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As part of my flexibility self-change project I enrolled in a Yoga class that meets once a week in the dance studio at school. It is reasonably priced but I did find a less expensive class with the same instructor up at a local sports club on a different night of the week. Convenience is more valuable than money sometimes so I’ve opted to go with the class that fits into my schedule.

Yoga was one of my action planning strategies for increasing flexibility. I am motivated to go by the people in the class and enjoy the sessions. There are no other men in the class which is interesting from a demographic perspective but not a factor either way for me. As part of the HAPA process I intended to identify action coping strategies to barriers. The barriers I anticipated before diving into the project were more around scheduling and I admit having back up strategies in mind when the time just disappears has been useful. I am having trouble with my left wrist, however, in yoga which is very frustrating. I experience sharp shooting pain across the top of the joint during some of the repeated core poses of Vinyasa yoga. Fortunately my instructor today offered some alternative pose suggestions that focus the force across my forearms and not directly onto that wrist. This was not a barrier I anticipated however, so it was much more troubling than the scheduling issues I thought would be the real difficulty.

As the caption above says, I am stiff but am feeling better and better. I will carry on with home stretching between now and next Wednesday so hope to see some improvement between now and then.

3 Sun Cycles to Warm-Up

After the warm-up more intense focus on these poses (Smeaton, 2009)

Intense Forward Bend – Uttanasana
Stand upright and, exhaling, bend forward from the waist keeping the legs taut and body weight equal on both feet. Aim to touch the floor and, if possible, place the palms on the floor. Breathe evenly and try to increase the stretch on each out-breath. Hold for one minute. This intense stretch is wonderful for the hamstrings and spine. Those who find it easy to rest the palms on the floor can increase the stretch still further by placing the hands behind the feet.

Before actually beginning any flexibility development exercise I gathered some baseline measurements using 4 lower body indirect flexibility tests and 4 upper body flexibility tests. The lower body tests consisted of: the sit and reach, the groin, calf and trunk rotation flexibility tests. The upper body tests consisted of a shoulder flexibility test and back scratch tests for both left and right sides.

My starting results -

Sit and Reach = 29 cm
Groin Flexibility = 17 cm
Calf Flexibility (left) = 11.5 cm
Calf Flexibility (right) = 10.5 cm
Trunk Rotation = 25 cm
Shoulder Flexibility = 100 cm
Right Arm Up Back Scratch = 15 cm
Left Arm Up Back Scratch = 21 cm

These results serve to quantify my starting place before implementing a daily maintenance stretching, work-out related stretching and weekly Yoga class. Following a three week program implementation phase I’ll repeat the tests to see how much or how little progress has been made.

Click here for an introduction to the project

Outcome expectancies assignment details. As part of the process of developing intentions people are believed to benefit from identifying the positive outcomes that will accompany the new behavior in contrast to the negative outcomes that accompany the current behaviors (Schwarzer, 2008). An example of a positive outcome expectancy of increasing my flexibility would be that I would be able to ride my bike with a slightly higher, more efficient saddle position. An example of a negative outcome expectancy of not increasing my flexibility would be narrower cross-training options as I would become increasingly more wary of pick up games of soccer or other sports that I have not specifically trained for.

Assignment. Brainstorm a list of as many positive outcomes of increasing flexibility.

I wanted to go old school analog with this assignment but I couldn’t help doing a quick search just to get the ideas flowing. In the process of doing that I came across a pros and cons template by Amanda Hawkins. It seemed just the right tool to use when doing this assignment so I printed one off, got an old stubby #2 pencil and started to list the advantages and disadvantages I expected to encounter with this soon to be implemented flexibility program. Like maybe many people the negatives were easiest to dive into but were fairly slow in coming once I got past the initial few. The positives in contrast weren’t maybe as easy to approach but were faster coming once I got rolling with them. Here is what this assignment yielded.

Scoring

After completing each side of the list I went through it fairly quickly and wrote down the significance of each pro and con on a scale from 0-10. Rather than tally the scores at the end I felt an average score might give me a score that would accommodate the different numbers in each list. As this tool was really just another way to reflect on my expectancies with regard to the pending program, the scoring was more for fun than anything.

Results

The results of this inventory were useful for me in that I discovered two new motivators in the form of “long term mobility gains” and a “long term reduction of stress”. Rather than think of this as a purely stress management benefit I saw it through this process as a long term advantage to not carrying so much tension with me as I move through the world. That alone seems like reason enough to get rolling with this.

Next Step

Tomorrow I am going to complete the self-efficacy inventory and then set about designing my initial flexibility assessment. I did 85k on the bike yesterday and did my normal amount of stretching during and following the ride. With a day to harden up I should be up to my normal standards by tomorrow when I hope to take my indirect flexibility measurements.

