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What Now?

It’s been a long time since the last post.  This is really because I painted myself into a corner.  What do you say on your blog when your last post claimed that most of what you read about health and nutrition is highly suspect.  When you’ve just made the point that even seemingly scientific appearing studies, articles, and posts are often garbage it becomes a little difficult to add to the ever-growing stream of information/misinformation about fitness.  So what now?  It’s time for a “scorched-earth” policy on our fitness and nutrition information sources.  Burn it all to the ground and start from scratch.

A new beginning. A random image from the internet.

I suggest you take the list of people whose advice you see from day to day: trainers at your gym, other people at your gym, your friends, your family, people you follow on social media, and those who you encounter randomly here and there- set them aside.  You will not listen to them anymore until you’ve decided if they’re worth your time and attention. No more changing your diet and routine one day just because you saw something on Instagram.  No more information overload- at least when it comes to health and nutrition.

And no more being like the dog from UP! 

Now let’s go through who you’ve been listening to and see if they’re giving you any good information.  Once you’re convinced that the trainer from your gym, or the girl you follow from social media knows what they’re talking about then you can add them to the list of people you listen to about fitness.  You’re going to construct an inner circle of trusted advisers.  A trainers of the round table if you will.

“Sir Galahad no longer fits into hith armour- he is banished from the table until he can listeth to his own adviseth!”

How can you tell though?  How can you distinguish good advice from bad?  This isn’t easy but there are a few guidelines you can go by.  Here are a few that I use:

First some tools for the people you’ll encounter in real life.  Say you’re at the gym and someone starts giving you advice.  Should you listen to them? And even if you do listen to them, how much credence should you give them?  Here are some things to ask yourself about them while you consider this.

- Are they gimmicky? Does their advice sway back and forth with the wind like a well-lubricated weather-vane? Do you see them one day doing overhead presses on a Bosu ball and then the next telling everyone that they’re idiots for using a Bosu ball? If so, I’d avoid taking too much advice from them.  Someone like this is still figuring it out for themselves.  Maybe one day they’ll be a fantastic source of information but today they’re still in the oven.  Leave them there.

-Are they fit?  At least for their age?  A young trainer/advice giver that is super-ripped may still be a poor resource.  An older trainer/advice giver in great shape is almost always a great resource.  Someone who isn’t fit is almost always a poor resource.  By the way, the term “fit” as I use it is very much subjective.  You should seek advice from those who’ve attained the right “type of fit” for your goals.

I had an entire post about Dave Draper awhile back.  This is him in his 70s.  Someone this fit at that age has to know what they’re talking about.  A super-fit 20 something could be the result of hard-work and sound knowledge or could still be benefiting from their youth.  You don’t know which it is and they probably don’t either.  The moral here is- the chances are excellent that a very fit older trainer knows his or her stuff.  A very fit younger trainer can still be great but ask them a few more pointed questions at the beginning.

- If they are a trainer how do their clients look?  If you see that this trainer has had the same client for a year and this looks just as flabby as on day one maybe something is wrong with their advice.

Once you’ve evaluated all of those trainers, friends, family, and acquaintances on the quality of their fitness advice you can decide whether or not any of them deserve a spot in your inner circle of advice-givers.  If you have enough trustworthy people in your real life to form your inner circle I suggest you count yourself lucky and stay away from the internet and its considerable dungheap of crappy advice.  

I was just sitting in my vintage car browsing the #fitness posts on Instagram and this happened.

If you’re one of these lucky people you can stop reading right here.  But if you feel the need to seek help from the internet you can read on.

OK   so you’re not so lucky.  How can you find good fitness advice on the internet? Let’s start with fitness bloggers- How can you pick out the good from the bad?  Unfortunately, this means you have to read more blogs.  Take the bloggers you’ve followed in the past and look at a handful of their posts here are some things to watch out for.

- Do they blog so frequently it’s as if they’re inhaling oxygen and exhaling blog posts? This is often a red flag.  Look at how many posts they put up in a week and imagine yourself sitting down to your computer and doing the same.  How much time would this take you to do? Take that number and multiply it by 2 or 3 and this is the actual amount of time it tends to take.  Are you getting more than 20 hours a week?  This person is then a professional blogger.  It is possible for a professional blogger to give good advice but their motivations can be a bit confused.  Even with the best of intentions, the need to post frequently often leads to them posting crap.

