Messner’s eight-thousanders – it isn’t only about sport

R. Messner, My Eight-thousanders. 1989. 

In 1970, Rheinold Messner climbed the summit of Nanga Parbat, one of the eight-thousanders in Himalayas. No his way back, however, he lost his brother to an avalanche and seven toes doe to frostbites. Imagine that you parents entrust your younger brother to you and you lose him. Losing seven fingers means that the stability of your gait suffers and you can say goodbye to climbing on the walls. It took Messner half a year to get over the trauma. An ordinary man would quit. But Messner came back and climbed the remaining 13 eight-thousanders! Some of them even twice; without oxygen mask and in alpine style. Amazing performance. But good condition is a matter of course. It isn’t only about sport.

For many of us, sport is an inherent part of life, for some it is the entire life. However, sport is primarily a key to life. It does not develop only physical fitness but also other psychical characteristics that are important for coping with different situations. Guys in London often mentioned in their CVs competitive rugby or football, which developed fair play, cooperation and also furthered their will. Once I saw a bunch of guys practicing rugby in Cambridge. Mid February, it required lot of will and toughness to play there in the cold and rain. Sport develops these traits. When you get out of the comfort and go running even it is snowing, the very moment you are a winner. And it is not only about sport.

Cambridge, Feb 2013. Rugby develops toughness and team play.

Next, sport develops persistence and discipline, mainly the endurance events. I have friends – triathletes and I admire how they spend long hours in the water or cycling. It is not only about enjoyment, you must have above the average level of patience and self-discipline. And it can be improved by sport. Friend leaves the party before midnight without having a single drink in order not to slack the training session the next morning. Try go without drinks next Friday night and also leave out the fast food. At the very moment you are the winner, even if it isn’t only about sport.

Third, sport improves the team spirit and fair play. As I already mentioned, the guys who had played team sports made better team members at work. Collective sports teach you that your performance affects also the other people. Red card in fifth minute leaves the rest of the team in trouble. Not to speak about the extreme sports, where teams face extreme situations. A mountain climber never walks out on his companion. Next time when you finish your work earlier, look around your colleagues and if someone is covered in work, give him a hand with the excel tables or at least bring him a coffee. You are a winner, but again it isn’t about sport.

Free hang is useful in mountain climbing.
London, Jan 2013.

I go for sport for long on in order to keep fit and healthy, and it taught me a lot. But only after reading Messner’s book have I realised that regardless of what you achieved, you can still push the limits. I wake up 15 minutes earlier to do a little exercise and practice my Spanish by reading newspapers. But there are people whose alarm rings one hour prior to mine and they prepare the breakfast and snack for their kids. And they are in better shape and with better Spanish than me.

Hardly ever will I beat Himalayas, it would require load of practice and moreover, my body is sensitive to cold. In winter months my joints and extremities turn violet, which does not add to my chances. Anyway, I still go running outside at Christmas and I exercise outdoors with hands frozen to the bars. But I go. I think that it pulls me closer to Messner, even if I still would not make it to the basic camp under an eight-thousander. I am trying to push my limits and change the discomfort for a challenge. It is the more difficult that instead of focusing on my performance I must also care about the other people. It isn’t only about sport.

How to train effectively in 20 minutes

How to train when we are short of time? Do not expect wonders from small investment although some progress can be made even during 20 minutes. And even a small step forward counts.

'As you sow so shall you reap' 

...also works in exercising. Let‘s take a personal trainer. Usually, he charges about 10 EUR per session. In ten hours he cashes in one hundred, which isn’t bad (here in Slovakia). But there is also an older trainer at the gym who is more experienced, he works with fitness models and has good results. He can afford to charge 15 EUR. For him it is enough to work 6.6 hours to earn the 100. And he can go on to chat up girls. His works carries more added value but it is also more demanding. He must adjust the rest of his time to do it well, it includes proper nutrition, relax and from time to time he must read a book or visit a workshop.

The more time I put in - the more profit I can expect. However, if I learn to do the thing more effectively, I can get the same result in shorter amount of time.

Now I try to apply it into training. There are folks who complain that they have only 20 minutes three times a week to exercise. It gives them one hour total time.  When I compare this hour to the rest of the week; I end up facing ration 1:168! Is one hour strong enough to affect the remaining 168? It can be if I improve the quality of the time spent in the gym - like the personal trainer who makes 100 in almost half the time.

Intensification methods are the key

During a 20-minute training, I must pile up the volume and intensity to the degree that it will make my body recovering from the load even during the time I am out of the gym. It can be achieved by intensification methods. Try cutting the breaks between exercises, combining the exercises into super-sets, even three-sets, include intervals of cardio – rope skipping or burpees – in between the sets and so on. Circuit training and CrossFit use similar principles, to perform a series of exercises/moves in limited amount of time.

Twenty minutes in such intensity is enough to force the organism to start making changes. In a way, one hour can affect the remaining 167 in the week. However, we must spend some time on preparation in order to make the gym hour count. It includes nutrition planning, relax, studying magazines...

Naturally, the above mentioned principles aren’t suitable for newbies in the gym. Young trainer who just finished his degree can’t walk into the gym and charge fortune for a session. This applies to all walks of life. But if I don’t see the desired results even after a few years, there is time to make a change.

The following routine can be the change...

Back conditioning workout

     

Pull ups on the bar improve the grip strength and work your back all the way down. Who wants to get the max effort, try this.

Set 3 minutes on the timer.
Start doing pull ups for maximum reps.
When you cannot do any more, immediately move to the rowing machine and row 250 metres as fast as possible.
Rest till the end of the 3 minute interval and repeat 6 to 8 times.
This gives you a great workout and you also work your aerobic capacity. Not to speak about the accumulated energy deficiency that helps you to burn some fat while doing other things. If you do cannot do pull-ups (learn pull-ups!) do pushups. If you do not have rowing machine, run or do burpees.

I follow similar pattern. When I am not preparing for some competition, I exercise only about 4 hours a week and I am stronger and in better form than at the college when I used to do sport for about 12 – 13 hours a week.

Why is creativity like a tank full of chocolate?

Information for target-oriented job usually lies in one place but information for a creative job lies all around. However; it isn’t easy to unearth it the as fracking destroys the resource and environment.  Moreover, abundance turns scarce resource into obsolete. If you find one interesting thing to write about – it is good and you can use all your creativity and knowledge to deplete it. On the way, you are aided with the discovery of further resources; just you do not approach them as such. But if you start digging in a book just in order to find information, you get into information overdose and destroy lot of useful information in the process.

Un migrante sirio intentó colarse en un camión con chocolate. Casi se ahoga. Su historia: http://t.co/7tPKm9uGqT pic.twitter.com/gESymBfgUz
— BBC Mundo (@bbcmundo) April 2, 2015

It’s like when you get one cup of chocolate, you enjoy it. But if you were given a full tank, you would choke on. Today, I came across an interesting story of a Syrian refugee who hid himself in a lorry full of chocolate in order to cross the border between France and England. He almost died in the tank full of melted chocolate. The same can happen to us when we take on more information than we can process.

When you get a piece of chocolate, you feel pleased; moreover quality chocolate improves mental functions. However, if you get a full lorry you tend to overeat and hate chocolate for the rest of the day.

Besides refugees, another global issue has been the oil reserves. Shale oil became a strategic asset during WWII when the US started to see it as a more secure source of oil. Drilling begun in the 60's, but it was the introduction of directional drilling that made it more cost effective. Now, many experts see shale oil as an alternative to the crude oil that is said to be limited for the next 20 – 30 years. Moreover, the largest deposits of shale oil are in the US and China and if used effectively, they could give them a geopolitical advantage over Russian and the Middle East.

Using your resource effectively also gives you an advantage over your competition. However, you must use it effectively, unearthing its potential in small bits. If you put too much effort in, you and your audience get lost in the overload of information. Moreover, there is only so much information you can process. Research in David Rock’s book Your Brain at Work tells that the more things we have on our mind, the more energy we lose. Similar like when you run too many programs on your computer at the same time.

Maybe in 20 – 30 years, people will be after the alternative to crude oil. However, if there is too much shale oil on the market, the demand will fall and the price will fall consequently – as we witness with the crude. It might happen that the yields won’t even cover the fracking costs and the countries will cannibalize on their own effort. Similar thing can happen to a writer who wants learn a lot about an issue instead of putting creativity into a single idea. Often, a person who does not know a thing about the issue proposes the most creative solution...