There’s a lot of good sense here. By far the most important steps are the simplest: thinking about what you eat, and thinking about how you use your body (as opposed to specialized exercises that target muscles instead of chains and set you up for injury). I would also add that one of the greatest benefits is to avoid getting pulled in to the fictitious world of the “fitness” industry.
As with anything where there’s a buck to be made, there’s a lot of bad information and philosophy out there. A great example is the word “primal” which is appealing in theory but all too often no more meaningful than “it’s got electrolytes.” The candidates for most disgraceful primal huckster are many, but none can match SARM and GH model and would-be cave man that is Liver King. And people buy his act! (and his products). But he’s just one of many riffing on an old formula and building a world that has never been real life. Look at a Spartan helmet in a museum, those guys weren’t Jeff Cavaliere big, they weren’t even modern fit guy big. Today’s fitness stars are selling a world that was never real.
There’s no one right answer, and I don’t fault people who choose to supplement, juice, whatever. But these are modern choices being sold as ancient secrets. Come to think of it, Gwyneth Paltrow’s in the same business.
Personally I am a fan of working hard at whatever functional regimen makes you happy. Th only ice bath I get is being launched into whitewater in the winter, but I don’t doubt the mental and physical benefits as you get out. I’m not a runner but I’m all for the folks who find joy in endurance trail running, even if it drives the body to be light. Our bodies have evolved over millennia to adapt and reshape to meet the demands of whatever use and hardship they face. The only thing we are not evolved to adapt to is the couch.
Thanks for the great recommendations. Just 1-clicked 'Mastery of Hand Strength' as just the other day I was noticing my hands starting to become the weak point in some of my lifts. Slowly realizing how they are the constant in nearly every upper body exercise I do.
Thanks again for keeping your blog going. I really gain a good bit of knowledge and a lot of inspiration. At 37 I just did my first pull-up this morning and it's exciting to see real measurable progress.
Congratulations on the pull-up!!!!! Huge step. Extremely important. Pull-ups are the solution to pull-ups. Every incremental increase from here will be easier. I like bands (https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-monster-bands) until you're knocking out sets of a dozen or so (then chains to get you back down to that rep range once they get too easy!).
Reminds us of our pre-kid boxing days. Move like your dancing...doesn't work with people who don't dance...
Followed by "Rocky wasn't an instructional video"
WO wise - moving away from the 'don't go to failure' advice to realizing 'muscular failure by stimulating a muscle with electricity' in a lab is very different than irl. Training to failure+ was a game-changer
Chris, I would have a question for you Re fueling: There are two almost religious camps: plant based vs carnivore. What convinced you to lean towards the carnivore side?
Good question. The standard American diet is so horrific that almost any intentional diet -- from vegan or carnivore -- is an improvement. Different things work for different people. For me, what I am most convinced of is this: avoid ultra processed foods, especially those heavy in seed oil. No refined sugar or alcohol. Light on processed carbs, which spike blood sugar. Avoid metabolic disease by keeping blood sugar low and steady; diabetes is bad in the sense that bankruptcy is bad; it should be handled long before you're in that category with steps to stay as far away from it as possible.
For me and my goals, a protein-focused diet makes sense, anywhere from 30-50% of my calories and early in the day. They are the most satiating. They help with hypertrophy. And meat is the most bioavailable protein. If I wanted to grow leaves and roots, I'd eat more plants, but for growing muscles, I eat more meat. I don't track specific aminos because I know that within my 200 grams of protein each day, mostly by noon, I'm hitting each of what I need. With plants, I would have to be far more precise to avoid missing key ones.
So I actively discourage corporate food, which is good to sell but not good to buy. I prefer to entirely stay out of the interior aisles of a grocery store and stay in the outer aisle only where I see the proteins and produce. I almost forget that the rest is food. To me, it isn't. To me, food is elk, bison, salmon, duck eggs, and whey. I cook with butter or tallow. But I defer to others and their own goals if they prefer to live off of plants (rare at CrossFit but common among my trail runner friends). Not for me, but better than what the vast majority of my countrymen put in their bodies.
so no intermittent fasting? I am in a terrible loop/cycle where I fast from 11PM to 6PM-ish each day (besides a protein shake in the AMs after a workout). Please help me enjoy eating in the mornings again!
Is IF working for you? For me, it is in the middle category -- neither a hard yes or hard no but instead okay if it is working for you and your goals. For me, I have a soft version: no food after dinner. I eat at 5 PM then that is it from 5:30 PM - 3:30 AM, but I love breakfast food and ritual. It is a big meal for me that gets me satiated and ready for the day. I love it, especially because I love eggs.
ahhh, i wish i had that rule. after dinner (6/7PM for me is where my hunger really kicks in. Although I have a much later bed time (12AMish) and wake up time (8AMish) than you. I like my OMAD because it is way more time efficient. I just purchased a bunch of breakfasts from Pete's Paleo so I will give that a try. I am going to try and shift my eating window from 10AM to - 8 PM which would give me a 14 hour fast.
