Untethering

In Buddhist thought, the difficulties of life all boil down to four Noble Truths. The second of which, “samudaya,” basically posits that the the source of our suffering is craving or attachment; wanting things we don’t have, or not wanting to lose things that we do.

That may indeed be part of the path to enlightenment. But it also explains why new year’s resolutions make us so miserable. We set out with a clear sense of how we want to be different in the year ahead. And then, because real change often feels glacially slow, we slog ahead for a month or so, realize things aren’t yet different, and give up entirely.

Which is why, research suggest, only about 9% of people each year feel like they successfully keep their resolutions. (Indeed, more than 40% expect to fail even before they hit February.)

So, rather than implore you to cling even harder to those earnestly-desired but rarely-reached outcome goals, let me suggest that, this year, you take an entirely different approach. Instead of resolving to reach new outcomes in the year ahead, resolve to follow new routines instead.

Put another way, untether from the outcome, and put all of your focus on the process. Figure out the things you want to do every day and every week over the next year. Then stop paying attention to progress, and stop keeping an eye on the prize. The only wins you need to celebrate are process wins: “I made a weekly grocery run to stock up on vegetables!” “I stuck to my pre-bedtime wind-down alarm last night!” “I made it to the gym the three times I was gunning for this week!”

One of my own process resolutions is to start posting regularly on both Twitter and LinkedIn. Over the course of January, I’ll be aiming to post actionable ideas related to this same concept. Stuff like:

Why we should ditch SMART goals and focus on DUMB habits.
The value of never missing twice.
How to create consistency by shifting your identity.
And ways to become addicted to the process, so that the outcomes take care of themselves.

Until then, let me share a similar thought recently tweeted by entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo. I think it’s so good that I’ve actually printed it out, tacked it over my desk, and will be looking at it all day long over the year ahead:

“Remind yourself that it is the boring that makes shit happen.
When people ask me, ‘What’s next?’
I do not have an answer.
There is no next.
There is just repeat.
Repeat what works.
And give it time.
It is the biggest thing I have learnt in life.”

Happy new year. May it be an incredibly repetitive one!

Ordered

I was recently listening to my friend Cal Newport’s excellent new podcast, Deep Questions, and particularly appreciated his advice on procrastination. While he covered a bunch of points, one was that people only fully commit to a plan when they really believe it will work. Which, he observes, is one of the reasons why athletes have coaches: if you can find someone you trust, and let them tell you what to do, it’s then far easier for you to (per Nike) just do it.

Over the years, I’ve learned that even works if you’re coaching yourself, at least so long as you can erect enough distance between your coaching and doing selves. When I first started programming my own workouts, I would chart out each day’s workout that morning. But, it turned out, I was far too much of a wimp to make that work; imagining how horrible an exercise or conditioning circuit would be later that day, I would inevitably scale back to something more palatable, and I pushed myself far less than I could have in result. So, instead, I started programming increasingly far in advance, eventually reaching where I am now: programming two weeks ahead. At that gap, future Josh’s suffering seems far more abstract, and I’m apparently willing to subject him to pretty much anything. Conversely, when I’m actually doing the workouts, past coach Josh seems distant enough as to be beyond question. “Well,” I’ll think, “I don’t really want to do this workout, but he says I have to.” And, weirdly, that’s enough to get me to do it.

Recently, I’ve also discovered a similar, albeit much faster, trick for daily productivity. As I’ve written before, when my to-do list reaches too great a length, I’ll reach a point of overwhelm sufficient to grind me to a halt. Instead of just choosing something and chipping away, I’ll stare at the over-long list, and not do much of anything at all.

But, this week, facing an unexpectedly long lineup of obligations, I instead took my list and randomly sorted it, then started at the top, and worked my way sequentially down. Small as it may seem, taking the choice of next task out of my own hands has been enough to get me going. I no longer was choosing to do something; I was just being told (albeit just by a stochastically scrambled version of myself) what I had to do. And, dumb as that sounds, it seems to have worked. (Witness this post, as blogging was otherwise on the list of stuff I was studiously not getting done.)

As a general principle, then: either get someone you trust to boss you around, or boss yourself around at a (temporal or technological) distance. Amazingly enough, it totally works.

Sweating Safely

While shifting to an all-virtual version of Composite has been going better than expected – it’s only sort of a total clusterfuck – I know a bunch of our beta-testers, like me, are looking forward to returning to in-gym, fully-equipped workouts. While we’ve gotten creative, and made do surprisingly well with whatever odds and ends people have on hand (even if that’s, frequently, just their own bodies), it’s just far more effective and efficient to train using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and other purpose-built tools.

That said, in the midst of this pandemic, gyms definitely can’t operate as they did before. And though I’ve seen a bunch of gyms’ prospective sets of post-opening changes and accommodations, I don’t think most go nearly far enough. Or, put another way, I don’t think I’d feel safe working out in those gyms myself in those conditions, much less recommending it to anyone else. Which, frankly, isn’t surprising; given the constraints of existing business models, there’s only so much they can do before they bankrupt out in the process.

So, my team and I are working on a skunkworks project: seeing if, starting from scratch, it’s possible to stand up a solution that works. Though it would be inherently temporary – only operating until the viral risk recedes – we hope it can get us and our clients making progress, safely, in a way that we can’t elsewhere.

It’s definitely still a work in progress. But here a few of the things we think a gym would need to sanely operate in this environment:

Space. Simply put, the now-proverbial ‘six feet’ isn’t nearly far enough, especially in an environment where people are breathing hard. (See, also, also.) Based on our probabilistic modeling, we think people need more like 15 feet of mean separation – or a whopping 225 sqft per exerciser. In other words, you need a ton of space, and a very small number of simultaneous members.

Masks. We’ve seen several gyms put up regulations requiring masks, except when people are ‘exercising vigorously.’ As my father, a pulmonologist at Stanford, put it: that’s a bit like requiring condoms, except for when people are actually having sex. In other words: masks, for everyone, all the time. Additionally, not all masks are created equal. Though there’s a balance between filtration, breathability, comfort, and liquid resistance (especially important when people are sweating up a storm), we think ASTM-2 or ASTM-3 surgical masks strike that balance best, and they’re tested / certified for consistency in a way that most masks aren’t. As people probably can’t round those up on their own, gyms would need to provide them to members coming in the door, for single workout-use.

Ventilation / Filtration. Even after cutting down viral emissions with a mask, and separating people in space, air flow patterns within a space are a huge issue, able to quickly carry particles clear across even large rooms. So, in short, gyms need ventilation modeled after operating rooms: designed to pull air out of the room as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, most AC systems are built with the opposite intention: spreading a body of air throughout an entire the space, rather than sucking it directly out. Minimally, we think a safe gym needs ten air-changes per hour, supplemented with an equally robust HEPA filtration system, to get viral particles out ASAP.

Sterilization: Depending on members to wipe down equipment just isn’t going to cut it. Is someone supposed to wipe down every barbell, plate, collar, dumbbell, bench, etc., etc. that they touch throughout their whole workout? Instead, we think equipment management needs to work more like, say, provided gym towels do currently. After anything is touched, that equipment is set aside as ‘dirty’ until staff can completely sterilize it, and replace it for use by a subsequent member. Doing that at scale probably involves electrostatically disinfecting everything between uses, the same technique used in many hospital ORs.

Managing that all is incredibly tough. To make it work, you probably need about a thousand square feet to handle just three members and a trainer on staff. You probably need three separate, fully-equipped ‘zones,’ one for each of those members, so they can stay entirely in their own zones, just using the stuff around them. You’d need to schedule their workouts, so that after their hour or 75 minutes of working out, there would be 15-30 minutes for someone to sterilize and reset the equipment before the next member came in to use that zone. And you’d need to have ASTM masks (along with temperature scans) waiting at the front door, as well as a constantly-operating ventiliation/filtration system.

So, fiscally speaking, probably not the best model in terms of maximizing profit. But, at the same time, running the numbers, we think it absolutely works. And, at the moment, we don’t see any other safe, sane choice.

Hoofing It

Before today, the last time I headed out for a run was precisely seven weeks ago. Even then, it seemed a fairly risky proposition. But as things here in NYC devolved in the days and weeks after, I was even less willing to push my luck. Ever since, all of my workouts have been entirely indoors – indeed, entirely in our apartment.

Until, that is, today. As the number of new cases has continued to drop, and as we collectively begin to puzzle through what a safe and gradual reopening might look like, heading out for a jog – albeit a masked one, and still steering clear of the more crowded running paths in Central or Riverside Parks – had started to seem like it wasn’t completely nuts.

So, this afternoon, I went for a short jaunt. Though I clocked just two miles, at a glacial 10-minute mile pace, I was still pretty beat up by the end. Despite hard indoor workouts in the intervening two-ish months, it seems there’s no substitute for actually hitting the pavement.

And though it was strange indeed to run while wearing a mask, and I had to follow a convoluted path to steer far clear of other pedestrians without getting flattened by oncoming cars, I was still glad to have done it. Going forward, I’ll be heading out again, at least a handful of times a week. It may take me a while to inch towards any semblance of my former 5k pace. But it seems I won’t be back in a real gym for at least another month or so, even in the most optimistic case, and I might as well put the intervening time to good use.

Guinea Pig

Still on track to expand to a larger beta-test group for Composite, starting next week.  Getting there required a bunch of changes to the alpha – most notably, shifting things up to deliver it all remotely, rather than in-person with a coach.  But, secondarily, revamping movement and exercise selection in the algorithm; it can now account for the equipment that people have (or don’t), and build workouts accordingly.

In the process of setting that up, I also quickly realized that I had waaaay more equipment-based movements (whether with dumbbells, kettlebells, and barbells, or just pullup bars, boxes, and rings/TRX’s) in the library than bodyweight-only stuff.  So, lest I end up assigning people nothing but pushups, sit-ups, and air squats for the next several months, I’ve been testing out all kinds of crazy bodyweight-only movements, to see what which I can add into the lineup.  Stuff like glute bridge walk-outs, single-leg-elevated hip thrusts, inverted table rows, and kneeling squat jumps all made the cut.  A variety of even crazier stuff very much didn’t.

Still, by now, the algorithm can generate home workouts with nearly as much variety and progression as it could previously in a fully-stocked gym.  And at only the cost of a small number of broken household items, a handful of minor injuries, and some likely extremely pissed off downstairs and next-door neighbors (who’ve had to put up with days full of jumping, thumping, and cursing) along the way.

Calling that victory, and charging ahead.

Homework(out)

While just two days back I was unsure of whether to cancel live training sessions, by now it seems like the obvious choice.  So, with far less preparation than ideal, I’ve lept into converting Composite’s beta into something geared for digitally-served, at-home training (which was always part of the roadmap, though substantially further out), rather than human-trainer-delivered, in-gym training (as it’s been thus far).

If all goes well, I’m hoping I should be able to roll out something by early next week.  At which point, I’ll be posting more info here.  So, even if you’re not in NYC, if you’re stuck inside, and looking for ways to stay fit (and sane), circle back then as you’ll hopefully soon be able to sign up for the beta.

Back to coding, and to hiding out from the world as much as possible.

Playing with Pain

As people hop into a new year of workouts, one common issue regularly crops up: dealing with old injuries and ongoing tweaks – pain in backs, knees, shoulders, etc. The easy solution is to just ‘play it safe,’ completely avoiding any even slightly painful movements. But, in the long run, that’s an ineffective approach.

Pain is complex – it’s not just a physical sensation, but the mental interpretation of that sensation. In other words, while the muscle you pull in your back may be the initial negative stimulus, it’s your brain that turns the stimulus into the experience of pain. You’ve probably experienced that directly – perhaps you cut yourself accidentally, but didn’t feel pain until you looked down and realized what you’d done.

In the days and even weeks after an injury, the physical stimulus and mental response are usually pretty tightly coupled. But, often, even after the physical damage heals, the pain response persists. It’s kind of like the ‘check engine’ light in your car – once it’s on, regardless of any fixes to the engine itself, the light will only turn off if you reset it directly.

And, in the case of muscle or joint pain, the best way to ‘reset’ is through movement. Repeatedly move safely through a range of motion that previously caused damage, and your brain will update its map of the situation in the sensory cortex, no longer signaling the movement as painful.

But for that reset to work, the key part is moving safely. Moving through injury too much or too soon can actually make things work.

So, how can you tell if you’re helping or hurting? If the feeling in your shoulder as you press, or in your knee as you lunge, is a sign that you should pull back, or just something you should live with temporarily as you keep going and rebuild pain-free health?

When I’m working with athletes, I have four rules – four questions you can ask about the nature of the pain caused by any specific exercise or movement.

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, is the pain a 4 or less?

2. Does the pain remain the same or improve as you repeat the movement, rather than getting worse rep by rep?

3. Does the pain stop once you stop doing the movement?

4. Does the joint or muscle feel better or about the same 6-24 hours after the movement as it did before?

If you can answer yes to all four, you’re good to go.

As the physical therapists say, ‘motion is lotion.’ If you have musculoskeletal pain, get moving. Just follow the four rules along the way, and you’ll be back to feeling excellent sooner than you think.

Eat Clen, Tren Hard

Despite fifteen years in the fitness industry, I’m pretty sure I look more like a gym’s accountant than a trainer or coach at one. Even the most flattering descriptions I’ve ever gotten in the press — “a lean, athletic build developed from years of working out regularly—picture Bruce Lee, not Arnold Schwarzenegger” — make clear I’m not exactly intimidatingly large. So perhaps it goes without saying that I’ve never before taken steroids.

It was from that place of ignorance that I was so surprised by some recent anabolic steroid usage facts:

Surveys indicate that between 1-3 million Americans use steroids. For context, there are about 60 million people with gym memberships in the country, and 2/3 of those people never go to the gym, taking the number of actual gymgoers down to about 20 million. If we assume that the people using steroids are actually working out, that means that between 1 in 20 and 1 in 6 people you see in the gym are on steroids.

Especially given that survey response data tends to underestimate illegal activity —which people are understandably reluctant to report — it seems waaaaay more people are juicing than I would have assumed.

Years ago, when I lived in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, I was a member at Mid-City Gym, an institution in the bodybuilding world. (If you’ve ever watched the classic documentary Pumping Iron – and I highly recommend it, regardless of your interest in fitness — all of the New York scenes were filmed there.) Though I was mostly doing weird functional fitness stuff in the corner, rather than leg pressing and bicep curling with the gigantic regulars, I was still offered steroids by some random dude in the locker room at least once a week. Still, in my CrossFit NYC days, and now at Equinox, I tend to assume almost nobody is on drugs. Yet based on the numbers, it looks like I’ve been naive.

Fortunately, given my own fitness goals, I don’t think I’m much missing out. I’m not looking to get huge, nor do I have any pro sports pennants I’m gunning for. Though, as one colleague here pointed out, if I do decide to do a cycle one day, I’m in the clear. At my advancing age, I can just call it “testosterone replacement therapy,” and pick up prescriptions legally from any number of overpriced and slightly sketchy anti-aging medical practices here in NYC.

As I said, I don’t have any immediate plans to that end. But if, years from now, I’m the only guy in the nursing home with 18-inch biceps and a six pack: you heard it here first.

New Year, Old Diet?

M: Too many free radicals, that’s your problem.

BOND: Free radicals, sir?

M: Yes. They’re toxins that destroy the body and the brain. Caused by eating too much red meat and white bread, and too many dry martinis!

BOND: Then I shall cut out the white bread, sir.

– Never Say Never Again

Fast Enough

New Years resolution season is bearing down upon us again. Which means, for most people (the majority in annual polls, who list ‘lose weight,’ ‘get in shape,’ or something similar as their top resolution), January will kick off with new exercise routines, new diets, and new lifestyles.

But, for almost all of those people, by the time they hit February, they’ll have given up completely, and returned to exactly what they were doing the year before.

As research on habits makes clear, one of the keys to success amongst the people who actually do manage to sustain change is starting small. Make the minimum shift needed to see results, and then build slowly from there over time. Whereas most resolutioners attempt the opposite, jumping straight to drastic change – go keto! run five miles every morning before work! – and it’s that extreme approach that so quickly derails them.

I was therefore surprised to see I’ve only mentioned in passing what I’ve generally found to be the easiest and most impactful simple first step for people looking to lose weight: intermittent fasting (or “IF,” as it’s often called).

Happily, IF isn’t just an effective way to shed excess fat; research is increasingly showing it’s likely a way to increase your lifespan, and to stave off all kinds of serious illness (whether cancer, heart disease, or diabetes), too. If you want to dive deeper, there are a ton of great resources out there: reader-friendly articles on the how and why, scientific review papers exploring the underlying journal research, even a (free!) app for timing the daily fasting window.

But, really, the core of IF is simple enough that you can jump in based on just two bullet points.

  • For 16 hours a day, don’t consume any calories. (Water, tea, and coffee are fine.)
  • For 8 hours a day, eat per usual.

And that’s it.

I do this myself, eating all of my calories between roughly 1pm and 9pm. I skip breakfast (drinking a bunch of coffee instead), have lunch at 1:00pm, eat some snacks through the afternoon at work, and then have dinner at home with Jess, before stopping eating for the night at about 9:00pm. (Depending on your own work and life schedules, feel free to shift that as needed. A bunch of my clients and friends do 12pm to 8pm, or 2pm to 10pm, though really any window works.)

Crazy enough, for almost everyone I’ve worked with, this change alone is sufficient to kick off slow and steady and sustainable leaning out. And though it sounds like it would be unpleasant, after a couple of days of adjusting to the new circadian food rhythm, people are usually so not hungry during the fasts that they’ll sometimes forget to start eating for an hour or two after the fasting window ends.

As I said, the whole thing really boils down to just that 16/8 formula. But, based on frequent questions / things I’ve seen doing and coaching this, I do have a handful of small, hopefully useful additional pointers:

  • If you normally put milk (or even better – given the lesser impact on insulin levels – cream) into your coffee, feel free to keep doing so during the fast. It doesn’t seem to make much difference.
  • If you work out during the fasting window (as I do), you’re similarly probably just fine as is. Though, if you’re trying to add muscle, and are worried missing the post-workout feeding window will undercut your ‘gainz,’ chug down 15g of essential amino acids as a pre-workout.
  • If you’re a lady, you might consider trying a 14-hour fast and a 10-hour eating window instead. Some women seem to have hormonal side effects (irregular periods, bone density decreases) when doing 16/8 over the long-term. A 14/10 approach appears to provide the vast majority of the same benefits, but without triggering female-specific side effects.
  • And, finally, while the first step is indeed to just change food timing, without shifting or limiting what you eat during the eight-hour window (as that’s enough to kick off fat loss and biomarker improvements by itself), achieving optimal health and fitness probably involves making other (fortunately similarly incremental) changes over time. Still, as I said before, starting with a manageable beachhead like IF’ing, and quickly seeing results, tends to lead much more effectively to long-term success – and further positive changes over time – than just trying to do everything all at once, and then dropping it all after two or three weeks.

So, in short, if you have physique (or general health) resolutions in mind this year, consider giving Intermittent Fasting a whirl. Hell, you can even hop in today, and roll into the New Year with two weeks of practice – which, in turn, should substantially up the odds that you’ll keep sticking with it, and keep seeing real results, over the year ahead.