Better Home Gym Workouts
Last year at the end of February I began my first Covid-related home-gym program. Fast forward just a month and 90% of my time was spent re-working programs to accommodate a WIDE range of home equipment options: from beautifully equipped garage gyms with leg presses and reverse hyperextensions to “less than ideal” set-ups like a band, push up bars, and three non-matching dumbbells. It wasn’t...
Are you just looking for control?
If you're "blessed" to work with me you'll hear a few expressions over and over. (Kinda like your 90-something-year-old uncle who tells the same war stories every Thanksgiving despite never serving in the military—though he can sure build a cool replica German bunker out of mashed potatoes so props for that.) One such expression from me is "everything is connected," meaning if something happens...
Minutiae and Mental Bandwidth
Fun Coaching fact from me, from a couple years ago: A tad cheeky, and sure: it's lacking nuance. But the fact remains that after puberty the aging process is a relatively slow decline. And yet the typical life can look completely different in a very short period of time: see any "lucky" bodybuilder who went from single at 32-35 to married with three kids by 40. Hell, I only have one kid and in a...
Morning routines are important, not magic
Have you seen the morning routines of some influencers or "lifestyle designers"? After the deep breathing, contrast showers, daily affirmations, meditation, journaling, brewing oolong tea, and brain dumping (probably due to too much tea) you have to wonder if anyone has a job, much less a family. Bullshit notwithstanding, morning routines are still essential. A series of daily rituals...
How many different exercises do you actually need?
You do NOT need to know hundreds of exercises to build a strong, jacked physique. Truth is, you can hit all the targets with fewer than 20 exercises, and 80% of the ground is covered by just 10 exercises. Ten exercises? For the whole body? Sheesh, I can rattle off 10 lifts for just the tibialis anterior. Okay, so if only a few exercises are "required" to train the whole body, then is learning a...
On Walking
Weight training is the greatest form of exercise. The transformative effect it has on the body has no equal. But while there's no substitute for weight training, there is a perfect complement: walking. If weight training is a rocket launch, then walking is what fuels the boosters. It's the rare exercise modality that doesn't dig a recovery hole. In fact, its rhythmic nature lowers stress and...
Give in to your dark side
People talk a lot about motivation. Correction. Sorry. NOW people actually say motivation is bullshit, and what it really comes down to is discipline. I'm sorta in between. I agree no amount of motivation will create lasting change without a steely spine of hard, near-unflappable discipline. But like Springsteen said you can't start a fire without a spark. And no fire begins without the spark of...