#17 - 1 Win

Do you think greatness is born… or made?

It’s probably a bit of both I know; but if you had to choose which is a greater factor?

For me it is clear that greatness is made.

Michael Jordan wouldn’t be Michael Jordan if he didn’t put in the extra work after not making his high school varsity team. Tom Brady wouldn’t have realized his future if he listened to the scouting report on him coming into the NFL.

I made my point there but I am not writing to Michael Jordan or Tom Brady am I?

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I am writing to YOU.

I am writing to Matt, Kelli, Jenny, Jess, Janet, Jake, Brandon, Alex, Vince, Harrison, and Nora. (Go ahead and insert your name if I didn’t cover it 🙃)

All of us have aspirations. These aspirations can vary wildly but don’t worry I am going to stay focused with this article. Maybe one of you will sell an app for 3 billion dollars but it probably won’t be because of what I am saying here. Hopefully many of you will read this, though, and come away with an effective way of approaching your health-based aspirations.

You want to deadlift 1,000lbs I will point you to a person who can help you better.

You want to get stage ready for a bodybuilding show in 6 months I will point you to a person who can help you better.

I will point you directly towards myself if you are looking for something along the lines of the following: “I just want to feel better about myself. I just want to have control. I just want to get a little stronger, move a bit better, and be proud of myself.” That demand might not seem like much to some of you but I assure you if you accomplish those things in earnest it will change your life.

So where do we begin?

The gist is simple. You need to make yourself into what you desire. The process of ‘making’ is the magic though huh?

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What is the secret?

You saw the title of the article! I am not being facetious when I say it starts and ends with 1 win.

Momentum is great. Records are great. Transformations are great. Saving your own life is great.

But none of that happens if you don’t win the moment in front of you.

You want to eat healthier? Put the apple on your plate for lunch and eat it. I don’t give a shit what else is on that plate. We aren’t here for perfection. We are here for progress. It is very likely that if you are reading this then you know damn well you shouldn’t be so greedy as to demand perfection. Perfection is a lie. We will all come up short more than we would like. What matters is that we learn from those moments and have the ability to accept the good moments for what they are.

# 16 - The Elephant In The Room

Am I really going to write about this? Really? Well…. almost no one will read it anyways so what’s the harm.

And yes… I am circling this all back to the idea of health & fitness but clearly today’s topic is much deeper than how deep your pushups should go. If that’s not really what you want to bother with today then come back next week because my next topic is ‘Quality PRs In The Gym’ which I can’t wait to get into because this article took me way too damn long but I felt it was timely and important.

Anyways…

Here goes.

*** In case you didn’t know… I am not a therapist. I am not a historian. I own a gym. Enjoy 😂

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July 13th is a day that will irrevocably change this country. I want to spend some time putting my thoughts out there and offer a way to go about processing the moments we find ourselves in today, but don’t worry I am not here to preach at you. I am not here to tell you what to think or what to feel. I am not here to add some sort of holier than thou commentary on the state of the union and the citizens that lay within. Don’t get me wrong, I have opinions (some very strong ones) like any of you may have. But it is not lost on me that I am ‘just’ a small business owner running a gym in the south hills of Pittsburgh PA. I don’t pretend that even if you do read this it makes me some sort of authority on the occurrences and reflections on our current moment in history. I, like you, am just going through the days.

So what is the point in me writing this? Trust me… there is a point I promise.

One, this is selfishly cathartic because getting things out of your head and onto paper (even digital) is extremely beneficial to the psyche (more on that later).

Two, I can’t help but see the goings on of the last couple days through the lens of something I recently posted on social media about the 6 layers of deep health being Physical, Existential, Emotional, Mental, Relational, and Environmental(this will be the main thread of the article).

Three, I know that many of you may be reading this at work where I am to understand that conversations around the attempted assassination of a former President will actually somehow not be talked about much. To that end, maybe this can serve as an escape. Maybe it serves as a nudge to actually speak your mind in a calm and collected manner. Whatever the case… my intention is truly to help.

With that being said I would encourage you to read to the end if you’d like to come away from this with my incomplete perspective. This is much longer than a facebook post and certainly more nuanced than an Instagram graphic but the fact remains that until you sit down and talk with someone you don’t have good reason to be confident in your judgements of them. Even now as you are reading this I have no control of the tone you are putting my voice in. It could be calm but it could also be angry. It could be loving but it also might be spiteful. These are just words on a screen and I know that presents limitations so I invite you to read this while accepting those limitations.

I am going to try to be an open book as much as would help the mission of this article. I’ll remind you that when I give any personal facts or philosophies that it is only to serve the point I am making in the moment…. and instead of continuing to beat around the bush let’s start right there…

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One of the undeniably best parts of my job is being able to be myself. Hell, as I write this I can see 10 feet in front of me there are 2 whiteboards that I have imaginary offensive and defensive football depth charts created from both Marvel Superheroes and Pokemon. There is no hiding that I am a bit of a nerd and possibly even a little lame.

Now I could be wrong, but I think being so free and easy with how I carry myself leads to a gym that fosters that very same behavior from its members. This has overwhelmingly resulted in positive ways.

We work our asses off. We squat heavy. We push hard. We do things the right way and I am there to make sure it is on the path of everlasting improvement. All the while, we have fun. We laugh. We joke. We talk about music, Steelers football, movies, and our Mt. Rushmore of summer picnic foods.

I start with all of this to say that I am confident in my consistent approach to make those around me feel welcome. I learned very early on when I was coaching at a gym in Beaver County that if I were to be successful in this business there is absolutely no way of doing so without learning to appreciate the similarities AND differences in each individual that walks through the door looking for my help.

This ‘smile first’ approach is not actually something that comes natural to me. For most of my childhood I was well-liked but also very detached from those around me. I had an insular group of friends and then many acquaintances that probably couldn’t tell you more than my name and the fact that I played football. Because of this introverted inclination I tended to have extremely effective and beneficial close friendships but struggled a great deal to make ‘new’ friendships (something that bites you in the ass as you inevitably lose friendships over the years).

But to circle back to the here and now… this is where the gym has been such a Godsend for me. It has forced me to make friends. It has forced me to be the one reaching a hand out only to find out that most people are only looking for that much: an authentic invitation.

So my first piece of advice with all of this is exactly that: work on being authentically welcoming. I can’t say anything more than it has helped me so I bet it will help you too.

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I mentioned earlier how I was seeing things these past few days through the lens of the 6 layers of deep health that I posted about just a few days ago. There were a myriad of reasons for this but it started off as obvious as you may think: I thought what in the hell could bring a person to act this way? Who goes to a place filled with thousands of people looking to murder one of the most powerful and influential people on the planet? Who goes there with this intention likely knowing it spells the end of his own life and likely others?

Well, at the time of writing this, we only know a few things about this young man. I won’t mention his name here but you can find it pretty easily on the internet if you choose to do so.

With lack of information, an abundance of shock, and a search for reason… there was little else for me to do but speculate. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in this either.

Here is what I don’t have to speculate about though: what he did was wrong in absolutely every sense of the word. I would pray there is full agreement in that, though I have seen plenty of vile things out there on the internet regarding these events (I’ll talk about that too don’t worry).

I think that if you are a person that justifies in any measure his actions then you probably won’t benefit much from reading my opinions and I would just leave it at that to be kind.

As I think about this person I wonder what his life must’ve been like to lead to this point.

A healthy person doesn’t commit this atrocity. I don’t mean can he run a mile in 6 minutes healthy or can be bench 185lbs healthy… I mean much more than that.

I stand by my assertion that one’s physical health is the absolute foundation for all other aspects of health but in this specific instance I don’t find it helpful to speculate on his physical abilities because he was physically able to accomplish the goal he had so that’s all we need to know for this moment.

But what about the other layers of health? In my post I made no equivocations about existential health being the next most important layer of health a person has.

Sadly I think that day can perfectly illustrate my point and I’ll tell you why. The gunman, to the best of our knowledge, thought his most important reason for living in that moment in time was to bring about the end of Donald Trump’s potential presidency and life. On the other hand, Corey Comperatore thought his most important reason for living was to protect his family. The gunman didn’t succeed in his mission while Corey did… but it cost him his life.

This is the very definition of an existential crisis being played out in a single moment. I don’t know either of these people but I know that one person must have felt there was no other way out while the other person thought there was nowhere he would rather be.

IF we can attempt to learn a lesson here it would be that you better be absolutely resolute in what you deem the meaning of your life to be.

Personally, I feel very strongly that I am meant to be a loving Father and Husband while using my gifts and means to bring about a way to help people improve their lives through health and fitness. As long as I stay clear on that meaning I can be confident that my life will be fruitful. It may benefit you to spend a moment considering your existence and what the ramifications of that existence will be.

Moving on I want to discuss 3 other layers of health while saving some timely insight on the relational health aspect for the end.

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I think it makes some sense to tie together the three layers of emotional, environmental, and mental health next. A quick summation of what I mean with these three distinctions:

1. Emotional Health - Experiencing a full range of emotions and expressing them appropriately

2. Environmental Health - Knowing your everyday surroundings support your health and wellbeing

3. Mental Health - Being alert, focused, competent, and thoughtful. Learning, remembering, and solving problems well.

I’m not going to spend a lot of energy trying to ascertain to what degree the shooter that day flourished or lacked in these departments of health. Instead I’d like to reflect on the fallout of that historic moment and offer my ideas on what a reasonable performance of health may or may not look like, specifically in these three types of health.

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So first let’s unpack the emotional aspect of all of this.

It will be assumed that if you are reading this then you, like me, have no direct personal connection to the events that took place. I say this only because IF you did have a direct personal connection to this then your emotional reaction would, for good reason, be much more drastic and nuanced.

So first let’s realize that there SHOULD be an emotional reaction. I kind of feel like this is just left out of the whole discussion which strikes me as possibly the most alarming aspect of all of this. Anytime a murder happens on such a public view it should elicit an emotion. Then we add the layers to this specific story and it becomes even more the case. Successful accidental murder. Failed assassination attempt. Young man. Local area connections. Supposedly an extremely well protected public figure is the target. Politics. Running up to a presidential election. All of this and more leads to what I would eloquently refer to as a clusterfuck.

If you have no reaction to this then I would say that is a cause for concern. I’m not saying this should totally upend your life. Some people really invest a lot of time and emotion into the news these days and some people don’t. To be upfront I often volley back and forth between these two ends of the spectrum. On average, though, I would venture to say that I am much more interested in political happenings than the average person. This doesn’t make me any better or worse than you it just shows that we all will come into events like this with a different amount of fervor directed at a particular aspect of said events.

So there should be an emotional reaction, we have established this much. But what type of emotional reaction and how intense should it be?

Off the top of my head I can list off some emotions that would be expected when diving into a story such as this: anxious, sad, nervous, shocked, bewilderment, interested, skeptical. There is probably more to add to that list but you get the gist (nice rhyme huh).

What is important to note here is that if you have any emotions tied to this event yet put forth no effort in assessing those emotions then that likely is not a healthy reaction.

This carries into the discussion on how intense our emotional reaction should be to these moments…

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Everyone is different so your individual reaction to these events will almost surely be a different intensity than mine or anyone else.

First let’s take it 100% on face value and not explore hypotheticals… we’ll save that for just after this part.

To totally disassociate yourself with the events that occurred and limit your reaction to simply a passing moment just would not make sense in this scenario.

On the other hand, unless your job is in the news media or journalism, it also would not make sense to obsess over this event with every spare second of your day.

So it is reasonable to experience a variety of emotions in this moment somewhere in the middle of these two ends of the spectrum I just laid out. Maybe while reading up on updates you experience a surge of anger or confusion… I will posit that is totally fine. Maybe you are scrolling through instagram and chuckle at a meme that has 50 Cent’s “Many Men” song playing to it… I think that is also fine. What is worthy of keeping an eye on is your ability to navigate in AND out of these emotions while still having a strong grasp over who you are and what is important to you.

If you are reading updates on the security failures of that day and then find yourself an hour or two later still searching for answers while getting visibly angered then you might need to find a way to balance this moment of intense emotion. Similarly, if you laugh at a random meme but then also later find yourself laughing at the death of an innocent man or laughing at the idea of Donald Trump experiencing a truly existential fear then I think it is very likely you should spend some effort trying to search for humanity within yourself.

The point should be made now… given the facts of what happened it is reasonable to experience a variety of emotions in a variety of intensities WHILE being able to have control of the appropriateness of what you are in fact feeling.

Now I said we would explore hypotheticals in a moment and I think in this case it is important to do so. The reason it is important to do so is because the obvious hypothetical of “what if” was EXTRAORDINARILY close to becoming a reality. It is also important because IF the ‘what if’ did in fact happen then all of a sudden this story and moment does become personal to a degree.

I promise I won’t get all tin-foil hat on you but just hear me out for this next section, thank you.

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So, as I said, this attempt on a former President’s life was seemingly centimeters away from being successful. Look, I was attending the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 and 2012 when they received dozens of bomb threats. It was a bit unnerving at the time but the facts are that nothing was ever found and nothing ever came of it aside from missed exams and many nuisances. I am extremely fortunate that was the case obviously. If, God forbid, they would have found a bomb in my building or, even worse, an explosion would actually have occurred then this moment in my life would be looked at very differently.

So since the attempt was so extremely close to being successful we can reasonably start to wonder about the fallout of the hypothetical success.

Even if you are completely politically neutral you would agree that this would cause a massive rift in this country and the unknown nature of the reactions alone would be enough to cause a great deal of uneasiness and interest.

Now here is where I will likely lose a few people. Again, this is a reminder that this is all just an exercise in exploring healthy ways to process a given moment and set yourself up for success in the future of navigating other moments and events so just stay with me gang.

I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016 and my vote did not lead to a victory. I voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and my vote did not lead to a victory. It is almost a certainty that I will vote for Donald Trump in this years election and I am ready to continue life more or less unchanged if my vote, yet again, does not lead to a victory.

I only bring this up to further illustrate the personal nature of the given moment because, again, if the events shook out differently there would be tens of millions of people like me who would be absolutely blindsided at the very least due to losing ‘our guy’ in the election.

Now even with a sense of personal connection to this story, I (like anyone else) should still be able to navigate my emotions. I (like anyone else) should not reject my emotions but instead explore them and work through them appropriately. This fundamental acceptance of your emotions is crucial in your attempt to improve your health & fitness whether it be the mental fitness of navigating our current events or the physical fitness of losing those 10 extra pounds.

Okay… I think that covers enough of the emotional aspects for now so let’s take a bit and work through the environmental health aspect of this discussion.

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There is always this discussion of Nature vs Nurture. What is more responsible for the things we as humanity experience everyday?

Do I enjoy squatting for sets of 15 and reading Lord Of The Rings (my current read) because my ancestors enjoyed physical labor and reading Don Quixote? Or was I formed by early years in sports and the escape that ‘Where The Red Fern Grows’ served as for me?

I don’t really have an answer for that…

I was going to get into this long declamation about my twins and DNA and nucleobases and yada yada yada… but I erased so you are welcome.

Instead let me put it to you as simply as this… in my opinion our environment has a shockingly large effect on our perspectives, behaviors, morals, thoughts etc.

Now, on one hand, it may seem unfair that simply what surrounds us has such a large influence on us. It might seem like we are shit out of luck when it comes to changing things for ourselves. Now while I agree it will be very difficult to resist the influence of your environment I also think this presents you with an OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITY.

Because your environment has such a profound effect on you (in my opinion) it also means that any effort you put into changing your environment for the better will have exponentially positive effects.

I wanted to get that out of the way before we connected this back to the topic at hand because I really don’t want you to miss the idea here.

This section I am going over is perhaps the easiest one for you to have influence over but it is also by far the easiest one for you to stay complacent about. I can circle it back to the gym to prove my point. So many people join this gym and just that small shift in environment gives them the momentum and influence is enough for other healthier decisions to leak out into their lives.

Your environment matters… let’s dissect it in today’s world.

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In today’s world you have a physical environment and a digital environment.

Setting yourself up for a healthy physical environment is fairly straightforward. Depending on your values and priorities you will emphasize a number of these things:

• living in a home and area that encourages getting outdoors and being active

• having the contents of your home reflect your desired lifestyle (healthy foods vs unhealthy foods, space to exercise vs a t.v. in every room, a place to read vs clutter everywhere)

• finding a career that fulfills you and provides sufficiently

There are plenty of other variables to consider but you get the idea.

On the flip side there is a whole other world that exists in our digital space nowadays that, even though it is optional to a large degree, we all feel pressured to participate in.

Netflix, Hulu, Disney, Amazon, HBO, New York Times, Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Post Millennial, Reuters, ESPN, Fox Sports, Barstool, CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Gmail, Hotmail, Icloud, text messages, Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Hockey, notes app, photos app, Spotify, Youtube…. and on and on and on and on

Some of these can be fairly innocuous… I mean I’m certainly guilty of spending too much time mock drafting fantasy football teams on the Sleeper app but the negative effects of that are pretty much only the act of being distracted from other possible things I may value.

Some of these might not be so innocuous however. Scrolling through Facebook can mostly be fine but that pesky algorithm might determine you have better engagement and longer viewing times on posts that are controversial and negative in nature. So what you started off thinking was simply a way to connect with old friends turns out to be a way to just scroll though your feed judging every other person based off of their digital footprint they leave behind. Social media is the obvious punching bag in this regard because most of us, by now, accept that we should probably greatly limit our time on it. I am probably preaching to the choir when I say if your Instagram screen time is 2 hours a day then you’ve got a problem.

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Your thoughts become your reality.

If you spend all day consuming media and info that causes you (for whatever reason) to get frustrated, or angry, or anxious, or disappointed, or depressed… then you simply cannot be shocked if you find yourself having negative thoughts.

I find this to be a problem ALL OF THE TIME in the health and fitness industry. People will often over consume media that causes them to unfairly compare themselves to models and athletes. You scroll down your feed and see all of these awesome healthy recipes and then get frustrated that you don’t eat like that. You see a new workout and then get angry that you can’t perform the exercises like the woman in the video. You compare, you demean yourself, you repeat. It’s a vicious cycle that disguises itself as ‘searching for inspiration’.

Would you like to take a step inside my mind? I’ll peel back the curtain and give you too much information so you can hopefully learn a thing or two from my struggles.

I took Facebook off of my phone so I only check in on my internet browser from time to time. At the time I did this because I simply didn’t feel any connection to the people I would see on there so instead of dwelling on that I just stopped subjecting myself to it.

Instagram was always my big issue. I love using it for the gym because it is easy to put a picture or video up quickly and say a few words about it. It’s also easy to get sucked into things on there… the algorithm is really really good. I wasn’t just getting sucked into cat videos either. That would be harmless enough. I started noticing that for whatever reason as time went on I was starting to get more and more of 2 specific kinds of content pushed onto my feed: divisive political news and fitness videos that almost ALWAYS contained barely clothed women.

This was an issue. It made me cynical and it made me disappointed in my thoughts as I scrolled through my feed. So the content was a problem but that wasn’t all. I had a nasty habit of bringing my phone up to bed with me. This affected my sleep habits which then caused an even more insidious influence on my energy and mood… and the cycle continues.

I could give 10 more examples but I chose those two because I feel like it is something many people have in common. Your digital environment can have a slow creeping effect into your life and it is rarely a good thing.

Let’s fixate on today’s topic and analyze the digital environment of our lives.

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This attempted assassination is easily the biggest news of my lifetime since 9/11. We already discussed earlier a bit about the ramifications so it is easy to understand how and why our digital landscape might be overwhelmed by information and opinions about this subject.

If you rewind you will remember that my definition for environmental health describes a life where your everyday surroundings support your health and wellbeing.

So in this scenario is it healthy to be totally uninformed of such major news? Clearly not. Even if you disregard my opinion of the importance of having a decent understanding of political workings if you are of voting age and intend to vote… it is still worthwhile and beneficial to be aware of events that can have an impact on your life. I think we have determined by now that this event, in some capacity, falls into that category.

Is it healthy to be inundated by information (appropriate or not) around the clock? Also no. I have a business to run. I have a wife and children. I still value my physical health which takes time. I like to read. I am still on a personal mission of growing my own personal faith in God. All of this stuff takes a lot of time and effort and unless I am willing to admit that any of it is less important than being up-to-the-minute aware of the news then I need to ensure my digital environment does not overwhelm my ability to continue growing my health as I want.

This might be a fine line for people but it is one that deserves scrutiny and I’ll tell you why.

Before this I gave my big rundown on digital media and social media for a reason and when you look at it through the lens of this topic it becomes clear.

If you scroll through Facebook, Instagram, or X you can easily find people (sometimes even people you know) saying some truly despicable things. You can easily find people wishing that the assassination was successful. You can find people mocking the man that died. You can also find people blaming Joe Biden outright for this act. You can find people wanting to turn this event into the basis for conflict with their fellow citizen.

The nature of humanity and the ever so generous algorithm can often put our worst behaviors and characteristics on display right in front of us and en masse.

Now my opinion and advice would not be to totally blind yourself to this reality. I think it is beneficial to stay informed and even somewhat beneficial to understand the general thoughts and feelings of our society in the midst of a given tumultuous time like today.

To that end, though, it is likely even more beneficial to balance this knowledge with also being able to keep both feet on the ground in your everyday life. Again, myself as an example… I run a gym. People come here to train hard and be guided towards a healthy lifestyle, that is my number one priority. My number two priority is making people feel welcome and encouraging a fun environment that keeps them wanting to return. Even further, do you think my twin toddlers really give a shit about Today’s news? No of course not. All of this is something I need to be keenly aware of to not allow myself go down the rabbit hole of sensationalized digital media.

Alright I wrote for much longer than anticipated on the environmental subject but I could probably go on… maybe time for that another 10 years from now.

Let’s quickly go over mental health next.

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Mental health as I will describe it here is not necessarily synonymous with mental health as a broad subject in today’s society.

When you hear mental health you probably think about depression, happiness, anxiety, love etc.

I put that more into the emotional and relational health bucket.

For today’s discussion mental health will more so focus on one’s ability to be alert, focused, competent, thoughtful, and to effectively learn and solve problems.

If it is easier let’s just call it critical thinking. Remember when I said it probably isn’t healthy to have no emotional reaction to our current events? Well it also isn’t healthy to have no analytical reaction to our current events. Let’s unpack that.

I am certainly not telling you to put that tin-foil hat on that I mentioned earlier and just dive right into assumptions of conspiracies, coverups, and coups. I’m also not not telling you to do that.

That is precisely my whole point and I mentioned it very early on in this article. I am not here to tell you what to think and what to feel. I am not the director of your conscious and philosophy.

That is plainly obvious though right? Why would you click on this article and then just blindly duplicate all of my thinking as your own? That would be ridiculous.

You should explore your own emotions we know that by this point. Well, you should also explore your own thoughts and opinions. For some reason this is common thinking during our whole childhood where we are encouraged to learn, adapt, and challenge our thoughts on any and all topics. Yet, somewhere along the line, this becomes ill-advised to do so as an adult even if not explicitly stated to us.

Political opinions are ripe for this sort of issue. Too many talking points are pushed as absolute fact without any opening for challenge. This only does all of us a disservice. A job as complex as running a community, or city, or county, or state, or COUNTRY is obviously going to have a seemingly endless list of responsibilities that will likely require very nuanced approaches. I am not naive enough to think I know, for a fact, exactly how it should be done.

Don’t get me wrong I certainly have my opinions and feel strongly about them. But I should only be so confident in those opinions as long as I can substantiate them with critical thinking and reasoning. That caveat is absolutely vital and it is something I would encourage you to keep in mind while traversing the topics of our modern news cycle.

So you got that right? Think critically. Be open to any and all ideas but don’t fall for the temptation of easily accepting them as your own without appropriate scrutiny. The more emotionally charged the topic the more scrutiny your thoughts on it deserve.

This leads me to the final aspect of today’s discussion on the 6 layers of health in light of the fallout of the attempted assassination.

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Relational health deserves to round out today’s discussion because it can serve as a sort of ‘check and balance’ to all of the issues that we may face right now due to the intense moment we are in.

Relational health, as I find it, describes being connected and authentic with others. It describes feeling supported and like you belong.

Do me a favor. Imagine a scenario where you have all of these other layers of health in good standing. You are in good shape physically. You feel your life has purpose. You are mentally nimble. You have balanced emotions. You enjoy the environment you have set up for yourself.

Sounds pretty good right?

Well imagine all of that but you have no one to share it with. You have no one to justify your feeling healthy in these other layers. You have no one to challenge your thinking on what to eat for dinner let alone who should be President.

Having people to share life with is only half of it too. Those people you have ‘relations’ with must be of consequence. You need to have ‘skin in the game’ when it comes to building and maintaining relationships with those around you. If you don’t then no one benefits from the relationship.

If I let my relationship with my wife suffer and we become less connected and feel less support for each other then we will have less ‘skin in the game’ when it comes to treating each other with love and compassion.

If I don’t have friends whom I respect and trust then I can never count on the idea that someone will challenge my ideas. Good friends are good because they can laugh with you one moment and call you an idiot the next.

So…

In case it isn’t clear how this applies to this article’s topic let me explain.

July 13th happens. You get hit with a series of emotions. You generate thoughts based off of those emotions. You formulate opinions from those thoughts. You comfort yourself online by, likely, existing in an echo chamber that thinks and feels the way you do (because that’s social media for you no matter who you are). And that’s the end of the line. You can’t talk about it at work because your bosses are terrified that someone might be upset. You don’t talk about it at home because you are tired from work and your kids won’t understand. You don’t talk about it with friends because you are afraid that they might differ on how they view the whole topic at hand.

This is not a good place to be. It is important that you have people around you that you feel connected with enough to let your guard down.

Again, this isn’t me suggesting you go online blasting your opinions out there for all to see with little to no context… that would be ill-advised to say the least. You also shouldn’t go poking and prodding people at work to force conversations. You also shouldn’t unfairly push the stress you have off onto your children.

This is where REAL people for whom you have REAL feelings come in handy. You should be able to bullshit about Pokemon and Steelers football one day and also discuss the biggest news story of the last 20+ years the next. I really don’t view that as a controversial take… but again it’s just my opinion.

The takeaway?

Authentic relationships are exactly that because they allow you to explore thoughts and emotions that are not easily accessed. We all enjoy talking about how it has rained one time in the last 20 days but you can talk about that with anyone. You need to ensure you have people in your life you feel comfortable being yourself around… and that means comfortable letting your guard down as well.

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Ok… wow… did you really read all of that? Shouldn’t you be working? Mannnn if I was your boss I’d be pissed. Run those numbers Jack! Copy those reports Amanda! Get back to work Tim!

Seriously, though, let’s wrap this up.

I told you why I wanted to write this article near the beginning. I greatly enjoy helping people improve their health and fitness. I own a gym and it serves as a great way of me doing just that.

But it is a very incomplete approach.

I will talk your ear off with training and nutrition advice trust me. But it only serves as one piece of the whole pie.

When major events like this assassination attempt come up it can remind me how much work many of us (myself definitely included) have to do on the other areas of our personal health.

So if this long ass article helped spur your thinking in that direction even 1% then I have done my job.

