The Kettlebells are Getting Dusty!

Well, at least mine are! Once I ran out of February and completed my Kettlebell commitment, I think I just parked the kettlebells and there they sit.

But let's not dwell on that. February was a great month of activity and I trust that you amped up your own activity level a bit.

The final thing to do before we shut the door on this year's February fitness challenge is to send in our donations to support Parkinson's research.

Click here to link to our page on how to donate.


Thanks to everyone who participated and who talked it up among their family, friends and co-workers.

See you next year!

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: Finish Line At Last!

Pheww! It's the end of February. We have successfully completed another of the darkest months of the year. As my inspired brother said a few summers ago, "Not much happens in February, so why not do 10,000 kettlebells?". Why not, indeed?

At any rate, the month is over and our fitness challenge with it. I hope that you were able to stretch yourself, to try something a bit bigger and bolder than you usually do. And I also hope that you demonstrated to yourself that you could sustain that greater effort for a longer time. In other words, I hope you experienced growth.

Now that we've finished things up, we've all seen what we are capable of. I hope you have realized that you can invest energy and effort into yourself, and that this actually increases your potential. You can now do more than you could before. You are probably physically stronger but, even more importantly, if you sustained that investment of time and energy, you will be mentally stronger. And that should be worth something to you.

My vision is that those of us who are able will have the attitude of doing what we can, and where possible, leveraging that potential to combat Parkinson's Disease and demonstrate the need for research that will ultimately find a cure.

So the final challenge is to take the efforts we have made through the month of February and convert that potential into financial support for Parkinson's research.

You can visit the "How To Donate" link at the top for details. As the page says, "We have chosen to support the DR. ALI RAJPUT ENDOWMENT FOR PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND MOVEMENT DISORDERS RESEARCH. This endowment fund is one of a number of endowments managed by the Royal University Hospital Foundation in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan."

We hope you are able to support the endowment fund generously!  Thanks for your efforts and for supporting this great cause.

Until next February...

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN (for real this time)

Got a little mixed up with the days on yesterday's blog. Too close to sleep time, no doubt.

I've talked with a few people who have nearly completed their February challenge. It has been a steady grind, not overwhelming, but definitely a challenge. And, as the finish line approaches, they feel a sense of satisfaction about their accomplishment.

Be kind to yourself. Appreciate your effort and look back over the month of February with some pride. It's perfectly okay to pat yourself on the back. If you have been at this challenge for a whole month now, you will have changed. If you have maintained the effort for this long, you have the capacity to maintain it beyond. You may decide to scale back a bit, or to try a different activity, but know that you will be able to sustain a regular activity effort over time.

In my personal experience, once the end of February has come and gone, I tend to not spend much time on kettlebells. I usually take a week or so off, and then land back on some other activity, since I like to focus on summer events. I intend this year to get a bit of coaching and do some work with heavier bells, but I need to know I'm doing it safely; my focus will have changed from doing a whole bunch to doing a few but with more of a strength-building focus. But I don't have the appetite right now for much in the kettlebell department, so it may have to wait for awhile.

Keep up your good work. We're nearly done!

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Three Days To Go

I hope you found the information on sleep informative. I am definitely feeling ready for a good sleep tonight, starting in about 15 minutes (I hope).

We have three days left in the challenge, and I am happy to say that I have been realistic this year. I have 1100 kettlebell swings left and then I'm done!  I had intended to do a few more today than I did, but I played hockey Saturday, and we had 3" of snow overnight, and I had to clear some snow off the eaves, and then off the deck, and then off the driveway... so I got a pretty thorough workout before I even came in the house to do the kettlebells. I can safely say I was warmed up!

When I got to the actual kettlebells, I was able to do a good number, but I realized I don't need to overdo it. So that's exactly what I did - a good number. I have swimming tomorrow, but I think I'll try to tuck a few sets of 100 in before I go. That way, I'll only have just under 1000 to go on Tuesday. I should be able to finish up then.

What I've learned is to listen better to my body. For example, tuning in to energy level and to a bit extra tiredness in one knee. I had set an ambitious goal, but built room into it for backing off as needed.

I've also learned not to torture myself with stupid logic. For example, I caught myself the other day thinking that I had "only" done eight 100-kettlebell swing sets (800 swings). I almost added the thought that I "should" have done x more. Then I realized the number I did was a decent number, and it's not the only active stuff I'm doing. There was a time, though, when I would have beat myself up about under-achieving. I believe I have settled in to a more realistic logic, which is bigger-picture logic. I'm being active. I'm using good form (preventing injury). I'm listening to my body, about potential injury warning signs, and about nutrition and sleep. And I'm actually quite happy about the progress I've made. I might even say I'm proud of myself.

So, all in all, I think my perspective on even the fitness challenge has changed from the first time around. I'm active, but I'm not driving myself too hard. I don't need to, and I can still be pleased with my efforts. In fact, I think more of us need to be pleased with our efforts. The fact that we are making an effort is the most important part. And, since most of us are not professional athletes, this activity business is on the side. So let's celebrate our activities, and celebrate the fact that we only have three more days in the  month, then we can hang up the kettlebells for a while and "recover"!

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Sleep, Continued...

Sleep is still important. I hope you had a good sleep last night! Here is the second part of the sleep guidelines.

If you want to assess your sleep quality, Google the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. You'll find lots of downloadable .pdf versions of the PSQI which you can complete and get a handle on - not surprisingly - your sleep quality. The PSQI will show you if you need to make quality sleep a greater priority in your life. Good luck!

DAY TWENTY FOUR: Make Sleep A Priority

Today and Tomorrow, I wanted to share a resource I put together on the theme of wellness. I set up the document as a .pdf, so if you are interested in a copy, let me know and I can get it to you electronically. The information is adapted from Health:  The Basics, by Donatelle and Kolen-Thompson (6th Cdn Ed.).

My position is that sleep is important enough to our whole being - body, soul and mind - that we need to make it a priority. Think of regularly getting good quality sleep as a foundation for wellness. It is important, and deserves to be made a priority.

DAY TWENTY THREE: What A Workout!

Wednesday's blog was a bit of a workout for me - I had to get back into the books, so to speak, and do some research. But that information is helpful. Looking back, probably the most helpful piece was my last line:

Listen to your body. Adjust your training as necessary.

Like more than a few Canadians, I watched the women's Olympic gold medal game on Wednesday night. It started late and then, of course, went into overtime. And a shoot-out...

I knew I'd be a bit tired today (nailed it!), but I must have been fairly up-to-date on my sleep because I didn't feel too bad during the day. When I got home from work, though, I could feel I was beginning to fade. But... today was kettlebell day, and had a good number I wanted to crunch through. I diligently got started and made it about three quarters of the way through my intended number of reps. And then I realized that maybe three quarters was good enough for today. My body was saying it was tired. Not just the usual, "Woah - I can feel those kettlebells in my hamstrings" kind of tired. I mean TIRED. Brain was disconnecting and reconnecting (kind of like Internet in the North), and I thought, "You know, yesterday I recommended that people listen to their body. I should heed my own advice."

So I kicked off the shoes and got changed. It's been a powered-down evening, and I'm headed to bed in about two minutes. I'm sure I'll be sleeping in three minutes.

Yup - body said TIRED. ADJUST TRAINING.

Listened.

DAY TWENTY TWO: Strength Development

Note:  This is adapted from Donatelle, Chow and Kolen-Thompson Health - The Basics 7th Cdn. Ed.

If you want to improve your strength and/or endurance, you are talking muscles. Very simply put, muscles attach to your bones and move your skeleton. The stronger those muscles are, the more work/activity your body can perform.

Increasing muscular strength and endurance involves a number of basic principles:

1. The Tension Principle. To develop strength, you have to create tension in a muscle or group of muscles. A common way to do this is to try to move against an external resistance. You can achieve this by lifting weights, or by doing a variety of activities where the resistance is created by lifting your own body weight.

2. The Overload Principle.  To increase strength, you have to regularly create more tension in muscles than you are used to. Muscles adapt to these periods of increased tension (over time) by getting bigger and stronger, able to generate even more tension. Without overloading your muscles, they will not get stronger; overloading them too much will cause injury. The overload must be big enough to actually build strength, or you will just build up endurance (without building strength).

3. The Specificity of Training Principle. According to this principle, your body responds (adapts) specifically, based on the muscle/muscle group being overloaded (trained or exercised).  If you overload one specific muscle/muscle group, that muscle/muscle group will adapt by getting stronger. Your other muscles will not, because they are not being overloaded through that exercise. If you want to build overall strength, you must exercise and overload all of the major muscle groups.

4. The Recovery Principle. Your muscles need about 48 hours to recover from resistance training. You can still workout every day, but you will need to alternate muscle groups so they get that 48-hours to adapt to and recover from the overload training. Don't forget your core, which is basically involved in all training.

One of the personal observations I have made about doing 10,000 kettlebell swings in 28 days is that in order to do that number of swings, I have to use a smaller weight, i.e., a smaller overload. Using a heavier weight pushes me to my muscle failure point too quickly, so I'd never complete enough reps to meet my target. I do try to throw my heavy bells in there for a few sets, but my objective this month is really more about endurance than strength-building in this particular challenge.

I also respect the recovery principle by doing only three workouts per week. That means I have two 48-hour recovery periods, and one 72-hour recovery period. Works for me! I get to the start of each workout pumped and enthusiastic. Well, I get to the start of each workout. And I do it. Mind over matter...

Listen to your body. Adjust your training as necessary.

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Mix It Up A Bit!

I'm not sure what you might be doing for this fitness challenge. I've heard things from walking to stairs to biking to plank to kettlebells. This post is about one way to break the monotony of doing the same thing repetitively. The Romans didn't coin the phrase ad nauseum for no reason. Too much of a good thing can make you really sick of it, even if it is something good.

So I'm here to say that you might want to introduce something significantly different into your workout - on purpose! If you're training for the Olympics, disregard this, because your track has been set. For the rest of us, though, we're just out to be active, or maybe we want to do a triathlon for the first time, so we're kind of "training" for it. Excellent!

