PT

More rucking tips from a Green Beret: Revisiting the hills with a 45-lb ruck

About six months ago in our SFAS training tips, we hit the trails with our rucksack and were hitting the hills as they present issues that as a Selection candidate that you will encounter in the various courses that the services will offer.

With the rain, we had in the area as the remnants of a hurricane dumped some needed moisture in the forest, what better time is there than to get out in the rain and mud and carry a rucksack? The one good thing is that the trails would be empty as most people that time of morning decided that hiking in the rain and muck isn’t the most fun way to start the day.

It should be noted, that my training companion bailed on me. My bulldog took one look outside at the rain and wind and gave me a look like, “you’ve got to be kidding me?” and flopped, not rolled over, flopped on her side with her back to me. Sigh. I was on my own.

On another side note, besides the training value of rucking for those of our readers who are aspiring Special Operations candidates, going out on an early morning hike/ruck is a great stress reliever for a bit. For those who need to clear their head and decompress, it is a wonderful tonic for the cluttered brain. And there has been plenty of that lately…Nuff said.

In getting the weight right for the rucksack, which should be a 45-pound minimum, I went back to using a sandbag that I placed in the top radio pouch of the rucksack. Back a few months ago, we got several questions about using bricks, which you can and for the purpose of that one exercise I did. But to me, and it is just my personal opinion, bricks are bulky and it takes quite a few of them to get the weight right.

For the purposes of training and just for the plain ease of getting it right, a sandbag is much easier and foolproof. But there is no right or wrong answer here, whatever works for you is fine as long as the weight is correct. And that is what it is all about…

We’ve posted some tips based on our experience that we feel will be of good value to you. I don’t claim to know it all, but after many years in SF, these tips and techniques worked for me and hopefully, they’ll work for you as well.

So, the weight, in this case, the sandbag should be packed up high between the shoulder blades as much as possible. The ruck that I’m using has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag was placed. And it bears repeating that I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your ruck and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a long-distance ruck march.

On this particular ruck march, I once again used the waist strap on my rucksack, that way, the weight rides more on your hips and not on your shoulders. This way you can loosen your shoulder straps just a bit so that the weight isn’t all on them.

We covered boots in a several of our earlier pieces. I have several favorite pairs that I take on hikes depending upon the conditions. Since I had recently purchased a new pair of the Merrell MOAB2 boots. As we’ve stated before, these are great boots.

They are comfortable right out of the box, very stable, have excellent traction in all kinds of conditions (this day would be a mix of wet forest and rock) and the new footbeds fit better with improved arch and heel cup design. I almost went with the heavier Sawtooth boots but I’m putting them on a pitch count so to speak so that they last as I can’t get any more of them.

Someone emailed me a while back and asked what boots I rucked in back in the day. It is a very good question. I answered my issued jungle boots. Why? Because that is what I was going to use when I was either at home base or deployed and had several pairs broken in. Use what you are going to wear down range.

The closed loop trail in my favorite “Purgatory” hike gives plenty of varied terrain so it was up and down some steep hills. As it is a short trail I went back and forth (twice) to get some distance in which is guaranteed to get you some strange looks from any other hikers that you come across. But on this rainy, wet morning I was alone anyway.

I took my SFAS Cadre walking stick (The staff of Ra) on the course. But unlike Mr. Indiana Jones’ medallion, mine has a large snapping turtle skull attached. It makes for an attractive topper and a good weapon for the occasional dog that decides to attack the crazy person walking in the woods alone. Usually, all it takes is to point it and Fido thinks better of it. Of course, that is what the bulldog’s secondary (implied) task is for.

So, with the Apple iPod in place, some soothing Metallica in my ears, it is off to Purgatory. When hitting the upslope of the hills, I like to lean forward just slightly and lengthen, not shorten my stride. Some people do the opposite, whatever works for you. Try it. I’m not talking a big difference, just an ever so slightly longer one which keeps your momentum going. The walking stick will definitely help here and when you reach the downside of the slopes.

Running: This is a touchy subject with a lot of people and you’ll get 100 different answers from a 100-different people. But when it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. Learn to increase your speed without resorting to running.

Running with a rucksack puts an incredible amount of stress on your knees. On this trail, there are some steep downhill slopes where it is easy to pick up a shuffle for a short distance, and it can speed things up but there is a difference between doing that and for running a longer distance.

From one of our earlier articles on rucking while preparing for selection, “They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must.”

I can’t stress enough as someone who now has two arthritic knees and a back to boot to learn to increase your speed without running. Lengthen out your stride and generate power with your legs and your speed will come naturally without resorting to running. But while in the course…do what you must, to pass. When I was becoming a SFAS Cadre member, we had to go thru the course before working there. I was one of the “dinosaurs” who went thru the SFQC before there was SFAS. And on one of our long-range rucks, I jogged the last mile and a half, almost two, just to get it over with as I still had plenty of time (why do people who give advice, never take their own?).

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the course. That is the minimum. You should be aiming much better than that. I used to keep about a 12-minute per mile pace. It is plenty fast enough for where you’ll finish a 12-mile with just over 30 minutes to spare and is a pace that you can keep up for an even longer distance.

Water and hydration are very important as we keep harping on in every PT piece every morning. On this day, despite the rainy, raw conditions, I drank quite a bit of water, close to 36 ounces. It is a good habit to get into during training to continue to push water all the time. If you get into the habit now, you’ll keep it up during the course.

Happy Rucking…now I have to have a word with a bulldog about abandoning me.

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] or at my Twitter page @SteveB7SFG and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Photo courtesy of US Army, author

*Originally published on Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

E.A.R.N. – A simple but effective way of mastering your fitness regimen

In the pursuit of bettering one’s self from a physical standpoint, there are so many options available today. There is no “one size fits all” approach to fitness nor has there ever been. I’ve met people from all walks of life in peak physical condition; some of them do insane amounts of running, swimming, and biking in training for grueling competitive events like the Ironman, some do no cardio at all. Some people love the thrill of getting a new max weight as they bench press or squat, and others strictly stick by body weight exercises like pull ups, push ups, planks, and dips. Some do a full body routine 2-3 days a week and aren’t in the gym otherwise, some believe in no days off. Really, it boils down to a combination of what works for you as you get to know how your body responds, and what you personally enjoy enough to stick with in the long haul. To paraphrase something I once heard The Ultimate Warrior say in one of his epic Youtube rants after you read all the methods and rules and ideas of any self-help book or a lecture, it always boils down to one basic principle…do the fuckin’ work! There’s no shortcut or replacement for hard work, but even the most self-disciplined among us need a way to keep ourselves on track and accountable…and that’s where E.A.R.N. comes in.

What is E.A.R.N.? Well, if you know me, I’m somebody who is constantly listening to interviews with people that inspire and motivate me, on Youtube and on various podcasts. One of these people is Frank Zane. Zane is much more than a three-time Mr. Olympia and legend in the world of bodybuilding, and it’s something that’s apparent when you hear him speak. He’s a renaissance man of sorts always pushing the envelope in new ventures, with a unique view on bettering one’s self utilizing a series of tools like positive mantras, meditation, and visualization. Anyone still motivated to explore new ground in their life at the age of 76 deserves high praise as far as I’m concerned. A couple of years back Zane was the subject of an excellent interview with Mathew Park where he discussed various concepts that make up his philosophy, and one of those concepts that made an impact on me was his E.A.R.N. regimen. The acronym stands for Exercise, Attitude, Recovery, Nutrition. The way it works is that at the end of each day, you grade yourself on a scale in each category. It’s so simple, but it’s brilliant. I truly would agree with him that these four categories make up the entirety of successful physical health (and even mental health) regimen. If your fitness regimen, mindset, sleep, and eating are on point, there is no other option than to be successful. Let’s dive into each of these categories.

Fitness is the most self-explanatory of the four. I grade every category each day on my calendar on a scale of 0-5. What does a 5 in Fitness look like? To me, one example is setting a personal best. You out-did your max bench press? whether it’s by 5 lbs or 40 lbs, that’s a perfect day in my book. A 0, that’s when you don’t get any exercise in at all. To me, some 0 days are okay, and I encourage them. Some days you need those days off to assist your body in recovery, but we’ll get to that in a couple of paragraphs.

Attitude. A great quote from Pirates of the Caribbean sums up this category for me, “the problem is not the problem, the problem is your attitude about the problem.” Every one of us deals with struggles and aggravation on a daily basis, whether it’s work, family, or monetarily related. Sometimes someone just acts like a jerk and it ruins your mentality. Don’t allow that. Do not allow factors outside of your control to have an impact on your attitude for the day. This category just like all the others is entirely reliant on your own actions. Whether you have the greatest day in the world or it feels like you just can’t get a break, if you can keep a positive attitude and stay optimistic and focused on your goals, that’s a 5 to me. This category is so essential. A bad attitude can lead you to sabotage everything you’re working towards, so remember why you started. The incentive to score high in the category every day will help you in not allowing others to steal your joy.

