We think that happiness and meaningfulness aren’t rooted in achieving or owning things. Don’t get us wrong, it’s nice to own stuff and accomplish difficult tasks, but we think it’s the journey itself that brings the most joy and fulfilment. Setting a goal, making a plan, and executing it, is where we feel the most joy. Actually working towards something great, by your own definition, is what makes life feel a bit more meaningful.

There are two lies or misconceptions that we often hear, which can be hard to talk about. Because if you bring any of these topics up at the next dinner party, there is a good chance that your friends will label you as an insensitive asshole and stop talking to you.

So, on that note… let’s get started.

I have lived by the ocean for 10 years. Just 100 meters away. Over the years I have witnessed the Scandinavian tradition of “winter bathing.” I have admired these stoic, brave souls from afar—but have never been brave enough to try it myself.

Is this obvious? We don’t know, it wasn’t to us. We have spent long hours working with people we didn’t actually like that much--or worse. Why? Life is short—we might as well work on things with people we actually enjoy being around, whenever we can. As we have talked about before, our friendship began over a post-training cup of coffee--and eventually Lennart said, “We should write this shit down!”

Luckily for you, we have tested it, and the answer is a little bit of both…

It all started over a couple of beers—as many great stories do! A friend and I agreed on running every day for 100 days straight. The rules were simple:

• You have to run every day

• Minimum 4 km a day

• You have to hit a 1000 km on day 100

It started as a text, “I’m thinking about swinging the kettlebell 25 times, then jumping in the harbor. Maybe five rounds?” The answer was, “Yeah! Good idea!”

“I am so sick of this shit!” We’ve said it to ourselves often over these last eight months. Coronavirus continues to nip at our heels.  Some countries are returning to lockdown yet again, some are facing new or stricter restrictions. Many people are facing economic hardships or new work situations that they would rather not face. When we find ourselves playing cat and mouse with this thing, and are constantly waiting for the next depressing shoe to drop, we are giving away our power. 

We have both been astounded at the head-clearing emotional boost we have experienced through cold exposure. We are both fathers of three—and cold exposure bulletproofs us in the mornings.

If you are going after a goal—for example a heavier weight on a lift—try actually cutting back on training that particular lift. Add in some other accessory training that doesn’t overstress the joints used in that lift.  The kettlebell is a great tool for that. Polish the floor somewhere else, and wait for it to shine where you want it to.

We have spent plenty of time exploring the other side of this coin. We have both spent years training powerlifting and weightlifting movements, in an attempt to improve our performances in CrossFit. We were always gunning for heavier and heavier lifts, and often the movement quality suffered, and eventually, we ended up with back, shoulder, and hip injuries. Now we are putting “Movement First.”

Stress has become deeply rooted in our vocabulary. Everybody is stressed—and understandably so—global pandemics, uncertain economic futures, increasingly polarized political landscapes, and more, are affecting us all. In our work lives, stress can even become a bit of a measure of status—the more stressed out you are, the more valuable you and your time are. “Outwork your competition,”  “Hard work beats talent,” or “Get up at 4 o’clock and dominate the world,”  are all sayings that we have heard from self-help gurus—and many people try to live by their preachings. 

You may have seen personal trainers, or even (gulp!) dieticians talk about the “Calorie In/Calorie Out Theory,” or some have called it the “Calorie Is Just a Calorie” argument. Guess what? They’re full of sh...uh...full of “Insulin Denial Syndrome.” (We just made that up—but it’s a thing—and a very pervasive thing.

This approach adapts well to following a high-frequency training program. When you run an easy distance every day, or swing the same kettlebell every day, the stimuli is more tolerable. You do not feel destroyed—meaning you are recovering well—and you’re ready to train the next day. This means that you provide yourself with a greater opportunity to learn, because of the greater frequency—and you can tolerate a greater weekly volume because you are not increasing the intensity every session.

Set a goal, make a plan, and stop looking at others for a while. Focus instead on outdoing your former self—you vs you. If you can be a little bit better than last week, you are making progress. Do this for a couple of years, and you have made an enormous change.

Look at your life—your stuff and your aspirations—and assess them well. What will enhance me as an individual, and what will enhance and support my life going forward?                     

What we have been testing lately is to go all-in on the frequency—which means that we train every single day. This may seem a bit stupid in writing but bear with us for a moment.

I am a vegan.  

And I can’t stand vegans.  

Is there a support group for that?  To be fair, I also hate carnivores, Paleo fanatics, the Low Carb cult, etc., etc. Well—I don’t hate them all—but I really hate the fanatic ones—the ones that are just perched there in cyberspace somewhere, just waiting to pounce on you if you make any statement about nutrition whatsoever.

Most of us know the feeling. The motivation is there–you’ve found the perfect workout program and diet plan. You craft it into the perfect “get fit” strategy, and you wait until Monday to come–because we all know that the perfect program needs to start on a Monday to provide the greatest effect and health benefits. And you’re off… no sugar, fasted cardio in the morning, and the perfect scientifically-backed push, pull, leg routine for maximum gains. Three weeks later you're back to doing nothing and eating like shit. So… “What went wrong?” and “Why do we keep doing this?”

We have all been there. You feel like shit, you’re tired, and your body is aching. This can be because you have been neglecting your body, or on the other end of the spectrum, that you have been overtraining--and you just broke your body. In my experience, 90% of aches and pains are muscular in nature. You can address most aches and pains yourself with this system: Release - Lengthen - Activate - Integrate. Even joint pain is very often because of muscle tightness above and/or below the joint.

Find the discipline that you always wanted to master or use our go-to strategy – find a good and competent teacher close to where you live, and listen to what they have to say. What he or she is teaching is not so important, remember form follows function – and almost all disciplines are more enjoyable than the repetitiveness of a standard “Globo Gym” program.