My top 5 Christmas movies in reverse order.
Number 5: It’s a Wonderful Life
While this choice seems like it would be pandering to movie elitists or, at the very least, my penchant for nostalgia, IAWL is not only a great Christmas movie, it’s actually a great movie, period. Sure, you have to look at it through the correct lens (it was made directly in the aftermath of WWII mid-1940’s after all) but there’s great storytelling and acting here.
Number 4: Bad Santa
This one tends to make no one’s list as it’s so politically incorrect and harsh and flies directly in the face of the holiday spirit. Which is precisely why I enjoy it. Billy Bob Thorton is just so cranky and his interplay and frustration with the innocent Thurman Merman makes me chuckle like a school kid. And Tony Cox as the foul-mouthed elf is gold.
Number 3: Home Alone
For all its “on the nose” feel-good storytelling, Home Alone is actually really well acted and keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how this is all going to work out. Considering the movie is about an abandoned eight year old, a creepy next door neighbor and two Brooklyn thugs who somehow decide that they need to go to suburban Chicago in order to find houses to rob, that's no small task.
Number 2: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Back-to-back entries from writer John Hughes (he wrote Home Alone and Christmas Vacation in the same year) either proves that he’s a genius writer or I am just a kid from the 80’s and anything from the guy who put out Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club and Weird Science is going to work for me. But that aside, as terrible as a person Chevy Chase seems to be in real life, he’s got the dichotomy of total dick and man who cares deeply about his family nailed. Plus you put Cousin Eddie in just about anything and I’m going to enjoy it.
Number 1: Die Hard
The controversy here isn’t whether or not Die Hard is a great movie, it’s whether it’s a great Christmas movie. But the minute someone can convince me that a movie in which the main character is on Christmas break, flies across the country to see is estranged wife only to break up a heist that occurs during her company Christmas party while “Let It Snow” plays over the end credits isn’t a Christmas movie is the day that I’ll put Elf at number one just like everyone else under 40 years old would do.
OK, now that I’ve either enthralled you or, more likely, irritated you with my Christmas movie selections, let’s get to the training topic at hand: the paradox of training.
Just as the beloved Clark Griswold oscillates between world’s most caring Dad and absolute sociopath, training can also feel like it’s full of contradictions. And that can be frustrating.
Train hard enough to elicit a response so you aren’t wasting your time in the gym. But not so hard that you are endlessly sore and injured.
Stick with a program long enough to make appropriate adaptations but not so long that you plateau.
Use compound movements with barbells so you can develop functional strength and coordination. But don’t ignore dumbbells and machines if you want to develop more specific muscle groups.
Specificity (you’ll get good at the thing you train) is the number one scientific principle of training but we also know that training for general fitness qualities will also positively affect specific outcomes.
Confusing, right?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m certain I could list at least ten other confusing and seemingly contradictory paradoxes that will have you changing your standard new year’s resolution of getting in great shape to something seemingly less confusing. Like learning to crochet or becoming an astrophysicist.
But don’t fret, my loyal super fan, because your old pal Dan is here with the solution to your problem. Because as cliche as taking your health and fitness seriously in January may seem, there really is never a wrong time to get on the training bandwagon. And if it took a month of holiday parties and eggnog and latkes to get you there, so be it.
Luckily, the answer to this one is simple. Hire a coach.
Yes, yes. I get that this advice comes off as super-biased. I myself am a coach. I run a business that employs dozens of coaches. It seems self-serving to tell you that coaching is the answer to cut through the fitness confusion and get you to your goals in the new year.
But that doesn’t mean this isn’t good advice.
Because most people who are successful at anything utilize coaching. I’d even argue that the more successful someone is, the more coaching they receive.
The idea of the “self made person” is honestly a ridiculous one, reserved for stubborn people who want to take the longest, most inefficient route possible to get to their goals.
I’ll give you my favorite example.
If you live in the United States, you must file taxes. And you have every right to prepare your taxes yourself.
But absolutely zero people who are smart with money do this. The process is too confusing. They rely on experts to make sure their returns are organized, they are paying the correct amounts and keeping them out of jail.
Training is similar in this way. You are investing two or three or six hours in the gym or on the track each week, so why not make sure that these hours are the most organized, efficient and effective hours possible?
You do it with your money, why not with your body?
Of course I am a proponent of in-person coaching as I believe it’s the best way to get feedback and have expert influence over your performance. But I also remember a time before the internet and when Beanie Babies were all the rage. So if you are more comfortable with virtual coaching or if finding a coach online is your only option that can certainly be valuable as well.
I’m here. We’re here. There are plenty of other good coaches out there. Find one who has thought through the issues and can solve the paradoxes for you. It will save you a ton of time, frustration and finally get you where you want to go in the new year and beyond.
I’d love to hear what your favorite Christmas movie is and, if you insist, you can give me your thesis on why Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie (though, fair warning, I will not be swayed).
I’d also love for you to tell me what fitness problem you are trying to solve (maybe I can help or, at least, address it in a future blog). I reply to every email I get.