Recovery. I think pride keeps many of us, especially goal-oriented people, in having an adequate recovery. Let’s get into what I mean. There are people who have no issue sleeping all day and having no motivation in life. You’re reading this, you believe in self-help, so chances are this isn’t you. The most motivated among us often have the #NoDaysOff mentality, and for many of us, myself included, you’ll learn this is unrealistic. If you’re pushing yourself to the max in your workouts seven days a week, keeping on top of your other goals and responsibilities like work, friends, and family, and getting very little sleep, for the majority of us, you’re gonna burn out, or worse, get injured. Allow yourself however many hours a night of sleep that you’ve determined your body runs optimally on. “But I don’t have time.” You do. You do because when your body is running optimally on the necessary hours of sleep, you’re going to function at a higher level and bang out your work quickly & effectively instead of dozing off or half-assing your workouts. Also, it works hand in hand with other categories. If you’re getting strenuous workouts in, your sleep will be better. Yin and Yang. There are also some great supplements that can assist in recovery, I’d highly recommend ZMA. Also, allow yourself a recovery day, maybe two or three. What’s a recovery day? It could mean getting a deep tissue massage, it could mean doing yoga that day. I’ve found yoga to be very effective in this category. To me, yoga is more about recovery than exercise. Most of us spend 5 minutes or so stretching before we exercise…if that. Take a yoga class and you’ll be stretching yourself out for a full hour. Your lifting bros may break your balls but your body is going to thank you. If you’re looking to gain muscle or lose fat, chances are, a regimen of strictly yoga won’t cut it. What it will do though, is help your flexibility and prevent injury. That stuff is necessary, so don’t feel guilty if you take a recovery day even if it just means staying in, skipping the gym, watching a movie, and you score a 0 in Fitness.

For me, Nutrition has become a more clear cut category than it was. It’s because I’ve become someone who tracks my macro-nutrients. This is a whole other subject some of you may need to research, but MyFitnessPal is great with this in making sure you get the proper amount of calories a day for your goal, and the proper percentages of protein, carbs, and fats. This is something I experiment with and change accordingly with my goals. If you’re like me, you get the simplicity of it. Did I reach my daily protein goal, eat mainly whole foods over supplements and processed junk, and stay within my range of calories for the day? Then that’s a 5. Maybe you’re not there yet, and that’s okay. Maybe a 5 for you is that you didn’t indulge in any sugary drinks or deserts for the day. Just be honest with yourself, because you’re the only person you’ll be cheating when you don’t put in the work.

If you hold yourself accountable in these 4 essential categories and adjust accordingly, you will succeed. Let me conclude with another quote that’s a favorite of mine from the greatest icon of martial arts Bruce Lee, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.” Some of the things I said in this article may not apply to you. Some of it just doesn’t work for what you’re looking to achieve possibly, and that’s okay. If anything I wrote resounded with you, I’m happy to hear it. Take it, incorporate it into your regimen, and crush your goals each and every day. E.A.R.N. it and be the best version of you!

Old Man Fitness: Supplements that work and why they don’t for you

Ah, supplements — to the uninitiated, they seem like powdered steroids dispensed via that obnoxious shaker the religiously “fit” among us are always carrying around the office instead of a coffee cup. To the beginner, they offer the promise of expedited progress, or even progress you could never do without the aid of science and the Muscle-testosterone-blaster proprietary blend of herbs and chemicals presented on the bottle like a discovery of modern medical science.

And to the seasoned lifter? Well, they usually look like what they are: useless powders that cost as much as the annual dues for your gym membership.

That isn’t to say that all supplements are bunk — as we’ve discussed in previous editions of Old Man Fitness, there are indeed supplements on the market that can help you reach or even exceed your goals faster than you may be able to otherwise. The secret to supplement-success is two-fold: you’ve got to find the right ones and just as importantly, you’ve got to use them properly.

Protein

Protein is usually the first supplement that comes to mind and it is perhaps the most true-to-title of the bunch. Protein powders are intended as a supplement to your natural protein intake. Protein isn’t anything exotic and didn’t require any major scientific breakthroughs in the past few decades to help you get stronger … protein is just the stuff your body uses to repair and rebuild your muscle fiber. Whether you get it from fish, chicken or Muscletech, protein effectively does the same job.

Because supplements are not regulated by the U.S. government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), even protein can be a waste of money. All too often, the nutrition labels on supplements don’t actually show what’s inside the container and without FDA oversight, larger brands than you may think are able to get away with the ruse. It’s much cheaper to sell you a tub of corn flour with protein in it than it is to fill the tub with protein — that’s why even good brands often fall short of their claims when it comes to protein content.

My twenties proved that good protein still works no matter what you mix it with.

The problem with even the good protein supplements has more to do with how supplements are perceived than it does with the powders themselves. People lose sight of the fact that the chalky-shake they’re drinking isn’t a magic muscle building potion — it’s literally just extra building blocks your body can use when building the temple of power you’re working on.

And what happens if you keep delivering more building blocks to a site without putting in the time on the temple? Well, you end up with a pile of shit nobody wants to look at from the highway (or your bedroom door).

In order to make most protein shakes palatable, many companies load them up with carbohydrates and sugars that can almost make you think you’re drinking chocolate flavored misery, rather than the plain old generic sort. All those extra calories aren’t necessarily a bad thing — building muscle requires a caloric surplus in your diet (you’ll need to take in more calories than you burn throughout the day). But if you’re not putting in the hours at the gym, that caloric surplus doesn’t just disappear, it finds a new home … in your love handles.

When looking for a good protein supplement, consider the caloric content as well as the protein content and make sure you’re using the shake to help build muscle by putting in the time under the weights.

Creatine

Like protein, creatine has proven effective as a way to help bolster your muscle-building endeavors and like all supplements, it’s important to check with third party lab tests to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Unlike protein, some forms of creatine require a “loading” stage, in which you inundate your body with large amounts of creatine to establish a baseline before dropping consumption down to a scoop or two after your workouts. To be honest, I’ve found scientific studies dismissing the loading stage as a marketing gimmick intended to make you run out of creatine sooner and others that claim creatine isn’t nearly as effective without that loading stage.

Like most forms of drinking, “loading” is only arguably productive.

Just like any other multi-billion dollar industry, there’s no shortage of studies funded by (or influenced by) supplement distributors, so it can be tough to sift through the noise. I’m still honestly a bit on the fence about this one, so I tend to lean toward following the directions on the container (of a verified and trusted brand). Maybe I’m burning through a bit more creatine than is truly necessary when I go through “loading” stages, but I’ve decided that the few bucks that costs me is worth the expense.

Like protein, creatine is often loaded with sugars to improve its taste, but you tend to consume less of it by volume than you might a protein shake. Nonetheless, if you’re not putting in the work, those scoops of creatine in your protein shake will also result in nothing more than a few extra dimples in your growing cottage cheese butt. Supplements can’t replace hard work — they can only supplement your recovery process.

Pre-Workouts

Pre-workout supplements are a big hit for younger guys that are looking to add a bit of pop to their workouts, as well as newcomers that love the tingly feeling of invigoration they can provide you as you make a beeline for the weights — but a lot of guys that have lifted for a long time tend to forgo the NO-Xplode’s and Jack3d’s in favor of way crazier shit like getting a good night’s sleep. Why is this? It’s certainly not because older men and women don’t need a pick-me-up before their workout starts, after all. With a baby in my house, I need a few scoops of pre-workout just to get me into the showers some mornings.

The real reason is pre-workout supplements have a diminishing effect on you the longer you use them. That drop in effectiveness will sound logical when you take a look at nutrition label of your favorite supplement … they’re absolutely loaded with caffeine.

Doesn’t seem quite as healthy when you look at it this way.

Now, the guy behind the desk at GNC (and someone in the comments section below this article) will tell you that the herbal blends and fancy ingredients in their pre-workout are really what makes the difference and that the caffeine isn’t what’s doing the trick. They’re the supplement equivalent of a homeopathic doctor trying to convince you that a bag of oregano is the secret cure for your IBS.

While some of these additional ingredients may have some science to back up the idea that they can boost your level of alertness or what have you, they often come in such small doses that they can’t have much effect on you at all, whether good or bad. It’s the caffeine that really gets you moving — and if you don’t believe me, you will when you realize that NO-Xplode has a similar effect on you to a cup of coffee, complete with the often-mandatory trip to the bathroom to squeeze out a number 2.

Just like your coworker that drinks eight cups of coffee a day and swears it does nothing to help him wake up, the more pre-workout powder you take on a regular basis, the less effective it will be at energizing you for your workout. That doesn’t mean pre-workouts are without value, it just means you need to use them with a little forethought.

To keep your pre-workout supplements effective, you should cycle on and off of them. Spend a month with your pre-workout supplement of choice, then spend a month working out without that powdered boost. After a month, your tolerance will be reduced again and you’ll go back to really feeling the value of the supplement.

And of course, remember that these or other effective supplements can’t do the job for you. The supplements aren’t the car, the engine, or even the fuel — they’re more like an octane booster you can add once you’ve already got the rest in order. They can help keep things running smoothly, but you’ll always be the one in the driver’s seat.

About Alex Hollings

Alex Hollings writes on a breadth of subjects ranging from fitness to foreign policy, all presented through the lens of his experiences as a U.S. Marine, athlete and scholar. A football player, rugby player and fighter, Hollings has spent the better part of his adult life competing in some of the most physically demanding sports on the planet. Hollings possesses a master’s degree in communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Framingham State University.

Old Man Fitness: Tailoring your workout to your injuries

As we get older, we tend to collect things. Piles of artifacts representing memories both lost and treasured, old receipts we think we may need, and that shirt you know you can’t pull off anymore but just can’t find it in yourself to part with all take their places in our lives and homes like a physical manifestation of our own cluttered minds.

These collections start as a byproduct of the lives we lead, but over time, they come to define us. The tools in my garage and guns in my safe are more than an extension of my interests, in many ways, they’re an extension of me.

Of course, as the years go by, there’s also another kind of collection we tend to assemble, though not one that’s as easy to tuck away into a junk drawer: injuries also have a way of piling up on us. For some of us, they can be a point of pride — my list of injuries represents a long list of great accomplishments and bad decisions, but most importantly, none of them have managed to kill me yet. I’m not proud of every broken bone or torn ligament, but I’m proud that I’m still in the fight, dragging my aching ass into the gym despite all the ways life (and my own choices) have conspired against me.

Like my collection of tools, my collection of injuries defines me in many ways. It informs the way I approach my life, as I work to mitigate old injuries and prevent them from leading to new ones. Many of you can likely relate to things like giving your knees some time to warm up in the morning or adjusting the gait of your walk because your ankle is acting up today.

Pain is like the check engine light on the dashboard of a car. When you’re young, and the car is new, it means something’s wrong that you need to address.

But as you get older and the odometer clicks over into six digits, the check engine light tends to come on more and more often until eventually, it’s just on all the time. My car, creeping dangerously close to the 200,000-mile mark, has its check engine light on perpetually now and both my knees do as well.

So, adorned in our collections of old injuries, we carry on, busting our asses and getting things done like we always have, using the wisdom gained through experience to mitigate the ways our physical problems can extend into the things we do. My right knee has a habit of giving out on me, so over the years I’ve become really good at catching my balance before I crumple into a pile on the ground when it does. The detached retina in my right eye earned through years of fighting has led to me shifting the way I use the optics on my rifle. A lot of times, you may not even think about the ways you manage your injuries, you just do what you need to do the best you can — and it works.

I’ve broken my wrist so many times, I think part of me just assumes it’s always broken.

Tailoring your workouts to injury should optimally work the same way. We tend to think of “diet and exercise” like alchemy — some strange foreign science we can’t hope to grasp on our own, and as such, we rely on the expertise of others (in the form of products and diet fads). The truth is, exercise is just a way to imitate physical challenges in a safe and repetitive manner, and if there’s one thing you’ve learned to manage over decades of collecting injuries, it’s physical challenges.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do most lifts — form is important to maximize your results and minimize your chances at adding to that collection of injuries, but sometimes it’s okay to stray from the path and adjust your activities to suit you. Just like I occasionally switch hit and shoot lefty to compensate for problems with my eye, I’ve also changed many of my lifts to better suit the pile of old problems and surgically installed steel I call my lower body. I do front squats because of the slipped discs in my back, as one example. I don’t pursue one-rep maxes on my lower body lifts either. Would it be cool to know how much I can deadlift? I guess, but not as cool as being able to walk tomorrow.

A reader recently asked me if I could discuss the types of workouts that are good for older guys that may not have the experience behind them to lean on that some of us military types do — it was a great question, and there are some general suggestions I can always provide: focus on functional strength and compound movements when you can, walk and swim to ensure you’ve got muscular endurance without putting too much strain on your joints, and place an emphasis on stretching and flexibility to keep you capable and to stave off injury.

But more important that any of that is developing a level of trust in yourself. Start with a generic workout plan and try to work through it with light weights — when you come across something that hurts, give yourself a sincere gut check about whether the pain is truly indicative of injury. If it is, either adjust how you execute that lift so it doesn’t hurt, or pull it out of your regimen all together. Squats too hard on your bad back? Your form may be the problem but if it isn’t, maybe swap in the leg press in instead. No, a leg press machine won’t give you the same results as squats, but we’re not talking about working out the way you wish you could, we’re talking about working out the way you can safely.

I can take bigger chances with my upper body because I have fewer injuries in that hemisphere.

Struggling because something is hard is a good thing. Struggling because you’re hurting yourself is not.

Eventually, we all have to leave things behind. My wife stopped wearing miniskirts at around 30, my brother stopped installing fart-can exhausts on his cars at around 25, and I stopped trying to break records with my deadlifts right around my fourth surgery. It doesn’t mean she gave up on fashion, he gave up on racing or I gave up on lifting — we just adjusted our approaches as time went by.

There is often a “best way” to reach your fitness goals, but when the best way proves infeasible for you, you can either walk away from the fitness endeavor altogether, or you can find the way that works best for you. Maybe that means using more machines or less weight, maybe it means adjusting foot positioning or possibly not lowering all the way down on your squats (SACRILEGE!)

If you have access to a trainer, it never hurts to get a little help adjusting your game to suit your specific needs, but for those of us working alone and unafraid (with no clips on the bar), always err on the side of light weight. As you get more comfortable, it’s always easy to add a few pounds — but if you hurt yourself, you’ll have that much further to go again once you’re back on your feet.

What matters is that you get something out of your workout and stay healthy. That collection of injuries is going to keep growing, but in time, your ability to compensate for it will as well.

About Alex Hollings

Old Man Fitness: How to earn your ‘black belt’ in fitness

If you’ve ever taken the time to sit and read a bodybuilding magazine from cover to cover, you’ll likely come to a few interesting conclusions: the first is that advertising often tries really hard to pretend it’s expert analysis, and the second is that supposed experts in the fitness field often contradict one another, and even themselves, when it comes to the “best” workouts, methodologies, nutrition plans and lifts are. To be fair, a large part of these contradictions are tied to marketing endeavors: every new product invariably also needs to be the best one, otherwise people wouldn’t buy it but there’s another, less nefarious element at play here as well:

Different people respond to different things, well … differently.

There are, of course, many scientifically backed constants in the fitness world: burn more calories than you take in, and you’ll find yourself smaller than when you started, emphasize the development of fast twitch muscle in your regimen and you’ll likely end up bigger, and of course, if you try to learn how to use a machine via the guess-and-check method, some asshole is going to record it and share it on Twitter. It’s really not so much the broad strokes of fitness that are subject to interpretation and individual variances, it’s the ground level execution you may find needs adjustment.

I’ve spent most of my life training for one of only three things: football, rugby, or fighting. While I’ve participated in other sports (haven’t we all) those are the only three physical endeavors that broke the plain of adulthood and accompanied me into my higher mileage years — but with years worth of experience behind each, I can personally attest that not everything I’ve been taught has benefited me on the field or in the cage. The fact of the matter is, there are two things to take into account every time you learn a new technique for any of those sports: 1) does this new technique aim to improve my game, or just change it? And 2) how does my body respond to the endeavor?

When it comes to collision sports like football or rugby (dancing is a contact sport), change for the sake of change isn’t worth all that much — though I could make an argument that changing your game when fighting can lead to a better rounded proficiency (and when lifting for better rounded results). So with that element a wash, let’s focus on the second one: how does your body respond to this new thing?

When studying martial arts to demonstrate mastery of a discipline, it’s imperative that you learn to mirror the movements of your instructors, but when training in martial arts for the sake of a fight, it’s far more important that you learn how those movements translate into violence inflicted or violence mitigated — and optimally, you’ll find yourself capable of plenty of each. In the pursuit of that interest, you may find that, although you’ve developed a competency in a new technique, it works better for you if you adjust your wrist position slightly or the positioning of your legs. Sometimes, you may find yourself uncomfortable with a technique in general — and as such, hesitant to use it in force-on-force applications.

When you have to subdue a drunk Marine in a hotel room, you fold him in half the way you’re most accustomed. (Everything and everyone was fine once he woke up)

This is where the modern “mixed martial arts” mindset comes in: you train in multiple disciplines, adopt the techniques that work well for you, and discard the ones that don’t. You may be able to sink a triangle choke perfectly according to instruction, but if you find doing so takes you off your game, you’re better off keeping that technique in the “under development” category of your brain and utilizing what you know you’re capable of, if and when you find yourself in a dangerous situation. There are no points awarded for attempted techniques in competition, and there are no accolades for almost stopping an attacker in real life.

Of course, this mindset involves mental discipline — there’s a significant difference between what doesn’t work and what you just don’t like doing. Just like in writing, you can break rules for effect, but you’ve got to know them and practice them first; otherwise there’s no difference between you and someone that was never taught at all.

There’s a common legend about the colored belting systems employed by martial arts disciplines that says all warriors wore white belts, but as a student traveled, learned, and trained, that belt gradually grew dirtier and more battle worn, eventually making the transition to black at around the same pace as the fighter’s skill set developed to match. That legend has little basis in reality (belting systems are actually an advent of the 19th century and most agree they were introduced by the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano).

Legend or not, there’s an important lesson to be learned from the story: the idea that, to become a master, you had to travel and train under different teachers in different variations of a discipline, honing your skills against different opponents was meant to emphasize the concept of developing a well-rounded skill set that was, in many ways, as much about thinking as it was about doing. Being a fighter is a mindset as well as a skill set, and despite the risk of sounding like I attribute too much spiritual vigor to my workouts, I honestly feel that being an athlete is no different.

Over the years, I’ve trained in pankration [Greek wrestling], Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay thai, various Filipino martial arts, scholastic wrestling, and of course the hodge-podge of techniques employed by the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program and, if you really pushed me, I could probably demonstrate some of the differences inherent to each, but honestly, they’ve all kind of blended into the sloppy Marine with a solid right cross and a propensity for submissions that I am today. Like my friend from South Africa that immigrated through Tennessee, my fighting style has developed an accent all its own — unique when compared to the elements it’s made of, and more defined when I lose my temper.

My fitness regimen has likewise become a unique collection of practices I’ve found to be especially effective for me. My metabolism (despite betraying me at around 30) still allows for looser discipline in my diet than many of my peers, my body’s knack for building muscle on my lower body faster than my upper ensures that I won’t ever be accused of skipping leg day and, to be totally honest, I’ve always been weaker on the bench than I ought to be based on my overall fitness levels. These and a million other small variables have, over time, informed my fitness endeavors, and once coupled with a laundry list of injuries I need to allow for, it has developed into a style all its own.

But here’s the thing people hate hearing: my method works for me, and ultimately may not be as effective for you. Your list of variables are different, the injuries you’ve accumulated over the years don’t affect you the same way, you may have more trouble adding mass or putting on weight may be your biggest challenge. If I can claim a “black belt” in fitness, it’s truly derived from my years spent traveling and learning under various schools of thought, not because I once passed a test that dubbed me a “trainer.”

People who are first getting into fitness are often looking for a sheet of paper with a list of exercises, sets, and reps that will guarantee them someone else’s success. That’s a fine place to start, but as you continue along the road to your own fitness goals, whether its to run a marathon or to squat 500 pounds, allow yourself to grow, to absorb new things and, when necessary, to dismiss the things that don’t prove as effective for you. If greatness could be easily reproduced using a checklist, it wouldn’t be that great at all.

Remember, seek scientific evidence to support your fitness decisions, but as you develop a relationship with your body, seek insight from within. When you see yourself respond well to five sets rather than four, to doing cardio before your workout rather than after, or you find that doing front squats aggravates old injuries, learn from it and move forward.

Get that fitness belt dirty by trying to master new things, and embrace the wisdom born out of finding what doesn’t work, as much as what does.

About Alex Hollings

Old Man Fitness: Superstition, fitness and the power of belief

The old adage, “there are no atheists in foxholes,” while maybe not universally true, speaks to the level of helplessness that’s inherent to our very being. No matter how hard you work, no matter how prepared you try to be, there comes a time when there’s nothing left to do but succeed or fail. There, in that moment, all you can do is try your best and pray that your best is enough.

In a recent appearance on SOFREP Radio, Jack Murphy, Ian Scotto and I were talking about the differences in our fitness mentalities. Ian thoroughly enjoys the fitness lifestyle. I lift for the same reasons I sharpen my knives, clean my guns, and change the oil in my car. Jack, however, mentioned that he has trouble differentiating between the act of working out and it’s ultimate use as a tool for violence.

“When I work out, I feel like I’m preparing for war,” he explained. Even as a kid, Jack Murphy took to exercise with the intrinsic understanding that eventually, the endeavor culminates in taking lives. He didn’t grow up drinking in dirt floor bars and trying to find excuses to turn rugby games into fist fights like I did, and as such, his appreciation for physical preparation took on a different flavor, but beyond that fundamental difference in our approach, our paths aren’t without common ground.

There are no atheists in foxholes.

For some, religion plays as significant a role in their lives as a loved one, and while I respect that in my spiritual brothers and sisters (and even in my spouse) I’ve always struggled with my own set of beliefs, and through that struggle, a number of superstitions have taken hold. Not everything I do comes with a rational explanation: I wrapped my right wrist for every football and rugby game I played in, from high school, to college, to the Marine Corps. The wrist does give me trouble from time to time, but that’s not why I did it. As a young man, I found that I could deliver a pretty damaging blow to the sides of opposing player’s helmets with a clubbed up wrist, and eventually, I came to feel naked without it. Finally, as I approached my first playoff game in the Marine Corps, our trainer asked why I wrapped my own wrist before every game.

“Because I wouldn’t be any good without it.” I explained, grabbing two roles of tape from his table and forgoing the line to receive professional help in the endeavor. I didn’t need a trainer to wrap my wrist the right way, I needed it wrapped the way I’d always done it.

My old college rugby team didn’t shy away from superstition or tradition — demanding terrible prices be paid from new ruggers that score their first Try (comparable to a touchdown in American football). Shooting the boot is undoubtedly a form of hazing that has likely been banned since, but in my day, your first Try meant your first date with the boot: a cleat, worn in the day’s game, filled with beer and passed around the team for additional … ingredients. Dirt, spit, and worse finds its way into the alcoholic elixir and there, surrounded by a few dozen of your closest friends, you chug the poison from the cleat to the cheers of the crowd. Soon, you find yourself buying ever shorter shorts despite Rugby jerseys sporting collars and, often, long sleeves. Tradition, superstition, holds that the shorter your shorts, the faster you run.

When your shorts are shorter than your underwear… then you really start moving.

In the gym, I lift by myself and have for years. Workout partners have come and gone, but the problem with the buddy system is that you come to rely on your buddy to justify your workout. When your buddy can’t make it, you give yourself a pass on skipping a day; after all, you’d have no spotter. Then your buddy takes a week off, then a month, and before you know it, you’ve both got Type 2 Diabetes together and you’ve got a buddy to help with insulin injections.

You’d think, then, that my workouts are free from cultural superstitions like one might find in a weight room occupied by a football or rugby team — after all, no one would shoot their own boot but as I thought about Jack’s comments, relating working out to his practical experiences in combat, I started to see the ways my own practical experiences continue to influence my methods. Many of the things I do in the gym are informed by old habits, born out of superstitions or practical applications now long behind me.

I walk circles around my makeshift gym between sets, keeping my heart rate elevated and often counting softly to myself — just as I did between rounds when training for a fight. I don’t put clips on the bar when under the bench, even when using weights I know I can manage because, when lifting alone, clips are an act of hubris. Securing the plates to the end of the bar means I’m certain I won’t fail — and if you ever find yourself certain of such a thing, you’re probably not working out right. I very rarely allow myself to fail so badly I have to tip myself over and let the plates fall on the concrete floor of my garage — though the cracks surrounding my bench will tell you it isn’t unheard of — but really, it’s my fear of bad luck that keeps the clips off the bar.

My superstitions have become so ingrained in my methodology, that I often have trouble rooting them out from the litany of practices and procedures I’ve adopted over the years. Some are easy to call out: a lucky shirt, a favorite song for max-days. Others are a little more nuanced: the order of my lifts when pursuing a new personal best is a good example. One might argue that I’ve developed a system that lets me maximize my potential when choosing to go really heavy, but the truth is, it’s more about building myself up with a series of lifts I feel good about than warming up. What began as an exercise in self confidence has become an exercise in superstition: I stick to what I know works on my max days, and fear reprisal from the lifting gods when breaking from tradition.

Much like my friends that attend church on Sunday mornings, the daily sermons echoing through my basement in the form of clanging plates and muffled grunts are physical manifestations of a combination of practical knowledge and unsubstantiated belief. Faith, my religious friends remind me, doesn’t rely on evidence to prove its worth. Ultimately, proof is faith’s undoing after all, because with proof, belief becomes nothing more than fact and there’s no room for magic in that.

These Old Man Fitness columns always place an emphasis on seeking a scientific grounding for your workout decisions, and with good reason. Most supplement companies are nothing more than modern day snake oil salesman and barely a week goes by without some new workout fad taking the internet by storm (and ultimately proving to be little better than the last one) but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a little superstition — a little faith — in your regimen. If you need a scientific justification for the power of believe, I remind you of the placebo effect, wherein people manifest physical changes in their body through nothing more than the belief something is happening.

There doesn’t always have to be a logical explanation for the ways you prepare your body for the challenges you present it with, just as long as you find the balance between what helps you and what’s just predatory marketing. You’ll never catch me buying a laser to zap my love handles or rubbing crystals on my aching joints.

… But you’ll never catch with me clips on the end of my bar either.