Hawkins, A. (2010). Pros and Cons. Retrieved February 06, 2010 from Ahhh-design: http://ahhh-design.com/​pros-and-cons/.

Assignment Details: Write a stream of consciousness recount of the recent debilitating calf pain on the bike and 3 of the risk possibilities that came to mind while dealing with that injury. The incident that this reflection is based on occurred on a night ride recently. It started as a nice spin out in the cold winter air.

Stream of consciousness reflection on http://artpad.art.com

3 Risks

The most immediate risk that came to mind was slowing down and being late to meet a friend at the sento following the bike ride. His mobile phone wasn’t working and with his kids in bed calling the house wouldn’t have been a good option. I wanted to get back on time so he wouldn’t be left outside waiting.

Interesting that the risks came to mind in terms of temporal immediacy. My second fear was just annoyance that this cycling season is off to such a slow start. My weekly totals are still much lower than I’d like. I am pretty sure I am not maintaining my foundation and now I am in the deficit game. I feel like I am at risk of having a crap season.

The last risk is one that I imagine haunts a lot of athletes my age, “Don’t get hurt or you’ll miss so much time that you’ll get fat, slow, and never be able to get it back.” Maybe it’s less widespread than I think but I’ve always been in just different forms of fit. With training time so precious these days, there is real fear that a serious injury could be the end of that state of being that makes life so vivid.

Click here for the project main page

Slightly Less Than Flexible

Until several days ago when I was confronted with a debilitating pain in my left calf on a short 30k night ride, I had not considered implementing any meaningful changes with regard to my flexibility training. Before that event I could have been in what DiClemente, Schlundt, and Gemmell (2004) identified in the stages of change as the pre-contemplation stage. Currently I am aware of the link between my performance issues and a possible remedy through a new training program but haven’t committed to action.

Thinking it through further I have experienced a recent series of soft-tissue injuries to my calves, hamstrings, and middle and lower back resulting in frustration and frequent visits to the acupuncturist and message therapist. They make sustaining my habitual level of fitness difficult. There is strong evidence indicating a correlation between my current neglect of flexibility training and my age with muscle injury (McHugh et al., 1999; Orchard, 2001). In spite of that knowledge and past attempts at incorporating flexibility training into my exercise program, I have not been able to implement and sustain one.

Then along came an opportunity to complete a self-change project as part of a health psychology course I am in for graduate school. I wish I could say I jumped at the chance to address flexibility but I didn’t. I was more interested in using the assignment as an explanation for my wife, Asako, as to why I needed more time on the bike. I had drafted a rough plan of an improved training program that would get the 2010 cycling season started with the strongest possible foundation all in the name of academia.

After careful consideration, however, I recognized that a previous friend turned foe, flexibility, could be a hidden opportunity to address my current weaknesses on the bike and also the stressors from work and school. I completed the literature review and took some time to think through a plan. I have come up with a 4 week model based on Schwarzer’s (2008) health action process approach (HAPA). Part of my thinking is that a little social network accountability is going to help me see this project through to the greatest degree. I’ll be posting updates right here and on the project page for the next four weeks so follow along and if you feel like joining me…well, misery loves company. No I’m kidding but I can tell you, stretching is one of those things I avoid so it will be a bit of work for me to get it rolling.

Click for the Main Project Page

DiClemente, C., Schlundt, D., & Gemmell, L. (2004). Readiness and Stages of Change in Addiction Treatment. American Journal on Addictions, 13(2), 103-119. Retrieved January 22, 2010 from Academic Search Complete database.

McHugh, M., Connolly, D., & Esten, R. (1999). The role of passive muscle stiffness in symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 27, 594-599. Retrieved January 20, 2010 from EBSCOHost database.

Orchard, J. (2001). Intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for muscle strains in Australian football. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 29, 300-303. Retrieved January 20, 2010 from EBSCOHost database.

Schwarzer, R. (2008). Modeling Health Behavior Change: How to Predict and Modify the Adoption and Maintenance of Health Behaviors. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 57(1), 1-29. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00325.x.

The Before and After Speaks for Itself

As a slightly tech addicted docomo customer I wanted to keep the rock solid signal docomo provides even in the hinterlands of Japan. As the negotiations began back a few years ago between Apple and the mobile service providers in this country, I watched in dismay as they set up something with softbank. I spend a good portion of the year out in the countryside and am well aware of the softbank customer disclaimer, “I’ll see if I can get a signal and call you when I get there.”

I waited for iphone to get set-up with docomo. There were rumors but nothing happened…so I waited some more and waited a few months more until I couldn’t take not having a smart phone anymore. One chilly evening in December I found myself in Yodabashi Camera buying a blackberry and switching over my account from the pricey Sharp 906i touchscreen mobile with a 5mg digi cam I had been using. Over fancy camera features, I wanted wifi. I wanted to sync with my google calendar, contacts, and gmail. I wanted to stop beating my way through the Japanese language only i-mode websites and have full web browsing. I wanted a twitter app, wordpress app, evernote app, and flickr app. Basically I wanted my phone to catch up to web 2.0.