I haven’t read this book so I don’t want to pass judgement.  But note it says “Make money while getting fit for life”.  The first motivation is money.  I don’t fault the authors for wanting to make a buck but you should definitely consider the motivations of anyone you’re taking advice from (fitness advice or any advice for that matter.)

- Do they use gimmicks to get more clicks? Do you see headlines like “Take THIS to build more muscle” and to find out what “THIS” is you have to click on the link.

I erased this blogger’s name.  He’s not a “bad” blogger in my opinion but he is definitely a professional blogger and he is also guilty of using gimmicky titles to get more clicks.  Please note this doesn’t mean he gives bad advice. It just points to his motivation- which is to earn a living.  This counts against him becoming one of those I’ll listen to regularly for advice.

- Does he or she plug for a supplement or a product company? They get money and perks to do this.  They may really believe in the products they’re plugging but you’ll never know.  

The many Instagram models that plug detox or weight-loss teas are a clear cut example of this.

Does this leave anyone for us to listen to on social media?  Very few.  Our scorched earth policy has really obliterated just about every jabbering blogger and fitness personality that was standing within 30 feet of a laptop or smartphone.  The ideal online fitness adviser is the one who does not post too frequently, who rarely or never uses gimmicks to get more clicks, never or rarely plugs supplements, and dispenses well-thought out articles with good advice.  The blog for such a person is really only for dispensing advice and isn’t a serious source of income for them.  

Two people online that I’ve found I trust are Charles R. Poliquin and Dave Draper. You should evaluate them on the same set of standards I’ve just mentioned to see if they deserve a spot in your inner circle.  

[fitnessisconfusing-blog]

Marketing

I think one of the most confusing parts of getting and staying in shape is making sense of all of the various things people try to sell us.  We get the hard sell on gym memberships, personal training, vitamins, weight loss supplements, weight gain supplements, protein powders, fish oil, and much much more.  Everything from the mundane:

While it’s standard fare for gym rats today the idea of using whey as a workout supplement is a little strange.  Whey is a byproduct of cheese production.  It’s separated from the kurds, poured off,  and either fed to the pigs or thrown out.  I don’t know who started drinking it but I bet they have a pretty good story.

to the kind of weird:

Powdered beef protein?  Sounds delicious!  The first time I heard about this stuff I thought it was completely absurd.  I still find it weird and have never tried it but that’s mostly because I like beef in its unpowdered form.

and, my favorite, the completely ridiculous:

“Natural Male Explosions”? Well as long as they’re natural, I don’t think artificial male explosions are good for the environment.  I remember seeing ads for “Ejaculoid” years ago.  I have never been compelled to buy it- because it is completely stupid.

When it comes to buying workout and diet supplements I like to tell people that less is more.  It’s not that you shouldn’t take anything but if you go out and start taking everything it becomes impossible to tell which supplements are doing something for you and which are not.  Let’s say you go out and buy whey protein, creatine, a pre-workout mix, BCAAs, beef protein, rice protein, a multi-vitamin, L-Carnitine, and ejaculoid.  You start religiously taking them and then after 2 months you notice you’ve gained 2 pounds of muscle and you feel great.  It is possible that you stumbled on some very effective mix of supplements that just happens to do this for you.  But what’s much more likely is that one or two of them helped you a bit and the others just took a chunk out of your wallet.  For this reason it’s best to introduce yourself to one supplement at a time and to stick to the more tried-and-true supplements.  A protein supplement will help you if you are regularly doing any sort of strenuous physical activity so I usually recommend people start with that.  Once you’ve chosen one make sure to give it a couple of months before you make a conclusion if it’s worth the money or not.  Then, whether you keep it or get rid of it, you can ponder adding another supplement to your regimen.

Ads for gyms are scarcely any better than ads for supplements.  I still laugh at this ad we saw here in China for a new gym:

I like scantily clad women as much as the next guy but when I see this ad all I can think about is that someone, at least one person, working during this photoshoot must have been shaking their head in disbelief. I imagine it was an intern who maybe meekly suggested putting the model in some non-leather workout attire and some non-high heeled shoes.  He was then soundly slapped in the head and told to go fetch something.

American gym advertisements have shied away from the hypersexual and have started to resemble university ads.  They love to show a diverse group enjoying a gym with friendly staff.

Diversity? Check.  Friendly trainer? Check. Also 2 to 1 girl to guy ratio!  Check and check!

When it comes to choosing a gym there are many questions you should ask yourself and I like to rate them in order of importance.  Let’s start with the most important: 

1.  If I join this gym will I go to it?  Be honest.

2.  What equipment do I use most often? Does this gym have those pieces of equipment?  If all you do is squat, bench, and deadlift no number of yoga or bodypump classes will satisfy you.

3.  Is it clean? Is it full of douchebags? And other atmosphere-related concerns.

Once you’ve addressed those three and you’re satisfied it just comes down to the price.

While I seem to have drifted into a comparison of Chinese and American gym advertisements above I may as well show you another ad I’ve seen here that I find pretty funny:

This is an ad for the boxing class at a local gym.  While I don’t doubt this guy is a capable boxer to my American eyes he just looks meek.  I think this ad is meant to appeal to Chinese women, some of whom apparently like a meek-ish, cute look on a young man.  While this may reel in the local girls it wouldn’t compel me to sign up.  This got me thinking what ad would get me to sign up for a boxing class....

When I think boxing I think of Rocky Balboa.  Just about any character from any of the Rocky movies would be better on an ad than the guy above I think.  I cruised the internet for awhile and using Paint came up with this.

In my heart I’ve already signed up. 

[fitnessisconfusing-blog]

Dave Draper- Mr. Consistent

In my early 20′s, while working my way through college and graduate school, I was lucky enough to land a job working at Dave Draper’s World Gym in Santa Cruz, CA.  Dave is a former Mr. America, Mr. World, and Mr. Universe.  He is a legend in the world of bodybuilding.  Here he is:

This is an old picture you can tell because it’s black and white.  

Dave graced the covers of many a muscle magazine.  Usually in full color:

Photos of Dave flexing on the beach with his golden locks flowing in the Santa Monica breeze inspired a generation of young meatheads to uproot and move West.  It wasn’t long before he had plenty of company in what were to become the iconic gyms of Southern California.

That’s Dave with a couple of other bodybuilders.   I forget their names.  One of them went into politics or something.

While working at Dave’s gym there was a stack of neat business cards at the front desk with my name on them that said I was a “Trainer”.  Just like the other trainers though I spent most of my time pushing a mop.  Dave demanded a spotless gym and we all whined and complained about how much mopping we had to do.  We mopped the floors, even under the equipment, multiple times a day.  I still remember working in pairs- one person would tilt the squat racks, benches, and weight racks up while the other mopped beneath them.  The gym’s countless mirrors were windexed clean every day and to this day the smell of windex reminds me of Dave’s gym.

In between all of the mopping and windexing we did get to train a few people.  Dave was the first person to sit me down and teach me how to train others.  He wrote out a couple of programs, explained all of the exercises, and taught me how to explain them to others.  Once I’d had this lesson I was immersed in his gym’s culture of trainers and athletes.  We would work out together, compare notes on how we trained, and stay out of Dave’s way when he trained himself.

A more recent picture.  You can tell it’s posed because he’s smiling.  He rarely smiled or spoke when he trained.  Everyone learned quickly to not bother him when he was on the gym floor.  Watching him train was like watching a silverback gorilla in the jungle. You wanted to see what he was up to but you knew if you got too close he might rip your arms off.  He doggedly pushed through every workout, rarely took days off, and was (and still is) the most consistent person I’ve ever met.  I still remember his diet back then:

1 ridiculously large protein shake with milk, 4 eggs, protein powder,...

coffee

a half pound of ground beef and a potato

another half pound of ground beef and a potato

another ridiculously large protein shake

dinner (I never saw Dave eat dinner- my guess is it involved ground beef and I hope it involved a vegetable or two.)

He was amazingly consistent with this.  I never once saw him cheat and go out for a burrito.

A couple of posts ago I droned on about how vital it is to be consistent in your diet and fitness plan.  Dave is an example of long term consistency in action.  Into his 60′s and 70′s he has maintained a remarkable physique by making his fitness regime part of his everyday life.  Few (if any) of his contemporaries in the bodybuilding world have maintained themselves to the amazing degree that Dave has.  Most of us are not Dave Draper so everything that has worked so well for him may not work as well for us.  However, his consistency is what we should all strive for.  Find a regime that works for you and make it a significant part of your life.  

P.S. Another great thing about Dave Draper- he is a formidable fitness blogger.  He and his wife Laree have a site:  davedraper.com .  The Draper column is posted there and is a treasure trove of great advice on how to get in shape and also how to stay in shape.

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This post is from our other blog- jameytravels.  It’s about our life since we left the U.S. at the end of 2014. This post belongs in this blog as well.  Enjoy.

Our Charity Workout

It’s been almost three months since we first got Banban from the shelter. Things are working out pretty well.

As you can see, she is still seal-shaped.  We don’t call her our pet dog- she’s our pet land-seal.  She still has a healthy list of things she won’t tolerate: children, strange men, pregnant women, and baths.  Despite this she’s become a very sweet dog and we like having her around.  So much so that we decided to have a charity workout for her shelter- the Afu Dog Shelter.

We ended up getting a lot of help with marketing so our turnout was incredible.  Our usual workouts have about five or maybe six people attending.  The charity workout had twenty people show up ready to sweat and shell out cash to support the shelter.  It was a great success.

Our regular clients were there along with many new faces.  Things got a bit chaotic but overall it went off without a hitch- no injuries, no one threw up, and everyone had a great workout.

This photo was taken after many push-ups so forgive the new people for using their knees.

Xiamen is going through a fitness craze and we were lucky to have a mix of Chinese people and expats.

Much of the world’s fitness apparel is made right near here so it was a snap to have custom dri-fit CABW t-shirts made.

We had so many people that we had to break them up into two groups.  Nicole took the first and ran them through a series of sprints, agility drills, and running ladders.

I took the second group and led through push-ups, squats, and (of course) lifting and throwing bags of sand.

and jumping too.

The star of the event was Banban.  She offered moral support to the tired and weary and managed to only bite one person that day.  Real progress!

After it all almost everyone was happy enough to pose for a group picture.

When the dust settled we found we’d raised enough for about four months rent for the shelter (yay!) or enough to neuter 12 dogs (ouch!).  I don’t know if the dogs will thank us for that but I’m sure the local veterinarians will.  Speaking of vets- Banban doesn’t like them too.  

I love this picture but it’s funnier if you zoom in:

HAHAHAHAHA.  Poor dog.  

[fitnessisconfusing-blog]

Consistency

I decided to write this second post about the importance of being consistent when it comes to your health and fitness regime. Before I sat down to write I felt I was completely clear on what this meant. About 30 seconds after sitting down I discovered just how murky this concept of consistency is.

The beginning of a consistently healthy person.

On the surface it seems pretty simple. In order to be fit you should be consistent in your fitness regime. But this is too simple- what if your regime sucks? What if you get injured? Even if you have a good regime and you’re injury-free should you still stay loyal to that fitness plan?

I’ve concluded that I need to be pretty clear about what I mean by consistency. Here is what I’ve come up with: you will only become more fit by exercising and eating quality food today, then doing the same tomorrow, and again the day after, ….You can take a day off here and there but you simply must make it so that exercising and eating well are the norm in your life.

Stairs are great!- with a 60lb sandbag they’re even better and you don’t need to do quite so many floors. Chicken and veggies: a staple all fitness nuts are well-acquainted with.

You may or may not feel the need to make changes from time to time in how you train and how you eat. I think it’s fine and often necessary to make these changes. An injury may prevent you from doing some of your favorite workouts.

Classic SNL.

In this case changing how you train is a no-brainer. If your shoulders are worn out let them heal and maybe see if you can work on a faster 100m sprint, or a heavier squat. If your knee is bothering you let it heal and see if you can increase your max number of pull-ups and push-ups for the next few weeks.

One of the nice things about China is that there are pull-up bars everywhere!

Maybe your workouts have stopped being effective as they once were. You might have a killer leg workout but what if it’s been over a month since your quads felt sore?

A change here is a good idea too. You’ll be convinced I’m right when you do a completely new workout and find you can barely walk the next day(in a good way).

You’re getting fitter and fitter. Your diet is on point but lately you find your energy levels waning.

This one is pretty common among people with excellent self-discipline. It happens when their training intensity increases but their diet stays the same. Just eat more- and make it quality food.

Lightly breaded chicken, a whole avocado, mushrooms, and a huge freakin’ salad.  I don’t know how I feel about the kombucha but I drank it.

Outside of the situations listed above you still may want to change your regime for other reasons.  Boredom is a common one.  Lack of results is another.  Changing your routine for these reasons may or may not be a good idea.  If you’re 3 weeks into a specially designed 8 week program I’d recommend not switching to a newer shinier program you saw on instagram. You don’t want to be the fitness equivalent of the dog from UP

Three weeks into my cutting program and.....SQUIRREL! 

It’s often best to finish what you start but change can also be good thing as long as it’s done at the right times. In short, to be fit and to stay that way, making sure you exercise and eat healthy food has to become an essential part of your day just like your morning commute or brushing your teeth*. 

(*Disclaimer from my dentist: That’s a bit of a stretch- you can take a day off from training but you should probably not take a day off from brushing your teeth.) 

[fitnessisconfusing-blog]

Day 1: Trying to Make Sense of Health and Fitness

I spend a lot of time thinking about my health.  It’s strange that I do- I’m fortunate enough to be what’s considered very healthy.  No heart problems, no cancer, no diabetes, I have all of my limbs,.... I do have a touch of asthma which is more than likely due to growing up in LA but all told- I’m doing quite well in the health department.  What I spend my time thinking about is maybe better titled “fitness” rather than health.  I always want to be stronger, leaner, more muscular, and faster.

That’s me- or the back of me at least. Dragging heavy stuff on the beach is a great way to meet people, by the way.  Everyone wants to figure out just how heavy that stuff you’re dragging is.

In my younger days I worked for two different gyms- one a giant franchise the other a local house of iron and sweat.  I worked out all the time- switching training methods every so often.  I would spend months focusing on building muscle and then decided I needed a change and switch over to trail running or road biking.  I trained others here and there but I spent most of my time going to school and working on a doctorate in math.  Somewhere along the way I discovered rucking (hiking/running with a heavy backpack) and did my first GoRuck challenge.  Rucking is now a staple of my workouts.

That’s me in front on the right- doing the carrying.  This is a GoRuck challenge in 2012.

Fast forward to today:  I still exercise, I’m considered to still be in good shape. My day job is math professor at a community college.  I’m taking the year off to live and teach in China where on the side my girlfriend and I have started a small personal training business.  We haven’t reached Tony Horton status but we’re far enough along in the fitness industry where people will pay us money to help them exercise.  

We usually train our clients on the beach using sandbags mixed with sprints and calisthenics. 

So far I think we’re doing pretty well.

Our early successes have inspired me to start writing and sharing our thoughts about fitness and health.  I plan to do this in a different way by first acknowledging what any trainer worth his salt knows but rarely states: fitness is really confusing.  Hence, the title of the blog.   Just how a given person can progress from less fit to more fit is a murky process that is not well understood by ANYONE.  When you hire a trainer (even a great trainer) you’re not buying a guarantee that you’ll get fit.  What you’re really hiring is more of a guide through a dangerous jungle.  They may know a few ways to navigate through it but that doesn’t mean you won’t fall in some quicksand or get devoured by wild beasts along the way.  The route that safely got the last customer through danger may have been devoured by fire ants or recently occupied by cannibal pygmies. A great guide/trainer will know that the human body is a complicated thing and that what may have worked for one client might not work so well for you.

This leads us to the purpose of this blog.  Fitness is confusing because our bodies are incredible machines that we are only beginning to understand. Each post will explore various claims about fitness and nutrition to separate good information from kooky gym folklore.  I invite comments, questions, and suggestions.