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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle maker #423: Breaking Barriers
Sooner or later you’re going to hit a plateau in your exercise plan. You’re going to max out on some exercise or other and stop getting stronger, or fall short of your goal. Maybe you’ve tapped out your potential and that’s as far as you’re going to get. Or maybe what you need to do is shake things up and take another run at it!
Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the definition of insanity – and it’s also a recipe for injury and failure.
To break through a barrier, try one of these 8 options:
1. Alter your body mechanics for a couple of months using S.A.F.E. M.P.™. S.A.F.E. M.P.™ stands for Speed, Accuracy, Form, Endurance, Mobility, and Power (for more on S.A.F.E. M.P.™ refer to my book Martial Grit: Real Fighting Fitness (On a Budget)). Although S.A.F.E. M.P..™ is most directly applicable in martial arts, its relevance extends to all athletic activities.
a) Speed: Slow your pace. Go back to a 2 x 12 and lower the weight even more slowly than before such that your pace count goes from 4 or 5 seconds up to 6, 7, 8 or more. Write your set times in your training journal and try to get slower and slower.
b) Accuracy: Concentrate on being extremely precise in your movements. Don’t worry about sets, reps, or anything other than being exceedingly exact in terms of having perfect form and pace. Be extremely conscious of how your muscles feel at every stage of every rep, and be fully engaged in what you’re doing. Focus matters. Studies show, or example, that people who exercise while watching TV or listening to music benefit less from their exercise investment.
c) Form: Substitute a complimentary exercise. Obvious examples would be simply switching from Bench Press to Incline Bench Press or Weighted Push-ups, or subbing Hand Release Push-ups for regular Push-ups, Handstand Push-ups for Military Press, and so on.
d) Endurance: Cut the weight by about 25% and start doing a 1 x 25 instead of a 2 x 12, progressing as normal. Or reduce the rest between sets. If you’ve been taking a two full minutes, take just 1 minute, or only 30 seconds. 25 reps is not 25 reps. There’s a night-and-day difference between one 25-rep set and a 5 x 5 with 3 minutes between each set.
e) Mobility: Add movement to the exercise. If you are stuck on Military Press, for example, you might take off some weight switch to Overhead Carries with dumbbells, barbells, sandbags or stones, or do your press combined with a forward Lunge. Or take off some weight and bolt chains to the ends of your barbell to make it sway during most any exercise. Drape some chains around your neck when doing Squats or Push-ups to add a swaying/dragging element. Take the exercise out of the static and into the mobile.
f) Power: Increase movement velocity. If you’re stalled in Front Squats, for example, you might switch to Sandbag Jump Squats. When my progress stalled on Broad Jumps, I switched to Drop Jumps: I stood on a 2’ box, dropped down, let myself sink to a low squat position, and explosively hopped forward, all in one movement. The increased compression at the bottom added by the preceding drop “jump-started” my progression nicely. Just make sure that you start out easy and progress without breaking any of the old-school training rules. Power training is a completely different beast.
2. “Play tag” with the equipment for a couple of months. Take it easy, have fun, and just make sure that you touch all of the same tools and body parts, using random exercises and random weights. Do some pyramids, some ascending and descending ladders, etc. Just adhere to pace and the old-school rules and enjoy yourself!
3. Take a few weeks off. Sounds crazy, right? But, in case you haven’t noticed, even pro athletes have an off-season. Go canoeing, backpacking, or hiking. Spend some time fishing at the lake or sitting on the beach. The world’s your oyster. Enjoy! Remember that, if you’re an old-schooler, the fitness is supposed to support your life, not the other way around. The whole point of staying fit is that you can be healthy and have a long life enjoying your favorite activities!
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Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 9/15/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Is 50:5-9a, Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9, Jas 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35
Mark 8:27-35 World English Bible
Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”
28 They told him, “John the Baptizer, and others say Elijah, but others, one of the prophets.”
29 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30 He commanded them that they should tell no one about him. 31 He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke to them openly. Peter took him and began to rebuke him. 33 But he, turning around and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you have in mind not the things of God, but the things of men.”
34 He called the multitude to himself with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.”
If we want to sell lemonade at a lemonade stand, we have to buy some lemons and start squeezing. Want to make money in the stock market? Start investing. Want to get fit? Start working out. To earn a wage, get out bed and go to work. This is how the world works. We have to give something up in order to get something back. Sacrifice, brothers and sisters, is the seed of success. There is no other way.
But what if our lemonade doesn’t sell? What if the stock market crashes? Investments aren’t a sure thing. Generally speaking, the greater the investment the greater the reward. But there are limitations. If we give up having a family, friends, or time off in order to single-mindedly purse a career, we might get wealthy but we’d also be bankrupt emotionally, spiritually, and socially. We’d most likely end up like Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Wealthy in one sense but miserable, alone, and impoverished in many other ways.
Or what if we liquidated all of our assets – our home, our car, our 401K, our savings, all of it – and invested in some kind of entrepreneurial venture? That’s extremely risky. We could end up homeless. This world rewards small and mid-sized investments. In this broken world, in this earthly dimension, there are no safe bets. And going all-in is the riskiest bet of all. Yes, in this world, brothers and sisters, all investments are a roll of the dice. But huge investments of time, energy, and money are even more risky than the smaller ones. Because this world is fallen. It is upside down.
But things are entirely different in the heavenly realm. In the spiritual dimension, when we invest everything, we always get the maximum return. When we give up everything and follow Christ, we can’t lose. This doesn’t mean that we literally have to give up our homes and our jobs to be itinerant preachers begging for meals. It just means that we need to put what God wants first, and let everything else stand in line.
Jesus says, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” “Denying yourself” means denying your desires – the things that please you – to pursue the things that please God. “Taking up your cross” means being prepared to suffer. Doing without material things, not having power, not being famous, not being rich and cool, being looked down upon for your beliefs, and so on.
We will look poor to the eyes of this world. But to those who can see in the spiritual dimension, and to the eyes of God, we will be rich. Jesus says, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.”
Now, we can’t just say that we’re invested. We have to show that we’re invested. Jesus tells the disciples to stop professing his nature with words, to stop yammering and pushing back on God’s plan. “But he, turning around and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you have in mind not the things of God, but the things of men.” James says, “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17).
In order to merit a share in God’s Kingdom, we need to make a tangible investment. If we want some lemonade we need to start squeezing some lemons.