I'd like to suggest that you periodically introduce some radical variety into your workout every so often. If you're doing kettlebells, for example, try changing the weight/number of reps, so your body doesn't simply go on auto-pilot. I like to have a few different bells in the area, and then slip in a set with a heavier kettlebell for variety. Well, "like" is a stretch, but it keeps my brain engaged and I'm much more conscious of the feelings and sensations - I can feel the resistance working and feel the fatigue set in. If I'm on number 63 of a large set of identical swings, I can get sloppy. Or I stop breathing properly.

Mixing up your workout fights boredom and keeps you tuned in better to your body.

Feel free to mix it up once in awhile. And, be sure to get a good rest! Sleep repairs your body and refreshes your mind.

[Note: I came dangerously close to mixing up my post titles; almost called this one DAY TWENTY. Again. Better go to bed!]

DAY TWENTY: MOTIVATION

How do you motivate yourself? Some people are very good at this and can not only motivate themselves, but can motivate others. Rather than re-invent this wheel, I'm going to briefly summarize an interesting article by Eric Barker which talks about how we can improve our own motivation.

First, here's a link to the article, by Eric Barker.  Feel free to read it for the full story.

This is my summary of Barker's three strategies for improving motivation:

1. Get Positive. Being positive, or happy, increases productivity and contributes to greater success. Monitor and celebrate your progress.

2. Get Rewarded. What is responsible for the majority (three quarters) of why we do things? Rewards. Wow! This is how we train dogs, and people (no offense, dogs) are smarter learners. There is a great example of how this works in the article!

3. Get Peer Pressure. We often hear about peer pressure as a negative, but the article suggests that peer pressure helps people more than it hinders them. There is a great (imho) quote from Friedman and Martin's The Longevity Project:

The groups you associate with often determine the type of person you become. For people who want improved health, association with other healthy people is usually the strongest and most direct path of change.

This article suggests that it is really your vision of yourself which determines your ultimate level of happiness. If you can't see yourself as a happy person, you will not likely be able to achieve it.

DAY NINETEEN: Two-Thirds Done - Keep Moving!

At this point, two-thirds of our February fitness challenge is in the rear-view mirror. Good work, everyone, for keeping up your efforts. We're not quite at the finish line, but we're definitely coming around the corner toward the home stretch.

Progress - at least, significant progress - usually requires moving toward a difficult or distant objective. Most of us can move a bit forward, or go a bit out of our comfort zone. Without some kind of long-term vision and commitment, though, the tendency is to stop our extra efforts and slide back to our baseline activity level. It's easy! Because, over time, that baseline tends to move even lower.

This idea is sort of like the elusive perpetual-motion machine. Theoretically, once you've started a perpetual-motion machine, it continues to run without further input... forever. What we know is that a variety of factors impact all physical systems, and they gradually lose energy. Energy put into that system (or the machine) gets lost as some gets converted to things like heat or light and the motion cannot be maintained. Eventually, it will run down and stop.

I would argue that we function similarly to the machine, in that we tend to run down to a stop unless there is fresh energy put into us. Essentially, that energy is food. We are walking bio-chemistry experiments. Our bodies process the food we eat into a variety of components which provide, among other things, the energy we need to move. Our baseline food intake and activity level establish a sort of balance but, left to our own devices, we can easily become less and less active over time. As this happens, we start losing our agility, our strength, our endurance and even our coordination in small increments. The "use it or lose it" mantra comes to mind; an underutilized physical body loses functionality.

Try to stay aware of your activity level, relative to your typical activity level. If you are doing the same as (or less than) usual, you will probably experience some decline in your physical function. And if you maintain the same food intake as your activity level decreases - you can do the math: the excess energy will be nicely stored away in your "suitcase".

My focus here is about keeping tabs on our activity level. For a fitness challenge like this one, I want us to become more aware of our physical wellness.  We should each think more about how active we are, how we might stretch ourselves and, ultimately, how we might actually reverse the natural trend toward reduced activity over time.

Reversing a natural tendency requires an investment of energy. It requires a restructuring of our daily routine, although this does not have to be drastic. Incremental changes and paying attention to our activity level can help us stay on track. Being more active at a level appropriate to our baseline physical condition should suspend or, hopefully, reverse our tendency toward system run-down.

Keep your chin up!  Only nine more days to go!

DAY EIGHTEEN: Date with Kettlebells

[Note:  Internet went out last night, so I had to post today - the joys of living in the north]

We've had a great, great weekend with family, and special events going on as well. So it was a busy week. Things have calmed down, company has returned home, and life is back to its typical, quiet self. And I had a date with some kettlebells.

They were patient enough to wait for me to come back to them.

There are some elements of a fitness challenge which are not exactly "pleasant", but you get the chance to see what you are made of, so to speak. There is usually some organizing and planning to begin with, and you have to be able to flex the plans from time to time. But the reality is that, at some point, you have to reach down, grab the bell, and start swinging.

In a way, the 10,000 kettlebells are like a long car trip. The kilometers (or miles, if you prefer) tick by, one after another, and they gradually, steadily add up. Pretty soon, you find yourself past the half-way point and you know that every kettlebell swing is getting you one closer to the finish line. And at a point, you realize that you can see the finish line. I'm not sure I can see it yet, at least, not clearly. But I know where it is and it's soon going to come into sight.

Keep on doing your activity - it is making you tougher!

DAY SEVENTEEN: Enjoy Family Day Weekend!

I live in Ontario, and it's Family Day Weekend this weekend. So I'm promoting fitness and wellness by enjoying the outdoors with my family and friends. The kettlebells can wait for a day, and I'm going to enjoy the weekend.

Have a great Family Day Weekend, everyone!

DAY SIXTEEN: Life Meets Kettlebells

What should you do when you have committed to a fitness challenge, but it gets in the way of life? Or, when life comes along and “interferes” with your fitness stuff? If you find yourself asking the question, for starters you’re in a good spot, because you have a conflict between two things both of which you probably want to do. Although fitness challenges – especially one where you’re actually racking up a specific number of reps – can seem like they are all about the numbers, they are not. They are about committing yourself to increasing your healthy activity level, and about doing that in a healthy way. If you recall, wellness is not simply physical fitness. In fact, the two are not synonymous. Wellness involves how you are doing across a number of domains, one of which is physical wellness.

The reality, however, is that wellness involves social and emotional aspects (and more), but it seems silly to me to promote one dimension to the detriment of others. So when you find yourself feeling conflicted about doing a fitness activity when some other life event has come along, acknowledge it and move on. Life events have a way of involving people, which definitely taps into the social aspect of wellness. And if doing things with people affects how you feel (as if that even needs saying), then it also taps into the emotional aspect of wellness.

So think big-picture wellness. Do things which move your overall wellness up and to the right. You can almost always tweak numbers, and you don’t want your self-improvement activities to actually do damage to other aspects of your well-being.

Enjoy and embrace life. Fit your fitness stuff in around it. Fitness stuff is like packing peanuts – annoying, but effective.

DAY FIFTEEN: Keeping Track...

How do you keep track of lots of reps of something? I'm curious, because I had quite a bit of trouble at first. My system isn't perfect, but I think it has improved. My daughter and I came up with a house rule that if you lost track of your count, you had to go back to the last place where you KNEW you had been.

I discovered that I seem to be good at remembering up to about 20, so I count in groups of 20. After each group of 20, I say out loud the number of the next group. 2nd group would be "2-2345..."; 3rd group would be "3-2345". And so on. After each set of say 4 or 5 groups, I stagger over to my paper and jot down the number of 20s I did. Each tick means 20 reps.

My "Count" sheet with my anti-gravity pencil and interval timer.

So here's my current system. You can see there are a few different days on there, but it helps me keep it straight, lest I inadvertently do more kettlebells than necessary.

I'm sure there are higher-tech ways of doing this, but, as much as I like tech stuff, I am old enough to still see the value of analog techniques.

This one's hard to beat.

I heard that St. Valentine used heart emojis.




Keep up the good work.  We're half-way through February (actually, a little past that, so we're on the down-hill side now).

Day 14: Happy Valentine's Day!

[Editor's note: This is possibly what happened]

A little known factoid about Saint Valentine is that he was probably an avid kettlebeller. I'm sure that's the story I heard. He was famous for it for miles around the central Italian town of Terni, where he was born and, presumably, where he stored his exercise equipment. Seriously - please tell me you didn't think he made greeting cards or - worse - ran a dating agency)! Anyway, what else would a young guy do to stay out of trouble in the third century?

Kettlebells.

I'm sure that was it. The middle-age Roman Kettlebell challenge was truly simpler, as you only had to swing X [X with a bar on top] ahnum-cacabulus* during mensis Februarius.  Incidentally, Februarius had only recently been invented. 

So that was pretty much how a young fellow might keep himself out of trouble back in the day... swing ahnum-cacabulus. *Technically, that would only be one kettlebell; I'm sure he would have had to swing ahnum-cacabuli, and X [X bar] of them!

As for myself, I am feeling body-tired after my latest round of ahnum-cacabuli, as it were. But it's for a good cause, and I'm able to do it.

I trust that everyone will be taking it easy tomorrow and enjoying Valentine's Day. Who knew it had its roots in an ancient fitness challenge?

Coming soon... how to keep track of lots of reps of something.

Day 13: Are We There Yet?

As we approach the mid-way point of the fitness challenge, I am tired - not so much mentally tired as physically tired. My body has stopped negotiating bedtime. It just falls asleep. I have learned that sleep provides a "reset" for the physical brain and body, and also for the more elusive mind. I committed to posting as regularly as I can to the blog during February, but I have to admit that with all the other things I'm up to (including trying to fit 10,000 kettlebell swings in), my days are pretty busy.

So before I start my nightly reset, I should mention the question that floated across my radar a few times at the pool tonight: "Are we there yet"?

And the happy answer is, "No, not yet." Or the parent version, "Yes - almost. We'll be there soon."

In the middle of any significant journey, you begin to lose sight of both the start and the finish. They both seem like a long way off. All you have for reference is what you are actually doing. So you may be doing your regular work day, then fitting in workouts on several weekdays. It is busy, and your body gets tired.

