Welcome to the GAIN Blog
The blog is updated Monday-Friday. Tune in for posts and discussion about health, fitness, nutrition, training experiments and reflection. We share articles, videos and more. We post the link to our Instagram story every day, make sure to follow along there to never miss a post.
Walking Challenge Check In, Day 18
Twelve days to go! How much more winter weather will we endure?
At this point, it should start to feel automatic. If it hasn’t yet, it’s coming soon. No more forgetting to walk, no struggling to find time, you’ve done the work and built the habit. Keep it up this week and finish strong headed into February!
Keep an eye out for a poll on Instagram. I’ll be putting out a poll today or tomorrow to see how many of you still have the streak going.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 19
Happy Friday. Here’s this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share helpful Instagram posts I saved over the week and sometimes work out new blog ideas. Enjoy.
A couple months ago I followed a program called Easy Strength, where for every workout you do 2 sets of 5 repetitions of a movement (or two or three or four movements) and keep the load at a weight that feels easy. As you accumulate these frequent sessions, you slowly put weight on the bar, essentially upping your max by raising your base and getting a lot of practice. I had a ton of success on it, and this past week two members hit big PRs by following the similar plans. Jeff bench pressed 300, which, not many people have done at GAIN (definitely not me…yet), and Riley squatted 200, which even less have. Both have been on the program since before Thanksgiving. Neither missed a scheduled training session and slowly built the weights up over the weeks.
This post from Meg Squats was timely, leaning during splits squats had come up a couple of times this week, many of you might find this demo valuable. The more upright you are, the more they’re going to target your quads. If you lean forward, thus keeping the shin more vertical, the movement will target your glutes more. This is helpful if you’re trying to rehab or build strength in a certain area, or trying to avoid movements that hurt, i.e., split squats hurt your knee, but if you learn forward to make the more hip dominant, they no longer hurt your knee.
I’ve been wearing a belt more frequently and it has definitely helped my bracing. For me, what it does most, is give me feedback to expand my brace into. I breathe into the belt to create pressure. Far too often I see people crank belts as tight as they possibly can, this has a negative effect, and while it might feel supportive, it’s actually preventing a proper breath and brace.
This was a great video.
See you next week!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Track it
The old adage, what gets measured gets managed, holds true for health and fitness too.
For a couple months I’ve been tracking my sleep. Well, I have been tracking it since 2019, but recently I’ve been making a point to look at the information each day. I look at what time I went to bed, what my 7 night average sleep duration is and how many hours I got the night before. Ultimately, I’m aiming to get my seven night average consistently over 8 hours.
Taylor has been tracking his steps this month. Everyday he makes some decision about his schedule based on getting those 10 thousand steps in. It can be as simple as I need to walk this morning since I won’t have time this afternoon.
If you’re trying to up your sleep, or steps or protein, give tracking it a try. It’s not an immediate solution, but by tracking it, you’ll learn more about yourself and your habits, and be better equipped to make adjustments and tackle your goals.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Gym Lingo: AMRAP
AMRAP - As Many Rounds and/or Reps As Possible in the time limit.
This is a style of density training - how much work can you complete in the allotted time?
Let’s take the following workout as an example to understand this concept.
AMRAP 6 minutes, max reps of deadlifts @ 135.
You complete 50 reps.
Besides total reps, we can look at total pounds moved, which in this case would be 135 pounds x 50 reps = 6750 pounds moved.
To progress this workout after week 1 you could complete more than 50 reps, add load to the bar, or try to complete 50 reps in less time.
Any of those scenarios would increase this workout’s density, requiring you to do more work.
Here’s another example.
AMRAP 8
50ft sled march
10 mb slams
10 breath high plank hold
This one is a bit more complicated. There are multiple exercises to deal within the 8 minutes. The sled will make your legs burn and get your heart rate up, the slams will spike your heart rate even more, and the plank breaths will be challenging since you’ll be gasping for air.
In this scenario, pacing will have a huge effect on how much work you complete. Start out too fast and finish 3 rounds within 3 minutes, the remaining 5 minutes will be a suffer fest. After completing this workout once, we would track it by how many total rounds + partial rounds you completed. The following week, your fitness would improve just because you know how to pace it better, an important lesson AMRAPs can teach.
AMRAPS are a way to get you to cram as much work, whatever that is, in a time period. By doing this, you’ll learn about pacing and get a great conditioning stimulus.
When doing an AMRAP, find a sustainable pace to complete the task and get to work!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Sneaky Reps
I have this sneaky, but obvious once you see it, thing in many of the programs I write. It’s an important consideration of mine, especially for someone who’s older.
I’ll pair something seated or standing with something on the floor.
Often times, I’ll notice, or the person will it bring up to me, that they’ll just do all the planks, or glute bridges, or whatever while staying on the floor, and thus not pairing it as written on their program.
While I understand their hesitation, I explain the gym is the perfect place for some exposure and practice reps.
Three rounds can become 3 chances to do a floor to standing transition - a critical life skill!
Get those sneaky reps in when you can. Maybe getting up off the floor is no big deal for you, but can you sneak in some squats throughout the day? Spend more time balancing on one leg? Carry something without putting it down, for no reason at all, other than see if you can.
Listen, don’t take it too far. I’m not saying make all life movements look like gym movements. I’ve tried and it’s not the way. I’m saying there’s plenty of opportunities to get sneaky reps in. For some, it’s as simple as adding some reps to get up and down from the floor. For you, maybe there’s another way to accumulate some sneaky reps in throughout the day.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Walking Challenge Check In
We thought last week with rain and snow were going to be a tough test, how about single digit temperatures to deal with this weekend? I hope you all got out despite the cold and were able to power through to keep your streak going.
The key to having a good time on a walk on a cold winter day is the same as it is for all outdoor winter activities, layering.
The old hiking/running adage, be bold start cold, doesn’t apply to walking around the block though. The idea is that after hiking uphill or running for a while, you’ll warm up and start to sweat. Starting cold allows you to get started and get warmed up without getting too hot or having to stop and take off a layer (you’ll probably still need to, anyway).
But for walking, I find this doesn’t apply. I don’t want to be cold when starting a walk, in fact, I want to be comfortable and warm. My body temperature might rise during a walk, but not like it will on a trail run or venture into the mountains. Nevertheless, here are some strategies I use when venturing out in the cold, whether for a walk in the neighborhood with the family or a cold run up a mountain.
Warm socks, but not too warm. My extra thick, cozy socks are too much and my feet feel sweaty.
Neck/face covering. A gator/balaclava/Buff, whatever you call it, can seal you up and give your face protection from the wind.
Zippers! Be able to unzip for some air when you need it.
Mittens > Gloves when it’s really cold.
Good hoods. I love a hood that I can tighten down so I can still move my head around and see.
How did you layer up for your walks this weekend?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 18
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts, where I share some posts I saved on Instagram or work out some half formed post ideas. Enjoy!
Daily Walking Challenge Day 8! We’ve had it all in the first week, rain, snow, cold and windy winter days. Many of you have reported in that you’re checking the box everyday, keep it up!
Should you exercise if you have a bad night of sleep? In summary, yes but reduce intensity by 25-50%.
Goblet squats are probably the best core exercise for you, even thought it’s hard to “feel” it in your abs. It takes some heavy and challenging sets to learn this lesson.
SEE: daily walking challenge. The most powerful thing the gym can do is influence your choices throughout the day. Take a walk, eat some protein, hang out with your friends and prioritize your sleep.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
General Physical Preparedness
General Physical Preparedness, or GPP, is a way to describe a broad application of strength and conditioning. The focus is on general development of strength, power, speed, skill, movement quality and conditioning. Originating from the sports performance, building GPP is the base building or off-season phase of an athlete’s training plan. Eventually, GPP leads way to more specific training (SPP - sport-specific physical training), increasing intensity, and finally peaking for a specific event or sports season.
For our purposes, your level GPP is a great way to think about your fitness, and to start defining what you want your base to be. Training for a race or triathlon, or building to a certain deadlift number or hitting watts on a bike workout are all clear training goals. Defining what you want your general physical preparedness levels though is different. It’s more broad, and less easily defined.
One way to think about it is your work capacity. Just how much stuff can you get done in a certain time period? Once again, in the gym this is easily defined, but it’s going to take a little more imagination when considering outside the gym.
The right amount of GPP will allow you to complete life’s daily tasks with ease, plus the ability to do whatever else you want.
Let’s take the recent snow storm for example. Having proper GPP levels for you life could mean you can clean of your car, shovel the deck, travel around on the slippery and uncertain terrain and also hit the gym, work all day and be a useful and reliable human.
The point is that everyone’s baseline will be slightly different, but the take away is that you can define it for yourself. What do you want to be able to do? What’s holding you back from doing that? Maybe defining what you consider your base level of general physical preparedness will help you get there.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
GAIN Bowling Night, Tonight at 5pm
Join us tonight at Bowl-O-Rama at 5pm for a GAIN Community Bowling Night.
Lanes and shoes are taken care of, friends and family are welcome. Food and drinks are available for purchase.
We’re bringing the kids if you have little ones as well.
5:30 & 7:00pm classes are cancelled.
See you tonight!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
How to Get Better at Push Ups
Push ups can be frustrating. On one hand, they’re a simple exercise, no equipment required and something most people are familiar with. Many people think they should be able to do them based on that alone. But that’s not the case, they require a lot of strength and technique, and practice.
Eventually, poor technique will halt your progress. Whether your shoulders starts to feel achy or you’ve plateaued and can’t tack on any more reps, it’s likely that both strength and technique are your issue.
Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re doing everything to build the strength and technique required for big set of perfect push ups.
They should be hard but not too hard.
Reaching failure is a sure fire way to halt progress. We want you to use variation that is challenging to get the reps done, but not impossible, leading to frequent misses. When you train your body to fail, it doesn’t adapt as well. Whatever the goal reps are, always try to leave one or two more reps ‘in the tank.’
Frequency
If push ups are really on your mind, talk to your coach and add in an additional day to get the reps in. One day should be hard, grinder reps and the other day should be an easy volume building day. Maybe on Monday you do eccentric only reps, building up some time under tension and on Friday you do hands elevated push ups to get some smooth reps in and groove your technique.
Place a premium on accessory movements.
A push up is just a plank where you bend your arms. Really lock in your plank technique, grip the ground, engage your glutes, use your upper back, breathe purposefully and realize that the more robust you are here, the better transfer over to push ups.
Mobilize those wrists.
If your wrists are really stiff, it can place more pressure on your shoulder while doing push ups. Stretching them out prior to your set can make a significant difference. Sometimes this is all it takes to unlock better technique.
Even if you were to never get a push up on the floor, chasing one is a worthwhile training pursuit to build total body strength, awareness and control.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Walking Challenge Check In: The First Weekend
You did it. The first weekend. We always tend to start things with a new month, a new year, or seemingly always on a Monday. It sometimes feels like procrastination when you could just start now. The Friday start to this challenge was deliberate, I wanted to throw you all into the first weekend right away. Bonus points that we had some nasty weather to deal with.
For some of you, maybe the weekend was easier to get it in, and this week will take a littler more planning. Either way, your weekdays are probably different than your weekends, so be sure to consider that and plan out when you’ll get your daily in walks this week.
If you messed up, and forgot to start, or only got one walk in this weekend, don’t quit! The challenge isn’t over just because you messed up. Get back to it today and build some momentum!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 17
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday thoughts, where I share half formed blog ideas, and posts I saw on Instagram throughout the week. Enjoy!
Daily Walking Challenge kicks off today! You can still sign up through the rest of the day. We have 38 sign ups, let break 40! CLICK TO SIGN UP
GAIN Bowling Night - Wednesday January 17th @ 5pm. Bowl-O-Rama, Portsmouth. Toddler parents, Hannah and I are brining the boys.
Read the caption of this post. Often, the real benefits of training can go unnoticed. Having more energy, not getting out of breath so easily, feeling less stiff in the morning, carrying groceries with ease (I know, I know, strength coach talking about carrying groceries is so cliche, but it’s SO TRUE!). People will sometimes draw the conclusion that they aren’t making progress, or seeing any changes, but they’re usually looking at times or weights. How you deal with stress, and your energy levels aren’t as quantifiable as weight on the bar or on the scale, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as important.
I don’t know who this guy is but I agree with everything he said about training shoes. And I lived through all the trends he talked about, and am in fact one of those people who will tell you five finger shoes changed my life but there’s no way I would be caught wearing them today.
This is me lately, “I should do some conditioning today”…Lifts weights instead.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
2011. five finger shoes and a 44kg get up
Maximum Stimulation Required
Right before starting a workout the other day, a friend teased me, and asked if we were going to put music on. I’ve written before about how I love running with no music, and I’ll sometimes train in the gym with nothing on the speakers. Everyone thinks I hate music, or don’t realize that listen to music while lifting has performance enhancing benefits.
In 2012 I was working at a gym and commuting an hour to school to finish up my final college credits. I headed to school early in the morning, hustled back to the gym to coach for a few hours and then would try to workout.
Back then I would take a scoop of pre-workout powder before every workout. Even after taking some caffeine, these training sessions would often go poorly. After a while, I realized, why do I need to get so amped up just to workout? What’s the point of this? Why can’t I just lift without (more) caffeine and loud music that I’m constantly tinkering with?
The same thing happened when I started running. AirPods weren’t around yet. I had wired ear buds, shorts with a specific pocket and a zipper, and the wire was always getting tangled up on me. I spent the whole time wanting to change the song or skip all of them all together. The whole run would be preoccupied with skipping songs, trying to find the perfect one.
I created barriers to entry. I needed maximum stimulation. I needed loud music and a heroic dose of caffeine to get some bench press sets in. Instead of just being able to start. Over the years, training in a hyped up environment yielded results for me, and that became the norm. Prolonged exposure to the same stimulus dulled the effect though, and before I knew it, I needed two scoops of Jack3d 3D, or needed to create the most perfect playlist
I still have caffeine before I train. But I’ve stayed away for the pre workout powder since this realization, and stopped listening to music while running long ago. My point about being able to train without those things that I want to train a lot. I want to train for a long time. I want to train to be the best version of my self, and relying on specific, cranked up music and caffeine just to get moving was becoming a crutch, no longer a training aid. I wanted to get to a place where the environment didn’t matter, I wanted to be in control.
You’re not always going to be able to pick the music, or have a normal pre workout routine. Sometimes you just need to be able to get the workout done and get on with your day, and that’s tough to do when maximum stimulation is required.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Walking Challenge, Final Details
Our first ever Daily Walking Challenge kicks off on Friday January 12. If you haven’t already, you can sign up HERE. The link is good for members and non members, so feel free to send it along to your friends and family to get them moving more too.
Here are the rule for participation:
Take a 20 minute walk every day for 30 days.
Must be a 20 minute continuous walk. No 4x5 minute walks. We’re trying to build a habit and be consistent, not game the system.
I’m all for more incidental walking, parking farther away, taking the stairs, stuff like that. That’s not what this challenge is about though.
Keep track of your walks, somehow. Use an app, a piece of paper, carve a mark into a rock, tattoo it on your arm, whatever works best for you. You need to track your habit to help you stick with it, but also to prove you went 30/30.
If you want to see everything quantified at the end of the 30 days, like how many total miles you accumulated, etc. use an app like Strava to track your walks.
Anyone who gets 30/30 days gets entered to a raffle to win a pair of training shoes. You can choose any shoe you’d like (as long as they’re approved by me).
If you still haven’t signed up, get involved here!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Lift Heavy for Better Posture
When you use barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells in the gym, you’re using these implements to add external load. They make things more challenging on your body so you adapt and get stronger. The name of the game is maintaining a good position, or posture, despite these external loads attempting to pull you out of position.
Therefore, a fundamental part of lifting weights, especially heavy ones, is maintaining good posture.
To improve your form, you’ve got to be aware of it. You’ll need to check and recheck and constantly adjust based on internal or external feedback. If you want your posture to improve outside the gym, while driving or on the computer, there’s no shortcut. You must be aware of what position your body is in and constantly edit it.
If this seems like a daunting task, consider this. The stronger you are, the less likely your position will degrade in stressful situations. Your posture will become more robust through training. The goal is that our focus in the gym will improve our posture outside subconsciously. After enough practice you’ll reach a new default.
Regardless of how experienced you are, postural awareness always takes a concentrated effort, but lifting heavy things is one of the best ways to get there.
Justin MIner
@justinminergain
More or Less
The New Year brings a lot of excitement into the gym. It also can bring a lot of pressure to do something, because you’re supposed to. I get caught up thinking that way too.
