Fitness

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

What I love about expensive gyms

I love walking past Equinox gyms, or any other luxury gym. Or any gym for that matter, though especially the expensive ones. New Yorkers commonly pay $300 to $400 per month for Equinox memberships. Why do I love walking past them? Because almost guaranteed, someone will be walking in or out who is less fit yet spends more per month than I spent in probably the last decade on fitness. and I know that I got my full workout in less time than they took commuting or possibly even just changing clothes. The friend I mentioned yesterday in More Personal Bests: floor press, single-arm row, Turkish get-up also once told me he could show me how to get a full-body workout with two kettle bells.…

June 4, 2026

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

More Personal Bests: floor press, single-arm row, Turkish get-up

Personal best 1: floor press Regular readers know that when I bought my 70-pound kettle bell, I almost couldn't use it (though carrying it from the person I bought it from, used from Craigslist, to the subway, down the stairs to the subway, up and down stairs to transfer, and up more stairs home was a farmers walk). A few months ago I reported reaching personal bests for reps for floor presses. Well, last Thursday I reached eleven reps for my first set. When I got it, I may not have been able to do one rep. I'd been doing 10, 9, 8 for my three sets on my lifting days. Last Thursday I hit 11 for the first set. I didn't plan to. I…

June 3, 2026

Artificial Intelligence and atrophy of mental ability like intelligence, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and expression

Addiction / Creativity / Doof / Fitness / Nature / Relationships

Artificial Intelligence and atrophy of mental ability like intelligence, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and expression

I see more and more ads for artificial intelligence. This evening on the subway one ad promoted how AI could turn the workplace task of creating a slide deck from two weeks of many sub-tasks like compiling data and designing slides into one prompt followed by a complete slide deck. The task would take minutes now. I've heard a lot of uses for artificial intelligence. I haven't heard of one that improves people's lives. I'm sure they exist, but I haven't seen them. Most are like the one above. It's tempting to point out that it saves time and likely improves the quality of output, that it enables the person to focus on what they want to, not low-level mundane work like making sure the…

May 1, 2026

Donated blood for the first time in a while, courtesy Sebastian Junger’s post

Donated blood for the first time in a while, courtesy Sebastian Junger’s post

Regular readers know I've read a lot about psychology, anthropology, economics, and why people do things. According to most theories, donating blood shouldn't make much sense. It doesn't cost that much in time, nothing in money, and has a low risk of loss, but you won't get much direct benefit. The odds of you receiving your own blood are zero. Materially speaking, donating is a dead weight loss, but if enough people do it, we all benefit. I think everyone views the act with high value. I won't deny that I'm posting about it partly because I expect people will consider the act valuable, even after I state so, since everyone knows that sharing about it is part of the process. The other part is…

April 25, 2026

Rediscovering “The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning” through Turkish Get-Ups

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Rediscovering “The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning” through Turkish Get-Ups

Almost a decade ago I wrote a post The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning. The effect applies all over in life, but my usual way of describing it is with marathons. Today, I'm posting about completing Turkish Get-Ups, but I'll give context with marathons. Context with marathons Before you finish a marathon, it seems like a superhuman feat, even knowing that millions of people have run them. You don't know if you can do it. At least in my case, I expected that once I finished it I could say "I've done it, I'm exhausted, I've achieved something big, and I don't have to do anything like it any more." Instead, I felt something like, "Now that I know I can do…

April 2, 2026

The first warm day of the year means overflowing doof garbage, of course

Doof / Fitness / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

The first warm day of the year means overflowing doof garbage, of course

Sunday was the first warm day of the year. It was shorts weather. Do we celebrate the abundance of nature? No, that's not today's American values. What are today's American values? You can tell by our behavior. We buy doof, not food. We don't prepare it. We buy it pre-prepared, which means overloaded with salt, sugar, and fat, then packaged. We don't even eat fresh fruit on its own. We eat non-fresh fruit pre-chopped and assembled into plastic containers. Want proof? When I went to Washington Square Park for my sidcha to pick up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner, every trash can was beyond full. People weren't satisfied to fill the cans. They dumped doof packaging trash all around the…

