BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Birds of a feather…in any kind of weather.
The people around you matter. They lift you up and make you better, or they pull you down and make things harder.
Two friends, Hope and Travis, made the trip from Iowa to spend a few days exploring the panhandle. First stop? Fitness. Rainstorm included!
That’s having solid people in your corner. People who challenge you and ride through the storm with you. The ones who stand next to you, even when it would be easier not to.
Be mindful of your team. They help dictate your future. #dowork
YOUR FUTURE AWAITS
I recently watched Dr. Peter Attia on 60 MINUTES. Th message was simple and uncomfortable. What we like at Farmer Gym Wellness.
If you care about longevity, exercise isn’t optional. Movement is mandatory.
Attia makes the case that exercise is the most powerful lever we have for living longer and living better. Not just more years, but years where you can still carry groceries, climb stairs, and get off the floor without a negotiation.
One metric stood out: VO₂ max. Your body’s ability to use oxygen during hard effort. According to Attia, it’s one of the strongest predictors of lifespan. Stronger than cholesterol. Stronger than blood pressure.
That should get our attention.
He also emphasizes strength training. Muscle mass and grip strength show up again and again as signals of future health.
Translation: staying strong now protects independence later.
The quiet takeaway? Your 70s and 80s are being trained for right now. If you’re 20, it may not resonate; but trust me, 20-something, take heed. Every workout is a deposit into a future you haven’t met yet.
No need to be extreme. Just be consistent. Your future self is watching. And rooting for you.
#dowork
MOVE YOUR BODY AT WORK
"Current research indicates that the workplace accounts for up to 60% of employees’ waking hours [8], making it an internationally recognized setting for health promotion and disease prevention [9]."
Over HALF your waking hours are spent at work. Don't just sit there. Move.
Challenge: Get up every 30 minutes for a 2-minute walk. Can't? Drop down and give me 10 (push-ups; from your knees, if needed). And then get back up and give me 20 Air Squat. Every 30.
The idea: move your body. That's one of the things it was meant to do.
#dowork
8. Priano S.M., Hong O.S., Chen J.L. Lifestyles and Health-Related Outcomes of U.S. Hospital Nurses: A Systematic Review. Nurs. Outlook. 2018;66:66–76. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2017.08.013.
9. Nilan K., McKeever T.M., McNeill A., Raw M., Murray R.L. Prevalence of tobacco use in healthcare workers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE. 2019;14:e0220168. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220168.
FOR YOUR HEALTH
A meta-analysis (combining many studies with statistics to reveal clearer, stronger overall conclusions) found that higher physical activity cut hypertension risk by 23%, reduced depression symptoms by 31%, and boosted work performance by 14% (Proper & Oostrom).
#dowork, because your body, mind, and productivity depends on it!
Proper K.I., van Oostrom S.H. The effectiveness of workplace health promotion interventions on physical and mental health outcomes—A systematic review of reviews. Scand. J. Work. Environ. Health. 2019;45:546–559. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.3833.
Conversation
Every rep is a conversation between who you are and who you’re becoming.
The iron teaches resolve because it doesn’t negotiate. It rewards consistency, not comfort. And when it gets heavy—and it always will—you learn that progress doesn’t come from the easy days. It comes from the difficult ones where you show up anyway.
Growth lives on the other side of effort.
#dowork
The Tank Won't Always Be Full
Last week my tank wasn’t full. After work I had twelve minutes in me, so I used them.
My three-year-old watched. No reps. No coaching. Just quiet eyes taking it in. Kids notice how we eat, how we pray, how we treat people. They notice when we do the work we said we would do.
So I showed discipline. Not perfect. I remained present, and the rep got done.
#dowork today!
Strong Dads
Shout out to the real ones, to the dads who know true strength. To the men who know their family comes first. Before themselves. Before fitness, before friends, and before hobbies. Real strength is relentlessly showing up and giving your love, through both the good and the bad.
#dowork, dads! #happyfathersday
Difficulty Transforms Lives
Performing difficult tasks makes us better.
When I was one, my grandfather died of a heart attack. Nearly two decades ago, my father almost died of a heart complication. Climbing these stairs serves as a daily reminder that tackling challenges is beneficial; it strengthens my heart, yes, but also sharpens my mind, boosts my confidence, and does a whole lot more.
Don't shy away from things that appear tough. Embrace them. Recognize the value of taking action and facing difficulties head-on. It might just transform your life.
#dowork
The Proccess
Fitness is all about the process. It's not a quick fix.
When it comes to your fitness journey, you won't see instant results–but that's okay. It's about committing to healthy habits, regular exercise, and mindful eating. Whether you're aiming for strength, better heart health, or a certain look, it takes time.
The process is where the real change happens. It's not about rushing for quick transformations but embracing the small victories along the way. This mindset builds discipline and toughness that goes beyond just getting fit.
So, forget about shortcuts, and appreciate the gradual progress–that's where the lasting rewards come in.
World Champion
?!
It’s not every day you receive a message like this.
How flipping cool! Congratulations, Jim! Way to #dowork. And thanks for using the Strength and Conditioning Manual to help in your journey.
Lessons
The gym has meant so much more to me than being a body-enhancing haven. It’s a place that has taught me some of life’s most important life lessons. #perseverance #discipline #hardworkpaysoffs
Santa Claus Is Coming
Santa has been using Farmer Gym’s Strength and Conditioning Manual. Get yours today!
Overrated/Underrated
OVERRATED: The calories you burn during a workout.
UNDERRATED: The calories you consume during a day.
If weight loss and bodily transformation is your goal, focus on what you eat and drink. Tracking workout calories is fine if you’re into statistics—but it’s really just that, data for benchmarking subsequent workouts.
Count and monitor the calories you consume instead of tallying the calories you expend. You’ll see much better results.
Mother Marathon
Do you want a lesson about life? Then run a marathon. Mother marathon commands your attention; she requires your commitment. Without training discipline, you may not work up to her 26.2-mile demands. Without properly structuring nutrition, your body may not be equipped to withstand her difficulties. Without fighting through struggle and pain, you may not finish her hours-long haul.
The marathon, like life, requires commitment, structure, and guts. There’s no room around it. #focus, and #dowork.
Manage the Heat
Didn’t hit that PR? Had to rest more? No worries! Don’t be hard on yourself if you’re not performing the way you’d like on hot days.
You likely put two and two together, but it’s pretty darn hard for your body to perform at peak levels for extended periods of time when temperatures rise. When temperatures increase, our bodies have to work a little more to keep cool. (Think of it like an air conditioner working a little more during a hot summer day.) Instead of blood flow primarily pumping to the primary muscles in a effort to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, blood flow is being redirected to our extremities in an effort to force excess heat out of our bodies in hopes to cool us. As a result, our heart beats more and our lungs are continually playing catch-up; our muscles of primary movement—our legs on a run, for example—aren’t getting the “attention” they deserve and they have to split resources for cooling purposes.
So, if you need to dial it back on those steamy days, do so. Don’t worry, you didn’t lose any of that hard-worked-for fitness. (Oh! And drink your water!)
Do You want change?
Do you want to change your health in the next year? Do you want to become fitter and stronger 365 days from now? Awesome! But instead of concentrating on what’s 12 months away, break down your long-term goal. Not to six months, and not even to a month. Focus on the week ahead; tackle and conquer it. Then set your sights on the following week. Win it! Break your overarching goal into smaller, incremental marks. Accomplish these smaller feats, one by one, and your larger desires will more easily become a reality; you won’t get bogged down with the whole, and you’ll triumph over the small. #dowork
Befriend the iron
*Three weeks in to training*
Trainer: Ok, to the squat rack.
Trainee: Again? Can we try the thing where you lie down on the ball and kick your legs out? I really want to work my glutes. It worked great for that person.
Trainer:
You can perform all the circus acts you want, but if you’re serious about glute (and leg and everything else!) growth, you better become friends with the iron. #justsquat
Instant gratification
Instant gratification: the giving up of a future, better outcome for an immediate, lesser outcome.
This I-want-it-now mindset is a part of our very fabric from the day we're born. (How many of us know of a toddler who would give up a bag of chocolate later in the day, only to have a piece of chocolate now?) Unfortunately, this desire for the here and now only manifests itself in different ways as we age. Do we really break from the instant-gratification chains? Our immediate wants are only disguised by perceived rational thinking—thinking that justifies our give-it-to-me-now state of mind. And herein lies the lesson from the iron: the iron not only nudges us toward a future, better outcome, but it forces us to said outcome (teaching us valuable lessons along the way).
We all want it now: we want to be strong; we want to get fast; we want to lose weight; we want, we want, and we want. And we're willing to go to extreme, unhealthy measures to get the short glimpse of a result NOW (we also give up any glimmer of progress that we've made), only to hurt ourselves and hinder long-lasting progress. But the iron is slow. It's methodical. And, it's fair. It won't hand out desires; it only allows one to reap the reward of work that is well done. The iron takes its time to build, to mold, and to forge; not in a week, not in a month, and sometimes not in a year. It's our job to trust the iron and to trust the process. The iron is teaching us to shy our heads from instant gratification, and to instead embrace the methodical journey and reap our true desires that lie at the end of the painstaking road.
168 HOURS
There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep on average 8 hours per night, that leaves you with 112 (168-56) hours. If you work 50 hours per week, that leaves you with 62 (112-50) hours. If you spend an hour commuting every day, that leaves you with 55 (62-7) hours. If you spend, let’s say, 20 hours per week watching tv and/or reading and/or playing video games, that leaves you with 35 (55-20) hours. If you spend an hour preparing meals every day, that leaves you with 28 (35-7) hours……… The point is, you have for fitness. #dowork