Gaia: Integral Strength

Reflections of an Integral "Crossfit" Strength Practice

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:23:40 GMT

Greetings to Rob and Integral Strength, apologies for my absence.

Thought Id share a short reflection of what I have been engaging with over the past six months related to Integal Strength.

The base of my physical practice has been through the influence of Crossfit (crossfit.com) and its philosophy of training "constantly varied, high intensity, with functional movements". I have transitioned away from a focus of traditional body building, to incorporating gymnastics, olympic lifting and other forms of monostructural training. For those not familiar with the Crossfit movement check-out the site and even if you dont resonate with this style of training, at least respect the depth of the information within this community.

The workouts are short - usually less than twenty minutes and sometimes less than 5 - although on occasions I do increase the duration to challenge strength and endurance from a different dimension. The intensity is very high, and requires deep, deep concentration, focus and efficient co-ordinated technique. To engage in the practice (or to use a term often used by Rob the "dance with the weights") I need an extended period of meditative time beforehand and a great deal of post reflective time to emerge from the intensity and normalise my consciousness.

Often this style of trainning doesnt always lend itself to same engagement/reflection mini-cycles as in Strength for Life - but its effectiveness in developing deep states through the intensity is very powerful.

I also find myself focused on the weight lifting and gymnastics techniques I have been learning, spending time observing myself in differnt ranges of motion and body reactions to different movements and pressures. Its no different to a yoga asana - in fact id even go far as to say it is an extension of yoga not just an association.

So this is me for now and my practice - as always feel free to ask any questions and post reflections of your own in terms of how you are individually engaging in this practice.

Strength and Spirit

Damon

PS The picture below is me training at The Cell (thecellfitness.com.au) during a recent trip back to Australia in July, with a good friend of mine Rod on the sled providing resistance to my efforts.

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://Rob.gaia.com — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:51:38 GMT

Right on, I'm looking forward to getting this book into your hands!!!

Tell me more of what you're thinking on your process goals regarding your session schedule and I'll give you my 2 cents...

Big Love buddy
~Rob

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:30:02 GMT

Rob,

I work for a company that loves goal setting, but does it badly with minimum explanation. I found your writing informative and a good read, I'll be very interested to see the whole book.

I am particularly interested in putting numbers on my performance and outcome goals for a 3 month S4L season. For performance I was thinking of increase in weights used, for outcome I was focusing on decreasing body fat and increasing muscle mass. My process goals are using strict form & the fit cycle, I am not sure if sticking to a session schedule would count as a process or performance goal.

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://Rob.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:27:32 GMT

Hey guys... I thought I'd share a little blurb from my book here... I'm in the editing process right now ;-) but here's a small section on goal setting... some of the context maybe isn't necessary however you'll want to pay attention to the 9 tips at the end - they're important for actually setting goals.

Big Love
~Rob

PS: Please don't remove this text from this pod - thx :-)

Goal Setting
Goal setting emerged in the research world as a legitimate topic in the mid 1980’s. As a result this discipline became understood more clearly by the scientific community as a significant contributor to both high levels of performance and more pronounced levels of motivation in sport. Goal setting has increasingly become part of the implicit and explicit performance culture in sports and beyond ever since and is an extremely powerful practice you are wise to employ in a variety of areas of your life where you are striving to move, shift and evolve yourself and your performance forward.
Goal setting has four functional dimensions to them that make them pragmatically so powerful and efficient when employed properly. Clearly defined goals continually cause you to focus your attention on a task or skill that’s necessary to achieve your goal. This periodic or continual refocusing of your attention facilitates greater mastery of skills and performance improvements. In addition to facilitating you to effectively direct your attention goals are extremely powerful tools to mobilize higher levels of effort. Goals increase the effort you put forth into a specific activity because of a higher level of investment in achieving your goal. Effective goals also promote persistence. When you commit to a goal or a set of goals you return to the necessary tasks you might otherwise not focus upon during the course of life’s competing demands. Goals facilitate consistent practice and engagement over long periods of time, all of which are requisites for your own emergent Greatness. Finally, goals facilitate the development of new learning strategies. Goals provide challenges that frustrate your existing capacities and force you to learn, grow and evolve.
The most effective goal setting requires an integrative approach, or what’s called a multiple goal strategy that employs all three of the major types of goals. The first type of goals are outcome goals. These are specific outcomes. For example winning a competition, finishing in the top 5, getting a promotion, landing that new job you are passionate about. Generally speaking these goals involve some sort of interpersonal comparison.

Performance goals are the second type of goal. These are end products of performance that are relatively independent of the influence of other people or performers. These may be goals, assists, split times, weight loads, completions, accounts landed. Just about any measurement of your personal performance and personal records. The third and final type of goal are process goals. Process goals are the bedrock of peak performance as they are the most fundamental to the articulation of your Excellence. Most elite performers will tell you that their process goals are the most important to them. Process goals are specific practices exhibited during your training and or theater of performance. A runner’s focus upon their breathing rhythm or a focus upon running form are examples of possible process goals for a runner. Regardless of what area of your life you are looking to improve and excel process goals are tools to focus your attention and engagement upon the fundamental elements you must execute upon, moment to moment, to perform at your highest levels.Seek an experienced professional or trained coach within the discipline you want to establish a set of goals for yourself. Their perspective and experience can help you efficiently move forward with establishing clear effective goals. Here are nine common principles to help you set the most efficient and effective goals possible:

1. Make goals specific, measurable and observable.
2. Clearly identify time constraints. Chose a realistic timeline in which you will obtain your goal or set of goals.
3. Use moderately difficult goals - these are vastly superior to goals that are too easy or extremely difficult goals.
4. Write down your goals and regularly monitor your progress - that’s to say consistently track your progress.
5. Use a mix of process, performance and outcome goals.
6. Leverage short-terms goals to achieve long-term goals.
7. If applicable, set team goals as well as individual goals.
8. Establish both practice or training goals in addition to competition goals.
9. Set goals that are intrinsically meaningful to you. If your heart is not invested in achieving a goal, assess the relevance of using this goal and choose goals that are deeply meaningful to you and your unfolding Greatness.

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:53:05 GMT

search for body analyser scale and you should get the kind of thing I have.

As for the basecamp thing I am not doing it as I was in a bad state outside of the gym. My performance outside the gym can be directly related to my presence or lack of it in the gym and I hadn't been for sometime so I really needed to kick on. I was mentally and physically a pudding last week and today after 1 session I have my A game on, I know exercise doesn't cure my problems in the outside world but it boosts my ability and willingness to deal with it.

So feel free to PM me tomorrow and check if I went to the gym, I have to go across town to the sister gym as my local one only opens early on monday, wednesday and friday.

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://tangle.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:35:53 GMT

ive never heard of those scales, id like 2 try, i think at the moment, like a baby seal im about 75% blubber!
are you doing the pre-cleansey thing?

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:46:17 GMT

I have one of those scales that calculates body composition, if you program it correctly! In a recent gym test I discovered I am 2 inches shorter than I thought I was, so all my previous measurements are incorrect. Plus I have to consider if I have been in denial about my Tom Cruz complex! ;-D

Re: Setting Physical goals

http://tangle.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:27:18 GMT

hey,
hopefully some more knowledgeable people will answer, all i can do is repeat stuff from the book.
how ambitious your goals are might depend on your personality, you could set them really high to inspire yourself (a surprising amount is achievable in 12 weeks!) or you could set em more conservatively and maybe get to happily exceed them.
i was pretty lax with the old tracking myself, other than the workout trackers i only kept waist measurements, i was happy with the strong subjective sense of progress.
how did you do your body composition measurements?
weekly photos from a few angles is a good idea, and of course you can do tape measurements of arms, legs, waist and chest.
i got a heart rate monitor but found the subjective scale more useful for the cardio portion, of course you can track your resting rate over the weeks.
personally, i exceeded some of my targets and fell short of others, but what really mattered was how much better i was feeling.
anyway, congrats on doing it, i look forward to seeing your updates!!
t

Setting Physical goals

http://davybuoy.gaia.com — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:28:23 GMT

Having developed some familiarity with the strength for life program I am now about to go for the full 12 week blitz. What kind of physical goals should I be setting myself, I don't know what's achievable in this time frame.

I am a 33 year old male, weigh 10 stone 12 pounds, my body fat is 18% and muscle mass 41.7%. I have a good heart rate monitor so I could track my CO2 max but is it worth while doing this for a weight training dominated program.

Any advice on what stats to track (I'm a geek and this will help maintain my commitment) and what kind of targets that I should aim for, that are tough but achievable will be welcome.

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

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.