Assessing Progress, Lifting, and Adjusting Training (5-17-23)

This will be in the last in the series inspired by lifting weights. This week is about assessing your progress, lifting, and making adjustments to your training.

This past weekend I completed Highlander Assault Dark Ages, a 4-mile obstacle course race that you do at night guided by a headlamp. One of my favorite parts of racing is that it enables you to assess your performance, and what led to that performance. You either completed an obstacle or you didn’t. If you did, was it as easy as you wanted it to be? If you didn’t, did you lack the strength, technique, or something else? I had some areas I felt great about. My legs felt fresh through the entire race. I felt strong, flipping tires and carrying heavy stuff felt easier than it has in the past. I also had some good failures. I still didn’t make it up the rope, but I made it farther than I have before. I have technique and strength gaps here. I had a couple monkey bar like obstacles that I failed. I still don’t have the grip strength I need. After I reflected on my performance, I looked at my lifting/training plan. It served me well in some areas, but there are other areas I need to tweak to get even better.

You might be wondering what this has to do with anything. In my obstacle course racing story, I completed a race, assessed my wins/losses, and then updated a training plan to make me better for next time. I’ll execute this updated training plan until my next race, and then start the cycle all over again. How often do you do this at work? How often do you pause to honestly assess your performance? When you do, how much time do you spend reflecting on what got you there? How often do you create a plan that helps you develop new skills and techniques? I think we could all do better at this. I know I could.

The challenge: Are you assessing your progress? How are you adjusting to become even stronger?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting, Bias, and a Hello Kitty Towel (5-10-23)

Happy Wednesday,

Last week was about lifting and different kinds of success. This week is about a Hello Kitty towel and recognizing the bias we all have.

I was a few minutes into my workout in my house when I realized I needed a towel. I was doing laundry, so my normal blue workout towel was being washed. I went upstairs reached into the cabinet without looking and pulled out a Hello Kitty towel. Instantly I thought to myself, “This is kind of girly for a workout towel, isn’t it? I can’t use this,” and I dropped the towel. A second later, I realized what thought had run through my brain and how stupid it was. I paused and asked myself, “Why can’t I use this towel? All I need is something to wipe the sweat off my face. If the towel would have been a different color and had Batman or Ninja Turtles on it, I wouldn’t have hesitated to use it. Why should I treat this towel differently?” I picked the towel back up and used it.

Are you seeing how this connects with bias? I was working out by myself in my house, where there was no threat of anyone judging me. Even in this environment, when I picked up the Hello Kitty towel, my first instinct was a biased one. My first instinct was to say, “This is towel is too girly, and I’m a tough masculine man doing tough manly things like weightlifting. Since that towel is so girly, it can’t be a part of doing tough masculine things.” (Seriously, reread those two sentences and look at how many wrong ignorant assumptions are built in there.) It wasn’t until I paused a moment to examine my thought process that I realized I was wrong and ridiculous.

I like to tell myself that I’m a good person. I like to hope that I’m above having bias, but this was another reminder that I’m human. If I can have a bias about an inanimate object when there isn’t anything at stake, then I know I have more biases lurking under the surface. We all have biases. It’s up to us to recognize these biases and then challenge them with each other and most importantly within ourselves.

The challenge: Will you recognize and challenge your biases?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting and Different Kinds of Success (5-3-23)

Our last entry was about using proper form to help us be stronger and more efficient. This week is about lifting and different kinds of success.

A few of months ago, I wasn’t making any progress in my physical health and lifting journey. I wasn’t gaining strength. My body composition was staying the same. I didn’t feel any better. I was doing my best at the time, but not getting anywhere. I felt like an unsuccessful failure. Then, I took a step back and realized that life was throwing a lot at me right both personally and professionally. In the midst of all of that crazy, making the progress I wanted to make would have been impossible. I came to appreciate that while I may not have been moving forward at that exact moment, the fact that I wasn’t losing ground was a win. Despite all life was doing, it wasn’t pushing me back. It may not have been my ideal goal, but maintaining was success in those circumstances.

What does this have to do with anything? Often, we picture success as crossing the finish line in first place, and anything short of that is failure. After all, as the guru Ricky Bobby once said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last!” As a result of this thinking, we often feel like if we aren’t achieving our ideal of success then we are not worthy. That’s how I felt during that month. Have you ever felt that way? In these moments, it’s important to step back and realize that victory can take many forms. Success isn’t always about winning the race. Sometimes, success is just finishing the race. Sometimes, success is finding a way to keep moving forward. Sometimes, success is not getting knocked back. Sometimes, success is finding a way to get back up after being knocked flat on your butt. Depending on what you’re doing, and the hand life is dealing you at the moment, success can look very different. We need to accept that AND accept that we are always more than enough.

The challenge: Are you giving yourself the grace to understand what success looks like in the moment?

Bonus: I woke up this morning and I’m sore and exhausted, so my lifting success today is going to be taking a rest day 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting, Proper Form, and Work (4-26-23)

The last entry was about coaching nudges, deadlifting, and good form. Today, we will build on the idea of proper form as it relates to lifting and work.

As long as you have enough raw power, you can lift something even if you don’t have the right form. This goes for weights, couches, boxes, and more. However, lifting without good form does have a cost to it. You could tire yourself out more easily, get injured, or not be able to lift as much as you could with the right form. The fundamentals of good form increases your strength because it enables your body to capitalize on the synergy of your muscles moving together in the right way. Like I mentioned in the deadlift story, I improved my form and was instantly able to lift more weight without getting tired or irritating my back. In short, good form is the secret to taking your strength to the next level.

Let’s connect this to work. Have you ever seen someone who winged an entire presentation? Have you ever seen someone lead a meeting when they haven’t prepared for it? Have you ever been one of those people? I have. Sometimes this has worked out okay. Sometimes it has been a disaster. Rarely, has it ever been as smooth and efficient as if I would have been more intentional about preparing and doing things the right way. With all that in mind, these examples are great parallels to our metaphor this week. In each instance, the person relied on their brute strength/skill as opposed to leveraging “good form”. Whether it’s presenting, running meetings, scoping out projects, or anything else, there are usually a few key fundamental things/frameworks you can leverage to make it easier. These frameworks are what good form is all about. Sure, you might be able to do things on raw skill alone. However, I guarantee you that combining that skill with the right form will make everything more efficient and easier.

The challenge: Are you seeking to understand what good form looks like before tackling a challenge? How are you leveraging the correct “form” at work?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Deadlifting and Coaching Nudges (4-19-23)

This week we are going to start a new series inspired by lessons learned from working out. We will start with deadlifting and coaching nudges focused on the right things. This is inspired by an interaction I had with Rhonda Pacheco, so big shout out to her.

The other day I was chatting with Rhonda about work, life, and everything in between. I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but we started to talk about exercising and lifting weights. I had been struggling with deadlifting, so I asked her if she ever deadlifted. When she said yes, I explained that even though I wasn’t lifting anything that heavy I could always feel it in my lower back, and I’d be sore for days. This definitely shouldn’t be happening. That’s when Rhonda said something along the lines of, “Sounds like something is off on your form. The thing that helps me when I’m lifting are those small little cues to focus on. For deadlifts, focus on pushing the ground down. If you focus on pushing the ground down your body will naturally hinge in the right way and activate the right muscles.” I didn’t believe it would be that simple. The next time I did deadlifts I focused on pushing the ground down. This felt SO DIFFERENT from what I had been doing before. I was then able to do the reps without any soreness in my back and was able to add 10-15 pounds to my lifts. #gains

What does this have to do with anything? The coaching that Rhonda gave me was a small nudge focused on the right thing. By helping me focus on the right thing with a tangible action, I was able to make large improvements. She didn’t need a lot of words. She didn’t need complicated models or verbiage. She helped me focus on ONE SIMPLE THING. Think about when you’ve received coaching in the past. How often is it specific and focused enough that you know exactly what to do? How often is it truly focused on the thing that matters? Think about giving people coaching. How clear is the advice that you give them? How would following your advice have positive ripples in their work?

The challenge: How can you leverage small nudges to help people grow?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry