Mid Life Fitness

Today I updated the signature line of the blog to reflect my biggest challenge. Like everyone else I can make excuses, and I have some great ones, but the fact is that success or failure is measured by the result and not by the quality of the excuse.

Today I start a new challenge, one of taking action every day.

I’ve just deleted the paragraph I had typed because it was full of excuses about why I’ve not been taking action, excuses where I attempted to slide out from taking responsibility for the lack of improvement in my fitness.

Typically my approach is all or nothing. My attention is always taken by the latest shiny toy/ idea/ project and I find it really hard to build anything permanent into my life. I take something up, run it ragged then toss it aside. My challenge then isn’t to change that, because that is my nature, but instead it’s to find a way of working with that which will achieve what I need to do.

As time goes by the amount of data I have stored increases exponentially. I could burn it to CD or even delete some of it but I have problems with that because deletion is permanent and CD’s have a lifespan which is certainly finite, either through loss, damage, degradation or technological obsolescence.

The future as I see it is in the cloud where I don’t have to worry about data backup problems, though security is an issue. Until that point my strategy is twofold. Because I have a few photographs I need a fair amount of space for storage.

USB Drives

My current solution is a 3TB USB drive for daily automatic backups and a 1TB USB portable drive for weekly backups. The size means that I can just dump copies of the data parts of the hard drive to them to build up a number of copies. The problem with USB drives is that one day they just stop working. Hopefully that won’t happen at the same time that I lose all the data on my PC.

But that leaves a hole because there is data I’m modifying after the backup and which will get lost. My solution here is to dip into the cloud and use an automatic backup system which makes copies of my documents as I modify them. Now it can’t keep copies of everything because there is too much, but I’ve already split my files into current and archive. You could do this with dropbox, but frankly I prefer a system which allows me to choose which folders I want to save, not have to modify my system even further.

Sugarsync

For that reason I’m using Sugarsync. This has a free 5 GB storage, which if you sign up after clicking on the above link will give you an extra 500 MB to play with.

I like the service I get with Sugarsync, it does for example allow me to sync files between machines so I can work on a blog post on one machine then have it instantly downloaded to another machine, and I do mean instantly because the syncing is very fast (although very large files like video of course are slower).

Sugarsync is for me the missing link which makes me happy that I’m not going to lose work to a disc crash or even the loss of a machine. The free 5 GB isn’t huge but it certainly is worth having. I strongly recommend it.

So we are now well and truly into the new year and already for many the new years resolutions are but distant memories and for others they are starting to despair of keeping up with them.

For me, there are two things which I think will become more important this year. These aren’t new, these are existing trends which have been running for some time, but I think this year they are going to really take off.

Minimalism

Don’t be fooled by the zealots and their 100 items or less lists. Minimalism is the art of having exactly what you need and nothing more. The big problem that it solves is clutter. Clutter drags you down, mentally and physically. Clutter is not just the junk hiding in the drawer;

Periodisation

How many times have you seen something be the latest fad only for it to disappear once it is realised that it doesn’t work in the long run? The trouble is that nothing works in the long run.

The diet industry for example is starting to realise that those much criticised crash diets have their place. Now the realisation is starting to come that a crash diet can be the first phase of a bigger picture.

Like crash diets, muscle confusion got a bad name. But the core idea was right. Something needs to change in every session, you can’t just do the same thing at the same intensity and expect progress.

What I think we will see this year is a greater emphasis on short term tools used as parts of a new type of fitness programming. Cheat days and meals, carb bulking restricted to a couple of weeks, these are the sorts of examples I think are really going to make waves this year.

Have you ever wondered why it is that the big guys just seem to get bigger? How is it possible that they can put on so much muscle when your gains are so small?

There are many who work on these secret fears and self doubts, peddling quick fix cures that never seem to work out quite so well as you hoped.

Now I’m not going to offer you a simple answer, though in truth I do think that the answers are simple, but I can offer you a glimpse of one aspect of the answer. You see I really think that the answers are simple, but when we don’t get the result we want, instead of keeping things simple we start to chop around.

For a hint of one answer, download and read these reports. Let’s be clear, the reports are written in advance of the launch of a new training system, but you can put that aside for now and just concentrate on the reason why I’ve made more gains in the last two months than I did in most of last year.

Today I have a guest post from Jason Ferruggia. I think that most people will do pull ups or chins at some time, and perhaps like me you will learn better technique from this post.

To quote Julie Morgenstern, the New York Times best selling time management guru, “confident people embrace the learning opportunity a mistake or failure presents”, and I will admit to learning that I was not following the best form despite all I know about pull ups.

So, here is Jason:

1) Don’t go to failure- This is the biggest problem I see with pull
ups. Everyone goes to failure on every set. That’s because it’s so
easy to do. As soon as a single rep does not look exactly like the
previous one and you can’t get as high, the set is over. If your
speed slows down noticeably the set is over. You
would never continue a set of squats if you could no longer lock
out the weight. If you got all the way up on rep five but were only
able to get up half of the way on rep six you wouldn’t proceed to do
four more reps of partials until the set ended with the weight
crashing down on you and crippling you. But that’s exactly how
people finish their sets of pull ups. The form gets worse and worse
and worse, and they keep going and going and going, climbing up the
invisible ladder, swinging and kipping. When you do this you get no
stronger. And most of the time you get weaker. The negative effect
of training to failure is seen more on chin ups than any other
exercise. No one knows why this is, but trust me, that’s how it is.

2) Lose excess body fat- If you are carrying excess body fat your
ability to do pull ups will be greatly reduced. Extra body fat is
good for lifting more weight in certain exercises that require
greater leverage like the squat and deadlift. But that’s all it’s
good for. Other than that it’s unhealthy and unsightly.

3) Start in the proper position- All too often people start in the
dead hang position with their scapula elevated and their shoulders
touching their ears. This is dangerous and incorrect. When you do
“this all of the tension is placed on your tendons and ligaments
instead of your muscles. When you get on the bar you want to pull
your shoulder blades down and lock your shoulders into their
sockets. This is a far safer position and ensures that the stress
will be placed directly on the muscles and not the tendons and
ligaments.

4) Maintain a slight elbow bend throughout the set- This goes hand
in hand with the above tip. Before starting your set you want to
bend your elbows ever so slightly. This bend should barely be
noticeable, but it will have a huge impact on your elbow health. Do
not start with your elbows completely locked. This, again, places
all of the stress on the tendons and ligaments instead of on the
muscles. On each successive rep you should lower yourself until your
arms are nearly straight, stopping just shy of lockout. But don’t
use this as an excuse to cheat. Just shy of lockout means that your
elbows are “99% locked out;” you just don’t want that complete
extension.

5) Initiate with the lats- When you start to pull, be sure that you
fire your lats first; not your biceps. If you have trouble feeling
your lats, as many newbies do, have someone poke or slap your lats a
few times before you start pulling. Even having a partner keep his
hands in contact with your lats throughout the set may help. It may
also look a little strange to other members of your gym.

6) Drive your elbows down- To get the most out of your lats when you
chin you should think about driving your elbows down and back. Don’t
simply pull with your biceps.

7) Pull your chin to the bar- I used to be a stickler for having
people pull their chest to the bar. I still instruct beginners to do
that, knowing full well that they won’t be able to, but that it will
at least instill the importance of getting high. You only need your
chin to clear the bar. That last few inches does very little for you
lats and instead focuses the stress on the smaller, weaker muscles
of your upper/middle back. The pull up should be used to target the
lats, first and foremost. Don’t waste energy struggling with that
last few inches at the top. Get your chin over while keeping your
back arched and then lower yourself. Use other rowing exercises to
target those smaller upper back muscles and use the pul up to smoke
your lats completely.

8 ) Use a variety of grips- There are countless ways to pull your
body up. You can do chin ups with your palms facing you at a number
of different grip widths. You can also do chin ups with your palms
facing each other, or pull ups with your palms facing away at
multiple grip widths. You can pull up on bars, rings, fat bars,
ropes, towels, suspension straps, beams, Eagle Loops, and even
baseballs or softballs hanging from a chain. The variations are
endless. Use as many different chin ups as possible to avoid burnout
or overuse injuries.

9) Use a variety of rep ranges- To do a lot of pull ups you need
strength and you need endurance. Strength is built with low reps.
You can do low reps with a weighted vest or dip belt or you can
simply perform more difficult variations of pull ups. Endurance is
built with high reps. This is where the use of bands comes in handy.
Having a few different levels of band tension will allow you to vary
your rep range greatly. This will help you boost your chin up
numbers a lot faster. Some days you train in the range of 1-5 reps
for maximal strength. Some day you train in the range of 6-12, and
others you train in the range of 15-30, with a band, to improve your
endurance.

10) Strengthen your grip- The stronger your grip is the easier pull
ups will feel. I suggest getting a Captains of Crush Gripper and
using it a few times per week. You can also add in some more
specific grip work at the gym like fat bar holds, hexagon dumbbell
holds, as well as various pinching and crushing exercises.

For more great training tips and workouts pick up your copy of
Muscle Gaining Secrets today at:
http://www.TheHardGainer.com/

Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia
Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Chief Training Adviser to Men’s Fitness Magazine

Renegade Strength & Conditioning, LLC, 453 Watchung Ave, Watchung , NJ 07960, USA