PR Appeal

As we approach the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, I wanted to discuss with you the lure of the Personal Record (PR).  This past year, I have only set a single PR, and that was in an unbelted deadlift.  Something that I used to do, however, was chase the PR and that would get me into trouble. 

I bring this up because once you hit a PR, and especially if you do it fairly
regularly (which is common for novice exercisers), you're apt to keep chasing it.  It's kind of like a heroin addict chasing the high.  Once you reach the first PR, it's onto the next one and to the next one.  While this can be a very positive thing, it also comes with a risk, and that risk may be overtraining, excessive overreaching, burnout, or injury. 

While we are exiting 2017, think about the PR's you've set, if you've set any.  Looking to the future, think about the PR's you'd like to set for 2018.  Dedicating your training to reaching the PR's is more effective at facilitating a positive change for your entire well-being rather than attempting to dedicate your exercise with the sole intent to change your image. 

The PR can identify how you train, how you think, and how you feel.  You'll train harder, smarter, and with greater purpose.  You'll think clearer, with focus, and purpose.  You'll feel stronger, leaner, and tighter.  PR's are made with hard work.  They're made with a sound strategy. And they're only made by those ready to make them. 

As we enter 2018, what PR's are important to you?  How will you go about achieving those PR's?  And what will you do to reach them? 

The chase is on!

Lifting can be the most rewarding thing to piss you off

Just before March ended, by about a week, I finished up one of the most tortuous lifting programs that I can do.  Truthfully, it wasn't anything that was super hard, but I felt burnt out and beat up towards the end.  On my scheduled days to "max" my body and the weights did not agree, with the weights laughing at me the whole time.

If I took a week off, I'd probably be able to go into it and hit the maxes that I thought I could reach.  I basically spent the last 5 or 6 months frying my Central Nervous System with hitting big (for me at the time) weights on a very regular basis.  I have about 3 joints that also felt completely beat up, mainly my left elbow and knee and my right hip.

After I failed, which honestly pissed me off to no end, I took a week off and as I write this today I feel great.  Most weeks, my body has to tense up fairly often for a variety of people to strike in various ways, from kicks to punches.  So I really don't get full-blown rest until I take a vacation.  I don't plan on reattempting the maxes at all, just an overhaul of the plan that I was lifting to.

Early on, I felt that progress was definitely being made.  It was rewarding to reach some numbers that I either hadn't before or was only just getting back to.  Towards the end, however, the warm-ups were nearly kicking my ass.  My thoughts into this were that I went from a high volume/high-intensity program, performing big lifts nearly every single day, to an even more neurological aggressive program without any in-between rest.


I'm still going to be chasing after my goals for the year, but I'm going to take a step back and manage it better.  I need to add more cardio to my life, even though I'm not a fan of it.  Most of this is to get my weight back down some, as it's gotten a little out of control with only focusing on the lifting.  As I've alluded to in prior posts, my body is in a perpetual state of war with weight management.

To watch some of the progress, follow me on Instagram at martin_iii_mc

What are you made of?

What challenges you?  Do you ever really see what you can do either mentally or physically?  If you haven't, why haven't you?  If you have, what did you do with that knowledge?

For myself physically, it's the deadlift that I consider my challenge.  It's also a lift that I'm not terrible at.  It's widely considered the "king of the lifts" because of it's muscular activation and neural activation.  I enjoy the rawness to it, as it cannot be cheated.  My challenge with it is to constantly improve it without taking out any other aspect of my life.  Every time I attempt a max to it, my body is extremely fatigued for several days afterward, which I consider the worst part. 

Mentally I'm always looking for some type of challenge.  To engage this, I've decided to learn a new language (amongst several other things I'm doing).  The language I chose is Russian.  Unlike m
ore traditional languages such as Spanish or French, this uses an entirely different alphabet, which adds to the fun.  I've been on it for a little over 2 weeks now, using an app called Duolingo.  In truth, the goal for learning Russian will be to conduct business, with the MBA I'm working on, in the future.

I bring these both up because of the constant feedback that each provide.  The deadlift will tell me whether or not I'm able to do it, and it's simple.  The barbell either moves or it doesn't.  For the language, the app tells me when I spell a word incorrectly or identify a word incorrectly, which happens a lot.  But ultimately I feel that success will happen regardless if I keep it up.

What do you do to push yourself?  Most people fear this push rather than thrive on it.  They fear the failure, but forget that you learn from failure.  You don't learn from success, success only allows for goals to be set.

Identify what drives you, what challenges you, and what motivates you.  Decide on it now what you'll do about it and set forth on a quest to be successful.  You'll be all the better for it.