Don't Let the Holidays Derail You!!!

I love the holiday season. I love holidays in general but THE holidays are the best time of year. Christmas movies and music always going, the government allows us to have special treats like eggnog, we generally spend more time with our friends and family but above all else, there is a magic in the air. You can feel it. And I 100% support the idea of allowing ourselves to indulge a little more than usual. Eat a little more, eat a little less healthy, drink a little more, etc. Plenty of people travel for the holidays too. Either back to where their family lives or maybe they are the hosts and have relatives staying with them. This can certainly mean that our regular routine, which includes exercise, gets interrupted. And that is okay too. Life happens and we should enjoy it. But what also happens to so many of is that we get derailed and for some, they are never able to get back on the tracks again.

As some of you may remember, back in the olden days, we used to actually go into a store to rent video tapes of movies, take them home, put the tapes in our VCRs and watch the movies. It may seem silly to young kids now but it was pretty great. Most stores would let you rent up to 3 movies at a time for about a week. I love movies and watch them all the time so I would frequently go to my local store, pick out at least 3 movies that I really wanted to see, and bring them home. Later that night, I would watch one of them. Sometimes it was tough to decide which one but I had to pick so I did. Then the next night, I would decide between the other two. This was a tougher decision but again, had to pick something. Then the NEXT night, maybe I had other plans and didn't watch a movie at all. So that final tape I rented was sitting there on my coffee table and suddenly, everything changed.

I no longer wanted to see this third and final movie I rented. Instead of thinking, "Well, at least I don't have to pick again. I am down to my final movie so that makes it easy," it was more like the idea of watching it was now this horrible chore that I did not want to do, akin to taking that last bite of my mom's disgusting Brussels Sprouts when I was a kid. How did this happen? I had originally wanted to see this third movie very much. Like I said, I am a big movie fan. Could watch them all day long and every day. But my perspective had changed. I had not watched the tape 3+ days and it felt like I just couldn't anymore.

Something like this can happen with our workouts too. Miss a couple of regularly-scheduled sessions and suddenly, getting back to it feels much, much harder. You initially liked your workout. Or at least, were interested in doing it. Now it seems more like drudgery. To make it worse, the mind loves to come up with excuses why it's okay to NOT return to your regular workout after missing a few days or weeks:

I've been so busy with the holidays, I just need some time to decompress

Got a lot going on at work too so my schedule is just CRAZY right now

Today is not a good day for me but tomorrow or later this week works much better

After eating more and not working out, I feel so out of shape and probably won't perform well

I should find something new to spice things up a bit (but then you don't actually do something new or at least, don't do it right away - it is just an excuse to not get back to the grind in this instance)

One way to combat any of these excuses is simply to give yourself permission to suck. What I mean is, show up for your workout knowing full well that you may not perform well and might feel out of shape, extra tired, unfocused, etc. and that this is okay. I am not a Nike fan but I will tell you that one of the greatest slogans I have ever heard is simply, "Just Do It." Don't even think about these excuses or any excuses. Just do it. Just get back to your workout routine and if you suck, you suck. If you find yourself getting tired faster, so be it. If you feel generally "off," so be it. All that matters is that you are getting back on track and that is a difficult thing so any effort you put forth is good effort. No one's watching and judging - it is just You vs. You and the key is, Just Do It! Tell yourself you are not going to be derailed after the holidays. Maybe you get derailed later in the year but will NOT let this happen after the holidays and be another statistic.

Let's say you are able to rise up and get back to a workout. Great! But you are not out of the woods yet. Some people can get back for a minute but then they drop off again. You don't just have to get back to your workout once, you have to get it back in your routine. May take a little while before everything starts to gel again so you have to be patient and persevere. 

It may not be as easy as I make it sound. Believe me, I know. I own a gym and am at the gym all the time and I have trouble getting back into the swing of things after even a short layoff. I give myself that permission to suck but I still don't like sucking. And those excuses that our brains make are good excuses. Or at least, so our brains tell us. Completely logical and of course, we can always get back to things later. Yeah, maybe. But I don't trust "later." There may be perfectly valid reasons not to continue my exercise program when "later" becomes "now." To me, there is no time like the present. Why put off tomorrow what you can do today? And you CAN do it today. You just have TO do it!

Planks A Lot! The Value of Planks Beyond Just Core Work and How to Win Your Own, Personal Planksgiving

In the spirit of both Thanksgiving and Planksgiving, our club has an annual challenge every November involving planks. We challenge our members to come up with the most creative plank possible and to post it on social media and we also have just a good, old-fashioned plank-off at the end of the month to see who can hold the longest plank possible. We've had people hold planks in excess of 20 minutes, 30 minutes and even 40 minutes. The world record currently is about 9 hours and 30 minutes.

How could anyone hold a plank that long? Physically, there is no good reason anyone should do it for 30 minutes, let alone 9 hours, but when it comes to any kind of endurance challenge, it has very little to do with the physical and almost entirely mental. Your mind just overriding the body and not letting you quit. That kind of disciplined training can not only help you with your boxing, but with life in general. It builds mental toughness, self-confidence, the ability to be resilient when dealing with adversity and manage emotions at all times. Obviously, there is a fine line between pushing yourself beyond your limits and causing physical harm, but that is a nice thing about holding a plank. There aren't really ways to hurt yourself doing it. Sure, your shoulders may burn and your abs will too during a long plank, but as soon as you stop, that all should go away after a minute or two.

So, should you shoot for holding a 40-minute plank then? Not at first, that is for sure. And maybe not ever, but you know what you can try? Hold a plank for one minute. Then a minute and a half. Then two minutes. Then you can keep going. You may not beat the all-time longest plank record but you can and should strive to beat your own, personal record. 

Another nice thing about planks is that you can do them just about anywhere, any time. You can watch TV while doing a plank. I did a little challenge a couple years ago where I watched an entire football game and planked for every commercial break. Most of the regular breaks are two minutes to two-and-a-half minutes so I ended up getting about 47 minutes of total plank time. Again, you may not be able to hold a plank for that long but you gotta start somewhere! And if you hang on as long as you can each time, I can guarantee you will get progressively better. 

The key is distracting the mind. If you just think about the fact that you are holding a plank, you will get tired and restless much quicker. You can concentrate on whatever you are watching if you go the TV route, listen to music or a podcast, maybe think about something entirely different, or even tap into the Buddhist concept of Mushin or "no mind,” clearing your brain of all conscious thought. I have never been able to achieve the latter state since I quit drinking, but maybe you will have better luck. Whatever you do, the key is always the mind. 

A Mantra For You

Despite living in California for 35 years, I never got into any of that new age-y stuff. Crystals, chakras, holistic medicine, meditation, etc. Most all of it comes from from Eastern spiritualism, but it always came off as kind of corny to me in the west coast hippie context.

And despite being in the fitness industry, I was never a big motivational quote guy. Again, I don't have any issue with them at all and I know a lot of people find that stuff useful, I just never really found them personally meaningful

As I have learned and continue to learn more and more about boxing though, I am starting to come around a little. Pretty much since its inception, boxing coaches have taught their fighters how to visualize in a meditative state. Visualize their fight, visualize their opponent, and most important, visualize success. Mike Tyson has said many times that he was not born as Iron Mike. He was made into it by his trainer Cus D'amato. Cus took a chubby, scared, victimized teenager and turned him into a monster, the likes of which we have never seen. D'amato is also well known for his many motivational quotes and memorable one-liners, which many fighters live by.

Something that he did with Mike was have him repeat a mantra to himself every morning. It's just one sentence and takes 5 seconds to say to yourself but it was effective - "Every day, I get better in every way." But he would have Tyson repeat it over and over during his morning routine. Say it out loud, in his head, etc. The idea being to help Mike focus, concentrate, and prepare for success. Plus, it would stick in his head and later in the day, maybe during training when he was tired and wanted to quit, suddenly it would pop in - "Every day, I get better in every way" - and remind him to keep pushing. 

This can work for you too! Come up with your own morning mantra. Or you can use Cus D'amato's. Whatever it is, it needs to have meaning and resonance to you. A positive affirmation that relates to your goals. You could even have multiple mantras. Repeat it over and over while you are going through your own morning routine. Yeah, it might feel a little silly at first but try it! What do you have to lose? Maybe you will be able to better manifest some of your goals or at the very least, hear your own voice throughout the day and help stay on track. It can also be useful to help remind yourself what is truly important to you.

Here's one of those motivational quotes that I do find pretty valid - "The body achieves what the mind believes." You would be amazed at how much you can do through this form of confidence. Plenty of us do not naturally believe in ourselves or at least, believe we can do anything we want and achieve all of our goals. There is a part of our brain that will tell us why we can't do something, as opposed to why we can.  This is a natural, human response and keeps us from doing things like trying to fly by jumping off of a cliff. But it can work its way into our regular lives that may not always be useful. Coming up with these daily mantras is one way to change this. Start to build those positive, success-oriented brain muscles. Just like our other muscles, if we don't use the ones in our brain, they atrophy and shrink.

