Sunday, July 25, 2010

Balancing Your Need for Fitness and the Trend of “Hero Workouts”

I’ll be the first to admit it: I have a lot peeves and I’m more than willing to get on my soapbox singing loud for all to hear. Since I am aware of how personality works, I’ll often just rant to my wife in order to blow off some steam, at which point, I’ll let it go and move on. But, and this is a big one, the following two items are issues that Ponderhave bothered the crap out of me for years: walking for exercise and what I have termed “hero workouts.” I’ll get to more of an explanation on both later, but I wanted to let it be known that I was originally planning to discuss these items separately. After mapping out the plan (in my head) for the walking for fitness article, I realized I was going to sound like one heck of an insensitive dick (careful!) to a lot of people. So I tabled that one for a little bit and switched to the “hero workouts” piece; yet again though I realized I had a problem, only this time I was going to come off as a failure of a coach. I fought over this for a while (again, in my head), and decided that if I merge the two, that perhaps I’d come off as just a dick for a coach, which is probably more in line with my true persona. Since we’re now all caught up on my internal strife and better understand where I’m coming from, lets start the education process for the day!

Treadmill-workout-for-beginners One of the most frustrating items in the world for me is when I walk into a park, gym, or other fitness oriented location and witness a large group of able-bodied individuals, decked out in full workout clothes (with a water bottle and IPOD in tow), walking! Bear in mind, I have no problem with this mode of exercise for individuals with noted orthopedic or cardiovascular problems, or even individuals that are in the beginning stages of a workout program, but what I have trouble understanding is how the human body’s main mode of transportation has parlayed itself into a mode of exercise for so many twenty or thirty-somethings. What happened to going out for a short run, game of pick-up, climbing stairs, or just doing something that plain old makes your body sweat, burn calories, and taxes the cardiovascular system!!! I’m well aware of the American Heart Association’s and the American College of Sports Medicine recommendations for Physical Activity & Public Health and that normal-to-brisk walking constitutes moderate intensity exercise. But guess what: hiking, stair-climbing, aerobic exercise, bicycle, rowing, and any other number of countless exercises can meet these minimum recommendations as well. Further, since these are the minimum recommendations for maintaining our health, why are so many people willing to accept the minimum (assuming they even walk at least 5 days/ week) when they are in their physical and mental peak (again the twenty or thirty-somethings)!We should be celebrating our two or three decade old bodies by challenging them to do things that we won’t be able to complete during our fourth, fifth, or sixth decades of life. By no means, am I advocating that every man, woman, and child need to become marathon runners, Olympic weightlifters, or diehard fitness enthusiasts. Rather, I believe that we should use fitness and exercise as an opportunity to push ourselves, sweat a little, and ease some of the carnal stress that we build up during our daily rush hour and cubicle filled lives. With that being said, I have always been extremely wary of supporting the adoption of “Hero Workouts.”

Hero workouts is a term that I came up with myself, though I highly doubt I’m the first person to use it. By my definition, a hero workout is something that ignores all physiological, biomechanical, or nutritional logic for adaptation. Rather it is a mass compilation of exercises and self-inflicted punishment designed for no other reason to determine who is the most mentally tough (crazy???) person in the group. One of the more popular groups out there is a program known as Crossfit which has branches all over the country. In Colorado Springs, there was a running (really it was more like crawling) route known as The Incline that I would crossfitoccasionally participate in. The incline was simply an old cog railroad that was a mile in length, gained over 2000 feet, and had an average gradient of 41%. My PR was somewhere around 38 minutes which is halfway decent (though there is a freak of nature that can do it in 18 minutes). My big gripe with these programs is not so much with the participants, but more the practitioners that design and promote them as a great workout for all. I’ll be the first to say that I’ve been known to design workouts for my athletes intent on making them puke, though it was always meant to break through some type of mental barrier or teach a lesson (For instance: don’t go out drinking all night on Thursday, because I’m going to kill you at 5am on Friday). For most people, even accomplished athletes, these hero workouts are extreme and they serve as a type of release of that carnal stress that I referred to earlier. While I can totally empathize with that feeling, the point of certain exercises (e.g. Olympic lifts, plyometrics, speed work) often get lost during these programs. Rather, they’re thrown together in a manner meant to fatigue you, raise your heart rate to new levels, and leave you crawling on the floor. If that is what you are seeking, then by all means, go get it; but, realize what you’re doing. Hero workouts are an overload to the body’s system, and if the workouts are done correctly, eventually it will break down, or if not done correctly, you’re missing the point of the workout itself (though they’ll never admit this). Anybody that instructs another that trying to do as many power cleans as possible in one minute will make you more powerful is either lying to you, themselves, or both. It’s no different than somebody telling a new runner that they should run 26.2 miles everyday if they want to run a fast marathon.

In the end, I guess I would like everyone to heed this piece of advice: Just like a great scholar does not makes a great teacher, a great athlete (by way of looks or on-field success) does not make a great coach. It takes a greater understanding of exercise science, but also, an ability to critically think about the process at hand. In the end, if you’re seeking changes in your lifestyle, seek out an educated, licensed, and credentialed individual with a track record of long-term success. Anybody can put together a workout, but it takes dedication to create a masterpiece such as this…or this!

3 comments:

  1. very thought-provoking....would love to see other's thoughts/opinions on this!!

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  2. Very interesting write-up, and as Tee said "very thought provoking". I believe there is something to be said about what our society thinks is "exercise" and "being fit" as well as who are the experts to get advice from on fitness. You mention the twenty-thirty somethings, but what about the baby-boomers (50-60 age group) such as myself - is walking still not a good form of exercise? What about bike riding?

    On a lighter note - I loved reading about your inner strife! :-) Love you son!

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  3. I thought that issue would come up. In my view, the issue with an older population is that unless they're coming from a fit background, because of its weight bearing nature I'm not sure that it would be possible to progress them very far beyond the brisk walk stage. With that said, personally and professionally I would still like to see an older population progress in intensity beyond that of walking because I believe strongly in "use it or lose it". An older population, especially baby boomers, need to try to maintain (and improve) as much range of motion, strength, and functional capacity as possible, thus making for a much kinder aging process and maintaining their independence as long as possible. As a result, I believe that they should still push themselves to strive for new levels of fitness by using new modalities or changing venues but the expectations must be taken in context.

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