Old Dog, New Tricks

After years on remote trails and solo resistance workouts, this TOJ has been attending some fitness classes to learn more exercises and watch trainers use their skills to keep a group of people, with diverse ages and physical abilities, motivated and progressing - including me.

One class I've found right for me is twice a week circuit training. The class is held in a large room cluttered with exercise apparatus and non-class members who still have access for their workouts. Sometimes 15 people show up, sometimes 30. Bigger turnouts force our trainer, a smart and experienced young woman, to quickly add a circuit station to keep every member of the group active throughout the hour and not gobble up every device so the general public gets squeezed out.  

Circuit training consists of going station to station to perform an exercise targeted at specific muscle groups for a limited period of time. It's part cardio, part muscle endurance, part stability and mobility. The exercises are on machines,stability ball, Bosu's, platforms, with dumbbells or bands or your own body weight. At each station we exercise in two 25 second intervals, with 20-30 seconds of rest in between. Like with all exercise, in circuits what you get out of it is directly proportional to what you put into it. For example, during 50 seconds on a lat pull down machine, you can do a lot of reps and you are free to pick your weight. Within the time interval, you go at your own pace and biorhythms. Hammer it or slack off, your choice.  Every two weeks, the circuits change so you have new muscles engaged.

I see some real advantages to doing some classes (something I never thought I'd say because TOJs get set in their ways):

First, you'll do exercises that are more challenging than you would do on your own. We all tend to do what's easy for us. I'm very comfortable pushing up weight on the machines, especially the classic male stuff for pecs, biceps, lats, quads - squats, lat pulldowns, curls, presses. But there are a host of small, really important stabilizing muscles, especially around the hips and rotator cuff, that are much more important for well-rounded fitness, including balance and endurance, that are barely used when you grunt up a few bench presses. In most males, these muscles are weak. The circuits with stability balls and the Bosu (try doing a Bird Dog with your knee on the floor, then do it on a Bosu - even the baddest ass TOJ will tremble like Jello).

Second, whether you admit it or not, there's something about having other people around that makes you push a little harder. It's not really competition on the circuit because every one's on a different station. But just being in the class, you try to last the full interval or put the resistance at the edge of your range for a certain number of reps.

Third, when you always workout on your own, you can easily get in a rut where you do the same routine over and over. However, your body is really adaptable - if you don't mix up the exercises, the ones you continue to do get easier - too easy You no longer get all the benefits you might with more variety. Taking some classes mixes it up for you. You discover new ways to move, old muscles you haven't enlisted for a long time.

I've been wondering why so few males are in some of these classes. This TOJ has a new theory. Guys tend to think because they have a bicep (or used to) and can hit a softball into the outfield (or used to) or can run faster than most women on the same age in a 10K that they magically know all there is to know about their body and exercise. But it just ain't true. Worse, that irrational pride is setting them up to be more prone to limited mobility and more injuries as they age. Many times in the classes I find the women on, say, a stability ball, have much better muscle control, core strength, balance, and range of motion than the males. Male exercisers would be wise to learn from them by using their exercise regimens.

Males reading this might be thinking, "Over my dead body. I'm not getting on any pink colored stability ball."  Dumb. No wonder women outlive men. Then pick a blue one.

A New Age in Military Fitness

Googling about fitness, this TOJ found an interesting document. Last year, the U.S. military announced a new plan for total force fitness. The military considers it a major paradigm shift from the way it's trained soldiers for decades. Here and there it does have a new age flavor, which I'm sure made it controversial with the the stiff-upper-lip, macho-suffer-in-silence old guard, because it uses the word "holistic" and admits that the most hardened soldier has social, psychological and spiritual needs that impact their effectiveness in combat.

Not to worry -- the new "total force fitness" protocol is not intended to turn warriors into flower children. In fact, it's very explicit that the goal is to help soldiers be effective and resilient.

This TOJ finds it well worth reading because the military has long placed a priority on physical fitness, and has the resources to study what works and what doesn't when it comes to physical training. The reason physical training is so important is well-described in a quote from a training manual mentioned in the document:

War places a great premium upon the strength, stamina, agility, and
coordination of the soldier because victory and his life are so
often dependent upon them. To march long distances with
full pack, weapons, and ammunition through rugged country
and to fight effectively upon arriving at the area of combat; to
drive fast-moving tanks and motor vehicles over rough terrain;
to make assaults and to run and crawl for long distances; to
jump into and out of foxholes, craters, and trenches, and over
obstacles; to lift and carry heavy objects; to keep going for
many hours without sleep or rest—all these activities of warfare
and many others require superbly conditioned troops.  

But their new approach to fitness is not just about the skills needed in combat and recovering from combat injuries, but also reducing injuries during training and controlling obesity, an epidemic in the uniformed services as much as in the civilian world.

Read the document and you'll find an approach that is right in line with the best cutting-edge training practices, such as:

• Optimum fitness involves more than running long distances with a heavy pack. In fact, too much running causes over-training and causes more frequent injuries. Endurance is no more important than mobility, flexibility, and strength.

• Strength is more than doing lots of push-ups or lifting weights to develop isolated muscle groups. Strength must incorporate functional muscle groups needed to do practical tasks. 
• All strength training must start with solid development of the core. The lower back is a well-known weak point in the human body it it's not routinely exercised and developed.
• Training for peak performance also requires jumping (pylometrics) and sprinting. These have big payoffs in strength, speed, and power.
• For years, the belief was that super active people like soldiers and athletes could eat anything and still thrive. No longer. Top physical performance depends on nutritious foods.
• There's no such thing as one-size-fits-all fitness. Training must incorporate some general exercises for health and basic fitness, but optimum performance requires additional specific conditioning to perform the specific task.

After Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals, an ex-seal was being interviewed about the training involved. The ex-seal said the training is very demanding, but the people who make it trough don't come our looking like a bulked-up football player. He said they are very strong, but don't look all that different than other people.

I thought about the ex-seal's remark today when the movie "Commando" with Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on the screen; for many men pumping iron, his body back then is their goal. Total force fitness is not about how a person looks, but what he or she can do.

I think the military's vision of fitness is to have people with the endurance, strength, mobility and flexibility to run, sprint, crawl, climb, lift, swim, dive, and  jump like the athlete is this video from MovNat: