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.
Shut Eye
In their book Built to Move, Kelly and Juliet Starrett outline these 10 tips to get the best rest and recovery every night. You may know some of these, but hopefully you can learn a thing or two to help you get a higher quality night of sleep.
Go to sleep and wake up at the same time, even weekends.
We keep out babies on toddlers on strict sleep schedules, why don’t we do that as adults?
Move more throughout the day.
More movement throughout the day is going to help you hit the hay later. TL;DR: walk more to wear yourself out.
Careful with caffeine
Caffeine takes time for our system to process it. Even if you’re a fast caffeine metabolizer (like me, I got my DNA tested), it can still affect your sleep, wait for it…. Even if you fall asleep without issue - it’s likely disrupting the restfulness and quality of your sleep. I’ve found that if I have caffeine too late, I’ll fall asleep without issue, but often wake up ‘too’ early the next morning unable to fall back asleep. Try out a couple different cut off times and see what works best for you.
No phones in the bed.
Right after GAIN opened I bought an analog alarm clock. I was waking up and immediately grabbing my phone to refresh my email. Not exactly a chill morning wake up. These days I still leave my phone downstairs.
Cut the alcohol
Anyone who has worn a Garmin or a WHOOP strap for a consistent period of time will tell you that alcohol negatively impacts their sleep. Audit your consumption and see how your sleep score changes after indulging.
Cool down
A cool room is the best place to sleep. Try turning the thermostat down a bit before bed and see if it helps you unwind.
Night time wind down
The Starrett’s recommend setting an alarm 60 minutes before bed to remind you to start your routine. They recommend doing your mobility work and foam rolling at night to help promote a parasympathetic response, or helping your nervous system wind down.
Dark and quiet
Blackout shades are amazing. Especially if you’re early to bed people like us.
Overestimate the time you need in bed.
This one is hard to wrap your head around. They’re saying if you want 8 hours, you better plan to be in bed for 9 hours. It’ll take you a while to fall asleep, and if you wake up at all for the bathroom, or toss and turn, all those minutes don’t count toward you sleep total. I’ve been thinking about and using this one for the past year and it can motivate me get into bed sooner.
Mimic your bedtime when you travel.
Stay consistent when you can.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 30
Welcome back to Friday Thoughts, where I share some of my favorite Instagram posts I saved this week. Enjoy!
Upgrade your balance. Taking some breaths and looking around is a way to upgrade your balance practice.
Came across this April 2015 throwback this week.
What!
World record bench presser, Jen Thompson, has her two teenage boys hand her the 120 pound dumbbells. Amazing! I’ve never benched more than the 100s.
The never ending rope trick!
Thanks for reading, see you Monday.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Slowing Time Down
Several months ago I took the USA Weightlifting Coaches’ course. It’s been a seminar I’ve wanted attended for a while and it was nice to check it off my bucket list.
One of the more fascinating things I learned was how fast the Olympic lifts happen - The bar speed on a snatch is something like 1.2-1.5 meters/second. The lift is over in less than a second, and so much happens in to get a barbell from the floor to over your head. You have to be aggressive and precise.
A few times a week I upload videos to my coach and he breaks them down, analyzes them and provides feedback for me to work on at my next session. My technique and understanding of the lifts has improved drastically, but the other day I felt it all come together at once.
I was working up to 85% of my max. I watched my video back from my last set and noticed a slight jump forward - something we’ve been working on for a while. I decide to go up 5 pounds, or 2 kilos as we say in weightlifting, and try to end on a smoother lift. What happened was crazy, and I didn’t even realize was possible.
Time slowed down.
I set up like I always do. Step to the bar, left foot then right, found good foot pressure, grabbed the bar, right hand first, sipped a big breath in and picked a spot to look at. I rocked up to load my hips and when I dropped back down into my starting position I pushed the bar off the floor and the next half second felt like a minute. Like I was watching a slow motion video of myself.
I could feel the bar moving by the inch and I heard cues in my head and was making adjustments on the fly. Your knee should be vertical as you pass it, get your chest up as soon as the bar is past your knees, sweep the bar, drive vertically - don’t lean back, put the bar where you want it! I even had the fleeting thought as I dropped under the bar to catch it - how am I thinking of all this at once?
