Hydration and Electrolytes

This summer I’ve been on mission to properly hydrate.

Two things have me feeling good and feeling hydrated to the max.

First is having a big glass of water while I make my coffee in the morning.

Second, I make sure to put a dash of salt in my water if I’m drinking without food.

Salt gets no love and I feel bad for it. 

Highly processed foods contain a lot of sodium, which is where our societal apprehension of salt comes from. However, if you’re eating fruits and veggies and quality protein and are cooking most of your food, you better be adding salt.

It’s an important electrolyte that helps us absorb water so we can stay hydrated instead of pee it right out. Many of you have expressed that frustration to me over the years. A simple fix is to get better at absorbing it, and that’s what a bit of salt can help you do.

Robb Wolf is a researcher, author and all around smart guy whom I look to for nutrition advice. Check out his video of why you may want to start adding some salt to your water. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Is This Normal?

Is deadlifting heavy weight, squatting high reps and being super picky about push up technique normal? No, it certainty isn’t. Is rolling around on a lacrosse ball, foam roller or doing dedicated hip mobility work normal? Definitely not. 

See, this whole fitness thing isn’t normal. Living with some sort of pain has become normal. Not being able to effortlessly walk down stairs is normal. Having to take the day off from work after a weekend hike is normal. Needing help carrying groceries inside is normal. Icing your lower back after a morning in the garden is normal. 

Fueling your body with fake foods is normal. You only get one chance with this body, why would you put crap in it? Because that’s normal.

Don’t be normal. 

Pursue strength as a skill. Spend time doing maintenance on your body. Move more and treat yourself like the fascinating piece of machinery that you are.

Don’t be that person that says “what till you’re –insert age here-.” 

Guess what? You don’t have to be like that you’re that age.

Passionately fight against the norm now and take care of yourself. Make it a priority, a sustainable practice you can do forever.

Put the work in now, even if it seems strange to your peers. They are normal, anyway. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Stepping Over 100 Dollar Bills for Nickels

I heard that saying for the first time this morning on a podcast.

The nutrition coach who said it was referencing people who wake up really early in the morning to do an extra workout instead of getting more sleep.

His argument was that getting more and better sleep was more impactful than getting in an extra session.

It got me thinking. Where else do we step over 100 dollar bills to pick up nickels?

Protein shakes instead of whole food.

Forcing intense workouts when we’re beat up just because we feel guilty.

Working out five times per week when you’re not actually ready for that time commitment and burning out after two weeks.

Taking multiple supplements instead of prioritizing nutritious foods.

Where else can you step over 100 dollar bills for nickels? 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

On/Off

I first heard of Dr. Andrew Huberman at the Art of Breath Seminar in Virginia Beach in November 2018.

Huberman was a participant in the day-long deep dive into all things breathing and performance, but afterwards, we were all invited back to the gym to hear his presentation. Huberman is a neurologist and researcher at Stanford. His lab focuses on neuroplasticity and more specifically, how we can use our brain to change our state, or physiological mood.

He’s been making the rounds on the major podcasts like JRE and Rich Roll. In both episodes, the simple thing that stuck out to me was making sure you have periods of intense focus and intense periods of not focusing at all.

When learning a new skill, or trying to concentrate to do deep work, you need immense focus on the task. Afterwards, the best thing you can to do help your brain adapt to the new stimulus is let is recharge but “shutting it off.” Huberman says things like good, deep sleep or even some concentrated breathing exercises can help you do this.

This hard on, hard off idea lets the brain make new connections and learn new things. We all think we learn while we’re doing the task, but the actual learning happens afterwards, when we give our brains a moment to chill.

Until recently, we thought all learning stopped around age 25 when the brain stopped developing. We now know that isn’t the case, and our brains are plastic, or malleable through adulthood if we’re willing to create the right circumstances.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Strategic Mindset

I was awful at studying in high school. I was able to skate through without as much as opening a text book or doing a single homework assignment. Looking back, I have no idea how I did it.

I had a rude awakening in college though. Without studying skills, I actually didn’t know how I learned, or how I should study to best retain information. I tried buckling down and studying, but nothing happened, since I didn’t know what I was trying to accomplish.

This is the first time I remember thinking about how I think. As the article calls it, metacognition. I realized that I needed to figure out how my brain worked so I could pass these challenging gross anatomy practical tests.

Taking the time to think about how we think, and how we come to decisions develops a strategic mindset. This mindset is an ability to use feedback to course correct and make better choices. Constantly questioning whether it’s the right way, or the most streamlined is a sure fire way to become more efficient. 

Whether you’re running a business, chasing health goals, trying to run fast or be less stressed, developing this mindset is a key to improving. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Timely

People have expressed one of their biggest concerns when starting back at the gym is finishing within the hour time limit.

In the pre-COVID days, we had no time restrictions, you could take as long as you needed. Many of you took advantage of this policy and would spread your workout over 90 minutes. The funny thing though, we’ve had to make more adjustments to make sure people take longer to complete their workout now with our new system.

We’re more organized. The programs are more efficient, there’s no waiting around at the table to ask a question and no need to wander to find an out of the way spot. You get all your equipment, your own personal space and easier access to a coach.

If you’re worried about taking too long, don’t be. And what do we do if you’re someone who blazes through the day’s workout? We have more time for cardio and mobility, of course! 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Step Ups

Step ups don’t get a lot of love in the strength training world. 

They’re not that complex and they are overshadowed by cooler things people do on boxes like jump on them. It’s too bad, step ups can teach us a lot about how we move. Specifically how to create tension and where our movement faults may come from.

Once you have your foot planted on the box, never let it cave inwards, towards your big toe. A good cue to think about here is knee towards your pinky toe. It’s almost overcorrecting it so if in falls in a bit, you’re still in a good position. This applies to lunges as well.

That knee may also want to push too far forward, lifting your heel off the box. Don’t let that happen either! Imagine your foot as a tripod, big toe, pinky toe and heel. They should all be firmly planted when doing a step up. The thing that clears these faults up for most people is allowing their torso to drop forward. A slight lean, when starting the rep, will aid in keeping your lower body organized. 

These tips will help you whether you’re doing step ups for conditioning, with some load for strength work or most importantly if you find yourself outside the gym stepping up on things. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Healthspan

As you’re well aware of by now, I’m a fan of playing the long game. Like one of our core values says, consistency and moderation over intensity.

I recently heard a term I was not familiar with on a podcast that represents this long term view, healthspan.

Your healthspan is how much of your life that you are within good health without chronic disease or aging related disabilities. It’s a long term perspective that gets you to think about the small daily choices that accumulate to have bigger impacts down the line. 

I plan to keep my healthspan going for as long as possible. I want to be confident, independent and reliable. Training, sleeping, eating well and moving more are the ticket to get there. Remember, our daily choices add up, make good ones.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Squat Mastery

The squat is an anomaly. 

On one side, the squat is a basic human function. Before toilets, chairs and couches we probably squatted a lot. As babies, we learn how to squat to stand up and take our first steps. Somewhere along the way we lose this innate ability.

Many adults have no clue how to squat. This is such an issue there’s even people out there that say squatting is bad! This is what makes it an anomaly. We all do it at some point, and most of us lose the ability throughout the course of our lives.

Whether you’re a squatting pro, or just an amateur, I have good news for you. It is such a complex, high skill move that you’ll never master it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though. It’s a moving target. You should always be trying to make it feel better, smoother and more comfortable.

Here are the top 3 things to consider when performing a squat:

1. Keep your feet on the ground. No heel lifting or toe lifting. Try to maintain even pressure through the whole foot. Let this dictate depth.

2. Stand tall. By standing up nice and tall and the end of every rep, you set the next rep up for success. Be sure to set your hips by squeezing your butt.

3. Let yourself lean forward. In a perfect world, we could all squat with our torso totally upright. The problem with this however, is that it requires more skill and range of motion. I prefer to teach people how to squat with a big lean forward. While this looks more hinge-like than a squat, this teaches you to engage your hips, organize your spine and helps you keep your feet on the ground. 

Even if you’ve been squatting for years. Pay close attention next time and see if you can improve your movement. There’s always space to get better. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Slow & Steady

Today’s blog is a reminder that this health and fitness stuff can take a long time. Not rushing to the finish line is the key to success. You’ve got to stay determined and diligent, progress takes time. 

In fact, the best progress is the progress you don’t even notice. Progress that happens year to year that you totally miss until you stop and reflect.

I had that realization after a tough run in the mountains this weekend. Completing the run wasn’t due to one training block, one long run or one track workout. It wasn’t due to a single workout in the gym, or a single movements I’ve been practicing. It was the results of the accumulated effort over years. All the runs, all the rest days, all the gym workouts, all the nutritional choices and all the hours of sleep.

It’s hard to notice day to day, but year to year can really paint a picture. Make sure you’re playing the game long enough to reap the benefits of accumulation.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Nutritional Consistency

Since quarantine started on March 17, we’ve eaten all but 4 meals at home.

We typically cook most of our food, but this has gone to the next level.

I have been feeling great, too. I feel more energized, reaching for less coffee and have come to enjoy eating the same breakfast everyday.

We can get caught up in needing variety, just to keep things fresh. More often than not though, we should be shooting for consistency, not shaking things up just because we’re bored.

It happens in the gym too. Sticking with the plan, even though it’s sometimes boring, always pays more in the long run.

Find more consistency throughout your day, it’s the secret to playing the long game.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

More Pulling

There was a time when I thought it was important to include twice as much pulling as pushing in one’s strength and conditioning program. Like many rules, it was great in concept, but not so much in practice. I’m still sure to include more reps of pulling than pushing, pretty much no matter what. Go ahead and count your reps. 

The reason pulling gets no love is because all the glory goes to the pull up. A beautiful, impressive movement. It requires tremendous full body strength and control. It’s out of reach for a lot of people. It takes so much time and dedication, time in the gym could be spent doing other, more effective things. Like horizontal pulling.

The problem with horizontal pulling, is that it’s vertical counterpart, the pull up, gets all the attention. In order to hoist one’s chin over a bar though, you first need to dedicate time, effort and energy into learning how to pull better, horizontally. 

Once you master the mechanics, you need to build strength. You should at least be able to do a flat, or shoulders under the rings, inverted row. To get there, row heavy dumbbells, use pauses and tempo and build volume over time and before you know it, you’ll have a strong, muscular upper back. Not until then should you worry about nailing that pull up. Respect the movement and get strong first.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Respect the Pull

There’s something we do in our programming that we don’t tell you about.

It’s a secret to build better posture, a stronger upper body and healthier shoulders.

It’s pulling.

Pulling, or rowing, gets neglected in gyms across the world. Not only that, but without rings, or a heavy dumbbell it’s nearly impossible. 

Getting pulling reps in teaches you to use your shoulder blades, how to keep your torso stiff and most importantly, helps us undo all that computer time we log.

Next time you have inverted rows, or one arm rows, or face pulls with a band, give them the respect they deserve. Pulling is the unsung hero of the weight room.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Constantly Varied or Consistently Varied?

Variety gets a lot of love in the training world.

People don’t want to do the same thing over and over. They want new and different. It’s why so many people program hop, gym hop and change diets, they’re chasing novelty.

I get it, too. Variety is nice, it keeps us more engaged. When we do too much variety just for the sake of it though, we’re missing opportunities to improve, to adapt to the training stimulus.

Instead of always making our programs different, just to be different, we look for small ways to consistently add variety. Chances are you’re going to goblet squat on Monday. Sometimes it’s high reps, sometimes it’s low reps, sometimes it’s heavy and sometimes it’s with a tempo or a pause. The movement is consistent. This lets us continually challenge this fundamental movement pattern. The sets, reps, load and volume however, can change week to week to provide a different focus, and different goal for each squat session.

Variety is fun, but we’re also in this for movement mastery, and if you’re always hopping from one thing to the next, you'll never build the proper strength, skill and awareness. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Maintenance or Growth

I usually have a main focus on my training. Generally, this means more running focus in the summer and more lifting in the winter. I always do both though. One is on growth mode, meaning I’m trying to improve specific capacities. While the other is about maintaining what I’ve got, not necessarily trying to make improvements. This meansI don’t care if my max deadlift improves through the summer, I only care that once fall rolls around, I’m within striking distance of where I was a year before.

We can get caught up always trying to improve everything at once. Not only is this unsustainable, it rarely ever works in our favor.

Instead of trying to lockdown your diet, run more, lift more and learn how to play the piano, classify your endeavors into growth mode or maintenance mode. Try to pick one thing to grow in. For me right now, that’s running. Specifically, running fast. My long running is in maintenance mode right now, just like my heavy lifting.

Get organized and stop trying to do too much. Prioritize something instead of going half in on many things. As Ron Swanson says in my favorite show of all time, Parks and Recreation, “don’t half ass two things, whole ass one thing.”

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

It Doesn't Get Easier

Working out, motivating yourself to go to the gym, going for a run, it never gets easier. I worry sometimes that new gym-goers think all they need to do is show up and everything falls into place. But one, two, three years down the line it’s still hard to show up, it’s still hard to do the work. Proper strength training programs will always be hard. As you progress, so should the workout. This can make you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and not making any progress, that’s just not the case though.

To avoid that trap, focus on the process. Focus on showing up and doing what’s on your plan, consistently.

Continually showing up, working hard is all you can do. There is no finish line. If you’re looking for it, stop. When people start focusing on the finish line, and lose track of the process, their health and fitness takes a back seat. It’s easy to make yourself quit after you convince yourself you get no results. 

Just know that there isn’t a date that a switch flicks and it becomes easy to train. It’s doesn’t get easier. Somedays will be easy, some will be hard, but you’re always going to have those days where you have to convince yourself to show up and do the work. I hope rather than discouraging you, this helps you realize you need to be in this for the long game. Keep your eyes on the process. 

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Heavy Training = Posture Training

When using barbells and kettlebells in the gym, we’re using the implements to add external load. They’re a way to make things more challenging. The name of the game is maintaining a good position, or posture, or form, despite these external loads attempting to pull us out of position. Therefore, lifting weights, especially heavy ones, is about maintaining posture and position. 

To improve our form in the gym, we’ve got to be aware of it. We need to check and recheck and constantly adjust based on internal or external feedback. Outside the gym, if we want our posture to improve while we’re driving or on the computer, there’s no shortcut. We must be aware of where we’re at and constantly adjust. Hopefully, over time our focus in the gym will improve our posture outside. Regardless of how experienced in the gym you are though, you’ll have a hard time adjusting your posture without a concentrated effort.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Roll the Windows Down

Another heat wave. You know what that means, it’s going to be hot in the gym.

When I was in college, I was an ice truck delivery driver. Besides being one of my favorite jobs ever, I learned about heat regulation. Going from the air conditioned truck, out to into the summer heat, into a hot, stuffy store or kitchen was brutal. After a while, I learned to keep the AC off, and just drive with the windows down.

When I would get to the delivery location, I was more prepared to deal with the heat - the temperature shift was less extreme. Sure, driving the truck wasn’t as pleasant, and I sweat more. But it made a big difference.

To best prepare yourself for a hot workout at Gain, shut that AC off. Drive here with the windows down, get a dosage of the heat before coming into the gym. If you come from an air conditioned home, to air conditioned car, to air conditioned store to air conditioned car to non air conditioned gym, you’ll be hurting. Expose yourself and it won’t be so bad.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Open and Airy

To be clear right off the back - I do not have any interest in convincing you to come to the gym if you feel it would be unsafe. However, I would be a poor business owner if I didn't want people to come in. And I would have no integrity if I told people to come in and thought it was unsafe.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to tell you that we’re dialed in with the new normal. This pandemic and shutdown allowed us to make a lot of great changes, and the results are in, the clients are loving it.

We’re better organized, workouts are more efficient, warms up are more fun and variable and every member is getting a lot more personalized attention. Sure, you can’t show up whenever you want anymore. But showing up on time is a small price to pay to get a made-for-you workout in a physically distant space with all your own (disinfected) equipment already set up for you.

We’ll be using this new system going forward with hopes of increasing the session capacity. For now, what we’re doing is working and we’re going to stick with it. Thanks for your patience with the waitlists and new rules, I can’t thank you enough because we wouldn’t be here without you.

As I said in the beginning, I’m not here to convince you, I just want to highlight that we’re taking this seriously and the results are confirming it. People feel safe and are happy to get back to their place. We’re taking on new members, so be sure to send us a message if you’re interested in learning more.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Are You Chasing Fatigue or Progress?

Motivating yourself to workout is hard. Especially if you’ve been training at home and relying on solely on yourself for accountability.

You can imagine how a “good” workout feels. Out of breath, sweaty, heart pounding, need to lay on the floor for 10 minutes afterwards. That’s what a good, effective workout feels like, right?

What if I were to tell you that’s not chasing progress, not actually improving your strength or fitness, it’s chasing fatigue.

We’ve been programmed to think that without feeling like death at the end of a session that it’s unproductive. For those of you at home, finding intensity is hard, and believing you should feel so fatigued at the end of every workout is a misconception.

You want to chase progress. Steady improvement overtime. That means if you skate through a workout without any real hiccups, it’s not a big deal. In the long run, those workouts that feel easy are beneficial. Maybe even more beneficial than those heart-pounding sweat fests that we all associate with productivity. 

Consistency is what matters. Overtime, you will improve and progress and get stronger and more fit. Chasing fatigue gets you no where besides feeling accomplished for a few minutes.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain