Living Limitless and Becoming Antifragile (A How-To Guide)
Living Limitless and Becoming Antifragile (A How-To Guide)
“You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.” - Morpheus, The Matrix
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Antifragile…
Resilient…
Robust…
Strong…
Fit…
Athletic…
Flexible…
Healthy…
Vibrant…
These are all words I’m imagining you’d like to use to describe yourself.
Yet what do they mean within the context of human health and performance?
What does being an antifragile human look like?
How does one become resilient and robust?
These are the questions I’ve been obsessed with for the past decade, and I want to finally get all my thoughts on “paper.”
A “how to script”, if you will, for becoming an antifragile human and empowering yourself to live limitless.
I’ve used many words in the past to describe this type of human (such as Silverback and Apex Athlete), yet the word that feels the most apt is Lifeproof…
Yes - I believe Lifeproof Athlete hits the nail on the head.
A lifeproof athlete is a human that displays competency in the 6 core physical attributes:
Strength
Hypertrophy
Power
Endurance
Movement
Fusion
They are not specialists or one-trick ponies, but high performing generalists.
They are not concerned with being as strong as humanly possible or as conditioned as humanly possible, but rather, how to be great across the board.
It’s not about being in the top 1% in the world in one category, but being in the top 5-10% in the world in every category.
And that’s because the fragility of a system is correlated to the options available to the system. In other words, a one trick pony, while exceptional at one thing, is fragile in its lack of options.
A powerlifter is a classic example of this. While incredibly robust in one realm (strength) they are fragile because they lack options in other realms (power, endurance, movement etc).
And the same can be said for a bodybuilder, marathon runner or anyone that specializes in one extreme.
My goal here is not to attack these specialists. In fact, I have a TREMENDOUS amount of respect for them. The things they do are truly spectacular. I’ve just never been interested in that level of extreme specialization and I believe the vast majority of humans out there (maybe even you 👋) feel the same way.
Likewise, looking great naked falls short of the true goal. Having abs and looking good with your shirt off is great, but if you don’t have strength, power, endurance or movement then you are fragile.
I want to:
Lift heavy things
Be muscular and look great naked
Jump
Sprint
Move well and unrestricted
Go ruck for miles in the mountains
Run a 5k
Jump into a pickup basketball game
In essence, I never want to feel limited physically in my life ever.
And that’s what lies at the core of being a Lifeproof athlete - living limitless.
At first, my intention was to write a book, find a publisher, and sell it, so I could distill my 10 years of knowledge and experience helping thousands of humans into one extremely actionable step-by-step guide on how to do this for yourself (or your clients).
While I accomplished the first of those objectives, I’ve decided to call a hot route and publish my book here for free.
“If they wrote it to make money, don’t read it” - Naval Ravikant
I believe your physical body, your health and your performance is the most valuable resource you have. It’s the thing that empowers the rest of your life.
Thus, I want this information freely available to consume. I want you to have the tools to truly own your physique, health and performance.
Yes, it’s going to require that you read and have an attention span that lasts longer than a 15 second Instagram reel, but you’ll find the time investment well worth it.
✅ How it’s going to work
If you’re still with me, here’s how this book thing is going to work:
I’ll publish one chapter here each week. If you’re a subscriber, you’ll get notified via email.
I’ll come back to this post and update the table of contents as I go to make it more user friendly and searchable.
📚 What this book is (and isn’t)
Let me begin by saying this is not a physiology textbook or a research publication. This is a principles book. This is a give you everything you need to be deadly effective, but nothing more book.
This book is not concerned with what I like to call the black box. The black box is where “why” lives and the thing about the black box is that it’s always changing.
Let’s look at an overly simplistic example.
We have known for some time now because of repeated empirical outcomes that if you lift weights your muscles tend to get bigger. This can be seen clearly in the above graphic.
What we do not know, however, is why that happens. In other words, we don’t know with 100% certainty what’s going on in the black box.
That’s why research exists, to try and better understand the black box. But it’s important to appreciate that our notion of the black box is always changing. What we thought 10 years ago is different than what we think today, and what we think today will be different than what we think 5 years from now.
For that reason, I don’t like to marry myself to the black box. I’d rather focus on what works. And that’s what this book is about.
I want to focus on principles and give you a playbook that delivers devastating results. We know what set and rep schemes to use to drive hypertrophy. We know how to build strength. We know how to improve your endurance…
These are not new phenomena. The strategies, methods, tactics, and principles used today are not that different from what was done back in the Eastern Bloc 50+ years ago.
The difference today is that everyone wants to put lipstick on a pig and claim they’ve come up with some “new” training methodology or practice. This is VERY RARE. The questions today are not what works, but why and how. This is where research lives. This is diving down deeper and deeper trying to unpack the specific cellular mechanisms at play.
This is AKT/mTOR; this is PGC1α; this is myogenic stem cells, transcription factors, and epigenetics…
And the nerd in me loves this stuff. It’s what I enjoy reading and studying. But it matters very little to you and your ability to drive adaptation. And that’s what this book is about: results.
In order to avoid getting lost in the black box, I am writing this book from purely top of mind information. I do not have a pile of textbooks and literature stacked on my desk, rather, it’s just me and my computer. I feel this is the truest way to deliver on my promise of keeping this book as to the point and actionable as possible.
📖 Table of contents
Here’s what I’m expecting to cover
:Section 1 - The core attributes
In this section, I’ll unpack each of the 6 core attributes, making sure you understand the underlying principles and major concepts required to train that attribute effectively. You’ll get some background theory and science for understanding, and then I’ll dive into specific training guidelines.
I’ll also include some standardized tests and numbers for each attribute, so you have a way to measure yourself.
After reading this section, you will have a crystal-clear vision of what each attribute is and how to train it.
Chapter 3 - Power
Chapter 5 - Movement and mobility
Chapter 6 - Fusion
Section 2 - The science and art of writing training programs
In this section, I’ll dive into the art of programming, laying out how to manage training blocks, weeks, and days. This is where the real magic happens, and you will learn how to apply all the principles you uncovered in section 1 to craft brutally effective, smart, and goal aligned training programs for yourself or your clients.
Chapter 7 - How to craft a training block
Chapter 8 - How to design training weeks
Chapter 9 - How to design training days
Section 3 - Nutrition
Up in the air right now. Not sure I’ll open this can of worms. Maybe if enough people request it by the end I’ll do it
🧠 Final thoughts
If this post is anything, it’s an invitation.
If you’d like to join me, you can subscribe below so you never miss an update (and maybe share it with a friend or 2 that’ll find this useful 😉).
If you don’t want to join me, that’s cool too. You can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.
Thanks for reading.
Sorry I’m not sorry. It needed to be said.
At least I think you will.
All I’m getting at is that you don’t need to understand how the AKT/mTOR pathway works if you want to drive hypertrophy. Just like you don’t need to understand functional sympatholysis to improve your conditioning. Are they cool? Yes. Are they essential? No.
This is subject to change.
Treating yourself like a video game character with attribute bars is a great way to “gamify” the training process.
Really appreciate it, thanks
I subscribed, and every link takes me to the same description of the book but no actual chapters