Michael Ashcroft

Something that never ceases to amaze me is the willingness of other people to novate the responsibility for certain aspects of their lives to other people.

I am confronted by this behaviour most often in my role as a strength and conditioning coach.  Many people who hire me believe that it is MY responsibility to get them into shape.  Sorry folks, that’s not correct.  It is definitely YOUR responsibility to be fit and healthy.  I am a person who can equip you with the right knowledge or provide you with the right tools, but YOU are the one who has to do the work.

“But you’re the coach!” you cry.

“But its your life.” I’ll retort.

Just like I’m not responsible for your happiness, your bank balance or any other situation you may find yourself in during YOUR life.

Recognise that the life situation you’re currently experiencing is a direct result of the choices you’re making and your willingness to fully accept responsibility for it all – good and bad.  Your life is driven by YOU.

Accepting this fact could be one of the most empowering actions you ever take.  You’ll find it enormously difficult (dare I say impossible) to make any kind of positive and lasting change in your life if you’re expecting someone else to do it.  Its up to you.  You’re in the driver seat.

I had a conversation with someone the other day, in a similar vein, and they remarked that, “Ignorance was bliss.”  Ah, no my friend, it ain’t.  Ignorance will cost you.  Ignorance robs you of your ability to make smart decisions.  Ignorance is lazy.  Worst of all, ignorance diminishes your capacity to take responsibility for yourself.

Your life is your responsibility.  And if you don’t take my word for it, I’m sure there are plenty of other people out there who can help you

Just a few more useful things I’ve found since being on the hunt for lower back pain remedies.  Hope these help you too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWfnAUsYUTI - this one nearly made me cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHss4GvP4Fs&NR=1

http://sanfranciscocrossfit.blogspot.com/2009/03/stretch-your-psoas-peoples.html

And…if you’re a subscriber to Art De Vany’s private blog (highly recommended) check out this regarding back spasms:

http://www.arthurdevany.com/members/?p=1579

I’m borrowing a term from Mark Rippetoe here for the title of this post because I feel it aptly describes an  affliction that plagues modern humanity.

Please visit this link:

http://visol.com/en/products/Slimray.html/?cpn_code=facebookslimau1&setCurrencyId=3

And then tell me that isn’t some of the silliest bullshit you’ve ever seen or read.

If you purchase that equipment and honestly think it can help you, then you deserve to have your AUD$512.93 taken off you and to stay fat.  That Slimray Laser Liposuction doodad is silly bullshit.

I’m not sure why or how or when the concept of being able to remain fit and healthy without having to do anything became common place, but it is totally absurd.  What’s more disturbing is that people are more willing to attach an expensive fucking laser to their abdomen than actually do some exercise and stop eating shit.  Unbelievable.  Seriously unbelievable.

The success of products like this makes me seriously question the future of the human race.

Exercise some common-sense please friends and use your brains.  Don’t get sucked in by silly BS.

***If you’re truly lost for a place to start, read this:

http://www.arthurdevany.com/members/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/issue1.pdf

Robb Wolf’s interview with Arthur De Vany is brilliant for beginning to understand what it takes to be healthy and fit.***

Ever since I was about 15 or 16, I’ve had some issues with my lower back.  Every so often, my back will seize up and become terribly stiff and sore.  Anyone who has experienced lower back pain will know just how debilitating it can be.  Worse still, to get better we need to keep moving and keep the back active to prevent any further deterioration, which inevitably leads to a good deal of pain.

I’ve recently suffered a bout of quite bad (almost chronic) back pain for the last 5-6 weeks.  This has been due largely to the fact I failed to do preventitive maintenance, such as massage and consistent stretching.  So the tension and pain accumulated and all came to a head a few weeks back (as things like this do…)

I’ve since made some really good improvements in the past week and am probably 90% right.

If you suffer from lower back pain, I’ve got some field tested personal experience to share with you:

1. See a professional. I went and saw a Traditional Chinese Medicine man who was fantastic.  His name is Nick Conquest and he is based in East Brighton.  Massage, acupuncture and manipulation all-in-one.   Some of the acupuncture points, and the muscles they released, were sore for over a week.  Well worth it.  I would not have improved without some kind of help like this.
2. Be PRO-active, not RE-active. Much of this pain could probably have been prevented by regularly stretching.  Since visiting Nick (above), I’ve stretched my back most days and also done some rudimentary Yoga-type exercises (YouTube).  All have helped tremendously.
3. Don’t ignore the niggles! It’s rare that I suddenly ‘wake up’ with terrible lower back pain.  It usually begins as a small little pain and progresses until it is bad enough to stop me from living life normally.  I guess this ties in with the point above – the niggling pain is a warning to take care of yourself BEFORE it progresses to something more sinister.
4. If you do CrossFit…stretch. CrossFit-style heavy lifting and pushing your body’s limits takes its toll (no-brainer, I know) but it is super important to remember to look after yourself, even more than if you’re sedentary.  The analogy I use (I love analogies!) is like imagining your body is an F1 car, you race around the track as hard and as fast as you can, but then choosing to ignore your pit crew until something is critically wrong with your car.  Stupid, yeah?  Take your pitstops regularly to ensure you don’t have a catastrophic failure, instead of asking the pit crew to clean up the mess after you’ve already wrecked your car.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the lessons that I have learned during the course of the last few months.  This year has been particularly busy for me and, in retrospect, there are a number of things that I would have handled differently.

I’ve come to recognise the value of focus and the danger of spreading yourself too thin.

The truth of this became evident to me when I was trying to manage a number of new projects simultaneously.  Earlier this year, I quit my job and decided to try my hand at being in business for myself.  In conjunction with this, I was actively trying to develop a new and alternative career path for myself (in health/fitness).  Both of these fields were unrelated.  I also started this blog.

You can probably guess what happened.

As a consequence of constantly having to shift my focus to each of these different ventures, it was very hard to get  positive momentum going in ANY of them.  I was spread too thin.  I couldn’t make progress and I wound up producing mediocre results in all three ventures.

If I could do it again, what would I do?

Pick one project.  Focus on it like a laser.  Immerse yourself in that project and move it forward as rapidly as you can.

One of my favourite mentors has written some great insights on the topic (read it here).  Here is an excerpt from one of his posts:

“Big goals often require tons of learning. A good example would be starting a new business. If you try to pick away at that goal a few hours a week, you may never get it done. It’s better to put the rest of your life on hold and just go at it like a madman for a while.

You don’t have to push through from beginning to end on the first try. You can push ahead in focused phases. For example, if you want to start an online business, your first phase might be to educate yourself. Then you can take a few weeks off to focus on a different part of your life — or just relax. Your next phase might be to build your website and get it launched.”

Focus and immersion.  That’s how I’ll be handling things in the future.