Issue #35

1) Road to Pull-up: Stage 2.
2) Say NO to fitness hustle culture.
3) Find motivation in the mirror.
4) Are you telling yourself stories?

Read time: 3.9 minutes

Hey warriors,

How was the first stage of our Road to Pull-up series?

Remember it’s important to do it even if you think it’s easy.
It’s not enough to know the basics, you must master them!

If you’re like most people though, this wasn’t easy and that’s normal.

Keep practicing and don’t try to rush anything.
Skipping steps always catches up with you sooner or later.

So take time to really work on each exercise like a young student in a kung fu movie.

If you simply do that, you’ll already stand out and be ahead of a crowd of impatient people who never go past the intermediate level.

You know the Way, just trust and follow it.

PS: save this email in a special folder, so you can easily find any stage of the Road to Pull-up series whenever you need it. 👍

If you need any help with your training, please let me know by replying to this email and I’ll share my answer with everyone.

Now let’s start! 💪

1. Road to Pull-up: Stage 2.

Now that you’ve built basic but solid grip strength with dead hangs, you’re ready for stage 2.

This is the part where you start building strength endurance for your back muscles, biceps, and forearm muscles.

Forearm strength is crucial in your quest to the first pull-up, and for this reason we’ll prefer TRX rows with an overhand grip.

In this stage, you’ll do 3 sets of 15 repetitions twice a week, and rest 1 to 1.5 minute between each set.

Start with a body angle you’re comfortable with and try to lower that angle over the weeks (the more vertical the easier, the more horizontal the harder).

Once you can do 3 sets of 20 reps with 1 minute rest and your body at 45°, you’ll have completed stage 2.

Good luck!

Click this link for the full YouTube video and instructions.

2. Say NO to fitness hustle culture.

Hustle culture doesn’t work well for your body.

At first, you might not see how the two are related, but the hustle culture has largely influenced or even designed many of our current fitness trends.

I won’t name them but it’s these fast-paced, quantity over quality, and seeking minimum rest forms of training.

Add to that the guilt of not doing enough when you see others exaggerating their achievements on social media.
That’s hustle culture at its best.

And just like it’s causing a lot of burnouts in the professional world, it’s causing a lot of injuries in the weight room.

And as if it wasn’t enough, it is trying to make you believe injuries are part of the process.

No they’re not.
You can get fit, strong, and lose fat without hurting yourself.
In fact, it works much better like this.

Getting some rest is part of doing the work.

I wouldn’t be able to pull up these plates 👇🏼 if it wasn’t for quality reps, patience, and planned recovery (sleep).

Train smart, live well. 💪🏼

nicosaar

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3. Your motivation is in the mirror.

We don’t see what we don’t want to see.

That’s too bad because that’s often where we could find the motivation to go and get what we want.

If you really looked at what is happening to your body because you don’t work out, you’d probably start right now.

An overly positive approach and looking only at the bright side doesn’t work well for me.

I’d rather face what’s wrong or could be better, and remind myself every day that I’d like things to be different.

Because to me the most positive thing you can do is to progress and grow.
And that requires an objective look at where you are today.

That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what I have, far from it.
It just means I also appreciate where I’m going very much.
And I do my best to get there.

This is how I train.
This is how I keep “motivated”.
And this is how I’ve stayed consistent for the past 3 decades.

4. Are you telling yourself stories?

Can’t work out in the morning, can’t train if there’s no gym, or if it’s cold… What if these are just stories you’re telling yourself?

It’s amazing how many of our excuses end up being rules.

It’s convenient, as it legitimates inconsistency.

But not being a morning person, not functioning well without coffee, or not knowing how to train without machines… These are nothing but SELF-limitations.

They’re not real. And if they are, it doesn’t have to stay that way.

What if you tried going against your beliefs for once? And what if you discovered a completely new side of you?

This is exactly what you’re going to do some time this week.
Choose one thing you accept as a good reason not to work out, something you’ve been accepting as truth for too long.

And go against it.

Go find that side of you that can do so much more than you think.

For me, it used to be running.
I hated it. Now I love it.
And I became a more well-rounded athlete.

Don’t believe those stories you tell yourself.

And the message here is: you can do it.

I hope you found some useful tips and motivation in today's edition.

Please share your feedback and help me improve my content for everyone!

A great way to do this is by replying to this email with a personal question you have about fitness.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

- Nico

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