More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
if peak power output and pain tolerance is between 4:00 and 6:00 P.M. in their studies, this corresponds to 8–10 hours after waking.
I am a night owl, and my average wake time is 11:00 A.M. Using this average,16 8–10 hours after waking would put my ideal window between 7:00 and 9:00 P.M.
keep training times consistent so you can accurately gauge progress.
Over-unders Dynamic Warm-Up (www.fourhourbody.com/over-under) This is a demo of the hip mobility movements using a single bar. Focus on the side hurdle (0:30) and under-the-hurdle side squat (1:30), which, when alternated, constitute the over-unders Barry recommends as a dynamic warm-up.
Total Immersion (TI), a method usually associated with American swim coach Terry Laughlin. I immediately ordered the book and freestyle DVD.
My Eight Tips for Novices Here are the principles that made the biggest difference for me, and pictures follow: 1. To propel yourself forward with the least effort, focus on shoulder roll and keeping your body horizontal (least resistance), not pulling with your arms or kicking with your legs. This is counterintuitive but important, as kicking harder is the most universal suggestion for fixing swimming issues. 2. Keep yourself horizontal by keeping your head in line with your spine—you should be looking straight down. Use the same head position that you maintain while walking, and drive your
...more
3. In line with the aforementioned video of Shinji, think of swimming freestyle as swimming on alternating sides, not on your stomach. From Wikipedia’s TI page:1 “Actively streamline” the body throughout the stroke cycle through a focus on rhythmically alternating “streamlined right side” and “streamlined left side” positions and consciously keeping the bodyline longer and sleeker than is typical for human swimmers.
To test this: stand with your chest to a wall and reach as high as you can with your right arm. Then turn your right hip so it’s touching the wall and reach again with your right arm. Making this small rotation, you’ll gain three to six inches. Lengthen your vessel and you travel farther on each stroke. It adds up fast.
4. Penetrate the water with your fingers angled down and fully extend your arm well beneath your head. Extend it lower and farther than you think you should. This downward water pressure on the arms will bring your legs up and decrease drag. It will almost feel like you’re swimming downhill. The first photo below illustrates the typical inefficient “reach,” and the second illustrates the proper point of entrance, much closer to the head. Once the arm enters the water, it extends down at an angle.
5. Focus on increasing stroke length (SL) instead of stroke rate (SR). Attempt to glide farther on each downstroke and decrease the number of strokes per lap. 6. Stretch your extended underwater arm and turn your body (not just your head) to breathe. For each breath, you should feel the stretch in your lats (back) on your lower side, as if you were reaching for a cookie jar high on a shelf a few inches out of reach. This will bring your head closer to the surface and make it easier to breathe. Some triathletes turn almost to their backs and face skyward to avoid short gasps and oxygen debt
...more
Remember to exhale fully and slowly while your face is underwater. If you don’t, you’ll need to exhale and inhale when you bring your head out, which will mean feeling rushed, swallowing water, and exhausting yourself.
Remember to exhale underwater, and “extend to air” (video: www.fourhourbody.com/extend-air).
7. Experiment with hand swapping as a drill. It’s difficult to remember all of the mechanical details while actually swimming. I short-circuited trying to follow half a dozen rules at once. The single drill that forced me to do most other things correctly is hand swapping. This is the visualization I found most useful: focus on keeping your lead arm fully extended until your other arm comes over and penetrates the water around the extended arm’s forearm. This encourages you to swim on your sides, extends your stroke length, and forces you to engage in what is referred to as “front-quadrant”
...more
8. Forget about workouts and focus on “practice.” You
I now use nothing besides the much-acclaimed (and rightly so) Aqua Sphere Kaiman goggles,
3. Start practicing in a pool that is short and shallow. Use a lane in the shallow end (four feet or less in depth) and opt for a pool that is no longer than 20 yards.
Total Immersion, Freestyle Made Easy, DVD (www.fourhourbody.com/immersion) This DVD was the reason I was able to completely overcome my fear of swimming, and actually learn to love it. In the span of less than 10 days, I went from a 2-length (2×20 yards/18.39 meters) maximum to swimming more than 40 lengths per workout in sets of 2 and 4. Aqua Sphere Kaiman Goggles (www.fourhourbody.com/kaiman) These leak-proof goggles were the last pair standing after I tested everything under the sun. I have three pairs and swim with nothing else, whether indoor or in open water. My favorites have
...more
Total Immersion Swimming Freestyle Demo by Shinji Takeuchi (www.fourhourbody.com/shinji) If you want to see how effortlessly and tirelessly someone can swim, look no further than this video demo. Swimmers Guide (www.swimmersguide.com) Find all the public swimming facilities in your area, or in 167 countries. Never leave home without your goggles.
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. —Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize–winning physiologist credited with discovering vitamin C
• Resveratrol
1. CYCLES OF 5–10 GRAMS OF CREATINE MONOHYDRATE (COST: $20/MONTH)
I’m ingesting 5–10 grams of creatine monohydrate powder per day for two consecutive weeks every two months.
2. INTERMITTENT FASTING (IF) AND PROTEIN CYCLING (COST: FREE)
Fast-5: Fast for 19 hours beginning at bedtime, followed by five hours of eating as much as necessary to satisfy hunger. This is popular for moderate weight loss, which typically appears starting in the third week and averages one pound of loss per week thereafter.3 Some research suggests IF confers the same life-extension benefits as caloric restriction only when calories are consumed during daylight hours. This would, if accurate, make the Fast-5 better
ADCR: Alternate Day Caloric Restriction (ADCR) requires that calories be cut 50–80% every other day. It has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, autoimmune disease, and even asthma after just two weeks.
Extending lifespan at the expense of quality of life makes little sense. It’s easier (and lazier) to focus on subtraction and avoidance, but a life of constant denial is not a life of freedom.
We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. —Carlos Castaneda
“What’s the fastest way for someone to improve their inner game?” To which I responded: “Improve your outer game.”
Richard Branson’s answer to the question “How do you become more productive?”: work out.
Start with the precision of changing physical reality and a domino effect will often take care of the internal.
Your body is almost always within your control. This is rare in life, perhaps unique. Simply focusing on some measurable element of your physical nature can prevent you from becoming a “Dow Joneser,” someone whose self-worth is dependent on things largely outside of their control.
Controlling your body puts you in life’s driver’s seat.
Alan Kay once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Persons with acne can simply change their diets until they figure out what foods cause the problem.
Large cartons of egg whites and/or tofu/milk/veggie protein powder. I tried to get around 19 grams of protein per meal. About 2 bags of black beans and/or chick peas and/or lentils. (Cheaper than canned.) 3–4 large bags frozen veggies A jar of natural peanut butter no sugar added, or bulk nuts (easy way to supplement fats) Flaxseed oil and/or olive oil and/or guacamole Tahini (combine with chick peas and make hummus, good with the veggies) Salsa (All natural and no sugar. Make it if you have the time. I put this on my eggs when I got bored.)
protein is pea and rice protein powders, my favorite being Plant Fusion by Nitro Fusion.
4 scoops of vanilla Sunwarrior Protein Powder (60 grams of high-quality protein and iron) 2 tbsp almond butter (good protein, fat, and magnesium) 1 tbsp cashew nut butter 3 tbsp flax powder (contains omega-3 and fiber; increases ratio of good estrogens to bad) 1 tbsp Maca (plant sterols, hormone support) ¼ cup walnuts ¼ cup Goji berries (high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and iron) 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (loaded with healthy spices) 1 tsp stevia 1½ cups water Preheat oven to 425°. Mix everything in a bowl with a spoon until a thick paste forms. Divide into eight parts, then shape into cookies.
...more
Protein: 79 g Carbohydrates: 63 g Fat: 30 g
I’ve also concluded that vegetarianism is a real challenge for the average person. Without meticulous planning and some nutritional guidance, most are doomed to muscle loss, poor performance, and a host of nutritional deficiencies, ranging from mild to severe. “It’s not a change to take lightly, and most people don’t have the discipline to prevent digressions and corner-cutting that will have serious consequences over time.”
are that you don’t want to sit behind a desk until you are 62. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, real-life fantasy travel, long-term wandering, setting world records, or simply a dramatic career change, this book will give you all the tools you need to make it a reality in the here-and-now instead of in the often elusive “retirement.” There is a way to get the rewards for a life of hard work without waiting until the end. How? It begins with a simple distinction most people miss—one I missed for 25 years.
The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?
this book is not about saving and will not recommend you abandon your daily glass of red wine for a million dollars 50 years from now. I’d rather have the wine.
to free time and automate income is.
becoming a member of the New Rich.
Here is the step-by-step process you’ll use to reinvent yourself: D for Definition turns misguided common sense upside down and introduces the rules and objectives of the new game. It replaces self-defeating assumptions and explains concepts such as relative wealth and eustress.* Who are the NR and how do they operate? This section explains the overall lifestyle design recipe—the fundamentals—before we add the three ingredients. E for Elimination kills the obsolete notion of time management once and for all. It shows exactly how I used the words of an often-forgotten Italian economist to turn
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
