Your 4-Minute Friday
Happy March 1. Yes, it is already March 1. It feels like we’ve just entered 2024 and here we are. With the blink of an eye, we are 2 months deep.
As we move into March, it's an opportunity to reflect on the goals and intentions we set at the beginning of the year. Maybe you’re struggling, it’s time to recalibrate. Maybe you’re kicking ass, keep your foot on the gas.
Either way, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the routine and demands of daily life. Here is your reminder to step back, savor the moment, and appreciate this crazy journey.
Now let’s dive into today’s edition of 4-Minute Friday 👊🏻
On 30 for 30, training while sick, and the fountain of youth…
1. 30 for 30
I’m not taking about the ESPN documentaries, I’m talking about something even better. 30 for 30 is such a simple concept. That’s why I love it. It’s something that I’ve applied with many of my clients (and myself) and the progress we see is awesome.
Step 1: Choose an area you want to make progress
Step 2: Commit 30 minutes for 30 straight days
Step 3: Work with a coach, tell a friend, or make it public
Step 4: Track your consistency/progress on a calendar
30 days requires a commitment, it’s a full month. However 30 minutes is really digestible. If something is important to us, we can commit 30 minutes.
Think about this — 30 minutes for 30 days = 900 total minutes.
Imagine how strong you’d be with 900 minutes of focused strength training. Imagine how fit and how much easier daily tasks would be after 900 minutes of focused cardio. Imagine 900 focused minutes on that project you’re working on. These small daily steps turn into big leaps.
Action Step — What is one area you want to make progress in? Commit to this 30 for 30 concept and see what happens!
Remember — Small steps become big leaps
2. Training While Your Sick:
In the past, I’ve made the mistake of trying to push through being sick. Thinking all of my gains would wither away, I’d force myself to the gym, have a shitty workout, and end up being sick even longer.
Right now I’m in the heart of my marathon training. This was going to be a huge week of workouts… and I woke up Monday feeling like I was in the ring with Mike Tyson. Before I share my criteria and guidelines for getting back to business, there are 3 controllables we need to account for. Our mindset, our nutrition, and our sleep.
The first step we need to take is changing our mindset. When we are sick, we aren’t going to get stronger or improve our fitness. Our body is using all of its resources to get us healthy. And that’s our mindset — What can I do to get back to 100% as fast as possible.
It might be hard to stomach food and you might only want to eat junk, but your body is craving healthy food sources. When we are sick, it’s even more important that we fuel our body with quality proteins, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. Despite your activity level being down, your body is hard at work trying to fight this bug.
Your sleep might be the most important factor. I know this one isn’t easy. We still have our family, our work, our responsibilities. Aim for 8+ hours. Communicate with your team, your boss, your clients, your family. The sooner you get back to full health, the sooner you get to kick ass again. Shoutout to my wife for being a saint and picking up the slack while I drown myself in Nyquil at 8pm.
Without further ado... Here is my criteria for returning to training:
1) Temperature: Do you have a fever? If yes, you’re not training at all.
2) Resting Heart Rate (RHR): Is your resting heart rate within 5 beats of its normal number? If yes, you can proceed with light exercise. If your RHR is within 5-9 beats of normal, you can proceed with VERY light exercise. If your RHR is 10+ beats over the normal number, you’re not training.
3) Judgment: Simply ask — How do I feel? Is it worth it?
Here are my guidelines for returning to training:
a) If you missed < 2 days, return to normal training
b) If you missed 3-5 days, return at 75% intensity and volume
ex: instead of doing 4 sets of 10 reps, you’re doing 3 sets of 6-8 reps with less weight
ex: instead of running 40 miles for the week, you’re running 30 miles
c) If you missed 1+ week, return at 50% intensity and volume
ex: instead of 4 sets of 10 reps, you’re doing 2 sets of 5 reps with less weight
ex: instead of running 40 miles for the week, you’re running 20 miles at an easy effort
If you end up getting sick … come back to this thread. Trying to push through being sick has a much better chance of setting you back another couple weeks versus pushing forward at all.
3. The Fountain of Youth:
You thought I’d share some magical supplement? The “one exercise” to change your life? Come on, you know me better than that.
We all want the next best thing. The magic pill. The secret sauce. If there was an ‘easy pill’, it wouldn’t be a secret and we’d all take it. We wouldn’t have a health epidemic. Close to 50% of our country wouldn’t be obese.
This isn’t easy. It doesn’t happen overnight. There will be ups and downs, good days and bad days. Here is your recipe. Follow this fountain of youth recipe and I promise you will start to look, feel, and perform differently👇
Eat protein and vegetables at each meal.
Lift weights 3-4x/week.
Walk 7k+ steps/day.
Drink water (with electrolytes 😎).
Sleep 7+ hours/night.
4. One Quote To Get The Wheels Spinning:
"Everything is super important. Until you are sick. Then you realize there was only ever one thing that was important. Your health.” - Aubrey Marcus
Personally being knocked out with the flu right now, although on a smaller level, there’s truth in this quote. I haven’t been able to Dad or Husband up to my standard. I haven’t done any training. I haven’t been as productive working.
Without our health, we don’t have much. Yet we often overlook the profound impact that consistent care for our own physical and mental well-being can have on our overall quality of life. We will work ourselves into the ground and bend over backwards for other people, yet we spend so little time taking care of our own mind and body with exercise, healthy food, and other activities that promote our own mental well-being.
Action Step — Take inventory. What are you doing to take care of YOU? To make sure that YOU are firing on all cylinders and living up to YOUR STANDARD?
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It was great hanging with ya today, now go dominate your weekend 💪🏻
- Matt
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