From the category archives:

Philosophy

Contextual Strength: Building Muscle and Living as an Ectomorph is All Relative

May 14, 2010

There is no “best way” to build strength and there’s no universal goal that everyone should strive for.
As I wrote about yesterday, I don’t want to be big. Heck, I’d even like to stay sort of skinny throughout my life. But I do want to build strength in a way that works for me.
I think [...]

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Burning Bridges: Cutting Yourself Off from Failure

May 11, 2010

Failure is a surprisingly attractive road to take in the journey of life. Sure, you may not be living the life you wish to lead, but at least you can avoid hard work, persistence, and dealing with set backs. But come on, you may be able to avoid hard ships, but do you really want [...]

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Are You Being Held Back by Distractions?

May 10, 2010

In a perfect world we would have ultimate control over our time and never be led astray by distractions. Unfortunately the world isn’t perfect and it’s easy to fall off track, being led away from our greater goals such as getting stronger and improving your fitness.
There’s nothing I can say that will allow for completely [...]

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Ignore Everybody and Just Enjoy It

May 5, 2010

Since having a 10 day break from strength training while on a vacation I’ve struggled to get back into the positive groove I was in previously. Up until this point I felt this was just because my strength had regressed and it would take a bit of time to get back to where I was. [...]

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Get Out of Dream Land: Strength Training is Hard, Deal With It

May 4, 2010

In any part of life that requires persistent action and genuine work people are always trying to find the quickest route with the least resistance. This most likely stems back to our survival instincts of wishing to avoid predators or hunt meals in the most effective way, but in modern society where these threats don’t [...]

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What if you were Skinny for the Rest of Your Life?

May 3, 2010

I haven’t held back the fact that I’m still skinny. Since beginning strength training I have put on a bit of weight and certainly become stronger, but there’s no doubt that I resemble a stick figure more closely than Schwarzenegger.
And, if you’ve read some of my other writing you may know that I’m a Buddhist, [...]

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Minimalism for Hardgainers: 7 Ways to Simplify Your Strength Training

April 27, 2010

Since reading older classics like Walden and Letters to a Stoic, and modern classics like Vagabonding I’ve been increasingly interested in minimalism, and simplifying my life in ways that allows me to focus on things that I care about – strength training included.
This has a huge number of benefits as a hardgainer. Firstly, it eliminates [...]

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Are You Asking the Right Questions?

April 20, 2010

Once you understand the reality of your circumstances and engage in self-reflection you need to ask yourself, am I asking myself the right questions?
A quote within the book How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In (which is business-related, so not a must-read for skinny guys) relates to effective teaching, suggesting that [...]

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9 Ways You Can Build Momentum as a Skinny Guy

April 15, 2010

Momentum is perhaps your greatest asset as an ectomorph, even as a human being overall. Starting strength training (and all that it entails like changes with your diet and a focus on the recovery period) is really what causes the most friction, and where most people drop off.
But once you’ve built the habit of doing what [...]

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Bringing Reality to the Surface: The Power of Self-Reflection in Strength Training

April 14, 2010

Suffering is caused through ignorance. This is a core teaching of Buddhism, and a very powerful philosophy to adopt in your strength training. In fact, you could easily rewrite the idea as, “lack of results is caused through ignorance.”
But this is not only ignorance in the sense that you’re not educated. The fact that you’re [...]

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