Keep it Positive.

Tracking progress is always important.  It’s good to know where you are compared to where you've been. It lets you know if what you are doing is working and can be an amazing feeling to see how you have progressed.  But the opposite can also be true.  If you haven’t been working out for a while you might not want to see the decline.

This is where apps like RunKeeper come in handy.  Most people have heard of RunKeeper for tracking runs, hikes, walks, and so on.  However they have also come out with some additional useful features. The good folks at RunKeeper recognized that it is important to always focus on the positive.  To this ed they were able to write there algorithms to congratulate you for any number of achievements.  This includes things like best time, most elevation change, and farthest distance.  These cover multiple time frames such as best this month, week, and so on.  This way you always get positive encouragement.  This is exactly what I needed on my most recent run.







I have not been training for a long time now.  I finally had some time to go for a respectable run the other day and I wasn't very impressed with myself.  That easy stride I used to have was completely gone.  By the end of the run I felt pretty crappy.  Thankfully RunKeeper pointed out that I was 9 seconds away from my best 5k time. (I race faster than I train) The point is that a positive attitude is key for improvement.  If your tough on yourself like many people are it's nice to have positive reminders.  There are many apps available that have similar notifications and tracking
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The Community That is Always There For You

For every major undertaking in life it is important to have a support system.  Some people can accomplish things all by themselves but the odds of success rise dramatically when you have friends there to help you along. If you need evidence of this try to think of some of the great accomplishments in human history.  There might have been one leader but there was always a team of people behind that leader supporting them in a tactile or moral way. Taking it down a level there is plenty of literature on why you should get a gym buddy.  This has been highlighted by the growing popularity of Obstacle Course Races (OCR) that require team assistance.  I recently just completed a Tough Mudder and I can comfortably say that I would not have been able to accomplish a number of obstacles without help from teammates and strangers alike.

But for many of us, there are a number of responsibilities that come before your next workout.  Work, school, parenthood, and more are things that demand your attention when you know that the gym will still be waiting for you when your done.  This is exactly what happened to me.  I just completed my masters degree, I am a new father, my employer has given me additional responsibilities, and I just completed major renovations on my home.  But just like the gym there were people who were just as excited to have me back in fitness.  They happen to be people that I have never met.  That's right I am talking about Fitocracy again.  I had to start slow but they don't judge.  The same people who are benching more than their body weight are giving me props for taking a 15 minute walk.  That has been one of the biggest things that has helped me jump back in with both feet.  I've been out of the game for longer than I would like to admit and they know it but they don't care.  They are just happy I'm back. FYI none of the people that are congratulating me work for Fitocracy and if I haven't mentioned it before I don't work for them either.  I am officially back to working out and making fitness a priority again.  I'm hoping that I will be back here soon as well.  If you want to here from me on a more regular basis feel free to follow me on Tumblr or (you guessed it) join me on Fitocracy.  See you there.  We'll be waiting no matter when you decide to join us

First Injury: Keep your head up

So I have now had my first fitness related injury.  It's one of those things that you really shouldn't be proud of but I am anyway.

 I was hoping to avoid that for a little bit long but I suppose it's good to get it out of the way.  Still not 100% sure what I did to cause it but the chiropractor is fairly certain it was because of bad form.  Now I admit I am not 100% on when I'm lifting heavy but I try very hard to keep as close as possible for as long as possible.  However when all you want to get are those 2 last reps in, your focus becomes keeping that weight from falling on your head instead of keeping perfect form.

Sorry to those "do or die" types but if I'm hurting I'll say so.  This hurt like hell and kept me out of the gym for a while because every time it would feel a little better I would push through the pain and aggravate it again.  I say it was a neck injury but I had pain radiating from the spine and all over my right shoulder and upper back.  Apparently this is a common enough injury that when I finally went to my chiropractor, he recognized it pretty quick.  All I had to mention was that I have been lifting heavier recently to get that "ahhhhh" reaction.

The human body is able to withstand tremendous amounts of weight. Even without developing your muscle with the intention of lifting, the back and more importantly the spine are designed for it. Studies have even shown that the curves in our spine allow us to support 10 times more weight than if it was straight.  That being said, we have a tendency to try and get our back under the weight.  Even in the movies you will see someone trying to push upward while bending their head forward with the strain.  However doing this straightens the natural curve in the neck and subjects your neck to undue stress. The point being the when you are doing heavy lifts, especially shoulder press of any kind, be sure to keep your head up.  Sitting here typing this posing like L, probably isn't helping any.

(Warning next part isn't so fitness related just an observation)
The solution?  A couple trips to the chiropractor will straighten it out if they don't scare you to death first.  They try this in multiple ways first the try and electrocute you with those contacts they put on your back.  And if you like me you try and handle as much voltage (or whatever) as you can cause we are manly men and we can take it.  But then they leave you alone in the room and you feel your muscles start to contract in ways they never have before and by the time they come back you've either become a contortionist or your dead.  Next they act like pedophiles.  You have to take your shirt off so they can rub oil on you (if they don't really need to do this someone let me know cause mine did) and rub your back down with the excuse that "you need to be loose".  Then they lay your cheek on their hand and tell you to relax.  This is the time when they have given up on you and decide your a threat and try to SNAP your neck clean off.  Just like this. Some how after a couple of times doing this you feel better and get to go back to working out like an idiot or learn so you never have to see that horrible man again!

As always I hope I was helpful.  If you like these posts or if you would like me to cover a topic feel free to leave a comment and let me know.  If you really think they are worth someone's time share them around.  I hope to have some of these topics recorded on my YouTube channel as well so come check me out there if you have not already.

/Actuator/

Still Awake (A cautionary tale)

So I sit here awake at almost 1 am. I need to be up at 6:30 for a doctors appointment and then to get to work.  Why are you still up, you ask?  Because I am silly and competitive. I didn't have much time for a workout today so after dinner and homework and such I decided to get some planks and pushups in.  I went to my favorite fitness social media site, Fitocracy.com, to enter my workout for the day and found I had been bumped down a couple spaces in the push-up challenge.  Well we can't have that now can we? I should have let it go.  So I figure out how many more I need to do and go on my way.  I enter in my new points and see that I'm still not back where I should be.  Undaunted I keep going.  Still not there. Now I know something is wrong.  I realize that this must mean the the person I can not pass is also logging pushups as he goes. The nerve of some peoples kids. I "followed" (similar to twitter) the gentlemen and kindly asked that he stop doing push up so that I could go to bed.  To my surprise he obliged although it was not nearly as late for him in some other timezone.

(Takes a sip of Sleepy Time tea)

So now I sit here having done two hundred some pushups and four minutes of planks.  My triceps are unhappy with me.  However the other thing I now remember is that when you push yourself you open up adrenal glands and get extra energy.  It is commonly recommended that you do not work less than 4 hours before you plan to go to sleep.  I have now taken a long hot shower and am sipping some tea trying to relax enough to go back to bed and try to find elusive sleep once more.

Goodnight humanity. Please remember sleep is just as important if not more important than any exercise you do.  It is when your body does it's best recovery and repair and it doesn't matter how many pushups you do if your not sleeping you won't get any better at it. (-sigh- sips tea again)

/Actuator/

About me, myself, and my blog

So the other day someone wanted to know what "Before you Actuate" meant.  So I figured anyone reading this might like an explanation as well.  The whole business started with my friend Ray/Sebron and his YouTube channel. He had done a few videos before but was starting the YTO (YouTube Orbit) the objective is to post 1 video a day for an entire year.  It doesn't have to be long or very interesting but there needs to be one a day with the opportunity for a few misses. As of today he has reached 310 videos so almost there.  Which when you see the extremely long list of people who have failed trying to do this it is a very impressive feat. 

So watching these got me interested in video and editing so I got hold of some software and started messing around.  I released a video on 11/11/11 just because I thought it was cool.  It really wasn't much of anything but I wanted to be able to say I put up my first video on that date.  The video was all old footage I had taken with different cameras over a very long period of time so it had no point to it.  It just looking like a movie trailer for nothing.  Somehow that snip-it got a ton of hits at least for a first video on a channel with nothing else on it.  That channel is called SelfActuate.  The thought process behind that was that I wanted to do fun exciting things and share them on an epic scale.  To actualize my hopes, dreams, plans, and whatnot.  I only made one other video for that channel and decided that I needed to refine my skills a bit.  So I jumped over to an old channel I had set up with the intention of posting stupid videos to practice with.  Come to find out vlogging or video blogging is a thing and people actually started watching what I posted.  That channel became SAVY SelfActuate Vlog on YouTube.  Corny but everything on that channel is so it fits.  I have still been uploading videos there that have a little less production time to them.

 I had started my masters program around that time as well so as time was getting short I've made less and less.  I wanted a place to write down ideas I had for videos that were never made so I was trying to track them here.  So the original concept was before the SelfActuate video there is the blog. Hence "Before You Actuate".  However since then it has taken on a bit of a different meaning.  I've always been into fitness but more so recently.  Now the title has come to mean "before you try this be prepared" or for geeks "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."  So my new goal is to put together what I'm doing fitness wise and share what I find and let you know if it works or not.  Hope your enjoying so far!

/Actuator/

PS: I should have some new videos up soon and they may even be health related!