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What I've Been Thinking About...
This week I did the unthinkable: I took a morning off from the gym! On Thursday I decided to take my daughter to pre-school and get a few things done that I have been putting off for awhile. As I was doing grabbing a coffee, a man that I knew from another gym came in and sat a few seats down. After some time we began catching up and talking about things like the pandemic, gym closures, not working out, and the mental approach to staying as healthy as you can. He went on a bit of a rant about how he doesn't understand how someone can just give up on trying to better themselves by improving their health. I heard him out but quickly brought up the fact that it is not as simple as one may think. The slope to unhealthy living is a slippery one and once that path is engaged, it is very difficult to escape. Nobody in there twenties or thirties says that when they grow old they want to sit in a nursing home staring at a television, being fed pills and having someone wipe their backside. But yet that is what happens to millions of Americans in this country. We have to be better than this. We all have the ability to eat a little better, move a little more, and sleep a little longer. Those three things alone can lead to improved health. We don't need to join a Crossfit gym or do another 21 day fix. We just have to be a little bit better! Fitness Tip of the Week I have been playing around with three week training blocks that focus on specific qualities that I am trying to improve upon. Because of this, I have to make sure that I keep the big picture in mind and not neglect certain things. A large number of humans on earth, at some point in their life, will have to push something, pull something, bend at the knee, bend at the hips, and carry something. This is a part of life for most of you reading this and these movements also happen to be the fundamental human movement patters that are trained in the gym. Every program that I perform or put together has exercises that are classified as a Push, Pull, Squat, Hip Hinge and Carry. The structure of the workout depends on what I am currently focusing on. For example, a kettlebell program may have plenty of hip hinges, presses and pulls, but lack in the squat and carry department. So, instead of skipping those important movements, you do them to warmup or do them as a challenging finisher. The point is that you get them in whenever and wherever you can. A complete program has all of these aspects and should be trained accordingly. If you want more on this topic, here is a sample of how I incorporate these movement patterns into my latest workout routine: Building a New Program What I've Been Reading... Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann "A culture of killing". In the late 1800's, the Osage tribe was forced into residing in an almost uninhabitable mountainous region in Oklahoma. After spending some time there, they soon realized that they were sitting on the largest oil reserves in the United States! This made them very rich and the county where they lived became the richest county per capita in the country. But then mysterious things started to happen. Osage tribe members began dying... and began dying fast! There were poisonings, bombings, shootings, disappearances, and more that kept occurring to this tribe. Death and crime was hitting this region hard and it all led back to one thing: MONEY! This book looks into this time period which is known as the Reign of Terror of the Osage tribe and the unsolved murder and mayhem that ensued in this region! What I've Been Doing... Experiencing Deja Vu! This week Marisa and I visited Jacobsburg State Park and it was beautiful. My daughters pre-school is right in the heart of where I spent a good amount of time during my childhood as my grandparents and great grandmother lived very close to the school. As we have been exploring the area more and more, I am having these moments of deja vu which has been very interesting and exciting. I am seeing roads and landmarks that vaguely ring a bell. I have been having moments where I ask myself, "Have I been here before?" This park is beautiful and we plan on making it a habit to go there. As of late, Emilia and I have been exploring the animals of Pennsylvania and I am kind of hooked on the topic. So hooked, in fact, that I bought some binoculars to explore the animals that appear on our property and the surrounding area. I haven't really appreciated wildlife until living out here and I am grateful to have this newfound respect for the great outdoors! Quote of the Week "Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it" -- George R. R. Martin I hope you all have an awesome week! Chris Fluck
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