Last night's email

I sent this out yesterday it was inspired by a client and an email....

Just read an interesting article about surrogate results from John Barban. He gives the definition of surrogate results (or endpoint) is something you can measure or track that is NOT your primary goal / end point but is assumed to indicate the same thing. 

Here's some examples:

True goal: Bigger muscles

Surrogate endpoint: Stronger muscles

True goal: visible abs

Surrogate endpoint: Body fat %

I know some friends that get abs at 15%, mine don't even start showing till I'm around 9/10% and I have had a client who was down to 6% and they were only just showing. 

True goal: Bigger muscles

Surrogate endpoint: Body weight

This kind of works the same in reverse if you want to lose fat. Just because you lose /  gain weight it doesn't mean you are losing or gaining the right stuff. 

I bring this up because I met up with my old training partner yesterday. In the early days he wanted to lose weight and get leaner. His starting weight was 120kgs at 6ft. Within 3 months he was below 100kgs and then seemed to plateau around 93kgs. Much leaner, but he'd gotten a new girlfriend and ate out a lot more, as well as some Ben and Jerry's midnight feasts. 

He started reading Men's Health and this magazine and that magazine and decided to try for a fighter's physique. I struggle with this one. I boxed from when I was 14, I had a fighter's physique because I FOUGHT! Not because I'd pretended by doing some fight conditioning. So he's be doing this program and getting sicker and sicker. Virtually every illness there is he gets it, and now is super frustrated. 

Whenever I start training people I try to find out what they want, what their goals are and how we can get there quickly. Personally my view is,  you should get your body to a level where you'd feel comfortable wearing a swim suit around the beach or the pool in the summer. For most of us that would mean we're in fairly good shape and substantially better shape that 99% of the other people around us. The by-product of doing that will be you'll be stronger, fitter and probably faster than ever before. That's the by-product. 

Then I'd peel back another layer and find out if there is anything a client might want to try or do (a performance goal), so they can measure themselves. This may not appeal to some people. But triathlons, cycle sportives, marathons, half marathons and virtually any other race can be included in this.  

Now here's an important distinction, being able to complete a performance goal doesn't mean you'll be healthier. 

WHAT?!!

Say that again. 

Just because you can perform to a higher level doesn't mean you'll be healthier. AND this is where my friend has gone wrong. Look around you, I bet you can name 10 people instantly who over trained and got sick or worse injured. 

Most of you know I use my heart rate every day to let me know whats going on. 10 beats above resting, I don't train. 30 beats and I take 5 days off. More and I'm calling the doctor. 

There's a little thing called stress. A few years ago we actually were told that we couldn't use that word… yes really. I wonder if they were the same people that burnt books in a previous life. 

Stress is how your body respond to an external stimulus. This could be environmental, psychological, chemical or physical. 

Think about it. Let's say that the temperature is around 35 degrees (hottish), now I'm going to stick you on a crowded train, no seats and the journey takes forever. Guaranteed you'd be stressed. So what's going on in this scenario?

The temperature is too hot, internally your own body temperature starts to rise, your body responds, sweating to conduct the heat away from your body, and you start to dehydrate, then the headaches follow. Now you're body is in a stress mode. Now let's introduce some angry people in the carriage, potential threat, your adrenal system kicks in dumping energy ready to be used in a fight or flight situation. So simple. 

Now if my friend is eating rubbish still, empty calories are going in, nothing to sustain a strong healthy body, a little bit of over training taxes the body a little more lowering the resistance and making your immunity system work a little hard, now where's that straw? 

He feels good, strong, powerful (on the outside), so decided to do an extra workout in the evening on an already over taxed, over tired body. But that's ok because there's coffee and loads of NO-Explode or any other number of stimulants… and the body says enough!

What's my point?

First of all your long term health and wellbeing should be the number 1 focus of all goals, they should support it. Strong enough, fit enough, fast enough, healthier enough to cope with the type of lifestyle you're living. At times that lifestyle is going to change. You're going to get married, you're going to move, children might be born, there might be accidents, sleepless nights and a whole host of things that will knock you. Things are going to go wrong, to every single one of you at some point. 

One of my clients related a story last week of talking to  group of young men. He told them that every single one of them in that room would fail at some point in their life, but it's how they react to that failure that will separate them. 

What are your goals? 

Are you achieving them?

Are you supporting yourself getting there? (this one is important. Don't tell me you want to lose fat then eat and drink like its the last feast every day, it won't happen)

What's your long term goal? 

Mine is simple… I want to be strong, healthy and fit enough to experience a better quality of life, and I want to look good doing it. Over to you...