Shapes are fun.

For the last two weeks, I've been hearing a lot about shapes. "I'm so out of shape.." "I need to get back in SHAPE.."

What is this shape you speak of? Did I miss that day when you momentarily became an Olympic athlete? A god or goddess perhaps where you somehow magically didn't get huffy and puffy? As if you didn't have a metabolism and your blood never ran out of oxygen and substrates. When the nuclear fusion and fission of thousands of suns powered your ceaselessly hammering heart. That awesome day where your legs didn't get heavy at all and you could just keep on pumping them with bottomless vigor? That was a fun dream. Let's look at it realistically...

We are human. We are all subject to the same rules of physics, chemistry, and biology. We all get breathless and tired and thirsty and feel like a used up piece of toilet paper. Even yours truly has collapsed on the track on many occasions. It's always the same thing.. You go into a workout imagining yourself doing it completely immune to fatigue. You see yourself floating around the track and doing 30 push ups without skipping a beat. Then, when that doesn't happen, the mental image shatters and you get demoralized. You feel like a failure and want to quit to try again a different day. You don't realize it yet, but that's the workout doing exactly what it's supposed to do.. Break you down so you can rebuild later... But the key is to finish it strong.

So check your egos and accept reality. Chances are you were never and will never be an Olympic star. The quicker you can come to grips with that, the more successful you will be. You should still dream big and shoot for that stars, just make sure you shoot your own stars and not someone else's. That's not fair to them or you. Become the best that YOU can be. Be happy with YOUR progress. Take responsibility for YOUR life and everything that YOU did to get you to where you currently are. Everyone is capable of great work and should hold themselves accountable to it. Everyone will break down and collapse at some point, but it's nothing to be frustrated with. It's what you set out to do. The sooner the better, right?

This brings me to the next point. How long do you think you can spend in a maximal output state? The reality of it is that it's not very long. That's why I've been saying "good" in response to those that said that they're out of shape. I mean that. If you're at suboptimal levels, you can progress up. If you're at your max, there is no more progression, you have reached a limit and will now hold yourself to constantly staying there. The problem is that you can't stay there without deconditioning to establish a stronger foundation. Think about professional athletes. They do not stay in competitive shape all year round. They peak during their season or for their even, and then decondition to a normal physical state. Staying in a maximal state will cause your body to break down and deteriorate from constantly high levels of stress hormone. Stress hormone is released during high output training and it needs to be cycled out. If not, it (cortisol) will eat away at you, pump you full of glucose, which will in turn jack up your insulin for no reason and make you store fat and you will die.. well, maybe not die, but you won't be well. Life will suck.

Here's a very scientific model of what I'm talking about.

So your "shape" will peak and it will drop into a valley and then you will get all pumped up and it will jump again and then you'll find yourself peaked and you will burn out for a bit and you will be good at sitting on the couch. Then you'll see someone doing something freakish and you'll jump out of your seat and start hitting it hard again.. and so the cycle continues. And that's how life works.. in cycles. Nothing is stagnant. The seasons change. The tides shift. And your "shape" follows suit. But as long as the peaks and valleys are gradually sloping up, then you're moving in the right direction. If they're not, then you may want to reevaluate your priorities. You need the valleys to grow the peaks. So enjoy your time in "less-than-superhuman" performance. Just be mindful of your current state and quit calling it a "shape". No reason to be a victim of your own imagination. Act accordingly.

I'm out!