Fitness

Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

What’s more exotic, a mango or a turnip? What’s sweeter, ice cream or an apple? More culturally different, someone in a different country or generation?

What's more exotic, a mango or a turnip? In New York City, and most of the U.S., you can buy mangoes at many stores. Turnips are harder to find. People say they travel to experience new, exotic things. But they don't see that there are new things in their back yards. What's sweeter, ice cream or an apple? Ice cream has more sugar than apples and for most Americans, who are about 80% overweight or obese, tastes better. Apples probably don't taste that sweet to them. But after stopping eating ice cream long enough for your saturated taste buds to recover, apples become incredibly sweet. Ice cream becomes inedibly sweet. I almost can't eat a whole apple these days because they taste too sweet. I…

June 27, 2017

I Do Burpees Daily Because I’m Lazy and Full of Excuses

I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses, my recent Inc. article

Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

I Do Burpees Daily Because I’m Lazy and Full of Excuses

My Inc. post Monday, "I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses," began I Do Burpees Daily Because I'm Lazy and Full of Excuses Not having a skill so useful as discipline is a reason to do them, which transformed my life. When I tell people about my burpee habit, their most common response is to suppose I was born with superhuman discipline. I do them daily, and have since December 21, 2011, starting with 10 per day. Now I do over 50 per day, in two sets, followed by stretching and other exercises to work what burpees don't. So when I write "burpees," I mean "10-minute burpee-based routine." Any self-imposed, daily, challenging, healthy activity would work--push ups, jumping jacks, etc. People…

June 10, 2017

Audio / Education / Exercises / Fitness / Leadership / Relationships

The Inspirational Chronicles with Emilio Ron, parts 1 and 2: Building Discipline and Become an Exceptional Communicator

I met Emilio Ron at an event for public speakers. We started talking and he invited me to be a guest on his new podcast, Inspirational Chronicles. The following fits into the conversation we recorded: He invited me to record in the studio he set up. Somehow, despite living in Manhattan, I agreed to take the train---not even the subway, but the Long Island Railroad---all the way out to Long Island, where he had to drive me from the station to the studio. Manhattanites expect the world to come to us! Once I saw the studio I could tell he cared about his project and knew I'd enjoy the conversation. I enjoyed it from before we started recording. In the end, I'm honored to have…

May 20, 2017

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Visualization

How a habit forms

There are plenty of books on habits. Too many, if you ask me. You don't need books to start habits. In my experience, self-awareness will get you farther. In particular, starting new behavior creates new emotions and reactions. Paying attention to them will guide you how to follow up to improve them more than reading---if you pay attention to everything you can. That level of self-awareness takes time and effort to develop, so books may seem to help more, but you have to practice self-awareness to develop it, which books hinder, like training wheels when learning to ride a bike. I recommend losing the training wheels as soon as you can. The habit development pattern Not just habits, but sidchas: Start sidcha â‡“ 2. Feel…

May 17, 2017

The Create Your Life radio interview with Kevin Brown

The Create Your LIfe interview with Kevin Brown and Joshua Spodek

Audio / Fitness / SIDCHAs

The Create Your Life radio interview with Kevin Brown

Today Kevin Brown, host of the Create Your Life radio show and podcast, released his interview of me. Kevin and I met public speaking and became friends. He got me to share a painful anecdote I've never shared publicly before. As hard as it was to share it, I thank him for giving me the space and support to share it. Listen to our conversation! Listen to our conversation! Kevin's notes for the podcast: Josh tells us what compelled him since childhood, his journey through five degrees, Spodek Academy, his motivations, and why 90,000 burpees isn't enough. He talks about his visits to North Korea. Insight from this episode: Working through business lows and highs and coming out on top. "I never felt I had…

May 12, 2017

How to improve your form when your form is flawed. Sometimes you rebuild from scratch.

Speaking of approaching 1,000,000 meters rowing, my friend who was coxswain at Princeton who suggested how to improve my form, responded It's really impressive that you've been so intentional about improving your form! I wrote back to describe my process of improving my form. Since I don't know how to evaluate my form, I don't know if I'm improving it, but I'm happy with the process I'm going through, so I'm copying here what I wrote her. I've kept changing it since then anyway. I'll post a newer one soon. Actually, I found changing my form transformative for forcing me to change in a way I hadn't expected. At first I tried little adjustments, but got nowhere. I started telling myself that my form at…

May 2, 2017

999,316 meters!

999,316 meters!

Fitness / Habits / My Favorite Posts

999,316 meters!

Yesterday's rowing session on the rowing machine took me to 999,316 meters. My next rowing session will be my next cold shower day, May 4, unless it's as beautiful a day as today and I feel like running outdoors, and I'll hit 1,000,000 meters. One million meters is a nice milestone. It's small compared to a competitive rower, but that's the point. I'm not a serious rower. I'm 45. I write, coach, and teach, and I live a regular life. The emotional reward of crossing 1,000,000 meters, however fleeting the rowing session, means more and endures longer than anything I'd get from watching Game of Thrones or eating ice cream and cookies. Rowing takes away excuses. I can row 20 minutes and burn over 300…

April 29, 2017

Can I pick your brain? … Daniel Gefen’s wonderful, funny, penetrating interview of consistency and greatness you can achieve

Daniel Gefen's Can I Pick Your Brain interview of Joshua Spodek

Audio / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / SIDCHAs

Can I pick your brain? … Daniel Gefen’s wonderful, funny, penetrating interview of consistency and greatness you can achieve

I wish I could convey how much fun Daniel Gefen and I had talking before the podcast. I think it comes out in the conversation. Beyond being fun, Daniel went into depth nobody has about something I long wished someone would---the motivation behind the burpees and sidchas. Most interviewers ask about what I do, less about why or the effects. Daniel delved into consistency and how much it can create in your life. Listen to the interview! Listen to the interview! From Daniel's about page: Here are Daniel's show notes: My guest today is probably one of the most accomplished and consistent individuals I have had the pleasure to meet. Joshua Spodek holds five Ivy-League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA from…

April 28, 2017

More of why I don’t think of vegetables, fruit, and exercise as preventing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes

My Inc.com article today. Click to read it.

Fitness / Inc.com / Models / Tips

More of why I don’t think of vegetables, fruit, and exercise as preventing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes

My Inc.com article today, Why I Don't Think of Vegetables, Fruit, and Exercise as Preventing Disease, begins Why I Don't Think of Vegetables, Fruit, and Exercise as Preventing Disease Why consider unhealthy normal? Why not consider healthy the default? I've written before that I don't think of diet, exercise, and behavior as preventing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. I'm not a medical doctor, so this article isn't about medical advice. It's about leading yourself. It's about beliefs and mental models, which you can choose, which influences yourself, your behavior, and others' too. Recent articles touting "Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds" and "Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study" prompt me to follow up. I love that people…

April 26, 2017

“Me and the Big Bang Theorist”: Less Cancer Founder Bill Couzens writes about meeting me

Bill Couzens' article on Joshua Spodek

Fitness / Habits / Nonjudgment

“Me and the Big Bang Theorist”: Less Cancer Founder Bill Couzens writes about meeting me

Bill Couzens founded Less Cancer. He also founded National Cancer Prevention Day & Forum and initiated the US Congressional Cancer Prevention Caucus. In other words, he cares about an important issue and gets things done. He was also recently diagnosed with diabetes. He sought medical and dietary help. He also sensed he could use help with motivation and leading his life. Type 2 diabetes often results from behaviors that, when you change them, the condition stops, at least as far as I know. His web search found me. He contacted me shortly before business brought him to New York City. We met in person the other day. Between our call and visit, he pointed out quickly and several times that no one gave it to…

April 18, 2017

The Fierce Focus interview with Ryan Ross

Audio / Fitness / SIDCHAs

The Fierce Focus interview with Ryan Ross

Ryan Ross hosts the Fierce Focus podcast. A friend put us in touch. We had an engaging conversation that I enjoyed a lot, probably because he asked direct questions that led to meaningful answers. Also because we actually sat together face-to-face to record the interview, which opens the conversation, in my experience. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/312885119" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /] Here are the show's notes: Josh Spodek has done 90,000 burpees. He has a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia, and an MBA from the Columbia business school where is is a professor at Columbia Business School's Program on Social Intelligence. He has a new book out, New book: Leadership Step by Step. This is a LONG episode, and we cover subjects like what a SIDCHA is…

March 25, 2017

Astrophysicist turned media wiz tells listeners what leadership is all about: The Tim Laskis interview

Audio / Fitness / Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Astrophysicist turned media wiz tells listeners what leadership is all about: The Tim Laskis interview

Tim Laskis is a psychologist, but unlike most of them, has done things in life, including starting and selling a company and coaching others. He specializes in business and sports. Read more about him below. He also interviewed me for his podcast, The Tim Laskis Show, a genuine, fun, rewarding, and, I believe, engaging and informative conversation. We talked about success, failure, what it takes to achieve, how to make it through, what works, what doesn't, and more. Click here to listen to the podcast! Here is more background on Tim from his about page: ABOUT TIM LASKIS No one understands the psychology of human behavior and success strategies better than Tim, especially as it applies to business and sports. He grew up in a…

March 22, 2017

Emotional Obesity and Making Yourself Emotionally Fit and Authentic

Fitness / Inc.com

Emotional Obesity and Making Yourself Emotionally Fit and Authentic

My Inc. post today, "Emotional Obesity and Making Yourself Emotionally Fit and Authentic," begins Emotional Obesity and Making Yourself Emotionally Fit and Authentic Laura Coe's book, Emotional Obesity, and podcast, The Art of Authenticity, address your mind's fitness like your body's Can you think of anyone in a leadership position who seems inauthentic? Do you like your leaders inauthentic? We are skeptical of leaders who lack authenticity. They seem to have hidden agendas, which scares us in a leader. We want leaders to guide in stressful times, when we can't help ourselves. Difficult times are when hidden agendas hurt us most, when we are most vulnerable. Having just published a book on how to develop leadership skills, I've been interviewed on dozens of podcasts. Laura…

March 13, 2017

90,000 burpees!

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

90,000 burpees!

I decided to post my regular 10,000-burpee increment update on Inc. first this time. I'm only supposed to sample the beginning of the article when it first goes up. So click to my Inc. post, "90,000 Burpees Today," which begins 90,000 Burpees Today I started my daily burpee habit in December 2011. Today I hit my 90,000th. I'm a 45-year old man and I've done burpees every day since December 21, 2011, inspired by a New York Times article by Gretchen Reynolds in which a fitness expert, Dr. Martin Gibala, suggested them as a candidate for the single best exercise. Neither of them expected anyone to do just them, but I did. I've written about them here and on my blog. I consider myself in…

March 10, 2017

Awareness / Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Tips

The shockingly valuable life lessons of vigorous exercise

With five Ivy League degrees, especially the PhD in astrophysics, experience teaching at Ivy League and other elite schools, and a father who was a tenured professor in history, I think I'm qualified to know the value of intellectual knowledge. The more I learn through physical experience, the more valuable I find it. The intellectual world, especially schools and universities, value the intellect so much, I don't think they realize the value of learning through experience, especially vigorous exercise. Case 1, superfically: deadlift form The other day my physical trainer friend was over. I asked him to evaluate my form on a few exercises. He pointed out that on my kettle bell deadlift, my right knee went inward. It's a common mistake, but the relevance…

March 9, 2017

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

My health-related activities

A podcaster and I were emailing about the possibility of doing an interview. He said his podcast was mostly health related. As I summarized for him my health-related activities, I felt that what I was writing would summarize well here, so wrote it more comprehensively than I normally would have. I like sharing these practices. Note that they are things anyone can do. I mean, if you're wheelchair bound, you may not be able to do burpees, but you can do some equivalent. My point is that none are things like jumping out of a balloon ten miles above the Earth, where you need teams of people, millions of dollars, equipment few people have access to, and so on. I swam across a river and…

March 1, 2017

To avoid “processed” or “refined” foods, avoid food with fiber removed

Doof / Fitness / Habits / My Favorite Posts / Nature

To avoid “processed” or “refined” foods, avoid food with fiber removed

In response to someone posting how he avoided sugar, I shared my practice, which I find simpler, less artificial, and closer to the original plants and fungi, which is to avoid foods whose fiber has been removed. (EDIT: see an image of the results at the bottom of the page) Here are a few posts I wrote, first my original response, then my responses to responses. I worked at finding a simple policy for myself and settled on: I avoid food where fiber has been removed. That cuts out sugar, white flour, corn syrup, oils, and basically all junk, forcing me to eat tons of vegetables, fruit, legumes, and nuts. I already didn't eat animal products. I haven't cut them to zero, but fiber-removed foods…

February 3, 2017

Tim Ferriss is talking about me! … with Martin Gibala, about burpees, the New York Times, and public health

Fitness / Habits / Humor / SIDCHAs

Tim Ferriss is talking about me! … with Martin Gibala, about burpees, the New York Times, and public health

Tim Ferriss, bestselling author and marketer of The 4-Hour Workweek and follow-up "4-Hour" books, interviewed Martin Gibala, the scientist whose suggesting burpees as a candidate for the single best exercise in the New York Times in 2011 inspired my sidcha. Dr. Gibala's book with Christopher Shulgan, The One Minute Workout, launches on February 7 (a week before my book, Leadership Step by Step!), which they talked mostly about, how to stay fit with minimal time and the research he did to find and back up how little time you need for meaningful improvement when you intensify the exercise and include rest intervals. They also talked about me! Ferriss's podcast post here includes the full ~90 minute recording. Having edited so much audio for my leadership…

January 25, 2017

New York Times front page normalizes what makes people fat

Fitness / Nature

New York Times front page normalizes what makes people fat

The New York Times wrote Saturday on the front page: Food stamps are supposed to help improve nutrition for the poor, but a study shows that, just like everyone else, food stamp users buy soda and junk food. Just like everyone else?!? Bull-f-ing-shit! "Everyone else" does not buy soda and junk food. I have never bought soda at this home and I've lived here for over 17 years. I haven't bought junk food for years. I just talked to a friend and she said she doesn't buy soda either. To claim that everyone buys soda and junk food normalizes an unhealthy behavior that many people don't consider normal at all. As long as entitlement programs pay for that junk, it supports all tax payers supporting…

January 19, 2017

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / SIDCHAs / Tips

A burpee app?

My 2,192 Days of Burpees post and Inc. article got a lot of responses, including questions how to start from people who felt inspired by this free, zero-equipment, zero-cost, low-risk, healthy, and so on practice. One reader asked if I could recommend an app. I wrote back Glad to hear from you and that you're inspired. I prefer not to use an app. Like brushing my teeth, I just know if I'm going to bed without doing my burpees. This way I don't depend on anything external. If I want to know how many I've done cumulatively, I get out a spreadsheet and plug in my starting date in one cell and the current date in another. Taking the difference tells me the number of…

January 7, 2017

Fitness / Models

Redefining possibility: This 85-year-old marathoner runs faster than you

I remember people telling me as a kid that it was inevitable to get fat when you turned 30 or 40. When you're young, you believe grown-ups. Sadly, you don't know that they're just telling you beliefs they've told themselves to excuse their mediocrity or having chosen ice cream and cookies in their two options in life. Sadder still, if people rise to the level expected of them, as I believe they do, teaching kids this complacency dooms them to not reaching their potential. It's sad enough when an adult gives up and chooses physical pleasure over triumph over adversity---that is, gluttony---but sadder still when he or she drags an innocent child down with him or her. Well, today's New York Times' piece, "85-Year-Old Marathoner…

December 29, 2016

Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

2,192 Days of Burpees

My Inc. article today, "2,192 Days of Burpees," begins 2,192 Days of Burpees I've done burpees every day for the past 6 years, about 85,000 so far. I'm just getting started. In April 2011, the New York Times Magazine published an article asking fitness experts, "What's the Single Best Exercise?" In it, Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University, suggested the burpee. I had to look it up. You drop down, do a push-up, then jump. Pictures and animations here illustrate it. No equipment, gym, spotter, or anything necessary. Gibala studies high intensity workouts, as his upcoming book, The One-Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That's Smarter, Faster, Shorter, documents. The article said: "It builds muscles. It…

December 21, 2016

Audio / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

The Better Human Podcast: hear me speak on sidchas

In September I spoke with David Rachford, host of The Better Human podcast, about sidchas. About the podcast: The Better Human Show is for people like you, who are looking for a positive voice in their day. Inspired by Rich Roll, Joe Rogan, Lewis Howes and Shawn Stevenson, and Tony Robbins, each episode offers inspiration & information on health & fitness, relationships, giving back, and creating a legacy. The Better Human Show shares practical actionable advice from noted experts in sports, medicine, relationships, sexuality, yoga, meditation, nutrition, and peak performance. The content will sometimes challenge you, and will make you think about how you can realize your potential by transcending perceived limitations to become a Better Human. Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/davidrachford/self-imposed-daily-healthy Or right-click…

December 12, 2016

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Freedom / Habits

The bounty of more value from less crap

I'm scheduling being on a podcast (with Steven Shalowitz of the fascinating The One Way Ticket Show) and Steven and I got to talking about food, flying, and trying new things instead of unthinkingly doing what everyone else does. Or not experimenting at all. Since I figure you're here to improve your life, I couldn't help but share some of our conversation. I mentioned I'm avoiding flying for a year. He asked, didn't know about the year of no flying. what precipitated it, if you don't mind my asking? love the idea. at this point i'd like to try a year without tv . . . I wrote, Two main precipitations: The first was my huge improvements in my life of little experiments like that…

December 6, 2016

Want less tension? Create some tension.

Stretching tells you what muscles are tight. If you don't stretch, you don't know where your tension is. Then you can't relax as well. The same goes for mental or emotional tension, in my experience. If you don't challenge yourself, you can't relax as well either. I think someone who lounges around all the time can't relax as well as someone who challenges him- or herself. Challenging yourself helps you relax. Someone who has chosen cookies and ice cream can't relax as well as someone who works at it.

November 18, 2016

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