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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 7/5/12

Hope everyone (here in the States) enjoyed the 4th! Mine was pretty uneventful all told, and was actually the first time in the six years I’ve lived here, that I actually spent it in Boston – in years past, I’ve always gone up to Maine to enjoy the fresh air and EC’s grandma’s carrot cake.

This year, though, Lisa and I elected to stay in the city and went and bought a new air conditioner instead – cause we’re romantic like that  – and then went to go see the movie Ted, which was freakin hilarious!!!!!

Go see it.  Now.

30 Years, 30 Health & Fitness Tips – Jon-Erik Kawamoto

Part I, Part II, and Part III

Jon-Erik and I have been stalking one another on the internet for the past year or so (the guy is literally EVERYWHERE now: Men’s Fitness, T-Nation, Oxygen, lurking outside your kitchen window) and I finally had the pleasure of meeting him in person a few weeks ago at the PTDC seminar up in Toronto.

I’ve had my fair share of instantaneous man-crushes in my day – Matt Damon, The Rock, to name a few – and Jon-Erik ranks right up there.  He’s one of the most humble guys you’ll ever meet, and he’s just someone who’s passionate about this industry and just “gets it.”  He’s already blowing up, but I expect even bigger things for him in the near future.

Do yourself a favor and book mark his website. You won’t be sorry.

And, for those interested, I did a similar piece back when I turned 34 titled 34 Years, 34 Favorite Things.  It’s the exact same things as Jon-Erik’s post, except with four more years of asskickery (and hair loss) added in.

The Surprising Science of Motivation – Daniel Pink

This is an older TED talk that I came across recently, but the title says it all: despite what we’ve always been told, it’s surprisingly surprising what actually motivates us to succeed.

While many are quick to point to incentive based programs as the impetus that really motivates us to meet certain deadlines or attain high quotas, Dan Pink – author of the phenomenal book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – flips it around and states that such things do nothing but IMPEDE progress and dulls our minds and creativity.

Pretty fascinating stuff if you ask me:

Have I Convinced You to Strength Train Yet? – Monika Volkmar

One of – if not THE reason – why I like to do this weekly “stuff you should read” series is that it allows me the opportunity to relay quality content from other health and fitness professionals that otherwise wouldn’t get too much exposure.

Granted, I link to a lot of articles from other really smart people that are way more of a bigger deal than myself, but I also like to “pay it forward” and help bring some lesser known personalities to the forefront as well.

Monika’s a dancer and she trains a lot of dancers.  Unlike many dance coaches, however, she actually understands that strength training can be an important fail safe to not only improve their performance, but prevent their bodies from breaking down at a break neck pace.

While the post is geared towards dancers and may turn people off from reading it, I’d encourage you to read anyways for the message alone.

 

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What’s Your Sentence?

For those of you who visit this blog on a regular basis, you know that I like to read.  At any given point, I usually have my nose (or ear) glued to 3-4 books at once.  Of course, I’m always reading something dealing with strength and conditioning, nutrition, or anything related to my field.

Concurrently, I also have some sort of fiction nearby for when my brain hurts too much and I just don’t feel like thinking about what I’m reading.  Believe me, you can only read so much on lower-cross symdrome or spinal biomechanics before you want to jump out a window.

Additionally, I also like to read a lot of non-fiction – namely books dealing with behavioral economics.  Given that I’m in a field that’s highly dependent on figuring out what motivates people (and what keeps them motivated), it makes sense.

As such, one of my favorite books that I read last year was Daniel Pink’s phenomenal book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and as it so happens, I came across this short video the other day that was made by the author himself called, What’s Your Sentence?, and I thought I’d share with all of you:

After watching that I couldn’t help but think to myself that much of what I do on a daily basis is trying to get people better today than they were yesterday.  Unfortunately, though, people tend to make this a lot harder than it really has to be.

Take for example a client of mine who’s simply trying to put on some weight (but good weight – he’s done the all you can eat diet, and it wasn’t quite the kind of weight he was looking for).  Here he is talking to me about counting the number of blueberries he’s eating, and SUBTRACTING them if it’s just one over the limit – yet, he’s waiting at least two hours upon waking up before eating breakfast.  Even worse still, he’ll often skip breakfast altogether.

If there was ever a can’t see the forest for the trees scenario, this would be it!

Anyways, all I’m trying to get is this: what will make him better?  Is it really the total # of blueberries he’s eating (or not eating)?  My guess is probably not.  As I told him the other day, there’s absolutely no need to get THAT detailed, and worry about something so trivial. In the end, it will do nothing but drive you bat shit crazy.

Instead, maybe it’s just something as simple as eating breakfast EVERY morning.  Taking it a step further – and this is something CP intern, and Lean Eating Coach, Jason Bonn suggested – what can he (my client) do, with full confidence, every morning, to help get him towards his goal?  Using a numerical system – with a 1 being not a chance in hell (making a gourmet omelet with feta cheese, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes, for instance) and a 10 being “yeah, I can do that, not a problem at all,” what can we do that would get him to a 9 or 10?

We came to the conclusion that making a simple shake which HAD to have one protein source (powder), one carb source (rolled oats), and one fat source (nuts or some kind of oil) was the way to go.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Now, that’s just one example, and there’s no telling what will make YOU better today than yesterday.  Maybe it’s making an effort to drink more water.  Maybe it’s adding ten more lbs to the barbell this afternoon.  Maybe it’s paying the toll for the random stranger behind you on the freeway.  Maybe it’s something as simple as calling your mom (you prick).  Or, maybe it’s something a little more complicated, like finally asking out that cute barista at the coffee shop who’s clearly been flirting with you for the past three weeks.  Hell, maybe it’s just turning off the television and actually communicating with your significant other.

Who knows?  The point is, it can be anything.  And that, my friends, will undoubtedly help you form your own sentence.