coaching - Arv' Musings

Books, Challenges and Tools

Hacks and ShortcutsWe want insights. We want hacks. We want shortcuts. We want packaged knowledge. Books are a great example of an attempt to impart knowledge and wisdom. They encapsulate the author's journey in understanding something. And their attempt at putting together the learnings.

Learn How to Score your Eating and Improve your Diet

Does maintenance mean one slice of cake a week? Or three? What if you are on vacation? Is this what adult life is about - rationing treats?

Goal Setting and Milestones to Guide your Physical Training

Strength is the foundation of everything. Whatever your sport/activity of choice is, getting StrongEnough will help you excel in it. Whether it is long-distance running or playing a racquet sport or practicing a martial art - the stronger you are, the more you can do.

The Particle and the Wave

The world around us wants to divide us. And because we need to be here or there, we pick an extreme. Or worse, we choose inaction. Because deep down, we don’t agree with the extremes. That’s great. But we need to use the complementary theory here to dig deeper into our perspective.

How to find the right direction for yourself

We are all searching for something. Deep down, something does not feel quite right. We know what brings us joy. But too often, a quick glimpse is all we can afford because there are a zillion things to do, and there's rarely a moment to pause.

Friday Thought: Write Less

In both these anecdotes, the outsiders do not get the import of what the protagonist is saying. Because it does not match the climactic moment.

You never know what they are going through

You never know if the person in front of you spent all week at the hospital, taking care of their ailing parent. But they showed up. Because this is their "me" time. This is where they can switch off for a brief hour.

Against the Current

You need to start swimming against the current. You need to arm yourself for that swim by curating the barrage of information and snake oil around you.

on Streaks and Cycles

The problem is streaks are not sustainable. It is not their job to be sustainable. Their job is to shake you up, to get you out of your rut, to get you way past your comfort zone and then some.

Learn from yourself

Have you learned something fundamentally true about yourself from someone else? Something that you could not have come up with by steadfastly sitting with yourself and your organised thought? I seriously doubt it.

Student Story: Learn to Prioritise Yourself

Strength does not mean lifting stupid weights and being huge. Strength means both inner and outer strength. Be strong enough, and a lot of good things follow.

How to Plank Hard Enough to Hold Up a Building

The plank is one of the fundamental ways in which you re-train yourself to use your body the way it should be.

Remove the option to change your mind

Every time you fail, you give in to the pain becomes one more thing your log to solve for the next time. Shift your mindset, stop berating yourself about failures.

Above the line

Coz does it matter what you squat? Not at all. There are a zillion people who can squat more and squat better. Or you go to a small enough pond, you are the best squatter. Completely irrelevant - what one squats.

How hard should your workout be?

Don't work yourself out all the time. Don't sit in your comfort zone all the time. Go home feeling stronger than you came in.

In the moment

I struggle with this. When I am watching a game, I am also pretending to be the coach. When I am training, I am also the world's greatest critic. But when I catch myself and chat my magic words and shut up and focus, the experience is completely changed.

The Core, Part 2: Breathing and Bracing

A fundamental concept of strength training, explained with metaphors of car tyres and candles. Your output at your gym will go to the next level with this article.

What the heck is the core?

What is the core? Is it a specific body part? Like the lats or biceps or whatever? Does it refer to the abs? Then why wouldn't we just say abs?!

scales and beats and rolling and crawling

You keep repeating the same thing and you do it marginally better. You flop around. You try to roll and fail. You try to hit a scale and hit 3. You get better. But it is not consistent.

Your fitness journey as a mass movie

It does require a hero's journey to make it here. You have to conquer your demons. You have to solve your problems and solve them well. You just cannot keep running away from them and hope it will go away. And so, when you step up, you find that you can beat it.

Smoke and drink and live to a 100

The world is full of exceptions. Most things though, tend to follow the norm.

To heck with before-afters

If you are not able to keep off the darned weight, if you lose all the strength you worked hard for, if you are back to square one ... what a waste!

on overnight transformations

The world around us is engineered and filled with climactic moments. But that's fake - like television. From the Olympics to every movie, to cricket and football, the building up, that crescendo, the anticipation, and the glory - that's how it always happens.

find your "me" time

9 times out of 10, you don't go to the gym. You don't do much about your nutrition. You don't get those results. You fail. You get angry with yourself or the gym. Or both. And you give up. You set yourself up for failure from the start.

why kettlebells and the story of Daedalus and Icarus

Everything a dumbbell can do, a kettlebell can do. Plus, there are ballistics with a kettlebell. So, that's simple. Barbells vs KBs is a bit harder. But knowing what we wanted to coach and offer - GPP - meant there was only one clear winner.