The Okada Method

7th January 2012

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Your New Year’s Resolutions Suck!

Yet another New Year’s has come and gone and predictably, people are inundating Twitter and Facebook feeds with their New Year’s Resolutions. While the idea seems very progressive and has that “let’s do this we shall!” attitude behind it, I can’t help but think, “Why bother?” Why did you wait until New Year’s to assess how you can improve yourself? Why only attempt to fix yourself once a year? Aren’t those the same resolutions that you came up with last year? Everyone always comes up with all of the classics…

• ·            Stop procrastinating
• ·            Lose weight
• ·            Gain weight
• ·            Learn a new instrument
• ·            Be more confident
• ·            Be happier
• ·            Don’t be so happy
• ·            Add 50 lbs to my bench press
• ·            Study more
• ·            Get a 4.0
• ·            Get a 3.5
• ·            At least a 2.0

And the list goes on.

Don’t get me wrong, none of these are necessarily bad ideas, but if that’s all the thought that ever went into them, then I hate to burst your bubble but those resolutions are kind of sub-par (aka they suck).

Before I give my reasoning as to why they suck, I need I openly admit that I am coming strictly from a training perspective and that I am in no way a self-help teacher. I can only imagine what a session with me would go like.

        “Hey I need some help…”
        “Well of course you do! Why else would you be here? That’s why you’re here in the first place!” 

I think I’ve been watching The Big Bang Theory a bit too much this break…

So what is it about your resolutions that make them not-as-good as they can be? Well, put simply, they are just way too vague. I mean, come on! Be more confident? How the hell are you supposed to just tell yourself to be more confident? Stop procrastinating? Yeah, that’s exactly what I told myself eight days out of the week every week this entire past semester. (In fact, I was going to write a book about overcoming procrastination… but I figured I could just start it next week.) How much real thought actually went into these goals? What do you mean by “get in shape”? Do you need to be in elite combat condition or just be able to play a pick up game of basketball? Can you name specific things that you will be doing?

I’m starting to think that one P.E. class a few years ago about goal setting wasn’t such a waste of playing time after all…

One of the basic concepts of goal setting is to be very specific with yourself, and for a good reason. If the goals are too vague, then you will be get lost without even leaving point A, get frustrated, and ultimately, quit and wait until 2013 to try again. Let’s start with the classic “get healthy”. This is actually so vague that it doesn’t even suck anymore. Actually, yes it does. No, actually… it’s kind of like that one song “We Found Love” where you can’t really decide if it’s a good song, buy it, and realize you have just made a critical mistake because upon the second listen, you realize it’s just another rehashed beat that’s a repeat of the same repetitive trash that was just the same restated rubbish that had almost no thought put into it and had almost no thought put into it.

Anyways, I digress…

What the hell do you mean by get healthy? What’s healthy? What habits are you trying to kick and what are you trying to kick in? Is it your eating habits that suck or is it the butt that’s fused to the couch? I hate to be a buzz kill but the people who usually make it their New Year’s resolution to “get healthy” end up resolving to “get healthy” every year.

Of course, everyone’s standard of being healthy varies, so just make sure that you keep your own standards in mind, and start from there. Instead of “being healthy”, say this:

• ·            I will get up and go for a walk every morning
• ·            I will get to sleep at ten o’clock every night
• ·            I will eat fruit or vegetables with every meal
• ·            I will lift weights Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (create a program to follow)
• ·            I will run hill sprints three days a week

And if you’re someone that get’s easily bored, resolve to do something that fits your needs.

• ·            I will play sports with friends every weekend
• ·            I will sign up for an aerobics class with a friend

I know what some people are thinking. Since when did Ken Okada recommend “aerobics”? Once again, think about what your own physical and mental needs are. If you are looking for elite fitness, then you will obviously go elsewhere for your needs, but for everyone else needing some motivation and moving around to do, it will indeed float your boat. In fact, one of my friend’s mothers is an aerobics instructor and she’s in better shape than most people I know. Quite frankly, she could probably kick my ass in an endurance and conditioning test…

Moving on… Another important concept of achieving goals is to make them extremely realistic and achievable, especially the short-term goals. For example, adding fifty pounds to a bench press or any lift for that matter is not only a bit overwhelming, it’s timeless and a bit stupid. Everyone has a problem with wanting everything now. That’s why you see people falling victem to stupid marketing schemes about the “secret” equipment or supplements or another one of those “five minute workouts to six pack abs!”
As a result of being in such a big rush, once people don’t see the results they want to see, they get frustrated, quit, never get any better, and once again, resolve to try again in 2013. You will truly get what you pay for. If your program is “five minute abs”, then you really will end up with what looks like something you only spent five minutes on.

The whole point of this is to make extremely short, specific goals. For instance, as I write this, my tested max on the bench press is 250 pounds. What is my next goal? It is to bench press 255 pounds. What happens when I hit that? I will bench press 260. While my long-term goal is to eventually bench 315 pounds, I’m still going to have to bench 255 first.

It kind of baffles me when this seemingly simple concept doesn’t occur to people. They just want some secret program that will magically add 40 pounds to any given max.

Don’t be in such a rush. Haste makes waste. I will take steady progress over a long period of time over a big artificial jump that lasts only a few weeks any day.

I will never say that I want to add 50 pounds to a given lift. I will simply state the weight that I want to achieve. For example, I want to dead lift 405 pounds. The reason for this is that it will keep you from limiting yourself. No more words are needed.

So now, instead of resolving to “add 50 pounds to my bench”…

• ·            I will bench press x amount of weight
• ·            I will continually add 5 pounds to my bench press whenever possible
• ·            I will do the appropriate assistance exercises
• ·            I will fix my technique

And there we have it. Resolution: Resolved.

Now another goal setting technique is to tell other people what your goals are. The idea behind this is that it will keep you accountable for them.

I disagree completely.

Besides a very few select group of people, you don’t need to tell them your goals, or at least be specific about it. Why? It’s because every idiot out there is going to tell you every reason in the world as to why your goal is stupid and attempt to tear you down completely, telling you why you can’t do it. It’s because it’s the easy thing to do. It’s because they don’t want to feel sub-par from their laziness and be left behind in the dust while you’re outside lapping them on the field and on the scale. Besides, who are you doing them for anyways? If it’s for yourself, then what other motivation do you need? If your desire is strong enough, you won’t care what anyone else says and won’t need that external source of motivation. If they ask, be vague. That way, they can’t tell you otherwise. Now, you don’t want to be so self-centered that it’s an isolated journey. Nothing like that will ever be fun or worth it. Always ask for help when you need it. But always keep in mind your specific reasons as to why you want to achieve something because those will be the biggest sources of motivation that you will have that will never go away until you chose to let them.

So in recap, what should we do with our New Year’s resolutions?

• ·            Be specific
• ·            Be realistic and achievable
• ·            Have your own reasons
• ·            Ask Ken Okada for help

So simple that even a high schooler of this generation can do it. And that’s saying something.

That being said, New Year’s resolutions still suck. Why did you wait until New Year’s to assess how you can improve yourself? Why only attempt to fix yourself once a year? Aren’t those the same resolutions that you came up with last year?