Welcome to the GAIN Blog
The blog is updated Monday-Friday. Tune in for posts and discussion about health, fitness, nutrition, training experiments and reflection. We share articles, videos and more. We post the link to our Instagram story every day, make sure to follow along there to never miss a post.
20k per day
We take over 20,000 breaths every day.
Most of that runs on autopilot through our autonomic nervous system. You don’t even have to consider it, but you body adjusts for what you’re doing and what environment you’re in and makes sure you don’t all of a sudden stop breathing. It’s very impressive.
I’m not suggesting you get rid of all your personal belongings and go on a full-time meditation retreat, however spending a little bit of time thinking about your breath, and the way that you’re breathing can be a powerful tool.
Here are a few experiments for you to play with to pay attention to a handful of those 20k breaths each day.
When warming up for intervals, how many breaths (full in/out) do you get in a minute? I try keep it easy the first couple minutes and see how many breaths I can hold on to. This helps me avoid coming out too hot. Around 10-12 breaths per minute is super chill pace.
Squatting, benching, deadlifting, etc. any of those moves in the gym are a chance to breathe. Typically we want a full inhale/exhale per rep. Example, you breathe in at the top of a push up, lower your self, starting pushing up while exhaling. Connecting the breath to reps will leave you feeling stronger and more stable.
When I’m out of breath, how many breaths will it take me to get back under control (I’ll watch my HR monitor as I do this too to try and correlate specific HRs with how I breathe/feel). Often I make it to 10 and then lose count, but it helps it suck less!
Here’s your invitation to lay on the floor after a tough workout. By laying down you’re supporting your spine, and making it easier for your breathing mechanics to work smoothly. Try to take deep breaths with longer exhales for a few minutes, or 30-50 breaths, after your next workout.
Don’t forget to thank your autonomic nervous system for breathing while you read this!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
AirBike vs. c2 Bike
We love conditioning at the gym, and the machines are a fantastic way to log some time building your aerobic fitness. You may have noticed that we have two types of bikes in our cardio corner. While these machines are both in fact bikes, they’re much different.
The Concept 2 BikeErg, or the C2 bike as we call it, is one of the newer machines we have at the gym. We got the first two in 2021 and fell in love. This bike fit feels like you’re on a road bike. There are tons of small adjustments you can make to get the right fit. This bike operates by a flywheel, and you can control how much air gets in via the damper, which is like changing gears on a real bike. This bike is great for longer, steady rides and it’s easy to find a comfortable pace.
The AirBike is a more simple yet diabolical machine. There are less adjustments to make, the seat is a little cushier, but feels like you’re always sliding off it. There are no gears to choose, instead, this bike uses a big fan that creates wind resistance. The faster you pedal, the more resistance there is. This bike challenging because you need to use all 4 limbs, since your arms are involved too, it can be easy to overwhelm your body. The beauty of this bike is that it teaches intensity very quickly. They’re sturdy, rugged and ready for high intensity workouts, but it’s tough to steady cruise when compared to the c2 bike.
There are two subcategories of AirBikes. The Assault Fitness AirBike is chain-driven, and feels a bit more like a bike when pedaling. The Rogue Echo Bike, is the beefier of the machines and is belt-driven, it feels heavier but smoother. They operate the same way, but each feels and fits a little different, be sure to try them both to see which you prefer. I prefer the chain of the classic AirBike, but tend to change my mind throughout the year.
If I had to choose…. Luckily I don’t have to, and I’ll stick with both. They both have their place, and different people gravitate towards the different bikes because they feel more comfortable to ride - which is probably the most important consideration. The other thing to consider, is which one you already have a preference for? Always grab the c2 on interval day? Shake it up this week and take the AirBike for a spin!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
FoundATION OF EASY DAYS
I saw this quote recently on Instagram:
“PRs are built on the foundation of easy days.”
It resonated with me, and I hope you can relate to it too, because not every single session you come to the gym needs to be a heroic effort.
Most of the stuff we do in the gym will feel pretty easy. Progress can feel so slow.
Every session doesn’t have to end with you laying on the floor, or feeling sore muscles. It’s nonsense; that soreness and sweat levels are indicators of effectiveness.
