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Pain Leads to Pain Free

I’m not sure what was the hardest part of this last week, let’s review: Started this all with RKC II in San Jose and the physical and emotional issues that I noted in my last (now famous!) post. I had some issues at home with my daughters, nothing bad at all and the fathers of daughters who read this will nod gently, and I had to get up at 3:30 to catch my flight. I got off the plane, shuttled over to where Tiff left the car days before when SHE LEFT to go “somewhere,” drove to work, taught all day, had the first day of Track and Field Practice, graded my tests, dealt with my college classes and went to bed.

That was the easiest day of the week, by the way. The RKC II instilled some new drills into me and I decided to share them with my students. Although I couldn’t do a windmill in San Jose, teaching it slowly limbered me up. I took Dr. Jeff McCombs advice, to see his work go here: go to www.mccombsplan.com, and began finding a half an hour a day to hot tub. Think it is easy? Try finding a half an hour to sweat it out. He also advised me to look at my diet a bit and I’m telling you this guy is good. I suddenly realized a few things about why I thrived on Atkins, the Meat Leaves and Berries Diet, and the Velocity Diet. I need more protein and I might have some issues with breads and sugar.
Tweaking the diet, hot tubbing, Kettlebell yoga and some sleep have miraculously cured much of my reinjured hip issues. I was doing so well until I popped it at the state weightlifting meet. Alas.

What’s the point of all of this? Well, I don’t know, I rarely know the point. I think it might be something like this: We tend to ignore the things that work for us and keep looking over the fence at our neighbor’s grass. I “know” what makes me work but I lack the discipline to follow it.

Interested in hearing me? I’m in Sunnyvale, California next weekend.

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A Bit of Honesty

Without a doubt, my experience this weekend was humbling. As I digest what I learned, I have had a chance to look deep in the mirror. My performance on Saturday, especially, just makes me wonder.

I have journal entries that state “Who is this guy?” after bad workouts or poor competitive performances. I try to disassociate myself from bad efforts as it seems to keep one emotionally (and probably all the other “allys,” too) moving forward.

I came in injured, maybe just hurt. I have been struggling with this hip issue and blew it up two weeks ahead of time with a new state record in the snatch (not much of a lift, but, well, whatever). Then, a week out, I popped my left elbow doing lots of pullups. I swore I had never been hurt before, but Tiffini (my wife who, for whatever reason, continues to love me) noted “Yes, except for that one surgery on that elbow, you have never injured it.”

The RKC experience is an opportunity to get called out physically, intellectually and emotionally. By Day Two, I was a wreck and I began to literally shrink. Pavel and Brett were wonderful in their encouragement and, honestly, I couldn’t find a better partner than Jeff McComb.

Here is the issue: I couldn’t do a windmill, I couldn’t do a Bent Press, I couldn’t do anything. The pullups and pistols work (where I just got EXPOSED) had left me sore. Moreover, I shrunk. It was like being on the bad end of a big loss; I got smaller.

I couldn’t push my hips, I couldn’t twist…I was done. “Who is this guy?”

Sunday, I think I rallied back even to the point of doing extra work and finding who I am again. The ideas have been tossing around in my head since then: how much emotional impact is there in physical training? Did I, as I assumed (I think wrongly now) “shrink” in front of my cadre?

This insight leaped me into a great realization about why training to failure is such…a failure. You literally make failure a normative movement. The body responds by saving itself the time and effort by reducing the time and effort it takes to fail.

On Sunday, I could do a Windmill even though “on paper,” I was trashed. Today, teaching my javelin throwers, I nailed a Windmill that would make Goddess DuCane not wince and would only encourage Team Leader Jones to make 20 or so corrections (well below the mark from this weekend when I did my work).

So, I sat there spinning this around my head wondering about the impact of emotions upon our training. Is it possible that “Stage Fright” can have the same impact on participants at a clinic? I think “yes.” I have always understood the importance of the emotional side of lifting, that all consuming rage that is masked by a face of calm and humor, but now I am also thinking that it can destroy something as simple as a “Kettlebell Yoga” move like the windmill.

It’s like a rhetorical question: one can answer right, but the speaker will still correct the answer. On Saturday, I let my embarrassment of physical laxity drain my ability to perform. Like a fifth grade girl singing “Tomorrow” and forgetting it’s only a day away, I tightened up and ruined my ability to be “me.”

Not that “me” is so great, but the insight that if I panic under the stress of the friendly atmosphere of the RKC II, one can only imagine the stress of our students, clients and athletes when we call upon them to go outside their little comfort zone. Literally, I had to reinvent myself in just a few hours to let myself “go” and move again at our certification.

The emotional hit of floundering was unexpected and humbling. But, I won’t forget the lessons.

“You look stressed”

Jeff O’Connor to Dan John.

Yep, first day of track season. RKC II finished last night. 3:30 wake up call, early flight, long day teaching and behind on my college grades. Oh, and the whole “move” thing.

I sometimes show my stress. Sometimes I just can’t keep up. I guess last night was one of those times. It’s hard to keep things juggling, but the upside of trying to maximize life is that sometimes your life strikes back.

I will put my notes from the RKC up within the next few days. But, it is amazing how much you can learn when the best of the best are teaching you. Very impressive stuff. I need pictures and hopefully I can pop some up. Sorry for the lack of clarity.

I won’t stress about it.

Journal Entries

I’m trying something for Lent, actually, I do this every year, where I write down everything I eat each day. On top of this I am also rereading some Tony Robbins stuff as well as working on a book and trying to prepare for about five things physically. So, I am keeping my journal full of all my notes in each one of these different “things.”

I am convinced that there is a synergy in doing things like this in something like a journal. If I see “CANI,” which is “Constant and Never Ending Improvement” next to the fact that I ate chips as a snack, it resonates inside my head as a bit of conflict. If I make a few notes about the importance of really understanding what Qualities I need to focus on for my goals, it doesn’t hurt for me to look at some chapter notes that agree with this point.

Which raises some questions: first, do journals really help? I have kept mine since 1971, so probably I am on the “pro-journal” side. Others, like Art DeVany argue that diaries and journals (for training) just get us focused back into the whole Industrial revolution model of training which is certainly worthy of discussion. DeVany would point out that this linear method of training is almost always doomed (though certainly some people can follow programs for years…I can’t).

Second, what am I going to do with all these journals when my journey ends? Who is going to read my scribbles?

Third, what are the three keys to journal? Well, let me tell you what I pick up from Tony: What did you learn? What did you improve? What did you enjoy? I think my journals allow me a quick peek into each and every day and review these questions. I find that “what did you learn?” is the single most important question I can ask of myself and my athletes. If you have worked with me, you have heard it.

So, I will keep this bizarre daily habit. I drive good friends crazy with my long lists and attempts at back filling events (like my famous attempt to list what we did at Discus Camp every year).

So, I had two protein shakes, some Crystal Lite with Leucine, some chicken tamales and perhaps more than a bucket of coffee or two. What did I learn? I think I can improve on this, but I did enjoy the tamales.

Originally, I was going to talk about one thing, but…

I don’t even know where to begin. I just got off the phone with Chris Long and he told me that a good friend and long time lifting buddy died this morning. I’m not going to give a lot of details as a lot of people, family and friends, don’t know yet. If you dig through the Get Ups, you can figure out who it is, he is a young man and I am sure I mention him often.

I was going to talk about my sprint workouts mixed with single armed presses, I think. It’s a great workout and I know that we have done that many, many times together. I train with a lot of people in my backyard and some of them become famous from their insights and idiocy. He will be missed. Let’s all keep hanging on together. If I can help, let me know.

I love Jobim

For whatever reason, when I put my Pandora on and Bossa Nova comes up, I am happy. Always. To be fair, it is a rare time when I am not happy. Let’s be honest, I wake up every day and spend the bulk of my day doing things I want to do and I can workout any time I like, write anything I like and, really, be all that I want to be. Some days, that isn’t much.

I have been thinking about training outside lately because it is become more and more evident that this long winter is coming to an end. Bill Murray’s character in “Groundhog Day,” Phil, may have felt this way: “When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter,” but I feel like tossing on a t-shirt and carrying some Farmer Bars and throwing some stuff and acting like myself. Winter is time for VO2 Max workouts with a Kettlebell and sets of five. Spring is time to throw things, sprint a bit and drive the neighbors back inside shaking their heads.

Today was one of those nice February days when the sun shines and one forecaster calls it “Partly Cloudy” and another “Partly Sunny.” Whether this glass is half empty or half full, I’m just happy to have had my class take the kettlebells outside and practice juggling and toss in a few Litvinovs. Life is too short to not toss and catch a kettlebell.

I can’t imagine a better fate than a long winter followed by the wonderful explosion of spring. As the days lengthen (“Lent” is the another way of saying it), I feel the stirrings of competition, discus camp and rebirth in the wind.

I’m Working On Some New Ideas

The book, “Mastery,” has been running around my head for a few weeks. I’m still trying to recover from my workshop in Tacoma, we went for 12 hours I think, and I know that my attempt to teach “Reps” better by discussing posture, joint mobility, body movement in an image of “dabbling,” “obsessive” and “mastery” was confusing.

As most readers know, I am convinced that most people don’t do enough reps of everything and anything. You don’t tell people you love them enough and you don’t do enough throws and you don’t do enough squats. Reps are the answer, but the quality is the issue. When posture breaks, stop. When joint mobility is compromised, reassess. If it is a simple human movement, do a lot, if it requires a seamless combination of all of them, keep an eye on quality. If you are pounding your head against the wall to improve, stop.

If you believe, like I do, that the fundamental human movements need to be done a lot and often, it follows that you should do them a lot and often.

I enjoyed my time in Tacoma. I gave away some of my secrets and the ideas about reps are absolutely cutting edge. The workout I had them do is so “right,” that is amazes me. I will be posting some ideas about bring me to you on the site in a few weeks, but, for now, just keep this discussion alive at the Q and A area. I’m not sure there are any “secrets,” but doing the movements with posture in mind is certainly nothing new, but so few people do it!

Insights from the NFL

I had an NFL player spend a few days with me. For the record, I’m big. For the record, I’m small. It depends on who is standing next to you!!!

On our first night, in the kitchen, we just finished a pot roast (slow cooked, the onions were excellent and Lindsay ate all the carrots) and we began talking about this and that. This fine young man had been told a thousand times to get “deeper” in the squat. Fortunately, we always have a few kettlebells in the front room and so, off we go…Goblet Squats. It has happened so many times but to watch the joy and wonder of having someone do the squat perfectly by such a simple method still makes me happy. Of course, tumbling, kettlebell swings, movement work, hip this and hip that, Four Knots, and all of the other stuff is great, but the Goblet Squat, as well as the hip continuum and the swing, still amaze.

Greg Henger invented the Slosh Pipe and never gets credit. You might all remember that somebody else invented it right after my article in tmuscle came out. I invented the Goblet Squat after months, years!!!, of frustration. The GS is like my third child, but not blonde and blue eyed.

Oh, there is more, of course. But, I am always amazed when a professional athlete eats pot roast, does a 12 kilo Goblet Squat and discovers the way of the world.

31st State Weightlifting Championships

I went over to Union Middle School today and lifted, as requested by my lifting Coach Dave Turner, in the state championships. There was a scrapbook in his warm up room and there was fun couple of pictures of me at the FIRST state weightlifting championship. Mom had just died and I had been training for some diversion as I was working on my masters and working nights at a cheese factory. There was a problem with the plates at our first state meet and technically I should have been give credit for 285 and 385, but officially it was less and I don’t really think this is the point I am trying to drive home.

I popped my left hip snatching today and it just about destroyed my ability to walk…and take the weight from the floor to the knees and jerk. That adds up to problems. But, here is the point: I was the best lifter at the first state championship and on the 31st annual meet, I was on the platform. I did break the state geezer record in the snatch today and weighed 226/102 k, the same weight I finished the V Diet.

The point, and I have one: There are a billion experts in the field now. In fact, and I don’t want to be mean, we had a crossfit certified coach at the meet today. Oh, he couldn’t lift because he blew his pec off Bench Pressing, but he is a nice guy and I shouldn’t poke fun. Again, my point? I’m on the platform still. I’m in the ring. I compete. I put it out there.

If there is any reason to follow this Blog is to watch me, at 52, continue to fight the good fight.

Identity and Integrity

As many of you know, I consider my car and truck to be “mobile universities.” I listen to Books on Tape (CDs now), inspirational stuff and a healthy dose of Earl Nightingale and Tony Robbins. I am reviewing some of TR’s old work and on the way home, something caught me.

Robbins notes that your identity is how you identify yourself. So, you can answer “Who am I?” with “I’m a Virgo/mesomorph/year of the Rooster/ESTJ/discus thrower/mentor or “I’m not my father/my looks/my whatever. One of the real keys with moving ahead with life is taking the time to real “identify” yourself. For example, if you say “I’m a fat bastard” that is nothing like the idea of “I’m a tremendous person with a few pounds of fat that will be easy to lose.” Sure, I’m simplifying here, but how you explain yourself to yourself is really important.

Losing a season or two to a hip injury made me really wonder a lot about how I define “me.” Honestly, from “Ranger Dan” to “Danny Discus” to Mr. John to Professor John to Dad has always been easy for me. When one or more of these gets swept away, I think I find my “who am I?” by simply shifting lens, so to speak.

The whole thing reminds of the insightful theological concept called “Integrity.” Integrity is simply the idea that “You” will still by “You” after death…somehow. The moral concept is that “you” should be “you” all the time any way. I told my religious studies students this recently:

“Of course, there is a lot more to discuss here, but as you work your way through the laws of the Bible, if you keep in mind the question “who are we?” much of it will make more sense. Let me add this one little thing to think about: in the Kosher food laws of Leviticus, you will note that “bats” are not allowed to be eaten…unclean. Well, is the bat a bird or a mammal? The Scriptures are trying to teach a point here: be who you are supposed to be…if you are a bird, be a bird and you will be clean. If you are a mammal, be a mammal.

Huh??? Well, if you are a married man, should you hang out in bars with your wedding ring off? NO! Be who you are supposed to be. A married man should be a married man, a thing with wings should be a bird…otherwise, you are unclean!”

That is integrity, simply being who you say you are. I would hope that people who met me in Ireland think that Dan John is the same guy that Laree met in Draper. Integrity is simply being the same person (“one,” like in the math concept, integers) from situation to situation. My students struggle with this as part of the madness of teenage behavior is acting like this here and that there. If you are old enough, think of Eddie Haskell from “Leave it to Beaver.”

I think it is well worth the time to occasionally jog through the ideas of identity and integrity. It is a worthy journal exercise and I have seen my scrawled handwriting work with this many times over the years. For me, it is a foundational step in goal setting, although I often forget it. Some people argue that we should have a personal mission statement, too, but for many (read “me”) that just never seems to get done. However, I can certainly see the great value in writing out (publishing) a statement that reminds you of really what you want to be in this life.

I think this kind of thing is more important than five sets of three or doing two lifts on the one lift a day program.