March 10, 2026

Why consistency? Self-awareness and integrity

Awareness / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / SIDCHAs

Why consistency? Self-awareness and integrity

I write about sidchas and standard procedures a fair amount. I don't remember how often I clarify the main reasons for doing them. You might think the point of fitness-related ones to be fitness. I'm proud of fitness results, but they're more a side effect. One of the big benefits is mental freedom. I think many people consider diet and exercise sources of stress, never knowing if they're doing enough or if they're doing them right. Making sidchas for the most important parts of your life means you always know they're taken care of. You never have to worry about them. The most important parts of life are easy to put aside here or there, then soon you've lost them. I consider the three pillars…

March 7, 2026

“All it is is pain”: Skier Jessie Diggins on discovering her potential

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

“All it is is pain”: Skier Jessie Diggins on discovering her potential

I don't pretend to be operating at the level of a top Olympic athlete in one of the most grueling sports (though my resting heart rate of 38 bpm probably indicates something) but the words of Jessie Diggins quoted below have resonated with me. Who is she? According to Wikipedia: She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history having won three World Cup overall titles, four Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. Her words that resonated with me The New York Times profiled her in a piece titled ‘All It Is Is Pain’: The Olympian Testing the Limits of Endurance: Jessie Diggins has become the best-ever American cross-country skier because of what she…

March 4, 2026

Another personal best: (floor/bench press)

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Another personal best: (floor/bench press)

A few of my sidchas involve lifting weights. I don't lift to get big or strong, though I like that those results happen. I might like attaining those results more for their being side-effects rather than specific goals. My two main reasons are 1) because our ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years didn't eat by just walking to the fridge, they had to climb trees, dig up roots, and hunt animals, along with many other activities, so I do various exercises to keep mentally and physically healthy and 2) for the self-awareness and discipline that comes from a regular ritual that is challenging and beautiful. Despite getting strong not being a primary goal, I like when I find I can do more than I…

February 5, 2026

A sidcha and self-awareness update

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Perception / SIDCHAs / Stories

A sidcha and self-awareness update

Doing things consistently and daily for a long time enables you to notice nuances, which increases self-awareness. Since I have a six-day exercise cycle that I begin on the first of each month, in months with 31 days, I like to vary what I do with the extra day. In December I did two things. Sorry for the long post, but what I describe below felt like a meaningful experience of aging, contemplation, risk, and humility. Longer meditation Some background on one: I've meditated daily for about five years and counting. Normally I set my timer for 31 minutes and sit for that long. Why 31 and not a rounder number? No special reason. I worked up from shorter times and ended up there. A…

January 2, 2026

Year 15, day 1 of my burpee sidcha

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Year 15, day 1 of my burpee sidcha

I was 40 years old when I did my first burpee in 2011. Today I'm 54 and haven't missed a day. Now I do more than burpees in what I call "my twice daily burpee-based calisthenics." Daily burpees helped me develop the sidcha concept, which I consider one of the most important developments of my life. I've come to see sidchas as the most effective way to reach one's potential. My recent resting heart rate of 38 beats per minute is evidence of not missing a day. It's hard to fake. I wonder when I'll decrease my daily number of burpees or other parts of my calisthenics sidcha. The most annoying part There is one very annoying side effect of sidchas: the near-universal reaction to…

December 22, 2025

Turkish Get-Up Achievement and Freedom

Exercises / Fitness

Turkish Get-Up Achievement and Freedom

Following up my posts Another 70-pound Turkish Get-Up, also more lifting personal bests and Two personal bests in a week: Freedom---and, speaking of health and fitness, New resting pulse: 38 bpm---I forgot to mention I finally achieved my third 70-pound Turkish Get-Up. For the meaning of the achievement, read the first link above. It's funny that after at least a year of thinking about and planning it, the first one I did I didn't expect to work. Then the third one I didn't record when I did it. It was a week or two ago. I'll also add that I reached a personal best that week on my one-arm floor press (essentially a bench press but one arm at a time and on the floor)…

December 16, 2025

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

Doof / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

I got my annual checkup yesterday. They took my vital statistics. Reading 1: the blood pressure machine As usual, my resting heart rate was lower than they're used to. The nurse taking my blood pressure saw my pulse was showing 42 bpm while the blood pressure machine was doing its pressure cycle. I was looking forward to taking a picture of that rate, when she started asking me questions, the ones they always do: if I run marathons, bike, or swim. When I answered, the rate increased to 45, I think from my talking. That number stayed on the screen after finishing the blood pressure cycle. I guess because I said I don't run, bike, or swim, and that even rowing I only do once…

December 13, 2025

When did yoga become so plastic?

