WHAT'S YOUR ZONE?

This comes from ex-Canadian Olympic Coach Bogdan Poprawski and looks at the different zones we can find ourselves in in various aspects of our life of which there are 4.


#1 - THE COMFORT ZONE

- Feels Safe

- You have a lot of control over what happens and when


#2 - THE FEAR ZONE

- You'll have a lack of self confidence for a specific task

- You'll find excuses to not try your best or not try the task at all

- You're highly affected by the opinions of others putting even more pressure on yourself to perform at nothing else then a high level even if your mastery level is well behind that leading to a "why bother" thought process


#3 - THE LEARNING ZONE

- You deal with challenges/problems head on

- You love to acquire new skills

- Is an extension of the comfort zone


#4 - THE GROWTH ZONE

- You are constantly finding new purpose/motivations to try new things

- You live your dreams

- You constantly set new goals

- You conquer objectives

Now that we have the different zones down it's also important to understand that you don't have to be in the growth zone for everything which seems to be the way for fitness goes all over.

At any 1 time in your own fitness program you can be in all of these zones at the same time and you probably should be.

My programs are definitely set up like this so they move up and down  throughout each zone in each individual session.

Here's a quick example.

Comfort Zone - over 4 weeks we may have introduced a new exercise that took some learning to make it fit your movement intricacies, wants and needs but we've modified what we needed to and now your very comfortable with the exercise now.

Fear Zone - in the preceding 4 weeks there was some apprehension as the exercise just didn't feel right and coupled with your current belief systems gathered from reputable and not-as-reputable sources, you were reluctant to initially try it and then continue with it once you did try it.

Learning Zone - You are now very comfortable with the exercise and are willing to increase the difficulty of the exercise (load, volume, technical difficulty etc) every chance you get leading to great progress over time.

Growth - the experience from this 1 exercise opens up great possibilities for you now in other facets of your life from overcoming the initial fear of this exercise and now turning it into 1 of your strengths. This can carry over into the workplace and family life too.

A quick exercise that you can do is to highlight the 4 main aspects of your life and rate them on the zone scale from above.

Knowing what nails each zone, put a plan in place to reach the next zone in the month or so, then reassess and go again.

WHAT DO ABS + JOHNNY FARNHAM HAVE IN COMMON?

Nothing really but here's a Instagram post I put up showing 3 separate core complexes I did the other day as part of my training, all to soothing sounds of Johnny Farnham's Touch of Paradise.

A complex is a series of related or non-related exercises that can be done in  flow style of training where you use the same implement (bar, dumbbell, med ball etc) for all exercises eliminating the need to change stations and thus increase training density.

Be sure to have mastered each individual exercise on it's own before putting them all together like this.

There's 3 vids so be sure to flick through each one as I'll break each one down below.

View this post on Instagram

CORE JOHNNY FARNHAM 9 excellent exercises sit into 3 complexes performed to the soothing summer sounds of Touch of Paradise, Farnesy's best song for mine #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #coreworkout #core #abs #abworkout #johnfarnham #farnesy #notretiring

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on Oct 17, 2019 at 7:53pm PDT

COMPLEX 1 - WEIGHTED SIT UPS

Exercise 1: Weighted Overhead Sit Ups
Exercise 2: Weighted Front Raise Sit Ups
Exercise 3: Weighted Sit Ups

I did 5 reps of each x 1 set and 3 - 5kgs is all you'll need for this.

Then went directly to...

COMPLEX 2 - PALLOF ROATATION

Exercise 1: Pallof 1
Exercise 2: Pallof 2
Exercise 3: Pallof 3

I use all these progression with all my clients so we'd do 3 or so sessions for pallof 1, then progress to pallof 2 and pallof 3 - then I mix them together in various combinations.

Again I did 1 set of 5 reps of each x 1 set and you'll only need a skinny band for these.

COMPLEX 3: REVERSE CRUNCH

Exercise 1: Toes to Sky
Exercise 2: Reverse Crunch
Exercise 3: 2 Leg Heel Drop

To keep the trend I did 1 set of 5 reps of each directly after the pallof complex.

So all up I did 45 core reps in about 90secs.

Be sure to have each station ready to go so you can go straight from 1 to the other without rest.

TOP 3 FARNESY SONGS

1) Touch of Paradise
2) 2 Strong Hearts
3) That's Freedom

LESSONS FROM HUMANS OF NEW YORK

I came across this Humans of New York post yesterday:



Here's what he said:

"...I was a really fat adolescent. I weighed well over 200 lbs. I was always depressed. I was in this ‘punk rock,’ ‘fuck the jock,’ kind of ethos. I looked down on sports culture. But we had a compulsory weight training course during my freshman year of high school. At first I hated it. Absolutely hated it. But the teacher was this terrifying, hulking man. So I followed his instructions. He gave me a sheet of exercises, and I checked off all the boxes. And afterwards I felt amazing. I don’t think PE teachers get enough credit. He changed my life. He forced me to discover the high you get from physical activity. And exercise has been my medicine ever since. Right now I’m working as a bike messenger. I ride about twenty miles a day. It’s not even financially necessary because I own my own company. But it takes the energy out of my weird thoughts. It keeps me from honing in on the negative aspects of my life. Things are good right now. I'm very lucky. And that becomes clear to me when I'm physically engaged. So I always keep moving. I'm literally cycling away from my depression, and it works..."

So many lessons to be taken from this for all of us regardless of our mental state.

- Physiological and psychological state go hand in hand so you need to work exercise both of them consistently

- Sometimes you'll need to go through some shit you hate to find some light at the end of the tunnel 

- When all seems lost then apply yourself to something, anything and give it a chance even when it seems like it's not doing anything right now

- Exercise is medicine in a lot of cases so prioritise your energy and make the time

- Being physically and mentally engaged and something keeps you from honing in on any negative aspects in your life

- Things can change if you want to change

HOW CRYING CAN HELP YOU

Crying may serve a real physiological purpose according to this article.

- A titbit from the study group is that they only used women because in pilot testing of sad video's shown to both men and women where both sexes cried, more women ADMITTED they cried

- Men will often cry "inside" or some form of bro-language or high 5's to hide from crying

- The actual study contained 2 parts with 1 being watching sad and neutral videos and noting how many people cried during them followed by a physical/mental task of having your submerged in ice water designed to cause pain at some point or another.

- Looking at cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, there was minimal difference between neutral video watchers, sad video non-crying watchers and sad video crying watchers so nothing to really report there.

- The surprising aspect though was the difference in breathing rates where the criers were able to maintain their breathing rates as the ice water got colder and colder, where the non-criers breathing rate elevated

- This shows that tearing up might assist with controlling breathing rates which can also help you with regulating arousal and serving as an emotional release.

- On top of that they also found that right before crying, participants tended to experience decreases in their heart rates, seemingly in the anticipation of crying and once the crying began then their heart rates tend to creep back up but not above the level they had been at before everything began

In the end it is crucial to finding emotional outlets to periodically release your emotions otherwise you're on track for an unexpected outburst at the worst possible time

Crying tells those around you that you need more sympathy, help or comfort so is also a means of communication, especially when you're an infant and that's all you can do.

Crying alone can also be a way of communicating with yourself by telling yourself about your own state as you might be terrible at reading your own emotions and situation/s and tears could be a way of saying "hey, take a break", that something's not right or take care of yourself - it's your body literally crying out to you!

Crying can occur in times of happiness, angriness and sadness but it's essential to know what's causing you to cry in the first place that could help us better handle our emotions and stress.

Need some help crying? Watch Coco or Toy Story 4!!

TO KEEP YOUR MIND SHARP - DO PHYSICAL EXERCISE

This article looks at why physical exercise, and not mental games, might be the best way to keep your mind sharp.

