The 6 components of a highly successful body.
Ignore them at your peril.
Welcome to the 201st consecutive edition of the newsletter.
I’m still in Sudbury visiting my folks.
Getting to spend long periods of quality time with them is something I know I will always look back on fondly. And fortunately for me, my parents are easy and enjoyable to hang with.
I know we don’t get to choose our parents, but I got lucky with the ones I got.
Consider giving yours a call just to let them know you are thinking about them.
Ok I’ll stop my nagging!!!
Enjoy today’s post.
This is a mental model I created for myself.
When it comes to training, I think of the body like a Swiss Army Knife.
It has 6 essential components and my training needs to address each to truly reap the benefits of a highly successful body.
Let’s break down each component.
1/ It must look and feel amazing.
The body you build for yourself should look and feel amazing to you.
The “to you” part is important. This is a very personal journey.
It must meet the unique criteria you have set for yourself.
what number do you want to see on the scale?
what % body fat do you want to achieve?
what size and style of clothing do you want to wear?
how muscular do you want to look?
how lean do you want to be?
Is that vain? Absolutely! But it’s a positive vanity that fuels your self confidence and self-esteem.
The “feel” part comes from your clothing.
When I struggled with my weight, I would buy baggy clothing that would hide my overweight body.
Even then, I was extremely self-conscious and was always aware of how fat I felt in my clothes.
I used to hate sitting down because I could feel my love handles hanging out over the waist of my pants.
When my body started to change, I began buying proper fitting clothes that made me feel much more confident in the body I had created.
That “feel” positively impacted how I carried myself.
I began walking with my shoulders back, I had a bounce in my step and it put a smile on my face because I no longer felt self-conscious about how I looked.
Takeaway → Pride in your aesthetics is an important component of self-confidence and a successful body. 2/ Be pain-free.
Pain impacts our movement, which impacts the activities that we can participate in, which in turn impacts the quality of the life we are living.
We should be training to eliminate pain by…
strengthening weak links
stretching tight links
For example, for the past 25 years I have lived with a wonky left knee that makes it difficult for me to do a full squat without experiencing discomfort.
The knee is also extremely tight when I attempt to sit my butt on my heels during child’s pose.
By not properly strengthening and stretching that weak link, other surrounding muscle groups are now tight and weak.
That’s the thing with pain. When it is neglected it migrates to surrounding areas causing even move problems as the years compound.
Fortunately there are people like Ben Patrick, from ATG Fitness, who are creating programs and exercises like the ATG split squat, that are helping people strengthen and stretch weak and tight links so they can get to a point where they are once again living pain free.
Takeaway → Do a body audit. What weak links do you have? What tight links do you have? What’s the first step you can take to begin addressing both of these?3/ Prevent injuries.
We should be engaged in a training program that actively focuses on preventing common injuries people suffer from.
For example, lower leg training like tibialis raises and calf raises helps build the muscles that focus on deceleration, which are critical for stopping and fall prevention.
Falling is such a big problem for the elderly, not because they are old, but because they have neglected to train the muscles that help prevent falling in the first place.
Takeaway → Training for injury prevention is the best way to protect yourself from injuries in the first place.4/ Promote health and longevity.
We want to invest in activities that keep us from dying prematurely.
Walking, running, tennis, pickle ball, cycling, and hiking are examples of activities that build heart health and VO2 max.
Both factors are key to skewing the odds of a long healthy life in your favour.
Takeaway → 2 or 3 times a week invest in activities that get your heart pumping and your blood flowing.5/ Perform critical skills.
A body should be strong, mobile and flexible enough to perform a standard set of critical skills.
Here is what’s on my to-do list…
do a minimum of 5 pull ups without coming off the bar
do a minimum of 20 push ups with good form without stopping
jump up on something that’s knee high
jump down from something that’s knee high
climb up and over obstacles like fences and trees
swim a kilometer
sprint 100 meters in under 20 seconds
run 400 meters in under 2 minutes
hike a mountain
sit in a deep squat
get up off the floor without using my hands
touch my hands to the floor with straight legs
You should have our own criteria of critical skills you expect your body to be able to perform based on the context of the life you live.
Takeaway → What’s on your to do list?6/ Save your life or someone else’s in an emergency.
Lastly, a successful body should be able to save a life, either yours or someone else’s, in an emergency.
Here’s a few scenario’s to consider.
could you swim 1 kilometre to safety if a boat capsized?
could you carry a child and run to safety if gunfire broke out
could you drag a body out of a burning car or house
could you sprint from a potential mugger
could you break free from someone trying to take you against your will
Most people don’t think about training in this capacity, but adopting this mindset just might save your life or someone else’s.
Takeaway → Think about life-threatening scenarios you might encounter, determine the skills you would need to survive and incorporate them into your training.In summary…
The problem for most people and their training, if they are doing any at all, is they are just doing “stuff.”
My goal is to plant that image of a Swiss Army Knife in your head with the hopes you will start visualizing and addressing the 6 components of a highly successful body when you train.
If you do, your body becomes a valuable tool that will serve you and others well for decades to come.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. 🙏
To building your successful body,
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