Verbum Humanum

I tell you, that's NOT an exaggeration. It's not. Learn to walk slowly. Learn to lay down. Learn to nap. I have argued my whole coaching career that the single hardest thing to do is do add quality lean muscle mass. Now, I didn't say "weight" as the people with the Big Gulps and doughnuts have bravely shown us the way: I said lean muscle mass.

I still box with Grant, who has now become the champion middleweight wrestler of the United States. Yesterday afternoon we had Professor Yamashita up here to wrestle with Grant. It was very interesting, but of course jiu jitsu and our wrestling are so far apart that it is difficult to make any comparison between them. Wrestling is simply a sport with rules almost as conventional as those of tennis, while jiu jitsu is really meant for practice in killing or disabling our adversary. In consequence, Grant did not know what to do except to put Yamashita on his back, and Yamashita was perfectly content to be on his back. Inside of a minute Yamashita had choked Grant, and inside of two minutes more he got an elbow hold on him that would have enabled him to break his arm; so that there is no question but that he could have put Grant out. So far this made it evident that the jiu jitsu man could handle the ordinary wrestler. But Grant, in the actual wrestling and throwing was about as good as the Japanese, and he was so much stronger that he evidently hurt and wore out the Japanese. With a little practice in the art I am sure that one of our big wrestlers or boxers, simply because of his greatly superior strength, would be able to kill any of those Japanese, who though very good men for their inches and pounds are altogether too small to hold their own against big, powerful, quick men who are as well trained.

Exercise Naturally: They don’t consciously exercise — rather, daily physical exercise was a natural part of their lives (walking, using stairs, cycling for transport, etc.).

Downshift: They live a simple life.

Have a Purpose: Knowing and acting with purpose and having a higher goal leads to around a seven year increase in life expectancy.

Moderate Alcohol Intake: I’ve discussed this at length before.

Plant-Based Diet: Not a vegetarian diet, but a largely plant-based one.

No Overeating: They avoid overeating, typically by using ‘nudges’.

Friends and Family First: They typically think of their close friends and family first.

Belong to a Faith-Based Community: Belonging to a faith-based community, and meeting on average four times a month, can add four to fourteen years to one’s life. Does this exclude atheists? I don’t see why a humanist community that meets the same rules (meeting regularly) would be different.

Belong to the Right ‘Tribe’: They surround themselves with the ‘right’ people. By doing so they prevent getting bad habits through social network effects (also discussed previously).

There was no magical training system or diet in those days. They trained on cumbersome barbells and dumbells with no revolving sleeves and two inch handles, and performed odd strength stunts. They did one-arm lifts, snatches, cleans and deadlifts, back lifts and many indirect back exercises, but seldom the deadlift per se. Many of today’s powerlifters try to increase their deadlift by just deadlifting.

In a study published in May in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, they reported that, to no one’s surprise, the men who sat the most had the greatest risk of heart problems. Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars (as passengers or as drivers) had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised. Quite a few of them said they did so regularly and led active lifestyles. The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting.

We are all doomed.

But after witnessing Martin’s success, Skyler pinched his nose and took the plunge. “Intermittent fasting, as a protocol for athletes, is largely underappreciated,” he says. “No taking Tupperware with you everywhere you go, none of this ‘waking in the middle of the night to feed’ nonsense, being able to eat a large volume of food rather than bird-like portions, especially when increased positive nutrient partitioning is elevated post workout. It can help reduce the OCD tendencies of athletes, where some athletes are kept from getting lean because they have to eat every three hours.

If you want to get strong you need to train with strong people