Gaia: Integral Strength

Re: The Path To Mastery - subsection from Ch 8

http://tangle.gaia.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:59:08 GMT

hmmmm...?
motivation?
or for me the weakest part of the fit cycle, the focused intensity part.
also where/how to focus during a compound movement?
id especially love to hear an inside description of attention during a lift.

thanks rob!

Re: The Path To Mastery - subsection from Ch 8

http://Rob.gaia.com — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:29:06 GMT

Ok buddy, give me what you're most curious about or working with in your own training and practice and I'll see if an excerpt applies... wanna try?

Big L,
~Rob

Re: The Path To Mastery - subsection from Ch 8

http://tangle.gaia.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:12:14 GMT

rob im so happy to hear that!
really.
let me know if u want a test audience!

Re: The Path To Mastery - subsection from Ch 8

http://Rob.gaia.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:58:21 GMT

Hey Tangle,

Thx for asking, the book is coming to a close!! I've been writing and practicing furiously - pushing this pup to a close but I've still got one major piece to get into place but it's on it's way ;-)

~Rob

Re: The Path To Mastery - subsection from Ch 8

http://tangle.gaia.com — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:02:54 GMT

hey rob, any news to share about the book?
truly looking forward to it, in a present momenty kinda way of course!

Re: Introducing Davybuoy

http://tangle.gaia.com — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:57:22 GMT

hey davybouy, must admit the cross crunches from sfl didn't click with me either.
i actually skipped them for a while until i was stronger.
as i understand it no ab exercise really isolates any area so any one does the whole abs to an extent.
having said that when i did the oblique stuff they progressed really quickly!
id love to hear how you're going with it.

Re: The Dark Night of an Integral Strength Practice

http://sardonyx.gaia.com — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:34:17 GMT

I am so thankful D and Rob for having the pioneering spirit to actually bring these subject up- at least on the web... :-)
I am unsure about which "stage" I am at. I have had a few times where I would begin at a gym and typically discontinue. This has happened with martial arts too, but in a different fashion. I have such a love-hate relationship with body practice, that, I have decided to probe into it as deeply as I can...!

I am employing therefore, "The Work" inquiry to help me, and the pathological structure becomes clear quite quickly....
One of the issues that came up for me as well was "superficial motivation".

So, as I phrased it in The Work was:
"My motivation for engagining in weight-training are just not good or legitimate enough".
This phrasing already exposes the super-ego self-righteous tendency that comes with this type of thinking: (from journal)
"When I think this thought, I am actually in the business of 'self-righteously favoring [pseudo-evolutionary] spiritual bypass instead of alignment with authentic aspiration'".
And, at almost a transrational level,
I thought that hey, I don't -need- "superficial or illegitimate reasons" to feel "not good enough"- freeing "not being good enough" from the tyranny of having-to-have reasons to feel that way is paradoxically liberating!

I myself am not sure what this MEANS- just that in the integral circles, there is the need to justify everything integrally, and sometimes it borders on being self-righteous instead of loving ourselves for the aspirations we have. We get so incredible afraid of what might look as shallow, which is actually a quiter voice, a willingness that demands much less than our "non-superficial reasons".

My plan is continue to examine my relationship with training, and eventually return to training slightly more integrated I hope!

Re: Introducing Davybuoy

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:50:13 GMT

Rob,

I am following the Monday to Friday sessions outlined in the SFL book, except I am not doing drop sets as I am working on learning the exercise and FIT cycle technique. I am looking for an all round increase in strength and muscle mass and a corresponding drop in body fat, which I have particularly accumulated around my waistline. Training my obliques is simply part of the all round plan and an area I seem particularly weak as I can't perform the exercise with good form.

Re: Introducing Davybuoy

http://Rob.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:06:35 GMT

Welcome!

So glad you've made your way over here to Integral Strength. Before I respond give me a little bit more about the aim, the end result or the goal that you have with training your obliques.

Give me the quick and dirty on what you're doing in terms of exercises and what you're intending to accomplish. I'll then be able to give you some better guidance.

Looking forward,
~Rob

Introducing Davybuoy

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:42:52 GMT

Hi,

My name is David Thomas I am new to serious weight training, previously I have been into running with a heart rate monitor. I would
recommend Sally Edwards books for anyone interested in exploring that. I was inspired by the Strength for Life book and have joined this group as the SFL group on Gaia seems dead and Rob hinted that Integral Strength is something deeper, so I am intrigued.

I am working with light weights and struggle with the oblique exercises, anyone who can suggest exercises for this weak area will find me grateful as the instructors in my public gym are not interested unless you are following their program, or female!

