Dan John

activity

How to Train Year-Round: Mastering the Art of Sustainable Strength Training

Achieving long-term fitness goals is a challenge faced by many. There's a common tendency to start a workout routine with enthusiasm, only to lose momentum and stop altogether. This start-stop approach can hinder progress

books

Five Books that I Love

A powerful lesson from the Stoics, for example, is to control the controllable. We lose our shit all the time by trying/wanting to control something that is out of our control.

coaching

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.

coaching

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.

coaching

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.

challenge

how do you find the right method for you?

There are a gazillion options for fitness out there. There are umpteen diet protocols. And there are more and more people on the coaching side of things, as the fitness landscape opens up.

diet

on the endless cycle of gaining and losing weight

It is easy to lose 5 kilos in a few weeks. It is even easier to put it back on in a few weeks. Get out of that cycle. The slower the gains, the better.

coaching

on skill work and exponential progress

Skill work is fun. You immerse yourself in the process, constantly trying to improve. But without being super critical or an ass to yourself. You try to figure things out, you ask for outside perspective, you assess and see if you are moving in the right direction.

coaching

on zero-sum thinking

Most sports are zero-sum games. If you win, I lose. That thinking does not bode well for folks who are looking to improve their health and fitness, especially in group settings.

coaching

student story: on being unable to show up

A story about a student who showed up all the time until work took off and several life events happened. And they couldn't show up. My thoughts on this.

coaching

when I say "strength training", you are thinking "bodybuilding"

Bodybuilding is a sport where the goal is to have big, showy muscles. Just like how cricket and American football are two completely different activities - so is strength training and bodybuilding.

coaching

triads, continuums and GPP

Get fit, look good, and stay healthy. How can we do all of them at the same time? What should we focus on at the gym? Well, here we go.

coaching

training is not isolated from life

One of my students, let's call them Neil, sent me their numbers (training log) for the day and was comparing it to something from a few weeks back, remarking that it had taken them the past few weeks "to get back to square one".

coaching

which is the best diet?

Sooner or later, we all go on a diet. Most of us do this to lose weight, and there's a few out there who go on a diet to gain weight. a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease

ArvTraining

on coaching myself

When you are your own client, you either have an idiot for a coach or a client. Sometimes both.

coaching

a conversation with Dan John

Understanding the pleasure of not achieving the goal

coaching

the where

where are we currently? where do we want to be? but where should we really be aiming for?

coaching

the what

The hard part is not what to do. As I already told you, you know it. Heck, 10-year-olds know it. ... The hardest part of all is doing it, and believing in the process.

crossfit

Brute Force

I was weak. I had a better-than-a-year-ago levels of conditioning, which had moved from zero to running a half-marathon at 10 minute mile pace. It is an average number, absolutely

show up

being stubborn enough to not give up

As I look back at my fitness journey and write about it, I realise that I've done something significant - I've been stubborn to keep showing up and to not give up. Showing up and not quitting, are two out of the three of Coach Dan John's success formula.

Dan John

interpreting Coach Dan John's matrix

Most of us want to train hard all the time, and our nutrition varies from eating like crap all the time to being in the strictest craziest diet for a few weeks. How do we balance these two out?