"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

silhouette of man standing on rock while looking in sky — Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

How did we get here? I don’t mean in the sense of creationism versus evolution. I mean, how did we become the sum of our choices and the focus of the burdens we inherited and learned?

Recently, I was talking with a teammate about the chronological sequence of dystopian movies; not the time frames they were set in, but as they would manifest in our reality.

The way I figured, 1984 already happened during “the pandemic years” and we’re due for V for Vendetta pending the next election, or possibly Gattaca thereafter. The Matrix seems as inevitable as is it’s Terminator se/prequel — depending on how you splice the timeline. Finally, perhaps we find ourselves in a Judge Dredd scenario.

As you might imagine, I’m not one to be wow-ed by “motivational videos.” However, my attention was caught by an Indian gentleman — his name or title didn’t matter to me — who said something to the effect of:

“Isn’t it fantastic that life can have no meaning, so that you can focus just on living it?”

He continued:

“But no, you want a purpose, and not just any purpose, a God-given purpose.”

The speech goes on to talk about the mass genocides of the world being conducted by those asserting they were serving said “God-given purpose” — crusades, inquisitions, world wars, etc.

On the transverse, I’ve had to confront my younger self, in the form of several clients over the past few years. While there may be remarkable wisdom in the writings of Aurelius, Nietzsche, or any of the existentialists or stoics, none of them seemed all that happy.

Then you have someone like Bukowski who demands a certain amount of respect for immersing himself in the slums of the world and having a knack for calling life exactly as it is.

I have to remind myself, that when I get wrapped up in various drama (social media, family, gym, or otherwise) that while I’m busy worrying, I’m presently occupying a rock with 7 billion other ants. That rock is hurtling through space at light speed, destined to first be consumed by it’s own sun, before being absorbed into a black hole at the center of the galaxy, and probably colliding with another black hole thereafter.

Good stories, like the above mentioned movies, start with great villains. In the most complicated and necessary fashion, they’re relatable.. and often “right.”

In Judge Dredd, before the villain escapes his prison he’s asked “What is the meaning of life?” His response is:

“That it ends.”

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What I’m Reading & Listening To:

This one’s for the ladies. Robb sums it up pretty nicely that female hormones are at least 10x more complicated than male hormones. Often times I’m at a loss with this when it comes to female athletes / clients.

Energy systems, conditioning, jiu jitsu… those are relatively consistent systems to work with. Hormones and fertility are absolutely way more complex in the the child-bearing sex.

Give it a listen and share it with some of the ladies in your life!

What’s New:

I’ve been collecting a ton of data between Morpheus HRM and Cronometer to conduct the largest health / fitness study I’ve done since my initial 90-Day Carnivore Review which was a 6-part endeavor in 2021. That’s long due for an update to review key performance indicators as well as secondary and tertiary factors. The study will look at the following:

Compare metric accuracy between Garmin and Morpheus devices (stress, HRV, recovery, HR / calories during fitness sessions).
Collect data on intensities of training styles and sessions (e.g. a cardio-metabolic profile for grappling).

Re-assess the relationship between macronutrients and recovery / performance metrics.

I’ve got 2-3 more weeks of data to collect, so publications will come out as usual through October, but will likely lighten up in November while I crunch the numbers. You can see the progress as I collect data on Google Drive (Test P); and of course the raw data will be published to GitLab once they’re completed.

September will be the end of the training logs post series. There will still be regular fitness posts. However, rather than duplicate content week-by-week, about once / 8-weeks I’ll review my current training block as I’ve often done.

Premium subscribers will be able to download the exact training program I followed — sets, reps, loads, rest days, the works. As a reminder, premium subscribers will still have access to archived content older than 6-months.

Savage Zen Athletics

Savage / Zen Newsletter No. 91