Same! I am a bit vocal when I first emerge from plunging under ice water and have been requested by my long-suffering wife to not do that when other people are here as it is a bit strange and disconcerting for them to hear.
Chris, for me it is very much in the "getting comfortable with an uncomfortable situation" bucket. I am looking for a local place where I can do some sauna/ice bath together. Maybe 3 times a week. Very interested in trying it out before I splurge on a cold plunge for the house. All that said, check out this guy Wim Hof. The more I learn about him, the more I believe all the things we discuss are possible....
I have been reading a lot about the benefits on hot/cold therapy...I get the 8 hours of sleep thing and completely agree. I now turn the shower to cold for 60 seconds at the end of my shower. All I can tell you is that its feels great when I get out. The research is also pretty compelling. Google Wim Hoff...amazing stuff...
I love it. I did this water crossing in a trail run recently and just for fun dove in head first. I came out feeling elated but wasn't sure how much was the natural setting/fun with friends/ long run or the freezing water, so I've been trying to replicate it with ice baths. I can last about ten minutes with three or so of hyperventilating before I can control my breath. Not as good as a river crossing but still feels pretty great afterwards and it feels like a small victory to be able to get under control in an uncomfortable situation that is bad but not that bad.
There’s a lot of good sense here. By far the most important steps are the simplest: thinking about what you eat, and thinking about how you use your body (as opposed to specialized exercises that target muscles instead of chains and set you up for injury). I would also add that one of the greatest benefits is to avoid getting pulled in to the fictitious world of the “fitness” industry.
As with anything where there’s a buck to be made, there’s a lot of bad information and philosophy out there. A great example is the word “primal” which is appealing in theory but all too often no more meaningful than “it’s got electrolytes.” The candidates for most disgraceful primal huckster are many, but none can match SARM and GH model and would-be cave man that is Liver King. And people buy his act! (and his products). But he’s just one of many riffing on an old formula and building a world that has never been real life. Look at a Spartan helmet in a museum, those guys weren’t Jeff Cavaliere big, they weren’t even modern fit guy big. Today’s fitness stars are selling a world that was never real.
There’s no one right answer, and I don’t fault people who choose to supplement, juice, whatever. But these are modern choices being sold as ancient secrets. Come to think of it, Gwyneth Paltrow’s in the same business.
Personally I am a fan of working hard at whatever functional regimen makes you happy. Th only ice bath I get is being launched into whitewater in the winter, but I don’t doubt the mental and physical benefits as you get out. I’m not a runner but I’m all for the folks who find joy in endurance trail running, even if it drives the body to be light. Our bodies have evolved over millennia to adapt and reshape to meet the demands of whatever use and hardship they face. The only thing we are not evolved to adapt to is the couch.
Thanks for the great recommendations. Just 1-clicked 'Mastery of Hand Strength' as just the other day I was noticing my hands starting to become the weak point in some of my lifts. Slowly realizing how they are the constant in nearly every upper body exercise I do.
Thanks again for keeping your blog going. I really gain a good bit of knowledge and a lot of inspiration. At 37 I just did my first pull-up this morning and it's exciting to see real measurable progress.
I love working on hand strength. Each day I dead hang from the pull-up bar, wrist roll up and down both in and out (https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-wrist-roller) and pinch the Titan's telegraph key (https://www.ironmind-store.com/Titans-Telegraph-Key153-I/productinfo/1243/). A fun thing on grip strength is that you can do a lot from your desk such as finger grippers (https://www.roguefitness.com/two-finger-utility-gripper) without breaking a sweat or drawing too much attention. My favorite is working on 19th century Coney Island strong man tricks such as tearing playing card decks in half (find the cheapest ones you can at dollar stores) and bending nails (https://www.ironmind-store.com/Bag-of-Nails153/productinfo/1236/). Then when some coach wants to work on your deadlift or toes to bar or whatever, then you show up able to just vice grip the bar and hang on and focus on the task at hand and not weak hands.
Congratulations on the pull-up!!!!! Huge step. Extremely important. Pull-ups are the solution to pull-ups. Every incremental increase from here will be easier. I like bands (https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-monster-bands) until you're knocking out sets of a dozen or so (then chains to get you back down to that rep range once they get too easy!).
Reminds us of our pre-kid boxing days. Move like your dancing...doesn't work with people who don't dance...
Followed by "Rocky wasn't an instructional video"
WO wise - moving away from the 'don't go to failure' advice to realizing 'muscular failure by stimulating a muscle with electricity' in a lab is very different than irl. Training to failure+ was a game-changer
Coming at you a little bit from left field on this one, but the mental game matters...
https://amzn.to/3UKI5wQ
Looks promising; I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Chris, I would have a question for you Re fueling: There are two almost religious camps: plant based vs carnivore. What convinced you to lean towards the carnivore side?
Good question. The standard American diet is so horrific that almost any intentional diet -- from vegan or carnivore -- is an improvement. Different things work for different people. For me, what I am most convinced of is this: avoid ultra processed foods, especially those heavy in seed oil. No refined sugar or alcohol. Light on processed carbs, which spike blood sugar. Avoid metabolic disease by keeping blood sugar low and steady; diabetes is bad in the sense that bankruptcy is bad; it should be handled long before you're in that category with steps to stay as far away from it as possible.
For me and my goals, a protein-focused diet makes sense, anywhere from 30-50% of my calories and early in the day. They are the most satiating. They help with hypertrophy. And meat is the most bioavailable protein. If I wanted to grow leaves and roots, I'd eat more plants, but for growing muscles, I eat more meat. I don't track specific aminos because I know that within my 200 grams of protein each day, mostly by noon, I'm hitting each of what I need. With plants, I would have to be far more precise to avoid missing key ones.
So I actively discourage corporate food, which is good to sell but not good to buy. I prefer to entirely stay out of the interior aisles of a grocery store and stay in the outer aisle only where I see the proteins and produce. I almost forget that the rest is food. To me, it isn't. To me, food is elk, bison, salmon, duck eggs, and whey. I cook with butter or tallow. But I defer to others and their own goals if they prefer to live off of plants (rare at CrossFit but common among my trail runner friends). Not for me, but better than what the vast majority of my countrymen put in their bodies.
so no intermittent fasting? I am in a terrible loop/cycle where I fast from 11PM to 6PM-ish each day (besides a protein shake in the AMs after a workout). Please help me enjoy eating in the mornings again!
Is IF working for you? For me, it is in the middle category -- neither a hard yes or hard no but instead okay if it is working for you and your goals. For me, I have a soft version: no food after dinner. I eat at 5 PM then that is it from 5:30 PM - 3:30 AM, but I love breakfast food and ritual. It is a big meal for me that gets me satiated and ready for the day. I love it, especially because I love eggs.
ahhh, i wish i had that rule. after dinner (6/7PM for me is where my hunger really kicks in. Although I have a much later bed time (12AMish) and wake up time (8AMish) than you. I like my OMAD because it is way more time efficient. I just purchased a bunch of breakfasts from Pete's Paleo so I will give that a try. I am going to try and shift my eating window from 10AM to - 8 PM which would give me a 14 hour fast.
My wife also hears me breathing hard in the shower and always give me the evil eye when i get out...
Same! I am a bit vocal when I first emerge from plunging under ice water and have been requested by my long-suffering wife to not do that when other people are here as it is a bit strange and disconcerting for them to hear.
Chris, for me it is very much in the "getting comfortable with an uncomfortable situation" bucket. I am looking for a local place where I can do some sauna/ice bath together. Maybe 3 times a week. Very interested in trying it out before I splurge on a cold plunge for the house. All that said, check out this guy Wim Hof. The more I learn about him, the more I believe all the things we discuss are possible....
I have been reading a lot about the benefits on hot/cold therapy...I get the 8 hours of sleep thing and completely agree. I now turn the shower to cold for 60 seconds at the end of my shower. All I can tell you is that its feels great when I get out. The research is also pretty compelling. Google Wim Hoff...amazing stuff...
I love it. I did this water crossing in a trail run recently and just for fun dove in head first. I came out feeling elated but wasn't sure how much was the natural setting/fun with friends/ long run or the freezing water, so I've been trying to replicate it with ice baths. I can last about ten minutes with three or so of hyperventilating before I can control my breath. Not as good as a river crossing but still feels pretty great afterwards and it feels like a small victory to be able to get under control in an uncomfortable situation that is bad but not that bad.
My mom referred me to a great book, Honestly Healthy, on nourishing well: https://www.amazon.com/Honestly-Healthy-Your-Body-Alkaline/dp/1906417814/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OXQ2KRSVQLVT&keywords=honestly+healthy+book&qid=1670358609&sprefix=honestly+healthy+book%2Caps%2C304&sr=8-1
Thanks, Ravi! I'll check it out.
Fighting - The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts
1-clicked.