Monday, January 24, 2011

Fuck stasis.

(she said, around a mouthful of oatmeal...)

Read what the trainer of the actors and stunt crew of "300" had to say about stasis here... (thanks Skinny D!)

"Even in the small world of mountain climbing a few guys were convinced that their betters were using EPO, "because there's no way they could be that much faster than me." Ski mountaineering racing is the same. Cycling is the same; the best guy in the country goes to an international level race, finishes below the 50th percentile and before checking into his own training/diet/recovery/stress-management/genetics/etc the ego goes into self-preservation overdrive and imagines all sorts of doping practices to be responsible. This is a natural consequence of having been told from childhood, "you are a unique snowflake."


Well you're not and I'm not. If you weren't given the gift you can't get the gift so the best you can do - if your goal is important - is work as hard as you possibly can, pay attention every hour of every day and then maybe, maybe if you've done enough and been smart enough you'll emerge from the muck of mediocrity to shine a bit brighter than you shone before. Then, upon reflection you might decide your goal is a bit more important so you'll start paying attention every minute of every hour of every day. You'll find people who are better than you and you'll take an empty cup when you meet them. Their example will destroy or inspire you and if it's the latter you may stay and learn. You might imitate, doing as they do because you've already accepted that you do not know best - if you did you'd be leading the group they were trying to join. Perhaps being exposed to their superior ability will drive you to work harder than you thought possible, or necessary. Maybe you'll overcome your self-imposed (or worse, society-imposed) limitations and shine even more brightly. Wow, you're getting it: positive reinforcement for hard work and suffering. So maybe you give your goal even more significance and you begin cutting away the ideas and the expectations and the people who you believe prevent you from achieving it. Now you become a real selfish prick, and you begin paying attention every second of every minute of every hour of every day, and you sustain your awareness for weeks and months at a time. You no longer think yourself a unique snowflake, you're a steel-edged blade shaped like a snowflake and you're spinning at warp speed. You're the biggest fish in the pond. You're a badass. Now you have options."


Read that trainer's whole post and look at the pictures at the end. Amazing.

Let's get to work. Fuck stasis.

4 comments:

SkinnyD said...

That's what I'm talkin about!

Afrorican said...

Love your last two posts!! I actually had the honor of training with Mark Twight a few times in the past. He's a cool dude and down to earth. If you have not read "Kiss or Kill, Confessions of a Serial Climber" I recommend it. Awesome

Mark said...

Fuck yeah! This is EXACTLY what Jack LaLanne has been saying all along...well until yesterday :(

Peter said...

That was awesome and very inspirational, like a Rocky training montage in written form. Came at the right time, I finally took up BJJ and started lifting so some more motivation is useful :)