Can You Go? by Dan John, (06) The Five Tools, Notes

Post date: Feb 21, 2016 2:38:46 PM

Can You Go? by Dan John

(06) Chapter Six - The Five Tools -

• • At a glance: forget about perfection, just slowly move forward to a ‘good place.’

    • Everybody Else (Quadrant III) - Learn and practice the basics of training: nutrition and caloric restriction, inefficient exercise, strength training, hypertrophy and mobility training (the fountain of youth), developing the mental set

    • The Active Aging Athlete (Quadrant III) - support technical work with a reasonable program focused on fundamental human movements

    • Non-Active Athlete who doesn’t fit any category - Train like a Six. Encourage participation in a sport.

• 1. First Tool - Nutrition and Caloric Restriction. Reasonable is reasonable--reasonable eating & reasonable fitness: cut back on sugar, cut out cardboard carbs, get rid of Frankenstein Fat, eat colorful vegetables. Eat like an adult:

     • eat vegetables

     • eat lean protein

     • drink water

     • train in a fasted state (sometimes)

     • stay hungry after training (sometimes)

“Obese people and those desiring to lose weight should perform hard work before food. Meals should be taken after exertion while still panting from fatigue. They should, moreover, only eat once per day and take no baths and walk naked as long as possible.” -- Hippocrates, circa 471 BC

• • • For athletes: “Meat for strength. Veggies for health.” -- Pavel

Move to the right as far as you need: The perfect place is a blend of health, lifestyle and values. Less Candy. More Vegetables.

• 1. Second Tool: Inefficient exercise. If lousy at something, way more energy is spent. Formula:

     • Choose something that you are not good at but would like to be good at.

     • Practice until you get good at the activity.

     • Once efficient at the activity, pick a new activity and repeat the formula.

  2. Third Tool: Strength Training. The philosophy of training is more important than the plan: The body is one piece. Days, weeks, parents/kids, teachers/bosses and just about everything else will impact the system. Disease or illness will burden the system. Idiotic training or programming is as toxic to the system as many diseases.

     • One piece means looking at training from a global view, a distant vantage point (long term athletic development)

     • There are three types of weight training: (1) putting weight overhead (2) picking it up off the ground (3) carrying it for time or distance

     • All training is complementary - Mexican food - train the fundamentals at least 80% of the time. Add appropriate reps and load and we’re well on our way to any goal: Pushes, Pulls, Hinges, Squats, Loaded Carriesand Everything else (mostly groundwork.) Be wary of unnecessary eye wash (flashy, fancy, ‘elite’ techniques that only serve to ‘wow’ the student.) More is usually just more. Focus on movements, not muscles. Maintain consistency. Do what’s important every day. Perform repetitions, lots of repetitions.

  3. Fourth Tool: Hypertrophy and Mobility. Training every method works at the right time. Example: a few lifts and stretches for the elderly can make a world of difference. Movement mastery is a journey. Strength training for lean body mass and joint mobility work trumps everything else. Spend as much as you can spare. If the goal is to live well enough as long as you ca don’t overlook either one.

     • Posture and Aging - Vladimir Janda

       • Tonic - Stretch the muscles that are shortening. If being chased up a tree you would suse tonic muscles: upper trapezius, pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, biceps, psoas, piriformis, hamstrings, calf muscles

       • Phasic - Strengthen the muscles that are weakening. If chasing a deer you would use phasic muscles: rhomboids, mid back, triceps, gluteus maximus, deep abs, external obliques, deltoids

     • Train movements first, then load them:

       • push: deltoids and triceps

       • pull: rhomboids

       • hinge: butt

       • squat: butt

       • loaded carries: butt

  4. Fifth Tool: Mental Set. Motivation: most everyone knows the basics of what they should do but don’t do what they should. Fear tactics work in the short term but don’t work over time. Neither does the quick fix.

     • Pain motivates- For athletes pain equals failure: the fear of failure. For sick people pain equals mortality: the fear of death.

     • The most important motivator long term: the power of small changes.