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What Are You Doubling Down On?

What Are You Double Downing On?

Gambling has never been my strong point. Whenever I go to a casino, I usually play it safe by hanging out with friends, watching them play craps, roulette, or going off on my own to the penny slots or quarter slots myself.

I’m positive a good chunk of change (read: I’m up about $1200 from slot machines) by knowing to not get sucked in by conventional gambling, because I have an all or nothing personality.  That’s me, I know what kind of mentality I’d get into if I get into a serious game like Texas Hold’ em Poker, or Blackjack, so I choose to stay away from it. I know when to call it during slots, and it is usually after netting my first small victory that I have come away in the positives.

I’ll just relegate my gambling fantasies to movies like Ocean’s 11 or Rounders, both movies that happen to host Matt Damon.

Give That Man His Money
“Give that man his money!”

I’m mentioning how much I don’t believe in gambling because from a strategy point of view, gambling is simply risky. I don’t like the odds, I can’t control the outcomes, and it isn’t fun when you lose.

And I’m a sore loser.

If I lose, I’m going to think I can “outwork” the system, but it isn’t possible because you can’t outwork a system that have the odds against you (or at least, that’s what I believe in).

Now, I look at gambling from this point of view. When you gamble, you place down something that you value (time, energy, money), and hope for a higher return on your investment. This makes sense, right? You earned some paycheck from your job, and then you go to the casino with some buddies.

When you play blackjack, there is a phrase called “double downing” where you receive a set amount of cards, and you have to make a decision on whether or not you’ll bet more (double to be exact), and risk losing, or risk winning more based on the outcome of the pending card.

Double Down Definition Blackjack

Well let’s look at this phrase from a priority point of view, instead of just gambling.

Typically when it comes to deciding your future, the future events is relatively foggy. Doubling down on certain actions can shape what happens in your future. If you’re thirsty, you can drink some water, and be relatively sure your thirst will be quenched. If you drink a handle of Jack Daniel’s and decide to go masquerading into the city, well then you’re in for a series of unknown events, that is for sure.

So barring letting Jesus take the wheel, let’s take away the random accidents, random events, and random things that may can be considered coincidences.

I’ll ask a few simple questions:

What are you double downing on right now?

  • Are you double downing on work?
  • Are you double downing on family?
  • Are you double downing on Happy Hour with buddies?
  • Are you double downing on video games?
  • Are you double downing on Netflix?
  • Are you double downing on your health?

This is another version of going all in, an idiom taken from another card game – poker, that represents a cause and effect response in a better light.

Work

If you are double downing on work right now, then this means you are denying going out sometimes. You are learning a new skillset, maybe learning how to better manage your time so you can have some nights out (but not as much), or creating the back end for a new project that is in the works.

Happy Hour

If you are double downing on Happy Hour or meeting up with friends every Tuesday and Thursday for drinks, you are placing priority on your enjoyment with friends, drinks, and food. While you are out enjoying yourself, you may be missing opportunities on developing skillsets, reading to expand yourself, or improving your network (or maybe you are having drinks with new people every day in order to network, it all depends).

Whether or not you know it, you are placing your time, energy, and money on drinking with friends, sometimes without any real benefit to your immediate future.

Video Games

If you’re double downing on Call of Duty, Diablo III, and the newest video game system out there, you’re enjoying yourself, having fun with friends, or by yourself. At the same time, you are prioritizing an escapism, but what is being prioritized for your future?

Keep in mind I played tons of video games myself growing up, and I can still hang with some of the best, but I don’t play video games anymore. At all. I stopped cold turkey.

The Good And Bad

There is both a good and bad here. If you have work you need to do, then do it. I’m not judging. But you might be missing out on being with your family. You might be missing out on seeing your child’s first steps – that is something that might happen because you’re in a 16 hour work day with an hour up and hour back commute, making it an 18 hour day.

If you plan on playing video games professionally, which is certainly possible for some, then you NEED to double down on playing video games, and A LOT of them. You need to get good in order to be the best, so play more.

However, I’m not sure 8 hour marathons of Call of Duty, or watching Netflix, can be justified because you “need a break” from work for the weekend. If you’re still living at home with your parents and you’re complaining about not finding a career or passion, but you can go on multiple online dates over the course of a weekend, there is a misunderstanding between what is prioritized and what really matters to you.

Your Health

If you’re double downing on going out to the bars with your buddies, having cake, ice cream, and all desserts every weekend, what is being prioritized? You’re double downing Ben & Jerry’s, instead of double downing chicken salads, and complaining about aesthetics not being where you want them to be. Are you double downing on sleep?

  • What matters to you?
  • Where are your actions being visibly placed on?

Double down on your health. If you don’t have your health, you can’t prioritize anything else that you enjoy doing – Netflix, video games, drinking (in moderation) with buddies. You get the picture.

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo

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Comparing a Powerlifting Bench Press and One-Arm Push Up

DisplayFeats of Strength of feats of strength is something that I have come to love. Whether in the gym, dance floor, or anywhere really, an impressive feat of strength is that – impressive.

It’s always interesting to ask almost everyone who benches anything relatively heavy whether or not they can do one-arm pushups.

Nine times out of ten these individuals cannot do a one arm push up, yet they can have some incredible displays of strength with respect to a bench press.

Before dissecting what consists of a good push up technique, I have to first dissect what is involved with an amazing bench press:

  • Arch
  • Tension (whether through air, or total body tension)
  • Technique

Arch in the Bench Press

Whether or not you subscribe to powerlifting guidelines or not, an appropriate arch is important towards achieving bigger numbers for your bench press. Imagine the difference between a large arch, and a small arch.

Bench Press - Arching

If you’re benching with no arch, and a flat back against the bench, your bar path will be [x] amount of inches for the barbell to travel down and up. If you bench with a relatively larger arch, your distance will be reduced.

Total Body Tension

There is nothing that deflates me more than seeing someone get very hype for a bench press, and then they grip the barbell with a lack of tension, or don’t respect tension in their legs or lower body.

For those of us fortunate to have a decent bench press, there is an understanding that there will be a greater ability for tension to be created via breathing coupled with lower body tension.

Technique

While this article is not meant to go over the purposes of specific technique (Read: Wrapping the Barbell in the Bench Press) I hope you can respect the fact that there is a specific technique that will allow more of your strength to be exhibited.

Technique should involve the following:

  1. Setup
  2. Intra-abdominal pressure
  3. Leg drive
  4. Bar path
  5. Reversing the bar path

With all of these items in mind, it is easy to see that being “good” at the bench press does not naturally correlate to being good with a one-arm push up, since they are, by it’s very nature, completely different exercises.

Components of a One Arm Push Up

There are a few reasons why this someone can bench a lot of weight, but can’t do a one-arm push-up:

  1. Lack of technique.
  2. They never practiced a one-arm push up before.
  3. Improper positioning.
  4. Inability to recruit total body tension (or irradiation for those of us following the science game at home).
  5. Lack of strength – let’s be real.. it takes a lot of strength to do this!

What to Look For in a One Arm Push Up

The Setup

  • Irradiation in your hands.
  • Spreading of your fingers.
  • Total body tension
    • Tension in your feet
    • Tension in lower body (all the way down to feet)
    • Tension in opposite hand

Something that needs some clarification is what I like to think of as “spreading your fingers” into the floor in order to maximize mechanoreceptor input to the hands, shoulders, and eventually the rest of the body.

Human Hand - Pressure on Distal Aspect of Metacarpals

There needs to be pressure on the inside “knuckle” part of the hand. Displayed here on the palmar view of the bones of the hand (highlighted in red), there needs to be pressure on the distal portion of the metacarpals for pressure to be truly maximized.

This doesn’t mean “cup” the floor with only that portion, but think of placing pressure on that part of your hand (before your fingers elongate outwards).

Actual Movement

  • Spreading of the floor with one hand
  • Pull yourself to the floor with one hand
  • And obviously, pushing yourself away from the floor.

Regressions to Improve Upon a One-Arm Push Up

Band-Assisted One Arm Push Up

To reduce the total loading found in the one-arm push-up, check this version out.

Eccentric One-Arm Push Up

The eccentric or negative variation of this push up works on improving the pattern as a whole, while respecting that pushing away from the ground is equally difficult.

One Arm Front Plank Hold

The one arm front plank hold is a different exercise that combines the rotary demands of a one-arm push up, along with respecting that you will need one upper body limb in contact with the ground.

With these in mind, it is easy to see how different the one arm push up and the bench press are.

Despite being upper body focused exercises, they are vastly different with respect to the demands.

My Observations

How often do you hear of someone injuring themselves doing a one arm push up, versus tweaking something in a rep max or even a 1RM bench press? No agenda in that question; it is merely an observation of mine.

On the other end, do you know of anyone that can do a one-arm push up, but have a bench press that is lacking? Similar arguments can be made for those that have the requisite mobility for a one-arm push up, but have not developed the high level technique for a “respectable” bench press.

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo

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Self-Awareness, Self-Auditing, and Patience: Lessons from Gary Vaynerchuk

Here is a list of items I’ve “done” from September 2015 to March 2016 (today):

With respect to work at Cressey Sports Performance…

  • From September 2015 to March 2016, I’ve written 164 exercise programs for athletes at Cressey Sports Performance.
  • I’ve performed assessments on over 29 individual athletes, and an unknown number of informal assessments for staff/friends/family in the meantime.
  • If I ask Pete, I’m sure I can find out how many athletes that have walked into our doors, and I can get a good estimate on the amount of athletes and clients I’ve interacted with and coached.

With respect to my own individual work…

  • September 2015 to March 2016 I’ve written over 30 blog posts. Knowing that I can write a lot, I’ll give myself the benefit of the doubt and say that I’ve had at the very least 1000 words in a blog post. The most recent post I’ve had was 2000 words, however.
  • Scratch that – I just went through each post and found the word counts. I had exactly 31,162 words written from September 2015 to March 2016, not including this post. Also, this is not taking into account the sweat equity for the videos I’ve recorded to support these posts, the editing of these videos for better lighting, and the re-takes for videos that weren’t good enough the first time through.
  • 28 of those blog posts have been posted from January through March 2016, and I wrote exactly 21,534 words within that time frame.
  • I’ve recorded over 5 webinars, gave 1 presentation, on top of countless uploads to YouTube videos from an instructional point of view.
  • On my Facebook page Enhance2Dance, I’ve only uploaded 5 individual videos. This is somewhere where I will need to pick up the pace ten-fold.
  • I’ve listened to over 4 days of audiobooks, over 30 podcasts ranging from business to fitness industry related items, along with countless hours on the phone with industry professionals talking about everything and anything whenever I go on road trips.

The funny thing is that I had to look back and count these items out. I don’t usually do this – counting the things that I’m doing. I just do it, and I know that sometimes things will hit and go viral, and other things won’t go viral.

I’ve started to see threads and patterns in all of these things, and expect even more content to A/B test the things I’m writing and providing content for all of you to consume.

It’s funny, and sad at the same time, but my most visited blog post is one I wrote over two years ago about hip internal rotation. I asked one of my strength coach friends to Google Search “Hip Internal Rotation” and let me know what he sees. He told me I’m the number 4 hit, and Dean Somerset is the number 3 hit.

Dean Somerset - Hip Internal Rotation

That hit me hard. I put over 10 hours into that series of blog post (it’s a one-two series on hip internal rotation), creating a flowchart, checking my anatomy, making it easy to consume, creating tables, creating Tweet-able phrases… and I’m not even number one?

Now keep in mind, I love Dean, he puts out great content, and he is a cool guy. It is mind blowing that I bought one of his co-authored products from a set he did with Tony Gentilcore, Jeff Cubos, Rick Kaselj ExerciseForInjuries.com, and here I am complaining that I’m underneath him in a Google Search phrase.

I don’t display this much, but I’m highly competitive.

I want to be the number one hit on that Google Search term.

All of this retrospection has been brought to light by a chance to listen, meet, and talk shop with one of my mentors from afar, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Want to Be An Entrepreneur? This is What You Signed Up For

At the end of the day, this is just my job.

I’m merely quantifying all of this for a few reasons: to audit myself, my time, the work I’ve “put in” in this specific industry, along with understanding that I need to exhibit a little more patience, and respecting that this is a numbers game.

I can complain all I want about how I’m not getting enough exposure, but I’m still young in this game, no matter how you look at it.

I haven’t even opened up a facility like many of my peers in this industry have, nor do I want to. At least not yet. And that is a totally different ball game if and when I do.

On one level, I’m developing a skill set that I will be able to take with me anywhere:

  • Knowledge on anatomy and physiology.
  • The ability to write to multiple audiences.
  • The ability to speak to multiple types of populations based on their goals.
  • Assessing and identifying functional movements in several different populations
  • Providing strategies for increased fitness for various populations
  • Connections, relationships, and bonds with people at the gym.

No one can take those things away from me.

I have also been able to improve upon my skill set as a coach and trainer. I often hear coaches within our field quote an unknown person saying, “If you are doing things the same way 6 months ago as you are today, you’re doing it wrong.” Well, I’m here to mention that I’m doing things a little different every week, let alone 6 months ago.

60% of the Time, It Works 100% of the Time

Having the ability to execute is a largely underrated skillset. In only 3 months, I’ve had one blog post for every day of a given calendar month.

That means in 30 days, I’ve had 30 blog posts. (It is 3 months out however… so I should be doing 120 posts at least).

I said to my close colleagues and co-workers that I was going to push a heck of a lot more content, but I haven’t been pushing as much as I feel I could be pushing.

Allow me to have a lack of hubris in this one moment – I know I’m good. I want you to know how good I am.

I’d like to think I got part of this drive from Gary, but the truth is I’ve always had this drive to become better, and do more. Listening to him has allowed me to know that I’m on the right path, which is ultimately my path… which is going to be different than everyone else’s path.

I can see the goal, it is far away, but I just know that putting the work in is necessary towards the things I want to achieve.

Are Your Actions Matching Your Goals ?

This question is something that makes sense when I ask it to any of my athletes or clients. If you have a goal, you have to have the subsequent actions to reach them.

They always ask “How much until I achieve this six pack? How much until I can deadlift 400lbs or more?”

These are all fair questions. We all want to know when we are closer to the destination.

But when I flip it on myself, and others who want to be where I am, it is enlightening to say the least.

This same question can be posed towards “online trainers” within this industry:

  • Are your actions matching your intentions?
  • How much have you written?
  • How many videos have you put out there of yourself?
  • What are your results (that you helped your clients achieve)?
  • How much have you exposed your own methodology to help others get better?
  • How much have you exposed yourself to difficult subject matters such as anatomy & physiology?
  • How much have you invested in learning to improve your emotional intelligence?

Self-Awareness and Enduring the Pressure & Heat…

Gary Vaynerchuk talks greatly about self-awareness of who you are as an individual. I’ve always resonated with this statement.

Gary Vaynerchuk

I’ve known who I was ever since I was a kid, and I’ve always wondered why no one else is like me. I never fit in, despite my many efforts to fit in. So I said fuck it, I’ll stand out.

And thus, I started dancing. I actually had a mohawk at one point in both high school and also in college. I even had a double mohawk in college. Yeah, I was that guy.

Gary gave some very simple, yet sobering advice: Paraphrasing…

“Being at the top is lonely. If you want to be #1, there are things you have to sacrifice, on top of having self-awareness. No one says you have to be #1, to be on the same path that I am taking. You can be #2, #3, #4, and still do well from a lifestyle point of view.”

In the context of being a coach, I know that I’m going to be one of the best out there. I can just tell from conversing with others, and speaking to others, and reading what others write, and seeing how they think, all the way to how they write exercise programs. Sometimes I agree, other times I don’t agree. And that’s okay.

I know I’m good, and I’m going to get better as time passes.

Place enough pressure and heat on a piece of rock, and eventually a diamond will form. It won’t be tomorrow, or the next day, but eventually it will happen.

Diamond in the Rough
This is apparently what an unpolished diamond looks like.

I know I can put more content out, more videos, more interactions online.

I’m not providing “life coaching” – I’m only 27, and expecting life advice in this context is ironic at best. I can however, provide different takes on philosophies with respect to training philosophies, exercising, assessing, and generally looking at things from a different perspective regarding exercise and sports/dance performance.

Put This Into Action

With this in mind, I’d like to challenge you, the reader, a way to become more self-aware with one simple question.

What is that one thing that you haven’t done this year, that you set out to do in the beginning of the year?

It is already March in the year 2016, which means if you are playing the New Year’s Resolution game, you are roughly 19% through this year. It is almost 25% of the year once this month is gone.

  • What haven’t you done this year, that you said you would?
  • If you’ve done a little of that one thing, how deep have you gone into it?
  • Can you do more?
  • If you said you’d start working out, have you gone only once every other week?
  • What is stopping you from coming into the gym every other day this week?

Just how diamonds aren’t formed overnight, change also doesn’t occur over one week or one month of time. Keep the pressure on yourself, and bring the heat, and you can create an amazing change for yourself.

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo