Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
On my fitness journey, Iāve learned that building up my strength with certain exercises does not progress evenly. There are times when I get stuck on a weight and canāt seem to improve, and other times when I see surprising progress. I hit plateaus as well as peaks. And it can be a bit demoralizing when I hit a peak and then canāt replicate it for days or even weeks.
What Iāve come to realize is that the personal bests donāt matter, what really matters is the effort. Today I couldnāt lift nearly as heavy as I have in the past. For example, in my morning workout I struggled to get 6 reps of 185lbs once (with assistance) on incline bench. Yet I did 3 sets of 7 reps just a couple weeks ago, with no assistance.
However, I pushed myself really hard today. My muscles got a good burn, and I feel like I left nothing in my reserve tank when I did that heavily assisted last rep today. If I tried another rep my spotter would have had to do more work than me.
Effort over output.
Some days getting to the gym is hard. Some days in the gym are hard. Today was hard, but in a different way. Today was hard because I couldnāt lift as heavy as I usually do. I felt I needed more rest between sets, and everything seemed more challenging than usualā¦ and yet I still pushed myself. I put in maximum effort.
So leaving the gym I felt good. I know that I put in the best effort I could, and I realized that it would have been easy to be disappointed if I paid attention only to my strength during the exercises. However it wasnāt the strength output that mattered it was the effort inputā¦ and with that as the measure, I rocked it! I kicked @$$!
I started my fitness journey in January 2019, and it has occurred to me that over the past year, it has become a challenge to give myself a rest day. It used to be hard to find the time and the motivation to work out. The challenge was wanting to, and doing the necessary work. Now the challenge is allowing myself a rest day.
Iām realizing that while I give most of my body ample rest, (primarily doing just one muscle group in a workout when Iām working under morning time pressure at my home gym), I still work my legs daily with my cardio. My legs are not getting any rest. I need to reevaluate what I define as a workout, allowing myself to skip cardio 2-3 times a week. I also need to take a full rest day more than once every 2 weeks or so.
Iāve gone from it being hard to workout to it being hard to skip a day. And while thatās a script switch Iād like to maintain, Iād also like to ensure that I actually do skip some days. Not enough that it feels easy again, but enough that I feel the benefits of rest between working out.
Still, this is a good place to be! Iād rather be on this side rather than the flip side.
Iāve been noticing a few improvements in my workouts recently. Last week I benched a weight that I havenāt done since my late 20āāsā¦ half a lifetime ago. Iām doing a push-up challenge with my buddy but keep forgetting to do them, so the days I do end up needing to catch up I have to do a lot more push-ups to reach my goal. I can do sets of 30 now as easily as I used to do sets up 20. Iāve added 8 pounds to my weighted vest that I wear on my treadmill to walk on an incline. And my leg workouts I do now would have left me painfully sore for days! (That said I still feel the pain two days later, leg soreness after workouts is something Iāll never fully escape.)
My point is that I canāt pinpoint a time when this progress happened. Itās not like I woke up one day and added 50 more pounds on the bench press bar. Instead, Iāve been making slow and steady progress. I donāt spend hours in the gym, I just commit to cardio and working one muscle group, often for just 3 sets, sometimes two different exercises for 3 setsā¦ if I can write fast enough in the morning to give me that time.
So, I havenāt really added to my workouts significantly at any point. Iāve had no big jumps in progress. Iāve had plateaus, and times when it seems that Iām just in maintenance mode, but recently the tiny improvements have accumulated and Iām noticing the difference. This has been a really positive aspect of my life in the last few years, something that keeps me in a positive frame of mind. It certainly helps to see my own progress, as slow and incremental as it has been.
A new study shows the benefits of creatine for women, (Study,TikTok summary). We already know the benefits for men, itās nice to see specific research for women, and specifically menopausal women, who tend to be under-researched.
Iām not a medical doctor, I donāt pretend to be one. But Iāll share three suggestions that I have followed, based on my research, that can improve long term health.
Take creatine.
Take far more protein than is suggested in daily recommendations.
Exercise regularly, for both cardio and strength.
These are all things that are good for your healthā¦ and the health of your brain. But donāt take my word for it. Look into to these things yourself. Check out doctors Rhonda Patrick, Peter Attia, and Gabrielle Lyon. Oh, and when I went to Instagram to make sure of Gabrielleās first name, the first video that came up was her talking about women increasing protein intake.
I love seeing how the science of healthy living is becoming mainstream.
The saying goes, āA bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.ā Itās a good metaphor for a lot more than hobbies and employment.
āI donāt feel like working out.ā
āI donāt really want to practice my musical instrument.ā
āI donāt have anything to write about today.ā
āItās just a practice, Iāll skip and go to the game tomorrow.ā
Do I want to do it right now? Hell no! Will I feel good if I get off my butt and do it? Absolutely!
Pick the battles that matter the mostā¦ not 7 at once, 2 or 3 max. Set an intention. Do it.
Why? Because a crappy āI just showed upā workout is better than another skipped workout. And 15 minutes of practice or 250 words written are all examples of things that will make you feel far better after youāve done them, rather than how you feel not doing them.
Itās a mental shift to move the metaphorical mindset from a bad day fishing to a bad day working out/practicing/writing feeling better than a good day not doing these things, because the payoff comes after the event. When you are fishing, even the last cast has potential. But when you are doing āthe workā (be it in the gym, on an instrument, or writing) it still feels like āthe workā and is not filled with the hope and promise of a big fish.
But doing the work, even on a bad day can surprise you. You might (totally unexpectedly) hit a personal best in the gym. You might play a chord combination that youāve struggled with for weeks. You might pump out 1,000 words, or the best piece of writing youāve done in a while. In other words you might just hook a big one. And realistically you might not, but still the act of doing anything is far more rewarding than doing nothing.
Skip another day and the only thing youāll catch is the desire to skip again.
I did it last year, 2,000 pushups in February, and Iāve started it again this year. Itās not hard, but itās a commitment. Itās a little challenge thatās fun to do with friends. And thereās a pretty good sense of accomplishment when itās all done.
Iāve got my weight vest on. However, I donāt want to get on the treadmill, which is why Iām wearing the vest. I want to crawl under my blankets and not think about having to shovel the driveway later.
But yesterday was a rest day and I refuse to be someone who misses two days in a row. My habit of regular exercise is part of my identity. Am I motivated right now? Hell no! Am I going to work out immediately after writing this? Absolutely!
Make your habits about who you are and not what you doā¦ and you donāt need motivationā¦ you just get it done.
Recently Iāve seen a few social media posts from a guy who has been working out for 11 years. I donāt follow him and canāt remember his name right now but basically he is in decent shape but not super muscular. He also shared the image in poor lighting that didnāt highlight his muscles like you see most fitness influencers do.
He got ridiculed. Most comments were all about how he should look a lot bigger after all that time. But the good news is that a lot of healthy, fit, natural body builders came to his defence.
People have a false sense of what it means to be fit because the people they see on social media are jacked up and have rather unrealistic physiques that are too hard to maintain. Some use steroids to enhance their growth. Others have chiseled abs, and that involves not just physical training but a very strict diet. And of course they only take photos in the best light after doing a āpumpā to maximize their size.
Hereās the reality: adding just 10 pounds of muscle is hard work! Adding 10 more after gaining your first 10 is significantly harder.
Six years ago I was overweight and started a fitness journey that Iām still on. It took me a year to lose just over 25 pounds. I did this with regular cardio, weights, and reducing my snacking using intermittent fasting, (basically, no snacking food from dinner to a late breakfast 5 days a week). I accomplished this in one year, then it took me 5 years to build my weight back up with 13-14 pounds of good weight. Thatās right, my gains average are less than 3 pounds a yearā¦ and Iām thrilled with my progress.
Gaining muscle is hard. Unless you take the route of unhealthy supplements like steroids, you arenāt going to bulk up any time soon. Will you see results from your hard work? Yes. Will that mean that you get a lot stronger? Yes. Will you see a massive difference in the size of your muscles? Probably not without considerable effort over a long period of time.
Being fit doesnāt mean that your body looks like a body builder. It doesnāt mean that you walk around with six -pack abs. It does likely mean that you are feeling better and stronger than you were a year ago. It does mean that you are making small gains that you might notice even if others donāt.
Donāt buy into the delusions of ideal fitness that influencers share on social media. They arenāt sharing the sacrifices they make to look like they do. They are sharing month old images of when they were jacked up for a competition because they canāt maintain that look day to dayā¦ or they are making unrealistic dietary or lifestyle sacrifices to keep looking that way, so that they can sell you their program, or suppliments.
Find a way to make fitness part of your life, so that your quality of life can be better in the years to come. Thatās it, thatās all. And once youāve figured that out, appreciate all the small gains, because realistically thatās all youāll see, small gains over timeā¦ and thatās a good thing no matter what the bulked up and juiced up influencers say.
Iāve been on a bit of a health journey since 2019. I consistently exercising, I eat very little sugary foods, and for the most part eat quite healthily. Yet from 2019 to 2024 my cholesterol has gone from not great to bad, and Iāve watched my blood pressure move from optimum to the top end of normal, which is a big jump in just a few years.
When my cholesterol got worse between my 2022 and early 2024 test results, my doctor, not knowing the extent of my healthy routines, suggested I watch my diet for a few months and test again. I booked another appointment with her. I explained that I could definitely increase my fibre intake, but that cholesterol was a genetic issue on both sides of my family.
I shared that my momās dad died too early due to cholesterol issues. My mom has been on statins for 17 years, and my dadās brother is 20 years older than me and was put on statins 20 years ago. Basically requested to be put on statins. Her immediate response was why I value her as a doctor. She said that she would rather that I consulted a cardiovascular specialist first, and set up an appointment.
That was great until, still waiting for my appointment 2 months later, I learned that I was declined an appointment. It seems that being on the cusp of unhealthy, (based on norms of people far less healthy than I am), I am not critical enough to get a specialist appointment. As a bit of a rant, do I really need to have a heart episode or stroke before I fix my cholesterol issue? I think thatās the sign of a broken medical system. So, with this news, my doctor said she would put me on statins and we could retest my bloodwork after 6 months.
It has been just over 7 months on medication and I just got my bloodwork results. The results are shockingly good. I assumed they would be better than they were on my last test because during the past few months Iāve seen my blood pressure drop into the low range of normal, almost back to optimal. But to see such a large drop in my cholesterol in only 7 months definitely shows the medication is working.
I can control a lot of my heatlh with exercise and healthy eating, but the reality is that cholesterol is mostly genetic, and when it comes to cholesterol, Iāve got bad genes on both sides of the family. I chose to take statins under doctor supervision, and I did my own research too.
In all honesty, I was not expecting such positive results. A previous blood tests showed that I have high lipoprotein (a) which is a bad combination to have with high cholesterol because this protein likes to hold onto the bad LDL cholesterol. And new research shows that statins are less likely to show success in people with high lipoprotein (a). But my test results speak for themselves.
So now Iām probably going to be on statins for the rest of my life. And frankly Iām quite happy about that. Itās working for my mom, and my uncle, and itās fixing something that I donāt have the power to fix with my lifestyle. I wonāt pretend that Iāve noticed any physical or health changes in the last few months. In reality I feel the same as I did before I started medication. But internally my body is dealing with a lot less stress. My heart doesnāt need to pump as hard, and Iām probably having a lot less plaque build up in my veins.
Itās wonderful to see such positive results. And on that note, itās time to get on the treadmillā¦ Iām not staying healthy by medication alone, Iām also sticking to a healthy routine. I like to joke that I plan to die healthy. And while I hope that wonāt happen for many years to come, I plan on being active, mobile, and fit when my time comes. To paraphrase Dr. Peter Attia, I want a good healthspan, not just lifespan. For me that means taking statins as well as exercising and maintaining a healthy diet.
Itās fascinating how much of weight training is mental. Iām simultaneously an athlete who can push my body to a level that surprises me, and the loafer who canāt eke out one more rep despite still having gas left in my gas tank. One minute Iām forcing myself to get one more weighted pull-up done, straining with everything Iāve got to get my head above the bar. A few minutes later Iām quitting on weighted step-ups, because mentally, rather than physically, Iām done.
What Iāve mastered is showing up. What Iām working on now is maximizing my gains. That doesnāt mean being stupid, lifting too heavy, and hurting myself. What it does mean is making my sets count. Making my reps count. Making my workouts efficient and effective.
How does this look when Iāve mentally quit on a set too soon? Maybe it means a 4th set. Maybe it means a lighter weight and more reps. Maybe it means giving myself permission to let that one set go and come back stronger the next setā¦ or if need be the next workout. Awareness is the first step. The next step is being intentional about what I do next.
If Iām going to see the gains I plan to have in the next year, Iāve got to push a little harder than I have been. Pushing in a smart way is going to get me to my goalsā¦ injury free.