- The brain training industry is getting quite huge these days with the idea being that you can improve your memory, attention and powers of reasoning through the right mental exercises

- Software companies are forever releasing different games to increase cognitive abilities and brain training programs but 1 study showed that there's no evidence to support the widely held belief that the regular use of computerised brain training improves general cognitive functioning in healthy participants

- Children that exercise regularly displayed substantial improvements in executive function, were better at attentional inhibition (the ability to block our irrelevant information to concentrate at the task at hand), have heightened abilities to toggle between cognitive tasks

- Above all, the children who had attended the most exercise sessions showed the greatest improvements in their cognitive scores

- These benefits also seem to benefit adults too

1 study focusing on adults already experiencing a mild degree cognitive impairment found that resistance and aerobic training improved their spatial memory and verbal memory

- Another study found that weight training can decrease brain shrinkage, a process that occurs naturally with age.

- Exercise triggers the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which helps support the growth of existing brain cells and the development of new one's

- With age, BDNF levels fall and this decline is 1 reason why brain function deteriorates in the elderly

- Certain types of exercise, namely aerobic, are thought to counteract these age-related drops in BDNF and can restore young levels of BDNF in an aged brain

- Another study showed that, although far from conclusive, that small dosages of exercise could lead to cognitive improvements such as a 20 - 25min brisk walk several times per week, an exercise dosage achievable by all of us.

TRACKING BUILDS LONG TERM HABITS

I came across this article just this morning and it's a banger if sustainable changes is what you're after.

I track every a bloody lot of things from my own training currently and always have in some shape or form.

Back in the 2000's I'd write down everything I'd eat and drink every single day, as well as all the calories that entailed although I was never really aiming to eat at a certain calorie level or anything.

I've tracked all my training since even before then.

Currently I track my heart rate variability each day and from that I get 5 separate readings per day.

I have an excel spreadsheet that has all of my training logged into it from as far back as December 2013.

FYI I've missed about 475 days out of about 2050 of training since January 2014!

(Self back slap...)

In my training log I also note any days missed that were unscheduled such as sickness, house moving etc.

Getting back to the best part of this article, results from some study showed that those who tracked their steps for just 12 weeks, had maintained their activity levels long after the tracking had stopped.

For many they had even increased their activity levels by about 30mins.

That's mammoth as far as behavioural change is concerned because you've accomplished something you couldn't do otherwise, with pretty much zero extra effort or cost - the 2 biggest barriers to any sort of change you want to undertake.

Those in the study who were the control group and didn't do any activity tracking actually decreased their activity levels over time - ouch.

For the cherry on top, those who maintained/increased their activity levels also saw a huge drop in heart attack, stroke and stress fracture risk.

What implement and also what you track doesn't really matter, it's the process of goal setting and self monitoring that I think is the biggest factor at play here.

Lastly it goes on to say that the intensity of your activity is more important then the volume of your activity but that's a blog for another day!

GOOD VIBES ONLY

You need to surround yourself with good vibes.

Why?

Read on...

- If you bear witness to someone experiencing pain then you’ll often feel pain yourself which shows just how interconnected we really are

- In tight-knit communities, when 1 person feels loss then everyone does

- Even below-the-surface emotions like motivation are contagious and this is reflected in the workplace

- Sitting within 5 meters of a high performer at work can improve an employee’s performance by 15% but sitting within 5 meters of a bad performer can decrease performance by 30%

- Emotions can even be spread virtually such as through texts that are sent in low mood states being felt by the receiver

- We are mirrors reflecting onto each other and the people we surround ourselves with shape us and we shape those around us as well

- Associate with people you admire and aspire to be like where you don’t just get more skilful by doing what they do, but you actually garner the motivation/emotions that lead to improvement

- It also means that it’s much better to work with the scrappy but less talented performer than the star who phones it in

- Try and avoid meeting sadness with sadness and anger with anger, stopping to think and respond differently