The Art of Gratitude
Building a Body Worthy of Heaven Itself
My Plan for 30 to 40 Years Old
By Adam Mundorf
The Art of Gratitude
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is the daily affirmation that my friend and mentor Steve Maxwell taught me to say. Gratitude for the simple pleasures is the key to enjoying and living a fulfilled life. One of these simple pleasures (if you're lucky) is being born with an able and healthy body. It may very well be the ultimate of simple pleasures because through a healthy body, you can be of service to others and your community. It's the ultimate way of giving back and building a body worthy of Heaven Itself. This is pretty much my guide to building a healthy body and is a decade worth of experimentation with some of the most accomplished physical culture practitioners on Earth.
Will my opinion change? It could but I doubt it and this is why.
The people I've learned from are older, wiser and have been there/done that. They've experienced aging, life, stress and struggles that can only be learned through experience. A 20 or 30 something year old can say whatever they want from their personal experiences but it takes time to make things crystal clear.
Building a Body Worth of Heaven Itself
The Physical Body
Our body is resilient and flexible until it's not. It can deal with decades of abuse until something just snaps. Being born with a health body and abusing it is a disservice to God. There are many people whether through acts of God or war, wish they could have the opportunity to have a healthy body again. In the following paragraphs, I will teach you how. These aren't my ideas, they were passed down to me by mentors like Steve Maxwell, Dan John and Ori Hofmekler.
Muscles - Joints - Tendons - Cardio
Joints and Tendons : The Strength Conundrum
For longevity, I believe the most important thing is joint health and tendon health. Being able to move fluidly and smoothly through space without pain should be a priority. Most people really don't need to be all that strong. Past a certain point, I believe reaching for strength becomes a detriment. Unless you're someone who makes a living by lifting weights, moving from a 400lb deadlift to a 500lb deadlift won't improve your quality of life. The higher you move up the strength scale, the more it becomes not worth it. Speaking of weights, are they even necessary?
Exercise Modality for Longevity
Weights are not required to have a healthy and long life but a form of resistance certainly is. Resistance can be weights, bodyweight or anything that stresses your muscles, your body cannot tell the difference. Honestly, it doesn't matter what modality you choose but I do believe your bodyweight is the best modality to start out. Too many people dismiss bodyweight training as too easy or not effective because it's actually more difficult than weight training. Bodyweight training really magnifies weaknesses and imbalances. If you progress to very advance forms of bodyweight training, you'll be as strong as you ever need to be. Imagine if you could master the following exercises : One Armed Push Ups, Pistol Squats, One Arm Chin Ups, Strict Hanging Leg Raises, Handstand Pushups, Stand to Stand Bridges, One Arm Fingertip Pushups, Doubled Over Towel Hangs with One Arm, One Legged Calf Raises off Steps and Neck Bridges. You'd be practically inhuman in terms of strength, mobility and flexibility.
Listen, there is nothing wrong with weights. It's just that all the older people I speak to wish they spent more time mastering their bodyweight first. Setting that broad and unwavering foundation of body awareness that transfers to all other skills, including weight lifting. It is well known that calisthenics/gymnastics transfers to other sports/activities while in most cases it does not go the other way.
Rep Speed and Tempo for Longevity
I've come to the conclusion that the bulk of one's training should be done with a slow, deliberate and purposeful cadence. Especially when performed with joint longevity in mind. Going slow and keeping complete control of a movement allows our to master a movement while at the same time sparing your joints and building time under tension. This doesn't mean that explosive don't have a place but there is a risk in explosive movements. The quality of repetitions will always overrule the number of repetitions.
Keeping your Joints Healthy for Life
If there is one area of health and fitness that doesn't get enough respect, it's joint and tendon health. If your joints are sore and hurting, your quality of life will suffer. Most joint problems stem from inactivity and not overuse. Luckily, avoiding joint and tendon problems are easy, if you follow these simple steps : Choose your exercises carefully, Perform mobility drills daily, Move frequently throughout the day and spend time on the floor.
Cardio for Longevity
Cardio for longevity is different than conventional cardio. You don't want to be a marathon runner, running 3 to 5 miles on grass is more than enough. I think running is an essential skill for self defense, the best self defense is running away. Swimming, jump rope and running are all good forms of cardio when not done to extremes.
Nutrition - Intermittent Fasting - Food Layering
Nutrition
Nutrition is a very complex and confusing subject but one that I believe has a very simple answer. Our biology is very clear. We were never meant to eat and graze on food all day..... end of story. We were never meant to shovel down massive amounts of protein. We were never meant to eat copious amounts of meat if at all. Personally, I'm a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian and I'm not really against eating fish but personally, out of convenience I don't. Many years ago I worked on an organic CSA farm. I did everything on the farm : gathering vegetables/fruits, collecting eggs, taking care of the animals and catching the pasture raised animals for slaughter. Having to catch the animals that I bonded with and raised broke my heart. It's not something I would be willing to do everyday and certainly taking a life is not to be taken lightly. There are things I am willing to do : I am willing to milk animals everyday, I am willing to fish everyday, I am willing to forage and pick vegetables/fruit everyday.
My view on eating style is inspired by Ori Hofmekler's Warrior Diet and 7 Principles of Stress. The nutritional philosophy is centered around 18 - 20 hours of fasting or under-eating and 4 - 6 hours of "overeating". Being able to perform without any fuel in the body is an important skill. This eating style provides energy during the day and full compensation at night. There are certain nuances to the above style but that's for a different post. My view on body composition and health. I believe that if you aren't too skinny or morbidly obese you're fine. Seriously, stop stressing about getting that six pack or looking a certain way, that stress is probably killing you faster than having a bit of fat will. If you can still move reasonably well, joints feel good and are feeling well, you're fine.
Food layering with intermittent fasting. I believe that layering food is very important for digestion and health. Generally speaking it involves eating in order by speed of digestion :
- Under-Eating Phase
- Water
- Caffeine
- Fruit
- Salad
- Light Protein
- Main Meal (Dinner)
- Piece of Fruit
- Whey Protein Concentrate with Whole Milk and Creatine
- Large Salad
- Steamed Vegetables
- Heavier Protein Source
- Eggs
- Fish
- Meat
- Cheese
- Supplements
- Multi-Vitamin
Program Progression
Americans are notoriously poor at following directions. I implore you to follow these programs as written with no deviations and no substitutions. The egg does not teach the chicken. The only reason to ever change a program is if the authors themselves, offer up an official recommendation or change. This is very rare with a lot of these programs.
I've experienced many programs, approaches and techniques over the years. This is the path that makes the most sense to me over the next decade or so. I am biased towards kettlebells because well.....I have a ton of them and it's how I got started lifting weights. If you like barbells, dumbbells or machines, they all work but you will need to find your own path forward because that is out of my wheel house.
- Kettlebell Slow Strength 2.0
- Reach 48 kg of Turkish Get Ups
- Along the way reach comfortable 2 x 20 48kg deadlift
- Path to Power
- 1/2 Bodyweight Press
- Keep on working that single bell deadlift until 2 x 20 48kg deadlift is reached once again.
- Double Kettlebell Slow Strength 2.0
- Bodyweight Press with Doubles
- Along the way reach comfortable 2 x 20 double 48kg deadlift.
- Quick and the Dead rotated with Kettlebell Muscle in 12 Week Blocks
- Rotate until 32 kg is achieved.
- Time for Barbell Work
- I'll choose something StrongFirst related with kettlebells sprinkled in.
This is the path forward that I think provides the most benefit because you're setting a broad foundation of the basics with time tested programs that require little thought but provide immense challenge.
Avoid Neuroticism and Perfection
It is so easy to become caught up in the details and miss the big picture. When it comes to training programs, life can and does happen. There will be days where you need to work late, be up unreasonably early or you have some other obligation crop up. Don't be afraid to take that day off and whatever you do, don't abandon the path. Just prolong your week until the work gets done. Perfection is the enemy of progress.
My 10 Commandments to Health and Strength
- Daily Mobility
- Strength Training
- 10,000 Steps per Day
- Get Quality Sleep
- Just try your best, don't stress and leave the rest.
- Spend time on the floor.
- Find humor in everything.
- Meditate before bed. Find your own way that makes sense to you. Even prayer is a form of meditation.
- Don't emulate those you don't want to be or become like.
- Intermittent Fat or Under Eat during the day.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this blog. If you have any questions, just let me know.
