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The Profound Fitness Manifesto Part V: Test. Track. Tweak.
Copyright 2006 Jeremy MarkumIn the previous installment of The Profound Fitness Manifesto welearned the value of seeing fitness as a Process, instead of a”recipe” or “destination,” and we learned that the fastest wayto optimize the results produced by a process is to focus mostof our time and energy on eliminating the current biggestbottleneck–whether it be a transformational action or a neededresource “upstream” in the process…In this Practice, we’re going to talk about another crucialaspect of processes, namely, that all processes can be measured,tracked, tweaked, and improved.Implication: if you don’t measure, track, tweak and improve themost important aspects of a process (especially your currentbiggest bottleneck), don’t expect it to improve too much.The 3 T’s Of Process Improvement:Test. Track. Tweak.(Repeat.)TestingReally, “testing” is nothing more than intelligent doing.”Testing As Doing” just means that right before you take action(performing a workout for example) you write down specificallywhat it is you intend to do, and what you hope these actionswill accomplish. Then, you go about your business as usual.For example, let’s say you plan to train some Upper BodyPressing movements today. Instead of doing your workout andwriting down how many sets and reps of Handstand Pushups andDips you achieved like you normally would, you would first writedown the exercises, loads, reps, sets, and rest periods youintend to perform before going and working out–ideally with ashort statement of purpose for the upcoming workout somewhere onthe page.This simple exercise of “mini-planning” your intended actionsbeforehand accomplishes three important objectives:* It saves time.If you’re already written down what exercises you’re going toperform, how many sets of each exercise to complete, and howmany reps to achieve on each set–plus the rest periods betweenthe sets–then at a minimum you’ve saved yourself the time ittakes to write these down during your workout. All you’ll needto write, is what you do differently than your plan, say, forexample, if you were able to complete more reps on a particularexercise, or, if you had to rest longer than intended betweenone or more of the sets.You’ll also save time because now there’s no “wondering what todo next” that inevitably occurs with the unplanned workout.you’ll be able to attack your exercise session with a sense ofurgency. All of these factors combined can turn an hour-longsession into a much more effective (higher Density) 45-minutesession.* It increases awareness and focus which translates directly toadded intensity and therefore results.What you think about intensely, so you will become. And that’sexactly what writing something down will cause you to do: think.According to cognitive psychologists who study brain function,the act of writing is the single most difficult consciousprocess the brain can perform. So writing out your workoutsahead of time, and your reason for performing it, will addtremendously to the act of manifesting fitness and health inyour life. If you’ve never tried this before, get ready to beshocked about the added intensity and drive you experienceduring your next exercise session.* It transforms a mere “training log” into a rational tool forreasoned learning and the basis of future progress.Essentially, writing out your workouts (and meal plans) ahead oftime–along with a statement of purpose for each–turns theminto something very close to a scientific experiment. With atraditional log, your only insights come after you’ve completedthe workout and reflect back on what you’ve written. With thisapproach, you take a more active approach in the learningprocess. You’ll ask yourself questions like, “I wonder what willhappen if…” and then you’ll construct an exercise protocol totest it out.You’ll transform yourself from a “reactive” seeker of fitness,who simply does what others tell them and ponders the results(or lack thereof), into a proactive enthusiast who activelycreates the results you seek, and even customizes the tacticsothers have successfully used to your individual quirks–suchare the possibilities “Testing As Doing” makes possible.TrackingThe way I described Testing As Doing above already implies thatyou’ll be tracking the important parameters of your fitnesspursuits. But that still leaves exactly what types and whichspecific parameters to track…Essentially there are two types of parameters:1) Process.2) Performance.Performance based parameters are what most folks usually thinkof tracking. Stuff like pounds lost, inches gained, body fatpercentage, etcetera. And these are indeed important, as theyhelp describe, in empirical terms, the results we seek from ourfitness routines. But they’re only half the picture, and if youspend all your tracking energy just on the performance-basedparameters, and none of it on process-based parameters–thenguess what–you won’t see a whole lot of performanceimprovements. You’ll be like the ill-fated NFL quarterback whoobsesses over the scoreboard, but forgets its connection towatching game film of his opponents. More On Tracking ProcessRemember that a process can be characterized by its RARs(Resources, Actions, And Results). Eventually, you’ll want totrack one important parameter addressing each of these for eachof the Big 3 fitness processes (nutrition, training, recovery).Delineating all of these parameters, and the best way to trackthem, is beyond the scope of this manifesto (and I’ve done soelsewhere in-depth–refer to The Tao Of Functional Fitness formore). But I would like to discuss the most fundamental type ofprocess-related tracking: adherence.Remember: consistent, focuses action is job number one when itcomes to staying in great shape. I’ve already said this in theintroduction to this manifesto, but I’ll say it again: itdoesn’t matter what you do to get in better shape, unless youDO. Tracking adherence helps you develop the consistent habitsnecessary to make significant changes to your body.So let’s talk measures… With regard to exercise adherence,it’s pretty simple. Ultimately, you want to work your way up toexercising 5 days per week, for 45-50 minutes each session(resistance training + a 15-minute bout of Strength Endurancestyle exercise at the end). The standard you want to meet withall types of adherence is 90%. According to nutritional genius,John Berardi (in his awesome course “Precision Nutrition” whichI highly recommend), there’s just not much difference between90% and 100% when it comes to adherence. Fortunately, staying ingreat shape isn’t about perfection! So with 90% as a standard,and 5 days per week as our goal, that means you can miss 1session every 10 days (two weeks) and see no ill-effect.Similar calculations can be applied to your nutrition plan. Ifyou plan to eat 5 low-sugar, non-processed, lean protein rich,veggie containing meals a day, then that amounts to 35 totalfeeding opportunities a week. 90% adherence would allow aboutthree skipped meals total (or a combination of 3 “junk” meals /skipped meals total).Here’s the bottom line take home point when it comes toadherence and its effect on your body:If you’re not seeing the results you want to see from yourfitness routine, and you’re wondering what you’re doing wrong,first check your adherence rate. If it’s less than 90%–that’swhat’s wrong! It’s not that what you’re doing is wrong, it’sthat you’re not doing!For the most basic way to track adherence, I suggest using asimple calendar. For every day that you workout put a “/”through the day. For every day that you eat 5 healthy meals andno garbage, put a “”. Ideally, you’ll have a bunch of “X’s”filling up your calendar at the end of a month. Eventually, youmight want to get more sophisticated and use an Excelspreadsheet for this kind of tracking.Once you master the standard of 90% adherence in your eating,training, and recovery, then it’s time to start tracking otherprocess-based parameters associated with these processes, stufflike: Load, Rest Periods, Amount Of Sleep, Number Of StarchyCarb Meals, Protein Content, etcetera. Again, see The Tao OfFunctional Fitness and my other writings for more on these…TweakingSo what do you do with this Testing and Tracking?You tweak it to optimize your ate of Progression, whichremember, is the name of the fitness game.And if you’re smart (and you obviously are since you’ve readthis far), you’ll tweak your fitness processes in a simple,semi- scientific way. Here’s how:* Only change one variable at a time. Put another way, only seekto progress along one measure at a time.For example, let’s say you’re in the middle of a Strength phase,and for your last Lower Body Pressing workout you performed 5sets of 5 reps of 1-Leg Squats To Front while holding a 10 lb.dumbbell. Now you could try to increase the Load, the number ofReps, and also decrease the Rest Periods during the nextworkout–but that wouldn’t be very scientific. Sure, the workoutwould probably be more difficult, but of the three factors youchanged, you wouldn’t know which variable contributed the mostto the value of the workout…which is why you should onlyprogress along one variable (probably Load since in the examplewe said you were in a Strength phase) in most cases.This takes a little discipline, but the payoff is that you areable to start seeing patterns in your training more easily (orin your diet–the same concept holds true for Testing, Tracking,and Tweaking your nutrition process). For instance, I tend torespond most favorable to increases in Average Load… But howwould I know that if during every workout, I changed everytraining parameter I could think of? Instead, I’ve learned toonly manipulate Load for a period of 3-6 weeks, then onlymanipulate Rest Periods for a similar length of time, thennumber of sets, and so on. By cycling through these parametersin a disciplined, logical way you’ll start to learn far moreabout your body and how it responds than any book can teach you.ConclusionTest, Track, Tweak. It’s all about making the process of fitnesswork for you. Save time, eliminate hassle, and replace ficklemotivation with a system. But before we move on to the nextPractice of The Profound Fitness Manifesto, a few more quickpoints on the 3 T’s I sorta glossed over:* Don’t obsess with the Tracking of progress variables untilyou’ve mastered adherence. Adherence is one of those 80- 20relationships. It’s just one variable, but accounts for themajority of your progress!* Even once you’ve achieved a consistent 90% adherence rate withyour exercise and nutrition regimen, you still shouldn’t get toogeeky with the tracking of process- related variables. The moreadvanced you become (as in competitive athlete advanced) themore these types of things matter, but it’s easy to get caughtup in tracking to the point you’re wasting valuable timeanalyzing and crunching numbers that could be better spentelsewhere. I speak from experience here. I guess it’s anoccupational hazard. All you really need to know is how tocalculate Density and Average Load (when you’re in a Density orStrength Phase, respectively–see Part II of the manifesto forhelp with these calculations).* The danger with fitness-related numbers is that they appearvery “scientific” on the surface. But the reality is, even withsomething as simple as the Load used on an exercise, we’redealing with a very inaccurate measure. The fact of the matteris, your muscles don’t see the Load you use during an exercise,they only see the Force they must produce to counter the Loadand cause it to move, whether this Load is provided by yourbodyweight, from an elastic band, or from a dumbbell. Problemis, when it comes to tracking, the Force required depends on awhole host of factors that simply aren’t practical to measure,for instance: joint angle (which changes constantly throughout arep), acceleration during the movement, stability of theenvironment, length of an individual’s limbs, etcetera. The bestwe can do is sort of a weighted-average of all these factors byassuming they’re the same for everyone, and for all exercises(which of course they’re not). Bottom line, the value intracking comes more from the process of writing stuff down–andthe awareness and focus this act brings–than with the actualnumbers themselves.Because of these points, and as a natural extension of theprevious Practice (Eliminate Your Biggest Bottleneck), the veryfirst thing you track beyond simple adherence to your routine isthe variable associated with your current biggest bottleneck,whatever that might be. That keeps the tracking simple, andgives you the most bang for your buck, effort wise.
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