Category: Daily

Fellow subscriber Robert Y. sent in a question earlier this week (shared with permission and shortened here by me).

“How to incorporate everything I need in my training? Mobility, endurance strength. I’m retired so I have the time, but I don’t want to train 9 hours/day. As a former strength athlete I’m trying to rehabilitate my abused body focusing on cardio and some mobility stuff. Putting it all together, and working in some strength training in a workable program would be ideal.“

“I do a lot of research on the subject and have studied fitness and strength training for years, but I’ve yet to find a workable solution.”

And here’s my reply.

It’s tough to chase more than a one goal at a time.

1. What’s the level of mobility you need to feel you’ve rehabilitated your “abused” body?
2. What’s the level of cardio? 
3. What’s the level of strength you want to achieve? 

Can you set specific goals for all of them? So that you know when you get there.

Out of those three goals, what’s the most urgent? Depending on the urgency, devote 60%-80% of your available training time to reach that goal. 

Split the remaining training time between the other two goals. That should be enough to maintain them, even progress them slightly. Once you reach the first goal, rotate to the next goal on the list. 

With mobility, once you get it to a level you’re happy with, you should be able to maintain most of it with a well rounded strength program. As long as your mobility goals are not on Cirque du Soleil level.

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Hope that helps!

– J

I enjoy vacuuming. Of all the choices in the domestication canon, vacuuming has to be my favorite. Just to be clear, it’s not like go looking for places to vacuum for fun. But, still. Vacuuming has its own kind of weird, loud attraction to it.

Yet, my recent history with vacuuming is anything but rosy. When we moved I became a stereotypical, vacuum hating “I’ll mop the floor and do the dishes instead” kind of guy. To give you some context, most days I would have rather gone to the IKEA pillow section than run circles with the old dust buster. And the nearest IKEA is a half a day’s drive away.

But I knew this could only go on for so long.

The day I examined my negative bond with the vacuum cleaner.

I realised that our vacuum cleaner has an abnormally short cord. It used to be the standard length (as far as I can tell with zero research about it), but we had the cord changed a while back. And the fine folks fixing it must’ve replaced the old cord with a toaster cord. Which is just long enough to do a room and bit at a time.

So each time I’d vacuum, I’d do one room, unplug, fiddle with the socket in the next room, plug the damn thing in, vacuum that room, and then repeat the process a few more times to get the entire house done.

Talk about a scarring experience. I had had enough.

I went and got a 15 meter extension cord. This allows us to get the entire house done without unplugging the red, loud, battle-scarred hell-on-three-wheels. And as they say in the best kind of movies, the rest is history.

Sometimes, we need to take a step back.

And look at our struggles with a curious mind.

Forcing healthy eating habits or trying to hopelessly claw on to your strength training routine doesn’t always work when there are invisible constraints in your life.

It could be unmanaged stress or anxiety, lack of sleep, demanding family life, work, wine, or late night Better Caul Saul marathons. All of those can derail the most well thought out plans. Regardless of the motivation burning under your heels.

It’s easier to march forward once you find and fix your invisible constraints. Unfortunately, most of them can’t be fixed with a 15 meter extension cord.

– J

The end goal, the performance goal, the process goal. Depending on your personality, you’ll likely prefer one type over the other two.

When setting my own goals, I am all for process goals. I do use the other two as well. But when I get fixated on the end or the performance goal, I become a jittery ball of anxiety.

Maybe you’re the opposite and tend to ignore the process goals. Either way, too much focus on one type of goal is often what holds us back from achieving what we set out to do.

In the perfect goal setting scenario, we’d all set a goal or two in each of the three categories.

The end goal

Probably the most straightforward goal to set. Regardless of your personality.

Some examples of end goals:

– Climb the Everest base camp and return without dying (or getting someone else killed)
– Return playing weekend soccer after an injury
– Do activities with the family on the weekends without knee pain
– Complete three weekly workouts with moderate intensity without feeling wiped out afterwards

The end goals are usually where people get carried away and set the bar way too high. By trying to do the impossible: Win Jean-Claude Van Damme in a dance-off.

Or by setting a goal that’s next to impossible to reach in the given timeframe: Punch my shadow six weeks from now.

You get the idea. Demotivation ensues.

The performance goal

This can easily overlap the end goal category. Especially when the end goal is also a performance goal.

Some performance goal examples:

– Reduce the time of the biweekly 20km hike. Gradually increase the backpack to 20kg
– Run sprints and practice cutting without soreness in the operated leg
– Do sets of goblet squats pain free and complete a one full push up

If your end goal is more along the lines of a performance goal, I’d encourage to find a lower level performance goal as well. Something that can act as midway mark. Or two thirds way mark. Or six eights way mark.

Any fraction really that feels worthy of doing.

The process goal

It’s all well to set ambitious end and process goals. But without actionable process goals, they’re just distant dreams.

Good, focused process goals build the path to the end goal.

And when you struggle or when the end goal feels like a distant relative you’ve never met, the process goals can carry you through. They help you focus on the present.

– Take 5 minutes to meditate each day
– Show up for 2-3 weekly strength workouts
– Practice push ups each day
– Eat a carrot and an orange each day (why not?)

And I know this has been beaten to death but…

When setting any kind of goals, use the SMART goal setting principles. As, sigh, incorporated as it sounds:

Specific: Is your goal simple and unambiguous to define?

Measurable: How do you know when you arrive?

Achievable: Do you have what it takes to get there? Time, resources…

Realistic: See above about JCVD dance-off.

Timely: When are you going to get there (for end and performance goals)? When are you going to do it (for process goals)?

Here’s the juice of it

When setting your health and fitness goals, aim for a goal or two in all three categories:

1. The end goal
2. The performance goal
3. The process goal

Using the SMART goal setting principle. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.

– J

And here’s a tune to kick off the weekend. Her voice is something else.

I’ve said how I prefer to rely on intuition and “feelings” to assess where my health and fitness is at. Part of that is justified. I disagree with the trend of the glorified tracking of absolutely everything. It’ll only distract most people from what truly matters, taking action.

That, and I believe that relying too heavily on data will further dampen our intuition.

Yet part of my tech rebellion is based on a pink coloured, romanticised view I have of the past. A longing for the simpler times (hear me go, I sound like I was born in the 1920s. Someone play Ain’t Misbehavin’ on the gramophone and pour me a boulevardier).

But I don’t live in a vacuum. Harnessing the right technology can and will help us in our quest for a healthier future. Both individually and as a whole.

All of which brings me to a platform that my buddy Nick Harris has been cooking for the last three years. Optimal Humans app, or a fancy pants “personal health and fitness advisor in your pocket”.

And it’s out now.

Unlike other apps, Optimal Humans tracks the relationship between your performance, behaviour and biometrics. Once it knows enough about your current health and fitness, it’ll proactively prescribe solutions to your underlying limitations. Allowing you to reach your health and fitness goals faster.

You can download and use it for free to gain a better understanding of your health and fitness. And how to move past whatever’s holding you back from being your most optimal self. By learning from some of Australia’s top health and fitness experts.

I know Nick’s got big ambitions for what the app can do for your health. Both now and with the future releases. But instead of me trying to explain it, get a front row seat by downloading the app from the App Store.

It’s dope.

-J

First, the decision to start. To accept that there will never be a perfect time. So you might as well start now. Even if you’re low on time. Even if you can’t give your 100%.

Because, who isn’t low on time? And can anyone with an actual life give their 100%? Ever? With anything? I don’t think so. Like marriage, having kids or standing at the muesli aisle, it’s all about a compromising.

Not compromising your values or beliefs, but letting other less important things sometimes slide.

Second, the strength and courage to show up. Put it in your calendar. Set a reminder. Arrange your day in a way that you can show up. Book your training for a time that you’re more likely to show up.

Know ins and outs of your energy levels. If you’re not a morning person, don’t decide to train first thing in the morning. Maybe you’ll get there, eventually. But for now, why make it harder than it already is?

Third, the will and determination to build consistency. Regardless of the day, mood, or the circumstances you’re in. Stick to the training days you set in the beginning. If on some days it means that you can only do a quarter of your workout, so be it.

Like Tony Iommi’s fingers, do the best you can with what you’ve got. Turned out alright for him. It will for you too.

Fourth, to expect nothing. Not immediately, anyway. People fail because they expect instant rewards. Focus on building consistency and creating momentum.

The result will follow.

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While we’re at it, what do you need help with? What topics you’d like me to write more about?

Reply to this email and let me know.

Or don’t. Either way, we’re cool.

-J

It’s incredible to watch how little (zero) encouragement most young kids need to move. To watch what they can do or what they’re trying and failing to do. And how little they need to get excited about it all.

I’ve got a two spare double mattresses in my home office. In the past I would’ve donated them to a charity. But now, I am holding on to them. With teeth. Because our kids use them to bounce off the walls.

Tackling them, climbing them (when one’s upright), bouncing around, running circles, rolling, jumping off them, wrestling, somersaults… And it’s not like I am asking them to do it. They’re demanding to enter the padded room.

Usually accompanied by music. Music that, for a standard adult, is the equivalent of a rusty spoon stirring the brain through the ear canal (“Put on Paw Patrol song!”). On repeat.

This circus can go on for an hour. With tight three second hydration pit stops in the middle. It’s incredible to watch. The energy of it all.

But the best part of it is that there’s no end goal to any of this. The point is to just move in any way humanly possible.

Then, at some age, this interest in movement grinds to a halt. Some of it is just biology. We get older. Some of it is environmental. Most of us swap movement for sitting. I think school has a lot to do with this. “Sit still!” “Don’t move!” But I’ll save that rant for another post.

Yet, it’s not too late for us adults to redeem ourselves. We can learn a thing or two from how kids approach movement.

When’s the last time you physically tried something that you haven’t done before, or recently?

For no other reason than to just do it.

Now, I am not saying you need to put on Friends’ theme song on repeat and bounce in your garden or balcony for an hour. (Although, why not?)

For some of us, it might be just as simple as learning to touch toes or sitting in a deep squat. Others might want to try backflips into the pool. Most of us can re-start somewhere in the middle.

When it comes to movement, young kids can teach us a lot. Regardless of our age.

If you feel like your fitness isn’t where you want it to be. If you feel stuck.

If you crave for something better. If you can see a stronger, fitter future for yourself.

There’s a good chance you don’t need more training knowledge. You know enough.

You don’t need to find a new training program. That’s not what’s missing.

It’s likely that you’ve already gained enough nutrition information. And you definitely don’t have to wait for the next diet trend.

But you probably knew all of that already.

What you need right now is action. You need structure.

You need to set a specific, measurable and time-based goal.

You need to break it into actionable steps. And you need the accountability to stick to it.

As long as your life circumstances allow it. Now might not be a good time.

After a while, the lack of results is rarely about the lack of knowledge. And even when we know this, it’s sometimes good to get a reminder.

It gets us to pause. We can reflect on the situation we’re in and find our place on the map.

Before deciding on what to do.

During my twenties, I was all about the fitness lifestyle. Counting calories, carrying food in Tupperware containers, and training like a donkey on speed.

I was also feeling unhealthy, unfulfilled, and constantly injured because of it.

When I eventually realised that the mountain I thought I was building was actually a hole I had dug, I knew I didn’t want to stay in it. Being a fitness addict wasn’t working.

I looked at everything I was doing, used it to guide me going forward, and slowly adopted a more reasonable, balanced approach to health and fitness.

When your health and fitness aren’t where you want them to be…

It helps to stop and look back at what you’ve tried in the past. And how would this look if you’d do the opposite?

And then gradually take the steps that take you there.

-J

ps. Here’s a more elaborate version of my fitness addiction.

 

There’s one situation where I like to count calories with clients for a week.

To make sure they’re eating enough. Especially in the first half of the day.

Eating enough in the first half of the day is a great way to dial in hunger cues,