I want to start this entry with a quote:
„What is your job?” “Success.” – “And what are your qualifications?” “Failures.”
(Scott Sonnon)
It is just awesome having friends you can trust. Really trust.
Because trust leads to exchange of information. Through information you get to know a person. To an extent where you can assess borderline experiences/experiments beforehand, therefore modifiy them and reap the most benefits.
A few weeks ago a very close friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go on a mountain hike with him. We would take on the highest mountain in Austria, the Großglockner, 3798m high.
I was exited but the 3-4 day-long tour proofed too much for my holliday- schedule. "Well...", he said, "There is this one thing I always wanted to do...Get up and down in 24h. Are you in?".
Just a small information on the side...I never climbed a mountain. Ever. There are some bigger hills around Linz and Graz where I have been seen at the top but I never had any experience with a real mountain. You know, with a backpack, gas coocker, ropes, snow shoes, stuff like that...
I´m not into climbing that much either...
Now that you have this information about me you can guess what my answer was: "Hell yeah! I´m in!!".
Now, before you label me as crazy: Mathew and I are two of one kind. We like to get to know ourselfes, exploring where the phony exterior ends and where the real person, the very essence, this beautiful bright, energetic ocean of light is beginning. Through experiences the useless outer shell gradually gets, well, sometimes picked, sometimes torn, sometimes blown away.
Still: being save, being able to come back the next day, taking care of the man/friend next to you is important. Therefore is honesty.
We arrived at the bottom of the mountain at around 1400, after a car drive which lasted several hours and the previous night having been quite short since I was pretty nervous.
We started with a briefing of landmarks, the planned route. While changing into our gear we talked with some of the other climbers. Guys who have done stuff like this for years. When asked we told them we where about to start our trip up, leaving the guys suprised because it was about to get dark. Words like "crazy","hardcore" and "oh boy" were uttered. They silenced when being told 50% of this crazy group had never seen the top of a mountain or much of the bottom either.
We geared up, put our snowshoes on and started going up.
Most of the time we could move quite fast. If I brought one thing to the tour it was my level of fitnes.(nothing fancy as you know but no average-joe anymore either)
We ascended and after the first part which felt like a stroll in a snow- white park due to the terrain I stumbled about my main lesson from this event: I´m getting quite good at completing challenges I set for myself.
When confronted with a situation dictated by external factors, circumstances I still have much work to do.
But one thing I learned(especially when reading lots and lots of special forces soldiers, Seals,...) was quite valuable: one step at a time.
Very soon, not too far up the mountain we took a break, had a cup of tea and started to talk.
We both realized we had a bad feeling about the whole situation, about a further ascend.
Fact was, I wasn´t sure I could make it up there.
Fact was, my friend wasn´t sure he had enough capacities to take care of himself and me if something would go wrong.
At this very moment we realized something very beautiful: we really had left our egos in the cars, maybe even at home and only took ourselves and a backpack of honesty with us up the mountain. So we turned our back to the mountain and started descending.
Do not get me wrong, we failed. We set out to do a challenging task and failed. That´s it.
But this time we did not have the capacities to make it. Our at least not the capacities to deal with the consequences.
We will be back there, with more potential, both physically and mentally, and I´ll take a picture for you when I´m standing on the top of the Austrian mountain world. ;-)
Train hard and enjoy every step!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 28. Dezember 2010
Montag, 20. Dezember 2010
What it takes
I met some strong guys during my short training career.
Strong meaning both physical as well as mental strength.
One can not develop one without the other.
Guys who pushed themselves through workouts who would blow an average person right off the bench, the field, the track, platform, out of the building, garage, cellar,...
Workouts fot time, reps, sets, both.
I did some things ordinary people consider crazy. Well...
One can push oneself beyond many limitations, discover new aspects during the process, right after it or even when months have passed.
Imagine loading a bar onto your shoulders with your bodyweight and go for 30+ squats...
Imagine loading the bar with 2 times your bodyweight...
Imagine sprinting 400m, all out, only to get to a station where you need to perform 10 Clean & Press with a 40kg stone. Then repeat the process several times.
Imagine running a marathon...
People close to me, friends, family, sometimes ask me "Why are you doing this to yourself? "
"Because through my workouts I develop my mind.", is usually my answer.
One person asked me once "And what happens when you are too old to do such workouts? What will you do then? Then you cannot do such things anymore..."
I thought about tis question and answered "Hoepfully when I´m at this point I wil not depend upon physical exercise as my only tool to develop my mind."
To me(!!) exercise is the best tool. Period.
To others it may be painting, singing, religion, yoga, feeding animals at the zoo, taking care of their parents/loved one/friends/...,working at an office...
To me, mental strength is the most important thing because all the physical things can be taken away from you very quickly and very easy.
When all that is left: Who will you be then.
People like my push themselves in their training, just for the sake of pushing oneself.
Still...There is one thing in common when you are training in such a way:
You can always quit. "Stop...Right know...I do not have it in me today...I´ll come back stronger the next time."
It´s ok, right?
One question haunts my thoughts, training physically, being a martial artist for several years: What if I have no choice?
What if you are in a live-or-die-situation? Two ways: forget the flight, fight or die.
Many people in history, in this very moment go through tremendous terrors due to slavery, torture, prosecution...Some will survive, some will not.
How will one react if put against a wall, left with no more than the two options? Who will fight till the end, who will give in to the illusive easy way out?
Who will be able to face any situation any fight till his end?
Who will never take the easy way out?
Who can be put against the wall and still think clearly?
Thos are questions which keep me up at night, make me do crazy things, write these blog-posts...
Now I have recieved an astonishing opportunity to ask someone who knows.
I´ll keep you posted...
Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry
Strong meaning both physical as well as mental strength.
One can not develop one without the other.
Guys who pushed themselves through workouts who would blow an average person right off the bench, the field, the track, platform, out of the building, garage, cellar,...
Workouts fot time, reps, sets, both.
I did some things ordinary people consider crazy. Well...
One can push oneself beyond many limitations, discover new aspects during the process, right after it or even when months have passed.
Imagine loading a bar onto your shoulders with your bodyweight and go for 30+ squats...
Imagine loading the bar with 2 times your bodyweight...
Imagine sprinting 400m, all out, only to get to a station where you need to perform 10 Clean & Press with a 40kg stone. Then repeat the process several times.
Imagine running a marathon...
People close to me, friends, family, sometimes ask me "Why are you doing this to yourself? "
"Because through my workouts I develop my mind.", is usually my answer.
One person asked me once "And what happens when you are too old to do such workouts? What will you do then? Then you cannot do such things anymore..."
I thought about tis question and answered "Hoepfully when I´m at this point I wil not depend upon physical exercise as my only tool to develop my mind."
To me(!!) exercise is the best tool. Period.
To others it may be painting, singing, religion, yoga, feeding animals at the zoo, taking care of their parents/loved one/friends/...,working at an office...
To me, mental strength is the most important thing because all the physical things can be taken away from you very quickly and very easy.
When all that is left: Who will you be then.
People like my push themselves in their training, just for the sake of pushing oneself.
Still...There is one thing in common when you are training in such a way:
You can always quit. "Stop...Right know...I do not have it in me today...I´ll come back stronger the next time."
It´s ok, right?
One question haunts my thoughts, training physically, being a martial artist for several years: What if I have no choice?
What if you are in a live-or-die-situation? Two ways: forget the flight, fight or die.
Many people in history, in this very moment go through tremendous terrors due to slavery, torture, prosecution...Some will survive, some will not.
How will one react if put against a wall, left with no more than the two options? Who will fight till the end, who will give in to the illusive easy way out?
Who will be able to face any situation any fight till his end?
Who will never take the easy way out?
Who can be put against the wall and still think clearly?
Thos are questions which keep me up at night, make me do crazy things, write these blog-posts...
Now I have recieved an astonishing opportunity to ask someone who knows.
I´ll keep you posted...
Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry
Freitag, 17. Dezember 2010
Still alive
I have not been posting for some time.
Do not worry... I´m still improving, learning, watching, listening and recording.
Just not putting it out into the world via this medium.
So, a sign to prove I´m alive:
An improvement to my last attempt in October.
Not too much but I´m satisfied nevertheless. 4 reps more each arm with that weight is good for me, especially since I did not use kettlebells much since october.
Train hard and enjoy each moment!
All the best,
Harry
Do not worry... I´m still improving, learning, watching, listening and recording.
Just not putting it out into the world via this medium.
So, a sign to prove I´m alive:
An improvement to my last attempt in October.
Not too much but I´m satisfied nevertheless. 4 reps more each arm with that weight is good for me, especially since I did not use kettlebells much since october.
Train hard and enjoy each moment!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 3. November 2010
Lessons from skydiving (7) - Take one step at a time
Every one who has aquired his driving license heard this one example from his/her teacher:
While driving at night you might stumble across a deer standing on the street.
Even though it recognizes your headlights, understands they pose a threat to its life it will not move. Blinking lights will not change the fact that it does not move.
It is caught in-between two things:
escaping to the right and escaping to the left.
Unable to decide what to do it remains standing still and will eventually end up on my BBQ.
One of my favourite sayings goes someting like this:
"In any given situation you can do three things: the best thing would be doing the right thing, the second best choice would be doing the wrong thing. The worst thing to do would be nothing."
Still, only one thing a time. If you would try to do the best and the worst you would end up having done nothing at all.
A few months ago I was at the hospital at around 9pm. This time not because I had hurt myself but because I had night services at the department of pediatrics.
We (me and a colleague of mine) where talking with the doctor in charge, discussing the last patient, treatments,... And as always students would recieve some advices for their future in the medical field.
One of the most important advices I recieved that night from a nurse. She said:
"If you are ever in charge of the walk-in clinic, please, finish one patient after another. Even if there are nurses, other doctors pressuring you to do something else, keep calm and finish your work.
Last week we had a doctor who just had finished medical school and was doing his first night shift. He got so carried away with trying to treat 3 patients at once to save time, after one hour there were still the same three patients in there and an uncounted number of patients was already or still waiting..."
I experienced the same thing while falling with 200km/h towards the earth this summer...
As I mentioned in a previous post I had some problems when starting to skydive. I still have but back then lying still while falling was problem enough.
Even though I had my trainer with me, giving me signals, my mind was racing with thoughts like
"Is my head back?" (He is giving me the signal to make my legs longer so I start to extend them more...)
"How do I get my pelvis down more?" (Again the legs- longer signal...)
"What´s the next step in the program" (Still the legs- longer and somehow he is looking pissed..Why, I´m doing all I can...)
"How high up am I?"...
So instead of just fixing one problem at a time I multi-tasked several ones and ended up doing not much the right way.
I´m not sure if it is because men can not multi- task or because it´s just my problem but nothing got better, only worse and I was lucky to pass that level.
The making of an elite warrior, SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, Nightstalkers, you-name-them, they get one principle taught from the beginning: One evolution at a time.(this line in particular was taken from the BUDs- Phase of SEAL- training)
Set priorities and then do one thing, 100%, give it all you got until you are done, then do the next thing.
Or like they say in the Zen- Buddhism: Plunge yourself in the moment, immerse yourself completly. Be the moment.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
While driving at night you might stumble across a deer standing on the street.
Even though it recognizes your headlights, understands they pose a threat to its life it will not move. Blinking lights will not change the fact that it does not move.
It is caught in-between two things:
escaping to the right and escaping to the left.
Unable to decide what to do it remains standing still and will eventually end up on my BBQ.
One of my favourite sayings goes someting like this:
"In any given situation you can do three things: the best thing would be doing the right thing, the second best choice would be doing the wrong thing. The worst thing to do would be nothing."
Still, only one thing a time. If you would try to do the best and the worst you would end up having done nothing at all.
A few months ago I was at the hospital at around 9pm. This time not because I had hurt myself but because I had night services at the department of pediatrics.
We (me and a colleague of mine) where talking with the doctor in charge, discussing the last patient, treatments,... And as always students would recieve some advices for their future in the medical field.
One of the most important advices I recieved that night from a nurse. She said:
"If you are ever in charge of the walk-in clinic, please, finish one patient after another. Even if there are nurses, other doctors pressuring you to do something else, keep calm and finish your work.
Last week we had a doctor who just had finished medical school and was doing his first night shift. He got so carried away with trying to treat 3 patients at once to save time, after one hour there were still the same three patients in there and an uncounted number of patients was already or still waiting..."
I experienced the same thing while falling with 200km/h towards the earth this summer...
As I mentioned in a previous post I had some problems when starting to skydive. I still have but back then lying still while falling was problem enough.
Even though I had my trainer with me, giving me signals, my mind was racing with thoughts like
"Is my head back?" (He is giving me the signal to make my legs longer so I start to extend them more...)
"How do I get my pelvis down more?" (Again the legs- longer signal...)
"What´s the next step in the program" (Still the legs- longer and somehow he is looking pissed..Why, I´m doing all I can...)
"How high up am I?"...
So instead of just fixing one problem at a time I multi-tasked several ones and ended up doing not much the right way.
I´m not sure if it is because men can not multi- task or because it´s just my problem but nothing got better, only worse and I was lucky to pass that level.
The making of an elite warrior, SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, Nightstalkers, you-name-them, they get one principle taught from the beginning: One evolution at a time.(this line in particular was taken from the BUDs- Phase of SEAL- training)
Set priorities and then do one thing, 100%, give it all you got until you are done, then do the next thing.
Or like they say in the Zen- Buddhism: Plunge yourself in the moment, immerse yourself completly. Be the moment.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 27. Oktober 2010
Take care of your Bells
Oleg Ilika demonstrates how to get rough spots off you handles. especially useful when you still have old Kettlebells standing around like I do.
If you want to evade all that trouble when buying new ones, I can recommend you check out www.spodo.at , an extremly well equiped, obliging and dependable shop run by Mark Dorninger, a guy who is living at the other side of Austria and still manages to send me new Bells in about 1-2 days. That´s the kind of service you will not find at other stores.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Samstag, 23. Oktober 2010
Samstag, 16. Oktober 2010
Gifts
Too often we despair facing such gifts life has given us, placed in font of us, simply because we do not understand...on one side. The other side does and will eventually guide us to what we have to learn from it.
"A warrior has no choice but to believe"
Tales of Power, C. Castaneda
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 13. Oktober 2010
Dienstag, 12. Oktober 2010
Simplification
I´m gonna stay true to the title of this post...
1)Pick yourself a pullup- variation (Towel as seen in the video below, close, medium or wide grip, palms of the hand facing you or pointing away, a neutral grip, hands at different heights, comando pullps, walking at the pullup- bar, etc.)
2)Pick a Pushup- variation (Scorpion as seen in the video below, Dands, Divebombers, Iranian Pushups, CLose, shoulder width or wide pushups, pushups on a gymnastic ball, be it with hands or feet on it, ring- pushups, clapping, one- arm, hands in an offset- pattern, etc)
3)Pick a leg- exercise (Lunges as seen in the video below, Jumping Lunges, Lunges forward, backward or to the side, Squats, 1 & 1/2 Squats, Jumping Squats, jumping forward or for height, one- legged squats aka Pistols, Split Squats, Rope Skipping, Sprinting, Cossack- Squats, Box Jumps, Knee Tuck Jumps, etc.)
Set a number of repetitions for each exercise and do them.
Keep perfect form and enough tension throughout your body.
Keep a good pace in order to get a excellent cardiovascular workout.
You can split the exercises, for example if you goal are 50 Pullups, 100 Pushups and 200 Squats you can do 5 Pullups, 10 Pushups and 20 Squats for 10 rounds.
Use any other number you like.
Another way to go is completing one exercise after another. So do all the pullups, then all the pushups, then all the squats.
Simply get the reps and keep your time to measure progress.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry
1)Pick yourself a pullup- variation (Towel as seen in the video below, close, medium or wide grip, palms of the hand facing you or pointing away, a neutral grip, hands at different heights, comando pullps, walking at the pullup- bar, etc.)
2)Pick a Pushup- variation (Scorpion as seen in the video below, Dands, Divebombers, Iranian Pushups, CLose, shoulder width or wide pushups, pushups on a gymnastic ball, be it with hands or feet on it, ring- pushups, clapping, one- arm, hands in an offset- pattern, etc)
3)Pick a leg- exercise (Lunges as seen in the video below, Jumping Lunges, Lunges forward, backward or to the side, Squats, 1 & 1/2 Squats, Jumping Squats, jumping forward or for height, one- legged squats aka Pistols, Split Squats, Rope Skipping, Sprinting, Cossack- Squats, Box Jumps, Knee Tuck Jumps, etc.)
Set a number of repetitions for each exercise and do them.
Keep perfect form and enough tension throughout your body.
Keep a good pace in order to get a excellent cardiovascular workout.
You can split the exercises, for example if you goal are 50 Pullups, 100 Pushups and 200 Squats you can do 5 Pullups, 10 Pushups and 20 Squats for 10 rounds.
Use any other number you like.
Another way to go is completing one exercise after another. So do all the pullups, then all the pushups, then all the squats.
Simply get the reps and keep your time to measure progress.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry
Samstag, 25. September 2010
Lessons from skydiving (6) - Smooth is fast. Take your time.
"Remember: Smooth is fast!!"
I heard the instructors saying this to the students of the Basic Underwater Demolition training(BUDs) over and over again. It was a gift from a very dear friend of mine, a documentation about the Making of a NAVY SEAL.
I heard it but I did not truly understand it until my skydiving- course.
Even when we were still practicing the key movements on the ground during the theoretical part of the skydiving- course we were told repetedly to execute the movements smoothly and a bit slower than we thought they should be.
Because during stressful situation movements become shorter, staccato- like.
Martial artist learned to first practice in an environment without stress, where movements can be executed in a smooth, somewhat exaggerated, slower and wider manner.
Only if you start with wide, relaxed motions, only then will there still be any movement left which is still useful during stress.
I want to take about 2 things which can be learned now from this statement:
1) The physical aspect:
Everybody involved in any sport does know how movement tends to change during application under stress.
Be it the martial artist who suddenly gets tight during sparring or in a fight when he should be relaxed and breath freely.
Be it...to be honest, there is no sport coming to my mind when you do not have that kind of problem...Well, maybe Soccer. ;-)
Even if you are playing, e.g., the piano and giving a concert...If you tense up, interrup your flow you got a problem.
This is why training, the steps of learning the technical aspects of your sport, should be happening in an relaxed environment.
Why?
Because our brain is a marvelous, little box.
It not only remembers the physical sensations but the emotional state as well. And as everybody knows emotions translate into physical/bodily reactions back again.
One of the most common examples I get to observe is the frequent shot people recieve when in the hospital.
Sometime in tha past they associated a lot of things with recieving a shot: pain(the injection itself and maybe a hurtful inflammation afterwards), fear(we do not like when being hurt), deception(when mommy told you "this will not hurt"), violence(they had to held you down to give you the shot), disappointment(mommy lied to you), relief(when it is over I feel better).
(To some adults this seems exaggerated but to a child without the proper connections a ability to construct a future based on the events currently happening it may very well seem like this.)
Even when we do know better as an adult("It does not hurt that bad..."; "It´s for the better"/"If I get that shot now I will not suffer in the future", etc.) some of us still experience some sensations when facing a needle.
Breathing changes...Somehow it feels like your chest is getting to small for your lungs, your breathing muscles won´t move so freely as they used to. Breathing becomes shallow.
Somehow certain muscles are very tense...Abdomen, neck, shoulders,...
Your heart is starting to beat faster...faster...faster...
You do not need all this tension, cardio- vascular stress.
It disrupts what some coaches call "flow", a term I really like. It increases your energy demands and robs your precious recources.
A lesson I´m still learning when having a sparring situation and somehow I get tense(which is still happening much)... I´m a quite physically fit individual but those tensions combined with the demands of perception, action and reaction, movement burn me out very fast. At least it happens to everybody. ;-)
Ok...Old dogs not only can learn new things, they can learn new ways of learning.
Still... They are old dogs and have already learned a lot of things in ways not very productive.
I will talk about "arousal control" and mental training soon.
Now we are off to number 2) The symbolism behind todays "Lesson from skydiving":
This lesson actually started building itself in my head when attending the Steve Maxwell workshop in July.
We were talking about the execution of movement, the ongoing empahsis on numbers/repetitions under the label of effort/output/power per time aka intensity.
We talked about the goal of training which can differ from person to person and the necessary adaptation of the means to the end.
To show you what I mean: if you want to build a muscular upper back and biceps strict pullups are a great way to accomplish this. Kipping pullups have their value but in a different context.
So it is not just what you do but how you do it.
"It´s not about the present, it´s about the way it is given" to quote my mother.
It is not about what you do but how you do it.
Simply starting you own company and trying to get as much money for yourself without a thought for the well- being of your employees, customers, family, friends will not be enough. Within months you will be out of business.
Simply going into the hospital, running test, diagnosing and treating according to lab results, CT- scans will not make me a successful doctor. True compassion for my patients and mindset of truely helping them to get back into (social) life will make them happy, healthy and myself a better doc.
Too many examples come to my mind to write them all down, many, many more I do not know.
When you stumble over a good example, post a comment below because this is one mather best learned by examples and experience.
Just keep in mind: it´s not just about what you do, but how you do it.
Train hard and enjoy life. Smoothly. ;-)
All the best,
Harry
I heard the instructors saying this to the students of the Basic Underwater Demolition training(BUDs) over and over again. It was a gift from a very dear friend of mine, a documentation about the Making of a NAVY SEAL.
I heard it but I did not truly understand it until my skydiving- course.
Even when we were still practicing the key movements on the ground during the theoretical part of the skydiving- course we were told repetedly to execute the movements smoothly and a bit slower than we thought they should be.
Because during stressful situation movements become shorter, staccato- like.
Martial artist learned to first practice in an environment without stress, where movements can be executed in a smooth, somewhat exaggerated, slower and wider manner.
Only if you start with wide, relaxed motions, only then will there still be any movement left which is still useful during stress.
I want to take about 2 things which can be learned now from this statement:
1) The physical aspect:
Everybody involved in any sport does know how movement tends to change during application under stress.
Be it the martial artist who suddenly gets tight during sparring or in a fight when he should be relaxed and breath freely.
Be it...to be honest, there is no sport coming to my mind when you do not have that kind of problem...Well, maybe Soccer. ;-)
Even if you are playing, e.g., the piano and giving a concert...If you tense up, interrup your flow you got a problem.
This is why training, the steps of learning the technical aspects of your sport, should be happening in an relaxed environment.
Why?
Because our brain is a marvelous, little box.
It not only remembers the physical sensations but the emotional state as well. And as everybody knows emotions translate into physical/bodily reactions back again.
One of the most common examples I get to observe is the frequent shot people recieve when in the hospital.
Sometime in tha past they associated a lot of things with recieving a shot: pain(the injection itself and maybe a hurtful inflammation afterwards), fear(we do not like when being hurt), deception(when mommy told you "this will not hurt"), violence(they had to held you down to give you the shot), disappointment(mommy lied to you), relief(when it is over I feel better).
(To some adults this seems exaggerated but to a child without the proper connections a ability to construct a future based on the events currently happening it may very well seem like this.)
Even when we do know better as an adult("It does not hurt that bad..."; "It´s for the better"/"If I get that shot now I will not suffer in the future", etc.) some of us still experience some sensations when facing a needle.
Breathing changes...Somehow it feels like your chest is getting to small for your lungs, your breathing muscles won´t move so freely as they used to. Breathing becomes shallow.
Somehow certain muscles are very tense...Abdomen, neck, shoulders,...
Your heart is starting to beat faster...faster...faster...
You do not need all this tension, cardio- vascular stress.
It disrupts what some coaches call "flow", a term I really like. It increases your energy demands and robs your precious recources.
A lesson I´m still learning when having a sparring situation and somehow I get tense(which is still happening much)... I´m a quite physically fit individual but those tensions combined with the demands of perception, action and reaction, movement burn me out very fast. At least it happens to everybody. ;-)
Ok...Old dogs not only can learn new things, they can learn new ways of learning.
Still... They are old dogs and have already learned a lot of things in ways not very productive.
I will talk about "arousal control" and mental training soon.
Now we are off to number 2) The symbolism behind todays "Lesson from skydiving":
This lesson actually started building itself in my head when attending the Steve Maxwell workshop in July.
We were talking about the execution of movement, the ongoing empahsis on numbers/repetitions under the label of effort/output/power per time aka intensity.
We talked about the goal of training which can differ from person to person and the necessary adaptation of the means to the end.
To show you what I mean: if you want to build a muscular upper back and biceps strict pullups are a great way to accomplish this. Kipping pullups have their value but in a different context.
So it is not just what you do but how you do it.
"It´s not about the present, it´s about the way it is given" to quote my mother.
It is not about what you do but how you do it.
Simply starting you own company and trying to get as much money for yourself without a thought for the well- being of your employees, customers, family, friends will not be enough. Within months you will be out of business.
Simply going into the hospital, running test, diagnosing and treating according to lab results, CT- scans will not make me a successful doctor. True compassion for my patients and mindset of truely helping them to get back into (social) life will make them happy, healthy and myself a better doc.
Too many examples come to my mind to write them all down, many, many more I do not know.
When you stumble over a good example, post a comment below because this is one mather best learned by examples and experience.
Just keep in mind: it´s not just about what you do, but how you do it.
Train hard and enjoy life. Smoothly. ;-)
All the best,
Harry
Sonntag, 19. September 2010
Lessons from skydiving (5) - No back to basics. Get them right the first time.
Like I said in the previous "Lessons from skydiving" the unique situation of a person jumping out of a plane is creating a very special environment.
The setting of one falling towards the surface of the earth through the air with about 200km/h, the fact of our body being moveable which creates streaming around it and the fact that if we do not have a parachute(left) or screw up badly we get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble.
When working with clients I sometimes spend a lot of time with single exercises. I think some of them actually get bored after some time, being eager to learn all there is about kettlebells, body- weight- exercises, etc.
Still... I keep on pushing details, restraining myself from overflooding them with the little things and always trying to focus on the big and important little things.
Why is it so important?
When I started with preparing for the schooling- jumps we went over the basics of good free- fall- posture over and over again.
Hips, head, knees. Get them right and you have won. That´s what they told us.
They were right.
During my first 5 jumps (you get only 7 with a trainer at your side) i was as stable as a used napkin flushed from a toilet of a plane.
During the 6th and 7th jump I was stable enough to, I need to quote my trainer,"be able to jump out of a plane without killing yourself or others".
Well...
My first solo- jump: stable as one could wish!
Why?
My theory: When you are jumping with the trainers you got a program for every level/jump.
Basically I got out and was 1) nervous, 2)with my thoughts only at the moving portion of the jump and 3)only looking what the trainers were signalling me.
I lost sight of the three basics (hip, head, knees) with every jump.
With my first jump, being on my own, scared as sh*t since no one is there to stabilize me, I was forced to focus on those basics, and those three alone.
Screw the somersault, screw the rotations, screw everything else, there was only room in my mind for the big three.
So I approached the door, got into position, counted to five and pushed myself out.
The moment when you lift your head up, feeling the first air starting to stream past both sides of your neck, the two sides of your body, when you fall and suddenly get a strange feeling at teh whole front of your body until you recognize the air is forming a cushion, allowing you to take control.
When all I thought was to scan with my eyes for the horizon, the thin line between the world we live in and the sky on is falling through, for me during those moments thin enough to no even be clear in sight, vanishing the clear disticntion between the two worlds.
When all I thought was to make the hips the deepest point, first trying to force the back to arch, then slowly, when the eyes realized the blurred horizon, relaxing into the fall, the hips started to sink towards the earth.
When all I thought was to get the knees up which caused my legs to shorten and my position to de-stabilize, then suddenly, when i felt the cusion under by hips, my legs relaxed and lengthend, suddenly feeling the cushion at the dorsi of my feet...
When all of my thoughts concentrated on the basics, my mind and body became free to actually take a look around, conciously, experiencing one of the most beautiful moments of my life.
I think with age physical training is becoming more and more like skydiving...
You wanna get the biggest bang for your buck with each workout, you still wanna make progress concerning intensity, workload but the older one gets the more deliberatly one has to act.
When you are young you can almost jump into training, do a ton of workload(literally), get no recovery with sloppy technique and still grow, improve, develop.
To a certain point...
But it is not like young athletes are invincible.
It´s more like they have a greater coverage with their bank account.
They can withdraw again and again for a long time but one day they will be too far in dept as well.
Like Steve Maxwell said while talking about Joint Mobility, Yoga (of which I became a huge fan during the last several months): "Lots of guys in their thirtys or fortys wish they had discovered this stuff 20 years ago...It would have saved them a lot of (disadvantageous) pain and stagnation."
If you read the previous post from the "lessons from skydiving"- series you already know how mistakes can bite you in the a**.
The lack of basics in physical training is one mistake which will result in the biggest bite.
Because when you get hurt, you have no way to correct your mistake...Even if you reduce the workload dramatically the applied load on the hurt tissue will still be violative.
No mather how light the load on your crappy deadlift is, it does hurt you.
So take the first steps of your life- long training as a mental challenge: tame your spirits who want to do more and more and more...
Take it easy, be proud to develop Technique, take in the basic concepts and movement patterns of your physical activity, read about it, watch others do it, breath some air surrounding your activity.
With time and uncompromising technique success has no chance but to come to you.
Train hard, train smart and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry
The setting of one falling towards the surface of the earth through the air with about 200km/h, the fact of our body being moveable which creates streaming around it and the fact that if we do not have a parachute(left) or screw up badly we get ourselves in a whole lot of trouble.
When working with clients I sometimes spend a lot of time with single exercises. I think some of them actually get bored after some time, being eager to learn all there is about kettlebells, body- weight- exercises, etc.
Still... I keep on pushing details, restraining myself from overflooding them with the little things and always trying to focus on the big and important little things.
Why is it so important?
When I started with preparing for the schooling- jumps we went over the basics of good free- fall- posture over and over again.
Hips, head, knees. Get them right and you have won. That´s what they told us.
They were right.
During my first 5 jumps (you get only 7 with a trainer at your side) i was as stable as a used napkin flushed from a toilet of a plane.
During the 6th and 7th jump I was stable enough to, I need to quote my trainer,"be able to jump out of a plane without killing yourself or others".
Well...
My first solo- jump: stable as one could wish!
Why?
My theory: When you are jumping with the trainers you got a program for every level/jump.
Basically I got out and was 1) nervous, 2)with my thoughts only at the moving portion of the jump and 3)only looking what the trainers were signalling me.
I lost sight of the three basics (hip, head, knees) with every jump.
With my first jump, being on my own, scared as sh*t since no one is there to stabilize me, I was forced to focus on those basics, and those three alone.
Screw the somersault, screw the rotations, screw everything else, there was only room in my mind for the big three.
So I approached the door, got into position, counted to five and pushed myself out.
The moment when you lift your head up, feeling the first air starting to stream past both sides of your neck, the two sides of your body, when you fall and suddenly get a strange feeling at teh whole front of your body until you recognize the air is forming a cushion, allowing you to take control.
When all I thought was to scan with my eyes for the horizon, the thin line between the world we live in and the sky on is falling through, for me during those moments thin enough to no even be clear in sight, vanishing the clear disticntion between the two worlds.
When all I thought was to make the hips the deepest point, first trying to force the back to arch, then slowly, when the eyes realized the blurred horizon, relaxing into the fall, the hips started to sink towards the earth.
When all I thought was to get the knees up which caused my legs to shorten and my position to de-stabilize, then suddenly, when i felt the cusion under by hips, my legs relaxed and lengthend, suddenly feeling the cushion at the dorsi of my feet...
When all of my thoughts concentrated on the basics, my mind and body became free to actually take a look around, conciously, experiencing one of the most beautiful moments of my life.
I think with age physical training is becoming more and more like skydiving...
You wanna get the biggest bang for your buck with each workout, you still wanna make progress concerning intensity, workload but the older one gets the more deliberatly one has to act.
When you are young you can almost jump into training, do a ton of workload(literally), get no recovery with sloppy technique and still grow, improve, develop.
To a certain point...
But it is not like young athletes are invincible.
It´s more like they have a greater coverage with their bank account.
They can withdraw again and again for a long time but one day they will be too far in dept as well.
Like Steve Maxwell said while talking about Joint Mobility, Yoga (of which I became a huge fan during the last several months): "Lots of guys in their thirtys or fortys wish they had discovered this stuff 20 years ago...It would have saved them a lot of (disadvantageous) pain and stagnation."
If you read the previous post from the "lessons from skydiving"- series you already know how mistakes can bite you in the a**.
The lack of basics in physical training is one mistake which will result in the biggest bite.
Because when you get hurt, you have no way to correct your mistake...Even if you reduce the workload dramatically the applied load on the hurt tissue will still be violative.
No mather how light the load on your crappy deadlift is, it does hurt you.
So take the first steps of your life- long training as a mental challenge: tame your spirits who want to do more and more and more...
Take it easy, be proud to develop Technique, take in the basic concepts and movement patterns of your physical activity, read about it, watch others do it, breath some air surrounding your activity.
With time and uncompromising technique success has no chance but to come to you.
Train hard, train smart and enjoy life!
All the ebst,
Harry
Sonntag, 12. September 2010
Turn around...Sometimes it is useful
Most of the time I try not to look back too much.
Simply because my challenges are right here, now, the present time of my life.
Sometimes I indulge myself in looking forward, into the future, dreaming what may come.
In the past I was looking back a lot, the things I had done, some of them seemed to haunt me.
So nowadays I learn my lessons and let the past be.
About 40 minutes ago my computer crashed...Since I wanted to continue watching "The Jackal" I rebooted it.
It took some time and I somehow decided to pick up my current training-log which goes back to the 27th of October 2009.
I browsed through the pages, reviewed the workouts, the weeks and months going by...
If someone would be coming to me, showing me such a detailed log, all the notes of where the pain begun and where it spread to...How personal records where broken on a regular basis (sometimes 2 times a week) and at the same time how joints first got sore, then painful, then almost not moveable...
How the weights went up effortlessly, how numbers became bigger(be it the time worked or the weights lifted), how sleep spread thinner and the mood hit rock bottom.
How the spirit soared during the workouts, how it crashed when pain visited the following day...
I´d tell that person he/she is in way over her/his head. I´d tell that person it is time to slow down. Time to take a week off, no training at all, re- evaluate her/his personal goals again and be honest about her/his true capacity.
As a child I was quite fat.
So i got no good base considering my joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles...
One thing I have always been: stubborn.
Thank god one day my stubbornness turned against my lazy life, my eating habits, my movement patterns, my weaknesses.
I started to get back in shape, although I have never been there...
The problem was the real training, away from all the bullshit machines in the commercial gyms, away from all the people who use the narcissistic upper- and lower body split:
-day 1: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror above your belly
-day 2: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror beneath your belly.
When I started improving my physique, I unknowingly started to improve my mind as well.
I became stronger, faster, more competitive, mentally tougher.
I suffered through my workouts and reaped rewards. Some of the guys like Dominik Feischl (), who know me since I first touched a kettlebell and when I still struggled with 2 pullups, know how much stronger I became.
Still, I know now I was in way over my head.
I reaped rewards, simply because my body had to adapt in order to survive in some way.
I was stubborn enough to go on and on and on, push harder, farther and higher, but I was too dumb to realize my will, the pure power of mind could only outrun some aspects of biochemistry, some aspects of life.
Regeneration was not one of them.
When I start something I want everything at once. It took me years and lots of set- backs to develop ways to control myself in this matter.
Another thing it took was the words of Steve Maxwell.
When we were sitting at the end of the workshop in July, Steve talked to us about regeneration.
When a Coach with an experience of over 30 years is telling you, you are working too much, one is starting to think.
I even took one whole week off after the workshop.
Several months ago I would have went to the workshop, had come back with a minor injury, taped it and got back under the weights.
This time the advice stuck with me.
I shifted 2 gears back since then.
Do not get me worng, my workouts are still hard as hell, that´s a given. YOu need hard work to get results.
But the time between workouts is more and spent more relaxed. The food got more. Sleep got more.
And know what?
I´m happy.
Enough said?
I lost nothing of my strength, conditioning, I gained zero fat and gained about 3kg of muscle since July.
My sleep is great, I actually like waking up some days now and go to work. ;-)
Sometimes it is a good thing to turn around and look at your footsteps in the snow. Because when we do we can stop running in circles and continue on our way ... to the next circle.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Simply because my challenges are right here, now, the present time of my life.
Sometimes I indulge myself in looking forward, into the future, dreaming what may come.
In the past I was looking back a lot, the things I had done, some of them seemed to haunt me.
So nowadays I learn my lessons and let the past be.
About 40 minutes ago my computer crashed...Since I wanted to continue watching "The Jackal" I rebooted it.
It took some time and I somehow decided to pick up my current training-log which goes back to the 27th of October 2009.
I browsed through the pages, reviewed the workouts, the weeks and months going by...
If someone would be coming to me, showing me such a detailed log, all the notes of where the pain begun and where it spread to...How personal records where broken on a regular basis (sometimes 2 times a week) and at the same time how joints first got sore, then painful, then almost not moveable...
How the weights went up effortlessly, how numbers became bigger(be it the time worked or the weights lifted), how sleep spread thinner and the mood hit rock bottom.
How the spirit soared during the workouts, how it crashed when pain visited the following day...
I´d tell that person he/she is in way over her/his head. I´d tell that person it is time to slow down. Time to take a week off, no training at all, re- evaluate her/his personal goals again and be honest about her/his true capacity.
As a child I was quite fat.
So i got no good base considering my joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles...
One thing I have always been: stubborn.
Thank god one day my stubbornness turned against my lazy life, my eating habits, my movement patterns, my weaknesses.
I started to get back in shape, although I have never been there...
The problem was the real training, away from all the bullshit machines in the commercial gyms, away from all the people who use the narcissistic upper- and lower body split:
-day 1: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror above your belly
-day 2: train all the muscles you can see in the mirror beneath your belly.
When I started improving my physique, I unknowingly started to improve my mind as well.
I became stronger, faster, more competitive, mentally tougher.
I suffered through my workouts and reaped rewards. Some of the guys like Dominik Feischl (), who know me since I first touched a kettlebell and when I still struggled with 2 pullups, know how much stronger I became.
Still, I know now I was in way over my head.
I reaped rewards, simply because my body had to adapt in order to survive in some way.
I was stubborn enough to go on and on and on, push harder, farther and higher, but I was too dumb to realize my will, the pure power of mind could only outrun some aspects of biochemistry, some aspects of life.
Regeneration was not one of them.
When I start something I want everything at once. It took me years and lots of set- backs to develop ways to control myself in this matter.
Another thing it took was the words of Steve Maxwell.
When we were sitting at the end of the workshop in July, Steve talked to us about regeneration.
When a Coach with an experience of over 30 years is telling you, you are working too much, one is starting to think.
I even took one whole week off after the workshop.
Several months ago I would have went to the workshop, had come back with a minor injury, taped it and got back under the weights.
This time the advice stuck with me.
I shifted 2 gears back since then.
Do not get me worng, my workouts are still hard as hell, that´s a given. YOu need hard work to get results.
But the time between workouts is more and spent more relaxed. The food got more. Sleep got more.
And know what?
I´m happy.
Enough said?
I lost nothing of my strength, conditioning, I gained zero fat and gained about 3kg of muscle since July.
My sleep is great, I actually like waking up some days now and go to work. ;-)
Sometimes it is a good thing to turn around and look at your footsteps in the snow. Because when we do we can stop running in circles and continue on our way ... to the next circle.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 23. August 2010
Lessons from skydiving (4) - Who is responsible? I´m responsible.
The "Accelerated Free Fall"- system of learning skydiving is based on a sensory overload under supervision of 2 trainers in the beginning and later one teacher.
So basically you first get out of a plane one time strapped to a trainer (also known as a tandem- jump).
After that you exit a plane three times with 2 trainers holding on to you, stabilizing you, to be honest, they do most of the work...
Then you are off to four jumps with one trainer(who should by now only be a safeguard in case you screw up big time).
Then you are off on your own in the sky, from the moment you decide to reserve a spot in the next plane going up, through the gear-check, the sitting- order in the plane (most people think they just throw all on a huge pile, cram them into a small plane, let them cuddle till they are at 4000m altitude and then everybody is fleeing the plane embarrassing about whatever has happened...No, there is an actual system involved and there is much less cuddeling than expected. ;-D) up to the moment when you exit the plane, falling, openening your parachute and avoiding a crash while navigating towards your landing- spot.
Most of the people now get the idea one is responsible from the first free- solo- jump up to the last one for his/her own doing...
WRONG!
One is responsible from the moment you start the theoretical course.
They tell you over and over, they ask you many times and it took me quite a while and a book by Carlos Castaneda to realize the value of the lesson for life outside the gear...
From the moment your "are", you are responsible...Even though there are things outside of yourself which seem out of control, even when not wanting something to happen, only you decide what to do with what you have been given.
Take some of those pathological optimists... No matter what is happening to them, they only see the bright- side...
Take guys like myself... I do know very well things will go bad sometimes, to me that´s life.
In the same way I challenge myself in training every day I´m looking forward to challenges life will provide me. I may be beaten down during those times, sad, even desperate for moments...Still, I got my mindset of fighting through.
Sometimes one can not change what´s happening only how to percieve it. I recently read about it as the "mood of the warrior", which seems to be one of the toughest things to develop.
You can whine. - You can remain quiet.
You can ask yourself "why me?" - You can ask yourself "How am I gonna move on and what can I learn from this?"
Who is responsible? - I´m responsible.
What does it mean, "to be responsible"? - It means making decisions and dealing with the consequences, whatever they may be. Only then can one make decisions and be sure enough to stand by them, honest enough to see and admit mistakes, flexible enough to make decisions solving the consequences.
Think abou that last few lines...Read them again and think about your decisions today.
And please remember one of the points in the code of the warrior: no whining.
There is no whining because... Right! Because You are responsible!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
So basically you first get out of a plane one time strapped to a trainer (also known as a tandem- jump).
After that you exit a plane three times with 2 trainers holding on to you, stabilizing you, to be honest, they do most of the work...
Then you are off to four jumps with one trainer(who should by now only be a safeguard in case you screw up big time).
Then you are off on your own in the sky, from the moment you decide to reserve a spot in the next plane going up, through the gear-check, the sitting- order in the plane (most people think they just throw all on a huge pile, cram them into a small plane, let them cuddle till they are at 4000m altitude and then everybody is fleeing the plane embarrassing about whatever has happened...No, there is an actual system involved and there is much less cuddeling than expected. ;-D) up to the moment when you exit the plane, falling, openening your parachute and avoiding a crash while navigating towards your landing- spot.
Most of the people now get the idea one is responsible from the first free- solo- jump up to the last one for his/her own doing...
WRONG!
One is responsible from the moment you start the theoretical course.
They tell you over and over, they ask you many times and it took me quite a while and a book by Carlos Castaneda to realize the value of the lesson for life outside the gear...
From the moment your "are", you are responsible...Even though there are things outside of yourself which seem out of control, even when not wanting something to happen, only you decide what to do with what you have been given.
Take some of those pathological optimists... No matter what is happening to them, they only see the bright- side...
Take guys like myself... I do know very well things will go bad sometimes, to me that´s life.
In the same way I challenge myself in training every day I´m looking forward to challenges life will provide me. I may be beaten down during those times, sad, even desperate for moments...Still, I got my mindset of fighting through.
Sometimes one can not change what´s happening only how to percieve it. I recently read about it as the "mood of the warrior", which seems to be one of the toughest things to develop.
You can whine. - You can remain quiet.
You can ask yourself "why me?" - You can ask yourself "How am I gonna move on and what can I learn from this?"
Who is responsible? - I´m responsible.
What does it mean, "to be responsible"? - It means making decisions and dealing with the consequences, whatever they may be. Only then can one make decisions and be sure enough to stand by them, honest enough to see and admit mistakes, flexible enough to make decisions solving the consequences.
Think abou that last few lines...Read them again and think about your decisions today.
And please remember one of the points in the code of the warrior: no whining.
There is no whining because... Right! Because You are responsible!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Mittwoch, 18. August 2010
Lessons from skydiving (3) - Being there just isn´t enough
When I start talking with people about my general perspective of the world, my life, my development I get to a point where people come to the conclusion I believe in fate.
Well, some of them are right, some of them are wrong because I depends on how you see "fate"...
A person who sees fate as something which will occur no mather what one does wouldn´t be right... I do not believe in that kind of fate.
Because I think we all are in some way forging our destiny.
From the smallest particles known to men, up to our plane of existence in which we call a small space "earth" up to the biggest galaxies... Everything is interacting.
When there is a manipulation on one plane, there are consequences on others as well.
One of the sadest examples was the atom- bomb...
A manipulation at an subatomic level altered or ended the lives of so many, changed bodies of humans, which can be a rather difficult task (just ask someone who has ever tried to lose weight or gain muscle, wanted different looks, etc.), and, even more impressive, changed the minds of millions of people, the way they see the world, their leaderships/governments, changed the way things were done and changed the whole course of history, the lifes of people living 60 years after the first manipulation on a subatomic level... Talk about a cataclysmik reaction...
This huge amount of energy unleashed transformed a huge amount of space as well as time.
But even the slightest shift in energy has consequences... Maybe not as huge as a nuclear weapon but something is happening...
As Morihei Ueshiba once said "I who am the universe", the smallest action, the smalles fear, the smallest act of kindness can carry the waves (or particles) of energy out into the world...
So fate seems to me just a interpretation of the principle of conservation of energy...Or how my grandmother used to put it: "you will reap what you haved sowed".
(Yeah, she had some wisdom... ;-D)
So to me fate is just what you give out there into the world, what comes around...
So...Before you ask: No, I did not pass out during an Exit from a plane and came up with that stuff and therefor call it "Lessons from skydiving"...
It came to me rather late during my jumps with my trainers.
One problem I dragged through all my Level- jumps: my feet/legs were too short...
You see if you got your arms in front you kinda need something out back to equal the airstream you are falling through. Simple physics.
(That´s why the shuttlecocks in badminton have a symmetrical shape above their center of mass, to allow the nucleus an even fall)
They definetly want you to get to a state of relaxation during your free- fall- time but they also repeatedly told us (and since I´m a quite intelligent human being it took me just under 7 jumps to actually get it) to keep an active posture.
Arch your back, head back, long toes...
It is very simple although it is a difficult principle of physics and an even more complex symbol for fate:
You have to be active, control your actions, emotions, have a plan and act accordingly to control your fall and not becoming a toy in the changing air current.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Well, some of them are right, some of them are wrong because I depends on how you see "fate"...
A person who sees fate as something which will occur no mather what one does wouldn´t be right... I do not believe in that kind of fate.
Because I think we all are in some way forging our destiny.
From the smallest particles known to men, up to our plane of existence in which we call a small space "earth" up to the biggest galaxies... Everything is interacting.
When there is a manipulation on one plane, there are consequences on others as well.
One of the sadest examples was the atom- bomb...
A manipulation at an subatomic level altered or ended the lives of so many, changed bodies of humans, which can be a rather difficult task (just ask someone who has ever tried to lose weight or gain muscle, wanted different looks, etc.), and, even more impressive, changed the minds of millions of people, the way they see the world, their leaderships/governments, changed the way things were done and changed the whole course of history, the lifes of people living 60 years after the first manipulation on a subatomic level... Talk about a cataclysmik reaction...
This huge amount of energy unleashed transformed a huge amount of space as well as time.
But even the slightest shift in energy has consequences... Maybe not as huge as a nuclear weapon but something is happening...
As Morihei Ueshiba once said "I who am the universe", the smallest action, the smalles fear, the smallest act of kindness can carry the waves (or particles) of energy out into the world...
So fate seems to me just a interpretation of the principle of conservation of energy...Or how my grandmother used to put it: "you will reap what you haved sowed".
(Yeah, she had some wisdom... ;-D)
So to me fate is just what you give out there into the world, what comes around...
So...Before you ask: No, I did not pass out during an Exit from a plane and came up with that stuff and therefor call it "Lessons from skydiving"...
It came to me rather late during my jumps with my trainers.
One problem I dragged through all my Level- jumps: my feet/legs were too short...
You see if you got your arms in front you kinda need something out back to equal the airstream you are falling through. Simple physics.
(That´s why the shuttlecocks in badminton have a symmetrical shape above their center of mass, to allow the nucleus an even fall)
They definetly want you to get to a state of relaxation during your free- fall- time but they also repeatedly told us (and since I´m a quite intelligent human being it took me just under 7 jumps to actually get it) to keep an active posture.
Arch your back, head back, long toes...
It is very simple although it is a difficult principle of physics and an even more complex symbol for fate:
You have to be active, control your actions, emotions, have a plan and act accordingly to control your fall and not becoming a toy in the changing air current.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Samstag, 14. August 2010
Lessons from skydiving (2) - consequences or how mistakes can bite you in the a**
Some mistakes are simple: you make them and the consequences hit you in the face immediatly.(sometimes literally...)
With skydiving it is a bit differnt:
You have packed your parachute, you get a spot on the next plane up. All good, right? Yeah, so far...
After you checked your gear you get on the plane, take your seat( well, it´s more like you sit on the floor of an extremly small air- vehicle and get cramed into a spot between a 60- year old man who just got a coupon for a tandem- parachute- jump for his first day of retirement and a ridicilously hot girl who is diving out of that plance in a way that makes me wonder if she got more balls than I...).
During the 20minutes it takes the plane to get to the 4km altitude you think about the jump, what you got as your goals, what you need to practice(stuff like posture, different movements, etc.), where the wind is blowing from(so you do not get lost or end up on the freeway south of the airport or the military training area north from it), who is jumping in front of you, who is coming after you...
Immediatly before you exit the plane you give yourself another check, at least all the things you can see and/or reach and feel on the outside of the parachute.
Then it is time to exit... You wait your turn, get into the door on your knees (not because you can´t take the agony but because the plane is so damn small...), get into your position, take a look down to the ground to get a sense where the pilot is dropping you off, take a deep breath and push...( One thing I learned about in gynecology).
The free fall... To be honest, I can´t really describe that one...You open yourself up, the whole body belly down while you keep falling faster and faster towards the earth. You body accelerates up to 200km/h which you feel from your partly covered head, out at the tips of your fingers, down to the back of your foot, an awesome power developed of the one medium we hardly ever notice, like fish hardly notice the water they are living in, still so powerfull only a small adjustment of your body position causes an enormous change in dynamics, like suddenly you start accelerating like crazy, start spinning like a mad yo-yo...
You routinely check your altimeter, still enjoying the seemingly endless view.
Check! You reached you altitude, it´s time to pull the chute.
You start to reinforce your stable free- fall- position, with one hand you reach back to your hand- deploy, the other one executes a compensating motion to remain stable, you get a grip on the hand deploy, rip it out, get back in to stable position, start counting...
21...
22...
23...
Nothing.
That´s not right...
Nothing...
I already should have been yanked like crazy by the unfolding parachute decelerating my fall...
Nothing...
CRAP!!
I will not tell you what to do now because that was the topic of the first lessons from skydiving- post ("Have a plan...Then another one")
My point this time: Nothing wrong was done during the free- fall.
Nothing wrong was done in the plane.
Nothing wrong was done during the check before the flight.
The mistake happened a while back, one hour before, one day before or even one week before the jump.
Packing the parachute, while you or someone else(I´d like it to be someone else so I can complain for eternety about it in heaven...) were joking around with a buddy, looking at the scared faces of people about to jump out of a plane for the first time in their life thinking "Maaan, I´m way cooler than that!", twisting a little cord, making a mistake when closing the bag which carries the folded parachute...
Overall skydiving is quite a safe sport, I´m not trying to display myself as a bada** here.
But one thing is for sure: if you make a mistake at a critical point each following step will unleash a whole new group of problems and those problems...You catch my drift.
My martial arts teacher once said "Wing Tsun is basically a straight punch. Only if you make a mistake you will need all those fancy hand positions and movements."
I think this is something inherently true for a lot of things.
If you have a plan (in which you put a fair amount of time), stick with it and have mastered the basics you will basically get through whatever you you are doing.
The earlier you make a mistake (and are not man enough to take care of it, be it out of pride or embarrassment) the harder it will come back to you...
Be it cheating on your new girlfriend, hitting the big weights without a proper athletic base or trying to do a job without a base of knowledge...
Most of the time life is giving us the chance to correct a mistake wether we want to or not.
One tends to ignore small mistakes in the beginning and brushes them under the rug. Because one still can...But the longer you drag them with you, the wider the consequences spread into other parts of your life...
Making a plan, re-thinking it, repeat the step before, work diligently and one will be fine most of the time.
And the other times? Well, call it bad luck or bad karma but you better have a plan B.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
With skydiving it is a bit differnt:
You have packed your parachute, you get a spot on the next plane up. All good, right? Yeah, so far...
After you checked your gear you get on the plane, take your seat( well, it´s more like you sit on the floor of an extremly small air- vehicle and get cramed into a spot between a 60- year old man who just got a coupon for a tandem- parachute- jump for his first day of retirement and a ridicilously hot girl who is diving out of that plance in a way that makes me wonder if she got more balls than I...).
During the 20minutes it takes the plane to get to the 4km altitude you think about the jump, what you got as your goals, what you need to practice(stuff like posture, different movements, etc.), where the wind is blowing from(so you do not get lost or end up on the freeway south of the airport or the military training area north from it), who is jumping in front of you, who is coming after you...
Immediatly before you exit the plane you give yourself another check, at least all the things you can see and/or reach and feel on the outside of the parachute.
Then it is time to exit... You wait your turn, get into the door on your knees (not because you can´t take the agony but because the plane is so damn small...), get into your position, take a look down to the ground to get a sense where the pilot is dropping you off, take a deep breath and push...( One thing I learned about in gynecology).
The free fall... To be honest, I can´t really describe that one...You open yourself up, the whole body belly down while you keep falling faster and faster towards the earth. You body accelerates up to 200km/h which you feel from your partly covered head, out at the tips of your fingers, down to the back of your foot, an awesome power developed of the one medium we hardly ever notice, like fish hardly notice the water they are living in, still so powerfull only a small adjustment of your body position causes an enormous change in dynamics, like suddenly you start accelerating like crazy, start spinning like a mad yo-yo...
You routinely check your altimeter, still enjoying the seemingly endless view.
Check! You reached you altitude, it´s time to pull the chute.
You start to reinforce your stable free- fall- position, with one hand you reach back to your hand- deploy, the other one executes a compensating motion to remain stable, you get a grip on the hand deploy, rip it out, get back in to stable position, start counting...
21...
22...
23...
Nothing.
That´s not right...
Nothing...
I already should have been yanked like crazy by the unfolding parachute decelerating my fall...
Nothing...
CRAP!!
I will not tell you what to do now because that was the topic of the first lessons from skydiving- post ("Have a plan...Then another one")
My point this time: Nothing wrong was done during the free- fall.
Nothing wrong was done in the plane.
Nothing wrong was done during the check before the flight.
The mistake happened a while back, one hour before, one day before or even one week before the jump.
Packing the parachute, while you or someone else(I´d like it to be someone else so I can complain for eternety about it in heaven...) were joking around with a buddy, looking at the scared faces of people about to jump out of a plane for the first time in their life thinking "Maaan, I´m way cooler than that!", twisting a little cord, making a mistake when closing the bag which carries the folded parachute...
Overall skydiving is quite a safe sport, I´m not trying to display myself as a bada** here.
But one thing is for sure: if you make a mistake at a critical point each following step will unleash a whole new group of problems and those problems...You catch my drift.
My martial arts teacher once said "Wing Tsun is basically a straight punch. Only if you make a mistake you will need all those fancy hand positions and movements."
I think this is something inherently true for a lot of things.
If you have a plan (in which you put a fair amount of time), stick with it and have mastered the basics you will basically get through whatever you you are doing.
The earlier you make a mistake (and are not man enough to take care of it, be it out of pride or embarrassment) the harder it will come back to you...
Be it cheating on your new girlfriend, hitting the big weights without a proper athletic base or trying to do a job without a base of knowledge...
Most of the time life is giving us the chance to correct a mistake wether we want to or not.
One tends to ignore small mistakes in the beginning and brushes them under the rug. Because one still can...But the longer you drag them with you, the wider the consequences spread into other parts of your life...
Making a plan, re-thinking it, repeat the step before, work diligently and one will be fine most of the time.
And the other times? Well, call it bad luck or bad karma but you better have a plan B.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Donnerstag, 5. August 2010
Lessons from skydiving (1) - Have a plan; then another one.
If a young child is interested in something it usually can learn it by trial- and- error.
You want to walk? Stand up, walk a few steps, fall down, get back up,...
Speaking...No biggie.
Soccer? Hit the ball. Did not shoot a goal? Well... Hit it again. Till you know how to do it.
You just turned 18 and now you are taking your first driving lesson... And that other car is closing in very, very fast? Well... You may be stressed and a little freaked out by all the things happening around you(the car, the driving- instructor screaming next to you, the windshield- wiper which is all of a sudden turned on magically,...) but there is one thing you can do: hit the break!!
Guess what? That´s it. You put weight on that one pedal and usually all is good. You got another chance to try driving
But this is called "Lessons from skydiving"...
If you get out of that plane in 4 kilometers above ground and your parachute doesn´t work, you got no altimeter, you become instable, pull your parachute and get tangled up in all the cords, you are heading straight into a obstacle, you got no cords to stir the parachute, etc, etc...
If you got no plan here... Well, you are dead now.
I´m sure you get another chance for trying... At least if you belief in reincarnation.
Most will say: "Well... Of course you have to have a plan."
Right.
So let´s stick with the skydiving example...
You jump out of the plane, do your thing, reach the proper altitude, pull your parachute and... Nothing happens...
So...you gotta have the next step planned out. Pull the reserve.
You pull your main parachute, you feel a pull but not even close to what you should feel because it´s tangled up between the cords and the cords somehow got stuck to you... What now?
The parachute opens but both cords used to pilot it are ripped... WHat now?
You have to have a plan A, then a plan B.
Lets switch to another example close to my field of experience:
A patient has surgery. If a doctor would perform it only educated in the exact steps necessary to do it when everything is working as it should many people would not get out of the operation room alive.
Many banks where not prepared for the economic crisis and therefor a lot of them had to close, leaving thousands, millions without savings.
Where things mather experience has shown you have to think three steps ahead to be save.
Or to be successful.
Do not just cruise through life waiting for something to happen and then complain life is always hitting you the hardest.
Think about the consequences of your doings, create options for every possible way and then create the next line of options...
Be active when thinking about your future.
At first it can be difficult but with time it will become natural.
One thing, especially when dealing with risk risk situations are checklists.
Basically you think through an emergency situation, sort out the most important steps which secure your own safety and the safety of others, prioritize them, put them in an order, write it down and in case of that emergency you go through step- by- step.
For most real- life situations checklists are enough.
Then there are those events which go far too fast to pull out lists and start crossing of points. Maybe it is all happening too fast, you are in a situation where you can not work with lists(on a bicylce, falling from the sky, ...).
For those you still follow the same plan: think about what can happen, what you can do in this situation, what are the priorities and in which order to sort them and then comes one thing each and every man who served in the military dreaded: drills.
You memorize the checklist and perform it in an non- threatening environment over and over again.
Not the most fun training but for certain thing the most essential.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
You want to walk? Stand up, walk a few steps, fall down, get back up,...
Speaking...No biggie.
Soccer? Hit the ball. Did not shoot a goal? Well... Hit it again. Till you know how to do it.
You just turned 18 and now you are taking your first driving lesson... And that other car is closing in very, very fast? Well... You may be stressed and a little freaked out by all the things happening around you(the car, the driving- instructor screaming next to you, the windshield- wiper which is all of a sudden turned on magically,...) but there is one thing you can do: hit the break!!
Guess what? That´s it. You put weight on that one pedal and usually all is good. You got another chance to try driving
But this is called "Lessons from skydiving"...
If you get out of that plane in 4 kilometers above ground and your parachute doesn´t work, you got no altimeter, you become instable, pull your parachute and get tangled up in all the cords, you are heading straight into a obstacle, you got no cords to stir the parachute, etc, etc...
If you got no plan here... Well, you are dead now.
I´m sure you get another chance for trying... At least if you belief in reincarnation.
Most will say: "Well... Of course you have to have a plan."
Right.
So let´s stick with the skydiving example...
You jump out of the plane, do your thing, reach the proper altitude, pull your parachute and... Nothing happens...
So...you gotta have the next step planned out. Pull the reserve.
You pull your main parachute, you feel a pull but not even close to what you should feel because it´s tangled up between the cords and the cords somehow got stuck to you... What now?
The parachute opens but both cords used to pilot it are ripped... WHat now?
You have to have a plan A, then a plan B.
Lets switch to another example close to my field of experience:
A patient has surgery. If a doctor would perform it only educated in the exact steps necessary to do it when everything is working as it should many people would not get out of the operation room alive.
Many banks where not prepared for the economic crisis and therefor a lot of them had to close, leaving thousands, millions without savings.
Where things mather experience has shown you have to think three steps ahead to be save.
Or to be successful.
Do not just cruise through life waiting for something to happen and then complain life is always hitting you the hardest.
Think about the consequences of your doings, create options for every possible way and then create the next line of options...
Be active when thinking about your future.
At first it can be difficult but with time it will become natural.
One thing, especially when dealing with risk risk situations are checklists.
Basically you think through an emergency situation, sort out the most important steps which secure your own safety and the safety of others, prioritize them, put them in an order, write it down and in case of that emergency you go through step- by- step.
For most real- life situations checklists are enough.
Then there are those events which go far too fast to pull out lists and start crossing of points. Maybe it is all happening too fast, you are in a situation where you can not work with lists(on a bicylce, falling from the sky, ...).
For those you still follow the same plan: think about what can happen, what you can do in this situation, what are the priorities and in which order to sort them and then comes one thing each and every man who served in the military dreaded: drills.
You memorize the checklist and perform it in an non- threatening environment over and over again.
Not the most fun training but for certain thing the most essential.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 2. August 2010
Clubbells
One part of the workshop with Steve Maxwell was the "Hindu Workout".
Hindu Pushups, Hindu Squats, Macebells and Clubbells.
Since I worked with some of Scott Sonnons Yoga stuff lately and Steve Maxwell really got me interested I thought I´d give Clubbells a chance.
Those of you who read my Blog regularly know, I do not like to buy stuff pre- made, I like to build my own training equipment.
So I put some thought into how Clubbells work, what I think is important and what I did wrong in the past.
See for yourself...
Sorry for only giving you half the screen, somehow my cam was lazy today.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Hindu Pushups, Hindu Squats, Macebells and Clubbells.
Since I worked with some of Scott Sonnons Yoga stuff lately and Steve Maxwell really got me interested I thought I´d give Clubbells a chance.
Those of you who read my Blog regularly know, I do not like to buy stuff pre- made, I like to build my own training equipment.
So I put some thought into how Clubbells work, what I think is important and what I did wrong in the past.
See for yourself...
Sorry for only giving you half the screen, somehow my cam was lazy today.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Sonntag, 1. August 2010
Lessons from skydiving
Over the last years I was able to save enough money to treat myself to something I was looking forward to since 2003: a skydiving- course which will enable me to jump out of planes all over the world.
After two days of theory one comment of a teacher clinged to my mind:
"Everybody changes thanks to this course. Most of the time to the better."
So I will watch very carefully, like I always do regarding to my training, how this education and learning this new skill will change me.
It certainly will as every experience of an extreme situation with high sensory input and fast reaction time does.
I´m also very curious how people who do not see me face- to- face will experience me after the summer, since a lot has already and will change in the coming months.
So enjoy the ride.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
After two days of theory one comment of a teacher clinged to my mind:
"Everybody changes thanks to this course. Most of the time to the better."
So I will watch very carefully, like I always do regarding to my training, how this education and learning this new skill will change me.
It certainly will as every experience of an extreme situation with high sensory input and fast reaction time does.
I´m also very curious how people who do not see me face- to- face will experience me after the summer, since a lot has already and will change in the coming months.
So enjoy the ride.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 27. Juli 2010
Steve Maxwell Workshop Day 2
Getting up that day was not easy... I had to figure out the angle of my shoulders which allowed me to pull myself up into the sitting position and how to contract my quads when getting out of my bed without starting to howl like a injured wolf.
Well, I did it. ;-)
After a good breakfast I hit the road and in no-time arrived at the Naturtrainings- center in Thomasroith.
The vibe was even better than the first day altough you could see that everybody had some sore muscles. The outlook of working with Steve and Dominik outside in the sun and having a clue of the information to come gave us the endorphines to forget all about the soreness.
Like the first day we started with Joint Mobility.
I figure the 50minutes we spent doing them saved a lot of my joints and muscles, because considering the kind of work we did plus the volume I´m satisfied with my health- status.
The next topic was "pulling".
This part was hosted by Dominik since he is one of the strongest guys considering pulling power I know.
We talked about the Pullup, a ton of ways to modify the basic version, how to focus this one exercise towards strength, maximum strength, strength endurance, Steve threw in some excellent coaching- and performance- keys and of course we did several challenges at the well known hand- walking- circuit...I am just happy I did not developed any blisters or hurt any tendons... It is simply amazing how strong one can get using only the own bodyweight.
Well... If you pull something you gotta push something.
And we did push ourselves.
Steve took us from the basic pushup with all the important structural keys up to the one- arm- one- leg- pushup.
It was simply amazing to see Steve bang out around 7 one- arm- pushups for demonstration.
The next topic was the pistol.
I´ll be honest, I do not like pistols.
Maybe because I never got the mobility to do one without holding something in front of my body. Maybe because my groin and thigh muscles cramp up when I have to hold the non- working leg out in front when doing them.
But if Coach says they are good for you... Well, there is no way you can argue with that. He´s got the experience. He´s got the performance. That´s it.
So Steve took us from the basic squat to prep- exercises for the pistol to the exercise itself and showed us ways to establish a basic performance level as well as progression- options.
After all this our bodys were allowed to take a few minutes of rest while Steve gave a theory lesson about Mobility, Overreaching and Obertraining as well as Regeneration.
Awesome stuff!!
The final challenge was a 4- circuit- training.
Yeah, 4 different circuits, between 3-5 rounds each circuit which in the end added up to 50minutes of training.
50minutes of Clubbells, MAcebells, Hindu Pushups, Tire Flips, Spartacus Lifts, Log Flips, Rope Climbing, Gracie- Pistols and much, much more...
Man, my whole body was burning after that one...
But...
Yeah...
You guessed right...
We were not allowed to finish...
Right after the end of the circuit we started jogging around the Naturtraining soccer field, only interrupted by shuttle- runs.
Still not being enough, we had to finish strong with a bear crawl over the soccer field to the finishing line, ending one of the greatest athletic experiences I ever had, with one of the greates coaches I know, Steve Maxwell, hosted by one of the strongest and kindest among the people I call my warrior brothers, Dominik Feischl, accompanied by some of the most tough and kind brothers in arms I had yet to meet.
Train hard, train smart and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 26. Juli 2010
Steve Maxwell Workshop Day 1
I have to admit… I was quite nervous…
Since I started thinking “I need to lose weight” and searching the internet for helpful advice up to the moment I first heard of Kettlebells, Conditioning for Martial Artists, the moment I got concerned about my health in the long rund and looked up something called Joint Mobility till today where I´m confronted with the challenge to not only balance my own workout regime, fit it into my education in the medical field, my ongoing development as an martial artist and human being but also taking responsibility for the development of others in a save way...Since the first steps until my latest steps, one name always turned up when looking for experts:
Steve Maxwell.
When you are a young guy looking for someone to give you some hints how to design your workouts you are usually looking for the guy with the best performance. (You know, the guy with the biggest pecs in the studio, the dude who´s running faster than everybody else, etc.)
When one is getting a bit older, you realize the guy with the most experience may be the better choice.
(Usually a guy who has done quite some work during his days, who has managed to survive most of it and is still able to get out of bed most of the days without having to hold on to something or calling for his significant other to help with a little push-or-pull)
I consider myself lucky and truly honoured for the opportunity to work with, shed blood under the eyes of and learn from a man like Steve Maxwell.
Not only a man with some 35+ years of experience in teaching(!!) fitness and physical education but also a man with the physical fitness who at the age of 58 (I think) can bang out about 7 one arm pushups just for demonstrating the exercise.
He is the combination of performance and experience.
The first impression was good, everybody was gathering in the "Naturtrainings"- center in Thomasroith, Upper Austria, run by Dominik Feischl( http://www.naturtraining.at/ ) and when Dominik pulled in with his Jeep, Steve got out of the car.
Mhm...A short, kinda old looking guy... Well... No suprises there. ;-)
There was a energy flowing from Steve which made me like him from the beginning... It felt like "Oh you poor young kids, you got no idea what you got yourself into but it´s gonna be ok...At least when we are done.".
The first thing of the day was a short introduction by everybody (name, profession, fitness- background, expectations,...). After that we went straight out into the pouring rain for some Joint Mobility.
Fortunatly we took our time with this warm- up. We got some theory, lots of practice for every joint, chances to tap into a wealth of experience and a great warm-up who really got the energy flowing.
Thanks Coach!
I´m gonna keep practicing those!!
The second major event was the hike up one of the most dreadful hills I know.
Do not get me wrong... It is not very steep, the trees either supply a pleasent shade or, in our case, shelter from the rain, the air is great, the birds sing...
The reason it is dreadful to me? Well, every time I am there Dominik or in this case Steve make us chase the hill up and down, up and down, most of the time only interrupted by pushups, towel pullups (Dominiks speciality) or Bear crawls (Steve really likes those!).
And when I say "chase", I´m talking about sprints... I gotta tell you, 3 rounds of hill sprints on uneven, wet terrain, loose rocks, slippery grass followed by about 100 meters of bear crawl and jogging downhill... You have to dig pretty deep to come up with a better workout.
Like Steve said: "It can be as simple as 20minutes, running and crawling."
Since the hill sprints took us up pretty high on the hill, I knew we where coming close to the cabin up on the top. I was looking forward to it, since the promised us a little rest, a theory- part and some food and hot liquids.
(It was raining hard the whole day and I was looking forward to dry my clothes a bit.)
After some steps Steve assembled us to review the Hill-Sprint- workout and gave us instructions for the next one: partner carries uphill.
If your feet are crying after the sprint... Well you gotta love the carries then. Not only do they show you how much MORE lactic acid can be pumped into your legs, but also how much more your body can produce and send to others parts like the biceps or the forearms.
Still... You can not see me in the video above because me and my partner Gregor ( http://www.strongbodyandmind.de/ ) where to far ahead...Coach actually had to call us back to keep the group together... I consider that a compliment to our performance.
After a lot of different carries we arrived at the cabin, legs wobbling, forearms burning and lungs feeling unable to get enough oxygen out of the awesome, fresh air of those hills.
We all took a seat inside, got some fluids in and ate lunch.
To get some digestion time, Steve took the chance to give a short lecture about goal setting and evaluation, as well as some pointers for some guys and their goals.
Again... It is just awesome when you are working with someone with such an vast knowledge of training, things all of a sudden seem so simple. ( Well, I guess they always are but we tend to make them a bit more complicated each time we look at them...You know what I mean...)
After a fast hike downhill with one stop to do a few pullups and another one to get rid of our shoes and socks to get the feeling in the soles of our feet back, we arrived at the Naturtrainings- center.
Imagine a group of obviously fit guys with one gal, all walking barefoot, soaking wet and dirty walking by the road... I wonder why no one has ever called the police during those training- camps!
After everybody had put their shoes back on and a little rets we got back outside and Steve introduced something I gonna refer to as the "Hindu Workout".
Basically it consists of Hindu Pushups and Squats, exercises with the macebell and clubbells.
I have to admit, when one is doing Hindu Pushups the right way they are turning into a hard exercise. Needless to say I liked them a lot!! ;-)
I will not speak about the timed sets we did with the Hindu Squats...It is an awesome idea but right now the thought alone produces lactic acid in my legs...
After those final exercises, some theoretical background in the ancient wrestlers and martial artists training we called it a day.
We finished the day like every workshop with Dominik at the Naturtrainings- center, with a hot shower and a gathering at a nearby restaurant with a collective dinner, lots of talking and the making of new friends.
On my way home in my car I noticed several things:
My right quad was beginning to tense up, my patellar tendon didn´t like it very much, my lungs felt kind of new since I had pumped a ton of fresh air through them all day and after a few minutes I somehow became mentally calm.
I always notice this when I got a lot to think about and that day I enjoyed the luxury of knowing where all the things to think about were coming from... A day long with people of a certain kind, lead by a man with so much experience I became afraid I would be calm forever...
I slept good that night...
Since I started thinking “I need to lose weight” and searching the internet for helpful advice up to the moment I first heard of Kettlebells, Conditioning for Martial Artists, the moment I got concerned about my health in the long rund and looked up something called Joint Mobility till today where I´m confronted with the challenge to not only balance my own workout regime, fit it into my education in the medical field, my ongoing development as an martial artist and human being but also taking responsibility for the development of others in a save way...Since the first steps until my latest steps, one name always turned up when looking for experts:
Steve Maxwell.
When you are a young guy looking for someone to give you some hints how to design your workouts you are usually looking for the guy with the best performance. (You know, the guy with the biggest pecs in the studio, the dude who´s running faster than everybody else, etc.)
When one is getting a bit older, you realize the guy with the most experience may be the better choice.
(Usually a guy who has done quite some work during his days, who has managed to survive most of it and is still able to get out of bed most of the days without having to hold on to something or calling for his significant other to help with a little push-or-pull)
I consider myself lucky and truly honoured for the opportunity to work with, shed blood under the eyes of and learn from a man like Steve Maxwell.
Not only a man with some 35+ years of experience in teaching(!!) fitness and physical education but also a man with the physical fitness who at the age of 58 (I think) can bang out about 7 one arm pushups just for demonstrating the exercise.
He is the combination of performance and experience.
The first impression was good, everybody was gathering in the "Naturtrainings"- center in Thomasroith, Upper Austria, run by Dominik Feischl( http://www.naturtraining.at/ ) and when Dominik pulled in with his Jeep, Steve got out of the car.
Mhm...A short, kinda old looking guy... Well... No suprises there. ;-)
There was a energy flowing from Steve which made me like him from the beginning... It felt like "Oh you poor young kids, you got no idea what you got yourself into but it´s gonna be ok...At least when we are done.".
The first thing of the day was a short introduction by everybody (name, profession, fitness- background, expectations,...). After that we went straight out into the pouring rain for some Joint Mobility.
Fortunatly we took our time with this warm- up. We got some theory, lots of practice for every joint, chances to tap into a wealth of experience and a great warm-up who really got the energy flowing.
Thanks Coach!
I´m gonna keep practicing those!!
The second major event was the hike up one of the most dreadful hills I know.
Do not get me wrong... It is not very steep, the trees either supply a pleasent shade or, in our case, shelter from the rain, the air is great, the birds sing...
The reason it is dreadful to me? Well, every time I am there Dominik or in this case Steve make us chase the hill up and down, up and down, most of the time only interrupted by pushups, towel pullups (Dominiks speciality) or Bear crawls (Steve really likes those!).
And when I say "chase", I´m talking about sprints... I gotta tell you, 3 rounds of hill sprints on uneven, wet terrain, loose rocks, slippery grass followed by about 100 meters of bear crawl and jogging downhill... You have to dig pretty deep to come up with a better workout.
Like Steve said: "It can be as simple as 20minutes, running and crawling."
Since the hill sprints took us up pretty high on the hill, I knew we where coming close to the cabin up on the top. I was looking forward to it, since the promised us a little rest, a theory- part and some food and hot liquids.
(It was raining hard the whole day and I was looking forward to dry my clothes a bit.)
After some steps Steve assembled us to review the Hill-Sprint- workout and gave us instructions for the next one: partner carries uphill.
If your feet are crying after the sprint... Well you gotta love the carries then. Not only do they show you how much MORE lactic acid can be pumped into your legs, but also how much more your body can produce and send to others parts like the biceps or the forearms.
Still... You can not see me in the video above because me and my partner Gregor ( http://www.strongbodyandmind.de/ ) where to far ahead...Coach actually had to call us back to keep the group together... I consider that a compliment to our performance.
After a lot of different carries we arrived at the cabin, legs wobbling, forearms burning and lungs feeling unable to get enough oxygen out of the awesome, fresh air of those hills.
We all took a seat inside, got some fluids in and ate lunch.
To get some digestion time, Steve took the chance to give a short lecture about goal setting and evaluation, as well as some pointers for some guys and their goals.
Again... It is just awesome when you are working with someone with such an vast knowledge of training, things all of a sudden seem so simple. ( Well, I guess they always are but we tend to make them a bit more complicated each time we look at them...You know what I mean...)
After a fast hike downhill with one stop to do a few pullups and another one to get rid of our shoes and socks to get the feeling in the soles of our feet back, we arrived at the Naturtrainings- center.
Imagine a group of obviously fit guys with one gal, all walking barefoot, soaking wet and dirty walking by the road... I wonder why no one has ever called the police during those training- camps!
After everybody had put their shoes back on and a little rets we got back outside and Steve introduced something I gonna refer to as the "Hindu Workout".
Basically it consists of Hindu Pushups and Squats, exercises with the macebell and clubbells.
I have to admit, when one is doing Hindu Pushups the right way they are turning into a hard exercise. Needless to say I liked them a lot!! ;-)
I will not speak about the timed sets we did with the Hindu Squats...It is an awesome idea but right now the thought alone produces lactic acid in my legs...
After those final exercises, some theoretical background in the ancient wrestlers and martial artists training we called it a day.
We finished the day like every workshop with Dominik at the Naturtrainings- center, with a hot shower and a gathering at a nearby restaurant with a collective dinner, lots of talking and the making of new friends.
On my way home in my car I noticed several things:
My right quad was beginning to tense up, my patellar tendon didn´t like it very much, my lungs felt kind of new since I had pumped a ton of fresh air through them all day and after a few minutes I somehow became mentally calm.
I always notice this when I got a lot to think about and that day I enjoyed the luxury of knowing where all the things to think about were coming from... A day long with people of a certain kind, lead by a man with so much experience I became afraid I would be calm forever...
I slept good that night...
Samstag, 10. Juli 2010
Samstag, 3. Juli 2010
Bodyweight or weights?
If you take a look into several internet- fitness- platforms you will find one topic over and over again:
"I want to get really fit, lose my "musculus gösseri" ( an austrian figure of speech aka beer- belly) and put on about 20lbs of muscle till next month but please not more because all those bodybuilders are so disgusting.
What do you think, should I stick to bodyweight- exercises or use weights to bulk up?"
Well... I won´t talk about the "bulking up".
About the choice of tools:
Why choose?
I just got out of the shower after a workout including both weights and bodyweight- exercises.
After some time, I did a EDT- style- workout again.
For 10min I alternated Suitcase Deadlifts with two 24kg Kettlebells and Jumping Lunges.
Do 10 reps of the first, do 10 reps of the second for the given time.
My legs kinda felt like made of steel... Rock- hard and almost unable to be bent.
After a rest period (I took 10min) the second 10min Set consisted of 3 reps One- arm- Military Presses on each side with the 24kg Bell and 3 Pullups.
Again, do as many sets of perfect form during the give time frame.
I love to combine weights and BWE- stuff in one workout!! It´s a constant challenge for the body, adapting to the different kinds of resistances.
Do not limit yourself to one choice, incorporate the best of all the stuff out there into your world.
(I´m not just talking training, as usual...)
Train hard and enjoy life!!
All the best,
Harry
"I want to get really fit, lose my "musculus gösseri" ( an austrian figure of speech aka beer- belly) and put on about 20lbs of muscle till next month but please not more because all those bodybuilders are so disgusting.
What do you think, should I stick to bodyweight- exercises or use weights to bulk up?"
Well... I won´t talk about the "bulking up".
About the choice of tools:
Why choose?
I just got out of the shower after a workout including both weights and bodyweight- exercises.
After some time, I did a EDT- style- workout again.
For 10min I alternated Suitcase Deadlifts with two 24kg Kettlebells and Jumping Lunges.
Do 10 reps of the first, do 10 reps of the second for the given time.
My legs kinda felt like made of steel... Rock- hard and almost unable to be bent.
After a rest period (I took 10min) the second 10min Set consisted of 3 reps One- arm- Military Presses on each side with the 24kg Bell and 3 Pullups.
Again, do as many sets of perfect form during the give time frame.
I love to combine weights and BWE- stuff in one workout!! It´s a constant challenge for the body, adapting to the different kinds of resistances.
Do not limit yourself to one choice, incorporate the best of all the stuff out there into your world.
(I´m not just talking training, as usual...)
Train hard and enjoy life!!
All the best,
Harry
Half Snatch
A great variation of the conventional Kettlebell Snatch shown by Valery Fedorenko.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 29. Juni 2010
Single Bell Conditioning Circuit
Simple conditioning session.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 21. Juni 2010
Change in tides
Very soon after I started serious training I also started documenting it at a bulletin board (http://www.fighterfitnessforum.com/).
There are some guys and gals there which I consider brothers and sisters in mind and spirit, simply put because the know how to bust their a**es with hard work, therfore can appreciate it when seeing it done by others and have developed their minds and spirits according to it.
Have been granted the honor of meeting such people makes me proud.
My training-log also provided a chance to recieve feedback.
I´m not talking about the approval for some hard and some crazy training sessions...(Those only boost my ego, therefore I enjoy them briefly but after that I have no use for them)
I´m talking about criticism, suggestions, additions, etc. .
Lately some people thought a lot about my training(including myself), some even asked me about it.
They noticed a decreased amount of crazy workouts like Ross Enamait- style- workout or the Full Mission Profile Workouts.
They noticed an increase of Rehab-, Skill-, Light Kettlebell-, Yoga-Stuff- and Assistance- Exercise- training...
So they asked me, long after I started asking myself: "Have you lost your passion?". "Have you lost your drive?". "Do you not want to push yourself anymore?".
Well...To be honest: no, not right now.
During the last weeks and months I aged a lot faster. I´m not talking about my body but my mind, my spirit,...
Do not get me wrong, this being older is something 100% positive.
I simply shifted some priorities, sought and found some new challenges; and therefore I also percieve my physical challenges in a different way now.
I´m satisfied with 20min of Yoga during some days, some high volume light Kettlebell Long Cycle during others.
This is my truth right now.
I know I will have a different truth during the summer, in 5 years, and again in 25 years.
Right now I am really, really happy about the fact I can be happy with some training integrated in my life after several years of life being integrated in my training.
I wish all you gals and guys out there an awesome change in tides in your life!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
There are some guys and gals there which I consider brothers and sisters in mind and spirit, simply put because the know how to bust their a**es with hard work, therfore can appreciate it when seeing it done by others and have developed their minds and spirits according to it.
Have been granted the honor of meeting such people makes me proud.
My training-log also provided a chance to recieve feedback.
I´m not talking about the approval for some hard and some crazy training sessions...(Those only boost my ego, therefore I enjoy them briefly but after that I have no use for them)
I´m talking about criticism, suggestions, additions, etc. .
Lately some people thought a lot about my training(including myself), some even asked me about it.
They noticed a decreased amount of crazy workouts like Ross Enamait- style- workout or the Full Mission Profile Workouts.
They noticed an increase of Rehab-, Skill-, Light Kettlebell-, Yoga-Stuff- and Assistance- Exercise- training...
So they asked me, long after I started asking myself: "Have you lost your passion?". "Have you lost your drive?". "Do you not want to push yourself anymore?".
Well...To be honest: no, not right now.
During the last weeks and months I aged a lot faster. I´m not talking about my body but my mind, my spirit,...
Do not get me wrong, this being older is something 100% positive.
I simply shifted some priorities, sought and found some new challenges; and therefore I also percieve my physical challenges in a different way now.
I´m satisfied with 20min of Yoga during some days, some high volume light Kettlebell Long Cycle during others.
This is my truth right now.
I know I will have a different truth during the summer, in 5 years, and again in 25 years.
Right now I am really, really happy about the fact I can be happy with some training integrated in my life after several years of life being integrated in my training.
I wish all you gals and guys out there an awesome change in tides in your life!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 14. Juni 2010
Sonntag, 13. Juni 2010
Freitag, 4. Juni 2010
Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2010
WKC Strongsport
Kettlebell lifters are usually the most minimalistic among the minimalists.
Practice the Jerk, afterwards the Snatch.
Use Swings, Cleans, Presses, maybe some running and Squats as assistance- exercises.
Some guys who go for a more complete and broader spectrum of fitness, like Steve Cotter of the IKFF, where I got my kettlebell training, use stuff like bumps, Jerk- specific Squats and bodyweight exercises too.
That´s it. That´s the program.
Well...Basically that is enough.
You will be doing a kind of Cardio but at least with weights.
And I think if I´m doing my cardio some day with two 32kg Kettlebells, I won´t be that bad concerning my strength- levels.
Nevertheless, there are differences between lifting a light weight for time or higher reps and lifting a heavier weight for less time or reps.
So the guys at the World Kettlebell Club(http://www.worldkettlebellclub.com/) came up with the StrongSport Ranks.
It consists of one- handed Cleans and Jerks, done separatly, with weights of 20kg up to 36kg for women and 32kg up to 48kg for men.
Sets are around 4min with one hand switch.
Well...That´s it again.
Take something simple and do it until you are technically proficient.
Of course, they did not re-invent the wheel at the WKC.
Almost every occupation which contains physical movement worked with higher resistance:
Runner put on ankle- weights, profesional dancers practice with weighted vests, heavy single repetitions are used to lighten the work with less load.
But, as with the regular Ranks, the StrongSport Ranks are a nice milestone, a beacon to know where you stand, a possibility to measure progress.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Practice the Jerk, afterwards the Snatch.
Use Swings, Cleans, Presses, maybe some running and Squats as assistance- exercises.
Some guys who go for a more complete and broader spectrum of fitness, like Steve Cotter of the IKFF, where I got my kettlebell training, use stuff like bumps, Jerk- specific Squats and bodyweight exercises too.
That´s it. That´s the program.
Well...Basically that is enough.
You will be doing a kind of Cardio but at least with weights.
And I think if I´m doing my cardio some day with two 32kg Kettlebells, I won´t be that bad concerning my strength- levels.
Nevertheless, there are differences between lifting a light weight for time or higher reps and lifting a heavier weight for less time or reps.
So the guys at the World Kettlebell Club(http://www.worldkettlebellclub.com/) came up with the StrongSport Ranks.
It consists of one- handed Cleans and Jerks, done separatly, with weights of 20kg up to 36kg for women and 32kg up to 48kg for men.
Sets are around 4min with one hand switch.
Well...That´s it again.
Take something simple and do it until you are technically proficient.
Of course, they did not re-invent the wheel at the WKC.
Almost every occupation which contains physical movement worked with higher resistance:
Runner put on ankle- weights, profesional dancers practice with weighted vests, heavy single repetitions are used to lighten the work with less load.
But, as with the regular Ranks, the StrongSport Ranks are a nice milestone, a beacon to know where you stand, a possibility to measure progress.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 25. Mai 2010
Symbolism of training - Bodyweight Exercises
In the first post concerning this topic I wrote about the capacity of our mind, be it the concious or the sUbconcious part to gain a deeper message from certain actions, lectures, etc.
Physical training has always been and will always be a mental development as well as a mere change of mass and the ability to use it.
Several things in life caught my special attention.
Physical training, medicine, especially psychiatry and psychotherapy, martial arts.
My long- term goal is to merge those things...
I´m still at the beginning of my journey but while working or at least watching and learning in all those fields I saw one constant:
You start within/ with yourself.
Take physical training:
I do not like my clients jump right ahead in Kettlebell- stuff, exercises with sandbags, etc.
If they got some base, it might be ok.
I prefer to lay some foundation with basic bodyweight exercises like Pushups, Pullups, Bodyweight Squats.
Those exercises give them a chance to experience their body once again, re-gain some basic awareness how their limbs are arranged in the 3-dimensional space and a hint how it may develop in the fourth, it gives us the time to teach basic breathing patterns, posture, build concious tension in the core, fix imbalances.
After that we´ll hit the iron, and then we can hit it hard!
People re-gain a sense of planning their own progressions, using physical exercises to think about their own current status, where they want to go/be after a time-span, looking for the best way to get there and then start working towards that goal.
They have to listen to their body, their mind as well, they have to get to know themselves again. Only then a succesfull training is possible.
Working- out can take you to your physical and mental borders. Once you arrived there you have to evaluate if you are ready to cross them, how far you will go and where to stop to remain healthy and grow even stronger during a phase of supercompensation.
There is even more, but you get my point.
Those are the must-have points of your training.
Now... I have not encountered one form of psychotherapy who does not want to empower their client.
Who does not want them to become aware of who they are by exploring where their weaknesses are, where they are losing their energy, where they are standing, what they want to achieve, what would be the best way to get there?
All this with the own body, focusing on increasing the strength to move oneself in different angles, situations, train various energy systems, play with different levers of your own.
Getting to know myself, making myself stronger concerning my own movement, my own structure.
Bodyweight training... The first step.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Physical training has always been and will always be a mental development as well as a mere change of mass and the ability to use it.
Several things in life caught my special attention.
Physical training, medicine, especially psychiatry and psychotherapy, martial arts.
My long- term goal is to merge those things...
I´m still at the beginning of my journey but while working or at least watching and learning in all those fields I saw one constant:
You start within/ with yourself.
Take physical training:
I do not like my clients jump right ahead in Kettlebell- stuff, exercises with sandbags, etc.
If they got some base, it might be ok.
I prefer to lay some foundation with basic bodyweight exercises like Pushups, Pullups, Bodyweight Squats.
Those exercises give them a chance to experience their body once again, re-gain some basic awareness how their limbs are arranged in the 3-dimensional space and a hint how it may develop in the fourth, it gives us the time to teach basic breathing patterns, posture, build concious tension in the core, fix imbalances.
After that we´ll hit the iron, and then we can hit it hard!
People re-gain a sense of planning their own progressions, using physical exercises to think about their own current status, where they want to go/be after a time-span, looking for the best way to get there and then start working towards that goal.
They have to listen to their body, their mind as well, they have to get to know themselves again. Only then a succesfull training is possible.
Working- out can take you to your physical and mental borders. Once you arrived there you have to evaluate if you are ready to cross them, how far you will go and where to stop to remain healthy and grow even stronger during a phase of supercompensation.
There is even more, but you get my point.
Those are the must-have points of your training.
Now... I have not encountered one form of psychotherapy who does not want to empower their client.
Who does not want them to become aware of who they are by exploring where their weaknesses are, where they are losing their energy, where they are standing, what they want to achieve, what would be the best way to get there?
All this with the own body, focusing on increasing the strength to move oneself in different angles, situations, train various energy systems, play with different levers of your own.
Getting to know myself, making myself stronger concerning my own movement, my own structure.
Bodyweight training... The first step.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 24. Mai 2010
The meaning of life
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his ife is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
Victor Frankl
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
Victor Frankl
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Dienstag, 18. Mai 2010
Ice Chamber Kettlebell Girls
Truly beautiful performance!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Samstag, 15. Mai 2010
Donnerstag, 13. Mai 2010
Just curious...
You, too, can’t have a body like this
You, too, can’t have a body like this - Times Online
Horrible where our way of looking only at the surface of things has brought us.
It is time to be able to look ourselves in the eyes again.
Shifting the focus away from the body-fat-percentage, away from using the ration of quads to calves as an indicator of fitness, away from going after the "8-pack" of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or any ot...her shown fake ideals.
Start working out regularly, use exercises for your whole body to develop your whole body and stay healthy!!
Work hard and stop making excuses or looking for the magic pill or exercise to make you "huge", "ripped", whatever!!
Train to be strong, train to be fast, train to be proficient in what you do and you will look strong, you will look fast, you will look proficient!!
A honest hard work will result in a honest, hard body and an honest, tough personality.
Cut the crap!! In ALL AREAS OF LIFE!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Horrible where our way of looking only at the surface of things has brought us.
It is time to be able to look ourselves in the eyes again.
Shifting the focus away from the body-fat-percentage, away from using the ration of quads to calves as an indicator of fitness, away from going after the "8-pack" of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or any ot...her shown fake ideals.
Start working out regularly, use exercises for your whole body to develop your whole body and stay healthy!!
Work hard and stop making excuses or looking for the magic pill or exercise to make you "huge", "ripped", whatever!!
Train to be strong, train to be fast, train to be proficient in what you do and you will look strong, you will look fast, you will look proficient!!
A honest hard work will result in a honest, hard body and an honest, tough personality.
Cut the crap!! In ALL AREAS OF LIFE!!
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
To all the women out there
Most women I talk to about Kettlebells are kind of repelled by the weights used when performing the classic lifts(Jerk, Snatch, LongCycle) or alternative conditioning (Squats, Swings, Military Presses, Turkish Get-Ups,etc.).
They can`t imagine using anything more than 2,5-5kg dumbbells or spinning their brains out on a useless machine designed for rehabilitation.
They think I am (just another) male driven by testosteron unable to consider the abilities and needs of women. ;-D#
Well, take a look of what You are capeable and keep in mind the lady in the video below is using a weight approx. half her bodyweight for each repetition.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Montag, 10. Mai 2010
An awesome feat!
An amazing feat of strength endurance by Oleh Ilika.
12h of One arm Kettlebell Jerks with a 24kg bell, only with 2x 5min breaks after 4h each.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Sonntag, 2. Mai 2010
Symbolism of training
I first encountered(meaning the first time I really stopped and thought about the real meaning of the word) symbolism during my basic training in hypnosis.
Experts like Milton Erickson, known as the father of modern day hypnotic psychotherapy, discovered the ability of the mind to grasp the additional meanings/message of activities, words, pictures(material or mental), etc.
For example, M. Erickson used to send patients of his without prior psychotherapy (performed by him, since most of his patients had an extensive record of psychiatric or psychological therapy) to a mountain with the assignement to hike up the mountain, get back down and meet with him the day after.
Quite a lot of people were done with their problems after the trip, altough they had suffered from them for several years in most cases.
One wonders how such things are possible...
One model we can use to explain those wonderful events is found by analyzing symbolism, which describes additional meanings of (living) things, persons, actions, etc.
For example:
- A dove is a bird and often a symbol of peace.
Lets look at the hike again:
The mere fact the therapist did not react the way you expected him to do(starting talking with you about your problems, inducing hypnosis, etc.) "throughs you off" your current model of the world and induces a search (subconciously) for an alternative meaning.
Arrived at the mountain you move yourself up- and forward, you yourself(!!) take single steps to reach a destination given to you by a psychotherapist to whom you travelled in expectation of being helped with a certain problem.
The deeper meaning can, e.g., be you making an effort to reach your goal, not giving up even when facing difficulties (steep inclines, rocks,...), finding your own walking pace, planing steps ahead, reaching the goal and by doing that gaining a different point of view on the world around you.
A simple act like hiking can be much more than reaching a point higher than the one where you started at.
Such symbolism can be sen in many things in our every- day- life.
For myself, my life changed when I started working out.
Of course this is no new experience.
Almost everybody starting with physical activity notices changes, both on the mirror and in ones head. Although the last ones are often less obvious.
For ages it has been known that a strong man has a strong character.
Modern psychosomatic medicine had to work hard to make people remember that! ;-)
It took me some time to notice I had become a diferent person since I started training. I think I evolved, hopefully into someone more positive. ;-)
I am quite happy with whom I have become because most of the problems in my young life I made disappear.
Notice I did not say "most of the problems disappeared"... I MADE THEM DISAPPEAR!!
That is part of the mindset gained from training.
I am a human being and I am a doctor-/psychiatrist- to- be.
Therefore two aspects are most important to me: physical and mental health.
With such a base I´m analyzing my whole training, always looking for clues what part helped which transformation best.
In the next few weeks, I´ll try to explain some of my findings to give you a general idea how you can develop yourself in- and out-side your head.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
Experts like Milton Erickson, known as the father of modern day hypnotic psychotherapy, discovered the ability of the mind to grasp the additional meanings/message of activities, words, pictures(material or mental), etc.
For example, M. Erickson used to send patients of his without prior psychotherapy (performed by him, since most of his patients had an extensive record of psychiatric or psychological therapy) to a mountain with the assignement to hike up the mountain, get back down and meet with him the day after.
Quite a lot of people were done with their problems after the trip, altough they had suffered from them for several years in most cases.
One wonders how such things are possible...
One model we can use to explain those wonderful events is found by analyzing symbolism, which describes additional meanings of (living) things, persons, actions, etc.
For example:
- A dove is a bird and often a symbol of peace.
Lets look at the hike again:
The mere fact the therapist did not react the way you expected him to do(starting talking with you about your problems, inducing hypnosis, etc.) "throughs you off" your current model of the world and induces a search (subconciously) for an alternative meaning.
Arrived at the mountain you move yourself up- and forward, you yourself(!!) take single steps to reach a destination given to you by a psychotherapist to whom you travelled in expectation of being helped with a certain problem.
The deeper meaning can, e.g., be you making an effort to reach your goal, not giving up even when facing difficulties (steep inclines, rocks,...), finding your own walking pace, planing steps ahead, reaching the goal and by doing that gaining a different point of view on the world around you.
A simple act like hiking can be much more than reaching a point higher than the one where you started at.
Such symbolism can be sen in many things in our every- day- life.
For myself, my life changed when I started working out.
Of course this is no new experience.
Almost everybody starting with physical activity notices changes, both on the mirror and in ones head. Although the last ones are often less obvious.
For ages it has been known that a strong man has a strong character.
Modern psychosomatic medicine had to work hard to make people remember that! ;-)
It took me some time to notice I had become a diferent person since I started training. I think I evolved, hopefully into someone more positive. ;-)
I am quite happy with whom I have become because most of the problems in my young life I made disappear.
Notice I did not say "most of the problems disappeared"... I MADE THEM DISAPPEAR!!
That is part of the mindset gained from training.
I am a human being and I am a doctor-/psychiatrist- to- be.
Therefore two aspects are most important to me: physical and mental health.
With such a base I´m analyzing my whole training, always looking for clues what part helped which transformation best.
In the next few weeks, I´ll try to explain some of my findings to give you a general idea how you can develop yourself in- and out-side your head.
Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry
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