The fresh start is so enticing, I’ll have thoughts like… I better start a new back squat cycle since I missed a few sessions around the holidays… And I should run more so that doesn’t continue to wither away… And since I’ll be running and lifting my diet should be dialed in… I’ll start counting my macros… And there’s the GAIN Walking Challenge… And so on.
The freshness and excitement can overwhelm you with ideas and prevent you from making any positive changes though. Today, I want you to consider this, what do you need to de-prioritize?
What’s no longer helping you, or maybe getting in the way of a new habit?
Adding too much in at once is straight path to burn out. Ask yourself this, can you cut something out instead of adding something in?
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 16
Walking challenge starts in 1 week. Sign up HERE.
Mark your calendar for bowling night - Wed Jan 17 @ 5:30pm, Bowl-O-Rama
Here are some yearly stats I pulled from my Garmin watch.
I took 3,380,809 steps in 2023, 1,100 steps less per day on average from 2022.
I ran 271 miles, 51,000 feet of vertical gain. This was actually more than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t focus much on running at all this year. I want to do enough to keep my skills sharp, but I’ve enjoyed chasing other training goals.
I averaged 7 hours and 18 minutes of sleep.
Keep going strong this weekend if you have a new habit you’re working on!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Daily Walking Challenge; Win New Shoes
Walking consistently is one of the most impactful and accessible ways to improve your health. Walking is good for your heart, joints, muscles, and even your stress levels. That’s why, to help you keep moving in the New Year, we’re hosting a 30-day walking challenge.
The goal is to get in a 20 minute walk, each and every day for 30 days.
I decided against a step count, and instead want you to focus on the duration. Remember that 10,000 steps was just made up by a pedometer company in 1965 for marketing. In Built to Move, Kelly and Juliette Starrett cite that most of the data says you get all the positive benefits of walking around seven to eight thousand steps.
Then there’s dealing with the fact that everyone has a different baseline. If you’re currently only getting 2000 steps a day, jumping straight to 8000 for the challenge would be unreasonable. Twenty minutes is twenty minutes for everyone.
Lastly, I’ve witnessed people pace around their house at the end of the day to get a few hundred more steps in for some challenge. While I appreciate the commitment, and would never be against additional movement, I would rather create a challenge that will have a long-lasting positive effect on you, and having to get up and get moving for 20 minutes won’t allow this sort of thing to happen.
Here’s all the details:
When: Friday January 12- Saturday February 10.
How: Sign Up Here on PushPress (under events tap in the app).
What: a 20 minute of walk each and every day for 30 days.
Why: To build a habit, camaraderie, move more frequently, feel better, non-exercise physical activity, get outside, have more energy.
Anyone who gets 30/30 days (tracking on your own, honor system), will be entered into a raffle to win a new pair of training shoes. If a lot of people sign up, I may pick two winners. This challenge is open to anyone, your family and friends can sign up using the link as well!
Let’s get to walking!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
First GAIN Community Night of 2024
Mark your calendars! We’re starting off 2024 with a GAIN Community Event.
What: GAIN Bowling Bight at Bowl-O-Rama in Portsmouth
When: Wednesday Jan 17 at 5:30pm
Who: You!
How: Lanes and shoes will be covered, just show up and have a good time. Food and drinks are available for purchase.
Please note, there will be no 5:30pm and 7pm classes on 1/17. More details to come!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
New Year, Same Routine?
Are you confused at what day it is, and craving your schedule and your routine back, or is that just me?
The end of the year is the perfect time to check out, recharge and get invigorated.
If you’re like me, you like having a schedule and a routine though. While it was nice not having one for a couple weeks, and getting to spend a ton of time at home with the kids, I’m ready for my routine.
With the New Year, many of us have the urge to dive in the deep end and start a bunch of new habits and goals, only, as the common story goes, to fizzle out before the month’s end, never mind the year’s end.
This week, instead of creating new routines and habits, I’m falling back on my usual ones. These are really simple, basic habits that I need to check in and make sure I’m accomplishing without issue before even thinking about adding more to my plate.
For me, these things are; in bed before 9pm every night, water before coffee in the morning, no caffeine after 2pm, protein at every meal and my nightly wind down mobility routine.
Once I feel back at baseline, I’ll considering adding some new habits and routines in, but this week, I’m focused on making sure I’m continuing the old ones.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain