4 Minute Fridays: The Mental Secret To Living 50% Longer, How Fast You Lose Muscle If You Don't Lift & My Favorite Desk Stretch For The Back
Oct 18, 2024
Read time: 3.8 minutes
Welcome to 4 Minute Fridays, my weekly newsletter where I reveal cutting-edge tips to help you get lean, boost energy, and live longer.
What's In Store For Today:
- The mental secret to living 50% longer
- How fast you lose muscle if you don't workout
- My favorite desk stretch for the back
Today's issue is brought to you by ​Brain.fm​
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Hey friend,
For the past few years, I've been surfing as a hobby.
The biggest misconception about surfing is that everyone thinks it's all about standing up on the board.
Yes, that's important but most people don't realize that 80% of surfing is paddling out to the lineup.
When you paddle out you have to get hammered by incoming waves to get to the spot where you catch the waves. You can see what I mean ​here​.
We're trying to paddle deep enough to get over the peak of the waves and into the lineup.
This reminds me of the process of someone starting to get in shape.
Like surfing, everyone focuses on the end result—being fit, lifting heavy, running fast—but the real work, the part nobody sees, is in the grind.
It's in the constant effort, the sweat, and the struggle to get past the initial resistance.
Like paddling out against the waves, you’ve got to push through discomfort, setbacks, and the moments you just want to give up.
The line-up, where things start to click, only comes after you’ve battled through the tough part.
That’s where the real growth happens.
That said...
Here Is Your 4 Minute Friday:
1. The Mental Secret To Living 15% Longer
Okay, so imagine that you're playing a really long game. The key to winning this goal is to stay in the game as long as possible, like until you're 85 or older.
Researchers wanted to see if an optimistic mindset could extend our lifespans in addition to keeping us in good health.
So they looked at two big groups of people:
- The first group consisted of nurses who had been observed for 10 years.
- The second group was veterans, which they observed for 30 years.
They were given quizzes to gauge their optimism, such as whether they thought good things would happen in the future.
In both groups, the optimistic people lived 15% longer than the non-optimistic people. In fact, they had better odds of reaching 85 than those who weren't.
Maybe Grandma was right when she said the glass was half full.
2. How Fast You Lose Muscle If You Don't Workout
This study took a bunch of people and had them strength train for 20 weeks—either straight through or with a 10-week break in the middle.
Surprise, surprise: the ones who took a break lost some strength and muscle size during their couch-potato phase.
But here's the kicker: Muscle memory came to the rescue, and by the end of the 20 weeks, both groups were almost identical in muscle size, strength, and power.
Btw this study used newbies, who have so little muscle to lose that even their daily lives keep things ticking. If you’re advanced, ten weeks off will hit harder.
Now, some folks like to think this whole "time off might be good for muscle growth" thing is real. Yeah, no.
What actually happened here is that spreading out the same amount of training over 30 weeks led to the same gains.
Remember, nobody has ever improved by not doing something.
The bottom line is muscle memory’s legit, and missing a little gym time won’t kill your progress. But taking long breaks to "boost growth"? Pure fantasy.
❤️ My Favourite Thing This Week
— Dan Go (@FitFounder) October 17, 2024
This exercise should be mandatory for people who sit desks:
It's called a Thoracic Extension.
Thoracic extension improves your posture, boosts spinal mobility, and keeps back pain in check.
It basically undoes the damage from slouching through life like a desk jockey.
Aim for… pic.twitter.com/Z8WM6vaUEq
The thoracic extension is like a breath of fresh air for desk workers because it counteracts the hunchbacked, slouched-over posture we all get from sitting like zombies all day.
It opens your chest, stretches your back, and tells your spine, "Hey, remember when you weren’t a stiff board?"
It helps prevent all that neck and back pain, improving your mobility and keeping you from feeling like a human pretzel. Plus, it just feels damn good to open up after being chained to a desk for hours. Try it!
Client Of The Week - Aran Seaman, CEO of Earth Easy
Aran is a CEO who wanted to drop 20 lbs off his body while increasing his energy levels.
He struggled with keeping a gym routine and knowing what to eat and when.
He wanted to create a holistic program for him centered on nutrition, routine building & workouts while keeping him accountable & overcoming obstacles we might face in the program.​ ​
In 3 months, he dropped 21 pounds, gained a few pounds of muscle, and has gotten to his best shape since university. He's even starting to see his abs now!
In his words, this was the best investment he could have ever made in himself.
One Quote to Finish Your Week Strong
“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment...For imagination sets the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on.
The first step to controlling your reality is taking control of the thoughts in your mind and envisioning your future before it happens.
Once you get clear on that picture take one foot in front of the other and focus on the process.
Have a great weekend!
- Dan
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References
- Lee LO, James P, Zevon ES, Kim ES, Trudel-Fitzgerald C, Spiro A 3rd, Grodstein F, Kubzansky LD. Optimism is associated with exceptional longevity in 2 epidemiologic cohorts of men and women. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Sep 10;116(37):18357-18362. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1900712116. Epub 2019 Aug 26. PMID: 31451635; PMCID: PMC6744861.
- Halonen EJ, Gabriel I, Kelahaara MM, Ahtiainen JP, Hulmi JJ. Does Taking a Break Matter-Adaptations in Muscle Strength and Size Between Continuous and Periodic Resistance Training. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2024 Oct;34(10):e14739. doi: 10.1111/sms.14739. PMID: 39364857.