How a jazz player approaches his craft stands in stark contrast to that of a classically trained musician. Whereas classic music is about perfectly playing the right notes, jazz is about improvisation. A talented jazz musician can, and probably has to, adjust his playing on the fly each night. To react to the other musicians he’s playing with or to change the vibe of the audience. Adding notes to a solo or pulling back while another player takes the spotlight….
Training itself doesn’t get you stronger, fitter, and healthier. You get all those things because of how your body reacts to the training you’ve done. Nothing new there. You want your workouts to stimulate the positive reactions in the body. You know, hormones and stuff. The ones that encourage your body to pour energy into making you a more capable human being. Whether that means not getting out of breath when catching the ferry after a long lunch on the…
The older I get, the more I am appreciating short strength workouts. Even if the short workouts are by necessity. With two young kids, a coaching business and freelance writing, there’s only so much a man can fit in. But after two years of Covid imposed short strength workouts, I wouldn’t go back to longer session. Even if I’d figure how to go from 24 to 28 hours a day. A hindrance I am still trying to solve. When in…
You can, and probably should, push your limits. But because I harp on so much about reasonable workouts and a balanced approach to health and fitness, some of you might think that I am against intense workouts. If that’s the case, it’s on me for not being clear enough. Something that my wife would likely agree on. Here’s a snippet of a recent text message conversation I had with a client who’s dealing with long-Covid. I’ll share her comment and…
1.4.2022 Letter from Joonas’ desk. I’ve finally discovered how to deliver anyone older than 40 years of age outstanding results. And I’ve packaged it into a new coaching program. It’s the end product of a decade of searching, studying and extracting the truth. Unlike my previous attempts that I’ve labelled simple but not easy, this one’s both. Simple AND easy. I am embarrassed to say the answer’s been right in front of me for all these years. Yet, I haven’t…
The late afternoon sun hugs the field. The two tired brothers have worked since the early hours of the morning. Now they’re getting the last of the day’s harvest done. Bob, the younger of the brothers, is inherently lazy. Trying to get the harvest done with him is like dealing with a toddler insisting on using a hammer to eat a kiwifruit. A patience testing endeavour. Ron, the older of the two, with his sleeves rolled up, is throwing bales…
Yes, warming up can seem like an annoyance at times. Especially when you’re in a hurry and just want to get into it. But skipping the warm up, or worse, doing it like a sloth means leaving some of the potential results hanging uncollected on the hooks of missed opportunities. The purpose of a warm up Get more out of the workout Cold muscles don’t contract as well as warm ones do. By warming up you increase the blood flow…
Strength, power and cardiovascular fitness forms the foundation for longevity. And these qualities have to be constantly nurtured to stop them from crumbling. They need the integrity that comes from frequent practice. Yet there is a point of diminishing returns. A point of too much. Be it chasing some random ego-driven numbers with weights, running ourselves to the ground on the trails, or pushing that one extra set or rep when it clearly doesn’t matter. Strength, power and cardiovascular fitness…
The gym-less self-isolation training hasn’t been a challenge for most of my clients. Not because any of them have proper gym set ups at home. But because when we train at the gym it’s mostly with kettlebells, dumbbells, resistance bands and bodyweight. Stuff that’s easy enough to set up at home. Sure, there are some aspects we are now missing. Cable pulley system-machine-whatever-you-want-to-call-it, the power work with medicine balls, trapbar deadlifts and the access to landmine exercises. The last being…
I like to think of myself as a minimalist. Not a hardcore minimalist who takes only chewing gum and a stapler to go on a zombie hunt. But a minimalist nevertheless. I have a somewhat nihilistic view towards most of the gym equipment. Although I work at a gym (Except now. Cheers, COVID-19. You dick.) with options galore of training equipment, I often set imaginary restrictions on the equipment I can and can’t use. Working with these invisible rules is…