Hi Friend!

Beautiful Thursday to you from here in Boston!

Every year, at least when we're in the gym, I have returning members pick a new spot on the floor. We have tall cones and small cones set up on the floor, to create columns and rows for safety, structure and order, and so people usually, find their spot and return to it every workout.

Then, when I heard Pete Carroll, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, say, that every year he had his football players pick different seats in the meeting rooms, so they could see things differently, I thought that was a brilliant idea and have been doing it ever since with our members.

[side note, having the last name of Alves, I was always the 3rd seat from the front, either on the left side or the right side of the classroom b/c seating was always alphabetical, when I grew up. This year for Vivi has been interesting b/c every 2 weeks, they move all the children to different desks spread out around the room, so they're always starting fresh and seeing things from a different perspective].

Anyways, since we're training virtual, we're going to piggy back on the spirit and mantra of the New Perspective idea.

Pandemic

When things were heating up back in March, I decided one evening after talking with some members who work in big hospitals downtown, that I didn't want Vanessa to go to work in her medical building, the next day, (Th, 3/12/20), because it would disrupt our lives in a huge way, if she got Covid, so if I wasn't going to let her go to work, then I couldn't be a hypocrite and keep going in either, so I announced that Wednesday evening that we were going virtual for the foreseeable future.

You know what happened next. 12 days later, March 23, Gov. Baker announced a stay at home advisory, for all non-essential workers that was supposed to be for 2 weeks, which continues today in various forms.

Then gyms, fitness centers and boot camps were shut down until July 6, so I figured we'd go back late July, "to see what happens, after gyms were open for 2 weeks", and then as we got closer, it didn't make sense to go back, so I scheduled 9/28/20 as our next return date, figuring, we'd "let school go back and see what happens then", well school didn't go back for most people, so we pushed back returning again.

This time however, after surveying my membership, on who wanted to go back to the gym, who was indifferent and who didn't want to go back, it was very clear, that more people at every training time (there are 9 classes), wanted to stay virtual, however, one class time, the 6:30pm, Tuesday nights, had members who could flex and train at other times, so we went back to training Tuesday nights, first for just October, and then for the rest of 2020.

The state mandated a year end holiday closure for fitness businesses and the like, and then lifted them in early January with a 25% capacity limit, which meant only 6 people for us. We returned to our 6:30pm, Tuesday nights and now look forward to a 40% capacity limit, which means 9.6 people (do you round up or down in this situation), starting Monday, Feb 8, 2021.

No One Knows

The point of this story is no one knows when it's going to be over. I am and have been cautious and optimistic and I've been wrong with my guesses each time. This optimism, reminds me of the lessons that Viktor Frankl and James Stockdale taught.

Viktor Frankl

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author and Holocaust survivor. I was referred to his book, Man's Search for Meaning, by Walter, a CYBBC member, who many people want to be like when they grow up b/c he's so fun, active and living a life of adventure.

Well, the book, was not like Walter's lifestyle, however it did reveal what having purpose can do. Frankl said, that outside of luck, those who survived the Holocaust, had a reason to live. They had someone or something that they had to get back to so, they needed to find a way to survive. For some it was a spouse, a child, a family, some relationship. For others it was a business, a career. For him, it was his manuscript. He had just finished writing his manuscript when he was captured and his manuscript, the only copy he had since this was pre-computers, was destroyed. He had to remember everyday while he was in the concentration camps, every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter of his manuscript, until the day came when he could re-write it.

That was his reason to find a way to survive, so he could re-write his manuscript that he put his heart and soul into. His fellow humans, who didn't have a compelling enough reason to survive for, in spite of the harshest of conditions, often succumbed to death in various ways, many of which were a broken heart or broken will.

James Stockdale

James was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator, awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years. I learned of him from Jim Collins author of Good to Great and was reminded of him during Jim's recent interview with Tim Ferriss. Collins cited, the Stockdale Paradox, for the reason James was able to survive being a POW while others didn't. Stockdale said to himself, that

"despite all those circumstances, I never ever wavered in my absolute faith that not only would I prevail—get out of this—but I would also prevail by turning it into the defining event of my life that would make me a stronger and better person. Not only that, ... I’m the lucky one."

James said, the optimists were the one's who didn't make it.  "those who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas,’ and Christmas would come and it would go, and ‘We’re going to be out by Easter, and it’s going to come,’ and it would go, and ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas,’ and it would come and it would go. And they suffered from a broken heart.’

To which Jim Collins said in regards to what he learned from the Stockdale Paradox is, "This idea you must never, ever confuse the need on the one hand for an unwavering faith that you can, and you will prevail in the end with at the same time, the discipline to confront the most brutal facts as they actually are today. And I always had this image of Admiral Stockdale saying, “We’re not going to be out of here by Christmas; deal with it.”

Life Stress & Training Stress

Ever since I started, Change Your Body Boot Camps, in Jan '09, I've had this philosophy that when life stress goes up, training stress goes down and when training stress goes up, life stress goes down.

What that means to me from an individual perspective is when your life feels really full and it takes all of your effort to just get through your day, the last thing that's good for you is to get crushed by a workout. You do still need to do self-care in this situation, but it's more of a maintenance and reactive plan to move and stretch and rest and eat and hydrate to help you feel good and to manage the stress of this period of time.

And conversely when you're in more of a routine and life stress is normal, that's a great time to really push your training and try to recover from the high life stress you went through and push forward towards exciting goals that are coming up.

In a group setting like CYBBC, we address the high and low stress periods of the calendar.

For example:

In the 1st Quarter of the year, it's usually a quiet period. We're coming off the high stress season of year-end, so many people start to get sick, they're feeling over-full and de-conditioned from overconsumption and decreased activity, in the northeast, the weather is colder, the days are shorter and for those without good gear, you're more likely to stay inside more often. This is a great time to increase training stress because generally speaking life stress is lower.

In the 2nd Quarter, outside of Easter & Passover, tax filing and the last couple weeks of the school year (mid-June), it's also a quieter period. The days get longer, the weather gets warmer and you're more likely to go outside more often. Quiet = Low Life Stress. Low Life Stress = Higher Training Stress. So we build on the 1st Quarter and continue to progress our clients forward trying to make progress and gains.

In the 3rd Quarter, summer, it's our only 4 phase quarter (June, July, August & September) of the year. Here life stress for many people, is usually the lowest of the year. The weather makes it easier to be outside with fewer layers, people take vacations, school is out, travel happens more often and you're more likely to manage stress better. This in my opinion is one of the best times for all people of all ages, to make huge progress forward.

Ironically to me, not everyone sees it this way. Many clients see the summer as a chance to take a break from life, and end up regressing a lot. Self-care is a year round, all the time, forever lifestyle, and the low stress of summer combined with focused training will accelerate your rate of progress and magnify your summer fun exponentially.

The month of September however is a high stress month with the transition from vacation mindset to a return to work & school. Increased traffic, getting back to routines, more meetings, life fills up real full, real quick and so we match this by decreasing training stress.

The 4th Quarter is mixed. The weather gets cooler, the days get shorter, people are still outside a lot and most everyone has adapted to their work and school routines by now. October and November are the quieter months of the quarter compared to September so we increase the training stress. Post Thanksgiving through the New Year are high stress weeks, so we drop the training loads to match.

Peaking vs. Overloading

Early June, September and December are great peaking months from a training standpoint because life stress is high, so training stress goes low. These periods end up being our tapering, unloading and peaking phases of the year, similar to what you might experience if you trained for a race or wanted to peak for a sport season or event, where we decrease stress so you can accumulate energy and charge up your nervous system.

Q1 is very similar to those 3 peaking months as everything we do pace, tempo and exercise selection wise, in the first quarter is the same as them: fast, simple and focused on getting recharged. The rest of the year our main focus is progressive overload where we learn new skills, get stronger and get faster.

Want More, Do More, Become More

Now as Sean and Mich, husband and wife members, pointed out, their 1st Quarter was not low stress work wise and was actually the opposite. Very busy and very full.

This was a great example of a complimentary mindset to our high life stress / low training stress and low life stress / high training stress philosophy: when you want more, you have to do more and in order to do more, you have to become more.

They didn't feel like they were in a period of low stress, they felt like it was a high stress period with increased work demands. A notable difference though was they weren't decreasing their training stress, even though they were busier at work, they kept it the same.

This difference led me to interpret their current situations as: (1) they're both going after something in their respective businesses and (2), they're clearly in the quiet part of the calendar, so they can do more at work and keep up regular training stress. If they were super busy in one of the months I mentioned above (early June, September or December), they might be forced to adjust their training schedule because it might be too hard to recover from overloading workouts, if I hadn't already reduced the intensity of the workouts to make them more energizing and less taxing.

Note: I mostly refer to the inverse relationship of high:low and low:high, life vs. training stress with the annual calendar, holidays, seasons, quarters and weather that affect us all, though like I noted above from an individual perspective if you find yourself in a high stress period, then decrease your training stress, and vice versa if you find yourself in a period of low stress, increase your training stress.

Since Sean & Mich were able to keep their regular training stress, even though worked picked up, and we were in a quiet part of the calendar, I see it as them going after something, which I call wanting more, and if you want more, you're going to have to do more to get it, and in order to do more they have to become the type of person who does what it takes to get what they want.

This same mindset and effort must happen in training, just like in work and all other areas of your life when you want more. You have to do more to get it and in order to do more you have to become the type of person who does whatever it takes to get the goals that they want. You have to change your identity, your environment and your behaviors to match what it takes to yield what you want.

In sports because that's one of the lens I look through frequently, if you want to become a better athlete, you have to do more work to get better. In order to do more work you have to become the type of person who does more work. You have to be the first to come and the last to leave. You have to find someone who's already successful doing something you want and then copy what they do and cover them if possible (cover the best player), so you can role model their behaviors. You also have to change your environment to make it easier to become this person.

Best Year of Our Lives Yet

So for me, for you, for us, why not make this year the best year of our lives yet. We don't know when the pandemic will be over, when things will go back to normal or even what the new normal will look like, but what we know for sure is we have today and we can only control ourselves: how we choose to see things, what we decide and what we do (or don't do). We can make the most of every moment and every opportunity no matter what is coming our way. We're in charge.

Manifest

If James Stockdale could decide that he would reframe one of the worst things that could ever happen to a person into the defining moment of his life, we can decide that we're going to make the Pandemic and our response to this period of time into one of the most defining moments of our lives to date. We can decide to individually and collectively manifest, wish into the world and make happen, that this will be the best year of our lives yet.

Spanish Flu / Roaring 20's

Hope. Viktor Frankl taught us that when you're going through the toughest of times, those outside of luck, who make it, had a reason to make it. They had someone or something they wanted to get back to, that required they find a way to survive. Our get back to is life before masks, before safer at home, before swabbing our noses instead of our ears, before the craziness and if we use history as a lesson, when the Spanish Flu came about in 1918, it lasted 2 years and was devastating for the country. But what came next, was the Roaring Twenties and economic prosperity, modernization, technological growth, progressive and social rebalancing and lots of parties.

Intrinsic Motivation to Move Forward

So if you choose to reframe it this way, you, me, we can make this a defining moment in our lives. The pandemic is going to end at some point. The world is too resilient to let mask wearing be a forever thing. We'll figure it out. We'll get back to hugs, handshakes and high fives. We'll get back to going out to restaurants and traveling on airplanes and throwing medicine balls at a wall.

In the meantime, let's keep going after big goals, doing more, becoming more and getting ready for our own roaring 20's because everyone sure looked like they were having fun at those Great Gatsby parties wearing their fun flapper outfits.

Your coach,

Mike Alves