“My goal is to lose two pounds a week for six weeks”
"My goal is to lose two pounds a week for six weeks." Is that a good goal? I had this very question from a very committed middle-aged coaching client just a few days ago. I'll post a chunk of what he said, and then I'll show you my response: I was thinking I need a concrete, near term target to hit. Here’s what I was thinking: Setting a weight goal for the next six weeks. I think having my...
Haterade and personal standards
There are many qualities I wish I had or I wish that I spent more time developing. One trait I’m glad I’m not particularly saddled with is "envy-hater." If I see someone like a celebrity with an incredible physique my go-to emotion is always a 50/50 mix of joy and inspiration, and never, "yeah, well...” As in "yeah, well..." "they don’t work and have all the time in the world to train." "they...
A hidden benefit of tracking your macros
Poke for breakfast? Yes please. I could eat this five times a day and be happy. And it would make for very easy tracking, too, even on vacation. That's something I don't bother with currently. But this certainly doesn't mean tracking macros is never worthwhile. On the contrary, everyone should track at least once in their life, AND whenever they want to "take their body somewhere," such as when...
Go for a walk
Weight training is the greatest form of exercise. The transformative effect it has on the body has no equal and it's critical for mitigating the effects of both aging and our “modern” lifestyle. But while there's no substitute for lifting, it does have a perfect complement: walking. A brisk walk might not be a momentous calorie burner (neither is weight training for that matter) but that’s a...
Rocky and Son: Genetics and Discipline
Here's the late Rocky Johnson and his jacked-at-50 son, Dwayne. It's been noted that the elder Johnson liked to party and drink and had young children with two women. So to provide for his two families, he adopted a frugal lifestyle and lived on “beer, sliced cheese, and bologna.” And the dude looked like THAT? How? Johnson senior benefited from great genetics for building muscle & looking...
Forget you’re on a diet.
There are many cutting-edge tips and tricks and "biohacks" that reportedly help you lose fat faster. Most of them will provide you with little other than something cool to talk about with your friends if or when the subject turns to your diet. But there are also lame, boring things that nobody wants to discuss (much less do) that can make a diet much easier to stick to—and, as a result, more...
What I learned from Randy Savage’s mystery training partner
When I was a kid I would pay a drop-in at the local World Gym to watch all the massive dudes workout, even pretend that I was one of them. One day in walks Macho Man Randy Savage (there was a match in town) along with some other big dude that I didn't recognize. They skipped the change rooms and went straight to the rack and started squatting, quickly working up to 3 plates a side. Mystery...