I’m a big mac fan and a sucker for the bells, whistles, and endless app options for the iphone but I am having a great time with this blackberry bold. While I imagine I’d get used to the iphone touchscreen, the tactile nature of the keyboard is a real bonus. I have also found enough available for me to get it to do almost everything I want it to, including sync podcasts from itunes. I am more than a bit annoyed with how long it is taking Skype and RIM to come out with Skype for blackberry but it probably won’t be too much longer now.

While I like it’s overall appearance, I did find the full black look a little unimaginative. Coveroo out of San Francisco, California has a whole heap of battery cover solutions to pimp out a blackberry. Mine now resembles something of a college dorm tapestry which I’m pretty happy with. It’s not an iphone but I love this device and in addition to all the web 2.0 stuff, it does radical things like make phone calls wherever I happen to be.

Basics – You put in a question and Aardvark sends it out to people who can help you. On the flip side of that, what are you an expert in? Aardvark also enables you to help people with questions that you know the answers to. It basically relies on that age-old joy of helping people out and maybe to a degree showing off what you know. After all, most everyone likes to at least be asked…

I’ve been working with aardvark for about 6 months and it isn’t invasive. I get a question every week or two and I try to respond intelligently. I claim not to know much but I know something about living in Japan (having been here 9 years) and a bit about fitness. Most of my questions seem to fall into those two niches and the answers aren’t hard to come up with.

So today I got this question from a guy in the US. “”What’s the best way to get rid if man-boobs sans surgery? Push-ups? And if so which form works best?” Tell me your heart doesn’t go out to a dude trying to rid himself of man-boobs so I wrote back.

Dear Aardvark,

There are no magic pills for this. Push-ups will make the muscle underneath whatever fat you are storing stronger but won’t address the issue directly. This is a common misconception in fitness like doing sit-ups to get rid of belly fat.

There are a few things to know…

One is that everyone’s body stores excess energy in fat. You actually need it because the human body can only store approx 800 calories in the blood. Everyone’s body stores fat in different places. For some guys this results in a big ole beer belly, back fat, or for others man-boobs. What you need to do is get your metabolism up (try cycling for burning off calories, hard to beat it), help your body burn off the fat by staying hydrated (drink water), and eat less food/more often like 6 small meals a day of modest portions ie not putting in enough calories in a single sitting where you body will need to store it in fat.

Then work on building some muscle tone like doing push-ups or sit-ups or lifting weights whatever. Muscle tissue burns energy just sitting there so not only will the exercise it takes to build muscle burn calories but having better muscle tone will enable you to burn more energy even when you aren’t doing anything at all.

Those efforts combined will get rid of the man-boobs, bro. Good luck.

In return, I get the satisfaction of helping a stranger during my morning break at work and will probably take my own advice and get out for ride after work.

Click to join Aardvark

A key concept related to that is “health as a continuum” that is far more than a two state affair of sickness and health but more a matter of degree. One of my classmates wrote that during her childhood when she was healthy no one ever questioned her level of health as if it were on a continuum. She was “not sick” so that’s what mattered. I wrote this response about taking health for granted.

Photo Taken on a Similar but Different Day than the Story

“For me a big part of exercise is putting myself into situations of calculated risk. A game of soccer has never had the same appeal to me as rockclimbing or a mountain descent on my bike. Every once in a long while I get injured and am usually quite surprised and even dumbfounded a little. I clipped a tree about 3 years ago on my snowboard just as I was setting up to drop off a small cliff. The tree threw me out of the jump and I just dropped like a stone into fortunately deep powder. While I didn’t break anything it really hurt, particularly the arm that caught the tree. I guess what I am getting at is that part of me also operates in a false state of denial. Regardless of our various involvement with risk, I think that an assumption of heath is the norm. After all, just seconds before I fell off that snowy ledge I was carving fluid turns through deep powder with an ear-to-ear grin.”

Like a cultural detective I have been piecing together elements of this rising trend since arriving in Japan almost 9 years ago. The first clues of the mystery for me was the attention I saw younger men paying to their appearance – openly preening themselves in mirrors on the train platform clearly giving their eyebrows more attention than even the highest maintenance women I’d known. Conversely, it was a good day for me if I was shaven and had thought to look in the mirror before leaving our small three room appartment. Were Billy Bragg writing these lyrics today, he might’ve said, “the busy boy buys beauty, the pretty boy buys style…”

Entering Japanese society already in a committed relationship but before kids, I was also interested to learn how my relationship with Asako fit into the local topography. I saw our level of commitment as unique but then again many of my friends back home hadn’t married yet either. I was 29 when we married and Asako was 26 so we were just ahead of the curve slightly. In international relationships, however, visas and working papers are hard to come by without marriage so there are other factors to consider.

Unlike many of the younger adults that I saw on the train in the morning dressed casually for “albaito” or part-time jobs, Asako and I were also full ahead into our careers. She was teaching at a prestigious private school in Tokyo and I was full on into my career in the experiential education field with Project Adventure. Both of us were dedicated to work, each other, and “my” becoming “our” Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Biko, who moved with me to Japan.

Those three elements of men paying unabashed attention to their appearance, a decline in weddings, and a lack of career focus are among the characteristics ascribed to the herbivore male. Connected to this, young men are now reported to be the leading consumers of beauty products, more adverse to commitment and responsibility, and more content to live at home with their parents as “parasite-singles”. While I go through my share of toothpaste, I recognize these characteristics not only don’t apply to me but comprise those that I was socialized to view as shallow and unfulfilling in both men and women.

At the same time I was out of my native surroundings trying to sort out what it meant to be in my new setting as a man, I also felt safer and less threatened than in any place I had ever lived. The feeling of safety went beyond the lower crime and murder rates into something more primal as if the frequency I was on was different than many of those my same age around me. Back in North America the rat race was in full swing but in Japan I felt like I was in a field all my own.

Two days ago at my doctor’s office I got into a conversation about snowboarding with his son who was home from university. 5 min into the discussion, this 21 year old son of a man with charisma and confidence oozing from every pour was open in sharing with me how scary the whole prospect is from the sport itself right through the height of the lift.

A lot of people have private fears but they typically stay concealed in casual conversation. I’d like to think it was my Rogerian aura of unconditional positive regard that enabled this man to disclose his weaknesses but I think it was linked more to men not feeling the same need to appear tough and infallible. If his father had been listening around the corner I imagine he would have been shaking his head.

Along the way there have been other surprises like the bras sold for men. After receiving the link from a female friend, I checked those out with some humor noting how Seinfeld’s “mansierre” had finally found it’s real life consumer audience. As a counselor, that product left me wondering what the psychological needs were that were driving enough demand for a bra for men to enter production. Perhaps it is as some argue, a reaction to the pressure of traditional manhood with hidden lingerie removing the internal stress to be macho.

Other trends such as men sitting down to pee or the decline in sales of hard alcohol and sports cars serve as ready fodder for the media to emasculate the Japanese male. Looking to western fashion magazines briefly, however, the images of men are very consistent with the herbivore male of Japan with impeccable hair, make-up and manicures. This is not a trend from which western men can claim impunity although I imagine standing urination still has a future.

I’m the last one to be nostalgic about the loss of the stoic salaryman absent from his family or the rough and tough emotionally isolated outlaw that informs many archtypes of the western male. As alternatives, an over-emphasis on physical appearance regarding women hasn’t been of benefit so I don’t see it of use for men either.

Similarly, independence away from your parents at the expense of meaningful connections with others is equally detrimental for either gender. Cast in a light of self-reliance, however, indepedence is made possible by living in community with others. It demands a broad range of skills as certain obstacles are sorted out alone and others are managed as a community of family and friends. The same potential for self-fulfillment may not exist without that richness of experience. I worry about the future if the leadership and fabric of society is made up of people who lack the initiative and drive to at least fold their own socks or sort out dinner.

Perhaps the phenomenon of the herbivore male is due, as proposed, to the social disruption and delusion left in the wake of Japan’s broken bubble economy- the emotional remnants of lost financial promises and security. The media has painted a larthargic bovine picture of anyone not towing the company line. An underlying message for me comes through clearly. The Japanese kaisha is no longer able to guarantee lifelong financial “happiness” for its employees so the companies of Japan need to integrate other qualities of life that will make employees content. Shorter work days, better maternity and paternity leave packages, and vacations on par with the rest of the world’s leading economies are a few ready suggestions.

Perhaps most shocking, however, is the sexual passivity of this new species of man reported to favor platonic relationships with the opposite sex and failing to summon the gumption to approach women. From a biological perspective this is deeply troubling. Japanese culture has proven to be extremely resilient in the face of increasing globalization but already faces declining birthrates and an aging population without the social impotence of its young males.

It is hard to find fault in the individual lifestyle preferences of a few men. Further, were I still single I would very likely rejoice in any hetereosexual men self-selecting out of the dating pool. However, Infinity marketing firm in Tokyo claims that approximately 65% of men 20-34 identify to some degree with the herbivore male. Rather than passively graze in an infertile field of societal apathy, I’d encourage younger men to engage in a gender war to redefine what it entails to be a man on their own terms but not clinging to their mother’s apron strings.