Photo credit: dangable.com
I had the pleasure and honor of hearing Dan Gable speak here in VA Beach a couple years ago. He told his incredible story about adversity, death, determination, victory, loss, and taking advantage of opportunity.
When Dan was a sophomore in high school, his older sister was brutally raped and murdered. While such a tragic event would send most families into a downward spiral for the rest of their lives, Dan stepped up and took on the adversity head on. A couple weeks after the tragedy, he moved into his sister’s bedroom in an effort to strengthen his family. Dan strived to create so much focus and excitement in his wrestling career, that his family wouldn’t have to look other places for entertainment.
Dan went on to be the most decorated wrestler in the history of the sport. He’s well-known for never losing a match throughout high school and college until his final collegiate match, his senior year for the NCAA championship. He won a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics, where he didn’t surrender a single point throughout the entire Olympic games. He then went on to a coaching career at the University of Iowa where he had a record of 355-21-5.
Dan’s perseverance and passion to succeed will likely never be matched in wrestling. I took notes during his story and saved many of his meaningful quotes that day. They’ve all had an impact on me and changed my perception about life one way or another. But there is one that made a major impact on me which I won’t forget. “Perfect practice makes permanent.”
You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Practice makes perfect.” This wasn’t good enough for Dan. Throughout his practices and workouts, Dan took it a step further to create a mindset within himself. “Perfect practice makes permanent.” He took domination to the next level by perfecting his practice sessions and never settling for mediocre, ever. He viewed every practice and workout as an opportunity. Another memorable quote he said that day, “If there’s an opportunity if front of you, take it.” Every practice was an opportunity for Dan. Every single one. Then once it would come time for a match, Dan's perfect practices eliminated any doubt of him not winning the match. It was just a matter of him going through the motions to reach his victory, or in Dan's case, permanent perfection.
When Dan was a sophomore in high school, his older sister was brutally raped and murdered. While such a tragic event would send most families into a downward spiral for the rest of their lives, Dan stepped up and took on the adversity head on. A couple weeks after the tragedy, he moved into his sister’s bedroom in an effort to strengthen his family. Dan strived to create so much focus and excitement in his wrestling career, that his family wouldn’t have to look other places for entertainment.
Dan went on to be the most decorated wrestler in the history of the sport. He’s well-known for never losing a match throughout high school and college until his final collegiate match, his senior year for the NCAA championship. He won a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics, where he didn’t surrender a single point throughout the entire Olympic games. He then went on to a coaching career at the University of Iowa where he had a record of 355-21-5.
Dan’s perseverance and passion to succeed will likely never be matched in wrestling. I took notes during his story and saved many of his meaningful quotes that day. They’ve all had an impact on me and changed my perception about life one way or another. But there is one that made a major impact on me which I won’t forget. “Perfect practice makes permanent.”
You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Practice makes perfect.” This wasn’t good enough for Dan. Throughout his practices and workouts, Dan took it a step further to create a mindset within himself. “Perfect practice makes permanent.” He took domination to the next level by perfecting his practice sessions and never settling for mediocre, ever. He viewed every practice and workout as an opportunity. Another memorable quote he said that day, “If there’s an opportunity if front of you, take it.” Every practice was an opportunity for Dan. Every single one. Then once it would come time for a match, Dan's perfect practices eliminated any doubt of him not winning the match. It was just a matter of him going through the motions to reach his victory, or in Dan's case, permanent perfection.
Recently I’ve been working long hours at my day job, anywhere from 8 to 14 hour days. Understandably, I found the majority of my mental focus going towards work. Other priorities in my personal life (which were greatly lacking) included beach volleyball, strength training, and my High Speed Health business.
For a while there, I’d run across the street to the gym at lunch to get a quick and moderately effective workout. By the time I was done working around 8pm, I’d head home. After a quick dinner break, I’d grab my foam roller and laptop then hop on the floor. The foam roller for muscle release and decompression, the laptop to simultaneously create the business of my dreams. At this point, I was more passionate about this business then ever. Hence the reason I’d stay up ‘til 1 or 2am working on it, sleep 5 hours, wake up and do it all over again. And again. And again.
It was late August. ‘Burnt out’ didn’t even begin to describe the way I was feeling. Not to mention, I had the busiest four weeks of my year directly ahead of me. So late one afternoon, I was physically and mentally struggling at my desk. I took a 5 minute break to step out into the lobby and clear my head on a leather couch out there, looking through the windows at a beautiful Summer day. I realized that I needed to make a major change. I needed to become more effective in every aspect of my professional and personal life, immediately!
I scrolled around on my Blackberry (looking busy, as I relaxed) while I cleared my head. How was I going to get this accomplished? And as soon as possible. I decided step 1 was to come up with a plan. Something needed to be eliminated from the equation. I work out every other day all year round already. And my workouts weren’t helping me relax at all. If anything, they were frustrating and adding to my stress. First sacrifice, strength training for 30 days.
Next on the cutting room floor, beach volleyball. The season was almost over anyway, and I was looking forward to getting started with my off-season strength training. Giving up vball was tough. But I’ve just had the best Summer of my life, beach cruisin, ballin, drinkin “a little” beer, and hangin with fast, crazy, wild women. No offense ladies, I know I’m crazy too!
All this considered, I gave up the remaining weeks of my Summer to focus on work and my website. Within a matter of 2 days, my productivity increased multiple times over. If you know me at all, you know the first thing that came to my mind. That’s right, how can I start off-season training now, while still being effective with work and High Speed Health? I plan on making a major jump in the ranks on the beach volleyball courts next Summer. And my off-season strength training routine is going to play a huge part in that. This is where Dan Gable’s quote immediately popped into my head. “Perfect practice makes permanent.” If I had all the time in the world, and I was starting from ground zero, what perfect off-season routine would I implement to get where I wanted to be by next Spring? Here we go!
It was September 1st. Over the next four weeks, I knew I’d average 60 hours per week at my day job. Beach volleyball tournaments are 7 to 9 hours on a 95 degree beach, requiring intermittent and explosive bursts energy throughout the day. I had just played in a tourney each of the three previous weekends, not to mention played pick-up games 3 or 4 additional days per week. Four months of that will take a major toll on the health of your muscles.
Enter stage 1 of my perfect off-season training routine, I declared my September “Decompression Month”. I immediately opened a blank spreadsheet on my computer to draw it out. First, I scheduled a hot yoga class every Wednesday for four weeks.
**Disclaimer - Consult a doctor before doing anything on this blog or in my book. I’m not a doctor or any type of certified specialist. I’m simply an obsessive, athletic desk jockey who became passionate about healing injuries caused by years of bad habits. These are my stories, failures, successes, real life examples of my new habits, and descriptions of practices I’ve learned and used (over the last 4 years) to become pain-free. These new habits and practices are what worked for me. I cannot promise all of them will work for everyone. Take all of my content for what it’s worth. My focus is to provide shortcut information that worked for me, not to diagnose someone else.**
Ok, where was I? Second, I went to a health food store and bought a supplement called Liquid Calcium Magnesium Citrate. After about a week, the L.C.M.C. put my muscles into a very relaxed state, making it easier to get results when stretching and foam rolling. I took this supplement every day of the month. Use extreme caution when using Liquid Calcium Magnesium Citrate. Start off with half of the recommended dosage on the label and work your way up. You won’t be able to lift the same heavy weights you could before you got on it. But that’s a good thing. People need to realize that there needs to be a balance between compression of the body (lifting, running, sitting, gravity, etc) and decompression of the body (hot yoga, L.C.M.C., stretching, etc). You can lift weights or run every day, but if you don’t have that balance, you’ll pay for it one day with a lot of pain and suffering.
Next, I have an inversion table at my house. It basically allows you to hang upside-down by your feet, increasing the blood circulation in your body. I scheduled this anywhere from 1 to 3 times per day, at 5 minutes each time.
Finally, I slept just about every night in full compression gear (shirt, pants, and arm sleeves) and started keeping the AC a couple degrees cooler at night. During the month of September, the everyday combination of Liquid Calcim Magnesium Citrate, inversion therapy, and sleeping in compression gear has led to drastic results for my body.
First of all, I am in a much more relaxed state, both physically and mentally. Second, I sleep much more comfortably. It’s like I’m in a coma and I very rarely wake up in the middle of the night anymore. That says a lot considering that September is the most stressful month of my year. Third, my flexibility and range of motion has improved drastically. Focusing on September as my "Decompression Month” has improved my quality of life and physique across the board.
Next on the “Perfect practice makes permanent” agenda for me, low repetition/heavy weight training. I’m taking the next 12 weeks to focus on functional and Olympic lifts, with some plyometrics peppered in here and there. I started last week. After I get another week or two under my belt, I’ll post a blog about my experiences on that too.
For a while there, I’d run across the street to the gym at lunch to get a quick and moderately effective workout. By the time I was done working around 8pm, I’d head home. After a quick dinner break, I’d grab my foam roller and laptop then hop on the floor. The foam roller for muscle release and decompression, the laptop to simultaneously create the business of my dreams. At this point, I was more passionate about this business then ever. Hence the reason I’d stay up ‘til 1 or 2am working on it, sleep 5 hours, wake up and do it all over again. And again. And again.
It was late August. ‘Burnt out’ didn’t even begin to describe the way I was feeling. Not to mention, I had the busiest four weeks of my year directly ahead of me. So late one afternoon, I was physically and mentally struggling at my desk. I took a 5 minute break to step out into the lobby and clear my head on a leather couch out there, looking through the windows at a beautiful Summer day. I realized that I needed to make a major change. I needed to become more effective in every aspect of my professional and personal life, immediately!
I scrolled around on my Blackberry (looking busy, as I relaxed) while I cleared my head. How was I going to get this accomplished? And as soon as possible. I decided step 1 was to come up with a plan. Something needed to be eliminated from the equation. I work out every other day all year round already. And my workouts weren’t helping me relax at all. If anything, they were frustrating and adding to my stress. First sacrifice, strength training for 30 days.
Next on the cutting room floor, beach volleyball. The season was almost over anyway, and I was looking forward to getting started with my off-season strength training. Giving up vball was tough. But I’ve just had the best Summer of my life, beach cruisin, ballin, drinkin “a little” beer, and hangin with fast, crazy, wild women. No offense ladies, I know I’m crazy too!
All this considered, I gave up the remaining weeks of my Summer to focus on work and my website. Within a matter of 2 days, my productivity increased multiple times over. If you know me at all, you know the first thing that came to my mind. That’s right, how can I start off-season training now, while still being effective with work and High Speed Health? I plan on making a major jump in the ranks on the beach volleyball courts next Summer. And my off-season strength training routine is going to play a huge part in that. This is where Dan Gable’s quote immediately popped into my head. “Perfect practice makes permanent.” If I had all the time in the world, and I was starting from ground zero, what perfect off-season routine would I implement to get where I wanted to be by next Spring? Here we go!
It was September 1st. Over the next four weeks, I knew I’d average 60 hours per week at my day job. Beach volleyball tournaments are 7 to 9 hours on a 95 degree beach, requiring intermittent and explosive bursts energy throughout the day. I had just played in a tourney each of the three previous weekends, not to mention played pick-up games 3 or 4 additional days per week. Four months of that will take a major toll on the health of your muscles.
Enter stage 1 of my perfect off-season training routine, I declared my September “Decompression Month”. I immediately opened a blank spreadsheet on my computer to draw it out. First, I scheduled a hot yoga class every Wednesday for four weeks.
**Disclaimer - Consult a doctor before doing anything on this blog or in my book. I’m not a doctor or any type of certified specialist. I’m simply an obsessive, athletic desk jockey who became passionate about healing injuries caused by years of bad habits. These are my stories, failures, successes, real life examples of my new habits, and descriptions of practices I’ve learned and used (over the last 4 years) to become pain-free. These new habits and practices are what worked for me. I cannot promise all of them will work for everyone. Take all of my content for what it’s worth. My focus is to provide shortcut information that worked for me, not to diagnose someone else.**
Ok, where was I? Second, I went to a health food store and bought a supplement called Liquid Calcium Magnesium Citrate. After about a week, the L.C.M.C. put my muscles into a very relaxed state, making it easier to get results when stretching and foam rolling. I took this supplement every day of the month. Use extreme caution when using Liquid Calcium Magnesium Citrate. Start off with half of the recommended dosage on the label and work your way up. You won’t be able to lift the same heavy weights you could before you got on it. But that’s a good thing. People need to realize that there needs to be a balance between compression of the body (lifting, running, sitting, gravity, etc) and decompression of the body (hot yoga, L.C.M.C., stretching, etc). You can lift weights or run every day, but if you don’t have that balance, you’ll pay for it one day with a lot of pain and suffering.
Next, I have an inversion table at my house. It basically allows you to hang upside-down by your feet, increasing the blood circulation in your body. I scheduled this anywhere from 1 to 3 times per day, at 5 minutes each time.
Finally, I slept just about every night in full compression gear (shirt, pants, and arm sleeves) and started keeping the AC a couple degrees cooler at night. During the month of September, the everyday combination of Liquid Calcim Magnesium Citrate, inversion therapy, and sleeping in compression gear has led to drastic results for my body.
First of all, I am in a much more relaxed state, both physically and mentally. Second, I sleep much more comfortably. It’s like I’m in a coma and I very rarely wake up in the middle of the night anymore. That says a lot considering that September is the most stressful month of my year. Third, my flexibility and range of motion has improved drastically. Focusing on September as my "Decompression Month” has improved my quality of life and physique across the board.
Next on the “Perfect practice makes permanent” agenda for me, low repetition/heavy weight training. I’m taking the next 12 weeks to focus on functional and Olympic lifts, with some plyometrics peppered in here and there. I started last week. After I get another week or two under my belt, I’ll post a blog about my experiences on that too.
Above: w/ my homey Jordan Paige. Follow me on Instagram @highspeedhealth.
Thanks for reading, have a great day and stay functional!
Todd Bowen
High Speed Health
Thanks for reading, have a great day and stay functional!
Todd Bowen
High Speed Health
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