Cheers,

Davybuoy

Iron and the Soul - Henry Rollins

http://strengthandspirit.gaia.com — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:11:59 GMT

Iron and the Soul - Henry Rollins

Gratitude to Bill Harryman at The Masculine Heart for posting this exert from Henry Rollins on his blog page. Read, enjoy, discuss if inspired......

It
wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had
given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without
work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me
shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it
can’t be as bad as that workout. I used to fight the pain, but
recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call
to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to
interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come
from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t
ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a
fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach
you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.
I have never
met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot
of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as
self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s
shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for
cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as
cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength
reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers
who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.
Muscle mass
does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity.
Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and
emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.
I
prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons
that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you’re made of is always
time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had
taught me how to live.
Life is capable of driving you out of
your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it’s some kind of
miracle if you’re not insane. People have become separated from their
bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to
their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly,
they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run
wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a
massive stroke. They need the Iron mind.
Through the years, I
have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength.
I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong
thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I
wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind. The Iron is
the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to
fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been
awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.
The
Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of
talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will
always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point,
the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the
pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never
freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred
pounds is always two hundred pounds.

Re: The Dark Night of an Integral Strength Practice

http://Rob.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:01:58 GMT

Here's a little for you to bounce off of...

The very heart of the dark night is organized around this singularity - that which you want to get rid of isn't going anywhere. The lucidity from which you grasp this and the fullness within which you embody this determines much of what follows in my opinion and practice.

The dark night is at it's heart despair, which is born from the desire to get rid of something (or if you want to flip that coin - attain something). When everything fails, when in your most honest and awake moments you spontaneously know you are left with failure your body-mind contracts up into your essential wound. The contraction that defines you, makes you and owns you is now consciously in your face and there is absolutely nothing you can do.

While there are many considerations to look at when stepping further into this phase of practice and life, the general prescription is to push into this, because as Terry (and others) presuppose, it is this fertile space that gives birth to that which you seek most desperately to know within.

Personally, in my own experience the dark night never ends and it completely disappears depending on how I want to organize myself and my perspective. I choose to embody the fullness of this contraction and despair and hold the essential liberation that is this. Freedom and Fullness, to embody and enact integral practice you must have both, awareness and embrace they actually require each other.

You are not one, not the other. You fundamentally are not two.

For me, moving into this despair and letting go, this is the work that we're here to do. This is what it really means to do a set with all of your heart, tears rolling down your cheeks, with a shattering smile of Suchness that allows everything, absolutely everything to be ok just as it is.

This is the path of becoming uniquely you, not ejecting in escape of something or reaching to attain something but not the unconscious attachment to the enveloping immanence of your relative vehicle. You'll know something is radically different when the contraction that scares you, the knot that is you that you try to manage, control and negotiate with has been transformed into itself. From this perspective, from this embodiment the contraction and limitation of you is the unfolding liberation of your divinity.

Discover this in your breath right now, re-cognize this as you move resistance, realize this and you'll know your Unique Self - the you that's always known you ;-)

Big Love,
~Rob

Re: Community and "The Cell - Real Fitness"

http://Rob.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:16:10 GMT

Damon,
As usual thanks for bringing this resource to our attention.
Much appreciated - so glad this important work is moving and shaking out in the world ;-)

Per your question regarding community within the integral context, here's a few thoughts.

Community is an essential part of the equation - obviously community is an "all quadrant affair" however it's emphasis resides in the LL or the interior collective.

Within strength training and integral practice community provides to essential functions: Support and Challenge.

Community, how your relationships hold you, determines so much about how you in response show up in the world and your training. So it's often ideal to have integrated relationships that understand the intention and depth of your practice and how they can in response support you and challenge you in critical ways both inside of your training and outside of your training.

With that said virtually everyone on planet earth is training within communities that are largely unconscious to the dimensions of strength being explored here. What does that mean?

Well, it means in short you've got more challenge and less support from the natural communities within most gyms you walk into. This has its benefits and drawbacks however I'll focus on how I encourage practitioners to leverage this lack of a supportive environment and community into a positive benefit.

One of the essential dimensions being cultivated here is the capacity to "Self-Author." Self-Authorship means that you have established a self system that's able to self generate your vision, intention, goals and so on. There's much to be said here but to be brief a lack of supportive community forces you to generate more from within.

Self generate your goals, vision, purpose and intention. Create and manage your state, your focus and the depth of your engagement in the midst of what I often call the "least supportive environment" available ;-)

This ultimately cultivates greater strength - not just of body but of an emergent self-system that's capable of much more in the world and your training.

And for those advanced practitioners... surrender baby - let go of this and that and simply train as the Suchness unfolds :-)

Big Love Everyone,
~Rob

The Dark Night of an Integral Strength Practice

http://strengthandspirit.gaia.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:52:52 GMT

I've had a chance to travel recently which, in the process of transit and spending time in hotels, had given me time to read and reflect. An interesting topic that came up for me whilst reading the new Integral Life Practice book was the concept of the "Phases in the Practice Life". What resonated was how it related to the phases in my previous yoga practice and how it now relates to my current strength training practice that I pursue as a yoga. As a roadmap of what potentially to expect at each stage of a strength training practice I thought this would be worth sharing with the group.
Quick overview of the theory (Integral Life Practice: p. 368-372)….

Practice takes time. An over time, as you engage practice, certain phases often unfold organically. A series of different "seasons" will appear…[being The Honeymoon, The Plateau and Falling from Grace, The Fruits, The Dark Night, Responsibility].

The Honeymoon is usually for a period of at least several years, practice involves the process of establishing a new orientation in life, breaking old habits, and establishing new conscious routines;
The Plateau and Falling from Grace, the regularity of practice will have become second nature and awareness expanded and stabilised with practitioners, unaware that they had become addicted to the experience of expansion, begin to feel like their practices aren't working anymore;
The Fruits, new, free capacities bloom and awareness effortlessly expands. We worked hard and now we re seeing results. Were gratified. Proud. Identified . Attached. And, inevitably, full of it!;
The Dark Night, At a certain point your practice life may seem to fall apart. You may lose all motivation, no longer able to believe that practice is going to get you anywhere. Awareness of the underlying selfish motives for practice may become so acute that you despair of the whole enterprise. You may discover that something essential is dying. The awful aloneness and sense of limitation that you may have hoped to escape through practice has now engulfed you. Despair is inescapable; your aspiration to infinity will never succeed. You are going through a kind of death, one you cannot escape. Congratulations - this defeat is the doorway to profound freedom;
Responsibility, This phase of responsibility contains all the previous phases flowing together in a stability whereby the fruits of practice may even gracefully deepen - perhaps becoming the liberating illuminations described in our ancient spiritual traditions.

My reflection, and hopefully a point of discussion, is focused on The Dark Night phase. I experienced similar feelings and reactions on my yoga practice to the point where I have abandoned this practice almost entirely and replaced this with a Integral strength training practice. And while I am very much in "The Honeymoon phase" of this practice - motivated by the energy and intensity of the new practice - a cannot ignore the residue of the feelings I had in experiencing what I believe was A Dark Night phase. I've discussed this a little in this forum as my reflection is that I'm concerned by my own capacity for a superficial shadow motivation for pursuing strength training practice even as a form of developmental practice may lead to a deeper, more intense Dark Night than potentially other modes of practice. This is a generalisation and dependant on an individuals relationship to practice and their own understanding of shadow motivation.
So what I want to explore here is The Dark Night, Shadow motivation, and the superficial motive. If you have experienced a Dark night phase - how did you recognise it, what were your physiological reaction, did you continue/persist with the practice and for how long or did you radically change the mode of practice to overcome the experience as I have, have you emerged from A Dark Night and again how did you recognise that and what part of that phase still is residue in your current practice post experience of this phase.

Re: FIT program - January to April 2009 - Damon

http://strengthandspirit.gaia.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:27:18 GMT

Bill
Gratitude for the comment on my training program. I actually saw from Integral Options Cafe that you were drawing from the same influence in your own training. Purely by coincidence but it is cool that we are on a similar space in terms of training methodology.
Im finding the sessions are very intense - but theres a simplicity that I really resonate with. I know very clearly before each session, exactly what I need to do giving me space to focus on the training and the space between. Im now in the intensification stage whereby im into the 3 rep range which is a different experience than the accumulation phase. I have up until this point a real fragmented training period over the previous 6 months and this program is enabling me to re-establish my training.
I had a week off this program last week as I was travelling to Australia but had a great week of training at a new training facility that friends of mine had set up (I posted a thread about it on Integral Strength). on reflection I will plan at the end of each phase take a week off the program and focus on a different style of training for that week.
Let me know how you are progressing as well.
Damon

Community and "The Cell - Real Fitness"

http://strengthandspirit.gaia.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:08:31 GMT

Several months ago a new strength training facility concept was established between two friends of mine who share a vision of delivering unprecedented and until now, unattainable levels of elite fitness to the population of Western Australia. The concept has been lovingly nurtured from it's initial inception through white-hot fire and bone-chilling cold to develop into what will become the premiere strength, conditioning, fitness and health training facility in Western Australia:

As the logo suggests, The Cell is about real fitness - all aspects of fitness, not just the physical. The Cell also brings together methodologies adopted from CrossFit (it will continue to be Perth's only official CrossFit affiliate), Gym Jones, The Underground Strength Coach - Zach Even-Esh, Ross Enamait, The Diesel Crew and many others.

