Teeth shattered from the tubes slammed down her throat, eyelids heavy from the sedating affect of the myriads of heart strengthening, fluid removing, pain-killing drugs, skin slick and swollen edema-like from a heart not strong enough and a kidney that failed.

That was my mother this past June. As she lay on her death bed, a best friend, accustomed to seeing my mom smiling and cheerful and joyful, had to leave the room, for the sight of her laying there, weak, helpless, and in despair was too much for him. Her ability to retain consciousness was tenuous at best, and her mobility was limited to fingers and her eyes.

Mama mi laid there on her death bed, without a hope.

Three short weeks prior to those last days, my mother was staying at home, body tired as the energy was robbed from her, feet and stomach and body swollen from the excess fluids in her body. My sister, who lived in Chicago, returned home for a visit, as she was set to move to Germany later in the year. Upon seeing my mother, her cause for concern was significant, as to her unfamiliar eyes (which, was a good thing) my mom had gained at least 50 pounds since last they had seen each other.

She arrived on Friday. My mom was in the hospital by Sunday. I had just left town for the summer on Thursday.

Due to a lack of regular doctor visits and check-ups, the medical team started at ground zero — as is common, they deliberately and methodically eliminated possible conditions and illnesses one by one. After speaking with a friend –who had worked many a year in emergency medicine — about her conditions, he immediately said CHF.

Congestive heart failure.

Her heart was not strong enough to function at its normal capacity, and day by day, week by week had subsided to the point where her breaths were shortened and her days numbered.

Upon my return to visit my mom a short week later, it seemed things had taken a turn for the better — the Doctors and nurses had effectively diagnosed and treated my mother, she had lost a lot of fluids -and in fact to my own eyes looked gaunt after having seen her so heavy. She looked to be released from the hospital.

Then, as things often do, it took a turn for the worse.

Within days she had contracted a bacterial infection. Her condition worsened. As the doctors considered a strategy of transporting her to nearby Hershey Medical Center for care by their expert physicians, she stopped breathing, leading to the aforementioned circumstance — they had to get her breathing at any cost, including her mega-watt toothy grin.

If she’d been in transit when her lungs failed to expire breath, with almost all certainty, she would have died then…

Close friends of the family wanted to prepare us to face the inevitable grief from the certain oncoming demise. ‘Give up,’ they said, ‘all hope is lost…she’s fought the good fight but she’s not coming back…you have to accept this.’

And with a bare thread her life hung in the balance, as she lay, not breathing, supported by a hideous combination of tubes, wires, machines, pumps… my mother died.

C’est la vie they’ll tell us in French. Asi es la vida in Spanish. And undoubtedly countless other idioms to express with a shaking sigh “that’s life.”

That’s life; that when insurmountable odds and probabilities form an Everest before you … you must back down in shame, in pain, in defeat knowing that it’s time to quit. Not only quit, head down in defeat, but with the encouragement and support of friends, family, and passers-by.

“You’d better just give up now. Save yourself the trouble, the worry, the heartache, and the pain…all hope is lost…accept….accept…accept.”

I call it ‘The Art of Giving Up,’ knowing when you’ve had your fill of life’s hazards, and obstacles, and pitfalls and potholes — and you lay awake at night, wondering for all of you “can I take anymore? Can I truly stand in the face of this storm, and escape with my life?”

And you hear that little nagging voice in the back of your head “all hope is lost…accept…accept…accept…just give up now.”

And so you give up. You quit. You surrender.

Many times in our lives, in mine own life, I am faced with a foe that even one full of folly would turn back from. For some in this country now it is a beast that wreaks havoc on their economic stability — one that has ravaged most of the forgotten corners of the world. It is of course, the crows of disease, death, dissonance, and the doldrums of despair. An emotional pain that far surpasses the joy of a life lived to the full, with joyous breaths sucked each morning. A mentally incapacitating blow perhaps.

Every single moment of every single day of every single year it seems as if our lives, our bodies, our minds, and our spirits are levies buckling under the pressure of a storm with all its gale and fury and might.

And so we choose defeat, freed from the cold, assuming logic that there lay a path to victory, and drowning in the overwhelming emotion of our fear, and pain, and worries and doubts.

Give up.

I blinked teary eyes as I looked at my mother there, lying on her death bed. Was all hope truly lost? Should we bow our heads before the mighty dragon of illness, disease, pain and suffering?

Should we, in our ever heightening despair, turn towards the one certainty that this fable human race holds in reserve — defeat. surrender. despair. render.

No.

Because she came back. She breathed again. Life soared through her veins and she who was promised for death by both those who practiced medicine and those who had professed faith and love towards her.

The way my mother tells it, she died and went to heaven, but was told by God that it was not yet her time. I’ve heard similar accounts from those who survive near-death incidents — who can doubt it and who can validate it?

Day after agonizing day, her progress moving in leaps and bounds, miraculously she fought and won, little by little.

Within weeks she was checked out of the hospital, forwarded to the rehabilitation center, scars in tow from her epic ordeal, and smiling as joyful as ever, thankful to her God for her deliverance.

We were happy to have her returned safely home. Weeks later assured that the use of the permanent catheter they had inserted surgically with anticipation of a lifetime of use …would not be necessary.

A miracle?

Was victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, was it yet handed as a gift from the one to whom we owe our allegiance, or was it simply some statistical anomaly, the likelihood of which suggests however improbable perhaps one in a great score would survive…

She won. We won. WE, her family, her blood true, never ever gave up. We refused the chorus of both the wise and the loved. We refused their counsel, their welcome but false encouragement, we refused their defeat. How many friends, family, and others came by, day after laborious day, to bring great spirits of cheer and joy and love and remain the ever-present and constant vigil over the matriarch of our pack.

A friend advised me to not lose our good cheer — that our joy would inspire her soul to fight on…perhaps this counsel was the turning point in the battle.

We would never give up. We would never quit. We would never lose hope.

And those who believed cried out to a powerful yet loving King, desperate for a sign of his mercy, confident that his will be done, yet questioning whether that will returned the life of their queen.

Ayaba.

Yet even as I write this, the dragon has reared his ugly head…and again my mother has returned to the hospital, afflicted by illnesses the type both seen and unseen.

Again?

No.

It’s too much.

Doubt? Worry? Fear?

We can’t possibly win again. How could we, see-sawed to the highest and lowest in the short work of a few months, possibly regain our leverage and climb our way back up.

Was she returned to us, her life a mark of great testimony, yet to only be taken, mind and body from us before the year’s end?

Pain. Hurt. Bitter.

Viktor Frankl, famed survivor of Auschwitz, and a prominent physcho analyst wrote, in his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning,’ ““The last of human freedoms – the ability to chose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”

But then, with that in mind, you must know, that the single and most simple truth to The Art of Giving Up is this…

Don’t.

Venturehacks had a very relevant post on ‘High Concept Pitches’.

A high concept pitch distills a startup’s vision into a single sentence. It’s the perfect tool for fans and investors who are spreading the word about your company.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a high concept pitch, albeit for another startup: Razume, YouTube for Resumes.

I met the founders, Sam Blum, Kyle Stoneman, and Clinton Herget, last night, and so far they seem like a great group of guys.

Here’s a higher level description:

Razumé is a resume review community where users anonymously post, rate and review resumes. We support a growing population of students, graduates, career consultants and recruiters. Razumé provides a fast and easy way to collect valuable feedback on your resume – you can even request reviews directly from recruiters. We take a collaborative approach to career services, bringing you better quality feedback for a stronger resume.

So, like I said — Youtube for resumes.

Now I’ve seen something very interesting over the past few weeks, as I’ve scoured the CMU and Penn State Job board …

Most students have crappy resumes. Well most of the students I saw, and most of the bad ones came from Penn State.

Besides one more resource where you can copy/paste a resume style you find of someone else you like, I highly advise Razume as a great tool for students looking to find a job, or just get some feedback on how to improve your resume (all the easier to get that cushy Fortune 500 job ).

Now before you say — well what’s the difference between Razume and say … Scribd?

Users upload resumes, and specify career field, location, school, major, and expected salary.

Well Razume, besides being specifically for Resumes (think of the opportunities for head hunters, etc.), has a lot of cool editing features, giving users a whole pallet of tools to edit and comment on resumes.

Draw arrows, black out, scribble out, color, and comment directly on different areas of the Resume — and users can toggle between “show comments” and “hide comments” if they don’t want to see the feedback.

Besides the editing features, users can leave general comments, and also rate the resumes on seven categories: work experience, education, language, format, potential to be hired, and the salary expectations the user set.

Although search is noticeably missing, browsing resumes is pretty simple — choose between the same fields the user had specified when they uploaded their resumes: Career Fields, Locations, Schools, Majors, Groups, and Salary Range.

One feature that could be a boon to traffic would be a button, akin to LinkedIn, possibly preaching “rate my Razume” or “see my Razume” which could help both potential employees as well as Razume gain traction.

And while it doesnt’ seem like it’s gained much traction yet — the site has listed that there are 338 resumes that have been uploaded — this seems like a must have for college students and others seeking to enter the rat race.

Heck, maybe they’ll throw in reviews for business plans, so unlucky startup founders don’t end up like this guy.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

(Thanks to a suggestion by @ahsonwardak you can follow @exercisehacker on Twitter).

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

5. Partner Up: Don’t workout alone if you don’t have to. Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.

6. Training: ‘Showing Up is Not Half the Battle’ – Find a coach/mentor.

7. Strength & Flexibility: There’s a reason ‘core’ is called core – don’t shirk your core muscles (abdomen, obliques, lower back), stretch, and have a good strength training program. You don’t need a gym membership — but it’s easier to use weights than gravity, especially with core muscles.

8. Nutrition: ‘If the furnace is hot enough…”

9. Sleep: Sleep is a crutch — but a crutch your body (and mind) really need. Get at least 8 hours a day.
————————————————
Journal — It’s good for both reflection and analysis, as well as sharing and review by coaching.

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will. ~ Dennis Waitley.

Keep a detailed journal every day of:

How much sleep you got the previous night
Resting Heart Rate immediately after waking up (locate pulse, count beats for 15 sec, multiply by 4)
How you felt
Weather/environment/temperature
Type of Exercise & # of reps/ distance covered
Time/distance/kcal burned, et. al
Nutrition — food/kcal consumed, times ate, etc.
Fluids consumed.

This will keep you honest, reflective, allow you to compare previous results and marked improvement, and also share with a friend, coach, or mentor.

Also a great place to keep your goals in writing, and mark your improvement against those goals.

Attention to detail matters, to the training, equpiment used, nutrition, and perhaps even importantly, listening and responding correctly to your body.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

(Thanks to a suggestion by @ahsonwardak you can follow @exercisehacker on Twitter).

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

5. Partner Up: Don’t workout alone if you don’t have to. Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.

6. Training: ‘Showing Up is Not Half the Battle’ – Find a coach/mentor.

7. Strength & Flexibility: There’s a reason ‘core’ is called core – don’t shirk your core muscles (abdomen, obliques, lower back), stretch, and have a good strength training program. You don’t need a gym membership — but it’s easier to use weights than gravity, especially with core muscles.

8. Nutrition: ‘If the furnace is hot enough…”
————————————————
Sleep: Sleep is a crutch — but a crutch your body (and mind) really need. Get at least 8 hours a day.

Take care of your body. Just like your mind and spirit, it is one of your greatest assets. Sleep without an alarm clock, but more importantly sleep on a regular schedule. That killed me this summer — I never had a regular sleeping schedule, and I really saw my health/energy levels deteriorate because of this. I’m as gung-ho as the next guy, regularly going 50 hours without sleep (84 hours non stop sin dormir is my record) and have even driven non-stop for 24 hours from Colorado to PA, but the lack of a set sleeping pattern attributed greatly to a declined state of physical well-being.

Some tips for a good night’s sleep:

Keep noise and light to a minimum. Use earplugs, window blinds, heavy curtains, or an eye mask. Small night-lights in your bedroom and bathroom are a good idea.
Avoid large meals two hours before bedtime. A light snack is fine.
Don’t drink caffeine (including tea and soft drinks) four to six hours before bedtime.
Regular exercise like walking will reduce stress hormones and help you sleep better. But don’t exercise within two hours of bedtime. You may have more difficulty falling asleep.
Don’t nap late in the afternoon.
Stop working on any task an hour before bedtime to calm your brain.
Don’t discuss emotional issues right before bedtime.
Keep pets outside your sleeping area if you can.
Make sure your bedroom is well ventilated and at a comfortable temperature.
Learn a relaxation technique like meditation or progressive relaxation.

Sure, there are the days/weeks of go time when sleep is sometimes an afterthought, but you, as I have often done, are really doing yourself as a disservice. Don’t skimp on sleep. If you need 1-2 hour power naps, take ‘em mid-day, Siesta-style, although for some, like me, that is not the preffered method of catching some zzz’s. Don’t get enough sleep, and you might find yourself snacking too much, obliterating your nutrition goals.

This has to do with time and productivity. While there are certainly times of high stress, little sleep, in the startup environment, the empirical data demonstrates that there are very few (if any) who are actually pushing 14-16 hours a day of solid, productive, work. That means there is more than enough time to get into healthy sleeping patterns — whether it’s every morning at 4 a.m. or every night at 9 p.m. — get some.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

(Thanks to a suggestion by @ahsonwardak you can follow @exercisehacker on Twitter).

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

5. Partner Up: Don’t workout alone if you don’t have to. Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.

6. Training: ‘Showing Up is Not Half the Battle’ – Find a coach/mentor.

7. Strength & Flexibility: There’s a reason ‘core’ is called core – don’t shirk your core muscles (abdomen, obliques, lower back), stretch, and have a good strength training program. You don’t need a gym membership — but it’s easier to use weights than gravity, especially with core muscles.

———–
Nutrition: Until your furnace is hot enough, crap in your mouth is fat in your body. Eat 5x a day, drink lots of water, and use Techstars’ start-up Gyminee to track what you eat.

If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything. — John L. Parker, Once A Runner.

K.I.S.S. — Keep It Simple, Stupid. Look, we know there are foods that are bad for you — partially (or fully) hydrogenated oils. High fructose corn syrup (hello, Gatorade!). Essentially,foods and products that don’t appear in nature should not be consumed.

(Update: I’m not a nutrition expert, but I’ve found a couple interesting blog posts about the ‘Paleolithic Diet.’ Also a post titled ‘Exercise Doesn’t Keep us from Getting Fat.’

I have simple thoughts on this subject — western foods/diet are known to be unhealthy (I have never seen fat people in Kenya, rarely in the Amazon, and other lesser developed nations). Avoid when possible, but realistically you will encounter western food every day if you live in the U.S. so you might be better off doing what you can.)

But here’s the thing, in Once A Runner, when John L. Parker writes “if the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything,” he’s referring to that state of being, when like Michael Phelphs, you are burning so many calories you can chow down whatever you want because it will all be fuel. When I’ve been at my top fitness, I would burn perhaps 5-6000 calories per day. Phelps probably does 10-15k/training day.

But, the average sedate male, burns from 2000-2500 (can’t find a link to the actual chart, with an age/weight break down) calories per day. 3500 calories = pound of fat. To burn 1 pound of fat per week, you’d have to consume at least 500 calories/day less than the kcal burned.

One of the problems with this, is a) most people don’t eat regular meals/count calories and b) even if you do, if you have extracurricular activities such as parties and events on nights/weekends, you’ll quickly lose track of your nutrition goals.

So my first piece of advice– if you have to focus on anything, focus first on the steps above -getting out the door and beginning training. Nutrition can come later.

However, if you have the attention to detail and comittment to attack this thing properly, set up a nutritional routine, especially accounting for nights/weekends.

Eat 5x a day, spread out every 3-4 hours, get on a routine, and eat the same time every single day — you will not worry about being hungry because you will know exactly when and what you are going to eat, and you will pick the right foods (fruits, nuts, veggies, meats, pasta) at the right time to keep you going, keep you productive, and keep you focused.

A sample schedule could look like:

7:00 a.m. two boiled eggs, orange juice,
10:00 a.m. whole wheat bagel with natural peanut butter
1:00 pm. orange/apple, and a handful of cashews.
4:00 p.m. pre-workout –half a bagel & a banana, or a protein bar (honestly, this is a waste of money, stay away from them if you don’t have to)
7:00 p.m. — grilled chicken with a serving of rice or pasta. get some protein post-workout

Adjust for your working/sleeping schedule– I sure as heck don’t get up before 7:00 a.m. if I don’t have to, but try not to eat at least 3-4 hours before you go to sleep.

Use Gyminee, a Techstars start-up, to track your nutrition. Trust me,it helps.

Drink lots of water — use a nalgene, canteen, or some other funky water-carrying device and make it a goal to drink 120 ounces or say a day. If you had a 16 oz. bottle, drink the full 16 oz. after each of the five times you eat. That will be 80 oz. right there, which is a good starting goal.

Stop eating out so much. Seriously. There are very few places at all, where you will get healthy food when you eat out — Applebees, Chili’s, et. al mid-priced sit-down restaurants are a)over-priced b) the food is nuked and c) the portions are too large. If you’ve seen Super Size Me, that will cure your specious thinking that Mickey D’s counts as nutritious eating, and besides, right now you are trying to work on a low burn rate (cash) and a high burn rate (calories).

If you must eat out, share entrees with a date/friend — order more salads without all the condiments, and drink lots of fluids to keep yourself feeling full.

As fitness and physical well-being is the goal, nutrition is very important, although you shouldn’t think that you can be lazy, do nothing, and only rely on shopping from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to get in shape.

Better yet, get started on turning up the heat of the furnace — phase in your nutrition goals as you continue down the path.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

(Thanks to a suggestion by @ahsonwardak you can follow @exercisehacker on Twitter).

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

5. Partner Up: Don’t workout alone if you don’t have to. Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.

6. Training: ‘Showing Up is Not Half the Battle’ – Find a coach/mentor.
——————————————
Strength & Flexibility: There’s a reason ‘core’ is called core – don’t shirk your core muscles (abdomen, obliques, lower back), stretch, and have a good strength training program. You don’t need a gym membership — but it’s easier to use weights than gravity, especially with core muscles.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. — Mahatma Gandhi

Before I begin, I’d like to say be very wary of ‘free’ strength training advice — proceed with suggested exercises with caution. I would never suggest a specific weight training program for somebody, using the classic example ‘well I did X, Y, and Z for 6 months, and lost 50 pounds, and improved my max by 150 lbs.’ etc.

Don’t listen to the anonymous ‘experts.’ And take all advice with a grain of salt, except when it comes from your personal coach/trainer/mentor.

There’s a lot of talk about warm up, cool down, stretching, and flexibility. I’ll cut through the noise for you. If you’re going on an easy run, roll out of bed (or out of your office or wherever), get out the door, and start running. That is all the warm-up you need — for an easy run mind you.

Walk or slow jog afterwards, and stretch.

Do this right before you go to the gym, and instead of wasting time doing warmup/stretch/cooldown, etc. you run/walk/stretch and than hit the weights. It’s a great time saver.

Now, you can always do the hundred pushups to work on your upper body toning and strength, 8 minute abs to work on your core, and the t-shirt body workout to get your weights in, quick and efficiently.

While pushups are great for the ego boost, they’re only a very small part of the overall strength training plan. Ditto with situps, crunches, et. al. Plus, if you’re like me, you hate all abs/core work. And I mean hate with a passion. There’s a laundry list of things I’d rather do than work on my abs with strange things like flutter kicks, reverse crunches, leg raises, etc.

Good. Honestly, you can use weights to strengthen your core — dead lifts, cleans, squats – those are the types of excercises that will strengthen your whole body, and help you tone and strengthen your core. Dead lifts for back, Cleans for hips, squats for back/abs. There’s much debate about the value of complete excercises like the olympic lifts vs. targeting specific muscle groups.

Simple solution: do both. The t-shirt body workout is a great starter — don’t look here for specific advice on weight training, but I will tell you form matters. Form matters on the bike, when you’re running, in the pool, and especially in the gym. Bad form = bad results, and you’ll probably get hurt.

If you want to lift properly, don’t go to some garbage gym based on how many females are running on treadmills, go to a gym where the guys are power lifters (I didn’t say body builders, I said power lifters) — and you’ll have that great coaching/mentoring that is vital to proper form/success in weight training. You’ll almost certainly find a handful of very experienced power lifters, some of who compete, that will help you get your form right — which, with free weights, is the most critical part of strength training.

Or, skip the gym entirely, and do a mix of pushups, pullups, situps, leg raises, flutter kicks, etc. to strengthen your core and upper body.

Without a good core, you will fail to get in shape.

Have you ever seen Eric liddell in chariots of fire? His form (in the movie at least) would break down atrociously as he ran like a crazed man, pushing forward by sheer will and strength alone. That is what happens when your form breaks down, both due to the lactic acid build up, but also because your core is not strong enough to support the lifting and driving motion of your legs, and the pumping actions of your arms.

You can only run as fast as you pump your arms, and when your back is hurting because you are overweight or don’t have a strong enough core (or, very unfortunately, both) your form will break down, and there’s a greater chance of injury, though, regardless of that, it will be harder to run/finish.

Strengthen your core, don’t neglect stretching & flexibility (I’ve never tried Yoga, but I understand it is great for both of these). Also, make sure you strengthen your ankles/feet — try not to use sandals as much because they lack good foot support/shock absorbers, and stand on one foot when performing random activites like brushing your teeth to improve balance and stability.

To properly execute a strength training plan, you’ll need to find a coach/mentor and get a proper training plan, lift in pairs (great for motivation, and for spotting), use the right equipment, give yourself enough time for the work out, and perhaps most importantly, make an unequivocal decision that you want to improve both your cardiovascular (aerobic) strength and capacity, as well as your anaerobic strength.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

(Thanks to a suggestion by @ahsonwardak you can follow @exercisehacker on Twitter).

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

5. Partner Up: Don’t workout alone if you don’t have to. Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.
——————————————————————-
Training: While finding specific training plans online is great and cheap(often times free) the inherent problem is it is too general and not body/person/situation specific. Find a coach/mentor.

Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don’t think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made. – Patti Sue Plumer, U.S. Olympian

I was chatting with some start-up friends last night, and first jokingly, the topic of the ‘exercise hacks‘ I’ve been writing came up. The two guys suggested that your work out plan is not so important as long as you get started. While that may sound like my first post, “Motivation= Decision before action,” they are dead wrong. If you approach getting in shape/achieving an exceptional fitness level as something to do when and how you like, you will fail.

I repeat, you will fail.

Most likely by: injury, overexercise, lack of proper equipment, failure to partner up; but certainly from a lack of regiment and discipline. Trust me, I’ve been going at it with this method (just do something, anything, and it is better than nothing) and it was a sure path to both injury/very tight muscles, as well as a lack of motivation.

The decision into action comes before the training plan, but the training plan is still very important to your success in your goal to get in shape.

When I decided I wanted to get back in shape, I didn’t google “how do i get into shape” or “what should I do to train for a 5k” or “running for dummies.” I sent my coach a msg on Facebook. I asked for help, he asked some questions: “I can help you with a training plan. Do you just want a plan for base right now? How many days a week can you workout? 4,5,6? Give me some details and I will draw something up for you.” I answered, and he sent me a basic training plan.

Let’s try a 3 days on/1 day off schedule so you can get your legs under you. Don’t worry about distance, just get the time in on your feet.

day1: 20 mins
day2: 30 mins
day3: 20 mins
day4: off
day5: 25 mins
day6: 20 mins
day7: 30 mins

We need to incorporate some core work, drills, and strength training. do you have time for that as well?

There’s a reason I posted his specific advice, even though I just said you should not necessarily take advice given on the internet — I’m realistic, some of you may not find a coach/ want to hack this alone. That’s fine, but I still strongly advise against using a training plan that is not tailor-made to your goals, your body weight, physiological make-up, environment, etc. (If you really need help finding a coach/mentor to help you train, leave a comment here, and I’ll shoot you an e-mail).

You want to be able to trust your training, and trust your equipment. Without a good coach and/or mentor, you can’t trust your training — not the pattern of exercises, the frequency, the type, the method, the routine — you will pay a high cost for approaching your ‘Get in Shape’ goal without a proper coach or mentor who can help guide you through this. Finding a good friend who (seemingly) know what s/he is doing is a cheap but effective way to do this, although be forewarned, experience does matter a lot. Don’t succumb to training plans of hype (”Get in shape in 90 days.”) — you are in this for the long lasting benefits: physical well-being, mental stimulus, emotional peace, et. al not a quick junkie fix to your fitness problem.

To some of you guys who are out there training for triathlons and marathons, you are laughing at this seven day schedule.

For others, you are thinking, I can’t even do that. Great, I have some awesome news for you — it’s going to suck, but the sucking does not last forever.

As my coach alluded to, in the beginning it’s the time that matters, not the distance. I used to rip off 5:45/mile clips for miles. Weeks ago, 30 pounds too heavy, and not a lot of cardiovascular or leg strength, I could barely finish 3 miles. I won’t lie, I walked. I stopped running and walked. This is called “falling out” in the army. To me, it is embarassing. But I didn’t stop.

But one other great piece of advice my Coach had, to the effect of (paraphrase) “Run faster when you’re feeling strong, run slower when you’re feeling weaker.” Listening to your body, and not always succumbing to that desire to push through pain, is a very important part of getting in shape — there are times when you must push through the mental lapses — and in extreme cases physical ones as well– but especially starting out, this should be avoided. Stick to the plan, but listen and respond to your body within the training schedule.

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says ‘I will try again tomorrow. – Mary Anne Radmacher

What’s important is a) that you finish and b) that you don’t give up, and you keep going, day after day.

I don’t know who lied and said “showing up is half the battle.” No, showing up is not half the battle. Half the battle is finishing, and resolving yourself to do it again tomorrow.

5 years back, when I had a stress fracture, I almost gave up — there were many painful days, and many more days that I wanted to quit than that I thought I could achieve my goals. But I had a training plan that I trusted, and I stuck to it, day after day, in therapy, in the swimming pool, on the elipitical, on the bike, in the weight room, for three to five hours a day… and the results were ten-fold.

Find a coach, have him/her draft a plan for you, week by week, month by month, and stick to the plan.

I’ve started a series on getting in shape for start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs who lead lives so busy, they might have ‘lost’ the time to work out.

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.

4. Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.
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Partner Up: Find someone who is in (slightly) better shape that is going solo — or find a group of friends to train with.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

I can’t stress this enough. I’ve gone through a stress fracture, tendinitis in my Achilles, pulled hamstring — each and every time I had to go through it alone a lot of times, but I always had someone there to help me through the darkest times. By alone, I don’t mean I didn’t have proper medical attention/physical trainers — I did, but I mean you are going to train alone, and it can be difficult, especially if you’re used to buddy training.

Sometimes, during those lows, you need somebody to help push you through, and during those highs, you wouldn’t mind someone to enjoy the good times together with. I’m talking about fitness and life. You may be a lone wolf, but training in pairs (especially at the gym) is smarter, safer, and wiser.

But, be prepared to go at it alone. You don’t need a co-founder to train properly or get in shape — for at least the next 3 months, as I get back into killer shape, I will most likely be going it alone. It’s better to have a partner in crime, but don’t let this one be one of your reasons for failure.

If you really want a training partner, you can either be the motivator, motivee, or you’re co-motivators. I’ve been all three, and, I think, like a marriage, it’s best to have a co-motivator as a partner — sometimes you will be weak and s/he strong, and some times vice versa.

For strength/weight training — having a partner is very important, to help spot exercises and to check your form (much better to have an actual person than to try to check yourself out in the mirror, while lifting.)

Find a partner , but if you can’t — and don’t expect to — be prepared to go it alone.

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 60-90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. This time includes warm-up,cool down, stretching, and commute time to plac of work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.

3. Exercise. What type of exercise should I do?: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise. Strength & Flexibility is important, and discussed later.
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Equipment: Trust your training, and trust your equipment. Buy from a local shop, where they are experienced and will remember your name.

One day, I was riding in the back of a C-5 Galaxy, minding my own business, happily dozing. Someone taps me on the shoulder and says “Wumi, wake up. Why are you sleeping, man? Aren’t you scared?” I told him no, and went back to sleep. Ten minutes later was my first jump (about 1200-1300 ft) in Airborne school.

My drill sergeant in Basic gave one of the most useful pieces of advice ever “trust your training, and trust your equipment.” See, it isn’t that I am some fearless, thrill-seeking junkie, it is that I trusted the training (2+ weeks of practice jumps, parachute landing falls, etc.), and I trusted my equipment — the parachute riggers do a really good job of making sure all the chutes are functional, and will perform properly — so I had no reason to be afraid to toss myself out of the “Air Force’s Cadillac.”

If you want to get in shape, you’ll have to trust your training, and perhaps more importantly, you must be able to trust your equipment.

Runners: So, now that you know you are either going to run, or bike, time to get some gear. If you’re new at this, or even if you’re a vet, don’t buy anything on the internet without first going to a store, and absolutely do not use crappy equipment because you want to save money. Go to your local running store (no, Dick’s Stores does not qualify as a local running store) and have the people who work 80 hours/week fitting people for running shoes help you out. If your attendee does not have you walk and run in a pair of shoes, don’t buy them and don’t shop at that store.

We could go into details like pronation, foot strike, etc., but I’m not a running specialist. It’s like when Lance Armstrong says “I don’t fix bikes, I ride them.” It’s not that he doesn’t know how to fix his bikes, of course he does, he’s been riding and racing bikes for his whole life. He’s saying he leaves this job to a specialist whose job it is to fix bikes.

Your job is not to pick shoes — find a running store where they know what they’re doing, and expect to drop $80-$100 on a solid pair of running shoes. Are they over priced? Of course. So are a lot of other things — your best bet is to find a store where it’s small enough that they will remember your name. I’ve gone to the same running store for ten years. I’m serious. Those guys know my running better than I do myself — but most importantly they know my stride, the way my foot strikes, they know I”m flat-footed (and I mean FLAT), they know how much I weigh, and what type of training I will be doing.

Bikers: See above advice for running. You’re making a mistake if you think you can get a good bike from Wal-Mart.. First, decide if your excercise plan is a) commuting b) road biking c) mountain biking d) cyclo-cross. Honestly, I prefer road biking, and plus you can use your road bike to commute — you’re not going to want a Tri bike, just a solid road bike that will last you for several (10-15) years.

Find a local, small bike shop, not a large bike shop. I got to know the guys where I bought my first bike (Giant OCR 3) so well because it was a two-person shop. One time, one of my best friends took my bike in to the shop to get fixed, and one of the (two) guys who worked there said to him, “Why do you have Dave’s bike?”

That’s service you can’t beat.

Please make sure you are fitted properly for a bike. If you are not fitted for a bike at the store of your choice, go somewhere else, these jokers don’t know what they are doing. No, you don’t need wind-tunnel testing for the most aero-dynamic testing, but you do need a proper bike. I’m all arms and legs,(5′9 but my legs/arms are as long as someone 6′4) Eric & Sparky fitted me with the proper bike.

Get proper biking shorts. If you think biking shorts look a little fruity, wear thin athletic shorts over your biking shorts — I did, not because I was embarassed, but sometimes I would go on long commutes and not want the displeasure of riding far without padding to protect private parts. While you should invest in a biking jersey, this is not necessary — you can hold all your tools & extra tubings in a below-the-seat tool carrier. Do this, especially if you commute on your bike.

Do get water bottles. Biking shoes and pedals are a bonus, but absolutely get a clock to measure your time and distance — nothing fancy, a $30 version will do.

If you live in SF/Bay area (or any other climate that lends itself to outdoor activity year round) you have absolutely no excuse why you are not running or biking. None. Whether for commute (kill two birds with one stone) or solely for excercise, SF/Bay area is one of the most incredible places in the world, with the amount of offerings it has for you in your quest to get in to shape. National Parks, Top-tier Universities (and athletic facilities), world class athletes who train there, tons of people working out. As much as I loved Colorado (Colorado Springs and Boulder), I’m sorry, the cold weather is a deal breaker.

But if you’re like me, and currently in a dead, I mean cold, zone — it is especially important that you find great places to train now, before winter hits and you’re motivation drops significantly. I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, and while it’s certainly no frozen tundra, I would get so cold during Indoor Track season my dad would buy me hot hands to insert in my gloves while I ran. I feel your pain, and I’ll be feeling your pain this winter — suck it up, get good gear (long, loose ‘coldgear’ neoprene sweat wicking shirts –underarmour is the most popular –, wool socks, mittens and not gloves, a good head/ear warmer, and water-proof pants + rain jacket), and pay your dues.

If you bike, don’t cop out and say your going to go to the gym — you’re not going to, get a trainer and bike inside — pop in a DVD, watch TV, etc. and spin for an hour or two. Your name doesn’t have to be Armstrong, Landis, or LeMond — just buy a trainer for $50-$100, you’ll thank me later. You get the benefit of a work out on a bike that fits, comfort of the indoors, and the pleasure of a good movie. I doubt you can hack while on you’re bike trainer, but it’s worth a shot if you are that desperate for an extra hour of work (or blog surfing).

The ‘buy small and local’ advice applies to weight/strength training as well. The bigger the gym you go to, the more you’ll have to give (most likely $$ to hire a personal trainer) to get that small, personal training and instruction on how to properly use the equipment. While I haven’t used machines like Bowflex, and other similar resistance-structured training, I’m a big fan of free weights — and I don’t think as an entrepreneur you’ll have the time/money/space to be buying your own set, so choosing the right gym will be paramount. More on this later.

The most important advice though, is to ‘trust your training, and trust your equipment.’ Whichever sport you pick, you must pick experts you can trust, hopefully local, and have them help you pick out the equipment you need for whatever sport or activity.

“Get ready for high highs and low lows, and practice keeping yourself in the middle or you’ll never get [in to shape].”

1. Motivation = Decision before Action — Before the first step in the ten thousand mile journey, you must first decide to begin the journey.

2. Time: Pay yourself first. Take 90 minutes, same time, same place every day, and work out. RescueTime says you are only working 9-10 hours anyways. Don’t kid yourself, you have a lot of time to work out.
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Type of Exercise: Run, Bike, or Swim as primary exercise.

Now that you’ve allotted some time (a minimum of 60 minutes, hopefully 90-120) it’s time to pick your poison — I mean sport.

Arguably, you should pick an activity you enjoy. For me that would be football/rugby. American Football has always been my first love, and indeed I still play back yard football quite regularly. But the problem is, if you pick a team sport, you are a) almost always going to fail to do it regularly and b) probably not going to get in shape. I love football, but it won’t get me back in shape.

If you play soccer, basketball, or sports of the extreme variety, you have a better shot at this, but again, team sports is a horrible way to maintain fitness, particularly working on a start-up — your working schedule will probably interfere with meeting/playing sports with others.

So, I suggest you run, bike, or swim. If you’re like me, you can’t swim too well, at least not well enough to get a great workout of it. Sure I’d love to improve my swimming skills, but my goal was to get in shape, not get in shape AND become a better swimmer. Chew off a piece you can swallow — getting back in shape is hard enough without fighting a natural lack of buoyancy.

So run or bike. Pick one or the other, or both, but trust me, run, or bike. Running, especially, takes the least amount of equipment (a good pair of shoes, even shorts/t-shirt are optional, although I highly advise that you don’t wear boxers — wear briefs).

At the end of the day, all sports suck, imho, when you’re a) not very good at them or b) not in shape. It’s a lot harder to have fun when you suck or are not in shape. I might want to run professionally some day, but while trying to get in shape, I hated running. Not because I don’t enjoy running, but because I hate running when I’m out of shape. Fortunately, you’re working on a start-up, you didn’t get to where you are by doing only the things you loved when you wanted to do them.