fitness

I highly suggest making yourself a Forge

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in Deep Breathing, Environment, fitness, Health, high intensity, meditation, Philosopy, strength training, Stress, Success, Workouts

I have always wanted a garage. A place where I can do the things that I want to do. Build an electromyography thing with Arduino. Paint a painting. Work on my car. Dance alone. Do kickboxing.

I finally have a garage that is really mine (and my life partner’s too). And, I’ve been going into it every morning and working out in a high-intensity interval training way. I’ll do at least 30 minutes of Tabata with each 10 minute block being 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. My level of precision is +- 2 or 3 minutes between blocks and +- 10 seconds during the Tabata work. I’ll use dumb bells, punching bag, rings, medicine ball, bands, jump rope, whatever and with music that fires me up. I breathe through my nose as much as I can. I watch my heart rate. I work to get myself moving between 130 and 160. Above 160, I will back off a bit till I recover down to about 120.

But, the thing I have noticed is that breathing through the nose, and there are papers on this, produces more nitric oxide (one nitrogen atom and one oxygen atom) in the blood than breathing through the mouth does. This seems to create in me a dissociative effect. This effect appears to allow me to tap into some kind of awareness. It’s probably endorphins, too. Other people know more than I do here. This has completely changed my life.

[Side note for my EverStrongSF people, yes, I know this is different from what we do there. EverStrongSF is the minimum effective dose and it absolutely works over time with a consistent application of the stimulus. I’m actually working towards the most effective dose. I don’t want to do the minimum.]

After all this, I realize it’s not a garage I’ve always wanted. It’s a Forge. A Forge where I can build myself.

I write this because maybe other people want a Forge, too. It doesn’t have to be a garage. It can be where ever you want it. I think if you make yourself a Forge, you can build yourself up. I think that’s what I’m doing.

9 Common mistakes for back pain sufferers and how to avoid them

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in Back Pain, diet, fitness, Health

Welcome to the straight and unconfused path to getting out of back pain and getting back to a healthy and athletic life. If you are reading this, then you have taken the first step to getting out of pain and back to your kids, friends, sports, and fun. Back to your  life.

I used to suffer from terrible back pain and even had surgery that didn’t fix my pain. Through a lot of trial and error, I have found the principles necessary to get out of pain. Now, I’m sharing.

What follows are the key mistakes I have found both with myself and from interviewing other sufferers of back pain. Check these out and make sure you stay well out out the mistake zone!

Mistake #1 – Not getting help

By far, the biggest mistake that back pain sufferers make is to try and go it alone. For some reason, asking for help is just not in the cannon. For some reason, people will think they can solve it on their own. Rather than looking for someone who can help, they will try stretches and then wonder why in the world this horrid pain has been bestowed upon them. The best thing you can do is to go and get checked out by a doctor and not a very confident but incorrect friend.

Mistake #2 – Not getting educated about the back

This is huge. People do not seek out information about how the back works and what treatments are available. When you know nothing about what might be going on in the back, then whatever treatment that is finally pursued is based on “feel”. People don’t know what treatments are most effective. As a result, people effectively guess what might work and then try that for a few wasted months. Enter your name and email on the right to get educated. 

Mistake #3 – Not being proactive

When you have chronic pain, it can be very hard to do something about it. The pain is very limiting and all encompassing. Quickly the victim mentality can set in. This is very understandable because the pain can wreak havoc on your mental state. They key here is to channel that sadness into an aggressive desire for relief. It is completely possible to get that relief and you must drive towards it with positive aggression not accepting what won’t work. Get proactive.

Mistake #4 – Doing the same ineffective thing over and over

This is a tough one. You’ve been seeing your back person and doing the scheduled follow ups but you are not getting any better. If this is happening, then the treatment is not effective and you need to stop and find another option. However, see mistake #1 and #2 above. Not knowing what the issue is will again lead to another guess on what might work. Take stock of where you are and if you are making progress. Cut out what’s not working and get educated. 

Mistake #5 – Accepting weak and injured as an identity

For people who have back pain that is chronic and severe, it’s awful. Terrible. Awful. It can destroy your mental and emotional state because the pain wears you down. If there is no relief from the pain and it goes on for days or even weeks, it’s hell. Part of that is the idea that you can’t do anything about it. This is completely untrue. It’s a mindset that has grown from the pain. You can switch that mindset to one of overcoming the pain and drive energy towards that outcome. Do it now!

Mistake #6 – Stretching incorrectly after sitting

If your low back is hurting, forward bends are likely to make it worse. If there is a kyphosis of the lower spine accompanied by pain from long periods of sitting, then a forward bend is going to multiply the pain by intensity and time. Don’t do it. Get educated about the hips and do movements and stretches that will activate the neuromuscular motor units in the right musculature…in this case the muscles of the anterior hip joint. An iliopsoas stretch may be the right one to employ. 

Mistake #7 – Being inactive

The more you are inactive during pain, the longer the pain will last. The movement pathway in the nervous system is the same as the pain pathway. While you really should take it easy if there is an injury and you need to keep that area immobile to heal, often with chronic back pain there isn’t an injury from a particular incident or the major healing has already taken place.

Once the severe pain period is over, doctor approved light everyday activity needs to happen. Blood flow to the area will help it feel better. Movement will help it feel better. Often the common prescription from doctors is to take acetaminophen and stay active. This is often the least followed advice but the most effective.

Mistake #8 – Believing there is no exercise you can do

When you are immobile, there are other areas of the body that can be exercised. If you can’t lift something, you can probably do leg extensions or a chest press or a pull down in a gym. You can ride a stationary bike or you can swim. There is movement you can do and that movement will help you get out of pain and heal. Find movements that you can do. Email me if you need help at abe@backathletic.com.

Mistake #9 – Overlooking a huge thing you can control – diet

If you can’t get up because of back pain or you can only walk to the bathroom, then one very powerful thing you can work on is your diet. You can skip bread, crackers, cookies, sweets (including fruit), and anything starchy and eat vegetables, nuts and seeds. This is a very simple thing in concept you can do to lose weight while you are inactive. The most effective way to lose weight is with diet changes switching to  lower energy or lower-glycemic foods. It also happens to be something that is very easily done when you are unable to be active. It’s just a decision and then chewing.

That’s it! These are the 9 common mistakes of back pain. Do the opposite! Be the person who doesn’t make these mistakes. Commit to getting help and getting educated. Don’t waste another minute of your life believing you can’t do anything about your back pain and take action. Learn the right movements and stretches that will help you. Get active and stay active to prevent back pain. Remove starchy sugary foods and eat healthy vegetables so you can improve whether you are in pain or not!

Your partner in ending back pain,

Abe

 

 

The Minimalist Guide to the Foundation Back Exercise Program

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in Back Pain, fitness, Tutorials

When you have back pain, you want to be out of pain and to be stronger so it never happens again. It’s about getting out of that pain and never having it again. Back pain can linger. It can be all the way up to level 11 and then hover around 3 or 4 for days. Sometimes, it seems like it will never go away. Sometimes you know what caused the pain, but often you don’t. It’s a mystery. Maybe it was when I carried the trash can or maybe when I twisted in the car to get something out of the back seat? Switching to the detective mindset is very common for back pain sufferers.

When a friend of mine recommended that I check out the Foundation Training program to help with back pain. I bought the book on my kindle and read it front to back the very same day. I wrote down the exercises on a 3×5 note card along with the protocol and did it every day for 6 weeks. I got very familiar with each and every exercise and did them all. Here’s a shot of the book on Amazon.

Image of the Foundation book on Amazon

I had back surgery 14 years ago and did physical therapy, acupuncture, active release technique, chiropractic care, rolfing, yoga, stretching, strength training and all kinds of foam rolling. Nothing got me as far as the Foundation program.

If you’ve ever worked on your posture where you’d try to sit straight and then realize you were slumped, then this is something that will completely surprise you. It surprised me because after about 3 weeks into the exercises I’d check my posture and find that my posture felt perfect. I wasn’t even trying. Also, any time I felt my back feeling a bit weak, I’d do the exercises and come out able to move more freely and without pain. Nothing I had done before ever worked this well.

If you’re suffering from constant back pain, here’s the fast path I recommend.

  1. Get Ok’d by a doctor and read this post on the steps to end back pain. 
  2. Get the kindle version of the book and jump right to chapter 4 and read it to get the main principle of the S-curve.
  3. Read chapter 5 on the Basic Workout.
  4. Get a 3×5 index card or sheet of paper and write down the exercise progressions.
  5. Pick up a yoga mat if needed.
  6. Do the exercises every morning for 15 minutes for 6 weeks.
  7. Refer back to chapter 5 often as you will refine the movements as you get more familiar with them.

Make the workouts practical

I wish the book had just this basic workout on one page with the progressions laid out. If you try to do the workout from the book, you’ll end up flipping through the pages back and forth as you try to remember what move comes after the one you are doing and how long you do it.

Essentially, you can get stuck trying to remember the name of the exercise and the progressions. To overcome this, I made this terrible set of drawings for my daughters. It’s not pretty but it works. You can do the same or download the cheatsheet.

An 3x5 index card with foundation exercises

Here’s a list of the exercises.

  1. Foundation Pose Progressions
    1. Foundation pose with arms back 20 seconds
    2. Foundation pose with arms up 20 seconds
    3. Hip hinge 15 seconds
    4. Back to Foundation pose with arms back 15 seconds
    5. Foundation pose with arms up 15 seconds
  2. Back Extension 15 reps with hands by rib cage and elbows pulled back
  3. Back Extension with legs off the ground and knees and ankles pressed together 20 second hold
  4. Child’s pose for however long you want
  5. Kneeling Foundation pose with arms back 15 seconds, arms up 15 seconds
  6. Iliopsoas stretch both sides 20 seconds

Stick with it!

Often the exercises can be painful to do, do them anyway as they say. The exercises are very uncomfortable. Still, It can be very uncomfortable to get the low back into an S-curve. Follow their advice and stick with it. Refer back to chapter 5 for tips on the exercises. You always learn more about an exercise once you’ve done it and then reread the instructions. Really, in 6 weeks time, you will have a much improved back!

Resources

 

German Volume Training Results

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in fitness, Success, Workouts 37 Comments

If you’ve ever been serious about building muscle, then you have likely come across Strength Sensei. This guy is at the top of the list for Strength Coaches. If you looked there, then you’ve probably checked other sites, too. You’ve probably come across all kinds of methods and maybe even tried a few. Personally, I have tried many and through that journey learned how to drop body fat and increase strength. I’m on this search because strength, both mental and physical, is one of my key values. Physical training builds both mental and physical strength at the same time. 

I discovered  German Volume Training (GVT) from the link above and decided to try it out to see if I could put more muscle on my ectomorph frame. I just went through the awful but doable protocol for 6 cycles.

Results:

My weight when I started on August 4th was 157 lbs and 13.6% body fat. Today, September 6th, my weight is 168 and my body fat is 13.3%.  These are the best results I’ve ever had from a training regimen focused on muscle growth.

My daughter and I were looking at some older photos yesterday, and she said, “You look the same, except you are more muscle-y now.” I’ll conclude that it works.

Given my experience with different exercise schemes, I would venture that the key variable in building muscle is time under tension consistently and that thinking a rep count protocol is the main factor determining whether your results are strength, definition, or hypertrophy is very misleading. You could crank out 10 reps in 15 seconds for 3 sets for a total time under tension of 45 seconds, or do a 5×5 session for a total time under tension of 1 minute (excluding rest periods). My normal time under tension with GVT in one set was about 40 seconds: 3 seconds down in the negative, no rest, 1 second contracting up, no rest to the negative. 10 sets of GVT is about 6.5 minutes under tension. I don’t recall any rep protocol demanding that much time under tension.

I had to put my ego aside and do lighter weights to do this GVT protocol. So, if you consider it, definitely be prepared for that length of time under tension. I’m glad to be finished with the 6th cycle. It’s time for a change up. More on that later…

 

 

DIY Soylent

Posted by abraham.williams@gmail.com on in fitness, Food, Health
Eating clean can be hard. Eating and measuring amounts so you can see food effects is also hard. It takes time. My daily life requires a lot of time and energy already. So, I’ve switched to a meal replacement plan that is pretty easy to manage. In today’s terms, it’s called DIY Soylent.

I got myself a NUTRiBULLET blender for convenience and spend about 10 minutes making my Soylent in the morning. Here’s my recipe that gets me a considerable portion of my calories, and I can knock out two meals with. I do my higher carb shake post workout. Note: the quinoa was key to feel satiated.

I also include the following in my protein mix…

High Carb Soylent

Protein Carbs Fat
Protein 2 scoops 40
Quinoa 1 cup 24 109 10
Carrot 6
Banana 27
Peanut butter 8 8
Total 72 142 18

Low Carb Soylent

Protein Carbs Fat
Protein 2 scoops 40
Quinoa .5 12 58 5
Carrot 6
Banana 27
Peanut butter 8 8
Total 60 91 13