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The importance of solitude

 In our modern lives we are so connected that it almost seems we are disconnected…. from ourselves that is.

Between work, family, friends, appointments, obligations, texting, email, phones, and everything else in out lives, it seems like we are almost always connected and interacting in one way or another with people (even if it is through machines).

A lot of people like to talk about the importance of these connections and this social culture. Popular people and people deeply woven into these social connections are often envied and looked up to. People outside and loners are often looked down upon or thought of as different or weird.

While I will not deny the importance of contact and human interaction, I would also like to point out the importance of solitude and separation.

Have you ever been truly alone? I mean out in the middle of nowhere just you, yourself and maybe a bit of nature. The feeling can be deeply profound. There are certain lines of thought that seem to only happen in this state. There can be a deep connection with oneself. There are a number of feelings and thoughts that happen to you that just don’t happen in the hustle and bustle of our busy modern lives.

Humans are social creatures but that does not mean we were ALWAYS around other humans. In our history, there were almost certainly times of solitude. You could be a Grok hunting solo or a lost Grok finding your way home or an explorer Grok selflessly setting out to find better lands for the tribe.

I believe there is a reason that asceticism has in our history been often tied directly with religion and spirituality or even enlightenment. During these times of aloneness it is easy to think and to hear yourself think. You can feel connections other than with other people. Connections to yourself, nature, higher powers (gods, god, spirituality, energy, or whatever floats your boat).

I highly recommend that everyone try to get away from time to time… spend some time alone. I don’t mean sitting in front of the TV. I like my hikes out in the middle of the desert, just myself, my thoughts and some jackrabbits. Meditation can also be a good option.

This solitude can be stress relieving, healthy and very beneficial and is just as important as social interaction in my book. What are your thoughts?

Today 5-8-09

The goofy smile and thumbs up is for the people who comment about the “serious muscle pics” lol

I can’t seem to get out of shape. Not that I am really TRYING to get out of shape but due to work and the rollerblading injury, I have hardly worked out at all in the last 3 weeks. I have only done about 2 sessions of light bodyweight exercise (crawling and jumping jacks mostly) and a walk here or there. As you can see from the picture above, I haven’t really gotten out of shape at all.

Am I posting this to brag? Not at all. I am posting this because even I am surprised that i have not regressed further. As someone who used to be VERY OUT of shape, it just amazes me at how easy it truly is to stay IN shape.

Once you get to a point where your body is pretty fit and lean, I think that becomes your bodies natural state of homeostasis. I have noticed a couple things over the past couple weeks.

#1 I eat less. My body naturally craves less food than when I am more active. I think this is part of the reason I have stayed in pretty good shape. I am not forcing myself to eat less, I have just noticed it happening.

#2 I desire more natural exercise. Everyone knows that I have been moving more and more towards natural movement training but know that I can barely exercise, I find that when I do exercise, I just want wanna have fun (Cyndi Lauper anyone?… anyone?… no?…. ok). This means running around and jumping and crawling. I barely have a desire to pick up a barbell at all right now.

Just some thoughts and observations. I cant wait until my tailbone is all healed and I can get back to doing some squat jumps and box jumps.

Have a beautiful day!

Sorry for the Myspace-esque cell phone pics

Appologies for no post yesterday. I actually had one typed up but thing after thing came up and I never got to post it. I will put it up tomorrow. Also awesome commentary everyone on the Bacon post! really great discussion.

Yesterday I did a long overdue 300 test. This is after a week of not working out. Thats right, I haven’t worked out at all for a week… not even my walks. The closest thing to working out I have done is planting a couple trees in the back yard. Even that didn’t take very long nor was it very hard. For the past week work, working towards this hopefull promotion, transportation issues, life and various other bits and pieces have been coming up one by one and I just have not worked out.

I will use this to make 2 points… that are somewhat contradictory to each other lol.

Point 1: You can take a week off from working out without wasting away or taking major steps backwards. As you can see from the picture above (taken last night), I have not lost all my muscle, gotten fat or significantly changed in body composition at all. Some people are afraid of missing a single workout as they are afraid they will instantly begin regressing and losing hard earned gains. This just isn’t the case. Everyone knows I am a big fan of listening to your body and taking extra rest when it needs it. In this case, my body didn’t need it… my schedule did… but either way, its ok to miss a workout or 2 from time to time.

Point 2: This is not a free pass to make a habit of missing workouts or to stop working out! My performance WAS impacted. I completed my 300 test, but I did it in just over 30 mintes (this is a slower time). I could feel the impact to my body of the prolonged time off. It took it longer to get going in the workout and the workout was definitly harder than it should have been. It seems like one good workout was enough to get me back in the swing though and I am sure I will be 100% back on track by my workout tomorrow.

So, you can miss time working out… its ok. You do not need to freak out or mentally stress that you are taking leaps and bounds backwards if you miss a workout or you take extra rest time. BUT expect some impact to your performance and expect some extra time to be needed to get back into things.

Take the time you need but don’t take advantage or overdo it!

Your thoughts?

Getting coffee in my MDA "Grok On" Shirt

*The picture is completely unrelated to the post but i needed a picture. This is me harvesting coffee in what I imagine is the true Columbian tradition for ages… at the grocery store

Last night I was finally able to work out again. This is after a 4 day hiatus from training. I am sure you are asking yourself  “Ok well what happened 4 days ago then?” Well whether you actually are asking yourself that or not, I am going to tell you.

I am sure you have all heard that it is important to “ease yourself into plyometrics and intense bodyweight exercise”. This saying sounds almost ludicrous… I mean… its a BODYWEIGHT exercise for crying out loud. Well I fell victim to this line of thinking which forced me into the 4 day exercise hiatus lol.

It all started with a lack of motivation to really work out hard. I was going to train some legs but I didn’t really feel up to throwing around some heavy weights. I started with some full on front squats. Wearing 60#’s of weight vest and a 60# bar, I did 4 sets of 12 full range squats. Then I did 4 sets of 24 walking lunges while still wearing the vest. So far good workout but nothing really hurting me or motivating me. Next… plyo jump sprints up the stairs and then about 50 meters. Ok these started getting my heart rate up and motivating me to finish my workout hard. I wanted to do some box jumps, but I had destroyed my folding chair (see testerday’s post) and I had not yet built my box jump box so I did….

…Exploders. That is what I call em anyways (I think they might officially be called “squat jumps” but I am not positive). I am pretty sure this is where I did the damage. Bodyweight only (or wearing a weight vest if you are real good), squat down all the way (almost like Mark Sisson’s indigenous peoples stretch) then as quick and as powerfully as you can, “explode” up into standing and into a jump as high as you can. I did 4 sets of 8 of these.

Next thing you know, my legs are in excruciating pain for 2-3 days where I can barely walk unassisted and another day worth of tightness to wear there is no way I am working out. I evan woke my wife up one night because my leg cramped up so bad in my sleep that I woke up screaming lol.

Moral of the story in 2 quick points:

#1. Exploders are awesome! Do them… try incorporating these in your workout. Tabata protocol would be great with these.

#2. Listen to your body. If you need that extra rest… take it. It is the only way for your body to properly rest and recover. It is also the best way to see results!

Have you ever wrecked yourself with plyos? Are you familiar with exploders?

Sidenote: A friend gave me an idea for an awesome primal snack that I am going to expirement with tonight. If it works out well, I will try to get it up tomorrow.

Reminder: I am not a doctor or an expert… this is MY minds eye view of some of the aspects of health.

Coincidentally (or not), living by the Primal Blueprint does a pretty darn good job of addressing ALL of these things.

First is the 3 broad aspects of health in general.

Then comes 3 aspects of diet. Many people will try to focus on one being the important one… but really you need a focus on all 3 for optimal health.

- Calories ARE important. They represent the amount of fuel you consume for your body. Being in a calorie deficiency, balance or surplus does affect your weight and health.

- A calorie may be a calorie may be a calorie but that does not paint the entire picture. Some calories come accompanied with healthy nutrients, vitamins and minerals while others do not. So eating 2000 calories of nutrient deficient grain is NOT equivalent to eating 2000 calories of meat, fruit and veggies. Think of it as watered down gas compared to rocket fuel. The same volume of each does not pack the same punch. The nutritional content of your food IS important. As an example… we know omega 3′s are important in relation to omega 6′s. This has nothing to do with calories but everything to do with health.

- Regulating hormones through diet is important as well. This is where we see the need for controlling insulin spikes and serotonin spikes. Hormones (insulin especially) are how your body decides what to do with the calories and nutrients you consume.

We did a pretty good job covering my idea of 3 important aspects of exercise here (#1), here(#2) and here(#3).

The last trifecta is for rest. Without rest and recovery your body will break itself down. Overtraining used to be one of my biggest problems and I see it in people day after day. The amount of work people are willing to put into something to not make any progress is sometimes astounding!

- Recover. You need active recovery time. This goes for both mental and physical. Mentally, ideally you need time to daydream or meditate… to gather your thoughts.  Physically, you need time to rest your muscles and your body. You need physically relaxing activities to give your body a chance to relax and repair.

- Sleep. This is such an important aspect that is often overlooked. Your body goes through recovery processes while you are sleeping that it can not go through any other time. This is when much of the most important recovery for your body, both physical and mental occurs. You need enough sleep and you need proper deep sleep.

- Re-fuel. This one kind of falls into diet as well. Your body needs food to repair and replentish energy stores. It needs time to digest and process this food. re-fueling is another vital part of rest and recovery. (But… so is fasting! before some of you jump on me for that one lol)

What are your thoughts. Am I leaving anything out? Am I way off base on anything? Feel free to chime in.

Relaxation is good

I generally do an intense strength workout every other day. I will do like a 1 hr walk or something similar almost everyday but when it comes to weights and circuits, I usually alternate days. For example day 1: workout, day 2: rest, day 3: workout, day 4: rest.

Every now and then, I will still be sore after a day of rest and will need an extra rest day.I have been ignoring my body lately and not taking the extra day of rest when I am still sore. For the past week or so, I have still been sore almost every time I have worked out. My brain has not been allowing me to take the extra time to recover as I don’t want to miss a workout (Duh, I should know better).

This came to a head yesterday when my body was practically screaming at me that it did not want to workout. The motivation was just not there. I was ravenously hungry and there was no doubt in my mind that I needed a break. My body needed to recover.

So I took the day as an extra rest day. As I mentioned, I was ravenously hungry (I think my body needed the fuel to repair) so I ate. I ate a lot more than I normally would, but my body was telling me it needed more. I still managed to eat clean and healthy so i do not feel bad about eating so much.

Flip forward to today… I am reaping the rewards for listening to my body.I feel absolutely great! My body feels healed and rested, I am full of energy and I just feel 100 times better. I am so ready to hit a great workout tonight. This is a good reminder for me of why I should listen to my body more often. Don’t be afraid to take that extra day of rest if you need it. Give your body what it tells you it needs and you will reap the rewards!

I just picked up a hot tub for the house. I am hoping it helps get my recovery time back in check. Do you have any additional tips that might help speed up my recovery? What are your recovery secrets?

Have you had a similar experience? Have you experienced an increase in hunger when your body needs some recovery?