The Bones of the Universe

Reconnecting with the sacred

Apollo Maquette, in process

Beauty is not just a superficial thing. Beauty is about how things are put together. Beauty shows the bones of how the universe is assembled.

- Sabin Howard

Reflecting

My favorite living sculptor is Sabin Howard, author of The Art of Life, who recently constructed the WWI Memorial in DC. Besides slinging bronze sculptures and giant blocks of clay, he lifts free weights and cycles 130 miles of hills each week. This is what it should be like to be a man in your 60s: working, creating, earning, lifting, and moving. He’s both the best classical artist of his genre and a man improving his craft. Following his work through the years, it is clear to me that he’s getting better. Vale Tudo regulars already heard about him in a past post where I introduced him by writing,

Instead of the endless modern artists who make art just to say, “look at me”, Howard’s work says, “look up.” Instead of making his work about himself, he reminds us that there are things greater than ourselves.

To our artists and architects: more of this please.

Training

New workout toy en route. Can’t wait to (try to) pick this up!

This morning’s white board featured a partner workout – 4 rounds of:

• 40 cals on the bike and

• 30 cals on the ski followed by

• 20 synchro single arm devil’s press with 50 lbs.

The less said of my effort the better. Recovering from pulmonary emboli isn’t a straight line and this morning was one of the bad days. I just couldn’t get Os into my lungs no matter how hard my heart tried to pump. I tried to force it, but struggled badly. I fell short of glory. Hell I fell short of adequacy. Again tomorrow.

Fueling

Our new fruit trees and bushes arrived. This project keeps expanding. Once I get into something, I tend to be immoderate. We’re putting in apple, cherry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and added pear at the suggestion of a VT reader. Already pondering subsequent additions. Anyone in Connecticut or nearby with success at planting productive fruit trees and bushes? Please comment with your experience.

Supplementing

I am pausing pre-workout drinks, cutting back on caffeine and pivoting to more plain water, at a coach’s advice. We’ll see how it impacts performance. I’m certain that I’m best served by cutting off all caffeine after noon, but want to experiment with much less in the morning too. Not excited about this but want to see how it makes me feel.

Measuring

The lower your testosterone, the more you do what you think is expected; the higher your testosterone, the more you do what you think is right. It makes sense in evolutionary terms to either be compliant or strong. Strong is better.

There are three phases of hormone optimization.

1. Before you're done growing, just focus on getting enough sleep, eating clean fuel prioritizing protein while avoiding processed carbs, refined sugar, or alcohol, and training with proper form to prepare your body for progressively overloading weight without injury.

2. After you're done growing by before you're done having kids, optimize endogenous testosterone. Measure with a full blood panel, ideally every six months. For almost every man, that means taking enclomiphene to optimize performance and fertility.

3. After you’re done making babies, then optimize testosterone exogenously. Keep up the blood panels but now supplement with exogenous testosterone. Topical is my preferred delivery mechanism.

At each stage the goal is the have the best risk:reward that serves you. None of this should ever be judged comparatively with a weak cohort of men resigned to low performance and longevity. Being slightly better than that is not good enough. Sadly, this low standard is typical with a lot of primary care providers. Instead think and act in absolute terms. Take the steps to be the best version of yourself.

Recovering

Today’s desk “no sweat” exercise included the Tornado Dynamo. I was able to do it a bit after my rather embarrassing WOD attempt. My heart and lungs settled down so I was able to keep moving during active recovery (even though it wasn’t a workout deserving of recovery).

Closing

Self-discipline equals taking care of your future self. My visualization of that task is a board room with your future selves in ten year increments up to 100 and they each get a vote. It isn’t hard to guess what they’d be most and least grateful for. It is especially clear if you reflect on your current opinion of your younger self.

My older selves would almost always vote for spending frugally, investing carefully, avoiding injury, and getting strong. Each is a version of preserving optionality (if you get rich, you don’t have to spend it and if you get strong, you don’t have to lift it but your older self gets the choice). What would your older self want you to do today?