Love What you Do. Do What You Love.

      There’s that universal non-runner reaction that you get when you tell someone that you started off your day with a 6 mile run: “The only reason I would run 6 miles is if a bear was chasing me.” Or, sometimes they are less polite and simply ask, “What was chasing you?”  From one vantage point, training for endurance events is aimless or on the borderline of crazy. From another, it is a saving grace, a sense of normalcy, a constant. Sometimes it’s less poetic, and our reason for sweating for an hour or more is simply to make some room on our dinner plate. No matter the reason (and we all have our own), training has a special place in our lives.

       Endurance athletes are a unique group of people who share the same challenges of smashing PR’s, avoiding injury, and carving time out of every day to train. Most of us realize that although this lifestyle is built on the principle of staying healthy and fit, there are aspects of it that are clearly unhealthy. Recently I read about the “endurance athlete cycle”, which went something like this: train, injury, rehab. At first, I was angered at this simplification of the form of training that I love the most. But as I kept reading and pondering, I realized that this describes my training life perfectly. Oops.

     What are the reasons for this cycle? The list is extensive, but it centers around Type A personality, improper training technique, and (most surprising) overtraining. My eyes began to resist reading any further. It hurts to agree with an article bashing something that you love so deeply. Training high volumes is only healthy for those who can handle it, i.e. professional and elite athletes. These lucky people have the right combination of genes that allows them to handle more than us mortals. For those of us who are less fortunate, trying to train enough to crest our potential usually results in musculoskeletal injury.

    There is an important distinction between exercise and training. Exercise is purposeful movement with the goal of improving health. Training is purposeful exercise with the goal of improving performance. Honestly, most of us would be better off with the former rather than the latter.  Most of us wear our training hours like a badge of honor, but past a certain point, more is not better. I hate to expound upon the personality argument, but people like us think more is better in all situations. We race through grocery stores or to class. We’ll take any opportunity to make a competition out of everyday life, and strive to be the best if it seems within our realm. Training is sort of like following the directions on a medicine bottle. Take too little at the wrong time, and a less than desirable effect will follow. Take too much, and you’re in trouble. Unfortunately, people don’t come with labels, but we all have a level of training that our bodies respond the best to. How do you find that level, you ask? Well, as you may have guessed, the only way to really know is to get dangerously close to that threshold—which is like trying to walk a tight rope across the Great Divide. As someone who has been down Overtraining Road more than a few times, I know that you are aware when you get close to the edge. Doing something about it, however, is a whole other story.

     So, then, what is the reason for the endurance athlete cycle? Although the answer is complicated (as stated above), I can answer it in one, simple, word: Love.

    Love for the people that we sweat with. Love for that feeling you get when you cross a finish line and receive a “you did it” hug. Love for the sight of the sun rising over a morning run. Love for gossiping across the handlebars and laughing at stupid jokes after riding for too long. Love for the camaraderie that we share.

    No matter the reason, training is a light in all of our lives. It’s kind of like a faithful dog, always sitting there with you as it’s only attention. All of the other reasons aside, the most comforting thing about training is that it is always there.

Love what you do. Do what you love.

My Favorite Exercises, and Why

1. Squat
The squat is a two-joint beauty of an exercise. Nothing is better for strengthening the glutes, quads, and hamstrings all in one nice, fluid motion (at least it should be). I love the variations: front squat, back squat, wide stance, narrow stance...I could go on and on. My favorite thing about the squat, though is looking the knee-buckling bro's in the gym straight in the eye as I bend properly from the hips and get down past a 90 degree knee angle. And without the grunting. Okay, actually that is my second favorite thing. My absolute favorite (related) thing about the squat is how proper squat form can just make your hips...work. I don't really know a better word for it. Hip mobility is important for a wide range of activity; and one could argue that all lower extremity running injuries originate from a hip mobility/strength deficit. Squats are number one in my book.

