Mano Minute (3/11): Free weights vs. machines. Here is my honest take 🏋️ There is a gym snobbery I want to address. A lot of people treat machines like they are for beginners. Like real lifters only use free weights. Planet Fitness gets mocked constantly because it is mostly machines. I disagree with this entirely. Machines are excellent. Not just for beginners, but for everyone. Here is why. Machines protect your form. They guide your movement through a fixed range of motion, which means you...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/10): Eating carbs without the guilt 🍞 Carbs have had a rough decade. Low carb diets. No carb diets. Keto. Everyone treating bread like it is poison. Here is my take. Carbs are not the problem. The type of carbs is the problem. There are carbs that leave you feeling guilty, foggy, and hungry an hour later. Ultra processed snacks, white bread, sugary drinks, fast food. These spike your blood sugar fast and crash it just as fast. Your body does not get much from them. And you are...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/9): I started embarrassing myself on purpose 😳 "Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt Being embarrassed is one of the worst feelings we can experience. It is uncomfortable. It feels like the end of the world. Until you get to the other side. I will never forget one of my most embarrassing moments. Graduate school. A presentation in a lecture hall of about 100 students. I choked. Forgot everything I had prepared. Face red. Sweat building. I could not...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/6): The thing I got wrong about stress for years 😤 Stress has a bad reputation. There are two very different kinds of stress. Acute stress is short term, intense, and purposeful. A hard workout. A cold shower. A difficult conversation you finally have. Your body responds, adapts, and comes out stronger. That is what acute stress does. It builds you. Chronic stress is the opposite. It is low grade, persistent, and unresolved. Social pressure. Financial pressure. A job that...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/5): Read this if you struggle with discipline 🤔 I have been working on discipline for a long time. I believe it is a skill. Not a trait you either have or you do not. Something you build, rep by rep, day by day. But here is something I realized that changed how I think about it. Discipline is easier in some environments than others. Simple example. If you keep ultra processed food in your house, you are making discipline harder than it needs to be. You are asking your brain to...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/4): My workout efficiency cheat code 💪 My weight training sessions take 45 to 60 minutes. On average, I get through 10+ exercises and about 30+ sets. For example, I did an upper body session on Friday: 57 minutes. 11 exercises. 36 total sets. There's three tricks I use to get that much done in under an hour: I track every session and use a rest timer. I know exactly how long I am resting between sets. No guessing, no drifting. When the timer goes off, I go. I do not touch my...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/3): The fasting debate. Here's my breakdown 🍽️ Intermittent fasting v. scheduled eating. It seems like people get this mixed up. True intermittent fasting means extended fasts. 24 hours or more. Some people go 48 to 72 hours without food. This is a serious metabolic intervention. It has its place, but it is not for most people. What most of us call intermittent fasting is actually scheduled eating. A 16:8 window. A 12:12 window. Eating in a defined period and fasting outside of...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (3/2): The only thing worth focusing on right now 🎯 "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response." - Viktor Frankl There is a lot happening in the world right now. It feels heavy. Because it is not in our control. Whether you agree with what is happening or not, the reality is the same. We do not control the decisions being made. What we do control is how we react. Every day, we get to decide where we direct our energy. Toward...
11 days ago • 1 min read
Mano Minute (2/27): Could social media be worse than cigarettes? 🚬 This might annoy some people. But it needs to be said. Hear me out. The biggest negatives I see: Dopamine dysregulation (constant hits, never satisfied) Screen time replacing real connection Inability to be present with people in person Self confidence issues from comparison Focus on material things instead of what matters Destroyed attention span I say this and I use social media every day. Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. But...
14 days ago • 1 min read