PracticeBalance

Pursuing simplicity in work, home, community, and self

Doing Hard Things (Follow Up): My Tactical Strength Challenge Experience

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My max deadlift
Early one recent Saturday morning, we drove to a gym that we had never been to on the other side of town. We entered the Crossfit style training facility, registered and weighed in, then warmed up with Metallica’s Enter Sandman blasting from the speakers. Three hours later, the Tactical Strength Challenge was over! We worked very hard, met some really nice people equally passionate about doing hard things, and learned some good lessons in the process:
Hubby starting his snatch test

Every once in a while, do something with people you don’t know. We had trained on our own for this competition, but most of the people there had trained together. Walking in we knew no one, and the mood was a little tense with anticipation. It seems so childish, but for introverts it can be a challenge just to strike up a conversation in this type of scenario. I complimented a couple of the women on their impressive deadlifts (my go-to tactic for breaking the ice)… By the end of the challenge, we had chatted with many of the other competitors and connected on various topics, both strength and non-strength related.

Strength is both specific and relative. All sorts of body shapes can be strong, and there are many different ways to be strong. This event brought competitors of a wide range of ages and sizes. We were by far the tallest people there, which confers some challenging physics for efficient weight lifting. My best deadlift was worlds lower than most of the other women there. It was inspiring to see these women – some older, some larger and some smaller – powerfully lift so much weight off the ground! And yet my climbing background and strong grip strength allowed me dominate the second event: the flexed arm hang (pullups for the more advanced competitors). I came in second of all of the competitors across the country in the Women’s Novice division (77 seconds)! You can view all the results here.


From the Results page: bold #s = placement in each event,
smaller #’s = actual score with body weight in ( ). My division had 47 people.

I can do more than I think I can. This is probably the most important thing I learned. I’ve written before on my self-limiting beliefs about my athletic abilities, developed extensively during my childhood. One reinforcing memory involved the physical fitness testing all children had to complete in elementary school. I distinctively remember my flexed arm hang score: ZERO seconds. Every year. Now, at age 43 and much heavier, look at me! Not only am I breaking my own paradigm as an “old lady”, I exceeded my expectations during the actual event compared to my performance during training sessions. I may not be built to be a powerlifting competitor or an elite climber, but it brings me great happiness to witness the process of improvement and to continue to dispel old beliefs that don’t serve me. Now the key is to avoid forming new self-limiting beliefs!

I’m ready for a change. My body has been telling me to stop training so hard for a little while now. It turns out that I have a labral tear in my shoulder from all the snatching and pullup work (I achieved my first pullup – finally – during this training cycle). All the muscles of my posterior chain feel like a tight, hard sheet extending from my mid-back down to my knees, and my mobility has really gone downhill. I’m psychologically tired of constantly increasing the weight or reps every time I work out. My head and body both need a break from this style of training.

What’s next? I want to spend some time recovering, focusing on mobility and flexibility again, doing more yoga and some fun movement that’s not too serious. Maybe climbing more again!

The Case For Functional Fitness

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How low can you go? The “toddler squat” = the perfect squa

Working in an operating room and following my patients postoperatively give me a great appreciation for the role of proper body functioning before and after surgery. I distinctly remember my own postoperative experience after major brain surgery, six years ago this month. I spent days lying in a hospital bed waiting for my fluid status and blood electrolytes to normalize, suffering intense headaches, eating lackluster hospital food, and barely engaging in any physical activity. When I was released, I could barely get out of a seated position without help. Exiting the seat of a car was a huge endeavor, requiring bracing and steadying my hands on the car door and frame. Taking stairs felt like a monumental task. And this was after brain surgery. On an otherwise healthy 37 year old. Who likes to fancy herself as athletic!

After this experience, I could only imagine what was in store for my orthopedic surgery patients, who are usually much older and have many more health issues at baseline. How do they successfully move on from the assault on their limbs? While proper physical therapy is a cornerstone of effective postoperative recovery, range of motion, strength, and balance should ideally be addressed before people undergo a major surgery.

Those of us who engage in regular physical activity like to think that we are “fit”. Yet how functional is our fitness, really? Can you do a pullup, a pushup, a bodyweight squat? How about a one-legged bodyweight squat? These are only some metrics of functional fitness, and I can tell you that currently can’t do any of them except for the pushup. The Sitting-Rising-Test (SRT) was designed and studied in 2000+ patients to inversely correlate longevity with the amount of “points” you require to get your body down to the ground and back up again. I’m pretty good (but not perfect) on that one, needing to use one hand to go from sitting on the ground to standing.

After spending some “me” time lifting weights this spring, I’m turning attention to my mobility as a means to facilitate gaining more strength. I’ve adopted a practice of doing at least 10 bodyweight squats per day in perfect form (which for me, at the present moment, requires grabbing onto something with my hands at the bottom of the squat position due to ankle mobility limitations). Here is a link to the best video I’ve seen on regressions of the squat for poor mobility situations. I’m also still working on achieving a real pullup – the sticking point being the bottom or initiation of the pull – by doing at least one scapular retraction exercise every day.

We all have busy lives. Focusing on functional exercises over other types of activity may benefit us not only for overall fitness but for that moment in the future when we get sick or need an operation.

What about you? Have you considered your functional fitness? What kinds of exercises are you trying lately?

Working On Me Again

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Pretty light for a deadlift, but you have to start somewhere

Fitness and nutrition have played a significant role in my life since my days in Arizona as an undergraduate, a skinnyfat 19 year old who had only ever played music (not sports) as a kid, trying to impress a very tall athletic ex-volleyball player. (I’m now married to that guy!) In over 20 years, I’ve been a climber (still am!), a step aerobics queen, a runner, a triathlete, a yogi, a snowboarder, a P90X-er, a lifter… done vegetarianism, veganism, eaten paleo and IIFYM bodybuilding style. I didn’t do these as fads to lose weight; they mark specific times in my life that involved a certain way of eating and/or a style of movement. To say that thinking about these things is a big part of my life would be an understatement.

But something was different right after I gave birth. Thoughts of self-improvement were pushed out by infant caring and feeding. Also, pregnancy and childbirth and a good couple years of IVF limbo really took a toll on my motivation to try hard, to project, to work on my own physical goals. It took a while to resurface, but the part of me that wanted to try hard showed up again in Greece, when we were taking turns watching baby and climbing. I had some great sends out on the rock, and I also got shut down on some difficult routes that made me want to get stronger. I’m finally feeling ready to work on myself again in this realm – to experiment on my body with fitness and nutrition.

As much as some researchers have tried to construct them, good clinical trials for fitness and nutrition regimens don’t really exist. There’s only so far a rat study can be extrapolated to humans, and it’s difficult to design control arms of research for diet and exercise interventions. But we are all our own N=1 experiment. If you have the curiosity and motivation to try new things, and the patience to stick with them for at least a little while (I’d say at least 3-4 weeks), you can perform your own health studies on yourself. How something works for you is the only thing that matters anyway.

So here’s what I’m currently trying:

Eating low carb every day except for one. I’m loosely following a diet protocol referred to as CarbNite or Carb Backloading. It might have a gimmick-y ring to it, but the idea is to eat carbohydrates in a reverse diurnal rhythm to daily cortisol pulsations. In general, it is low-carb eating with punctuated periods of higher carbs (for me, about one evening a week). My husband has been eating this way for years, having higher carb dinners following any workout day. I’ve been wanting to try it with the once/week carb night, and so far I am seeing good results. Since the end of October, I haven’t seen the scale move (which is fine with me), but my clothes have gotten looser and measurements have slightly changed. I have good energy for workouts, I don’t feel the faintiness I often get of from blood sugar fluctuations, and my cravings for sugar have definitely decreased.

Weight lifting 2-3 days per week. Especially now with the mix of motherhood and work, I try to follow this exercise triage:

Remember my self-care triage? 

Well, I made one for exercise types as well but never really expounded on it for the blog.

Weight training is empowering, effective, not generally as burnout-inducing as chronic cardio or tons of high-volume metabolic work (a la Crossfit), and I have come to love it over the years. It’s so good to be doing it again! I’m following a whole body push/pull split, which means that one day I dedicate my workout to pushing exercises such as pushups, squats, hip thrusts, and presses. For the pulling day, I’m falling in love with the deadlift again, and I also do assisted pullups (Nope, still can’t do one!), pullovers, and kettlebell swings.

There are SO MANY weight lifting programs out there to follow – from Wendler 5-3-1 to Westside Barbell to Stronglifts 5×5 to supersets and other bodybuilding-style rep schemes. Trying to choose one can lead to analysis paralysis, so at some point you just have to just go with something and see what happens. For the past couple of months, I’ve been doing own hybrid program for the push/pull schedule. I first work on a compound strength movement in a 5×5 style set and rep scheme. Then I do supersets of upper and lower body exercises for the rest of the time, at a weight where I can complete 8-10 reps usually. I finish off with a couple of core exercises and some mobility work.

If you’re just starting out with weight training, I highly recommend either working with someone or closely following a book format like this with good photos for demonstration. Even if you have some experience making the movements, it can be helpful to hire a trainer. I am planning to do once a week personal training sessions in this new year to help further inspire me to get stronger. Results of that to come…

Still walking as much as possible. While I haven’t been quantifying my steps, I am still trying to take walks as often as I can. My long walks usually correspond to days off, but with our recent move they sometimes got thrown by the wayside. Now that I’ve established the twice weekly weight training habit, I’ll gradually try increasing my walks and yoga/massage/mobility work.

I have some other New Year’s resolutions, but these things are a major focus for me in the new year. How about you? What are you working on in 2017? Share it here!

Ode to the Deadlift

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(Image courtesy www.dieselcrew.com.)

This is the picture that most people associate with the deadlift. It even has an ominous name: Dead. Lift. But we have all deadlifted, even my grandmother. Have you ever bent down to pick something up off of the floor? Then you have, too.

(This is not my grandma, but this is pretty darn cool. Image courtesy www.nerdfitness.com.)

The deadlift is one of the most revered exercises, and it is my absolute favorite. Why? It is pure function in motion. We NEED this movement in our lives, whether it’s in the back yard (rogue leaves), at the big box store (40 lb bag of dog food), at work (paper wad missed the basket), or at home (furniture rearrange!). Think of the implications: if there was a fire and your loved one was out cold, could you drag him to safety? Your child breaks her leg in the park; could you swiftly get her in the car and off to the emergency room?

I revel in the capabilities that deadlifting has given me. I’m stronger in the core, grip, and latismus muscles from deadlifting with a barbell. It has helped my climbing AND my ability to carry that huge bag of dog food from the back of the Costco warehouse to the check out counter. Yes, I’m fine waiting in line. No, I don’t need a basket. My balance has improved from doing one-leg bodyweight deadlift drills. When I come across that uneven terrain on the trail or that rare cobblestone street, I won’t trip and fall (hopefully!).

Let me reassure you that deadlifting will not make you look like the guy above. But it will get you leaner, functionally stronger, and more confident! Here are some pictures of variations on the deadlift:



Lastly, I refer you to this article from Girls Gone Strong about benefits of the deadlift, specific variations, and how to properly do each one. What do you think? Did I convince you to incorporate this into your exercise practice? Or have you already been deadlifting (and possibly not know it)?