Pain Vs. Agony

Good morning beez in peez, quick one today!

Keep this in mind during your fitness journey: Self-control, warm ups, mobility, flexibility, recovery, rest.

Why?  Because, the pain of injury is nothing compared to the agony of not being able to get under the bar.  If you’re a beast…you’ll understand.

To most people, the word ‘exercise’ is simply a four letter word…a chore…something you should do because you know it’s healthy.  To us, the rare breed, it is our sacred time.  It’s the time to unleash the inner beast.  It’s a time to exercise the demons, go into our dark place, release the stress from our everyday lives.  We don’t choose to call it exercise, to us, it’s training.  We do it to get stronger, leaner, or simply to just pound the shit out physically, and mentally.

We don’t enjoy crowded gyms, elliptical machines, or the dozens of ‘resistance machines’ that pack the walls of your local health clubs.  We don’t do cardio on machines, we do conditioning…and we do it hard.  We don’t use resistance machines, we are a resistance machine.

There is something pleasing, something satisfying, something that we love…about the feel of the barbell in our grip.  The feeling of a new PR (personal record) as the chalk clouds our training place.  It’s the combination of sweat, determination, and loud music…all packed into a short hour.  This is our sacred time, and we would not give it up for anything.

That being said, we need to make sure we keep things under control…an organized chaos, I guess you can call it.  It’s a well directed, strategic, vent of rage, aimed at the target we set.  In order to stay on this insane path to freak strength training, we need to stay healthy.  If you’re hurt, unhealthy, and banged up…there is no training that’s going to satisfy that inner beast.

Here’s a few pointers to keep you under the bar…and sane.  We all know being away from the iron will definitely make you go postal.

1.  Exercise self control, aka listen to your body. I wish this wasn’t true, but it is…you cannot ALWAYS go hard.  There’s going to be days when your warm up feels twice as heavy as your last PR.  There’s going to be days when you just can’t get your body to get into 3rd gear.  It’s these days that you need to adjust, or just call it a day and come back stronger the next time.  Here’s the tricky part; you have to be able to tell the difference between genuine burn out, and just laziness.  Learn your body’s language…then, listen to it.

For most people, especially beginners, a simple program will do just fine.  For other, more experienced, banged up, lifters…it is crucial that you learn to understand what your body is saying.

2.  Warm up…then warm up again. I’m not saying to burn yourself out before you even hit your working sets of heaviness…but, I am saying that you probably need to do a little more than just 5 mins on the stationary bike before throwing 225 on your back and starting a heavy dose of squats.  Once again, this is going to become even more evident as your get a few years of lifting under your belt.

It becomes especially important for ‘troublesome’ spots.  Some people have issues with shoulders, others it’s the back or legs.  Whatever it is, make sure your doing enough to get it ready before ‘testing’ it out.

3.  Stay mobile, to stay hostile. Before doing your heavy workout, it’s always a good idea to start off with some mobility work.  Even, doing a separate session on your off days is a good idea.  Instead of listing a bunch of exercises you can do, check out this site HERE called MobilityWOD.com

Wherever you get your mobility workouts from, it doesn’t matter…just do em, ‘a few mins of mobility a day…keeps the chiro and rehab away!’

4.  Stay flexible to get the most out of your workouts. If you can’t even touch your toes without pain, how are you going to squat deep and heavy.  I can use countless examples, but you get the point.  When you’re young, you move, your body just knows what to do.  Watch a young kid the next time they’re playing.  Notice the perfect squat form, the ease of bending and twisting, and just a natural movement.  Then, we start shitting on the pot, sitting on our asses for hours…and it all goes out the window.

My number one source for flexibility that I recommend is yoga.  There’s group yoga, hot yoga, meditation yoga, dvd yoga, etc etc.  If you need support, join a class.  For an extra burn, join hot yoga…or Bikram Yoga.  If you just want to get a few minutes everyday, buy a dvd.  If it’s spiritual, and you want to learn the meditation benefits, go on a retreat.  The options are endless, your lazy ass just has to take the initiative to do the one you choose….and do it regularly.

5.  After kicking your own ass, you need to spend some time recovering. Recovery is crucial for staying strong.  It’s a good idea to do a little more than touching your toes, tugging on your arms, and calling it a stretching session.    Besides the obvious (stretching after your workouts) it’s also a great idea to add some foam roller to the mix, especially after a heavy session under the bar.  If you can afford it, a massage every week or two is great to get the knots out.  If not, invest in a good foam roller…or even a lacross ball, or t hick pvc pipe will do the trick as well.

A few other recovery methods are, contrast showers (alternating hot-cold every 1 min) icing troublesome spots, stretching, and doing a few other rehab exercises will you keep you mobile and pain free.  I’m not doctor or nutritionist, but spending a few bucks on joint enzymes, fish oil, and magnesium is also a good idea.

6.  You can’t train like an animal if you’re always tired, burnt out, and in pain. You need to REST!  By rest, I don’t mean sitting on your ass watching American Idol and throwing back bon bons.  By rest, I mean a solid night of sleep.  Take naps if possible, and meditation is always a great idea.  You’re going to have to decide what’s more important; the late night parties, favorite TV shows after the kids are asleep…or being fresh and ready to kill your deadlift day that’s coming up.

Rest is also needed for an effective program.  Some people follow a day on, day off routine.  Others can do 2 or 3 days then 1 day off.  What works for some, won’t work for others.  As with #1, you need to learn to read your body and listen to what it’s saying.  Some days you’re going to feel like running through a wall, and other days 30 minutes on the elliptical is going to feel like going through hell.  But, if you’re getting enough rest…you’ll definitely have more good than bad.

We live in a sleep deprived society…people walking around stressed and tired, like zombies.  Do what you can to get that sleep!

Closing: Really, I understand…this may seem like a whole lot.  On top of your normal exercise routine, you may think ‘I just don’t have time’ to do all this crap!  Trust me; do a little everyday…while you continue to lift heavy, is going to be much easier than taking weeks, or even months off to visit the physical therapist.  I’ve done it before, it’s not fun at all.  Put the time in now, and avoid the agony later.

Or..stick to 'safe' workouts like this dude.

Stay strong…and you can’t do that without staying healthy!

-Mike McNeil.

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1. Week 3, Day 1
2. Yoga for fat loss?
3. Diet & Exercise Program: The Warrior, explained
4. Monday Motivation, and a Workout
5. Advanced: 5 days, 3 workouts