Does It Really Matter How Long Or Short A Workout Is?

 We go against the clock a lot in many fitness oriented systems and quite frankly, a lot of the time it's pure crap. When you're against the clock, it puts more pressure on what needs to be done as opposed to what can be done with realistic results. There's a difference however with going against the clock and having the clock work for you. When you create a window of opportunity in a timed fashion, there's a bigger outlook on how you perform in my opinion. It works for some and others, not so much.

With creating a window to workout and time it enough to put the work in, you're establishing a different atmosphere to build and hit a workout hard for what it's worth to do. Some people have more time on their hands and others have only a small amount of time to do something that makes training worthwhile. Short workouts work great for people strapped for time but they don't always understand how much they could really get done in such a short period. For long workouts, I think it depends on what you're shooting for and finding ways to train for an extended period of time. Some do longer workouts because that's what they're told to do to get results but the truth is, it has to be done with a realistic point of view and what the body is able to handle with the extent of that form of training.

Short and intense workouts throughout the day or a couple times during the day has worked and gotten greater results than those who do one long workout where the intensity is less so and has an easier pace. I see it as, if you enjoy either one and you get results, why does it matter and who gives a shit which one is better than the other. Some workouts for me last somewhere between 30 min to an hour and that's all I need but other times, shorter (less than 10 minutes) sessions have a profound effect in how I do other things the rest of the time. Once you understand how short and long workouts are effective for your needs, you can create any workout you want. 

This morning I went for a walk around the neighborhood with a 40 lb weight vest on and that took roughly about 30-35 min and felt great. For most, that could be their entire workout for the day and would be satisfied. Yesterday I chose to do 30+ minutes nonstop of step ups because I felt like it, it's something I enjoy and I get something awesome out of it. Some workouts are 10 minutes of a superset and that's all I'll do for the day because I got other stuff going on, hell even on my wedding day I got a workout in before heading out to the venue because it's what I felt I needed to do and wasn't very long at all. When you open up yourself to create a window regardless of time, you establish a form of discipline that also comes with the joy of training.

What matters to you whether your workouts are short or not? What do YOU get out of it and is it worth the effort? Be open to creating opportunities to train no matter what because if you want to be in great shape and get results, you need to put the work in and sometimes that means creating a timeline when things in life get in the way. You're not always going to get in an hour plus long workout but that doesn't mean you should sacrifice your training, find the time to do something, it's better than not doing anything at all. 

Be instinctive, create opportunities and develop a discipline while getting the most out of what you do and make it interesting and a joy for you and nobody else. Train with a vengeance but also train with intelligence too.  

Goal Setting Vs Intention

Goals were never my strong suit and for good reason, whenever I talked about them, I always put more pressure on myself than what was originally intended. I have failed more times than I can count but I've also been successful in what I wanted to achieve. My intentions were always to be fit and be able to do things with ease. My training changes constantly and the idea of sticking with one thing because of what a goal was just never made it through, at least not to its fullest extent.

When I set my mind on something, I intend to do it with the best of my abilities but when it came to a goal, my intentions were in the right place but always felt like I was setting myself up for failure and I have myself to blame for that. When I was weight training, I never really knew what the hell I was doing and couldn't think of a goal to go after because all I really cared about at the time was just being strong but never set a specific amount of weight to go after, I just did it and suffered in the process. After my accident, I did have a goal to get stronger again but it became something more and it became an obsession once I stopped looking at it as a goal, I was just determined as hell to find out what I can do.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with setting a goal and you want to accomplish something, I never want to take that away from anyone. You set your mind to something and you go after it but also be prepared if things don't go your way. Sometimes when we set goals, they become such a part of our psyche that it puts everything else that could be great aside and set the tone for losing more than gaining. Michael Jordan had incredible goals to achieve and put so much on himself that eventually that fire burnt him out and when he retired for the first time, he needed to go in a new direction.

Walt Disney was an awesome visionary and set goals to create one of the most powerful empires in entertainment history. He took every bit of his vision and spirit and laid it out to build something nobody thought he could achieve and made a mark on the world that will live on forever whether it's good, bad or downright ugly but he did it. He set goals and achieved them but also failed. Setting a goal can't just be on just taking a risk and expect something to happen, you have to be prepared for the unexpected and understand that a goal could potentially point you in another direction that you didn't intend to be in or go forward with. The idea of intentionally going after something but understanding the risks involved whether you fail or succeed brings in the foundation of really making something happen.

With intent, you put forth in the direction you want to go and learn the risks you're willing to take and have the courage to fail. It's not about failing intentionally, it's about understanding the direction you intend to go and that the potential to fail is there. Success can be a powerful thing and you intend to become successful with where you want to go. Now there are things that we need to be successful in in order to stay alive, that's something very different but if you have a route and you want to be successful towards that road to your destination; what are you willing to do in order to get there? Will you have the mindset to take failure as it is? Are you willing to take a shortcut in order to get there faster? What about changing routes that may seem harder or smoother? What are your true intentions?

What are my intentions with what I do? I intend to do what is possible to make myself the fittest I can with little to no injuries along the way. I intend to be better at writing little by little and I will make mistakes in that area of the journey but they're also lessons I can continue to learn from. I intend to use what I have to keep myself in solid condition for as long as I live and not rely on the gym. My biggest intentions is to have fun with what I do while at the same time learn when it's time to be useful when I'm needed. 

Silly Rabbit Trix Are For Kids

 It is true, certain things are geared towards children and raise their levels of imagination and seeing some cool things. Until you grew up and still watch yet collect something like My Little Pony and you're a 50 year old man who hasn't seen the sun in 20 years. Having eaten Trix only a handful of times in my lifetime, it's safe to say I could go the rest of my days without eating it. We as a society develop certain aspects of entertainment and food towards a demographic that gets people excited or something to grab, the odd thing is, kids get toys and cool looking cereal boxes while adults get medication for every possible thing under the sun and whatever is wrong with them, they take something for it.

There's got to be something that's geared for everybody or at least a good amount of people that has spanned generations? Movement is something that's geared for everybody isn't it? I mean as a kid (at least a generation or two ago), we ran, went swimming, played out our favorite animals and didn't have a care in the world if we slipped off the slides, monkey bars or swings. What the hell happened? Being careful has become a little over the top and although I believe in being safe, I also believe in being able to explore and learn what your creativity is and seeing what it feels like to have an imagination and be able to move without being so damn analytical about everything.

When it comes to movement, the basics should be taught and build a foundation but after that, how you pursue it is up to you, find your way to master them to become better and getting creative with your skill set from those basics and progress through your own admission. We all progress differently and some are slower than others and some are faster and learn quicker but the principles are still there. What we haven't learned at least in today's world from a fitness standpoint is catering to an individual's abilities whether they're a beginner or advanced and what we are taught is the same curriculum and expected to progress the same way and follow along as if we know what the hell we're doing. 

We don't absorb as much as we did as a kid and wanting to explore new things in order to get better at the things we do in life. As we get older, we lose sight of what it's like to have an imagination and think creatively and cater to what we are told what works and what doesn't, become analytical and overthink with caution. You don't need to take extreme risks or measures to do cool shit but just a hint of courage and a bit of a backbone to take a chance on something that can develop skills and strength to move forward with life's obstacles. 

  It's one of the reasons why I love playing my animal dice game, it creates something for both worlds where I get to feel like a kid while at the same time strengthen my body and enjoy the feeling of crawling, jumping, balancing and more the way we were meant to do as human beings. I get to be all sorts of animals and play out cool scenarios in my head as I move. Other aspects of movement such as MovNat, Animal Flow, Ginastica Natural and even Yoga bring out the joys of being human and working towards building something greater than before. To be in condition for the long haul, strong when needed and agile like a kid. It's the enjoyment and exploration of the human spirit. We need to have that in our lives. A demographic is a specific group of people that is catered to, why not strive to have something catered to as many people as possible regardless of age, sex, creed or whatever?

Verne Gagne & Isometrics

 Athletes promote themselves in various ways; Michael Jordan had his shoes, Bo Jackson had his "Bo Can Do Anything" campaign and Hulk Hogan had his weight set (advertised by the late Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff) but oddly enough, there was a time when the legendary wrestler/promoter of the AWA Verne Gagne was showing Isometrics calling it Gagne-Metrics. 

There were a lot of stories surrounding Gagne for decades especially as a promoter and the what wrestlers he wanted along with how he treated people. When I met Greg Valentine at a comic con here in Idaho, he told me that Verne was quite an asshole. There's no denying that Verne was a great athlete in his day; Alternate for the '48 Olympics, exceptional college wrestler, was considered for the Green Bay Packers and was one of the best pro wrestlers of his time. 

If you're a student of pro wrestling, you've definitely heard the tales of how he trained wrestlers in his barn and at his office building in Minneapolis. Legends like Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, The Iron Sheik, Jumping Jim Brunzell & Gagne's son Greg were all tortured and ran through the rigorous training Verne laid out. Now whether Verne had them do Isometrics at that time in the 70's is hard to say but he did do them or at least showed to a regional audience back in the mid 60's. This was also a time where Jack Lalanne was still going strong with his workout show and I think Verne wanted to cash in on something of that sorts.

For the most part, the workout Verne displays is about as basic and stupid easy as you can get and for the record, he has little enthusiasm and isn't very upbeat and charismatic as Lalanne would be. He shows three exercises which you can see in the video below. Don't get me wrong, they're great exercises especially for beginners or those who want to something that's quick. This was also the era where Isometrics were at their peak with the Hoffman courses, Olympic wrestler Henry Wittenberg's course and others. 

Safe to say Verne's Isometric Training never really went anywhere and it's not at all surprising. It just didn't have anything at the time that really got people interested and if anything, it was just another small promotion to advertise for his company and to get people involved somehow with the AWA. Today it is a gem to find and if you got your hands on a book he had at the time, that's a rare thing to have. In the fitness world, he isn't too well known but if you love pro wrestling, he had one of the greatest promotions in the history of the business and just about anyone and everyone who went to the AWA were either stars in the promotion or went on to become bigger legends in other territories eventually in the WWE. Had great matches with the likes of Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson, Nick Bockwinkle and others. Whether you loved him, hated him or just love wrestling, Verne was a legend of his time.

One of Verne's Classic Encounters with Lou Thesz....

   

The Final Nail In The Coffin After 15 Years

A while back in October, I did an exercise that I demonstrated on Social Media called the Hindu Burpee; combining the Hindu Push-up & Hindu Squat. I've written a couple articles on it which you can find somewhere on this blog. It was a great exercise and I learned that particular variation from Matt Furey on his Membership Site. This exercise did have a negative effect or a positive one depending on the circumstance surrounding it that ended 15 years of my association with him.

The way it ended was I showed my demonstration on his Private Group on Facebook and wanted to give people an idea of what it meant for me. I never intended to steal it or make a big deal out of it, just showing an exercise all the while crediting Matt and what the exercise is about; it backfired and I not only was removed from the group, he unfriended me and terminated my status as a member to his Inner Circle site. I made the effort to reach out to him and to ask why and if he had such a problem with it, why didn't he ask me to just remove it which I gladly would've done if he directly told me to. All he said was (paraphrasing) "Let me think on it" and nothing else after that.

It devastated me because for over a decade and a half, I bought course after course, sunk energy into learning from him and hell even had a one time interview (which to this day I still think was horrible on my end). It hit me hard because his book Combat Conditioning literally got me on my feet again and changed everything for me when it came to training. Around my second to third Surgery, I got the book and started reading through it, the moment I was able to walk again I focused that first month to nothing but the Royal Court and put everything I had into self-rehabbing and getting in shape. Within less than a few months, I had strength and conditioning I never experienced before and it put me on the path to Physical Culture.

Throughout the years, I made those exercises and other things he put out a priority and made 90+% of my training to bodyweight exercises. He got me into the cables, the qi gong stuff, the pathway to the old time strongmen, him and a couple friends led me to Bud Jeffries, the same man who became one of my dearest friends and officiated my wedding. Furey made that explosion for me to carve out my passion for fitness. I was literally loyal to the cause he created. 

For it to end the way it did without any explanation, no response back at me and just making me feel like I was kicked to the curb, for what? Did he think I was trying to steal his thunder, make a ton of money off of him, upstage him? I couldn't do any of those things if I tried and never spoke to me again and treated it like I meant nothing to him but a follower who was a student to his method. It pissed me off for quite some time, I only told a few people what happened including Bud. I got a reality check about Furey that I won't go into and as I started to understand it better, it made sense on why he did what he did. 

Whenever I try to do Combat Conditioning or some other training methods I learned from him, I couldn't bring myself to really finish anything because it just puts a dark cloud over me and I would at times get angry or don't have the will or desire to get a workout done. I'm not saying his stuff doesn't work, they do and one of many people in the world that is living proof of what they can do. He has done a lot to bring Bodyweight Exercises to the general public but let's face it, his methods for all intents and purposes are refurbished exercises that were taught by Karl Gotch and others throughout centuries of training incredible athletes. Most would say they're knock offs or rip offs of other people's methods but I think the word Refurbished is more appropriate.

I never wanted to be an enemy and it was never an intention to make exercises he put out a thing where I called them my own, things happen for a reason and although it put a hole on 15 years of dedication, like a rock being thrown into a lake, the ripples are there and go away but the lake is forever changed. I was reluctant to write this because I don't know what effect it'll have and I wish things went differently but life goes on and Combat Conditioning served its purpose for me. 

Matt, for what it's worth, I hope you continue to live the life you made for yourself and continue coming up with training ideas that will give people results. You started my path and because of you, I will continue to learn from others and make the most of it.