The psychology of growth
I'm on sick-leave, again.. This time because of a cold that was generously given to me by my workmates. Thank you!
I don't understand why people have to come to work sick, even if they feel like crap and know that it would probably be better if they stayed home and got better. Instead, they come to work, cough and sneeze and contaminate the rest of us who don't want to get sick!
As a result, I couldn't get my 1,5 hour massage on Tuesday, I couldn't go to the shooting range, and I can't go to the gym! Thanks a bunch!
YES! I'm just slightly angry about this!
So, with that out of the way, how about I tell you a bit about other things.
This will be a long blog post because I have lots of things to write about:
I haven't researched it anywhere, but there are lots of literature on the subject of the psychology of growth and why not even muscle growth.
It is so important to have a healthy mind before you can have a healthy body. There's basically very little point in training your body to be healthy when the mind isn't well. It will never be as good as it could be without a healthy mind! It's just like going to the gym 5 times a week and working out like mad and not eating properly ... you're just not going to see the optimal health benefits.
These things I'm going to write are strictly my own opinion based only on my own observations and experiences, so if you have a differing opinion, good for you. You can let me know about it by getting in touch with me. I'd love to hear your opinion so that I could have a wider view on the matter.
The reason bodybuilding is not for everyone is that so few people can handle the psychological side of it.
... and the list can go on for quite a bit.
What I've noticed is that a balanced life is the key to growth, both personal growth and muscle growth. So many times I've witnessed people who tell me they don't want to go to the gym because they don't want to look muscular... Honestly, what I feel like doing at that specific moment is to slap them... But all I do is stay calm and quiet and thank my lucky stars that there will be less competition because they decided not to start working out... I think I call it positive thinking :)
I also see a lot of people walking around in an "X" position with their so-called lats spread out like they're carrying watermelons under their arms and one in between their legs, when in fact it's probably the stiffness caused by wearing multiple layers of thick hoodies. It's ok to feel insecure, but how many layers do you need to take away the insecurity?! I say, take care of the insecurity and you'll be spending less time and money on dressing up in hoodies :)
I do understand the insecurity though. I don't understand having to wear multiple layers of hoodies, but I understand the underlying problem with the self. I think everyone has them to one extent or other, we just all deal with it in different ways. I think the way I deal with it is by joking about it if anyone notices weaknesses in me. I do actively try to improve what I feel insecure about. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so well.
I wonder if wearing lots of hoodies on top of each other helps solve insecurities?
The mindset that you can only succeed in having a fit life if you eat what looks ugly, is tasteless and prepared in the most complicated way or that the whole ordeal of food should be somehow very special and specific before it's noteworthy, is something I can't understand. I think there are some very basic rules to follow, whether you are working out or not and by tweaking things within the basic rules is what gets you far. For example, one very very basic rule I think works for everybody regardless of age, sex, activity level, etc. is eating a hearty breakfast, a good lunch and a light dinner. For someone who is active, you just add healthy snack in between according to your activity. This gets you incredibly far, and if you wanna go pro, you have to calculate things more carefully, but this doesn't mean that the meals and snacks have to be bland in every possible way.
Maybe I haven't achieved very much yet in bodybuilding or power lifting, but I think I've achieved enough to say that eating and enjoying eating is something you can do and still achieve your goals.
These are all delicious, in my opinion, and have good nutritional value. They may not be suited for every day or for specific fat-loss diets, but these are not unhealthy foods and as long as everything is done with consistency and moderation, there is no need to torture yourself and eat dry chicken and unseasoned broccoli all day long (unless you really like them ;)
Another thing I think makes people very unstable is thinking they have to give up everything once they start the fit lifestyle. I still go to bars, I just don't drink alcohol, I order a pint of tea. It looks like beer and I blend in ;) The thing is, though, that I don't really mind being sober around drunk people, which maybe a lot of people would have a problem with.
I also don't have to always have the same schedule day in and day out. I can be flexible if need be, but there should be a pretty good reason for doing so. I'm an animal of routine and I like doing things the same way if they work well for me, but occasionally when there's a special occasion or something that's also important to me, I don't torture myself about it. It's worked pretty well for me so far. These are exceptions and they don't happen very often, so there's no reason one can't find a way to accommodate them without disrupting their entire life :)
One thing I have found to be very, very important is having other things to do than just fitness and moving weights from one place to another. I think having a diverse life in general is healthy. I really don't know how people cope with themselves and with life when all they have is fitness/bodybuilding. It just seems to be that that kind of life is very unstable and dissatisfying. I wouldn't want that kind of lifestyle, but I also see that the majority of people who have nothing else aren't all that happy in general. Also, it's very restrictive to have a conversation with the people who only have one thing in their lives, because you simply can't talk about anything else. Maybe this is just my own preference, but it's something I've been noticing more and more the older I get and the deeper into this sport I go.
Finally, I would like to say a few words on the mind-body connection. I think this is a very important issue, it can be a problem for some people, maybe for loads of people. Overly stressing about things makes life not only harder but muscle growth painfully slow. And by painfully slow, I mean you don't recover as fast and you get aches and pains and you still don't grow optimally. I haven't come up with any universal way of getting rid of stress that would work for everyone, but I know that what works for me could work for everybody if they were open enough to it. One of my favorite ways to relax is the Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique. My dad introduced me to this and I loved it. It works for me when I'm stressed about, for example, an interview, a stressful life situation that weighs me down suddenly, or whenever I have a few minutes to spare and just want to feel good.
It's basically tensing specific muscle groups one at a time and breathing according to muscle tension and muscle relaxation. It works for me (and I believe for anybody) because you don't think of anything else at that time other than your breathing and the muscles involved in the tension and relaxation process. You can read about it here or search the web for "Progressive Muscle Relaxation"
I don't understand why people have to come to work sick, even if they feel like crap and know that it would probably be better if they stayed home and got better. Instead, they come to work, cough and sneeze and contaminate the rest of us who don't want to get sick!
As a result, I couldn't get my 1,5 hour massage on Tuesday, I couldn't go to the shooting range, and I can't go to the gym! Thanks a bunch!
YES! I'm just slightly angry about this!
So, with that out of the way, how about I tell you a bit about other things.
This will be a long blog post because I have lots of things to write about:
- The mind-body connection and the importance of a healthy mind
- My cardio sessions
- The incident with my foot
- Some photos and videos
The mind-body connection and the importance of a healthy mind
It is so important to have a healthy mind before you can have a healthy body. There's basically very little point in training your body to be healthy when the mind isn't well. It will never be as good as it could be without a healthy mind! It's just like going to the gym 5 times a week and working out like mad and not eating properly ... you're just not going to see the optimal health benefits.
These things I'm going to write are strictly my own opinion based only on my own observations and experiences, so if you have a differing opinion, good for you. You can let me know about it by getting in touch with me. I'd love to hear your opinion so that I could have a wider view on the matter.
The reason bodybuilding is not for everyone is that so few people can handle the psychological side of it.
- You don't grow as fast as you imagine you should
- You think you look small even though everyone else thinks you're gigantic, or in contrast
- You think you're huge, but in fact you're pretty damn tiny and should get back in the gym to actually work out and eat properly
- You think eating has to be complicated, ugly and tasteless before you achieve optimal results
- You think you can't do anything normal people do just because you're pursuing a fit lifestyle
- You think in order to achieve a fit lifestyle you can't have any other hobbies or do anything else than lift weights
... and the list can go on for quite a bit.
What I've noticed is that a balanced life is the key to growth, both personal growth and muscle growth. So many times I've witnessed people who tell me they don't want to go to the gym because they don't want to look muscular... Honestly, what I feel like doing at that specific moment is to slap them... But all I do is stay calm and quiet and thank my lucky stars that there will be less competition because they decided not to start working out... I think I call it positive thinking :)
I also see a lot of people walking around in an "X" position with their so-called lats spread out like they're carrying watermelons under their arms and one in between their legs, when in fact it's probably the stiffness caused by wearing multiple layers of thick hoodies. It's ok to feel insecure, but how many layers do you need to take away the insecurity?! I say, take care of the insecurity and you'll be spending less time and money on dressing up in hoodies :)
I do understand the insecurity though. I don't understand having to wear multiple layers of hoodies, but I understand the underlying problem with the self. I think everyone has them to one extent or other, we just all deal with it in different ways. I think the way I deal with it is by joking about it if anyone notices weaknesses in me. I do actively try to improve what I feel insecure about. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so well.
I wonder if wearing lots of hoodies on top of each other helps solve insecurities?
The mindset that you can only succeed in having a fit life if you eat what looks ugly, is tasteless and prepared in the most complicated way or that the whole ordeal of food should be somehow very special and specific before it's noteworthy, is something I can't understand. I think there are some very basic rules to follow, whether you are working out or not and by tweaking things within the basic rules is what gets you far. For example, one very very basic rule I think works for everybody regardless of age, sex, activity level, etc. is eating a hearty breakfast, a good lunch and a light dinner. For someone who is active, you just add healthy snack in between according to your activity. This gets you incredibly far, and if you wanna go pro, you have to calculate things more carefully, but this doesn't mean that the meals and snacks have to be bland in every possible way.
Maybe I haven't achieved very much yet in bodybuilding or power lifting, but I think I've achieved enough to say that eating and enjoying eating is something you can do and still achieve your goals.
These are all delicious, in my opinion, and have good nutritional value. They may not be suited for every day or for specific fat-loss diets, but these are not unhealthy foods and as long as everything is done with consistency and moderation, there is no need to torture yourself and eat dry chicken and unseasoned broccoli all day long (unless you really like them ;)
I also don't have to always have the same schedule day in and day out. I can be flexible if need be, but there should be a pretty good reason for doing so. I'm an animal of routine and I like doing things the same way if they work well for me, but occasionally when there's a special occasion or something that's also important to me, I don't torture myself about it. It's worked pretty well for me so far. These are exceptions and they don't happen very often, so there's no reason one can't find a way to accommodate them without disrupting their entire life :)
One thing I have found to be very, very important is having other things to do than just fitness and moving weights from one place to another. I think having a diverse life in general is healthy. I really don't know how people cope with themselves and with life when all they have is fitness/bodybuilding. It just seems to be that that kind of life is very unstable and dissatisfying. I wouldn't want that kind of lifestyle, but I also see that the majority of people who have nothing else aren't all that happy in general. Also, it's very restrictive to have a conversation with the people who only have one thing in their lives, because you simply can't talk about anything else. Maybe this is just my own preference, but it's something I've been noticing more and more the older I get and the deeper into this sport I go.
Finally, I would like to say a few words on the mind-body connection. I think this is a very important issue, it can be a problem for some people, maybe for loads of people. Overly stressing about things makes life not only harder but muscle growth painfully slow. And by painfully slow, I mean you don't recover as fast and you get aches and pains and you still don't grow optimally. I haven't come up with any universal way of getting rid of stress that would work for everyone, but I know that what works for me could work for everybody if they were open enough to it. One of my favorite ways to relax is the Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique. My dad introduced me to this and I loved it. It works for me when I'm stressed about, for example, an interview, a stressful life situation that weighs me down suddenly, or whenever I have a few minutes to spare and just want to feel good.
It's basically tensing specific muscle groups one at a time and breathing according to muscle tension and muscle relaxation. It works for me (and I believe for anybody) because you don't think of anything else at that time other than your breathing and the muscles involved in the tension and relaxation process. You can read about it here or search the web for "Progressive Muscle Relaxation"
My cardio sessions
On September 22nd, I started an 8-week 6-pack diet. I wanted to have my 6-pack showing by November 14th when I was going to celebrate my 32nd birthday. I hadn't done any cardio for a couple of years because it was so damn boring!! I didn't start doing cardio until week 4 in my diet! By week 6 the results were pretty nice.
I tried putting cardio off for as long as possibly could, but couldn't avoid it anymore .. But the result was that even after the diet was over and done with, I'm still doing cardio :) And I love it! I do around 3 hours of cardio per week now and eat normally. It's not at all as boring as it used to be, maybe because I was off it for long enough a time.
At some point I realized it was annoying to do cardio with the normal, wired earphones (I don't like headphones at all) coz the wired always dangled, pulled on the earbuds, got stuck on every handle, etc... so I decided to get one of these wireless earphones, and I'm loving it! The microphone is terrible if you're going to speak on the phone with them, but for listening to music or talk shows, it's fantastic.
I use it at work as well, which is also great, because over there we have a lot of things that the wires always get stuck on. I'm happy with them. They cost about 100 eur, so they weren't exactly cheap, and for that price, I really would have expected a much better microphone, but for some reason wireless earphones don't seem to be all that common in shops around here, so I had very limited options of which to get. I could have ordered it online, and I was going to, but I wanted them now and not later, so I just went for the only ones I found from Tampere's Stockmann.
The incident with my foot
The story goes like this:
On Friday, November 7th, we went salsa dancing. I was wearing my red, dancing high-heel shoes, like I have in the past, except this time I didn't wear any socks with them.
I danced and danced and we came home. After a day or so, my left foot's small toe started itching like crazy in sudden bursts and would then stop.
On Monday I went to work normally and I had to wear my work shoes. They're safety shoes, so they aren't exactly the best things to wear if you want ventilation. They were itching like crazy, so I went to the doctor and showed it to her. The toe was a bit red and a little swollen ... Not surprising, since I'd been scratching it so much. The doctor said it's Athlete's foot and gave me a strong antibiotic, which I started immediately.
In the evening I went to the gym and noticed the foot was swollen and red and the itching was out of this universe. I had Friday 14th off from work because I that's when I was having my birthday party, so I got a 3-day sick leave thinking Friday is off anyway, so it should heal by then.
How wrong I was! By Wednesday it had gotten so swollen, red and itchy that I nearly would rather have had it amputated. OK, not really, but it was truly very uncomfortable! It felt as if no amount of scratching would reach deep enough or be sufficient enough.
The whole time during my sick-leave I tried to do as little as possible, so no walking unless necessary, no socks on, I separated the two toes from each other because my whole foot was swollen by now and all the toes were stuck together.
And the itching just went on and on and on... the antibiotics didn't seem to be doing anything at all.
So came Friday and I had a party to attend to ... and prepare things for. Thank goodness my friend came to help me out. We went shopping together, I helped her make the cake and pizzas and chocolate-dipped-rice-crispies-balls.. I had been standing almost the whole day even though I tried to exert as little pressure on my left foot as possible.
My right foot's calf was killing me coz I had all my weight on it the whole day. What a nightmare it was!
At around 5pm, I went to take my friend home, coz she had to go do her graduation thesis, and went to pick up another friend to bring her back to our place. As I walked I realized the entire inside of my left leg feels a very uncomfortable stretch even at a very short step and slow pace. I thought it must be from being on my foot the whole day.
Once I got back home with my friend, the leg was very uncomfortable. It felt like someone was stretching the skin from the groin to the soul of my foot. I had fairly loose pants on so I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but I went to check it out and noticed that my whole leg was red, swollen and the great saphenous vein (GSV) was a darker shade of red.
I thought for a minute about it and decided, very unwisely I have to add, that I will party first and then see if it'll go away once I settled down. For the rest of the night I decided to spend as little time as possible standing up and walking around, so that it would calm down. And it did a bit, I guess... or then I was just too happy about the people around me to notice anything going on with my leg and foot :)
We went to a night club, I even danced. I somehow managed to squeeze my swollen foot into the widest and most comfortable shoes I had, and just partied with my friends! I didn't even have much to drink.. I had one beer, which took me 2 hours to finish, I had a glass of Sangria and that was basically it give or take a few sips of tasting my friends' drinks to try some new flavor of something they had gotten.
At around 3am, our friend got kicked out of the night club for puking in the booth we were in... Because for some strange reason he thought it was a good idea to open his mouth and pour in as much Smirnoff and could fit... Not a good idea!
But all was well, we all got up and left to go to Burger King before we headed home.
Back home I couldn't sleep, my leg hurt and my toe was itching... I called the emergency clinic and asked if this was an emergency case.. They told me it could wait till morning, but that I should definitely come by and show it to a doctor. They said it'd be good to come in around 9am when there aren't a lot of people so I wouldn't have to wait long.
At around 7am, I decided that THAT'S IT, I'm going to the clinic, coz I can't sleep and I can't be bothered waiting for 9 o'clock to turn up :)
My hubby was in no driving condition and since I was, I just drove myself to the emergency center and it only took around a quarter of an hour before I was being treated. A nice doctor who explained things to me without seeming to be in a huge hurry, even though she was working in the emergency ward as the only doctor. Then within less than an hour I already had antibiotics on IV-drip.
My first antibiotics hadn't finished yet, but I was taking that at the same time as the IV-antibiotics. They took some blood samples and luckily I hadn't gotten sepsis. After 4 or so hours they transferred me to the skin disease ward at the hospital near our home. This was nice, because I could leave and go home and come back in the mornings for the IV-antibiotics and doctor's visits. The only thing was that I had to watch out for the cats with my IV-thingies on my hand.
On Monday 17th, when it was officially my birthday, I got home from the hospital and they prescribed a third antibiotics on top of the other two, because my CRP-levels had gone up on Monday compared to the day before... Which was strange as I one oral antibiotics going, very strong IV-antibiotics and now a third antibiotics all at once.
By Wednesday, though, things started looking better and my leg was no longer red and swollen, my foot wasn't that swollen anymore and the redness had lightened up. The skin on my toe, though, had to be removed because that's where the bacteria seemed to be having a party of their own celebrating my birthday :)
Once that got healed enough to go back to work I was back in business.. I didn't go to the gym immediately though, I had to wait a while. And when I went I did only upper body workouts because it was bad enough that my feet had to be in safety shoes for 8 hours a day.
This was a long process and I hated every part of it. I could have lived without having experienced this, but oh well.. not much I could have done about it. It was an unfortunate event that I think was caused from dancing bare feet in my shoes, though even that is very uncertain.
Maybe you're thinking it's the lack of hygiene, but I assure you, I take care of my body and keep myself clean, so it can't be because of that.
Some photos and videos
Saving the best for the last.. This was an unforgivably long blog post, sorry about that. I just can't sit down often enough to break it down into little pieces because of the lack of time. But now I'm on sick leave due to a cold and so I am using this time to my advantage.
Here are some photos and videos of the few training times I've had since my foot incident and this cold incident. Can't wait to be able to get back to training hard!
Take care of your body, your mind and the people you love!
Here are some videos of Joose's bench press preparations. Unfortunately, he started preparations way too early and a month or so before the competition he did feel good about taking part in the competition because he felt he wouldn't beat his own previous record.
And here are some of my training videos:
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