There are few major, but easy to fix, training mistakes that strike a tuneless chord in my cerebral cortex. If you feel like your training and progress feels like driving a rusty, Moses-era-Swedish-Saab, held together by duct tape and chewing gum, the handbrake permanently on, running on prayers and borrowed time, try doing (or, stop doing) these. (more…)
Once we decide that we want something we usually want it now. Not tomorrow or ten week from now but now, dammit! Obviously it’s ok to want something now. But the issue with now is that we seek for instant gratification and it clouds our rational thinking as we only focus on the short-term solution. (more…)
I had a great dinner the other night when I caught up for beers with few mates. I ate beer battered fish and chips with tartar sauce and shared two massive plates of chilli cheese fries. I flushed it all down with four beers and two ciders. It was glorious. And although some people might call it a “cheat meal”, it wasn’t anything of sort. It was just another meal. (more…)
The world is plagued with the mindset of more. Work longer hours and sacrifice sleep so you can make more money to buy a bigger house. Buy more stuff to fill up the empty space. Owning more shit doesn’t mean that you are doing better in life. It just means that you own more shit.
We have the same more is better mindset with exercise too. But more is not better, better is better. If exercising hurts, or if you are sick and run down, it’s your body telling you to either stop or to slow down. It’s a safety mechanism to protect the body. It’s not a weakness leaving the body, or no pain no gain. It’s the warning light is on, slow the fuck down because your wheels are coming off. (more…)
The first time I left Finland for a longer trip was in September 2005. Me and a childhood friend spent the summer planning the trip that involved a last minute passport update and visa issue that almost ruined the takeoff. But eventually we bought the tickets and took the ride, stepping on the plane with an elementary school skill level of English, thick Finnish accents, and a lot of attitude. (more…)
Gone are the days when most people had to earn living by farming and other physical jobs. We don’t have to climb a tree to enjoy a banana or use a shovel to dig up our daily dose of potatoes. Neither do we have to get out into the wild to shoot some form of protein for the plate. If you are like me, you do most of your hunting through the supermarket aisles trying to figure out where the hell they keep the dried chickpeas. (more…)
Nobody will know who you were or what you did. In three generations from today the future Peters, Pauls and Paulas will care very little about your lifetime achievements.
That is if they even dig into your deep family history. And if they do, they’ll probably see your name and go, “oh cool”, and on the go to the next name.
(more…)You already have what it takes to fix yourself. What you might need is guidance and
Training for general health and wellbeing is really simple.
Although I published Spandex Not Compulsory only two and a half years ago (wrote the program three years ago) I now look at the training program in it with a disgust. It’s way too complicated. It’s clear I was trying to prove how smart I was by adding all sorts of nonsense in it.
To be clear, the basics of it are still sound. The actual training plan is still a ok. And it works. But there’s just so much bloat around it that is hard to stomach now.
Training itself is simple. Something that I follow with most clients at the moment follows a this template of
A1 Lower body power
A2 Upper body power
A3 Core or carry
B1 Lower body strength
B2 Upper push strength
B3 Upper pull strength
For those who like to keep their heart rate higher during the session I might add a B4 or C1. Depending on the person’s preferences and goals. That can be swings, slams, marches, crawls…
That’s it. Warm up can be anything that takes the body through full ranges of motion. Downward dogs and spidermans, squats and reaches, ninja kicks and Al Pacino monologues. Whatever elevates the tissue temperature and raises the heartrate. Simple.
