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.
October Habit Challenge
On October 1st, we’re kicking off another edition of our Daily Habit Challenge. The goal is to kickstart improvement in some part of your life through small, daily efforts that compound over the month. At the end of the month, you will have tested your resilience, built discipline and have a new habit that adds value to your life.
Your habit should be specific, measurable and repeatable. It’s important not to be vague. Habits like, “eat healthier,” “walk more,” and “stretch,” aren’t precise. Better options would be; eat veggies with every breakfast, walk 8000 steps every day, and do these two stretches for 5 minutes every night before bed.
Other good examples for you to pull inspiration from are, daily breath work or meditation, reps of a certain exercise like kettlebell swings, push ups or pull ups, foam rolling or soft tissue work with a mobility ball, hitting a daily protein goal or reading 10 pages from a book.
To get involved, you’ll need to sign up on the sheet near the coaches’ desk. Write your name, your habit and we will either approve it, or help you rework it to make it a better aligned with what we’re trying to accomplish.
The most ambitious doesn’t win any thing here. Instead, we want to teach the value of successful small habits over time. Make your goal seem easy, not daunting, and not only will you develop a new habit, but you’ll develop a method to add in positive habits into your life through small, daily doses. Get involved!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
My Foot Journey
originally posted 9/24/2020, this is the most read blog on the site, so I repost it each year, enjoy!
I recently listened to a wonderful podcast all about the evolution and subsequent devolution of our feet. In the episode, Dr. Peter Attia interviews Dr. Irene Davis, a researcher and expert in all things feet and running mechanics. I’m also on my third (or fourth) reading of Sapiens, which I can’t recommend enough. It’s a deep dive into the origin of humans. All of this of course, coincided with the birth of my son. This got me thinking about his development, and specifically, what kinds of footwear we’ll put him in as he’s growing up. Shoes have barely been around for most of human history when you stop and realize that we’ve been walking around on two feet for almost two million years.
The podcast recommends minimalist footwear, more time barefoot, and staying away from maximally cushioned running shoes. Today, however, I want to share with you my foot journey and how I curated my healthy, resilient feet and why I’m not always so fast to recommend a minimalist shoe for everyone.
It all started in 2010.
I was in college and I was spending the summer interning and training hard for the upcoming hockey season at a strength and conditioning gym.
One day, someone brought us in a copy of Born to Run. If you’re not familiar, McDougall’s book is a wonderful exploration of running mechanics and history of human beings using running to survive. Dr. Irene Davis makes an appearance in this book as well.
I was anti-running at the time. I was bad at it, it always hurt and I found it incredibly boring. I did however appreciate the ancestral perspective of the book. How humans needed to run in order to track down game to eat. Something Yuval Noah Harari talks about in Sapiens as well. Back then of course, there were no Nikes, no Hokas, no shoes at all. Just bare feet on earth. That made sense to me. I found it fascinating at how adaptable we were.
Throughout the book McDougall makes reference to a Vibram Five Finger shoe.
Training barefoot was not a new idea to us at the gym. For years we had been doing our deadlifts in socks and squatting exclusively in Converse Chuck Taylor’s. We didn’t do it for health reasons though. We did it for performance. We knew that if our heel was on the ground, instead of raised up by a sneaker, we would transfer force better, and therefore lift more weight.
Now, let me back up just a bit.
While we were spending time training in the gym barefoot, my feet certainly were not in good condition. I had spent most of the past 18 or so years jamming my feet into hockey skates. My little toe had disappeared under my foot, and my three other toes had wedged themselves together. Like most other hockey players, I had developed bone spurs on my heels, aptly named Bauer bumps after a brand of skates.
As I read McDougall’s case against modern footwear, I couldn’t help but feel singled out. His argument made sense to me. I needed to get myself a pair of these five finger shoes.
If you’re not familiar, the Vibram Five Finger shoes are exactly what they sound like. A glove for your feet, if you will. Comprised mostly of neoprene, each toe has its own individual sleeve, forcing them to spread out. On the bottom is only a thin slice of rubber there to protect you from hot surfaces, but if you stepped on a small jagged rock, you would really feel it.
After I found a pair, I did something unintentionally intelligent. I only wore them while coaching, probably just a few hours a day. My toes hurt and my arches were sore but I was committed to doing the natural human thing. I only wore them while coaching because they’re silly looking and smell bad.
After a while I started deadlifting in them and then before I knew it I was doing all my training in them.
Fast forward to that winter and I couldn’t stand putting them on they smelled so bad. It was just my luck that New Balance came out with the first shoe in their minimus line at the time. A new concept, this shoe was designed for strength and conditioning, had a wide toe box to let your toes spread, had no arch support, and had only a few millimeters difference between the heel and the toe of the shoe, something known as drop, which I had learned about in Born to Run.
Since these looked like normal shoes, I wore them much more often than the five fingers. To my luck, my feet were ready to spend more time in this style of shoe since I had spent the summer building my tolerance.
Over the years, my toes continued to spread out, my bone spurs have mostly disappeared and I try to exclusively wear minimalist shoes, which were barely a thing back when my journey started.
Nowadays, footwear is swinging the other way.
It’s common to see maximally cushioned, high arch, high heeled shoes, and I think we’re missing the boat. Born to Run is to blame for this too. See, after the book, thousands of other people were inspired like me and went out to get themselves some five finger shoes. Runners everywhere ditched their traditional shoes and went right back to training with a less protective, much less forgiving shoe and all of a sudden, minimalist shoes had a bad reputation because many of these people got injured.
As the shoe’s popularity was grew, Vibram did something stupid. They said their shoes will prevent injuries. They didn’t recommended starting slow, building your tolerance and not trying to do too much too soon. Remember when I said I did something unintentionally intelligent? That was starting slow, only wearing the shoes for 12-15 hours a week at first. I didn’t do any running in them and also worked on stretching, rolling and improving mobility in my feet and ankles.
This led to a somewhat-famous lawsuit, which in my opinion, is why maximalist shoes have now become so popular.
People wanted to throw these Five Finger shoes on and expected their running technique to transform into a fluid natural stride like the Tarahumara Indians in Born to Run. It’s not that simple though. Just like it took my feet years and years to start looking more like hockey skates than feet, it takes years of dedication to bring them back to a more natural state.
The reason I’m not too fast to recommend a minimalist style shoe nowadays is because I worry people will expect too much from them too soon. An ideal way to dip your toes in the water is to wear them just at the gym. They’re better to train in. Period. You’ll be more stable, have better balance and wearing them for 3-4 hours a week will slowly let you build up a tolerance to more barefoot time. If you’re a runner, it may take even longer since you’re not going to want to start over. I think running in a shoe you’re comfortable in while spending some time with shoes off when not running is a good start.
When you’re home, I recommend making sure you get some time with nothing on your feet and you’ve probably seen a lot of people walking around the gym in just their socks, another great way to strengthen your feet.
The key point is that your feet were designed to be barefoot. Humans walked around with nothing down there for far longer than Nikes have been around. We’re really good at adapting, which is why it might take you a full year or two until you start feeling more comfortable in a more barefoot style shoe. Expecting too much from your feet is what gets people into trouble and, as I mentioned above, led to the pendulum swing of ultra cushioned shoes that do the exact opposite of what we need.
Today, I still spend as much time in a minimalist shoe as possible. In the podcast, Dr. Irene Davis defines a minimalist shoe and something you can fold up and put in your pocket and has zero difference between the height of the heel and the height of the toe. I realize there’s utility in other shoes and don’t spend all my time in a zero drop shoes. My trail/mountain running shoes have a bit of a lift (4mm) and I even have a cushy pair for days on the trail when I’m feeling beat up. I also wear high heeled olympic lifting shoes when practicing my cleans and snatches.
In summary, your feet are important and jamming them into dress shoes, high heels and traditional sneakers will slowly deform your feet and transform them into something different. Remember, don’t drop your current footwear and go total minimalist yet. Start slow, a few hours a week is enough to build your strength and tolerance. If you play the long game with this I promise it’ll be worth it.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Big Breath DRill
Breathing is important. Getting people to focus on breathing is hard though, because it feels boring and uncomfortable because your brain is going one million miles per hour and taking a chance to chill out is hard. I’ve found that because of that, the most simple breathing drills are best. I’ll lay one out below that you should try this week.
The goal of taking some breaths are:
Improve breathing mechanics - by focusing on breathing for a few minutes, hopefully afterwards, you can breathe better and access better positions. Think of it as a mobility drill for your whole body.
Wind up or down, change your state. Depending on the sequence, a few minutes of breathing can make you feel chill or fired up. The one below is more about feeling awake.
Improve posture; when you get better breaths, you’re less willing to sacrifice them to poor positions. When you know what a good breath feels like, you’ll recognize a short, shallow breath too.
Thinking about your diaphragm, or expanding your ribs and into your lower back complicates things. And while I want your breathing mechanics to improve, I’m not sure me cueing ‘use your diaphragm’ is going to actually help accomplish that. The best way to get a better breath is to get some reps in trying to fill up as big as you can.
Initially, you might be all in your chest and shoulders, but as the reps (breaths) accumulate, you can get more air in and will get more expansion throughout the whole trunk. After a long breath hold, you’ll get even more air in, and with it, better mechanics.
Here’s the drill:
Lay down on your back, feet on the wall.
For 90-120 seconds, take big, deep, expanding breaths with a sharp, quick exhale.
Exhale all of your last breath and hold.
Repeat when you’re ready to take your next breath.
*repeat 2-3 rounds
The longer you try to hold that exhale, the better your next round will be. Give it a shot!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 50
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share half formed blog ideas or my favorite posts I saw on Instagram throughout the week. It feels good to be home after spending the past two Fridays away. Enjoy!
Sleep or Rest:
The fitness industry has a problem with making people feel like the need to do more, and more, and more, to keep up, and that results in feeling overwhelmed and quitting or not starting all together. Juliette has been making some great posts lately about bringing reasonableness into the fitness space, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The same can be said about getting enough sleep or rest.
Ninja Kid:
Incredible!
Peanut Butter Mixer:
This is a nifty tool, but I’ve got a hot tip for you. Store your peanut butter jar upside down in your pantry and when you go to use it all the oil and peanut butter will be mixed together, no extra gadget purchase required!
Processed Foods:
Speaking of reasonableness in the fitness industry, Jordan is leading the charge and is great at debunking some of these beliefs many people have around food and diets.
October Habit Challenge:
Consider this your early warning for our annual October Daily Habit Challenge.
That’s all for the week, until next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Ankle Mobility, Bone SPurs, Hockey Skates, Sliding surfaces, ball whacking and KStarR
I posted a couple clips from The Ready State seminar on my Instagram the other day, but wanted to share the whole video too. Kelly breaks down my stiff ankle and goes through his thought process of addressing something like this.
A bit of a back story, that bone spur used to be much bigger, and there was another one on my left heel too that’s no longer there.
In the hockey world we called them Bauer Bumps, named after a brand of skates, and many hockey players develop them from stuffing their feet into skates combined with the motion of skating for years and years.
Here’s part two. Here he addressed the sliding surfaces of my skin with his “ball whacking,” technique. The difference of my range of motion was significant!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Progress Without Pain
It’s a misnomer that every gym session needs to be hard. People are hard on themselves in the gym when they skip a set, modify a workout or bail on their conditioning.
Some people even stay away from the gym all together because they believe every session needs to be excruciatingly hard.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the gym, and seen a lot of people succeed, and a lot of people fail at building a fitness habit.
You’ll need to push it and have some hard workouts, but more important than that, you need to keep working out.
The training plan that leaves you completely gassed is not the best for your sustainability in the gym. It’s a balancing act; train hard enough but not so hard that you quit.
Here’s a quote from Mel Siff, author of numerous strength training books, the most famous being Supertraining.
“To me, the sign of a really excellent routine is one which places great demands on the athlete, yet produces progressive long-term improvement without soreness, injury or the athlete ever feeling thoroughly depleted. Any fool can create a program that is so demanding that it would virtually kill the toughest marine or hardiest of elite athletes, but not any fool can create a tough program that produces progress without unnecessary pain.” - Mel Siff
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
The Eights
This past weekend I went to a seminar with Kelly and Juliette Starrett of The Ready State, and the authors of the excellent book Built to Move. In their quest to get more people moving and taking care of their bodies, they have this idea of The Eights. It’s full of reasonable numbers to hit each day to give people a tool to take care of their health . Instead of adding yet another thing to do, this list can work for however you like to eat or set up your day, so long as you strive for these numbers.
Here they are:
8000 steps per day - in their book, they cite that most of the benefits from extra walking show up around 7500 steps per day. Remember, 10,000 as the gold standard is just made up because it’s a nice round number!
800g of fruits and vegetables. This comes from the 800g Challenge, and is a nice way without any restrictions or special diet rules to get more micronutrients.
8 Hours of rest. Ideally this is 8 hours of sleep, but in an effort to be approachable for everyone, they’re changing their language to 8 hours of rest, cause if you can’t sleep, resting is the next best thing. They say aim for 8 hours in bed at a minimum, and if you want to get 8 full hours of sleep, you best spend 9 hours in bed.
.8g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Protein is important to build and maintain your muscle mass, which is incredibly important as we age! Once again, they’re not saying this number is the end all be all for each and every one of us, but we should be striving to get more protein each day.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Travel Pro
I’m about to get on my fifth flight in 11 days, because of that, consider me a travel influencer.
Here’s how to crush at the airport.
No roller bags! I’ll get a lot of feedback on this one but, seriously, you can’t convince me anyone looks cool wheeling luggage around. Yeah, sure it’s easy and you don’t have to pick up your bag, but come on. You can’t move fast through a crowd and they occupy a hand leaving you limited. Backpacks are superior. They leave your hands free, and bonus, you can just ruck around the airport while waiting for your flight rather than adding more sitting to an already heavy sitting day. I realize there’s a time and place where they’re necessary, but if I were Supreme Ruler of the Universe, we would all carry our bags like it’s 1972; when the roller suitcase was invented.
Walk! Get those steps in people. I love doing laps in the terminal while listening to a book and lugging my backpack around. I always opt for stairs when possible and laugh at everyone standing still on the escalator. After running 50ish miles last week in the mountains of Utah, I really kickstarted my recovery by getting laps in before the flight. This highly contributed to my lack of soreness.
Beware of easy options. Junk food, alcohol and caffeine are everywhere in the airport. Tread carefully, and mostly, if you travel a lot, don’t make it a habit out of these things. For full disclosure, sometimes you’re sad your red eye gets delayed into the wee hours of the morning and a Guinness may make you feel better, and more bold for your Monday morning blog post.
Books on your phone. I love reading, and have found that when traveling your phone is the best way to read. You can increase the size of the font, it’s easy to hold, you never lose your place and it saves room in your backpack since you’re not messing with wheeled luggage.
Electrolytes. We all know planes are dry. Preflight, load up on electrolytes. This will help keep you hydrated, and if you’re better hydrated and actually absorbing water, you won’t have to get up a pee every 40 minutes like when you’ve sucked down too much water you’re not absorbing.
There you have it, my influencer travel tips. Next plan, not get on a plane for a very long time.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 49
Greetings from California! It’s rare that I travel at all, so getting to the airport and on a plane two weeks in a row is completely foreign to me. I’m here in LA visiting a college friend for the day, then shipping up to San Rafael to attend a weekend-long workshop at The Ready State. I got to meet Kelly last year, and his talk was superb. I can’t wait to spend the whole weekend soaking in all the Starrett’s knowledge.
Bday:
Elliot turns 4 this weekend, big birthday shoutout to him. Once I’m home we’ll be playing with the lego firetruck set he’s been asking for all summer, I can’t wait to give it to him!
Team Cupcake:
There’s still time to get involved on Kendra’s Team Cupcake for the Seacoast Cancer 5k. Take a walk or run around Pease for a great cause.
Warm Ups:
I fell into the trap of over-warming up sometime in my lifting career. I was doing all the foam rolling, activation, movement prep and the like, and what happened was I was more likely to nap than train. I’ve learned to spread this stuff out throughout the day, so when it comes time to lift, I can get right into the meat and potatoes.
Tracking Calories:
Dr. Rhonda Patrick makes a great case here for tracking calories - even just for a few days. Many of us are underestimating how many we consume. Combine that with over estimating how much we move and our estimates could be wildly inaccurate. It works the other way too, especially if you’re someone who takes their training seriously; you could be over estimating your calories and leaving yourself underfed.
Hammies:
This is a nice glimpse into the hamstrings on a cadaver. In college, I was lucky enough to go to a school where undergrads had full access to the medical school’s cadaver lab, and it really helped my understanding on muscles and their function. That area near the top, where they’re all coming together is a great place to target with a foam roller or mobility ball. I hope this video can illiustrate to you that thinking about individual muscles isn’t very much help when we’re trying to strengthen, or improve mobility. Instead, we need to think of the whole system and how it all works together.
Lol
I love skateboarding and so appreciate the confidence it takes to bomb down a hill like this.
In case you didn’t know, there’s probably a world record for everything, including most bites taken from apples while juggling.
Thanks for reading, you see next week!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Team Cupcake: Seacoast Cancer 5k
The Seacoast Cancer 5k is coming up on Sunday September 15th.
Just like last year, GAIN Member, Kendra’s Team Cupcake is getting involved.
Sign up using the link below if you want to run, walk or just to support Kendra and the local fight against cancer.
Seacoast Cancer 5k Sign Up (make sure to join Team Cupcake during registration!)
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Foot Care
This isn’t your typical reminder to roll your feet, stretch your toes and keep working those ankle mobility drills. Instead, this is about how to not get blisters while running or hiking.
Blisters are something that seem to plague trail runners and hikers alike.
I’m fortunate that I never seem to suffer or develop blisters, regardless of the conditions.
I can get wet feet, sweaty feet, muddy feet, dusty and sandy conditions, you name it, my feet are resistant to those nasty problem-causers.
It wasn’t always the case, however.
On my 30th birthday, I celebrated by running 30 miles. I donned a new pair of Salomon shoes, they were red like most of my running shoes.
Anyway, a couple miles in, I already felt a blister forming on the inside of my big toe. I did what I thought best, and ignored it all day. Several hours later, when I finished my run, I had the biggest, nastiest, blister on my toe and the inside of my foot. The reason I got that blister, in my opinion, is that the shoes were too narrow. The narrow shoes created friction and my toe rubbed for 6 or 7 hours straight as I ran.
My first tip to prevent blisters, and perhaps the most important factor in my experience - don’t jam your feet into narrow shoes! Let those toes breathe!
Next, you have to wear merino wool socks. Absolutely no chance of any other material going on my foot. Wool is a miracle fabric. They’re not just for cold weather like I always thought either. I wear wool socks year round, 100 degrees or 5 degrees, it’s the best performing fabric for your feet. I can’t stress that enough. Wool will wick moisture away from your foot actively, and drys incredibly fast if your feet do get wet. It has the ability to absorb and release the moisture and if your shoes are breathable, your feet will be dry in no time.
I know a lot of people who change shoes, socks, never get their feet wet, use kt tape, bandages and body lubricant to stave off blisters, yet they can still suffer from them.
For me, good old fashioned wool socks and properly fitting, foot shaped toe-box shoes are the secret to happy feet for long days on the trails.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
is One Hour In the gym enough?
This clip was thought provoking and I decided it needed its own blog rather than being lumped into the Friday Thoughts post.
The takeaway: exercise does not replace all day movement - we can’t cram all of our daily movement needs into a 60-minute session in the gym.
We need to be moving frequently, and building that into our lives. My hope is that through going to a gym, and spending a dedicated hour working on your health and fitness will then inspire you to make choices that support a more movement rich lifestyle. Taking more walks, parking farther away, sitting on the floor, night time foam rolling and stretching sessions, standing desks, playing games, sports and the like.
Use the gym as a reason to move more - not as a justification to be lazy.
As for the part about gym memberships doubling… Obviously, what hasn’t since the year 2000?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
16 weeks
There are 16 weeks left in 2024.
Two workouts per week for the rest of the year would be 32 workouts.
Three a week would be 48 sessions.
Eight thousand steps a day for the rest of the year would accumulate nearly a million steps!
Motivation is high in September when the air starts getting cold and fall is in the air. Remember, when setting goals, keep them realistic and don’t undervalue the power of compounding through consistency.
Finish the year strong!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 48
Greetings from Utah!
I’m here to crew and pace GAIN member Peter in the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run. This is his fourth 100-mile run of summer, which is the final race in his Grandslam of Ultrarunning. Each summer a couple dozen people attempt to run 4 of the oldest 100-mile runs in the country in just one summer.
As you can imagine, it’s quite the feat and I’m honored to be a part of it.
The race starts at 5am local time, I’ll try to post some updates on my Instagram if I get the opportunity.
That’s all for today, have a good weekend!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Gym Lingo: Suitcase CArry
The suitcase carry, or one arm carry, where you carry a single kettlebell or dumbbell by your side is a great builder of trunk strength. It challenges your grip, builds shoulder and hip stability. It pairs well with a variety of movements in the gym. Performed between heavy squats or bench press, it can provide your body reminders to brace better and create more stiffness, and in a conditioning context we use it as a filler movement, something that allows you to keep moving and keep your heart rate elevated between bouts of a different movement or something cardio based.
Mastering a suitcase carry will have carry over to real life outside of the gym. Once you’ve done a suitcase carry with a heavy kettlebell, all other objects you carry are just an opportunity to practice. Obviously, a suitcase, but also grocery bags, jugs of water, kids gear, you name it. If it needs to be carried, you’ll be ready for the job.
How to do it:
Start with the kettlebell next to your foot.
Drive your butt back and let you knees bent, hinging through your hips, to bend over the pick up the kettlebell. Focus on pushing the ground away as you stand up.
Keep a firm grip on the kettlebell. Squeeze the handle!
Keep your core engaged and don’t forget to keep breathing.
As you start to walk, keep a few things in mind:
no shrugging your shoulders, keep them away from your eats.
Reach your opposite hand out to the side for balance if needed.
Prevent the weight from crashing into your leg.
Walk a little slower than normal. Keep your trunk upright and try your best not to lean away from the weight.
Turning is hard, don’t let the the weight swing around too much.
Loaded carries are a fantastic way to build real-world strength and push your limits in the gym. Get to carrying!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Bored? Good.
In order to get better at something you need to practice.
The better your practice is, the more likely you are to improve at this skill, whatever it is.
Athletes from all sports, from all different levels, have a tendency to focus on drilling the fundamentals. The basic skills required to play well. Even the highest level professionals continue to hone these skills.
In fitness we have an obsession with novelty.
We want something new and different so we don’t get bored.
What if boredom is part of the process to get better?
If you move from one thing to the next without ever getting bored, you’re leaving a lot on the table in terms of adaptations you could make.
Boredom often comes from doing the same thing over and over, however, this is the best way to improve at something - whether it’s to get stronger, improve your mobility or your conditioning - you need to do the thing consistently, for a long time. The same exercises, the same stretches, the same workouts.
Try reframing boredom as something good. If you’re getting bored with your routine it means you’ve been consistent, working the fundamentals that are required to get better. Maybe feeling bored means you’re right on track. Slowly and steadily making progress.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
august by the Numbers
Each month I reflect back and look at some of the data I collect around my health and wellness. This practice helps me make adjustments, spot trends and hopefully inspires some of you to do the same. Let’s dive in.
Steps: 443,292 total for a daily average of 14,300.
I’m surprised I beat my July totals, which were pretty stout due to many two-a-days, an increase in milage and the running streak. More total miles running in July too but more hours in August. More on that below. All in all, nice to see a steady progress in steps and my running fitness continues to build.
Sleep: 7 hours 44 minutes average per night
My sleeping hit a peak during lake week vacation in July, and ever since I got home, I haven’t been getting 8+ as easily as I was then. Still, pleased with 6 nights of 8 hours plus, and 7 hours and 44 minutes is still better than the 7hr22min I was averaging around a year ago when I started really digging into this data and trying to make changes.
Workouts: 31
All but two of these were running workouts. I had a really solid build up to MMD in the mountains, took a low mileage week, then had a peak volume week, or really it was more like 10 days. Being confined to a 7-day calendar isn’t always ideal for training. When building up for pacing in the Wasatch this week, I had a big 9 days of cramming lots of volume in. I accumulated 57 miles and 12,00ft of gain in those 9 days. On paper, or Strava, this looks like a low mileage week followed by a high mileage week, however, when really looking at I, it was a few days of recovery following a big mountain effort, then a week and a half of building up and getting some quality training in. I took 3 days off this week and am feeling well-tapered and itching to get out there!
Other running stats for the month:
31 hours total
133 miles
28,527ft of elevation gain
This ends up being 5 more hours of time on feet than in July with 5 less total miles. Likely due to the extra 10k feet of elevation gain. All in all, pleased with how my fitness is coming around and how this build up to the Wasatch Front has gone.
3 month summer running build. Taking it easy this week and running 30+ miles on Friday-Saturday.
Thanks for reading, if you have a wearable fitness device, take some time today to look back and reflect on any trends you notice and try to make some adjustments heading this month. Remember, the numbers don’t lie!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday thoughts 47
Happy Friday! Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share random ideas, half formed blog post and my favorite things I saw on Instagram throughout the week. I posted the first ‘Friday Thoughts’ the Friday before Labor Day last year. It’s always fun to put together and gets the most reads by far each week, thanks for checking it out.
Labor Day:
Reminder - we are closed on Labor Day, Monday September 2nd.
Clementines:
Yesterday I had a long run planned at Stratham Hill Park and some errands to run afterwards, anyway, I left Clementine at home. As I was coming down the Kitty Rock Trail, I ran past two people and their dogs, I said hello and one of them said, “Clem come.” I hit the brakes and asked, “Did you just say Clem? Short for Clementine?” Sure enough, she did. This is the one I’ve met, but the second Clementine that I’ve heard of. Crazy!
Ninja Kid:
Where do I sign Elliot up for this? Wait, where do I sign up to try this? This looks like so much fun, and as you watch the video it keeps getting crazier and crazier, like it never ends. Such a cool display of athleticism and stamina. Way to go, kid!
Killian:
Killian Jornet is widely regarded as the best mountain runner (mountaineer?) of all time. Watching him run down hill is one of my favorite things to do. It’s so flowy and smooth with no hesitation whatsoever. I used to frequently watch clips of him running hard downhills for running motivation. This clip is from this year’s Sierra-Zinal race which took place a few weeks ago. Incredibly work by the camera operator!
Definitely check out his Instagram, too. He’s linking up as many 4000m peaks in the Alps as he can. As usual, his head mounted GoPro has insane footage that will make your palms sweat (see the second video).
Pee Color:
I think people fall into one category or the other, and they’re both on the extreme side. Of course, I’m talking about hydration levels. From my experience talking to people about this all the time, they’re either totally dehydrated and barely think about water, or way over hydrated so they have to pee every 45 minutes. As with many things, the sweet spot lies somewhere in the middle.
Check out this post from Bri about what color your urine should be - I think a lot of people strive for clear, but that’s indicative of over hyrdration, perhaps from not getting enough electrolytes. Remember too, electrolytes don’t just come in the form of expensive salt-drinks - salting your food can increase your sodium intake and help you hydrate better.
Salting your food is viewed as “bad,” but for me this helped my hydration levels immensely, and why I was so early to hop on the salty drink train. You see, if you’re eating a lot of chips, burgers, French fries and dining out all the time, maybe you don’t need to up the salt on your already salty food. If you’re like me though, and cook most of your own food, skimping on the salt might mean leaving a critical electrolyte on the table.
Shredder:
Check out this 80-year tearing it up on the waves!
Creatine:
This is my friend Nate from Oak Performance. Give his post some love for spreading the word on the benefits of creatine supplementation.
That’s a wrap for this week, see you next time!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Toe Spring, Balance and foot strength
Put your shoe on a table or flat surface and look at it from the side.
Does the toe of the shoe sweep upward? So the tip of the shoe is no longer in contact with the ground?
If that’s happening, it’s not a good shoe for the gym.
This is called toe spring. As soon as you put them on your feet, they shift your balance backwards. Over time, chronic use can lead to stiff, weaker muscles and fascia your foot and lower leg.
If you stand on the ground barefoot, do your toes naturally slope off the floor like that? Probably not.
Toe spring is supposed to making running and walking easier, but that isn’t necessarily the case, or maybe it’s is but not a good thing in the long run.
The Harvard Gazette: Your shoes were made for walking. And that may be the problem; upward curve at tip eases motion but may lead to weaker muscles, problems.
Toe spring, combined with the fact that those same shoes likely have thick and cushy bottoms, with the heel raised above the rest of the foot, are why shoes like this shouldn’t be in the gym.
All that extra padding desensitizes your feet, shifts your center of mass and makes it more difficult for your body receive feedback, or rather, makes you more likely to lose your balance.
Balance will deteriorate as you age. There a lot of things you can do to continue challenging your balance and help it stick around. Getting appropriate gym shoes, ones with stiffer bottoms, a minimal heel drop and space for your toes to spread out is an easy place to start.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Get Up
The Turkish Get Up, TGU, or just the get up, is a complicated, multistep move that many people can benefit from learning.
Starting on your back with a kettlebell raised up to the ceiling, the get up requires the lifter to get from that supine position to a standing position, and back down while the kettlebell remains stabilized overhead. In doing so, your body moves through many important shapes, demanding mobility, stability, breathing, patience and strength. It exposes you to many foundational shapes and movements like rolling, half kneeling and finding support in various angles. Not to mention, the ability to get up and down from the floor is a critical skill.
It is not a move to be rushed. In fact, slower is better - it requires more control and ownership of the shapes. Heavy weights aren’t necessary either, a light to moderate kettlebell will be plenty. When I first learned the get up in college, the instructor had us first demonstrate we could complete a get up balancing our shoe on a closed fist before graduating to weight.
Here are the steps to nail a perfect get up:
Roll to the elbow - stop here! Pause, don’t rush into the next step.
Reach up to the hand - imagine reaching the KB toward the ceiling.
Hips up - drive your hips up creating a bridge.
Feed the leg through - get that knee back! Much further than you think to be in a wide base of support.
Windshield wiper - turn your lower leg as you lift your torso, ending in a half kneeling position.
Stand up!
Lunge backwards to half kneeling.
Windshield wiper the lower leg and reach towards the floor with the free hand.
Feed the leg through.
Slide to your forearm
Roll to your back.
More often than not, a half get up will suffice to get many of the benefits without being overly complicated. It teaches stability and control, and once you can really master the half get up, the full move becomes less daunting.
It’s three steps up:
Roll to the elbow
Reach to the hand
Bridge up, and practice getting the shoulders aligned, making a “T’ with your arms and torso.
Plus the reverse to get back down.
Here’s a version I played with last year, a pressing get up, where you do a press at each and every step of the get up, forcing you to slow down and make sure you’re in a strong and stable position in order to rep the press.
The half get up is showing up in some of your programs this week or next. Remember, go slow and don’t rush!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain