Healthy Eating

Why You Should Throw Your Training Dollars Out the Window!

In the course of my travels, I meet interesting business people from around the world who want to build great companies. They say that people are their most important asset. They say they will stop at nothing to improve the performance of their people. They say they are ‘committed.’ Then they ask if we can help them create ‘real change’ in a two-day leadership training program, see also http://www.ihhp.com/training.htm. And I tell them to go fly a kite … well, not exactly.   (I guess we wouldn’t have much of a business if I did that too many times!) 

The point is that two days are simply not enough. Athletes get this—they understand that to change a golf swing, a volleyball serve, or a quarterback’s throwing mechanics, it requires more than a few days of focus. Pilots also get this—flight simulators were created for a specific reason; to put these skilled technicians in challenging situations so many times that their reflex reactions become skilled and second nature.

What athletes and pilots understand is that training without an ‘after-action review’ or ‘back brief’ is useless. At IHHP, http://www.ihhp.com/,  we call it ruthless accountability – something that holds you accountable to the change you are attempting to make.

This concept is the same when managing a team or leading an organization: no follow-up after training equals no  sustained learning. Three critical steps are required to achieve any significant change in behavior and performance in sport or business:

focus over time repetition, and ruthless accountability.

It won’t work with two steps . . . and certainly not with just one (e.g. “Budgets are tight and we have only two days”).  If you miss any of these steps, you might as well throw your training budget out the window because it will be about as effective. Change that . . .  it will be more effective. Tossing your money out the window at least ensures that the following scenario (which occurs thousands of times a week in hundreds of companies all over the world) doesn’t actually happen: a group of people step into a room for a few days to improve their leadership. Most arrive truly dedicated to learning. They receive feedback from their direct reports and peers and manage themselves extraordinarily well to get the gift that this feedback represents. They are inspired to improve. Then they leave.

Take John for example. The next day back this well intentioned manager is hit with three times his normal amount of emails. His manager calls him in and tells him that they need to move faster on a key project because of a change in budgets. A direct report walks by and seems distant for some unknown reason.  Maybe he was the person who said I don’t spend enough time with him in my feedback, he thinks. And, of course there’s his daughter’s little league game tonight.  He absolutely will not miss one again – although it’s not looking too good after meeting with his manager.

By the following week, the intention to change is long forgotten. What remains is residue from the feedback received from his closest colleagues and a deep, aching feeling of, Who’s kidding who? I can’t really change.  This of course affects a person’s sense of ‘self-efficacy’- the idea that they can set a goal and meet it.

Then, next year, after another training session, see also http://www.ihhp.com/upcoming_programs.htm, the same scenario is played out.

The message to organizations interested in real change is this:  if you’re not going to spend your training dollars wisely, save them. Wait until next year, double your budget and do it right. The band-aid approach is giving learning a bad name and making people feel worse in the process; perhaps even affecting performance in the opposite direction intended. Let me be clear—it’s not just a question of just adding more dollars; it’s also a question of design. You need to ensure the design of the program you are investing in builds follow-up into the learning.

A recent study of 86,000 people published in Strategy and Business (Fall 2004) demonstrates how important follow-up is to any learning program. Eight major corporations from a wide range of industries (pharmaceutical/health care, financial services, aerospace/defense and media to name a few) assessed the ‘change in leadership effectiveness’ based on the amount of follow-up that a co-worker received from the training program. The results were astounding.

When the co-worker did ‘a little follow-up,’ the change in leadership effectiveness improved.   When the co-worker did “some follow-up,” the change in leadership effectiveness grew.   When the co-worker did ‘frequent follow-up,’ the change in leadership effectiveness became even more significant. And, finally, when the co-worker did a “consistent or periodic follow-up,” the change in leadership effectiveness was the most significant of all groups.

The results don’t lie. Following up after a program is absolutely critical if you want to see real change. Training that begins and ends with only an event (the ‘spray and pray technique’) breeds cynicism and sabotages future attempts at learning. Quite simply, not very many people are self directed enough to be able to stay focused and make good on change after a training program. I write from experience, having worked with Olympic champions and top leaders.

Even this lofty group gets ‘tranquilized by the trivial,’ finding it hard to stay focused on what matters most in the midst of the many small details that bombard them on a daily basis. With no follow-up built into a program, it is exceedingly difficult to make the initial investment of learning—the two days—work for you.

So how do you build follow-up into training programs?  You start by getting out of the ‘event mentality’ that pervades most organizations. Don’t spend all of your money on just one big event for the year. If you can’t increase your budget, work with a smaller number of individuals for at least six months beyond the event using coaching, follow-up training or advanced technologies such as e-learning.

If you really want to see learning beyond the event, perhaps the most significant thing you can do to improve leadership effectiveness is to get and keep your co-workers involved. (After all, no one likes to be asked for feedback and then be ignored.) Make it clear to participants that they will be asked to initiate a discussion with their colleagues, post-program, for the one thing they are trying to improve. Having participants use the power of colleagues in the ruthless accountability process is a strong argument for involving a coach. The study we mentioned earlier found that having an external or internal coach made a significant difference in helping participants drive follow-up by colleagues.

The bottom line is this:  don’t be too hard on yourself if you feel like you haven’t been able to make real change following a training program. Maybe you’ve been set up for failure. Maybe your organization just isn’t committed to real change; maybe it’s merely lip service. Or maybe they just don’t know. There is a science to change.  Consider it for your next training program. This will leave your windows free to function as conduits of scenic views and fresh air—a much better purpose, don’t you think?

Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry The Institute for Health and Human Potential

www.ihhp.com

THE REAL BENEFITS OF FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

We hear a lot about functional and core training but is it just another passing “fitness fad” or should all of us be incorporating this concept into our exercise routines?

Having been in the fitness industry for more than 14 years I am convinced that the addition of functional movements into your current exercise routine will be one of the most important changes you could make for better overall fitness and good health.

Traditional “weightlifting” exercises generally target only one muscle for each exercise. Functional training exercise generally targets more than one body part with each movement or exercise. Functional training emerged primarily from the sports conditioning and rehabilitation world. Functional training refers to the type of exercises that contribute to better, more efficient and safer performance of real world activities or sports movements.

The short list of functional training benefits are:

*Building “inner strength”

*Endurance

*Improve balance

*Improve range of motion

Functional training allows you to work your muscles on different planes (hitting different angles) and building strength in those “stabilizer” muscles as well as the main target muscle. Machines are pre-set using only the muscle and angle that the machine allows. Multi-plane exercises are more complex movements and more closely mimic movements that are used in everyday life.

The easy way to begin to add functional movements to your training is to simply write down what you do every day. What are your physical challenges? If you’re a secretary you may find that your legs and back ache at the end of the day from picking files from the floor. These would be your first areas to target. Don’t think of fitness as something that is done only in a gym. By simply taking advantage of your every day movements you can turn your office or home into an effective functional training area!

For more formal exercise, stability balls, resistance bands with handles or simply beginning to do some of your training on an unstable surface will be a good introduction to more functional training. Remember, it’s always safety first, so make sure you consult with your physician before starting any physical program and ask a certified personal trainer to help you get started if you’re unfamiliar with any new piece of equipment or training method.

I invite you to apply just some of the principles of functional strength training to see where it takes you. I’m convinced that by adding functional training to your current conditioning program you will begin to see tremendous results.

Weight training can be a fun and energizing way to maintain strength, lose weight, and keep a healthy, good-looking body. Listed below are a few tips on setting up a great muscle-building, fat-burning workout.

The 640+ muscles of the body are divided into upper body muscles and lower body muscles. The upper body has a greater number of muscles but they are smaller than those of the lower body. The largest muscles are contained in the lower body and subsequently, there are fewer of them.

To work each group properly for maximum results, we need to work them a little differently. Let me explain. An “exercise” is a series of movements that either pushes or pulls a weight through a range of motion. A “repetition” is one complete movement through that particular exercise. A “set” is a grouping of repetitions. So, each exercise is done in repetitions which are part of a set. You can work each of the muscle groups one at a time, doing one set per group, and rest for 30-60 seconds before repeating the routine. This series is called a “circuit.”

While all sets of exercise will be done in repetitions, the amount of repetitions and sets can change. For best results, each body part should be exercised 2-3 times a week but NEVER on consecutive days. The muscles require at least 24-48 hours of recovery time for optimal performance.

Upper body muscles need to be trained at 8-15 repetitions per set for a total of 2-3 sets. Lower body muscles are trained at 8-15 repetitions per set for a total of 3-4 sets. Circuits can be repeated 3-4 times. The lower body muscles are worked harder because they are larger and can adapt to a higher load more rapidly than the upper body muscles.

To set a good training weight load, men should do 75% of the absolute maximum that they can handle for 1-3 repetitions in each exercise. Women should only use a weight that is approximately 60% of her maximum.

It’s really hard to overtrain your abdominal muscles since you use them all day in twisting, turning, and other torso movements. So, your abdominal muscles can be worked 4-7 times per week. Studies have shown that using a variety of crunching exercises is the best workout for the abdominal muscles. Do the 10 Crunch Variations listed and you’ll have rock-hard abdominals. Do 1-2 sets of 10 repetitions for each of the 10 crunches and you’ll hit every abdominal muscle. Remember to focus on proper form and the intensity of the exercise instead of the number of repetitions or sets. You will definitely feel a “burn” in the abdominal muscles on each set. Keeping your arms crossed on your chest with your hands on the opposite shoulder, you should lift only your head and shoulders up off the floor. This technique will not cause the typical pain in your neck or back.

Stretching is extremely important, both before and after a workout. It avoids injury and helps release toxins caused by the stress of working out. So make sure that you stretch to keep from aching after a workout and you’ll increase the likelihood that you’ll be back for more.

Below is a list of the most common exercises used to tone and strengthen each muscle group. Start out slowly using 1-2 exercises each for the various muscles. As you progress, add more exercises for variety and challenge.

EXERCISES FOR THE UPPER BODY

Chest/Shoulders: Front deltoid raise, lateral deltoid raise, Bent rear deltoid raise, Dumbbell shrug, Upright row, Bench press, Flyes, Inclined press, Dumbbell pullover, Parallel dip, Cable crossover

Back: Chin-up, Lat Pull-down, Bent barbell row, Bent one-arm dumbbell rows, Seated cable row

Arms: Biceps curl, Preacher curl, Machine curl, Cable curl, Triceps dip, Triceps pressdown, French curl

EXERCISES FOR THE LOWER BODY

Legs/Buttocks: Squats, Lunges, Leg press, Leg extensions, Leg lifts, Leg curls, Calf raises

Abdominals: Abdominal crunches in all 10 variations, Abdominal flexor machine, Leg lifts, Leg scissors

10 CRUNCH VARIATIONS

1. Knees bent, feet flat on floor

2. Knees bent and out to sides in a frog-leg position, soles of feet flat together

3. Legs at 90o to body, knees bent, calves parallel to floor

4. Legs at 90o to body, knees bent and out to sides in a frog-leg position, soles of feet flat together

5. Legs at 90o to body, toes pointing to ceiling

6. Legs at 90o to body, toes pointing to ceiling with legs spread wide

7. Left leg straight and held 3” off ground, right leg bent to chest

8. Right leg straight and held 3” off ground, left leg bent to chest

9. Turn on left side, do side crunches

10. Turn on right side, do side crunches

This article is just a small portion of an eight week online class that I teach called ‘The Answer’s Right Under Your Nose.’ You can find out more under the Personal Coaching section of my website – www.jerryryanphd.com.