Ho Ho Ho!
Where ever you are and however you celebrate, I wanted to send you all my warmest wishes.
All the best for the season and in the New Year.
Yours in movement.
Dev Chengkalath
Train like an athlete.
Let me break it down a little bit more.
If you really just want to look good naked, train like an athlete.
Especially one that puts in a lot of effort.
For most people, the health benefits of exercise actually take a secondary role to looking good. This crosses all boundaries and people-types, and is true in approximately 96.75% of people out there. Approximately.
Serious Athletic Training
There are many thoughts and theories as to why this is the case, but that’s for another post on another blog.
Here we’ll stick to outlining four principles that fall under the Law of Adaptation that you MUST take into consideration with your training program (or the ones you make for your clients) in order to see results.
First off, I think it would be best if we define adaptation.
Generally speaking, adaptation refers to the changes that take place in an organism as it adjusts to its environment, in order to ensure survival. This holds true in athletics as it does in the wild kingdom.
I mean, haven’t you thought to yourself on those brutal training days: “I just need to survive this workout!”
Adaptation: fur coats to face the cold
Physical training, when applied in a specific manner, creates a powerful stimulus for the Law of Adaptation to take place. And that’s what movement is all about. It’s the stimulus that keeps our bodies going.
Through careful planning, preparation, and execution, a systematic strength and conditioning training regimen should result in significant improvements in athletic prowess and performance.
If your training is set up properly, you will see these changes in a very short period of time.
Which is in contrast to all those people you see at the gym, who look exactly the same 1, 2 or 3 years after they’ve started working out.
So without further ado, here are those Laws I know you’ve all been waiting for!
The Law of Adaptation
(as described by Zatsiorsky and Kraemer in “Science and Practice of Strength Training”)
So there’s the basis of how you should set up your own, or your clients’ training programs.
I’ll delve deeper into each area in the next couple days, so keep coming back for some more juicy movement science tidbits.
Yours in adaptation,
Feel the burn.
Well folks, that’s exactly what I did. And did it burn.
In fact, the chorus of Disco Inferno kept running through my head.
“Burn baby! Burn!”
The saddest part: there was no iron involved!
Here’s the story of Day 1 of my journey of movement. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I actually do, because it really was just yesterday. Since I’ve recently moved into a new apartment, there is a serious lack of furniture in my living room. In one sense, this should cause me distress as I have nowhere to sit, but in another, this leaves me with quite a bit more room to “train” at home.
What my muscles were singing
I use the term train loosely as it wasn’t more than about 25 minutes of bodyweight movements. But it sure felt like the minutes kept ticking. Slowly. Ever so slowly.
I started with some basic warm up movements, similar to those outlined in my free report. Got my glutes warmed up. Got my heart rate up a bit. Activated my scapulae. That was the first 6-7 minutes.
The next 18 minutes of doom involved me going through various circuits of lunges, squats, planks, burpees, push ups and dynamic quasi-yoga poses.
“Burn Baby! Burn!”
There was that familiar refrain dancing its way through my mind’s ear (if your mind can have an eye, shouldn’t it have ears as well?).
As quick as a winter snowsquall, it was over. As with a winter snowsquall, it left its mark.
These were not used in my workout.
Usually I find it takes about 2 days for DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness-you know that deep muscle ache that causes descending stairs to become the bane of one’s existence, that lingering malaise when seating oneself onto the toilet seat-you know the one!) to set in.
No such luck! I had IOMS. Instantaneous Onset of Muscle Soreness. And today, it goes much deeper. Every movement, every action, every hop, skip or jump, I’m reminded that I brought this onto myself.
AND I LOVE IT!
This is my journey. Thanks for coming along.
Dev Chengkalath
Here’s my dirty little secret.
Over the course of the past 6-8 weeks I’ve let my training slip. Yup. Big-time.
It didn’t happen suddenly, mind you. In fact, I didn’t even really notice a big change at all. It was more of a combination of a bunch of little changes that, when summed up, were horrible!
After years of fairly consistent training and nutrition, I’d let myself slide.
I’d heard all the excuses before.
Putting off the workouts because something else more pressing at the time came up: dinner with friends, a “must-see” TV show, a crisis at work, overtime or any other number of excuses or events.Too tired, too hungry, or any other “toos”.
And I’d heard of the repercussions as well.
The weight gain. The muscle loss. The waning energy levels. Disturbed sleep. Depression.
I’ve had clients tell me they just wake up one day and find that they’re unable to fit into their favourite pair of jeans, out of shape, with aching joints, or low back pain.
Even climbing a simple set of stairs would leave them breathless. True de-conditioning.
I’ve seen this in my clients and now I’m starting to see this in myself. Well, not exactly to that level.
But enough to make me stop and take stock.
How could this happen?
I’m an experienced healthcare professional who has access to all the best training and nutritional information anyone would EVER need to build their ultimate body.
I’m surrounded by some of the top therapists and conditioning specialists in Toronto (SHAPE Toronto). I’m an online moderator on the forums of one of the top nutrition systems in the world (Precision Nutrition). I have numerous degrees and designations in physical therapy and fitness.
But somewhere along the line, I let myself know everything but do nothing.
Not familiar?
When told about something, many people, and I’m just as guilty of this, will say “I know, I know!”.
Everyone knows how important exercise is; everyone knows eating healthy will make a dramatic difference; smokers know smoking is bad for them; most people know lots. The knowledge is out there.
But it’s one thing to know something.
It’s a completely different thing to do something about it.
And that’s where I stand. I know lots but have done nothing. I’ve been dispensing the advice but not taking it myself.
I’ve failed at consistent application of my training and nutrition habits.
A not so subtle softness has descended upon my midsection. What once was rock hard and chiseled is now a shadow of its former self. My arms and legs have atrophied from their previous proportionate states. I would be deluding myself if I thought I could play even half a soccer match, let alone 90 minutes on the pitch.
Don’t get me wrong. I still think I look like I workout.
The problem is that I just look like a smaller, softer and weaker version.
This is where it hurts and I’m loathe to admit it, but my body is not a body I’m proud of anymore.
In this blog series I will chronicle my journey toward my ultimate body. I will detail my trials and tribulations. My fortunes and my frustrations. My successes and my failures.
This will be a small part of my MAGIC HUNDRED.
This will be me, overcoming my inertia.
This will be my return to the iron.
Dev Chengkalath
This clip epitomizes for me the concept of ultimate motor control and human performance.
Every time I watch it, I feel as though I need to focus on how I’m moving and and how I can make it better.
It drives me to become the master of my movements. Precise. Efficient. Fluid.
I’m always amazed at what the human body is capable of achieving when inspired toward greatness.
I’d love to know what goes through your mind when you see awesome feats such as the ones above.
Please leave a comment!
To finding your balance.
Dev Chengkalath