An Interview With George Hackenshcmidt. Physical Culturist of the Month of September.

George Hackenschmidt has been our physical culturist of the month of September. I'm not going to bore you with a biography of "The Russian Lion", that's what Google is for. We're going to bring you the man himself in an exclusive interview. I know what you're thinking, "Didn't George die in London in 1968?".. Of course there's also those of you who are thinking, "Who the hell is George Hackenschmidt?".. To which I would respond: George is one of the top physical culturists of his time, and yes, he did die in London in 1968. But don't forget I am Lurg, an unfrozen caveman born over 20,000 years ago. Let's not get too wrapped up in technicalities, shall we? And with that, I bring you George Hackenschmidt....

Lurg: First of all, George, or should I call you Lion or maybe just Hack? I'd like to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to meet with the legion of the Tragically Fit for this exclusive interview. It is truly an honor to be in the presence of one of the foremost experts on the physical culture.

George: Thank you, Lurg. You may call me Hack, and honestly, my schedule is not really that full lately. I just rest mostly.

Lurg: (hahaha)... I guess I'd like to start out by asking how you became a physical culturist. 

Hack: Well, it was the kind of thing that I think chose me, I didn't necessarily choose it. So far as I can remember from my earliest years, I was devoted to all kinds of bodily exercises and by the time I was 8 or 9 years old I would order about a small army of boys my own age, being admittedly the strongest of them all. I would spend hours in the gymnasium and at the age of fourteen I won the prize of best gymnast. Upon leaving school I became a member of the Reval Athletic and Cycling Club and threw myself heart and soul into cycling, at which I won several prizes. At the time I would not lift heavy weights, preferring all kinds of bodily exercises as well as some dumbbell and clubbell exercises. It was later, at the age of 18 that I began to train with heavy weights and also started wrestling. 

My desire was to always be in top physical condition and to be as strong as possible. It is important to remember that health can never be divorced from strength. The second is an inevitable sequel to the first. A man can only fortify himself against disease by strengthening his body in such a manner as will enable it to defy the attacks of any malady. That is what physical culture means to me, doing whatever it takes to make my body as strong and as healthy as possible.

Lurg: Impressive! Let's talk a moment about nutrition. When I was a caveman 20,000 years ago we ate essentially anything we could. Fruit, nuts, seeds and whatever I was able to kill. Today it seems there are 5 million different people trying to sell me a diet that is guaranteed to make me healthier than ever. I'm an unfrozen caveman, I like things simple. I don't believe diet should be complicated. What are your thoughts on nutrition?

Hack: That's a great question Lurg. Man is born without frying pan or stewpot. Therefore, it would make sense that the purest natural food for human beings would be fresh, uncooked food and nuts. Much like what you explained that you ate as a caveman. In my own personal experience, I have learned that food is of secondary importance. There are very strong people who are strict vegetarians while others eat a good deal of meat. Every one should and can find out which diet best suits his constitution and he should avoid all food that disagrees with it. 

Lurg: Very sound advice, my friend. Let's talk a little about your wrestling career. Wrestling is truly one of the earliest forms of martial arts and requires great full body strength and mobility. What drew you to wrestling?

Hack: To be honest, I started out mostly in gymnastics and elite cycling. At the age of 18 and a member of the Reval Athletic and Cycling Club I was introduced to wrestling. When it came to the lifting of heavy weights I was the strongest at the club. At one point I was able to swing two 44kg kettlebells from the floor to full arms length. I set several world records in weightlifting. In 1899 I pressed 279 lbs overhead which was an unheard of weight to press at that time. When wrestling was introduced to me I initially disliked it. I wasn't very good at it at first, but my natural athleticism allowed me to last many minutes with some of the top wrestlers of the day. Over time I became very good at wrestling and went on to become world champion winning over 3000 professional matches. I would go years without losing a match and I beat all the top wrestlers of the day. Wrestling, to me, was the ultimate test in a man's ability to use the strength he has developed. 

Lurg: Speaking of developing strength, do you have any recommendations as to what a person should do to develop strength. 

Hack: I encourage everybody to be able to manage their own bodyweight first. There are many bodyweight exercises that I have outlined in my book "The Way to Live". Once mastery of one's bodyweight has been achieved, I believe that to develop massive strength then one must lift heavy weights.  I trained with heavy barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells, performing exercises that required the full body to be engaged. I did not waste time with isolating one muscle from the others like the bodybuilders and posers you see in today's gyms. I trained to develop strength that would translate to better performance in my wrestling matches.

But regardless of whether you are a wrestler or an average man working on the docks, everybody has the ability to become strong and everybody should want to become strong. It may be suggested that there is no reason why a man should go to the trouble to acquire any phenomenal degree of strength. To which I would reply, why should a man desire to be weak? Increase of strength means betterment of health. There are many excuses made, "I am too old", "I have not sufficient time", "My position or my business does not permit..". Let me just say this. If you do not find time to be healthy then you will be obliged to find time to be ill.

Lurg: I couldn't agree with you more. You talk a lot in your book about the mind and it's effect on overall health and wellness.

Hack: True. The determination to become strong is indispensable for success. You must have faith in your ability to make yourself strong. You must govern your thoughts. This rule is absolutely necessary in all stages of life if you wish to succeed, for without concentration of thought, you are courting failure. If you wish to become healthy and strong you must give your thoughts to the full and without restriction in this direction. Concentrate your mind upon the idea of acquiring health and strength!

This is especially important in your training. It has been proven as far back as my day, over 100 years ago that thought constitutes real power. When training, concentrated thought can influence a livelier rush of blood to certain parts of the body. Every wrestler will admit that thoughts are powers. Whilst one is measuring one's strength and skill with an opponent, one's thoughts must be concentrated on the game, otherwise defeat is certain. It is this way with everything in life.

The physical culture pupil will profit by this knowledge, and avoid, for instance, erotic thoughts which channel blood flow into organs of the body that are superfluous for our purposes.

Lurg: Ummm, OK. If you can tell me a way to get an 18 year old boy to think of anything other than what to do with his superfluous organs then I'd like to hear it. 

Hack: Hahaha, I didn't say it would be easy..

Lurg: Speaking of superfluous organs, in your book you mention "screwing". You say that "...screwing requires great balance of the body, and great calmness and determination. Screw as slowly as possible.".. It would seem that this is awful contradictory to your previous statements..

Hack: Very funny, Lurg. Of course when I speak of "screwing" I am talking of the Bent Press exercise where you clean a barbell to the shoulder and essentially screw your body away from and under the weight. Once the body is lowered under the weight such that the arm is fully stretched you will raise your body to an upright position, much like standing back up from the bottom position of the windmill..

Lurg: Thanks for the explanation. Well, Hack, I would really like to thank you for joining us for this interview. It was a pleasure talking to you and you are truly a role model for all of the physical culturists that belong to the legion of the Tragically Fit. Champion wrestler, one of the top strongmen of his time, and one of the most influential physical culturists of any era, George, the Russian Lion, Hackenshmidt. Thank you George. Any parting comments to wrap this up?

Hack: Thanks for having me, Lurg. It was my pleasure to conduct this interview. I dedicated my life to achieving the highest level of perfection in all aspects of my life, whether it was wrestling, lifting heavy weights, cycling, or just staying active and healthy.Throughout my career I have never bothered as to whether I was a champion or not a champion. The only title I have desired to be known by is simply my name, George Hackenschmidt.

It All Starts With the Right Goal

Almost everything we do in life, we do with a specific goal in mind. You make a pot of coffee in the morning with the specific goal that it will help to wake you up. You go to your job with the specific goal of completing whatever project you're working on so that you can continue to bring home a paycheck. You go to the grocery store with a specific list of things that you need to get to keep you and your family fed. You get the picture... With that in mind, why then do most people not have a specific goal in mind when they decide what they want for their health and wellness?

People go to the gym because they want "to get in shape". People start running because they want "to get in shape". There could not be a more ambiguous goal. What exactly does "I want to get in shape" mean? Where there is ambiguity in your goals, there can be cracks in your resolve. 

Here are 5 tips to stay focused, interested, and motivated to achieve your goals, get in the best shape of your life, and stay that way.

1. Be Specific

It's very important to take any ambiguity out of your goals. Saying "I want to get in better shape" can mean a lot of things. If you're terribly out of shape and you start exercising and taking care of your nutrition for a week you'll no doubt be in better shape than you were a week ago. Does this mean you can stop? Does this mean it's OK to go out and have that 1200 calorie burrito and a few margaritas? Of course not. But without a specific goal in mind it is easy to convince yourself that you're on the right track and a few slips here and there aren't that big a deal. One of the most popular ways of getting specific is to target an ideal weight that you want to get to. There's a couple problems with this. First, any time you enter into a strength and conditioning program, the numbers on the scale are never going to be indicative of what's really going on with your body. As you lose bodyfat and build muscle there is a good chance that this won't always show up as extraordinary weight loss on the scale. The more important factor is the loss of bodyfat. Your clothes will become too big, your energy levels will rise, your body will start functioning better, you'll be getting stronger. These are the important things to focus on, not the number on a scale. Getting obsessed with a number on a scale will inevitably lead to a person reducing their calorie intake to a level that will not support their metabolism which in turn will have an opposite effect of what they're trying to achieve with respect to weight loss. If you want a specific goal that is tied to slimming down, then go to a trained specialist who can accurately measure bodyfat percentage. Target a specific number you want to get to. For women, a body fat percentage of around 15-18% is excellent. For men, 10-12% is a very healthy, athletic bodyfat percentage. 

Other ways to get specific about your goals is to target certain competitive events. Maybe you want to run a July 5k in under 30 minutes, maybe you want to ride your first century in September and you want to do it in under 8 hours, or complete the sprint triathlon in August in under 1:15. These are specific goals that keep you focused and motivated. And most importantly, they are quantifiable. You can see where you're at with respect to your goals and know how far you have to go to get there. There is no ambiguity about running a 30 minute 5k in July. Want to increase your commitment to your goal? Actually register for the event months in advance. Put the money down and commit to it. You have a bodyfat target that you want to hit by June when it's time to put on the bathing suit? Tell your friends about it. Once you tell somebody about it you're upping the ante. It helps to hold you accountable. Want to take it to another level? Hire a coach or personal trainer to help you get there. It increases the commitment and motivation level. Additionally, you will now have somebody else holding you accountable to your goals, developing the perfect plan to get you where you want to be, and helping you get there when your motivation is down.

2. Be Realistic

Being realistic is important. If you're 42 years old and the extent of your bike riding is with your kids on the rail trail then it's probably not realistic to target the Tour de France next year (unless you just want to go as a spectator). But you love riding your bike and you want to set a bike-specific goal. Join a bike club or team, they're everywhere. Start going on group rides. Find a race or group ride that interests you and sign up for it. If it's a long organized group ride like a century or half-century, set a realistic time goal. It doesn't even have to be organized. Find a 20 mile loop that you like to ride and set a realistic time goal for that loop. For example, if you can ride the loop in 1hr 20mins now, set a goal to be able to do it in 1hr 10 mins in 3 months. That's realistic and achievable and will take hard work and focus. Don't make the goal too easy to achieve. It is only through hard work that any substantial and meaningful gains in health and wellness can be made.  

3. Set short term and long term goals with specific timelines

Setting timelines for your goals helps to keep you focused. Setting short term and long term goals allows you to have a "big picture" goal that you're trying to get to with a bunch of intermediate points of success along the way. It's important that we see that we're making progress along the way. Also, in many cases the ultimate goal can seem so daunting and unreachable, that it is absolutely necessary that we have shorter term goals to focus on so that we don't get overwhelmed and lose our motivation. If you weigh 300 lbs and have a bodyfat percentage of over 40%, it can seem unimaginable that you'll ever get to the 12% bodyfat percentage alluded to earlier. Nothing kills motivation more than the overwhelming feeling that you've set an unrealistic goal that will never be reached. The key is to set several intermediate goals keeping the big picture in mind. It may take one year, two years, even more, to get where you ultimately want to be, but make sure there are many checkpoints along the way to prove to yourself that you're making progress. This is no different than what many of us do in a professional sense. Say you do 4 years of college to get a degree, get an entry level job in your field, work your way up to senior levels in your company or start your own business. This is something that takes years and years and it all starts with a "big picture" goal and many intermediate short term goals along the way. Why should it be any different for the most important thing in life which is your own health and wellness?

4. Surround yourself with similarly motivated people that make you better

"When I walk beside her, I am the better man" - Gordon Peterson

This point can't be stressed enough. You are, to a very large extent, a product of your environment. The point that is lost on most is that you create your own environment. It doesn't just happen to you. If you surround yourself with a bunch of un-motivated people who want to drink and smoke their way into their prescription filled 50's, then guess where you'll probably end up? The good news is that this can all change at the drop of a hat. Once you make a commitment to yourself to total health and wellness of the body and mind it takes about 1 second to realize which of the people in your life are on the same page. If there aren't any, then it's time to move on and find some who are. And trust me, there's plenty of them out there. Don't waste a second with anybody who is going to drag you down or hold you back from achieving your goals. 

Set your specific goals and start surrounding yourself with like-minded people who have similar goals. Join a bike or running club. Join a functional conditioning gym like Dynamic Strength and Conditioning where 100% of the people are active and are interested in being in the best shape they've ever been in so that they can enjoy life to the fullest. It is incredibly motivational. You feed off each other's energy and vitality. It takes on a life of it's own and you start achieving things you never thought possible. And when you go through rough times when your motivation is down there will always be somebody there to pick you back up and keep you focused.

5. Keep it interesting, keep it meaningful, keep it FUN!
There is no greater motivation than knowing that all your hard work will result in your ability to enjoy life to a greater extent and have fun.. Why work hard for something that isn't going to be fun? How many times have you decided to "get in shape", join the local chrome and fern palace, start doing some treadmill running and isolation exercises on weight benches and machines, get some immediate results in the first couple weeks, lose a couple pounds, get bored with the same old routine, stop getting results, realize that nothing your doing is helping you to have fun in the real world, start skipping the gym, stop going altogether? Typically this cycle takes about 2 months. Your goals need to keep you interested and motivated. Your plan towards achieving your goals needs to provide results. Running on treadmills and lifting weights is boring. Not only that, it doesn't really translate to real world activities. Set goals that are meaningful to you in real life. You want higher energy levels, you want to be able to play with your kids or grandkids without ending up in the ER, you want to fit into those "skinny pants" that you wore when you were 24, you want to be a competitive runner or triathlete, you want to play in the local adult soccer league, you want to develop the state of mind that you can do virtually anything. With that in mind you have to train in a way that's going to allow you to do virtually anything. Running on a treadmill burns calories, but it does little else. Bodybuilding exercises make it so that you can lift heavier weights and restricts mobility and functionality. If your goal is to be able to lift heavier weights and bulk up so that you always walk around with your arms stuck out like you're carrying watermelons then, ummmm, cool, have fun with that. Sounds like a lot of fun. For those of you who want to have fun in the real world then your training needs to include functional, full body exercise, with and without resistance. 
Find a gym specializing in functional conditioning like Dynamic Strength and Conditioning or the Monkey Bar Gym. Find an awesome fitness boot camp like the one at Fitness By Design. Start trail running, snowshoeing, hiking, parkour, martial arts, mountain biking, rock climbing, nordic skiing, kayaking. Get outside and do stuff. Feel what it's like to have your body be functional in the real world. Set goals that will improve your quality of life well into your golden years and train accordingly. Keep it interesting, meaningful, and most importantly, keep it fun! 

Train Movements, Not Muscles

The body was created to move as a unit. All of our real world activities, whether it's competitive sports, running errands, playing with the kids, climbing a mountain, or putting the groceries away requires full body movements and a certain degree of mobility and flexibility. With that in mind, when we train the body we should do so such that the gains made in training will translate directly to our activities and interests. It makes sense that we should train full body movements with and without resistance to build functional strength and endurance. We should also regularly perform mobility exercises to keep our joints working in perfect order which is key to injury prevention.

Human movement can be broken down into 5 categories: Pushing, Pulling, Locomotion, Rotating, and Level Changing (for example, squatting). These movements can be further broken down into sub-categories. There is vertical and horizontal pushing and pulling, there are hip dominated and thigh dominated level changes. Locomotion can come from a wide variety of activities such as running, jumping, climbing, and crawling.

When you're putting together a training plan for yourself you want to incorporate at least one exercise per movement to ensure that you are giving your body a complete workout. For pushing exercises, you can use different types of pushups, overhead presses, and dips. For pulling exercises there are pullups, inverted body rows, and several different pulling exercises with handheld weights such as a dumbbell or kettlebell row. Rotation can involve seated or standing russian twists, rotating medicine ball exercises, twisting Iranian pushups (integrates both a pushing and twisting exercise in 1!). The level changes are either hip dominated or quad dominated. Anything that has a squat in it would be a quad dominated level change. For hip dominated level changes you could do deadlifts or any number of different kettlebell swinging type exercises such as kettlebell swings, cleans and snatches. Locomotion has a ton of different options with so many variations of running, jumping, crawling type exercises.

You put all of these together and the variations are endless which keep the workouts fun, interesting, always different, and always effective. Here's an example workout that integrates all forms of human movement:

Set up in a space where you have about 20 yards and set a kettlebell at one end. Start at the end that doesn't have the kettlebell... Do 10 pushups Bear crawl 20 yards Do 25 kettlebell swings Sprint back to the other end Do 10 burpees Bear crawl back to the other end Do 10 kettlebell lunge rows on each side Sprint back Do 30 Hindu Squats Bear crawl to other side Do 20 seated kettlebell russian twists Sprint back... Repeat for as many rounds as you can get in 20 minutes.. This is a phenomenal full body workout that works every form of natural body movement and will leave you with a huge surge of energy.

The Physical Culturist

When I ask you whether or not you're a physical culturist how do you respond? Most will respond that they don't really know because they don't know what a physical culturist is. Physical culture is a personal commitment to total health and well being of body, mind and environment. It's a lifestyle that consists of a healthy diet and lots of activity and exercise. It's about understanding how the decisions you make not only affect you, but the environment and those around you. It's about trying to live your life to the fullest and striving to leave a positive impression on everything you touch. It's a state of mind.

Activity and exercise is a major part of being a physical culturist. We lead very active lives. We enjoy biking, hiking, walking, skiing, running, all kinds of recreational and competitive sports. We play! And we do it as much as possible... Physical culturists train their bodies with intense full body functional exercise, working the entire body as a kinetic chain. We don't waste time or effort isolating one muscle apart from the rest of the body because it doesn't result in true and total fitness. We perform mobility exercises to keep the ligaments, tendons and joints strong. We don't waste our time working out on machines because we know that the only "machine" worth working on is the the one we were born with. Look at it this way. Watch a group of 8 year olds play on a playground. They have the flexibility of a rubber band. They have incredible mobility with the ability to generate power from practically any position the body can be manipulated into. They have phenomenal strength to size ratio with the ability to climb back and forth across monkey bars for what seems an eternity. They climb trees, they jump on and over everything, they sprint, they wrestle, they tackle each other at full speed without injury. What makes them any different than you? Is it because they're young and you're not? To a certain degree, this may be the case, obviously we're not going to start up an Over-70 tackle football league :) But the major difference is that most people stopped doing it a long time ago. The reason most people can't do it anymore isn't because they're too old, it's because they stopped. And when they decided to "get back in shape" they were herded into the local chrome and fern palace where they were confronted with a bunch of machines and benches designed to isolate one or two muscles at a time with the goal of looking like Arnold. Do you think Arnold can climb a rope or do a handstand. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that he can't. Is that fitness? Who's in better shape, the group of 8 year olds or the bodybuilder on steroids with 24 inch biceps that couldn't run a mile if his life depended on it? How ridiculous would it be for me to go to that group of 8 year olds and say "Boys, lets go to the gym and do some bench pressing and biceps curls and get y'all in shape! But first we're going to warm up on those treadmills and watch a little TV. Everybody got their iPods?".... You get the picture. As physical culturists we are active and use exercise as a means to achieve better performance in our real world activities whether it's competitive sports or playing with the grandkids. The physical culturist trains for performance, not aesthetics, so we can function at super high levels in all of our endeavors well into our golden years.

Physical culturists also take care of their bodies with healthy diets. We don't use tobacco or drugs. Most don't use alcohol at all, but if they do, it is used very sparingly. We get our carbs primarily from fruits and vegetables which are loaded with the nutrients the body needs. We limit the amount of processed flours and refined sugars we put in our bodies. We get our proteins from lean meats, fish, or vegan sources. We get our fat from healthy sources like fish, nuts and seeds. We don't eat at McDonald's or other fast food chains. We buy organic as much as possible because organic foods have higher nutritional value and are grown or raised in a manner that doesn't negatively impact the environment.

Due to our active lifestyles and healthy diets we rarely get sick or suffer from the types of diseases brought on from the typical Western diet and lifestyle. Many cancers, type II Diabetes and heart diseases are directly attributed to a sedentary lifestyle with an unhealthy diet loaded with processed carbs, refined sugars and saturated fats. The true physical culturist doesn't have to worry about these things. We don't have to spend time in doctors offices having symptoms treated, we don't require shelves full of medications, we don't catch colds or flu because our immune systems are solid.

TragicallyFit.com is dedicated to Physical Culture. We will bring you information and tips on how to enjoy a lifestyle that encompasses a commitment to total health and well being of body, mind and environment. Join the physical culture movement and enjoy the benefits that this lifestyle brings!