Most of the time, you need to go in and check the box.
Move around, elevate your heart rate, expose your body to some ranges of motion and move on with your day.
Over a long enough time period, most of the sessions feel pretty easy.
That isn’t a bad thing, it’s training.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 58
Greetings, welcome to this week’s Friday Thoughts. Enjoy!
Get your protein:
I’ve seen a meme a few times this week too, it says, “I never knew how much of my adult life would be spent thinking about protein.”
I imagine this hurts quite a bit, and is a good deal challenging.
Get your walks in:
I love doing the math and seeing how habits can payout over time. It can be a helpful practice to quantify your smaller efforts.
Go fast:
Not everyone will be able to sprint like the first video, but the rowing and biking machines at the gym make it so everyone can let it rip.
10 Years Ago Today:
That’s a wrap for this week. Thanks for reading.
Justin Miner
Box BReathing
Here’s a simple breathing drill to add to your repertoire. It’s call box breathing.
There are four steps, as follows:
Inhale-Hold (on the inhale)-Exhale-Hold (on the exhale)
Each of the steps will be equal, hence the name. For example, 3 seconds is a good place to stat for most people.
That would translate to:
3 sec inhale - 3 sec hold - 3 sec exhale - 3 sec exhale hold
When I do this, I like to add a second every 5 rounds or so, and see how high I can get. Give this a try to wake up your lungs, practice sound breathing mechanics or just to take five minutes to yourself.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Rowing Workout with Graph
I love the rower as an off-season endurance builder for runners. There are many parallels between the two. They’re both full body, technique dependent, and over the years, I’ve found that getting into good rowing shape very much helps your running fitness.
Here was yesterday’s workout;
10 min warm up @ easy pace
9 sets:
500m @ steady, but faster each round
1 min rest
The little flat spots - my chest strap kept dropping the connection, probably time for a new battery.
These intervals were hard, but not impossible. I could talk thought the efforts, though, it was very labored. This training session felt productive. It was the right amount of hard work and I felt well-recovered at the end of each rest period. All in all, a great 36-minutes rowing to nowhere.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
HRV & Alcohol
As promised last week in October By The Numbers, I’m diving into heart rate variability, or HRV, which is a way to measure training readiness.
HRV is a statistical measurement of changes in time between heartbeats. If your resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute, that doesn’t necessarily mean 1 beat per second. There’s a lot more variability, down to the milliseconds, and that’s what we’re talking about with HRV.
The more rested and recovered we are, the higher degrees of heart rate variability we’ll see. If our heart’s rhythm is less-variable, or more consistent, that’s a sign that we’re not feeling recovered or maybe need a rest day.
This technology is somewhat new. Just 15 years ago, you needed a chest strap and to lay still on the floor for about 10 minutes to get a reading. Pretty challenging to fit into everyday life unless you’re a pro athlete. Even my older Garmin watch that came out in 2018, you would need a chest strap and to lay still. More recently, the wrist-based heart rate sensors made leaps in accuracy and my new watch measures my HRV every single night while I’m sleeping.
I set up the watch and it took about 25 days to get a baseline reading to start working. Since then, my HRV has been balanced (meaning more variable, a little confusing, I know). Just when I was starting to question its effectiveness, I had a beer. Just one beer, and stayed up a little later than normal. The next day for the first time my HRV was unbalanced.
I’ve seen many reports of others experiencing the same thing, and I have finally lived through it.
Did I need another metric to tell me I was feeling groggy after a beer and less sleep than normal, no probably not - I felt it. However, I’m a fan of measuring and collecting this data and seeing how it all plays out over time.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Slower to Get Better
A sneaky, long-term, and often overlooked way to get really strong is controlling the tempo when lifting.
Tempo is how fast you move. Sometimes when we want a fast tempo; speed work, explosive exercises for power development, sprinting and conditioning. When building strength and learning how to move though, nothing beats a slow tempo.
Slowing down makes things feel harder, forces you to breath better and gives your muscles a big dose of strength building stimuli.
There’s also the paradox of strength training to be aware of. The paradox of strength training is that you keep lifting heavier and heavier every week, except there’s one problem, this doesn’t actually work forever - or else we’d all have 1000 pound deadlifts.
Tempo affords us another variable to control. By slowing down, we’re increasing the difficulty of a weight, or a bodyweight movement like a push up, without moving up in weights.
If you’re starting to feel good at a weight, or a certain number of push ups or pull ups, add a tempo to your next bout and feel the difference!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 57
Greetings! Welcome to Friday Thoughts, where I share some of my favorite posts and things I saw on the internet this week. Enjoy!
Internet Fitness:
Be careful out there.
Old School Weightlifting:
I love seeing old school weightlifting footage. The contrast between how similar and different it is remarkable. My favorite lift here was the last one. Eccentric overload deadlifts, the lifter had two partners on either end of the bar to help him lift above 100% of their max and then lowered it without assistance.
Biking:
I haven’t used my road bike in 5 years because I’m sacred of cars, but for some reason, I feel like I could totally do this.
POV: you don’t go to the gym and need these.
No Waving Plan:
This video is fun. It reminded me of Casey’s video about last year’s NYC Marathon, and not meeting his goal, which was also excellent and below.
Have a good weekend!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
What’s the 3-session trial
Potential members at GAIN start with a 3-session trial. This serves as an opportunity to meet the coaches and see how we do things at GAIN. Our individualized, feels like a group, but isn’t actually a group, vibe is different, and unlike any other gym you’ve been to.
On the first session, you’ll work closely with a coach doing our Intro Workout. This gives us an opportunity to go over some finer details like bracing and breathing and seeing how much range of motion and stability your body has. We talk about injuries, training history and what you want to get out of your gym time.
Regardless of your fitness level and experience, we want you leaving the gym after that first session feeling as though you could have done more. Our saying is, we can write hard workouts, but don’t feel the need to prove that one day 1. We want you to build a new habit you can stick with, easing in is key.
You’ll learn a whole bunch of new movements and lingo, if you’re a newbie to the gym it can be a bit overwhelming. Just know that we’re aware of this, and try to take it slow and not overload you with gym jargon. On the first day we primarily focus on learning and breaking down the squat pattern, body weight upper body movements, the push up and ring row and some of our core training drills.
By the second workout, we’re ready to introduce some more movements and will do some conditioning (cardio) and get introduced to some of our favorite cool-down mobility drills. This workout focuses on pressing and pulling with the upper body, along with some single leg movements.
On the last workout of the trial, you’re learning and working on the hinge pattern. This can be a tricky one, but is important for everyone to learn. We revisit some movements from the previous two workouts here if needed. This will feel like a bigger workout for most, because we usually give you more to do on the third day as your body is starting to adapt to some new movements.
All in all, the 3-Session Trial is a crash course in all things GAIN. Learn our favorite exercises, get your movement broken down by an experienced coach and learn how to move better, feel more connected and get a plan that unique to what you need and want to accomplish. GET INVOLVED.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
October By The Numbers
Welcome to this month’s edition of By The Numbers, where I analyze the passive data I collect all month from my watch, like steps and sleep. I review how many workouts I completed and what they mostly comprised of. The idea is that over time I can spot trends and make adjustments for the following month. This is the 13th month I have done this. Reflecting back on the previous year, I must say, it’s working.
Steps: 402,824 for a daily average of 12,995 steps
An increase of nearly 2000 steps per day from September. In October I was ramping up my running preparing for Stone Cat. Yard work like leaf blowing and raking and stacking fire wood accumulate steps too. About what I expected and in this upcoming month, it will drop once again as I back off from running to let my body recover.
Sleep: 7 hours 27 minute average
A decrease from last month’s 7:54 average. For this, I entirely blame Clementine who has been in the routine of waking me up very early each morning. There’s another thing to factor too. I upgraded my 6 year old watch and must say, the newer technology on the watch, specifically the sleep tracking and heart rate sensor are a huge upgrade. Due to that I’m getting less sleep “fluff.” The old watch would track 20 minutes of reading in bed as sleeping sometimes, but not with the new. It’s more sensitive to tossing and turning in the night as well and those minutes add up. All in all, sleep has been good this month, short if anything. I’m enjoying all the new data on recovery I’m getting, like HRV and a sleep score, perhaps I’ll add them into this report once I have a better understanding of them myself.
Workouts: 33
All my rest days took place the week of the race - probably a bad idea. I was trying to cram for the test though and just ride it straight into the race. Didn’t work. I lifted more than I had all summer in October. I did 8 in the gym workouts. Mostly power cleans and pull ups.
Running totals: 23 runs, 22 hours, 110 miles, 10,000 vertical feet.
Up from 80 miles in September, October had my third highest distance this year, followed by July and August.
That’s a wrap. As always, I hope this inspires you to look back and look at some of the data you may be collecting and see if you can spot any trends or make adjustments for the following month. For me, I’ll be spending more time lifting weights, with a focus on feeding my body good movement, and trying (as always) to get to bed earlier.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
DNF
I DNF’d my 50-mile race this past weekend.
DNF means “Did Not Finish,” and is a household term in the ultra running world. The race consisted of four 12.5 mile loops with about 1000ft of elevation gain per loop. My plan was to start easy and hopefully have enough gas to still push later in the day. I finished the first lap in what I thought was a sustainable pace, but in retrospect, it was a little too fast. This left me feeling sluggish on loop two, and I couldn’t get my legs moving. When I crossed into the finish line/aid station after loop two, I thought, that’s it for me.
I was sad and upset for about 20 minutes then I got over it. Looking back, I was able to gain some valuable training insights.
I was in good 50k shape, but 50 miles is a different beast. I’ve run 50k many and more times, but 50 miles I’ve only done twice. The main difference being that with a 50k, if you have a sufficient base, you can get away without frequent long runs. My lack of endurance that long runs build was noticeable. My legs felt dead at mile 25, no big deal for a 31 mile run, but if you’re only halfway, yikes.
My hope was that I would leverage any fitness built leading into and after pacing 45 miles of the Wasatch Front Race. Wasatch was primarily hiking, which is what I’m more conformable and trained to do. I like really long, steep climbs and then some flat and downhill running followed by more of the same. Stone Cat was not like that, it was much more runable, and my legs were not conditioned for that as well as they are for a slower pace.
Timeframe. After Wasatch, feeling hyped on running, 6-weeks out for 50 miles seemed like enough time, but it wasn’t. It took me a good three weeks to get into a training rhythm and when I finally did it was race week.
Goals. My expectation was to run the race in 10-12 hours. Some 100s require a sub-12-hour 50-miler for entry, so I wanted that at a minimum. When my legs felt so dead, and I realized even 12 hours was slipping away from me, it was easy to call it a day and chalk it up to a productive long rather rather than an endless slog fest.
I’m bummed I didn’t accomplish my goal, but I gained some insights into training and there will be other ones to chase after. Onward!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
GAIN TURNS TEN
November 4, 2014 is the day I got the keys to the 270 West Road. While the process started earlier than that, November 4th was the day it all felt real. There was no more planning, searching, and day dreaming, it was real and I needed to get to work.
I’ve been looking back at pictures and videos throughout the years and I just can’t believe how far this thing has come, and I can’t believe I was bold enough to do it.
While today is GAIN’s big day, we’ll be celebrating next month. Members, you should have received an invite our party on December 7th. If for some reason you have not received this, please let me know. If you have, make sure to RSVP through the link in the email.
Thanks to all of you for making this place so special, supporting the cause and trying to get fit. Alex and Taylor, thanks for you dedication to the gym and what we’re doing. Here’s to 10 more years of getting better.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 56
Greetings. Happy November. Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, enjoy!
How it feels to lift in running shoes. This video explains what I’ve been trying to explain for years in a much better, more concise way.
Dear Instagram algorithm,
Please send me more Red Bull content like this and no more people talking inside of grocery stores about how everything is toxic. Thanks!
Every single NYC Marathon since 1976. Talk about long game, this is seriously impressive.
Love this take from fellow Iron Maiden fan and author, Ryan Holiday.
However, I like to have some races on the calendar. It provides accountability to get out there and maybe my favorite part, sometime specific to tinker with a plan and train for. I’ve struggled with running for the past couple years, to the point I’ve been pondering if I should give it up entirely. I’ve made a come back this year, and that’s partially due to how many races I’ve done and how that sparked my training, provided structure, and given me something to strive for.
Neverthelesss, I like this message, and like with many things, both sides of this coin can be true. Do the thing just because you do the thing, but sometimes, an external motivator can be a powerful force.
David Roche is a running coach and athlete. He made a big splash this summer by breaking a long-standing record at the Leadville 100, which also happened to be his first 100-miler. Last week at the Javelina Jundred, which is the most clever race name there is, he won again in a blazing fast time. There are many people in the ultra running world who just go out and crush big volume, which I’m sure David is doing too, but I’ve enjoyed seeing how precise he is with his interval training, and how he used a hot room and a puffy jacket to get some more heat exposure (Javelina is in the desert).
Port’s Mouth
See you next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Habit Challenge; Final Day
Today is that last day of our Daily Habit Challenge.
At some point today, take a moment to reflect. How did you do? Did you develop a new habit? Were you consistent? Did you pick a good habit or a bad one? Did you get into a good routine? What prevented you from being more successful, or why were you successful?
Ask yourself those questions and give yourself a grade, how well did you perform for the habit challenge?
Thanks for playing along everyone, hope you got something out of it.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Countdown to 2025
As we wrap up the month of October, and our Daily Habit Challenge, this is as good a time as any to reminder you the year is almost over.
Today marks the 303rd day of 2024, with 63 days left.
Thanksgiving, the holiday season and the new year will be here before we know it.
If you have big plans for 2025, or want to get a head start on a new goal, now’s the time to get started, not January.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Gradual
This quote sometimes pops up when I log into TrueCoach:
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. - Pat Riley
The quick fix crowd doesn’t understand that getting stronger, creating a healthier lifestyle, getting lean or more conditioned takes time. Often, a lot of time.
Playing the long game is about staying committed to the process and getting a little bit better here and there. This slow progress can be frustrating, but it’s the way to build long-term commitment and therefore, long-term progress.
Play the long game!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Home Stretch
We’re on the final stretch of the October Habit Challenge. Hopefully you have been diligent about your new habit, and building it into your life has been a breeze since we crested the halfway point of the month.
If you habit challenge hasn’t been what you thought it would be, consider the following:
You picked a bad habit - it was either too hard, or too uninteresting for you to follow through on.
Through this lens, you still failed the habit challenge, but hopefully you learned something about yourself and how you form and build habits.
If you have been getting your habit in everyday, congrats! After the month is over is the real test for you. Can you continue your habit, or maybe part of it, after the month has past? Can you use the principles that allowed you to succeed to build another new habit?
However the habit challenge panned out for you, this week is an opportunity for reflection; how did you do? What could you have done better? What went well? Were you disciplined? What helped you feel motivated? What was the biggest barrier to getting your habit in?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 55
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, enjoy!
Why Sleep Tracking Isn’t Useful - Yet by Alex Hutchinson
This is a nice quick read about the sleep data many of us are tracking and analyzing. How useful is it? How good is it? Recently, I upgraded my watch. With the new tech that’s been developed since 2018 (when I last got a new watch), it’s nuts how much more information there is to decode, and it does seem to be more accurate that its older counterpart.
Hutchinson questions what we will do with all this data, i.e., if you got less REM than normal last night, how are you going to get more tonight? Are you going to train differently? Take a rest day? Get an extra hour of sleep? For me, I don’t worry too much about the small things like that, but rather, look back at overall trends and mostly look at the hours I’m logging Zzzz’s.
Read the article HERE
Mount Washington:
Big brand does a doc about our local mountains; I’m in. This Arc’teryx doc about a rescue that happened 30 or so year ago, and about the SAR (search and rescue) community of the Whites. It was enjoyable and had a twist that I was not expecting. If you like learning about SAR stuff like I do, make sure to check out the book Critical Hours: Search and Rescue in the White Mountains by Sandy Scott.
Top of Europe:
Killian winds his way through the crowds at the top of Europe, Jungfraujoch in Switzerland. This was reminiscent of the summit of Mount Washington in the middle of in the summer. There’s something about one of the best runners in the world suffering through big crowds like the rest of us.
If You’re Not Rowing to Wash Your Clothes:
You might be lazy, get to work! In all seriousness, I always thought it would be cool to have a gym set up so that AirBikes needed to be pedaled to generate power for the lights.
Roate!
Get your t-spine mobility in. I’ve been digging the last one, the banded reach, for a few months and it’s good one!
How many can you tear?
License plates that is. Most torn in 30 seconds, if you didn’t know, now you know there’s record for that too.
Thanks for reading, until next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Running Workouts with Graphs Pt. 5
Today I’m going to look back on some running workouts I’ve done lately to see if I accomplished the right training stimulus.
Oct. 13
Run 60 mins
warm up: 16 mins, 1.65 miles
7 sets:
2:30 @ hard pace (targeting 7:30)
1:00 @ recovery (targeting 9:00-10:00)
cool down: 20 mins, 1.8 miles
workout notes: Wanted to spend some time running at a faster pace, primarily for the muscular benefits. Running fast is tougher on your muscles, tendons and joints and can be a really good training stimulus when you’re ready for it. I needed to get some higher-heart rate time too, which I did not accomplish with this workout. I felt sluggish and heavy during my warm up and couldn’t seem to get much faster on these short efforts. All in all, an okay workout with about 6.5 miles, but would have liked to see the heart rate spike into the 165 plus range on the intervals.
Oct 14
Run 5k at hard effort.
warm up: 13 minutes, 1.25 miles
run 5k @ 6:52/mile pace
cool down: 5 minute walk
This was high heart rate redemption from the day before. I realized I was avoid a tempo-like effort, where I sustained hard pace for 20 or so minutes. I accomplished that here and this was tough, but, surprisingly I felt pretty good afterwards. This 5k had a couple hundred feet of vertical feet and it was raining, so I’d like to think I could shave off some more time with better conditionings. I’ve snuck under 20 minutes on a 5k once, 6 years ago and 15 pounds lighter, I think this is my 3 or 4th fastest ever and I’m pleased with that. Accomplished the heart rate goal here and logged a couple minutes in zone 4.
Getting properly warmed up for an effort like this is tricky. You can easily go overboard, and this type of run sucks a lot when you aren’t ready for high output. Today, I felt good warming up and knew it right away whereas on the previous day, I couldn't get the turnover I wanted from my legs while warming up and this chart shows a more gradual warm up.
Oct 17
Run 60 mins
warm up: 15 minutes, 1.5 miles
7 sets:
40 sec @ sprint pace, uphill
1:20-1:45 recovery jog back to start position
cool down: 25 minutes, 2 miles
In an effort to continuing to getting higher intensities I did this workout on a gradual hill on the trails near my house. I ran for 40 seconds up the hill as hard as I could, and jogged down easy to recover. Each interval got harder to recover from, per the plan. I had 10 efforts planned on my watch, but I slowed down so significantly on number 7 I called it there, since I still had a two mile run back to my truck. I should have done longest rests on all of these, even when I didn’t need it in the early intervals. I think that would have allowed me to push it for more volume and with greater intensity. Overall, mission accomplished but could have executed better.
Oct 21
Run 7 miles with 20 minute hard effort.
warm up: 25 minutes, 2.25 miles
run 20 minutes @ hard effort, 2.03 miles (9:51 per mile)
cool down: 33 minutes, 2.6 miles
7 miles with 892 feet
This was a good run. I wanted to get some more volume that my typical runs had been, but also keep the speed focus. I decided to run 25 minutes to a hill, where I would climb for about a mile and the descend for a mile, trying to accomplish it in less that 20 minutes. The hard uphill would challenge my strength and push my heart rate, and on the downhill I would get fast technical running practice, and challenge my muscular endurance with the eccentric overload. It isn’t so clear on the chart where the 20 minute effort was, so perhaps it could have been a little harder, but in order for that, I would have needed to be on less technical trails. It did however, result in a higher average heart rate than if I just cruised for 7 miles.
