EXPERIENCE ≠ CAPACITY ≠ MATURITY
We are always trying to apply the things we learn in training to life outside the gym. In this video we go in the opposite direction. It is all about becoming a mature athlete.
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Should I work out day?
Should I workout today? In this video I present you with an easy method to always know if you should workout or not.
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Fitness | Recovery | Science | Smart Practices | Technology
Flo's Brain Grass Supplement
The fitness industry is a behemoth and it is growing with no signs of slowing down. Everyday there’s newer and crazier services that promise better results than everything that has been done before. Check out this underwater training. Or this new nutritional fad that can tell you exactly when to eat according to your circadian rhythm . Even classic old fads like the universal gym machine are coming back in its digital versions. For each macronutrient there is a corresponding diet, and a group of followers. For each type of movement a big believer and a naysayer. The internet does not seem big enough to hold all the new fitness out there.
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Plateaus are part of the process, Embrace the stuck!
Plateaus are often understood as problems. As stagnation, as if there is something wrong. Plateaus are a fundamental part of the process. Understand this, and you will be able to surpass them.
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Exercise is a stressor not a stress relief
Exercise has a purpose in your life. It can give you so much. It can provide your daily moment of zen. And yet, it is still a stressor. Stress is not bad. It is just our body's response to stimuli. This realization can guide your exercise routine for the better.
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Don't be lazy, have higher standards
I bet you are thinking I mean you should go out workout more and workout harder. Memories of all those times you said you would wake up and work out and you didn’t will run through your head. You might remember those workouts during which you were tired and you did not push as hard as you feel you should have, But nope, that is not what I mean. That is just your guilt. Your consistency on a given program is often not a laziness problem as much as an organizational problem. How hard you can push on a given workout is very seldom a willpower problem, as it is a self-regulation problem. I am not here to guilt trip you. Let me tell you what I DO mean.
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Slay you should and Slay you must
There is this feeling you get when you go to the gym and everything goes your way. I call it The Slayer, because it feels as if Beyonce did a Metal Song: fucking EPIC. You get it in one of those days when the warm up feels light and easy. Your technique sets are a display of grace and control. When you hit your workout the weights move as if they were feathers, your breathing matches your movement in perfect harmony, your transitions are smooth and short, and the only time you trip in the whole workout you stay composed AF and correct immediately with a smile on your face. You fucking slay like Queen-B. Heck! Even your hair game is on point! You finish on the ground exhausted but proud: I am so motherfucking fit, you think to yourself.
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Training Hard
We all love to train hard. We love the feeling of working our asses off, yet I think training hard, truly training hard, is greatly misunderstood. Hours of media featuring Energy Drinks, Athletic Shoes, and awesome-sports-movies-action-montages has lead us to confuse training hard with intensity. We have this image in our head that training hard is finishing a workout sweaty and gassed, lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling like somebody just punched us in the face and stole all our money while quoting Jame Joyce. That outcome turns out to be fairly easily achieved: just do 50 burpees as fast as you can without stopping... it will take you less than 5 minutes and if you really commit to not stopping you will finish on the ground regretting life.
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The Importance of Warming Up
I think we all understand the importance of the warm up before working out. Most of us have learned it the hard way: that one day when rushed we naively said to ourselves: “the first round will be my warm up”. And that first round sucked, heart rate was through the roof fast, and for the next four rounds you were just trying to survive. Yes, we all know warming up is important, but somehow we all still neglect it. In my experience, this happens because we don’t have any other reason to do it than that we are “supposed to” and anyhow, it often feels harder than the actual workout. The problem with thinking of it this way, is that it makes it a lot easier to say “fuck it, 20 squats will warm me up.”
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Why train?
In the world of fitness it’s common to hear that you should find a “why” for your training. The idea behind this practice is to find an emotional connection to some part of your identity to use as motivation whenever you feel like you want to throw in the towel, or not get out of bed for your morning workout. Although this can be very useful, it is also the source of a plethora of cheesy motivational memes and worse, it comes with the assumption that exercise is inherently good for our health and all we need is more motivation and willpower. This seems like an innocent idea but it is NOT. This way of thinking takes from us the opportunity to question the physiological purpose of our training, and in doing so set us up for failure before we even start, regardless of how many hours of sweat we put in. I believe that this is the kind of “why” we should identify. Let me explain.
