Undisciplined (or) not Disciplined?

Discipline…this is a huge buzzword around here. “We’re not disciplined.” “They are not disciplined.” “Drivers lack discipline.” Blah, blah, blah….

I have the grave misfortune of being forced to take a class called “Moral Recovery and Restoration”. School has been in session for a month and we just had our first class last week. This is totally normal at my school by the way, and as it turns out, class is cancelled this week too. As it was explained to me, this is a class designed to restore the moral values of the country (AND) wait for it…the discipline. True to the school’s mission statement, this is a class designed to develop “responsible, patriotic and noble Filipinos”.

What they mean by “discipline” is someone’s willingness to follow rules. This got me thinking about the school’s soft approach regarding discipline. They go out of their way to have a full blown class to tell students that they should follow rules, when in fact; all they need to do to accomplish their goal is to…wait for it…..actually enforce the rules they already have.

So what I’m saying is this: if you want disciplined students, then you need to quit treating your rules like guidelines, and actually discipline your students. This is pretty simple.

I honestly believe that the root of the “discipline” problem is that people don’t know which rules are important and which ones are not. Some people are just dishonest and self-centered, but the majority of folks want to do what is right. A lot of this stuff seems like common sense to an outsider; like not cutting in line, not cheating, etc. But you have to keep in mind that you likely came from an environment that actually enforced these rules/norms, and you were conditioned for years and years to conform, so now deviation makes you feel “strange”.

I’ll use myself as an example. There are signs in classrooms that read “no eating, drinking, or smoking”, but I carry a water bottle with me everywhere and drink it all day long.  I consider that rule to be more of a guideline and I’ve justified this “rule breaking” in my mind. “It’s just water, blah, blah, blah”. I’ve justified my behavior in my own mind and no one seems to give two shits about it, so I don’t either. Does that make me an undisciplined person?  That’s a grey area, and the answer depends on perspective.

So here I sit in a college full of “adults” that can’t seem to follow even the basics of social consideration; like waiting your turn in line or not talking at 100 decibels in the library. This basic stuff is rarely enforced via institution or by individuals. Therefore, these self-centered individuals just do whatever the hell they want, as the school sits around TALKING big with no real action.  

Then you have the important stuff. I was in a class where the cheating during an exam was so bad that I literally couldn’t concentrate and I requested to take my exam in another room. The students were talking throughout and exchanging papers and the teacher didn’t say shit. Do you see my point? These students are undisciplined BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT BEING DISCIPLINED. If the institution actually cared about their own mission statement, they would have enforced their own rule and suspended the entire class.

So the message that they are sending with these contradictions is that you will leave this institution as a “responsible and noble Filipino” but cheating is okay. The message is that cheating is a grey area, just like my water bottle example. “Rules are merely guidelines, so justify cheating, plagiarism, and generally rude behavior anyway you see fit, young noble.”

Staying Lean Year Round: Don’t Be That Guy!

I was sitting around at a corner sari-sari store shooting the shit and drinking a few beers with a friend a couple of days ago and he said something that sparked a brain storming session. Unlike me, he’s a friendly guy and actually talks to people in the gym. He said some dudes in the gym were bagging on him because he’s not currently sporting a six pack. Now this is a pretty big dude and although he’s a little smooth at the moment, he still has vascular arms and obvious muscle separation just walking around in a t-shirt. So what’s the problem?

Lattimer was probably a big eater off season

I experienced a similar thing a while back when a guy commented on my work ethic and said one day I’ll be as big as him. I was confused by this comment and thought the guy was delusional, since I probably outweigh him by 50-60 pounds.  What’s the definition of big? There is a bit of a language barrier, but what I think he meant was, a low body fat cut up look. So in his mind, being a 170 pound twink with a six pack, trumps actually being big and strong.

Not big, not strong...all twink.

This is so common. An average guy in my gym is probably 130-150 pounds and a “big” dude is say in the 170-180 range. The common denominator is that most of them are circa 10% body fat lean and although they train diligently, they don’t make any noticeable changes from year to year. They want to get freakishly big and strong, but their obsession with perpetual leanness is holding them back. They will never achieve the “look” they are chasing, because they want to have it 24/7. I’ll let you in on a little secret…those freakishly huge and lean guys in the magazines only look that way a handful of times per year.

The truly sad part is that many of these guys are on steroids. I don’t have any personal experience with steroids, but I can confidently say that they are wasting their money on that shit. If you’re not eating big it’s a waste in my opinion. It’s like pumping NO into a car with an empty gas tank and expecting it to perform. Fucking stupid!

So back to my friend, our ultimate goals are different, but the process to meet our goals is basically the same.  He works on strength to facilitate mass and I put on mass to get stronger. Here’s the conclusion that we both came to; if you don’t compete, to make the best progress, you should still train like a competitor for your given sport.

Think about it, a bodybuilder might do 2 shows per year and maybe just one that they consider to be the big show. How is that guy going to structure his training? He’s going to bulk up and then lean out for the show and see what’s going on. Then he will assess his weaknesses and work on being better for the next show. He will repeat this process over and over and continue to get better and better. Powerlifting is no different except that you’re peaking for strength instead of maximal size/leanness.

This is nothing new…it’s just good old fashioned periodization. So for the guy trying to get that bodybuilding look, I think peaking 2x per year is a decent way to go. I’d try to schedule these peaks around significant events like vacations and such to add a sense of urgency.  So it would look something like this:

6-8 weeks (Strength) get stronger on the heavy compound movements and eat big

6-8 weeks (Mass) coast on the big weights, increase the hypertrophy work and continue eating big

6-8 weeks (Cutting) increased cardio and tighten up the diet to peak

2-3 weeks (Awesomeness) coast, rest, and bask in your awesomeness

So you’ll only spend 10% of your time basking in your awesomeness and that kind of sucks. The truth however, is that you will at least be legitimately strong and awesome. And unlike your gym comrades, you’ll build yourself up to actual man size.

"Chow down"

 

Philippines: Welcome to Bizaaro World!

Here's the thing...if you decide to move to the Philippines, prepare to spend a lot of time scratching your head and wondering if the whole world just lost it's damn mind. Now I'm not saying everyone does abnormal shit here, but there sure is a lot of weirdness going down. The problem is that you'll likely be in the minority when something does seem off, because it will seem perfectly normal to almost everyone else. That disconnect will wear on you after a while and you'll start to question your own perception of the world. What's normal and what's not...at this point man, I barely know.

"Really man, please get off of the car, you're gonna scratch it"

There are too many examples to mention, but here's the one I'm thinking about today. Our town had a parade a few months ago and I had our car parked in front of the office. We are on Rizal Street, so the parade is definitely rolling up our block. I hit the gym and then I took my son to McDonalds for the post training feast. Yeah, my diet is 50% crap, but in my defense, I'm really more about getting strong than anything else at this point and the more calories the better in my opinion.

Anyway, when we returned from said fine dining establishment, we found our car covered with children; standing/sitting/walking on the hood, the roof and the trunk. The parents had placed their children there to get a good view of the parade. “Really, have you lost your fucking mind?” In what bizaaro world is this acceptable behavior?

Remember when Burt said something like "right or wrong depends on where you are standing on the planet at the time"? That's one smart mofo!

In defense of my poor car, I proceeded to tell folks to get their kids off of the car and they looked at me like I just lost my damn mind...crazy. Now here's the good part. After that, we went back to the office and I told the story to our employees. One of them responded and said something like, “oh yeah I saw that...but they were only children”. There you have it...that's the point...folks just don't know any better...it really is bizaaro world, man. It's all good, it's normal. A lot of shit that is totally dysfunctional will fall into this category here. And that's just how it is...you need to learn to work with it and work around it. Because no fucks will be given here...not due to a lack of caring, but due to a completely different outlook on life.

 "Really, I don't know what to say"

School in the Philippines: Culturally Biased Tests (weird stuff)

I'm pursuing a 2^nd degree here in the Philippines and this semester I was required to retake Sociology for some reason...I guess because the course name was a little different. I took “Intro to Sociology” back in the day and the required class for my degree here is called “General Sociology with Family”. It's pretty much “same shit/same smell” in my opinion, but they let me slide on several other classes, so I just bit the bullet and rolled with it. For me it's really a sociology/anthropology class and has some value because I'm re-learning the same thing from a different perspective.

Furious Styles knew about that culturally biased testing shit back in the day!

So we had prelims this week and I did okay, but the Sociology test was actually the most difficult; not because the material was complex, but because the questions were presented from a completely different viewpoint. A whole bunch of shit was weird to me, but I'm going to throw out this example.

Anomic and Egoistic suicide: Now the simple definitions are as follows:

Anomic Suicide: Something happens in you life where you end up with a shitload of freedom and you basically don't know how to act, because the rules all relax over night. The example in the book is a dude that hits the lottery and can just do what he wants.

Egoistic suicide: You feel cut off, alone, isolated and detached from the community,  so you kill yourself.

The question on the test was something like this: (majorly paraphrasing)....Your parents kick the bucket and you're all alone to make your own way in the world, so you off yourself. What kind of suicide is this according to Durkheim?

I'm thinking...”Shit..if Mom and Dad kicked the bucket I'd feel alone and disconnected...it's obviously egoistical, right?

Not so fast Skippy/ Rickey!

RICKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a matching test and Egoistic suicide isn't and option...and Anomic Suicide is the only match in the category, so I verified with the teacher that my test paper was correct. So...yep...strange to me or not, that's how they roll here. Loss of parents would represent sudden freedom, as opposed to feelings of isolation because they are gone. Makes sense?

"They punched the clock on ol' Rick!"

Please Don't Stare at My Kid...It Stresses Him Out!

Didn't your parents teach you any manners?

Usually my son is super happy go lucky, but this day he was sweating me to get out of the gym from the first warm up set. Note to self; don’t take the boy to the gym and ask him to record form checks when he’s hot, hungry, cranky, AND freaking out because a bunch of ignorant & rude guys are staring at him.

That's something I'm working on with him. Folks tend to stare like they are trying to burn a hole in him with Superman laser vision. He's only 9 years old and too polite and too sweet to say anything, so he just clams up and kind of balls up because it stresses him out. You know, like he's trying to make himself smaller.

Staring is aggressive behavior and it makes people uncomfortable, because on some primal level, we know that instinctively. That’s why our parents always scolded us and told us “it’s not polite to stare”. Unfortunately, it’s a part of living here that must be accepted. There is just an abnormally high amount of people that apparently, were never taught that it is rude to stare.

Limit Strength is Functional Strength: A Case Study

I went out to feed the pigs yesterday and found that they had broken out, and one of them fell into an unused septic tank hole.

This Pig

This Hole

It sure as hell wasn’t picture perfect, but I muscled up a circa 170lb fighting, kicking and screaming pig out of a 5.5 foot hole yesterday. I do a little bit of odd lifting at home, but I credit the success of this endeavor to pure squatting, deadlifting, and pressing strength. That coupled with a good bit of adrenaline and a no failure attitude; THAT pig was coming out of THAT hole…period!

Getting brutally strong from head to toe is great for self-defense and sports, but sometimes you just need to be strong to get shit done around here.

"Good times in the barrio"

Education in the Philippines for the Young(er) Expat (and the dumb crap people will tell you)

My wife is a Philippine American, and we moved here to attend school. It just makes sense for our situation. In the U.S. we would have to do the whole full time student with a full time job thing…AGAIN. Here on the other hand, we can comfortably live off of our savings and focus on school. My advice to anyone kicking around the same idea is to have an end plan, ignore what other people tell you and do your own research.

For instance, if you plan to attend medical school here, people will come out of the woodwork to dump all over your plan. And this is exactly what they will tell you, “If you get a medical degree in the Philippines, you will only qualify to be a nurse in the U.S.”. They will then support this “fact” with an example of a guy they know, that knows a guy who works in a hospital with a nurse, who has a Philippines medical degree.

Just ignore these people because they are simple minded crabs that make assumptions based on surface information. In fact, I’d try to keep your plans as vague as possible when talking to most folks. What they don’t know about said guy is that his career change might have been based solely on immigration issues. Maybe he couldn’t get a visa straight up, but he could secure a contract to work as a nurse and he swallowed his pride and went for it. Or maybe he’s at a point in his life where he doesn’t want to work for slave wages to satisfy a 2^nd residency requirement. Who knows?

I don’t recommend it, but if you come here to get a standard undergraduate degree that does not require licensing to work, you could probably just wing it. If you pursue a degree that will require licensing, then do your research and have a plan. The plan will be different for everyone based on their citizenship, where they plan to work, family, etc.

I’ll use my wife as an example because her citizenship makes her a more interesting case. I’m going by memory here so again, do your own research. She is in Law School and she plans to practice law in Hawaii when we return. There are three routes to qualify for the BAR exam there if I remember right:

1) Graduate from a U.S. accredited law school
2) Hold a BAR license from another state
3) Have a foreign degree (and) 5 years of practice in the foreign country.

So in this case she has two options. She can move to a state with a more favorable examination requirement and test there prior to testing to Hawaii (or) she can practice here for 5 years first. If I was in law school, option 2 would not be an option, because Philippines citizenship is a BAR requirement here.

Now I will say that in my experience the education facilities are quite different than the west. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself sitting on a plastic chair in an open air classroom, and eating adobo every day in the lunch room. My wife and I will both have some mini hurdles to navigate, but on the flip side, our tuition and living expenses are dirt cheap compared to Hawaii. Personally, I’m more than happy to deal with a few work arounds, if that means avoiding tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. Plus…really…the Philippines is kind of a fun place to kick around.

"Get your learn on!"