It’s been a while since I posted one of these. And as always, it goes all over the place. Training, life, health, writing, nuclear physics, dungeons & dragons…
It’s all in small snippets of text, making it a relatively easy read.
Heavy strength for 2 weeks, hypertrophy for 2 weeks, alternate forever. Simplest training template in the history of ever? But it doesn’t work for most because it’s too simple in terms of “fun”.
I am sick of marketing, click-baits, empty promises, unnecessary hype and everything that goes with those four.
Weight maintenance challenge. Don’t gain any weight for a year.
Strength challenge. Be stronger in one aspect/movement after a year.
Kettlebell swing: on eccentric don’t hinge until biceps touch rib cage, then get out of the way and think throwing the kettlebell through the the wall behind you. Don’t let go, obviously.
Anti-inflammatory foods to take? Supplementing curcuming. From Examine.com: Supplementation of curcumin in the range of 80-500mg would be required assuming an enhancement. Curcumin is poorly absorbed inherently. Pair curcumin with black pepper (piperine).
“If you are constantly putting out fires you haven’t figured out a pattern yet.” – Perry Marshall
The deepest connection in stories comes from small details.
Writing is my jam. Face to face coaching is my jam. For now, professionally, everything else can wait.
“Wisdom involves delayed gratification” – Bret Weinstein
How to make programs less data driven, more flexible? How to make it more fun?
“Goal dictates the training program. Not the screen.” – Charlie Weingroff
Satisfaction lies in illusions. – GN’R
In the west we have created cages for ourselves limiting our physical movement.
“Having the leg raise but not toe touch means that it’s not a lower body issue. Could be weight shift problem. If there’s a problem shifting weight in toe touch it’s not going to carry well to deadlift or swing.” – Gray Cook (paraphrased)
“Toe touch progression: clear leg raise, toes elevated (stretch post calves etc) squeeze roller between knees (activate adductors activates core inhibits lateral leg) reach the sky and to toes, repeat with toes down.
If unable to touch toes during the drill bent knees to “make it challenging but successful, trying to extend knees a bit more each time”. – Gray Cook (paraphrased)
Eat what’s in season. Make training seasonal.
Depressed scap, avoid overhead pulling and pushing. Turn lats “off” and work on reaching, PRI works here. | Retracted scap, limit horizontal pulling, work on reaching.
“If there isn’t a way to improve your odds, it’s not clear why it’s worth a lot of time or worry.” – Seth Godin
“The buying race is over. Amazon won. The shopping race, though, the struggle to create experiences that are worth paying for, that’s just beginning.” – Seth Godin
“One day, do 5×5 at 70%. There will be very little risk of failure, but the last couple of sets will be surprisingly tough. Another day do doubles at 90%. There is a much higher risk of failure for each rep, but you should be able to get five sets much easier. In both cases, you are working hard, but differently. On the first day, you are emphasising volume. On the second day, you are emphasising intensity. For me (N=1), the magic seems to happen mostly with a volume approach, but then with a little intensity now and then.” – RupertC on Dan John forum
You can be successful (whatever that means to you) while living on your own terms and not getting caught on what everyone thinks you should do. If you doubt it listen to this interview with Jeff Daniels.
“It’s your ability to handle the information, not the ability to find it” – Mike Boyle
More natural movement with variety. For general health we don’t need heavy, repetitive lifting. At least not all the time. But, it’s fun at times.
“As long as you do the five movements a couple of times a week and stretch what’s tight, there isn’t much else that needs to be done. And if you look at it like that, there doesn’t have to be a program per se.” – Dan Martin (Of course, why something feels tight is another thing)
“A child who learns how to delay gratification in school, music class, martial art, or sports is better positioned to meet the discipline challenges of later life.” – Frank Forencich
“It’s easier to create a behavioral change when moving towards something and not away from it.” – Mark Fisher
“The best defense against the onslaught of competition is to maintain an unwavering focus on the needs of your customers: keep delivering them what they want.” – Sam Walton of Walmart
Write. Even if you don’t make sense. Even if it’s disjointed. Even if you think it’s all shit. Resist the urge to go back. Edit later.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin
In a world of short attention span, addicted to flicking down the screen to refresh and worrying about the online image – do the opposite by focusing on quality, long form content. Social media only distracts you from work that can actually make a difference. When you write about things that people find interesting, they’ll find you. You can’t buy attention with non-important work.
“Live your beliefs and you can change the world around you.” -Henry David Thoreau
Vonnegut offers eight essential tips on how to write a short story:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few page.
(9.) Also, good writers break most, if not all of these rules.
Conditioning session: 1min at 90% HRM : 1min active recovery x10
“Airline food service typically hews to the schedule of the departure time zone. Food is a powerful circadian entrainer, so this prolongs your body’s adaptation to the new time. I hew my eating to the schedule of the arrival time zone. This hastens my body’s adaptation.” – Mark Sisson
Introduce more self-limiting exercises. We evolved lifting unbalanced loads. To be strong you need to align the body (think bottom up press)
“Never resisting a generous impulse.” – Phil Caravaggio
Movement flow can spark creativity in the brain too.
Utilize no smartphone policy for online coaching. Clients need to be literate enough to write and edit proper emails.
Reach out to work with wounded veterans.
Most successful business people have had a mentor at some point.
Bring value to the world to stop trading time for money.
“It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang onto.” – Elon Musk
“I think an audience always wants two things. They want to feel at home and they want to be surprised. You’ve got to have that X factor. If you don’t have that, you’re dead in the water.” – Bruce Springsteen
“Now I need a song about [a certain subject].” I’ve never written like that. I’ve always written about what’s pressing itself upon me to write at a given moment. – Bruce Springsteen
“List ten things you love, and ten things you hate. Then write about the former, and “kill” the later — also by writing about them. Do the same with your fears.” – Ray Bradbury
“Achieving 80% of what you want in life might be enough. You’re still hungry but don’t run out of goals and become unhappy.” – Lou Schuler. (It also leaves room to get good at a lot of things instead of putting all eggs in one bucket. Makes your life more interesting.) I wrote a post about this.
Leave reps in the tank after a workout. Leave ideas in the tank after a writing session. Do the daily quota and stop. And idea from Michael Malice on Pat Flynn Show.
When rehabbing hamstring tendinopathy: check anterior pelvic tilt, check glutes in quadruped, work anterior core. Hamstring loading progression: isometric – eccentric – concentric. This might be where a bit of pain 3-4/10 is ok. Get a cushion if doing a lot of sitting. Frequent SMR or manual therapy.
The difference between success and reaching your goal.
“Difference between true and unwarranted fear. True intuition based fear is based on something happening in your environment and presence right now. Unwarranted fear is based on your memory, thought. It’s anxiety based.” – Gavin De Becker (paraphrased from Waking Up – podcast)
“Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.” – Leo Babauta
Volunteer work ideas:
– Starlight to play a character for sick kids
– Take dogs for a walk from pound
– Free outdoor training group
– Work with veterans
People don’t reject you. They reject your idea, your joke, the character you played. It’s not a validation of you as a person.
5% challenge. Give a away 5% of your income to services you would otherwise use for free, a charity that’s important to you, busking musicians, or tip more when eating out. – an idea from Noah Kagan
Glutes won’t work properly without getting the correct feedback from ankle. Poor ankle mobility = poor glute activation. Fix ankle first. Dorsiflexion and hip extension work together.
Buy a simple camera that allows you to take only black and white photos and has no fancy functions. Beauty through limitations.
Most of guitar is about what you can’t hear, the strings your are able to mute. So is with a good life too, you have to mute what’s not important.
30min walk with a heavy backpack.
William James decided to conduct a little experiment: spend one year believing that you are 100 percent responsible for everything that occurred in your life, no matter what.
“Finding yourself” can cement you into a strict role with unnecessary expectations, and close you off to potential and opportunities.” – Mark Manson
Read this when struggling with inspiration, direction…
Accentuate the trivial.
Think your gym as a university. What’s the next step for the client?
Outline when the idea and thought is fresh in your head. The enthusiasm comes through. Outline, sit on it for a half a day or a day and then write.
Intro, Meat (objections, questions, issues), Outro.
Just because it sounds like a question doesn’t mean it is. Sometimes you just have to be the sounding board. Acknowledge how the person feels.
Dan John on building an intentional community:
“If you can get ONE more person, who takes it seriously…it will work. At first, try to get everyone to bring something…food, equipment, water, whatever. Ownership at some level helps. Always ask for what people want to work on…most will say I don’t care. Whenever someone shares something and it becomes part of the program, that’s a win. Don’t get overly tired…make it all about leaving feeling better. Try not to go too far down any wormhole, if you know what I mean, don’t turn it into a show or a contest or whatever. Laugh. A lot.”
Someone else chimed in, “Regularly go somewhere where people can see you and do your thing by yourself with a smile on your face. When someone asks questions, answer them. If someone asks to join you, welcome them.”