You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla. My perception is that a lot more people today are training neck than ever before. This has a lot to do with recent research that has come out on the benefits of a stronger neck. It also has to do with advances in training equipment. The neck, of course, is a group of core stabilizing muscles that support the head, and is a factor in virtually every strength training movement. However, there are a number of reasons why people especially target this area for maximum impact. In this article, I present 4 of the most common reasons people train neck: 1-) to treat / prevent neck pain; 2-) to reduce the risk of concussions / brain injury; 3-) because bigger necks are more attractive; and 4-) to strengthen the voice. This month also marks a year since I started training my neck. I’ve included some progress pics and a one-year update of my experience at the bottom of the article.

Disclaimer: You should consult your doctor before undertaking any strength training program, as there are risks involved, especially with a sensitive area like the neck.

4 Reasons People Train Neck Muscles

1. To Treat / Prevent Neck Pain

Conventional wisdom has it that a stronger muscle is less likely to get injured, and that strength training is an important part of recovery. When people get injured, physical therapy is one of the first things the doctor recommends. Neck pain, in fact, is quite common and can be debilitating. According to this source, “In the course of 3 months, about 15% of U.S. adults have neck pain that lasts at least one full day.” The expression, “pain in the neck” is a common idiom to represent a very annoying or cumbersome situation. The human muscular system is highly connected, and so a strong neck can also support other muscle groups, like the shoulders and back.

In one study, “Neck muscle training in the treatment of chronic neck pain: a three-year follow-up study,” 118 women with “nonspecific chronic neck pain” undertook a successful one-year strength-training regiment. The study revealed that after a three-year follow-up, improvements in pain and range of motion were largely maintained, despite the fact that adherence to the program faltered. The researchers concluded, “Since a 12-month exercise programme shows a long-term effect, exercise may not need to be performed regularly for the remainder of the subject’s life.”

2. To Reduce The Risk Of Concussions / Brain Injury

The potential here is extremely important for people who play contact sports, like football, wrestling, and mixed martial arts (and even soccer, where heading the ball is quite common). Approximately 4 million concussions occur in the US alone ever year (source). Repeat brain injury has been linked to a host of medical issues, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) (See NFL safety changes). A number of studies have identified a relationship between neck strength and the incidence of concussions.

This study, for example, found that “overall neck strength” was a significant predictor of concussions. For every 1 pound increase in neck strength, the odds of a concussion decreased by 5%. The researchers concluded that “identifying differences in overall neck strength may be useful in developing a screening tool to determine which high school athletes are at higher risk of concussion. Once identified, these athletes could be targeted for concussion prevention programs.”

One literature review, published in October of 2018, concluded that the results were “inconclusive on whether neck musculature strength prevents concussions,” and that more research was needed. However, researchers at the Rutgers School of Health Professionals wrote in a paper published in February of 2019, “We have identified neck strength, size and posture as potential factors that reduce risk [of concussions] by lessening the magnitude of force upon impact. Thus, increasing neck strength and possibly size could substantially reduce risk or severity of injury or outcomes” (source).

Another team of researchers in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois wrote in a March, 2019, perspective article that “The sports medicine literature has shown that decreased neck strength and slower neck muscle activation are significant predictors for sports-related concussion.” (source).

Overall, the evidence seems to be mounting that neck strength is, in fact, a risk factor for concussions in sports, and all their associated ills. Neck strength may also provide extra support if someone, God forbid, experienced a fall or were in a car accident.

3. Because Bigger Necks Are More Attractive

The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes.

Job 41:22, NLT

The neck is one of the most visible muscles in the body. Unlike arms, legs, etc., the neck is exposed nearly all of the time. A thicker neck is typically associated with overall physical strength and dominance. People who bodybuild for aesthetics may want to take a look at these before and afters.

4. To Strengthen The Voice

The neck muscles are heavily involved in eating, drinking, speaking, singing, and so on. Pain/tension in the neck area can impair any of the aforementioned activities. I’ve read articles on neck exercises recommended for singers and heavy voice users. Stronger neck muscles mean greater control, and they can ease the daily burden of supporting the head and speaking apparatus. It stands to reason that a stronger, healthier neck is in the interest of people who use their voice a lot.

My One-Year Update

About a year ago, I started training my neck. I used to suffer from chronic neck pain, and so this was my way of taking action against that. I focused primarily on neck curls, while lying down on my bed, head extended off the edge, or on the floor as pictured in Figure 1. (You can watch a YouTube video on proper form). I also bought a harness, which I would use from time to time, but I found that I could increase resistance simply by pressing on my forehead. A harness can be especially helpful for training the back of the neck, since after a certain point it’s hard to get enough pressure with your hands to really give those muscles a good workout. I also did a lot of isometric movements where I would hold my neck in a pressure position for a few minutes at a time (see Figure 1).

In sum, I did a combination of neck curls / isometric movements on my back, and sometimes neck extensions while on my stomach (to work the back of the neck), for an average of maybe 4-5 times a week for around 20 minutes each session. My average rep range was anywhere from 20 to 100+, depending on the level of resistance. The first time I experienced soreness in my neck, it felt weird. I even wondered if I had hurt myself. They say this is common since we aren’t accustomed to that feeling in the neck, and it is a very sensitive area. Fortunately, the pain went away within a couple days and I didn’t have any real issues after that.

Here are some short clips / images I took at different points in the process. Note that I weighed anywhere from 145-150 lbs. This year I focused on cardio, and my overall weight was at an all-time low. Overall weight is probably the biggest thing that affects neck thickness. However, training neck makes the neck stronger and thicker and more shredded at any level. I also did not take any supplements aside from an occasional protein shake because this experiment was more of a peripheral thing for me.

3 Month Mark (02.2021)

Most people cannot flex their neck, even some people who been strength training for a long time. As you can see in the videos, by the three-month mark I was slowly gaining the ability to flex my neck. That’s a lot of work for a very subtle effect.

7 Month Mark (06.2021)

Here you can see the muscle start to coalesce. Flexing is a lot easier at this point.

10 Month Mark (09.2021)

Now I have enough muscle mass where I can flex either side of my neck with relative ease. After the 10-month mark, I have continued to work the neck, but I have not noticed any real improvement. I imagine I would need to increase volume/resistance, maybe go up in weight, or start taking supplements to see much progress after this. I was really consistent with few exceptions for 10 months, which is a long time to focus on a single muscle group. Gains after that point are a lot harder to come by.

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Today I want to share the results of a study conducted several decades ago that has forever changed the way we view the relationship between sunlight, testosterone, and athletic performance. In the study, Doctors Abraham Myerson and Rudolph Neustadt exposed men to UV light and measured the excretion of various sex hormones. The study revealed that exposure to UV light triggered huge increases in testosterone levels which did not return to baseline levels for over a week. This increase was dependent on the location of the body and the amount of skin exposed to the UV light. The researchers found that men’s baseline testosterone increased by 120% (more than double!) when the participants’ chest and back were exposed to UV light. However, the biggest increase in testosterone came when the participants’ testicles were exposed to UV light. The latter resulted in a massive 200% increase (triple) in baseline testosterone levels. This study has enormous implications for guys attempting to optimize testosterone levels and for athletes who want to maximize performance naturally and legally. It is a wonder why the sporting and fitness industries haven’t gone mainstream with this knowledge. Then again, there is little money to be made by advising people to get more sunlight. Companies would rather sell you expensive supplements. Athletes who have this knowledge may also wish to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

The main takeaway of the study is that exposure to UV light anywhere on the body drives a huge increase in testosterone levels. I, however, wanted to test out the particulars of the study. Bluntly put, I wanted to see what would happen when I directly exposed the balls to UV light. I did this through an open window during the heat of day when the UV Index was high. I noticed they immediately began to grow upon first exposure. I knew this is the area where the body produces the vast majority of testosterone, so it made sense that local exposure to sunlight would trigger a disproportionate increase. The physical changes I observed coupled with the increases in energy and motivation to work out convinced me not only that the study was accurate, but that it was a major game-changer for the sports and fitness industries.

Exposing one’s nether parts to sunlight is neither practical nor desirable for obvious reasons. This has led some guys aware of the benefits to use UV red light therapy to achieve the same outcome in the privacy of their own home (link). I don’t doubt this works, but since it’s not something I’ve personally experimented with, I won’t say much about it. What I do know is that red light technology can be quiet pricey. However, I did discover a cheap and natural method that arguably worked even better for me than expensive alternatives.

Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home. You should consult your doctor about Vitamin D and testosterone optimization given that they are very powerful hormones and a lot could go wrong.

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin for good reason. The human body has a Vitamin D receptor in nearly ever cell of the body and is highly evolved to generate Vitamin D upon exposure to the sun. After I first read the study a few years ago, I wondered whether the increase in testosterone was triggered by the local production of Vitamin D directly on the skin in response to the UV light exposure. That in mind, I experimented with different doses of Vitamin D topical applied directly to the balls. Lo and behold, I noticed the same enlarging effect as when I had gotten direct UV light exposure. In this process of trial and error, I came to the conclusion that less is more. When the skin is exposed to UV light, it naturally generates Vitamin D in a uniform fashion. Small exposed areas of skin naturally produce small amounts of Vitamin D, and applying to much Vitamin D to any one region can interfere with its natural synthesis by the body. I found that less than 1,000 IU was enough for me to achieve the desired effect and that higher doses were wholly ineffective. Whenever I apply Vitamin D anywhere directly to my skin I prefer to crack open the Vitamin D softgels rather than purchase a topical product. My method is cheaper and it enables me to control the dosing better than prepared formulations. I would apply about half of a 1000 IU softgel every few days and could notice a major difference within a few hours.

Today I make sure I get adequate sun exposure as part of a healthy lifestyle, but I have not experimented with UV light or Vitamin D in this fashion in years. Currently, I have no reason to maintain peak testosterone levels. However, if I ever found myself training for an athletic competition or was experiencing symptoms of low testosterone, the power of the sun would be my first recourse. Nowadays people are quick to take supplements, inject steroids, or go on testosterone replacement therapy, giving up on their body’s natural ability to produce what they need. Meanwhile, nature offers a cheaper (if not free) solution that is arguably more effective than artificial alternatives.

See my article on the The Most Natural Way To Optimize Vitamin D Levels for more pro tips on harnessing the power of the sun.

Today I made the world a better place by working out and eating my greens.

[You can follow me on Twitter @creatorvilla.] Today I want to share a short clip I transcribed in which navy seal and motivational speaker David Goggins discusses his relationship to drugs and alcohol. Goggins knows a lot about sobriety as someone who went through hell week training three times and routinely competes in ultramarathons and other excruciating athletic events. For Goggins, sobriety is about staying in control of his mind and living authentically. To be sure, this is not a knock on anyone or any lifestyle, just one man’s perspective that I found thought-provoking.

I want to make sure that every single thing I feel is real. I want no masking. I want nothing to mask my ability to feel fear and to overcome fear, whatever it may be.

David Goggins

Transcript:

Interviewer: And I know one thing that, —we spoke about it before [we were on] camera. To most of the world, you’re super clean. You’ve never done drugs. You’ve never had alcohol. You don’t drink alcohol.

Goggins: I’ve tasted alcohol, but no, I’m not a drinker.

Interviewer: Do you think that has to do with your father who used to drink a lot?

Goggins: It’s probably due to him, but it’s also due to—at a young age, I realized that I had a very weak mind, a very weak mind. And I want nothing to interfere with my own thought process. A lot of people before they go on stage, they get a little bit tipsy, get a little buzz. Maybe smoke a little something, do a little something.

I want to make sure that every single thing I feel is real. I want no masking. I want nothing to mask my ability to feel fear and to overcome fear, whatever it may be.

I’m not saying people who drink or do these different things are trying to hide. Some people just do it. For me, I think it’s almost a masking agent, so then your mind doesn’t have to work as hard. That means I’m losing.

I’m a strong believer that exercise is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle, especially for those of us who live sedentary lives. Exercise gets blood flowing, releases happy chemicals, enhances emotional processing, conveys a sense of achievement, and makes us feel better about life. I haven’t always been a big fan of cardio. I played soccer in high school but running isn’t something I do for fun. I also prefer a muscular physique, so most of my time in the gym is spent lifting weights. However, I also know from experience and research that cardio is healthy for the mind and body. As a result, I incorporated a simple, intense exercise into my routine that let’s me have my cake and eat it too. I’ve termed it the gorilla walk. The gorilla walk is both aerobic (cardio) and anaerobic/anabolic (muscle-building)–the perfect marriage of cardio and resistance exercise.

Disclaimer: The gorilla walk is potentially dangerous, especially if you do it on a treadmill. Do not try this at home.

What I need for the gorilla walk is a space to walk fast/jog lightly, a backpack, and weights (plates and dumbbells). Inside, I like to use a treadmill and an old sturdy backpack. I started out with a 25 LB plate in the backpack and two 2-3 LB dumbbells in each hand. With a dumbbell in each hand, I like to jog as usual, with my hands moving up and down rhythmically. I want the backpack and dumbbells to be heavy enough that I can move 4-4.5 MPH for no more than 10-20 minutes. More weight=greater intensity=bigger gains. I can experiment by going up and down in weight and altering hand positions. For example, I sometimes take a break from the backpack, increase the weight of the dumbbells, and place them overhead or in a curling position. The goal is to get my whole body moving and building muscle at the same time.

The genius of the gorilla walk lies in its ability to activate the entire body. The backpack builds up the lats and shoulders, and the dumbbells work on arms, chest, and overall upper body definition depending on where you hold them. The legs and core work hard moving and balancing the weight. The gorilla walk is a cross-fit style work-out. It’s extremely stress-relieving and mindfulness-promoting, and efficiently consolidates many exercises into one. It can be good for losing weight, putting on muscle, and experiencing the therapeutic benefits of exercise.

Below are links to the treadmill and adjustable dumbbells I use, and a weighted military-style vest that’s perfect for this exercise. With a proper vest, I can do the gorilla walk with more weight than a backpack and look a little less ridiculous in a public gym.

Are you a fan of the gorilla walk? You can’t knock it it until you try it.

Treadmill: https://amzn.to/2PQTFtZ

Weighted Military-Style Vest: https://amzn.to/2PTn6vy

Adjustable Dumbbells: https://amzn.to/2N1yenA

25-LB Plate: https://amzn.to/2PQL5LI

Today’s athletes are far better than yesterday’s athletes–you hear it all the time. It’s a common argument used in generational legacy debates (Maradona versus Messi, Lebron versus Jordan, Woods versus Nicklaus). In fact, many people today believe that we’ve made progress in every area as a society, and athletic performance is the rule not the exception. After all, aren’t athletic records broken every year? The picture, however, is slightly more nuanced than a first glance would let on.

Journalist and Colombia-graduate David Epstein has spent the great part of his professional life studying athletic performance. He is author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance and Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Epstein gave a Ted Talk in which he addressed the very question posed in the previous paragraph. Epstein concludes that humans couldn’t possibly have genetically evolved in such a short period of time. Epstein attributes advances in athletic performance today to changing technology, changing genes, and changing mindsets.

Changing technologies as in synthetic track surfaces and more aerodynamic bicycles. Changing genes as in better selecting for sports based on body types (e.g. taller builds in basketball and bigger builds for football). And changing mindsets as in more people attempting great athletic feats like matching Roger Bannister’s famous 4-minute mile. I would personally add a fourth explanation: changing performance-enhancing drugs. Reality is that athletes today are not genetically superior, but modern technology and scientific methods may be partially responsible for advances in athletic performance.

I have reposted the fascinating talk with permission from Ted.

Transcript:

The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” Faster, Higher, Stronger. And athletes have fulfilled that motto rapidly. The winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon ran two hours and eight minutes. Had he been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. Now we all have this feeling that we’re somehow just getting better as a human race, inexorably progressing, but it’s not like we’ve evolved into a new species in a century. So what’s going on here? I want to take a look at what’s really behind this march of athletic progress.

In 1936, Jesse Owens held the world record in the 100 meters. Had Jesse Owens been racing last year in the world championships of the 100 meters, when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished, Owens would have still had 14 feet to go. That’s a lot in sprinter land. To give you a sense of how much it is, I want to share with you a demonstration conceived by sports scientist Ross Tucker. Now picture the stadium last year at the world championships of the 100 meters: thousands of fans waiting with baited breath to see Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history; flashbulbs popping as the nine fastest men in the world coil themselves into their blocks. And I want you to pretend that Jesse Owens is in that race. Now close your eyes for a second and picture the race. Bang! The gun goes off. An American sprinter jumps out to the front. Usain Bolt starts to catch him. Usain Bolt passes him, and as the runners come to the finish, you’ll hear a beep as each man crosses the line. (Beeps) That’s the entire finish of the race. You can open your eyes now. That first beep was Usain Bolt. That last beep was Jesse Owens. Listen to it again. (Beeps immediately after) When you think of it like that, it’s not that big a difference, is it? And then consider that Usain Bolt started by propelling himself out of blocks down a specially fabricated carpet designed to allow him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Jesse Owens, on the other hand, ran on cinders, the ash from burnt wood, and that soft surface stole far more energy from his legs as he ran. Rather than blocks, Jesse Owens had a gardening trowel that he had to use to dig holes in the cinders to start from. Biomechanical analysis of the speed of Owens’ joints shows that had been running on the same surface as Bolt, he wouldn’t have been 14 feet behind, he would have been within one stride. Rather than the last beep, Owens would have been the second beep. Listen to it again. (Beeps) That’s the difference track surface technology has made, and it’s done it throughout the running world.

Consider a longer event. In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister became the first man to run under four minutes in the mile. Nowadays, college kids do that every year. On rare occasions, a high school kid does it. As of the end of last year, 1,314 men had run under four minutes in the mile, but like Jesse Owens, Sir Roger Bannister ran on soft cinders that stole far more energy from his legs than the synthetic tracks of today. So I consulted biomechanics experts to find out how much slower it is to run on cinders than synthetic tracks, and their consensus that it’s one and a half percent slower. So if you apply a one and a half percent slowdown conversion to every man who ran his sub-four mile on a synthetic track, this is what happens. Only 530 are left. If you look at it from that perspective, fewer than ten new men per [year] have joined the sub-four mile club since Sir Roger Bannister. Now, 530 is a lot more than one, and that’s partly because there are many more people training today and they’re training more intelligently. Even college kids are professional in their training compared to Sir Roger Bannister, who trained for 45 minutes at a time while he ditched gynecology lectures in med school. And that guy who won the 1904 Olympic marathon in three in a half hours, that guy was drinking rat poison and brandy while he ran along the course. That was his idea of a performance-enhancing drug. (Laughter)

Clearly, athletes have gotten more savvy about performance-enhancing drugs as well, and that’s made a difference in some sports at some times, but technology has made a difference in all sports, from faster skis to lighter shoes. Take a look at the record for the 100-meter freestyle swim. The record is always trending downward, but it’s punctuated by these steep cliffs. This first cliff, in 1956, is the introduction of the flip turn. Rather than stopping and turning around, athletes could somersault under the water and get going right away in the opposite direction. This second cliff, the introduction of gutters on the side of the pool that allows water to splash off, rather than becoming turbulence that impedes the swimmers as they race. This final cliff, the introduction of full-body and low-friction swimsuits.

Throughout sports, technology has changed the face of performance. In 1972, Eddy Merckx set the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour at 30 miles, 3,774 feet. Now that record improved and improved as bicycles improved and became more aerodynamic all the way until 1996, when it was set at 35 miles, 1,531 feet, nearly five miles farther than Eddy Merckx cycled in 1972. But then in 2000, the International Cycling Union decreed that anyone who wanted to hold that record had to do so with essentially the same equipment that Eddy Merckx used in 1972. Where does the record stand today? 30 miles, 4,657 feet, a grand total of 883 feet farther than Eddy Merckx cycled more than four decades ago. Essentially the entire improvement in this record was due to technology.

Still, technology isn’t the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven’t evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within competitive sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes’ bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same exact size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports scientists and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes’ bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jumper, the average elite shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pounds heavier. And this happened throughout the sports world.

In fact, if you plot on a height versus mass graph one data point for each of two dozen sports in the first half of the 20th century, it looks like this. There’s some dispersal, but it’s kind of grouped around that average body type. Then that idea started to go away, and at the same time, digital technology — first radio, then television and the Internet — gave millions, or in some cases billions, of people a ticket to consume elite sports performance. The financial incentives and fame and glory afforded elite athletes skyrocketed, and it tipped toward the tiny upper echelon of performance. It accelerated the artificial selection for specialized bodies. And if you plot a data point for these same two dozen sports today, it looks like this. The athletes’ bodies have gotten much more different from one another. And because this chart looks like the charts that show the expanding universe, with the galaxies flying away from one another, the scientists who discovered it call it “The Big Bang of Body Types.”

In sports where height is prized, like basketball, the tall athletes got taller. In 1983, the National Basketball Association signed a groundbreaking agreement making players partners in the league, entitled to shares of ticket revenues and television contracts. Suddenly, anybody who could be an NBA player wanted to be, and teams started scouring the globe for the bodies that could help them win championships. Almost overnight, the proportion of men in the NBA who are at least seven feet tall doubled to 10 percent. Today, one in 10 men in the NBA is at least seven feet tall, but a seven-foot-tall man is incredibly rare in the general population — so rare that if you know an American man between the ages of 20 and 40 who is at least seven feet tall, there’s a 17 percent chance he’s in the NBA right now. (Laughter) That is, find six honest seven footers, one is in the NBA right now. And that’s not the only way that NBA players’ bodies are unique. This is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” the ideal proportions, with arm span equal to height. My arm span is exactly equal to my height. Yours is probably very nearly so. But not the average NBA player. The average NBA player is a shade under 6’7″, with arms that are seven feet long. Not only are NBA players ridiculously tall, they are ludicrously long. Had Leonardo wanted to draw the Vitruvian NBA Player, he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse, not a circle and a square.

So in sports where large size is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger. Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller. The average elite female gymnast shrunk from 5’3″ to 4’9″ on average over the last 30 years, all the better for their power-to-weight ratio and for spinning in the air. And while the large got larger and the small got smaller, the weird got weirder. The average length of the forearm of a water polo player in relation to their total arm got longer, all the better for a forceful throwing whip. And as the large got larger, small got smaller, and the weird weirder. In swimming, the ideal body type is a long torso and short legs. It’s like the long hull of a canoe for speed over the water. And the opposite is advantageous in running. You want long legs and a short torso. And this shows in athletes’ bodies today. Here you see Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer in history, standing next to Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record holder in the mile. These men are seven inches different in height, but because of the body types advantaged in their sports, they wear the same length pants. Seven inches difference in height, these men have the same length legs.

Now in some cases, the search for bodies that could push athletic performance forward ended up introducing into the competitive world populations of people that weren’t previously competing at all, like Kenyan distance runners. We think of Kenyans as being great marathoners. Kenyans think of the Kalenjin tribe as being great marathoners. The Kalenjin make up just 12 percent of the Kenyan population but the vast majority of elite runners. And they happen, on average, to have a certain unique physiology: legs that are very long and very thin at their extremity, and this is because they have their ancestry at very low latitude in a very hot and dry climate, and an evolutionary adaptation to that is limbs that are very long and very thin at the extremity for cooling purposes. It’s the same reason that a radiator has long coils, to increase surface area compared to volume to let heat out, and because the leg is like a pendulum, the longer and thinner it is at the extremity, the more energy-efficient it is to swing. To put Kalenjin running success in perspective, consider that 17 American men in history have run faster than two hours and 10 minutes in the marathon. That’s a four-minute-and-58-second-per-mile pace. Thirty-two Kalenjin men did that last October. (Laughter) That’s from a source population the size of metropolitan Atlanta.

Still, even changing technology and the changing gene pool in sports don’t account for all of the changes in performance. Athletes have a different mindset than they once did. Have you ever seen in a movie when someone gets an electrical shock and they’re thrown across a room? There’s no explosion there. What’s happening when that happens is that the electrical impulse is causing all their muscle fibers to twitch at once, and they’re throwing themselves across the room. They’re essentially jumping. That’s the power that’s contained in the human body. But normally we can’t access nearly all of it. Our brain acts as a limiter, preventing us from accessing all of our physical resources, because we might hurt ourselves, tearing tendons or ligaments. But the more we learn about how that limiter functions, the more we learn how we can push it back just a bit, in some cases by convincing the brain that the body won’t be in mortal danger by pushing harder. Endurance and ultra-endurance sports serve as a great example. Ultra-endurance was once thought to be harmful to human health, but now we realize that we have all these traits that are perfect for ultra-endurance: no body fur and a glut of sweat glands that keep us cool while running; narrow waists and long legs compared to our frames; large surface area of joints for shock absorption. We have an arch in our foot that acts like a spring, short toes that are better for pushing off than for grasping tree limbs, and when we run, we can turn our torso and our shoulders like this while keeping our heads straight. Our primate cousins can’t do that. They have to run like this. And we have big old butt muscles that keep us upright while running. Have you ever looked at an ape’s butt? They have no buns because they don’t run upright. And as athletes have realized that we’re perfectly suited for ultra-endurance, they’ve taken on feats that would have been unthinkable before, athletes like Spanish endurance racer Kílian Jornet. Here’s Kílian running up the Matterhorn. (Laughter) With a sweatshirt there tied around his waist. It’s so steep he can’t even run here. He’s pulling up on a rope. This is a vertical ascent of more than 8,000 feet, and Kílian went up and down in under three hours. Amazing. And talented though he is, Kílian is not a physiological freak. Now that he has done this, other athletes will follow, just as other athletes followed after Sir Roger Bannister ran under four minutes in the mile.

Changing technology, changing genes, and a changing mindset. Innovation in sports, whether that’s new track surfaces or new swimming techniques, the democratization of sport, the spread to new bodies and to new populations around the world, and imagination in sport, an understanding of what the human body is truly capable of, have conspired to make athletes stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for many things. His former status as Mr. Universe, his role as the main character in the Terminator series, and his charming Austrian accent. He is also known for his in-your-face style that every competitive athlete and gym junkie can appreciate. Arnold has the success for people to trust what he’s saying and the passion to inspire them to take action. I’ve transcribed a YouTube compilation in which Arnold talks about the mindset of a champion–having a clear vision, an unwavering self-belief, and an insane work ethic.

Transcript:

When I used to do seminars on how to become a champion, I would always ask people, why do you want to be a champion? Or what do you want to accomplish? Why are you training? And if a guy would get up and he would say “Well, I want to train because I think that if I get muscular and I feel like I’m getting the kind of definition, then I maybe can enter a bodybuilding competition.” I said “Sit down. Because if you think this way, you’re going to be a loser. You’re never going to make it. Because there’s no maybe. You’ve got to get up and say ‘I want to be a champion. And I’ll do whatever it takes.’The amount of hours it takes, the posing, the this, the that, the visualization. Looking at training footage, looking at motivational books, reading this and that. Whatever it takes. I will do it. That’s the answer I want to hear from you.

You can detect right away those that are going to be shaky and that will fall behind and that will not go all the way, and those that are very hungry. And that hunger you have to develop because you have to create a goal for yourself whatever that may be. A short-term goal, and a long-term goal. You got to go after it and if you do not see, and if you do not believe it, who else will? . .

Experiencing pain in your muscles and aching and just then go on and go on and go on. And those last 2, 3, or 4 repetitions, that’s what actually makes the muscle then grow. And that divides one from a champion and one from not being a champion. If you can go through this pain period, you make it to be a champion. If you can’t go through, forget it. And that’s what most people lack–is having the guts, the guts to go in and just say “I go through and I don’t care what happens.” You know? If it aches and if I fall down, I have no fear of fainting in a gym because I know it could happen. I threw up many times while I was working out. But it doesn’t matter because it’s all worth it. . .

Every one has a problem with time, but the day is 24 hours. And we sleep 6. Now I know there are some out there “Woah, woah, woah. I need 8.” But I say just sleep a little faster because the bottom line is we have 6 hours of sleep, 24 hours available, so you have 18 hours now available. Do your work, your family, your hobbies. And also to learn something new or to do something new, which could easily be that you want to learn a new language. Or that you want to read–as a new year’s resolution–I have to read a book every day. Or you say I’m going to go and reshape my body. So you’re going to go and take this hour out of your schedule, “I’m going to train an hour every day.”

So this is for most people a huge challenge, but it is totally doable. And I can tell them because the kind of things that I did when I came to this country. I went to school, I was working construction, I was working out 5 hours a day. I was taking acting classes from 8 o’clock at night to 12 midnight. I was doing all of those things. I wanted to make sure that out of the 24 hours in the day that I don’t waste one single hour. Those hours are too precious. I just want to tell people don’t give me this thing, “I have a difficult time–I don’t have time for this.” None of that. You have time. You make the time.

I had this need of coming to America. I mean when I started learning about America at the age of 10, taking geography lessons. I learned about America, I remember photos in the textbooks but also in super 8 mm film footage that they showed in the classroom. About the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building and the six-lane highways. I said, “What am I doing here in Austria with these little roads. I want to go and be a part of the big deal.”

So I always had this desire that the only way I would get to America–because in those days it wasn’t common for you to buy yourself a ticket, no one could afford that–I had to kind of accomplish something big that takes me to America. And then I read about this guy Reg Park, who won Mr. Universe three times and then became a star in Hercules movies, and then was in Italy filming, and then in Hollywood filming. I felt that could be the ticket. I should become Mr. Universe, I should become a second Reg Park.

Of course, no one really bought into that. My parents thought it was totally insane, but I think my parents really thought that there was something terribly wrong with being that driven. Because I would come home at lunchtime and instead of having lunch I would do 200 sit-ups. And at night I would go to the stadium and I would be lifting weights. I would come home at 10 o’clock at night and I would be continually lifting weights. So it was like this insanity and in the military I would continually lifting weights no matter how the training was, and how tough the basic training was, I would always then lift weights afterwards. . .

I think the most important thing is that we have a very clear vision of where we go. A goal–where do we go. Because you can have the best ship in the world, you can have the cruise line but if the captain does not know where to go, that ship will drift around the world, and out in the sea and will never end up anywhere. This is exactly the way it is in real life. If you don’t have a goal. If you don’t have a vision, you just drift around. And you’re not going to be happy. This is why it’s so important to have that vision.

Now I created that vision in Austria because I grew up after the Second World War. Austria, right along with Germany, lost the Second World War. The problem was everyone was so depressed that we lost the war, there was alcoholism everywhere. There was depression, there was a terrible economic situation. There was famine, there was starvation, and all of those things. Also, it was kind of a little place and narrow. I felt I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to escape. And I couldn’t see myself really doing work there. And to stay there, to work in the factor, to work in the farm or even to follower in my father’s footsteps and become a police officer. I couldn’t see that either, but that’s what my parents wanted me to do. But that’s not what I saw, this was the vision of my parents, but not mine. . .

You got to work your butt off. If you think that you’re going to accomplish something really special and be the best at anything in the world, and you think you can do it without working, you’re making a big mistake. Because no matter what I did, if it was in bodybuilding or in acting or if it was in the political arena–it always took a lot of lot of work. You have to put out, and you have to sometimes make a lot of sacrifices. If you’re not willing to work hard, forget about it. It’s another rule that is very important. . .

Don’t be afraid to fail because if you’re afraid to fail, then you’re always holding yourself back because you’re afraid that if you go all out, you may fail. In weightlifting, we learn that very quickly. The only way that you can break a record is if you’re willing to fail. You put more weight. You tried. Sometimes you may not be able to lift it which has happened to me many times. But eventually when you train hard enough, you will lift it. Don’t be afraid of failure, I mean, how far can you fall?

Unbeknown to many people, there are a number of awesome calculators and references online that can helps us meet our health and fitness goals, whether that’s losing weight, gaining weight, or calculating repetition ranges with different exercises. Today I want to share a few of the most popular ones and the ones I have personally found most helpful. My goal for this post is to make you aware of some of the free resources out there and to serve as a reference. Let me know your personal favorites down below and I may update this post to include them.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

BMI is a calculation that many of you are familiar with. It is probably the main tool your doctor uses to assess the health of your weight. BMI is based on two inputs: height and weight. Readings of 18 and below is underweight. 19-24 is healthy. 25-29 is overweight. 30-39 is obese. And 40 and up is extremely obese. You can reference the chart below or plug your numbers into BMI Calculator USA, which will give you an exact reading. BMI has its shortcomings. For example, Michael Jordan in his prime had a BMI of 27-29, which would classify him as overweight, yet his weight size was ~30. That is because muscle is quite heavy (it weighs more than fat) and BMI doesn’t factor in training-induced increases in muscle mass. If you are an athlete with high muscle mass, then BMI is probably not the best measure for you. For most people, however, BMI is an effective tool to gauge the health of their weight.

Weight Loss & Weight Gain Calculators

Did you know that a pound is ~3,500 calories? That means if you want to gain/lose a pound a week you need to increase/decrease your calorie intake by 3,500/7 = 500 calories a day. For example, if you need 2,200 calories a day to maintain your current weight and want to drop a pound a week (holding physical activity levels the same), then you would need to eat 1,700 calories a day. There are calculators where you input height, weight, sex, age, and physical activity levels and they calculate exactly how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight or drop x amount of pounds per week.

Calculator.Net has a great simple tool for this purpose –> CNET Weight Loss/Weight Gain Calculator. Another great one is at Calculators.org –> CORG Weight Loss/Weight Gain Calculator. The CORG calculator has the added feature of allowing you to input how many pounds you want to lose/gain in x amount of time, and calculating exactly how many calories you need to eat a day to achieve it.

FYI, there was a 30-calorie difference in how much I should eat in a day to maintain my current weight between the two calculators above. That is because no two calculators use the exact same algorithm and there is some estimation involved. In general, these are very helpful tools based on math and science but don’t take every minute reading as the absolute truth.

Resistance Training Calculators (Bench, Squat, Deadlift, Etc.)

There are also calculators that estimate how many repetitions of an exercise you can do at unspecified weights based on how many repetitions you can do at a specified weight. Bodybuilding.com has one for any lift–> Bodybuilding One-Rep Max Calculator. Most people use tools like this calculate their one-rep max as a measure of overall strength, hence why Bodybuilding.com brands the calculator as a “one-rep max calculator.” However, you can also use it to calculate, your 3, 5, and 8-rep maxes. For example, if you input 200 pounds for 8 repetitions, the calculator will churn out 250 as a one-rep max. However, there is also a chart at the bottom that estimates how many reps you can do at other weight based on your one-rep max (e.g. you can do 95% of one-rep max for two reps; 90% of one-rep max for 4 reps; and and 80% of one-rep max for 8 reps.) So if my one rep max is 250, 80% of that is 200, which would mean I can do 200 lbs for an estimated 8 reps. The calculator above gives you all of these numbers.

Strength Level is another popular tool to calculate your strength relative to other bodybuilders in your sex/age group. –> Strength Level Calculator You input your personal data, the exercise in question (there are dozens), and the number of repetitions you can do at a given weight, and it will tell you where you stand relative to your peers. There are five divisions based on each individual exercise: beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, and elite. For example, I may rank as advanced on the bench press and novice on the squat if my bench numbers are relatively high and my squat numbers are relatively low.

Note: Strength Level uses self-reported data from users (currently 150,000 submissions) to calculate averages. The website “filters” submissions from spam, but in my experience people still tend to inflate their lifts, so take it with a grain of salt. And, remember, at the end of you day you are your only competition.

The phoenix in Greek mythology is a bird that periodically died and came back to life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor. The symbol of the phoenix is synonymous with personal rebirth and revival. We all go through seasons of change. Either changes pursues us with circumstances, or we pursue change with determination. All change is an opportunity to do better and be better.

This is the time of year when most of us are finalizing our New Year’s resolutions. We all have areas we want to improve in. Getting it done in 2020 is going to require letting go of old thoughts, habits, and ways of being that are not resourceful for meeting the challenges of tomorrow.

Today, I’ve transcribed an inspiring vlog published by a YouTuber named Elliott Hulse in the wake of the New Year. The vlog is entitled “Die before you die,” and centers on the necessity of change.

Transcript:

I got a question here from our friend. I can’t pronounce his name, but he says “Elliott, I do not expect you to look at this, but if you read it, what do you think about this quote: ‘The secret of life is to die before you die to find out there’s no death.'” Brother, that has been–I resonate deeply with that. My experience has been over the past several years, I’ve died to myself. And when I speak of dying I’m talking about an ego death. I’m still the same Elliott, but many of you can probably recognize that I’m not the same person. It has been a process of ego deconstruction. When the phoenix burns down or when Jesus says “You have to die to yourself to be accepted into the kingdom. You’ve got to let go of your old self in order to embrace the new.”

One thing he also says is you can’t put new wine in an old wineskin. I think that’s a perfect example of the benefit and the value of getting rid of your old container. Your own way of containing yourself and interfacing with the world. That really requires a throwing away. It requires a breaking down. It requires a dissolving. It requires a dying to an ego construct that is no longer resourceful for who you are to become in the next phase of your life.

This is an area where people get stuck all the time. We develop an ego construct. When I say ego construct, I’m literally talking about the interface by which we work with the world. If you can imagine your self, the outside world, which is really a figment of our imagination, but we work with it. We work with our experiences. We work with our circumstances as well as working with out internal processes. And then the ego being in between it. How do I bring myself to my circumstances? When you’re 14, there’s a way to be that allows you to interface with the world in a resourceful manner. It works for you when you’re 14. The problem is when you’re 21, and you’re still approaching life with the same ego construct that you had when you were 14, you don’t evolve. You remain the same old version of yourself even though you’re being called to change.

This is where you end up with men in their late 30s and 40s who have a mid-life crisis. And we’re lost because we’re still interfacing with the world with an old version of ourselves that’s no longer resourceful for the physiological and biological changes happening in our body. Oftentimes they’ll begin to make decisions that they would have made when they were 21. Because there’s a feeling of unease, right. You become 40, and there’s a feeling of unease. Things are not the way I think they should have been. And then in that anxiety, you go back and you begin bringing up all the old things that are associated with an ego that is no longer resourceful.

For the process of becoming a stronger version of yourself to be allowed, you have to die to those old desires. Die to the old fears, hopes, and dreams such that there is a complete obliteration, right. Old wineskins. If you’re wanting to be new, you can’t pour in new goals in the old you. You can’t pour inspiration into an old you. You can’t pour old wine into an old wineskin because you’ll ruin the wine. The wine won’t stay fresh and the wineskin will disintegrate. It can’t hold it. The container can’t hold it.

So you’re needing to reconstruct yourself in a new way so that you can take on the challenges and approach the truth about who you are in the next phase of your life. What this requires is not only a conscious and deliberate going-down process. A conscious and deliberate catabasis [going-down] period. It also requires that while you’re down there, while you’re in the belly of the beast, while you’re dying to your old self so that you can be reborn again, you begin to look at those things that are actually true. You begin to look at the things that you’ve ignored. You begin to look at the things that are truly resourceful for you and what your legacy will be in your life.

There’s a process of death and dying to those things that are no longer resourceful, and a bringing forward of those things that you’ve either forgotten about, that were in the shadows, that need to be resolved, that need to be brought forward, because they’re gifts. Shedding light on things that have been in the shadow allows you to process them. So that’s that. . . I have more to say about it, but I need a break. . . .

I’ll leave you with this last analogy. By the way, I refer to Biblical stories and what not because a lot of people know them. I don’t refer to it because I’m Bible-thumping or hoping that you’ll become a Christian. I am not a Christian myself. But I am a lover of wisdom. I am a lover of wisdom literature. I am a lover of religion because it is my experience and my belief that the manifestations of God–be it Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, Zoroaster, Bahaullah–come to earth at a particular time. They’re all imbued with the spirit of God to teach us things that we need to know. So I truly believe that the pure essence of these teachers’ teachings are loaded with value. And can bring value into anyone’s life. So I advise you to open yourself up to reading the parables in the Bible and reading other wisdom literature.

That being said, Jonah in the whale is a wonderful story about what happens when it’s time to die to yourself and be born again. Jonah was a blessed dude. Jonah was doing well. He was well-off. He was wealthy. He was well-liked in his city and he was winning. God, your intuition, the universe–however you’d like to relate to the omnipotent, to the unknown, to the ever-present, to the Creator–will tap you on your shoulder. It happens not by a deep voice coming from a cloud. That’s a figment of our imagination, those are vain imaging and idle fancies, as Bahaullah called it. But it comes in the form of a sense within. For me it comes from a sense within.

Why I quit YouTube videos is because God had been kind of asking me to do this thing, and you can watch my videos leading up to my choosing to quit, where I’m like something’s not right. I don’t know what’s going on. Really I was resisting, but essentially God was saying, “Hey E. I need you to give up the things of the world for the moment because I have another job for you.” Jonah was doing well, God tapped him on his shoulder sand said ,”Jonah! I need you to help me out with something. I have another mission for you but you’re going to need to detach yourself from the things of this world. I know you’re a successful guy, I know that you’re doing well–Elliott–I know that you’re doing well. You got a million subscribers on YouTube. But I have greater things for you, I have a need for you.”

Jonah, like all of us, like myself, resists. “Ah, I can’t do that. I can’t give up all of this fame. I can’t give up all of this fortune. I can’t give up everyone loving me.” And so what happens is when you get that tap on the shoulder and if you ignore it, you end up like Jonah. Jonah went out on a boat with his boys not too long thereafter. A storm came, right, and he ended up getting tipped off over the boat into the deep dark watery unconscious. And not only did he dive deep into the waters, right. Into the darkness. Into the shadows because that’s where the work happens. The work always happens down deep below in those watery unconscious areas. But he was swallowed by a f**king whale. In the belly of the whale.

Now what happens in the belly of a whale down deep below in the unconscious. Digestion happens. And what is digestion? Jonah was being worked on in that belly. What is digestion? Digestion breaks things down. And when it breaks it down, it pulls out those things that are most resourceful. It pulls out those things that are needed. It pulls out those things that are nourishing. And it gets rid of the s**t. There are times when you will be digested in order to get rid of the s**t, so that your nourishing self can rise to the top. Done. I think I’m going to finish there.

You don’t need a lot of equipment to make major gains in the gym. If you don’t believe me, watch the 300. It can certainly be motivating to have somewhere to go to where other people are striving to reach the same goals. I have a membership at a local gym. But the fact is that anyone can get swoll from the comfort of their own home. Let’s be real–most people who lift weights are in it for the upper body. That’s what people see. That’s what people like. There are a lot of good reasons for lifting legs, but I won’t get into those now. If you want a muscular, shredded upper body, then there’s only one piece of equipment you need: a push-up/pull-up bar. If the treadmill is king of cardio, then the push-up/pull-up bar is king of upper body.

Pull-ups as pictured on the right target biceps, back, chest, and shoulders–four of the most visible muscle groups. Pull-ups also work the abdominal muscle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up with sore abs from a pull-up routine. You can also turn your hands around so that your palms are facing you instead of facing away from you. This variation of the pull-up is called the chin-up. I’ve found that it works approximately the same muscles as the traditional pull-up with a little more stress on the biceps. In my experience, it’s easier to bang out more reps doing the chin-up variety. Pull-ups, it follows, are a complete upper-body experience. If you did nothing but pull-ups, and you did enough of them, you’d be jacked in no time.

Push-ups are by far the most popular upper-body exercise known to mankind. Push-ups work chest, triceps, shoulders, and abs. Unlike pull-ups, push-ups are something you can reasonably do with zero equipment. However, having a push-up bar can be extremely useful. A bar adds resistance by enabling you to go deeper down where the ground would otherwise stop you. With no equipment, I can easily bang out 50-70 push-ups. When doing this many reps, it takes a relatively long time to tire out the muscles enough where real growth takes place. Most bodybuilders swear by the 8-16 rep-range for optimal muscle volume. Having a push-up bar can be very useful for anyone already capable of doing more than 10 reps with no equipment. If that’s not already you, it will be within a few weeks of beginning a push-up routine.

I’ve used one push-up/pull-up bar for the last 4 years. You can get it at Amazon on the cheap: Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar. Apparently, you can also use the bar to do crunches and dips, although I’ve only ever used it for push-ups and pull-ups. Iron Gym hasn’t modified their product at all in 4 years, and I don’t think they’ll ever need to. The nice thing about the workout bar is you can modify your grip rather easily. I like rotating between wide-, narrow-, and straight-grip pull-ups and push-ups for maximum adaptability. I also like doing push-ups with my feet on an incline (a sofa or bed) for increased resistance. Exercise common sense.

Take a look at some photos I took of the equipment. As you can see, there is some wear on the grip being as old as it is. It still works perfectly fine, and I probably won’t buy a new one for a while. Good luck and happy gains.

My Iron Gym Workout Bar: