[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.

A big misconception is that you need to feel motivated to get going. You don’t. Motivation often follows action, not the other way around.

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

The reward for mental activity is knowledge. The reward for physical activity is peace.

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?

David Goggins may be the least lazy human being on the planet. As a former Navy SEAL, world-recorder for most pull-ups in a 24-hour period, and guy who runs super marathons in his free time (100+ miles!), Goggins is uniquely qualified to feature in this article. To be sure, this is not his first feature, nor will it be his last. In another article, I shared my summary reading notes from his best-selling autobiography Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds. David Goggins is a beast of an athlete and as old school as they come. Today I’ve transcribed a YouTube clip in which he eschews all excuses and spurs on people to get after it — especially useful if we find ourselves today in need of motivation.

The most important conversation you will ever have in your life is the one you have with yourself. You wake up with it. You walk around with it. You go to bed with it. Eventually, you’re going to act on it, whether good or bad.

David Goggins

Transcript:

If you’re not wiling to go in there and face yourself, you’re not going to find anything. You’re going to live right here on surface, man, right here on surface. So if there is an ending to this world and there is somewhere to go, and there is a judgment. You’re going to get there and you might see a chart, and that chart may tell you who the f**k you should have been. And now you get the rest of your life to think about that. Man, I could have lived a much better life if I just would have suffered a little bit more. If I just would have realized that I had so much more but fear and the 40% and living here [lower level] versus living here [higher level]–being afraid–stopped me.

Your biggest enemy–the most important conversation you will ever have in your life is the one you have with yourself. You wake up with it. You walk around with it. You go to bed with it. Eventually, you’re going to act on it, whether good or bad. That’s why the whole thing about this book I have is about you. It is about you. It is strictly about you finding who you are. So many people die, live 100 years, never f**king know who they are. Never know who they are. You have to look in that mirror and know there’s so much more in here man. Because I can literally right now be a 300-pound guy spraying for cockroaches still to this day if I did not look in this mirror and say there has to be more to this. This can’t be it. And then be willing to go into it, dive deep into it, and give all I have to find it. So that’s what all that is about.

Let’s say there’s 10 people in this room. And we’re all mediocre. But I’m the best of the mediocre people. I now think I’m great. I’m great. We surround ourselves with people that make us feel great, that tell us what we want to hear. The second we put ourselves among the uncommon people, we don’t like that feeling. That challenge and feeling of that person that’s waking up at 3:30 in the morning saying,”Hey, put your s**t on, we’re going for a run.” We don’t like that challenge. We like that person who says “Hey, I don’t feel good today.” And they say “It’s OK, brother, take the day off. We’ll get a pizza and watch the game.”

We like that. We love that feeling. Why? Because you understand, man, we’re good bro. We don’t want motherf**kers like this who say “No, get your f**king s**t on, stop being a punk.” We don’t want that person constantly challenging our weaknesses. We want that person who’s constantly making us feel nice and good and secure in ourselves. That’s the mediocrity of life. We want to be the best among the average people.

People wonder how do you stay hungry all the time? Because after I accomplish something, I don’t sit back like a lot of guys who graduate BUDS [Navy SEAL training], who graduate this, graduate that. They get comfortable. They wonder why I’m getting weak, man. I lost my edge. What’s going on? Because once you hit the top of the f**king mountain, guess what happens? “I’m good!” So you wonder why you’re falling down now because once you reach the top of the mountain, you got to build a f**king ‘nother one. That’s mediocrity. There’s a lot of people in mediocrity who have a nice resume, but they’re one-timers man. They hit a one-time deal. They busted it open, got a lot of money, but they’re good. You’re mediocre now man. What are you f**king doing today, tomorrow, the next f**king day.

That’s why I don’t listen to theorists. I don’t listen to all that bulls**t. I listen to a motherf**ker who’s like this, man: “What’s wrong man?” “I’m f**king tired, dude.” “Why are you tired?” “Because tomorrow, I get to do the f**king s**t again, man. Whatever the s**t is that made me f**king nauseous and sick to my stomach, that made me hurt. There’s no ending!” And that’s the person I listen to. That’s the person who’s gained knowledge. You gain knowledge through suffering. And on the other end of suffering is a world that very few have ever seen. It’s a beautiful world because that’s where you find yourself.

You don’t find yourself in over here. You find yourself on the other end. Like the 100-mile race I was on where I ran it for 24-hours. I found myself on the other end of that f**king race. That 19-hours, I found “Wow, this is a whole ‘nother f**king world out here that I’ve never even [seen].” The world is in your mind! And that’s what all that mediocrity is about. The mind has the tactical advantage over you at all times. At all times of your life, the mind has the tactical advantage over you. It knows what you’re afraid of. It knows your insecurities. It knows your deep, dark lies. And it starts to push you away from that. It pushes you in the direction that is comfortable. The mind controls everything.

So what I realized was that when I was growing up and I was 300 pounds and I got all fat, and I got all insecure, I realized that my mind kept taking me in this direction. When things got uncomfortable to me, when I was facing my fears, my mind says “Oh, no. We have the tactical advantage. We need to get you, separate you, from this feeling.” Your life’s all about feelings. We want the happy feeling. We don’t want the feeling of this sucks. If, in that moment, you can answer those f**ked up questions, and you are now in charge of your brain versus your brain ruling you, that’s where all that stuff comes from. So the 40% rule is all of that. You get to 40%, your brain says “We’re done. Let’s roll.” This is starting to get painful. This is uncomfortable.

So you sit down. You have to figure out ways, and every body is different. We all have these things about, you know, five steps to this, and four steps to this. There’s a lot more than that. That’s all bulls**t. It’s a practice–it’s a habit. So if you know that at 40% I’m feeling pain. At 40% I’m feeling pain, that’s where the 40% rule kicks in. Now it starts. OK, I’m feeling pain. My mind is saying all this s**t to me. It’s saying get out of here. “Run. Flee.” The fight or flight kicks in. “OK, we’re done, we’re not good enough.” It starts telling you all these things. You start to believe it because the mind controls all.

This is the time where you have to gain control back of your mind and say OK, let me see if I can go 45%. Once you start giving yourself more and more and more hope and start realizing “[This is] OK.” The mind starts to think what are you doing? We’re supposed to be going right, and we’re going left. You start then controlling your mind. You start finding more in yourself. Then it goes from 40% to a lot further than that. That’s the start of it though. Get to the spot where your mind is saying stop. Wherever that is, you got to get there first. And that’s when that s**t starts to work for you. You got to control yourself in that moment.

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 hard work that no one wants to do brings the results that everyone wants to see.