2. Bench Press

Yes, I am aware that if I am not an offensive lineman who pushes people around in the sagittal plane all day, the bench press has no functional purpose. I suppose you could justify it if your looking for pectoral hypertrophy, but that's obviously not the reason, as I'm a girl triathlete who still desires to fit in my tri top. The reason I like the bench press is purely because  there's some weird sense of satisfaction that comes along with lifting more than your body weight off of your chest. Try doing that with half the muscle, boys!

3. Renegade Row

I love rows to begin with. They are great for opening up the chest, scapular mobility, and strengthening the back and lats-two really important swimming muscles. I like all the variations: Seated, bent over, single arm or bilateral bench, standing on a bosu ball...but I LOVE the renegade row. Any chance you get to work a major muscle group plus the core, do it. This variation work on your chest and core isometrically, all the while teaching your moving arm to generate torque and power with only one contact on the ground. BOOM. Great exercise.

4. Pull ups

Nothing says "I am classy, old school, and hardcore" as knocking out set of pull ups in the gym. In a world of heavy weight cheaters, you stand alone as one who doesn't need a bench to show you've got muscles. These have many variations as well, and it's easy to manipulate if you want to hit one muscle group more than the other. It's the perfect thing to cure someone of their "too much chest exercise syndrome" (also called hyperpectoria) and is the best way to load the lats. I argue that it's best for triathletes because it better mimics the way one pulls their body over the water than a lat pulldown does.

5. The Plank

It may not look like much, but the plank is the gold star of core exercises. It's one of the few that expounds upon it's role in everyday life: keeping us upright and coordinated in movement. The role of the core is stabilization, with the exception of sports that involve rotation such as swimming, baseball, and tennis. However, to train the core for these sports you don't have train the rotation, you have to train to control the rotation. The plank, along with it's variations, should be a staple in most exercise routines. Plus, it can be used as a mental toughness tool when performed for longer than 5 minutes (not recommended, your back will sag in a way you thought not possible)

6. Bicep Curls

Change

        "Everyone has the capacity for change, but not everyone is willing to change."

      Sometimes we are at a loss. We have these awesome, intricate, powerful, and frankly enigmatic brains in our heads, but yet most of the time we don't know how to use them. We oftentimes don't--or feel that we don't--have control over the only thing in this world in which we, in reality, have complete control. Our brains can integrate and respond so quickly to the environment because we fall into patterns of use based on past experiences and traits that are inherent to who we are. Another, more familiar word for these patterns is personality. All too often, people accept who they are as if they cannot change, or cannot grow. I'm not saying that everyone should psychoanalyze themselves, but I am saying that changing behavior is more possible than you think.

      Neuroplasticity is the concept that new synaptic connections can be made in the brain when performing new tasks or experiencing new things. Put simply, this means that neurons that weren't previously talking to each other are now in full conversation. This allows us to perform new exercises, learn a new song, or understand a new concept in school. This can be applied even to the most ingrained behaviors, it just takes a little extra effort and a good support system.

      The reason why people who want behavior change (for example, losing weight) have nutritionists, personal trainers, and training partners is not only because they need the advice and expertise, but also because they need to be surrounded by people who model the change that they want to see in themselves. Other people are our most powerful tool when it comes to change. For some reason, people are programmed to observe and learn from other people, perhaps sometimes because it is easier than deciphering a problem on our own. We all know this to be true. For example, when you are around one of those (rare) happy-go-lucky people, you start to feel that way too; even if you are in the midst of a terrible day. Attitude is contagious, and getting rid of a bad attitude isn't as simple as washing your hands.

     Of course, the aforementioned example is just in the time frame a a single day or moment. But what about chronic change? What about life shapes us into who we are in the present? That's right, it's the sum of those single moments and single situations that make us react and grow. But the only way we grow in change is through an intrinsic drive; an open door, if you will. Open-mindedness can be tough, especially when dealing with something as special as yourself. The effort that it takes to hold that heavy door open is worth it when there is something that you want but don't have.

   Nobody is perfect, and no one should want to be perfect. Imperfection is what makes the world go round and makes life fun. But if you want something of yours to change for the better, it is completely in your control. There is never a reason to believe that you aren't in the driver's seat of your life train. In the words of Dr. Seuss: "You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes, and you can take them in any direction you choose."