I know this will be something special as it's grown so naturally through trial, energy, dedication and passion. And so it is with incredible pride, zeal and gratitude that I direct your attention to The Cell - www.thecellfitness.com.au.
I was fortunate enough to travel to Australia (I live in Singapore now) to experience this new facility first hand and be a part of the emerging energy of this place (im pictured there on the posting on the 30th January). Reflecting on the different experience from training in a commercial gym in Singapore to this facility I realised how working out in a training environment such as this can facilitate greater levels of intensity and focus in my training.
The aspect of "community" is also one that hasnt been explore in an Integral Strength. My question to the pod is how important is community to strength training in an integral context, what are other experience of working with others and how has a community inspired you to great depths of intensity in your training.

Damon

Re: FIT program - January to April 2009 - Damon

http://integral-options.gaia.com — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:25:57 GMT

Looks like we're sort of on the same path with this form of workout. My approach is not all that different from what you are doing. Cool.

I like the time blocks - I keep trying to do more in the given block, either sets or weigt. i can already feel my cardio improving without doing any "real" cardio.

The next phase of my approach will also seek to drop the reps to three per set, but that is as low as I will go.

Because I'm doing a different combination of the same exercises each week, I could stay on this program for months without gettting bored, just switching up the rep cycles or the time blocks (some days I'm doing 10 min blocks anywat, due to lack of time).

How are you liking this approach?

Peace,
Bill

Re: Lifting for rest

http://Rob.gaia.com — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:39:50 GMT

Surrender baby, Surrender!

Sorry, I missed this post from last month - not sure how at any rate thanks for sharing.

The FIT cycle is intrinsic to your own natural movements physically and psychologically. It's how deeply you participate with it that determines your progressions.

You needn't try to "create" something, just feel into what's there and follow the emergence of your body-mind in the moment.

Peace,

~Rob

Re: FIT program - January to April 2009 - Damon

http://strengthandspirit.gaia.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:03:14 GMT

Thankyou Rob for the reply to the post. Ive said this before but im very grateful for this space you have created for this discussion to take place and your contribution to it.

In reference to this sequence, each workout had a certain intensity zone that is defined by the number of reps, and the aim is to complete as many successful lifts during the prescribed time frame. For example, Power Clean and Squat (15 minutes) in the "Accumulation Phase" is as many sets of 6 reps I can complete in 15 minutes.

A power clean and front squat is a movement whereby I start with bar from the floor in a deadlift position with hands in an over position, lift and catch the bar in a quarter or half squat position aka the power position. with the bar is lifted across the top of the chest and shoulders (think Olympic weight lifting cleans without the super deep knee movement), then with the bar in position stand and complete one front squat (one rep)

The phasing is designed to drop the rep count in each phase set but significantly increase the weight at each phase thereby increasing the intensity of movement and concentration. I am only in week 1 of the Accumulation phase however I should have an understanding of what my capability to increase the workload at the intensification phase by week 5. The peaking phase will have me do 2 rep max for the first week and then 1 rep max for as many sets in the specified time which is a slight change from my original program.

Despite the structure the program, this sequence is enabling me to auto regulate training because if I am receptive I can increase the intensity and power output by either taking shorter rests and complete more sets or increase the weight. The rest between sets is completely arbitrary and dependant, as you refer, to managing my physiological and psychological states in preparing for the next set. I can also measure my power output and using this in my post workout reflection.

If any one else has any questions please feel free to comment.

I am also interested in how others are apply the various strength training techniques into an Integral Strength/FIT practice - so if you are out there post away.

Strength and spirit

Damon

Re: FIT program - January to April 2009 - Damon

http://Rob.gaia.com — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:03:02 GMT

Thanks Damon,

Since you brought up maximizing work load in your training session I thought I'd just point out the concept of Power Output.

This concept is simply it's the total weight multiplied by the number of reps, but here's the key addition. You then divide that number by the time you took to complete your training.

Reps x weight

___________

Total Time

This is your power output, it's mostly expressed in pounds per minute.

For performance training this equation is essential and with each workout you want to increase your power output by either increasing reps, weight or by decreasing the total time it takes you to complete your training.

With FIT, practitioners are forced to manage their physiological and psychological states in a faster more nuanced and responsive fashion which of course takes practice. This is especially the case when you are shortening your times between sets in decrease your total training time.

Damon, good luck and if you get a chance explain what the times means for our readers. For example what does the 15 minutes mean after Power Squat clean?

Thanks,

~Rob