I’ve read about this technique before regarding productivity but didn’t honestly think much of it. I’ve been revisiting a lot of topics lately to see if I would have a different outlook on them on the second, or the third, or the fourth time around. Somehow this carries to training too. (more…)
There is no doubt that training more and with higher intensities will give you more flexibility with your diet. It can help you build a buffer zone calorie-wise so that the extra piece of aunt Betty’s cheese cake is less likely to park itself on your hips. (more…)
When I penned the first words for this post few months back I was struggling with clarity (more than usually, that is). But not necessarily in a way of “what’s the meaning of life?” or “who is Jon Snow’s father?”– kind of level.
No, rather that my mind was just a jumble of ideas, thoughts, goals, action steps and anything and everything in between. I felt as there wasn’t enough time in a day to get shit done.
And it was my own fault. Let me explain. (more…)
The goal of this article is not to scare you to stop your fitness efforts. Quite the opposite. The goal is to get you thinking if you could do better. (more…)
Rules, as boring as it may sound, are what gives life structure. And what comes with structure, maybe surprisingly to some, is freedom. (more…)
The fitness world is full of elitists who claim that their training system, program or philosophy is the best there is. And although I wouldn’t call myself “an elitist”, I am no exception. I’ve made the same assumptions in the past.
So how should you train? Honestly? However you damn well please. If it’s the Ultimate Arm Shredder 2500 and it keeps you coming back to the gym, have at it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Sure, some programs are better than others for getting yoked and others are better for building a huge number on the bench. But if your goal is not specifically lined up to get better at a certain sport (even then, the strength program itself is quite general), bodybuilding or strength sport such as powerlifting or Olympic lifting, things change.
“I personally can think about a million other things I’d rather do, including seeing the dentist.”
You don’t need to deadlift a kubelwagen, you don’t need to bench a medium sized farm animal and you don’t need to squat the sins of your forefathers. Unless that is what you want to do! And if you do, don’t let anyone tell you that you’re wrong.
Same goes with long distance running for fun. I personally can think about a million other things I’d rather do, including seeing the dentist. But don’t let me tell you that what you’re doing is wrong. Because I would’ve told you so in the past. Yes, it’s wrong if you don’t enjoy it but otherwise, whatevs.
But what if heavy sin squatting or running like Forest is not your jam and you just want to train to get better at the sport of life? Well, you can jump from program to program every 12 to 16 weeks. You can focus on goals that are irrelevant to the previous. It doesn’t matter. You can follow what excites you and keeps training interesting for you.
As an example, I’ve been known to bash training that focuses a lot on the aesthetics only. But here’s the thing. As I wrote recently, I was lacking the training motivation after hitting the 36kg Get Up (heaviest ‘bell in the gym, mind you. #highfive).
Nothing inspired me to train, I had no goal. Yes, I still showed up and got things done but I had no focus. I didn’t enjoy my sessions and I was never looking forward to the training time. Quite unlike me.
So what can I man do? I signed up for Jason Feruggia’s Renegade Strength Club do to something different and to give the reigns of my program design to someone else. And his philosophy of training is more of a “modern meathead” type. Basically, train to get yoked while feeling good.
And since starting it I’ve been looking forward to every single session because it’s “new” and different and his programs make me do stuff that I wouldn’t normally do. Like arms. I am doing bicep curls and actually loving it because it’s different. I haven’t done a curl in years.
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Instead of doing the endless cycles of high intensity fat loss and what not programs pick something to work on for the next 12 to 16 weeks.
“As long as you stay healthy, have a specific goal to work towards and balance things out over the year, you can focus on whatever you want.”
Improve your handstand or muscle up skills and ignore the CrossFit haters. Build to heavy get up and ignore the kettlebell haters. Do bicep curls as if you’d be the next cover model for Men’s Health and ignore the functional training purists.
The thing is, as long as you stay healthy, have a specific goal to work towards and balance things out over the year, you can focus on whatever you want. Even do those exercises on Instagram if it tickles your fancy.
As long as you stay safe and don’t try stupid ideas that are doomed to cause issues down the track (muscle ups while trying to shoot a shotgun while covered in coconut oil).
If you are training for the sport of life, it’s all fair game. No matter what the purists say.
“And that’s all I’ve got to say about that thing.” – Forrest Gump
I’ve written extensively (excessively, even?) on the benefits of finding your why to help you to stay motivated (or is it discipline?) and follow through with the activities that you’ve set out to do. (more…)
Most of my clients are Chads and Selmas who want to move, feel and look better. Folks who have jobs and run businesses that keeps them busy and limits how much time they have for exercise and movement each week. To say that most of them are training for the sport of life wouldn’t be too far out of line. (more…)
If there is one thing I hear more than anything else it’s “Joonas, what kind of conditioner do you use for your hair?” But, that’s not what this article is about. Which brings me to the second most often heard sentence, “Joonas, I am too busy to exercise.”
Well, it’s not always those exact words, but to keep things rolling that’s what it boils down to.
Finding and committing time for training can be hard, especially if your enjoyment level with exercise is somewhere on-par with getting root-canal done at the dentist. Hey, just being honest here since I know that a lot of people don’t enjoy training, at all.
That being said, I am yet to meet anyone who doesn’t enjoy the feeling after the fact, or can flat out deny that moving regularly hasn’t made a difference to their body and mind.
Which is why I keep hammering the importance of including some form of purposeful movement to your day every single day. Even if you don’t always have the motivation for it.
I am not asking you to throw everything out and make training your number one priority.
Let’s be honest here. It’s rare that you don’t have any time for exercise. Rather, you value other things more than movement so you are reacting to arising issues and pushing the scheduled training to the bottom of the list. Instead of proactively making exercise a priority.
I am not asking you to throw everything out and make training your number one priority. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that it’s the last thing I want you to do. But if you get it to be your fourth or fifth priority, after family, friends and work, well, now we are getting somewhere.
In real life, training could be even lower on the list but I include it in the same category as “health”. And for me at least, health is up there in the top five.
So how do we prioritize better? Effectiveness guru Stephen R. Covey, of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – fame, talks about four quadrants of time management.
I’ve taken the freedom to make the tasks more relevant to us.
Q1: Important and Urgent – Tasks that need to be done NOW. Or, yesterday. Usually stuff that Chad down the hall “delegates” to you.
Q2: Important and Non-Urgent – Planning and prevention so you can eliminate as many other quadrants in the future. Usually complicated tasks that when done right have a huge positive impact for the future. The results are not usually immediate which is why a lot of people avoid this quadrant.
Q3: Non-Important and Urgent – Facebook, email and stuff that “everyone else is doing it so it must be a priority”.
Q4: Non-Important and Non-Urgent – Similar to Q3 but just simply a bunch of time wasters. Things such as playing Candy Crush or watching The Kardashians* would most likely fall into here. By the way, Game of Thrones would fall into Q2. Seriously.
As you can tell, training, exercise, cooking healthy and tasty meals and tracking your yearly blood work would land in Q2. These are tasks that will make your life better in the future, but are hard to follow up since they can feel like time wasters at this moment. You don’t get that immediate positive feedback. Well, maybe with cooking you do.
You might think you are the captain of the ship but truthfully, you are someone else’s shitkicker.
It’s easy to fall into doing tasks Q1 because it feels like you are doing the busy work and ticking things of the list. It’s exhilarating! You feel like shit is getting done.
But you are likely reacting to matters that are important to other people, not necessarily to you or to your long-term plan. You might think you are the captain of the ship but truthfully, you are someone else’s shitkicker.
Then there are Q3 and Q4 that are so easy to fall into because most of the tasks here are somewhat pleasant. Or as is with Q1, they feel as if you are doing something important. Well, you are but without eyes on the long-term goals.
Answering to that fifth email from Chad on, whatever Chad writes about, is addictive. And sitting on the couch playing Candy Crush or watching what color nail polish Kim is going wear to the supermarket this morning is exciting! Or maybe it’s just me…
Anyhoo, important tasks that are not urgent require you to be more proactive. You have to take more initiative because it’s not something you can easily tick of the list as “done”. It’s an ongoing process of making things better for the long term.
I know you got excited but this has nothing to do with Top Gun.
It all comes down to what Covey calls your product (P) / product capacity (PC) balance. Turning things into health means your body is the P and what you can do with your body is PC. If all you do is focus on the PC while ignoring your P you will eventually run into a dead-end.
You will milk your body (sorry for the image) for all it’s resources while ignoring to maintain it as healthy as you can. Overtime this means less productivity, not only at work, but it also limits how much you can enjoy other aspects of your life outside of work.
You will milk your body for all it’s resources.
If you keep ignoring your health and daily movement practice long enough what you’ll notice is that Q1 activities will start to come up often.
You will get sick (need to react to this illness), you will move poorly, feel tight and sore, might even be in pain (need to react to this by getting physical therapy etc), you will feel like crap since you are not sleeping enough (need to make a speedball to stay awake – well, hopefully not, but still).
Ignoring Q2 is like fixing the leaking roof problem with a bucket to catch the water. Instead of actually sealing the ceiling with a silicon sealant (say that fast ten times).
*Getting all Kanye here.
For most people the first introduction to exercise is all about losing weight or keeping the weight off. Sure, there are those few rare exceptions that just start because of some other reason, but even then it’s often “I have a [insert a non-fat loss problem or an injury]. But I would also like to lose weight”. (more…)