For about four months this previous year, I had to get back in student mode. There was a big certification test (hello, CSCS) I needed to pass (or pay half my rent on another test opportunity) and I went into it feeling grossly unprepared. The business was going through some changes, like fixing damaged equipment, building a new website, making sure my online presence was recognized in Google (and not sending visitors to the woods in the middle of Ashland), and of course, maintaining my client-training schedule, marketing for the new year, and being a decent husband and father to a demanding newborn.

I suck at time management.

If you give me four months to do something, I’ll generally start getting it squared away within the month of the deadline. More hours, more caffeine, and magic happens. However, this only worked well when I was single-- one of the advantages of becoming a spouse and parent is you start finding ways to avoid being a total selfish jerk.

This was also a time to realize that I had a BA in Creative Writing, and the NSCA recommends Exercise Science majors take four months to study for this test… and almost double that for BAs. Luckily, my own personal interests bolstered my chances of success. But Father Time doesn’t screw around, so I needed to get cracking.

Within a couple weeks of starting studying, it dawned on me that, when faced with difficult concepts, it was much easier to get distracted by other things, like looking up equipment parts or spending money I shouldn’t. This behavior wouldn’t help leading up to the test (nor paying for diapers), so the question was, “How do I hold myself accountable?”

Turns out, I’m way too comfortable in my office. Much like working from home, you could write that report, or… fold your laundry! Except I have dogs and no wife at work to tell me what to do—I needed to get this done on my own, like the strong, independent man I am (who still needs his wife to tell him what to do). So I leave and drive to the nearest Starbucks with my material and a stopwatch, and believe it or not, I was extremely productive. In fact, had I tried studying in college like I started to for this CSCS exam, I probably would’ve gotten my BS.

This can be applied to many, many things in our life. Like taking care of your children!

I realized after many afternoons of wanting to rip my hair out, that the easiest way for me to keep my sanity while taking care of my toddler was to go. Go to Grandma and Grandpa’s; go to the grocery store; find an excuse to order takeout from the place another county over. Why? 

I realized being in the box that is our house made me feel like the baby was constantly on me, or in my space, and needed so much of my time that I felt I wasn’t accomplishing anything and was a slave to circumstance. Now that I can actively accomplish something, I stay calmer, longer, and now, even she gets more exposure to things, and will hopefully grow up to be a productive, kind-hearted, sweet-natured, genius-turned-CEO who can pay me back for losing my hair for her because of it (but probably not).

Do you find eating constructively an insurmountable task? Cooking and preparing meals can be tedious, and when faced with this task, people avoid it and reach for convenience, either by eating junk or eating out all the time. So how do we approach this? Cook more food, less often, and make it convenient to eat, and choose food sources that require less preparation, like fruits or nuts.

What if we exercise after work, and it seems we work-out less because by the time we get home it’s much easier to not leave the house? Go before work, or go straight to the gym after work before getting home.

​Either we need to change our environment, change our behavior, or both, to create success.

The more I apply these behavioral changes, the better things get. And at least in the short term, I can both be a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and keep my hair a little while longer.

Before starting Freedom Fit Gym, I was an athlete-turned-gym-rat. Once the gym-rat in me took a backseat to professional development, it dawned on me that there are a number of prices to pay for reaching certain goals. I’ve been through 2-a-day practices; I’ve been through bodybuilding contest prep; I’ve been through powerlifting strength cycles. Friends and clients alike have all participated in a range of competitive activities, like marathons, collegiate sports, and similar contest-preps. The bottom line was that everyone paid a price for their goal.

If you’re thinking about what it takes to accomplish a fitness ambition, take these into consideration:

1. Adverse Health Effects

Precision Nutrition has a graphic that sums up the “Health vs. Aesthetics” argument pretty perfectly.

If you’re living a healthy lifestyle, you’re doing most things in moderation and sticking to valuable tenets regarding exercise and activity. You’re still maintaining a valuable social life, allowing yourself to indulge in sweet things, and giving yourself reasonable limits that keep you on the productive side of things.

However, unless you’ve been gifted with Adonis-like genetics, to reach the pinnacle of leanness your new behaviors have to border on some form of disorder, be it eating, body image, or compulsive. In my bodybuilding days, I was weighing my food religiously, weighing myself twice a week, working out 5-6 days per week, and bringing food with me everywhere, like to the movies, or baseball games (have you ever had a team-mascot frown at your almonds?). 

I’d reached the point of nursing a caffeine habit over 3x the recommended daily limit, my hormones were wonky, and I actually had a full-blown panic attack. 

This isn’t unlike some behaviors adopted by professional athletes, Olympic level competitors, or even ultra-serious weekend-warriors. And we have to ask ourselves (in the words from The Girl Next Door), “is the juice worth the squeeze?”

Sometimes it is—you’ll receive accolade, and your friends will see you as a good conversation starter at parties. Kind of like a puppy. A lean, jacked, puppy.

2. Injuries

Overuse injuries occur in almost every sport, and certainly in every competitive event. Now, I can’t speak for most moustache-growers, but I’m sure there’s an element of inconvenience growing whiskers too long.

I know in my baseball days, I had an elbow or shoulder injury most of the time. In my pursuit of symmetry during banana-hammock season, I gave myself an impingement. Cue powerlifting, and it’s not unreasonable for my shoulders to be the first things to go.

Luckily, I know if I took a year to focus on rehab I could probably outperform my best. But my ego won’t let me. And unless I’m getting paid to recover (lookin’ at you, Derrick Rose), I probably won’t sit out too long. And luckily for me, I’ve allowed myself to enjoy my social life again. However, many people take their competitive desires so far it impacts their social life.

3. Your Social Life

How many Olympic athletes do you think go out and party with their friends on the weekends? I’m sure there are some. But I’ll bet they’re not getting gold.

See, to be the best you’ve got to beat the best. And the person who’s not out partying, taking in wasted calories, losing sleep, having things cut into their training/focus time, is usually at the top of the pack. Many people want to be at the top of the pack, but not many will do what it takes.

Part of why we choose to undertake these monumental goals is because competition does something for us—it gives us an outlet, a place where our efforts result in successes. I know for me, getting into any competitive training cycle helped me funnel my attention to something constructive—it helped me cope with whatever it was going on in my life that was lacking in either drive, ambition, or success. And I know I’m not the only one, either.

There are prices to pay for all of our priorities. If I want to sleep more, I’m taking away from Netflix-binge time. If I want to get an extra hour in the gym, I’m taking away from making fart jokes with my wife (sorry, honey). And even if I want to prioritize cleaner eating, I’m taking away from our ice-cream time (hence, the fart jokes).

We’re all picking things that push us forward. The marathoner with the aching knees is still getting their social kicks by trail running with their friends. The powerlifter with the bum shoulder is still getting their kicks by eating burgers with friends. Hell, the bodybuilder is still enjoying their peanut-butter rice cakes with their swole buds.

At one point in my life, I needed the structure of a bodybuilding regimen. At another point in my life, I needed to lift really heavy things. At others, I need to sleep! But at each juncture, when I committed, that was the priority. And it all came with a price I was willing to pay. 

I ran across a fitness-advice excerpt the other day from a book I didn’t bother looking into, nor would I give it a platform, anyway. The information in this excerpt was so beyond sexist, beyond pseudoscience, that I could only finish in awe that this person used their platform to spread such vile misinformation.

Not only did it break men and women into different sub-species, but made claims that women’s bodies don’t process food types like men’s do, and that the food choices you make will determine the “masculinity” or “femininity” of your body. I’ll let you argue the insane nuances of this at your leisure. This sparked me to write something much more positive in response.

Below are only some ways our environment shapes our outlook on things.

1. Your visual environment

The human form has been glorified since the beginnings of visual material; we go to museums to see sculptures of Adonis-like men, and Aphrodite-like women; we see paintings of models languidly spread across furniture and landscapes; we see imagined perfection at all corners. In the modern world we’re exposed to snapshots of perceived beauty—painted faces and sheer clothing. We see tragedies and puppies in pickle costumes.

Have you ever wondered how this affects you? Do you get envious of a friend whose features are different than yours? Or the things they buy, the things they do?

Every day the choices you make regarding your visual environment play a key role in your wellbeing. From my experience, my female clients have been more vocal about their dissatisfaction at their appearance. And the female clients who’ve shown the most dissatisfaction were the ones who allowed certain material into their lives every day. On the contrary, my male clients with expectations of their physique are influenced by other material where the men are pharmaceutically enhanced. And that vein, I’ll say this:

Perhaps one reason we’re unsatisfied with ourselves is due to what we allow ourselves to partake in. The Instagrams, Facebooks, ads in magazines and pop-culture; it’s all there to represent the most extreme form of beauty—so much so, they rely on technology, cosmetics, surgery, pharmaceuticals—and do we even know what reality is anymore?

2. Your reading material

If I chose to read material about fake moon landings and UFOs, I’d probably begin believing John Wilkes Booth was a time traveler that also shot JFK. I may also start believing the earth is flat (because don’t forget, if the earth is round, people would fall off.).

“People will believe something if they want it to be true, or are afraid it’s true.” (Wizard’s First Rule)

What we’re talking about here is policing what information you allow in—we should doubt all information we’re exposed to until we elucidate the truth—that is, if you want to have an informed opinion about Bigfoot’s existence or not.

So if you read something that completely swings one way (looking at you guys, PragerU and New Yorker), you may begin opening yourself up to confirmation bias, and closing your eyes to other possibilities.

3. Your auditory environment

A great many people grow up in abusive environments. Negative reinforcement has been proven not to work, yet humans gravitate towards it. Apparently, the louder you yell at someone, the more likely they are to listen (which is not the case). The more you make someone feel inadequate, the more endeared they are towards you (which is manipulation).

We can extrapolate a lot from this information. How easy is it to dwell in negative self-talk? Negative self-imagery? Allow your friends and family to say backhanded things? Sure, sometimes it’s funny. But at some level there’s always a shred of truth to it.

The more we hear something like this, the more we believe it. How many kids feel they can’t succeed because they’ve been conditioned to believe it? How many little girls feel they can’t do something because they were told it’s not what girls do? How many little boys grow up with emotional incontinence because “only girls cry”?

All these little people turn into limited big adults. And as big adults, we need to stop this cycle. We should accept challenges for what they are, and stop imagining impossibilities everywhere we turn. We shouldn’t let someone else’s existence dictate our possibilities, nor let the things they say become physical obstacles.

At the end of the day, we should hold higher expectations for ourselves. We should be stringent about what we let in—we should trust those wiser than us, but only until we ourselves surpass them-- which we can do, because even astronauts were kids with model spaceships, once.

Self-employment in itself has its own rewards; I have control over my success, I create my own hours, I have the freedom to use my time as I see fit. However, all of these things look like reality from the outside, but from the inside there’s quite a different story. Self-employment has been given the new, flashy title of Entrepreneur—and it attracts many people. However, here are some arguments for why it’s not as glamorous as it seems.

1. I (sometimes) don’t have control over my own success

I offer a service; it’s a service I live and believe in. I wholeheartedly believe that a certain lifestyle will keep you out of the doctor’s office more often than not. We are made to move—and move well—and this is what I like to help people with.

Unsurprisingly, what I offer can also be viewed from other points; that it’s something that should be done, or it’s a short-term solution to a complex issue. So while I believe in my product, not everyone will share my same zeal. This is okay, fundamentally, because people are people and are motivated by many things. However, moving the business forward is indicative of many people making similar decisions and sticking with them for a long time. So in this sense, I don’t, in fact, have control over my own success.

To combat this, it’s up to me to be more creative with how I offer my services; what my skillsets are; how to make what I offer more attractive to those looking for something but not quite knowing what it is they’re looking for. At the base of it all, I get to help people every day, and that in itself is my own control over a small success.

2. I (sometimes) don’t create my own hours

In this service capacity, there are high times and low times—if you work out in the mornings before work, or in the evenings after work, you understand these high times. These high times are in short-supply and high demand—this means I lose the opportunity to eat breakfast or dinner with my family, and I miss a lot of opportunities to do things people take for granted; grocery shopping, dinner with associates, and networking (you know, the adult way of saying, “just chillin’.”). 

Since my schedule is indicative of demand, I work for other people, so in this sense I’m not in control of my hours. Or let’s say I run a retail printing shop—I have to stay open during formal business hours.

This isn’t a complaint, but rather, a highlight of something not always seen as obvious. But since I am appointment-based, it does give me the--

3. Freedom to use my time as I see fit

Luckily, much like working from home, I do have some opportunities to make up for these lost opportunities by accomplishing them during my “off” hours. While this flexibility is helpful, it also means I’m not in the office in case someone pops in unannounced. Who knows what kind of business I’m missing during these times. I could have a Cirque Du Soleil performer want a one-on-one, or a double-A baseball mascot on his lunch break pop in. I could even miss John Cena wanting to get away from the rabble (and he has bench-pressed 4 feet from me, before.).

So if it hasn’t seemed obvious yet, there are many opportunities for the business to not produce, and by not producing--

4. Self-employment isn’t a “get rich, quick” scheme

If you make $36,000+ per year after taxes, the business owner who wants to make that much has to not only produce more than that, but it has to be after her business expenses, business taxes, licensures, etc. If this business is Incorporated, and not an LLC, this person’s business pays taxes on the wages it pays them, and then they themselves pay taxes on receiving that income from the business.

Perhaps the most pervading concept rifling through our society is this idea that because one works for themselves, they make a living. There are many success stories of people who did the bootstrap thing and “made it”—unfortunately, they’re celebrities for a reason. The every-day person isn’t this success story. And on top of this, the bigger a business gets, and the more money it brings in, and the more people it hires, determines its level of risk, and folks, there’s a ton of--

5. Risk

At the end of the day, having a job means going to work, doing a job, and getting paid for it. Taxes are taken out, and the risk associated with being an employee is relatively low unless you climb trees for a living, in which case I hope your life-insurance policy is up to snuff.

People working for themselves have the IRS to look up to, have any number of insurances or qualifications necessary to continue operating, any licensures associated with the business, etc. There’s a constant—and necessary—amount of hoops to jump through to even operate a business, and the question that always pervades is… is it worth it?

To me, it is. I actively decided to take on this stress because I would rather run my feet through my mud than climb someone else’s hill. And if you ever saw that scene from Adam Sandler’s “Longest Yard,” playing in the mud can be fun.

I could easily find ways to blame outside factors for any lack of success I may have—but every day I get to make decisions that reduce the chances of that outcome. At the end of the day, being self-employed may in fact be something desired for people with potentially negative qualities, like being in control of something, or they can’t work for other people. While touted as a good thing in theory, this can be very self-limiting, and any potential success is also hinged on these qualities. Every single outcome of this person’s business is dependent on this person, and if they have qualities that aren’t suited for building a business, it probably fails. 

I know I lack in a great many qualities that may in fact sink my ship—so will my good qualities outweigh my bad? Only time will tell. In the interim, I’m going to try making people better, and not complaining as much.

Sometimes it’s hard to understand movement. Plus, I understand completely if you’re busy and want the results that movement gives you without the painstaking effort of trying to understand it. Hell, I use a microwave because I want my donuts reheated—I don’t need to understand the science behind it to enjoy this sugary goodness. However, reheated donuts aren’t going to tear my MCL.

Below, I’ve outlined a few simple ways you can improve your mechanics and avoid being the person that “used to” squat or run.

1. Have a basic understanding of muscular anatomy

Your joints allow you to move and your muscles do the moving for you. Think of your skeleton and all its bones—now attach a string to a bone and pull in the direction you want that movement to happen. 

For example; when you eat that reheated donut and bend the elbow to shove it in your mouth, your biceps are pulling on your forearm (or radialis bone) to do it. When you sit down on the toilet, your hamstrings are responsible for letting the knee bend. What if you want to extend your arm and reach for another donut? Your triceps muscles (on the back of your arm) have to pull on the forearm (ulna bone this time) to extend your elbow. If you want to stand up from the toilet? Your quadriceps muscles help straighten the knee.

These basic concepts should give you an idea of sitting, standing, pulling, and pushing. You can take things you do naturally (like eating donuts or sitting on the toilet) and break them down to exercises from there.

2. Move in a way your joints don’t ache

Again, the joints allow you to move but the muscles do the moving. Think of when you open a door; do the hinges actually move the door?

If your joints hurt, something’s causing unnecessary friction. It generally comes from moving in a way you’re not designed to move, or that your muscles aren’t strong enough to handle whatever load you’re experiencing, and the rigid joints become the stabilizing factor. Think about putting a very, very heavy door on hinges that can’t handle the weight—either they’ll squeal, or worst case, come off the wall.

It’s in our best interest not to let this happen. So, listening to your body will generally help you avoid this pitfall. Muscles burning  = good. Joints aching = bad.

3. Use your phone camera and look for lines

Another simple trick is to video yourself doing an exercise and watching for lines. If the exercise doesn’t involve a rotation, you can generally break the exercise into this shape:     +

If you’re moving the weight down and back up again vertically, watch for a vertical line. If you’re moving your body horizontally, look for a horizontal line. If the movement looks like a slalom course, you’re not moving efficiently.

For example; when placing the donut in your mouth, do you do airplane noises and flight patterns beforehand? Or do you just go straight in? What about when you’re sitting on the toilet—do you look up at the ceiling, arch your back, and fall into your heels? If so, maybe you should also get checked for hemorrhoids. 

4. Don’t touch a barbell until the above feels natural

Now that we’ve moved from toilet-bowl squatting mechanics, we can bring it to the gym. Once we get an idea of how our shoulders, spine, hips, and knees move efficiently, we can start adding resistance via dumbbells, cables, and bodyweight movements until they feel fairly natural.

A common mistake people make about exercise is that it should feel unnatural—in fact, exercise should feel uncomfortable, but not unnatural. Once you add a bar, the bar itself is unnatural, but you don’t move unnaturally. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

In fact, until you’re an expert on toilet bowl mechanics, I wouldn’t trust you to add a barbell to it. If you are a toilet bowl mechanic expert, please, by all means, start adding resistance. If anything, it’ll make for a good Youtube video.