The Guy Who Could Carry A Full Grown Cow. No Bull!
According to popular legend, Milo of Crotona began carrying a young calf on his shoulders each day. The story goes that he would pick the calf up on a daily basis and walk around a large stadium. As the animal grew, Milo also grew stronger. Eventually, he was able to carry a fully-grown bull.
Is that story true? Well, I doubt it, but like most legends it stems out of something which is true. That is in this case that by gradually increasing the weight of something you are lifting/pulling/working with your muscles will respond by growing in size and strength. I’m not a scientist but on a simple level our muscles are damaged slightly when we lift something heavy which causes them to naturally repair and regrow so that they can better cope with the new levels of work we are putting on them.
For a long time now, bodybuilders and strength trainers have used this technique to increase their size and strength. The problem is that eventually they will reach a plateau. What I would like to ask you however, is whether that plateau is physical or physiological? I am sure there is a point when we will all reach the maximum we can physically get to. But for most of us, does this happen before or after we reach the physiological plateau?
You see when you have it in your mind to be able to lift a fully-grown bull and you’re desperate enough to reach that goal the only thing that will stop you is reaching the maximum physically. When all you’re doing is pumping iron however, there is a lot more to distract you and push you away from your goals.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend not so long ago. He recently had a baby boy and he loves to throw the boy up in the air and catch him again (don’t worry, his son loves it too). As the child has grown and become heavier he is still trying to do the same things he could do with the child when he weighed practically nothing. He sometimes wonders whether somewhere along the line he’ll have to admit his son has become to heavy, or whether he’ll still be able to do it when his son’s 18 years old (probably in front of a circus audience)!
I’m not so sure myself, but then it would be a little bit more believable than the ‘bull story’.
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Build your house: How to build your physique to last
If you take the average person in the western world, chances are the most expensive thing they will ever spend their money on is the house they live in. In fact a lot of people will spend the majority of their lives paying off the massive amount of money they have chosen to spend on the shelter in which they live.
While I was at university I had a summer job working in the building consents department at the local city council. I was involved in some administration work which meant I would often be handling the physical building consent documents. There was a question on the building consent application form that I would often stop and look at out of interest.
How long is the proposed building intended to exist?
The answer to this question was almost always the same – indefinitely*.
When people go about building a house they mean it to last the distance. They will spend a lot of time and money to ensure it looks the way they want, and that it’s built just the way they like it. You see, for most of us we’re only ever going to build a house once (maybe twice) in our lives – so we may as well make it last.
Do you think of your body as a house?
How many bodies does the average person go through in one’s life?
One! You’re only ever going to have the same body. There’s no way to replace it on this earth.
It is not surprising then that men and women will spend huge amounts of money on their bodies (just as they do on their houses). The make up, clothes, haircuts, hair product, gym memberships, exercise equipment, ‘healthy’ food, plastic surgery – all these things are to make our bodies look better and feel better (and hopefully last longer).
The problem I keep on seeing is that although the desire and motivation is there, unless they start using ‘quality materials and workmanship’, they’re in for a leaky building.
Is your ‘house’ built well enough to last?
Just as those people write ‘indefinitely’ on their building consents, most of us would like our bodies to last a very long time. The truth is we live in a world that is constantly taking its toll on our physical bodies.
Let’s face it, our bodies will eventually wear out and stop working, but just as some houses are designed and built better than others, so some bodies are built better than others. The important thing if we want to last the distance, is to make sure we are doing something to maintain our bodies and that what we are doing is actually profitable.
Building lessons
I am by no means a builder. I built tree huts when I was a child but apart from that the following has simply been derived from very simple logical observations.
1. You can spend a $10 million on straw but it’s never going to make as solid a house as one which uses $100,000 of stone.
Make sure you are spending your resources, your time and money on things that will make your body stronger and fitter for the long run.
2. You can have an unlimited supply of solid oak timber, but if you employ and inexperienced and lazy builder you may as well build your house out of the cheapest wood in the yard.