I nailed the lift. My coach said it was the best snatch he’s ever seen me do. My understanding of the lift completely changed after that one attempt. All these little pieces I have been working on, small adjustments, micro tweaks came all together and time slowed down.
The goal is 100 kilos so I’ve still got a ways to go, but I’m thrilled with my progress, and the whole process of refining these skills for the past 6 months.
Many of you have asked for the details about the meet - the meet is in North Hampton on 4/21. Riley will lift around 12pm and I’ll start around 2pm. Here are some details about the meet and I’ll post them again next week.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
More Rest, Less Reps
Here are some gym hacks you should know about.
They’re not really hacks either. They’re sound training principles that go against the norm of how peoples’ expectation of workouts should be.
The first is to rest more.
If something feels hard, and your goal is to improve strength. Chill out.
Resting longer allows the stuff that happens in your muscles run its program to gear up for the next bout of effort. That extra minute or two can be the difference in a weight feeling really easy or too hard.
If something feels really heavy, remember that isn’t a bad thing if you’re trying to build strength. You need stress to build strength and that struggle is good!
Too much of a struggle can be an issue though. We still want proper form and often times the way to ensure better form with a heavier weight or harder skill is to cut back on the reps.
If your program says do 8, but you just increased a weight for the first time, you can do 5 or 6 reps to build confidence and get some practice. Keep the movement quality high instead of completing 8 sloppy reps.
Experienced gym-goers get this, and it’s a valuable framework to keep you playing the long game.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Away Gains
All the strength gains you want to make at the gym happen while you’re away from the gym, during the other 23 hours of the day.
If you want to improve your performance and crush your goals, consider the following questions.
Are you providing enough fuel for what you want to do?
Are you drinking water? Taking some electrolytes?
Are you recovering? How many hours of sleep do you get consistently?
Feeling stressed out? How are you dealing with that stress?
Getting enough daily movement? Have a mobility practice or stretching routine?
All these things factor in to how you body feels and performs. And they’re all things that happened away from the gym, the other 23 hours.
If you want to upgrade your in gym performance, the best place to start is what you’re doing when you’re not at the gym.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Add to Subtract
Gyms are so good at helping people make changes in their life is because it’s a new thing to add in.
You need to commute to the gym, be there for an hour and commute back to home or work or wherever. You can’t fake it. You have to carve out that time and actually show up.
Health and fitness often emphasizes subtraction. Take diets for example, they often eliminate something that is deemed “bad.” Cut this thing out, stop doing this, no more of this type of food. The restriction and focus on what you can’t do makes compliance difficult.
If you’re having trouble getting to the gym, remember, once you add this habit in, other good habits are going to fall in place and you’ll subtract bad habits with the addition of your new one.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
The Day There Was No Blog
Haunted by the lack of internet and power two weeks in a row!
There’s no Friday Thoughts post today.
Just a reminder that while streaks are impressive, getting back to it after a falter is just as, if not more, impressive than the original streak. It all comes down to consistency.
Have a great weekend!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Training Ramblings
My weightlifting meet is 17 days away.
I get 3 attempts in the snatch, and the clean and jerk, to score a total, the sum of my best of each in kilos. Each lift requires getting a barbell from the ground to overhead.
I’ve been training for this since November. I have a coach who writes my program and gives me feedback on my lifts through video review. I’ve enjoyed the training and having the commitment to the meet, it’s been easy to get moving and train on most days with the meet hanging over my head. My technique and understanding of the movements has drastically improved too. Which is was probably a bigger goal than just throwing more weight around (although I really want that 100 kilo snatch).
I’m happy we’re getting closer. I feel ready and also craving a break from chucking heavy barbells around. And a lot of people around me are gearing up for Spring trail runs, and that’s got me thinking ahead to what my next phase of training will look like when this is all said and done.
That’s not to say I’ll be moving on from weightlifting entirely, either. I plan to take a break for running in the summer and then get back to it in the fall.
