Life Beyond Fife

Engineering from the glorious Kingdom

All Posts

Explore all articles from Life Beyond Fife - Page 6

fitness•

Motivation

Anthony Bourdain has summed up the key problem of motivation in a single, relatable quote: > "I understand there's a guy inside me who wants to lay in bed, smoke weed all day, and watch cartoons and old movies. My whole life is a series of stratagems to avoid, and outwit, that guy." Motivation is a hard problem and everyone brings a different tool to the party. Some tell their friends about their plans and hope that social shame or celebration will spur them on. Some go down the Instagram influencer route and follow and surround themselves with examples of...

5 min readRead more →
Stress
fitness•

Stress

Stress has a negative image. It's generally seen as a bad thing and something to be avoided, but stress is how we improve. The first time we try something completely new, we cannot expect to be good or even competent, yet that act of starting is the first step toward becoming an expert. The two key decisions to consider are what level you start at and the pace of your progression. Starting something new should begin at the bottom, the entry level, the easiest. If all signs point toward this being manageable, then increase the difficulty. Taking smalls steps and...

5 min readRead more →
fitness•

Training

Exercise is running round the block for five minutes. Training is structured exercise that is done deliberately, in a structured manner as part of a wider schedule to achieve a specific goal. Don't trust the result of exercise - it's unpredictable and unreliable. By contrast, training is something you can count on. What training is not, is a hired PT shouting at you, "C'mon just 5 more, 4... 3... c'mon you got this, 2... one more, don't quit!" Your body is failing you. You cannot remember such pain and exhaustion. The cheering on from this expensive expert encourages you not...

4 min readRead more →
fitness•

Measure the right thing

It's very easy to begin something with the best of intentions and say things like, "Every little helps." or "It can't do any harm." without knowing if your efforts are having any effect whatsoever. Everyone is different and wants different things from fitness (we'll cover the types of fitness in detail later) but one thing is constant throughout your new journey. If you don't measure the right thing, you cannot know if you're making progress or not. Just as important as measuring the right thing, is measuring consistently. Just as important as measuring consistently is recording and interpreting the results...

4 min readRead more →
fitness•

Question everything

If you're still reading I've hopefully convinced you, or at least you're open to the idea, of learning higher level concepts before making permanent lifestyle changes to become fitter. And you're happy to listen to my ideas of what those concepts and lessons should be. Thanks. I'm flattered. More likely though is that you remain curious and yet to be convinced. That's perfect, and that's exactly the skeptical mindset you need to retain. Never lose your questioning, suspicious, doubting way of looking at new information that is given to you. There are a few good reasons for this: 1. I'm...

5 min readRead more →
Sacrifice and Results
fitness•

Sacrifice and Results

Before going any further with the mystic change-for-life-fitness plan I'm proposing, we need to calibrate ourselves on a couple of points to avoid the disappointment of mismatched expectations. When I say that personal trainers, badly equipped gyms, shaming magazines, and processed diet foods have different goals to you; that they're out to keep you dependent on them rather than enabling you to get fit without them, that's my view based on the way I see the world. It doesn't mean that millions of people haven't achieved their goals using the above tools, and done so quicker than trying to plot...

5 min readRead more →