My best suggestion is to pay attention to your body. Get a good rest as often as you can. Drink an appropriate amount of water throughout the day. Make sure you're getting proper nutrition (you may need more if you're doing more large-limb exercise).

Are we there yet? Yes - almost. We'll be there soon.

DAY TWELVE: SHORT

It's been a long nearly-two weeks. Kettlebells have been swung, walks have been walked, circuits have been completed, and things seem to be moving along.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

DAY ELEVEN: Down Time

Thank you for following our fitness challenge. If you're already participating, then thank you for that, also. We're 11 days into the challenge, and I have to be honest - it's sometimes hard to think of meaningful things to write about.

My message for today is this: be sure to build some down time into your fitness life. Be deliberate about it and refuse to feel "guilty". I am realizing how this guilty feeling is kind of like a coffee headache. You know - the one you get when you don't get your morning java. It's a sign... of caffeine dependency - a symptom of an addiction.

So if you feel super guilty if you blow a workout, you might want to reset a bit and think about why you're doing the workout in the first place. Perhaps you are on a short-term commitment (e.g., a month-long challenge like this one), in which case you sometimes will make temporary schedule changes and you might need a certain number of workouts to achieve your goal. Think about it: fitness is about wellness. If you are addicted to your fitness activities, they your wellness has a hole in it. Better fix that!

As a general rule, if you're not training for the Olympics or some other elite competition (i.e., if you're like most of us), feeling guilty and agitated for missing a workout is a sign that you may be taking it TOO seriously. I'm all in favor of being active, but we all need down time to regroup, both physically and mentally.

Be sure to take your rest and days off seriously. Have a good time laying around, or ice fishing, or whatever constitutes down time for you. And do your best to enjoy it!

DAY TEN. A Third of The Way Through

I'm not even home right now, but through the marvels of technology, the blog posts without me. So, what to do when you're out of town for a bit during a fitness challenge?

Well, I think I'm going to have a good time and enjoy the weekend. If I get home in time, I'll swing a few 'bells, but if not - oh well. I'm not training for the Olympics. Which are on, by the way!

Today my message is that we've made it a third of the way through February, so let's celebrate that! This challenge is a month long, meaning that whatever initial momentum we may have had at the start has probably dissipated by now. Unless we figure out how to talk ourselves through the rest of the month, we could drop out.

Here are my words of wisdom for you. They come from my experience running up the large hill (no relation) a few kilometers from my house: Adjust your hat so you can only see a short distance in front of you, and run that far. When you get there, do it again. You never really see the top of the hill until you're actually up and over it. The idea here is not to worry about three weeks from now and how you are going to accomplish everything. Just look one or two days ahead and concentrate on that. Get plenty of rest, and make sure you drink an appropriate amount of water to stay hydrated. Just finish out those few days. Then do it again. Soon enough, you'll be up and over the month of February. And be sure to find some friends and celebrate your accomplishment!

DAY NINE: Still Kicking

Good day! It's Friday, and we've been at the challenge now for just over a week. Long enough for enthusiasm to start fading. NORMAL. Long enough for body fatigue to set in if you're doing a physical workout. NORMAL. Long enough for the "inconvenience" of your new routine to make its presence felt. NORMAL.

You may be sailing along with whatever your fitness challenge was - and that's great! Alternately, the fun might have worn off by now, and you're not feeling the love any more. Either way, these are NORMAL responses to a new or ramped up fitness activity.

To report in personally, I am tired. I will say pleasantly fatigued, but definitely fatigued. I'm trying to keep up the water and food intake, but my body is now telling me when it is sleep time. It just starts going to sleep. Did I mention the sore hamstrings? No need, I suppose. I did discover that a five-minute bike warmup prior to the workout seems to take the edge of the sore muscles.

I will say that 10,000 kettlebell swings in a month is serious challenge.  However, when I think about why we're doing it, I am motivated to push through. One of our founding rationales was to do something that we are able to do in support of Parkinson's research.

So, as of DAY NINE, I'm still kicking. And still swinging kettlebells.

Oh, yeah. It's the Olympics. Good luck to all the athletes!

DAY EIGHT - Persistence And Slow Victory

You may recall that I have, for some time, been "learning" the backstroke. Which is really to say attempting it. The coaches don't have to say much because the look on their face says, "I don't know what it is, but that's not quite right." So here's the scenario:

• Learning a new skill (backstroke)
• Some background knowledge
• Incorrect technique
• Sub-par performance (understatement, in my case)
• Emotions: frustrated, annoyed
• Thoughts: Everyone else seems to be able to do it (effortlessly) why can't I? How could it be this difficult? What am I doing wrong?
• Attitude: I'm going to figure this out!

 After about two months of thinking to myself that I really should try to learn that darn stroke..., it is starting to click. Starting. I have enough backstroke elements and technique to build on now. I'm not great at it.

But the onlooking coaches are now smiling - I think mostly from relief now, because they don't have to keep saying it's terrible! So I take it from the feedback that the stroke has been improving.

As I said, I'm no great backstroker, but, if I do say so myself, I am persistent. I keep at things I want to do successfully because it becomes a challenge. I also like to learn things. And here is the more important thing I am learning at this stage of our 3rd fitness challenge: Victory is sometimes not a momentary point in time, like the sudden  declaration: YOU CAN DO THE BACKSTROKE! Which, incidentally, has not happened yet. Victory, especially over physical skills or, perhaps well-established lifestyle patterns, is more of a slow grind. At the beginning, it can be exceptionally unrewarding, or even frustrating or discouraging.

Don't be surprised about that. Some, if not many, things are simply difficult. If I could challenge you at all through this, it would be to say become more persistent. Learn how to keep yourself at things you want to do. Expect setbacks and failures. In fact, learn all you can from them.

I really believe that the more we develop the physical, cognitive and emotional skills behind persistence, the better accomplishers we will become. Accomplishers are in the long game. They realize that life victories are usually slow and gradual.

Be persistent.

It's DAY SEVEN! What A Day!

No topic I could come up with today could eclipse (pardon the pun), yesterday's amazing science news. It took the cake. Elon Musk's SpaceX company successfully launched a heavy-payload rocket. The test payload: a Tesla Roadster - product of another of Musk's companies. At the wheel of the Tesla was "Starman", a human analog wearing - incidentally - one of SpaceX's space suits.

Source:  http://spacenews.com/dont-expect-
deep-discounts-on-preflown-spacex-boosters/

It was so extraordinary, on so many levels, that I still haven't taken it all in. But when the two re-usable booster rockets touched back down simultaneously on their respective landing pads, I had no words!

I know the new Tesla has some astonishingly fast acceleration, but I'll bet even Starman will be changing his shorts after today's ride. Sorry Mom.



So I'm still in awe of this amazing string of accomplishments, beginning with the thing not blowing up the launch pad. But I think we can draw some inspiration from today's monumental event. There is no significant accomplishment without significant effort. And THAT is really one of the big ideas behind this whole fitness challenge.

Effort. I don't think what is important is simply our accomplishments. And neither do I think what is important is the raw effort we put into something. Physically, a big strong person and a small not-so-strong person lifting the same weight do the same work - the same raw effort. I think what is more important is how much effort we put into something relative to our ability.

Elon Musk is astonishingly clever whose work ethic, by all reports, would make ants or bees stop and take notice. He has earned his accomplishments.

I believe there is a sense of fulfillment when you work hard at things, when you put in a good effort, one which comes close to your maximum ability. As a teacher, I always try to recognize and affirm effort when I see it. It is the effort which matters. And learning to try and to continue trying - even in the face of fatigue, discouragement, and failure - is an attribute of a determined person.

So the rocket story really is one of determination. And while you may not be an Elon Musk, that's perfectly okay. You have some abilities, and if you are committed to giving a full effort as often as you can, you will probably find that your determination to accomplish things will result in, well, accomplishing things.

Effort is work. Learning to throw a sustained effort into a long-term task usually takes training and some discipline to keep at it. But, effort does not go unrewarded. You grow as a person when you apply effort to a task.

We are a week into the challenge. Keep up your good effort.

And, Dave:  2160.

Things Unusual. And Marshall McLuhan

It was Superbowl Sunday the other day. Preceded by a media circus filled with both the usual and the unusual. Of course, in Superbowl week, the unusual has become usual. Anyway, the other night, I was channel surfing and spotted a showdown of Superbowl ads. I tuned in and quickly found myself chuckling as they played Superbowl ad after Superbowl ad. Suddenly, I realized I had just inadvertently watched two full regular ads from our local channel. What tipped it off was that it just wasn't entertaining. And I had seen it before about 10 times.

How ironic is this? I was - deliberately - watching a bunch of ads. No irritation, no discomfort, enjoying the show. It was all good until "the ads" came on. Wait - what? Ads during ads. When are you supposed to go to the bathroom? Do you have to wait until "the show" is over? Talk about a paradigm shift. The advertisement is the show... which brings to mind Marshall McLuhan's "The medium is the message."

If you need some high-caliber thought bites, Look up Marshall McLuhan quotations. The one which captivated me recently was:

Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century

Okay, so maybe that is what happened with the show I was watching. I was consuming media and, quite literally, appreciating the artfulness of the commercials. Until the commercials began.

So here's the question: What does this ad stuff have to do with kettlebells, fitness challenges, or Parkinson's Disease?

My answer: Not much, other than the fact that you can appreciate commercials (well, good ones) if you want to; you can fit kettlebells or other wellness activities into your live if you want to; and, well, things like Parkinson's Disease happen on their own terms, whether or not you want them to.

So unusual things can provoke you to think about familiar things in new ways. When it comes to improving our personal wellness, perhaps the important factor is those small, incremental changes we fight ourselves to make. It's only after time (usually a lot of it) that they add up into significant change.

If you're not sure you buy this, how many 80 year-olds do you know - with or without Parkinson's Disease - who have walked over 400km in the last two years?

Day Five: 2018 Update on Marilyn's Travels

I spoke with my mother, Marilyn, a few weeks ago to get an update on her walking activities. You may remember that she has been dealing with Parkinson's Disease now for over 10 years, and she had been gradually retreating from her typical, actve life when the 10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinsons challenge came along. She decided she could try to do some daily walking, starting out at about 100m/day (followed by a rest). That was January, 2016. She kept at it, and virtually walked from her home in Saskatchewan to Brandon, MB by mid-October. Distance: 150km! She didn't stop there, but kept going and made it to somewhere near Austin, MB, for a total 2016 distance of over 200km.

The question then became, "Where should I walk now?" She decided to start 2017 by virtually walking west, and set off. On December 15, 2017, she "arrived" in Regina, after another 220km.

So what do you do after you've virtually marched east and then west?

You go to England and virtually walk there, of course. As of the other day, we found her approaching London, England from the south, headed for the Yorkshire Dales.

This inspires me for more than a few reasons. First, Mom's sheer tenacity to keep at it has been impressive. Second, I see what a person can accomplish when they do what they are able to do. Third - what an example of toughing it out. I can jam out with one excuse. She has persevered with a whole wheelbarrow full of potential excuses. And she is probably the last person on the planet to actually use an excuse to try to get out of something...

If you doubt yourself, you might be at risk of doing nothing, fearing you may not "succeed" at some goal or objective. Maybe a better perspective would be to do something, and see what happens if you keep at it. No offense, Mom, but I don't think any of us would have predicted that you would walk 200km in 2016. Especially not in early 2016. Of course, now that you've smashed that glass ceiling, who knows what you'll accomplish!

So try stuff. Don't be reckless with your health or safety, but take a few risks to "step-out" now and then. See how far it takes you!

Day Four: Are We Having Fun Yet?

On "Day Four" of our challenge, it is quite possible that our initial enthusiasm may be starting to get splashed a few drops of discomfort. Not that we would pretend there is NO discomfort in a challenge. In fact, most challenges of this nature have some (or a lot of) discomfort, stress, struggle, or even pain. The point is not simply to experience or even seek discomfort, as the ascetics might have done.

The point here is that, by challenging ourselves to do something beyond our present ability, we will actually improve ourselves. Get better. Grow. Develop. Strengthen. If you look up the definition of challenge, you will find among its meanings the idea of simulating especially by presenting difficulties (Merriam Webster online dictionary).

It's not about the difficulties; it's about what the difficulties stimulate. That principle applies across many domains, from plant and animal biology to human psychology. And, because we as individuals are really a complex of biology and sentience (awareness, ability to perceive sensations), we have the potential to become better, stronger organisms, depending on our response to challenge.

If - no, when - we find ourselves asking, "Are we having fun yet?" as we're stretching ourselves with more walking, planking, swimming, biking, reaching out socially, kettlebells (those MUST count here), we're probably in the right place. Doing a challenge, we need to be aware of those sensations; and we need to recognize that those difficult sensations can stimulate growth at many levels:  personal, emotional, cognitive, social, physical, and more. When we recognize this, we have the potential to "embrace" challenges and respond by growing.

When you find yourself at a growing edge in your life, you probably will experience some less-than-pleasant sensations. Knowing what you know, look for how you can grow stronger in the face of that  unpleasantness.

Day Three: 730 Days Later...

Our first Day Three was two years ago - 730 days, more or less. What can happen over 730 days? In particular, how can a four-week "fitness challenge" bring about a change? Basically, I think the most significant change is perspective; 730 days ago, my perspective was that a fitness challenge was about fitness - doing something active for a month to "get in better shape."

I don't deny that this can happen. but taking part in a simple challenge can actually have a more gradual, but broader, impact on your whole life. Doing the challenge once activates something in your motivation system - literally. If you can identify some aspect of your own wellness, and then actually do something intentional and positive to improve your wellness, you have not only flashed your motivational circuits. You have turned the switch ON, even if for a month. I didn't say "just" a month.  A month is a significant amount of time to sustain a new behaviour.

What I'm driving at with the 730 days thing is this: if you did this challenge, and then came back and did it again a year later, your perspective will have changed. You are no longer someone who did a challenge once (which, incidentally, is an accomplishment). Your view of yourself has been indelibly altered by your accomplishments. Once is great. Twice is awesome. And if you are at it again for the THIRD time, you are demonstrating a trend.

I have been grappling with the whole idea of what happens to you when you do "self-improvement" kinds of things on a regular basis, but has just been coming into focus this year as we approached the third annual challenge. Change over time shows trends, so, if you are trending up and to the right on your personal wellness activities, it says something about you.

My hope is that you have found the motivation to try this challenge. If you have taken part in previous wellness challenges, I encourage you to reflect on how your perspective of your own wellness has changed over time. You are no longer the same.  I would argue that your ability to tackle and accomplish challenges has significantly improved.  Way to go!

Day Two: Enthusiasm

Some days, you are sitting at the computer writing your blog post when your house phone suddenly rings. It's barely 7:00am! You answer the phone, and excited young voices compete to tell you how many kettlebell swings they have done (two more than their dad, incidentally), or how many minutes of plank they did until they got busy (watching their iPad). You hear the details sprinkled in the conversation and then, in a flurry, it is over. Wow! What was that?

Well, basically, it was enthusiasm. Not even bottled up like adults are so good at doing. This was just crazy, wild enthusiasm. Spiced up with a bit of competiveness. Okay - quite a bit. But it was the enthusiasm that is still ringing in my ears. I'm going to bring it to work with me today. I bet it will even last a few days.

Enthusiastic people have an impact on others. If you have sails, enthusiastic people fill them. And full sails drive you forward.

So, THANKS, Mac and Casey, for the great surprise call today. Hearing about your hard work and feeling your enthusiasm makes me want to do better. Enthusiasm is infectious, meaning it easily spreads from an enthusiastic person to those around. Keep up the great work!!

Let's Get Started!

Alright - we're off again! It's been just two years since we started the 10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinson's challenge. If you've been with us since then, I trust you are now starting to benefit from the "lessons learned" aspect of repeating a challenging experience.

My own understanding of the idea of "wellness" has been turbo-charged, and it has widened my field of view considerably. Wellness goes well beyond just "physical fitness", although that certainly is a component. So whatever you've chosen to do for your own personal fitness challenge this February, I salute you and encourage you to spread the word.

Let's get started!

Tomorrow is the Big Day! How Mixed are Your Feelings?

To everyone participating in the February Fitness Challenge: We start tomorrow - Good Luck!

I always have a few mixed feelings just before we start the fitness challenge. I'm excited to get going.  I'm a bit nervous - is anyone else really going to participate? I'm more confident that I can do it (than the first year), but I'm also a bit daunted by the challenge. I'm proud of the many people who have undertaken the challenge, and especially proud of some folks who have really stepped out of their comfort zone. And sometimes I feel a bit discouraged that more people are not part of the challenge.

But I really can't complain at all. The efforts I have seen from other participants literally inspires me to keep at it myself - not just to do the kettlebells (anyone who has swung those suckers can probably relate - it takes a bit of inspiration), but also to keep going with the whole idea of the challenge, and of the blog (p.s.  I LOVE getting comments).

So for what it's worth, thank you everyone taking part and for sharing your stories with me. It reminds me that we're all in this together, as Red Green so aptly put it.

Doing the Backstroke

I go to a swimming Stroke Improvement class with my wife twice a week. I learned a reasonably-correct front crawl about 13 or 14 years ago, and sort of figured out breaststroke and backstroke by myself. Pretty clever, I thought. . .

At Stroke Improvement, however, the instructors seem to want me to improve ALL of my swim strokes, and so I've finally realized that it's time to take them more seriously. Which means getting them to correct my stroke.

As far as I'm concerned, backstroke always looked to me like synchronized swimming, and everyone I saw seemed to know how to do it. I avoided doing it. Mostly because of the up-the-nose water. Well, that was a big part of it. It was mostly because I didn't feel like I was doing it properly.

The point of this post is really that I realized something about a week ago which has adjusted my attitude. I already knew that I was avoiding the backstroke (reasons above). What I realized was that by successfully avoiding doing the backstroke, I was also successfully remaining very bad at it. The tiny attitude adjustment sounded (in my head) something like this:

...Maybe if I commit to getting some feedback and then actually doing a reasonable amount of backstroke lengths, I might conceivably get better at it. Maybe even good at it...

Don't worry - I haven't been called up by the Olympics (well, not yet). But there has been a transformation. I'm not avoiding the backstroke any more. Don't hear me say I'm enjoying it. I'm just not avoiding it. The difference is that I decided to try, to deliberately do it, to listen to my coaches and to incorporate their feedback into my technique.

This seems to just be one of those non-glamorous things that requires effort to engage with and effort to improve at. But when I consider my own life, it has been things which require effort which seem to be the most meaningful.

Essentially, I have learned that doing the backstroke (literally) has helped me remember that small decisions can have a large bearing on performance and success. Improvement - at least, meaningful improvement - requires an investment of energy and, often, time. And a teachable attitude.

You probably have your own "backstroke" activity which leaves you less-than-enthusiastic. A small decision to engage in that activity (with appropriate support) might be all it takes to re-orient you.

Third Annual Kettlebell Challenge!

It's official!  The 10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinsons challenge is a go for 2018.  You can read the back-story from the links on the nav bar above, but here's the main idea:  This is a fitness/wellness challenge to promote physical fitness AND to support research into Parkinson's Disease.  February (at least here in Canada) can be a cold, bleak month with not a lot going on.  Plus, it is usually a short month.

Here's what we suggest:

• Use the month of February to take up a new fitness/wellness challenge, or to ramp up one you are already doing.
  
• Do your challenge throughout the month.  Be sure to get some coaching and encouragement.
  
• When February is over, we invite you to make a donation to the DR. ALI RAJPUT ENDOWMENT FOR PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND MOVEMENT DISORDERS RESEARCH, one of the fundraising campaigns of the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
  
• Read through our blog posts to learn about this project and find out the inspiration behind it.
  
  

What we have heard from many of our participants is that the fitness aspect of the challenge did not really end. . . even though February came and went, they had developed a new mindset.  And the hospital foundation was very pleased to have received several thousand dollars in new support.

So, thanks to everyone who has participated and (we hope) is participating again!  Here's to another great fitness February!!