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Archive for April, 2010
The Lighter Side of the Dark Side: Extreme Life
April 20th, 2010categories: Extreme Training, Mental Muscle
Dark Side
Dark Side
It is only a matter of time before something throws a big nasty Monkey Wrench into your Training.
The question is, how do you respond when it happens?
Warrior or Wimp?
Warriors know that in the long run, life is what matters most. Without Life there is Nothing.
Wimps are afraid of life and everything in it. Get over it. Life is a Full Contact Sport.
OK. On we go.
Those of you familiar with the message in this site – Extreme Training produces Extreme Results – may have caught onto the fundamental principle of Extreme Training: Everything Works. (Well there are some things that don’t work that well… ) The Art of Strength, Muscle Building, and Combat Conditioning is to achieve the highest degree of results in the minimum amount of time.
Planning is important. Knowing what you are going to do for a workout, every workout, and then recording your progress to see what works best for you, over time, is a Winning Strategy. By planing what you’re going to do and then actually do the work, and tracking it, you’re giving yourself feedback which will help you build the next phase of your Training Program.
No Question. This stuff works.
But, what about when something goes wrong. Something, like an injury or illness happens – invariably at a time when your training is going really well and your progress is amazing – and your training is derailed.
What do you do? There are 3 basic options:
1. Ignore the Setback. Sometimes hardy individuals just power through a cold, or the flu. This is not a medical site so I won’t get into all of the bad things that can happen if you try this. IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRAIN WHILE YOU ARE SICK YOU MAY BE MAKING THINGS WORSE IN THE LONG RUN!!!! To the extent the non-giving of advice is advice, check with your doctor before training if there are any questions at all (or should be) concerning your health and fitness level. Really!
2. Deal with the Setback. Deal with it. You caught a cold, you are hacking and wheezing, but your bench press is finally climbing to new levels… Heard it, seen it, been there, done that. How about this? The reason why you caught a cold was because you were training on the edge which compromised your immune system. Is this true or just science-techno-babble? I don’t know. Whatever the cause, when you’re sick you’re sick. Resign yourself to taking a few days off and get back to training when your (here comes the lawyer driven mumbo-jumbo) doctor says it is safe to train.
Unfortunately, most doctors – this is based on personal and close second hand information – do not think that Extreme Training is a good thing in any circumstance. Why would a person want to Build Bigger and Stronger Muscles? They must be sick in the head or something. Besides, when you get older it all turns into… bullsh*#.
That being said, the best you may get is your doctor telling you that you’re OK to resume “normal” exercise (which nobody really knows what that means anyway…so if you try to sue your doctor because he cleared you for training early, doctor could say “You were not engaged in reasonable exercise. You overdid it.” Did you? Who cares?
3. Use the Setback to Your Advantage. Everyone knows that Rest and Recovery are critical to achieving Extreme Training results. The problem is very few people ever want to PLAN TO TAKE TIME OFF. It’s the hardest thing a dedicated warrior/athlete can do. Take off. To actually plan to do nothing, not even light cardio, or stretching may be the most difficult thing you every attempt to do. Not the planning part. But the not-doing-part.
By seizing the opportunity to really be sick, or injured, and rest for a week or two (really), you may discover something that nobody should believe (I don’t) but have seen time and time again that it’s actually true; sometimes you come back from a setback, a week off, stronger and fresher than ever and make some of your greatest personal gains!
I’m not an advocate of the philosophy that everything happens for a larger reason. But I can tell you, that in the long run, the Dark Side is Death. It is the absolute price of life itself. The Ultimate Cost.
Extreme Training is Extreme because Life is Extreme. Doing great things requires taking great personal risk and expending great amounts of focused energy on a consistent basis.
However, when you’re faced with a temporary set-back, embrace it. Use the time to Refresh and Recharge. To increase you motivation and to really appreciate how valuable your training is. The Set-Back is your opportunity to take the time you would never willingly take on your own in a million years.
So, the next time you elect to have some nasty kind of nasal surgery which actually makes it so that – as ridiculous as it may sound – training for a week is impossible, use that recovery week not only for your body, but for your mind.
Imagine how it will feel to be able to dig back into your training!
It feels great!
Lighter Side
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Enjoy your Extreme Life!