As always….

Take Action, Believe

Coach Dill

(feel free to tell my who your favorite Pokémon is at brickbybrickgym@gmail.com)

#15 - Building Resiliency In Your Back

What To Do When Injured, How To Train, Which Exercises Are Best?

I live in the world that lower back pain exists. It’s a world filled with many people. Some old. Some young. Some who are overweight. Some who are at a healthy weight. Some who are athletic. Some who have never watched sports much less played it.

To sum it up nicely: my experience with back pain is probably like yours. It is an unwelcome friend. It’s like a pesky mouse hanging around the yard waiting to gnaw on the cabbage and various cruciferous vegetables you painstakingly tilled and cared for over the last 5 odd weeks.

Considering this… it is best we learn how to deal with this nuisance. Of course it would be best to never see this nuisance to begin with; but like the night sky, just because you don’t see it at high noon doesn’t mean it ceases to exist.

We are better off building our defenses. Ensuring our body is like a fortress to what is most valuable. Protecting our treasures. Yet at the same time allowing our body the ability to move and explore in a way that allows us to enjoy life and everything worthwhile in our days.

(I’m in the middle of reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy so excuse me for having some fun with what will pass as this 31 year old bald gym owner’s ‘prose’).

So like the title warns, we will discuss 3 topics in relation to spinal health and performance.

Let’s begin with handling the adversity of being injured.

Getting Injured WILL Happen

Can someone please tell me where this myth of staying forever injury free originated? Seriously let’s put the Congressional House Oversight Committee on this one because we need answers.

This is my first pet peeve for a reason and we can get it done and over with quickly if you allow me to explain.

If you bought Tylenol in hopes to relieve your headache only for it to be exacerbated you would be frustrated there is no doubt. If you got the oil to supply your car with in line with your mechanic’s recommendation only for it rattle and bang upon startup in one week’s time you would be angry and with absolute just cause.

You know that headaches and car troubles are a fact of life. Instead of throwing your hands up to the will of the universe you engage with these trials accordingly.

The same needs to go with back injuries. You need to know they WILL happen no matter what physical shape you are in.

Do not confuse this with me saying you are doomed to be a decrepit old man or woman regardless of how you behave… quite the contrary.

What I am saying is very simple so listen carefully: Your spine WILL encounter issues. The severity of those issues are largely up to you but somewhat up to luck. How you handle said issues is ENTIRELY up to you.

I have trained many people over the years and this is a fact of life that really throws people for a loop. I can sympathize. You would imagine that I, as a professional in the damn field, never encounter these issues. NOPE. I am lucky in many regards… but the ability to stay clear of spinal issues (specifically lower back ones) is certainly not one of those regards.

What I did learn VERY early on, though, was that it serves absolutely no purpose to wallow in pity and just hope it corrects itself.

So you know you WILL get injured… now what?

The rules are pretty much the same no matter how severe or insignificant the injury is. You may feel like you ‘slipped a disc’ or maybe you just woke up feeling tight today… doesn’t matter.

So what are my rules?

1. Avoid pain increases

   If there is a movement/exercise/position that increases the sensation of pain then we need to steer clear of that for the time being.

2. Stay active

   Rest is important obviously… but movement is medicine and things won’t get better unless you are signaling to your body that you want it to move.

3. Rest

   Like I said it is important. The caveat is obviously that you need to rest for a reason.

4. Start with SMALL dosages

   This is in terms of sets, reps, time, distance, range of motion, weight etc.

These are general rules but as you learn more about yourself in the face of discomfort and injury you will start to create your own reliable playbook on how to go about these times.

I’ll pull the curtain back so you can see how I handled things in my own life recently.

Things were going good… until they weren’t

If I talked to you about injuries before then you probably heard me say how I have spent every year since freshman year of high school dealing with back injuries. I would say 4 or 5 of these were pretty damn severe. The others were small frustrations that most people run into at some point.

Well I can confidently tell you that I spent all of 2021, 2022, and 2023 injury free. I was on cloud nine to start this year off. I was finally training intensely again and quickly seeing strength levels I have not seen in a while. Then BAM… it happened.

My back just wasn’t right. Thankfully it wasn’t severe, at least on my severity scale, but I definitely had some things to deal with. Let’s get a lay of the land so you can put yourself in my shoes.

• Sitting was fine unless I was even slightly forward

• I could bend down until I hit about 10 degrees over then my back would severely spasm but once I got past that 10 degree mark it would be mostly fine again

• Walking was fine until about the 30 minute mark where my hip would start shooting with pain

• Laying down on my back was fine

• Laying down on my stomach was fine but extending my chest upwards immediately resulted in pain

• Exercise-wise everything was fine as long as it fell within the parameters stated above

So what did I do from here?

My main goal was to establish pain-free training right away. So this meant I favored more bodyweight exercises for a lower risk. I slowed my tempo WAY down to ensure absolute control over every inch of movement. I did not shy away from ‘back’ exercises but I did pay close attention to range of motion and when things resulted in little issues during the movement.

In between training sessions I tried to be mindful of resting positions that didn’t cause my back pain when I got out of it. Now I need to note something here. Historically this meant I would spend A LOT of time laying on my stomach because it was one of the few positions my back would feel relief in and it wouldn’t tighten up afterwards. This was actually NOT the case this time around. I cannot stress enough how important it is that I had to learn in real time that my usual approach in this regard would’ve hurt… so I had to cut the ego and avoid my usual go-to resting position. This time around I spent more time sitting and laying on my back.

I did my best to only utilize these resting positions for 10-20 minutes at a time before being active again. When I say active I don’t mean specific exercises I just mean interacting with my children, doing chores, being outside… just normal stuff.

After the first 2 or 3 days of this I felt that I was ready to engage with the ‘painful’ positions again.

So now I did exercises that would expose me to the ‘pain’ but I did it INCREDIBLY slowly and carefully so that the pain was never severe.. it was well within the range of tolerance. After a few days of this my tolerance of this was enough so I could move further and smoother and the pain was quickly subsiding.

I was lucky enough that this process is all I needed to do for a couple of weeks and then I was pretty much back to normal.

So now, let’s develop a guideline of sorts for how you should train in regard to this topic. We’ll be going into the weeds a bit on different exercises and modalities so buckle up pal.

Let’s get right to the fun stuff

Everyone always wants to know what exercises to do. I’ll satisfy that question if you promise me you will stick around to the end of the article to put all of this in the proper context.

Do you promise?

Really?

Are you sure?

Ok then… you promised.

I’m going to start off by just rattling off a bunch of exercises. Don’t get carried away with excitement… proper training is ALL ABOUT context and the ability to adapt. The inherent nature of just reading words off of a screen or piece of paper makes the whole concept of “context” harder to digest… so you’ll have to be patient with me. Let’s dive in.

To make things a bit easier to envision we will break down our exercises into 5 categories.

1. Flexion (bending forward)

2. Extension (bending backward)

3. Twisting (rotating the spine somewhere)

4. Side Bending (duh)

5. Rigidity (doing anything while keeping the spine from moving at all)

• Flexion Focused Exercises

  • Jefferson Curl

  • Extended Situp

  • L-Sit variations

• Extension Focused Exercises

  • Back Extensions

  • Extended Situp

  • Backbends

  • Bridges

• Twisting Focused Exercises

  • Vast majority of these exercises are simply going to be adding a twist movement to another position/exercise

    • example would be doing a lunge and then twisting the spine at the bottom position

  • Standing, Laying, then Sitting Twists are the foundation of this category

  • Windmill

  • Rotational Deadlifts

• Side Bending Focused Exercises

  • Standing Side Bends

  • Windmill

• Rigidity Focused Exercises

  • Deadlift variations

  • Squat

  • Walking

  • Running

  • Carries of all kinds

  • Overhead Press

  • Planks

Take A Beat

I just threw a bunch of what may or may not be gibberish at you.

HERE IS WHAT I DO NOT WANT YOU TO DO.

I don’t want you to add like 10-20 of these to your routine and constantly switch up what you are doing week after week.

If you know me by now you know that the foundation of any routine is exactly that: ROUTINE.

Meaning that you need to have a repeatable approach to make progress.

I recommend looking for the low hanging fruit.

Is there something that currently gives you pain? Is there a severe weakness in strength or movement quality on any of these exercises? Is there something you simply have never done?

These questions can often lead you to a great starting point.

The final section of this article is going to be going into the abstract a bit… so put on the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack composed by the great Nobuo Uematsu and pay attention.

How To Train For Lifelong Back Resiliency

Let me just address something really quick. I love using the word resiliency in this context because it is the thing everyone wants but no one says it outright. You don’t want a super strong back that can’t bend because you will inevitably get injured. You don’t want a super flexible back that is weak because you will inevitably get injured. You want a system of checks and balances (like the good ol’ USA…oh no POLITICS!)

I can sum up my approach with this training with one very simple idea:

Constant striving for both improvement and perfection.

I promise I will explain so don’t hit me with a “what the fuck does that mean”.

The idea is simple in that when we are training we should be juggling the 2 things equally. So many people make this monumental mistake in training generally but especially so when training with “injury prevention”, or anything akin, in mind.

If you are working on improving your spines ability to bend forward you will need to have periods when you are really focused on pushing the envelope and getting out of your comfort zone. Then you will need to have periods of time when you are not pushing the envelope with intensity and range of motion but maybe you are super critical with the control and quality of movement you are displaying.

I’m sorry if this sounds a bit too ethereal but it’s how my brain works. I have found that this is the best question to go back to time and time again in your training. If you can confidently answer yes to “am I trying to get better performance AND quality?” then you are on the right track and there is no need to overanalyze.

Now let’s talk about practicality so we can properly envision things before I leave you to explore the world of spinal domination.

Speed? Range? Load? Rigidity? Where am I? Who are you people?

Those first 4 questions are the things I want you to focus on in your training.

• Improve your ability to move fast AND slow.

• Improve your ability move through more and more range of motion.

• Improve your ability to handle excess loads in any and all exercises.

• Improve your ability to hold a given position in any exercise.

If you do those 4 things I GUARANTEE that your spine will be more resilient than you can imagine.

These are things we do at my gym.

We will work hard on squats so the spine learns how to hold a position and not give way to exterior loads.

We also work hard on standing forward folds so that the spine learns that bending at each vertebrae is actually okay and can be done with confidence and strength.

We also work hard on flexing/extending fast in movements such as KB Swings, Jefferson Curls, and back extensions.

We also work hard on improving our range of motion on literally EVERYTHING.

The bad news is that you will never reach the end of the road on any of this.

The good news is that if you stay on the road you will end up better than you could’ve imagined.

Take Action, Believe

Coach Dill

#14 - How To Stay Focused On Your Goals In The Face Of Slow Progress and Setbacks

Achieving your goals is often a marathon, not a sprint. The journey can be fraught with slow progress and unexpected setbacks, but with the right mindset and strategies, you can stay focused and keep pushing forward. Here’s how to stay on track, inspired by the principles that have helped myself and countless members here in this gym stay on track over the years.

1. Embrace the Journey

Progress, No Matter How Small, is Still Progress

In our instant-gratification world, it’s easy to get discouraged when results don’t come quickly. But remember, every small step forward is still a step in the right direction. Celebrate these tiny victories, as they are proof that you’re making progress.

Think of it like building a wall: each brick you lay might seem insignificant on its own, but over time, these bricks come together to create something substantial and solid.

When you start a new fitness routine, you might not see dramatic changes immediately. But maybe you notice you can lift a bit more weight or run a bit longer than last week. These are signs you’re on the right path. As you stick with that routine the progress compounds. It is very common for people to get a year or two in and be totally unrecognizable from their starting points… but it probably didn’t feel like that would ever happen at the month 3 point.

2. Set Realistic and Specific Goals

Be Clear and Specific

Vague goals like “I want to be fit” can leave you wandering aimlessly. Instead, define exactly what fitness means to you. Is it losing 10 pounds, running a 5k, or mastering a particular yoga pose? Specific goals give you a clear target to aim for.

**Tip** Break your main goal into smaller, manageable milestones. If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, aim to lose 2 pounds a week. This makes your overall goal less daunting and gives you regular opportunities to feel accomplished.

Stay Realistic

Ambitious goals are great, but they should also be realistic. Setting unattainable targets can lead to frustration and burnout. Aim for challenging yet achievable goals within a reasonable timeframe.

If your ultimate goal is to run a marathon but you’ve never run more than a mile, start with smaller goals like completing a 5k or 10k first. This step-by-step approach helps build confidence and keeps you motivated. This goes the same for almost any goal you can imagine. If you want to improve your eating you need to know your starting point and then build from there. If you want to get stronger you need to know how much you can squat and then build from there.

3. Develop a Solid Plan

Map Out Your Path

Creating a detailed plan is crucial. Outline the steps you need to take to reach your goal, and include daily and weekly actions. This roadmap serves as a constant reminder of what you need to do and helps keep you accountable.

If your goal is to run a marathon, your plan might include a weekly running schedule, cross-training, and rest days. Knowing exactly what to do each day prevents procrastination and ensures consistent progress.

Stay Flexible

Life is unpredictable, and plans might need adjustments. If you miss a workout or face a setback, don’t be too hard on yourself. Flexibility is key to staying on track despite obstacles.

4. Maintain Motivation

Remember Your Why

Understanding why you set your goal in the first place can keep you motivated. Whether it’s improving your health, achieving a personal milestone, or setting an example for your family, your “why” is a powerful motivator.

If your goal is to get fit, your why might be to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, improve mental health, or have more energy for your kids. Keep this reason at the forefront to stay motivated.

Visualize Success

Spend a few minutes each day visualizing yourself achieving your goal. Imagine how you’ll feel, what you’ll look like, and the sense of accomplishment you’ll have. This mental exercise can boost your motivation and keep you focused on the end goal.

Stay Positive

Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial when facing setbacks. Negative thinking can quickly derail your progress. Instead, focus on what you’ve achieved so far and believe in your ability to reach your goal. Surround yourself with positive influences, whether it’s motivational quotes, supportive friends, or inspirational stories.

5. Turn Setbacks into Learning Opportunities

Learn from Setbacks

Setbacks are inevitable, but they don’t have to derail you. Instead of viewing them as failures, see them as learning opportunities. Analyze what went wrong, adjust your plan, and use the experience to improve your strategy.

If you miss a week of workouts due to illness, use the setback as an opportunity to reassess your plan. Maybe you need more rest days or better nutrition to support your immune system.

Stay Resilient

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks. It involves maintaining a positive attitude, staying flexible, and not giving up when things get tough. Remember, every setback is temporary, and perseverance will lead you to your goal.

6. Build a Support System

Seek Support

Having a support system can make a huge difference. This could be a workout buddy, a mentor, a coach, or a supportive online community. Sharing your journey with others provides accountability, encouragement, and motivation.

Join a fitness class, find a running group, or hire a personal trainer. The social aspect of these activities can keep you motivated and committed.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Sometimes, staying focused requires outside help. Whether it’s professional guidance, emotional support, or practical advice, don’t hesitate to seek help when needed.

7. Celebrate Your Successes

Acknowledge Small Wins

Celebrating small victories along the way can keep you motivated. Each milestone is a testament to your hard work and dedication. Take time to acknowledge and celebrate these achievements.

If your goal is to run a marathon, celebrate completing your first 5k, 10k, and half marathon. Treat yourself to something special, like a new pair of running shoes or a massage… or get this… have some damn pizza.

Reward Yourself

Incentives can be powerful motivators. Set up a reward system for yourself. For example, if you stick to your workout plan for a month, reward yourself with a spa day or a new workout outfit. These rewards give you something to look forward to and help maintain your motivation.

8. Stay Accountable

Track Your Progress

Regularly tracking your progress helps you stay accountable and see how far you’ve come. Use a journal, app, or spreadsheet to log your activities, milestones, and any setbacks. This visual representation of your journey can be incredibly motivating.

Keep a workout journal where you record your exercises, reps, weights, and how you felt during each session. Review your journal regularly to see your improvements and identify areas that need adjustment.

Regular Check-Ins

Schedule regular check-ins with yourself or a support person. Assess your progress, celebrate successes, and make any necessary adjustments to your plan. These check-ins keep you accountable and ensure you stay on track.

9. Practice Patience and Persistence

Patience is Key

As discussed in previous posts, patience is crucial when working towards long-term goals. Understand that significant changes take time, and the journey is just as important as the destination. Embrace the process and be patient with yourself.

Persistence Pays Off

Persistence is the ability to keep going despite challenges and setbacks. It’s about showing up every day and putting in the work, even when you don’t feel like it. Stay persistent, and you’ll eventually reach your goal.

If you’re working on improving your strength, you might hit plateaus where progress seems to stall. Instead of getting discouraged, recognize that plateaus are a normal part of the process. Stay consistent with your workouts, and over time, you’ll break through those plateaus and see improvement.

10. Stay Inspired

Find Inspiration in Others

Look for inspiration in others who have achieved similar goals. Read success stories, watch motivational videos, or join communities of like-minded individuals. Seeing others’ achievements can remind you that your goals are attainable and keep you motivated.

Follow fitness influencers on social media who share their journeys, challenges, and successes. Their stories can provide valuable insights and inspire you to stay focused.

Reflect on Your Own Progress

Take time to reflect on how far you’ve come. Look back at where you started and appreciate the progress you’ve made. This reflection can reignite your motivation and remind you why you started in the first place.

Keep a photo journal of your fitness journey. Periodically look back at the early photos to see how much progress you've made. This visual reminder of your hard work and achievements can boost your confidence and motivation.

Conclusion

Staying focused on your goals in the face of slow progress and setbacks is a challenging but rewarding endeavor. By setting realistic and specific goals, developing a detailed plan, maintaining motivation, and turning setbacks into learning opportunities, you can keep your eye on the prize and achieve your aspirations. Remember to celebrate your successes, seek support, practice patience and persistence, and stay inspired. With the right mindset and strategies, you can overcome any obstacle and stay on the path to success.

Take Care, Comb Your Hair

Coach Dill

#13 - The First Draft Of Everything Is Shit

The title of this post is a direct quote from Ernest Hemingway. People still know who that is right? I sure hope so. I was always more of a “The Sun Also Rises” person but that’s a discussion for another day.

Today we are discussing the fact that you will very likely NEVER be satisfied with your first attempts at any sort of change for your health… honestly you might not even be satisfied with your 100th attempt at change.

If you are like me you will over analyze. You will plan about planning. You will think too much and act too little. You will jump through all of these hoops just to find yourself still treading water where you started.

I think a lot of this stems from the fear of screwing up. We don’t want to screw things up… especially when it comes to our health.

We want to get it right… and preferably get it right the first time.

The fact of the matter is, though, that this just doesn’t make any sense.

Can you name me a single thing that you are no better at the more you work on it?

I’m waiting…

So today I will be giving a playbook on what needs to be addressed when initiating new changes in your health & physical activity.

So what are we to do?

This is the thing… there isn’t really any ‘hacks’ to this whole thing I am talking about today.

I’m not talking about doing one more set or one less set. I’m not giving you a range of weights to hit. I’m not correcting technique. I’m dealing with the thing that is by far the hardest to deal with as a coach: your human psychology.

So what we do is simply have an open dialogue… with ourselves.

Sure it can be extremely beneficial to have someone to lean on when it comes to attempting changes but more than anyone you must lean on yourself.

This might seem counterintuitive at first because seemingly the problem at hand is having ‘too much’ noise in our heads… and here I am asking you to talk to yourself more.

The key will be that we will start to focus on all of the things that can go right instead of wrong. We will focus on why we want change as opposed to why we need change. We will focus on treating ourselves the way we would treat a friend not the way we would treat our dog.

Pretty much I am telling you to start treating yourself with some respect.

Let’s discuss respect for a minute (yeah… the bald 31 year old gym owner is about to give you a lecture on respect… buckle up)

Ok let’s get this over with.

Respect does not mean lying with kindness.

Respect does not mean coddling.

Respect does not mean having no empathy.

Respect does not mean being unrealistic.

Respect comes down to demonstrating how much you care.

Most people respect their mothers. They may avoid cursing around them. They probably are truthful with them but in a careful manner. They likely lean on them during hard times.

Treat yourself with this same respect.

Be patient. Be kind. Be honest. Be present.

This is sooooo much easier said than done… but it is well worth the effort.

Also just a small hint here: it is easier to do this if you practice treating others with respect as well… go figure.

Be a doer… not an overthinker.

So hopefully you are committed to the idea of giving yourself the respect necessary to approach your desired changes with the proper state of mind.

Well, state of mind is one thing, state of action is the whole point of this post though.

So in order to be a doer and not an overthinker we need to embrace the fact that we WILL screw things up. We won’t be perfect. We will likely look back at our initial attempts at cleaning up our diet or getting in shape and think “wow did I get that wrong”.

But that does not matter at all… seriously it doesn’t.

Because you aren’t trying to get this right at first. You should be looking at this as a way of practicing the skill of behavior change. If it ends up working then awesome but even if it doesn’t at least you took some practice shots at following through with the decisions you made… that’s so much more important.

Be a doer.

Action will move you at least 1% closer to your goals almost every time whereas inaction doesn’t do a damn thing and sometimes it even negatively affects you.

Alright gang.

You can do this.

Take Action, Believe

p.s. the next post I have lined up will be a bit more practical don’t worry 😂

#12 - Old Dog New Tricks (free workout #2)

When it comes to hitting the gym to get stronger, leaner, faster, healthier, and whatever else you want, there are a handful of exercises that are as tried and true as buttered bread.

In the gym community we have come to know this group as The Big 3. In my opinion it is worthwhile to extend that out to The Big 5.

Squat - Bench Press - Deadlift - Overhead Press - Barbell Row

These 5 exercises cover everything a person would want in a general strength training program.

The odds are you have done many workouts involving these exercises. You may have even become bored of them.

FOOLISH OF YOU! Do you get tired of pizza too? Fuck no you don’t.

Okay but seriously these exercises can feel new and exciting again… and I am here to help.

Let’s dig into your latest free workout: Old Dog New Tricks

Warm Up

Warm ups are still enjoying their time in the spotlight in the fitness community. There are no shortage of videos going over long and elaborate warm ups that are as long and intricate as the workout themselves. 99% of the time that is absolutely pointless.

The warm up is here to serve 2 main purposes.

1. literally increase body heat

2. prepare specific joints and movement patterns that are problematic and/or pertinent to the day’s exercises

So to handle point one you need just a few minutes of low impact simple cardio. My go-to choice is 2 minutes of jump rope but you can easily substitute walking at a brisk pace on the treadmill, hitting the bike, dragging a light sled, or doing some various crawls and light calisthenics.

To handle point two you will need to address things on an individual basis since each person experiences different trouble areas in terms of joints/muscles/movements. Now we can confidently put a few movements in still based on the day’s workouts and since we are looking at a full body workout with a decent amount of axial load on the spine we will want to prioritize getting that area prepared.

***This section should still only take a few minutes there is no need to get carried away***

Example warm up:

• 2 minutes jump rope

• 1 minute Angels

• 1 minute Scorpion Pose

• 1 minute Deadbugs

• 1 minute Shoulder Rotations

• get a sip of water and let’s squat

Section 1 : The Squat

For our Squat section we will be doing 3 total sets. The first two sets will consist of 5 reps each done at a weight that would allow you to perform another 2-3 reps. You will take that weight and drop 10% then do a final set of 20 reps.

It would be written out like this : 2x5, 1x20

It would be a good idea to spend a couple sets warming up to the first set. The heavier weights you will use will require more warm up sets. Let’s say for example your first set is going to be 165lbs for 5 reps. I would recommend doing the following warm ups: 45x10, 95x5, 135x2.

The 2x5 is pretty straightforward. The 1x20 is hell. At least it should be.

You see there is something special about the squat that allows for something as ridiculous as 20 reps to be done at a pretty high intensity. This is why we are only dropping 10% of the weight from the previous set. A good rule of thumb is if you are getting the set done in less than 60 seconds then you can work WAY harder.

The squat is unique because when you stand up it is actually a fairly effective resting position. The Bench Press isn’t the same. The Row sucks because you don’t breathe normally until you are done and can actually stand up (and by sucks I mean fucking awesome). The Overhead Press sucks the energy out of you the longer you stand there.

Since the squat involves these miniature recovery moments it allows you to push yourself harder than you can likely imagine.

I say you stop imagining and start practicing.

Section 2 : The Bench Press

For our Bench Press section we will performing 3 sets of 6 repetitions of a Bench Press variation known as The Spoto Press.

The Spoto Press is the same exact movement as the bench press except you stop short of the chest by barely an inch (not 5 inches folks) and pause slightly before pressing back up.

This variation forces you to have complete control of every inch of range of motion. This is super important for all exercises but particularly an exercise that is so commonly turned into a messy display of ego.

Section 3 : The Deadlift

For our Deadlift section we will performing 3 sets of 4 repetitions of a variation known as the Deficit Deadlift.

This is simply the same deadlift exercise but performed with your feet elevated on plates or mats by 2-4 inches.

This small elevation forces an adjustment to starting position, more work on the quads and low back, and due to all of that it means the weight on the bar will likely be reduced which is a good thing since we are already performing so much barbell work today to begin with.

Section 4 : The Overhead Press

For our Overhead Press section we will be performing 3 sets of 4 repetitions with a 5 second eccentric portion of the lift.

This means that coming down from the top position you want to take a full 5 seconds to get back to the starting position.

This will help teach discipline in how to keep the body rigid and tight during a heavy compound lift. It will also teach a stable “tight” low back feeling that isn’t extreme. Oftentimes people are afraid to have a lean back during this exercise but it is actually very necessary and going so slow will force you to learn the right position for each individual.

I also love this approach because if you think about the 2 ends of the spine you have the low back/hips and then you have the neck/shoulders. In an exercise like this there will be ample opportunity for things to breakdown somewhere along the way from those two ends so this will force you to be extra focused and mindful to keep things together.

Section 5 : The Barbell Row

The king. The leader. The unsung hero. The Barbell Row is avoided by many for precisely one reason: it is difficult.

Now we will be performing an EMOM (every minute on the minute) set. Every minute you will perform 3 reps and you will continue this for 5-8 minutes. Very simple and straightforward.

Now, what this will allow you to do is still work heavy but without taxing the body so much since we are at the tail end of a very difficult and damaging workout.

A nice side effect of the EMOM set is that it will let you be perfect with those 3 repetitions and there isn’t so much rest that it becomes simply too easy.

Conclusion

Give this a whirl next time you are crunched for time. This workout itself will likely take about an hour but this is a great example of something you can do just 2 times per week and feel confident that you are checking off all of the boxes.

Get after it gang.

Take Action, Believe

Coach Dill

#11 - Nutrition For Dummies

Hi there! Let’s talk nutrition. I’m your dummy 🙃

This may end up being pretty lengthy so I recommend bookmarking this and revisiting this as needed.

Before we get underway let’s just take a moment to understand why you are reading this. You probably acknowledge that your nutrition is a monumental factor in your health & performance.

But…acknowledging and deeply understanding are two totally different things.

Many of us acknowledge ways that we could improve or nutritional habits but we don’t follow through on virtually any of those ways. Those of us who deeply understand what these changes mean to us are much more likely to follow through.

I start with this because all of the information that follows is only going to benefit you if you are prepared to actually change.

Let’s Bust Some Myths

All of these could be an article by themselves (and probably will be one day) but I want to just quickly get through these so we can start the real discussion with a clear head. Here goes…

“carbs are bad”

Please please please please let this myth die. The poor guy has been dragged through the mud by a manual transmission 2003 Mazda Protege5 (my first car). He has been forgotten, remembered, forgotten, and remembered yet again. He is still out there everyday fighting to be believed and many people are more than happy to believe him.

So let’s make this quick. Carbs are not bad. It isn’t as simple as “sUgAr Is A cArB aNd SuGaR iS bAd RiGhT?” Plus while we are on the subject… sugar actually isn’t a purely bad thing… I know pretty fucking shocking to hear that huh… sorry but it’s true.

A huge portion of this myth has to be crushed by understanding that PORTION SIZES MATTER! Anything in excess is deleterious to your health. The grain of truth comes from the fact that some carb sources are certainly easier to overeat leading to an excess intake of calories.

Beyond that, though, carbs are incredibly effective at providing nutrients and minerals as well as quick/sustained energy uptake depending on the types you are ingesting.

Also if you are doing ANY aerobic activity with some regularity… you’re going to want carbs unless you want to be miserable… your choice.

“fat is bad”

Same basic idea here as the carb discussion… but honestly this one is even MORE insane to me that it ever catches on. Seriously if someone says this then you know without a shadow of a doubt that they have less than zero real education on nutrition.

Fat is absolutely vital to brain function, nutrient absorption, and hormone regulation.

It is important to understand that dietary fat is not any more likely than proteins or carbs to be stored as body fat. The macronutrient doesn’t matter for the storage of body fat. The question is whether or not you are in a calorie surplus; and to a lesser extent what types of training are you doing.

Final point on this is you can bet with 90% certainty that anytime you see a food listed as “low-fat” it just means it is pumped with added sugars to make up for the taste.

“diet soda is bad for you”

Please, I beg of you, show me the randomized human control trials that even remotely show this statement to be true… I’ll wait.

Look, the thing is that people get veryyyyy dogmatic when it comes to nutrition beliefs. This myth suffers from the naturalistic fallacy (if it’s ‘fake’ it must be bad). I hate to break it to you too: almost none of our food is free from human interventions at this point.

First things first… diet soda absolutely WILL NOT cause weight gain. A zero calorie food literally cannot do that. Now of course we have to put this into context of what a person’s habits are and whether or not changing from diet soda to water is a better choice. Well sure it is… but if you are crushing fast food everyday trust me the diet soda is the only thing saving you in those meals.

Final point on this is that every few months you’ll see a new study pop up showing how bad these are for you. Wait. Read it. Understand it. Every one of these studies are in rats and are with dosages that are virtually impossible for a human to achieve without the stuff being pumped directly into your stomach.

“red meat/dairy is bad”

I’ll say this right now: whole lean red meat is about as close a thing we have to a real life superfood as we can find.

complete amino acid profile ✅

high in protein ✅

satiating ✅

easy for almost everyone to digest ✅

This is true to a lesser extent of dairy too.

Certainly with ANY of these topics an individual experience is valid. So if you feel sick every time you have a steak or drink milk….STOP IT… hell I’m not telling you that you NEED to eat this way.

Finally, there is definitely a tier of quality to meats. Deli meats/sausages/bacon won’t be as good of choices when compared to cuts of beef/pork/chicken or even some leaner ground cuts.

“too much cholesterol in eggs“

Trans fats, saturated fats, and simple sugars are the primary movers of blood cholesterol levels. Dietary cholesterol simply doesn’t move the needle like we once thought it did decades ago.

Takeaways

There are tons of myths out there. I encourage you to be skeptical of anything you hear and that includes from me. Just do yourself a favor and don’t fall into the trap of demonizing food groups… it is incredibly unhealthy to do so.

Okay… let’s move on to the good stuff finally.

Water

“Really Dillon… water… I know already”

Okay sure you do. We all know water is important. Since we know it’s true that means you drink AT LEAST .5oz per pound of bodyweight right? That means you start your day off with water instead of 3 cups of coffee right? That means you don’t forget to have water until like 2pm and then quickly down 3 bottles but that’s it until 10pm right?

I’m being an ass… but I’m right and you know it.

I’m starting with this not only because it is soooo important but also because it is emblematic of how we need to stay focused on the simple things that make the biggest differences.

I don’t want to hear jack shit about cold plunges, peptides, supplement stacks, red light therapy, etc.

All of that stuff has a place… and the chances are for those who are reading this… you aren’t there yet.

So do me a favor… drink your water… do it everyday… throughout the whole day… and when you don’t miss more than a day a month then we can move to the next big rock.

Protein

If I could encourage everyone to do one thing to have a monumental shift in their health & fitness it would be to track your protein intake for a week and tell me if get more than 60 grams even twice. I bet you don’t.

It can be absolutely shocking to people who think they eat a lot of protein to realize how little they probably do eat.

We live in a world of chips, pasta, sodas, and if you’re lucky bacon/sausage. You simply aren’t getting anywhere near the protein you need if this stuff is in your everyday diet.

So before I get to the “why” let’s answer your question that you have already: “how much protein should I get”.

You should do your best to get to 1 gram of protein per pound of target bodyweight. If you get 75% of that then you are heading in a good direction. If you are less than that then there is a very good chance that even if you are losing weight at the moment that you are losing more muscle than body fat.

Fruits/Veggies….. FIBER

Getting in adequate fruits and veggies are very important for your health.

You probably have heard that… but do you really understand why? Do you know the trickle down effect of having adequate fruits/veggies in your nutrition?

My 2 favorite aspect of getting in fruits/veggies are:

1. handles most/all micronutrients

2. blunts cravings/hunger

The first point is one that people think of when they lazily say “fruits/veggies are good for you”. Again… it’s true but it doesn’t do any good to say it if you don’t appreciate it.

The second point is what can be so beneficial for people who are trying to lose weight. Hunger can vary wildly so to get a better control on that is worth every bit of effort possible.

Part of this effectiveness on hunger control comes down to its fiber content. Fiber is extremely important for digestive health. It also does a great job of simply “filling” the stomach…making you feel satiated.

How much fiber should you have?

Shoot for 14 grams per 1,000 calories. That leaves people, typically, in the range of 25-42 grams.

Avoiding Processed Foods

DON’T……….OVERTHINK……….THIS……….PLEASE

I’ll give you three simple reasons:

1. typically calorie dense

2. typically higher in added sugars

3. typically not a good source of protein

These three things just mean that it doesn’t really give you a lot of bang for your buck.

I’m not even going down the “health” effects. I’m not trying to scare you away from certain foods. I don’t demonize any food. Everything has it’s place.

BUT….

I will also be very honest when it comes to saying certain foods simply aren’t that useful to you aside from tasting good.

So keep it simple: if it is in a box or a bag just take an extra moment to analyze whether or not it fits into your diet effectively.

There are TONS of “processed” foods that get a bad wrap but are actually incredible foods like the evil WHITE RICE! It is filling, useful carrier of other foods/flavors, and a great carb source. Eat your rice it is A-OK.

Cake? Ice cream? Soda? Candy? Many pastas? You know the answers.

Calorie Counting

If you have never counted your calories diligently for 4-8 weeks…. YOU SHOULD.

It can be VERY eye opening to people who think they are aware of their diet.

Simply put: many people are extremely ignorant to the amount of calories they take in on a daily basis AND (almost as important) how much it can vary from day to day.

Where to start? Take your goal bodyweight and multiply it by 12.

This is a starting point and will almost certainly not be 100% correct for each individual. But the better you are at tracking the easier time you will have at adjusting things up/down as needed.

Macro Counting

This falls in line with calorie counting… sort of.

I would definitely not start with this if you are new to tracking in general.

This is because until calories > protein > fiber are in check this can only add confusion to people and make it easier to choose processed foods that give simple numbers.

I won’t even give specific numbers on this because it can very greatly and there are simply better resources than myself on this specific topic.

This can be a great method for making progress for an individual who has tracked before.

Particularly for disciplined exercisers this is important to ensure to make sure their hard work doesn’t go to waste.

Conclusion

I glossed over a lot of information here. None of it was meant to be a deep dive on a specific topic. The goal was to give you a north star on how you approach your journey in improving your nutrition.

I encourage you to be patient. I want you to trust the process. I want you to believe in yourself.

I do not want you to get distracted by anything not DIRECTLY related to your specific focus at the moment.

Start small but start on the stuff that makes the biggest difference like protein, fruits/veggies, or calorie counting. Learn… adapt….improve.

YOU GOT THIS.

Don’t ever be afraid to reach out to me brickbybrickgym@gmail.com for any help!

- Coach Dill

#10 - Reverse Engineer Your Year

At the time of writing this we are 11 days into 2024. Many of us have made some lofty goals for our health & fitness. “I’m going to lose 60 pounds this year”, or “I’m going to run a half-marathon”, or “I’m going to increase my squat by 100 pounds”.

Look those are all great goals. But also… they’re kind of shitty goals.

(Yeah I’m going to be ruffling some feathers here)

So the thing is if you are saying these goals to yourself you may very well be capable of achieving that this year. That really doesn’t matter though. What matters is what will you be PROUD of achieving. What matters is what will you TAKE ACTION on to achieve these goals.

So before we get into the weeds on this post (might be a long one) let’s just humor me for a moment.

If you wanted to lose 60 pounds this year but lost 10 instead… would you be proud? If you wanted to run a half-marathon this year but got up to 10 miles… would you be proud? If you wanted to increase your squat by 100 pounds but did so by 30 pounds… would you be proud?

In my opinion YOU SHOULD BE PROUD OF ALL OF THESE RESULTS.

I am not saying you should be satisfied with underachieving. What I am saying is that one of the biggest issues when it comes to people achieving their health & fitness goals is lack of patience and lack of gratitude.

If you were patient, grateful, and proud of these results (albeit not exactly what you wanted) you would set yourself up to achieve those results the following year or maybe in 3 years… INSTEAD OF FINDING YOURSELF IN THE SAME OR WORSE POSITION YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR.

Ok… that’s the intro folks. Let’s dig into things with talking about goals as a concept.

Goal Setting

Before we get into anything too deeply I want to make a point that is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

YOU NEED TO PHYSICALLY WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS AND PLANS. Seriously, bust out the pen and paper. It doesn’t need to be fancy whatsoever. It needs to be tangible and it needs to be something you will see frequently to be a reminder of what is important to you. This is step one. Now let’s move to step two.

When it comes to setting goals we need to be specific. Nothing says “I will quit this gym in one month” like making your goal “I’m going to get healthier this year and exercise more”. The lack of specificity here means you have no north star. You have nothing to indicate whether you are on track or need intervention.

So when I am talking about specificity what do I mean?

Usually it means numbers. Numbers are great because they do not lie. You either hit the mark or you didn’t.

So for example:

• Turn “I will walk more” into “I will average “X” amount of steps per day”

• Turn “I will lose weight” into “I will lose 2-4 pounds per month“

• Turn “I will eat better” into “I will have no more than ‘X’ amount of meals from restaurants per week”

• Turn “I will get stronger” into “I will commit to ‘X’ workouts per week’

These numbers are something you can look at over the year and determine how you are progressing.

So we handled specificity now let’s handle the 2 types of goals.

There are objective and behavioral goals.

Most people only think in terms of objectives. This is the “I’ll lose those 15 pounds this year” or “I will hit that 225 pound bench press this year”.

These goals are good and not-so-good.

The good is that these goals are exciting and very emotionally rewarding when achieved. They are also crystal clear.

The not-so-good is that these goals don’t really give you any roadmap to achieving them. Just wanting to lose 15 pounds is going to make you lose 15 pounds. In fact, if you want it so badly but don’t have any direction you will only end up more disappointed because you will be confused and frustrated at the end of it.

So your goals should absolutely include these objective goals… but we’ll need to support them with behavioral goals as well.

The behavioral goals will act as stepping stones to the goals that are most emotionally important to you.

So we need to break down HOW to achieve the objective goal. Then we turn that guide into behavioral goals. Let’s use the bench press goal for example.

We can now add the behavioral goal of “I will perform 6-12 sets of bench press per week” to our goal list. This gives us direction and keeps us honest on a weekly basis.

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I know the goal stuff seems simple and straightforward but let me redirect you back to my very first point in that YOU NEED TO WRITE THESE DOWN.

I say this because it is an absolute guarantee that your head will fuck with you at some point this year. It might happen every month. It might happen every week. It might even happen everyday for a period of time.

This is when you PHYSICALLY LOOK at your list so you can think logically and clear headed.

You got this as long as you are patient, grateful, and proud.

Now let’s move on to the next aspect of Reverse Engineering Your Year: staying focused.

Staying Focused

I will give you best advice right away with no hesitation and it’s going to annoy that I am bringing it up yet again. Say it with me: LOOK AT THE LIST YOU WROTE DOWN.

This is just like past you talking to current you. The better and more emotionally powerful your list is the better this simple method will work.

Alright now I know you will want more than that so let me go through popular strategies and give you my take on them.

Before I do that let me just quickly point out what this section should really be titled: Not Getting Distracted. When people ask how to stay focused this is what they are really looking for. This is bringing me to my first popular strategy.

De-Clutter Your Life

This consists of physical and digital items. So for one you might have to tidy up your house and get rid of unused clothes, technology, books, movies, decorations, tools…. there is no wrong approach. Just create some literal space for you to breathe and easier dictate the environment of your home base.

The more important one (and definitely more difficult one) is the digital items. I’ve talked about this before to people but I cannot encourage you enough to read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. This will help more than I could ever hope to in this article alone. But the gist is to determine what parts of your digital habits actually provide benefit to the life you want to live. So maybe you need to spend some time with Instagram removed from your phone…trust me you won’t die. Or maybe you download it one day per week and remove it at the end of the day. The point is to free yourself from the digital things occupying space inside of your mind.

These 2 things combined will give you space and time… which will make achieving your goals MUCH more realistic.

Now what about a popular strategy that I will call:

Seeking Motivation

Motivation is something everyone wants. It’s the perceived magic bullet to all of our personal problems.

Well maybe that’s true, I don’t know. What I do know for an absolute fact is that your motivation WILL FADE. In these moments many people go searching for motivation.

They read self-help books. They watch motivational movies or videos on YouTube. They spend precious time looking to refill the proverbial gas tank that is their motivation.

Now the thing is… sometimes this actually works. Sometimes you read something that absolutely makes perfect sense and it puts things into perspective for you. Sometimes you watch a movie and it reminds you to try just a little bit harder.

BUT… even when this works it just doesn’t seem to last long.

So yeah, I won’t tell you to not search for motivation. What I will tell you is to pay very close attention to what actually succeeds in motivating you. Don’t stray from that path of success. Don’t be tempted by the other distractions disguising themselves as helpful tools.

So I want to go over my last strategy and it is one that is the least popular but (next to simply looking at your personal list) it is the most effective in my opinion.

Practicing gratitude

“Really Dillon?”

Yes, really.

Look, I’ll be honest this is something I struggled with for a very long time because I spent a long time simply not needing to do this to remain focused.

The thing is no one makes a concerted effort to practice gratitude when things are going great. You just ride that high… I get it.

Gratitude is an absolute necessity, though, to remain focused during times of trouble. These times of trouble might be a day. They might be a week. They might be a month. Troubles can even creep into your life on/off for what seems like an unending amount of time.

Here is what I know:

• When I practice gratitude I am a better husband.

• When I practice gratitude I am a better father.

• When I practice gratitude I am a better business owner.

• When I practice gratitude I am a better son.

• When I practice gratitude I am a better coach.

So what do I mean exactly by practicing gratitude? Well if you want to go above and beyond I think it is absolutely AMAZING idea to keep a gratitude journal. Bonus points if this is a physical written journal.

You can also keep a list in your notes app on your phone to serve this purpose.

Here is what I do. Every few nights before I go to bed I text myself some things that made me happy and grateful. It’s the last thing I do before I put my phone down. This means that the first thing I see when picking up my phone the next morning is that text. It is a very simple, but powerful, way to start my day.

Honestly for me this has become absolutely necessary because of how much time I spend with people in my gym. I am lucky to have an amazing community of people around me but let’s be honest they don’t want some guy coming into the gym in a sour ass mood every time his life hits a rough patch. This is my business… not my therapy. I need to be able to convey an authentically positive mindset when running my gym. This isn’t always the easiest thing to do. The time to work on those issues though are NOT in my own business. So yeah… being able to remind myself of all of the great things in my life to keep me focused on providing a good service to those people who pay me to do so… it’s pretty damn important.

When To Course Correct

We live in the real world where we don’t always meet our goals. It doesn’t make us bad people. It also doesn’t give us the excuse to give up.

So I’m going to break this down into 3 sections:

1. how often do we evaluate

2. when to decide to course correct

3. HOW to course correct

HOw Often do we evaluate

Well, if you set effective goals then you should have a relatively good idea on where you are at all times. It shouldn’t come down to one random day when you take a minute to look at things that you realize “holy shit I’ve been going the wrong direction for 3 months!”

I recommend, though, to sit down and take a deep look at your progress at least every four months. This is when you sift through your goal list and evaluate every aspect of that list and see what is going well and what is not.

Once you do that then we get to our next point.

When to decide to course correct

This will be highly dependent on what your specific goal is. Let’s use weight loss because it is a common example.

If your goal was to lose 45 pounds this year and you are four months in and down 5 pounds.. it is time to course correct. If you are down 10 pounds I would stay the course.

What does that 5 pounds difference signify to me? I look at the 5lb weight loss and say in 2 years on that trajectory we still don’t hit our goal so something needs to change. I look at the 10lb weight loss and say in 2 years on that trajectory we smash that goal so just be patient and grateful.

This hidden 2nd year is what I recommend to use in these situations.

Pretty much it comes down to being honest with yourself on your current progress as well as evaluating whether or not your goal is worth spending 2 years to achieve instead of 1. Hint: if it is a health & fitness goal it almost always is worth the wait because guess what… you will ALWAYS need your health & fitness.

Now if the goal is to, say, learn to play Thunderstruck on guitar and you haven’t even bought the guitar yet… it’s time to course correct.

So, final point is what exactly does course correcting look like?

HOW TO course correct

There are 2 answers to this:

1. change your stated goal

2. change your strategy to achieve said goal

“Wait isn’t changing your goal just like giving up?”

Yup… it’s ok to quit sometimes. It’s NOT ok to quit without trying though.

So if the goal is health & fitness related there is a good chance that you should try to stick with the goal you set.

The exception would be when your current trajectory is leading to success just not as much as your goal was hoping to be.

Let’s discuss the weight loss example above of the person who wanted to lose 45 pounds but is down only 5 pounds in four months. If this is an individual who is extremely stressed out about weight loss and isn’t in a dire need to drastically change their health then it is totally plausible that I might encourage them to be happy with losing 15 pounds this year instead of 45. What if this person just had a change of career? Or a death in the family? Or got their car stolen? Or got divorced. There are so many things that are worth processing correctly without being distracted by the goal of losing more weight than they already are.

Now if we use this same scenario to talk about 2nd way to course correct it will look different for sure. If the person is only down 5 pounds and they haven’t had any major life changes to speak of it is totally plausible that I encourage them to take a deep breath because we are going to stay the course, albeit with different strategies.

The point is you have to look, honestly, at your life situation and how deeply you actually want to spend energy on making certain changes.

Conclusion

I really hope you use this information to set yourself up for an incredibly rewarding year.

I also want to encourage you to use this format for any type of goal.

• health & fitness

• skills

• finances

• education

• spirituality

• interpersonal relationships

Do not hesitate to reach out to me via email (brickbybrickgym@gmail.com) for any advice on using this information.

I would also love if you shared this article to anyone who you think could benefit from it.

Let’s make 2024 (or whenever you are reading this) a great year.

#9 - The Strength Training Revolution

What I am about to write about is absolutely NOT new information. Honestly, I don’t really come up with totally ‘original’ ideas too often if I’m being honest. But in the world of health & fitness we need to do a lot more learning from the past instead of constantly trying to satisfy our content hungry culture we have found ourselves in today.

Anyways… let’s dive into today’s topic: How Strength Training IS the answer to your fitness frustrations and what exactly does ‘strength training’ mean?

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First let’s talk about what strength training isn’t.

It isn’t doing 15 different exercises in a short period of time.

It isn’t doing everything with a light pair of dumbbells.

It isn’t ‘booty bands’.

It isn’t 90% of group training classes.

It isn’t 99% of the online programs being advertised towards Women.

It isn’t particularly interesting to try to sell.

I could go on but I might start getting annoyed by these things.

You will see some commonalities between these examples when I start talking about what I would consider ‘strength training’ to be.

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Strength training has only one priority. To get stronger… duh.

This single factor drives everything about the style training. When it comes to pure strength training we get rid of things that are superfluous. We don’t have time and energy to do sets of 20 curtsy lunges.

(I want to make a quick point that what might come off as me bashing other modalities of training is not meant to be seen that way. I encourage people do what they enjoy. Right now I am purely discussing what will yield RESULTS… everyone might not like what I say but I will say it nonetheless)

So I want to pinpoint 3 things that can differentiate strength training from other modalities:

• rest time

• progressive overload

• consistency

Before we dive into these 3 things individually I want to point out why I think strength training doesn’t really ‘sell’ and why it isn’t discussed in typical media.

It’s because on the face of it it’s boring and difficult.

Not easy to sell boring. Not easy to keep up with difficult.

But if I could hold you back from running away from me for 10 seconds I would tell you to not miss out on the other thing the masses miss out on: RESULTS.

Getting results all of a sudden makes things fun and easy… because you actually experience success!

Alright… let’s talk about rest time.

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In order to get stronger… you need to rest and recover.

And yes I mean sleeping at night. This is a HUGE factor.

But what I am talking about right now, specifically, is the rest time in a given workout.

You see, what people often do is try to work up a sweat by jumping between 2 or 3 exercises with no more than a minute of rest between exercising. This is affording your body no time to recover for the next bout of straining you expect it to keep up with.

This means lower performance in the moment. It also means your body isn’t going to be adapting to stimulus that will yield strength and muscle.

So what do you need to do?

You need to work hard on a set of whatever it is you are doing. Then sit your ass down and don’t do jack shit for 3 minutes… AT LEAST!

I’m not kidding. This will feel like absolute hell to so many people but here is what’s going to happen. You will be able to work WAY harder during the sets. AND you won’t have time to do most of the things that aren’t even effective in the first place.

All of a sudden your workout goes form 15 exercises to 3 or 4… so you better choose stuff that yields dividends.

Now, in my gym we don’t “sit on our asses” for 3 minutes of rest. Instead, we do a lot of mobility and low intensity work between sets of our most demanding exercises. This will still be seen as rest as far as our body is concerned. But I am there with my watchful eye… I won’t be there in the gym with you… so don’t assume you can do the same thing.

Trust me.

Work hard.

Rest hard.

Ok… onto progressive overload.

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Progressive overload is the practice of increasing the demand you put on yourself in a series of workouts.

You could do this by doing 5-10 more pounds on a given exercise compared to the previous time.

You could do this by doing 2 or 3 more reps than before.

You could do this in a variety of other ways but the point is simple… YOU PUSH HARDER THAN BEFORE.

The key here is that you only push 1% more than previously.

A mistake I often see is people going for excessive increases from workout to workout.

You are in this for the long haul there is no rush.

Plus people act like ‘only’ getting 5 pounds stronger on your squat isn’t good progress to make in one month’s time.

Guess what… if you were able to keep that up for a year that would be 60 pounds on your squat! I would kill for that progress.

So the lesson here is simple right?

Instead of spinning your wheels try to improve on at least one exercise each and every workout.

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Finally we have come to the topic of consistency.

In order to get stronger you will have to practice the same exercises over and over.

That means if you are doing deadlifts this week you should also do them for the next couple of months.

Your body needs practice to not only get more efficient from a neurological sense, but also to get the repeated signals of muscle growth to actually add the muscle/strength you are looking for.

If you are constantly doing a new batch of exercises each and every week you are greatly limiting your potential.

Olympic weightlifters focus on maybe 10 different exercises their ENTIRE CAREER. Sure they do some other things here and there but as far as what they are repeating time and time and time and time again… it is the exercises that have the most carryover to their sport and to making them stronger.

If that concept is good enough for olympians I think it is good enough for you too.

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Alright cool cool gang.

I hope this is helpful and if you have ANY questions then don’t hesitate to email me at brickbybrickgym@gmail.com

If you are interested in working with me as a personal training (in person or remote) then email me with ‘training’ in the subject line.

Take Care

Comb Your Hair

Coach Dill

#8 - Why You Need To Be Patient and Direct When Trying To Change

How is that for a title folks! Sounds pretty creative and exciting right???

Well herein lies my first point about change… it isn’t exciting. It isn’t super creative. It isn’t groundbreaking.

Nope.

Lasting change will be mostly boring. Lasting change will take longer to happen than you like. On the other hand, it will happen quicker if you are patient (trust me).

I want to talk about this using my gym members as examples. No one specific but instead just illustrating patterns of successes and mistakes I have seen over time.

Enjoy.

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Phase One Of Change - Unconsciously Incompetent

This initial phase of change is embodied by the vast majority of people when they start here at the gym.

Being unconsciously incompetent essentially comes down to ‘not knowing what you aren’t good at’ or, more precisely, ‘not knowing what you need to improve specifically’.

So many people get into this gym thinking they need to show up and fucking DESTROY their workouts. They need to put it all on the line each workout. They need to cut all of the junk food. They need to start eating chicken and rice like it’s their job.

STOP IT!

See it first glance… a lot of people think they know exactly what they need to change to find success when they first start here. But oftentimes this is an illusion.

What they need to change first… more than anything else… is their mindset and perspective.

This talk of mindset and perspective will be revisited again towards the end of this article.

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Phase Two Of Change - Consciously Incompetent

Here we have arrived at conscious incompetence a.k.a. ‘knowing what you aren’t good at’.

So in the scenario of a new gym member here this is when people realize around month 2 or 3 that they aren’t going to completely reinvent themselves so quickly. They have finally figured out that they need to shift their mindset around exercise and overall health if they are going to experience success.

For many people this looks like actually working out LESS.

For many people this looks like actually treating themselves to “cheat” foods MORE.

For many people this looks like actually just giving themselves a damn break every once in a while.

The common thread here is that for most people this is when they realize they need to simply put LESS pressure on themselves.

Look I’m going to level with you… many people who know me might think of me as a hard-ass and tough on people but they will also tell you that I am tough on people in regards to believing in themselves.

It is an epidemic of despair and frustration out there in the world of health and fitness and I am raging against that.

So listen up! Take a breath. You can change. You just need to trust yourself that as long as you don’t quit YOU WILL SUCCEED.

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Phase Three Of Change - Consciously Competent

Now things are starting to get fun.

People usually arrive at this stage around months 4-8.

This is when people start acknowledging that there is no rush to some sort of ‘end goal’.

The prize is actually in the process.

This is when people start showing up and have a damn good time in the gym. They laugh. They crack jokes. They work hard. They show up time and time and time and time again with the same basic understanding: that consistency will pay off.

But all the while they are still battling the thoughts here and there of doubt. This is why this is ‘conscious’ and not unconscious yet. Because it is still requiring a good bit of self-talk.

Things aren’t easy yet… but they are happening.

You notice clothes fitting better.

You are getting stronger.

The needle is moving.

But change is hard… so you just can’t shake the voice in your head that says ‘could I be doing better?’

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Phase Four Of Change - Unconsciously Competent

You have reached the endgame. You no longer have to ‘think’ about changing things.

You are living the change mindset day to day because this is now who you are.

You show up to the gym because that is the person you are now.

You eat healthy but enjoy your life still because that is who you are now.

You aren’t perfect… but you don’t even know why you ever wanted to be ‘perfect’ in the first place.

You aren’t paying attention to other signals about how you should look and feel.. you are paying attention to your own body and mind.

Now let me spoil things really quickly for you…

You will not stay in this stage forever.

Nope you will probably only stay in this stage long enough for you to start determining the next thing in your life that you identify as needing changed.

The crucial thing is that you now have the roadmap that tells you how to change in the first place.

And what do we know now?

We know that it takes time and that it takes direct effort on a small goal.

Until next time gang.

Go Steelers.

Coach Dill

#7 - “No Gym? No Problem!” free workout

Yo!

I’m going to go through a simple and effective workout for you right here right now. I’ll go section by section and give links to videos for demonstrations. I encourage you to reach out with any questions/concerns.

Let’s dig in.

Warm Up:

Child To Seal Pose for 1 minute

Scorpion Pose for 1 minute

Angels for 1 minute

Rolling Straddle for 1 minute

p.s. This is a great little routine to do anytime to keep mobile as well go ahead and steal that for yourself!

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Section 1:

Pushups (5 second eccentric) - 3x5

Reverse Lunge (3 second isometric) - 3x5/5

Prone Handcuff Stretch - 3x1.5 minutes

The way you will want to go through this section is by doing the exercises one after another so the 1st ‘set’ will be Pushups > Lunge > Handcuff. You can give yourself some rest but I have it laid out this way so that you won’t need to rest too much… so just 30 seconds to a minute is plenty.

You go through everything 3 times in a row.

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Section 2:

Supine Leg Raises - 3x10

Single Leg Slides Balance - 3x3/3

Same idea here… you’re going to do these 2 exercises one after another 3 times in a row. Give yourself enough rest to perform these well and don’t overthink it!

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Section 3:

Hydrate! - Plenty of water in your day. It should be the first thing you have in the morning. If you haven’t had at least a few glasses worth by the time lunch hits then I hate to break it to you but you are making things harder on yourself. The more you can learn to front-load the water early in the day the easier increasing your water intake will become.

Protein! - 1 gram per pound of bodyweight (or goal bodyweight) is a good goal to strive towards.

Don’t Be Lazy! - You know if you’re lazy. Don’t lie.

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Take care comb your hair!

Coach Dill

#6 - Stop ‘Doing’ Workouts and Start ‘Accomplishing’ Your Training Goals

What in the hell am I talking about with this title?

Well first I want to say before I get into this that this article is easily the most important one I have written yet.

This problem is so incredibly pervasive in the health & fitness community and I see no signs of it getting any better.

Even worse, this problem is symbolic of a growing issue of lack of direction and attention that many people have that reaches outside of just their own personal health & fitness.

Okay I promise I will get to the crux of my argument now.

I find it to be a huge problem that so many people are looking to just “do” workouts. What I mean by this is that people want to work up a sweat. They want to do a handful of exercises. They might even want to work hard.

BUT THEN… it simply stops there.

There is no thinking about how this workout may connect to the previous ones or the next ones. There is no thinking about whether or not this workout is actually even achieving anything. There, often times, isn’t even thinking about what a person wants to accomplish to begin with.

In a world where so so so so so so so so so so so so many people find themselves frustrated with a lack of progress in their health & fitness status it astounds me that the knee jerk solution for many people just worsens the issues at hand.

Let’s imagine you are ‘working out’ 4 times per week. One is a cycle class. One is a yoga class. One is a crossfit class. And one is you doing a HIIT class you found on youtube at home.

First off, you are doing better than a lot of people because you are being active so first don’t get my opinions confused with me calling you a fool… I am not… and I would never discourage anyone from being active however that happens to manifest itself.

That being said… in the example I gave… this person will be making either no progress or painstakingly slow progress.

So let’s take a deep breath and then discuss how to properly go about our training.

So we have diagnosed the problem: a lack of focus and direction with our training.

Now we must discuss the solution: have goals and be accountable to them THEN seek professional help.

Let’s break it down one at a time.

1. Have goals

“Getting ripped” isn’t really a great goal either I hate to break it to you. We need to get a bit more specific. We need to have something that can we determine if we are or are not making progress on. Measurable strength on a handful of exercises? Body measurements? Time on a 1 mile course? Doing 5 pushups? It doesn’t matter what it is but you NEED to have direction.

2. Be accountable to them

This is the tough one for many folks because it requires you to quit making excuses. You can’t wait for the stars to align to affect change in your life. You need to make it happen via blunt force trauma. I’m being a bit extreme but ask yourself this question: “Is worthwhile change easy?” The answer is no and you know it. This isn’t all bad either because if we do this all correctly this won’t mean beating yourself up anytime setbacks happen. Instead, it means we learn more about our bodies and become more effective at making pragmatic decisions over emotional ones.

3. Seek professionals.

This is paramount. Get a coach. Read a book. Study. Research for 30 minutes. You gotta invest in yourself. This doesn’t always mean investing money. At the very least, though, you need to invest time.

Okay I think I am done ranting for now.

But if you learned anything from this article let it be that you will save endless hours of frustration if you take the time to set goals, be accountable to those goals, and seek professional help to aid your journey towards accomplishing those goals.

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Take Care, Comb Your Hair

Coach Dill

#5 - The Non-Physical Benefits of Strength Training

I have a hard time thinking of something more transformative than regular exercise.

Consistent strength training has the ability to change your life physically…hopefully we all know this.

The ways in which it can enrich your life extends far beyond the physical, though.

I want to lay out 3 monumental improvements that strength training has helped me with in my life.

1. Patience

2. Planning

3. Anger

So let’s start off with a reflection on ‘patience’.

If there is something that is evaporating in today’s world at an incredible clip it is people’s ability to display patience.

I suffer from this just like anyone else…. but the gym is there to remind me that anything worth having is worth working for.

I didn’t get to deadlifting 500 pounds by being impatient.

I didn’t get to being 9 months back pain free for the first time since high school by being impatient.

I didn’t get to dropping 25 pounds at the age of 30 by being impatient.

I didn’t achieve anything worth having by being impatient.

I needed to be patient. I needed to embrace small sustainable changes. I needed to celebrate the tiny victories…because they added up.

YOU

NEED

TO

BE

PATIENT

Listen… here is some harsh truth.

Why the hell do you think you deserve to see results happen quickly? What makes you so special? Why should you think so highly of yourself?

Here is when you can just assume you are worthy of those results you want so badly…. WHEN YOU EARN THEM.

Strength training also NECESSITATES planning.

Sure, a person will get stronger very quickly at first. But after a year or so… it requires some semblance of a plan.

You can’t just show up and do the same thing day in and day out.

You need to wisen up.

I learned this time and time again when it comes to the art of juggling the pursuit of strength while avoiding injuries.

You can put the pedal to the floor for a while but eventually you will run yourself into the ground.

So you need to learn how to cycle intensities. You need to learn how to build multiple skills and physical variables over the course of time. You need to learn how to program FUN things alongside NOT SO FUN things.

This whole section could just be summed as learning how to grow the hell up and treat yourself like an adult.

Be on time. Do the work. Have a plan.

Finally let’s talk anger.

Maybe this will resonate more with the men reading this…idk but I would imagine this applies very well to you ladies too.

I am NOT a person who likes to grunt and scream in the gym.

I am a jokester. I like to have fun and laugh.

I usually have good days and try not to complain.

But every once in a while… shit goes south.

This is where the gym can be your saving grace.

I can think of a handful of times that I let my anger bubble up in the gym (in a fairly controlled manner).

All of those times allowed me to reach a level I didn’t think I could otherwise.

It let me push through discomfort.

It forced me to trust myself.

It taught me to bet on myself.

I remember doing 497 burpees after closing down the gym one day. It’s a fucking stupid idea and you shouldn’t do it. I only did it to catch up to Butters and John during our monthly challenge in the gym.

I could only do it by taking my glasses off and blaring music and just GOING.

Less talk in the head.

Less doubt.

Less resistance.

Just letting the raw emotions of the moment work through you and work FOR you.

A lot of us stop doing sports once we leave school. For people like me that was a huge emotional outlet that I needed.

The gym can replicate that in many ways… let it work for you.

That’s all I have for you folks.

Until next time.

Coach Dill

#4 - How To Train With Limited Time & Many Excuses

Since having my two beautiful daughters I have been hit by the train of real life.

It’s not anything I didn’t already know ahead of time; but holy shit is it different to really experience it.

I have a fraction of the free time that I used to. I have a fraction of the motivation that I used to. I have a fraction of the energy that I used to.

I have to be much better with time management. I have to be much better with prioritizing things. I have to be much better with setting myself up for physical success down the line.

These are realities that I am sure every parent has had.

Again, I knew all of these ahead of time… but sometimes it doesn’t really hit home until you experience it first hand.

So how can you still be successful in training to be healthier and stronger with such limited time/energy?

I am going to lay out a path that could work wonders for you.

First off we need to dismiss the pipe-dreams right up front.

Our workouts cannot last longer than 30 minutes.

Our workouts cannot leave us overly sore.

Our workouts need to be fairly easy to ‘get in’ and ‘get out’.

Our workouts need to actually be worth doing.

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So now I want you to work with me for a second here.

Read all of those things I listed above and now instead of reading it in a negative way let’s read it in a positive way that shapes our training philosophy.

Our workouts will be quick and simple.

Our workouts will add energy to my days instead of tiring me out.

Our workouts will take up a fraction of the time as most workouts while giving us twice the results.

NOW THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT.

Ok… we are ready to really put pen to paper now… let’s get to work.

Since our workouts are so short it means we can do them everyday. Now right away I will tell you that it is completely okay if/when you miss a day. Let’s just shoot for a consistent 4-5 days per week.

These quick workouts need to be worth it which means we aren’t going to be bogged down by a bunch of fluff. We are doing the high return exercises. For this example we will look at weeks like this.

• Monday - Squat

• Wednesday - Bench Press

• Friday - Deadlift

• Saturday - Pushups

• Sunday - Pullups

That’s it. 5 exercises that can make any person crazy strong. We are going to only focus on doing our best possible work with one exercise on each of these days.

No need to ramble on… let’s flesh out each day.

• Squat day consists of 4 sets of 5 reps

• Bench Press day consists of 4 sets of 5 reps

• Deadlift day consists of 4 sets of 5 reps

• Pushup day consists of 4 sets of 10 reps

• Pullup day consists of 4 sets of 10 reps

Warm up is not even a priority right now… when you show me you can follow this routine for a month then we can add details… don’t get bogged down by the minutia just focus on the big ticket items.

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A lot of people are going to read this and think that what I showed is not enough to get results.

That’s okay that they think that.

It’s okay they think that because I KNOW that it is enough to get results for quite a bit of time.

This is especially true for the people who need this type of program the most.

As we have already discussed the person who needs this is already limited on energy. They are stressed out. They need some type of exercise consistency because it is so sporadic at the moment.

Life tip: don’t give a shit what others think… just focus on what WORKS

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You can add weight or reps on a weekly basis.

There will be a point that you start to slow down in your progress and at this point my advice would be to decide which exercises you want to see progress on the most. Then eliminate one or two exercises that you aren’t prioritizing at the moment and increase frequency on the more desired exercises.

This will be you another few months of progress.

The whole point is simplicity and efficiency.

That being the case… let’s end our talk here!

Thanks for stopping in 😊.

#3 - We Have Lost The Middle Ground

When it comes to training and exercise I have noticed something for a long time… and I don’t think it is going anywhere anytime soon.

I have noticed that people fall into one of two extremes, generally speaking.

On one end we have the people who constantly do different exercises and training. Monday they take a yoga class. Tuesday they go rock climbing. Wednesday they run 5 miles. Thursday they go to their Crossfit class. Friday they have an off day. Saturday they do a swim session with a friend that kicks their ass. Sunday is of course a heavy training day with the traditional barbell lifts.

The following week may be a completely different assortment of training modalities spread over 7 days.

So before we dig into my opinions on the first person let’s go to the other extreme.

This person goes to the gym 5 days a week every single week.

Monday they Bench Press (duh) and work up to the heaviest weight they can lift once then drop down and hit 10 reps at a lighter weight. Afterwards they do pushups and pullups followed by 30 minutes walking at an incline on the treadmill.

Tuesday they do Squats and work up to the heaviest weight they can lift once then drop down and hit 10 reps at a lighter weight. Afterwards they do some leg extensions and leg curls followed by 30 minutes walking at an incline on the treadmill.

Wednesday they do Overhead Press and work up to the heaviest weight they can lift once then drop down and 10 reps at a lighter weight. Afterwards they do some pushups and pullups followed by 30 minutes walking at an incline on the treadmill.

Thursday is Deadlift day. Its the exact same idea as the previous days.

Friday is Bench Day again. Its the exact same idea as the previous days.

The weekend is rest.

They do this week in and week out for a solid 5 years.

So I think we see the obvious downsides of each person right?

First, obviously, the “other extreme” would be the person that does little to no exercise. I’m not going to bother going over that example right now because we all know the answer for them is to get moving ANY WAY POSSIBLE.

So the first person let’s call ‘Energetic Emily’. Emily is skinny. Emily seems happy. A lot of people comment on how they wish they could look as good as Emily.

But let’s talk directly to Emily and hear what she has to say.

Emily feels tired all of the time. She does so much activity because she is terrified of getting fat. She doesn’t feel strong at all and knows that even though she is skinny she feels like it is all for nothing.

Emily eats tiny meals a few times per day and gets drunk off of one Miller Lite. She has tried eating more in the past but quickly gets scared off of it when she sees the scale go up a few pounds. Oh yeah… Emily checks her weight everyday.

Emily is redlining and doesn’t have the energy to explore relationships and feels lonely.

Now the second person let’s call ‘Buff Guy Bill’. Bill benches 315 pounds, squats and deadlifts 400 pounds, and never gets intimidated in public.

A lot of guys wishes they could be as strong as Bill. But let’s talk directly to Bill and hear what he has to say.

Bill is mind numbingly bored of his workout routine at this point. He hasn’t gotten stronger in at least 2 years. He has pain in his shoulders and back on a near daily basis.

Much like ‘Energetic Emily’ he doesn’t really have the energy to explore outside relationships and has found himself to be quite lonely.

Bill has tried to lose some weight in the past but always stops when he notices his strength diminishing at all.

Bill feels hopelessly stuck.

So what is the answer for Emily and Bill?

Well there isn’t a one sized fits all answer to people in these situations.

There are certainly general principles I would encourage them to adopt more in their lives. Things such as:

• prioritizing more strength training for Emily

• prioritizing more diverse movements for Bill

• increasing protein and spend time getting stronger for Emily

• eating more fruits and veggies and improving painful movements for Bill

What these two need to do more than anything is face their fears and shift the way they view health & fitness.

These two have lost the middle ground.

Emily thinks as long as she is skinny she will be happy…. even though she IS skinny and ISN’T happy.

Bill thinks as long as he is stronger than the average guy at the gym he’ll be happy… even though he IS strong and ISN’T happy.

Sometimes we stay glued to our belief systems despite overwhelming evidence to their ineffectiveness.

The hardest thing to do is changing minds.

It’s a part of what my job is as a gym owner and trainer.

My success rate at getting people to lose weight is very good.

My success rate at getting people to get stronger is very good.

My success rate at getting people to change the way they view health & fitness is barely breaking even.

That used to discourage me. But I understand that with enough time and patience people can find their ways to the right answer. I just need to guide them there when they are ready.

Emily and Bill might not be ready to face the truth. You might not be either.

But….

You might be ready. And if you’re ready to change… I’m ready to help.

p.s. I’ll leave you with one more meme of course

#2 - Bulking & Cutting? Should You Do It?

Let’s cut right to the chase with an answer many people wouldn’t expect from me.

Yes. Yes you should. You should have experience bulking. You should have experience cutting. VERY IMPORTANTLY, though, you should also have plenty of experience in what we call ‘maintenance’.

I know right! You can’t believe I am actually the one suggesting you ‘bulk’ and ‘cut’.

I probably would have slapped myself 5 years ago for saying that but I’ve learned a thing or two since then.

So for those of you who have had the patience to read more than 50 words to get to this point let’s discuss the details of what I am bringing up.

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‘Bulking’ and ‘cutting’ just refers to gaining weight and losing weight. The terms are thrown around in the fitness scene often more specifically to talk about adding weight via mostly muscle and then losing weight via ONLY fat (or as close to that as possible).

So these things sound great on paper right?

The problem is that, too often, people go about them in the wrong way.

Where do people go wrong?

As you can imagine from the meme I picked the problem is that people go off the deep end on these two endeavors.

Bulking ends up being gaining 12 pounds of fat and 3 pounds of muscle in just one month.

Cutting ends up being losing 12 pounds of fat and 8 pounds of muscle in the next month and a half.

What happened there? We ended up 5 pounds lighter but all of that difference was muscle by the end of it.

So if this is easily fucked up why would I suggest you do it? (hopefully CORRECTLY…. pssst. I can help)

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There a few reasons.

One, I want you to get the results you desire. If you want to look and feel better then of course I want to help you get there.

Two, I want you to actually be mindful of your behaviors. To do this correctly you need to learn WAY more about yourself and way less about how to shove protein into every recipe known to man (and that is coming from someone who constantly preaches people needing to eat more protein).

Three, this is actually a pretty natural way of living life… so you are best served being in control of it.

For the rest of this article I want to break down those three reasons in a bit more detail.

Getting the results you desire

So can you get the results you desire? Almost certainly yes.

Will it happen the way you are thinking? Almost certainly no.

Let’s just say you a 37 year old female who weighs 195 pounds. You strength train 2-3 times per week and get around 6,000 steps in daily. You ‘think’ you eat well but definitely let loose on the weekends. You have been trying to lose weight off and on for the last 8 months with little to nothing to show for it.

What would I do?

As long as you don’t have any intense mental trauma tied to food I would start with tracking our nutrition for 2 weeks straight at a minimum.

Why? It is absolutely paramount that we find out if we are starting at a place where you are taking in enough calories to actually sustainably subtract from that.

As I mentioned before, it is common for frequent dieters to get to a place where they are maintaining on a pretty low calorie amount regardless of if they think they weight ‘too much’.

If that is the case we need to spend AT LEAST 3-5 months getting a healthier nutrition and lifestyle behavior set in place. If this is successful then at the end of that time we will find ourselves eating an amount we are satisfied with and steadily gaining muscle while not gaining any weight OR gaining a pound or so per month (which would reflect gaining mostly muscle mass).

THEN we can be ready to cut back the calories by 200-400 calories (which would probably still be above our starting point) and lose weight at a rate of .5 to 1 pound per week. We would do this for no more than 2 months.

Then IF you wanted to continue that overall trend we would simply repeat.

Barring all of the individual differences that could occur this is an excellent guideline to think about ‘bulking’ and ‘cutting’.

Being mindful of your behaviors

All you see when you scroll instagram is posts about different recipes and workouts that help you lose fat.

IT IS ALL FUCKING STUPID.

Seriously… this shit annoys the hell out of me.

I’m not saying that healthy/tasty recipes and a smart training program isn’t important to getting the body you want.

I AM SAYING, however, that it is far from the most important thing for like 90% of the people I interact with.

Instead of becoming a ‘protein chef’ maybe you should start off with learning how to not end every night with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

Instead of becoming the clone of your favorite YouTube fitspo personality you should first get some sun, move every hour, and not watch 3 hours of TV per day.

My point is that the bulk of the progress a person can make will be found in the simple things that are too boring to turn into content every five seconds on social media.

We’re talking about daily activity. We’re talking about hydration. We’re talking about sleep quality. We’re talking about the consistency of your meals from day to day. We’re talking about alcohol usage. We’re talking about getting enough protein. We’re talking about being able to touch your toes. We’re talking about being able to do a few pushups.

THEN and only then we are talking about expanding on those basic behaviors and ‘leveling’ them up a bit.

Every person is different.

That is why every person will get their desired results by following a slightly different path.

‘Bulking’ and ‘Cutting’ are actually natural fluctuations of life.

For whatever reason, being in tip top shape at all times is seen as the goal of health and fitness.

I blame social media for the perpetuation of this as of late. You will find no shortage of people who cherry pick photos of themselves and their lifestyles to make you think they have their shit together 24/7.

This ain’t real folks!

Now don’t get it twisted. I am not advocating for you to gain 20 pounds in the winter and let loose.

What I am advocating for, however, is accepting the natural fluctuations your body will have that mirror the natural fluctuations of behavior over the course of the year.

Most people move a little less and eat a little more in the winter.

This isn’t shocking news to you.

Accept this as fact.

Yes, absolutely, do your best to keep up with the priorities of physical activity and healthy nutrition during this time. You should NOT get ‘unhealthy’.

But don’t beat yourself up for gaining 5-10 pounds over the course of 12 months.

Seriously… if you look at things in that time frame then you will realize how easy it can be to lose that (and even make MORE progress) in that time frame as well.

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Closing Thoughts

• The sooner you can embrace the idea of slow methodical changes the better.

• ‘Bulking’ and ‘cutting’ is an amazing learning experience for people who have little to no idea about what actually makes their body tick.

• It can be very beneficial to have pre-determined times where you buckle down more and then loosen up more… it makes things wayyyy less stressful in the long run.

• Enjoy yourself… if you are stressing constantly and lost… you are doing this the wrong way!

Take Action, Believe

Coach Dill

#1 - 3 Suggestions For People Looking To Be Healthy & Fit For Life

Suzie, John, and Mary want to be healthy and fit for the rest of their life.

Suzie tells her two friends that they need to ‘go big’ and that they can push way harder than they think they can.

John tells his two friends that they should cut carbs… because duh they are evil and will make you fat.

Mary tells the other two that they should stop doing cardio because it is a waste of time and building muscle is the secret to success.

So what do we do? Are any of these three well-intentioned people worth listening to?

Well let’s dive in one suggestion at a time.

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Popular Advice: “Go big because you can work way harder than you think you can”

This isn’t necessarily wrong. Hell, on paper I agree 100% and think it is a great mentality in an ideal world. Too bad this sort of thinking goes to complete shit when you live in the real world and are a real person with real emotions and real responsibilities and real behaviors.

So…

My advice: Make the smallest amount of progress at a time. Like painstakingly small. Then celebrate the fuck out of it like you won the gold medal!

I have coached enough people to know that as much as people want big results the only thing they want more is not fail.

And here’s the thing… big results do come after a string of tiny little victories.

It only feels small in the moment… and then all of sudden 6 months to a year to 2 years goes by and you lost 85 pounds. I don’t think you’ll be complaining that it took too long at that point. I mean ask yourself where the previous two years got you? Yeah… take the little victories.

Build Momentum.

Get Excited.

Repeat.

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Next up we have John’s sage wisdom that we all hear time and time and time and time again.

Popular Advice: “Cut out carbs… they make you fat”

Unlike my cordial and polite response to Suzie’s advice, I’m going to tell John to shut the fuck up because he is an idiot.

My advice is going to be something that doesn’t actually feel like punishment and for bonus points IT ACTUALLY WORKS.

My Advice: If you want to worry about anything… get as close to 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal bodyweight as possible.

I’m going to make this as short and simple as possible.

Carbs are not evil. Fat is not evil. Ice cream is not evil. Pasta is not evil. Apples aren’t bad because they have sugar (seriously stay the hell away from anyone that disagrees). There is no such thing as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food.

I’m not about to tell you everything in moderation is best either don’t worry… I hate that old adage too.

What I will tell you is that there are foods that are better in at helping you reach your goals and there are foods that aren’t as great at helping you reach your goals.

Now in this new way of looking at things we don’t have to demonize anything and we don’t feel restricted because we know nothing is ‘off limits’.

So why am I telling you to focus on protein?

Well it really is that important.

My favorite thing about this goal, though, is that it kills a whole bunch of birds with just one stone.

1. protein is highly satiating so it will fill you up for longer

2. it is monumentally important for building muscle as a person gains weight

3. it is monumentally important for maintaining muscle as a person loses weight

4. focusing on getting enough of just one thing is way less stressful than restricting yourself of other things

And if you never tracked your protein intake before… YOU WILL BE SHOCKED at how little protein you are averaging per day.

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Ok Mary, you’re up next.

Popular Advice: “Stop doing cardio… building muscle is what matters most”

Well… I agree… sort of. As with all of these scenarios, context matters a lot. But it really matters in this case.

The reason I am rebutting this advice, though, is because what I see ALL OF THE TIME is that people use cardio as a way to burn calories thinking that this will help them lose weight.

Cardio is fucking awesome and everyone needs to do it… but is a fucking terrible way of ‘burning calories’ and if that is your intention you will be miserable.

So what am I going to say to this… does Mary have me backed into a corner?

My Advice: Understand the real life benefits of cardio for us ‘normies’. Then understand that strength training is the peanut butter to cardio’s jelly.

I’m not digging into all of the scientific journals on this point. I’m going to say what really matters.

Low to medium intensity long duration cardio (I’m talking about brisk walking) is awesome for the following reasons:

1. it oftentimes means you are getting outside in the sun and fresh air… something that people sorely lack nowadays

2. it is incredibly easy to do with friends/family… walking and talking is probably the very first thing humans did together

3. it is extremely beneficial for your heart… you probably like your heart right?

4. it can be stress relieving and a time for you to think and organize your mental files… I have all of my best ideas when I am just out and about walking around

5. it is low impact so lower body joints can get strengthened in a very safe manner

6. it is back friendly… my fellow back pain sufferers you are welcome

Those are just 6 reasons that come to mind. We should not be trying to exercise our calories off… it is a losing battle almost everytime.

Now that we know how great cardio is… I am going to halfway agree with Mary’s point now.

YOU NEED TO STRENGTH TRAIN

I’m sorry but you do.

This doesn’t mean that you need to go to the gym and squat hundreds of pounds and learn how to do pullups this week.

What it does mean is that the more muscle you have the better you will look, feel, perform, and live.

More muscle means you will burn more calories at rest… which means you can afford to enjoy your life more by eating some things that you like every now and again without hating yourself.

More muscle means you can pick shit up without being bedridden for 3 days… this is how people die.. don’t mean to get dark but it’s true.

More muscle does NOT mean you will ‘look big’. If it was that easy to look big don’t you think all of those skinny little college bros that hit the gym everyday would finally look like they have eaten a steak once in their life?

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Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Take Action, Believe

Coach Dill