Fitness

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    Two Brains: Short Term vs. Long Term

    Somebody more intelligent than me pointed that we never fully understand anything. What we do is we go one step back in the line of causality. That step back gives a sense of ease and brings us calm. The more I study neuroscience, the more I agree with that view. Today's video is one example of what that means. When making a choice, do you ever feel like you have two brains? ... Well, neuroscience kind of says you do. However, my aim isn't to give the step back but to use that description to improve your decision-making process in the future.Okay, okay, alcohol is complicated, and I wish the answer were that simple. In today's video, I try to embrace its full complexity. I present some ideas I consider valuable when thinking what's the role that alcohol should play in your lifestyle. If you like this video or this topic, make sure to check the references below.

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    How to do alcohol

    Sometimes I like to complicate easy things. The answer to "How to do alcohol?" is simple: like the nice human in the picture below, on a horse at the beach and with style. Done!
    Okay, okay, alcohol is complicated, and I wish the answer were that simple. In today's video, I try to embrace its full complexity. I present some ideas I consider valuable when thinking what's the role that alcohol should play in your lifestyle. If you like this video or this topic, make sure to check the references below.

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    My Two Main Principles in Fitness and Nutrition

    The Strong Story Hypothesis states that the mechanism that enables us to tell, understand, and recombine stories is what separates us, humans, from primates. In other words that storytelling is what makes our thinking brainz special. The exciting thing is that Patrick Winston, its author, was an engineer and a professor at MIT, not an anthropologist or a social sciences guy. For many years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Lab. So when he says that storytelling gives us an evolutionary advantage over primates, that is meaningful. He gets to this conclusion by asking the right question. You see, the AI field was always trying to answer the question: can computers reason like humans? Winston made another question, more elegant, more interesting. What makes humans different than primates? Why are we capable of more?

    Touché!

    Nothing like a good question asked at the right time. In the video below, I present to you the principles that guide my practice in fitness and nutrition. I show them in the form of questions too. I believe this is the most effective way to approach such a complex problem. When you feel sluggish and unproductive today, instead of heading to Facebook, get this video a watch and let me know what you think.

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    Fatigue is Hyperbolic and How to Pace

    In some of the previous posts, I have talked a lot about the idea that a good workout should leave you energized rather than destroyed. Not always, sometimes we have to go to the limits to learn what those limits are. But in general, getting above your threshold more than producing physiological adaptation produces fatigue. And fatigue is really not that cool. The video today presents one of the many ways to look at and understand fatigue. This video is excellent for my endurance athletes out there. Watch it and let me know what you think!

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    how to build to your 1rm

    The Basic Principles Make informed decisions, not predictive decisions. Check your recent records and use your current performance to guide your planning. When making decisions during lifting, don't use the perception of effort to determine what will happen in the next ones. Let your movement and technique be the facts on which you base your...

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    Be the horse

    If you had worked with me on nutrition or fitness, you most likely have heard me comparing you to a horse or a dog. Some people don't like it. Some look at me with a wtf face. It is simple though. I ask my athlete: "if you wanted to make this hypothetical horse into the fittest horse you could, how would that look? How does that compare to what you are doing to yourself?" It is one of my secret weapons.

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    Fitness and Money

    Last week I had a fantastic opportunity. I was invited to talk to a bunch of 8th graders about fitness and lifestyle habits. It is COVID times so I did not get to speak to them directly as I would have preferred, but I still loved every minute of it. I always thought they taught us a lot of good stuff in school, but very little of the most basic: money, fitness, nutrition, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal relationships. The fact I had the chance to change that for a bunch of kids, even if in a tiny way, felt great!

    Two great things came out of that talk. One of them is the post today. I usually feel ambivalent about my writings. I feel confident about this one. So much in fact that if you don't like it a lot and get something out of it, I will buy you a six-pack of your drink of choice. I am that bold!

    The second thing is I got a new nickname. The 8th graders call me Dr. Muscles. I worked hard for my Ph.D. I worked hard for my muscles. I liked Obi Juan, but this one is not magic. I e