Farmer’s walk with handles is TOTALLY different from with a trap bar. The handles add an entirely different element to it from a balancing and control element, and they also allow one to manipulate the speed of the walk by means of directing where the weight goes. The trap bar is “enough” to pick something up and walk with it, but handles are a different animal.
The meadows row handle definitely allows for a superior angle on the row, but you can get in a solid row with just a barbell and a landmine.
I can’t even imagine trying to do a viking press without a viking press handle. Using just the barbell seems like it would be very hazardous. The viking handle is just an awesome attachment in general: great for rows, thrusters, viking presses, etc.
In all seriousness, for some losers (like me) getting a head start on the day makes a huge difference. I am, admittedly, somewhat psycho, but I will be up around 4AM, will make my bed, will journal, check this board, hit the gym for an hour plus, hit the grocery store, have breakfast, and be back in bed by 10AM for a power nap. For me, it all starts with making my bed.
But you can! It’s the whole thing that inspired me to make this topic, haha.
Any particular cut of steak you vector toward?
Definitely one of those things I was interested in when posting it. Curious to see how we all lean, and it’s also interesting to see what “matters” when you really boil it down. There’s that bodybuilding stereotype of “chicken rice broccoli”, but chicken has been surprisingly absent outside of @simo74 's post. And like @mechinos pointed out, once you boil it down to these “ones”, we start asking ourselves “Why AREN’T I doing this?”
Dan John had a similar approach asking coaches in various sports “What are your top 3 keys to success”, and in a similar way you ask them “Why AREN’T you focusing on these 3 things?”
Yeah, this is the main thing that characterizes my eating and cooking.
For as good as any ribeye is, I’d rather not eat one every day. Rotate ribeyes and pork ribs, and I do better. Add in some pork tenderloins and chicken thighs and shaved beef, etc., and that’s better yet.
The only negative is that it makes it trickier to precisely track calorie and macro intakes. But I think most research has shown “portion” based dieting has a greater overall success rate. Add in the idea of “you can’t overeat protein” (but you can undereat protein) and it’s pretty lifter-friendly.
Now that I’m thinking about it, carbs are probably the easiest thing to track, if you want/feel-the-need to track something really closely. Get enough “portions” of protein a day and manage carbs when you need to.
Whereas, fats are often more incidental and harder to track. Plus dropping too many fats tends to kill flavor/texture. You can just avoid carbs altogether.
It’s awesome to examine those barriers to entry and see how they shape things, and, in turn, maybe have an understanding of how to implement these ideas.
Variety being the spice of life goes in multiple directions. One variation of variety IS stagnation. If we’re always changing things up, we’re stagnating by BEING in a constant state of variety, and we can throw in some variety by locking down for 6 weeks with ONLY one approach. Think of getting laser focused like that, thinking “I’m only going to use one tool and eat one food”, and seeing what the impact is. You’d get REAL good with that one tool, and you’d really understand your body with that one food.
I thought about expanding this “just one” to include program, but even absent of that, there are some programs out there that are awesome examples of “Just one”, like the “One lift a day program”
Or the 10k swing challenge
Or, similarly, we could do the same “one program” every day for 40 days with Easy Strength
And, similarly, knowing these challenges are coming, we can make sure to square ourselves away financially and schedule-wise to get success. Similar to Dan’s “Park bench/bus bench” philosophy.
OLAD is awesome. Once I had my basement gym, I combined it with an old all-day workout (maybe Thib? I havent been able to find it.) So ten sets of one exercise per day, spaced out by an hour. Have a small meal after each, and sleep like a baby.
Gains and stayed on a steady trajectory, but I was taking one of my mini-retirements, so it was simultaneously the most intense and most relaxing schedule.
I haven’t done three weeks of “one lift a day”. But I frequently do days where I only do one major compound lift in the 70-95% range. I try to set these up so the weight lifted is constant.
It takes a surprising amount of time to do multiple sets of a heavy lift. Especially if you are using a BOSS system where you might essentially be doing fifty or more sets of one.
McRaven only calls the shots on his ship. Bonus points if he persuades you that you have valid fractional ownership.
I love steak. I like chicken. I like fish. I like milk. I like eggs. Seems odd to ask for one food and then complain there are many. (In practice mixing steak, chicken, fish and ribs sounds pretty good.)
I find that if I do the same lift on many consecutive occasions my performance plateaus than decreases. You can only do it working with moderate weights. But I did make real gains on GVT.