I’ve had a great year of training and a big part of that is thinking of parts of the year as different sport seasons. I was a better runner when I ran year round, but having taken a break from it has made me appreciate it more, and at least crave it more than I thought I would.
Training for both those sports at the same time presents an interesting challenge. They’re on opposite ends of the athletic spectrum. Weightlifting is all about power and bebing explosive for fractions of a second, while running is about a long sustained effort. Being heavier is an advantage for weightlifting while a disadvantage for running and so on.
Here’s a snapshot of my progress on the lifts.
245 clean and jerk attempt March 2021
245 Clean and Jerk March 2024
Thanks for reading.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
SOLEC
It’s rare someone comes in and doesn’t say that need to work on balance. Balance can be frustrating to train, because you need to challenge your balance in order to improve it. I learned this acronym last year in Built to Move, and it’s something you should know, too.
SOLEC: Standing on One Leg Eyes Closed.
That’s the test. Stand on one leg with your eyes closed, see how long you can last.
Your eyes play a big role in balancing and when you take that away it’s a big challenge.
Try the test with your eyes open and compare to your eyes closed score.
There’s a big range for a good target time here. At least a few seconds eyes closed is the bare minimum and getting 15 seconds with eyes closed is the gold standard. This will show you the key role your vision has with your balance. Give it a shot!
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
March by the Numbers
As we talked about yesterday, the start of a new month is a great time to look back and gather data and use that information to make changes for the new month.
Here’s my March by the numbers.
Daily average steps: 7187
An increase of nearly 900 per day! While I haven’t been trying to walk more, we’ve been outside more and with that comes more movement. That and the 6 mile run I did on the 31st got me 18,000 steps and padded my average!
Sleep: 7hr 25min average
About the same, 3 minutes more than last. I got 8 hours 5 times compared to February’s 8. My goal is to get 8 more consistently, and while I’m just making excuses, I did get 7:59 a couple times too!
Workouts: 21
I’m still on a weightlifting plan for the upcoming meet on April 21. I do 4 weightlifting-focused workouts in each week. In March, I also did the 3 CrossFit open workouts (one per week) and went on two trail runs, my first since October.
I was nervous about running out on the trails. My training has been very focused on lifting and eating and trying to move weight and become more technically proficient with a barbell. I was worried the new stimulus of trail running would light up my legs.
My legs were tired after, but not anything too crazy. I’m itching to move on from the weightlifting focus and I now feel less nervous about shifting gears too. I’ll be running the Mount Washington Auto Road Race in June.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Look Back, Look Ahead
The start of the month is a great time for a check in with your fitness and lifestyle habits.
Each month, I post my “By the Numbers’ post, and it always starts a lot of conversations around the gym. Basically I look at my average steps and sleep, and my total workouts and what they were comprised of (lifting or running, typically). I still need to tally up the numbers, so I’ll post those tomorrow.
Today I invite you to do the same. Check in and reflect back on the previous month. How many workouts did you get? How many steps? How was your sleep? How was your eating? Was it better or worse than you expected?
Look ahead, too. How can you change or improve those habits this month? What upcoming things do you have that will be challenging or are exciting to look forward to? How will that affect your workout routine?
Small check ins with yourself and examining your process are keys to playing the long game.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 28
Welcome to Friday Thoughts, where I sometimes shared half formed blog ideas and my favorites posts I saw all week on Instagram. Enjoy!
I loved this post from Juliet Starrett about training to be durable, and unpacking the idea that muscle is bad.
This conversation comes up frequently so I dug out this video from 2 years ago. Check it out to see the comparison of a wrist-based heart rate monitor vs. a chest strap.
Another worth your time video from these two. Some great cues towards the end for helping your shoulders feel good while pressing in the gym.
Lol
Thanks for reading, until next time.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Four Goals to Steal
These are simple, but not easy to do, goals for you to steal or get inspired by. These have two things in common. They demonstrate how consistency can compound over time and they’re so simple, some people will write them off as too easy.
Strength train 2x per week for a year = 104 workouts.
