Category: Daily

Almost everything works when you aim to improve general health, fitness and strength.

Pick a plan, or do random workouts. Both work as long as you progressively challenge the qualities you want to improve.

The guardrails go up when the goal is more specific.

That multi-day hike that’s coming up? You need a plan that challenges the lungs, muscles, and all the rest with carry-over to the task you want to complete.

Generic workouts for generic goals. Specific plans for specific goals.

Both have their place. What you do right now depends on your current goals.

-J

“Workout companies and fitness studios are constantly competing for business with all sorts of gimmicks and tricks to draw people in.”

“Fitness is experienced in this country [Joonas: the USA, but could be said of any country in the West] mostly as a consumer product, so the rules of the markets apply to exercise almost more than the rules of science or health,”… “There is this constant cycle of exercise trends mostly because there’s the need to keep creating new products and flashy experiences for people to spend money on.”

“If the point of your workout is to get in cardiovascular activity, the kind of workout that you’re ultimately doing isn’t all that different, whether you’re running on a treadmill or dancing around in a studio”….“It’s not so much a different exercise modality that’s being sold to you as much as it is a different way of doing it or a different package,”

Here’s the article. 

Change what you do if you want to try something new. Perhaps to keep things interesting.

But the new thing isn’t going to be any more effective than the old thing. It’s the same thing with a new label.

What matters is showing up and doing the work. Regardless of the label.

-J

Come January 1st, a bunch of folks are kicking off the year with a diet. Cutting carbs and whatever else is in vogue.

Maybe you’re one of them.

Most will fail to make noticeable progress before they give up. Those who do see results will revert to their starting point within the next six months. Only to repeat that cycle the following year.

Because they don’t have the patience to slow down.

There’s nothing wrong with restrictive, short-term diets.

As long as you’ve first built a solid foundation of healthy eating habits.

And have a firm grasp on managing your sleep, recovery and rest.

So, if you have January 1st circled in your calendar in red, consider these two options:

a) Go hard, and maybe get some good results quickly. And likely revert to your starting point by June.

b) Go slow, build the foundation, and see average results in the short term. And then witness those results compound over the year as your foundation strengthens.

Your call.

-J

“Compared with men, they [women] report higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression and burnout, while also performing the lion’s share of care work. They feed their families while food costs soar… Running alongside this imbalance are the familiar pressures to enhance the body, radiate poise, master impulses (hunger, rage) and perfect the contortions required of the double standard. It is no wonder, in this field of outsized expectations, that wellness has found a ready market among women.”

“Wellness, she argues, presents collective social ills as problems for the individual to solve through some alchemy of consumer behavior. Joining a union would arguably deliver greater benefit than downloading another meditation app, but the wellness market presents the latter as a logical solution to work-related stress and deteriorating mental health.”

“Everything about the language of wellness is designed to push the goal lines further and further out of reach,” she says. “You never arrive at a point to go like, ‘Oh, I’m well now.’ There’s always something else we could be doing.” As a result, there is no resting place because we can never fully restore what’s been lost, and there is always a greater state of enhancement to attain.”

Here’s the article. 

-J

You strength train because you care about your health.

It’s not easy. You wouldn’t consider it as your favorite pastime.

You might not even enjoy it.

But you value the physical and mental benefits.

So you keep showing up.

-J

These studies are about young female cross-country skiers. But they highlight a trend I’ve noticed coaching women over 40 who are into running and other recreational endurance activities:

Not eating enough calories to support their activities. Especially around training time.

This can hurt your performance and recovery. And when you’re not getting enough food when you need it, it’s easier to make poorer food choices later on.

“Young female cross-country skiers had similar EA (energy availability) and CHO intake over four training periods. Both EA and CHO intake were at suboptimal levels for performance and recovery.” Here’s the study. 

This second study highlights one potential solution to eating enough for your goals—having adequate nutrition knowledge.

“In conclusion, young female cross-county skiers had difficulties meeting recommendations for optimal EA and carbohydrate intake. Better nutrition knowledge may help young athletes to meet these recommendations.” Here’s the second study.

-J

No.

If you’re happy with where you are, and things are chugging along nicely to keep you there, you do not need to plan a whole lot.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with chugging along and staying where you are.

That’s probably where we should spend most of our time.

But when you want to move forward (or laterally) to make a change, you need to plan.

-J

As you might know, Monday is when my clients and I look back on the last week and plan for this week.

There is a strong correlation between the plan and the success of the week ahead.

Yes, shit happens. But in general, the more thorough (but not rigid) the plan, the higher the odds for a successful week.

Here’s a plan from one of the clients to show you the detail it takes to move forward with your goals.

Now, how does your plan for the week look like? Hit reply and let me know.

-J

There are no simple answers. There’s no ONE thing standing between you and the results you dream of.

There’s no secret to getting where you want to be.

You will not transform your fitness, health, and life in 6 or 12 weeks.

The results you dream of are a culmination of a bunch of things coming together.

All the information you could ever need is freely available.

And those initial weeks start the process of transformation.

Promises of a solution based on ONE thing, some secret finally uncovered, or sustainable transformation in 6 to 12 weeks?

All lies.

-J

You already know about the physical benefits of strength training.

But strength training also improves mental resilience, sharpens cognitive abilities, and helps with emotions.

And by doing so, strength training is the glue that binds together the things that are an essential part of a fulfilling life.

And it’s freely available. All you have to do is to start.

-J