Speaking of muscles and strength, I also like to do visualization while I exercise and I am 100% sure that it helps me. Visualize moving like one of my favorite boxers or just simply that I am getting physically stronger with every movement. Do this especially when you are tired. All that tiredness you are feeling is just you getting stronger. All that sweat equals power. This may sound very simple, and it is, but many people do the opposite. As soon as they start to feel tired, they start thinking things like, "Boy, I am SO tired!", "I must be really out of shape!" and "I just don't have it today" and like they are generally being defeated by the workout. But it's the opposite! Turn this around and I bet you will not only feel better but do better. 

Boxing, like life, is very much a mental game. At the highest levels, many people have similar physical tools but what sets the great ones apart is the mental side. That's what gives them the edge to rise above the rest. You might not think of yourself like a Muhammad Ali or a Michael Jordan but if you truly visualize yourself like them doing a task, any task, I can pretty much guarantee that you will be better at it. So next time you walk into work, start banging on the table and yelling, "The champ is here!" Well, at least do this in your mind...

What Can I Work On At Home?

I always love it when members ask what they can work on at home. Boxing is a challenging thing to learn - nobody gets it right away - and the more you practice and even think about it in general, the better you get. What someone should work on at home is very much determined by who they are and what they might be having trouble with. There are still some very basic things I would recommend to just about anyone at first, but if you're interested in a something a little more personalized, you have only to ask me!

Twisting/Rotation

Literally just turning your hips. Better yet, get in your fighting stance and practice twisting so that your lower body weight shift between one foot and the other. Maybe it sounds silly to just practice twisting at home but the hardest thing for brand new boxers to learn is how to use their lower body to throw punches. A big way we do this is rotate our hips and transfer weight. You might not find this particularly challenging, but I can guarantee you that the more you practice this simple motion, the better your boxing will be. You can even do this as if you were throwing punches but without your arms for a more advanced version (I made a video about it once if you don't know what I am talking about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb8_P-tkQPA).

Make sure when you do practice this rotation, you aren't adding any ancillary movement. You aren't leaning with your upper body or moving your hips in ANY other way other than just the rotation part. That is so important. If you add in extra movement or leaning, it will just build bad habits that become harder to fix later!

Walking Around in Your Boxing Stance

Another thing to practice might feel a little silly, especially if you are doing it in a public place! But once again, I guarantee this simple thing will make you better. Just like throwing punches with your lower body, moving in a boxing stance is challenging and not natural. The only way to make it natural is to do it a lot. You can do very simple drills too. Couple steps forward, a couple steps backward, side-to-side, etc. Just get reps and make sure that you always maintain your proper stance, no matter which way you step, make sure you are on the balls of your feet with a slight bend in your knees.

Shadowboxing

Shadowboxing is a great way to work a great many things in boxing. The problem I always had with it though, is that I find it boring. I much prefer to punch something solid and more importantly, I need structure. There is no reason that you can't add structure to your shadowboxing, but it may be more work than you necessarily want to put in right now, so what I would recommend is very simple: stand in front of a mirror and throw jabs. Watch yourself. Is your jab landing around your own face level in the reflection? Are you telegraphing it? Is your elbow coming out wide? Are you snapping it back quickly? Etc., etc. The mirror allows you to see yourself and helps keep you honest. Then do the same thing with the cross, the jab-cross, the lead hook, the jab-cross-lead hook and maybe add some defense in before or after. Keep it very simple and just focus on form, not a workout.

Eventually, shadowboxing can become a workout and at the highest level, you can simulate an actual fight, but for now, just practice those basic punches. The key is to go in with a plan. Could (and should) be a very simple plan, but needs to be a plan. Even something like, 20 jabs, 20 crosses, 20 jab-crosses, 20 lead hooks, 20 jab-cross-lead hooks is perfect. Just winging it becomes unfocused and not useful for most folks

Figure Out What You Are Having Trouble With

I've said it twice already in this post, countless times in other posts, and I will say it again - boxing is not natural. It takes time to learn. You don't have to learn it all right away, it can be as slow and gentle of a process as it needs to be, but the great thing is that we are always getting better. At least 1% better at 1 thing. Everyone moves differently, everyone learns differently, everyone has some things that are harder than others. Figuring out what the harder things are is important. If you have trouble with rolls, practice those rolls at home (in front of a mirror). If it's uppercuts, practice uppercuts. Simple, right? Except many of us don't want to do this. We would rather just avoid or survive the things we have trouble with instead of attack them. Getting out of our comfort zones is tough!

What if you don't feel like there is any particular thing that you are having trouble with? Maybe everything feels equally challenging. It is possible that this is true, but I would bet that if you monitored yourself during a class/training session and paid attention to what movements feel the best and what feel kind of awkward, you might discover something.

This is also a great time to once again, talk to your coach. They could certainly weigh in on the things you might want to work on and of course, how you can work on them. Doing stuff on your own is great, but there is no substitute to boxing in front of the watchful and directing eye of your coaches.