The Most Important Excersises

If you call yourself an athlete and are not in the gym lifting heavy things on a consistent basis, you are really doing yourself a disservice. Its not about looks or proformance or speed  (although of coursethose things benifit), its about injury prevention, general health and athleticism.

1. The Squat. The most basic of all human movement. Sit down and then stand up. Congraduations you just did a squat. You just did the thing that will greatest help you get the body you want. A leg press is NOTHING in comparison to a real squat; if you think otherwise, you've been lied to.
2. The Deadlift. Something is on the ground, pick it up. Lift with the knees and then with the back. Wanna get powerful? Deadlift
3. The Overhead Press (really 3 related exercises). A weight is on your shoulders, lift it over head. Overhead push strength is everything in sports. The beauty of real weight lifting in comparison to machines is that you must stabilize your entire body under that weight. Bench press is great, but a standing press is a total body exercise.
4. The Pull Up. It uses every single muscle in the back (especially when you do then correctly. Read: Kipping PUs). If you could not, dangling in the air, pull your way back over the precipice, you should probably start working on that.  Can't do a full pullup yet? Start with jumping PUs instead of a row machine.

I guarantee that if you do circuit training with just these 4 exercises  you will show twice as much gain as you would doing all those stupid machines for three times as long. Don't believe me, come to the gym with me sometime and I'll show you what a real workout is.

3 IOTD for the Price of 1

1. Use white dinner plates so that you can see your food. If it looks pretty because you spent a little extra time to get it right, you will enjoy it that much more. If you don't want to see the details and so you eat on dark blue plates you have a problem. Food can be beautiful if you allow it.


2. It is great to go to a gym and be inside it, but that is only a small step. You actually have to know what you are doing to get results unless the results you want are hours logged in a gym. I just dont understand why people would not want to learn about how to use a gym. Its fun! Working on your body is fun if you do it the right ways! If you don't agree and dread the weight room, please, PLEASE let me show you how to actually utilize a gym - I promise I can change your mind.

3. Nervous? In 5 billion years the sun will burn out and nothing you did will matter. Feel better?

Philosophy and Hypocrisy

I am a philosopher, I have lots of ideas about lots of different things. Sometimes I feel so strongly that my idea is correct or at least largely valid that I will stand up and argue the idea's merits in front of a crowd.

But I realize that hypocrisy, not following my own advice, is not necessarily a horrible thing and my ideas are no less right because my actions don't fall perfectly in line. Vegetarianism is obviously (ridiculously obviously!) the right choice for the future for so many reasons but I eat meat and encourage my close friends and family to do so as well. Hypocrisy yes! But I feel strangely ok with this situation.

In this world with a million different ways to screw up, it is ok to have ideas that conflict. To be honest, I have a hard time trusting someone who harshly critisizes the hypocrite because it shows they either lack imagination or are out of touch with reality - they are hypocrites in some way too, I gaurentee it.



I can resist anything...except for temptation.

Please, Please No!

....Sarah Palin may be edging closer to a 2012 presidential run, telling Fox News "I would give it a shot" if the American people think she's "the one"....




Shes not.






I know that there was lots of insincere joking about this if Bush got elected, but let me make it clear that I am very very serious. I swear that if Sarah Palin becomes President of the United States of America, I will leave for some other place.

Be Nice

It really makes sense to be nice.

Yes, I admit that being crude or snobby or cruel or gossipy or snide or irreverent can earn you a cheap laugh and affirming sneer-smiles of your friends who are also in on the joke. But that doesn't mean its the right way to be.

Being nice is hard sometimes (especially in comparison to how easy it is to be mean) but there are two very good reasons for it. The first is that you have your own flaws. By harping on those of others you are inviting attacks on yourself. Perhaps one reason people feel it is OK to make fun of others is that they are not in tune with their own failings; imagine you and your secret inadequacies are the brunt of joke. Secondly, being nice even though crassness would seem to fit builds a culture of trust, openness and respect. You there, the 23 year old! You may not care about those values now, but I've been to the future and you are sorely mistaken.


So the next time a good zinger pops into your head, put down the fastball and throw a complement instead.

Realizing Greatness While It Is Happening

One of the most important perceptual skills is the ability to recognize greatness while it is happening.
Comprehending beauty during its appearance, not after. Appreciating the sublime in the moment.

I notice how this is so important because the lack of this skill is something I dont like about myself when I see it. The standard story of college was I would show up to the first day of class excited, let the quarter pass me by, and then spend finals week cramming but also morning the end of what I realized was a great class. I don't think I forgo talking with professors until the end is near because I am lazy so much as I only realize how much I actually do love learning from them when they are about to be done.

With the realization that you are in the presence of greatness comes responsibility. If you are on a mediocre team, there is no reason to put in extra work outside of practice but you see that you are a part of an amazing group, then it is obvious that you should try extra hard to earn your roster spot.


The qunticential phrasing of this idea is the often heard:

"Youth is wasted on the young."

...You had the uncharted world laid out before you. All you saw was infinite possibility, and yet you took it all for granted because that was all you knew...

Oh how we cherish the idea of our past youth, kicking ourselves for not appreciating it. But if this cliche is true, shouldn't it also be true that:

"Life is wasted on the living?"

 I don't think its necessarily true that we are destined to always fail in appreciating the wonder at hand but I know that it is a constant challenge.

Hi Again, Finally Being in Their Shoes

I'm going to try to pick these up again and HOPEFULLY write about non-Ultimate things; I do enough of that as it is. I'll start with a general one:

I realize that as much as I am "learning about myself", I am constantly learning about other's "selve's". This is not the same as learning about people, but finally experiencing what they might experience and realizing that the thing they did which seemed so weird at the time is actually a very reasonable response to the situation they were in. 

More and more I am seeing all the human conditions which seemed weird before, now appear normal because I have acted them out. Whenever you just can't understand why someone is acting so strange, have some empathy - you may very well do the same if you are in their shoes.