Barefoot Fitness

Its My Fault

"Why does no one admit his failings? Because he's still deep in them. It's the person who's awakened who recounts his dream, and acknowledging one's failings is a sign of health." Seneca – Letters from a Stoic

The conditions of any interaction between oneself and another can be broken down into two categories: Their actions and yours. You can only control the latter.

Something that I have been working on is upon every negative thing that comes up in my life; when a relationship goes poorly, when a workout doesn't go well, when an article gets kicked back from an editor with the words "total re-write," I stop myself mentally from tumbling into anger, excuses or resentment. (I mean really, how does someone survive long enough into adulthood to come into my gym and strike themselves with a sledgehammer?)

One has the capability to control the impact of outside elements, including other people, by developing a sense for ascertaining each person or things unique temperament. From that basis one may predict future behavior and either steer interactions in a favorable direction or choose not to allow into ones life those whom would affect it negatively. Those things still fall into the category of your own actions.

This applies to situations in any avenue of life, not just interpersonal. Business ventures, driving in heavy traffic, your training in the gym, etc. Life.

When something happens that leads me to feel that angered, blaming sentiment rise up, I mentally halt myself and say something to the effect of "Shut up. Stop what you're doing." I pause for a few heartbeats to accept this and then mentally say to myself, "It's my fault."

I then break down every indication over the course of the event which I should have taken as a sign of eventual failure. It doesn't really matter what the other person did. If my workout sucked or a client doesn't do what I want them to in a workout, I should have been able to read the signs or predict and counter the negative factors in the workout or their behavior.

If I'm sitting on the floor after a workout feeling physically awful, I disregard the urge to blame the lack of sleep, the missed meals, dehydration, the time off or the lack of equipment. These are all things I could have controlled and better accounted for. It's my responsibility to make it better.

I remember driving once with a girl who, up until that moment, had been the most serious romantic relationship of my life. It was over, and I was still in that tachypsychic slow motion is-this-really-happening state that also accompanies things like car wrecks, unexpected gunfire or flipping over the handlebars of a downhill mountain bike into a boulder.

I stopped myself mentally, took a few moments to examine the feelings (something that I developed in SOF selection; rather than mentally avoiding pain, analyzing it to a minute level in order to deconstruct it) and asked her to hurt me. I wanted her to criticize everything about me since the start of the relationship.

She laughed. "Seriously? You want to hear this?"

"Yes. Pretend that either I don't have feelings or that I do and you really want to hurt them."

"You know that I do, right?"

"I'm aware."

"Ok then…"

After mentally annotating that little list, I spent the rest of the drive going over every indication that I should have seen months earlier to know that it was going to fail and trying to figure out what possessed me to keep going with it anyway.

This seems like a good way to torture oneself, and really it is, but it's also a valuable learning experience. There have been and will be other relationships and the only way to get better at them is to forget about blaming the other person, whom you cannot control, and understanding how to improve the factor that you can control: yourself.

Since starting Barefoot, I have kept a shorthand log of daily workouts. In it, I make notes on what went well that day and what went poorly. I look for at least one mistake per day; something that can be improved upon and integrated into a procedure that will eventually lead to a smoothly functioning system. This is only possible if I am capable of accepting responsibility for everything that goes wrong.

Turn this towards your own life. Consider everything around you that is not going well and take a moment to examine it from the perspective that it's your fault.

Are you out of shape? Do your workouts suck? It's your fault. Knowledge is free. So is effort. Do your workouts suck because you're not eating well, because you're just not putting yourself into them, because you're dehydrated or because your program sucks? That's your fault. Or is it because your gym sucks or your trainer sucks? That's your fault too, because you choose those things.

Understand that and you can make it better. Or, you can keep on blaming the things that you can't control and continue to wake up every day to a slightly older but otherwise unchanged self.

"On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use." - Epictetus, born a slave in 55 A.D.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Honest Dogs

A number of professional fighters train at our facility in Denver. One of the fighters tends to bring his dog, an Alaskan Malamute named Cody, to the facility while they work out.

I was coaching these guys through a conditioning workout recently. The men were pushing through sprints on a prowler and Cody was meandering back and forth among the bustle.

In the world of dogsledding many dogs, when fatigued, will stop pulling with any real effort, but still keep just enough tension on their harnesses that it's hard to tell that they're no longer working hard.

There are some dogs though, that never stop digging into their harnesses with all of their strength, even under severe fatigue. These dogs are generally placed at the lead position on the harness, and are referred to as "honest dogs," a term of considerable respect.

The first thing that was impressed up on me when I started working with the fighters was the sheer effort that they put into everything they did in their workouts. They have a developed a camaraderie that revolves around physical intensity and the sort of mutual respect that comes from shared suffering. It's an atmosphere that I've missed a good deal since leaving the world of military special operations.

It occurred to me while watching them grind out the prowler sprints, with Cody alongside providing moral support, that the reason they've made it to the upper echelons of the fighting world is that they share the same traits as the sled dogs that earn the place in the lead harness position; the honest dogs. They never stop putting out, even when their bodies are wracked with exhaustion.

They could easily slack off a little on the prowler; push it a little slower or turn it around a bit early and pretend they didn't notice, but they don't. They're honest, too.

Take a moment and consider how this applies to your daily activities. Whether it's at work, while spending time with your family or grinding out the last set of pullups at the gym, you are the only person who's truly going to know if you are putting yourself entirely into that activity or if you're really only doing just enough to appear that way.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Simplicity

"Once you have rid yourself of the affliction there though, every change of scene will become a pleasure. You may be banished to the ends of the earth, and yet in whatever outlandish corner of the world you may find yourself stationed, you will find that place, whatever it may be like, a hospitable home. Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there." – Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

Eleven years ago on this little island, a wealthy local mayor started construction on a large mansion. The mansion was constructed entirely of concrete, three stories high, set amongst a coconut-palm tree grove and overlooking the ocean.

Halfway through construction, the mayor died. The mansion now sits unfinished in the care of the mayor’s niece, slowly crumbling apart. Looters have destroyed anything that wasn’t solidly nailed down, and all the out-buildings and quarters for the guards and servants are roofless and falling down. There is no running water or electricity, and the towering gray citadel is without the luxury of doors or windows.

We called it Castle Grayskull, and for a while, it was home.

A few weeks prior to the castle, we were at our usual base. Some Army Colonel had dropped by for a visit and a meeting. He told us that it was crucial that we have guys on this particular island and he didn’t care if we did it naked in a canoe and armed with a butter knife, as long as we got out there.

Paparazzi (Obviously, none of these names are real) and I got to talking about this. Apparently, we didn’t even need the RIB’s to operate out there. We just needed anything that floated long enough for us to interact with the locals and conduct surveillance and reconnaissance. We had these two little indigenous wooden boats, called bancas, which were purchased locally.

“So, the two of us could take the bancas out there, live on the island and get all these ops done?”

We called it “Operation Butter Knife.”

This was really an excuse to get away from our chain of command and take a little vacation. We figured that an hour or two a day could be used taking all the stupid little pictures the Army wanted, and the rest of it could be spent snorkeling, spear-fishing, napping in our hammocks and otherwise serving our country.

Our Chief loved the idea and was impressed with our initiative, probably because we left out the 90 minutes of work followed by a nap part.

We had created a monster. The op was pushed all the way up the chain of command and came back with an hourly schedule and the usual bureaucratic nonsense. Wednesday night we were given notice that the op was to go through and that we would be leaving Friday on a civilian cargo barge, which would drop us off near the island.

In this amount of time we had to create communications plans, do the weapons and intel-equipment loadouts, conduct gear checks, briefly train the people who would be handling our jobs in our absence, and amass all the stuff we would need to live for about two weeks.

The first thing Paparazzi and I packed was snorkel gear and flip flops.

The trip on the barge took 14 hours. We slept around our gear on the deck of the barge, occasionally being accosted by new and interesting smells emanating from the internal holds of the ship. At one point in the night, I was woken up by the feeling of the ship making a change in course, and looked up at the railing near my head to see the mast of a boat passing by us, coming within a few feet of collision. I slept on a cot, while Paparazzi strung up his hammock near the wall on the edge of the barge. I slept fine on my cot, but the hammock caused Paparazzi some difficulty once the ship hit rolling seas. At about two in the morning, his hammock started swinging, knocking him into the wall with each roll of the ship. Bong… bong… bong…

We arrived at the island the next morning and we dropped the banca boat in the water and headed towards Grayskull.

Four or five SEALs, whom we refer to as team guys, had moved into Grayskull a few weeks ago, and were to be our new chain of command. Apparently, they had been notified of our arrival only the day before.

We were met by the team guy’s LPO (the guy who's kind of in charge), who gave us a quick brief on the house and surrounding property and showed us the rooms we would be staying in. A few minutes later, we were called to the second floor to meet with the OIC (the guy who's in charge).

The OIC told us that the brass back at base had no idea what was really going on at the island. Our being out on the water could potentially scare off several targets they had been monitoring over the past several weeks and endanger the ops they had been planning around those targets. The banca boat would not be used by any American personnel, though he would probably be able to loan it to his Filipino Forces and get use out of it that way. He would task us with a mission once it came up, and until then we would just be working in with them and hanging out.

I could not have been happier. Operation Butter Knife was going perfectly.

Paparazzi and I settled into our room and began working with the team guys around the castle.

The only food at the castle was what you brought with you, which consisted mainly of MRE’s and protein powder. I’m not a huge fan of MRE’s, so I brought a backpack full of protein powder, oatmeal, greens powder and some supplements. Occasionally, we got food from the Filipino Marines who live in the other shacks on the compound. A common offering was sautéed bat adobo. The bats were quite large, and the Filipinos would shoot them with a pellet gun and make dinner out of them. The meat was actually pretty good, but each piece of meat was contained within a mess of little bones and connective tissue, which made it not really worth the work of eating it.

We also brought about 20 cases of bottled water with us, which were to serve not only as our only drinking water, but also as our means of showering.

It takes about five bottles of water to take a shower, or three, if, as in Paparazzi’s case, you only tend to the “problem areas.” This system was working out well enough for us, but by the second day we had decided that it was time to develop some better methods. If the good folks on Gilligan’s Island could make a radio out of a coconut, we could figure out a shower.

Working with one of the team guys, we placed a 35-gallon plastic garbage can on the roof of the castle. We cut a hole in the lid, and ran a hose with a nozzle down to the ground. By siphoning the water, and pressurizing it with the three story drop, we managed a flow of water with just as much pressure as one would find in a house with actual plumbing. The only catch was that the barrels had to be filled daily with water from a well. This was done by dipping a bucket tied to a bamboo pole into the narrow well, then dumping it into a barrel in the back of a pickup. The water was trucked below the barrel on the roof, and raised by way of another bucket tied to a rope. We worked on devising a pulley system made out of bamboo and coconut shells, but the plans never made it out of the theoretical stage.

Our room was on the first floor, and was one of the few in the building with tiled floors instead of bare concrete. The room occupied by Paparazzi and I was about ten by fifteen feet, and featured large, open, arched windows on two sides. Between these windows and the door frame we strung our hammocks. We shared the room with eleven spiders and two geckos. On the first day, we killed a large spider that was traversing the floor and left its remains on display as a warning to the others. From then on, we maintained a loose peace agreement with the remaining eleven and they remained on the ceiling where they were free to stay and catch bugs. Roll call of the spiders was conducted regularly and for the rest of our stay we had no further violations of the treaty.

There was an excellent gym, considering the circumstances, and in order to enter the house one would walk through it and past the large bamboo and palm leaf sign with the words: “Jungle Gym.”

The team guys had a projector which could be connected to a laptop, and each night, as long as the generator was running, we pointed the projector at a large concrete wall on the second story and watched a movie.

All trash had to be collected and taken to a pit where it was doused in gasoline and ignited with a magnesium pencil flare. The team guys were able to solve most problems with the application of some sort of pyrotechnics, a tendency which I found quite endearing.

The bathroom was another adventure. The concept of toilets has never quite caught on in the Philippines, so the bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground inside a little shack. The team guys had already placed a toilet seat on top of an ammo box, which eliminated the necessity of developing good technique in the maneuver known as “The Third World Squat.” Flushing was done by dipping a coffee can into a barrel of rainwater and dumping it down the hole. I recently finished reading a book about a guy stuck for many years in a Thai prison, and after being inside that shack, I no longer have to wonder what his accommodations were like.

There is a clearing of grass next to the castle which is used as a helicopter landing pad. At the end of this clearing is a pair of tree stumps that needed to be removed. This could be accomplished in a variety of ways. A chainsaw seemed most efficient. Burning them was also a viable option. The team guys, however, had a better idea, which proved not only quite entertaining, but also educational, and we spent an afternoon removing the stumps with almost four pounds of C4 plastic explosive.

There was also a large, thick, leafy bush that needed to be removed, and we started making future plans for its removal.

“Ok, so we can fill a bunch of condoms full of gasoline, throw them in the bush, wrap it in det-cord, then throw some C4, connected to the det-cord, in the middle.”

We presented this idea to the OIC.

“Can’t you just use a weed-eater?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“We’re gonna do that. No demo. Jesus.”

About a mile offshore were two large mooring buoys which we had placed recently for our boats. Each buoy was a large cylinder, about four feet in diameter and maybe six feet high. They sat about halfway out of the water. We swam out to them occasionally for a workout, and on days when we have too much time on our hands, we invented another sport: Buoy Climbing.

As it turns out, getting on top of one of these buoys is next to impossible. If one person grabs a side and tries to pull himself up, the buoy immediately flips over on top of him, flinging him back into the ocean. If another person holds the buoy down on the other side, then the first person will generally make it almost on top of the buoy before it spins in place and smacks him back down into the water.

With enough coordination and the proper timing, sometimes the first person makes it on top of the buoy, but this is almost always short-lived, as the person will then overcompensate by moving too far to the other side. This is a fun one to watch. The guy attempting to climb the buoy will suddenly find himself triumphantly on top, and for a brief moment he will consider himself “King of the Buoy” and let out a joyous whoop of victory. It is at this point that the buoy will reach an upright position and then keep right on going to the other side. Picture the movement of one of those little horsey things on a playground that sits on a giant spring, but about six feet tall.

The expression of elation on the man’s face would quickly be replaced by one of impending doom, and the buoy would continue its swing, pushing the second guy underwater and crashing the first directly on top of him, creating a satisfyingly large spray of water. Occasionally, this would all occur while the rider was still in the middle of his victory yell, and the sound of it being cut short by the impact of the water was always amusing to the spectators.

Somewhere towards the end of our stay there, before we had to return to a life of non-stop sleepless nights and back to back operations on the water, I wrote this in a letter to a friend:

"I’m writing this from my hammock inside Castle Grayskull. Out here, I don’t wear a watch, I don’t carry a cell phone, and my wallet is sitting useless in my backpack. I’m not even sure what day it is. I’ve read three books in the past week, and written one story. I haven’t had a hot shower in several months. I’m bitten by an interesting and sometimes mysterious variety of insects each day. My meals are either cold MRE’s, protein shakes, or the occasional luxury of tuna fish packets or granola bars and jerky sent from home. Every once in a while I have some local food from the Filipino Marines around here. All the clothes I have out here fit easily in a compartment of my backpack, and I seldom wear more than board shorts and flip flops. I work out every day, do a lot of stretching, and usually go for a swim in the ocean.

I have not felt this happy or at ease in years. I have to go back to our usual base in a few days, and the ops we’ll be doing then, and some of the people I’ll be working with, are going to suck. Nonetheless, I feel like years of stress are being melted out of my body. Before I came out on deployment, I wrote about how tired I was of the lifestyle in California. I wanted to be free of commuting, traffic, cable television and shopping malls. Now, I am, and it’s great.

I suppose that I’ll be ready to go back when I have to, but I’m really in no hurry. I look forward to the things in the states that I can’t do here. I miss climbing, mountain biking, camping and training at the MMA gym I go to. I want to spend some time with my family. I hope that when I get back I’ll be able to maintain a level of simplicity in my life that will keep me happy."

Happiness is an odd thing. We humans, and I think Americans in particular, are not terribly good at figuring out how to attain it. Numerous studies done by men like Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert have found that happiness only correlates with financial status up to the poverty line. Beyond that, the ultra rich show the same level of objectively measured happiness as anyone else.

For that brief time before the reality of military life swooped back in, we lived at the castle in circumstances that most people would describe as squalor, and yet I look back on it as one of the most enjoyable times of my military career.

Despite this, money, the corporate ladder, working to afford a bigger mortgage and more car payments and accumulating possessions and material comforts takes up the majority of our time. It's like we're not even happy in the rat race. We want to run in the rat race with the newest, most expensive running shoes we can find, and most of us fail to ever stop and look around and wonder why it is we're really doing it.

I moved to Denver recently, in order to build out our new facility here and get Barefoot Denver running, and got an apartment.

I came here with a duffel bag and a few odds and ends. I've got my Ipod, a little Bose speaker for it, a pan, three knives, three forks, a nalgene, a bed, a can opener and a spatula. I don't own a TV, I don't have internet and it seems that all my neighbors are clever enough to put passwords on their wireless routers.

In the evenings after I get done at the facility, I come home, put music on and make dinner; which I either eat out of the pan or dump into a Tupperware container since I don't have plates yet. I don't have a lamp in my room yet either, so if I go in there I use a headlamp. It's like camping.

Then I sit on my floor in the living room, against the wall with my pillow behind my back, listen to music and read or write until it's time to sleep.

During the day, I write down everything I need to accomplish online and spend about two hours at a coffee shop in my neighborhood. This forces me be efficient in my time there, because if you're sitting in public with your laptop, you tend to feel kind of silly if all you're doing is goofing around on Failblog. So I finish my checklist and for the rest of the day I'm disconnected electronically.

This level of simplicity is relaxing, and I feel that I can accomplish far more. By starkly dividing my time working online from working at the facility and from the rest of the day, I lose the tendency to constantly "snack" throughout the day on random internet forays and instead have dedicated work time or dedicated relaxation time. Either one is more productive.

It's still a far cry from Castle Gray Skull and within a few weeks I'll have furniture, internet and probably even a lamp, but it's been a nice reminder of how much of what we take for granted in life can actually just serve as mental and physical clutter.

Seneca also wrote in a letter to a friend, "Still, my determination to put your moral strength of purpose to the test is such that I propose to give even you the following direction found in great men's teaching: set aside now and then a number of days which you will be content with the plainest of food, and very little of it, and with rough, course clothing, and will ask yourself, 'is this what one used to dread?"

Consider this for a moment and look around at all the comfort and clutter you surround yourself with. How much of it do you really use on a regular basis? What would you do if it was all taken away?

We spend so much time working to accumulate all this stuff when it may not even make us any happier than we would be without it, and it's quite possible that the toiling we have to do in order to afford it all takes us away from experiences that would be much more fulfilling.

Self-imposed simplicity is a worthwhile exercise. Think of some sort of material comfort that you use regularly and feel dependant on and exercise control over it. Do you check your email every ten minutes, or leave your tv on all day? Try unplugging your tv for a week, or set a timer and only allow yourself one hour of time online each day. Disconnect your modem the rest of the time and turn off the internet feature on your blackberry.

When you check your email after two or three days and realize that you can go through all of your email in about fifteen minutes, you'll really start to wonder what the rest of that time was for.

Learn to enjoy the real world, physically. That time you won't be spending watching reruns and looking up videos of fat kids falling down on Youtube can now be spent trying something new and finding out what your body is capable of. Rent a pair of snowshoes, join a friend on a hike, or spend an hour staring at a cloud with the sun on your face and reconnect with the world inside your own thoughts without sedating yourself with the narcotic effect of television.

Once you do, post your experience here and let me know how it went.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Posture - Why Your Back Hurts

We’re all born with near-perfect postural alignment. Watch a toddler walk, stand, reach overhead and squat and you’ll see tremendous mobility and safe strong joints.

It’s pretty much downhill from there.

North American culture has us spending an inordinate amount of time in the sitting position. A great deal of time and effort goes into preventing us from expending, well, time and effort when it comes to moving around in our daily lives. Items on shelves are always within arms reach, if we have to move very far we hop on an escalator, an elevator or get in our cars; and a job that involves spending much time on one’s feet or lifting something heavier than twenty pounds is considered “strenuous.”

Over the course of a lifetime, people tend to develop postural imbalances. Much of this is due to the chair-bound culture. The head tends to drift forward into the dreaded “turtle head” posture; the lower back sways into a position known as lordosis, the upper back hunches forward, the scapulae wing out, the upper arms rotate internally and the palms end up facing backwards like Fred Flintstone, the knees get wobbly and the hips get tight, and the ankles become stiff and crunchy.

No part of the body functions in isolation. The entire body is connected through a variety of means.

A Symphony, Not a Solo

Muscles do not contract individually; they do so in a synchronized fashion, like a symphony. If you bend down and pick your kid off the floor, a chain of muscular contractions from your feet all the way through your arms occurs in order to make that happen. When the body has a postural imbalance, these “kinetic chains” are forced to be directed through an inefficient and potentially harmful series of muscular contractions.

Likewise, the joints all function in a synchronous manner. Some joints are meant to be stable, meaning that their main purpose is to restrict undesirable motion. Other joints are meant to be mobile, meaning that they are meant to allow desirable motion. The shoulder, (gleno-humeral joint) is meant to be mobile and has a large range of motion. The knee, however, is meant to be stable and only moves in a very specific direction, through a specific range. Muscular imbalances and inefficient kinetic chains tend to hinder the mobility and stability of the joints

The Mobility-Stability Continuum

The joints are referred as existing on what is called the Mobility-Stability Continuum. This is because the joints alternate in fashion. The ankle should be mobile, the knee should be stable, the hip should be mobile, etc.

Here’s the outline:

Joint — Need

Foot — Stability
Ankle — Mobility
Knee — Stability
Hip — Mobility
Lumbar Spine — Stability
Thoracic Spine — Mobility
Scapula — Stability
Gleno-Humeral Joint — Mobility
Elbow — Stability

Most of the postural problems common in North Americans are due to the reversal of this continuum. When a mobile joint becomes less so, the joints above and below it increase in mobility in order to compensate. Likewise, when a stable joint becomes looser, the joints above and below it will become more stiff.

One of the most prominent examples of this is within the hips and lumbar spine. The rotational range of motion of each vertebrae of the lumbar spine is only about one to two degrees. Going beyond that invites injury. The thoracic spine, however, which is located in the upper portion of the back, has vertebrae capable of up to 9 degrees of rotation per segment. The hips, meaning the joint between the femur and the pelvis are also highly mobile.

The average North American, due to the limited physicality in their daily lives and the amount of time spent hunched over in chairs, develops limited range of motion within their hips and thoracic spine. The lumbar spine becomes more mobile in order to compensate and endangers itself. This is a major part of the reason lower back pain and damaged lumbar discs are so common.

A mobile lumbar spine is not only an injury waiting to happen; it “leaks” energy during any athletic movement and makes the athlete weaker.

The root cause of imbalanced joints is muscles on one side of the joint that are too loose and weak while muscles on the other side of the joint are too tight and constantly under excessive tension.

Two Major Culprits:

Hip Flexors

Two of the biggest culprits are the hip flexors and the muscles of the upper back, particularly those which retract the scapulae (shoulder blades).

Due to the amount of time spent in the sitting position, the hip flexor muscles become increasingly tight. Due to a neurological phenomenon called reciprocal inhibition, when a muscle contracts the muscle on the opposite side of the joint relaxes. In the case of tight hip flexors, the primary muscle that gets shut down is the glutes, aka your butt.

Now, when you go to pick up your kid off the floor, the aforementioned kinetic chain must work past weak, neurologically inhibited glutes in order to transfer force. It does so by increasing the amount of force directed through the muscles above and below the weakened muscle in the kinetic chain. These muscles are the hamstrings and muscles of the lower back.

In addition, many people develop a compensation for weak glutes in which they shift the kinetic chain anteriorly, putting their bodyweight onto their toes and lifting their body first by using their quads to extend (straighten) their knee, and then using their over-worked lumbar muscles to hyperextend the lower back.

Think about it: how many athletes have you heard of tearing a hamstring or a quad during a sprint? Now how many times in your life have you ever heard of someone straining their glutes? What about the lower back? I bet you can think of just maybe one or two people who have overly tight lower backs.

Consider what this eventually does to your glutes. They weaken and atrophy. This isn’t just bad for athletic performance and health. It means you don’t look so good naked, either. How many times have you ever heard a woman say, “I really wish my butt wasn’t so gosh-darned firm! Why can’t it just be saggy and flabby like everyone else’s?”

Scapular Retractors

The second major culprit in flawed posture is the musculature of the upper back. Americans are hunched over in desks or chairs all day and attention-thus the arms-is typically directed straight ahead. The muscles of the chest are chronically tight and shortened, while the muscles of the upper back are chronically weak and lengthened. This pulls the shoulders forward and causes the arms to rotate internally.

The Pencil Test

Try this test: Hold a pencil in either hand with the pointy end facing your thumb. While standing, casually drop your hands to your sides as you normally would. The degree of tightness in your chest and the resulting imbalance in your shoulders will determine where the pencils point. If they point straight forward, congratulations, you have great posture. If you just stabbed yourself in the thighs, it means that your humeri (upper arm bones) are severely internally rotated and your shoulders are in a dangerous position.

Having the shoulders pulled forward in this way tends to cause the scapulae (shoulder blades) to wing outwards.

The Back-Slide Test

Here’s another test. Have someone pass their hand across your upper back. If they could touch your spine at all, your shoulder blades are pulled drastically forward. Ideally, someone should be able to pass their hand across your back and feel only an empty space between your shoulder blades where your spine is.

Having the upper arms rotated and the shoulder blades constantly winged out places the muscle of the upper back into a constantly lengthened, weakened position. Just like the glutes, they start to weaken and atrophy. As this happens, the upper spine is pulled further forward into a hunch by the dominant muscles of the chest. This is known as kyphosis.

In order to maintain balance and keep your head looking forward, the cervical spine (your neck) must now pitch forward and curve more drastically. This is the posture referred to in scientific circles as “Turtle Head.”

This hunched back position tends to worsen itself over time, as it becomes increasingly difficult to retract the shoulder blades down and in over the top of a hunched spine. This creates a worsening cycle of weakened muscles followed by a more drastic hunch and worsened shoulder alignment.

It Starts At the Foot

Postural flaws go all the way down to the feet. Another problem that develops over time is weakened, unstable feet that result from a lifetime of being encased in shoes that may as well be plaster casts. This weakens the muscles and joints of the feet in the same way that wearing a cast on your arm year-round would weaken that arm

A book by Simon J. Wikler, D.S.C. cites a study comparing the differences in children who were permitted by their mothers to go barefoot occasionally during childhood and those who were strictly prohibited from doing so. He found that children who sometimes forewent shoes had: “Less deformed toes, greater flexor strength, more ability to spread the toes, denser muscles on the bottom of the feet and greater agility than those who had never gone barefoot, plus a wider range of hip circumduction and more flexibility of the gluteal and hamstring muscles, which gave them more ability to touch their toes when their knees were held stiff.”

Being that the foot is the first joint in the stability-mobility continuum and that it is supposed to be stable, weakening it can lead to a host of problems all the way up the body. Weak, loose feet lead to excessively tight ankles, which lead to weaker, looser knees, which can cause tight hips, etc.

This doesn’t mean that you have to forego footwear altogether and spend the rest of your life walking around the office barefoot and braving the broken glass in the parking lot, but you can enable your feet to function as they were designed to by using footwear that is less restricting. Nike Frees, Vibram Five Fingers, and Vivo Barefoot footwear are all examples of shoes that do a great job of simulating being barefoot while still offering some degree of protection from temperature and broken whiskey bottles.

Stop using shoes with giant pads in the heels. The ones with little shocks are even worse. Your body was not meant to function this way. Try running barefoot through your yard or down the hallway and pay attention to the way your feet land. Your body is meant to absorb shock through the balls of the feet, then the ankle, then the knee. Landing on the heel and relying on your shoes to absorb shock is a complete affront to natural biomechanics and weakens and potentially injures the joints while promoting imbalances. One need only look at the exceedingly low injury rates among Kenyan and Tarahumara runners who frequently dominate the world’s distance running competitions while seldom wearing shoes to see real-world proof of this concept.

Summing Up

In conclusion, the daily life of the typical North American puts one at risk for a comprehensive variety of postural flaws. A good deal of the programming in the Barefoot Fitness system is designed to correct these flaws and promote long term health and performance.

To this end, as a member of Barefoot Fitness, you will frequently hear cues to do things such as pull your shoulder blades back and down, use your glutes to drive a movement, keep the sternum high, tightly brace your abs, etc. These cues are all crucial for producing and developing good posture, which is an all-important factor in the way your body eventually looks, feels and performs.

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It Doesnt Matter

Throughout most of my two and a half years going through Naval Special Warfare selection training, swimming was my Achilles heel. My intense dislike for it was equaled only by my monumental lack of talent at it.

That was all part of the plan, really. A challenge was my goal and throwing myself into something that I was inherently bad at seemed like a good way to find that. I didn't even learn how to swim until boot camp. I’d never be fully prepared for this anyway, and if I didn’t do it now, I probably never would.

During the first week of boot camp, the same day as the basic swim test, a series of four videos are shown about each of the special programs available to volunteers. Along with a handful of others, I raised my hand, put my name on a list and volunteered for selection.

Shortly thereafter I sat shivering on a small blue tile in a muggy, chlorine-scented locker room amongst rows of other candidates. My arms were wrapped around my knees, pulling them to my chest. I wasn't cold. I was shaking because the next six years of my life depended on my ability to pass this test.

On command, we filed out of the room, holding up either one finger or two fingers to designate which pool we were to line up in front of.

Two or three laps later, choking and sputtering, I felt a hand tap me on the shoulder as I reached the wall to turn around. An instructor was standing over me.

"Out of the water. You're not gonna make it. You've still got some time to catch stroke development; so if you want to continue, head to that pool down there and pay attention."

Stroke development was being led by an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Chief named Ferriss. He spoke calmly but loudly, as if already exasperated with us.

"Hold your hand up over your head like this. Now bend it like this, and pull your arm down like this. There; you just learned half of the side stroke. I can teach combat sidestroke to a monkey in thirty minutes. Now enter the water."

I listened as if my life depended on it. In a way, it did.

On my third and final attempt at the screen test, I passed the swim by less than ten seconds. I felt a degree of triumph lining up for the next portion of the test with the other five students of the twenty-five or so who had started. Stopping for any reason during the test would result in automatic failure, and I was so fatigued from the swim that I spent a good portion of the timed run afterwards in a sideways gait in order to puke while moving. Two of us passed the test.

Afterwards I was elated and proud to tell my Dad about it. As the words left my mouth that excitement was marginalized by the prospect of what was to come. He asked what was next. I paused to think about it. "Well, now I can start the training for Special Programs. Kind of."

"Are you ready?"

"I have to be."

I was practicing swimming each day with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal candidate named Mitchell. We occasionally talked about our days which were spent at A School with the regular Navy people. A personality type we constantly encountered was the "I-was-gonna." The I-was-gonnas were people who would find out that you were in the Special Programs pipeline and feel obligated to tell you about their similar aspirations, which always began with the words "I was gonna" and ended with an excuse.

"I was gonna go into SWCC/BUDS/EOD but I decided to wait until I'm in better shape before I try out."

"I was gonna do that too, but I want to spend some time in the fleet first learning how the Navy works."

"I was gonna sign up for that, but I have this thing with my knee and I don't know if they'd let me in."

The I-was-gonnas never did. Their fear to take the first step, to take that risk, prevented them from ever knowing if they could have made it.

After passing the screen test I began attending the Special Programs workouts, which required that I get up at 3:00 a.m. in order to make the walk to the gym on the other side of base. These workouts were mandatory for SEAL and SWCC candidates until we left for the actual training in Coronado, California. For me, this wouldn't be for another year and a half.

Most of the time, these workouts were in the gym or around the base, either on long runs or at a strip of beach where we would do calisthenics and try to avoid low-crawling through dead fish. This was with the exception of Wednesday, which was pool day.

One of the first pool day workouts sticks in my memory. It was winter in Chicago and the doors outside had been opened. The cold outside air had rushed in and mixed with the warm humidity inside, creating a thick fog.

Above the fog, in a lifeguard chair, was Instructor Cassidy, an experienced SEAL instructor. At this point, the farthest I had swum non-stop in my life was 1000 meters. I had only passed the screen test, with its 500 meter swim, a few weeks prior.

“Warm up! 2000 meter sidestroke! First group, enter the water! Bust ‘em!”

I briefly tried to convince myself that I had heard wrong, or that he was joking.

A lot of thoughts go through your head as you're stepping into something that you really dread. My mind scanned through possibilities, weighing the pros and cons of somehow breaking my leg in the few steps it would take me to get to the water and silently hoping that another candidate would have a violent seizure and distract the instructor for a while.

Swimming is a tutorial in efficiency. Think about what it feels like to try to run through chest deep water while fish flit effortlessly past your feet. The brilliantly written book Total Immersion explains the science behind this quite well. Poor swimming technique stems from poor body positioning which increases the size of the "hole" ones body must pass through in the water. A law of hydrodynamics states that drag increases by the square of the distance that water travels to move past a body. This means that twice the distance traveled by the water equals four times the drag.

Unless technique and body positioning improves, the only way to move faster through the water is to just exert more force doing the same motion. The fatal flaw to this strategy comes down to another physics law: Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration (F = M x A). What this means is that to double force by simply moving an object twice as fast results in eight times the energy expenditure.

So a poor swimmer is already working against exponentially more drag. Trying to move faster by doubling the speed of his stroke with the same technique would cube the amount of energy he must produce. Just a ten percent increase in speed requires a 33 percent increase in power output.

At Cassidy’s call of “Bust ‘em!” we pushed off the wall and started swimming. The next group entered the water and followed momentarily. The person behind me soon passed me. It was impossible to swim smoothly with the number of people fighting to pass each other in the narrow lanes, and the water was a chaotic tangle of kicks and collisions. I fell to the back of the pack.

The disparity between the energy my awful technique required to finish the swim compared to the guys with the lowest-drag, most efficient strokes was drastically apparent. When the swim was over, I dragged myself out of the water, my chest heaving with the effort required to support and move my suddenly cumbersome and lactic acid riddled body. The guys who were first out of the water were relaxed, quietly standing at attention and occasionally cracking jokes with each other whenever Cassidy's attention was diverted to the other side of the building. I could barely stand.

Instructor Cassidy explained the next portion of the workout. We were to enter the water one at a time at the far end of the pool and sprint freestyle to the end, then duck under the lap lane rope and sprint back, repeating the process until we had swam every lane. For each time we were passed, we were to get out and do ten pushups before continuing the next lap.

My proficiency at freestyle was worse than sidestroke. To say that I could even swim it at all would have been optimistic. I was passed constantly and sucked in a breath of water as my goggles were kicked off my face. Under the fog, the water resembled a rugby scrum more than a swim. I could barely think clearly enough to count the pushups, and instead just pushed them out until my arms and chest gave out then dropped back into the water.

I was the last one to exit the pool, and standing upright required a concerted mental effort. Somebody did something to annoy Instructor Cassidy and we were punished with a barrage of pushups, flutter kicks and eight-counts. A trainee stopped doing eight-counts to throw up in the pool drain.

An incensed Cassidy bellowed from the chair, “You don’t want to put out? You don’t think you need to fucking be here? Do you people have any idea what is getting ready for you? First man, enter the water! Bust ‘em!”

My only thought as I swam was that each stroke brought me closer to being done and collapsing peacefully on the floor of my room to bask in the splendor of unlimited oxygen. There was no way this could continue much longer. Cassidy was in full form, hunting for signs of weakness and roaring threats at anyone who drew his attention.

I finished again and got out of the pool, crawling before bringing myself to my feet at the back of the pack. It felt like my head was packed in cotton. My vision was hazy; I was looking around in slow motion, and all I could really hear was the blood pounding in my ears. I didn’t catch much of what Cassidy had been saying to the trainees as they formed up, but I figured it was probably the final words before the workout ended.

“Do it again! First man, enter the water! Bust ‘em!”

By the middle of this series I could no longer swim with continuous effort. It was more a sequence of fitful strokes punctuated by choking and sinking. Halfway down the last lap I blinked and reopened my eyes to find myself drifting a few feet under the water. I snapped back into consciousness and kicked to the surface, coughing up more acrid chlorine, and toiled my way to the end of the lane.

I was too weak to lift myself out of the pool and two guys stepped out of line to grab me by the wrists and pull me out. I slid on my belly like a beached orca, pulled my knees under myself and finally got up and staggered to the back of the line. If we had to swim again I would pass out in the water.

“Get out of here.”

We were done and started filing out of the pool back into the gym. Instructor Cassidy stopped me as I walked past.

“You. You need to pick it up. You’re way behind the power curve.”

I tried to slow my breathing enough to speak intelligibly, “Hoo Ya, Instructor Cassidy… I just learned to swim… I’ll get better.”

After finishing A School, I spent six months working for the Dive Motivators who administer the screening tests and Special Programs workouts. Along with the other SCRUFTs (Screened Candidate Reported and Undergoing Physical Training, pronounced "Scruff") I would do the 3 a.m. workout, then eat breakfast, oversee the screen test for new candidates, work out again with another group of Special Programs guys, do paperwork for new candidates then do another workout which was more commonly referred to as a beatdown. This would end around lunch time and before we went home for the day we would endure anywhere from one to four more hours of physical torment at the hands of the Dive Motivator Instructors.

At some point I stopped caring about the beatdowns. I remember one day; jumping up and down knocking out 100 eight count bodybuilders, a complicated calisthenic movement combining a pushup with a squat jump along with several more movements in the middle. I was leading the group, calling out the number of reps loudly enough for the instructors to hear from their offices, when it occurred to me that it was no longer of any consequence whether I did ten of them, or hundreds, as long as I wasn't in the water.

My swimming improved, although it was still a major weakness. What I lacked in technical skill I made up for with sheer endurance. An Instructor told me that my swimming would improve if my heart was stronger. He told me to work out on an elliptical and keep my heart rate above 170 for twenty minutes.

Using the curious logic inherent to a nineteen-year-old male brain, I decided to improve on his advice, so two days per week I would spend 30 minutes on an elliptical, never letting my heart rate drop below 180 beats per minute. After several months, I extended it to 45 minutes.

I could never free myself from my mental hang-up with loathing the water, and continued to dread every day in the pool. The stamina I had built just meant that I could put even more effort into swimming poorly.

The days and months ticked by. I went on to Coronado, California, went through an indoctrination phase shared with BUD/S students, and then went on to SWCC's selection phase, known as Basic Crewman Training (BCT). It had been almost a year and a half since briefly blacking out in the water during Cassidy's workout.

I was two weeks away from graduating SWCC Class 47’s BCT. Most of the original fifty who started had quit. Sixteen remained.

My swim buddy and I had come in at 46:02 on a timed swim; 1,000 meters in open water with full cammies and boots. The instructors called me and my swim buddy Doug over. The time limit for the swim was 45 minutes. We had failed, were to be scheduled for a disciplinary review board, and would most likely be dropped from training.

At the board, I faced the officer at the head of the table and he eventually asked if I thought I could do better on the swim if given another chance that day.

I tried with only limited success to restrain emotion and choked back tears as I thought back over the months and years of struggling in the pool, of the 3:00 a.m. beatdowns, of showing up every day when so many others had quit.

"I'll try sir, but… I put everything I had into it last time… so, I don't know."

We were not dropped from training. The Lieutenant liked me, apparently because I had been honest. We were to be placed into the BUD/S Brownshirt Rollback program, then class back up with the next SWCC class, four months later.

We were privileged to be accepted into the Brownshirts. It’s normally only open to guys in SEAL training (BUD/S) who are rolled after they have passed Hell Week. My swim buddy and I were the first SWCC students permitted into the program.

The worst part of being in the Brownshirts was that eventually you would have to watch your former class graduate and know that you are stuck in limbo while they put a pin on their chest and go to a team. There is a saying that the worst day of BUD/S is the day that your old class graduates.

The upside to being a Brownshirt was that we had no real training obligations other than getting stronger and faster at running and swimming. You destroyed yourself for about five straight hours each day and that was it. No watches to stand, no tests, no bullshit.

At the time, though, it didn't feel to me like a relief. I now faced an even more daunting challenge just to get back to where I had started.

As a Brownshirt, you do whatever timed evolution any of the three phases is doing that day, plus two or three more workouts created by the Instructors in charge of the Brownshirt Program. I remember looking at our schedule my first week there. It didn’t seem possible.

Monday might be a four mile timed run in soft sand, then at least two miles of mostly interval sprints in the pool, then a weight-based strength workout followed by a session of rope climbs, dips and pullups. All of it was back to back. Tuesday would be a two-mile ocean swim, a run to the other side of base, then a workout of plyometrics, sprints, buddy-drags and exercises with 75 pound kettlebells. To make things extra special we all carried rucksacks with us almost everywhere with sandbags in them. The sandbags had to weigh at least thirty-five pounds. Applying the same logic I had to my heart rate while working out on the elliptical, I decided that a heavier sandbag would make me stronger. Mine weighed 58 pounds.

One of the most common workouts in the pool was to swim ten 100-meter interval sprints. It was based on two-minute intervals. This meant that if you swam the 100 in 1:45, you would get fifteen seconds rest before you started for the next hundred. If you swam slower, you got less rest, and left at the same time.

The fastest guys swam it in about 1:35 and had plenty of rest time. It was still a tough workout for them. My first lap, the first time I did it, I swam it in 1:58. Two seconds rest. Next lap, I was more fatigued. I came in at 2:00 flat. No breathing, just turn and sprint back. The entire set, I sprinted every lap and hit the wall just as everyone else was leaving for the next lap. It was a 1000 meter sprint. The instructor in charge of the evolution came over to me afterwards and said that the only real good thing he could say was that I never quit swimming or putting out. The technique would come.

With any of these workouts, one could usually tell that it was about two thirds done because people would start puking or passing out from the exertion. This was expected. If someone were caught holding back, or even suspected of it, relentless torture on behalf of the instructors would result.

I had a panicked, hunted feeling the first few weeks I was there. In order to earn my place I had to destroy myself every day at each of the workouts. I couldn't relax or coast through anything. But I was barely hanging on. I was a terrible swimmer, and the two miles per day in the water always crushed me. Everything I did was focused on recovering, getting stronger and faster, and stacking the deck as much as possible in my favor. I slept, ate and generally lived for the sole purpose of making it through the next day and getting a tiny step closer to the final goal. I was haunted by the thought that if everything wasn't dialed in right I may not make it. If I didn't perform well, I was done. Gone, like everyone else.

Over the first month or two there something changed. I had gotten some advice from a fresh BUD/S graduate living next door to me during my first few weeks in Coronado. He was packing his stuff to leave when I moved in and as he sorted through his gear, tossing me things I may need during the next few months, he talked about what he had learned during his past six months of training.

"The most important thing here is that it doesn’t matter. Nothing really matters. All the guys who stress themselves out and scream that everything is serious and really important and try to order everyone around usually go away. The evolutions are all scheduled, they have a set start and stop time, and the only objective is that you keep going. Don’t be the first guy and don’t be the last guy. Stay in the middle, unnoticed."

He said he probably did more damage to himself partying on the weekends than he did during the training. There were always some guys who tried to rest all weekend to prepare for the next week, but it was futile. A lot of those guys eventually broke down and went away.

What I finally realized was that even if I was dehydrated, even if I was sleep-deprived, hung over or sore, I was still going to do the workout and that somehow I would make it through. Fresh, well rested, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the workouts would hurt. Exhausted and aching, with a two-sizes-too-large wetsuit, the workouts would hurt. It would pass either way.

Eventually I was able to relax, knowing that whatever the next day brought, I would handle it. This was a new level of freedom for me. I finally felt like I was unbreakable. Not because it didn't hurt anymore or I could breeze through the workouts, but because I had hit bottom so many times that I knew that I would be able to keep going anyway.

Our first day, the Brownshirt instructors had given us numerous valuable points in our technique that would make us faster and more efficient in the water. It was the first time I had gotten advice that didn't boil down to "Just work harder." It was encouraging, and it was working astonishingly well.

I was working my way across the lap lanes at the pool, which were divided according to swimming ability. All the way to the left were the slowest guys and as you went to the right the swimmers were increasingly fast. Naturally, I started at the furthest lane to the left, but within a few weeks was progressing through towards the right.

Doug progressed even faster than me in the water. Soon, he was one of the fastest swimmers in BUD/S and we were no longer paired as swim buddies because I couldn't keep up with him.

After six weeks, Chief Nave, the lead Instructor for the Brownshirts, made me redo the 1,000 meter swim that Doug and I had failed. I passed by over ten minutes. I was free. The one thing that could have stopped me was conquerable.

Months later, I did the same swim again in my second SWCC class. The instructors had us swim solo, with no swim buddy, which was an odd break from the standard policy. Although I was somehow still nervous about it, I passed with a faster time than I had swum in the Brownshirts.

SWCC 47 had been a pilot class, the first in a new curriculum, and the time limits placed on some of the evolutions were arbitrary. For Class 48, the time limit for the swim was fifty minutes, five longer than the class before. Doug and I had only failed the first time by one minute.

Eight months later the CO of the base placed a pin on my chest at the graduation ceremony.

Our perception of whether and how much things hurt us is largely self-controlled. We fear the unknown. We fear how bad it can get, without ever really understanding where that limit is or how it will affect us when it comes.

Do you know what it feels like to suffer? What kind of person will you become if you hit bottom? What part of you is still there when you've got nothing left?

For those two years until I finished the Brownshirts and went on to the final phase of SWCC selection training, I was never quite ready for a swim. It was never a comfortable experience. I was fortunate in a way because I was in an environment in which it didn't matter whether I was ready or whether I felt like doing it. I had no choice.

A 500-meter row on a Concept 2 is just plain devastating if you do it right, but it's one of the best conditioning workouts you can do. It's always there, but somehow most of us can create numerous reasons why the best time to do it is not right now.

Skipping meals and improvising with sub-par food is damaging to ones health and physique. We know the importance of having food prep strategies and making quality nutrition a part of our lifestyle. Most people are at least dimly aware that the very act of cooking and sharing meals with friends and family is one of the most important aspects of a healthy, rewarding life, yet we often put these things off because they seem to be a little too demanding on our time, and we don't want to screw up a meal in front of everyone. You can't go wrong ordering out, right?

The beautiful girl walks up, pauses for a moment and continues past. If you just had some time you could probably drop the ideal opening line, just the right thing to say, but you're not completely confident of what to say, so you opt for nothing. Three seconds later that opportunity is gone, and you'll never know what could have been.

It comes down to the question of "Can I rely on myself?" Fearing the answer is what keeps most people in the realm of "I was gonna…"

Think of something that is in your way, a painful step on the path to achieving something that you really want or making yourself better in some way. It's going to be uncomfortable, and you could find a way to eventually be better prepared if the opportunity presented itself again. You're probably planning to do it sometime in the abstract future, when conditions are perfect.

Now, what would happen if you stopped lying to yourself by saying "I'll start Monday?" Those Mondays always come and go, along with one more rationalization. What if you just do it right now? Regardless of the outcome, you'll be among the few whose place, as Theodore Roosevelt said, "…shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

What you very well may learn is that even in the middle of the maelstrom, once you've hit bottom, you'll find a way to keep going no matter how miserable it is. The pain is irrelevant. There is always a way through and you will be capable of finding it. The only failure is to quit trying.

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Im Bored

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how you spend it. Careful, lest others spend it for you." – Carl Sandburg

One of the greatest worries in anyone's mind centers on money. We all concern ourselves far too much with it, budget it, and try not to be wasteful of it. Yet we'll often spend our time freely and mindlessly as if it were in unlimited supply when in fact it is the only thing we have that we can never make more of or hope to get back.

"I'm bored."

I have a policy of never uttering those words because it implies that I am allowing my activities and the course of my life to be controlled by an outside factor. "I'm bored" really means "I'm not creative or self-motivated enough to make sufficient use of my time." It's a statement of personal failure, not of chance. It means that the scant hours we're each allotted are ticking away while nothing is being done with them.

It's not to say that I never feel bored, or never feel myself slipping into that state of mind, but when I do, it generally serves as an alarm. Realizing that those words are drifting into my consciousness feels not unlike that sudden "I'm falling" sensation that you sometimes get when drifting off to sleep.

A long time ago someone told me a story about spare moments. It outlined the lives of several people who had used the extra minutes in their days to build towards goals or achievements. I can't remember specific details, but one of the men, rather than whiling away his spare time, used it to study languages. By the end of his lifetime he spoke around a dozen of them.

I employ several strategies to follow this idea, and work towards the mindset of an autotelic. For years I have had the habit of carrying a backpack with me. While I was a young Special Programs candidate in the military, I would keep a pair of goggles, shorts, a towel and some post-workout food in it at all times so that I never had an excuse not to go to the pool and work on swimming if I had the time. Now, among other things it always contains a book. At the moment it's Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. (One of the best books ever written. I'm on my second read through it.)

I generally spend about twenty minutes reading in between workout groups at the gym. In this way I usually manage to read one or two books per week; not so much by allotting a specific period of time during the day for reading, but by taking advantage of the time that would otherwise pass by unused. A year from now that will equal fifty to one hundred books absorbed using the time that otherwise would have been spent idly rearranging kettlebells.

Think of all the spare moments in your life that slip by each day. What could you be doing, learning, or even just dedicating yourself to thinking about that would get you closer to where you want to be?

Consider boredom in general. What things do you do voluntarily that bore you? Are you dragging yourself to the gym each day slogging through the same uninspired routine? Doesn't watching CNN on the treadmill give you a neck cramp after a while? You are choosing to do these things, and by choosing to be bored you're effectively shortchanging the quality of your life.

"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never ever be boring." – Chuck Palahniuk

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Elite Bodyweight Training

I've been to a few different corners of the globe. In each of them I've found physical cultures; small pockets of athletes whose physical condition is as much a reflection of who they are as any resume. I've spent time with Kenyan acrobats and runners, Nepali Sherpas, Kiwi Crossfit girls, American Pride fighters and just about anything in between. The one common factor among all of them is that they enjoy the process. They aren't doing it simply because they have to. They do it because it's who they are.

About fifteen years ago in New York City, a group of men referring to themselves as The Ruff Ryders forsook conventional gyms and began working out in city parks using bodyweight calisthenics movements. The workouts were conducted primarily on horizontal bars and consisted of basic movements like dips, pullups and muscle ups brought to high levels of skill and strength.

They referred to their workout as "The Thug Workout." The idea spread and has lived on since, taking a variety of evolutionary turns.

Part of the initial appeal of this concept was that these workouts could be done in an impromptu fashion on the street, where much time was already being spent. Time spent on the street often equaled time making money, so being able to work out without leaving a particular street block was akin to working out in one's office.

There is no real central organization to this type of exercise and small, devoted groups are scattered across the globe. One of the largest and most impressive of these groups, The Bar-barians is still in Brooklyn, New York and they are starting to take a key role in changing the structure of the workout style.

The Bar-barians are working to bring their method of freestyle, minimalist training to greater levels of public awareness and refer to it as Elite Bodyweight Training. According to one of their core members, Rick Seedman, they don't use words like "ghetto" or "thug" to describe themselves and take a bit of offense to those who do.

Rick is the unofficial spokesman for the group online, and is behind most of the better quality footage you'll come across. He and the other Bar-barians are currently working on a full length documentary.

The Bar-barians have a list of requirements on their website and have created a structured system through which people can advance.

I asked Rick about their involvement with other groups and upstarts and he said, "Zef, I and the others provide training routines, advice and homework for our members over seas that aren't able to train with us here in NY. We aren't trying to recruit people for their skill. It's not a freak show or circus. What we're looking for is genuine people who share a passion for working out, pushing their limits, and improving themselves physically and mentally."

Improved organization and the ability of groups like the Bar-barians to promote themselves in online social networks and on communities like Youtube has led to a rapid increase in the popularity of freestyle bodyweight training. What was once isolated mainly to a handful of inner city American neighborhoods is now popping up in cities around the world.

One such recent upstart of the bodyweight training movement is a group in Moscow, Russia, organized about a year ago in part by a man named Anton Kuchumov. They're not yet associated with the central groups in New York and haven't gotten the memo from the Brooklyn guys so they refer to their training as "Ghetto Workout." The idea is catching on fast in the former Communist republic, and in one year membership has expanded to around 1,700 people.

Anton is 21 and was born and raised in Moscow. He is a student pursuing a Master's in Management at the Higher School of Economics and has been an athlete since childhood in a diverse set of backgrounds including acrobatics, tennis, martial arts and parkour. He is one of three original founders of the ghetto workout movement in Russian and parts of Eastern Europe.

I caught up with Anton in order to see how a concept has migrated from New York to Moscow and taken hold so quickly.

Barefoot Fitness: What is the Ghetto Workout movement, and where did it come from?

Anton Kuchumov: Ghetto Workout is aimed at physical development through body weight training using the common objects around you. The idea is that one can have a healthy and strong body even without gyms and weights. The difference between GW and other types of training is the imagination which you bring to the workouts. You can use trees, walls, fences and other constructions to design new exercises. This way you are limited only by your imagination and your body will never adapt to the training you give!

As a part of "One More Day Community," GW also sets the goal of a healthy lifestyle among youth and helping them to develop certain skills to be successful in life. We want to make people become interested in the development of their personalities.

Maybe we are extremely lucky, but I would rather bet that the way we perceive life has helped us grow so rapidly. This is not only about building bodies; it is about building minds as well. “Developing minds through developing bodies.” And as the OMD motto says: “Life is a very beautiful thing and you always have One More Day”.

BF: How did it end up in Moscow?

AK: It started when Danila Cherkasov, one of the founders, watched a video on YouTube from a group of men in Harlem, New York called “24 Hour Ghetto Workout” and got really inspired with the idea of training on the streets. I still remember the first training session in the Underground, running stairs and doing pushups and dips.

There were only three of us, Danila, me and Sergio “Kento” Iv, the third founder. Back then I guess none of us knew how fast and wide the movement would spread. As it became warmer and we got the chance to train outdoors, we went to the streets and started giving open training sessions for everyone each Sunday. Now we have about 1700 members around Russia and several neighboring countries and we keep growing!

BF: The workouts are mostly outdoors right? Isn't it cold in Moscow?

AK: It is not that cold in Moscow right now and moderate cold hasn't stopped us. We’ve had several trainings during 10 degree Celsius and heavy rain. We have several thoughts about training in late autumn and winter, considering that we would not be able to train outdoors. We will train in the Underground because there are a lot of metallic constructions and stairs which could be used during training. Still, only time will give you the answer, because it will be our first winter.

BF: If someone wanted to train like you but only had access to a normal gym, what should they do?

AK: The whole idea of GW is the possibility to train anywhere using what surrounds you. So, actually, you don’t need anything except yourself, some space and imagination to work out. If you have an access to a normal gym you can use bars to do pull-ups and their variations, different types of dips, the floor to do push-ups and so on.

BF: What is a typical workout like?

AK: Every workout is different but each could be divided into three parts: warm-up, basic moves and FGFP (free ghetto flight program).

The idea of the first part is to prepare the whole body for the training. It's some running, jumping, stretching, joint rotations and a few other things to stress the nervous system like pushup freezes until fall.

The second part is to prepare specific muscle groups and body parts for the upcoming exercises. We do basic pushups, pull-ups, dips, squats and so on.

The third part, FGFP is the real workout. It is the freestyle exercises like handstands, human flags, levers, dips with claps, etc. Everything in that part is strongly individual, there are no sets, reps, orders. People just listen to their bodies and do what they feel right to do.

We have an open training session each Sunday, every time we choose a new training place for it. There are a lot of spots in Moscow, in parks, or schools. Usually about ten people show up at our group, although the last few trainings this season we have been having two or three times more than that.

Most of time during the week people train with their buddies and teams and choose the closest spot to them. That is one of the reasons we choose a new place each week for Sunday training – to show people that there are a lot of training places around them!

BF: Are there fixed programs, or do you make up what you're doing from day to day?

AK: Nothing is fixed. One day you want to do a pushups only routine, the other you would like to do dips and handstands on parallel bars. We want people to listen to themselves and hear what their bodies tell them. We believe that is better than a fixed number of sets and reps, because your body condition may vary very much and you should not put yourself into any cells like prescribed routines.

BF: Is there any kind of nutritional plan that your people follow?

AK: We just eat clean. No crappy food, no sweets, no alcohol, no carbs in evening if you want to burn fat and drink plenty of water.

BF: What kinds of people are normally drawn to the workouts?

AK: The people doing GW are mostly men from 16 to 23. We also have some girls who do simple routines. Their backgrounds are different from several years of parkour or other sports training, which means they are in quite good shape, to none at all. Some decided to change their bodies and lives and start with GW.

BF: Are your athletes training for anything in particular?

AK: We are not training for anything in particular. Having a healthy and strong body means that there will be fewer physical obstacles in your life. You get the ability to do things, you could not do before. We also stimulate the development of mind during the trainings so there will be fewer mental obstacles as well. We want people to be more free in their lives.

Ghetto Workout itself is supposed to be fun and we enjoy the process itself. This way we don't feel the need to seek recreation elsewhere. Because of the whole positive flaws and fun during the training sessions you end up being in a better mood and feeling yourself “energized” despite all the hard work you have done.

BF: What are some misconceptions about your style of training?

AK: A lot of people who see us only on pictures and are not familiar with our training think that such results can’t be achieved without weights or gyms or supplements. However, we don’t do any of that. We just go out and train hard. This way is simple, but ain’t easy.

Another thing is that many people don’t see the difference between GW and parkour. While parkour is aimed on developing agility, speed, balance and accuracy, GW is more oriented on developing strength, endurance and power. They are both street disciplines so they have much in common, but they are still different things.

BF: Tell me something that I don't know about your training.

AK: We spend a lot of time training static strength. If you have heard about A. Zassa, aka Iron Samson, the strongest man in the world in the middle of 20th century, we follow his routines with isometric exercises.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

New Zealand's Fittest Woman

First, take a minute to watch this video segment on Taz from TV New Zealand:

http://tinyurl.com/ptswvv

I checked out of the Navy in late May of 2008. A few days later, my friend Chase and I were watching a surfing video while waiting for the tide to switch in Pacific Beach, California. The video was called Drive Through New Zealand and showed a road trip across both islands of the country. It looked like an incredible place.

"We should go."

About a week later we landed in Auckland. I had emailed a friend and fellow entrepreneur named Darren Ellis and he offered to pick us up at the airport. Darren is extremely well traveled and maintains the theory that a good workout is one of the best ways to get ahead of jet lag. He had just opened up his new facility, Crossfit New Zealand, so it was our first stop.

Inside CFNZ, a smiling dark-haired girl popped her head over a balcony and said, "You boys want a little pre-workout espresso?"

We heard a little grinder going and minutes later she placed hot cups of extremely strong coffee in our hands. We said our thanks and she shrugged them off with, "Actually, we just got that machine and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it. You guys are my guinea pigs."

This is how I met Taz.

Tamaryn, aka Taz, is the other half of Crossfit New Zealand.

We downed our espresso, changed and warmed up as Darren and Taz explained the workout that the four of us would be doing.

Afterwards, while lying on my back gasping for air, several thoughts passed through my mind. The workout I had just completed was pretty damn rough. It included a total of 100 bodyweight pullups in about 20 minutes. The girl sitting on the floor next to me had done all of them. And she had almost beaten me.

Crossfit NZ has exploded in popularity since it's inception, largely due to the quality of the two people behind it. In every way, they practice what they preach. Darren is in incredible physical condition and Taz, well, Taz is a badass.

Several months ago, Taz competed against athletes from across all of Australia and New Zealand in the Crossfit Australasian Games and took first place for the continent.

At the World Games in the US she was a strong competitor until a back injury took her out of the running at the end of the first day. She'll be back next year. But first she may just have a go at competitive kayaking.

Barefoot: You and Darren work out together and he even occasionally uses you for his weights. Are we gonna see a tie breaker on your coaches competition anytime soon?

Tamaryn Venter: Ha-ha. Well we both seem to come up with legit reasons why we can’t do it when the other person asks! Yes, I think it must be time. Do you want to pick the workout for us?

BF: I'll have to get back to you on that. Maybe I'll gather some devious ideas from my clients.

You're physically capable of some pretty impressive stuff like heavy deadlifts, muscle ups and competing in the Crossfit World Games. Are you a genetic freak or is it that you've got some stuff figured out that most people don't?

TV: If by freak you are referring to my short legs and long torso, then yes, genetically I am very freakish. Regarding performance I don’t think I have anything abnormal genetically speaking. I think the biggest thing I have learned from my 17 years of being an athlete is that having confidence in your own ability is vital for success. I think many people believe in themselves, but that isn’t the same as being 100% convinced about yourself and your ability. It’s pretty hard to fool yourself! Believe me I tried for 16 years.

BF: How did you try to fool yourself?

TV: I thought I was a pretty confident person. Turns out when it came to competing I was just as insecure as the next person. I feel like I have a better handle on my abilities now and am more realistic about what I can achieve.

BF: You're pretty incredible at pullups. How did you get to that level? What do you recommend for women starting out who can only do one or two bodyweight pullups or can't even lock one out without assistance?

TV: Ahh yes pull-ups, one of my favorite exercises. I guess this is where I say I haven’t always been able to do pull-ups? I wish I could, but lucky for me I have been involved in a variety of sports my whole life and upper body strength was essential for me. However, CrossFit definitely made me better at them and I improved by practicing all the time. My recommendation is to take a big breath, be patient, add a lot of practice and persevere like mad. It will happen, ladies. If you are a complete pullup beginner, find a set of rings and practice pulling yourself up with minimal leg assistance so you are still traveling the same path as a pullup and progress from there.

BF: What do you eat in a typical day? What about around the workout window? Got a favorite pre or post workout food?

TV: I try to live a simple Primal lifestyle. Essentially this means I eat meat, fish, nuts, seeds, vegetables, little fruit and hardly any dairy. I try to get some protein, fat and carbohydrate in at each meal; placing more importance on protein and fat.

Breakfast is three eggs scrambled with mushrooms and pine nuts with some spinach on the side, covered in olive oil!

Lunch and dinner are usually pretty similar and will involve veggies and meat. A few favs are roast vegetable salad with chicken, or paleo pizza (base is made from almond meal) topped with sweet potato and chorizo sausage!

BF: I'd love to have that recipe.

TV: How much you willing to pay Craig? Just kidding, here ya go. Super simple!

Note: Tamaryn's pizza recipe is posted on the community side of the Barefoot site.

Snacks involve a variety of tuna, veggies like carrots and tomatoes, nuts and sometimes when I am lazy or on the go, protein powder.

I save my fruit for post workout meals. I will throw some protein, berries, pineapple and coconut milk into the blender and make a smoothie. This is my favorite snack for sure, I sometimes dream about how good it tastes.

One last thing, I don’t want you all thinking I can’t enjoy a treat or two along the way! My weakness at the moment seems to be date pudding and home made ice-cream. I indulge once every few weeks on one of the above items.

BF: How often do you work out?

TV: I workout 5-6 times a week. I am still in a bit of a chill out phase at the moment but when I am training for competition I might add in a few more sessions here and there.

I used to train about 14 times a week! That was before I had a brain. Now, I am all about the recovery, in fact I am the master at it; I can sleep on command any where.

BF: I'm a huge fan of naps, particularly since I get up early. How much sleep do you normally get?

TV: I normally get 8+ hours (up early and early to bed!) per night and then sometimes I will have a 10-20min cat nap during the day.

BF: What do you do if you feel like you're in a lull and not progressing?

TV: Since doing CrossFit I haven’t encountered any lulls, I keep improving. However, if I were to encounter one I would assess the following; diet, training volume and sleep quality. I am 99% certain that if you aren’t progressing you will find the answer in one of the above. Change something and record your performance. Most of the time we know the answer, we just don’t like to admit to it.

BF: Is there a common limiting factor that you see when someone's progress gets stuck?

TV: Strength is always the limiting factor. New clients make huge gains in strength due to the exposure of all the new stimuli then, once that adaptation phase has passed their progress slows down or plateaus. It’s almost a tease. You think you are awesome and strong and that if you keep going at that rate you will be able to deadlift four times your body weight, then all of a sudden everything comes to a blinding halt and you can’t for the life of you figure out what you have done wrong! Keep working hard and you will get past it.

BF: What/who is your biggest motivation to stay in shape?

TV: I know this sounds kind of lame but I am my own biggest motivation to stay in shape. I don’t aspire to be like anyone else, just a better version of myself. Oh and I am super competitive, that always helps when I am having a bad day – "You aren’t going to win by sitting on the couch." The beauty of motivation is that it has to be your own, otherwise it ain't motivating.

BF: A lot of women struggle with losing the last bit of fat on their lower abs. Any tips on getting that done?

TV: No, but if you find out can you let me know! But seriously, there has been evidence linking high levels of cortisol with lower abdominal fat storage. Cortisol is a hormone that is increased by physical or emotional stress. So going back to the statement about a plateau in results, get more sleep, quit your stressful job, break up with that loser boyfriend and eat well!

BF: Is there a workout that sticks out to you as the hardest you've ever done?

9 Hang Squat Clean (50kg)

3 Legless Rope Climbs

5 Rounds

Enough said…

BF: You've read the article on our site titled You Will Have Your Waterloo. What about you? Have you ever had to face your own Waterloo?

TV: CrossFit World Games 2009.

Five workouts in less than 24 hours. First workout; 5km hilly off road run. Second workout; 1RM deadlift. Third workout; 170m hill sprint carrying 10kg sandbag. Fourth workout; 500m Row then hammer a 3-foot stake into ground then 500m row. Fifth workout; 30 Wallball (6kg), 30 Barbell snatch (20kg) – 3 Rounds. These were all within one hour of each other over the course of the day.

I couldn’t really feel my legs after the run so the thought of performing a one-rep max deadlift less than 40min later left a rather unsavory taste in my mouth!

At one point I remember trying to conserve as much energy as I could between workouts by lying as still as I could, trying to relax and stay calm. Given that I was surrounded by 150 other excited exhausted athletes, this was a hard task. I remember thinking that what we were being put through was borderline ridiculous and maybe they were actually trying to kill us!

Going into the last workout I knew my back was no good, it was tight, sore and very fatigued. I put this to the back of my mind as I decided that every other athlete out there was suffering just as much as me. Two snatches into the workout (just the 89 to go!) I felt my back go – pretty badly too.

I had two options: stop and save what was left of my lower back or keep going and feel at least some sense of accomplishment. I was in some serious pain and knew I was moving at the speed of a dying tortoise but decided that I would never be able to live with myself if I pulled the pin! I ended up getting timed out of that workout and dragged off the tarmac a mess. That was my Waterloo!

BF: So you were running in 18^th place until being injured in that last workout of the first day, and then couldn't continue to the second day, right?

TV: Yeah that’s right, I was a bit devastated I didn’t make it to the second day; top 16 did. The second day’s workouts were right up my alley in terms of my skill set. A mixture of bodyweight and strength exercises.

BF: What was your athletic background like growing up?

TV: I don’t remember a time where sport was never a huge part of my life. I think my parents threw me into a pool at the age of three and told me to swim fast. Yes, that’s exactly how it went. Is that child abuse? From there, I wanted to be good-no-better at every sport my brothers played and then some. At the age of 5 onwards my day went something like this: swimming, school (some made up sport during lunch), then usually three of the following sports practices back to back; diving, hockey, swimming, squash, ballet, horse riding… anyway, you get the picture. I was 5.

BF: I imagine that you grew up in some part of Russia being groomed as an Olympic hopeful for the good of the country. You fake the Kiwi accent well though.

TV: Ha-ha, sounds like it doesn’t it! Is South Africa part of Russia? Believe it or not it was my choice to be playing that many sports.

I think my current athletic lifestyle is a result of my past and that I am always happier when I am healthy and active. I am totally in love with the fact that I own a business which allows me to express my passion for sport and fitness and I get to share that passion with others. That is the cherry!

Being active is part of human nature and everyone has the potential to enjoy it and make it part of their lifestyle, they just don’t know it yet! Find something you are passionate about and focus on enjoyment first, that is success - results will follow.

BF: There aren't many physical cultures around anywhere but it seems that you and Darren have created one in Auckland. Are you still out playing when you aren't at the gym? Is the surfboard that Chase left at your place during our visit getting some time in the water?

TV: We are doing our best, but we are still fighting the usual crap media hype that surrounds the health and fitness industry. Luckily for us CrossFit speaks for itself and now some of our once sedentary clients are out rock climbing and searching the net for new fun adventure races to enter!

I can’t speak for Darren but I definitely try to get out and about. It is winter here so not much surfing going on but when I am not working on the business I am trying to get into my kayak or head down to the driving range to hit some balls.

To learn more about Taz, Darren and Crossfit NZ, check out www.crossfitnz.typepad.com

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Iron - Henry Rollins

I came across this on a TMuscle forum and loved it. The best way I can think of to share it is to post it here:

IRON, from Details Magazine
By Henry Rollins

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me "garbage can" and telling me I'd be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn't run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn't going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you'll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn't think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn't even drag them to my mom's car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.'s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn't looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn't want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn't say shit to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn't want to come off the mat, it's the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn't teach you anything. That's the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn't have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone's shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn't see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you're made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Talk Without Speaking

It is generally accepted within the scientific community that the majority of communication occurs nonverbally. A common estimate is that 70% of information exchanged in a typical interaction is done so wordlessly through "body language." Another substantial factor is the manner in which words are spoken, meaning ones rate of speech, pitch, tonality, etc.

A popular adage to express this concept is "It's not what you say; it's how you say it."

Body language consists mainly of body composition, posture and mannerisms.

Body composition is the way one’s body is shaped; how much muscle and fat one possesses, etc. as well as how that muscle and fat is distributed. Posture is the alignment of the body and how it is carried. Mannerisms are physical inflections such as tapping feet or hand gestures.

Through specific physical training, at least two of these characteristics can be controlled: Posture and body composition. Mannerisms can be controlled somewhat as well via psychological development that occurs with certain types of training.

The Halo Effect

The psychological principle of the “Halo Effect” has documented that individuals thought to be more physically attractive are also automatically assumed to be more intelligent, honest and dependable. Often, the first and most prominent trait assessed about a person colors the manner in which all other traits are perceived. Physical appearance is one of the easiest things to quickly perceive in a person, and that perception will affect the way all subsequent perceptions are made. First impressions matter.

Your Body Vs. Your Wallet

Body composition has a substantial effect on daily and even economic life.

Economists have estimated that if nobody in America was overweight, the savings on fuel, clothing, health care expenses, lost productivity and food would equal 487 billion dollars, or enough to give every household over $4,000.

Research has shown that people who are not obese are paid higher salaries, are more likely to be married, sleep better, are promoted more often and have better sex lives. That’s right; it actually costs you money to be fat.

Men are more greatly affected by this effect when it comes to salary. One study found that as much as 40% of a man’s earnings can be contributed to physical attractiveness.

A common theory behind the connection between higher salaries/promotions and a lean body is the aforementioned halo effect. Employers judge an employee to be better at a wide variety of seemingly unrelated traits based on the initial impression made by the employee’s body.

Social Status

Humans are social creatures by nature. An aspect of life is that societies function on the basis of hierarchies. This is true on a large scale, such as the status afforded to certain celebrities among the public, to the smallest interaction of two people. In any social exchange, there are individuals with greater status or authority than others. This is not a black and white effect, it is scaled. Every person has a specific place on a social hierarchy.

Many decisions in life are made implicitly, within the space of a second. For example, you come upon a car driving in a manner that doesn’t seem quite right. Perhaps the car is moving slower than normal or weaving a bit, perhaps it’s occupied by a drunk driver, an angry person arguing with a spouse or a just someone distracted and talking on their cell phone. Regardless, you see this car and without seeing anything more than a split second of the way the car is moving, decide that it would be best to avoid it and give it space on the highway. You navigate roadways in this way almost daily and avoid countless potential accidents.

Consider what your eyes do the moment you walk into a room full of people you’ve never met. You quickly-and generally without even being aware that you are doing so-scan the room and check out the people in it. You easily identify the most dominant individuals; the men and women who seem to know the most people and garner the most respect and attention, and simultaneously notice the less dominant men and women who seem lower on the social ladder.

Harvard psychologist Dana Carney studied this effect in detail in her research in the field of “Rapid Social Judgment and Decision Making.” In a study titled Beliefs About the Nonverbal Expression of Social Power, Carney established the behaviors expressed by both socially low and high powered people.

Professor Carney covered several dozen different characteristics, but the ones that we are concerned about are the ones that can be immediately controlled through strength training and body composition changes. Carney specifically cited posture as having an effect on whether or not a person is perceived as being powerful or not. In particular, she looked at the effects of erect posture, open body language and an upward tilted head. All three of these aspects of posture can be developed through training and will positively affect the way in which a person’s level of social power is perceived.

Attraction

Social power is not the only perception that can be affected by physical training. Body composition plays a primary role in perceptions of physical attractiveness.

In women, a waist to hip ratio of .7 is considered to be ideal for sexual attractiveness. It is correlated with health, youthfulness and fertility and has been linked to a reduced risk of major diseases and even increased intelligence of offspring.

Famously, a study conducted examining the waist to hip ratios of Playboy Centerfold models from 1978 to 1998 found an average hip to waist ratio among the models of almost exactly the .7 measure. (the actual average was .68)

In men, the ideal hip to waist ratio is roughly .09. This WHR ratio in men is found most attractive and is also correlated with better health and fertility and a reduced risk of prostate and testicular cancer.

The ratio of the waist to the shoulders is another factor which plays a crucial role in degree of perceived attractiveness in males. Men with wider shoulders and narrower hips are almost universally judged to be more physically attractive than men with more even ratios. A ratio of .75 has been found to be ideal. This, like an ideal waist to hip ratio can be attained through proper physical training and nutrition.

Posture also plays a strong role in attractiveness. This is especially true for men, as socioeconomic dominance is a major factor in the initial split-second judgment that a woman makes when assessing a man’s attractiveness. Social power and its associated confidence are easily displayed through one’s posture.

The shoulders, waist and hips can all easily be influenced by targeted training methods and nutritional strategies. The Barefoot Fitness report Why Situps Suck covers training and nutritional strategies for the development of the waist and hips in detail.

Take Control

The majority of what you convey about yourself to the world is done so without any concern for your words. The course of your life will inevitably be affected by the impressions you make and how you are perceived, even subconsciously, by those around you. You don’t have to be a bystander to this process. Your posture, body composition and even state of mind can all be developed. You can take control.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Cupcake Saboteurs

"One of the girls I work with found out I love cupcakes. She has been making me cupcakes for every occasion. I'm having a hard time resisting, ok let me just say, yes, I eat them. I love cupcakes (sad)."

It's a common occurrence with women that I train that once they make changes in their lifestyle and begin transforming their bodies they suddenly find themselves inundated with "gifts" in the form of sugary baked goods or offers to come join in with alcohol and crap-food laden lunches. These generally come from co-workers or women in their social sphere who don't quite qualify as real friends.

People in any sort of group will subconsciously form themselves into a hierarchy. This hierarchy will be based primarily along lines of socioeconomic dominance.

Physical attractiveness plays a strong role in ones placement along this hierarchy, especially for females. This is along the social side of the socioeconomic spectrum. Think back to high school, when simplistic hierarchies played themselves out in a microcosm. The most popular girls were generally the most physically attractive.

Particularly with women, when one begins the process of physically transforming into a fit, sexier body, it can create a backlash amongst the other members of your social world.

Two main things are happening.

First, the stagnant people around you will get a distinctly uncomfortable feeling when they see someone displaying a level of discipline that they are incapable of themselves (at least in that moment) in order to attain a goal that you both share.

Very few people are completely satisfied with their bodies and their health, so it is safe to assume that when you take action to improve yours, you are working towards something that those around you would like to have as well. They just lack the motivation to do so.

Suppose a woman sees your body improving and decides that rather than support you in your goals she will start bringing you cupcakes. This woman almost certainly wishes that she has a better body herself but does not live a lifestyle that will create that for her.

It's impossible for a person like this to tell herself that it's too hard to work out and eat well when she sees you doing exactly that. Rather than change her behavior or accept that she is mentally weaker than someone else, she will sabotage you so that she can solidify her position that diet and exercise "doesn't work" and that all people eat and live the same way that she does. If she succeeds, she can feel comfortable with her excuses to herself and feel socially accepted.

Few people live in their own reality or measure themselves by their own standards. The vast majority decides what standards to hold to by mimicking what they see others do. The people who try to sabotage you are measuring themselves by the standards that you set for your own life. They don't create their own standards; they are mere reflections of the few originals around them.

Why else would it matter to another person whether or not you ate a cupcake? What investment do they have in it? They are using your actions as a measure for their own and do not want you living to a standard that they are too lazy or weak to meet. So they hope that you will fall down in the same ways that they have so that living in your reflection is easy for them.

Secondly, the other women in your social circle see their place in the hierarchy being upset. A woman who suddenly attains a sexier body will bump her peers a notch down on the ladder, since they aren't going anywhere themselves. This will be perceived, subconsciously at least, as a source of diminished respect and attention for the newly displaced. Even if this is not consciously acknowledged, it can manifest itself in passive aggressive behavior like subtle sabotage.

A true friend will understand that you are disciplining yourself towards a worthwhile goal, understand that the achievement of another cannot diminish-and in fact is more likely to add quality to-their own life, and encourage your efforts. A strong person will want to be around other strong people, not drag down those around him or her in order to wallow in the effortless company of mediocrity.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

The Fountain

The quality of one's education depends largely on its source. Sometimes putting increased effort into learning something is not nearly as effective as just improving the source from which you are learning in the first place.

I have learned Jiu Jitsu from third generation Black Belts, been placed in front of teachers who declared ice cream to be health food and just about everything in between. This process has taught me a good deal in the way of identifying true knowledge. I know where to learn it and I know when it is best to guide others past myself and directly towards it.

The sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was founded by two brothers named Carlos and Helio Gracie. The Gracie family developed the system. Eventually Helio's sons, along with the Machado Brothers, brought the sport to the U.S.

From there, the sport has been proliferating at pace with the rising popularity of MMA and the UFC.

I spent Saturday of this weekend training at a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seminar with a man named Amilcar "Mica" Cipili.

Mica was trained by Pedro Sauer, who was a student of Helio Gracie. Later, Mica earned his Black Belt from Rigan Machado, who is another second-generation Jiu Jitsu expert.

This means that he is only three generations away from the origin of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

It was in explaining this to our small class that Mica introduced me to an important concept.

He said, "The closer to the fountain, the more pure the water."

With each step away from the source taken by a body of knowledge, there will be an element of dilution and contamination.

Almost everyone at some point during their childhood played the game in which a phrase is whispered into the ear of the schoolmate next to you and that phrase is repeated in a circle of whispers from student to student until it comes back around. By the time the phrase makes it back, "Mrs. Hanson's dog is named Blue" will have mysteriously turned into something like "Mrs. Hanson is having blue cheese for lunch."

The same phenomenon occurs with the transfer of any other sort of information. The difference between learning Jiu Jitsu with some buddies who are copying moves they've seen on tv and learning it from an expert with tens of thousands of hours of training under the direction of someone like a Gracie or Machado is huge.

The process of learning; of transferring knowledge, is essentially making a copy of a copy. The quality of the end product will depend on how many copies away from the original it is.

At some point, those who have mastered a field will gain an understanding of it sufficient to allow the addition of things uniquely their own. This is what the Gracie family did in developing the Brazilian style of Jiu Jitsu, which had been a Japanese art based around strength and power. The Gracies adapted it to take advantage of leverage in order to benefit a smaller fighter.

Most likely, you are not at this point. In whatever you are pursuing in life, if you are not yet a world recognized expert you are still drinking from the fountain of someone else's knowledge.

Consider for a moment how far away you are from the source of that knowledge. How pure is it? The answer to this question will directly affect the rate of and eventual limit to the progress you make.

Are you learning directly from the best in your field? Do you even know how to identify who the best is?

Another corollary that can be made here is in that I license the Precision Nutrition System, created by Dr. John Berardi and his team. Nutrition is just as, if not more important than physical training to the results that my clients eventually achieve.

I have a solid understanding of nutritional principles and am capable of guiding a person through the process of integrating sound nutritional practices into their lifestyle.

However, what I teach is effectively the knowledge I have accumulated from studying the work of and conversing with Dr. Berardi and those of his caliber. I am a step away from that fountain.

My ultimate goal in anything surrounding my clients is to get them the best results possible. This is why I connect them directly with Precision Nutrition. It is as close to the fountain as I can get them. If I am not the source of the knowledge, I seek out that source directly.

If you are in a position of teaching or training anyone it is your responsibility to become the path to knowledge for your students. The source of your knowledge will become apparent in the quality of your teaching

I once had a teacher in elementary school who was explaining how the USDA food pyramid works. Milk is an important "food group" on the pyramid and this teacher instructed us that ice cream is derived from milk and therefore a large bowl of ice cream per day would be a good way to ensure that we got enough milk in our diets.

Almost an entire class of children went home that day trusting in the knowledge that ice cream was a healthy dietary staple. This is what happens when knowledge becomes diluted and contaminated to the point that it becomes poisonous.

What about you? Consider the things in your life that you are presently learning and other things that you may be teaching. How close to the fountain are you in each of these areas? How could you improve on that?

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

Why Barefoot Fitness?

By Albert Li

Right now you may be thinking, "Why barefoot fitness?"

To some it conjures images of hippies trying to get in shape and to others, it is something they only do at the beach or a soft grassy park on a beautiful day. To us, it is the latest in the evolution of training methodologies, biomechanics and theory.

While I was in the Naval Special Warfare community I was considered to be one of the better “shots” at the command. Colleagues would approach me and ask me if I had an extensive history of shooting and where I learned. I told them, "It’s all about fundamentals."

They often took this response as a conceited answer to avoid giving my “secrets.” Little did these men know that prior to my official training by the Navy, I had only gone shooting a grand total of three times with my father as a boy. Being Asian, he decided not to try and teach me high level methods reserved for the elite competition shooters, as he was, but teach me the fundamentals. He said, "Everything is built on these fundamental skills."

In case you are not too familiar with shooting a weapon, it is actually quite difficult if you are not properly trained. The slightest motion in your body such as the blood pumping though your hands, or the slight motion of your breathing can be the difference between a hit or miss at 500 yards. At this distance there are many variables to take into account, wind, breathing, body position, gun temperature, ambient temperature, ammunition type and many others. These variables only increase as the distance you are firing from increases.

Whenever my shooting was less than stellar, I would remind myself of my father’s words, "…fundamentals." I would line up on the 2-yard line and begin shooting, putting each bullet through the hole I previously made. At four feet there are no longer many variables; at this point it’s either you or the gun. Once I realize that my performance hindrance is a simple fix such as the way I am pulling the trigger, I go back to the 5-yard line and put a dozen rounds in the same hole, then at the 10-yard line I repeat the process, and I do this until I am shooting perfectly. I did this because there was the potential for the day when one of my brothers lives would depend on my ability to put a bullet exactly where it was intended.

By now, you are probably thinking that I have digressed even further from the initial question of the question of "Why barefoot fitness?" I'm getting to that, I assure you.

The human body is an extremely complex device with nearly infinite variables playing in an interconnected system. The point is this: when things become complicated, get back to fundamentals and try to remove as many variables as possible.

There are 23 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles in the foot alone, and it has taken millennia for our bodies to perfect the mechanics of this overlooked part of the human machine. Human kind has walked the earth without the aid of modern style footwear up until the middle-ages, and since then the shoe has evolved quite rapidly, while our bodies have not.

Most people search through shoe styles and brands to help remedy foot issues they develop. Doctors and trainers recommend shoe after shoe and inserts and orthotics in the quest to alleviate foot, ankle, knee, hip, and back issues. These are only putting band-aids on a gaping wound. It may help for a moment but it does not remedy the real issue at hand. Feet were not intended to be permanently encased in shoes.

Your chiropractor may be telling you he is fixing your back issues by realigning your back, but they do not often see that this is a result of a hip issue that is caused by foot and ankle problems. This interconnectedness is often referred to as the kinetic chain. Furthermore, each of the joints play a role in the mobility-stability continuum, or the evolutionary design in which there is a stable, then mobile, then stable joint; foot, ankle, knee, hip, lumbar spine, and so on. Knees are not meant to have much mobility in the side to side plane, but when the hips and/or ankles become immobile the knee will make adjustments to compensate and this compensation, in time, will reveal itself in knee problems.

None of this means that you have to cast off your shoes in an attempt to have healthy joints and posture, but it does show you how a few therapeutic exercises and practices can have a greatly positive effect on your health. Wearing hybrid-shoes such as the Vibram FiveFingers shoes can help in bridging the shoe to shoeless gap. There are also many manufacturers designing shoes that are the next best thing to being barefoot. Barefoot is not most profitable niche for these companies, so needless to say they are not going to be advertising it like the new Nike Jordans.

There are a handful of podiatrists and doctors who are utilized to cite the counterpoints of the barefoot method in the popular media, but they only cite a few reasons and many of them are flawed. Many of these people say that modern men and women should avoid doing anything barefoot because our feet are not accustomed to it or that the world is more paved than it used to be. This former line of reasoning is to say that one should never lift heavy weights in the gym because one is currently unaccustomed to doing so. The point of being in the gym is to progress and become increasingly strong and physically capable. You begin with a manageable weight and work your way up as your body adapts. The same concept can be applied to integrating barefoot training into your lifestyle. Start small, and gradually increase as you adapt.

Most of these same anti-barefoot individuals know that the best marathoners from Kenya train without shoes. There was also a study done on rickshaw drivers in India who pull these old style taxis through the street completely barefoot. Surprisingly, examinations showed their feet to be in excellent health. Another example of what the body can achieve is the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. Ultra distance running is part of their culture and these people have won many of these international races barefoot or in roman styled sandals called huaraches. It is not uncommon for a Tarahumara to run 50 to 80 miles a day! Experts believe that these skills are not hereditary but a result of diet and conditioning, meaning you and I can develop at least a little of this skill.

If you peruse the training logs and forums on Elite Fitness Systems, home to some of the world's strongest powerlifters, you'll find that they've dug up research conducted by Eastern Bloc countries showing that simply walking barefoot on the beach had a therapeutic effect on their athletes and played a role in nervous system recovery. Many Russian strength coaches have advocated that heavy lifts such as the deadlift be performed without shoes because they weaken the kinetic chain and can actually lead to a degree of neurological inhibition. This is partly because the feet contain mechano-receptors or sensors that give the body feedback about its environment. While the rest of the body is getting stronger adapting to increasing weight bearing loads, your feet are tricked into thinking nothing has changed because of those nice cushy running shoes you have been wearing.

Why is it that the Tarahumaras are free from many of the ailments our modern society is plagued by?

Certainly it is not just that they run and live barefoot or with highly simplistic footwear. This plays a definite role, but one must also consider the sedentary lifestyle we live in the West. Sitting in an office all day with everything within arm’s reach and minimizing anything physical plays a large role in our body's devolution.

Even our exercise has been transformed. Just peer into your neighborhood corporate gym. You see armies of people running side by side on treadmills, each with their own television and fan. Consider for a moment how many people you know who attend these sorts of places. How many of them are in good shape? Being in shape does not mean large biceps. Can they do pull-ups, push-ups, run, swim and pick up their kids without back pain?

The good news is that there are people who train free from all the shiny machines and hi-tech looking devices. We at Barefoot Fitness are one of the few who focus on functional strength and real-world conditioning that will aid you in your day to day life. Good posture and joint mobility, two of the main issues we deal with, will keep you out of the doctor’s office more and establish a great foundation for healthy living. When your choices become too convoluted, remember "…Fundamentals."

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

H.O.G. Tooth

By: Marshall Bowen

In the exclusive realm of the Marine Corps Scout Snipers the Hunter of Gunmen Tooth, or H.O.G. Tooth, is the most idolized item that one can possess. It is the projectile portion from a .308 caliber round fired from the M40A1 sniper rifle. Before you can be presented with the H.O.G Tooth you must first undergo an intense indoctrination and selection process to join the Scout Sniper Platoon. If you complete the indoctrination and peer review by senior members of the platoon, you are eventually sent to 3 months of Scout Sniper School, one of the most respected and difficult military schools in the world. Upon graduation day, the newly christened member of this elite fraternity is finally presented with the H.O.G Tooth. Few honors are more hard-earned or proudly worn.

I recall my entire life before entering the military as being simple and not having any real commitments. Personally, I had not been tested with any real adversity, nor intimately known anyone else who had. Thus, I had little frame of reference for the degrees of strength and weakness that an individual, including myself, could possess. I was not critical of people, generally lumping everyone into generic categories with few real distinguishing traits. I knew that there were people whom I enjoyed spending time around more than others, and those whom I respected more, but it wasn’t a distinctly drawn judgment in my mind. There was nothing in my life at that point that I had to fully commit to and I’d never had to give everything I had just to accomplish one specific goal. The idea of what such a thing would take, and what it would mean about me or anyone else in that situation was not a part of my state of mind.

I knew I wanted more for myself than just a diploma to hang on a wall in some cubicle, working a dead end job with no real satisfaction. I saw these people every day; living empty lives and half-consciously trying to forget the risks they’d left untaken and the dreams and potentials they’d left unfulfilled. Dead people with bills to pay, jobs to get to and cable television to watch. I wanted to do something that I knew would test my limits both physically and mentally, and I never wanted to be one of those people who spent his or her life wondering what could have been.

On August 5th, 2002 I signed the enlistment papers to join the United States Marine Corps for four years. This is the most life altering decision I have ever made.
After I had completed all the basic requirements needed to join the fleet, also known as the infantry, I was presented with the opportunity to participate in the Scout Sniper Indoctrination. If completed successfully I would belong to one of the most respected military units in the world and eventually be given the chance to attend Scout Sniper School and earn the H.O.G Tooth.

After many months of intense physical training I was finally offered a seat at the school house. During the three month course I was able to witness human beings pushing themselves both mentally and physically to points many would never think possible. It was during this process I began to differentiate people from one another in an unsympathetic, coldly critical way. If we were capable of doing these things, why should we ever accept anything less?

Three months later I completed the course, along with the remaining sixteen individuals from the initial class of forty-two, and was awarded the coveted H.O.G Tooth. Ten days later I deployed again to Iraq, only this time with much more responsibility and knowledge.

During our eight month deployment in the Al-Anbar province near Haditha, Iraq I was faced with adversity and physical and mental exhaustion in combat each minute of every day, along with all my fellow members of the Scout Sniper Platoon.

These moments only solidified my outlook on human beings as a whole. To this day I am extremely discriminating. I know what it is like to be truly tested. I know how few people actually have what it takes to make it through the greatest, most brutal tests in life, and I have developed a good deal of first-hand experience in distinguishing who those people are. I can and do make this ascertainment with people I come across within a matter of seconds.

I still wear my H.O.G Tooth to this day and it is a constant reminder of what I went through to earn and keep it.

The boundaries for what a person can do with their lives, for what an individual is truly capable of, are established entirely within the mind of that person. I saw this repeatedly during my time as a Scout Sniper H.O.G. while I was screening new candidates for the program.

Now, as an instructor for Barefoot Fitness, I see this same effect. At the USMC Sniper School, countless men with the opportunity to do something great with their lives and achieve a coveted goal fell short because something within their minds was lacking. The guys who made it weren't necessarily the physically strongest or most gifted. They just had what it took to push through discomfort and outright anguish in order to get what they wanted.

At Barefoot, I see the same dynamic played out with a different set of people. Nobody who comes here begins with their ideal body. Everyone starts out at a different level to some extent, but a similarity lies in the fact that they all have a goal in mind of what they want to accomplish through their training. The true test lies in the mind. The rate at which individuals reach their goals seldom has much to do with what they start out with. I'll see someone who begins our program completely out of shape; weak, overweight and immobile, but possessing that certain rare level of character that I have learned to distinguish. That person will throw themselves wholeheartedly into the program and I will watch them and know that one day they will wake up and look in the mirror to see exactly the person that they had aimed to become. It is these people whom I delight in working with.

I made the decision that one day I would wear a H.O.G. Tooth. I pushed myself past the breaking point to earn it, and once I did I literally fought to the death to continue to wear it.

Ask yourself: If you were to decide upon an ultimate goal, which category would you fall under? Would you find a way to make it happen, or would you let yourself fall short? Your potential in life is limited only by your own mind. What would be revealed if you were truly tested? Are your goals lofty enough to ever find out? Given the right path, will you be able to move forward towards your goal despite the inevitable stumbles and difficulties, or will you give up, rejoin the mediocre majority and go back to your comfortable rationalizations? Either way, you are in control.

- Marshall

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)

This Too Shall Pass

There are 28,251 days in the average human lifespan. On my shelf right now, I have a notebook with a piece of paper in it. The paper has a big square divided into tiny little blocks. It's 52 blocks wide and 80 blocks tall. At the top left corner my birthday is written. On the bottom right is the same date, eighty years later. Every week I mark off a block. I talked about this whole concept in depth in my last post.

Those 28,251 days that we each get? I've already used up about a third of them. That’s 9,000 days, with no guarantee that I'll even get that many more.

Every once in a while I enjoy talking to old people and getting them to tell stories. Some day, granted we don't kill ourselves off somehow along the way, we're all going to be in their place. They all say that life flew right by.

Their most vivid memories are the day they met their wife or husband, the first thing their kid said and the time when he was sixteen and drove the car into the living room. They remember their own childhood and the stories of the relationships, friendships, laughter and sadness they've had. The highs and the lows.

Ever ask someone what they regret the most? It usually has something to do with what they've left undone. These conversations help boil down what really matters in life. One's mind, one's body, and one's relationships. The size of your cubicle? How new your car is? Being promoted to junior executive assistant vice president? Doesn't matter.

In his book, Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard Psychologist Daniel Gilbert talks about studies done on regrets, and the way we perceive our happiness with life. A study was conducted asking people what they predicted they would regret the most in life. Roughly 90% of people predicted that they would most regret failures which resulted from taking action on something when they could have simply done nothing. We fear failure and pain, and naturally think that our greatest regrets will be the actions that bring those things upon us. As it turns out, 90% of these people are wrong.

Further studies reveal that what the vast majority of people actually regret are their inactions throughout life; not pain or failures. Taking a chance and having drawn a poor hand of cards is seldom more than a lesson learned and a story to be told. It is the chances left untaken, the beautiful person left un-approached, the questions left unasked, words left unsaid and all the things left undone that that will eventually keep you awake at night.

Nothing in life is permanent, yet we all spend our days attached to things that are going to go away. Our clinging to non-permanent things causes a good deal of the suffering we bring upon ourselves.

The Spartans had a word, katalepsis. It translates loosely into ‘possession’ and referred to the derangement of the senses that comes when terror or anger usurps dominion of the mind. Hate, anger, desire and all of your material belongings that you can't let go of possess you and control you.

Buddhist philosophy contains something known as “The Five Remembrances.” The fourth and fifth are: All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

Number four relates well to the avoidance of this state of katalepsis; of being possessed. Everything that I have and everyone that I know is going to change, fall apart, and eventually go away.

Another way of looking at this would be to take the perspective of the Stoic: The ability to accept the things one cannot change. This all means that when something goes away; a relationship ends, a joyful trip comes to a close, or my Ipod winds up in the bottom of the ocean; I accept these things and move on without clinging and causing myself needless pain.

This does not mean that one should limit one's exposure to life. The value of the great things in life like love, joy and pleasure is not diminished by the fact that they are not permanent. If anything, it increases their importance. They should be cherished and fully experienced whenever possible, and when they end, one should be able to accept it and move on.

The same applies for the opposite end of the spectrum. Fear, pain and misery all play an important role in our lives, and without understanding their depths, one can never fully appreciate their absence or the heights of positive emotions. These, too will end with time and should be understood and experienced, then allowed to pass just as water flows past a rock.

I may never make it to 28,251. Each day and each of those moments will float by regardless of my use of them and be locked in time forever.

Every second we are creating the story of our lives. This pertains to the fifth remembrance. What motivates you? Any person has a subconscious drive, not necessarily a concrete concept, but something running through their mind that dictates the majority of their thought processes. Another way to look at this would be to ask what you think about all day. “As a man thinketh, so shall he be.” The thoughts in your mind dictate your actions, and determine who you are.

There is one thing that I really fear, that is always creeping in the back of my mind. More than anything, I fear the prospect of wasting my life. I hate wasted moments. Constantly in my mind is the thought that I am going to die some day. In everything you do, in every moment, is one chance to be perfect. Once chance to do it right and have no regrets. Pain will pass, misery will pass; awkwardness, fear, shyness, intimidation and anything else that could stop you or make you hesitate will pass. What will remain is how you acted. That will never go away.

This applies to even the simplest things. I tell myself this all the time in the weight room. Yesterday I was exhausted at the end of the day, but I had to work out. I could have sat there and made excuses and rationalized a reason to skip it. Instead, I carried myself to the gym. On the last set of front squats, I wanted to fall over and never touch the bar again. It was my one chance to do it right, and I forgot the pain and gave up everything but the focus on moving with strict technique and grinding out the reps.

I will be able to stand on that moment, and reap the benefits of those few seconds of pain that, now, I barely remember. The same thing applies to almost anything. It's seldom the decision that's difficult; it's carrying out the decision that takes strength.

Every day moments come up in which I look at my knuckles, and the words "This Too Shall Pass" move through my mind. I know that this moment is temporary, but what I choose to do with it will be carried with me forever.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit barefootfts.com)