“The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

If you’re committed to becoming the best possible version of yourself, you can’t ignore your body. Maybe you have a gym membership, or maybe you own some weights, but do you have a good understanding of the principles that will get you in shape and keep you fit into your old age? That’s what this post is for.

Before you hit the gym, the street or the dojo, give some thought to what you want to accomplish — what fitness looks like for you — and think through the following principles. 

The kettlebell awaits!

Note: We’re going to differentiate between exercise and training. All training will involve exercise, but not all exercise is training. 

Frequency

How often should you train? It depends on you and on your training goals. In his book, The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss discusses the principle of the Minimum Effective Dose (MED). The goal here is to expend exactly the right amount of effort to obtain the desired result and no more. Your age, current level of fitness and ability to recover will determine the frequency of your training. If you choose to use calisthenics and bodyweight exercises, you can train every day. If you’re lifting weights, you should allow at least one day’s rest for any muscle group you train on a given day.

Intensity

This is simply how hard you’re training. This can encompass the number of specific exercises, the number of sets, the number of repetitions, the amount of rest time between sets and the amount of weight per set. There is a specific technique called HIT — short for High-Intensity Training. This method shortens the duration of your workout by deliberately increasing the weight per set. The articles I’ve read suggest this is a solid approach.

Note: If you’re new to the idea of getting fit, plan at first to perform one set of ten repetitions per exercise. You’ll want to use enough weight so that the last rep or two is a challenge. You’ll likely feel sore the next day, but it won’t be unbearable.

Duration

How much time will you spend training? Hint: Time walking around between sets jawing doesn’t count. If you’re busy, you may find that allowing yourself 45 minute to an hour a day for training will force you to make better use of your time.

What time of day should you train? That’s up to you, but I find when I get my workout done in the morning, no one can take it away from me.

Progressivity

This principle is the one most people seem to overlook. If you’re trying to lose weight by walking a mile every day, you’ll notice that in a fairly short time, that mile walk becomes easy and you are not losing weight as desired. This is because our bodies are remarkably adaptable. To get in shape and to continue to improve, you must build progressivity — an increase in your capacity to do work — into your training plan.

Let’s take kettlebell training as an example. If I swing a 55-lb. kettlebell 100 times (say, five sets of twenty swings), I have expended 5,500 pounds worth of effort. If I remain on schedule, the next time I swing that same kettlebell, I need to increase the total amount of work. I can do this by increasing the number of reps per set, or by adding a burnout set (an additional set with as many reps as I can complete using proper form) to my workout. I can also increase the intensity by accomplishing those reps in fewer sets or by shortening the rest time between sets.

Muscle Confusion

In an earlier post, I wrote about pull-ups as a way to increase fitness and confidence. The Armstrong Pull-up Program prescribes a five-day-a week, twice-a-day set of exercises that attacks the muscle groups differently each day. This is a great example of the muscle confusion principle. If you’ve tried P90X or CrossFit, for example, you’ve also seen this principle in action. This concept doesn’t allow your body to fall into a rut where your training is concerned. As a result, your body continues to respond because you’re not presenting a routine that your body can adapt to.

Functionality

Pavel Tsatsouline, the man who brought kettlebell training to the US, says that one shouldn’t train to become proficient at training. Instead, he should train to become good at his sport. I’d add that one should train to get good at life — that is, to be physically able to respond to the challenges he’ll encounter in his life. This is why, unless you are or plan to be a bodybuilder, you shouldn’t train like one. Focus on compound movements, such as olympic weightlifting and picking up and carrying bulky or heavy objects. This is another thing CrossFit gets right.

Physical therapist Gray Cook is the leading expert in functional movement. His videos provide great instruction in proper form and the philosophy of functional movement.

Intentionality

Set training goals and keep records. Again, what are you trying to accomplish through your training regimen? Runners have an advantage in that they can choose races and train toward the race date. Martial artists, wrestlers and boxers can train toward meets or matches. If you don’t have those sorts of day and date deadlines to train toward, be creative. It can be your family beach trip, a wedding or a class reunion. Define the objective specifically and chart your progress.

Benefits

The time you spend training according to these concepts will improve your health, your posture and your confidence. Train smart and you’ll be well on your way to the best version of yourself.

One last thought: As you train, make sure to build in time for rest and recovery. You don’t build muscle while you’re lifting — you build it while you sleep. Making recovery part of your training regimen will accelerate your progress and help you avoid overtraining.

So how about you? What is your principal training goal? Add your comment below.

We all get the same 24 hours — what will you have to show for yours?

“Do you see a man skillful in his work?  He will stand before kings.  He will not stand before ordinary men.”  -Proverbs 22:29

So here we are with Thanksgiving two weeks away, and Christmas less than a month after that.  Whether you’re trying to make your sales quota, or trying to maintain your GPA, this point in the year seems to jam a stick in many men’s spokes.  Whatever the reason, the temptation appears this way: Why not just throw it in neutral and coast ’til the new year?

We’ve talked before about living a life of consequence so let me give you some grade A elephant chow — you cannot make your mark in life if you don’t finish strong.

Here’s my personal checklist to get and stay motivated:

Sleep — How many hours a night do I need, and how many am I getting?  It’s remarkable how much easier it is to stay motivated when you’re getting enough quality sleep.  This is one of those things where you must be present to win.  You can’t outsource it and you can’t be your best without it.  Without adequate rest, your judgment is impaired and your attention is spent trying to stay awake rather than on doing quality work.

Note that sleep researchers have determined that your brain needs that downtime to process all that great thinking you’ve been doing all day.  In a similar way, all the benefits of your exercise regimen accrue while you’re asleep. That’s right — you don’t build muscle in the gym, you build it while you’re asleep.

Depending on your age, you need between seven-and-a-half and nine hours of sleep per night for optimal health. (More than nine hours a night will shorten your life.  Seriously.)  Biologically, the sleep cycle is 90 minutes, so to be able to wake up when you mean to without feeling drugged, count back from your wake time in 90 minute blocks.  For example, since I want to get 7.5 hours of sleep and to wake up at 5:30 AM, I need to be asleep by 10:00 PM.

Naps are good — just keep them under 20 minutes.  Oh, and if you need more sleep than you’ve been getting, try turning in earlier.  Wayne Cordeiro calls that “sleeping in on the right side of the clock.”

Hydration — Am I drinking enough water?  I know coffee contains water, but your body and your brain need good old dihydrogen monoxide for you to feel like yourself.  You wouldn’t operate your car without oil in the crankcase would you?

Attitude — Am I able to see the tasks in front of me as important parts of the life and legacy I’m building?  Are they providing me with knowledge or experience I’ll be able to use later?  I have learned that I don’t always have the best vantage point to make that judgment while I’m in the middle of them.

Without a doubt there are assignments that do not seem to fit the context of your mission — and the younger you are, the less likely it is you can refuse them and live.  Strive to connect those mandatory tasks to your calling, wrap them up successfully and move on.

Anxiety —  Am I allowing fears to distract me?  When I am facing the likelihood of undesirable results or the fear of failure, I sometimes find it easier to procrastinate than to move forward.

This is the heart of it:  You and I must take authority over these fears and silence them.  Even if they seem to be the most real things in our lives, even if there is empirical evidence accompanied by 95% confidence interval statistics that predict that the thing you dread is coming true, you must run toward it to overcome it.  As Michael Hyatt says there is no failure — only learning.

Nutrition — Am I taking in enough of the right kind of foods?  You need protein and fats (yes!) to maintain muscle and brain health.  We’ll talk more about this later, but make sure you aren’t starving yourself and make sure you aren’t getting most of your calories from carbohydrates.

Exercise — Am I skipping my workouts?  Physical activity will increase your confidence, boost your mood, and bust your stress.  If you have access to a gym, make time for regular exercise.  If you don’t, do what I do — train at home.  If you outgrow a pull-up bar and a 55-lb. kettlebell, mister, I’d like to shake your hand.

Discipline — Am I considering how my actions or inaction will affect my family, my colleagues, my friends — the ones who depend on me?  Am I allocating my time,  attention, effort and money to get the outcomes I desire? I am a big believer in to-do lists as well as in Evernote for keeping track of the things I must get done.

Pro tip — For us men, testosterone is where a lot of our get up and go comes from.  Nearly everything on my checklist will affect your testosterone level for good or ill.  Look into it and stay motivated.

So how about you?  What’s weighing you down?  What are you doing to overcome it?  What did I miss on my checklist?  Add your comments below.