Tribe Strength

Experienced lifters are so well adapted to the type of stress provided by strength training that they require a huge amount of it to keep progressing.

Because they're so much stronger than beginners, their training is already more stressful (squatting 400 pounds is more stressful than squatting 200, even if both represent 80% of your max).

If they were to raise their training stress to a level that's sufficient to keep progressing “everywhere”, they'd undoubtedly put an excessive amount of stress on their body - resulting in slower progress and possibly an injury/burnout.

That's why I love programming specialization phases.

You focus on a certain movement pattern (or 1 to 2 muscles) for a short period of time. This gives you a powerful and concentrated stimulus without increasing the overall training stress.

It works.

For those who require more variation, it's also a great approach because each workout can utilize completely different methods or loading strategies.

Wow. This is Sunday nights 99.9% waxing moon rise over Mount Rainier. The incredible capture was by Debbie Heyer. She said, “It was so cool watching it roll up the left side of the mountain.”

Mount Rainier, also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about 59 miles south-southeast of Seattle.

It can be difficult to change nutritional habits when you have built them up for so long.

I find that when my clients are trying to make changes to their diets, the hardest changes to make are when they decrease how much they are having of something or try to take it out of their diet altogether…

🖕🏼 LESS/NO carbs
🖕🏼 LESS/NO sugar
🖕🏼 LESS/NO fat
🖕🏼 LESS/NO junk food

So things like having less/no sugar, eating less/no snacks, eliminating processed foods, decreasing soda intake, or even taking some caffeine away, tend to be more difficult tasks than when we ADD a certain nutrient or food that we might be missing.

Instead of (initially) going the full blown elimination route, try doing something like this for a better chance at sustainable change:

💪🏼 Increase your daily protein intake
💪🏼 Increase your daily water intake
💪🏼 Try to incorporate more nutrient dense, whole foods in your diet
💪🏼 Have 1 more full serving of fruits and vegetables a day
Immerse yourself in your goals.

Make sure you see them when you wake up, before you go to sleep, and you reminded of them several times a day. Set them bigger. Fully devote yourself to them.

Act with conviction and see what it transforms you into. Approaches that are constructive and flexible tend to work better in the long run.

The right approach to diet feels harder at the start and progressively easier as you go.

The wrong approach feels easy when you start and progressively more demoralizing every time you quit after a few weeks.
Wanting to lose weight doesn’t make you a bad person.

Being encouraged to track or restrict your food in the efforts of looking and feeling healthier is not an eating disorder.

Fat shaming is terrible.

Shaming someone who is attempting to follow a nutritional strategy is no better.

One powerful approach that many naturally gravitate toward as they mature is a reorientation towards using their purpose as a driver for sustained health and fitness.

Think about how you want to matter and make a difference in the world.

Now think how would that powerful, purpose-driven version of you eat, exercise and live?

I doubt you will find candy, beers, doughnuts and pizza as any more than an occasional enjoyable indulgence. Instead you will find yourself fueling your body in a way that makes you feel light, energetic and vital.

This approach allows you to see your lifestyle as an extension of your life mission. You eat and exercise not to look good, but to do good. And, as a happy consequence, you are almost certain to also look good and perform better as well.

Understanding the relationship between mental and physical health is crucial in developing strategies to reduce the incidence of co-existing conditions and support those already living with mental illnesses and chronic physical conditions.

Wait, what?