The Cultured Warrior #061 | Moderation is for the unmemorably mediocre.

Tis the season for a mid-year goal review. I'm kicking myself in the rear as a reminder to not post pictures of what I'm planning for the coming month's training schedule.

Practicing what I preach, I have infinitely more respect for someone who simply shows where they've been and what they've done (i.e. work). Together those illustrate "who you are" in a much more favorable light than the characters below.

Don't waste your time telling me, yourself, or anyone else what you can, will, could, or should do. Talk is cheap. It's especially cheap from below the podium. Why not then? Why will you not do what you claim you can or even should do? Are you embarrassed? Feel inadequate? Hiding something?

There is no hiding in team / partner efforts

I sinned and succumbed to two quasi-arguments on Instagram.

Case 1: A health coach posted a tweet-picture of him stating that "...if your fitness plan doesn't let you get tacos & drinks on a Saturday night with your friends, you need a new fitness plan."

My response was simple: "It sounds like you need new friends." My point was and is that so-called friends, at least the ones I want around, will be there with me in the gym, pushing me towards my goal not pulling me away from them. My "friends" will want me to want more for myself.

I don't know or have anything personally against this guy, but the mentality of "all things in moderation" is nauseating. Nobody who has ever achieved anything worth talking about did so "in moderation."

Case 2: A friend, competitor, and teammate of mine has a viral video. Another brown belt I don't know remixed the video, adding commentary that my teammate's manner of winning (submission by wristlock) was "petty."

No rules were broken. No competitor was killed, maimed, or had any injuries. One of them had their hand raised. The other did not. People who really want to win understand this clearly – winning is everything, and it will cost you more.

The goal of submission grappling is unforgiving in that the primary objective is to make your opponent quit. The guy commenting has already quit and he doesn't even know it. If stacking gold medals is "petty", then so be it.

Training in the "middle" is also where Crossfit-enthusiasts reach an injury ridden purgatory – lest they turn to anabolics, which never happens right? Lactic / capacity training applies to many other sports as well by the way. There's nothing wrong with capacity training; except that it is the easiest energy system to develop and also the fastest to fade.

Think of this in terms of rest intervals. To truly pull a maximum effort (alactic), say on a boulder problem or deadlift, you're talking about 10 - 20 seconds of movement and 5 - 10 minutes of rest between attempts.

On the other end of the spectrum (aerobic) a whole different "set of gears" (mental and physical) is needed to keep your butt on a bike or feet plodding along for 2+ hours.

There are no substitutes for extremes. How can you possibly reliably or accurately evaluate something you've only done "moderately?" Half-ass efforts yield half-ass conclusions, and the opinions espoused thereby are worth even less.

You can keep the tacos.

Odds & Ends:

Fear mongering has now reached the level of sub-sub-sub-variants (Omicron-BA.5). So it might be worth nothing that only 7% of Americans are metabolically healthy.
I owe a large and recurring hat-tip to Diana Rogers for being one of the foremost runners in the "Fight (against) the Anti-Meat Narrative."
In the spirit of "embrace the suck" and "train your weakness" I ordered the Endurance Program from Nonprophet.

Savage Zen Athletics

Middle