorkshire Gold Tea (i really enjoy the taste of this bagged UK tea)
  • Whole Organic Milk (from happy cows - where i live that's usually a brand called Duchy) to taste 1-2 oz.
  • Fresh Ginger (steeped with tea to taste) 
  • - le piéce de resistance - Organic Coconut Oil (like a gram or so per cup or mug of tea) - in the uk i get coconoil by mail order.

Oh wow, that's intensely satisfying: protein, fat, very low carbs, a bit of caffeine and other good things associated with tea.

But wait, you may be saying, isn't Fat tea, well, rather fat? 
Let's see: 2 grams of cocunut oil is 18kcals of medium chain triglycerides. 2 ozs (i like a lot of milk in my tea) of whole milk is 37.5kcals, so yup, total cals are 55.5.  Compared with black tea on its own (zero kcals) or with two ozs of skim milk (21.5kcals) or two oz's of 2% (31.25) - well ya, there's more fat, so sure; more calories than black tea.


The Skinny on Fat Tea Fats
So let's talk about the Fat for a sec, the coconut oil fat and the whole milk fat, and why you may want to choose these 56kcals in happy fat tea once a day (i like mine in the evening), rather than say a cookie or some starchy carby thing.


Fat Profile - reminder: fat is good.
Fat is Amazing and Good - not evil.  We need fat; it's our primary source of fuel for our bodies (i've written about this before), and it serves a TON of roles in our bodies - not just for fuel, but as the wrappers of EACH AND EVERY cell in our bodies. It's the insulation on the white matter of our brains; it's the wrapping of our viscera; it's the mylenation that suports our nervous system learning; it's building blocks for hormones we need to function well.

And on top of all this, it is the primary energy system for our bodies. I read a page awhile ago that said that fat is a back up energy system when we run out of blood sugar. That's really misleading. That sounds like blood sugar is our primary fuel. Nope. It's not. Fat is our primary fuel. You sitting reading this on the couch: you're oxidising PRIMARILY fat. We'll talk about glucose some other day. Main thing: FAT is good - there are - like proteins - essential fats too (you know, the omega's).


If you're doing Dairy, Whole Milk Can be Fun
On a pure taste level, a whole fat milk is generally sweeter (it's the milk sugars in the lactose, as i understand it). The texture is also creamier. That's all from the Fat. 

Fat Variety in Milk
There are all sorts of fats that we need in our diet. Milk has an intriguing range of fats, including saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated - and a mix of short and long chain fats, too.  And milk has about one of the only instances of a type of trans fat, CLA, that's good for us. Transfats are generally considered evil (like margarine), but CLA in milk fats is a keeper. So it's not a bad place to get some of the fats we want. Including (in organic sources especially) Omerga 3's and the very currently trendy ALA (alpha lipoic acid - popular as a fat burner ingredient). Grass feed = apparently good for Omega 3 upping.

Indeed, organic milk is one of the most studied organic products on the planet, apparently, and studies seem to keep showing that organic milk does better with omega 3s overall than non-organic - up to 67% more omega 3's. This result has been found in several studies in the UK over several years now (Ellis 06, Butler 11)

Organic Note  In the UK, organic also means lots of grass feeding and free ranging. It also means no crap (here's a listing).

More Fat types
As we've seen above, milk has a mix of fat types, saturated being about 2/3s of the fat profile of milk.  But is that in and of itself a problem? Well, those cell walls of each cell in our body? They're largely made up of saturated fat. So we need saturated fats for dietary, cellular, hormonal, everything'ish function.  SO why are we constantly told to get the saturated fats out of our diet? Sometimes it's easier to try the Big Hammer approach then deal with subtlety and complexity of the subtly and complexity that is Us.

And as we'll see shortly, the biggies in all of these "must nots" are RATIOS and balance. As i've said repeatedly at b2d, we're complex systems. Single factor thinking like"kill all fat" or "kill this type of fat" or "eliminate fat" - is not an answer. Balance balance balance. Balance.

Indeed, in the saturated fats of milk, are these short chain fatty acids. They're apparently anti-microbial; they stimulate some of the same pathways that the vitamin B part that's niacin does, so may help on the HDL front, too. This doesn't mean O.D. on saturated fats; but it does mean there is a role for them.  WHich brings us to the other fat in Fat Tea

Coconut Oil
I am so late to the Coconut Oil party (overview of coconut oil here). Coconut oil has been getting a big nod because it's a Medium Chain Triglyceride saturated fat, and that's actually supposed to be a good way to help burn fat (and more).  The idea of the chain length is that the short chain means the fat can be metabolized (converted into fuel) faster/easier, which means it's not getting deposited into adipose tissue and potentially increases satiety. One of the key early articles in this space by St Ong and Jones from 2003 is available free online, too (Ong03); St-Ong and Bosarage did a longer study in 2008 and showed again that MCTs, while not a miracle fat burner, contributed to energy expenditure and body comp improvements more so than olive oil in the same amounts (Ong08).

An excellent research review from 2010 by Clegg covers both the advantages and some of the challenges of using MCT's for fat burning. Seems the main studies have been with normal weight rather than obese folks, too, and there are gender effects.

In an interesting study sited by Clegg from 2001, Van Wymelbeke and colleagues found that satiety - the feeling of fullness was improved in the meal AFTER the one where MCTs were eaten.

All that sounds great, doesn't it? And you'll find camps that will say all vegetable oils are evil and should be replaced by butter or coconut oil, or in third place, olive oil (see the Perfect Health Diet as an reference-rich example).

THere are others - some key folks in the American Dietetic Association - who go the other way, and say vegetable oils rock; coconut oil is problematic. We want only PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) not SaFA (saturated fats) (overview of debate by Zelman 2011).


Tempest in a Tea Pot
I saw one study that looked at replacing dairy with just coconut oil (Choo10) to make a new ice cream. So if you don't care for doing dairy for whatever reason, you may want to try Fat Tea with only coconut oil. I'm keen to try Green Fat Tea, too. Get all those egcgs working with the MCT's. oh my.

The thing is, we need fat; different kinds of fats are good for us, essential even. And sometimes, a little bit of fat can go a long way to do good things.

As in most things with us, trying to say x or y is unequivocally bad is hard to do. With fat, the biggie seems to be ratios: getting the LDL and HDL RATIO right; getting the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio right (closer to 1:1 is better; 4:1 is kinda the outside).

The same thing with ratios of food types.  Hence getting a variety of foods on the plate, and especially a variety of colors on the plate. If it's all browns/yellows, there's a potential issue.

For me, for the end of the day, i love me some Fat Tea.

For the amount of fat i eat otherwise, i'm willing to splurge. That there may be some health benefits and especially that triggered satiety so i'm actually less hungry later, i kinda like too. I also like a square of lindt 85% or higher dark chocolate to go with.

So i'm just saying - if you want to treat yourself to something yummy, you could do worse than Fat Tea.

TASTE: A quick note: some coconut oil i've found tastes more or less like coconut oil. The coconoil organic i get in the UK is very coconutty. The organic i picked up at whole foods last time i was in the states is very neutral.  So if you're not a fan of the coconut taste, you can still do coconut oil, it seems. 

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Zachariah Salazar for turning me onto coconut oil.


References
Butler G, Stergiadis S, Seal C, Eyre M, & Leifert C (2011). Fat composition of organic and conventional retail milk in northeast England. Journal of dairy science, 94 (1), 24-36 PMID: 21183013
Clegg ME (2010). Medium-chain triglycerides are advantageous in promoting weight loss although not beneficial to exercise performance. International journal of food sciences and nutrition, 61 (7), 653-79 PMID: 20367215

Choo SY, Leong SK, & Henna Lu FS (2010). Physicochemical and sensory properties of ice-cream formulated with virgin coconut oil. Food science and technology international = Ciencia y tecnologia de los alimentos internacional, 16 (6), 531-41 PMID: 21339169


Ellis KA, Innocent G, Grove-White D, Cripps P, McLean WG, Howard CV, & Mihm M (2006). Comparing the fatty acid composition of organic and conventional milk. Journal of dairy science, 89 (6), 1938-50 PMID: 16702257

St-Onge MP, Ross R, Parsons WD, & Jones PJ (2003). Medium-chain triglycerides increase energy expenditure and decrease adiposity in overweight men. Obesity research, 11 (3), 395-402 PMID: 12634436


Marie-Pierre St-Onge and Aubrey Bosarge (2008).
Weight-loss diet that includes consumption of medium-chain triacylglycerol oil leads to a greater rate of weight and fat mass loss than does olive oil American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 87 (3), 621-626 Other: NIHMS201761

Van Wymelbeke V, Louis-Sylvestre J, & Fantino M (2001). Substrate oxidation and control of food intake in men after a fat-substitute meal compared with meals supplemented with an isoenergetic load of carbohydrate, long-chain triacylglycerols, or medium-chain triacylglycerols. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 74 (5), 620-30 PMID: 11684530

Zelman K (2011). The great fat debate: a closer look at the controversy-questioning the validity of age-old dietary guidance. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111 (5), 655-8 PMID: 21515106

Ps - this was supposed to be a really short article - just the recipe. Dang. Apologies.

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Posted by dr. m.c. at 16:41 3 comments

Saturday, May 21, 2011

"It's tight" - what does that mean anyway and what can we do about it?

Have you ever worked out with someone - or said this yourself perhaps - "ya my hamstrings are tight" or my ITB is tight or my achilles is tight or god knows what but it's tight? Then a whole lot of warm up or stretching or foam rolling ensues?  And for awhile the "it's tight" lets go a bit, but only to return before the next workout? Recognize any of this? Ok so what's that about? What does it mean when we say something is tight?

As has often been said before here at b2d, we're complex systems, so there isn't a single all powerful answer to this question of "what's tightness anyway" - but there may be an approach shot. So let's try to unpack the tightness concept a wee bit.

Tightness - this is usually experienced as  a muscle that feels tight to touch. Intriguingly, we generally experience tightness not in the muscle per se, but around how that muscle acts on/crosses a joint: we note that our range of motion is compromised: the lunge is not getting deep, the heels are up for a squat, we can't touch our toes or fully flex our shoulder with a locked elbow. Whatever "it's tight"

Muscle tightness is not a bad thing. That contraction of muscle fibers lets us lift stuff up or put stuff down. And that's what that's called: contraction. Voluntarily shortening the muscle fibers.

Involuntary Contractions: There are two types of involuntary contractions that we don't generally enjoy. One is a spasm or cramp (what we've discussed over here about muscle cramps when running, and how that's not about electrolyte balance but strength). The other type is contracture - that's the involuntary contraction of a muscle too.

pvc laced foam roller:
not quite as sensitive as
human touch?




EMG. The technical difference between spasm and contracture is electrical activity in the muscle. In spasms, its elevated. And it's more intense. You've heard perhaps about electrical impulses  - shock - stimulating intense muscle contraction such that it can break a limb? In contracture, there isn't this continual EMG elevation across the muscle - but there can be a bit of increased EMG at what are often refered to as trigger points.  To be brief a contracture may occur at one spot (or several) in a muscle, where that part of the muscle just can't seem to un-contract.

Contracture - So contracture - the involuntary contraction of some fibers (not all) within a muscle is pretty much what we talk about as "tight" - perceived tightness in a muscle; restriction in range of motion across a joint.

Knotty Problem? The approach to this sensitive bundle of neurons that is contracting and holding a whole lot of a little section of muscle fiber is  often to apply a roll of hard foam rubber. Why? supposedly to force the knot to cry uncle and "let go."

Hitting one into unconsciousness with a stick;
foam rolling:
do you see a difference?
Now i suppose if i was tense and freaked and someone hit me with a brick bat, i'd suddenly relax too, but, i gotta aks, is that approach optimal? I mean is that the best way to help a person to relax? Or is it just radically dealing with the symptoms rather than any part of a cause?


So why the contracture? Maybe if we get at some of that, we'll have some other options to help reduce or release the contracture.


Direction of Contracture: Protect the Squishy Bits
The interesting effect of contraction here is that it seems most of the time to reduce our range of motion which reduces our perfromance, which actually reduces our risk. If we can't bend as deeply, we can't pick something up as heavy as otherwise. If we can't flex our ankles well, it's hard to go as fast to drive the sprint;  if we can't lift our sturnum, and extend our thoracic spine, it's harder to press a big weight over head. More contracture means less wieght, less load, less speed, less risk to us.

Startle reflex in action. And perhaps beer, too.
Startle. This kind of performance reducing contracture is pretty similar to a reflexive response known as startle (see above). In adults, when we see/hear something that is sudden and perceived as a threat, we involuntarily move to protect our squishy bits. Threat response.

If we understand contracture as a threat response - a bit more lasting than typical startle - that suggests that there may be SOMETHING happening in our environment that our nervous system (the nerves control the muscles) perceives as Not Right with the World.

So perhaps the knott or tightness or reduced range of motion is only a symptom, so attacking the symptom is like throwing oil into the engine all the time rather than finding and fixing the leak. Both solutions work, but one is less optimal and more costly than the other.


Finding the Leak
The tricky part about a threat response - a muscle contraction to keep us under performing in the presence of threat for our own protection - is that it may not be a muscular issue. It may not be that we haven't stretched enough, aren't warmed up enough. It may be that we have the wrong glasses, or are not getting enough sleep, or have a balance issue.  It may be that our feet - which have a whopping 24% of the joints in our bodies - are not moving very well so out bod feels less stable than it ought.


Movement. So finding the oil leak, finding what may be causing the contracture, may be a rich process of analysis and assessment, something that a movement specialist can help to check visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems.  In the meantime, what can help usually and immediately is a bit of movement.

Ah, you say, but with contracture one's movement is restricted, yes? Yes, exactly. But, one can pick a joint and focus very deliberately on making quality movements at that joint: the ankle, a finger, the neck, a knee. Go ahead, give it a go. If you feel you have something that's "tight" try moving a not tight joint through range of motion that is as perfect and lovely as possible, and then try the movement again. Any difference?


Why does a movement work? The nervous system is about the whole body, not about a joint. It seems that feeling quality movement anywhere helps soothe the threat response for the whole system. Safer system means less need for contracture to protect system. We've seen this before in the example of the arthrokinetic reflex. Something that effects one part of the system is experienced on some level in the rest of the system; something that improves performance at one part of the system helps the rest of the system. Isn't that wild?

And yet it makes sense: everything is just signals turning on and off in the brain. Everything looks the same in the brain, so something that makes part of the body happy, it tells the brain and may just feed back to tell the rest of the body we're doing fine-r? Why not?


Alternative to the foam roller? Towards cause and away from Symptom.
So that foam roller may seem like a fast (and cheap) solution to a problem, but is it a last(ing) solution? Why not give our brains a chance to work with the rest of us? a great way to do that is with movement to get to nerves to get to the brain to get back to the body.

If you'd like to learn more about movement to help with that nasty contracture problem, there are at least three options:



Bottom Line:
Those contractures are speaking to us. They're trying to tell us something about how we're doing. We can try to silence them by knocking them out till they pass out and give out (ie, squish them into shock release with a tennis ball), or we might try to find a way to improve our performance so that the contractures don't need to warn us we're in threat.


Related Posts
Related Text: Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques, Vol 1, 2nd Ed.

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    Posted by dr. m.c. at 20:27 2 comments

    Tuesday, April 26, 2011

    Rannoch Donald's pathless land of Resilience (including his latest tool test, the war machine)

    Rannoch Donald is an explorer and facilitator. In the UK, simplestrength's monk of the north is known for bringing to his back yard of Edinburgh the interesting edge of functional fitness culture.

    When he's interested in an idea someone is exploring, whether its myofascial manipulation or bodyweight movement (or hitting people with sticks), his response is not to peek at it in isolation, but to have a workshop for interested souls to check it out.

    When Steve Cotter kicked off his IKFF organization, Rannoch had him over. Mike Mahler has been up to talk about kettlebells and hormones. Frank Forencich of Exuberant Animal has visited as has Erwin Le Corre of NatMov has also been through.  Alvero Romano's hung out and taught.

    Rannoch's no snob of the "it's better from further away" school of thought: he's had up Jonathan Lewis up from London to do a trigger point workshop, and awhile ago, i got to make the trip to talk about tuning the perfect rep. Rannoch also offers his own kettlebell workshops and combat ready sessions. He's also the guy behind the simple if infectious 100 Reps Challenge. And anyone who's visited with him wants to come back again for more, which is a pretty good indicator of how welcome they felt and how well the events go.


    The Host with the Most Cool Tuls to Share The interesting thing - least ways for me - is that being a fitness workshop czar is not RDonald's main gig. It's a passion.  So who better to have a wee chat with about what the man calls truth as a pathless land?

    And i confess, knowing Rannoch to be a big explorer of Cool Tools that Actually Work, i wanted to find out about his affinity with a new suspension trainer, the War Machine, as he's managed to help bring that to the UK, too.

    Rannoch, what's "truth is a pathless land" that is the tag line at Simple Strength? where does that come from.
    The full qoute is "I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect." It is taken from a speech made by Jiddu Krishnamurti. At a young age he was was singled out as a vehicle for some sort of "second coming". What his patrons didn't realise was he was wiser than they could have imagined. He made this speech to the gathered masses of the "Order of the Star", disbanding the organisation and in order to simply live and teach without dogma, encouraging people to find their own way. His writings are exceptional. At their core is the plea that we find our own way, create our own path. If you are a fan of Bruce Lee you will find much of Lee's philosophy comes from Krishnamurti's writings. I have seen many intelligent, articulate people lose themselves and their critical faculties to some coach, trainer, guru or teacher. At workshops I simply tell people -  "This is what I do, it works for me, it might work for you. Take what is useful, discard that which is not, add what is your own" (You can credit Bruce Lee with the "Take what is useful..." part!)
    The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of ReasonTruth is a Pathless Land by J Krishnamurti, 1929. The Dissolution of the Order of the Star.
    "I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect."
    And while we are on the subject, I have to recommend "The End Of Faith" by Sam Harris. It is a book for our times.

    What I do is all about general ability, general health, general wellbeing. We don't spend enough time working on those fundamentals.

    Cool recommendations. But you don't just read and absorb these sources; you put them back out there. Why are you doing Simple Strength? This is part time-ish for you - what made you decide to start getting folks in for workshops?
    Simple Strength is my home. A place where I can do what I want. A place that lets me come in, sit down and think, write, experiment and share. 
    As for workshops, I started as a way to share what knowledge I had and to solidify my own experience. I have gained so much from the opportunity to work with others. As Robert Heinlein said "When one teaches, two learn". In time it became clear that there was an appetite for what I do, perhaps my take on things and it grew from there. I am particularly average, I am not some high performance athlete. What I do is all about general ability, general health, general wellbeing. We don't spend enough time working on those fundamentals. But again this is one of the problems of the fitness "industry". It is too busy telling people what to do when it should be focusing on what they are capable of. And my experience is that their capabilities are far more interesting that some arbitrary set of reps and sets.
    Ok speaking of arbitrary sets and reps, what inspired the 100 rep challenge?

    The 100 Rep challenge came about as a piece on Simple Strength. The 100 rep website grew out of that. The concept certainly isn't new. The idea is to simply practice 100 reps of some activity every day. It can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. The key is to do something that in some way makes up for the fact that we get so little movement in our day compared to our grandparents who walked more, ate less and who relied a lot less on the kind of convenieces we take for granted.  It has not begin to reach it's potential as a vehicle for simple daily practice. I have various folk who've contributed but I can see it needs to care and attention to bring it to a wider audience. Cj Swaby is using it as part of the Pheonix Project with Janey Madden which is aimed at helping women in abusive situations. Dr G of the Bartendaz has supported it with the outreach programs he delivers to schools in New York. The idea is to promote something that is free, simple and inclusive and has it roots in movement and daily practice.
    Rannoch inspiring 100 more reps
    So let's talk about daily practice for a bit. How do you train right now, cuz i've known you to do KB's, martial arts and indian clubs and likely more.
    Good question! My training is non-specific. I have problems with the whole “train like an athlete” mentality. If you are an athlete, great, go for it. But for most of us, general is better. Better in terms of application, better in terms of sustainability.

    I really want resilience - the ability to bounce back. Bigger, faster, stronger – as you get older these are all subject to decline, any disregard of that fact it an invitation for injury and pain. On the other hand, if you can cultivate resiliency it is timeless. The next year for me will focus on building that quality in everything I do.

    My practice consists of, in order of importance –
    Breath work, from simple breathing to specific Qi Gong drills I learned from Steve Cotter of the IKFF and the various martial arts teachers I have been lucky enough to study under. Next comes
    Mobility, breath work segues nicely into this and you can combine them easily. At workshops we teach Mandatory Mobility which I consider a daily non-negotiable practice of Toe to Head joint mobilisation.
    Next up is Bodyweight, really the cornerstone of physical resiliency, with a focus on basics: push ups, pull ups, dynamic whole body drills combined with the War Machine Suspension trainer and band work.
    krav maga in edinburgh with RD

    Finally, Kettlebells and the Ultimate Sandbag feature two or three times a week. I tend to focus on snatch and clean + jerk. With the Sandbag I work complexes.  I set the Gymboss timer and off I go.  With kettlebells I generally work intervals, messing around with work vs rest. I am not really interested in the competition aspect but I love the lifts, the intensity and the focus. Most of all I try and move, keep a little gas in the tank and keep it playful! That is the key.
    Keeping it Playful with the new toy, the war machine

    During the week I will take the odd short run or rollerblade to keep things loose. When the opportunity presents itself I will work the heavy bag for rounds. I also do what I call shadow play, like shadow boxing but incorporating all sorts of movement, letting the body shift effortlessly through various combinations, improvising floor work, rolling, tumbling, generally messing around!

    To be clear, all of the above are done as brief, intermittent bursts of activity with widely varying degrees of intensity.

    The training model for everything I do is practice, incremental progress and very occasional performance. Performance is the arena and we only go there occasionally because the price of admission is the potential for injury.

    On the flip side I make recovery an equal to training. So sleep, meditation, eating cleanly and of course Mandatory Mobility all play key roles.

    In the last year I’ve been inspired by Frank Forencich’s excellent “Change Your Body, Change the World” which focuses on the “infectiousness” of our lifestyles. Also Mark Lauren’s superb “You Are Your Own Gym” which is the best bodyweight training book I have come across, by far. Both authors are emblematic of their approach which is hugely important to me.
    When did this workout part of your life kick off, Rannoch? Has it phased and cycled, or always been as regular as it is over these past few years?
    I have always loved just moving. As a kid I wanted to be a stuntman. Once I got in to martial arts we started to incorporate that natural athleticism into everything we did. Growing up, my friend Alec and I would throw ourselves around, jump walls, kick, punch, and cartwheel. There’s really is nothing new. When I look at Parkour is see amazing skill but in essence, it’s no different from the freedom of expression all kids should have.

    Over the years I have been lucky enough to train with all kinds of people and every single one of them has informed what I do in some way. The common thread is always natural movement. In the last year I have worked with and been inspired by Jonathan Lewis of Balance Performance, Erwan Le Corre creator of MovNat and Alvaro Romano of Ginastica Natural all of whom display beautiful, dynamic, natural movement. I am a big fan of Tom Myers definition of fitness as “The ability to adapt to the demands of your environment with ease and imagination”

    I worked in the music business for years, not the most conducive lifestyle for staying healthy. My training ebbed and flowed but I never stopped. It took a broken leg about six years ago to get me back on the track of regular training and wellness. I guess I had my moment of clarity and realised there was an opportunity to achieve and sustain a decent level of health and wellbeing.
    I understand you got formally certified as a kb swinger in 2007 - how'd that start - why kb's?
    After I broke my leg I had physiotherapy and rehab on the National Health. Nothing they did or spoke about seemed focus on anything but the bare minimum in terms of recovery. So I went back to my roots, combat style conditioning. I came across some bodyweight drills by Pavel Tsatsouline which led me to a couple of articles in Muscle Media. I loved the simplicity of it. There was an article about pull ups, push ups and pistols which showed some Kettlebell drills. I picked up a kettlestack initially and then worked my way through various kettlebells eventually going on to certify with Pavel in Denmark.

    Rannoch with Steve
    The hard style approach made sense to me, particularly the similarities with Karate in terms of power generation. Then I met Steve Cotter of the IKFF and realised, for me, a lot of what I had been doing was really entry level stuff. I had a similar experience when I moved from Karate to Wing Chun. I realised that the real art is making the difficult appear effortless.
    You've also been going a little nuts on vertical standing jumps. what's that about?
    That is fun! My friend, S+C coach, Joel Proskewitz (of the strength company) made the mistake of posting a 37” jump on Facebook. I went to the Gym with my son Pete who’s 16 and he proceeded to hit 40”. Andy McKenzie from IronMac joined in and the next thing we knew Andy hit 47”. Since then we’ve been pushing it trying to beat the current Guinness Book record of 50”.
    As a result of all this, Joel is hosting the Podium Gold Jump Challenge at Body Power at the NEC in May. So that simple little clip morphed into a healthy competition and I am confident someone will break the record on the day. You should come up and join us.
    Uh huh. Ok, now let's talk a little bit about this passion for the intriguingly named War Machine? How did you first hear about it?
    I came across a clip of the War Machine on line. I thought it looked like tremendous fun so I contacted Brendan Cosso from Crosscore in the USA and the moment I spoke with him I knew I had to have one. He’s a guy who trains for the sheer joy of moving and shares a very similar philosophy when it comes to training.

    don't you just want one? start to play now?

    Ya - i'm trying to get a walk through with him of the best video i've seen for having fun working out. I love this vid (pictured above).

    So among all the stuff you do, where does the WM fit into your training mix?
    The War Machine is the missing link for me. It adds a whole new challenge in terms of stability and rotation. As a bodyweight fan it is fantastic to have a piece of equipment that allows us to challenge traditional movements. It is also very scalable, allowing you to practice and progress simply by changing body position. Once you get the basics you Pull the Pin and a whole other world opens up!
    Pulling the pin meaning that you're letting the wheel in the pulley run free. Pin in, the cables are pretty static, a la regular suspension trainers. It is truly a different experience. Had you trained with suspension trainers before?
    I have and I love them. I had a TRX which I replaced with the Jungle Gym. Both good pieces of gear. But as Andy McKenzie says “The TRX is a warm up for the War Machine”.
    You've been instrumental in getting the WM to the UK - there's lots of cool gear out there. Why the WM?
    As you know, I like simple. The War Machine fits the brief but it is a really flexible piece of kit. The pulley system is unique in terms of the challenge it provides. You can take very capable, conditioned athletes and they will struggle with simple suspended push ups when the Pin is Pulled and the pulley is free. It encourages play, it encourages imaginative movement. You have to really engage the whole body rather than going through the motions and it’s easy to simulate the push and pull of competitive sports.
    I own it's taken me time to find my way into this tool. Now i'm kinda hooked.  Mentally it's been challenging not to be frustrated by surprisingly how hard it can be to find the not too hard, not too easy work out. Putting in the time is worth it though. I'm very surprised by the effectiveness and transference effects from it.

    My fave is the rope climbing simulation. With Mike Saffie's Grappler Grips.  That for me is the unique total wonderful win - for someone who doesn't have room to sling a rope.

    Is there anything that you find you can do with the WM that is unique to it that has become core to your work?
    It is an incredibly versatile piece of kit. You can attach stretch bands and use it as a pulley system. You can attach different handles or grips from gymnastic rings to Gi sleeves to Fat Gripz (another very cool piece of kit by the way). And it’s not limited to strength training, I work various drills to open my hips, shoulders and lower back. The possibilities are fantastic, have you tried wall walking on it? That is one serious challenge!
    Yes i have tried wall walking in so far as doing two walls at a time (kinda splits position) - haven't had a set up to go against a wall yet ... but as that's the in thing, now, welll i'll just have to give it a go.

    How will the WM be factoring into any of your workshops, Rannoch?  That's a little more of an investment for workshop gear than kbs?
    I think, within our community, people will be keen to get a taste of the War Machine. I plan to simply get folk along to try it out and make an informed decision. It not a piece of kit you will outgrow. I see it as part of the training continuum.
    I'm really intrigued the way you've had this immediate click with the gear. Personally it's taken patience on my part to shift from a "lift heavy thing. unk" to exploring the challenges it can open up. Way to go. Now i understand you're going to be heading to BodyPower. What is that, and  how does the WM fit into that?
    War Machine is making its official launch at Body Power, "the UK’s foremost Health and Fitness Expo at the NEC in Birmingham (May 21/22)."  Jonathan Lewis of Balance Performance in London will be there along with Andy McKenzie of IronMac to demonstrate the War Machine and let folks get their hands on with it. Beaver Fit are supplying their Spartan Rigs for presentations in the Work Out Area and on the Main Stage where Andy will be showing everyone the unique properties of the War Machine.
    If folks in the UK want to get this cool tool, and pull their own pin, where do they go??
    You can order it from Balance Performance in London and Beaver Fit are supplying it as part of their preferred kit for their amazing rigs.

    "Resilience. Resilience - the ability to bounce back- that is the key. Everything else is subject to entropy."


    That's super. Thanks R. Let's wrap up on lessons to share. What's the most important thing you've taken away from your practice that you think folks should know?
    Resilience. Resilience - the ability to bounce back- that is the key. Everything else is subject to entropy. We may aspire to be bigger, faster, stronger. But somewhere along the way we will become smaller, slower, weaker. Resilience is available for the duration of the journey. The ability to bounce back in the face of obstacles, injury, change and uncertainty. It breeds humour, generosity, gratitide and buckets of strength. It is the most important thing we can develop, mentally, physically, emotionally. And if in doubt...MOVE.

    Rannoch with indian clubs and Kali sticks, moving
    Thanks kiddo. Awesome. Best with Body Power and your zen time at the Simple Strength Shack.

    Aside
    Why WM at b2d.  I don't promote stuff on b2d unless i've worked with it for awhile and have confidence in it. i'm at that place with cross core's war machine (as with kettlebells and bands and pull ups). So i'll have more on the WM on b2d in coming posts. Just for context, i first interviewed the WM's creator and company president (Brendan Cosso and JP Brice) in the summer of 2010 after seeing Rannoch post about it on facebook; i've been playing and working with the tool since then so feel comfy now bringing out those interviews and posts. It's been a revelation to me; hope it will be fun for you, too.

    In the meantime,
    If you're in the UK and interested in the War Machine, please contact Rannoch or Jonathan via their european site

    If you're in the US, you can contact CrossCore directly at the WM site - and please check out the vids.




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    Posted by dr. m.c. at 13:18 0 comments

    Monday, April 25, 2011

    Sprint Technique as Slow (or Fast) Active Recovery within a Run

    Vibram Fivefingers Bikila LS - happy feet.
    So i was out for a longer run yesterday, it being Sunday and all, and some new shoes to test out (the ls version of the bikila - in a word, love any bikila any time; best runners ever) and at various points i was sucking a bit of air.

    As i've written about before, i like to gait my regular run tempo for the most part by being able to breath in and o ut through my nose for the most part or in through nose, out by mouth if not. But what happens when hitting an "i'm breathing through my mouth" patch - and the only choice is seemingly to slow it down? How about change it up, instead?

    What i did was work on sprint technique during a few of these jags: i don't mean SPRINTing; i mean sprint technique: getting the knees way up and heels in right under the butt, dorsiflexed way up, nice round turn over with some A/B/C march/skip work.

    Nice wee sample of A, B and C skips for sprint practice.

    That technique work is slower than my current (pretty slow already) pace, but it's a different set of muscles getting moved in different ways, and you try knees way up for 50m and see how you feel. The benefit i found was that i could keep moving, practice form, and recover. Which for me means getting my breathing back under control.

    At another point, when i started breathing harder, i started running harder putting that form practice to the test. After all, wanted to do something to warrant that extra 02. I'm not sucking wind; i'm sprinting - i have a right to breath hard.

    If i'd done this kind of switch around in the weight room, we would be talking about Active Recovery - where the benefit of the exercise is increased if - when not doing maximal work - one does another movement rather than nothing at all.


    So that's a double kind of tempo shift in one long run - both for the sake of recovery from fatigue while getting some quality work thrown in: technique on the one hand and energy system work on the other.

    When i was running cross country in uni, we'd go for fartlek runs, but the "ok run hard between these two points, then do recovery" or "run an 800 fast then do two 800s for recovery" always felt like work, and very arbitrary. I'm sure it's a great idea; lots of great results from switching stuff up. HIIT intervals on a specific schedule for instance also show results.

    But heck, i was just going for a quality long run on a sunday. I felt happier and more successful in terms of finding these possibilities within a run - again, gaited around breathing quality - that i can only say, as with so much else in health and fitness practice - i'd had such insights (or the coaches had) when i was doing this "seriously."

    If you'd like to check out more drills, check out the Complete Athlete DVD, vo1 1 (review here)

    In the meanwhile, if you give this kind of breathing-oriented tempo/technique  shift up / shift down a go during a run, let me know, please what you think/find.

    best
    mc



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