Fitness / Nature

When did yoga become so plastic?

When did a 5,000-year-old practice to attain liberation and promote physical and emotional well-being come to hurt people for centuries, even millennia? Here's a definition of yoga I found online: Yoga : a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation : a system of physical postures, breathing techniques, and sometimes meditation derived from Yoga but often practiced independently especially in Western cultures to promote physical and emotional well-being Wikipedia says that traditional yoga focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments. The practice dates back 5,000 years. Below is a picture of yoga pants. Nearly all yoga clothes are made of plastic---that is, petroleum…

November 18, 2025

Seeing the world’s fastest runners up close, volunteering at the New York City Marathon

Seeing the world’s fastest runners up close, volunteering at the New York City Marathon

I've run in six marathons and watched several others, but never before volunteered until Sunday. Wow! It was almost unfair the access. I was right in the middle of Columbus Circle where the runners make their final turn back into Central Park before the several hundred yards to the finish Check out the videos below to see the top finishers. The runners may go past too fast to see in the videos, but they pass maybe a meter from me and I could see the expressions on their faces. Even being in the race, I can't see the determination, grit, and yet relaxation in the faces of people reaching the pinnacle of human achievement. Four big observations: One: The difference in level of relaxation combined…

November 5, 2025

A new personal best (bench/floor press) and a failed attempt (Turkish Getup)

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

A new personal best (bench/floor press) and a failed attempt (Turkish Getup)

I wrote in August about a couple personal bests in my lifting practice, Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, and last month about the risk of injury in exploring your physical limits. Why form is important in lifting weights, especially Turkish Get-Ups. First, the personal best on the bench press, or more accurately floor press, since I don't have a bench. My last personal best was to do three sets with the 70-pound weight per arm, 8 reps, then 7, then 6. Earlier this year, an injury lowered my ability to max out at three reps. When I bought the kettle bell (used from Craigslist) I don't think I could do one rep. Six days ago, for the first time, I did three sets:…

November 4, 2025

When I mess up doing a sidcha: I get to practice integrity

A recent morning burpee

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

When I mess up doing a sidcha: I get to practice integrity

I'd been meaning to write a post like this since what I'm about to describe happens every now and then. Part of the value of a sidcha is developing the skill of integrity. As with any performance-based activity, we learn to practice integrity through practicing the basics. There are probably many basic practices for integrity, but sidchas are a good one. I can think of few things more valuable to learn than to live with integrity to one's values. My evening burpee-based calisthenics usually involves 27 burpees. How I do them depends on my six-day exercise cycle. On rest days, I do three sets of 9. Tonight's set was four sets of 6 followed by a set of 3. Today was busy. My mind was…

October 28, 2025

Why form is important in lifting weights, especially Turkish Get-Ups

Fitness / Visualization

Why form is important in lifting weights, especially Turkish Get-Ups

In case you can't make out the image below, it was lesson number one in the importance of proper form in doing Turkish Get-Ups. In particular, it's a dent in my floor in the shape of the bottom edge of one of my kettle bells. If you lose control of a kettle bell while doing a Turkish get-up, especially when you're holding it high above your body and the floor, you can try to regain control, but there's a good chance it will hit the floor hard. That dent is where a kettle bell hit when I lost control because I lost my form. It happened something like five years ago. I mention that this dent was lesson number one. Lesson two was the weight…

October 24, 2025

Their motivation to make doof: to drive your emotional system to buy more

Addiction / Choosing/Decision-Making / Doof / Fitness / Freedom

Their motivation to make doof: to drive your emotional system to buy more

I was thinking about the people who manufacture addictive things like doof. If you believe that someone choosing to buy something means they valued what they bought more than what they paid for it, then you think that the more they buy, the more they've improved their lives. Then the more addictive you make the product, the more you sell. You can tell yourself that your profit means their life improvement. The way it looks to me is that science has figured out how to control the human emotional system more effectively than the person with that system, at least in some cases. They've learned to use short-term motivation to override long-term reward and ability to regulate oneself. Then it's a stretch to say that…

October 8, 2025

A new podcast I recommend: “Bulk Beans & Bicycles”

Audio / Fitness / Hands on Practical Experience / Podcast

A new podcast I recommend: “Bulk Beans & Bicycles”

Regular readers and listeners to my podcast know Evelyn from her being a guest and my mentioning her. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Hayden, but both of them took my workshop in sustainability leadership (I recommend you do too). They started a podcast together called Bulk Beans & Bicycles. They posted the first episode a few days ago. Here's the link to the podcast's home page and to a page that links to all the other places to listen. They cover living more sustainably, each post-mindset shift and continually improving. They aren't just talking theory or telling you what you should do. They're living more sustainably, seriously, also joyfully. They're fun at times, serious at others, but always engaging. They talk based on hands-on…

October 4, 2025

Year five, day 2 no refrigerator. Did you know power companies promoted them to use more energy (not for health, safety, or flavor)?

Doof / Fitness / Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Nature

Year five, day 2 no refrigerator. Did you know power companies promoted them to use more energy (not for health, safety, or flavor)?

The first time I unplugged my fridge was December 2019. A few months later Covid hit and I lived outside the city a couple months. My fridge remained unplugged, but I don't count that time since I wasn't home. The next time I unplugged earlier in the year: November 2020, and made it six months or so before spring warm weather made keeping things fresh harder. The next year I started yet earlier: September 30, 2021. My goal was to make May, I think, but that May I unplugged the whole apartment so made it a year with the fridge unplugged and didn't see a reason to plug back in. Along the way, I learned from the book The Grid that fridges became widespread not…

October 2, 2025

The easy and hard parts of exercise and another value of sidchas

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Stories

The easy and hard parts of exercise and another value of sidchas

This morning's calisthenics involved four sets of burpees. I noticed a funny thought as I started the third set. I had barely done a tenth of a burpee in that third set when I thought, "Only one set left." That's an odd thought. Since I had barely started the third set, I had closer to two sets left. Why did I think I had one set left when I actually had closer to two? Because of an effect nearly all of us have experienced. One version is when you planned to jog or go to the gym but you're sitting on the couch relaxing. It's hard to start, but you also know that once you start running, you're likely to keep running, or once you…

September 20, 2025

“Do the reps, you get the results. Don’t do the reps, you don’t get the results.”

Education / Fitness / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Leadership

“Do the reps, you get the results. Don’t do the reps, you don’t get the results.”

I've been saying these words lately. Do the reps, you get the results. Don't do the reps, you don't get the results. I've said them to myself, my teammates, and my coaching clients. As regular readers know from my sidchas and standard procedures, I live them. When I search the web for them as a quote, I don't find them, so maybe I created the quote. They ring true, particularly based on the Martha Graham and Jocko Willink quotes I live by. Graham: The dancer is realistic. His craft teaches him to be. Either the foot is pointed or it is not. No amount of dreaming will point it for you. This requires discipline, not drill, not something imposed from without, but discipline imposed by…

September 17, 2025

My annual bike ride upstate and lunch at the farm providing my CSA, then riding back by the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge

Fitness / Nature / Stories

My annual bike ride upstate and lunch at the farm providing my CSA, then riding back by the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge

I've written about Where to buy the best food around New York City and praised the system of CSAs and the incredible flavor, value, and convenience of the one I participate in from Stoneledge Farm. Every year they host a lunch and invite all subscribers. I think I've gone every year since I started, though they may have skipped a couple years during the pandemic. I forget. I don't take many pictures since I don't post to Instagram or social media. Here are a couple pictures from the farm: I have to post a picture of their cherry tomatoes: You can't tell from the picture, but their cherry tomatoes are the best I've tasted. They picked most of them to deliver in past weeks and…

September 13, 2025

Another 70-pound Turkish Get-Up, also more lifting personal bests

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / SIDCHAs

Another 70-pound Turkish Get-Up, also more lifting personal bests

You may remember me posting about Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, in which I jumped 8.4 pounds (3.8 kilograms) in my Turkish get-up to 70 pounds, plus lifted more in my presses. I think I commented that part of why I tried it when I did was because it was the end of a month with 31 days. I do a six-day exercise cycle starting on the first of the month, so several times a year I have days to experiment. Well, last month had 31 days, so I tried my next 70-pound Turkish get-up. I had a few wobbly get-ups in August so even though I had done it before, I treated this attempt with respect. I concentrated on form. I was…

September 1, 2025

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