Fit Rich Life

Newsletter #39

Weekly Tips, Tools & Strategies to Alchemize your Fitness, Money & Life
Newsletter Archive

"The eight laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition."
—John Wooden, American Basketball Coach & Player

Greetings Fit Rich Fam & welcome to the 39th Edition of the Fit Rich Life Newsletter!

>>read this edition on my website if you'd like to bookmark it for later or read older editions from the archive<<

I just got back from a week in Washington State visiting family with my wife.

It was great to catch up with family, work out with my younger brother & revisit the place of my childhood.

Without further ado let's dig into this issue.

This is your weekly dose of actionable tips, tools & strategies to take your Fitness, Money, and Life to the Next Level.


FITNESS: The optimal rep range to build muscle.

As a fitness coach, I am often met with new clients who think you can only build muscle at lower rep ranges of 5-8 reps.

The whole truth is that according to the latest science, you can actually undergo muscle hypertrophy or the process by which your body increases muscle size and strength, between rep ranges of 5-30.

Before I came upon this research I was also under the illusion that if you wanted to grow muscle size you had to focus on low rep ranges of 3-8 reps and that higher rep ranges were for getting cut/shredded.

After coming upon this research I went out in the field to confer with advanced bodybuilders who were significantly larger in muscle size than me only to find out that they would regularly do sets of 20-30 reps for specific 8-12 week training blocks.

What I’ve realized after testing this with both myself and my coaching clients is that what is most important is constantly stimulating muscles in new ways in order to foster growth, but there is an important aspect that must be adhered to if you want to truly grow muscle in a consistent reliable way.

That aspect is what is called “progressive overload” where you strategically increase the total load volume on specific exercises for a set period of time.

This is where most people go wrong and why most people remain at the same level of muscle size for years.

I see these people at the gym every day.

Month after month their body remains at the same muscular fitness level.

They look about the same even after several months of going to the gym consistently 3-5+ times a week.

Their “muscle growth plateau problem” resides in the fact that they are not following any real training program for a set period of time and they are not utilizing the principle of progressive overload.

They just show up to the gym and haphazardly work out.

This leads to sporadic muscle growth at best.

The antidote to this is following a set training program with a specific set of the same exercises for 4-16 weeks in a row while consistently taking advantage of the principle of progressive overload.

To illustrate progressive overload let’s say one of your exercises within your training program is that you do dumbbell bicep curls on Monday for the next 8-weeks in a row.

On week 1 let’s say you do 3-sets of bicep curls for 10-reps and you start that first week with 20lb dumbbells.

Meaning you do 10-reps of 20lb dumbbell curls on each arm. Or each set is 200lbs of volume load (10-reps x 20lbs).

In order to take advantage of progressive overload you must increase the total load volume on this dumbbell curl exercise on week 2, week 3, week 4 and every week until the conclusion of your 8-week training block.

There are 4-ways you can increase the load volume week over week.

Using the dumbbell bicep curls example here are the major 4-ways to increase the load volume:

- Option 1: on week 2 you increase the dumbbell weight from 20lbs to 25lbs. Now you are at 250lbs of load volume (25lbs x 10-reps) in week 2 compared to the 200lbs of load volume of week 1, meaning you’ve increased the load volume by 50lbs week over week.

- Option 2: on week 2 you stay at 20lb dumbells but you increase the reps from 10 to 15. Once again you are now at 250lbs of load volume (15-reps x 20lbs) on week 2 versus week 1’s 200lb load volume. Again, you’ve increased the total load volume on your biceps by 50lbs week over week.

- Option 3: on week 2 you choose 22.5lbs and do 11 reps for a total volume load volume of 247.5lbs (22.5 x 11 = 247.5) which is also approximately 50lbs more volume than the week before.

- Option 4: add sets. By adding sets you are increasing the total load volume as all the sets and reps get added together for your total load volume per workout. With the biceps curl example, this would be adding a 4th set.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you do lower rep ranges or higher rep ranges as long as you increase the total load volume week over week for each individual exercise that is targeting specific muscles, but in my experience what works best is to train at specific rep ranges for 4-16 week blocks then switch it up for the next training block as your body is an adaptation machine.

Your body is always trying to get more efficient to reduce caloric burn in its effort to maximize your ability to survive should food become scarce.

Furthermore, if you always do 8-12 reps year round you are much more likely to reduce your muscle hypertrophy as the stimulus is not changing enough and you will short-circuit your muscle gain potential.

Varying types of muscle stimulus throughout any given year will maximize your muscle growth.

For example, you could do training block 1 of 4-weeks at a rep range of 15-20, training block 2 of 4-weeks at 5-8 reps, and training block 3 of 4-weeks at 20-30 reps.

A 3-month program with this changing rep scheme would empower you to take advantage of progressive overload while also maximizing muscle stimulus.

If you'd like a custom-built training program that takes advantage of these principles outlined above you may want to consider scheduling a free consultation with me to evaluate if my Fitness, Money & Life Coaching program would be a good fit for you.


MONEY: Building a Fit Rich Life Money Mindset is like building a super fit physique.

Just like you must put in the regular reps, sets, and weekly workouts to grow your physique and build the body of your dreams you must do the same with your money.

Each week you must proactively manage your money, optimize your expenses, pay down any high-interest debt, invest your savings, & strategically grow your income-earning potential.

Just like you can't exercise once & eat healthfully one time and expect to be physically jacked, you cannot manage your money or invest one time and expect to be financially jacked.

Growing your financial muscles is a never-ending process of small specific sets of money-management skills & putting in the reps of investing & growing your income week after week to grow to ever-increasing levels of financial freedom.

If you don't know where to start, just start tracking your money habits with one of the many apps available online that are also available for your smartphone (like Mint or Empower Personal Dashboard) and read through the Fit Rich Life Newsletter Archive for plenty of free tips, tools & strategies to take your Money Muscles to the next level.

If you want to hypergrowth your money muscles consider booking a free consultation with me to find out how I've helped dozens of people get physically & financially jacked while building a life they truly love.

 

LIFE: Boundary-setting is a never-ending iterative process.
In my experience, most people suck at setting boundaries and they wonder why they aren't living a life they love. They have no work-life boundaries set and end up being on call for work even during vacation.

Additionally, they don't have healthy boundaries set with their family members or their friends and they wonder why they can't catch a break in life as they're constantly being interrupted when they're working on that passion project or they are pulled out of equilibrium when they're trying to rest & rejuvenate.

What most people don't recognize is that boundary-setting is a never-ending iterative process as their roles, goals & the people with whom they interact naturally change throughout life.

Because of this, when their boundaries are broken they take it personally and get all bent out of shape which f*cks up the flow of their life.

Instead, we must realize that boundaries will always be broken and it is our personal responsibility to coach the people around us (bosses, co-workers, family & friends) on what our boundaries are and how we'd like them to be respected.

We must be okay doing this again and again as other people forget what our boundaries are AND we are constantly entering into new circumstances (i.e. new clients, new jobs, new friends, new circumstances with family, etc).

Every month I have to coach someone about what my boundaries are. Whether it's letting a new coaching client know that they can message me 24/7 on our Fit Rich Life Coaching app but I only work Monday - Thursday so they can expect a response within 24 hours during my regular business hours or telling a co-worker that I prefer all work communication to go through Slack (our work chat app) or email and that my phone number should only be used for text messages and phone calls regarding urgent time-sensitive matters.

When this boundary line is crossed I don't stress or freak out.

I just kindly inform them what the best way to communicate with me is and so far 100% of the time they get it and respect the boundaries that I clearly outlined for them.

Main takeaway:  you must be okay with both clearly setting boundaries with everyone in your life as it continues to evolve AND recognize that boundary-setting is a never-ending iterative process that is 100% your responsibility (and that other people cannot read your mind and they will forget your boundaries from time to time).

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I am sending you all lots of Energy & plenty of Dragon Magic!

Your Fitness, Money & Life Coach,

Justin David Carl

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. I run a custom-tailored 1-1 & group mastermind coaching program that will empower you to achieve your dream body, master your money & live your best life. Yup, it's a proven Fitness, Money and Life Coaching Program unlike anything else out there. You can book a free consultation with me here or just drop me a note on Instagram to find a time to connect.

2. If you work in an office introduce me to whoever handles your office snacks, catering & employee experience to take your work wellbeing to the next level. I'm a founding member of Garten, a tech-empowered employee experience & wellbeing platform that top companies utilize to power their most important asset (their people). Email me at >>justin@garten.co<< to set up a meeting.