Drive

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There once was a time in our evolutionary history as a species where we were motivated to acquire or accomplish only what we needed in order to ensure our survival.  Soon the motivation to meet our basic needs was joined by our motivation to exceed them--to have more than we currently needed in order to fulfill desires that went beyond survival.

But there appears to be an additional type of motivation, as well; one that is not stimulated from acquiring anything tangible or receiving some type of extrinsic reward.  This type of motivation defies basic economic rationale.  This type of motivation fuels the unending quest for mastery.

This type of motivation is what Daniel Pink investigates in his book Drive.

Drive goes into detail about this third type of motivation, from giving tips on how to cultivate it within yourself and others to how to keep it alive once you have it.

If you are involved in any type of organization that is needing new leadership or wanting to improve the leadership it already has, Drive is a book that I highly recommend you read.  Additionally, if you are looking to make changes in your own life or are wanting some insight on how to develop the necessary motivation to achieve more, Drive would serve as an excellent resource.

Be great.

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Exercise Is A Stressor

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A perspective that I have have been developing for a while and have been communicating to others more recently is the idea that understanding and appreciating that exercise is a stressor is of the utmost importance for an exercise professional.


I believe that this is in part what the RTS™ idea of "exercise is invasive" is trying to convey--having the perspective that what we do on the outside profoundly affects the inside and understanding and accepting the responsibility that comes with that.

My application of this idea as of recent has been beyond simply the mechanical stresses that are imposed upon the system when strategically challenging motions and positions.  I think to fully be able to appreciate this idea you have to have some notion of what else in a client's life is creating stress, whether it is them eating foods that don't agree with their system, poor relationships with those they interact with, or a highly-demanding work environment, as well as a lifestyle structure that does not allow for adequate recovery from these other stressors.

Stress, as I am defining it in this context, is "the body's reaction to change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response" (About.com).

Because of this viewpoint that exercise in its most basic form is a stressor, I am of the belief that a huge part of my job as an exercise professional is to manage this stressor for the time a client is with me relative to the other stressors they are currently having to deal with.

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This means that if a client comes in and says they had a really stressful day at work and they need a hard workout to get their mind off it, I stand there and tell them that it would be a breach of my ethical and professional guidelines to do that.

This means that if a client comes in and says they were at holiday parties all weekend so they need an intense workout to get all of the alcohol out of their system and burn of the 40,000 calories in hotdogs, potato salad, and pies they ate, I stand there and tell them that it would be irresponsible of me as a professional to add to the stress that their diet put on their system by challenging them at the intensity they are requesting.

This means that by attempting to take an inside (the body) view of exercise, I cannot see losing weight, improving health, fighting disease, or feeling better as (superficially speaking) eat less move more issues.  Instead, I have to see them as internal environment issues.  Which means I have to know how my tool of choice (force) may potentially affect the internal environment such that I can effectively manage my tool to the best of my ability in order to allow for an internal environment to be created within my clients that allows them to lose weight, improve their health, fight disease, and feel better.

Exercise is a stressor, and with that perspective comes the responsibility of understanding that what you as an exercise professional are doing may be furthering someone's issues, not relieving them.

Your body.  Your training.

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Sitting At The Table

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Often times as a Muscle Activation Techniques™ specialist when it comes to trying develop a deeper understanding of how and why MAT™ works like it does I am often confronted by others with the question or belief of, "Why do I need to know that?" or, "How is knowing that going to help improve me as a specialist, serve my clients better, or make more money?".

After attending the Upper Body Masters weekend this past weekend I believe I have finally developed a reasoning I feel confident in as to why it is important to have an expert level of understanding of more than just how I as a professional do things (the tools that I use, ie CAM, AMCS MMT, PIC, DFAMAT) but why what I do has the effect that it does.

I think a lot of MAT™ specialists have been in the situation at some point where they will have a client invalidate or overrule what the MAT™ specialist thinks or is trying to do because it seems contradictory to what their doctor or chiropractor or physical therapist or even acupuncturist have told them.  Essentially what the client is saying is because we as both professionals and as a community have not earned the professional respect and confidence of these other professionals, our judgement, and subsequently our modality, are seen as inferior to theirs.

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So how do we earn the right to sit at the same professional table as doctors, chiropractors, and physical therapists if that is something that we as individuals and as a community want in some regard?*

Even though we are aligning ourselves with the exercise industry, if we want to develop the reputation as experts in muscle, we must hold ourselves to higher educational standards than what is presently accepted by the fitness industry.  In fact, it is my belief that we must hold ourselves to the same standards of understanding of our modality and what it could affect as those who have met the rigorous requirements of the various health and medical fields.

This means that in addition to having an expert level of understanding of the tools we use (CAM, AMCS MMT, PIC, and DFAMAT), we must also develop an expert level of understanding of joints, force, physics, mechanics, physiology, biochemistry, neurophysiology, and any other field of study that may possibly help to explain why we make the decisions that we do.  We must go beyond understanding methods to understanding principles and making decisions based off of those instead of defaulting to, "I do this because this is what Greg Roskopf said to do."  I believe this to go for the MATRx process as well.  There has to be some scientific basis and defense for what is happening, one that we as a community must continue to research and develop.

And here's the thing:  I believe that the responsibility of educating ourselves to develop this level of understanding of what we do and why falls on each of us as individuals.  If we want to have our profession and our community as a whole garner the same level of respect when it comes to a client's neuromuscular system as other professions garner for the rest of the human body, we must each accept the responsibility of doing what it takes to get ourselves there.  We cannot simply rely on only the best in our profession to advance our community.

Each of us must accept the responsibility of earning the right to sit at the table.

Be great.

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*This is only part of the process of earning our seat, but a vital part nonetheless.

Where I've Been

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I have been completely inactive on my blog for the past two and a half weeks.

It's not that I went on vacation or needed a break from posting.  I didn't forget about my blog or not want to do it anymore.  What I needed was to find a better external environment to allow my internal environment to be healthy.

So I moved.  Not off the cuff--this had been in the works for months--but I needed to get out of the city and find the peacefulness of a place to call home.

Now that I am almost all settled in I can say that I feel more relaxed and calm than I have in the past three years.  And because of this I feel better able to post and articulate my ideas and thoughts that I have in equally as long.

What changes might you need to make in your life to better able you to do what you love?

Be great.

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The Metabolic Typing Diet

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One man's food is another man's poison.

Imagine there were three different types of fuel that every car could run on, gasoline, diesel, and vegetable oil. However, rather than just running on a single fuel, a mixture of the three was needed for each car to run at full capacity. Every make and model had its own perfect ratio of gasoline to diesel to vegetable oil. If the ratio was off, the car would lose power and performance, suffer reduced fuel efficiency, and break down more rapidly. On the other hand, when the fuel ratio was perfect to the vehicles requirements, its performance would improve, fuel efficiency would be maximized, and maintenance work like inflating tires and changing oil would feel like a thing of the past. In other words, a station wagon would begin to look, feel, and perform more like a Mercedes-Benz. Wouldn't everyone want to find out their vehicle's perfect fuel ratio and make sure they stuck to that ratio as much as possible?

This month's book review is on William Wolcott's The Metabolic Typing Diet. If you have ever attempted to find, read, and understand diet advice, you have likely found it only leads to one thing, no not results, confusion. Not confusion because the material is too complicated to understand, but rather, confusion due to the fact that so many books, articles, and celebrity trainers either offer contradicting advice, or severely water down a single point or philosophy to the degree that their theory could, and in all likelihood, should, be expressed in a Tweet of less than 140 characters instead of an over-priced 'best seller' with a flashy cover and not one credible reference. However, the concern of this review is not with the abundance of misinformation. It is with the addressing one of the reasons why there are so many conflicting viewpoints regarding nutrition.

Going back to the hypothetical car situation with the different ratios of fuel, you can hopefully connect the metaphor of the vehicle as a human body and the gasoline, diesel, and vegetable oil as protein, fat, and carbohydrates. This means that, yes, every person has their own ideal ratio of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, also known as their metabolic type, and that yes, someone whose bodily systems are functioning like an old station wagon can improve them to that of a MercedesBenz with the right nutrient combinations, and vice-versa with the wrong nutrient combinations. This is due to the nutrients affects on what Wolcott calls 'fundamental homeostatic controls'. In other words, balances that keep the body functioning how it is supposed to function.

Applying this thought process to the mixed success rates on vastly different diets, it becomes clear that when people have success on a diet they are likely eating in accordance with their metabolic type. On the other hand, when people do not have success on a diet, or even take steps backwards, they probably are not getting in the correct fuel mixture their body needs. One person's food can literally be another's poison.

If you have ever been frustrated sorting through the piles of nutritional misinformation, have ever had trouble figuring out what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat to achieve your goals, or have tried diets in the past but failed for any reason, then Self Made Nutrition is for you. Officially launching later this year, Self Made Nutrition will look to cut through the dietary myths and help people achieve real and sustainable results by figuring out their ideal nutritional requirements, maximizing function of the many systems of the body required for optimal health, and developing the habits to make it a life long change. Keep a lookout on SelfMadeFitness.com for more information and updates as the we get closer to the launch!

Enjoy this review? Get a copy of The Metabolic Typing Diet in the Self Made® Book Store!

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