10 minutes of stretching 3 times per week for a year = over 24 hours of stretching
An extra 2000 steps per day, or a 10-15 min walk = 730,000 extra steps per year.
Eat more than 100g of protein 7 days per week.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Squat Checklist
We could all use more practice of the fundamentals. Check out these common teaching points we use at GAIN to upgrade your squat.
Get Organized!
Screw your feet “into” the ground by turning you heels towards one another. You can also imagine spinning your knee caps away from each other. When you do this, we’re trying to rotate the hips to create stability from the floor up.
Foot Pressure
After you get your hips organized, you might feel the weight on the outside of your feet. That means you’ve gone too far. Try to maintain a balanced foot - weight right in the middle of your heel and ball of your foot. At the gym, we say find your “mid foot.” This is initially difficult to do, but after a few reps it evens out.
Back THEN down
When learning to squat, it’s helpful to imagine the lowering portion as two pieces. Start by pushing your butt to a wall behind you. Once you start moving, let your sternum fall towards the floor. Once that happens, start bending your knees. This way, you’ve got the right trajectory to squat using your hips and putting less pressure on your lower back and knees. It’ll feel clunky at first, but as you learn the pattern, the two step movement will become fluid.
On the Bottom
Maintain that foot pressure! No knees caving in, instead push them away from each other, like they’re magnets. To get up, start pushing that middle of the foot into the floor like you’re trying to break through it. Careful not to let your heels lift from the floor, if they do, lean forward more. If the opposite thing happens and all your weight is in your heels, you may feel like you’re going to fall over backwards. Keep your toes on the ground too.
Back on the Top
Maintain that knees out pressure as you come up. Once you get to the top, be sure you squeeze your butt to finish the movement, open up the hips and set the next rep up for success.
Breathing
For squats we want to breath in going down, exhale as we’re coming up. We’ve talked before about a slight breath hold for added pressure and stability, but this is a basics primer. For the purpose of bodyweight squats, we want to inhale down, sharp exhale coming up. That’ll keep you in a good, smooth rhythm.
I hope one of the cues I just gave makes something click for you. We can always improve our fundamentals.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Easier Not Easy
A client recently went skiing for the first time in years.
I was eager to ask how it went.
Not good… They reported back.
They couldn't believe how sore they were, how hard skiing was and they were so bummed that all the strength and conditioning didn't make skiing easy.
This scenario plays out every year. I couldn't help but laugh.
Client trains hard, goes to do something for the first time, and they end up feeling bummed because it was hard.
This is the WRONG perspective.
My laughter was met with an angry stare, so I explained.
Imagine how much harder it would have been if you WERE NOT training so much.
Imagine what the recovery process would be like then.
Perhaps the most impactful question I raised to them; would you have even bothered trying if you hadn't been training like you have for the past 12+ months?
Instead of being bummed it was harder than they wanted (something we can't even quantify anyway), we shifted their perspective.
They had the confidence to take on the slopes even though it had been so long. They were sore, but not sore enough to stay in bed and skip a workout.
Training will make things easier, but not easy. Don't forget that perspective as you start pushing your own limits.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Fifty Percent Less Scrubbing
The other night I was scrubbing a pan with a new bottle of dish soap. I noticed on the label it claimed, “50% less scrubbing.”
I was suspicious.
The pan I was scrubbing seemed to be taking the exact amount of scrubbing it typically does. Have I scrubbed 50% less? Would I be done now if I only needed to scrub 50% less? I ponder as I continue to scrub and eventually rinse off the pan.
Fifty percent less scrubbing than what?
On the fine print, “compared to non concentrated dish soap.”
How was this measured?
Who did the scrubbing?
What was their technique like?
Do they use a brush like us or did they use a sponge? Does that affect the outcome?
What type of food was on the plate?
Did they wash the dishes immediately after eating or let them sit for a while?
We see claims with statistics in them all the time. The fitness industry is especially susceptible to them.
Studies show to do this, but not that, or people that do X are more likely to do Y than Z.
But we should always be asking questions like the ones above about the dish soap.
You are your own experiment and will have to try things to see what works best for you.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Friday Thoughts 27
Slightly delayed Friday Thoughts. People often say they can’t believe I make a post every day, but it’s been so long now it’s only stressful on days like this, when our internet is down and there’s nothing I can do about it. Except for not post the blog till I get to the gym later this morning. So how do I do it everyday? Honestly, I just put a ton of pressure on myself to get in done. Since it’s been so long, that’s easy, but like I said, this morning didn’t have its normal rhythm and I didn’t like that.
Trail runners, try this workout;
Much of trail running, especially on big, mountainous courses that I prefer, is about being able to keep moving while you’re recovering. Climb up a big, steep hill, and then be fresh enough when you get to the top to be able to start running the flat or down. The trick is doing that without blowing up your heart rate and legs on the climb. Here’s a workout Hannah has been doing while training for a 20 mile trail run. She really hates it, which makes me think we’re going to keep doing it. She says she hates it because it’s boring, which is a lame excuse (especially when training for an endurance event), but I think she hates it because it exposes something we need to work on. Here it is.
Every 5 minutes for 5 sets:
Run 200m @ hard pace
Alternating step ups all remaining time
This workout spikes your heart rate, demands a lot from your muscles in the first 50 or 60 seconds, then you do steps ups for the rest of the interval. There’s no rest. The idea is to simulate the scenario above and get her used to trying to recover her heart rate while working. If you don’t step up slow enough, the 200m run times suffer. If you don’t run hard enough, we don’t get the heart rate spike we’re after.
We started with 4 sets, took a week off from it and have been back at it for 2 sessions. Next week I may increase the run distance to 300m. On a workout like this, I don’t necessarily want to keep adding volume. I think 6 sets of this would get sloppy and the intensity would degrade over the rounds.
My jaw dropped when I saw this video show up on my Instagram feed.
My hot tip for this: save your previous protein tub scoop before starting your next tub. Then you use the old scoop until you can dig out the new scoop. (Obviously only works if the scoops are the same size).
Peanut butter is very calorically dense. If you’ve never measured out a 2 tablespoon serving, I suggest you do. Especially, if like me, peanut butter is your fav food.
Playing with some of these rotation variations.
Can confirm this data checks out.
Stick-To-Itiveness
Spring is a great time to build a new routine. If you just joined the gym, the key habit you should be focusing on is consistency.
Use these tips to make your new habit stick.
Ambitious goals are great, but not if they prevent you from getting started or burn you out after a few weeks- you don’t need to train 4 or 5 days a week.
Lower the bar and get in twice a week. You’ll accumulate over 100 workouts per year if you can stick with it.
Consistency and moderation over intensity - don’t go too hard too soon. Start slow and if your workouts are easy, who cares, you need to build momentum to help this habit stick - an easy workout is 10x better than no workout at all, and I’ve seen far too many people go too hard, too soon and burnout from the gym.
Forgive yourself. Don’t chase perfection. Missed a workout? Not a big deal if you get back to it on the next one. Every day is an opportunity to start again.
Think about the long game, these small habits and choices add up over time.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
New Goals? Remember This
Spring is here. Warmer weather is coming and new habits and new goals are on peoples’ mind.
If you’re trying to accomplish something new this Spring or Summer, remember the following.
The minimum effective dose is the smallest dose of something that will produce the desired outcome.
Small habits add up when you’re consistent. Explore the minimum effective dose for any new habit you’re building. This teaches you to be more consistent and stick with something in the long run.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
Strong Enough?
There is an unanswerable question I continually ponder.
How strong is strong enough?
I think about it for myself, and consider it for clients, too. What's the risk vs reward for more strength?
How much strength is necessary to run an ultramarathon, or play soccer or carry a baby all day?
It can't easily be quantified, and obviously, everyone is different. At the end of the day, we want to chase more strength, but there's always going to be a point where your strength levels become strong enough.
What do you do when that point is reached?
Keep honing your strength through better quality reps. We can shift the focus from getting stronger to getting better. It’s the key to strength training success.
Maybe you don't need to lift more weight, but that doesn't mean you can't still build strength.
Keep chasing strength through quality movement and consistency.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain