Intensity in Mind and Spirit, Sets and Reps

Sit and write.

I sat staring at the computer screen and nothing came to my mind. Poked at a key or two, whacked the side of monitor like my dad when I was a kid and the TV wouldn't work -- still, nothing.

Fly or crash, Bomber, write the caption and the text will come.

Immediately and strangely, an image of a really, really big pro with an unknown face loomed before me squeezing out reps, sweat and a growl. Super-monster intensity, I thought. What a contrast to the intensity I was preparing to describe. Well, not necessarily. The muse was short-lived, as I can only guess how hard and passionately the pros work. Perhaps they just look at the weights severely and grow. Intensity is relative, I concluded, and its application adjusted by the individual, his need, nerve and neurons.

I continued... only to further digress...

I observed that, excluding the above exception, when I think, talk and write about weight training and muscle building, I don't even consider the current wave of popular bodybuilders. They are astonishing and worthy but they are not part of the backdrop of my imaginings... they, in all their greatness, are separate and apart from real life. It's like talking custom cars and hot rods without the roar and velocity of the formula racecars of the Indy 500 or college all-stars and football minus the towering, nitro-fueled 320-pound breakneck NFL linemen. Thus, reality and perspective are not distorted and hardy participation is not discouraged, an unreasonable sacrifice reserved for the wild ones only.

My thoughts roam an intense terrain abounding with precipice, peak and swamp water. Health and strength, long life and injury repair, building muscle and losing fat, getting huge and ripped naturally... these are the noble things that occupy my mind (when I'm not fighting crime or saving lives) and I suspect they inhabit yours. Achieving them is the goal.

Hello. Wake up.

Purging my wandering mind, I slowly made my way back to the topic, albeit indirectly as usual. Let's see... something about intensity.

How we go about the task -- goal achieving -- is not rocket science or convoluted chemistry, an unknown or a secret, a financial improbability or a research project long unfolding. It is, as you know, straightforward and concise. It requires training, a term I define to include the elements of daily exercise and nourishment and consistency in their practice.

Add a bright attitude and manner of living and you have broadened the definition. Introduce intensity in spirit, mind and performance and you have the complete, unabridged definition -- Total Training. You also have your hands full.

Someone recently emailed and portrayed herself to me as follows: A 22-year-old female whose bodyweight is about right for her frame. She wants to retain her current modest attributes throughout a long and productive life. "Too many folks around me are falling to the wayside. Family members and old school friends and people at work are gaining weight all the time and they don't do anything about it."

Here we see a wise young lady who can achieve exactly what she wants with a regular program of fun, well-organized exercises and a friendly leash on her eating habits. She doesn't have extreme goals requiring extreme measures. No distressing compromises and no sizzling pressure to meet her comfortable needs. Her attitude is there already. In sufficient detail I advised her to be grateful and go. Don't stop. Keep moving. Exercise and eat right regularly and enjoy it.

The level of intensity required to achieve her goal matches her nature: agreeable.

I trust she will go forward with my training recommendations and enjoy a healthy and happy life. If the poor gal by some twist of fate didn't hear the plea or ignores the imperatives and fails to adhere to the straightforward advice, she certainly will confront herself again in a year or two or five with different considerations of a more complex and probably less appealing description: resetting goals, extreme measures, difficult compromises, training angst, self-discomfort, heartache and reestablishment of fallen attributes. Not a happy or healthy development... and not unlike far too many plights dominating the world today.

Required level of intensity to achieve the redefined goals: difficult.

Now, I know another gal who represented herself to me years ago with similar qualities and intentions. She visited our gym, became a member and consistently practiced the routines I prepared for her and found a healthful menu a lot more desirable than one full of junk. As the seasons rolled by, her worthy expectations of health and body maintenance were satisfied and her enjoyment of working out grew skyward. I was not surprised when she displayed discontent as she continued and her workouts did not produce more. "I'd like to see a wee bit of muscle size and hardness that catches the eye," she admitted. "You don't say," I said.

