The Recycle Bin

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West Coast Bodybuilding Scene by Dick Tyler, Laree’s latest classic publication, goes to the printer tomorrow and we’ve been submerged in last-minute details. This includes typos and commas and gaining permission from the champs and photographers for the use of their pictures. It’s been great fun contacting my old friends and recalling the days-gone-by, but our gym time and writing time has been reduced to shadows and silhouettes.

What to do? It’s Wednesday and the newsletter is a blank page on my monitor. Ha. I’m a resourceful character (sneaky) and have snagged a heap of words from my email trash bin.

Occasionally a writer for a periodical will contact me for my thoughts on a subject, a one-liner or quote they can use in the content of an article. Who, me? The author of Bob’s Fitness Corner in The Biscayne Bay Bi-monthly Bugle wants a quote from me? I come running like a slobbering hound tripping over his paws and generously splatter them with more thoughts than they know what to do with. Here are a couple of examples from the last few weeks, email responses to training requests.

<In a word or two, how do people waste time in the gym and how might they keep their exercise routine fresh?>

On time wasting:

Too many people spend their valuable gym time going through the motions as if that was enough. They stand apart from exercise like it was a thing and not the wonderful movement of their body. They touch exercise, poke at it and nudge it with a stick from a safe and comfortable distance. Fine. Reservation at first is understandable -- caution, unknowing, fear -- but this must be replaced by courage and active control in spite of one's personality if one is to aspire. Training is an aggressive act toward physical and personal peace. Thoughtful intensity should be applied to gain the attention of the body and mind, and thus realize physical and internal fulfillment.

What I'm saying is let's get to work if we seriously want to get the job done. Eliminate distraction: less talking, reading and TV, less daydreaming, yawning and moaning on the gym floor. Keep your eye on the goal, your focus on the exercise and your hopes high. Take charge and, as it is wise, push hard during your committed training time. It's much more fun and productive.

On routine freshness:

The trainee should give himself credit for creativity and allow himself room to roam curiously. An exercise routine, to be effective, needs to be performed consistently over time and a regular effort must be made to increase the muscle overload from workout to workout. Change of routine is welcome every four to six weeks or so, but change too often can be sloppy -- undisciplined and ineffective. To avoid shoddy training and assure muscle-building overload while maintaining workout freshness, the fitness seeker should reserve routine for 75 percent of the workout and allow 25 percent for freestyle training; what he would like to do, feel he needs to do or what he wants to practice, perfect or experiment with. This freedom lightens the load, adds “you” to your training and teaches you better than any personal trainer can. Exercising to be strong includes gaining mastery and confidence.

Training freshness depends a great deal upon attitude. Hopefulness, inspiration and personal encouragement -- this stuff works -- are primers in establishing enthusiasm for our workouts. We can not imitate ourselves or others day after day and expect continuous high spirited training. Involvement in each exercise needs to be practiced. Focus on the muscle and its work. Get lost in the training pace, the exercise groove, the pump and burn -- the muscles immediate response to exercise overload. These dynamics s individually and together are exciting in time if one approaches training with them in mind.

Supersetting, the technique whereby we perform one exercise and go immediately on to a second exercise that complements the first, is effective in both endurance and muscle building, and in capturing a trainee's attention.

For example:

Standing barbell curls supersetted with dips
Bench press supersetted with wide-grip pulldowns
Dumbbell inclines with stiff-arm pullovers
Front press and side-arm laterals

<I’m interested in any motivating thoughts and specific suggestions you might have for readers who want to make improvements in their health and fitness but might seem a bit overwhelmed or intimidated about how or where to start?>

My thoughts:

To successfully improve our wellbeing we must understand and embrace the following concept: Our health and fitness is our life in our cupped hands before us. It is the most precious yet neglected treasure we possess, and attending it is simple and should be eagerly pursued.

What needs to be done is summed up in one weighty guideline: Exercise and eat right regularly. There you have in five words the best prescription for a long, happy and productive life. Start today taking small steps to restore your health and strength.

Eating right, a list of steps to choose from:

Make the commitment to press toward your fitness goal in one or more ways each and every day. Take your time and apply no pressure. Add this ‘n that, here ‘n there until a life-giving habit is formed. When we try too hard we set ourselves up for disappointment and early defeat. Try and try again.

Begin by sweeping your refrigerator and cupboards clean of the foods you know are wrong: soda pop and chips and candy and cake. They are bad for you. This is a major and painless move -- out of sight, out of mind. Eliminating.

Make fewer trips to the fast-food joints and eat less when you’re there -- half the chips, half the pop, half the goop. Weaning.

Sugar kills, protein gives life. As you decrease your intake of empty foods (foods high in sugar offering no nutritional value), increase your consumption of protein-rich foods: meat, fish, poultry, milk products, some nuts and legumes. Exchanging.

Make it a plan to eat in a more sensible, orderly manner: smaller meals more frequently throughout the day, and begin with a small protein-high breakfast. Arranging.

Avoid random caffeine and sugar-high snacks. Replace them with mini-meals of yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit or an MRB (meal replacement bar). Replacing.

Add living food to your menu. Plenty of fresh salad and steamed vegetables and ample amounts of fruit daily should be eaten for vitamin, mineral, enzyme value and roughage. Adding.

Add a high-quality daily vitamin and mineral formula to your diet to assure adequate system-enhancing nutrients. Supplementing.

Your health and fitness reflect who you are and play a decisive role in where you're going. It’s your responsibility to exercise daily to prepare your body and mind for the ordinary yet demanding routine of daily living. Fail to exercise and we age and weaken sooner and more certainly. Exercising.

About exercise, keep these thoughts in mind:

While assuring yourself sufficient rest and recuperation, stay busy and physically productive. Housework, yard work, recreational play and job activity represent a form of exercise and add a kick to our fitness level. Be ye not lazy.

You might seriously consider limiting TV, internet and video-game time. These stand between us and strong, lean, healthy and productive bodies and minds and souls.

Exercise regularly. If you don’t already participate, start with average walking and in time go to fast walking; eventually walk up hills and stairs and throw in some lengths of jogging. If and when you’re ready and suspect it is wise, replace the walking with jogging totally. Try walking with a weighted backpack on alternate days and increase the weight and distance a little at a time over days, weeks and months. This is a lifetime discipline; there is no rush and it can’t be rushed. Who needs the anxiety?

Walking is not enough. You need resistance exercise to build bone density and strong muscles and muscle tone. You’ll look good and stave off damage from disease, falls, bad guys and heavy objects.

Freehand exercises can work well if you have the discipline and fortitude to practice them regularly: these include pushups, chin-ups, dips between parallel bars or the backs of chairs, deep knee bends, sit-ups (crunches), leg raises and push-aways from a wall.

The best form of resistance exercise is weight lifting. It is safe and fun and the most direct and effective method for developing muscle, gaining strength and establishing total fitness.

Exercising with weights can be done at home with some space, a bench, a barbell and a pair of dumbbells. This is the choice of numerous amateur and professional athletes. It works.

Join a gym and exercise with all the equipment at your disposal and an energetic atmosphere where you can learn the appropriate movements. Shop around for the features that suit you. Within reason, don’t shop to save dollars, but to gain a gym that you like, that you’ll gladly attend to do the fun and hard work necessary.

Corner a family friend who’s cool and knows his or her metal and ask for some hands-on training help. No? Hire a personal trainer with some miles on him or her for three basic training sessions. Check in once every six weeks for an update. The rest should be up to you.

Push that iron and you’ll gain more out-of-the-ordinary benefits than you’ll believe existed. Sure, muscles and strength you hoped for, but discipline, humility, self-assurance, perseverance, courage, patience -- who expected those precious qualities? Wait. There’s more: you’ll reduce stress, detoxify the body, build character, make friends, rid yourself of the guilt of procrastination and the shame of being a physical wreck. Your horizons broaden as your energy rises to the sky and your strength rivals that of a burly dock worker. Last year you couldn’t push the lawn mower; this year you’re going cross-country skiing.

That’s that.

Now, as it works out -- in the translation -- one author mentioned that Dave Dapper, former physical culturist, accents discipline in exercise. The other claimed that former muscleman Draper said, “You’re never too old to start exercising.”

Deep thoughts, and prolific, too. The authors captured the essence of my stirring words. I am so impressed with my broad influence and cogency.

Dirk Dripster signing off and saying, “Don’t fall out of your aircraft, Bomber. As I recall, the last ten feet are a bummer.”

Postscript: The book will be out by the middle of February.

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