Happy Vs. Satisfied

 Merry Xmas Eve everyone. I trust you're going to have a fun time today with family/friends or happen to be on your own. Get any training in to build up that appetite for later? Here's some things for today's post....

When it comes to building or maintaining a physique, for some it comes easy and they build muscle easier, for others not so much. It may require more time, a different approach to a regimen and it can be daunting when things don't come our way. Trust me, I've had years of being self conscious with my own body. There are bodybuilders, models and some rugged mother fuckers that would make you give up just by the site of them. Even in my early days of training every day, I knew I was rebuilding and getting in good shape but I kept comparing myself to the other guys, even the old timers that I studied. It took time and by the time I was about between 28 and 30, I made the choice to let go of that bullshit.

It's one thing to admire someone and what they accomplished when it comes to building muscle and having solid conditioning, it's another to compare yourself to someone who's either had more experience than you or in the early stages of their fitness journey. You're never going to see the good in what you have done for yourself when you try to be just as good or better than someone else. It's not going to happen. It's like trying to compare George Hackenschmidt to a Ronnie Coleman. They both are iconic in the world of Muscle and both are strong as shit but their strengths are very different. Hack was also a well conditioned athlete that wrestled, lifted, rode bikes on the hills and had a physique that had no equal in his prime. Ronnie was a cartoonish looking Bodybuilder that was the most massive Mr. Olympia that looked like an enhanced version of John Henry with strength even by today's standards in the world of bodybuilding. 

When I stopped comparing myself, I found a new light in what I was able to accomplish from bodyweight training to hammers, sandbags, bands, Isometrics and even barbells and dumbbells. I felt happier, but I wasn't satisfied. Happy vs. Satisfied are two very different aspects. One is an emotion, the other is leading to an outcome. I wanted to continue to see what I can do and how my body would turn out with the way I did things. Always experimenting but have made mistakes and did what I thought was best to correct them. 

A time came where I bit off more than I can chew and had to refocus on rebuilding myself. Limited the amount of training I was doing and used one or two methods to self rehab again. I came back with a vengeance and gears shifted to being leaner, focus on things that matter more than just being physical with my workouts. My physique is far better now than it was a couple years ago and my intentions to work on controlling my movements more than ever was a choice I'm glad I made. I'm happy with what I've done but I'm not satisfied with it. I have talked about me never going to a level of muscle even remotely close to someone like a Sandow or even Bill Pearl, I don't have aspirations to be a model or go after some title in a physique contest. I will never be the strongest, the fastest or the biggest because quite frankly, no matter what I do, there will be someone better than me. What I can choose to do however, is be in better condition than I was yesterday, get leaner but rugged like an old school Full Back and be able to keep up with folks younger than me as best as possible with lesser risks of getting injured. That's more important to me than trying to kill myself or wear myself out to the point I'm no good to anybody. 

I will never be satisfied, my journey is continuous and will always find things to do to better myself. I have succeeded in a lot of ways but I've also failed too and need to take those failures and create something better from them. It's not going to be easy but it is very much going to be interesting. If you're satisfied, you don't have anything left, use that fire in your own journey and find ways to be better little by little each day. Keep killing it and be amazingly awesome. 

400 Push-Ups And Learning About Enjoyment

 Yesterday, I just felt the need to do Push-Ups, mainly the regular or military style with a few variations here and there. I finished off with 400 for the day and it made me learn a few things. As great as push-ups are and how some are so damn fanatical about them, I just don't enjoy them or find them that stimulating unless their part of a circuit. It's not saying they're a terrible form of training, they're definitely not but unless you're in a sport or doing some kind of challenge for a cause or hell if you're joining the military than maybe they have something worthwhile doing. 

I wanted to do them just to see if I can since it has been years since I've done that many in a day. I didn't enjoy them at all quite frankly and if I don't get some form of enjoyment out of it, it's not going to last. This might piss people off or make them think that not doing push-ups, I'm not training right, well, yeah I' am, just not big on certain forms like others. I do what I love because that's what stimulates me and gives me enjoyment whether it's challenging or just having fun with exercises. It's not in my mindset to do that many on a consistent basis which is ok, It's not like I can't do them at all, just a thing to do in a relatively less capacity or once in a blue moon. 

What you enjoy is what you should be doing. If you enjoy push-ups and you can't get enough of them, do a fucking lot of them and I really hope they benefit you. Some will do 200, 300, 500 or more a day and it's beneficial to them, that's what's important, most of the time the numbers are just arbitrary and more of an ego thing. It doesn't need to be shoved down someone's throat fitness wise that if you don't do this many reps or do that exercise a certain way, you're not fit, you're a loser and that's way far from the truth. There is more to life than just push-ups guys LOL. 

I get far more out of animal moves, Isometrics, cables, carries, hammers and step-ups/squats than I ever do with push-ups. Once you hit a certain mark and it doesn't stimulate your mind but force it anyway, you're just going to end up miserable and not get any thrill out of your exercise. More doesn't always mean better, find a balance in what keeps you fired up and still having something left in the tank. I swear on my grandfather's ashes in a pond in some forest in Washington, those 400 Push-ups couldn't hold a candle to the isometric training or the animal workouts I do, it didn't feel the same, it didn't have the same challenge and it sure as hell was no where near the level that makes me love what I do. 

Training is about adventure, discovery, learning who you are and what you're capable of. It's about loving what you do beyond the craziness and the numbers along with the soreness that might come with it. If it fulfils you and makes you feel great even on the hard days, that's what is going to help you in the long run. If it causes you pain, stop doing it, if you're bored out of your mind no matter how hard it is, stop doing it. Never force anything otherwise it's going to hurt mentally and/or physically. 

Are there standards to what constitutes to being fit? Yes but it's complicated especially in this day and age, if you read my statement on the high school football kids about the 300-400 pushups in an hour and ended up in the hospital because of it, you know what I think. There is so much info and so many rules and size differences to what actually makes someone fit that it doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to be fit in the same circles as everyone else. Is it important to be fit? Absolutely but we need to learn what our individual strengths and weaknesses are to make ourselves fit but not comparing to somebody else. We all have various levels of strength that won't have the same attributes to what makes us strong in certain aspects. Not everyone who can do 400 push-ups is going to bench press 500 lbs. Both individuals are strong but not in the same capacity as to what others try to compare to. That be like trying to compare 170 lb person doing pull-ups compared to a 300 lber. Yeah, the lighter guy can highly likely do more but you also got to remember, even if the person can do more, the other guy weighs far more so he doesn't need to a ton in comparison. Here's what I mean, say for example, the lighter guy does 10 pull-ups, 10x170 is 1700, compare that to the heavier guy who can do only 6 or 7 at 300 lbs. 6x300 is 1800 pounds, you see where I'm going with this? Now I'm not saying there's a lot of 300 lb guys doing pull-ups but if you want to play the comparison card, who's really stronger here? 

Here's another example since we're talking about push-ups here....On average, let's say most guys who do push-ups (military style in this scenario) are around 150-185 or so, let's go with 180 for those who like to play this game of comparison. Let's pick an arbitrary number of push-ups to compare to say...300. Guy does 300 push-ups in a workout or in a day doesn't matter it's still 300. let's play a round of Math for all you debaters out there and those who like to shit on who's stronger or who's more fit. In the military or regular push-up, it constitutes around 65% of your bodyweight so 180 lb man doing 300 push-ups, 65% of 180 is what? 117 lbs every time you do 1 rep. 117x300 is what? A total of 35,100 lbs moved throughout the workout or in a day. That's a lot of weight moved for a human being in an exercise, very fit and can total out some serious strength. Now let's make this interesting, I'm 257 lbs. 77 lbs heavier than our boy here, at 257, 65% is 167.05 lbs. That's still quite a bit more weight, around 50+ in comparison. 167.05x300= 50,115 lbs total moved. By this comparison, I'm far stronger and should be a hell of a lot more fitter than the lighter guy. The truth is, we are both strong and fit in our individual rankings in push-ups. You shouldn't have to compare somebody else to what they're level of fitness is by stupid numbers. One has a better pound for pound chance while the other has more mass, that's all it is.

We focus so much on what we're compared to to others that we don't think of the layers of what real comparisons are and debating over bullshit that doesn't do anyone any good. The real point here is, train to what satisfies your discipline and passion for exercise while also understanding your individual strengths and weaknesses. Strengthen your weaknesses as much as possible but not in comparing yourself to others but by learning to be stronger than you were the day, week, year before. In most debated comparisons, you're metaphorically measuring someone else's dick, breast size, ass or whatever and thinking the bigger the better when in reality, it's pretty petty, meaningless and makes you both egotistical. Stop putting others down when they don't have the same strengths as you and/or weaker and don't underestimate someone who may not look fit but could possibly knock you into next week or outlast you. 

Enjoy your training, make it fulfilling and keep being amazingly awesome.