Intensity level involved: smashing good, old chap.

"What should I do?" she asked. "Intensify" was my pure one-word answer. I knew her training habits and they were commendable and sufficient; plenty of well-chosen exercises, rotations, combinations, sets and reps; good form and focus and pace; consistent, positive and well fed. I suggested she add a protein shake before and after her workout and a shake a day to her menu on off days, the stage now set for seeking the upgraded goal.

"Elaborate," she said. "Sit down," I said, "Want some water? This will only take an hour or two." I went on to say, "Your training is right on. You simply need to work harder. Intensify your work output. Every rep, every set needs more effort. Like almost everyone your exercise exertion is suitable for healthy conditioning but insufficient to overload the muscles and demand their growth, hardness and size. You are doing a very good job but you stop short of the intensity required to make really good progress, no matter what your goal is, losing weight or gaining power or athletic conditioning." Her eyes were thin slits of hurt and suspicion.

"You are healthy," I assured her, "in shape, well practiced in your training and ready to crank it up. Intensify your work output and you automatically dial in other important aspects of your training. The more you want, the more you focus. The more you demand of yourself, the greater the degree of concentration required to do the work. The harder you work, the more intense the burn and that is certain to get your attention. And once you agree that training intensity is really the answer -- and the answer is what you really want -- you invent ways to intensify. Your pace, always even and rhythmic, takes on another beat -- no hurry within the set, yet less pause between them. Burn, pump and push and pull. Burn, pump and push and pull." She was grinning.

"These added dimensions to your training are treasures and the added muscle, definition and strength to your body is your crown," I said. I would have gone on with the "character" thing, but she had to catch the bus before they stopped running for the night. You still there? It goes like this:

Intensity doesn't mean extremity. Intensity is an expression of desire and passion and aspiration. Intensity begets very cool character qualities. Patience, for example, takes on a severe force of its own, as does commitment, discipline, determination and persistence; and in time -- with all this added zoom zoom -- your strength grows and the weight you use goes up. No records are sought and no records are set.

Some people deny the need for intensity... it's too much like work... you'll overtrain... takes the fun out of a swell pastime... allows no time or place to flirt or talk about hockey. Some people fuel up, check their landing gear, wiggle their ailerons and never get off the ground.

Wanting to gain a wee bit of muscle doesn't make you a dope or a slave or in need of punishment or an injury... and it doesn't make you intense. You're just turning up the volume to enjoy the music and stepping on the accelerator to feel the power, cruising from 45 mph to a breezy 65. No stress, no strain. It's calming and fulfilling. It gets you there.

Burn, pump, push and pull... This is too much fun and there goes another spot of fat and here comes another wee bit of muscle.

Bombers... Let's fly... Draper

THIS WEEK'S KILLER EXERCISE ADDICTION ADDITION

Upon completion of my arm workout the other day, I was discontent with the outcome. It was sufficient but discomfort in the right wrist and elbow (they swelled, throbbed, glowed bright red and finally fell off) required exercise substitutions, interrupting the rhythm of my training. Poor baby. I needed to do more to make up for the loss, something simple and broadly related, heavy and low rep. A three-headed sledgehammer came to my mind to reestablish the beat.

Thoroughly warmed up and deliberate in movement, the choice of exercises did not aggravate my stressed areas.

This is the fix:

Heavy dumbbell deadlifts and shrugs (4 X 6-8 reps)
(A healthy range of back, touch of thigh and hamstrings, traps, minor pec and bis, forearm and grip)

...followed by

Dumbbell stiff-arm pullovers (4 X 6-8)
(Lats, underside of bis and tris, abs)

...followed by

Weighted dips (4 X 6)
(Tris, lotsa torso -- shoulders, pecs, upper back)

Throw in some of that intensity everyone is talking about and you'll feel like a pile of rocks... nothing like it. There are girl rocks, too, as if you didn't know.

DD

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