Blog

  • A conversation about masturdating, and other topics

    Here’s a 22-minute podcast conversation about my 2018 book, Spandex Not Compulsory.

    The podcast is also 100% AI. I uploaded my book to NotebookLM to see what would happen. 

    Ended up being a solid overview of how I still approach lifelong health and fitness. But I guess it’s not surprising that I agree with it since it’s all based on my writing. 

    Even if some of the tactics I wrote about in 2018 feel like a hopeful dream right now:

    Batch cooking? Can’t remember the last time I batch cooked anything except muesli or cookies. 

    Checking emails twice a day? Yeah no.

    Masturdating? Over a year ago when I went to see Metallica.

    Anyway, give it a listen if you need to recalibrate your approach to health and fitness. 

    Or, just listen to it and marvel the world we live in. Wild.

    Share freely!

    Here’s the “podcast”.

    -J

  • Self-help for back pain

    I put together a science-based back pain resource for someone I know and thought you might find it helpful too.

    I wish I had known about this when I was dealing with my first bout of back pain in the early/mid-2010s. It would’ve made the recovery so much faster. 

    Start with this: 

    Lorimer Moseley’s Why Things Hurt

    Then, here are a few “case studies” from others who’ve dealt with what you’re going through (or worse): 
    Lauren Cannell’s A new way to think about pain

    Steve’s Story

    Ethne’s Story

    All the other stories on that page are worth listening to too. 

    To further build your pain-science knowledge and separate the facts from myths:

    Essential Pain Facts

    Understanding Pain in less than 5 minutes, and what to do about it

    The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain

    Exercise for Persisting Pain

    Some of that will overlap, but it’s worth learning and understanding. 

    Last, a few takeaways from my most recent back pain episode:

    A few (hopefully) helpful thoughts about my recent adventures with back pain

    -J

  • Let’s say there’s no free will

    And let’s assume that instead of forcing our actions with free will, everything we do is based on our previous experiences.

    Those previous experiences are based on our previous-previous experiences. And so on.

    And those early previous experiences when we were born and had no previous experiences?

    Those were based on the previous experiences of our parents, and our surroundings. And so on.

    If everything we do is guided by what happened before, this has some implications for changing habits and behaviours.

    Because the success of these changes doesn’t come down to our resilience, grit or whatever. It comes down to what came before.

    And if we’re not lucky enough to have the resilience, grit or whatever from our previous experiences, at what point do we accept that maybe these changes we’re trying to achieve are not going to work?

    Maybe our previous experiences mean that we’re stuck. We can’t free will our way through.

    On the upside, not having free will would mean that we can be much more forgiving to ourselves (and others) when things don’t go the way we want them to.

    It also reinforces the case against any cookie-cutter approach to behavioural change.

    What am I missing here? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

    -J

    ps. This is just one of the questions I have reading Determined: Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky.

  • Ok, so this is probably not for you

    It’s definitely not for me. But it’s inspirational nevertheless.

    Since 1989, more than 1,000 ultramarathoners have attempted the Barkley Marathons in Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee. But only 20 have ever finished the 100-mile course, which includes about 16,500 metres of elevation – the equivalent of climbing Everest twice – within the 60-hour time limit.

    And:

    Paris’s success was the culmination of months of training every morning from 5am to 7.45am, before her two children were up and she started work. “The most I ran was 90 miles a week, but probably with the walking it was more like 120 or 130 miles,” she says. “In terms of practising for the ascent, I also did 11-12,000 metres some weeks from hill reps or the stair climber.

    “I was also doing strength sessions as well, which were a big help,” she adds. “Most people probably don’t know, but I’ve got no anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee, because I tore it when I was 17 and never had reconstructive surgery. I know some medics who are quite surprised I can do so much off-road terrain running.”

    Here’s the full article.

    -J

  • The biggest downside of training at home

    It’s not the fact that you don’t have all the equipment you could dream of. I actually think that’s an upside.

    A more minimalist training setup means that you’ll spend less time distracted by the latest shiny object and more time training.

    The biggest downside, at least for those of us with kids, is that it’s often hard to have that interruption-free block of time for training. When you train at a gym, you’re there. The kids, the partner, the dog, and the cat are at home—or at least not where you are. It’s your time.

    Now, it’s possible to make this work with home training as well. Put the TV on, ask your partner to entertain the kids, train when everyone else is asleep, whatever. But whether you always get that time is a different story, regardless of how well you might’ve planned it.

    In the end, you’re under the same roof. And a few things are more distracting than having a child burst through the door in the middle of a kettlebell swing.

    -J

  • Here’s a “pill” to reduce hot flushes

    A new study shows that resistance training has a significant effect on reducing the severity and frequency of hot flashes in post-menopausal women.

    “Statistical analysis shows that vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes) were more common in the control group and decreased significantly in the resistance training group after the intervention”

    Here’s the study. 

    Good time to pick up that kettlebell.

    -J

     

     

  • Anything works with one caveat

    If you only care about general fitness for general life stuff, almost anything and everything will work. You don’t need a program or a plan.

    Just focus on hitting two or three 30-minute strength training sessions each week. Top that with some cardio and get in your daily steps.

    But even if you don’t need a plan, you still need to manage fatigue and training intensity.

    Going easy in every workout won’t do much for your progress.

    Going hard in every workout is even worse.

    -J

  • Here’s how to make those workouts more rewarding

    According to self-determination theory, we’re all driven by three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

    When these three are in place, we’re much more likely to feel motivated to keep going instead of forcing ourselves forward with raging willpower.

    Here’s how to use self-determination theory to help you stick with your workouts.

    Autonomy means feeling in control and making your own choices about your training routine and goals. As long as you have the right principles in place, the tactics you can choose are almost endless.

    Competence is about experiencing a sense of mastery as you get stronger and see improvements in your training and how it transfers to your hiking. Another reason why you want a solid foundation of training principles to stand on.

    Relatedness involves feeling supported by others, whether that’s friends, a community of like-minded people, a coach, or a combination of all three.

    When you feel autonomous in your training, confident in your ability to progress, and part of a community, you’ll be driven by intrinsic motivation that makes strength training feel more like a reward instead of an obligation.

    -J

  • Here’s how to guarantee failure

    Only setting short-term goals and focusing on the day-to-day is guaranteed to make you feel like a failure.

    When you have a tight fitness goal to reach, every rep, set and day counts. But as you well know, life has a way of not giving two shits about your plans.

    Your fitness understandably takes the backseat when you or the kids get sick, or when your work overpowers you into submission. And if you’re focused on the short-term impact all that will have on your fitness, you will feel like a failure. And it can really zap your motivation

    But if you zoom out to six months, or a year, you’ll notice that those days, or weeks, you missed, don’t make any difference. They’re not a glitch in your plan, but an unescapable feature of your progress.

    Fitness that’s based on the realities of life is never linear. So when you feel like you’re failing, zoom out.

    -J

  • You’re not helping

    I was listening to a podcast of a fitness professional sharing her insights on all things health and fitness. Half way through I got annoyed by how almost all of her answers started with an example of what she does in her day-to-day.

    Now, it can be helpful to occasionally get an overview of what a subject-matter-expert does. If only for inspiration. I sometimes share those things too.

    But if all the advice is based on “this is what I do”, who are we really helping?

    No one. Unless you are exactly like me, with my personality, circumstances, likes, dislikes, and lifestyle, sharing tactics about what I do isn’t the answer you need.

    What’s the alternative then?

    Instead of learning tactics, learn principles. And then make them work with your personality, circumstances, likes, dislikes, and lifestyle.

    -J