Get your facts straight. The fitness industry is full of information – most of it is just puffed up words that are based on the latest trends. Next time you read something, hear something or watch something, just ask yourself – would they be telling me all this if they knew it wouldn’t get them money in the long run? I only ever started making progress in my fitness efforts when I started learning the real truth.
3. You never build a house on sand.
This deserves its own article by itself as so many people do not understand this. If you want to make your house as strong and durable as possible, you’d better make sure its foundations are as strong as possible. Too many people think they can focus on one area of their body, and once that is looking the way they want it they’ll be happy. It just isn’t possible. First focus on getting your whole body as strong and as healthy as you can, and then you’ll have a base on which you can build your body.
*Which was rounded down to 50 years, but that kind of loses the point!
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When Is The Optimal Time of Day To Workout?
There is a lot of debate out there on when the best time to workout is. People will confidently tell you that first thing in the morning is best, while others will just as surely advise you to do it last thing in the day. There is really no solid answer to the question but it does hinge quite a lot on your end goal but even more on your general make up as an individual.
Best time to attack your body fat…
If your goal is getting rid of flab then you will most likely want to be doing minimum 30 minute sessions of cardio at least 3 times a week. The argument is that if you do cardio at any other time of the day you will burn off the carbohydrates that you have eaten so far that day. If you exercise first thing in the morning you haven’t got any carbs to burn so your body uses the next quickest source of energy – body fat.
Best time to grow muscles/get stronger
If you want to become stronger and more muscly the majority of experts will advise that the best time to work out is when you are most alert and energetic. This will mean you will be able to perform at your best and achieve more than if you had just woken up, or you were starting to feel fatigued. It will also mean your workouts will be more enjoyable and you will feel a greater sense of achievement. For most employees this would be 5pm (straight after work).
The optimal time to workout will be different for each person
No one is exactly the same and our bodies are all made up slightly differently. Some people I know can be alert within a few minutes of waking up while others can take several hours before they start functioning like a human. Those late risers will usually be wide awake come 11:00pm at night.
My advice is to choose the time that you enjoy working out. Believe me, the advantages to when you workout are hardly worth worrying about (if in fact there is an optimum time). The important thing is to simply find the time at least 3 times a week.
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How To Stop Complicating Things And Keep It Simple, Stupid!
KISS
No it’s not the kissing you do when you’re in love, and it’s not the rock band either. In actual fact ‘KISS’ is an acronym of the phrase “Keep It Simple, Stupid” and is said to have first emerged during the Apollo space programs at NASA in the 1960s.
When solving problems, people sometimes tend towards complicated solutions that are harder to deal with than the problem, or ostensibly ‘clever’ solutions that do not actually work for all possible forms of the problem …according to KISS, the method used should be as simple and straightforward as possible.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_principle
So many times as humans we over-complicate things to the point that we are not able to solve the initial problem. The reason the simple solution is so often the best solution is because 9 times out of 10 it is the easiest solution.
KISSing in practice
If you have a complicated workout plan, a confusing diet and are continually measuring the amounts of food you eat and time you spend exercising you aren’t putting the KISS principle to work. For some people that kind of thing may work well, but for most it will only lead to frustration. You see, a successful fitness regime has to turn into a changed lifestyle, not a 3 month plan. If you can’t stick at it as part of your life then there really isn’t a lot of point starting it in the first place.
The simpler a workout or diet program is, the greater chance you’ll have of succeeding. Remove as many obstacles and barriers in your way and you’ll be left with something you enjoy.
How to actually keep it simple
To make sure you utilize the KISS principle effectively you need to look for nutrition plans and workouts that are simple but effective. Don’t choose to do something just because it’s easier and less complicated. You need to do a little research to makes sure it’s worthy of it’s simplicity.
For example, instead of doing 20 different exercises to target all your muscle groups, why not just do squats, dead lifts, bench presses and chin ups? These exercises are simple enough to do and they would combine to give you an extremely effective workout (I can guarantee that). Buy some equipment, say goodbye to your gym membership fees and you’ll have the kind of simple efficient workout that will get you results.
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