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.
How to Get Better at Push Ups
Push ups can be frustrating. On one hand, they’re a simple exercise, no equipment required and something most people are familiar with. Many people think they should be able to do them based on that alone. But that’s not the case, they require a lot of strength and technique, and practice.
Eventually, poor technique will halt your progress. Whether your shoulders starts to feel achy or you’ve plateaued and can’t tack on any more reps, it’s likely that both strength and technique are your issue.
Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re doing everything to build the strength and technique required for big set of perfect push ups.
They should be hard but not too hard.
Reaching failure is a sure fire way to halt progress. We want you to use variation that is challenging to get the reps done, but not impossible, leading to frequent misses. When you train your body to fail, it doesn’t adapt as well. Whatever the goal reps are, always try to leave one or two more reps ‘in the tank.’
Frequency
If push ups are really on your mind, talk to your coach and add in an additional day to get the reps in. One day should be hard, grinder reps and the other day should be an easy volume building day. Maybe on Monday you do eccentric only reps, building up some time under tension and on Friday you do hands elevated push ups to get some smooth reps in and groove your technique.
Place a premium on accessory movements.
A push up is just a plank where you bend your arms. Really lock in your plank technique, grip the ground, engage your glutes, use your upper back, breathe purposefully and realize that the more robust you are here, the better transfer over to push ups.
Mobilize those wrists.
If your wrists are really stiff, it can place more pressure on your shoulder while doing push ups. Stretching them out prior to your set can make a significant difference. Sometimes this is all it takes to unlock better technique.
Even if you were to never get a push up on the floor, chasing one is a worthwhile training pursuit to build total body strength, awareness and control.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Walking Challenge Check In: The First Weekend
You did it. The first weekend. We always tend to start things with a new month, a new year, or seemingly always on a Monday. It sometimes feels like procrastination when you could just start now. The Friday start to this challenge was deliberate, I wanted to throw you all into the first weekend right away. Bonus points that we had some nasty weather to deal with.
For some of you, maybe the weekend was easier to get it in, and this week will take a littler more planning. Either way, your weekdays are probably different than your weekends, so be sure to consider that and plan out when you’ll get your daily in walks this week.
If you messed up, and forgot to start, or only got one walk in this weekend, don’t quit! The challenge isn’t over just because you messed up. Get back to it today and build some momentum!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 17
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday thoughts, where I share half formed blog ideas, and posts I saw on Instagram throughout the week. Enjoy!
Daily Walking Challenge kicks off today! You can still sign up through the rest of the day. We have 38 sign ups, let break 40! CLICK TO SIGN UP
GAIN Bowling Night - Wednesday January 17th @ 5pm. Bowl-O-Rama, Portsmouth. Toddler parents, Hannah and I are brining the boys.
Read the caption of this post. Often, the real benefits of training can go unnoticed. Having more energy, not getting out of breath so easily, feeling less stiff in the morning, carrying groceries with ease (I know, I know, strength coach talking about carrying groceries is so cliche, but it’s SO TRUE!). People will sometimes draw the conclusion that they aren’t making progress, or seeing any changes, but they’re usually looking at times or weights. How you deal with stress, and your energy levels aren’t as quantifiable as weight on the bar or on the scale, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as important.
I don’t know who this guy is but I agree with everything he said about training shoes. And I lived through all the trends he talked about, and am in fact one of those people who will tell you five finger shoes changed my life but there’s no way I would be caught wearing them today.
This is me lately, “I should do some conditioning today”…Lifts weights instead.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
2011. five finger shoes and a 44kg get up
Maximum Stimulation Required
Right before starting a workout the other day, a friend teased me, and asked if we were going to put music on. I’ve written before about how I love running with no music, and I’ll sometimes train in the gym with nothing on the speakers. Everyone thinks I hate music, or don’t realize that listen to music while lifting has performance enhancing benefits.
In 2012 I was working at a gym and commuting an hour to school to finish up my final college credits. I headed to school early in the morning, hustled back to the gym to coach for a few hours and then would try to workout.
Back then I would take a scoop of pre-workout powder before every workout. Even after taking some caffeine, these training sessions would often go poorly. After a while, I realized, why do I need to get so amped up just to workout? What’s the point of this? Why can’t I just lift without (more) caffeine and loud music that I’m constantly tinkering with?
The same thing happened when I started running. AirPods weren’t around yet. I had wired ear buds, shorts with a specific pocket and a zipper, and the wire was always getting tangled up on me. I spent the whole time wanting to change the song or skip all of them all together. The whole run would be preoccupied with skipping songs, trying to find the perfect one.
I created barriers to entry. I needed maximum stimulation. I needed loud music and a heroic dose of caffeine to get some bench press sets in. Instead of just being able to start. Over the years, training in a hyped up environment yielded results for me, and that became the norm. Prolonged exposure to the same stimulus dulled the effect though, and before I knew it, I needed two scoops of Jack3d 3D, or needed to create the most perfect playlist
I still have caffeine before I train. But I’ve stayed away for the pre workout powder since this realization, and stopped listening to music while running long ago. My point about being able to train without those things that I want to train a lot. I want to train for a long time. I want to train to be the best version of my self, and relying on specific, cranked up music and caffeine just to get moving was becoming a crutch, no longer a training aid. I wanted to get to a place where the environment didn’t matter, I wanted to be in control.
You’re not always going to be able to pick the music, or have a normal pre workout routine. Sometimes you just need to be able to get the workout done and get on with your day, and that’s tough to do when maximum stimulation is required.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Walking Challenge, Final Details
Our first ever Daily Walking Challenge kicks off on Friday January 12. If you haven’t already, you can sign up HERE. The link is good for members and non members, so feel free to send it along to your friends and family to get them moving more too.
Here are the rule for participation:
Take a 20 minute walk every day for 30 days.
Must be a 20 minute continuous walk. No 4x5 minute walks. We’re trying to build a habit and be consistent, not game the system.
I’m all for more incidental walking, parking farther away, taking the stairs, stuff like that. That’s not what this challenge is about though.
Keep track of your walks, somehow. Use an app, a piece of paper, carve a mark into a rock, tattoo it on your arm, whatever works best for you. You need to track your habit to help you stick with it, but also to prove you went 30/30.
If you want to see everything quantified at the end of the 30 days, like how many total miles you accumulated, etc. use an app like Strava to track your walks.
Anyone who gets 30/30 days gets entered to a raffle to win a pair of training shoes. You can choose any shoe you’d like (as long as they’re approved by me).
If you still haven’t signed up, get involved here!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Lift Heavy for Better Posture
When you use barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells in the gym, you’re using these implements to add external load. They make things more challenging on your body so you adapt and get stronger. The name of the game is maintaining a good position, or posture, despite these external loads attempting to pull you out of position.
Therefore, a fundamental part of lifting weights, especially heavy ones, is maintaining good posture.
To improve your form, you’ve got to be aware of it. You’ll need to check and recheck and constantly adjust based on internal or external feedback. If you want your posture to improve outside the gym, while driving or on the computer, there’s no shortcut. You must be aware of what position your body is in and constantly edit it.
If this seems like a daunting task, consider this. The stronger you are, the less likely your position will degrade in stressful situations. Your posture will become more robust through training. The goal is that our focus in the gym will improve our posture outside subconsciously. After enough practice you’ll reach a new default.
Regardless of how experienced you are, postural awareness always takes a concentrated effort, but lifting heavy things is one of the best ways to get there.
Justin MIner
@justinminergain
More or Less
The New Year brings a lot of excitement into the gym. It also can bring a lot of pressure to do something, because you’re supposed to. I get caught up thinking that way too.
The fresh start is so enticing, I’ll have thoughts like… I better start a new back squat cycle since I missed a few sessions around the holidays… And I should run more so that doesn’t continue to wither away… And since I’ll be running and lifting my diet should be dialed in… I’ll start counting my macros… And there’s the GAIN Walking Challenge… And so on.
The freshness and excitement can overwhelm you with ideas and prevent you from making any positive changes though. Today, I want you to consider this, what do you need to de-prioritize?
What’s no longer helping you, or maybe getting in the way of a new habit?
Adding too much in at once is straight path to burn out. Ask yourself this, can you cut something out instead of adding something in?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 16
Walking challenge starts in 1 week. Sign up HERE.
Mark your calendar for bowling night - Wed Jan 17 @ 5:30pm, Bowl-O-Rama
Here are some yearly stats I pulled from my Garmin watch.
I took 3,380,809 steps in 2023, 1,100 steps less per day on average from 2022.
I ran 271 miles, 51,000 feet of vertical gain. This was actually more than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t focus much on running at all this year. I want to do enough to keep my skills sharp, but I’ve enjoyed chasing other training goals.
I averaged 7 hours and 18 minutes of sleep.
Keep going strong this weekend if you have a new habit you’re working on!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Walking Challenge; Win New Shoes
Walking consistently is one of the most impactful and accessible ways to improve your health. Walking is good for your heart, joints, muscles, and even your stress levels. That’s why, to help you keep moving in the New Year, we’re hosting a 30-day walking challenge.
The goal is to get in a 20 minute walk, each and every day for 30 days.
I decided against a step count, and instead want you to focus on the duration. Remember that 10,000 steps was just made up by a pedometer company in 1965 for marketing. In Built to Move, Kelly and Juliette Starrett cite that most of the data says you get all the positive benefits of walking around seven to eight thousand steps.
Then there’s dealing with the fact that everyone has a different baseline. If you’re currently only getting 2000 steps a day, jumping straight to 8000 for the challenge would be unreasonable. Twenty minutes is twenty minutes for everyone.
Lastly, I’ve witnessed people pace around their house at the end of the day to get a few hundred more steps in for some challenge. While I appreciate the commitment, and would never be against additional movement, I would rather create a challenge that will have a long-lasting positive effect on you, and having to get up and get moving for 20 minutes won’t allow this sort of thing to happen.
Here’s all the details:
When: Friday January 12- Saturday February 10.
How: Sign Up Here on PushPress (under events tap in the app).
What: a 20 minute of walk each and every day for 30 days.
Why: To build a habit, camaraderie, move more frequently, feel better, non-exercise physical activity, get outside, have more energy.
Anyone who gets 30/30 days (tracking on your own, honor system), will be entered into a raffle to win a new pair of training shoes. If a lot of people sign up, I may pick two winners. This challenge is open to anyone, your family and friends can sign up using the link as well!
Let’s get to walking!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
First GAIN Community Night of 2024
Mark your calendars! We’re starting off 2024 with a GAIN Community Event.
What: GAIN Bowling Bight at Bowl-O-Rama in Portsmouth
When: Wednesday Jan 17 at 5:30pm
Who: You!
How: Lanes and shoes will be covered, just show up and have a good time. Food and drinks are available for purchase.
Please note, there will be no 5:30pm and 7pm classes on 1/17. More details to come!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
New Year, Same Routine?
Are you confused at what day it is, and craving your schedule and your routine back, or is that just me?
The end of the year is the perfect time to check out, recharge and get invigorated.
If you’re like me, you like having a schedule and a routine though. While it was nice not having one for a couple weeks, and getting to spend a ton of time at home with the kids, I’m ready for my routine.
With the New Year, many of us have the urge to dive in the deep end and start a bunch of new habits and goals, only, as the common story goes, to fizzle out before the month’s end, never mind the year’s end.
This week, instead of creating new routines and habits, I’m falling back on my usual ones. These are really simple, basic habits that I need to check in and make sure I’m accomplishing without issue before even thinking about adding more to my plate.
For me, these things are; in bed before 9pm every night, water before coffee in the morning, no caffeine after 2pm, protein at every meal and my nightly wind down mobility routine.
Once I feel back at baseline, I’ll considering adding some new habits and routines in, but this week, I’m focused on making sure I’m continuing the old ones.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 15
This will be the last blog of the year. Number 246. I’m pleased to report I didn’t miss a post this year. That’s every single week day of the year minus days the we were closed (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and Thanksgiving). Consistency!
I turned 35 yesterday. When I turned 30, I remember thinking I could squash my 25 year old self. I thought the same about my 30 year old self yesterday.
Need some free, no equipment workouts for the holiday week? Taylor published this ebook earlier this year; 10 Workouts Under 10 Minutes. Give it a shot!
Here’s an excuse to get a nap (or two) in over the next 10 days:
Maybe my new 2024 goal?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Holiday Hours Reminder
Closed Monday 12/25 and Tuesday 12/26. Open Wed-Fri, no PM sessions Friday 12/29.
Closed 1/1.
Open 1/2.
The waitlist on all classes for Friday is very long. If you need to cancel, do so with as much time as possible to help the next person get in. Thank you!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Maintenance Mode
You’ve probably seen the college kids back around the gym. Some of them are athletes, and they have a short break because they need to get back to their sport. A conversation with one of them reminded me of what it was like to be a college athlete, and an important lesson for all of us to remember for the real world.
I loved lifting when I was an athlete. In the summers, I would up my frequency and intensity in the gym and make a ton of progress. Months later, the hockey season started and my lifting shifted to 2 times per week at a much different intensity. It was frustrating, the weights from the summer would feel unreachable mid season. I was also on the ice 6 days a week, losing weight (from all the skating) and definitely not getting enough sleep.
Luckily I had good strength coaches who would explain that we were on maintenance mode, and that our goal wasn’t necessarily to get stronger during the season, but to just not get too much weaker so we can continue to build when the off season comes around. We still needed to lift, but there didn’t have to be a focus on improving, rather getting quality reps. At the end of the season our best weights from the previous summer were within reach, I would have plenty of time to build back up, and surpass them.
As I was explaining to the college athlete that it’s okay his front squat numbers are declining in the middle of swim season, I couldn’t help but think, if more people realized this in the real world, they would do a better job of creating a long term training habit. If his front squat drops by 30 or 40 pounds during the season, but he can gain it all back within 4 weeks of dedicated training, then it doesn’t really matter - he’s maintaining his strength, or is at least close enough to allow him to shift gears, and focus on sport, rather than the gym.
Sometimes you have a lot going on, and there isn’t a lot of time to focus on making huge improvements in the gym. If you’re not training as hard, you need to do the minimum to stay healthy, not get injured and keep up your strength and conditioning.
The key is to realize, for both scenarios, is that you have to keep training. You’re not able to just turn it off. Something far outweighs nothing. As you start thinking about your training for 2024, ask yourself, are you trying to build or maintain? Both are worthy goals.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Why I Write the Blog
I wrote the blog on and off as soon as GAIN was open. Weekly posts turned into monthly posts, and I would go long stretches without writing anything. I always wanted a blog, and I came up in the fitness industry where social media was just starting, and all the coaches I looked up wrote blogs.
After struggling to get into a routine for a few years I got the push to go daily when I attended a seminar and the host had just written a book. Someone asked him how he learned to write so well, and he stated something like 2500 shitty blog posts Monday-Friday for the past 10 years. That really hit me. I couldn’t expect the blog to be good or popular or me to be an excellent writer straight out of the gate. James Clear says something similar in Atomic Habits, your first blog post will be trash but you’ll probably be a lot better if you make it to 1000.
I committed to writing every day. My rule was consistency, each blog didn’t have to be a masterpiece - it didn’t need to be perfect, or lengthy or full of pictures, videos and citations. I needed to get reps in, to practice putting it out there, because putting your writing on the internet is scary. It’s why it’s so hard to be consistent with.
I write the blog for a lot of reasons. I want to share my thoughts about exercise, performance, habits, the human body and my experiences training as a dad who likes to run ultra marathons and lift as much weight as possible, while staying fresh and injury free. I also want to be a better communicator, think critically about my work and have a practice.
It’s not easy, buy it has gotten easier. It’s just part of my day. The practice is paying off too, I wouldn’t dare say I’m a good writer, but I’m getting better, and more and more people are reading the blog as the years pass, too. Which, by the way, my only metric for is how many people bring it up to me in person. If you made it this far, thanks for reading, here’s to a couple hundred more blog posts in 2024!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Just Okay
I had a mediocre week of training last week. I skipped more than half of my planned sessions, something that doesn’t happen often. It does happen though, and how you respond to less-than-optimal weeks in the gym really plays into your long term success.
I thought about cramming everything I missed into a couple of days. I thought about having one really hard, epic training session, using intensity to make up for the lack of volume.
Instead, I decided to write it off as a loss.
I wasn’t going to be able to make up the lack of time, no matter how I schemed to make it work.
Instead I focused on the positives, and when you’re in this situation, you can do this too. I realized that rest and recovery are important parts of training. I realize that because of this extra time away from training, I’ll feel fresh, more engaged this week and maybe even a little snappier with the barbell.
The next couple weeks will be busy for most everyone. Cut yourself some slack if your workout week looks less than optimal or your frequency is down from normal.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 14
Happy Friday, here’s this week’s edition on Friday Thoughts.
Holiday Hours reminder: Closed 12/265, 12/26, no PM classes 12/29, Closed 1/1.
Technical vs adaptive challenges. If you’re reflecting on the year, and coming up with goals for next year, make sure you’re not trying to solve an adaptive problem with a technical solution. Technical problems have known solutions that can be solved by an expert, or with more information. Like resetting your wifi or even flying a plane. Adaptive challenges, on the other hand, are much trickier. They require a change in mindset, values or identity and are multifaceted. Read more about it here.
Allowing myself to have a screen in bed got my bed time consistent. Screens in bed! I know. But for the past 8 weeks I’ve been in bed before 9pm. Every single night. I wanted to up my sleep game, and had a tendency to fall asleep on the couch. I haven’t had my phone in my bedroom in over 10 years, so it was a “rule,” that I was firm on. I decided to forego my rule and try reading on an iPad. Half of me is screaming, the screen will kill your sleep and it’s bad for your eyes! But the results are speaking for themselves. I’m in bed sooner and sleeping more every night with that one simple change. That’s an example of an adaptive challenge. I didn’t need to read another sleep book telling me more information about sleep and how it’s important. I needed to change my habits and my beliefs.
Recursive Training. I heard this term on a podcast this week. The idea is that you train to get more and more and more push ups. Eventually, that leads to burnout because you cannot progress linearly forever, otherwise we would all have 1000 pound deadlifts and 30 pull ups by now. Proper programming accounts proper stimulus so you could still be challenged and progress your push ups by using things like tempo, load, speed, range of motion and cardiorespiratory demand. But the question is should you? Is there a point where enough is and enough, and you only need to maintain the amount of push ups you have, rather than continually striving for more? I think there is, just like there’s a point where you’re strong enough too. As you become more advanced in training, your program shifts more to maintenance mode. Just like an in season athlete the primary goal is to keep what you have, or just don’t get worse.
Check out this throwback post from 8 years ago. They’ve dialed back the frequency but the fact that they’re still training at GAIN means they’re consistent. Elisabeth will be our first 9 year member next month!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Ultra Sitting
I’m spending my afternoons this week engaged in an online course about coaching, teaching and practicing weightlifting. The class was going to cut into my workout time, and I knew just sitting on a computer for that long was going to make me feel stiff and achy. I decided I would try to take the entire course sitting on the floor.
This lets me sneak in mobility work. By fidgeting, and moving in to and out of positions constantly I’m exposing my body’s tissues and joints in a really passive way supported by the floor. When I get uncomfortable, I move positions. I can sit in 90/90, on my shins, criss-cross apple sauce, straddle position, legs straight out in front, half kneeling, and so on.
As I like to remind people, I like dabbling in the extremes. Running ultra marathons and lifting as much weight as possible isn’t for everyone, and I don’t think it should be either. However, the way I think about me doing these things, and I suppose you may put sitting on the floor for 3 hours straight in that slightly extreme category, is that I can distill best practices out of these experiences to help the everyday person get more fit.
The lesson here is to get down and spend some time on the floor. Just 5-10 minutes every day can make a huge difference in how your body feels. It’s an excellent, sneaky way to get some restorative, recovery focused movement in without adding anything else into your day. Next time you’re watching TV, messing around on your phone, playing with kids or grandkids, get down there and spend some time getting comfortable.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Holiday Schedule
Closed Monday December 25 and Tuesday December 26.
Normal hours Wednesday-Friday (no pm classes Friday).
Closed Monday January 1.
Happy Holidays!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
GAIN for Gather
In 2018 during the holiday season, we started collecting items for our West Road neighbors, Gather. We’re continuing the collection this year, and as in year’s past, we’ll be focusing on personal hygiene items. Something they are often in need of, but these items are not as commonly donated.
There’s a basket near the garage door, and we’ll be collecting items for the rest of the month.
Check out the list of items below for inspiration. Thank you!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
