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.

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

You guys have asked me some questions and I’ve chosen one particular theme which I think runs through the majority of the questions to answer. That theme is how you can create the time to fit your workouts into your already overcrowded schedule.

I’m going to be putting up a short webcast where I’m going to talk you through the action points you need to take to smash through the barriers. I’ll warn you in advance that I’m not going to hold back on this one, and some of you may not like what I have to say. But there are only two outcomes for your future – success or excuses and if you want to turn the excuses into success then you may need to hear some things you don’t like.

I’m going to be putting the free webcast up for you on Thursday the 18th of February.

If you’ve had trouble finding time for your workout or found that other things keep coming up and taking the time slot you put aside for it, then you need to watch this.

Some of the things that I’ll be covering include:

Why one thing you are doing now guarantees failure
How to find hidden time
How to put it all together into one
Why taking things slowly creates long term success

Remember that you can watch the video for free, but because my server doesn’t have unlimited bandwidth I will have to restrict the number of people who get an invite to it.

To get an invite, all you need to do is to click on the link below and give me your email. You will need to confirm your email, so be prepared for that. I need to make sure that the few slots I have go to people who will actually receive the email, so if you don’t confirm your email, then I’ll send your link to the next guy on the list.

To register click here or paste the following link into your browser

http://www.mirius.co.uk/Events/register.htm

I’ve spoken before about the stories we tell ourselves, you know the ones where we’ve done something before, so we know how it will pan out. We can’t gain muscle because we’ve tried ten different plans or we can’t lose that bit of flab which covers up our six pack even though we’ve starved ourselves forever.

Stories lie

Well, you know, the trouble with stories is that we know the ending and often that is enough to either stop us starting or at least to sabotage us if we do make the effort. First little hurdle we hit, bang, there is the story playing out in front of our eyes like a dvd player which won’t turn off.

To succeed you need to be a visionary, a seer if you like who has unflappable faith in your ability to succeed. What the seer knows is that life is there to teach us lessons. Every time you stub the toe of your ego on some obstacle, that obstacle is there because your ego has an issue that you need to resolve. And life is going to keep on stubbing your toe until you either give up and walk away or you actually take a look, see what the problem is and do something about it.

Failure is fantastic

Society today is all about success. Unless you are a success then you are a nobody and a failure. The problem with this is that failures are necessary for us, they are a stepping stone on the path which will lead to success. Sometimes it’s necessary to take a different route if the obstacle in your path is so big you just can’t get round it, but most of the time all it needs is a little mental readjustment. The reason I say that is because the obstacles are nearly always because what you think of as reality isn’t quite the same as what reality really is.

If that sounds obscure, think of it this way; what you think of as the door to moving onwards is in fact a door into a storage closet and the real door is the one next to it. The problem is that your pride won’t allow you to see that you are opening the wrong door, and so you keep on walking into the storage closet and wondering why you are finding yourself blocked in.

That is the power of the vision. To be able to see reality as it really is and not how we think it is, or how we’d like it to be.

Next time you hit an obstacle, take a moment to step back and have a better look at what is really happening.

There is a large segment of the personal development community who think that you get what you believe. Some take it to the extremes of suggesting that you can get anything so long as you believe it enough. But even if you don’t accept that it is hard to avoid the realisation that how you look at the world fundamentally changes what you get out of it and the results that you gain.

If you have doubts about what you are doing it will reduce the degree of effort you put into it. Just this morning I had put the weight on the bar ready to do some squats and I felt weak. For a moment I doubted that I’d be able to complete the set. Failure loomed large in my mind until I realised what I was doing. I took a moment and refocused. When I lifted the bar off the rack it seemed really heavy and again the doubts crept in, but I kept to my resolve and my belief that I could do it and I did. Once I’d completed the set and put the bar back in the rack, I realised that I’d put too much weight on the bar! I’d glanced at my training log but accidentally run along the line above which was the shrug weight and nine kilos more than my planned weight for the squat set. So instead of failure I set a new personal record.

You get what you expect

Too many people focus on their problems, on the failures and they allow those thoughts to dishearten them. The one and only defining trait of a successful person is a strong belief in themselves. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be realistic but no one who consistently expects to fail will ever succeed in the long run. There are some strategies you can use where you can expect failure in order to reduce the stress or worry of failure, but on the whole even then, deep down you need to have the resolve to keep trying. Failure is certain. Giving up will ensure that failure is the final result. Successful people use the failures as a learning experience and analyse them so that they avoid that mistake when they try again, and again, and again. But those new attempts are calculated; not just smashing your head against the wall of failure – instead climb it, find a way under it or around it.

Your mind can be what you want it to be. It is the only thing that is really under your control. You may by nature be a pessimist, but you can use that pessimism to minimise the risks. Optimists can fail because they fail to think about the risks. Pessimists fail because they assume the risks are too great and so never try. Learn from both of these, use the middle ground and leverage it for success.

To reach your goals, be they to add muscle, lose fat or improve performance, you must create a great capacity in yourself for belief. The starting point is to believe in yourself. To know that you were born with the ability to succeed and that only your own doubts and lack of focus have ever sabotaged that success.

Create the mind set for success

Know what you want and how you intend to get it.
Repeat every day, several times a day your appreciation of getting it. This helps to retrain the mind into believing that success is assured and so reduces the doubts.
Keep an open mind and take action. If you don’t take action you will not succeed.
Remember that defeat when it happens, and it will, is merely the world letting you know that something is wrong in your approach and that you need to correct it. Defeat is a challenge not a reason to stop trying.
Keep a strong and burning desire to succeed. Remember that you will reap what you sow and if you have doubts then failure is the inevitable reward.

Trying too hard can cause failure as much as not trying enough. Too hard can cause injuries, too soft will have no result. Train hard, but train smart and believe in yourself.