Long before I could bore you to death with detailed discussions on topics such as maximal recoverable volume or sliding filament theory or other lively strength training topics, I had a career - ironically enough - trying to write captivating and motivational words as an advertising copywriter.
My advertising career was, as the kids say, mid. I stayed busy, stayed employed and slowly crawled my way up the corporate ladder.
But I never had any real breakthroughs.
My work was never featured in any award annuals. I never had a Super Bowl spot. I had no claim to fame. Nothing anyone had really seen or remembered.
Being young and ambitious I had, at least for a while, convinced myself that this was the result of circumstances or bad luck or both.
I had come up in the era that proceeded advertising’s heyday. No one was doing good work. At least no one in the agencies that I worked at were doing good work.
I had no opportunity.
So - and I will give myself a lot of credit for this - I tried to make one on my own.
(SIDE NOTE: Before I go any further into this story, if you don’t care about this at all - and, honestly, who could blame you - you can just skip down to the bolded subheadings where I give actual honest-to-goodness training advice. So if you want to skip ahead, feel free. I take none of it personally.)
Yup. Rather than wait around for the perfect creative project to come along, I created my own. This was known, back in the day, as working on spec.
It wasn’t uncommon for agencies to do spec work. Essentially putting together creative work for free in order to wow and lure a potential client.
But individuals - like me - didn’t shoot full-on commercials on spec.
You have to remember, this was before you had an HD camera in your pocket that also gives you access to every filter, effects and editing software. No, if you wanted to shoot a commercial in those days it took an army.
You needed locations and actors and grip trucks and casting agents and camera rentals and God knows what else in order to put a 30 second spot together. Which is a huge pain in the ass. And really expensive. Which is why no one did it.
But after going through the exercise not once but twice, my advertising career didn’t improve. No raises. No big jobs. No Clio awards.
And this, my dear readers, is a great example of valiant and admirable effort that was placed in vain.
Unfortunately, I witness this exact same misplaced effort when it comes to training.
I see so many people suffering and sweating and spending and putting in a remarkable effort when it comes to their training and never reaching their fitness goals.
And the problem is as simple to identify for them as it was for me. They are putting their effort into the wrong side of the game.
The issue wasn’t that I needed more reps (although getting more reps is often the right answer, as long as you are doing the right thing). I was already spending 40+ hours per week working on advertising.
Perhaps part of the problem was that I needed to change my environment. Surely I was surrounded by people who were also trying to solve the problem of doing good - or at the very least, profitable - advertising.
But the main problem was that I was doing too much of the wrong thing. I was putting all my effort into accomplishing additional work rather than learning the skills and techniques that were going to improve the work I was already doing.
And this is what plagues most people when it comes to their fitness.
For sure, the majority of people just aren’t doing enough work. But, chances are, if you are reading this and not getting results, there is a likelihood that you are just putting too much effort into the wrong things.
Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to outline what it is that most people are doing wrong. But given that the holiday season is approaching I am going to put on my kindler, gentler, more giving Dan hat and just give you a few things to focus on that will move the needle.
Because it’s not always about doing more, it’s about doing better. And once you do better, then you can do more.
OK, for those of you that skipped ahead (everyone else can confirm you definitely made the right choice!) here are the three things you should focus on to get more out of your fitness as it relates to your health and body composition.
Resistance Training Must Be The Priority
For 50 years we’ve been fighting an obesity epidemic. And while we have tried a ton of nutritional interventions - low fat, low carb, fasting, keto, Whole 30 and on and on - our results seem to get worse. And while I have no interest in trying to convince anyone what they should look like (you should look like whatever you want to look like) the research does show a strong correlation between body composition and positive health outcomes.
But while most people focus solely on reducing fat they would do really well to focus on gaining muscle. Because total amount of muscle mass, body fat percentage, lower-body strength levels and many other data points that correlate with longevity and quality of life favor a higher level of muscle mass.
No, you don’t have to look like a jacked and shredded bodybuilder (not only is that not what most people prefer, it also comes with its own set of health problems) but adding muscle mass is the most direct route to a majority of positive outcomes that most people want to experience from training - health, longevity, strength and aesthetics.
Also, research shows that strength training can decrease cardiovascular health risk to a similar degree as direct cardiovascular training. Again, this is a function of both body composition and the exercise modality itself (it’s very rare that effective resistance training doesn’t require cardiovascular demand. If you’ve ever done a truly heavy set of 5 in the back squat, you know what I’m talking about).
The key to this - and the mistake so many people make - is that they turn the strength training portion of their workouts into bouts of cardio. HIIT or whatever you want to call training with minimal weights at maximal speeds is not appropriate strength training that is going to yield results. Heavier sets with adequate rest periods is the way.
It’s worth noting that I am talking about cardiovascular health here, not performance. If you want to improve energy systems and work capacity for, say, a half marathon, then training at lower intensities with typically identified and specific movements (running, in this case) is absolutely essential to that endeavor.
Finally, I want to make it clear here that I am by no means shitting on cardiovascular training and conditioning. I program it. I do it myself. I fully believe in it. It will build capabilities and confidence and, like I said, yield massive performance benefits. But strength is the base of the pyramid. Start there and layer everything else on top of that.
Most people are under-muscled. That needs to be fixed.
You Must Focus On Protein Intake
I realize that I’ve already used up most of my allotted attention time here so I won’t belabor these next two points. So stick with me!
To maximize the effects of that hard-earned strength training we discussed above, you need to get in a reasonable amount of protein into your diet.
The good news is that most recommendations made with a bodybuilders bias are unnecessarily high. You don’t need to mainline whey shakes or wake up in the middle of the night and force down a couple of chicken breasts to make gains.
The bad news is that even though you don’t need to get in the top end recommendations of protein into your diet, most people are woefully short of even the more conservative numbers.
Shooting for about 1.3 to 1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day will help you build and maintain muscle and optimize body composition. For those of you who only deal in freedom units, this is .7 grams per pound of bodyweight per day.
How do you know if you are hitting this number? Use a tracker. It’s free and easier than ever to just punch in what you’ve eaten onto an app on your phone and see what your daily intake is looking like. Hell, some apps don’t even require you to punch anything in. Just take a photo of your food or nutritional fact chart on your morning Cheerios and it will do the work for you.
(PRO TIP: Don’t eat Cheerios for breakfast. Don’t give it to your kids, either.)
Last word on this, excess protein is not free calories. You need to get your energy intake correct and then make protein an appropriate percentage of that number.
Sleep Is Everything
I fully admit to some confirmation bias here because I love sleeping and could happily spend 9-10 hours buried under blankets in a dark, 65 degree room on a nightly basis.
But unlike most of my instincts, this is a really good one because all the magic of training, cognitive function, hormonal optimization and everything that you are trying to biohack with cold plunges and supplement protocols and vitamin IV drips and compression boots are really benefited from (and often replaced by) a solid night’s sleep.
Shoot for an average of 7.5 hours per night (more if you are in really hard training) and if you need help getting to sleep or staying asleep make sure you are getting some carbohydrates in with your last meal of the day and, even better, about 100 grams of fruit prior to bedtime.
And, no, eating carbs at night won’t store excess body fat. That’s a myth that has been debunked by research. But it does help with sleep. So, now you know.
One of the key principles of advertising is to say just what you need to say in as few words as possible.
And, clearly, I’ve blown that here.
Looks like I got out just in time.