It’s Wednesday which means Another Iron Mike Kettle bell session courtesy of @cjmswaby and @mikemahler73.

Up’d the KB’s to 20’s tonight and once again the session stepped up a gear and at the end of the session – well by set 3,  I understood a bit more why Cj looked cream crackered when he introduced the workout. It’s quite Nasty when the weight goes up but the rest stays the same!!

Tonight like many nights, I feel tired and don’t fancy going into my cold garage to train alone.

But I’m good a sticking to a plan especially if I’ve said I’m going to do something.

I knew if I didn’t train Iron Mike tonight and up the weight I may never return to it.

A trick I use is simply to break things down and do deals with myself.

I say ‘just get in there and just do a warm up and then just do a slow set on the 16’s. If you feel crap at least you tried.

Then after I’ve warmed up I put some music on and get my head in the right space. Then I do as I say. Slow and light to trick myself that it’s all ok and it feels ok. This also gives me the bump start I need and gets me warm.

I know it’s lying to myself, and I know I’m doing it to myself and why, but it works. Because I know after I get passed this stage the curiosity will kick in. ‘I wonder what the 20’s will be like? Tell you what let’s just do 1 set and then go back to the 16’s.’ Again deep down I know if I make the set there’s no way I’m going back to 16’s. And the game goes on….’ok do the 3rd set…..ok you’ve done the 3rd you have to go all the way now with 20’s!’

And throughout the sets I’m breaking down reps when my mind can’t handle big numbers that make the last rep seem to far away.

For example on the 4th set of Clean and Press, 8 reps may be counted as 4 and 4 or even 2,2,2,2. Counting to 2 and repeating until I get to 8 seems mental easier than looking miles into the distance to rep 8!

The same with the renegades – 5,5,5,5 because counting all the way to 20 makes my mind think this is to much!

Same Reps, one after another with no break just counted differently to Fox the fatigued mind.

Then freezing shower to finish off the mind games!

Here’s a picture of me and my dad enjoying an ice cream in the Sunshine.

I’ve no intention of stopping having an ice cream in the sunshine because I enjoy it.

But there’s times when we really need to knock things on the head because it’s detrimental to us.

I know I’m pragmatic and my methods are often simplistic but I’ve experimented many times with stopping doing things I enjoy or are habitual to understand what drives me to really do them, what I need to do to override that desire and what I need to do to continue to do so.

In fact in order to do so, I find it very hard to go back to doing those things even though I have no real reason to stop doing them after the experiment.

Something I’ve found that works for me when I’m tempted to do something I’m attempting to stop and temptation is creeping in is to ask myself s really simply question.

So what? Or when I’m really going for it ‘so fucking what!’

So for example when we are tempted by something we say to ourselves ‘I want Xyz’. We behave like a child or teenager. I want, I want. And we try and solve or resist it from that mind set. We try to solve it from the position of the child. No wonder we give in so easily. Instead try becoming the parent who’s fed up with the winging and says ‘so what that you want that thing, what off it? Who cares what you’d rather?’ I know this sounds simple but there’s method in the madness.

By changing identity, by challenging the emotion we break what is known as ‘the cycle of dysfunctional behaviour’ which works by first thinking of something, then fantasising about it and then acting on or trying to resist it. But by the time we fantasise about eating cake it’s hard to resist.

But we all know times when just as we’ve thought ‘I’m desperate for a coffee, I can’t function, that the boss comes in and barks an order we jump to attention, do what we are told and forget all about the coffee until much later when we think ‘fuck I never got that coffee after all’ (we never go as far as recognising we didn’t die after all from not having it!)

The point is, to stop anything, we need to find ways to break patterns, to be the boss or the parent and not the child.

I love being out with my nephews as they remind me of me.

When I turn up I think they see a kindred spirit or a least someone who still wants to explore and encourages them to ‘give it a go’. (It’s easy when I can give them back wet and muddy and take no responsibility for the aftermath!)

But a lot of the time we try to, like having energetic kids, the desire is often to ‘close it down’, to get some peace and quiet which no one can blame people with kids like my nephews.

And yet all to often we try to make others stop doing whats good for them because its not fitting in with how we want things to be.

And this all to often manifests into our adult lives from children, where all to often we feel we need to comply, to fit in, to say the right thing to be accepted or acknowledged –  and often it’s the best thing to do in civilised society especially if we don’t want to be ostracised from the groups we inhabit.

However it’s worth paying attention to the areas we feel we are trying to fit in and examine whether or not we are in the right groups that both nurture us and that we feel we are contributing to rather than being constrictive.

Get around people who make you grow rather than who want to control you.

And at the same time seek out those who are caged and help to set them free!

There’s lots of theory out there, but how does that relate to you?

Most experiments are set up inside of certain parameters to insure consistency.

However all of these environments are not those we as individuals inhabit and therefore results will be different or may not even work at all.

Also when we are told something won’t work it’s just an opinion not a fact.

When we are told there’s not much we can do that fix certain issues it’s often just coming from a frame of reference rather than an absolute.

Be your own Lab Rat for me is about doing our own research. Looking at our own habits. Profiling ourselves and bio hacking ourselves. It’s about collecting as much individual data as we can and making a plan from there often from trial and error.

Don’t let anyone tell you your limitations. They don’t know.

Take advice and then go away and learn from doing.

I’m just on my way to Germany for a weekend dive trip and on entering the airport I was stood looking at departure times when an over enthusiastic (for that time in the morning) children in need collector invited me to buy some merchandise.

To set the scene, I had a big heavy bag resting on my shoulder, I wasn’t sure where I needed to go and how to get there and I was in the process of getting my bearings and checking flight info.

All I wanted to say at that moment was ‘no I don’t want any of your merchandise, I’m busy and  I’ve got a big bag that keeps slipping off my shoulder and pissing me off….’ But I didn’t, I wanted to appear a good guy……so what did I do? I lied.

I said ‘I’ve already given to the charity today’.

That will stop her I thought.

‘Where?’ She asked.

Fuck, I’ve got to go deeper.

‘My train station’ I said.

‘Which train station?’ she asked.

Long story short, by the time I’d finished my elaborate story of helping the charity she offered me a free sticker to prove my loyalty to the cause so I would not be interrogated again.

And whats worse –  I took it!!!!

Not only did I feel bad for lying, now I was taking from a charity I’d given nothing to!

As I walked off I went to the toilet and whilst sat there, (a place I do my best thinking), I contemplated why I’d done this.

But whilst I was contemplated the human psyche and my own human needs, the voice that often slaps me into action said ‘don’t fucking worry about all that shit, what are you going to do to rectify it?!I tell you what you can do. Its easy. Get off the pot, find the nearest Children in need collector and give them some money and stop being such a pussy in future and just say no if you don’t want to do something.’

So I did…..and got not a word of thanks. So balance was restored.

Because at the end of the day, no one really gives a shit what we do or do not do. It’s down to us to sort our shit out and strive to correct the stuff that we don’t like about ourselves, even if that’s simply that we don’t appreciate what we do have rather than fixing just what we see as ‘the bad stuff’.

This story alone shows at least I have a conscience, that in some way I do care, despite at times being selfish and just wanting to do what I want to do!