Training for 2030

I’ve noticed that for the past few weeks, a lot of people have been reflecting on the fact that we just closed out a decade and are starting a new one. It’s been a good exercise, thinking back to what you’ve done over the past 10 years, mistakes you made, big ah-ha moments and life-changing decisions. 

A nice exercise to figure out if your training regimen is appropriate is to think about how it will impact you in 10 years. A while back, I wrote a blog about how it’s too bad we couldn’t all just train for 10 years from now and throw away these expectations of fast results. In this first week of 2020, I challenge you to think about how you’re going to train, how you’re going to feel and what you’re going to be doing the first week of 2030. What habits will get you there? What habits will sabotage you? 

Check you goals. Saying you’ll do something doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. What are you going to do to get there? What does the day to day look like for the first 5 years? The last 5 years? It’s a difficult exercise, and if you’re able to actually sit down and examine yourself, I bet you’ll come up with a couple of really good process goals.

From James Clear’s Instagram:

Aim to be great in 10 years.

Build health habits today that lead you to a great body in 10 years.

Build social habits today that lead to great relationships in 10 years.

Build learning habits that lead to great knowledge in 10 years. 

Long-term thinking is a secret weapon.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

My 2019 in Numbers

I’ve been reflecting on 2019 for the past couple weeks. Yesterday, out of curiosity, I crunched some numbers on stuff I did, enjoy.

198: blog posts

I hit every week day since March 11 besides holidays and two random days that I forgot. 

986: miles ran

Missed my 1000 mile goal. It wasn’t in the cards to get the number. This was less of a big goal more of, I realized it would be cool to hit that milestone sometime in the summer. I’ll take the improvement over my 738 in 2018. 

27: 4000 footers summited

Lots of repeats, lots of new ones. I have 8 left to finish. Top 3 favorites: Pemi Loop in July, Huntington Ravine with Alex (also in July) and Washington winter summit in March. 

15.7: Hannah’s longest run ever

On our Honeymoon at Sete Cidades. The scenery and experience was amazing. The best time running I had all year. 

9 - Number of days I slept outside.

Three backpacking/camping trips wasn’t enough. Need more of this next year. 

113: Runs at Stratham Hill Park.

Climbed the tower once...

450: lifetime deadlift PR

I was scared to deadlift heavy after a long history of back pain. In 2019 I got to a place where I was no longer scared and the patience paid off.

5: Gain’s Five Year Anniversary is today.

On January 2, 2015 I trained 5 people. Karen, AJ, Judi and Elizabeth are all still members.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

How to Review Your Year

Not sure how to think about goals or come up with new challenges? Sometime this week, sit down for 30-60 minutes and reflect on these questions. I started doing this in 2016 after reading about it on Nate Green’s blog. It’s a simple template to get you thinking about the past and what you can change in the future to get better results. 

The questions are: 

What’s been working? That’s, what went well, what are you proud of. 

What hasn’t been working? Where are you biggest opportunities of growth.

How can I fix what’s not working for better results? What specific things can you do better at. 

Once you finish, take a moment to soak it all in before you start nailing down an action plan. Focus on the need to improve category and you’ll start mining out of worthwhile goals. 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Holiday Schedule

The end of the year is the perfect time to shut down, reflect and recharge for the upcoming year. We’ll be closed several days over the next two weeks to allow us to do just that.

Monday 12/23 - normal hours

Tuesday 12/24 - closing at 10am (9am session added to regular schedule)

Wednesday 12/25- Sunday 12/29 - CLOSED

Monday 12/30 - open 6am-1pm

Tuesday 12/31 - Open 7:30-10am

Wednesday. 1/1/2020 - CLOSED

Normal hours resume Thursday 1/2/20

Happy Holidays!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

I Can't Breathe!

A final conditioning piece on someone’s program yesterday was a 2000 meter row, using nose breathing only. This really ups the skill and awareness required. 

Having to nasal breathe only really slows down your pace. You can’t get away with being in a poor position, you feel it immediately - it gets more difficult to breathe.  The idea is that the easier it is to get a good, deep breath in, the better position you're in to produce force and be safe.

The nose tells us if we get a good breath because its use requires solid breathing mechanics. You have to use the right muscles and expand in the right spots. It’s difficult, without question. Mostly because we don’t do it very often and slumping in poor posture over time makes it a more difficult skill. 

Slowing down and nasal breathing also positively affects your aerobic system. It’s a build in pace car to make sure your moving at a sustainable rate and that you can maintain proper form. The more time you can spend doing that, the bigger the engine you’ll have. 

It’s quite difficult and can be frustrating. Sometimes gifting you a feeling like you can’t breathe at all. Learning to slow down while exercising and breath through your nose is a worthwhile project. 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Breakfast Salad

I’ve been on a mission to eat more vegetables. It was clearly an area that had been lacking and I needed up my game and tame my appetite for cookies*. For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been doing just that. 

I’ve been trying to hit 800 grams of fruits and veggies everyday. As someone who doesn’t like a lot of rules and restrictions, this one appealed to me for its simplicity. Did you get it or not? What I’ve found is that without any planning, it becomes impossible to hit the number. 

On days that I’m not able to prepare a lot of food, breakfast salad has become my savior. Eating a big serving of veggies in the morning does a couple things. It sets me up for success the rest of the day. It eliminates guilt in any other food choices I make throughout the day and it gives me a huge head start towards hitting the mark. 

I’m starting to settle into a good routine where more vegetables is less effort. If you’re curious about the challenge, you can learn about it here. 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

*My cookie appetite isn’t tame, its cookie season…but at least I’m eating more fruits and veggies!

Training to be 100

Recently, on the Tim Ferriss Podcast, guest Dr. Peter Attia shared his idea of training for the Centenarian Olympics. This is Dr. Attia’s way of stay motivated to train and make sure he’s working on the proper movements to keep him healthy and able-bodied well into his late 90s, with the goal of hitting 100 years old and still owning all these skills and abilities. 

Attia, who is an MD specializing in longevity, took a look at what he would want to be able to do for the rest of his life to stay independent. Things like the ability to carry 10 pounds of groceries up and down stairs, have a perfect deadlift form (which is works with a coach for) so he can pick stuff up from the floor and will be able to pick up grandkids, and he wants to be able to squat a 30 pound kettlebell late into his life for the same reason, to pick up and play with young grandkids. 

The most basic skill he talked about was getting up from the floor. Specifically, he said getting up using one point of contact, like placing a knee or hand on the floor. Seems simple, but how many people do you know that haven’t reach 100 that can’t do that? 

The Centenarian Olympics are a fantastic idea. If you’re ever losing motivation, or don’t have anything ultra specific to train for, be sure that you’re doing something that will allow you to stay confident and independent as you age. 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Consistency

First, thank you all for coming out to the Gain party this past weekend. Getting everyone in the gym all at once made me realize how much this community has grown and how thankful I am that so many of you call Gain your gym home. 

Decorating for the party had me remembering the old days, back when we had 4 kettlebells, no treadmill and two medicine balls. Many of you shared stories with me from the early days too. Days of sore shoulders, achy backs and missing confidence in your life. 

Out of all the people who have “come out on the other side,” there was consistency. Sure, they missed some workouts here and there, but over years, they were consistent about making time to take care of their body. You have to put the work in to reap the benefits. Start thinking about how much you’er going to work out, not just in January, but in all of 2020 and beyond.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Final Reminder: Gain Holiday Party - TOMORROW

Tomorrow’s the day. I hope you can join me, your other coaches and all your gym friends for some tacos, beer and holiday cheer. We’ll be kicking off at 5pm. Stop by anytime!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

New Kind of Sore

For the past few years, I’ve relied a lot on the same exercises in the the gym. I cycled through whether they were light or heavy, and did many different variations. One thing I have neglected is bodyweight movements. Back in September, during the Gain Habit Challenge, I looked face-to-face with my nemesis, push ups. The dedicated month of 30 a day forced me to get better. It was successful is making me hate them less since I saw so much improvement.

Since setting up the garage gym, I’ve been working on some new skills and exercises like ring dips, and muscle ups and doing more pull ups than normal. My shoulders are experiencing a whole new kind of sore. I’m being exposed to areas I haven’t used enough.

It’s the same thing when you get a new program and it’s a big shake up. Most of the time we like to build on what you’ve been doing. Small changes here and there. Then, just like I’m doing, there are times for a big shake up where we tinker and add lots of new stuff, change the format and the stress on your body.

So now I’m trying to dedicate a little more time with a band stretching into the tough to get spots and rolling my triceps on a roller or ball. I know with consistency and a little extra maintenance, I’m going to get stronger and improve, even if it’s frustrating now.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Aging Muscles and Inflammation

We have a problem. It’s that muscle has become demonized and many people are scared of it. The uninformed think all lifting weights is bodybuilding and that you’ll start to look like Ronnie Coleman if you touch too heavy of a dumbbell. The problem with this logic is that it forgets one of the most fundamental reasons to train in the first place - to keep muscle around as you age.

As we age, our muscles start to shrink. Weak muscles can lead to falls and breaks and loss of independence. Many think that increased inflammatory factors throughout the body contributes to the decline.

Dr. Todd Trappe and his colleagues have been studying physiology of older athletes, specifically noticing that the more physically fit someone was, the less inflammation. They became curious to how they respond to weight training stress and inflammation.

The researchers gathered 21 fit men who have been running or cycling since the 70s, 10 cyclists and runners in their 20s and 10 healthy but sedentary elderly men.

After putting the participants through some strength training they checked everyone for inflammation markers. The young athletes showed the least amount. The trained elderly men saw slightly higher makers with the untrained group showing the highest.

When we train it’s stressful for the body. Everyone has an inflammatory response post workout to kickstart the repair process. It appears from this small study that the more physically fit you are, the quicker you can clear that inflammation post workout.

You can find the original article here.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

What's a Bad Exercise?

Recently I got asked if deadlifts were a bad exercise for someone with osteoporosis. The question was sparked by someone’s doctor who told them loading is always bad for someone with osteoporosis. The answer I gave was, well, it depends. Everyone is different and can handle different things. What I’m not a fan of is blanket statements proclaiming an exercise to be bad, or good for that matter.

It’s a challenging pursuit to become healthier and stronger and more fit. Saying this is the best exercise for everyone or no one should do this exercise makes these decisions more difficult for the individual. That’s where having a coach or trainer comes in.

Individualized workouts allow you to do the best exercise for you based on movement assessment, health history, goals and training experience. It avoids this is bad and this is good, it lets us figure it out for each person.

So what is a bad exercise? Something that won’t be effective in getting the job done or puts you at too great a risk of injury.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Gain Holiday Party

This week! Can you believe how fast December is flying by? I

Clear your schedule for Saturday night. We’ll have beer, wine and a taco bar from Las Olas. Come hang out with your gym friends and coaches for a good time.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Technical vs Adaptive

Earlier this year, I wrote a few blog posts about the difference between technical problems and adaptive problems. I first learned of these terms at a business seminar. Many business owners try to solve adaptive problems with technical solutions. That means they need to overcome something in order to change, i.e., adapt but instead of adapting, they learn or take on more information, which is a technical solution.

Technical problems have known answers. How to fly a plane, rules of a diet and how to squat are all technical problems. Adaptive problems don’t have known answers, you’re in new territory. Examples include how to treat a rare cancer patient, how to stick to a diet for the long term and how to keep coming to the gym after the honeymoon phase is over.

Many of us try to solve adaptive problems with technical solutions. An example, you want to start eating healthier so you watch the latest Netflix documentary about health and you decide going vegan is the right choice for you to become healthy. You follow all the vegan Instagram accounts, buy the books and slap a bumper sticker on your car. Two weeks later, you’re off your whole food vegan diet and you’re not sure why, you had all the information you needed after all.

This is a classic example of an adaptive problem, how to make a significant lifestyle change to eat healthier and stick with it, trying to be solved with a technical solution. We think that having more information will solve the problem, but more times than not, it isn’t the case. In order to change, we need to learn how to adapt, create new habits, bust down walls of what we thought was possible and preserve when it gets tough.

As we head into 2020 and you start thinking about goals, be careful of trying to solve adaptive problems with technical solutions.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Vitamin D

Winter is fully here and you may be thinking about adding a vitamin D supplement since we’re not going to have a lot of sun exposure for the next few months. Proper vitamin D levels can lower your risk of a host of diseases and keep your body functioning optimally.

If I’ve piqued your interest, you can check out this article breaking down what vitamin D does and how you can optimize your levels this winter:

How to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels for Maximum Athletic Performance and Longevity

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Shoveling and Exercise, a Comparison

Last night I finished cleaning up the snow around the house. Front door steps, a couple walkways and the back deck. As I was shoveling the back deck, a thought came into my head that shoveling is just like working out in the gym. Everyone has written a “Proper Shoveling Technique Guide,” or “How to Warm Up Prior to Shoveling.” What I mean is different.

As I was moving snow from one side of the deck to the other, I thought, this is just like a workout in the gym. I’m moving weight, for no real reason other than to move it. The thought of completion is motivating and inspires me to keep going at the pace I’m holding. I’m working up a sweat under my layers and it feels good. Technique is important, just like the gym. We want to shovel efficiently to keep our energy, but also to stay safe.

If you go too fast, your shoveling will be sloppy and you won’t have a nice finished product afterwards. Too slow, you’ll never finish in a reasonable time. There’s a sweet spot for pacing, just like at the gym. Zip through everything too fast, it wasn’t difficult enough or you probably made some errors. Move too slow and you don’t accomplish much.

So the next time you have to shovel, shift your perspective. Treat it like a session at the gym. Move stuff around, get sweaty, watch your mechanics and feel accomplished.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Small Sets

For the past month I’ve been obsessed with ring dips. They’re a difficult move that require tremendous shoulder stability, mobility and strength. In fact, I started doing some just to get a nice shoulder stretch when I was feeling stiff one day.

I was drawn to them partly because there’s a lot of variations I can play with. I could do them frequently and limit the amount of stress. Long pauses, slow tempos, band assisted, eccentric only... There are a lot of possibilities. Last night, for the first time, 3 reps felt easy.

Over the past month, I’ve only done more than 3 reps once. Small, frequent does of high-quality-only reps were exactly what I needed to improve. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably how you built up the capacity to do push ups, because I used the same method.

High reps are often poorly executed with the primary focus on completing the set, not moving with sound mechanics. If you’ve got push ups on pull ups on your mind and they feel really far off, remember, quality is of the up most importance if you want to improve without injury. It’s practice. Keeping practicing and you’ll improve, it might take awhile, but once you get there, the improvements will be there to stay.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

December Slump

December is a hard month for fitness. It’s inevitable that you have several parties to go to, shopping, cooking and traveling. It becomes easier to put things off to the new year, to get a fresh start in 2020. This fresh start is romanticized to make us all believe holding off making impactful changes for a month will be what we really need. To be a Monday morning downer, I’m reminding you that putting things off doesn’t help. If you’ve got some changes you’re ready to make, start thinking about them now, now waiting a few weeks.

The further off the rails you get during December, the more difficult it becomes to bring it back on January 1. We talk to a lot of people about goals and habits and waiting til a fresh start date is never the make or break of the goal.

So what can you do?

Prioritize gym time. Sure, you’re busy and I understand. What you can do though is block out at least one session per week that you will not miss no matter what. Work the rest of your schedule around that one gym time and guard it. Getting in that one time will build momentum to hit the gym and second and maybe third time.

Ease into some big changes and use December as a buffer month. Want to start eating better? Start cleaning it up now for a easier transition. Sure, have a couple drinks and don’t shy away from the cookies, but get some vegetables everyday and don’t forget to drink some water every now and then.

Focus on one thing. The freshness of the New Year is appealing. It’s why people pile goals on top of goals. Choose one thing you can really focus on, bonus points if it positively effects other goals/habits too. Make it clear, set some time aside to really nail down what you want to accomplish.

SNOW DAY HOURS:

Open from 8am-1pm

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Thankful

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for. I have a great family and friends, I just got married and bought a house and Gain is about to hit it’s 5 year anniversary. It’s been a year to remember. Today though, I want to thank you.

Thanks for reading this blog and chatting with me about it. Thanks for coming to the gym and being a part of the community we’re building. Thanks for trusting me and the coaches. Thank you for taking time out of your day to spend it with us.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving hours:

Wednesday: Closing at 6pm

Thursday: Closed

Friday: Opening at 7am

Saturday: Regular hours

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Travel Unwinding

We’re going to keep the holiday travel theme going today. If you’re going to find yourself in a car or on a plane within the next few days, pay attention.

Long hours of travel is tough on your body. Awkward sitting positions, poor food choices and travel delays add up to be a stressful situation. On Sunday, we spent 8 hours in the car. We drank too much coffee and not enough water. Once we got home I felt tired and stiff, although I knew I needed movement more than another nap.

I hit the gym and moved around for 15 minutes. I practiced some olympic lifts with just the barbell, I hung from the pull up bar, did some squats and push ups and dips. I felt myself coming back to life after I started moving around.

You might not have access to a full sized gym where you’re traveling to and that’s okay. You can reap all the benefits without needing to pack anything extra in your suitcase. Once you reach your destination, or bonus points if you do it while you’re traveling, do some bodyweight squats!

Squats are a nice way to move your hips through a large range of motion, they’ll get you heart rate up a bit and it will unwind your cranky travel hips. Pair it with some downward dogs and shoulder CARs and you’ll be feeling yourself in no time

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach