What is clarity, and why is the pursuit of clarity important?
In a world full of distraction, noise, bright lights and shiny things, when can you have clarity for your thoughts or your actions?
The second definition of clarity, reading the “quality of being easy to see or hear: sharpness of image or sound” brings about a great visual imagery of what is expected when you have a clear and focused mindset.
I have had the pleasure of traveling by myself for quite some time the past few weeks and months for several hours at a time. This provides several advantages that I would not have had I traveled with someone else:
I can refine my thoughts about my professional life, personal life, and any other thoughts as a cause of this as well.
I can pick and choose who to have small talk with on my travels.
Other than the times I am jamming out and singing along to a song when driving, there are times where my mind will focus on what is important, and what is not important.
The first point brings about the greatest point on “clarity.” By traveling, I get several hours to myself to fine tune my thoughts, or fine tune a conversation, or fine tune an approach on a difficult problem that occurred previously in the week or day before. The constant revision of my thoughts along with the innovation of many methods that follows these principles is what yields my results over and over again.
With these travels, I have the ability to refine my thoughts before executing. This goes against the current grain in a field that favors ADD like attention grabbing hashtags, images, and quotes that make people feel good in the moment, but do not add value at the end of the day.
The thoughts in my specific field are execute before you can even fact check or make sure it lines up with your principles – if you have any. Any attention is good attention. No news is bad news.
Well I’d rather create a sharp, laser like focus where my thoughts can survive the fray, as opposed to leaning on a world where everyone is quick to share an often half-baked idea.
I bring this idea of clarity up because where else will you find another individual who has had nearly every weekend in the past year to travel for multiple, multiple hours at a time, thinking about the intricacies of anatomy and physiology, along with the application of all of this knowledge in a very deliberate sense? And I’ve been doing this for several years at this point – being alone with my thoughts in order to refine my philosophy.
The second point on clarity brings about the idea that every little thing that can distract you, will distract you. I’m fortunate at the moment to not have major major responsibilities such as having to take care of any family, or any other responsibilities other than me being alive and paying bills. This helps, but I know this will change in the near future.
So when looking to create something so good that no one can ignore you, do you think it is accomplished by paying attention to the hundreds of distractions that are out there?
Hardly.
You need focus, clarity, and stubbornness to accomplish this. If you are constantly distracted through small talk, phone notifications, and other items of the sort, you won’t be able to survive to create anything, let alone refine your thoughts to create something that excels past the noise.
Action Plan
1. Track the amount of times you unconsciously check your favorite social media outlet in a 10 minute block.
If it distracts you from a current project, ask yourself – is it helping or hurting?
2. Track the amount of time you have alone to yourself – without talking to anyone else.
If you don’t get more than 30 minutes to yourself, either on purpose, or because of other responsibilities, block off time where you quite literally tell people that you have an appointment – with yourself… just to get things done, or at least think.
3. Make yourself unavailable during certain times of your day or week.
Henry David Thoreau traveled into the woods alone, and later created Walden.
Many musicians go for days and maybe weeks at a time in the studio with no contact with the outside world.
Many of my mentors wake up earlier than the rest of the world in order to get things done – all before these distractions enter their lives after sunrise.
I choose to travel for hours on end, along with staying up late into the nights to get things done.
Warming up has been something that has been up for debate for quite some time. I’m pretty sure Bruce Lee was always altering his methods for warming up, and even further back we can look at how martial artists warmed up, and if there are is any written history, I’d love to see how gladiators, warriors, etc warmed up.
Perhaps the reasoning for this is due to the immense amount of “creativity” that individuals within the industry can impose upon their idea of a warm-up in preparation. There is, like everything we do, almost no standardization for what is right or wrong.
However, respecting the actual anatomy and physiology, along with respecting what an individual believes (which speaks to the psychological aspects, self-beliefs, etc), can lead us to a more correct identity of what plans of action to take.
(Side Note: I mention what an individual believes, because sometimes a coach or trainer believes some players need to get “lower”, when in fact getting “lower” will compromise the acetabular-femoral joint going into hip flexion. Further, after identifying the anatomy of an individual, perhaps some persuasion will allow you – the more informed individual – to create a better plan of action, thus “the more correct” version displayed above.)
My Own Experiments Warming Up
My own personal background with “warming up” has consisted of anything and everything. I’ve done the following versions in my own warm-ups:
Version 1
Foam Rolling
Positional Breathing Drills/Resets
Dynamic Warm-Up (various movement drills, crawling, skips, lunges, etc)
Movement Rehearsal (with empty barbell for example before benching/squatting/deadlifting)
Version 2
Foam Rolling
Positional Breathing Drills/Resets
Version 3
Positional Breathing Drills
Version 4
Dynamic Warm-Up
Movement Rehearsal
Version 5
Movement Rehearsal (with empty barbell)
These are all methods employed for many various reasons: lack of time, excess of time, priority of a training session (to place myself in a better psychological position),
Further, I’ve explicitly done these items for weeks, sometimes months at a time, just to prove a point – that if I truly believe in something, I also have to see a thought process that I believe is incorrect or wrong, and see how I fare. I learned a few things.
For those that are rigidly sticking to your foam rollers, lacrosse balls, and bands, I encourage and challenge you to step away from what the “industry” has imposed as a necessity, and discover what is truly important for yourself.
Let me say this first:
I’ve had great training sessions without any foam rolling.
I’ve had great training sessions without doing any quadruped extension rotations, or glute bridges, or dead bugs.
I’ve had great training sessions with only open loop drills such as skipping, 15 yard sprints, cariocas, marches, etc.
And on the other end:
I’ve also had time crunched training sessions where I’ve had to omit a full on 20 minute foam rolling session, and just do 30 seconds of foam rolling.
I’ve had sub-par training session where I’ve only done movement drills, and dynamic warm-ups.
I’ve had bad training sessions where I’ve even included foam rolling, movement drills, dynamic warm-ups, etc.
So is it safe to align myself with the thought that you absolutely need to prelude a training session with one of the “Version 1” warm-ups listed above in order to elicit an appropriate physiological training effect?
Again, I’d argue that this point is not as necessary, as I’ve seen great training sessions performed with as little movement preparation other than taking an empty barbell, and furthering the physiological quality of strength (with respect to powerlifting, for example).
For what it is worth, I have to bring into question…
What is the purpose of the warm-up?
Marketing
1. It can be introduced as a marketing effort to distinguish from services and other businesses.
This is not a bad thing. Many may associate marketing with a negative connotation, and I’m here to say that I’ve seen and heard of bad training methodologies with an amazing marketing team.
I’ve seen amazing training methodologies with zero to little marketing strategies employed, and the featuring a different warm-up is simply another way to distinguish between competitors.
It simply is what it is.
Opening Windows of Adaptation
2. Introduce a window of physiological opportunity to help introduce further physiological training effects.
Now this is where I get excited. I’ve used various technologies, both real pieces of tech (OmegaWave, HRV tech) and cheap tech (tracking heart rate with first two digits on the side of the wrist, plus sleep tracking, plus checking grip strength).
The purpose of these technology items is to track physiological readiness (Am I ready to train a specific quality today?). Now, the warm-up can alter, change, or perhaps if done incorrectly, degrade those qualities of readiness.
Would someone like Allen Iverson do better or worse without doing foam rolling, hip flexor stretches, etc.? Or does he just want to go and practice?
The 4 Components of a Warm-Up
Separating myself from the marketing aspect of how a warm-up can vary from trainer to trainer, and philosophy to philosophy, I believe that there are real physiological qualities that can be enhanced, ignored, or maintained as far as a warm-up is involved.
This leads to the next question of, “what are the components of a warm-up?”
One of my mentors from afar, Charlie Weingroff, succinctly put these items into separate categories, and I believe even he mentioned he had borrowed these themes from Mark Verstegen. And I decided to make an awesome image of these in a more digestible format, based off of what he had discussed in this article: Warm-Up and Motor Concepts
Increase Tissue Temperature
There is so much benefit towards improving both the superficial and deep core temperature. Likewise, there is a lot of literature towards identification of how tissue temperature can influence O2 consumption, expenditure, nervous system conduction, blood flow dilation towards the working muscle groups.
This is one concept that will need a better requisite of contemporary literature, namely identification of regional interdependence, the concept of passive versus active mobility, along with understanding a scope of practice that many trainers may not adhere towards when providing neurological changes to clients and athletes.
I still believe in the Joint by Joint Approach (JBJA).
Many of my colleagues may feel as if they have moved on for whatever reason. I’d like to argue that while the JBJA may seem like a black and white approach (for a lack of better phrasing), it is in fact simply a guideline that will allow better clinical decisions to be made. In fact, the JBJA still adheres to the qualitative effects of end feel, neurological tone, regional interdependence, and how gait works.
If the ankle does not dorsiflex as you push off, you will get a collapse of the medial arch and overpronation may occur. This speaks to a possible limitation at the talocrural joint, neurological tone that may prevent movement from the ankle-on-up towards the hip, and can even limit trunk rotation.
Prepare your joints at multiple angles!
If you do have appropriate ankle dorsiflexion in a passive versus active manner, but you cannot control your given range of motion in an active manner, then you will need to do something in order to provide a motoric strategy that displays a greater control over that range of motion.
If my active hip range of motion is [x], and my passive range of motion is greater than [x], well then I may have a lack of ability to control this range of motion.
Seek a method that will activate, and thus prime, your mobility.
Prep Central Nervous System
This is the portion of a warm-up that can be identified with these pieces of equipment/methods:
Kettlebell Circuits (Swings, Snatches, High Pulls)
Technical Work with Olympic Lifting
Jump Rope
Open Loop Drills (Reaction Drills)
Plyometric Push Ups
Action Plan
Do these if you are attempting to improve upon force production within your training session.
On that train of thought, you can improve upon this thought by categorizing these items into upper and lower CNS prep.
Lower Body CNS Prep
Kettlebell Swings
Jump Rope
Open Loop Drills (Reaction Drills)
Olympic Lifts (Squat Cleans, Hang Cleans, Snatches)
Upper Body CNS Prep
Olympic Lifts (Snatches, High Pulls)
Medicine Ball Circuits (Stomps, Slams, Scoops, Shotputs)
Plyometric Push Ups
Empty Barbell Throws (Smith Machine)
If you want to move weight, move it fast. So, simply, train fast.
[Specific] Movement Rehearsal
Rehearsal of specific movements is something that has been within my wheelhouse for years on end. When you’re getting ready to dance, you simply just start dancing (toprocking), or grooving to get your body warm.
If you identify with numbers 1 through 3, but don’t practice this last bulletpoint, well then I have to ask, “what you are doing?”
If you go straight to movement rehearsal, are you performing your warm-up incorrectly? I’d have to argue no, because you are still improving blood flow by performing low level movements, but may miss the boat when it comes to CNS activation, or priming the active mobility of a given joint.
Action Plan
If you have time, perform 1 through 3 in order to open certain windows of adaptation towards whatever physiological effect you are attempting to improve upon.
Rehearsing specific movements is important because, well, you need to do those prescribed movements later on at a higher velocity, intensity, or with more precision (technically speaking) in order to elicit whatever physiological goals you are attempting to maintain/improve upon.
Warming Up Prior to Competitions
Let’s go back 10, maybe even just 5 years ago.
Let’s visit a powerlifting meet.
Do people have foam rollers? Only a few.
Are people performing stretches and mobility drills? Only a few.
Are people wearing hoodies, sweats, etc in order to “stay warm?” Many, so yes.
Are people getting under an empty barbell for reps? Yes.
Okay, let’s visit a powerlifting meet nowadays.
Do people have foam rollers? Almost everyone.
Are people performing stretches and mobility drills? Almost everyone.
Are people wearing hoodies, sweats, etc in order to “stay warm?” Many, so yes.
Are people getting under an empty barbell for reps? Yes.
The reasoning for these items being introduced to powerlifting meets now involves understanding further education, the advent of information being introduced within the internet, and simply smart training.
However, let’s visit something I’m more familiar with, such as a [bboy] jam.
Do people have foam rollers? Rarely.
Are people performing stretches and mobility drills? Yes.
Are people wearing hoodies, sweats, etc in order to “stay warm?” Many, so yes.
Are people dancing? Yes.
This is not to point out that foam rollers are necessary.
Rather, sometimes the acute preparation that the mentality of bringing a foam roller with you may be an erroneous decision in the presence of mentally preparing to compete.
If a tight muscle group is presenting difficulty, it should have been taken care of prior to competition, for example. Dependence on a foam roller means something else in the training process needs to be addressed.
Does this also point out a lack of education on what an appropriate warm-up can elicit to help open up various windows of movement qualities? As my Minnesota-minded interns at CSP would say, “you betcha.”
So… What Have You Learned So Far?
These are thoughts that have been in my head, but better worded through various linguistics and technical language that Charlie has allowed for me to explain.
I’ve always been a fan of performing mobility drills, and then quickly jumping into a specific movement (such as toprocking, and practicing footwork to help amp up the nervous system and increase blood flow).
The introduction of foam rolling allows some windows to be opened up, but only if this lack of mobility was not even critical mass to begin with, as I believe foam rolling is simply one other way to improve upon a neurological awareness of whether a given musculature is tight or not.
In fact, I’ve personally been introducing open loop drills such as throwing a tennis ball and reactively catching with both hands (left hand is a little more difficult), sprinting drills, and medicine ball circuits without foam rolling or movement preparation drills and I’m not noticing any difference in my movement quality.
You can always do whatever you want to do.
I’m simply looking for the most efficacious method towards achieving a goal.
I think one question that precedes all questions is one that I’ve been asking ever since I was able to talk as a child: Why?
Placing myself in the fitness, strength and conditioning, and surrounding myself with rehabilitation professionals is merely an extension of who I am, and it is also takes great amounts of self-awareness on what makes me tick, and what kinds of things I am willing to sacrifice in order to have an outcome.
Dancing is also an extension who I am. Lifting is an extension of who I am.
Even more relevant to how I view life, satisfaction, and happiness involves understanding the question: why should I do (the thing) that takes introspection, work, and maybe even sometimes blood, sweat, and tears?
Now, let’s go full circle and let me ask again:
Why should you even exercise?
Self-Love: Point A to Point A
Some look towards exercise as a self-fulfilling act, in which the only outcome and end goal is their own ego approval. This is totally fine, and loving yourself is something that not many do.
Ask any of my close friends and family members, and you’ll find that I am probably the hardest person on myself, and placing myself first is something that I have to actively do (others do this instinctively).
In order to progress past “Point A” and onto the further points described below, you’ll actually have to accept that you need to pass Point A (loving yourself) in order to do so.
Filling Up Time: Point A to Point D
Others perform the action of exercise as a way to fill up spare time in their lives.
It is just as a filling up time as it is watching Netflix, or going surfing. These are things that do not add productivity to ones life, they merely provide an enjoyable time that can be spent with others, by yourself, or whatever else it may be.
It is just a way to fill in the gaps between Point A and Point D, and they are wandering into exercise perhaps as a form of entertainment.
Again, nothing wrong with this reasoning, and you’ll find that many people do this until some extrinsic motivation turns into intrinsic motivation.
The End Goal – Point A to Point Z
And on the other hand, others look towards exercise in order to survive, in order to improve upon others lives, and even improve another skillset.
For survival purposes, you might need to exhibit greater degrees of fitness than the person you are trying to help save, i.e. military, fire fighters, police, nurses, and down the list you go.
Others develop exercise as a way to improve a skillset, such as an athletic endeavor, or other mental task. For example:
The skill of baseball can be improved upon with more force production and coordination through exercise.
I have to wonder why NASCAR drivers exercise when in fact they are just sitting down all day turning left.
Read thisand thisto be convinced that sitting down is tough on the body.
So if you play a musical instrument, are you in fact being efficient by not exercising? Or should you exercise to increase your amplitude of learning? Some food for thought.
There is a resiliency that you are trying to improve upon that has a long, long, long, long term plan that including a simple act of exercising every other day (or whatever timeline of exercise is available to you) can help you to help others.
What am I trying to say?
At the end of the day, you don’t need to exercise at all.
In fact, you can do whatever the f*ck you want to do.
When I talk to my accountant, I have no idea what the details and intricacies of all the different forms I have to fill out, I’m simply viewing my accountant as a utilitarian. In other words, I view the pieces of the puzzle as a method towards improving towards the end goal, or my Point Z.
Some people, I don’t know who you are, might enjoy understanding the intricacies of tax forms, and signing on the dotted line, and engaging with your accountant, or maybe even doing your own taxes. I’m not one of those people, and I’m keenly aware of this fact.
Let’s translate this into exercise lingo now.
When I come into the gym, I have one purpose and one purpose only – to improve upon a fitness level, improve my ability to learn a new motoric pattern (learning how to flare, do lunges, or do backflips), or recover from a previous bout of exercise, competition, or whatever else it may be (due to lack of recovery – so I’m aiming to recover).
Doing this provides me the immediate relief that even if I have a “bad day” of exercise, that the next day will be better, the next phase will be improved upon, and my psychological ego will be quelled because I know I have been building a habit for exercise over and over.
Also, I am thinking about what happens when I turn 45, 50, 55, and 60. I have had multiple family members pass around that age due to lack of execution on knowledge that is readily available.
The thought of my mortality is in my head daily.
In fact, I know that the average lifespan of a male Filipino (in the Philippines) is 68. The average lifespan of a male in the US is 78. Combine those two items, and you come up with the number 73 (2016). I can tell you last year that the average lifespan of a male Filipino was 65, and male in the US was 78, with an averaged out age of 71.5 (in 2015).
Call it paranoia. I call it awareness of how many days on average my male Filipino peers (and elders) have left in the world (barring any accidents, catastrophes, etc).
My Point Z is what happens when I am no longer here, and then even beyond.
What will my family remember me as? I hope not as a meathead, but as someone who used exercise as a means towards improving the lives of others, especially my loved ones.
