"About Professional Sports and the everyday- life at the limit" by Mathias Zinkl

Like the headline says, this one is written by a very dear friend of mine, Mathias Zinkl, a fellow medical student.
( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1679349068 )

He continues to challenge my mindset with his own thoughts about training, living, interacting with other beings.
Enjoy the article!



First some basics of our physiology:
Humans managed to adapt to external circumstances over millions of years. Those adaptations were always realized with minimal energy- consumption, simply because the way of living back then, a constant battle between kill and get killed, living in constant cold surroundings, a diet rich in fiber, did not allow us to spend too much energy.

What does this mean today?
Professional athletes over and over reach and cross their mental and physical boarders.
In between they REST more or less to be able to expand their limits the next time.

A life at the limit like Alexander Huber (a free solo climber) is living is admirable and many people think it would be far too dangerous for themselves and insane in general to try to reach such limits.
But A. Huber as well needs regeneration, rest, activities far beneath his capabilities to recover. Without such borderline- walks would not be possible and he would fail.

Most people agree when telling them such professional athletes need enough preparation and (here we would lose some agreeing people) regeneration to prepare for such extreme events.


Now let´s put together both previously discussed points and look at them in the life of a typical worker with a desk-job in an office who comes home after several hours of working while sitting and consuming 2 coffees and ends his day by relaxing on the couch in front of the TV.
Is he a competitive athlete?
Does he go for his limits every day?
Most people would consider this question ridiculous and answer “No.”

But let us take a closer look:
Our office worker has adapted to what surrounds him for many years: sitting in front of a computer and according to his genetic programs he is wasting as little energy as possible and, since he does not need them, keeping his ability to compensate (physical) stress as little as possible too.
So this man/woman is living at his/her limit every day of his life. The limit may be ridiculously small but a limit never the less and constantly driving in the red zone demands a toll (as every visit to ones´ borders does).
We all know specialization form professional sports. The office work is specialized as well, maybe even more than any performance athlete can ever be.

But there is a major difference:
The limit of the athlete is very, very high and he can easily reduce the intensity and regenerate.
The office worker is always at his limit, even when he is just lying on his couch watching TV because his heart has to press blood through his clotted blood- vessels, his intervertebral discs are constantly mal- supplied since there are no muscles to hold the spine in a optimal position.

He has LOST the POSSIBILITY to REGENERATE due to his specialization to the low demand of his surroundings and it is just a matter of time till all his compensations fail.

One thing is logical to everybody: a life without rest and regeneration is not possible in the long run.
This is what happens to people who have to go for their limits simply to survive in society, just to produce the next heartbeat.

There are no more activities below their limits except death.

Those things such people most of the time criticize when talking about professional athletes, apply to them as well, they are simply to blind to see it.

Back to basics - again

Well... I guess we all have to go back to the basics now and then.
I´m not just talking about life here.

To evolve, to develop new skills, new mindsets, make new experiences... All this leads to a new person every day. Every day our brain, a organ with a magnificant plasticity, changes connections between cells, allowing higher functions like conciousness to express themselves in a new way.

Some people are afraid to turn back, be it in life or training.

Like going down with the weight you are using...

Many people get injured because their ego cannot accept the fact that they are not ready for certain external loads.
(Watch out, I am not talking about training in the last sentence, but I guess you already knew that, didn´t you?!)

To go back for a brief time, sometimes is a good thing.
It shows you where you come from, how you started.
Hopefully you know where you are at this point.

Because knowing two points in your life, the one you started at and where you are right now gives you a two-point-connection or lets call it a way walked.
How you went this way, what brought you forward, what made you take steps back, what obstructed it, what cleared it up...

Those are the things you can see when taking a few steps back... Literally or not.


I did this in my last training.
I ditched the weights for my conditioning and used the only tool always availiable: myself. :-D
Bodyweight exercises with high reps, either in one "run-through" or chunked like you see in the video below develop an amazing base for everything life can through at you.





Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry

One of the biggest flaws - revisited (2)

Well...The fixed weight of kettlebells...
You always hear that one...

The last time I wrote about this I suggested you to simply to not put the bell down when doing, e.g. complexes or stuff like that. That way, the old, light 16kg- bell suddenly feels like it weighs a ton. ;-)


Since people are never satisfied with only one good thing I will give you something else:


There are two major things right now in the fitness- world people want to achieve with their fitness- programs:

First: muscle gain
(Well... That one has been around for ages...)
If you want to add muscle to your frame simply use the formula proven by time: use more weight with total- body- exercises with good form for more reps.
That´s it.


Second: Have you heard about "Core- training"?

No, I am not talking about crunches and situps.

When talking about real "Core- training" we are talking about the fact that the muscles which encase your torso are there to prevent movement.


Yeah...It´s ok, read it again. PREVENT MOVEMENT.

Now what does this tell you about the sense crunches make in your training-regime? ;-)


They are there to stabilize the torso, transmit force between the extremities.
Have you ever tried to build a model-house on rubber-pillars? It will wobble and fall over. The same happens to your body:
If you try to transmit a powerful force from you legs to you hands and you only got a rubber-core you will wobble and fall right into a hospital- bed.

So...Core-Training...Developing a stable torso.
Now the link to the "dammit-I-only-got-one-kettlebell-of-each-size-problem" you might have.


In my case: I got a 16kg and a 24kg available right now.
For some the difference in weight would be a problem, but lets take a look from a different point-of-view:
Using those different weights, having a different momentum in your two hands you create 2 advantages:

1) You create a rotational component, forcing you muscles to work overtime to stabilize your torso.
The only condition is that you really keep your torso still while moving the weight.
So no bouncing while performing Overhead-/Floor- presses, Bent-over rows, etc.!

2) Even tough you create a rotational force like in one-arm-movements (that´s why they became to popular...they enhance core-stability), you still got the benefits of two weights waiting to be moved which increases the impact on muscle- development!
(See "Return of the Kettlebell" by Pavel Tsatsouline)

So, again, we have changed our point of view to make a flaw into a benefit.


Now if you own a 16kg, a 24kg and a 32kg kettlebell you can not only progress to a high level of kettlebell-sport-performance using timed sets and the one-hand-switch-mode (also known as the American Kettlebell Club Fitness Protocol) but also effectivly train your core- muscles and increase your overall- athleticism and build functional muscles with a more traditional approach of exercise- selection and repetition-numbers..

You are welcome.


As always train smart, listen to your body when trying two-kettlebell- exercises and exercise caution.


Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry