Q+A Roll Up
24 hr Q+A + IG Answers
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Hello everyone. Today I’ll be doing a rapid fire Q+A in the comments. Have questions? I’ve got answers. To start, I’ll be answering a series of questions and comments I received on IG yesterday. For any other questions you have, drop them in the comments. Over the next 24 hours I’ll answer them. Let’s go!
q: More hats!!!!!
Simple answer is No. This question had not one but five exclamation points and isn’t even a question. Maybe soon, but I like that everything sold out. I want to do another drop but will take my time on this one. And it’s a necessity given AG products are literally performance enhancing drugs. NEXT.
Q: “I’m a newbie to consistency and working out.”
“Would love to hear about some of your jobs/experiences in the military”
This one is pretty simple. I commissioned as an Engineer officer in the Army. My background is in electrical engineering and did antenna design and research in college / no such agency. Before graduation I debated doing the Reserves to continue that work. I wanted to do the whole airborne/ranger thing instead and I haven’t looked back. In my opinion there’s no point in compromising on what you want. After that I went to BOLC, 3 days after graduating was in Ranger school, then wrapped up 62 days later just in time for Christmas and New Years in Charleston, SC. At that time the 82nd was sending 1st BDE forward on IRF and it was time to check in. I didn’t end up going on that rotation (for the better) and was an S3 staff boi for a considerable amount of time before becoming a PL in an equipment platoon where we literally air dropped dump trucks and prayed they didn’t burn in. During my PL time I interviewed for a job in Carson and ended up moving to Colorado to be the deputy engineer at 10th group. Probably the best job ever at the best duty station ever. I wrapped that up and went to CCC, and now I’m a data officer in the DMV. Common theme is only working/living in great locations. Let’s see how long that lasts.
“Form and Mobility. Is it Important? If so, how to make mobility gains fast (ie good squat form)”
Short answer is yes the two are extremely important. However fast mobility gains are not easy. When we’re young it’s easy to neglect mobility and still be good to go the next day, feel little soreness and generally be injury free. However form is ABSOLUTELY important and should never be compromised. The biggest and hardest lesson in lifting weights is to never shortcut form in the name of lifting more weight. This hurts you in multiple aspects: 1. Cheating the form results in less muscular damage / tension and therefore reduced hypertrophy and muscle growth. 2. Poor form can and will lead to injury when you inevitably push to far. It’s basically gambling with your health, and lack of mobility will compound this effect into injuries down the road.
Stop looking for a fast solution. Take your time and build up your squat properly. Drop down to a barbell, 95#, or 135#. Watch youtube videos on how to squat, go through the technique and always use a full range of motion. In the beginning if your hips are tight and can’t reach full depth, elevate your heels on a bumper plate and do goblet squats with a kettlebell or DB. Sit DEEP into the squat and do sets of 6-20 until you can comfortably slowly drop into the squat and explode out. Then transition back to the barbell with super light weight. Again, take your time. There is no rush because rushing will stall you later down the road. Instead build a proper base of technique and mobility which will lead to generally more linear progress. Once you can go through full range of motion with 135-185#, get on a squat program! Don’t rush adding weight, it will come as you get acclimated to the weight increases. Anything will work here. I recommend using my (free) phraks guide and just be consistent. To put a time frame on it, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you pushing serious numbers in 12 months time. In months 1-2, only focus on light weight and nailing your technique and mobility. Months 3-12 will all be about stacking weight, recovery, and mobility.
MOBILITY. This one is somewhat dependent on what you’re doing. A general mobility plan would look like:
Before heavy squats or start/stop sprints, knock out Joe DeFranco’s Limber 11
Warming up for anything else, literally warm your body up. This could be as simple as 5 min on an airbike or any other machine. Some people think you need an intense warm up routine before lifting weights. I’ve found this to not be true. If I take a few minutes to spin or row, then get straight into the movements I have zero issues. After the spin, I’ll do a few warm up sets for compound movements for the day. For example, on a day I’m doing incline bench press, I’ll go in with super light weight and feel the full range of motion for 12-15 reps, increase weight and repeat, then get into my working sets. This pretty much rings true for any compound movement you’re doing that day. After a 5 minutes on a bike, warm up sets, and working sets, my body is plenty warm and I’m feeling good (read: SAUCY/SUACED UP/LIT/JACKED/PUMPED). On lifting days, I don’t have a cool-down routine however I do have a 10 minute walk back to my place, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Before every run, I do this routine. I don’t always do every movement in the routine and focus on particular parts where I may be tight/sore from the previous day. Following the run, I usually walk for 5-10 minutes to stop sweating and just bring my heart rate back down.
On rest days and/or days I do an excessive amount of aerobic work (Saturday), this is my favorite mobility routine. Some days I may opt for a hot yoga session as well. The bottom line, aim to do some form of mobility routine or yoga 1x per week. Additionally, on these rest days I’ll sauna for 15-30 minutes and hop straight into a cold plunge. There’s a bunch of research out there and probably some “AKTUALLY” guy cringing right now but I do what I like and what works for me. If you have some fancy hot/cold routine keep doing it.
All of this may seem like a lot but in practice takes very little time out of my day and has kept me injury and pain free for years. I never have to take major de-load periods and work out year round. In the winter I may take some extra time to warm up for runs. Additionally, this is what I’m doing right now. It is subject to change in the future. If you have no mobility in your training start with this and find what works for you. We are all special butterflies.
TLDR; Don’t rush technique and form. If you’re young you can get away with less mobility work but it’s an extremely good habit to get into so you don’t end up with a debilitating injury a decade from now.
“Nutrition. Ground beef vs turkey, real bacon or other, any non crap to go healthy choices for a typical PX”
My personal preference is ground beef over turkey. Obviously turkey is more lean unless you’re eating 93/7 ground beef. I normally opt for 85/15 ground beef. But the general principle is the same: consume any form of lean meat and consume 1.8-2.2g of protein per KG of bodyweight per day. As a result I eat A LOT of beef and haven’t had any problems so far. Nutrition probably deserves an entire post dedicated to it.
Healthy choices at the PX. I don’t think this differs from anyone shopping at a grocery store off post. Stick to whole/natural foods and ingredients. Try to limit the amount of processed foods you consume. Fruits and vegetables, rice and potatoes, lean meats are my staples and can be found anywhere.
“Reading list of other writers that have influenced how I train/live”
I hate reading lists. Sure it’s a good way to get started if you have no idea where to look for books. But there will be bias from the author of the reading list and won’t be tailored to what is going on in your life and what you’re interested in at the moment. I get book ideas from a variety of sources and most of the time just let my natural curiosity drive what I read. I try to read anything and everything. If I realize I won’t gain anything by reading it, I’ll drop it. A bunch of people have said this but we really are limited in how many books we can read so why waste more time reading something of no benefit for the sake of being addicting to completing tasks? My primary methodology is to read a blend of topics including tech, health, lifestyle, finance/business, longevity, geopolitics, and fiction. These come from a number of sources: books, articles, substacks, scientific literature, podcasts, long form twitter. Once you dive into a topic you will quickly realize how much content there is on it and be forced to narrow your search into the higher quality content and go from there. Twitter (X) is great purely for recommending related topics that spur further creativity and what I’m interested in. I don’t agree with everything on there and try to blank out the cancer and focus on the quality.
Here it is (not in any particular order):
Me. I’m the best writer I know (I know 0 writers so it’s an easy bar) so if you’re not subscribed to the substack I highly recommend you do so!
Douglas Adams, Aldous Huxley, Philip K. Dick
Richard Feynman
Walter Isaacson
Hunter S. Thompson
Charles Bukowski
Cormac McCarthy
Peter Attia - book, articles, and podcast (The Drive is excellent)
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is an all time favorite. I have two copies and re-read once a year.
Tim Urban (author of the Wait But Why blog, incredible)
Tim Ferriss (cliche but I like his podcast)
The Other Side of Fear by Mike Cernovic
The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer
The Sovereign Individual By Davidson and Rees-Mogg
Felix Dennis
Tim Keller (blow your mind on a lot of topics, marriage, prayer)
Richard Hamming
C.S. Lewis
And A LOT more that I can’t think of right now. As I said I blend my interests and read/learn from a variety of sources including audio/written. Sometimes I’ll even watch lectures like this one (excellent). I will add to this list over time. Again reading lists are subjective and my own list will definitely change over time. Use it as a base for creativity but don’t base your life, influences, and thoughts around a list someone else made. It’s just a source!
Again, running this Q+A for 24 hours so drop your questions below!
Cheers ✌️
DISCLAIMER
This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Please consult a medical professional before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol.