Hey hey!
Thanks for checking out my Sunday digest. Here are the 3 pieces I have for you today.
One rep at a time. The real story of how you can conquer your impossible and insurmountable task.
What do you do after you climb your Everest? Do you hang out there? Or do you come back down?
My thought on celebrating and acknowledging our uniqueness. And on snowflakes and how it is mind-boggling that they are unique.
One rep at a time
Snap my finger
You have to start somewhere. For me, the day that is etched in my memory is my first-ever 1-mile run. Which I did about a third of and slunk away. My heart wanted it. My head wanted it. My blasted legs did not want any fucking part of it.
But snap your fingers and say abracadabra, there I was, running 21k at the San Jose Half a few months later.
Off I went to CrossFit, with dreams of 6-pack abs and throwing the barbell around and jumping on boxes my height. Snap my fingers and all I found was myself lying on the floor, ass-whooped after the warmup.
Warmup
I thought Angel (my coach at SFCF who ran the Intro sessions) was the funniest guy when he asked "Are you guys warmed up?" as I valiantly tried not to sway or throw up. But unfortunately, that was really just the warmup. Apparently running 21k does not inject superhumanness into every skill I decided to pick. A harsh lesson to learn, it was.
Not this time
Every time until then, when faced with the reality of a situation similar to this, I had walked away. I had cited some nonsense about how this was not right for me, how the stars were not aligned, blah blah fucking blah.
But I nailed one thing this time around - from my 28-day yoga, my 21k, and my transformative year and a half at SFCF.
One rep at a time
I changed my goal to one rep at a time. One step at a time. Runners will be mighty familiar with this. Every run starts off the same way - why the fuck am I running?!?! It is always too hot or too cold or too muggy or too something to be running.
Especially when you suck at it, the distances that seem nonchalant to everyone else seem nonsensical to you. Run 3 miles (5k) as a cool-down?! What the fudge is wrong with you people?! That's something that requires hard planning, motivation, a couple of bagels, and good weather.
But I nailed this thing. I'd look at a tree a few metres in front of me and just cajole myself to run to that tree. Once I hit that tree, well, the next tree. No tree in sight - well, that stain on the road, those people walking the dog over there, that turn in the road. You get the idea.
At CrossFit, I revamped this strategy to one rep at a time. Almost every workout would be high volume and HIIT and all that jazz. 30 wall-balls (thrusters with a heavy ball that you throw up a wall, above a certain line), 30 pushups, 30 pullups, 400m run for as many circuits - about the norm. For me, one rep at a time. And when I had no more, pause, and then, you guessed it, one rep at a time. And then move on to the next exercise in the circuit - one rep at a time.
10 sets of 1. Not 1 set of 10.
This radically transformed my fitness. Showing up, obviously. But once I was there, one rep at a time. It allowed me to get my mind to wrap its head around running further and further. It enabled me to finish CrossFit workouts and even get to finishing them somewhere in the middle.
Of course, I tend to get carried away. Aim too high, get burned by the sun and fail. But then, get back, and chant the mantra - one rep at a time. Of course, this is the best one for strength work. But it works for anything, to be honest. A set of 10 swings - Nah. It is 10 sets of 1 rep at a time.
In the present
Much later, I'd discover that this is a lesson to be in the present. To not get caught up by your failures in the past and get demotivated or scared and give in to fear. And to not get caught up in the future, of daydreaming and competing at the CrossFit games or finishing the Ironman, or worrying about how the heck you are gonna get through the rest of this workout when at minute 2/25, you are feeling slightly pukish and at minute 4, you aren't sure which hole things are gonna explode out of.
But one rep at a time. Run to the next tree. Do the next rep perfectly.
Most times, you have the next one after that. You will make it to the next tree. To the next set.
And to the next training session.
Training is my sandbox for life.
Every time I am faced with a difficult situation, something I do not want to be in, something I want to stop doing and do something easier - I tell myself to get to the next tree, to write the next line, the next paragraph, to do the next rep. And breathe. And then, one more rep. Just one more.
It works.
It works every time.
Funnily, when I don't listen to it, it doesn't work.
Every time I have the guts to listen to my learning - one rep at a time - it fucking works. Across the board. Across whatever I wanna do, or rather, don't wanna do.
Couch to 5k - one rep/tree at a time.
Lose 50 kilos - one rep/day/kilo at a time.
Be in the present, the here and now and all that jazz might sometimes seem nonsensical speak. Well, of course, it is not. You make it into a version that works for you.
One rep at a time.
What do you do after you climb your Everest?
Summiting Everest is a challenge that sits at the back of quite a few of our minds. A challenge that will need a lot of courage, training, willpower, stamina, strength, and a whole lot more. You train for it, for months or years, depending on your current physical and mental levels. You might need to have quite a few practices climbs, over lesser peaks.
So, you do. You train for it. You dedicate the better part of your mind and body and money and energies to this huge endeavour.
Whatever your Everest is.
And you do it! What an achievement.
Only you know the hardships, the number of days when you were sore or didn't want to do it. But you showed up anyway. The days when everyone else was sleeping and comfortable but you woke up while it was pitch-dark outside and did your thing. The days when it was easy. The days when it was impossible. The days when everything else was overwhelming and you questioned your sanity about this stupid meaningless challenge.
But you did it. You fucking beauty!
What next?
First up, Everest is a metaphor. Of course, you can literally be climbing up Everest. Or a moderate hill in the mountains. Or walking 5k. Or touching your toes. Whatever your Everest is - whatever seems impossible but you know is about figuring out the next rep and showing up as many times as it takes to get the job done.
But what next? Once you are at the peak? As Coach Dan John reminds us, the step after a peak is a cliff. Meaning it is a fall and a long way down. If you continue to persist in climbing more and more and more - that's what is going to happen. Your mind, body or spirit will fail without adequate replenishment, celebration, and a breather.
Let's stay on top
But that's what a lot of us think we need to do. We need to climb Everest and stay on top of it. For one, the oxygen is rather low. There's no WiFi. Or showers and loos and all that. So, you cannot live there.
So, come on back down and let's have a party!
You come back down, you chill. You recognise that you have the ability, the drive, the "whatever it takes" to do such a crazy feat. You have that gear in you. But you don't keep staying at that gear.
You find something else that grows you and challenges you. Whether it is a path that forks off the main one or is tangential to it - as long as you connect with it. But one thing is clear - staying on top AND doing something else makes little sense.
How is this relevant to you?
You think getting a 6-pack is the end of the road. Nopes. Some of you might be able to do that and continue. But most of you (us, I should say, so as to include myself as I fall in here) will get there sometimes and not get there most other times. And you will be so annoyed that you might not even notice the view.
You cannot stay there. Let's do something else. And it need not mean climbing K2. What about going on a pleasant trek, filled with meadows and trees and flowers? And not just freeze-your-tingly-privates-cold weather and inhumane conditions?!?! Not everything needs to challenge you to your core.
You think coz everyone's climbing Everest, that you climbing the large hill or going on that almost-flat trek is useless or pointless. No, buddy! You go do your thing. Everest gets the headlines coz we all like big numbers and bullcrap like that.
The radical middle
Instead, let's think different. Imagine you are piloting a spaceship, Mario/Contra/Prince of Persia like - 2D and scrolling horizontally. There are sharp pointy things at the top of your screen. And sharp pointy things at the bottom of your screen. Your job is to stay away from these and closer to the middle as you make forward progress.
Along the way, shiny objects - jewels and fruits and health kits and what-not - pop up and you have to veer away from the middle to collect them. The bigger the reward, the closer it is to the pointy things.
Most of the time you choose to get things that are a tad easier - still well away from the middle but you know 99% of the time, you can get it and come back to safety. But what's life without a bit of adventure? So, you most definitely go for the precarious ones as well. Sometimes, you swoop in and get out at the right instant. Most times though, you get too close and you crash and burn.
Thankfully, it is a video game. So, you materialise again and you continue.
The harder the challenge, the crazier the diet, the further away from the goal (from where you are), the more imbalanced it is going to be. The closer you are gonna get to sharp, pointy things. The higher the probability of crashing and burning.
Instead of wanting ONLY the challenging things every time, mix it up. Build up skills and points and what-not, and go for the crazy things. If you crash, no problem. Start again. Have the patience to repeat the easy stuff and go again. And if you don't crash, beware of that too. In fact, beware that more.
Back to the middle. Back to the fundamentals for the most part. And the crazy challenges sprinkled in. Not expecting to stay on Everest after climbing it. But coming back down and moving on to other things.
Friday Thought, and 2 quotes
Snowflakes
Did you know that snowflakes are unique i.e. no two flakes are alike?
Think about that. Isn't that fucking incredible?!?! Of the millions of flakes that are going to fall, none of them will resemble each other.
They have the common root - a six-branch structure which is defined due to how the two Hydrogen atoms bond with the Oxygen and the angle of that and other science-y stuff. But the reason they evolve into a different shape is simply coz of the subtle variations during their actual formation as it falls down. The exact temperature, the humidity, the makeup of the atoms and the collisions along the way - albeit a few centimetres - leads to a unique shape. So, even if two flakes are within inches of each other, their exact path varies and so they end up looking different.
That strike you somewhere?
You are unique. You are a composite of all your experiences so far. How you react to something today is hard to explain because there have been so many collisions and interactions along the way. Maybe you got bullied in school, maybe you were made fun of for being short, maybe you were always late or always early, or you hit the books or the playground. Across the spectrum of a million things, your interactions and reactions vary subtly and grossly from someone else, even if they grew up in the same household.
You are you. That's the beauty of it. While we can all be generalised into a group for ease of calculations and what-not, you have to allow you to be you.
How you respond to lifting weights, how you enjoy (or don't) the gym or strength training, and every other thing you can think of - there is a lot of shaping that's already done. Not that you cannot re-shape yourself. But the point is there is a reason you are different.
Celebrate it! Enjoy it.
To sincerely accept others as they are, we must begin with ourselves. If we cannot accept ourselves as we are, we will never be able to accept others.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
I'm not sure there is a more misunderstood word than "fit", especially when used in "fitness". But every jigsaw puzzle teaches us the true meaning: Its pieces fit!
The original term "fit" comes from the Old Nordic, "to knit". For me, that's the crucial point of why we eat a certain way, workout and sleep seriously.
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I've always considered a "fit" person to be one who can balance a working life with being a wonderful neighbour and family member... and still have time to eat properly and keep an appropriate bodyfat percentage.
If your kids hate you, your dog runs when you walk in the door, yet you maintain a six-pack ab wall, great for you. I'm not sure I can include you in my definition of "fit".
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Be fit to do the tasks of life for as long as you can. Be knitted.
– Dan John, from Attempts
And that’s it from me for this week. I’ll see you in Feb!
Jan 30, 2022