# About Name: Move101 Description: We are a coaching service based out of Madras, India. We coaching online and in-person at our gym in Madras, India. Reach out to us. You can get a sense of our work through our blog. We write about our coaching, equipment design & manufacturing and all things that help or hurt efforts to improve quality of life. URL: https://www.move101.net # Navigation Menu - Team: https://www.move101.net/team - Train at our gym: https://www.move101.net/gym/ - Gym timings: https://www.move101.net/gym-timings/ - How the gym works: https://www.move101.net/how-the-gym-works/ - Sign up: https://www.move101.net/sign-up-to-the-gym/ - Big picture: https://www.move101.net/gym/ - Train online: https://www.move101.net/online/ - How online works: https://www.move101.net/how-online-works/ - Online timings: https://www.move101.net/online-timings/ - Sign up for online: https://www.move101.net/sign-up-for-online/ - Big picture: https://www.move101.net/online/ - Chat on WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/T6ZTWXX4NIGXB1 # Blog Posts ## Sign up for the gym Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/sign-up-to-the-gym/ Call us on [+919840424684](tel:+919840424684) to schedule an assessment at our space.  A coach will get a basic sense of how you move and you get to have a chat with them about how our service works.  If you choose to sign up, the fee is Rs 7250 for a month. We do not offer longer memberships. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## How the gym works Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/how-the-gym-works/ 1\. You train with us 3 hours a week in one of our ten batches. 2\. Each batch has two coaches with a maximum of 14-15 trainees. 3\. When you choose to join us, a coach will be assigned to teach you how to perform all the moves in the program safely. 4\. A coach is always watching you train to provide you with pointed feedback to make your training session more productive. 5\. You have access to plenty of barbells, dumbbells, t-bells and other carefully crafted tools. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Gym timings Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/gym-timings/ **Timings:** Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 6am, 7am, 8 am, 11 am, 6:30pm, 7:30pm Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays: 5:00 am, 6:00 am, 7:00 am, 8:00 am --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## How online works Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/how-online-works/ Online coaching is a sensitive game.  The first 3-4 weeks are critical to push clients into a regular schedule and make a habit of training.  They need to learn the names of exercises. Both the coach and trainee need to figure out if they learn better by seeing someone do it and follow along. Or verbal cues produce better outcomes. There’s a lot to get right.   We start with an assessment to get a basic sense of client expectations and to get a sense of how they move.   We follow it up with one-on-ones to coach clients on how to perform basic exercises effectively and tailor it to their strength levels.  We take 2-3 sessions outside of the group classes to get this done.  After the one-on-ones, we move clients into the group classes.  The timings of these sessions are listed below.  The key to our online service is to help clients pick the right exercises based on their strength levels. And also pick a variety of patterns to ensure every major joint and muscle group in the body gets healthy and challenging dose of movement.  Clients aim to train for between 4-6 sessions a week with us online. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Sign up for online Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/sign-up-for-online/ **How to sign up for our online service** Call us on [+919840424684](tel:+919840424684) to schedule an assessment.  A coach will get a basic sense of how you move and you get to have a chat with them about how our service works.  If you choose to sign up, the fee is Rs 4400 for a month. We do not offer longer memberships. The fee will be pro-rated based on start date. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Online timings Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 URL: https://www.move101.net/online-timings/ 7 AM: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:50 AM: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11 AM: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 6:00 PM: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 7 PM: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Profit fuels progress Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/profit-fuels-progress/ Profit fuels progress. And profit is an indicator that what you are charging clients is the right price for building a service/product. You have something to show for your efforts without needing any investors to foot the bill in the hope of sharing in the future riches that may or may not come. No one will miss Cred when it eventually dies. Except the fools who pump money into building it thinking everyone will capitulate to Cred’s service. Which to be honest, I still don’t understand. There will always be a way to pay my bills without Cred. And it will be free. I still use HDFC’s perma-cluttered and dated interface to pay my credit card bill. My bills are puny enough that i get like 600 bucks off once a year in some cash back. So maybe i am not Cred’s target audience. The silly rational behind the billions pumped into building Byjus, Cred, Educomp, Flipkart, Cult and every other silly, dispensable service is straightforward: they believe that they are building something exceptional that clients will eventually pay a premium for after the funded company manages to kill every other service or product with their subsidised pricing that does not factor for the actual cost of building the product. They really believe they have a moat. But if history has taught us anything it is that once you get a customer, especially Indian, used to paying next to nothing for a service, they will be unwilling to suddenly pay for that service. They will uninstall the app and move on to the next best thing in a heartbeat. This is true for profitable businesses too. If I jack my fee up by two-fold, my clients will bail on me. They will find the next best thing for a reasonable price. And it’s delusional to think that q-comm, e-comm and payment apps have irreversibly changed our behaviour. If those companies charge us a silly enough premium for their service, there will be more local grocery stores to compete for your wallet. And if the UPI chaps suddenly charge us a whopping convienience fee, it’s a sure thing that we will flee to cash again. Cred might be the most efficient way to manage your payments. But the question remains if you as a consumer had to pay for it, how much is it worth to you? As Steve Jobs asked of Dropbox, is it a feature or is it a product? Or is it something built with the sole intent of having a HDFC acquire it at some point when the latter realised they will never be able to build such a widget in-house? Or is it something where the tap is suddenly turned off when the people (investors) paying for the effort to keep the app or service running turn off the spigot. I can’t make a economic case against Cred. And nor should anyone ever. People should be allowed to burn, snort or piss away their cash any way they desire. But I have a personal moral and ethical qualm against businesses that have no viable game that allows them remain afloat solely through revenue from users. Products and services are built for the users that pay for them. When the users don’t pay for it, someone else does. And they are the masters. We’ve seen this bite us in the ass with Google and Meta. They really don’t care about social cohesion or how your brain develops. Indian corruption is another example where the lack of transparent pricing and rules winds up creating many a master except the actual citizen who the government serves. Clarity on who is paying to to create something gives us the focus to best serve that person’s interest. And when profit exists, it allows us to serve clients without interrruption or distraction as long as the passion, drive and talent exists. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Designing and making things as therapy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/designing-and-making-things-as-therapy/ The video below walks you through every single part in our latest pull up bar design. Every groove, hole and part was carefully chosen , matched and pair to work with other parts. It also had to bear the load of thousands of repetitions. It had to factor for welding. And ensure that both the parts identically mirrored each other. The helical pattern on one rod had to literally mirror the other one and match it millimetre for millimetre. And we designed every part right from hole placement to planning the housing and means to adjust and mount every part. The pull up bar camber and heights had to be identical too. And the holes had to be snug enough to not be sloppy or rattling around. But not so snug that one couldn’t quickly change the width, camber or handle without needing a hammer. And why sweat over this when we have a gym with 14 pull up bars? Is this 15th one really necessary? Yes and no. No, since we had ways to achieve all the position this new setup does. Yes, because we can replicate what was achieved through 4 different setups in one single setup. And as a coach, a new tool gives you more options to work with. And as a pull-up enthusiast, each iteration is to me what a well-engineered car is to a car-enthusiast. It’s not just about getting from point A to point B. It’s all the ways you can get there. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Some kind of dilemma Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/some-kind-of-dilemma/ What kind of food should hospitals serve to the families of those tending to their ill. I’ve been in the unfortunate situation of seeing some family through prolonged illness. Not as a primary caregiver. But close enough to see how one is forced to eat. Or the options available. It is appalling. Some of this stuff is street-side cuisine. Deep-fried with salt, sugar and fat. If you’re thinking it’s atleast hygienic, you are missing the point. If you think they should use ghee to fry the food, that’s certified delusional. My dreary conclusion is hospitals serve people whatever food they will eat. A girl munched down two doughnuts. And a bunch of parrothas. This was the average table. If the hospital didn’t serve it, these folks will walk down to a corner shop that will give them that. Is the onus or moral imperative for a hospital to force people to make healthier choices as they eat during a stressful time? Or do they make it more convenient to make familiar, comfortable choices and of course a profit of those. After all, hospitals could rationalise by arguing are the few meals a person eats here be the ones that force people to rethink how they eat? Just because we associate hospitals with health, it’s not their business to educate you on how to make healthier choices. Especially when you are not the patient. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Not so jacked ancestors Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/not-so-jacked-ancestors/ Gyms don’t manufacture health. Health is a complicated outcome influenced by activity levels, sleep quality, nutrition, environmental conditions, quality of life, stress among other factors. Gyms produce strength outcomes due to the adaptations they can produce with movement. Those outcomes can translate well to everyday life. Squatting deep is useful because of what it does for knees, hips, ankles and spine. You can enjoy doing a heavy squat too. Those two things can coexist. This is the case for all movement. When our ancestors had to undertake repeated activity in the pursuit of food, shelter or a mate, they became good at those specific tasks. And the adaptations to those tasks were very specific strength capacities. And our ancestors were lean because they didn’t have enough food. Not because they were jacked from planned deficits and surplus of activity. They moved much more to earn their capacity to consume far fewer calories than we do today. There was nothing romantic or glorious about this painful reality. And these are the same outcomes we fetishise when our ancestors had to drag food or chase prey. We romanticise movement for survival as some vaunted raison’d’etre for our design. But in all probability, our ancestors were probably getting injured a tonne. There was plenty of overuse. And of course we were dead by our mid-30’s. So here’s how you can see a gym: it’s just a tool like a spear, levers, pulleys, bow and arrows or a cave. Something you can choose to use to improve quality of life, joint health and retain physical capacities as you age. And your life will never resemble your ancestors. It’s a whole new environment with very very different set of demands for what it takes to thrive and survive. So instead of romanticising our rough and brutal past riddled with random death and diarrhoea, just think of how privileged we are in having our pick of protein, surplus of calories and getting the activity choices we get with all the leisure time we have not fighting for food or shelter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## One month at a time Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/one-month-at-a-time/ I refuse to offer quarterly, half yearly or annual memberships. And I definitely won’t discount my monthly fee. I know coaches and gym memberships are not accorded the gravitas of lawyers, doctors or accountants. And we shoot ourselves in the foot with discounts, a lack of seriousness about the work, poor communication and basement pricing that does not scream credibility or integrity. We have to demand it. By drawing lines, establishing boundaries and being absolutely professional about time and scope of our job. The choice of monthly fee might seem steep or quixotic versus a discounted annual fee. But clients realise it’s value when they realise they are actually using the service everyday. They learn to train and the utility of using all the gadgets in the gym. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A reluctant entrepreneur Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-12 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/a-reluctant-entrepreneur/ I was in the workforce for five years as a salaried man before striking out on my own. The striking out on my own happened within two months of meeting my now-wife in 2014. My second job was on shaky ground. I was not having fun. And I was terrified. I had taken a massive pay cut to jump from a then-secure journalism gig to trying to become a fitness trainer in what was then a nascent industry. 2012 was a very different time. Startup’s weren’t cool. And fitness coaches were called ‘master’. It was a shitshow. I was trying to prep for my GMAT in another half-hearted attempt to get an MBA. It’s what all the cool kids were doing. But the cool kid is the last thing I’ve been. The weirdo, contrarian and loner tag has come to me without much effort. All my damn life. And I like it. Anyways, within a month of courtship my now-wife looks at me and says ‘Are you really going to do an MBA, you’re not really an MBA type :D ?’. I don’t know if it was the shorts:pants ratio of 100:1 in my cupboard that gave it away that quickly or easily. But she was right. It felt absurd. And had just built a prototype pull up bar (still functional?) with a welder I met around the same time. And if you told me to practice logical reasoning or sit in a welding workshop making ugly sketches, I’d pick the latter in a heartbeat. But I was terrified at the notion of not seeing cash magically conjure on the 2nd of the month in my account. I don’t know why. Is it a cultural thing? No one in my close family till that point had started their own business. I didn’t know where to begin. So it started with one client, then two, then seven. Found a space. The rent wouldn’t kill me. Three clients could cover it. But there would still be sitting in an empty gym at 7 am. Then one more client and another. 30 clients kept showing up 8 months in. But expenses would still outpace income. But cash was flowing. It wasn’t scary. What day it was didn’t matter. All that mattered was clients were showing up. And that clients were bringing more clients. Some clients disappeared during Decembers and summers. But enough stayed on to pay the bills. More clients came, more training ideas were toyed with. More equipment was built. And whatever business we have revolves around this one Walt Disney quote: Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do. Entering our 12th year, this quote remains guiding star. I am not an entrepreneur. Just a coach making sure clients have fun at the gym. One session at a time. And so much of my conviction and confidence comes from a girl who all her life has been around the energy to do things without worrying about the pay check. Focus on the ideas, execution and community. If you are curious and have enough fun with the idea, the clients and cash flow follow. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Introducing the helix pull up bar. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-08 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/introducing-the-helix-pull-up-bar/ The name is an obvious nod to the pattern on the 42 mm that serves as the pin that produces different camber angles. The video opens with a pile of parts. 10 parts. I am not including the 19 mm pin, 4 bolts and 6 nuts to secure the whole thing on my rack. This is probably the 70th thing I am designing and building from scratch. But it still feels like alchemy when something actually translates from design into a fully functional, working, tweakable, repairable and robust product. And it works really well. As promised, it can be adjusted to 10 different camber angles and 15 different widths. That basically means you can create 10 distinct camber angles at 15 different widths. That allows every user, regardless of proportions or constraints, to find a position that works for them. More importantly, the change in angle also allows us to recruit the different muscles in the upper back and shoulder to varying degrees, different lengths and different line of pulls. There’s a lot to unpack up there. But I’ll break it down in future posts with more videos in different positions. But as a quick visualiser, watch how my upper back and shoulders move when I moved the bar wider apart without altering the camber angle. This altered movement of the shoulder and scapula means the muscles work differently and contribute in different magnitudes. And this piece is 100 percent made from scrap steel. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Self honesty: a much more useful term than self-help Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-08 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/self-honesty-a-much-more-useful-term-than-self-help/ At this point, I am convinced that we need honesty more than content or knowledge. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know something about calorie deficits, protein intake, fiber intake, healthy fat, portion control, strength training, conditioning and an active lifestyle. But a fairly uncontroversial, self-evident truth is that knowing something does not guarantee that you are using it. But when you are convinced that you are using what you know, are you being honest enough with yourself if you are actually using it effectively, efficiently and appropriately. Any other way of saying it. If you truly believe you understand something and know how to apply it well, do your actions and outcomes line up with what you think you are doing? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The things i preach but don’t practice : NEAT Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-02 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-things-i-preach-but-dont-practice-neat/ **What they preach** Aim for [5000-15000](tel:5000-15000) steps a day. This is a good dose of NEAT. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis . It’s all the ways you burn energy outside of exercise and your basic metabolism. It has physical and mental benefits too. **What I practice** My unconventional take is that it is possible to be active without having to fixate on number of steps covered in a day. I don’t bother with the 5000 to 10000 step a day rule. First up, I don’t wear a step tracker. No smart watches or smartwatches or pedometers. I think of being being active every chance I get. Even if it means shunning convienience. **Here are a few simple ways to achieve this:** Why take a car or bike, if you can walk. This is obvious but most folks take bikes even to venture out 100 meters. I am guilty of this too. I take the bike to the gym to save time. I coach at 5 am and 6 am in person. And I rush home to coach online at 7 am. This is 6 times a week. I like to stay till about 6:55 am at the gym and then rush the 300 meters to home. The bike cuts this down. My point being convenience will trump friction in some cases. Take the cycle instead of bike or car. This is something I am toying around with. Why sit if you can walk or pace about? I realise a lot of thinking and talking can happen while walking. So I do this. I also stand more than I sit. And i do prefer lying back and reclining while I work instead of sitting. Sitting with the muscles around the hip remaining in flexion for hours a day is a counterproductive stimulus. My lifestyle is amply aided by coaching for 2-3 hours a day. I am on my feet during these hours. This is in addition to my training. While I don’t focus on steps or moving about too much while I train, my focus is two fold: Make it as challenging as possible and cover as much range with as much stability as I can. Take the stairs. Unless I am hurt or carrying something unwieldy up more than a flight of stairs, my preferred mode is almost always taking the stairs. Even if its more than 5 floors. Carry anything and everything you are capable of carrying. I move groceries, gym equipment, bags, 15 kg bags of whey protein, steel pipes, scrap metal and anything that needs carrying Chores like cleaning my car, bike, cycles, gym equipment or even the gym. I don’t schedule this stuff. But I greedily try to gobble these up and do these. Aimlessly walking around. I dig this. I don’t do enough of it. Part of it is environment. Part of it is also schedule. **Takeaway** This, like my post about sleep, isn’t meant to be a guide for everyone. And I am not chasing very low body fat levels. This is just me being active, maintaining a basic capacity for exertion and not have to huff or pant on a moderate hike. For cardio, I like to jump rope and spend time on an air bike. This is in addition to the cardiovascular benefits of strength training which is underrated. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The things I preach but don’t practice : SLEEP Author: Unknown Published: 2025-08-02 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-things-i-preach-but-dont-practice-sleep/ The fitness and wellness ‘professional’ gig is one that involves preaching a whole lot about how one lives their daily lives. We opine on every aspect of life: sleep, food, activity choices, supplements etc. The big question is how much can we follow the things we recommend. So here’s how I don’t practice what I preach when it comes to sleep. **What they preach** The recommendation is sleep for anywhere between 6-8 hours. It helps if the hours are fixed say between 9 and 5 or 10 and 6. **My practice** I sleep at 9:30 pm to 10 pm every single day. It’s just how the entire household rolls. But I wake up at 4 am every single day. Most days are pleasant. But the days when sleep quality has been not so good, i wake up needing coffee. This doesn’t happen often. Once in a couple of weeks maybe. **What they preach** A dark room, no devices for an hour before going to sleep. **What I practice** I have a 7 year old who stages plays with her unicorns till 9 in the night. They go off by 9:20 pm. But i am usually listening to (not watching) some video between 8 pm and 9 pm. It’s usually me doodling or writing down some idea using pen and pencil as I listen to them. Sometimes i am wiped. So i usually pass on the storytelling duties to an old Japanese animated retelling of some Grimms brothers tales. No videos just audio. But I pass out comfortably. **What they preach** 6-8 hours of sleep on a trot. **What I practice** 6-6.5 hours of straight sleep usually. And an hour during the day. Maybe 1.5 hours even. I need 8 hours of sleep. And some days when i am hopped up on work, I struggle to get that afternoon sleep. And I will pay the price in terms of how much I am able to focus while I coach or my hitting my training targets. **What they preach** Magnesium, melatonin gummies etc to improve sleep quality. **What I practice** Never needed them. But if someone does, I point them in the direction. If there are more severe issues, I refer folks to therapists or the Nithra sleep clinic. **What they preach** Walk around in the morning sun, try and walk a bit in the morning and avoid using your devices for the first couple of hours of the day. **What I practice** I save my hardest bit of training for the morning. At the moment it’s 25 one arm push ups per arm completed in 20 mins. I do these best when i am freshest. I do this 5-6 times a week. A little music is on. A couple of messages are replied to. I drink a coffee protein shake shortly after I wake up. I am a fairly sedate responder to coffee. It perks me up but coffee does not amp me up to a counterproductive degree. My job involves working from 5 am through 12 pm most days including a school drop. So there is no slow basking in the sun every morning :D Takeaway I have similar personal takes for training, nutrition, supplements and stress management. It’s not meant to be recommendations in any way! Just what i do and how far from ideal it is. But it works for me. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Tweak your plate Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/tweak-your-plate/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/b64-1753977915245-compressed.jpeg) I got a quick meal at Shree Gupta Bhavan. It’s the kind of joint with a menu longer and more diverse than the country. I usually avoid these places since the hygiene can be iffy. And they’re far too generous with the ghee, butter and oil. But stingy with the veggies. And the veggies they serve are overcooked or over salted. But i had to make do in a pinch. First up avoid the chat and the gravies. Too many variables. Too much hidden fat. And overcooked veggies. Not to mention too little of it. Not thalis. Too little of too many things. Except the rice and rotis. The South Indian idli/dosa fare was just a thali sans the greasy, inadequate veggies. That left me with the tandoor. There’s a mushroom skewer and paneer tikka. My first request: could the brush of butter or oil on the skewers be skipped? He said yes. So i ordered a paneer tikka and a mushroom tikka. There was a little paneer stuffed into the mushroom caps. More importantly no roti, rice or potatoes. Of the 500-700 calories from the 150-200 grams of paneer, 80 percent is from fat and 20 percent from protein. So there’s no shortage of energy in this meal. There’s a decent bit of fiber from the mushrooms. This isn’t about the ideal meal. To make this meal more ideal, we would use a low fat paneer, some more vegetables and a nice low fat yoghurt by the side. This is about how to adjust your plate when you’re constrained in your choices. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Statistically probable and sound advice for most Indians Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/statistically-probable-and-sound-advice-for-most-indians/ You are eating too much. You are carrying too little muscle. You are consuming too much oil. You are not eating enough protein. You are not eating enough veggies. You are not eating enough fruit. You are probably eating too much wheat or rice or some grain. You are drinking more calories than you probably realise. You are not getting enough sunlight between 10 am and 3 pm. You are probably romanticising and overestimating how active or athletic you were as a kid or teen. You are also overestimating how intensely you are training at the gym. You are most definitely underestimating your calorie intake if you have never measured your food. You are overestimating how many calories you burnt by running, walking, strength training or any activity in general. You are probably overestimating the quality of decisions you are taking by looking at data from a CGM. A measuring cup/spoon is cheaper and more reliable. You are most definitely underestimating your body fat levels if you have not taken a dexa scan. You are overestimating how healthy your heart is if you have never tested it or exerted it in a measured way. You are probably underestimating how intertwined your bone, soft tissue and muscle health are. You generally can’t improve your joint function, bone density without making muscles around them contract and tendons around them stiffen. You are overestimating how many hours you spend working in a day and underestimating how much time you lost to noise, empty interactions and ‘entertainment’ during the day. You are overestimating how much time it takes to strength train effectively. You are overestimating how much equipment or gear you need to strength train effectively. You are underestimating the impact of how much training can help you move with confidence versus overestimating the value of how it makes you look. You not being able to sleep on time is not a biological quirk. It is a habit that can be fixed with time, darkness, quiet and being comfortable with boredom. You are underestimating how much habits pay off over months and years. And overestimating the benefits of those habits when you use them only for days and weeks. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Unemployable and loving it Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/unemployable-and-loving-it/ I’ve only had two jobs. I quit both. I just hated being in an office. It drained my soul. It left me bored and devoid of purpose. I need to see my clients and work directly with those who pay me to keep my lights on. And being able to switch off the zoom calls or finish the coaching hour to go to the scrapyard, welding workshop or just sit and doodle a new idea at home or wherever is just absolute freedom. My coaching hours are fixed. But everything I do to be a better coach or build the gym are on my terms. I enjoy being a dog with a bone. If there is no bone or i am done chewing, i roam around looking for a new bone to chew. I’ve always been that guy. I gave the honest employment and having a boss thing a shot. It just left me with a feeling of despair. I know lots of people love the 9-5 office thing. But I hated it. In my second gig, we would have to coach and head to an office. I can confidently say that year was the worst year of my life. I would love to coach. But I’d be fried after. And then I would have to sit in an office for 4 hours for meetings and phone calls. It was absolutely f\*\*\*ing miserable. I remember feeling empty, tired and sad for the rest of the day. It’s like being forced to think or do something with a gun to your head. Much like a school timetable. It’s math hour now kids. Switch on the math part of your brain. If that sounds like a terrible idea, it most certainly was. But horrible experiences like that have been a trigger for some of my more enjoyable years. 2 years at the hellhole called St.Johns Besant Nagar were followed by 2 years of home-schooled bliss where I just read whatever I wanted. 3 years of an absolute shitshow called VIT was followed by a glorious drop year where I travelled and made my first pull up bar in 2008 before I went to ACJ. And 2 years of coaching followed by sitting in an office lead to 11 years of whatever it is that I am doing now. But there is only one thing I enjoy less that managing people, that is being managed by someone. It’s not the fault of the boss. Credit to my former boss [Aarati Krishnan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarati-krishnan-b0944864/) , she taught me a lot and was patient to a fault with me! As a slow learner, it took me a decade to put all the lessons she taught me to good use. Some people are just miserable in institutions. I am one of them. I don’t blame the institutions. It’s just my head and how I operate. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Premature joy over large numbers Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/premature-joy-over-large-numbers/ Are most Indians happy with just living to a ripe, old age? There is no conception of a good life lived full of activity, independence, strong bones and plenty of muscle. There is also a baffling degree of oversimplified arguments that comes down to my ancestors got everything right, have you seen the Meenakshi temple? I know how frail and fragile most Indians over-65 are. I see it around me every single day. In hospitals, in studies, in parks, taking spills in bathrooms, not being able to take the stairs, not being able to hike up hills, there is plenty that is rotten and problematic that is normalised as ‘this is what happens as you age’. We don’t have to become frail and fragile as we age. We don’t have to lose all our muscle. We don’t have to dramatically scale back our activity levels. And most certainly being ambulatory for a couple of kilometres should not be the only measure of sufficient fitness when older. There are many capacities of our youth that we can maintain with a little more protein, more vegetables, restricted calorie intake, a little strength training and much better body composition. A scary number of us don’t seem even remotely curious about these low hanging outcomes. We think we have ageing gracefully nailed down. We are wrong. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## My body is a selective temple Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/my-body-is-a-selective-temple/ As specialities emerge in the field of health coaching, there is a tendency to overvalue the one certification or habit or intervention that you hold sacrosanct. Let’s say you think the gut microbiome as the single most important aspect of good health. That intervening by eating a certain combination of foods timed meticulously is the most important thing for good health (subjective). This endeavour might take a significant chunk of your time, energy and attention. So much so that you don’t notice your body fat levels are north of 35 percent and you can’t hang for 20 seconds or do a single push up on the floor. You don’t get 80 grams of protein a day simply because you believe your gut microbiome doesn’t need it. This is an extreme example. But this absurdity is common. There are people who train solely for vanity or body composition who discuss cardio solely through the prism of ‘cardio burns muscle’. Or runners who constantly talk about ‘strength training to be a better runner’. People who seek out diets to improve insulin sensitivity only to ignore the single most useful thing to improve sensitivity: muscle. And the only thing that can give you muscle systematically is strength training. But they won’t do that since ‘diet is enough’. Add to the above list fasting, keto diets, low fat diets, powerlifting, bodybuilding, now hyrox are stupidly siloed and narrow ways to think about things you do to feel, look and move better. In an era where coaching tends to get siloed into specializations and everyone or every decision is pining or competing for priority, your body probably might benefit a lot from trying to scale a little of everything by just a little every single day rather than draining yourself by focusing on just a lot of one thing at the cost of all the other things. What this practically looks like? If you are training, the time you take to cover 3-4 kms should improve alongside the load and repetitions you can handle on a good, deep squat. A good deep squat does not come at the cost of hip rotation or hamstring work. The protein does not come at the cost of veggies. Just as efforts to include fiber don’t come at the cost of protein. And of your whole foods can get you a required healthy fat or enough protein, don’t be afraid to find a quality supplement. Sleep shouldn’t come at the cost of training. Even if the Rock tells you that’s what he does. Behind all the studies, philosophy and content bombarding you about lifestyle choices, there is a simple idea that you need to make a few decisions everyday. And get a little better at how you execute those things every single day. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A deadlift by any name Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/a-deadlift-by-any-name/ Technically, if you are terrible at pulling a barbell off the floor, you can be terrible at pulling a trapbar off the floor too. And one could be equally terrible at hinging while doing the eccentric portion of the hinge (RDL). The tricky part of any hinge is to keep the hamstring and glute loaded as you increase the shear load on the spine. And maintaining an isometric contraction by bracing through the entire movement. Improving tolerance for this by being more generous with knee flexion and staying more upright might be the way to go. Most folks are far more tolerant of compression load than shear load. My problem with labelling exercises as risky or even assigning weights to that risk is that it won’t be long before the toolkit shrinks dramatically and we are down to only machine work. This risk aversion leads to a loss of confidence and aversion to basic movement. While this might sound dramatic, fostering optimistim and confidence towards movement is a big chunk of my job. Any fear, lack of confidence or aversion is almost always a bad thing except in the rarest of rare cases. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The fragility and uncertainty of an idea Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-31 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/the-fragility-and-uncertainty-of-an-idea/ Every time we try to make something new, there is a point when it feels like there’s just no way it can work. Every design idea fails the test on some front. It’s not going lock in that angle or the bolt can’t pass through. There are of reasons to not build it or even spend time trying to design it or make it. Plenty of no’s. The dread and fear is especially real when you are staring at a pile of cut pipes, rods and bolts lying on the machining room floor. They cost real money. Stainless steel isn’t cheap. Especially thick seamless pipes. And it took effort from the welders, machinists to listen to my whacky ideas and understand what it needs to be. Will the angles make sense? Will it come together and actually work? Does anyone really even need this? The pile of parts you are looking at is culmination of us playing around with different camber angles to do pull ups. Depending on mobility, how one’s shoulder is built among other constraints, a person could prefer two bars aligned between 90 degrees or 150 degrees or in between the two. The choices right now are a binary 180 or parallel. It should be easier to tailor down the angle for personal preference and comfort. And i am really hoping that the pile of parts lying on that dusty floor can make that happen after a few holes are drilled, grooves are milled and welds are laid down. Until the first pull up is done, my conviction in a pile of metal is all that exists. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0268-1753976529684-compressed.jpeg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Judging my work by how my clients move Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-22 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/judging-my-work-by-how-my-clients-move/ Here’s something testimonials, photo shoots or essays don’t capture. How well does the client move? It’s an intangible, subjective and absolutely messy measure of coaching competence. Simply because there is no one right way to do a move. And if a person moves well, you’ll know it when you see it. And it’s a good way to tell what the coach is doing with their program, cues and teaching. It’s also a good measure of how the client is spending time on the gym floor and responding to the coaching environment. Check out [](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavithra-reddy-255533367/)[pavithra reddy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAFsGdKEBUyx95jovwnrbNs5Hu3PVR3fiDxs) in the video below. She’s been training with us for 6 months. And she’s an enthusiastic trainee who enjoys moving without getting worked up about short term outcomes. She responds well to cues, explanations and also watches people move carefully to learn. What strikes me about the video below? Damn, she moves well. There will always be something to nitpick. But it’s a pleasure to watch her going through the motions. And it’s something i think about a lot. If this client walked into a random gym and started moving, how independent and well do they move? You can always fight over volume, programme, intensity, aesthetics etc. But how you move is a great measure of how much you enjoy the process. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The gruesome lift in the video is a deficit deadlift. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-gruesome-lift-in-the-video-is-a-deficit-deadlift/ But the deficit positions the handle a good 4.5 inches below ground level. You can visualise this clearly in the video by seeing how the handle is positioned below my foot level. This is my last of 4 sets of 3 reps with 110 kgs. It was a challenging lift that required pauses between each rep. I did not have fun. A regular deadlift is pulled with the handle 9 inches above the ground. So each deadlift pulled from the height below has to travel 27 inches more than your conventional deadlift. My regular deadlift involves 42 inches of travel. This one involves 69 inches of travel. There’s a terrific dirty joke in there that i am not able to come up with. The first and most logical question is: Why do this exercise? And my messy reply is: real world lifting is messy and inconvenient. I will never be able to mimic it. But the least i can do is to try and put myself in uncomfortable positions. For small doses. Atleast once or twice a week. The two deadlift ‘rules’ that gets thrown out of the book: 1\. My back is not in extension or flat. It is rounded. 2\. This involves a great deal of knee and hip flexion. It’s a messy lift. Who is this for? When i make my clients do a deficit deadlift, it is 2-3 inches off the floor. It is never with this setup. Odd lifts like this involve building tolerance for gnarly positions rather gradually. You should not rush to pack on the load on this lift. Nor can I program any semblance of linear progression. The personal appeal was for me two fold: 1\. Can I actually adapt to this position? By adapt, can my back muscles, ligaments and tendons become more resilient to produce this movement without distress. Can I learn to lift with my legs even when the back is in a less than optimal position? I am in my fifth year of this lift. And I like how i feel. 2\. What would be the exact opposite of the abomination of a rackpull performed by Bradley Cooper’s character in American Sniper. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Imaginary conversations that need context Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/imaginary-conversations-that-need-context/ My doctor told me to do bodyweight exercises only and lift no weights. Saying lift only your bodyweight makes the load you are lifting seem trivial. But it really isn’t. It’s like saying here’s a cheque for 5 crore ‘only’. That ‘only’ feels like it doesn’t belong in that context. If you perform a bodyweight squat, you are literally loading your legs with close to 60-70 percent of your bodyweight (legs and feet account for roughly a third of our total weight). So a 70 kg human being is squatting 42 to 49 kgs with a bodyweight squat. With a single leg squat add the weight of the non working leg and you’re up to 85 percent of your weight on a single leg. That’s me squatting 65 kgs on one leg in a single leg squat. OK, make it 60 kgs given how stupidly skinny my legs are. Same goes for a push up. You doing a floor push up are using your upper back and shoulders to push 60-70 percent of your bodyweight. Some people muck this up with a hideous plank or arched lower back. So a 80 kg person is producing enough force to move 60 kgs of weight to the floor and back up. On a pull up it’s close to 80-85 percent of your weight. So a 70 kg person is literally pulling 50-55 kgs of load against gravity towards the bar and lowering it back down. So when you squat with a 10 kg dumbbell. That’s 10 kgs over and above 50 kgs. That’s just 20 percent more. And most of us are capable of much more. So lift with confidence. Whatever you think is heavy, there’s probably more you can lift. Unless Eddie Hall or someone stupidly strong is reading my piece. If you need inspiration from how much biological structured can tolerate, just remember we’ve tortured ants to figure out they can withstand 5000 times their weight in load before disintegrating. Read about that gruesome study here: https://lnkd.in/gzHrAjtm --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Ten years of barefoot Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-17 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/ten-years-of-barefoot-cmd6ykkrv000b11ldjathtmny/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img2028-1752730676095-compressed.jpeg) It’s been over 10 years since I started wearing barefoot footwear. I’ve worn non-barefoot shoes on a total of 8 occasions tallying up less than 27 hours in those 10 years. I kicked things off in 2013 with the funky but comfy Vivobarefoot Ultras. These wide toe-boxed, amphibious shoes were great for use in Madras’ hideous monsoons that leaves everything mushy and mucky. You could rinse these shoes and use them within an hour. They are still available outside the country. My daughter uses them all the time. Sharath Raju does not get enough credit for having the conviction and knowledge to bring Vivobarefoot to India in 2011! This lasted 3 years. I made the jump to Luna’s when it was sold in India as part Amazon Global Program. This program started in 2015 and died in 2018. It’s hard being a good barefoot sandal brand in India. So here are five things you need to know about going barefoot: 1 It is not for everyone. You need to ease into it. Too many people dive into barefoot footwear far too drastically. It might work for the few who naturally favour a forefoot/mid foot strike. But even in those cases, the lack of cushioning will need you to gradually ease into it. Heel strikers will need to retool their stride and strike. The pay off is a philosophical one. Not one of performance. Soft tissue adaptations take months or years to load. You need to start with short walks/jogs and gradually scale things. 2 If you plan to strength train in them, you need to be cautious. The most obvious reason. No cushioning, so dropping stuff on your foot can hurt even worse. Second reason, zero drop means the ankles have to bend for themselves to accommodate a squat or deadlift. This, like running, takes plenty of work. 3 Using it for an appreciable amount of time. A lot of the useful adaptations of barefoot use such as improved toe splay and better gait comes from using this footwear for hours a day. Not just the occasional walk a couple of times a week. So if you plan to try this, you should factor for repeated, daily and mindful use. This is something you need to work on. Not just slip into. 4 Not all barefoot sandals are built the same. There are many brands. The best ones use Vibrams soles. Vibrams outsoles come in different compounds meant for hiking, running, walking, gym use etc. Every brand does something different with the footbed. Some mold it with grooves to fit a generic foot. Others use a midsole that shapes to your foot over time. Some use a stickier rubber footbed. Others feel more slick. There are many different straps. It would help to try a pair before you buy. But you only find Luna and Vibram in India through Gambol. No other brands distributes their product in India (Bedrock, Shamma, Zero, Vivo). So your best bet is to try a pair when you travel abroad. PS: If you have plantar fasciitis or any other specific issues, it is best to consult a professional before taking the plunge. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Our mean and encroached streets Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/our-mean-and-encroached-streets-cmd4poze6002t10bb1ao42ptr/ An absolutely business-as-usual Indian habit is to leave cars, trucks and buses parked on streets or on footpaths on a near daily basis. It takes away space that is meant for walking or cycling safely. It’s entirely the fault of a citizenry that has no conscience or sense of boundaries for private and public spaces. They don’t give a hoot about inconveniencing broader society for their personal convienience. The apologists for this practice argue that it’s our privileged position in having spaces for parking our vehicles that allow folks like me to mouth off. Sure, that’s true. But doesn’t that make it OK to eat into public spaces to park private vehicles. After all, roads are meant for use by all. Case in point, the picture chronicles the most ill-kept and pathetically maintained apartments in our neighbourhood. And it’s not for a lack of space or resources. People have chosen to live this way. They have several thousand square feet of poorly maintained backyards. Instead they park vehicles out in the open. And broader society suffers for this. We are destined to remain third world or worse if we have no boundaries for how we behave or use public spaces. Either it has to mandated you need to own a parking space to buy or operate a vehicle. Or the government creates spaces to park at a nominal fee. Either ways, street parking is a practice that will forever make our cities mediocre and unliveable.**​** --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## If you’re looking for a neat label to guide you, it’s too late Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/if-youre-looking-for-a-neat-label-to-guide-you-its-too-late-cmd4pnkmt002s10bb3cj7j60j/ You should not be depending on the government advisory or labels on food packaging to get your education or make better decisions about whether or not to eat something. The governement needs to ensure the food is safe to eat. As an adult, you need to be driven by your desire for better health, physical capacity and preparedness and a hint of vanity. If you needed a label to tell you something is not good for you, it’s a little late in the decision making game. The education and habits you need to be an effective eater for health and wellness outcomes are most effectively inculcated when you are young. Children watch you everyday and they learn. They learn how to eat, how to move, how to talk and what constitutes normal behaviour, attitudes, expectations and habits. By the age of 18, the average child has had 20000 meals (closer to 35000 if they eat like they do while they holiday) with their family, friends and/or loved ones. These were opportunities to show kids how to pick foods, practice portion control, display impulse control, be open to cultures and be tolerant of others food habits. I’d argue the dining table is a terrific learning forum. And it is learning by osmosis. Not just exposition. And that makes it so much more powerful. You could normalise how healthy, hygienic food is prepared. Why fried food or greasy snacks is not the norm but the exception. Why it is OK to serve yourself just what you need and nothing more. Why paying for food is not a license to overeat. Why food as an experience is not about volume or value but about savouring every bite. Why walking away after a bite is sometimes enough. Why walking away from something everyone considers a normal indulgence is necessary. Why eating habits need to evolve past culture, history and identity. Why asking for the smallest serving is fine. Why carving out 10 minutes to prepare your own meal, regardless of how simple, is more empowering than waiting 10 minutes after pushing a button. All this happens through action. We don’t realise how often. It’s a daily case of show don’t tell. And the evidence suggests we are showing them some counterproductive ideas and inculcating habits that are hard to undo. The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken (Samuel Johnson via Warren Buffett). Let us show kids that eating habits are not chains that tether but rather springboards to a better existence. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## An evolving gym Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/an-evolving-gym-cmd4pi6pq002r10bb6vgg7egn/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/56c2f417-a252-4b77-8d9b-3b0a1a3b6f81-1752594681698-compressed.jpeg) Our gym is a constantly evolving space. Every 2-3 years, it looks entirely different. Not in a cosmetic sense. Maybe that too. Like having to shut our south side to shield the inhabitants in the crumbling, ill-kept building next door from being woken up at 5:30 am. But the mix of toys reflects our coaching tools, skill set and exercise-selection toolkit. Here’s a pic a client pinged me from 2016. Yup, she’s still training with us. Retention is my way of keeping our marketing spend next to zero. But there’s barbells, a squat rig, sleds, trapbars, dip stands, rings and kettlebells. And that’s pretty much it. And it was still a very fun place to train. People got very strong. And they loved to show up. Today we’ve got 8 times as many tools. It’s not to impress. But it’s to simply improve the odds of making any person, regardless of constraints, much stronger. We have way more 60-somethings, kids, folks with arthritis and weight-hungry 20-something’s lifting at our gym. And we can cater to all of them with our toolkit better than i could 5-8 years ago. And i am certain we will add/remove and evolve more in the next ten. They key has always been to ask what’s the most comfortable way for this client to move and progress. And never to constrain the client by asking how can i get this client to move best with this one tool I have and love. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## TRAP BAR : NEUTRAL GRIP FOR THE WIN Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/trap-bar-neutral-grip-for-the-win-cmd4erkyq001j10bbi8qygtsv/ Barbells are the most versatile of training tools. Almost any specialist bar will do less than what a barbell does. But specialist bars have a few pros that make them better suited to perform a move than the barbell. We take a look at the trapbar. The trapbar is a specialist bar built for deadlifting. It can be used to row, split squat, lunge, farmers carry and press (if you like to live dangerously). A barbell can be held either with palms facing away from you, towards you or something in the middle (mixed grip). The trap bar allows for a neutral grip. This means the palms face each other. This is a friendlier position for the upper back and shoulders. On the deadlift, squeezing your upper back is important to maintain tension all the way down to your lower back during the lift. The barbell deadlift setup might be one of the hardest things to learn and coach. For a barbell deadlift, your back needs to be closer to parallel to floor than upright with little knee bend. This is a challenging position to get into. The trapbar reduces this entry barrier significantly. With a trap bar you can adjust how horizontal or vertical the back is. You can also use varying degrees of knee bend which will change how involved the quadriceps are in the lift. This is advantageous for a newbie looking to learn to pick a weight off the floor. Barbell purists argue rightly that the trapbar would involve the quadriceps more than a barbell would. This is a true. The trapbar makes it easier to be upright and bend your knees to pick up the weight. But you can also perform a trapbar deadlift with a hip dominant hinge position. Between the neutral grip, the weight being in line with your mid-foot and being able to bend your knees more, the trapbar deadlift is quite distinct from a barbell deadlift. Athletes can use either or both in their programs. The trapbar allows for a more vertical line of travel. As far as science goes, both moves are terrific at improving strength and power in the lower limbs. For a newbie with no interest in competitions and whose only priority is stronger legs, is the trapbar deadlift with its easier setup and malleable start position that much of a problem ? We think not. There are three types of trapbars a regular closed trapbar. an open back trapbar and a vertically loaded trapbar (open back or not). You can use an open back trap bar to lunge and split squat more comfortably. Trapbars can come with high handles which lets you pull from a higher than standard (9 inch) position (rack pull). ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/b64-1752576502667-compressed.jpeg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Our all new 2025 trapbar Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/our-all-new-2025-trapbar-cmd4ensfm001i10bbf0rq1auy/ Trapbars were among the first things i made in 2015. Right after pull up bars. We made follow ups in 2016, 2018 and 2019. But all those models were insanely heavy. So after six long years, we upgraded our design. If you don’t know what a trapbar is, read up here: https://www.move101.net/trap-bar-neutral-grip-for-the-win-cmd4erkyq001j10bbi8qygtsv/ While i am proud of the 2015 effort, there were flaws: 1\. The use of standard schedule 40 pipes meant the bar had 48 mm sleeves. The plates would not fit snug on the bar. This results in plenty of slop. This was evident when you dead lifted. 2\. Standard collars are built for 50 mm bars. So we needed to get axle collars. I did not pick those up. So collars would slide off. 3\. Handles were too wide. A younger, less experienced Adarsh put the handles 24.5 inches apart. This was too wide. We remedied this. 4\. Closed design does not allow for lunges or farmers marches. You can go for farmers walks. But the footprint is insanely big. 5\. The dome end of the old trapbars were ugly as hell. We used ready made flimsy spheres available in the market and welded them atop the pipe. It bothered when I first got it. And it bothers me every time i look at it. I have never wanted to fix anything more. Ten years later, I’ve fixed it. 6\. The 2016, 2018 and 2019 designs were great. But they were insanely heavy. And they required far too much welding. That introduces mild imperfections. These do not affect the functionality but they do affect the ease of use. All the things we fixed: 1\. Optimal width between handles 2\. Tighter tolerance sleeves 3\. Smaller footprint 4\. Open back design with balanced feet. Better for farmers carry’s, split squats, lunges and single leg RDL’s 5\. Fewer welds translates to a stronger design 6\. Personal win: I got to use pipe bending to make a trap bar. Our first gadget to use this was a boomerang pull up bar. This is the second. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Our new trapbar in action Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-15 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/our-new-trapbar-in-action-cmd4egvu0001h10bbbqskjerv/ Much like my daughter, if a new gadget enters the gym, I compulsively play with it. My programming be damned :D So here’s me culminating a quick deadlift session a second effort of 200 kg lift for a single rep. The trapbar held up beautifully. The 30 mm grip was great. The knurl is a medium knurl. So no pinching or marks left. It’s the best feeling when a gadget works as you built it to. Notice how easy it was to flip that bar on its feet to remove the plates. That jack function does really make it easier to load and unload the bar. It’s outcomes like this that make our entirely in-house effort to design, build and test our own equipment. And of course how it looks. Form and function can both win. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Throwback Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-07 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/throwback-cmct9w1ks003irf14n7spgawb/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1865-1751903158139-compressed.jpeg) LinkedIn reminded me that it’s been 11 years to the date that the first pairs of 4,6, 8,12, 16, 20 and 24 kg kettlebells landed in my room in my parents house. And that’s where and what we started with. That’s where the gym lived for four months till I convinced enough people to pay me to coach. That money was used to build the structure for the gym. As is tradition, mom and dad chipped in too. Big thanks to my building owner for allowing me to build the structure in lieu of an advance. It was tight. I remember funneling money straight from clients into buying paint for the structure. And i owe a large debt to those early clients who really kept the faith and bought into what was in 2014 a fairly new concept. Thank you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The framing and sense of accomplishment in a gym can vary from person to person. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-07 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-framing-and-sense-of-accomplishment-in-a-gym-can-vary-from-person-to-person-cmct9slkm003hrf14gqprtbqc/ If you turn it into a sport, bodybuilding competitions, lifting events and PR’s can feel like a notable accomplishment. Rightfully so. It takes a lot to participate with competence at a powerlifting, bodybuilding or strongman event. Winning or finishing a Hyrox and CrossFit routine takes a great deal of preparation and consistency. If you are a recreational lifter who used compound lifts, some messy amalgam of body composition, gradually improving lifts and the capacity to dabble with messy movement can feel like enough progress, accomplishment and motivation to keep things going. At the 11 year mark of running my space (13 years coaching), the common thread I see among clients who sustain a training habit: \*Be humble. Not just words. But operating at my level, there will always be someone for whom my workout is a warmup. There is always someone stronger, faster and more skilled than me. And being able to train like me can be a reasonable goal for others. \*You can’t do everything well all at once. Nutriton, sleep, stress management, conditioning, mobility, strength, working towards an event (marathon, Hyrox etc) and juggling all this with family and work can be insanely hard. Being pragmatic that something’s will take a backseat while a few goals take priority is a reasonable mindset. \*The goalpost keeps moving. I remember the glee i felt when i got 30 dips with full range in one continuous effort. And then the weighted dips with 32 kgs moved nicely. More glee. And then I tried a one arm push up and fell flat. My goal post moved. I now have one arm push ups. But the 32 kg dips are not easy. You can always have something to work towards at the gym. It could be a skill or a quantitative target. Does not matter. \*Don’t make any move sacrosanct. I am not a natural or skilled athlete. Whatever little I have to show for my training is a function of consistency, careful monitoring and execution while being self-aware of my limitations and capacity. I know I could not have not have maintained a consistent training habit if I decided to go down the powerlifting or bodybuilding road. It just does not motivate me or drive me enough. So I do what i must to be strong, stable, well-conditioned without my ego getting in the way of my choices by asking me: ‘How is that guy able to do that?’ Or ‘Why is it so much much simpler for that person?’ \*Movement for the sake of being able to move. One of the more important switches in my head was to enjoy the capacity without getting worked up about progressive overload or poundage being lifted. I like how my pull ups look and how I can do them. I like how my single leg squats look and how stable I am when I can do it. My tolerance for hard positions is a point of pride. There are big wins to be had if you ignore the conventional noise of the why we go to gyms. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Variety is the spice of life Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-06 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/variety-is-the-spice-of-life-cmcrrbmw9000xrf14h7uyv7px/ We get a variety of clients in the gym. Age and athletic backgrounds vary vastly. They come with mobility constraints and carry the baggage of past injuries. To facilitate this, we have a variety of tools to do chin ups on. We can vary the grip (prone, neutral, supine and everything in between and deviated grips), height ( 76 inches through 96 inches from the floor), thickness of the bar (27 mm, 30 mm, 32 mm, 35 mm, 38 mm, 50 mm). Each variation gets the bicep, lats, traps etc. involved to differing degrees. An effective vertical pull involves the scapula retracting or protracting, depressing or elevating and rotating. All of this happens simultaneously. And based on your strength, grip, shoulder health and implement in use, how the scapula behaves changes. In the video below, you can watch these tools in action to perform the following moves: Straight bar pull ups Straight bar chin ups Spider chin ups Spider pull ups Neutral grip pull ups Ring pull ups Nunchuck grip pull ups And you will notice all the different ways in which the shoulders are positioned at the start of the repetition. And how the scapula and elbows move in different ways and to varying degrees. The harder variations include the straight bar pull up and spider pull ups. These don’t allow your biceps to bend as much as in the other variants. And getting the scapula to rotate is more challenging for most people. These variants require you to do that. Variants such as straight bar chin ups get the biceps involved to a greater degree. They also allow for easier retraction and depression of the scapula. Spider chin ups and neutral grip fall between the straight bar chin ups and straight/spider pull ups. Rings or similar implements allow for a great deal of rotation. This is a double edged sword. Stabilising the rings comes easier to some. Some tend to clench too hard and rely on their arms. Every tool has its pros and cons. The key is to play with many options, mix and match and gain a greater degree of control with a variety of tools for a healthier and stronger upper back & arms. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Second rate citizens Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-06 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/second-rate-citizens-cmcrr73ts000wrf14095c087w/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1847-1751811300241-compressed.jpeg) There are two tiers of citizens in this country: The first tier is politicians , party people, judges, civil ‘servants’, government employees and the really rich entertainment industry chaps, business people etc. Then there’s everyone else There’s nothing more moral, ethical or incorruptible about the second tier of folks. If you gave me Shah’s clout and/or Ambani’s bank balance, i am sure I would be vicious, self-negating, fat goon who insists everyone think and speak like him too while building really ugly buildings. I’ve always understood that the rule book be it laws or constitution or code of conduct is more flexible guidelines rather than any rigid play book to run a country and control or constrain it’s citizens . Depending on who you are, things can be manipulated or massaged to suit one’s convenience or requirement. Trying to acquire this clout is a favourite Indian past time. Having an uncle, aunt, friend, neighbour, knowing someone who knows someone or just having a certain phone number can give you the clout to be able to run over foxes and snakes on the way to having a drink with your buddies in your mansion in the middle of a protected forest. I guess the opposite of that is not having a mansion in the middle of a forest reserve to drive to. The indignity that most tier-2 Indians will know is being stuck at a check post for hours as you snake your way to some silly guest house in a town on the outskirts of a forest with bad food and terrible bed linen. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## PORTFOLIO THEORY OF EATING Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/portfolio-theory-of-eating-cmcnjt3v2003m149y4nb1qanw/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0240-1751557010010-compressed.jpeg) The only thing most of us love more than food is to make more money. Here is how you can get better returns from what you put on your plate. Carbohydrates are the liquid cash holding portion of your portfolio. You want as little/much of your local currency as you need to get you through a day or two. It is unproductive to hold too much unless there’s a special occasion such a marathon or a home renovation. Processed carbs such as rice, wheat, oats or any other grains are like liquid cash. It gets the energy job done ASAP. With these foods, get the dose you need to get the job done and no more. It could help to include some esoteric currency like the Singapore$ in there. A well managed currency like the Singapore$ is like fiber. Having some of it helps you sleep well at night and wake up without constipation. Too much and you can’t sleep from all the flatulence of not knowing where to put it. Veggies, chole, rajma and dal are the Singapore$ in your daily eating. Fats are akin to equity in your portfolio. A little can go a long way. But too much and it’s risky business. The wrong kind, like trans-fat or too much saturated fat, can yield terrible blood work and compromise heart health. This is a risky group with low odds of it working in your favour. Even the supposed good kind, like that from olives, avocados, coconuts and nuts, can be counterproductive in large amounts. Think safe bets not working in your favour when the price you paid is silly. Being measured with your exposure and picking high quality fats such as algal oil or fish oil is the way to go. You need to be very picky, think long-term and keep an eye on your heart and blood work. Protein rich-foods are like rare metals. It always has value. But it is expensive and the value isn’t apparent in the short term. Eat as much of it as you can. People will tell you that you’re eating too much. But you could also always argue that your ancestors loved the stuff too. Buff and rich people tend to wear more gold and eat more protein. But you can tell when it’s far too much and not practical to eat that much in the long haul. Protein supplements are like jewellery. Use as little as you need to get the job done. It is overpriced compared to the rare metals they are made from. It helps to use it only if you need it and can’t get the job done with gold bars or whole foods. Vitamin and mineral supplements are like insurance schemes. It is better to have one and not need it than need one and not have paid for it regularly. It helps to pick a high quality one given how few thoughtfully constructed multivitamins and insurance schemes exist. Water is like real estate, fixed deposits and your saving account balance. You need it. Water isn’t unlike banks that can go bust and homes can be affected by developments in the immediate environment. But you need to make an effort to get enough and ensure what you have is as safe as possible. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Sport is not fitness Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/sport-is-not-fitness-cmcnjri47003l149y6jxx1ztj/ Sport is the least optimal tools to get healthy. It doesn't matter what sport: Powerlifting, tennis, cricket, swimming, running, olympic lifting, strongman, badminton, skiing. Doesn't matter. Sports means repeating the same patterns. It might be fun. It might be unpredictable. It might require a lot of skill. All that is great. But a sport by definition needs repetition and lots of it to get better. Phelps, Jordan, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal all spend 6-10 hours a day getting better at their sport. But only a portion of the time was spent on the sport. A good chunk is spent preparing. Lifting weights, mobility work, sports massages, steady state training, sprints, plyometrics etc. The best part of playing any sport is how it forces your brain to ‘talk’ to your body to produce action or a reaction. It is not an exaggeration to say this body-brain ‘conversation’ is something your body and brain has evolved over millions of years to do. Improvements in coordination and reflex are among the biggest wins in the first few months of playing a sport or training. A large part of getting stronger in the early days of consistent training is your brain learning to work with the muscle your body is already carrying. Playing any sport requires you to tread the fine line between overuse and optimal volume, honing technique and doing the prep necessary to perform better at a sport. It is easy to forget that playing only a sport for the cause of fitness or wellness runs the risk of overuse. No amount of training can negate the sporting phenomenon known as shit happens. The most well honed athletes tear ligaments, strain tendons, break bones not because of a lack of prep, training or skill. If you spend enough time on a court or on a field, you are bound to increase the odds of hurting yourself. Be mindful with technique, volume and preparation. Then have some fun. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Menus and offerings gone wild Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/menus-and-offerings-gone-wild-cmcnjqrug003k149yhhrkif4w/ Zumba, CrossFit, S&C, kickboxing, spinning, rowing, dancing, yoga, stretching, animal flow, pilates, calisthenics. The list is endless. The only industry that puts mine to shame is the hospitality industry. But at least there, clients have the good sense to know what not to order and what items on the menu might be too much of an adventure. You know the pizza in Anand Bhavan is unlikely to turn out well. Nor is a filter coffee in Starbucks likely to be value for time or money spent. THE PROBLEM There is too much on offer. While this strategy works to keep people entertained and sweating, does it produce  the long term outcomes we need? (Healthy joints, strong muscles, robust heart health, ability to move fluidly without hurting oneself). There is also a lack of conviction on display here. Instead of using the best cheese, flour, starter, water, oil, tomatoes, basil and garlic to whip up a great pizza. My industry says I’ll give you onion sauce on bread with melted cheddar and esoteric over-cooked vegetables on it. But I’ll also give you 30 other options, in case you don’t like the ‘pizza’ on offer. TAKEAWAY Find a gym that doubles down on getting one thing right. I bias to strength and conditioning since it has the most versatile toolkit (machines, free weights, leverages, different contractions). The ‘what you do is what you adapt to’ is as straightforward as it gets when it comes to cause and effect. Regardless of what you do, stick to a quality setup that focuses on depth and competence of service and also don’t drink the filter coffee at Starbucks. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## kick the can down the road Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/kick-the-can-down-the-road-cmcnjo137003j149ygk40fehv/ put off confronting a difficult issue or making an important decision, typically on a continuing basis. Why is it so hard to make new habits stick ? Even a behavioural ‘scientist’ friend struggles to eat better and exercise regularly despite having a pithy and witty word to describe every trick in McDonald’s/Kellogs/Kraft/Hersheys food scientist playbook. My theory: She doesn’t think quality of life is compromised due to a high BMI and creaky joints at the age of 32. Huffing and puffing up the stairs is just how we age. My second theory: She’s thinking there’s always tomorrow. Kicking the can down the road is the simplest explanation for why people just don’t get cracking today or tomorrow. they know what needs to be done. The exercise plan is ready to go. The protein shake is stocked. But not a muscle contracts nor any portion controlled. What we do everyday is driven by personal priorities, joys, insecurity, shame and/or fear. There will be no bias for action or self-improvement if there is no objective sense of a better you or being a person who makes more rational, sensible decisions everyday when it comes to your health and wellness. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1928-1752327662905-compressed.gif) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Celebrity deaths Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/celebrity-deaths-cmcnjhedy003i149ys4uam5z1/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0238-1751556467864-compressed.jpeg) What really ticked me off about the recent brouhaha over a celebrity death was how quickly people blamed the actress’ fitness endeavours for her death. They didn’t wait for a post-mortem or analysis of cause of death. Their caveman thinking went: lady thin - lady thin because she ‘gyms’ - lady died - lady died because must be working out too much. I am going to say something controversial. As someone whose entertainment and media diet includes watching lots of celeb training videos, celebs do a lot of rubbish in the form of exercise and nutrition. They look great and jacked. Sure. There is no arguing with how they look on screen or camera. But the methods and process are often incredibly iffy and random. And I am not going into the use of performance enhancements and other wild substance use. And to argue that they look thin because they go to the gym is just ignorant. They’re thin because eat very little. And even when they look good, you have no clue what their strength levels are, what their conditioning levels are, how dense their bones are or how much body fat and muscle they are carrying. To draw a parallel, imagine you watch Byjus living in a Dubai penthouse. Riding around in a Ferrari or Maserati. And eating steak at that Turkish nutjobs steakhouse. The one who sprinkles the salt strangely. And you think a man who lives like this must be a great businessman. Or you listen to a podcast about excellence in entrepreneurship or being a good human being and you think this person must be making durable and high quality shaving products. To judge a celebs fitness or conditioning levels by their appearance is akin to judging a businessmans prowess by his lifestyle or PR. Case in point, a famous South Indian actress (let’s call her J) who relocated to Bombay posts her training videos. It is pure mayhem and chaos. You may think wow, she is so athletic and looks good. One could make a case for look at her moving so much. But that is not what carefully planned and executed exercise selection, quality execution and training with intent looks like. Am I being a puritan? Not really. All I am asking for is some method. Let it be a quality body building program, some carefully executed cardio or conditioning or a powerlifting program. Or even a CrossFit WOD (with all its bonkers volume and weird kipping) executed well. But it won’t be that. The execution is terrible. There are random tyre flips, dumbbells flopping around with no sense of personal capacity, lots of battling ropes being flung about and lots of partial range of motion. All of this is to say your celebs are not as strong or well conditioned as you think they are. Some of them are. A lot of them train intensely for projects and drop the training habit like a hot potato for months before embarking again for a certain look. This isn’t a lifestyle to aspire to for you. And you definitely don’t have enough information to blame their training habit or choices for their demise. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Thought experiment Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/thought-experiment-cmcnjcq0p003b149yxc9j5noy/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/mi-131-1751556625257-compressed.jpg) Imagine there's a pull up bar on every road in every town across the country. Kids grow up doing pull ups. Adults randomly do pull ups. Adults spend weekends hanging out with friends doing pull ups in pull up clubs. We become a nation that does pull ups. Suddenly we begin to compete at pull ups. We do different kinds of pull ups. People clock in crazy numbers on pull ups. People do one arm pull ups. We begin to appreciate elegant pull ups. We call some pull ups sloppy looking. We call some pull ups as not real pull ups. Some crazy b\*\*tards put on a bag and do pull ups. We have stadiums filled with people watching people doing pull ups. Commentators go nuts likening good pull ups with sharks leaping out of the water. Or bad pull ups as a fish out of water. There is arbitrary line between sport and fitness. The same people who argue that about the aesthetics of a forehand or cover drive will call pull ups boring or unnecessary. That makes no sense to me. The lines we draw in the sand about movement, exercise and sport are mostly arbitrary. You can turn anything into a sport and learn to admire it, sustain it and build a community around it. Or you can do it alone. Hyrox, Goruck, CrossFit and emerging obstacle races are proving this. Powerlifting and weightlifting are already fairly popular and growing quickly. The beauty of strength sports. Very few entry barriers. And learning to do it right is much simpler than most other sports. Takeaway Just do pull ups --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## May the force be exerted by you Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/may-the-force-be-exerted-by-you-cmcnjc8ay003a149yujz6chbr/ --- All efforts to maintain muscle, bone density, tendon health come down to a key measure : the amount of force you can apply. What we think of as weakness, fragility or frailty is the inability to produce enough force when you need it. The force could be proactively or reactively exerted. But the capacity to produce it exists in our muscles. And the capacity is one that is lost without practice. And it can be honed with frequent use. Takeaway For any exercise to produce a useful adaptation, the effort will require you to produce some force. A muscle trying to produce force against resistance to get work done is the minimum requirement for rehab, gaining strength, packing on muscle or just giving the muscle a reason to exist. You can stretch, you can wave your limbs around, you can hang off towels, but muscles live to produce force. And to live long and prosper, you need to keep making the muscles produce force. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Say no to things Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/say-no-to-things-cmcnjaurn0039149y95jmu4vj/ --- What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack? Saying no. Techniques and hacks are all about managing what happens when you say yes to too many things. All the techniques and hacks in the world never add up to the power of no. Having fewer things to do is the best way to get things done. I’m very careful with my time and attention—it’s my most precious resource. If you don’t have that, you can’t do what you want to do.  Jason Fried  Once you decide to go down the rabbit hole of exercise and eating, there’s no end to the things you can do and approaches you can take.  1\. Include enough protein  2\. Bump up your veggie intake  3\. Strength train 4\. Get enough cardio 5\. Drink enough water  6\. Improve sleep hygiene 7\. Manage time better  8\. Isometrics, eccentric, concentric 9\. Training intensity ?  10\. Bump up NEAT  11\. How much cardio  12\. Balance everything with sport?  The list is endless. Implementing every idea is impossible. Trying to do it all at once sets you up to fail.  Pick two or three habits and adopt them with a vengeance. Even on the exercise front, variety is your enemy initially. Aim to master a few exercises and spend 80% of your gym time on 5-6 exercises. Bump up your protein intake. Every 5-8 weeks, once habits are set, add another habit or change. Aim to make it stick every single day.  Takeaway  For every habit you try to embrace, there will be five equally impactful habits waiting in queue. Fight the temptation to do too much. Pick a few and make them stick. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Make in India, not mimic in India Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/make-in-india-not-mimic-in-india-cmcnj9ng80038149yiykp1enx/ Ratios and proportions ---------------------- ![Screenshot 2024-10-16 at 3.04.39 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202024-10-16percent20atpercent203-1751556090239-compressed.png) Here’s a simple reason for an Indian/sub-continent brand to exist in the exercise space. Not just a brand that mindlessly imports equipment. But actually designs and make things that are meant for the audience they cater to.  Dip bars in India are far too wide. Hack squats don’t allow people below five feet five inches in height to setup comfortably or go low enough on the squat. Leg presses need to stacked with mats under the back for enough depth. Benches are far too wide for narrower shoulders. The list goes on.  There is a percentage of the population for whom standard equipment works just fine.  But for a majority of the population, a few tweaks could make things much more comfortable!  Here’s a small example. Standard dip stands start at 19-20 inches and taper out to 26 inches.  19-20 inches of width is what the average Indian man needs.  Most Indian women would do well with 16-17 inch wide dip bars.  So that’s how we make them. Width starts at 15 inches and slides to 22 inches.  Takeaway  Make in India does not have to be mimic in India. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Mindful movement Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/mindful-movement-cmcnj99ue0037149yl4kdpoka/ --- Natural movement versus movement designed with a very specific outcome in mind  There’s an entire cottage industry dedicated to teaching humans to move as intended or they were built to move.  But this begs the question: Is there an optimal way to move? What is the opposite of natural movement ? Is it contrived movement ? Or is it no movement at all?    What is movement might be the mother of open ended questions that can go in many directions.  So instead let’s stick with why move?  The simplest answer would be to get things done.  What needs to get done? For a good chunk of our history, we moved for food, shelter, mating, finding a mate, protecting food and shelter, find and killing/harvesting food and not dying were the main motivators.  The environment required us to move to survive. And safe to assume it was random movement. Bending, rolling, climbing, throwing, walking, running and carrying would have been among the things we did.  We did not live for very long. But we moved a whole lot for basic necessities as long as we were around. Symmetry, optimal body composition, longevity or muscle mass were not why we moved.  Now that we don’t have to move as much for those things, what does our environment demand of us? Takeaway  Movement is whatever our environment and our definition of surviving and thriving needs it to be.  In that sense, there really isn’t a category called natural movement. There is just movement you are capable of performing. And movement your environment forces you to engage in.  Our environment now demands our joints last for many more decades than our ancestors.  Our ancestors had an environment that demanded mobile and strong joints that could help them survive. And what they did to survive gave them mobile and strong joints.  Our modern environment provides no such stimulus. Yet we need mobile and strong joints to live what we think of as a quality existence.  So we have to simulate an environment that forces us to use our joints and muscles to move.  Have we removed all the random movement that we would perform as we reacted to a dynamic environment full of predators and competition?  Sure. We do make rather safe, controlled and sanitised choices when it comes to exercise and training. We reduce risk and randomness. Often to a counterproductive degree for our mental and physical well being.  But that’s only when we overly narrow down our toolbox and choice of exercises.  Training is best thought of as a substitute for all the movement our environment would ideally have us do. But does not.  You throw, jump, carry, squat, push, pull, drop and roll in awe of all your ancestors did to survive, but you now do for fun and to thrive. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The fallacy of the educated consumer Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-fallacy-of-the-educated-consumer-cmcnj8hw40036149yd54hj0jr/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0252-1752575188664-compressed.jpeg) _ It is not the information that makes the difference, but better use of information through better judgment. We are not all equally gifted or talented. This will still be true in the information society. _ _ Lee Kuan Yew _ Does being presented with calorie information affect the decisions you take ?  I had dinner at Little Italy. We ordered a pizza with 1500 calories and a pasta with around 2000 calories.  With growing awareness of nutrition labels, calorie counts and the need for altering our ‘lifestyle’, does being presented with this information make a difference in how you take a call.  Here’s how you use the information to make better decisions: \* A 1500 calorie pizza with 8 slices is roughly 200 calories a slice. Stop at 2 slices. A couple of spoons from a 1600 calorie pasta is 250-300 calories. Between those two portions, you have consumed between a fourth or a third of your daily calorie requirement.  \* Armed with the information, that you are going to have an indulgent meal loaded with fat and carbohydrates, you eat a little more vegetable and protein in the meals prior to or following the eat out.  \* You order less. You pick restaurants that emphasis more protein or provide smaller portions.  Here’s what is weighing against you: \* By the age of 21, you have made at least 30,000 decisions about what you eat and how much under the supervision of ‘adults’. There is a high chance none of those adults educated you on impulse control or portion control.  \* Food has been used to celebrate, reward and bond. Any restraint is perceived as being a buzzkill.  \* We are generically schooled about junk food. The problem is even nuts, eggs, meat, dairy and grain can be unhealthy in the wrong amount and prepped without thought.  \* Dicey numbers: Little Italy lists a mashed potato serving of 400 grams at 350 calories. This is very very improbable. The number is a lot closer to [800-1000](tel:800-1000) calories. While you don’t need precise numbers when you eat out, the numbers need to be vaguely right for them to be useful. Takeaway It all comes down to do you care? Information matters only if you are motivated enough to use it to make better choices. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Results matter Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/results-matter-cmcnj7izn0035149ymnarofjc/ --- We loathe to advertise results. Don't get me wrong. Results matter A LOT. But here’s how we define what it is NOT:  \* Kgs/pounds lost \* Before and after photos \* Inches lost or gained \* Improved strength as measured by force output, jumping, PR’s etc. All those metrics are measures of certain habits, processes, lifestyle changes that a client has managed to sustain. But here’s how I define success. Success, for me, is when a client understands that: \* Training needs to be sustained for years if not decades. Training will result in you packing on usable muscle across your entire body. It should yield strength that you can use and makes you robust.  \* You need to treat food like money. Monitor your intake, know how much you’re consuming, ensure you’re getting enough of the right foods: protein, vegetables, essential fatty acids. Have fun in moderation with as little to keep you satisfied. \* Sleep matters. You need to fight to get quality sleep. Set up the right environment. Create the right conditions. And ward off all the things vying for your attention at the cost of sleep.  \* Same goes for peace of mind. Some call it stress management, time management or work/life balance. I just call it peace of mind. The ability to not let the noise from life/work crowd your head and rob you of the time and energy for sleep, training and making better food choices. \*Fat loss and weight loss isn’t the same thing. We need you to pack on or maintain muscles as the inches come off and/or weight drops. Conversely, when you put on weight, muscle and bone are more desirable than fat.  You will notice those four 'results' do not lend themselves to easy marketing, photos or pithy posts. There is no fear mongering about random foods, ingredients or chemicals. There is no magic gut bacteria to sell. No chocolate bars posing as protein.  What I sell is the promise that we will be there every single day when you show up to train and ensure you are doing the most useful things. When someone tries selling you a too-good-to-be-true nutrition fix, we will be there by your side and call out the bullshit. As time goes by, you will be able to do that yourself too. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What a DEXA scan shows you Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/what-a-dexa-scan-shows-you-cmcnj6od40034149yd35idrdb/ --- Results matter. All the content you consume, all the activity you take on, the protein shakes, gym fees, equipment purchases and nutrition habits you foster need to yield and maintain results. One of the simplest ways to measure outcomes in your body composition.  WHAT A DEXA SCAN SHOWS YOU The DEXA scan result below shows you what percentage of total body weight is accounted for by fat, lean mass (muscles, ligaments etc) and bone mass.  HOW TO USE THE INFO Here is the most desirable scenario for better longevity, quality of life and joint health: ↑ Muscle mass ↑ Bone density ↓ Body fat WHAT IS THE SIMPLEST WAY TO ACHIEVE THE ABOVE SCENARIO ↑ Muscle mass #1  All the joints and muscles in your body need to move with tension and load through as much distance as the joint can move safely and effectively.  #2 Enough protein and energy  #3 Avoid carrying deadweight (body fat) or take stupid risks ↑ Bone density #1 Move a lot and give the bones a good dose of compressive loading #2 Calcium, Vitamin D and enough energy. Sunlight between 10 am and 3 PM India.  #3 Avoid breaking or tearing things ↓ Body fat #1 Don’t put on the body fat in the first place. Eating more energy than you need is how you get fat. #2  Carry as much muscle and bone as possible #3 Provide enough protein, fiber, essential fats, vitamins and minerals within your ideal energy intake number TAKEAWAYS \*Nutrition interventions alone will not cut it \*Moving a lot will not save you if you eat too much \*If you are serious about improving quality of life, taking on activity to improve the amount of muscle and bone you are carrying is a necessity \* Adequate sleep and stress free living are a necessity for better body composition --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Lack of movement epidemic Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/lack-of-movement-epidemic-cmcnj5nze0033149yaur7xkm7/ --- 85 per cent of girls and 78 per cent of boys get less than the 1 hour of recommended activity level a day. -WHO We don't move enough. There are more cars, bikes, buses, trains, planes per head than in the past. Life is convenient to the point of being counterproductive.  Our ancestors had to walk more and more of our ancestors were farmers or involved in labour. They barely recouped the energy spent on producing and harvesting the energy they needed to survive.  Only a quarter of humanity is involved in food production now. We are way more efficient at producing food. Most of us get to consume more energy than we spend and sock away plenty for a rainy day.  Safe to say that it is a good thing more of us are doctors, lawyers, engineers, fitness trainers and teachers. Moving forward there will be more of those groups. But moving more alongside moderating energy intake will be crucial to improve quality of life.  Making life more inconvenient is the key.  1\. Walk to shops. Carry your own groceries and supplies back home.  2\. Walk when you’re taking calls 3\. Walk right after a meal  4\. Interrupt sitting every 25-30 mins to walk around a bit and squeeze in a quick stretch or even a few squats if clothing and work culture lets you.  5\. Walk to the gym.  6\. Schedule weekend hikes.  7\. Slip on a backpack with a little weight in it to boost your walk. 8\. Take the stairs as much as possible. 9\. If it’s not too long or polluted a commute, pick a walk or cycle ride.  10\. Whatever tool helps, use it consistently. Watches, trackers etc.  11\. Dedicate 3-4 hours a week on activity to become stronger.  Since there is no turning the clock back to an agrarian, rural or less mechanised economy, we need to figure out how to move more even when it is inconvienient. Activity needs to be akin to brushing our teeth, taking a shower or using the toilet. Things you do everyday with no thought or fuss. A lot of time you just need to ask yourself ‘what’s the easiest way to get this task done?’ And then do something far more inconvenient. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Look in the mirror Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/look-in-the-mirror-cmcnj44150032149yr2d48n9b/ --- What does it tell us about ourselves and our consumer culture when an influencer can surprise you by telling you that foods that you eat every single day such as sauce contains sugar or that there’s this much sodium in some dish.  It tells us that we have zero structure in how we choose our food.  We do not plan our daily eating with any view of long term consequences for our health or quality of life.  It tells us that we are habituated to eating foods that are flavourful at the expense of health.  It tells us that we have never thought about where our foods come from, how it is prepared or what it contains.  It tells us that we flow with the tide of culture, convenience and cost. Health and quality of life be damned.  We let perception and emotions trump actual facts when it comes to making choices as consumers.  We fetishize marketing and foolish cultural claims at the expense of sensible food choices.  And we have never been taught any of this. Takeaway We use lack of education as a shield for terrible lifestyle choices. But buyer beware is a much simpler principle.  We are uncritical and child-like consumers who fall for silly things like packaging and simplistic marketing. We refuse to apply the due diligence we use to buying a house, investing our money, jewellery or clothes to something much more important and profound: our daily meals. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The worth of words Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-worth-of-words-cmcniz6vo0031149yxu63of4s/ I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. ​ George Carlin This applies to us.  Balanced, functional, wholesome, clean, no added sugar, protein rich.  Empty nonsensical words. They can mean anything or nothing.  Food companies, new-age and old, small and large, will find the copy writers, graphic designers and marketing heads to come up with euphemisms to grab your attention.  They use colours, words and massage numbers to their convenience. Words are just tools to mask a truth. Honesty is selective and convenient.  Why so many words ?  It’s two metrics:  You’re probably going to eat a cup of this. A cup, bar, plate, piece or spoon of this has xxx grams of this food. You get this many grams of protein, fiber and energy from that serving.  A cup is 240 milliliters (ml). A spoon is 15 ml.  Second metric:  100 grams of this food provides xx-xxx calories of energy. Xx percent of that is protein. Xx percentage is from carbohydrates. Xx percentage is from fat.  The only perspective that requires literal words and context is ingredients. When companies need to use words, they shut up and make it fine print.  We used ins955. Instead just say we used sucralose to sweeten this. Sucralose comes from a lab. And you probably shouldn’t have it more than twice a week.  Our product uses dates. Dates become glucose in your body. Just like sugar does. So if you prefer this taste, indulge in moderation.  Takeaway  We need to stop celebrating wit and words when it comes food marketing. Wit and words make sense only when there is some effort to inculcate wisdom in the consumer. For now math lessons, not clever wordplay, is the need of hour. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The soul of a gym Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/the-soul-of-a-gym-cmcniywm20030149ygy6l7471/ What do you remember about the gym you work out in ?  -------------------------------------------------------- The equipment?  The coaches?  The workouts?  The amenities?  The community?  How you felt after working out?  Takeaway  I really buy the idea that the gym or coaching is like a quirky bookstore.  You walk in and it’s filled with books you have never heard of but you feel the itch to read. Not your generic airport bookstore populated with generic bestsellers about climate change or leadership. There are plenty of gyms that look like each other and you quickly forget the experience simply because they are all the same.  But a bookstore with truly esoteric books like how Japanese dietary habits changed after world war 2. The owner read the book and has something truly insightful to say about it. And that piques you into wanting to buy the book and read it.  A gym can have a soul. You have a terrific training session, you make friends, the coach is like a familiar bartender who knows when you’ve had too many. And it’s a place that feels distinct, quirky and like no other. And you learn something new most times you visit. There’s always something new on the menu. And you keep wanting to go back for more. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Trust deficit Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/trust-deficit-cmcnixyfy002z149ylooeb8jp/ Why do we let celebs make us believe a product or service is good for us. Tobbacco, shoddily built real-estate and automobiles, terribly crafted educational and fitness offerings, gambling, ponzi schemes, steel products, sugar-laden aerated beverages, ‘functional’ health drinks, booze posing as soda, music records and bravery awards.  Celebrities have an incredibly dicey track record. They will advocate for anyone who will pay them enough. Even when they have very little expertise or competence to vouch for the thing they are being paid to advocate for.  But yet when a celeb tells you something is good for you, your mind automatically thinks this person who can hit a ball really hard or has a really pretty smile must have my best interests in mind when they’re asking me to part with my hard earned money or time.  Why we extrapolate on-screen screen charisma or on-field competence to enlightened consumer advocate baffles me.  Takeaway It should be a red-flag for you when a company or service hires a famous person to vouch for the product or service. Celebrities have done little to earn the privilege to tell you that something is well built, well constructed, thoughtfully made, ethically sourced or suitable for your consumption. They have routinely displayed the quality of being amenable to saying or doing whatever the highest bidder demands. And there is almost no evidence that any of them actually use the products and services they vouch for. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The definition of a win in the fitness industry Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-definition-of-a-win-in-the-fitness-industry-cmcnix7jq002y149ythe5ctgt/ ---  My current client count is just under a third of the total clients I have worked with. More people have walked in, stayed for a bit and left than have stayed. This is reality. But here’s what I like to know from ex-clients when I run into them: Are you still training? Anywhere? In any form? Are you still active? Are you doing more than you did before you worked with me? How about the nutrition thing. If you’re not happy with your body composition, do you have a rough sense of what might be amiss.  This might help soothe my bruised ego a bit. But more importantly, it tells me that i managed to produce an informed client who knows what to do. They might need the right place and person to nudge them into action. But they have a good sense of what works.  And as for the clients who continue to help me pay my bills. I just work as hard as I can to ensure they’re learning and having good time. Because in the game of training and nutrition, winning means just keeping at it with no real end in sight. Except the actual end.  Takeaway  Client dropouts are best seen as experience not baggage. Coaching is a repetitive job. And most coaches have far more failures than successes. Even the best of them. That’s the nature of the game. Effective coaches aren’t jaded by this reality. They just become more effective at reading the client and communicate in a way that improves the odds of making the relationship work. Worst case, put them on to another coach who the client might resonate with. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why some people could benefit from whey or a protein isolate : By the numbers Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/why-some-people-could-benefit-from-whey-or-a-protein-isolate-by-the-numbers-cmcnivu4i002x149y1pz9b09h/ --- ![Screenshot 2024-10-16 at 3.26.15 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202024-10-16percent20atpercent203-1751555442858-compressed.png) There’s a fair bit of skepticism as to why we need protein supplements. Can’t you get enough protein from whole foods? Yes, you could. Especially if you consume animal protein or processed plant protein such as soybean. But here’s the problem: the foods that dominate our daily eating are rice, wheat, grain and fat. Let’s say you are a 70-75 kg human being who requires somewhere between 70 and 100 grams of protein. And you can consume 2000 calories of energy.  Playing a crazy hypothetical, let’s say you can only consume one food a day. If all you eat is 2000 calories of ghee, you get no protein.  If all you eat is 2000 calories of rice, you’ll get less than a third of the protein you need in a day. If all you eat is millets or wheat, you’ll fall 25 percent short of your requirement. Now heading into lentils and tofu, these foods can comfortably take you past the required mark. Even if you account for the sub-optimal absorption. But neither of these food groups can practically cross the 10-15 percent of the daily consumption threshold. 140 grams of tofu every single day can be daunting. And 60 grams of uncooked dal isn’t volume that most people are accustomed to.  With dairy, paneer and cheese, the quality of the protein is high but the quantum is lacking. Even if dairy and cheese account for 20 percent of your total calories for the day, they will provide you with only 20-25 percent of your protein requirement. The sheer impracticality of getting any useful amount of protein from vegetables is self-evident in the numbers. You’ve got to be a cow or a chimp to go through enough fiber rich food to get a reasonable amount protein from vegetables. You can see how including eggs and unconventional foods such as cottage cheese can quickly skew the equation in your favour.  Takeaway The key goal for most of the population is to achieve sufficient protein and fiber intake while not over-eating. Our food selection does not support this goal. When we don’t make a conscious effort to skew our rice, wheat, millet and oil intake towards eggs, cottage cheese, lentils, tofu and leaner dairy, we are unlikely to consume enough protein in our diet. In this scenario, a 20-25 gram serving of whey can make it convenient to reach our target protein intake. It can buy you time to change your food selection habits too. And at lower calorie intake levels (most Indians probably need less than 2000 calories), reaching protein sufficiency is even more challenging with our current food habits. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The things we lose when our environment ceases to support random play Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-things-we-lose-when-our-environment-ceases-to-support-random-play-cmcniv10r002w149yjpo7ja63/ --- By a WHO estimate, 85 per cent of girls and 78 per cent of boys get less than the 1 hour of recommended activity level a day. In our drive to track steps, lift weights, do yoga and play sport, there is one very category of movement that is lost: randomly interacting with our environment to move and just exist.  Calling it a category is an oxymoron. By definition random movement is random. It occurs simply because you are looking at ways to interact with your environment. And the environment facilitates movement not by design but by just being there. Like a monkey swings across branches of trees as part of the monkeys existence. Monkeys don’t swing from tree to tree to get better at it. There is no banana watch for swing tracking.  How much do our current environments, for kids or adults, support random movement. Why are we shocked when kids grow up not really looking forward to moving all the time. With every passing year, every physical object of play that surrounds them is removed till they reach college. And play becomes more structured and organised with every passing year of our existence.  Even gyms make movement self evident for good reason. Presented with a pair of rings off a ceiling or an akward bag for lifting and throwing, we choose to do neither. Movement needs to be sanitised, qualified, studied, quantified and taught to be performed. I am guilty of participating in this sanitisation. As are marathons, badminton courts, cities shorn of hiking paths or play areas.  TAKEAWAY This is not a call for ridding your day of an hour of structured activity. This is a call to think beyond steps for your daily dose of movement (NEAT). Go to your local park. Leave your phone, take your kid with you. Even if you can do pull ups, just hang for a while. Pace around, jump around, move a big rock. And for the love of god, don’t look at how many steps you managed at the end of the random activity you just did. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## With great power comes great responsibility Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility-cmcnis28s002v149ypqnqtwja/ --- Coaches can get away with a lot if a client buys into the process or better yet they personally like and trust you. The coaching process will be riddled with bias be it setting goals, choice of training tools, exercise selection, programming, food and macro splits. Everything from foods that you’d like the clients to try down to tools that you’d like the clients to lift will bias to what has worked for you with your personal training and your clients. There may be exercises, protocols, programming choices and tools you choose not to use simply because you have no clue it exists, do not understand it, do not believe in it or your bias lies elsewhere. And a client will still trust that you are doing the right thing for them. Until someone else comes along and shows them something simpler, better and more effective. This might mean more straightforward tools, clearer communication, more stable joints, less pain, better movement and stronger numbers. Simply put clients will bias to a simpler path to become stronger and be able to stick with training and nutrition choices for greater lengths of time. The onus is on the coach to expand their toolkit of movement, tools, food choices and most importantly communicate why certain training and nutrition choices might make more sense than something that is more tried and tested. It helps to remember that clients trust you to do what is right for them. And not just do what you like for them. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The important of tolerance Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-important-of-tolerance-cmcnir7k1002s149yhvd6rr3r/ --- Your tolerance for boredom during long walks, rest between sets and doing exercises you suck at.  Your tolerance for challenges when you encounter constraints such as mobility or exercises you are just not good at.  Your tolerance for pain when you’re sore, stiff, tired, under-rested, just finished a very hard bout of training or even a very challenging set of exercise.  Your tolerance for being a relative outcast when you just want to crash when everyone else wants to head out for a late dinner.  Your tolerance for not being as uninhibited when everyone is four drinks down and you’re sipping slowly on one. Or none at all.  Your tolerance for a hard training session. The intensity will vary but challenge yourself you must.  Your tolerance for hunger. You have to learn to grapple with eating less and ignoring counterproductive signals.  Your tolerance for missing out on big meals. Thalis, buffets and festive meals become the occasional feasts they were meant to be and not the weekly treats they’ve become.  Your tolerance for being labelled a killjoy when all you are doing is finding satisfaction in things others can’t see the value in. Not yet at least.  Your tolerance to not scratch that immediate itch to find out what happens in the next episode to ensure you wake up fresh and rested to train and go about your daily life.  Takeaway  Your tolerance for doing unfashionable things and not feeling like you’re missing out on doing the counterproductive things people routinely litter their lives with and vaguely label as lifestyle problems. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Overfed and under-muscled Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/overfed-and-under-muscled-cmcnipyu7002r149ycmicbzqw/ --- Losing fat is a laudable goal. But a big part of the problem is being under-muscled. And we need to ram home this message. Too often the obesity problem is framed as bulging waistlines. The antidote is increased activity and reduced energy intake. But this perspective sets people up to have an undiscerning view of activity and eating. Deficits need to play along with sufficient healthy fat and adequate protein intake. Slashing your food intake alone is not enough. The lack of discernment also means to the regular person there is no difference between running and strength training. No difference between a routine that leaves your heart rate amped up all the time and one with a systematic improvement in your strength. It’s all activity. And you need to do what you enjoy. This is akin to telling a child it’s ok if you don’t like numbers, learn to draw instead. An incomplete education is bad education. Takeaway Most of us are carrying too much body fat. But we are also carrying too little muscle, lax tendons and brittle bones. The war against obesity is one that needs us to increase muscle mass and reduce fat mass. And that needs more than just activity and deficits. It needs ample nourishment and learning the skill of strength. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Throw the chips under the bus Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/throw-the-chips-under-the-bus-cmcnihww1002q149yb12ikbu7/ --- We eat too much. At home. At parties. At social gatherings. At office. At office gatherings. In public. On the beach. In a park. While we travel.  Pretty much every opportunity we get to stuff our faces. We take it.  And then we wax eloquent about our relationship with food, stress eating etc without actually doing a single thing to understand how much we need to be eating to be strong and healthy.  As waistlines bulge, sugar levels rise, incidence of lifestyle disorders increases, activity levels plummet, the nation’s preeminent medical body had an opportunity to tell the nation, ‘we are eating too much.’ Instead ICMR decided to throw fried snacks under the bus.  Fried snacks are part of the problem. They are easy to overeat and more calorie-dense than most foods.  But our daily behaviour with relatively less processed foods is just as problematic. There’s tea/coffee with sugar, mounds and multiple courses of rice, rotis, potatoes, ghee/oil-laden dosas/parathas/parotas, cream-laden gravies, sweetened dairy, overcooked vegetables, fruit juices, ice creams, desserts, chocolate, candy bars, sweets and savouries.  We are getting fat by eating too much of all foods. Portion control and awareness of what food contains is the need of the hour.  But then again this isn’t the first time the ICMR is gaslighting the public. So I guess we ought to know better too.  Takeaway  What is lacking is any widespread degree of aspiration for a higher quality of life. Personal responsibility takes a backseat to systemic failures and cultural baggage when it comes to our personal health. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Strength training is not synonymous with going to a gym Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/strength-training-is-not-synonymous-with-going-to-a-gym-cmcnih5xb002p149yo1eohzh8/ --- \*You can strength train on a field, on a tennis court, in a playground, on the beach. Anywhere really. Producing force or resistance just requires you to fight gravity. It isn’t about how you look. It’s about your willingness to produce force and be strong.  \*The gym is not just for bodybuilding. The gym is just a place filled with toys and tools to make it as convenient as possible to produce lots of force or resist against gravity in a controlled way.  \*Bodybuilders might be judged for how they look. Even if you don’t enjoy the vanity aspect of the sport, you should be interested in how their muscles work. If you like money, you don’t need to understand how the central bank or Fiat currencies work. But you do know money buys you power. Muscle can buy you literal power.  \*Strength training has many forms: eccentric training, isometric training, concentric, plyomterics. Each of those modes produces very different changes in your muscle. You can choose your exposure and dosage to each. But all are distinct, necessary and useful. \*Yoga cannot replace strength training. Primarily because yoga might help with flexibility and mobility. But it cannot produce the same outcomes as isometrics, plyometrics and other forms of strength training can. Neither can cycling, running, walking or playing a sport.  \*What you enjoy doing might not necessarily be the most healthy or useful endeavours for your joint and muscle health. Part of being an adult is doing what you need to, rather than doing only what you want to.  \*Strength training is what you logically arrive at when you ask a basic question: what’s the simplest way to gain the most amount of muscle and strength with the least amount amount of time spent to sustain and improve quality of life.  Takeaway  Venues and settings don’t matter. The work you can do is what the game is about. That costs effort not money. And you don’t need to be a member of any club for that. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Buyer beware Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/buyer-beware-cmcnid1oh002n149y2ownwxs3/ --- The dilemma for the Indian consumer. Our food regulator is asleep at the wheel. Tainted protein powder, milk, spices, fruits. You name it and food product has been tainted. It took independent studies or foreign regulators to highlight contaminants in our food supply. And there are several local companies that have been ringing the alarm bells over food quality in India too.  What do we do as consumers? Honest answer. Start building relationships with shops and suppliers. Know who you are buying from and what you are buying. Find someone you trust and deal with them. If this sounds incredibly impractical, I agree.  But our trust in regulators, governments and most food companies is non-existent and deservedly so.  The food industry screws the consumer at every possible level: labelling, advertising, quality, contaminants or just poor supply chain practices.  And the regulator does the token slap on the wrist. This leaves a vaccum for fear mongering influencers and charlatans.  I’d argue the guys pitching us healthy food are false prophets. Routinely these foods have the same calories per bite as more ‘conventional’ options. And the labelling of protein content has zero context and standard.  Sure, these are mild offences compared to the carcinogenic chilli powder or lead-laden protein powder. But the rot runs deep is my point. And we really cannot rely or trust marketing or words anymore.  Takeaway  The context for organic produce not having an edge may hold true in the west where the food supply chain is incentivised to use far more sedate levels of fertiliser or pesticides.  But in India, it really is the Wild West when it comes to agriculture and animal husbandry.  I do hope we as consumers proactively demand more data and actively question what and how much is on our plate. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The efficiency of a food (to give you protein) Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-efficiency-of-a-food-to-give-you-protein-cmcnicgm0002m149yfyunu209/ --- ![1726132703662.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1726132703662-1751554539023-compressed.jpeg) Dal contains protein. As does milk. As does paneer. As does oats.  But how efficient are those foods at giving you protein.  Cars cover distance. How much electricity or petrol do they need to cover that distance determines efficiency.  In foods, a simple measure of protein efficiency is how many calories do you ingest to get 10 grams of protein?  With milk for example, you drink 190 calories of milk to get 10 grams of protein. You get 10 grams from 100 calories of skim milk. You’d consume 115 calories of eggs, to get 10 grams of protein.  You eat roughly 160-180 calories of dal to get the same 10 grams (not factoring for oil etc used to prep the dal).  The simple need for increased awareness of protein consumption in this country is for two reasons: \*Our primary sources of energy that are very inefficient at giving us protein. Rice, millets, wheat, fruit, dal, oil, unprocessed dairy are inefficient sources of protein. More efficient foods such as eggs and paneer are heavy on fat. The most efficient don’t feature often enough or in sufficient quantities to matter.  \*The foods that are rich in protein are either expensive or harder to port into our daily eating. Cottage cheese does not behave as paneer does. Skim milk tastes terrible in coffee. If you’re going to load up on dal and dairy, you’re going to have to cut back on wheat and rice.  Most of us have to consume far too many calories to get our daily dose of protein. Hence most of us don’t get our daily dose of protein. This matters for everything from retaining lean mass, healthier bones, hair, skin, nails and remaining healthy. More so for kids whose growth and body composition for life benefit from higher protein intake.  Takeaway  It’s best to ask yourself how efficient is a food or ingredient at giving you 10 grams of protein. And you would plan and prepare your meal to ensure this number does not stray too far 180-200 calories for 10 grams mark. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## How informed we are is paralysing our ability to participate in any action Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/how-informed-we-are-is-paralysing-our-ability-to-participate-in-any-action-cmcni8je5002l149y30kc6wzj/ A recent study published in The Lancet Global Health identified a concerning trend in India: a significant increase in physical inactivity among adults. The research found that nearly half (49.4%) of the adult population in India do not meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations for physical activity. This figure reflects a substantial rise from just over 22% in 2000. Furthermore, the study highlights a gender disparity, with women (57%) being more likely to be physically inactive compared to men (42%). The report warns that if these trends continue, an estimated 60% of Indian adults could be classified as physically unfit by 2030, potentially leading to increased health risks associated with a change in lifestyle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did the Lancet estimate of inactive Indians surprise you? If it did surprise you, what did you decide to do? Have a conversation about it? But conversations and knowledge that result in no action is pointless There is ample evidence that we overthink our decision to act. We want the right gym, right coach, right experience, right ambience and all our friends in the same place at the same time. This unrealistic desire for fitness to be a social experience replete with all the trappings of a premium consumer experience like a night out, a day in a theme park or a terrific meal ignores one key issue: You need to move every single day. It’s a skill. It turns into an experience you enjoy only if you invest time into the skill. You don’t stop brushing your teeth if you have a different tooth paste. You figure out how to wipe your backside after using the toilet even if your preferred tool of choice is not available. Takeaway Most consumers know enough about what is amiss. Protein, veggies, sleep, lifestyle, toxic urban life, breaks, too much sitting, too much work. The will to act is missing. And we wait for the right ‘purchase’ or ‘product’, ‘experience’ or ‘moment’ to conjure the will to act. It’s not going to happen. Movement needs a little time and attention. You can’t ever have fun doing something you never spend anytime doing. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Pairing sweeteners with appropriate foods Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/pairing-sweeteners-with-appropriate-foods-cmcni7s45002j149yoq64qt4e/ --- Here’s a common issue with non-nutritive sweeteners. They just taste strange. Either it’s the aftertaste or a flavour that clashes with the primary flavour.  I am addressing this simply because the struggle to make non-nutritive sweeteners taste good is real. Here are my preferences and how I use them.  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Erythritol : you’ll probably need to use a little more of this versus sugar since erythritol is a little less potent. You’ll find it in most low-cal ice creams.  Goes well with cold protein shakes. It skews the texture of chocolates. It is usually paired with stevia to sweeten chocolates. It can also be used for overnight oats.  But note that erythritol does cause bloating and discomfort for some people. This is due to water retention as undigested erythritol passes through your lower intestine.  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Monk fruit : comes in drops. You require 2-3 drops for a shake to serve one person.  It pairs best with fruit, coconut milk or coconut water.  I personally don’t like how it pairs with cocoa. But I know some folks don’t mind it.  In my opinion, it does not pair too well with dairy.  Monkfruit usually causes no bloating or discomfort.  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Stevia: this is my least favourite sweetener. The herby after-taste throws me off. It is usually paired with erythritol to cut down the after-taste.  I don’t enjoy chocolates sweetened with the combo or stevia alone. But a few of my clients tell me they don’t mind it.  I did not enjoy shakes with stevia. I thought monkfruit or erythritol did a much better job. Again individual preferences could vary.  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Sorbitol, Malitol and sugar alcohols: This is my favourite combination to sweeten chocolates.  Try the ITC Fabelle Ganache (sugar free) that is sweetened with this combo. The stuff tastes absolutely terrific.  Only problem: the no- sugar ganache contains just as many calories as the sugar-laden ganache. But there are sugar-free chocolates that do manage a lower calorie count. But most don’t.  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Aspartame, acesulfame potassium: These are the most demonized of the lot. The only contextual use that I enjoy for these two sweeteners is Coca Cola.  Diet Coke uses just aspartame. Coke Zero uses a combo of the two. People seem to prefer either. The more problematic aspect of Coke is the can. The BPA lining is a bigger problem than either of the non-nutritive sweeteners. But it really isn’t an issue if it a rare indulgence.  Some dairy beverages elsewhere in Asia use both to sweeten protein shakes and flavoured milk. They taste quite alright!  \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Coffee and tea: I personally don’t like anything other than old fashioned sugar or jaggery. I’ve phased way to one cube of sugar in my coffee. That’s 16 calories. I think moderation of nutritive sweeteners is the way to go with coffee and tea. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What works for you versus advocating it for others Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/what-works-for-you-versus-advocating-it-for-others-cmcni2z5t002i149y61j3zgq6/ --- ![1725179016317.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1725179016317-1751554095950-compressed.jpeg) I’ve been wearing barefoot sandals every single day since October 4, 2015. Before which I wore barefoot shoes since 2014. I’ve worn non-barefoot footwear on four occasions since: all weddings including mine.  My point is not my fealty to Luna or barefoot footwear. It works for me. My feet feel more comfortable. I feel better training in barefoot footwear. I can hike and walk in them for miles without trouble. And my ankles feel stronger (I used to roll my ankles a lot earlier).  But I am not going to indiscriminately recommend barefoot shoes to every client or friend that asks.  There are personal choices that work for me in the very specific context of my lifestyle and personal comfort. It took some effort, time and attention to make it work for me.  It might not work for everyone.  High volume pull ups, weird grip training, single arm push up progressions, whacky single leg training, biphasic sleeping etc. The list of things I do that work for me might strike some as weird.  Takeaway  Recommendations need context. What does it take to make something work? How much effort. How much time. What circumstances does it not work under.  Running a marathon within a month of transitioning to barefoot footwear makes no sense.  Trying to walk 10000 steps a day one day 2 of using barefoot footwear would be asinine.  And trying to do a squat after a years spent squatting in shoes with thick, cushioned heels will feel unfamiliar.  Any change takes time to gradually adjust to it. Be it training, footwear, coaching or food choices.  PS : Amazon no longer stocks these sandals. Back in 2015, Amazon used to have some very interesting products as part of their global store. A local venture named Gambol stocks barefoot sandals at a hefty premium to the American prices. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Lab results Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/lab-results-cmcni2243002h149ylsqoe3oj/ --- Here is an issue that plagues the Indian food and healthcare scene: inconsistent lab results. I’ve personally encountered results from DEXA scans, blood work and food testing that made absolutely no sense. It just didn’t jive with past data or with science. In the case of the DEXA scan, it threw up an absurdly high body fat percentage for a colleague. In case of blood work, clients required multiple re-tests before they could make sense of what was happening.  In the case below, the Whole Truth did a commendable job dealing with lab tests that seemed to indicate their whey was contaminated with heavy metal content.  They quickly tested their control samples at two different and well-regarded labs and tried to put the consumer at ease.  But the consumer will still wonder: did the lab I gave it to get it wrong? Why should I trust their results.  This a problem. Trust in test results is crucial. Especially with protein isolates coming under intense scrutiny in the last two years.  There are too many reasons why lab results could be tainted or misleading. Here are a few:  1\. How a sample is handled from source to the lab.  2\. How the sample is handled in the lab.  3\. Lab technician competence 4\. Calibration of the machines used in the lab. 5\. Maintenance of the chemicals, testing materials, lab facility and other equipment.  6\. Internal processes for handling and tabulation of results.  The above is a gross oversimplification. But you get the idea. There are many ways lab results can get screwed up.  This can happen even in labs that are rated highly by government agencies and quality control agencies for producing consistent, dependable results from robust internal processes.  Does the lab have rules for technicians to maintain sterile conditions. It could be as simple as changing their gloves. Or keeping the surfaces clean.  It could be calibrating machines regularly with a control sample (overseen by the company selling said machines).  We depend on these tests to ensure our food is hygienic and contains only what it is supposed to.  The test results from labs are objective truth that inform us if our efforts to eat better, exercise and intervene medically are paying off.  There are many parties are involved in positive medical outcomes: trainers, medical doctors, nurses, therapists, chefs, food companies. Accountability will require that we have results that are reliable, consistent and comparable. If this breaks down, the system breaks down. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why I love exercise Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/why-i-love-exercise-cmcni1c7v002g149yzipv4ucq/ --- The result is directly proportional to the effort . Not time, not money. But effort. What you do is what you get. If you bend your knees very little, it results in very little development of muscle around the knee. If you bend or rotate your shoulders very little, you get very little muscle around the shoulders. Systematically squatting, pushing, pulling or rotating yields stronger hips, knees, shoulders and elbows. The payoff is obvious. The returns proportionate to effort. But yet few choose to make the investment. \* The body does not lie It has no agenda. It has no philosophy. It reflects your lifestyle choices. You can pin the constraints in making those choices on genetics, ancestors, society or circumstance. But choices they were. Inactivity is a choice. Not prioritising an active lifestyle is a choice. How much time and energy you dedicate to exercise is a choice you make. \* Do and you shall receive Every activity does something different for your body. Some activities will produce more useful, enduring and lasting adaptations. But safe to say, there are objectively more efficient and effective ways to spend your time and money when it comes to activity. By objective I mean by measure of quality of life, consistency of outcomes and sustainability. Squatting and it’s variants will make your legs stronger and knees more robust than running, cycling, swimming or playing any sport. Even cyclists have to squat to ensure their legs get stronger for cycling. \* Risk reward ratio An activity pays off by improving your odds of better health, robust joints, general well being and strong muscles. The medical treatment you did not have to seek. The flu’s and sprain’s you bounced back from faster than less active peers. What risks did you take to get there ? Was it worth it ? Any activity has a degree of risk attached it. But the smart choices have straightforward outcomes that make it worthwhile --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## How much tech do you need for a good workout? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/how-much-tech-do-you-need-for-a-good-workout-cmcnhxl4x002e149yfakkvob5/ A stopwatch or watch of some sort to tell you how much time you're taking to get something done.  A plan scribbled on a paper, notebook or a notes app to tell you what needs to be done for the day.  A smartphone if you'd rather not wear a watch or carry a notebook.  If you'd rather be guided on your routine, some device to show a video to guide you through the hour. And probably nudge you if you're taking it too easy. If you are in a gym with an actual coach doing their job or running a good session, you might just need a notebook to keep track of your progress.  Next time you think a device, widget or tool is the missing link between your fitness goals and reality, just remember a lot more has been accomplished with a lot less than what you think you need to get something done. Maybe independence is just that realisation. What I am not counting as tech? Motor based systems such as Technogyms biogym or Voltra. I am also not counting all the tech used to make the machines and implements you train with. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Lifting in the gym versus lifting in the real world Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/lifting-in-the-gym-versus-lifting-in-the-real-world-cmcngozl1002d149yof2ba8ca/ --- I like watching people moving things around. People carrying big bags of rice, sand, cement, pots, metal pipes, pots, logs, giant electrical appliances. Anything really.  The hands that lift the most are not always the strongest. They are the most efficient and find the most convenient way to pick up an object. The middle of the pipe. The bag of rice on the back as the person rounds over to balance things and move a load.  It’s hard work and terribly inconvenient. And people do these things to scrape together a living.  Why are we talking about this?  Lifting in the gym is the opposite of this. Objects in a gym are designed to put you in positions to squat conveniently and with as upright a position as possible. Barbells keep a load close to you. Machines let the user attack a specific muscle group/groups with precision and without fatiguing anything that does not need to be involved.  Dumbbells, kettlebells, machine anything really. Someone designed it and optimised it to make lifting simpler. And make them easier to push, squat, pull, carry etc. And this is where functional training or even trying to mimic real world lifting in the gym falls apart.  Real world objects are not made to be lifted easily. They are built to save space or house motors or be a part of a structure. But convieniently being handled is not what they are built for. Even suitcases are not the most efficient things to handle. They hold a lot of stuff but are hard to actually carry.  Takeaway  Real world lifting takes repetition and experience to find the right position to get the job done.  Lifting in the gym wants to take the mystery out of how to lift to get the job done efficiently. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Pay for experiences. Not for spaces. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/pay-for-experiences-not-for-spaces-cmcngmnu6002c149yc7ib9fcn/ --- When you have a bad meal or even a good meal that you didn’t enjoy, you don’t blame the entire restaurant industry for being terrible. Or declare that eating out is not for you.  You leave the meal behind. Maybe a bad review. Tell your friends and family that meal was not for you. And you try another place. Or go back to something tried and tested.  When you have a MEH training experience at a gym. Or it’s anything less than fun. Or you feel lost or don’t enjoy the atmosphere. The entire idea of gyms or strength training is written off as ‘not for me’. How about giving another chef a shot? Another space a shot?  If there’s one thing I know about strength training it is that are many ways to get it right. Coaches can take the basic ideas of a well crafted space, good community, effective communication, exercise selection, periodisation, identifying the right adaptations and apply it in a variety of interesting, innovative ways. They can communicate the basic ideas and run a quality hour of training in many different ways.  Takeaway  If you find navigating your way around a gym arduous, boring or just feel listless, find a coach to guide you. If that does not work for you, give different coaches a shot. Try different settings. It’s an exciting time to be a gym-goer with coaches around the country opening small, boutique spaces. And more working within the framework of existing projects.  It’s very likely you’ll find a style that hits the right spot and leaves you coming back for more. And this is a meal best eaten several times a week. Just don’t let a meh or bad meal stop you from looking for more effective ones. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The simplest reason to pay for a coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-simplest-reason-to-pay-for-a-coach-cmcngf40j002b149y42gnb7js/ --- Three things someone who has little or no training experience tends to do:  1\. Pick too many exercises  2\. Do too much too soon  3\. Not stick with things long enough  It’s worth paying a competent coach to help you:  1\. Pick the first 10-12 most useful exercises that you probably should spend the first couple of months getting really good at. Added bonus would be if they teach you to execute it well and scale the intensity as you get stronger.  2\. Get the dosage right. Think how little you need to do to get enough of it.  3\. Stick with a few exercises for years to get better at it. Not just weeks or months. Playing with programming, workouts and tools is how you manage it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Shape your environment Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/shape-your-environment-cmcngehcn002a149yah4jybpm/ --- 'I always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was that Man can be improved. I’m not sure he can be, but he can be trained, he can be disciplined. I’m not sure you can actually change the character of a man but you can discipline him and make him, you make a left-hander write with his right hand but you can’t really change his natural born instincts to use his left hand.' Lee Kuan Yew Temptation is inevitable. To skip training, to skip that quick bike-ride, meal-prep, binge on netflix, order a dessert. Even the most motivated, driven soul will find it hard to not be tempted. Sometimes it makes sense to give in. Other times, it helps to fight temptation.  The simplest way is to create an environment that sets you up to make better choices. Putting away devices early. A gym close to home you actually enjoy training at with workout buddies. A quick protein snack before your actual meal. The little things you can do to ensure even if motivation wanes and discipline fails, your environment can help you prevail. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The role of FOMO in wanting to move more Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-role-of-fomo-in-wanting-to-move-more-cmcngdm8i0029149y7v6ch4js/ A good holiday, a good movie, a play a good meal, an old school reunion, a nice aquarium visit, a great beach, night sky or a really good drink.  These are things that people talk about and want to share the experience. It’s part of the human condition to feel like ‘I want to experience that!’.  Takeaway  There is lack of curiosity or explicit apathy towards physical capacity and movement. This lies at the heart of societal indifference towards the value of moving more and physical strength as a desirable human trait.  Movement and training can be constructive endeavours that can be communal, fun and build character. It’s not just quality of life as we age or improve health. It’s the confidence that comes from strength not being a constraint to a better life.  Most importantly, the ability to move, be strong and interact with our surroundings is as human as communicating, eating, sleeping, staring in awe at nature and having sex. Give movement a chance. You don’t have to learn to enjoy it, it is something we are built to enjoy if you give it a chance. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The ephemeral trigger event Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-ephemeral-trigger-event-cmcngcvl20028149yl91w2xl7/ --- \* What makes you think about exercise ?  Someone terrible happens in your close circle  A physically demanding goal A medical scare  Bad blood work  Old photos  Social media or a movie  \* What makes you do something about it ?  A social media post :D  A determined spouse  A pushy family member  A motivational piece of media  A movie  \* What makes you keep doing something about it ? Now this question is the key one. The scare is behind you. Your immediate circle will tire of nudging you. And you can’t keep drawing blood every day.  What keeps you going is a genuine belief that you are working towards something useful that actively improves your quality of life and helps you deal with life.  Every single day this belief needs to actively compete and win against the demons of ‘my body is fine the way it is’, ‘that article says fat can be healthy and fit’, ‘there’s always tomorrow’, ‘I could still get cancer’, ‘it’s just another drink’, ‘I am too stressed for this now’ among others. Most people lose this fight and forget why they considered doing the useful things they do in the first place. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The great, moderately sized outdoors Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-great-moderately-sized-outdoors-cmcngbw690027149yaejlqcc4/ A few days at Singapore have more than convinced me that apartments might be better served having more space to walk around, hang, play and run around rather than pack it with clubhouses and amenities that take away from common spaces. Indian apartment buildings pack in amenities at the cost of space. Blame it on feature seeking, cost of land, a scarcity mindset and an inability to just consolidate small pockets of land into bigger tracts for more habitable spaces. But we have a problem. Kids have less room to play. And adults have spaces that are pigeonholed. Here’s why more open spaces matter:  1\. Open spaces give room to walk around. This is underrated in Indian cities that have very little quality room for walking.  2\. I love good gym equipment but it has a way of gobbling space and curtailing our imagination on how to move. Open spaces with a few monkey bars, boxes and a few medicine balls and a little instruction or videos might encourage people to move in less restrictive ways.  3\. Kids and adults can both use more versatile spaces. Watching kids play makes us drop our guard and lower inhibitions over moving more. And watching adults move around might normalise the idea that you don’t stop moving with age. 4\. Convenience. Having big open spaces and simple equipment nearby makes it easy for everyone to play. I saw this with my own daughter and I got to squeeze in a little work in the middle of a fairly-busy holiday.  5\. It’s just less claustrophobic and stressful. This might be a personal feeling. There’s something about open spaces that soothes me. There’s a difference between living with open space around you and having to travel 200 kms to get it. Takeaway  Environment shapes activity choices. Just because something makes for a good investment or even makes good business sense it does not translate into great quality of life. And where I live in urban India does feels like a great business opportunity that does not translate into great quality of life.  Our feature-seeking, bigger is better tendencies might lead us to giving up a very basic human need: space. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Friction for NEAT Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/friction-for-neat-cmcngb8b60026149ygavkc932/ --- Here’s what an effective city seems to do: have plenty of interrupted stretches of walking pathways, pedestrian paths, overpasses and generous room for walkers to cross busy roads.  There is little friction to rack up kilometers. It could be to get from one place to the next. Or it could be to get to the station or bus stop. This is distinct from walking explicitly to rack up a step count.  Infrastructure makes it easy to carry along folding bikes. It’s easy to drive these compact bikes on smooth roads. So you walk and cycle around.  World-class does not stop with setting up a train line(s). The entire city including buildings and neighbourhoods support being active. The traffic is civil. As are small businesses and hawkers.  Takeaway  In Madras, it is ludicrously hard to be active as part of our everyday life. The environment is designed or has evolved to become pedestrian-hostile.  This makes explicit activity for the sake of low intensity activity such as walking a necessity. Our cities just don’t allow for NEAT as part of our daily lives. Footpaths are a privilege.  Our cherry picking of what makes for world-class infrastructure only ensures the long term mediocrity of our urban spaces. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Strength in everyday life Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/strength-in-everyday-life-cmcnga4da0025149ye7oi2rz2/ 1\. Walking up stairs  2\. Walking down the stairs (different from walking up) 3\. Walking places 4\. Carrying objects or bags  5\. Carrying kids  6\. Moving big things occasionally or more often if you own a gym  7\. Running to places 8\. Really long occasional walks 9\. Hauling really heavy bags occasionally  10\. Pushing a car or dragging a bike when it’s out of fuel  11\. Grow your own food, harvest it, store it and process it  12\. Control an animal for transport or food  13\. Carry a person for some distance  14\. Carry yourself, food, water or shelter for some distance  15\. Cover long distances looking for food, water and shelter  16\. Fight or defend yourself against a wild animal or person  Now you’ll notice how the odds of actually having to actually do the things rapidly decreased as you worked your way down the list.  But these are things the body seems to be capable of doing. Not readily. Especially not if we are urban dwellers.  The logical question: life is a whole lot better for most of us or some of us not having to do all or majority of the things in the list. Right ?  But doesn’t change the fact that the body seems to thrive when you’re capable of doing those things.  This is why we simulate exaggerated doses of activity in gyms.  A condensed-souped up version of activity that we no longer need to get through the day. What condensed milk is to milk, training and exercise is to activity that the human body is capable of performing. Does it have all the goodness? Far from it. But it does make life sweeter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Physics envy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/physics-envy-cmcng6kvv0024149ybibge8i5/ --- You must have heard some version of this: Fat loss is xx percent exercise and xx percent nutrition  Muscle gain is xx percent exercise and xx percent nutrition  Randomly assigning percentages is dumb and trying to sound precise about something you cannot be precise about. It is physics envy and it is unnecessary.  I think the statements are quite misleading. It makes you think a few decisions are more important than others. They are not. No one can predict what habits you will enjoy or which habits will stick. And good habits can give you confidence and snowball into more and better habits. Your fitness and wellness goals hinge on several decisions, of varying magnitude, that you take every single day.  Here are a few that involve training and nutrition: 1\. Getting that first repetition of the first exercise going 2\. Not order a certain dish  3\. Not put a certain ingredient in your virtual or literal cart  4\. Putting your spoon away from a dessert after a couple of bites  5\. Taking time to go through the menu and order carefully  6\. Not finishing those 4 bites of buttery pasta or cookie on your child’s plate  7\. Walk to the local store instead of hop on your bike  8\. Not have that second drink on a night out 9\. Hiring a coach  10\. Being more mindful and focussed on executing exercises well while you train  11\. Making an effort to understand what exercises could add to your training and utilising them in the right magnitude  12\. Locking away your devices after a certain time to prioritise sleep  13\. Ensure you’ve stocked up enough multivitamins  I could go on and on with this list. My point being I don’t think anyone can assign a weightage to each decision you need to take every day or every week to take care of yourself.  There are many many decisions you need to take day in day out until they become habits that you do without much fatigue or thought.  So here’s my pseudo-precise percentage for you. If you’re a new at the game, you dedicate 100 percent of your time to building new habits that stick.  The more experienced you get the less time you spend making habits stick and more time you spend refining those habits and ensure they stick.  On a sunny note, the sum of your health and fitness outcomes will be greater than the individual decisions you took day in day out. This compounds with time. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## When it comes together Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/when-it-comes-together-cmcng5ixi0023149ynblzs95y/ It’s 4:30 in the morning. I cannot stop thinking about how the new toy turned out.  It landed at our gym at 5:20 pm last evening. I quickly unloaded it and ran off to coach.  I woke up earlier than usual. Rode over to the gym by 4:20 am. I quickly setup the new toy. It took 5 minutes. I loaded a t-bell with 70 kgs. And slid on the toy. The fit was perfect. No warping from welds or handling. Phew.  I walked over to the other end, picked it up and place it gently on my shoulder. There are no cushions yet. And I did a few squats. It worked!  There’s a mild squeak. But that can be ironed out.  It doesn’t matter how old I get. When I get a new toy, I need to play with it asap and know if it works. And lives up to the hype and expectations in my head. Making the stuff we play with is a dream for me.  But with no prototypes, advanced modelling and lots of hand welding, polishing, eye-balled lathe work, there’s an element of uncertainty.  And then when it works as we dreamt up, it’s just the best feeling. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Idiot index Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/idiot-index-cmcng3nt80021149y5uelpd18/ --- ![IMG_1829.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1829-1751550768689-compressed.PNG) Elon Musk’s Starship paired with the Super Heavy was just a terrific sight. As someone who watches the Saturn 5 launches on loop, watching this massive ship achieve its objectives was amazing.  The ingenuity, complexity and sheer persistence it took to build it inspires me.  I want to speak to a more important lesson I learnt. It’s Musk’s notion of an idiot index. He has been fairly transparent about how he pushes his engineers and managers to drive down the cost of each component in his cars or rockets while maintaining functionality and quality. The excerpt below from 2013 alludes to this. And his biography is more explicit about this. The gist of it: if the raw materials cost Rs 100 but the product sells for Rs 1000. Try and figure out where that 900 bucks goes. It also helps to question if the 100 was too much or the right material choice.  Rather than use Musk’s rocket analogy, let me speak about in terms of how barbells are built. A barbell costs [16000-20000](tel:16000-20000). Some of the better ones cost up to 60000 (not factoring for local Indian taxes). A barbell weighs 20 kgs. It’s usually made of mild steel. Sometimes stainless steel. 20 kgs of mild steel costs Rs 1300. Stainless steel costs around Rs 4500 (stainless steel barbells cost around 35000-50000).  Barbells aren’t complicated compared to rockets (putting it mildly). But they take a serious whacking. You can’t afford to use a grade of steel that snaps if you drop it a couple of times. Or fractures if you load it with enough weight.  But those grades of steel (stainless or mild) aren’t much more expensive. The milling, bearings, welding, knurling can be achieved for less than the raw material cost. This is even without producing barbells in bulk. And having to provide some of the tooling.  And Madras has all those capacities within a few kilometers of each other. So why would I pay 20,000 for a mild steel barbell poorly coated with chrome that would rust in a year when I could make my own barbell for Rs 7500 out of stainless steel that would last much longer. I could improve the knurl. Pick superior grades of steel. And still come out on top. Our barbells have been in action since 2015-2017. They still spin smoothly, the knurl grips and look just as good as they did when we made them.  We have since applied the same logic to sleds, plates, squat racks, pull up bars, trap bars, swiss bars and many other tools. And we now make tools that are not available in the market but we know through coaching and client feedback are much more comfortable than analogues available in the market. And we do this at a fraction of the cost of what it would cost us to import this or ask someone else to make it for us. And I am not a trained engineer, welder or machinist. But I applied Musk’s ideas for my much smaller and less complex problems. It works and it made my life better, gave my business a small moat and makes it more profitable. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Longevity is the easiest pitch. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/longevity-is-the-easiest-pitch-cmcng192d0020149yz6ydap6u/ --- No one wants to die an untimely death. And our perception of what is untimely has been extended in the last 100 years thanks to basic advances in medicine, society, sanitation and food science.  But there are limits to what biohacking can achieve.  And the two terrific quotes below capture the current conundrum. A good chunk of affluent society has the tools and tricks needed to live a long life. We can even optimise it for quality. But to live much longer and ensure quality, there need to be some very fundamental advances in our understanding of ageing and how we deal with it.  Basic advances have enabled us to live longer than ever before. But quality of life is not guaranteed. Simply because living longer does not guarantee optimal quality of life. All the traits we associate with higher quality of life require active effort and are not granted by virtue of just being alive. We exercise to ensure our bones remain as dense as possible as we age. Similarly, we train to retain as much muscle as possible. But exercise does not fundamentally alter the basic reality of what Smil and Olshansky are referring to. Our capacity to synthesis elastin and other proteins diminishes with age. The rate at which bones accrete (become denser and stronger) cannot be altered.  The key ideas that biohacking pursues; \*Improved lean mass and bone density  \*Maintain low body fat levels \*Train the heart to pump out as much blood with each beat and work at a variety of intensities \*Ensure the body gets the minimum doses needed of all macronutrients and micronutrients it cannot synthesise in the most optimal bio available form possible.  \*If any nutrient or chemical exhibits even a fringe benefit for the body through its role in a basic biological process, consume it. Ensure there are no chemical bottlenecks in your basic functioning. It can be as simple as a pill to as complex as blood transplants from your child and as absurd as consuming raw organ meat.  \*Aggressively throw money and/or time at any aspect of life that stresses you out or diminishes recovery. Get as much quality sleep and manage your time and interactions carefully. Being rich makes this easier.  I am entirely onboard with the first four interventions. The last two points are where my enthusiasm for longevity wanes (maybe this will change with age). Do your best to sleep well and manage stress. And take a good multivitamin. But there might be no end to the quest for the next molecule that can change your life. And for anyone who is not fabulously wealthy, there is a limit to how much you can avoid the interactions that are stressful but necessary.  Doing the best that you can with the time and resources you have is all you can do. And some among us have the resources to do bonkers things ! --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What does ghee have to do with it. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/what-does-ghee-have-to-do-with-it-cmcng05ui001z149yfi0j9bym/ ![IMG_0124.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0124-1751550616552-compressed.PNG) Ghee lubricates your joints.  What is a lubricated joint?  A rather commonly cited advantage of consuming ghee is that your joints can move more freely. Much like spraying WD40 on a squeaky hinge will get a door or metal joint moving freely. WD40 does this by loosening up rust, and reducing the friction and allowing two surfaces to move more smoothly along each other.  Does ghee or any other food directly do this for the human body?  Nope.  No food is directly transported in the blood stream to the knee to be used as a lubricant. And even if you found a way to directly apply ghee on the joint, the body will be throughly confused and ask the immune system to viciously attack the stuff.  Human joints are far more complicated than a door hinge. Not just in terms of the movement they produce. And the ability to produce force quite gradually. But also in how they are constructed to get the job done. And how they rebuild cells. How they receive nutrients. Etc etc.  There are parts of the joint that actually produce the movement aka joints. These are bones.  There are parts of the joint that control the way the joints interact to produce movement in a fixed arc or range. These are ligaments that connect the bones. And tendons that connect muscles to bones. Then there are parts of the joint that reduce the friction between two bones as they move along reach other. These are the cartilage, meniscus (a type of cartilage) and the fat pad (adipose tissue that absorbs shock).  Vivid visuals don’t translate to reality Among the many many different molecules that make up your cartilage, meniscus and fat pad are aggrecans, elastin, adipose cells etc. All those molecules are synthesised by your body using the nutrients found in any healthy diet. Nothing found in ghee lends itself as a special ingredient for making the adipose tissue or protein found in the connective tissue in joints that helps the joint articulate more smoothly. Long story short: There’s one good reason to eat ghee. It tastes good. And eat it sparingly and in a very measured way.  PS: The positively disgusting and disturbing image below is what happens when you ask AI to generate an image of a man eating ghee and apply it on the knee too. Good times --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## More than just a skill Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/more-than-just-a-skill-cmcndudwp001j149y1pkl8124/ --- There's something powerful about embracing long-term challenges that don’t offer instant gratification. The rewards are deeply personal, often holding meaning only for you. Conquering your demons and lifting numbers that surpass your wildest dreams aren’t going to be handed to you; every kilo is earned. That struggle is what eventually gets you to your destination. It is a process that teaches you more than just how to lift 5 additional pounds – it’s something far deeper. It teaches you that the world will not stop and clap for you if you get back up when you’re in your darkest hour. That you don’t get a public parade every day like you’re the King for just showing up to work. Carl Raghavan writing on the Starting Strength website.  [https://startingstrength.com/training/strength-is-a-second-job](https://startingstrength.com/training/strength-is-a-second-job) Please read Carl’s terrific piece .  This perspective is going to be unpopular. But it is necessary. People speak about exercise as fun, community-led, intense and most people have a perception of how hard they are working at the gym.  But training needs to acquire the status of a ‘job’ in your life.  It’s not always fun. But nothing worth doing is. You often need to move out of necessity. Even when the desire is missing, you find a way to get the job done. Without reverting to breaks, hacks, entertainment or variety.  Training and exercise is almost always the first thing that gets the axe when life gets tough. But it should not be that way. Finding a way to show up in some capacity even if it for a shorter duration or lesser intensity is what it takes to maintain the physical capacity for strength.  This post might strike some as a motivational post. But it’s not. It speaks to the idea that you train not just for fun, community, health, family or longevity but for a fundamental capacity that exists in your body.  One of the tragedies of modernity is physical strength feeling like an optional skill to enhance quality of life. When in reality, it is as essential as communication, walking and thinking as human capabilities. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Slow death of fast food Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/slow-death-of-fast-food-cmcndrfoo001i149yprvz9nc2/ --- ![IMG_2136.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img2136-1751546839367-compressed.PNG) Americans love to eat. They are fatally attracted to the slow death of fast food. Hot dogs, corn dogs, triple bacon cheeseburgers, deep-fried butter dipped in pork fat and cheesewhiz, mayonnaise-soaked barbecue, mozzarella patty melts. America will eat anything. Anything. Anything. George Carlin  We are not far behind. I have no studies to back this assertion. But I don’t think I am too far off base when I argue Indians travel primarily to snack and eat in between or while starring at tourist attractions. The conveyor belt of food and drinks is incessant. A family of four can’t watch a sunrise in the morning without a giant plastic bag full of snacks. This is not an imagined scenario. I counted eight cars in an obscure corner of a small island. And the litter that follows is heart breaking. We don’t clean up after ourselves. Things are not very different when we are back home.  We don’t stop sipping, munching, nibbling or swallowing on some snack or beverage between intense conversations about how bad palm oil is or the need for food warning labels like Singapore. What strikes me about this behaviour is how widespread it is. It unites us. Along with how there is a serious lack of self awareness between the things we say we value and our actual actions. Takeaway  Before labels, logging, protein intake, vegetable intake, probiotics, prebiotics or anything else, an absolutely simple question: do you really need to be eating now? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Unfamiliar territory Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/unfamiliar-territory-cmcndqflu001h149yscetkyge/ --- Do we truly care how crippled a client feels when they walk onto the gym floor. It is a thoroughly unfamiliar setting for most. There are many who through sheer desire or enthusiasm overcome this. But for most people who set foot on the gym floor, they have no clue what they can do there and what can be achieved.  Gyms put a ludicrous amount of resources into ventilation, lighting, temperature, beverages, equipment selection, amenities (spas, steam, massage) and appearance (mirrors, paint, messaging). These are designed to make things comfortable. They also impress and motivate.  But do they inform? Do they tell the person who walks in: here’s what I think would be useful for you learn to do, here’s how we could try it. Too hard? Let’s make it a notch easier. Too easy? Let’s amp it up. Here’s why what you did is useful. And here’s what progressing on this would look like and what it would enable. Still have reservations? Let’s try this instead. Just before they walk out, they should have good sense of how they got stronger and what they achieved.  This is not about the tools. It doesn’t matter if the client did leg extensions, sissy squats or back squats. It should matter if they did push ups, benched or did chest presses. What matters is they did something for an outcome. They performed a dose of physical activity that rewarded them with very useful adaptation that most other activity could not have produced in the same amount of time.  Their time on the gym floor achieved this with a lot less risk than most endeavours. And it disheartens me that most of us cannot get people to enjoy and appreciate their training hour. Let alone communicate this profound truth about resistance training well enough. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The good old days Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-good-old-days-cmcndoboh001g149yapmfx7dx/ --- Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present. from Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen Here are all the ways in which your life is better than your ancestors :  1\. You live longer by virtue of sewage treatment, modern medical care and clean drinking water.  2\. You have the option of picking whatever activity you enjoy. There is no imposed lifestyle. Gyms, travel, sport. You name it and the option probably exists.  3\. There are no cultural or regional shackles to the food you can eat.  4\. You have access to test, vet or pay a premium for food that adheres to your moral or ethical preferences.  5\. There is no shortage of calories or nutrients available to you. Cheaper than it has ever been. This is significant.  6\. Electricity, pursuit of work we find fuilfiling and law & order makes our existence less stressful for the most part.  What we lost  1\. Activity as a necessity for  our existence. I get a feeling our ancestors would trade with us on this one. 2\. Poor air quality. 3\. General ennui over a lack of purpose or meaning for how we spend our time. When you are not slogging for personal survival or are even mildly skeptical about the consumer capitalist rat race, it can be stressful. This is heightened when you generally feel like society is replete with double standards, inconsistent imposition of rules and just profiteering above all else. But this pales in comparison to spiteful rulers, famines, disease, lack of opportuntities and just the uncertainty that has characterised most of human history.  Takeaway  It’s mostly a good time to be alive. Better than most times in human history. Can we make the most of it? Or will we drown in excess and without purpose. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Screw corporations Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/screw-corporations-cmcndn5pq001f149yeumxjnvp/ --- Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you. Brent Simmons  [**https://lnkd.in/gAgsjaZr**](https://lnkd.in/gAgsjaZr) Atleast your favourite athletes and celebrities pretend to care about you by feeding you sweet nothings when they win tournaments or launch movies.  Corporations care about making money. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. There are few better incentives than profit to do things efficiently. But as Peter Drucker put it ‘Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.’ I think my industry is efficient. But far from effective. Here is why: 1\. Brand perception trumps actual product. Companies will and do spend more money in you having positive thoughts about the company and what it does. Be it through celebs, advertising and presentation. Companies will go out of their way to position a flawed, sub-par ingredient laden product as good for you. When they could have done better by spending a little more making a better product with better ingredients. The rat race for brand perception trumps any sense of pride in making a worthy product or service.  2\. No accountability. The buck stops when the product or service is shipped out. Companies go out of their way to not take responsibility or craft a narrative that absolves them for what their product or service does.  3\. No skin in the game. Either through ignorance, degrees of separation from actually production or the notion of buyer beware, employees of companies that make things don’t really care enough about what their organisation provides a paying customer. They don’t have a voice. And rarely fight to have a say in what gets made.  4\. Gyms are not geared, built or incentivised to educate or make you training-independent. They care about signing as many people up and don’t care if you show up. Except when renewal time shows up.  Takeaway  There is a vicious cycle of corporates blaming their customers for making junk under the pretext of the customer being value conscious. And customers settling for junk from companies because they don’t believe companies can do better.  The only person who can break that vicious cycle is the consumer who can by virtue of how they spend, decide how corporates spend their money and time.  You decide if packaging trumps product.  You decide if the celeb endorsement means more than better ingredients.  You also decide if flashy interiors trump informed coaches.  You can’t have it all. But neither should companies. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## My clients are my product Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/my-clients-are-my-product-cmcndl3dp001e149ylbcppviz/ --- I have been coaching for 13 years. My client count is well over 2000 clients. Not every single client who has paid me to coach them is still working with me.  The more important question: Did they learn enough from me to make lasting habits that incorporate training consistently and eating mindfully. The honest answer is not enough clients made the habits stick. And I know this is an industry problem.    Takeaway    \* As a coach, I need to ease clients into a few habits at a time. The shock and awe approach of ‘here are 20 habits for success’ approach is guaranteed to fail.  \* Presentation is just as important as substance. I may have the greatest exercise selection and program writing capacity. But if I cannot convince clients to do the program or sign up with me, my skills are dead in the water.  \* Presentation means effective communication. Are you as clear as you think you are?  \* To use Akio Morita’s words: -We don’t ask consumers what they want. They don’t know. Instead we apply our brain power to what they need, and will want, and make sure we’re there, ready. - A good coach is perceptive if a client is having a good time and enjoying a program. But an effective coach ensures a client’s program includes adaptations they need. A client should marvel at their new found physical capacity.  \* The client is both my product and my customer. I am not selling my gym, community, service, equipment or coaching skill. I am selling my client the promise of what they can be 6 months or a year from now. When they get there, they should want more ! --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Imprecise recommendations and the downside of do any movement that you like reco . Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/imprecise-recommendations-and-the-downside-of-do-any-movement-that-you-like-reco-cmcndjt48001d149yij4fxiyl/ Walk for 15 mins a day  Do 10 mins of breathing and yoga  Do whatever activity you enjoy for 2 hours a week  Play a sport once a week to stay fit  If a coach, physiotherapist or doctor tells you do whatever activity you enjoy and can sustain, they are doing you a disservice. I am not sure if it’s a marketing ploy or they really believe that something is better than nothing. Or are they trying to compete against content creators for likes ?  In an era of vague and generic advice and marketing, health and wellness practitioners need to get incredibly pointed, precise and unapologetically rooted in cause and effect about their recommendations. Clients need not necessarily know the why. But they need very precise what’s and how’s. The when and where is the only variable that clients need to figure out.  Takeaway  Here’s what any reasonable coach factors for:  1\. What exercises should a client be doing  2\. How much of each exercise should a client be doing  3\. How should an exercise be done to be effective 4\. How does all of it come together to be coherent and sustainable  5\. Why do the exercises you have picked make sense for your client 6\. Is the clients quality of life benefitting from the adaptations you have chosen for them  We take for granted that what we are doing is good for our clients. What we really need to do is ask ourselves if we are nudging the clients to do what they need to do. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## You are your counsel Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/you-are-your-counsel-cmcndhhn9001c149y8g9vbqve/ --- What makes us fragile is that institutions cannot have the same virtues (honor, truthfulness, courage, loyalty, tenacity) as individuals. Taleb  We depend on governments to : 1\. Tax food. Some foods more than others. Protein is taxed more than carbohydrates and fat.  2\. Support farmers cause it’s a difficult and often thankless job for those on the fields especially on insufficiently large tracts of farm land 3\. Build infrastructure for food to be moved around quickly, safely without spoiling  4\. Incentivise industry to create more jobs to process food 5\. Ensure food is safely produced  6\. Ensure food contains what it says it does  7\. Ensure labels are consistent with what a food does  Some of those ‘priorities’ will take precedence. Safe to assume ensuring citizens are getting enough calories is number one priority. The poorer the populace, the higher the priority that everyone has enough to eat.  Seven may not seem like a big number. But it is.  Takeaway  Even if you hire a coach, app, have a smartwatch or smart ring, have an elaborate gym, you need to be decisive and have good judgement.  Entirely outsourcing your judgement and decision making to coaches, apps and governments to tell you what is right for you through labels and advisories is childish and unsustainable.  Having some sense of understanding and sense of proportion for food choices and activity choices without constant handholding, gamifying, distracting or stupefying those experiences is the only way to make it sustainable. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Optimal vs doable Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/optimal-vs-doable-cmcndgj7h001b149ysb1c2qvh/ --- There is reasonable science backing the idea that working out 6-8 hours after you wake up is optimal. But how many people can carve out time at 12 in the afternoon or later to workout?  There is a lot of evidence indicating optimal protein intake for a 70 kg individual is between 85 and 110 grams. But try getting a person eating 20-25 grams of low quality protein to 85 grams overnight with a complete rehaul in food selection. Spoiler alert: you are much more likely to fail than succeed. 50-60 grams is much more likely to result in adherence.  Optimal is not always practical. Sometimes sub-optimal is more sustainable. The road to optimal is bridged with suboptimal habits. An imperfect program done consistently trumps a perfect program that one fails at. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The case for more protein Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-case-for-more-protein-cmcndf5pc001a149yeix4nvqh/ Why do I keep arguing for increased protein intake and improving awareness of protein intake. \* It’s not because I don’t think Omega 3’s, fiber and other micronutrients are important. They absolutely are.  \* It’s not because of the thermic effect of protein rich foods. That up to 10 percent of protein intake is used as fuel to digest protein is useful but not essential.  \* It’s not the satiety or satiation effect of protein rich foods. Because this impact is not consistent across all protein-rich foods. You have certain carb and fat dominant foods that can be just as filling and keep you full for longer. Certain protein rich foods like whey and whole eggs are terrible at satiety or satiation.  The primary reason I shill for protein is : 1\. When coupled with resistance training, the muscle it can pack on your frame is the easiest tool to improve quality of life.  2\. Ample amounts of it consumed early in life can literally uplift the population by making them taller.  Not to mention it is crucial for brain development too.  3\. Our population is under-muscled. The average Indian needs more muscle. And protein and resistance training is the optimal way to go for this outcome. This drastically affects bone and general health too.  The habit to eat foods that are protein-rich are laid down while you are quite young. And to change these habits takes a great deal of effort. We get used to flavours, textures and foods. We default to choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You modify these choices takes effort and awareness.  Nutrition in the first 10-15 years of your life lays the foundation for better food choices and habits. Every economy in the last 100 years that has made rapid strides in health, longevity, quality of life and athleticism has done so on increased consumption of protein, vegetables and fruit. Calorie intake went up dramatically too. But nutrient quality went up too.  Here are excerpts from a few studies: In general, when only the complete data from 72 countries were considered, the consumption of protein from the five most correlated foods (r = 0.85) and the human development index (r = 0.84) are most strongly associated with tall statures. :  [https://lnkd.in/gCtYmycb](https://lnkd.in/gCtYmycb) The average South Korean woman was about 4-foot-7, or 142 centimeters, while the average American woman was about 5-foot-2, or 159 centimeters. Humans were fairly short by today’s standards, and that was true throughout nearly all of human history. But in the past century, human heights have skyrocketed. Globally, humans grew an average of about 3 inches, but in South Korea, women grew an astounding 8 inches and men grew 6 inches on average. [https://lnkd.in/gknU4dbh](https://lnkd.in/gknU4dbh) [https://lnkd.in/ga7aFZGA](https://lnkd.in/ga7aFZGA) TAKEAWAY: If you are serious about your child's health, prioritize protein, vegetable, fruit and omega-3 fatty acids. It lays the foundation for better health and quality of life. And this change might have to start on your plate if you want your kids to follow. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Visiting cards Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/visiting-cards-cmcnd949s0019149ypmnvjpav/ --- I have never had or used a visiting card in the last decade of running a gym.  In my line of work, before a word is spoken, a pitch is made or any logic or reason expounded on, the most important visiting card happens to be my appearance. When I tell people I own a gym, they scrutinise me from head to toe. The same thing happens to dietitans, nutritionists and fitness coaches. There is an expectation that if you walk the talk, you will look the part. This is an inescapable judgement that will be made. Like an investor is judged by their returns, a business by its profitability, a doctor by their track record to heal, wellness and fitness professionals will be judged by appearance. The book maybe deep, but the cover has to convince people to read it.  Now this runs counter to an earlier post where I argued strength is not fascia deep.  But the unfortunate reality is unless you can walk around deadlifting, doing pull ups or displaying insane feats of strength or athleticism, you need to look the part. But looks can deceive. And for a client, looks alone do not guarantee a process or experience that is robust.  IS THERE A RIGHT LOOK? Not exactly. The science of nutrition and exercise is vast. Few professionals can claim competence over exercise science, nutrition science or human physiology. How you look tells the world very little about how much you know about these topics. But how you look does tell the world you take the knowledge seriously enough to use it everyday in your own life.  Much like every athlete not making for a great coach, every lean person does not make for an effective coach.  Not to mention, training journeys are long and variable. Appearances may not tell you what someone is working on or towards. As a coach or fitness professional, you need to find a way to make training a non-negotiable part of your daily life. The volume, exercise selection and goals can change. But if you are asking people to be active and carve out time for activity everyday, you need to do the same yourself. Same goes for nutrition. You ask someone to include more protein and vegetables, you need to do some version of this yourself. You ask a person to pare back on screen time and spend more time in the sack, you do the same. In a crowded market, you need to communicate how much you know, how you use that information and how effective you are at helping others use what you know.  As a potential client, a coach who enjoys training and eating as they ask you to, will be a more empathetic coach who will be able to put themselves in your shoes more comfortably. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Individual judgement versus waiting for a recommendation Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/individual-judgement-versus-waiting-for-a-recommendation-cmcncbsrh0015149yud4hmz8q/ --- What makes us fragile is that institutions cannot have the same virtues (honor, truthfulness, courage, loyalty, tenacity) as individuals. Taleb  We depend on governments to : 1\. Tax food. Some foods more than others. Protein is taxed more than carbohydrates and fat.  2\. Support farmers cause it’s a difficult and often thankless job for those on the fields especially on insufficiently large tracts of farm land 3\. Build infrastructure for food to be moved around quickly, safely without spoiling  4\. Incentivise industry to create more jobs to process food 5\. Ensure food is safely produced  6\. Ensure food contains what it says it does  7\. Ensure labels are consistent with what a food does  Some of those ‘priorities’ will take precedence. Safe to assume ensuring citizens are getting enough calories is number one priority. The poorer the populace, the higher the priority that everyone has enough to eat.  Seven may not seem like a big number. But it is.  Takeaway  Even if you hire a coach, app, have a smartwatch or smart ring, have an elaborate gym, you need to be decisive and have good judgement.  Entirely outsourcing your judgement and decision making to coaches, apps and governments to tell you what is right for you through labels and advisories is childish and unsustainable.  Having some sense of understanding and sense of proportion for food choices and activity choices without constant handholding, gamifying, distracting or stupefying those experiences is the only way to make it sustainable. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Facts not wordplay Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/facts-not-wordplay-cmcnc48ba0014149yu2dcxh81/ I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. George Carlin This applies to us.  Balanced, functional, wholesome, clean, no added sugar, protein rich.  Empty nonsensical words. They can mean anything or nothing.  Food companies, new-age and old, small and large, will find the copy writers, graphic designers and marketing heads to come up with euphemisms to grab your attention.  They use colours, words and massage numbers to their convenience. Words are just tools to mask a truth. Honesty is selective and convenient.  Why so many words ?  It’s two metrics:  You’re probably going to eat a cup of this. A cup, bar, plate, piece or spoon of this has xxx grams of this food. You get this many grams of protein, fiber and energy from that serving.  A cup is 240 milliliters (ml). A spoon is 15 ml.  Second metric:  100 grams of this food provides xx-xxx calories of energy. Xx percent of that is protein. Xx percentage is from carbohydrates. Xx percentage is from fat.  The only perspective that requires literal words and context is ingredients. When companies need to use words, they shut up and make it fine print.  We used ins955. Instead just say we used sucralose to sweeten this. Sucralose comes from a lab. And you probably shouldn’t have it more than twice a week.  Our product uses dates. Dates become glucose in your body. Just like sugar does. So if you prefer this taste, indulge in moderation.  Takeaway  We need to stop celebrating wit and words when it comes food marketing. Wit and words make sense only when there is some effort to inculcate wisdom in the consumer. For now math lessons, not clever wordplay, is the need of hour. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Celebs say the darndest things Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/celebs-say-the-darndest-things-cmcnc1h940013149yeqkavosz/ --- ![IMG_2045.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img2045-1751543947859-compressed.PNG) I am all for freedom of choice and expression.  But when you say unprovable things. I have the right to call out your unprovable opinions. Especially when society enjoys amplifying your voice to validate their lazy belief’s.  Vidya Balan hired an organisation from my hometown to help her drop a lot of weight.  This organisation loves using inflammation as a bogeyman to starve people to lose weight and improve a few blood markers. For those not in the know, in preventive healthcare inflammation is the refuge of the charlatan looking for vague reasons to get clients to do drastic, unsustainable things. And we know how much people lap up that kind of nonsense. As for no exercise, I have no clue where muscle is supposed to emerge from when you produce no force or resistance.  And why would your bones remain healthy and calcium laden, if you don’t give them any dose of activity or loading?  In my experience, the people who have walked in after this ‘program’ are skinny fat. Essentially they rank well on the BMI scale. But they carry very little muscle mass and have done their bone health no favours with very low calorie intake coupled with the no exercise approach. Their cardiovascular capacity leaves a lot to be desired too.  Eating too little to drop bodyweight is not the same as eating sensibly to improve body composition and quality of life.  I get that the actress in question has had a terrible time with the media and general public scrutinising her body and weight. Shame on those groups.  And media and films have done more damage to the women’s (society too) perception  of strength training, healthy eating and what it means to be healthy.  The media and films take a flavour of the season approach to exercise, money shot approach to fitness and reinforce counterproductive stereotypes of desirability. All combined have laid down the worst possible incentives for people to train and eat better.  Given Vidya Balan’s respected image as a thespian and how her opinions and habits influence the public, I am really rooting for her to find a dose of activity that can keep her healthy and that she actually enjoys.  Lord knows that’s the hero we need but maybe not the one we deserve at the moment. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What does burning calories have to do with it ? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/what-does-burning-calories-have-to-do-with-it-cmcnbyyj50011149yl25z4urx/ --- You don’t strength train to burn calories.  You do burn a few calories to strength train. But it’s not primary metric to measure progress or value for what is being achieved.  But measuring calories burnt while strength training is akin to enjoying silence in a library. You primarily went there to read a book, not for silence.  Here are ten more useful things than burning calories that you do in a gym : 1\. Make your heart more efficient 2\. increase your muscle mass 3\. Increase the amount of force a muscle can produce  4\. Improve the resilience of all the connective tissue : tendons, ligaments, cartilage. All of it benefits.  5\. Improve your bone density.  6\. Practice a very specific pattern to get better at it in a very controlled setting. Jumping, punching, rotating. All benefit from deliberate practice in a gym.  7\. Improve your brains capacity to communicate with your body to produce movement.  8\. Makes you more physically resilient.  9\. Daily tasks get a lot easier. A 3 kg bag of groceries is a lot lighter when you can carry 25-30 kgs in each arm.  10\. Fosters a lot more confidence and physical independence.  There’s more. Better body composition, better general health, slower cognitive decline. Things that saying 200 calories burnt in 40 minutes cannot begin to capture. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Intent behind manipulating foods Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/intent-behind-manipulating-foods-cmcnbyhvf0010149yfqwoeflg/ --- Below is Exhibit A in the egregious things we do to food to make us want to eat way more of it. Even when we know what we are eating is of dubious nutritional value. All this food does is give us energy. But not much else.  The parallel between gambling and ultra-processed foods is straightforward. We know gambling is bad. But we have people setting up casinos. And governments profit from casinos. We celebrate this economic activity and listen to long speeches about strategy, shareholder value and entering new markets as people engineer junk to manipulate people into eating more than they ought to.  I get that we can’t say no to economic activity or an individuals right to eat what they want. The buck does stop with the individual. We tell the gamblers to stop at two chips. Or to not go to or live near casinos. And governments often stop people from entering casinos. Sometimes casinos stop you from entering if you are too good at gambling. But alas the parallel ends here. Companies are not going to stop you from eating more crap simply because you are good at eating too much.  Companies are probably going to engineer novel ways to get you to eat more. And then consumers will throw all processed foods under the bus. While we continue to eat the processed stuff that tastes good (sweets, savouries, snacks) and ignore processed foods that could actually add value (protein isolates, some cheeses, some oils). Such is our inability to judge intent. Instead we selectively label. Exhibit A by Richa Pande  DECODING A MARKETING STRATEGY: ORANGE DUST & PUFFs I had some jowar puffs the other day and ended up with that familiar orange dust on my fingers. This moment reminded me of an insight I gained from one of the neuromarketing classes I took a few years ago.This orange dust isn’t just a fun feature; it has a significant impact on consumer behaviour.  In 2008, Frito-Lay hired NeuroFocus (now known as Nielsen) to study their Cheetos brand and boost its sales. NeuroFocus used electroencephalographic (EEG) testing to understand  how people’s brains responded to eating the snack. Their research revealed that the bright orange residue triggers an unusually strong response in the brain—a sense of giddy subversion that consumers enjoy despite the messiness. This seemingly minor detail plays a crucial role in enhancing the eating experience, making the product more memorable and enjoyable. The orange dust from Cheetos creates a multisensory experience that engages our brain’s pleasure centers, making the eating process more satisfying and fun. The playful, messy aspect of the dust fosters a sense of enjoyment and subversion, which can strengthen brand loyalty and consumer preference. It’s not just about the taste, but the overall experience. So next time you find yourself with orange dust on your fingers, remember—it’s more than just a mess; it’s a powerful tool that keeps you coming back for more. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Community is not a buzzword Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/community-is-not-a-buzzword-cmcnbvki5000z149yyg4inhwp/ --- I’ve always struggled to articulate why I feel like I don’t operate in the same industry as Cult, Golds Gym,24/7, Anytime Fitness or any other gym that offers memberships to use their space and maybe seek out a coach.  I’ve tried to articulate why coaching and community are how we are different. Even our distinct outdoor setting and equipment. And it’s true. Even in our 11th year in the current space doing a version of what we did in year 1, people call us a new concept.  But those things do not paint the complete picture.  The post below fleshes out a different perspective.  It is challenging as adults to make friends. To find people who you can let your guard down with. And create memories with. And find common ground with. Gunnar Peterson even named his gym Common Ground.  I’ve always known that the terrific equipment and perfect programming fades into the background as things that are nice but you don’t care as much about the moment you start training.  What begins to matter is folks celebrating you just being there. And being able to be around you. Enjoy your wins. Joke around with friends even as you have a MEH day. And on your bad days, watching someone do well can actually help you power through your dreary routine.  But above all else, being able to be in a place with other adults where everyone comes in with an open mind just looking to do something constructive for themselves. And no set agenda, shared values, aiming to proselytise others or seek validation.  Just being around people, knowing you are doing something meaningful and having a good time. It was always that simple. And finding that is so hard. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Not the big city Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/not-the-big-city-cmcnbuct6000y149ywm4mk5yp/ --- Our cities are uniquely corrupt, polluted and dirty. Even by developing world standards. One of the terrific advantages we have as we build our mega cities is to learn from all those who have come before. We get to see the choices made by London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Singapore and see the consequences. But it’s clear we cherry pick projects such as metro-trains, large airports and ignore basic issues such as large green spaces, consistent building rules, factoring for air flow and how we manage waste.  We can also learn from less ‘glitzy’ cities around the world that have prioritised horizontal development, walkways, heritage buildings, stringent building codes, parks, gardens, museums, tougher safety and operating procedures for industrial operations and a slew of measures that aim to improve air flow, how wind blows, the stress on ground water resources and just prioritise open space above population density. Not to mention making cities safe and fun for kids and adults to navigate and live their daily lives.  As a late to the party country on the urban development front, we could ask interesting questions: 1\. If we have the latest and greatest metros, would horizontal development make more sense? This would make housing more plentiful and affordable.  2\. Does vertical development make sense given the water table constraints and greater energy costs of maintaining temperature and working conditions in taller buildings?  3\. Does it makes sense to increase building sizes and population density in cities with hot or extreme climate. Less ventilation, wind and air flow makes these place dependent on energy-intensive cooling solutions.  4\. High density spaces produce much more waste and require far more resources to manage waste.  5\. Law and order and governance of larger cities requires greater resources.  6\. Is land truly constrained in India? Do our large cities really have a natural advantage to command the premiums they do in terms of rent, resources and sale values? Is the work being done in larger cities uniquely doable only in those large cities? We have ports everywhere. We can build fast railways. And we can build airports everywhere. Why do we continue to fixate on large, unwieldy, corrupt cities when we have the options and resources to think beyond them. The answers are not straightforward. But it’s far more promising than whatever our current trajectory and dispensation has in store for us. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The inflammation bogeyman Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-inflammation-bogeyman-cmcnbsao7000x149yy5fzu7yx/ Inflammation is real. The best way to visualise it is as one of the many steps the body uses to let different organs and systems communicate with each other.  So let’s establish that there is good and necessary inflammation that is a necessity to fight infections, heal tissue, digest food and constantly deal with the stream of pathogens in the air, food and environment that surrounds us.  Even working out causes inflammation. Rolled your ankle? Inflammation will follow. And so does healing. Cut your finger? Inflammation. Drink iffy water? Inflammation.  How about bad inflammation?  Well it’s really hard to separate good and bad inflammation. Simply because, unless there is obvious discomfort, distress or you are incapacitated to an extent, it’s really hard to tell at what point inflammation becomes counterproductive. And even then, it can be hard to pin down what caused it unless there’s a pathogen, disease, food or injury holding a smoking gun.  How about specific foods?  You could have a variety of reactions to food. I’ve detailed a few in the slides below.  How about insulin?  Here are a list of all the numbers that you could work on:  \*HBa1c values are holding up well \*Your general blood work  \*Increase your lean mass levels (amount of muscle and bone you are carrying),  \*Lower your body fat levels (amount do adipose and visceral fat you are carrying.  \*Figure out what is your maintenance energy intake level. How much food should you eat for your weight to remain unchanged while hopefully your body composition improves.  If you do all of the above, your insulin sensitivity will inevitably improve. It’s a long but tried and tested road.  A food causing an insulin response is not enough to label the food your enemy. It just means your body is preparing to use the energy provided by digesting the food by moving it into cells.  This is where CGM products bite you in the ass. They really make you believe a very normal, natural response to eating food is counterproductive. It isn’t. What is counterproductive is to spend your time, energy and money fixating over one metric instead of working on all the things in the list above that could actually help. ![Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 7.25.31 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202025-02-23percent20atpercent207-1751543520579-compressed.png) ![Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 7.25.24 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202025-02-23percent20atpercent207-1751543523173-compressed.png) ![Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 7.25.14 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202025-02-23percent20atpercent207-1751543525672-compressed.png) ![Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 7.25.03 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202025-02-23percent20atpercent207-1751543527965-compressed.png) ![Screenshot 2025-02-23 at 7.24.52 PM.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/screenshotpercent202025-02-23percent20atpercent207-1751543530235-compressed.png) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Literal product-market fit. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/literal-product-market-fit-cmcnbpak0000w149ydwwd8zvm/ --- ![IMG_2541.jpg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img2541-1751543381860-compressed.jpg) Copying and pasting designs is a recipe for fabricating uncomfortable lifting implements.  Dip stands, squat racks, pull up bars, safety squat bars, hack squats. The proportions that work for larger frames does not cut it here.  They’re either too tall or too wide for most, not all, Indian lifters.  There is an interesting lifting implement called a safety squat bar. Unlike a barbell that needs to be held in place. A safety squat bar ‘cradles’ around your neck.  Usually these bars have handles that are between 12 and 13 inches apart.  What would happen if we applied the same dimensions in India?  We found out it’s too damn wide. It sits rather uncomfortably on the shoulders. That width is far too much for most Indians. It digs into the edge of the shoulders.  After lots of messing around, the ideal distance between the two handles is 10.5-11 inches. We used the dimensions  on our safety squat bar and on our lever squat. The bar rests beautifully on either side of the fleshy part of your upper back.  Can we ‘adjust’. Sure, we can. But why settle? Cars, bikes, furniture, electronics are all built for Indian conditions. Only fair the same logic applies to gym equipment. Regardless of how small the market, details matter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What’s happening to your muscles Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/whats-happening-to-your-muscles-cmcnbo7ty000v149yf9jnouzf/ --- It’s not funny how far our understanding of how muscles work and grow has progressed in the last 20 years.  Few do a better job than Chris Beardsley at making the science of how muscles work accessible. He digs into new studies, older studies, puts them in context with the basic biology and presents them in simple infographics, short write-ups and detailed essays too.  Here are all the crazy questions one could or should have that we are getting more nuanced answers to: Why do muscles grow? How do muscles grow?  How do they change after exercise?  What is the right amount of ‘work’ to make a muscle grow? Does some kind of work make muscles more tired than other work.  What is the right amount of work to make a muscle strong?  Is making a muscle stronger guarantee that it will grow optimally too?  Do all exercises produce the same kind of growth in muscles.  Are different ‘types’ of strength required for different athletic groups?  Is what happens to a muscle different after we do different kinds of exercise?  Do muscles fundamentally change to work differently for completely different types of activity? What is damage to a muscle? Is there a good and a bad damage ? These fascinating questions are the key to making sound choices as a coach for your clients. And clients also understand isn’t randomly strung together or just a arbitrary set of a coach’s favourite moves. There is a sound logic rooted in cause and effect to : What exercises you should do What does good execution look like How much exercise you should do Why you need to make it harder How much harder should you make it Maybe it’s time to make it easier?  How much you need to rest within a session and between sessions?  All of this down to your age, capacity, joint health, lifestyle and athletic requirement --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Coaches say the darndest things for marketing Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/coaches-say-the-darndest-things-for-marketing-cmcnbkpvh000u149ymb0rjr04/ It’s easy to forget who your customer is and what they want from you.  Especially when you are compelled to compete for attention.  The easiest cop-out? Telling your client they are fine as they are and the route they take to become fitter does not matter. Or that you can be healthy at any body fat level.  Details matter. It matters what exercises you pick. It matters how much of an exercise you do. It matters that your coach is willing to be honest with you and help you figure out how to sustain hard-to-acquire habits. Your coach should be willing to hang in there with you as you figure out the hard problems: be it pain, eating habits, moves you dislike, exercises that are hard to get better at.  And if they tell you the tool is irrelevant and that all that matters is that you move. And if you are overweight, they are unwilling to tow the unpopular line that better body composition can really uplift quality of life. They’re either lying or telling you what you want to hear so you give them money.  Takeaway  Here’s my service: I think most of us are eating too much food and not enough fiber or protein. We forget to drink enough water. We have no understanding of how much energy we consume relative to our requirement. I think most of us move too little. And most of us lack physical strength that can make us independent in our day to day life.  Learning to squat well, move your hips and learning to push, pull and carry objects is useful. And there is wide, varied and scalable world of exercises that is exciting and fun when delivered well. And we don’t fight hard enough for a good night’s sleep.  My job is to tell you that these things matter even if you don’t want to hear it.  Worse yet, when you are doing obviously counterproductive things, I should be the one holding up a mirror and telling you remember these priorities. Instead if I cheer you on as you behave poorly, the only masters I serve is your ego and my revenue stream. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Are 10 minute deliveries the problem or what we are getting delivered in 10 minutes the problem ? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/are-10-minute-deliveries-the-problem-or-what-we-are-getting-delivered-in-10-minutes-the-problem-cmcnbj0ga000t149ycx23ei67/ --- There’s outrage over 10 minute deliveries. There’s snapshots of Japanese fast food with boiled egg sandwiches and fresh sushi on the 7/11 store shelves.  Why can’t we have the same options? The fault lies not on our store shelves, but in our food preferences.  Zepto sells the same sugary beverages, stale sandwiches, cream puffs, samosas and puffs Indians have been thulping since independence at local bakeries near homes, schools and offices.  Of course zepto brands it better with more elaborate packaging than the newspaper and brown bags we are used to eating out of.  The question for the consumer. Why are you outraged over what is being sold ?  They are selling you only what the data tells them you buy. If you want avocado salads, defatted peanut ladoos and protein shakes, they will most definitely sell you those things.  Are we pissed with the bad driving habits it encourages? So Indian roads are pleasant sans the delivery guys rushing to meet the 10 minute mark? If I had 100 bucks for every time an MTC or ECR bus driver tried to kill me, I could afford to be Anushka and Virat’s neighbour in London. Aggressive autos and rash pulsars are a cliche in my neighbourhood.  Shaming Zepto or other corporations for using the talent that we have on the roads that we foster to deliver the garbage that we eat feels unfair. To zepto, blinkit and whoever else wants to deliver a bag of lays, a can of coke and a stale egg puff to you in 10 mins. The person to blame is the person eating those 500 cheap calories. Convienience can be healthy and safe. If we demand it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Precision guided habits and skill Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/precision-guided-habits-and-skill-cmcnbfxur000s149yqrflij3n/ --- Precision guided habits and skill versus generic goals and resolutions  I am going to workout everyday  Versus  I will do 10 push ups everyday at 7 am  ———————- I am going to eat more protein  Versus  I will have 2 eggs and a 250 mL serving of Skyr or Greek yoghurt everyday  ———————- I am going to eat salads or juice everyday  Versus  I will have a cup of dal and eat atleast 2 cups of non-starchy vegetables everyday.  ———————- I am going to watch less Netflix everyday and read more  versus  Get through 2 pages between 8 and 10 pm everyday ———————- The more precise and pragmatic the habits you resolve to inculcate, the more likely you are to precisely land exact skills/habits rather than bomb your vague and abstract goals. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Move to heal Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/move-to-heal-cmcnbdxu9000r149y4x0dz9ao/ --- Far too often medical professionals recommend rest and inactivity as tools for recovery from non-traumatic injuries.  This approach is clearly counterproductive. And the opposite camp that espouses movement as part of the solution is fast emerging.  In a nutshell: rare is the injury that requires you to lie still and do absolutely nothing.  Healing and adaptation require loading and movement. A muscle, ligament, tendon requires compressive, stiffening and thoughtful loading to head properly.  More importantly, movement is a skill that we are constantly adapting to.  What are you adapting to when you are not moving? Inactivity is an adaptation. A terribly counterproductive one at that.  Instead of don’t squat at all if you have wear and tear in and around your knees, one needs to reframe it how can I load the knees without hurting them and gradually building tolerance for harder positions.  Same goes for shoulder, hips, back and virtually every other joint capable of articulation. Much like the use it or lose it binary, there is truth to move to heal. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Activity for leisure vs activity for necessity Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/activity-for-leisure-vs-activity-for-necessity-cmcnbclsb000p149yn8o7tant/ --- Do you enjoy brushing your teeth?  How about cleaning your car?  Using the rest room?  There are things we do not because we want to. Not because we like to. But because we have to. The price you pay for not doing it is immediate, cruel and can leave you labelled unpopular or unsavoury to be around. Your mouth smells if you don’t brush your teeth. You smell if you don’t bathe or clean yourself or your clothes thoroughly.  You can drive a dirty car that is seldom serviced. But a well maintained car rides better and is a joy to sit in.  Where am I going with this ?  The sense of urgency or immediacy exists only when the pain, discomfort or loss is palpable and tangible. Most of us need to feel the pain of our choices to proactively do something about it.  When the pain is slow and creeping, it is easier to ignore it or not even feel it. Losing muscle, compromised joint health, degeneration of tendons and diminishing strength are just a few things that are inevitable as you age. Unlike morning breath, most of us do not realise it is happening.  Like you brush your teeth, you need to get a minimum dose of activity. Without too much fuss or thought. You don’t worry about the right brush, right tooth paste. It almost always gets done regardless of circumstances.  The minimum dose of activity is much less than you think. But unfortunately much more than what most of us are doing. Not all of us enjoy this dose. Those of us who do go for larger servings.  If you don’t do what is necessary, you cannot blame genetics and time for the outcomes of inactivity. Ignorance and apathy were the actual killers. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Doctors Without Borders Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/doctors-without-borders-cmcnb9g1i000o149yg8ndk34t/ --- I know everybody wants to build big muscles. Even I was like that. I loved bodybuilding. I used to participate in all these contests, but there's nothing like yoga. Yoga has a magical impact on your life. Believe me, at least for 10-15 minutes every day practice yoga and then, please quit smoking." This is a an excerpt from an interview with a renowned doctor.  Doctors seem to have a free pass on being precise with their communication. I often find them weighing in on all things human body, exercise, fitness and health, even if they can't support their claims with the logic of cause and effect. And the public buys in hook, line and sinker.  The idea that strength training = bodybuilding = big muscles is not just simplistic. It exposes a basic lack of understanding of what strength training and lifting weights can do for a person.  Sure, I am here to sell strength training. But you don’t need a degree or doctorate to be right about something. Strength training is the simple act of making a muscle contract in a specific way to produce force, overcome inertia and possibly produce movement. But by equating strength training to the sport of bodybuilding, the good doctor is essentially telling people that strength training is for vanity, while yoga is for quality of life. This is misleading and wrong.  Strength training gives you precise tool kit of exercises, dosages, equipment, programs, plans, all backed by a clear link between cause and effect. We have a good understanding of what happens to tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles when you perform a certain exercise in fixed doses and frequency. This body of knowledge only grows by the day. Some doctors do their patients a disservice by ignoring the science of strength training and how much it can boost quality of life. I guess one of the symptoms of a God complex is believing you are omnipotent. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The hour of training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-hour-of-training-cmcnb6uty000m149yffgkblfv/ We have 2 coaches handle groups of 10-20 people. Multiple times a day for an hour each time.  A common question:  How do we create an individualised program for each and every client?  We don’t.  We have goals for every client.  12-16 quality sets of squatting.  12-14 quality sets of pushing. 12-14 quality sets of pulling.  12 sets glute ham/ hinge work. And healthy doses of conditioning, hip rotation, shoulder rotation, plank progressions, hanging, abdominal flexion, lateral spinal flexion, spinal flexion-extension etc etc.  We guide clients on how to train intensely. What does a hard set look and feel like? Are you having a good day? Or is it the kind of day to lay low. Is more weight on the bar coming at the cost of stability and depth ? Is it worth it? And most importantly, is the client doing the right exercise given their constraints and capacity. Are they executing the exercise well enough. Are they performing the move with enough awareness and control without paralysing their session by fixating over ‘perfect’ technique? Do they get that intensity cannot compensate for consistency. And consistency cannot do what occasional bouts of intensity can achieve. Volume cannot make up for load and difficulty. Similarly there is a time and place for volume.  New comers get more attention to ensure they know what they need to do and how to do it comfortably.  There are so many important facets to a good training session. An effective plan is the tip of the iceberg. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The fight against nutrition misinformation Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-fight-against-nutrition-misinformation-cmcnb2p0x000l149yea807a05/ --- Who should be allowed to talk about food, eating and nutrition.  I got a bachelors of science degree in biotechnology. I was far from the best student but memorising how cells work for two semesters left me with some elementary understanding of how it works.  I got a diploma in broadcast journalism from the ACJ.  I then got my diploma in Sports Nutrition from the International Olympic Committee.  My approach to nutrition is quantitative and aims to foster habits. Figure out how many potential calories a client needs. Factor for the foods they can eat. Portion it out to ensure the client gets enough protein and fiber. Supplement with an Omega 3 in most cases. Push for adherence by prioritising food inclusion and gradually introduce portion control.  As a thumb rule, if the client needs a calorie deficit (and not all do), use the smallest deficit you can to help them lose weight. If they’re having a hard time improving body composition, use activity to increase calorie expenditure. I am not a fan of large deficits.  I use verified databases from USDA. I base my protein recommendations on studies by Rajavel Elangovan. I factor for quality of protein using DIASS or IAAO scores (whichever is available).  If a client requires lots of hand holding, has several allergies or requires exclusion diets, I refer it out to folks like [Geetha Ghaliyavar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/geethagh/)  If a hypothetical rule came into force that does not allow me talk about nutrition, would it be fair? Would my diploma ‘allow’ me to talk about nutrition to my clients or potential clients?  THE PROBLEMS  If you don’t allow for public engagement, discourse or conversations about nutrition, you drive conversations underground or into private forums. I don’t know about you but i would rather take the misinformation bull by the horns and know who is spewing it rather than have it fly off the radar.  What happens if ‘official’ dietitian’s spew misinformation? Will they be disbarred? How about recommendations to NOT strength train (happens a lot)?  How about the nature of the recommendations? Would Amura and similar organisations that revolve around ‘fighting’ diabetes and insulin resistance come under the radar? How would you deal with recommendations that push for counterproductive, criminally low calorie intake levels. How about diets that don’t recommend atleast a gram of protein per kg a day? How about organisations that hawk blood sugar monitors? AI apps that talk about nutrition?  Takeaway  Dietitians have only one option: dramatically improve the precision and quality of messaging to combat poor quality information that comes from ‘within’ or outside.  The reason slick communicators get so much attention is people want information they can use. And they will take it from anywhere. That vacuum needs filling. And the market does not care if the information comes from a person with or without a degree. It just has to work. Ideally sustainably. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## There are plenty of reasons to not train: Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/there-are-plenty-of-reasons-to-not-train-cmcn0r4vs000a149yv3upew5a/ --- 1\. People are living longer than ever. They are not exactly training or being very active to achieve this outcome. 2\. There are always demands on your time. Exercise doesn’t feel like the most pleasurable way to spend it.  3\. It is not the societal norm. Besant Nagar beach does not have the same vibe as a Bondi. Our open air gyms largely lie in disuse. And you get an unusual amount of scrutiny when you do workout in public. Especially women.  4\. Society gives women with muscles a harder time about how they look. This attitude needs to be disappear. A muscular, mobile body is a healthier, robust body. How is that not a good thing ? 5\. There are more entertaining ways to spend your time. Exercise competes against a zillion, less demanding ways to spend your time and attention.  6\. Is there any payoff to being stronger? In a world where it costs next to nothing to have groceries home delivered, travel luggage dropped at your doorstep, elevators and lifts are ubiquitous, strength seems cheap and unnecessary. You can pay someone to do things that require strength for you.  7\. While a zillion studies, influencers, evangelists and coaches will tell you strength training can sharpen your mental faculties. The evidence for jacked people being the brightest isn’t overwhelming. So it’s hard to take this seriously.  Takeaway  I have to explain to my child everyday why reading can be empowering. The benefits aren’t as obvious as they seem to me. But once you learn to read, it’s hard to go back to not reading. I am not talking Russian classics. Even Tinkle comics do the trick.  I obviously believe there is value to strength and physical independence. It’s not just about longevity. Or avoiding disease. There is something about strength beyond the insulin sensitivity, body composition and vanity that makes it worth your time. The way a good book or a movie can move you in ways that are hard to describe. Strength can give you moments of clarity, independence and joy. I am out of words to sell this feeling. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Thoughts for tokenism Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-03 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/thoughts-for-tokenism-cmcn0nngt0009149y97x10uru/ --- Children watch you everyday and they learn. They learn how to eat, how to move, how to talk and what constitutes normal behaviour, attitudes, expectations and habits.  By the age of 18, the average child has had 20000 meals (closer to 35000 if they eat like they do while they holiday) with their family, friends and/or loved ones.  These were opportunities to show kids how to pick foods, practice portion control, display impulse control, be open to cultures and be tolerant of others food habits. I’d argue the dining table is a terrific learning forum. And it is learning by osmosis. Not just exposition. And that makes it so much more powerful.  You could normalise how healthy, hygienic food is prepared. Why fried food or greasy snacks is not the norm but the exception. Why it is OK to serve yourself just what you need and nothing more. Why paying for food is not a license to overeat.  Why food as an experience is not about volume or value but about savouring every bite.  Why walking away after a bite is sometimes enough. Why walking away from something everyone considers a normal indulgence is necessary.  Why eating habits need to evolve past culture, history and identity.  Why asking for the smallest serving is fine. Why carving out 10 minutes to prepare your own meal, regardless of how simple, is more empowering than waiting 10 minutes after pushing a button.  All this happens through action. We don’t realise how often. It’s a daily case of show don’t tell. And the evidence suggests we are showing them some counterproductive ideas and inculcating habits that are hard to undo.  The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken (Samuel Johnson via Warren Buffett). Let us show kids that eating habits are not chains that tether but rather springboards to a better existence. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Our guide to single leg squats Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-02 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/our-guide-to-single-leg-squats-cmclwf4de005v2c4a35i3ozaa/ I like to try and maintain the same training intensity for my clients online as I do for my clients in person. This is relatively straightforward for upper body moves. Smaller muscles means easier to use bodyweight to create stimulus to get stronger with pushing, pulling and shoulder drills. Now the legs are the trickier game. Squatting and hip thrusts can very quickly become easy. And without enough load, more repetitions alone will not cut it to make people stronger. Enter single leg squatting. Here are some quick pointers before you watch the video: ​ 1. To balance well, focus on one spot. And stare it down intensely. 2. Use as much or little assistance in the form of hands on a wall, window grill, towel or rings to help you squat effectively. 3. The battle for greater range or depth is won over months not weeks or days. Gradually increase your depth while making sure all your joints feel comfortable. 4. Imagine having to apply an even amount of pressure across your entire foot as you squat. Try and avoid letting your weight shift too much as you do the reps. 5. Entire foot planted on the surface. Your heel shouldn't come off. And your weight shouldn't shift suddenly or jarringly. 6. Hips are the boss of the knees. Your knees and hips need to over in sync. Imagine a race between your knees and hips. Both have to start, track each other and finish at the same time. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Our guide to pull ups Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-02 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/our-guide-to-pull-ups-cmclwbqik005u2c4afhns14wr/ _​ _ _​_Pull ups are hard. You are hauling your body against gravity to a bar using your arms and upper back. This is not a move anyone is born performing. It takes time, energy and effort. In this video, I layout a realistic progression. It could take a month to a year to achieve this based on your starting strength levels and persistence. There are enough tutorials out there that incorporate bands, so I gave that approach a skip. There's a move called an inverted row that serves as a good bridge that I will cover later this week. If a pull up is something you've wanted to do, this is a reasonable guide. The lack of brevity is because I wanted it to cover all the bases and be realistic. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## There are three reasons i write. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-02 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/there-are-three-reasons-i-write-cmclw9027005t2c4acna7bpmr/ And more than popularity or recognition, it is for personal profit, clarity and sanity that I write. In that order. My three reasons to be on this forum: To rant There is a degree of activism in some of the things i post about. About Madras, living conditions, beaches, the sense of hopelessness in living here, the absolutely vapid cultural priorities and the corruption and delusion of us as a people. And i don’t write in the hope of finding more people that agree with me. It would drive me mad to think that there are many people who feel the same and that we are powerless to do any thing about the obvious dysfunction. I rant to remind myself that how India is run is not normal or sane. The corruption, filth and chaos is not how people everywhere operate. When I run into someone like Hamsini, Haroon, Rachit, GK or others saying something sane, it is reassuring. But I know nothing will change at a societal level. I write to remind myself to hold on tight to my life vest and maintain the capacity to sprint to a lifeboat while i ride aboard the Titanic. To clarify The personal clarity that comes from writing is invaluable. I also realise the depth of my understanding, conviction and rationale for my coaching and design choices when i am forced to write about it and put it out there for public consumption. And often, i find myself going back to the drawing board, Pubmed or textbooks when i realise: Damn, i did not understand or think that through as much as I thought i had. And when I find myself repeating the same points with no additional insight or information, it’s time to read more and deepen the knowledge base. To profit One of the most surprising things about LinkedIn is the number of clients i have acquired. It’s enough to make the endeavour worth it. And when new people reach out, there is an element of being anxious about living up to how I talk and sound on this forum. But people generally don’t walk away underwhelmed and that’s a relief. It also reminds past clients that i am alive, kicking, doing the same thing in the same old space since 2014. If they would like to jump back in, they know where to find me ! More equipment, better exercise toolkit, more ‘refined’ cueing and same old dour, troll of a human. And I do know of people have benefited from my writing in effecting some change to their eating habits or adopting strength training. I am happy I triggered this change. But I definitely do wonder, how I could have participated in the process to profit from it. All this said, if I did become more popular or more recognised, I would gleefully accept it. Of course there needs to be more profit in it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Conversation with potential client Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-02 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/conversation-with-potential-client-cmclrwopj00522c4aoqmzvcpa/ Client: after a couple of months, I should be able to train by myself at any gym of my choice ?  Me: Yes but here’s the deal..  The norm is you pay for the gym and you pay for coaching separately. This makes sense for some people. Especially if you know how to find/write a program that can give you the adaptation you’re after, know how to train and have a realistic sense of how long it will take to get there. Not to mention understand that you can never stop training or moving. You might change the exercises, intensity or take a week off. But you have to keep at it.  Traditionally you pay a gym for the equipment, adequate space and a few amenities. The what to do in the space comes at a premium. You pay a coach for it. This is the reason gyms don’t resonate with most people. They think they are paying for guidance on how to use the gym. But they are getting access not advice.  It’s akin to buying a car without knowing how to drive it. No lessons are included in the price of the car.  Takeaway  For people to think of gyms as more accessible spaces that work for them, the thing that needs to change is their perception of what they are paying for.  We try to make this clear when people sign up to train with us. You pay for the coach. The access to the gym is free.  We literally have to turn away people who know how to train or point them to other spaces. They don’t need our coaching. And that’s fine. But our space makes sense only if you need our guidance. Both as a business and a community with a certain sensibility.  We teach you how to train. We try to foster independence. But our primary audience is those who don’t want to think too much about their training. They want to get it done and get on with their day. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Getting more from less Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/getting-more-from-less-cmcknd4l7001z2c4a8cof51nc/ It takes less effort, time and energy to eat less and enjoy something mindfully than to over eat and obsess over how many calories you have consumed. You eat a slice of cake. You estimate 300 calories need to be burnt. You decide 40 minutes of running is what it takes to burn it. You buy one slice for 3 people. Take three to four small bites. You take your time with each bite and enjoy the flavours. It’s just 100 calories. You spend the 40 mins instead on push ups, pulling work and squats. Net result: You had your cake and worked towards some muscle too. Takeaway What you spend your daily quota of activity working towards matters. Being able to enjoy something mindfully and in moderation trumps obsessing over sub-par tasting lower-calorie alternatives or worse yet throwing it out for months only to have it re-enter your life with a vengeance. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Think bites and flavour Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/think-bites-and-flavour-cmcknarf1001y2c4asdo1kzm6/ It’s not pragmatic or possible to completely lay off sweets, snacks and calorie-dense food this festive season. We eat to bond, celebrate and enjoy. But also eat with intent. Take a bite, really taste the food that you are eating and take your time with each bite. The second bite is not as flavourful as the first bite. Maybe that’s the time to stop? Or a third bite? You eat sweets, snacks and calorie dense food for taste. It’s not for energy. It’s not for nourishment. It’s only taste. That’s the intent behind eating that food. So eat with intent. Don’t just eat it because the food is sitting there in front of you. Feel free to break a piece into two halves. Eat for flavour. And try and taste what you are eating. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The recreational strength athlete Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-recreational-strength-athlete-cmckjn2t6001q2c4a2i1bf5pt/ --- None of the people in the image below lift weights, train or exercise solely for the sake of vanity, lifting the most weight or compete in any strength sport. They do what they do in their homes and in our gym to improve their everyday lives and how they feel while at work.  They are athletes in that they are good at physical exercise. They have more strength than the average joe or jane. They do it for fun. They fall in a category I call the recreational strength athlete. A person who lifts weights not solely for vanity, sport or maximising strength or endurance. But for a little of all of it.  I propose a more accessible view of the recreational strength athlete. First they are:  \* Not a bodybuilder  \* Not a crossfitter  \* Not a powerlifter  \* Not a strongman  \* Not an Olympic lifter  All those protocols work just fine. They have made millions of people stronger and given trainees a strong sense of purpose and pointed direction. But recreational strength athletes do not fall into those categories. They may occasionally dabble in it. But they cannot be pigeon-holed.  Instead a recreational strength athlete is a person who can : \*Push themselves off a floor they are lying on  \*Pull their chest to a ledge while hanging off it \*Pick things off the floor safely \*Squat to the ground and stand back up \*Roll off the floor and stand up safely \* Sit at the bottom of a squat \*Hang off a bar \*Hop across a puddle  \*Lunge down the stairs \*Lower yourself down a high stool on one leg with the other dangling in the air \*Run up 4-5 flights of stairs without having to breathe too hard  \*Move fluidly with stability when presented with practical obstacles All the patterns I have described above are things you do everyday. They are also exercises that can be practiced, trained and dosed.  I truly believe strength can be framed as an accessible skill anyone can aspire to without the exagerrated images of vanity, performance enhancements, sterile machines and air-conditioned gyms.  Just a person on the beach, in a gym, on a terrace or in their living room moving to make their everyday lives a little simpler. The downside of inactivity and deteroriating health are too subtle to be felt until it’s too late to be reversed. That statement is a corollary of a popular one by Buffett (who borrowed it too): ‘The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken’.  Feeling the pinch is one of my favourite idioms. It’s origins in the 1800’s referred to children having to wear shoes they had outgrown for the sake of austerity.  In the modern context, we use it for finances, health, work and practically any scenario where you feel the pain or consequence of earlier choices or stagnation.  Call it group-think or just comfort in conformity, but as we age our tolerance increases for declining quality of life, popping pills, avoidable doctors visits and declining physical capacity. All those are perfectly avoidable with a little attention from your end.  Takeaway  The resilience of the human body coupled with the miracle of modern day health care means you can almost always improve quality of life and your health. It takes time, energy and resolve. Question is do you want to stop feeling the pinch ? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Unconventional choices Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/unconventional-choices-cmckjlnoc001o2c4a299qnx96/ --- Our training facility isn’t open all day. This is a choice I made since Day 1. And I credit my former employers The Quad in shaping this choice.  We are open for what I call peak demand hours. Much like pubs and restaurants, we are open for business for a few hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and a couple of hours in the evening. We choose to not to remain open all-day.  This choice is based on a few factors: 1\. Majority of our clients will to choose to train either in the morning or evening. A few show up in our packed 11 am batch. It makes no sense to me to have our facility open all day to have a few folks amble in at 10.10 am etc or 2 in the afternoon. 2\. Coaching is a mentally intensive endeavour. I would rather me and the other coaches concentrate our efforts in three quality hours of coaching rather than diffuse our focus across several hours through the day.  3\. Work gets done. There’s a tempo to the training hour. Having a fixed number of people show and train in a planned manner over the hour gets a lot of work done systematically.  4\. Communities get built when people train together.  5\. Carefully planned work and rest. No time wasted. Lots of rapport built.  6\. No-one works in our gym unsupervised. For many reasons including safety, our love of equipment and ensuring people get work done well, we choose to not have unsupervised sessions in our gym. 7\. Having people commit to show up at a specific time and for an hour improves adherence. Takeaway  There is a chunk of the day when the gym is unutilised. Some argue that is suboptimal use. I argue that the gym exists for the coaches to deliver the coaching service.  Framing it this way changes how we view our job: we get paid to coach, not to sell memberships to use equipment. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The cost of doing nothing Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-cost-of-doing-nothing-cmckjidv4001m2c4ayn4lquh4/ --- I received an interesting comment on a post about exercise that can summarized into : Too much exercise or poorly executed exercise can hurt more than it helps.  This is a possibility. How about exercise not done at all ?  How do you measure the loss in strength, quality of life and independence.  There’s an opportunity cost to tendons not stiffened.  Ligaments without strong bones.  Bones that lose density.  And not enough muscle to produce force, decelerate and resist as you age and live your life.  You really can’t put a price to these things. And if you live your life constantly worried that activity can hurt more than help. A life without activity is hurting much more than it is helping. We just assume that’s the norm. It isn’t.  Takeaway  If you can’t find a way to systematically move without help, find someone who can help you move with confidence and competence. It will challenge your worldview. You will be stronger for it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Shilling for mindfulness Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/shilling-for-mindfulness-cmckjhdlr001l2c4abojv2dcc/ --- Sport analogies can apply to the act of eating too. When you are done drawing leadership lessons, learning to manage people and sell stuff from watching people play a sport, you could draw a simple lesson from sport on how to eat effectively.  At some point in the recurring act picking up food off the plate, putting it in your mouth, chewing it and swallowing it, you stop tasting it.  This point might be at the second bite or sip. Or it might be the third bite. Or the fifteenth.  The third bite simply isn’t as delicious as the first bite. And by the fifteenth bite, you might as well be chewing on air.  But when you are distracted on a phone call, in a conversation, watching a video, movie or a sport, browsing through content, you don’t care how the food or beverage tastes. You are just chewing and swallowing. This habit hurts.  Think of food as a sport. You need to focus on the task at hand. In this case the task is consuming the food/beverage in front of you.  Every swing you take matters. Every ball you bowl needs to count. Stop eating when you can’t taste what you are eating or drinking.  Take a few seconds to savour what you are eating. There is a good chance you will eat a lot less if you took a moment to actually enjoy the food in front of you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Not so great expectations Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/not-so-great-expectations-cmckjfd30001k2c4a94hgvb3q/ I have been glib with the use of the term ‘quality of life’. I do believe training consistently improves it. But what are the different things that constitute ‘quality of life’?  I have no expectation of being able to hike along a river or water body in Madras on a daily basis. The water body below is a kilometer from my house. It has the potential to be a terrific hiking or cycling path. But I’ve seen engine oil, chromate, plastic, thermocol, faeces and a variety of chemicals dumped in it.  I have zero expectation that Madras will change and become a place conducive for good health let alone an active lifestyle.  I’ll have more luck winning a diversity visa lottery program than expect any Indian urban space to be good for activity in my lifetime. I don’t let this get to me.  Here is what I control \*How I spend my time \*What I spend on food, water and a relatively safe and clean home  \*Who I hang out with and what they expect in terms of time and attention \*What is a good time according to the people who I surround myself with every single day.  \*My food intake  \*My activity levels  \*Planning my day to avoid traffic  \*Finding a training community I enjoy  \*Setting up a conducive environment to move, train, sleep and deal with things as calmly as possible.  \*My tolerance for physical hardship such as a strenuous run, hike or even moving furniture over a few floors. \*My capacity to lift and interact with everyday physical objects without assistance.  \*Being strong improves the odds of bouncing back from illness or accidents.  \*Even when I am hurt or injured, i can be physically more useful than most people. \*My lifestyle and independence should be unaffected by age. This is impossible but worth aspiring to.  \*Travel outside the country or to a lesser known locale once a year to enjoy the great outdoors or even a civil urban scape.  Here’s what I don’t control and don’t expect in my lifetime  \*Air quality to be good  \*Water quality  \*Upkeep of public spaces  \*Expecting any kind of common area for comfortable physical activity.  \*Civil traffic that respects footpaths, running paths, cycle paths. \*Consistently expect maintenance of exercise or training equipment in a public setting.  \*Clean, hygienic and healthy food in most restaurants. \*A general population that can respect the amazing coastline and beautiful rivers,lakes and forests that span across the city. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Activity for leisure vs activity for necessity Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/activity-for-leisure-vs-activity-for-necessity-cmckjekk8001j2c4aqwthlfc8/ --- Do you enjoy brushing your teeth?  How about cleaning your car?  Using the rest room?  There are things we do not because we want to. Not because we like to. But because we have to. The price you pay for not doing it is immediate, cruel and can leave you labelled unpopular or unsavoury to be around. Your mouth smells if you don’t brush your teeth. You smell if you don’t bathe or clean yourself or your clothes thoroughly.  You can drive a dirty car that is seldom serviced. But a well maintained car rides better and is a joy to sit in.  Where am I going with this ?  The sense of urgency or immediacy exists only when the pain, discomfort or loss is palpable and tangible. Most of us need to feel the pain of our choices to proactively do something about it.  When the pain is slow and creeping, it is easier to ignore it or not even feel it. Losing muscle, compromised joint health, degeneration of tendons and diminishing strength are just a few things that are inevitable as you age. Unlike morning breath, most of us do not realise it is happening.  Like you brush your teeth, you need to get a minimum dose of activity. Without too much fuss or thought. You don’t worry about the right brush, right tooth paste. It almost always gets done regardless of circumstances.  The minimum dose of activity is much less than you think. But unfortunately much more than what most of us are doing. Not all of us enjoy this dose. Those of us who do go for larger servings.  If you don’t do what is necessary, you cannot blame genetics and time for the outcomes of inactivity. Ignorance and apathy were the actual killers. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why you do what you do Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/why-you-do-what-you-do-cmckjcxlw001i2c4ajbpskoiq/ --- We tend to think that knowledge, once acquired, is something permanent. Instead, even holding on to it requires constant, careful effort.  Maciej Ceglowski  Replace the word knowledge in the above quote with strength, technique, habit, mobility, conditioning levels, eating habits, sleeping habits, laying off screens etc.  Every small or big win needs to be celebrated. Every priority, goal, habit needs constant reinforcement. And every new habit needs to be prioritised and fought for with a vengeance. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Relationship with food Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/relationship-with-food-cmckjb8rl001h2c4avtp5x66f/ --- Our interaction with the food we eat every day is romanticised to our collective detriment. A food can taste good, it can make you feel good and it can evoke memories. But calling it a relationship is a stretch. Let’s call it what it is: A transaction. We transact for our food. The way we pay for transport. We pay for shelter. We pay for food. This is especially true since most of us reading this are not directly involved in growing the food we consume. We feel comfort while in our home. But we don’t have a relationship with our house.  We have a relationship with our body. When we eat something, our body is directly impacted by it. Eat too much, we put on weight. Eat too little, we are malnourished. Some of us absorb more, others less. Every food gives us different amounts of the different nutrients. Every single food is broken down into its constituent chemicals in the body which is itself a chemical soup. We decide what nutrients our body needs and how much it gets.  Food does not care whether we ate it or not. Food gets digested, some of it incorporated into the body. Most of it lost. It is our head that manufactures all the things we feel as we eat. And our body pays the long term price for all our food decisions. So let’s call it what it is: our transaction with food affects our relationship with our body. Pretending like that transaction can’t be quantified and complicating it leaves all of humanity worse off. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Clarity of purpose Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/clarity-of-purpose-cmckjalx0001g2c4acu917swu/ --- Probiotics can’t make up for a calorie deficit  Exclusion diets alone can’t do for joint health and arthritis what movement can  Quality of food can’t make up for protein or fiber insufficiency  Nuts and flaxseed can’t give the same quantum or quality of omega 3 that algal oil, fish or krill oil will  Strength training cannot create the calorie deficits that portion control can  Yoga cannot elicit the same strength adaptation that strength training does  Your mobility is pointless without stability and strength. This relationship goes three ways No amount of ice bath can make up for sleeping well and sufficiently  Not all inflammation is bad . Some inflammation is actually necessary Takeaway  Every single thing you do has a unique benefit. Having clarity on what exactly every action does or why something matters can help you decide how much time and attention the intervention deserves. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The right stuff Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-right-stuff-cmckj9hsk001f2c4a61ooh1b8/ --- There is such a thing as the  right amount of crazy right amount of intensity right amount of conviction right amount of intensity  right amount of obsession  right amount of skepticism And a degree of self awareness  It’s not quantifiable. It’s for the lack of a better word: a vibe.  I am all for living a long and healthy life. When your time is up, you try and leave with grace and are grateful for the good times.  I am all for how some people push science and our understanding of ageing and death. That is a necessity for helping those who might be afflicted with disease or conditions when they are young or worse yet children.  However some folks in the longevity crowd bring a disconcerting intensity or obsession to the idea of cheating death or prolonging life.  It’s what bodybuilding was. The same holier than thou or moral crusader vibe that veganism has. Or those espousing a carnivore diet as a panacea. Or intermittent fasting being the best thing ever. Or CrossFit with its undiscerning dosages, running groups with bonkers volume or yoga practitioners who think it’s the solution for everything.  There’s a thin line between the right dose of most things and a lifestyle that is all consuming to a disconcerting degree.  Our food supply needs work. But it has never been perfect and it never will be.  At every point in human history, we pay a price for progress in one sphere with a penalty in another. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## There were no gyms in ancient India Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/there-were-no-gyms-in-ancient-india-cmckj8e9l00162c4a3y68fhlh/ --- A recent comment thread discussing low penetration of gym memberships produced some polarising interpretations. This isn’t uncommon given almost every single facet of our life has a xxxxx-wing or ideology attached to it.  Predictably gym memberships, protein isolates were labelled imports. As opposed to yoga and our traditional foods as indigenous and up to the task.  Here’s my idea of the elements that constitute a good life: 1\. Shelter  2\. Clean air  3\. Clean water  4\. Hygienic food  5\. Access to quality learning resources (aka parts of the Internet)  6\. Cost effective ways to stay active and promote longevity and independence. 7\. A food supply chain that seeks to put all the nutrients that we know promote optimal growth in every single persons plate. This is not just hygienic or indigenous. This is culture keeping up with science.  8\. The ability to participate in the market economy with the fewest barriers and least friction. 9\. The ability for every person to tap into their genetic potential and exploit their skill set to compete in the market place.  Gym memberships, strength training, good coaching and cost-effective protein and fiber are not pawns in globalisation or Western hegemony.  They are the most effective and proven paths to 5,6, 7 and 9. Protein is crucial for growth and brain development. It’s crucial for muscle retention and bone health. We can all agree that’s a good thing right?  Same goes for strength training. It’s the easiest way to keep muscle on your frame.  Not embracing these tools is the equivalent of rejecting concrete and steel to make cost-effective shelters in favour of stone construction. The latter may work. But not everyone will have access to it.  Saying no to what works simply because our ancestors did not have access to it does not strike me as pragmatic or competitive. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Sweet nothings Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/sweet-nothings-cmckj5ht800132c4at2r7d3gf/ --- Corporations excel at the art of saying a lot without meaning anything. All their talk will not stop them from taking our money. Nor should it. Apps to see how you use your phone such as Screen Time have existed for a while and most of us simply ignore it. What next ? Will Apple packaging feature a photo of a dinner table with family members staring at their phone, ignoring a meal as a wailing mother protests? We keep arguing that food packaging needs to be clearer about portion sizes, macronutrient content. But putting a diseased lung did not stop anyone from smoking. Are we going to plaster a photo of an obese person’s funeral on a packet of Bournvita? We fetishise marketing, communication and packaging at the expense of better ingredients. That pack of Bournvita cost Cadburys next to nothing to produce. 90% of the price probably went to packaging, administrative and marketing costs. Corporations can pick up milk protein for between 30 paisa and 50 paisa per gram. Essential fatty acids cost more. Bournvita sells for 40 paisa per gram. They cannot sell you anything better. And they don’t want to either. Expecting a corporation to serve up something healthy is naive if not stupid. They serve one master: shareholder capital. Customer well-being will be sacrificed at the altar of short term profits even if it means they will have no customers in fifty years. Nestle has been accused of actively promoting infant formulae over breast feeding in sub Saharan Africa. Nestle’s infant formula is not cheap. This behaviour is the norm, corporates are manipulative trolls who will say anything to sell us overpriced crap. They have done next to nothing to earn trust. The only way to show them we mean business is to not let them hear the sweet ding from our UPI app. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Standing up for your choices Author: Unknown Published: 2025-07-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/standing-up-for-your-choices-cmck9or0s000d2c4abzv0n9jr/ Next time someone asks you why: 1\. Your plate looks lean 2\. You need to crash early instead of going out 3\. Carry around a giant gallon of water 4\. Carry around a small serving of protein powder 5\. Have your workout gear ready to go 6\. Why you enjoy talking about your workout 7\. Like to sneak in 30 mins even on holiday to get a quick bit of activity 8\. Love pacing after your lunch. And sneak in your phone calls while walking. 9\. Your home has a nice little corner carved up for training and has gym equipment stacked up in a corner. 10\. You workout when you are so ‘thin’ 11\. You are not afraid that lifting weights will make you look bigger Stand up for your choice. Don’t be defensive. Don’t apologise. Don’t change the topic. Don’t give elaborate explanations. Look the person in the eye and tell them: I enjoy making these choices and this choice means a lot to me. No explanation needed. Enough people do this and people stop wondering why and wonder why am I not trying this too. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The limitation of labels Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-30 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-limitation-of-labels-cmcite279000rl29z7af29m09/ When a potential client calls and asks us ‘are you a CrossFit or Hyrox gym?’ Or ‘do you do functional training?’ Or ‘do you have HIIT workouts?’, my answer is: ‘We borrow and steal elements from anything and everything to get the job done while avoiding labels for ourselves’. Labels are useful and familiar. But labels are also limiting. Our approach is straightforward. Why get tethered or anchored down to one label? As a coach, I want the option to use isometrics, concentric, eccentrics, plyometrics, loaded stretching, eccentric, different zones, powerlifting, conditioning, weightlifting and pretty much any tool we think would be most useful for our clients and get them to their goals ASAP. Takeaway What we ambiguously like is plenty of range of motion, very stable execution, building tolerance gradually for all positions, find exercise variants that you enjoy doing (not sacrosanct about exercises or tools) and find a way to progress it gradually. I run a training space. As a client, you have a goal or goals. We have tools, moves and a clock to get you there. We want to use everything we can to get the job done without worrying about what to call ourselves. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Layman questions to ask about any study Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/layman-questions-to-ask-about-any-study-cmchfwzky002fj102w2g07wob/ --- How many people were part of the study?  If the study is based on other studies, how big were the groups studied in those.  Was the information collected reliable? Often studies need people to reliably recall how much they ate, what foods they ate and when they ate.  Is the study saying X causes Y. Or that we noticed that whenever X is there, Y is also sometimes there. U,V and W also matter. But we can’t tell how it all ties together yet. Or how much much each seems to matter.  If it’s saying X causes Y, do they know how X causes Y. Or are they saying people with X inevitably get Y. We don’t know how yet.  Are the people in the study representative of how people normally behave?  Do things like the portion sizes, food chosen and habits studied approximate real world behaviour?  Is it a study on humans?  Are the people being studied kind of like you? Not always relevant. But when the effects of exercise is being studied. Age, height, sex, training experience all matter.  Did the person giving you advice based on the paper read the full paper?  Who paid for the study? This sometimes affects the takeaway. But not always.  Have you picked a study that justifies/suits your agenda, bias, practice or habits ? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Being flexible with your workouts Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/being-flexible-with-your-workouts-cmchehirq002dj10214hjqt21/ If you have struggled to sustain an exercise habit (or any habit), odds are you are biting off more than you can chew.  I am short on time today. I don’t have the luxury of an hour for exercise. I put on my 22 kg backpack and belt out sets of 3 chin-ups right after 20 single arm push ups (finished in 15 mins). It took me a total of 25 minutes. To make it easy to fill my backpack with a pliable weight, I keep two small bags filled with 11 kgs of 10 mm steel balls (about [2500-3000](tel:2500-3000) steel balls is what it takes). This flexibility is a necessity.  Are you chunking off too much time to exercise? And refusing to do anything less. The inflexibility is hurting your odds of getting any work in. That makes it harder to make it a habit.  Probable solution: Have a plan for what you can do in 10 mins, 20 mins, 30 mins, 45 mins and 60 mins.  Is your training plan too complex?  Are there too many exercises? Are there too many repetitions and sets? Is the plan unclear about what it aims to achieve? Are the exercises too difficult to progress with? Or have you picked exercises that you cannot perform competently or safely? Probable solution: Start by aiming to gain competence with 5-6 exercises appropriate for your starting point and goals. You should need no more to an 10-15 mins per exercise. This helps with the first problem too.  Takeaway  Pragmatic goals, plans and exercises trump idealistic goals and stretch targets. Habits are a function of successful execution. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Blaming on weight training what needs to be blamed on calorie surpluses and your eating habits Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/blaming-on-weight-training-what-needs-to-be-blamed-on-calorie-surpluses-and-your-eating-habits-cmchebcbg002cj102h5ubnnv7/ --- Most people who say they gained weight or packed on ‘mass’ when they started strength training are getting wrong.  This behaviour is akin to blaming a scammer for the loss of 500 bucks when you have a spending problem that sees you waste 50000 bucks. Strength training being the scammer and your eating habits being the spending problem.  They introduced a new activity in their life. Said activity led to fatigue. Fatigue led to perception of hunger. Hunger led to eating too much. And the energy derived from eating too much deposits as visceral or adipose fat.  Most people like to believe that they trained hard, ate the usual amount of food and they quickly packed on muscle.  But this is not true. Muscle is incredibly hard to pack on.  The training intensity required to put on muscle is much higher than most people imagine. A few curls or squats are not going to cut it. It’s multiple exercises performed at a fairly high intensity with reasonable load. Sweating a lot, stretching a lot or working at an elevated heart rate is not the same as training a muscle sufficiently to grow.  The problem is you’re eating too much. You are overestimating how much energy you spent on strength training. Worse yet, you have no clue how much energy you spent on training or activity through the day and you ate far too much relative to what you spent.  The most objective way to tell if you are actually carrying muscle ? Get a DEXA scan on a properly calibrated scanner (some Indian clinics are poorly calibrated). The results will puncture the egos of many a skinny fat folk who delude themselves as only carrying 12 percent or 15 percent body fat. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## It’s easy forget why we train? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/its-easy-forget-why-we-train-cmche0f85002aj102g4j8gyb2/ --- For some it’s about a perfect selfie. For some it is about dealing with pain. For some it is looking good in an outfit.  For others the strength they feel is empowering.  For others it’s a sport. A perfect bicep peak or perfect squat is like a perfect forehand or cover drive.  But for most of us, if life is a sport with walking, hanging, random play in the sea, and hiking down a pile of rocks to get to a gorgeous beach or up a beautiful hill, fitness is just preparation for the sport of life.  There’s no selfie. There is no view. There’s no event or function we are preparing for. There is no jeans to fit in. There’s just everyday life and being able to do all that one encounters with no inhibition or second thought. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Kids and strength training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/kids-and-strength-training-cmchdxcj40029j102mrovazy2/ --- Most parents are terrified of kids lifting weights or even training at a gym. The concerns: \*Any kind of loading will damage bones  \*Any kind of loading will hamper growth All bones are constantly getting rebuilt. One of the key stimulus for rebuilding: Compression through activity under the auspices of earth’s gravity. Astronauts lose 20 percent of their bone mass since they operate in the absence of gravity and the compression it produces. This means weaker bones.  All human activity produces compression of the skeletal system. This compression is a crucial stimulus for bones to get denser and healthier. Lifting weights, jumping and higher impact activity produces more stimulus for denser bones. Kids and adults both need compression for healthy bones. Kids adapt and reflect the physical stimulus they are subject to since they are rapidly growing and building tissue.  The only kind of damage that can be counterproductive is damage to the end of bones. Regions called epiphyseal plates. This is where bone growth happens. To quote Breeland, Sinkler & Menezes: \-While bone is replacing cartilage in the diaphysis, cartilage continues to proliferate at the ends of the bone, increasing bone length. These proliferative areas become the epiphyseal plates (physeal plates/growth plates), which provide longitudinal growth of bones after birth and into early adulthood.- Lifting weights, sport and plyometric activity is not detrimental to epiphyseal plates. But what can damage growth according to the Mayo Clinic: \-If a fracture goes through a growth plate, it can result in a shorter or crooked limb. A growth plate fracture affects the layer of growing tissue near the ends of a child's bones. Growth plates are the softest and weakest sections of the skeleton — sometimes even weaker than surrounding ligaments and tendons.- Kids don’t fulfil their growth potential or could have less than optimal growth outcomes when they damage their growth plate. The more obvious and common reason for not fulfilling growth potential: Malnourishment. Not enough calories, protein, Omega 3 and other micronutrients as they grow up.  TAKEAWAY \*Kids and adults need activity that produces compression. Compression is necessary to healthy bone development.  \*Depriving them of random activity and a systematic exercise program deprives them of the necessary stimulus during crucial growth years.  \*Protein intake, calcium, Vitamin D, Omega 3 are among the crucial nutrients kids need along with sufficient activity and calories to produce strong healthy bones, joints and muscle.  \*If you want to produce an adult with high basal metabolic rate and be able to sustain high levels of activity and strength, your best bet is to lay down the habits, bone and muscle early in life. It is impossible to produce the same results later in life. In summary kids need to play, run, climb and some systematic training can enhance their ability to do the first 3 things --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Things that you don’t control Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/things-that-you-dont-control-cmchdpkz10026j10259c6r3ai/ --- There are stressors in your daily life that you control and can avoid : neighbours, family members, friends, social events, family gatherings, unpleasant holidays, pointless meals. The list is long and you generally know when you can avoid something that stresses you out with nothing useful to show for it.  Then there is your everyday environment: urban chaos, pollution, road rage, work hour traffic, work place politics, unsavoury environment at home. Things that are incredibly hard to change or manipulate. No easy answers. Someone has to make very hard decisions to opt out of this. It is economically and emotionally challenging.  I personally know. I decided 11 years ago, I could not commute on Indian roads on a daily basis to make a living. I found a space for my gym 150 meters from my home. It is a relatively peaceful neighbourhood. Not everyone has that privilege. But we have to start somewhere. And these choices matter more than you imagine.  At some point, the economic advantages of living in a dense, commercially vibrant urban environment will be far outweighed by how much harm it inflicts on our health and need for quiet and space.  Our person tolerance for this  harshness varies. But make no mistake. We pay a price for this literally and metaphorically toxic, mis-managed and ill-planned environment. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Quality is an attitude of mind Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/quality-is-an-attitude-of-mind-cmchdjy380024j1029oae5f3w/ --- Quality is an attitude of mind Norman Foster  We get called value conscious. But I see that as a euphemism for an unwilligness to spend time, pay attention or part with money for anything that spells quality or attention to detail.  Rule breaking, corruption, public nuisance, lack of hygiene standards, tightly cramped buildings, spitting, public urination, phones blaring music or movies in public spaces or transportation all point to a population that has no objective desire for a higher quality of life. Worse yet it indicates an indifference or apathy to the plight of your fellow inhabitants.  Just the other day, I saw a freshly erected metro pillar being urinated upon by three workers from three sides. I really wish I had clicked a photo. It was too gross to be true. But it was.  And our paan problem is well documented too.  As economist Rathin Roy points out the GDP per capita makes no difference. North, South and West are equally indifferent or equal offenders.  Pride in clean surroundings, hygienic food, ample lighting in our personal spaces, quiet, calm environment’s and the willingness to see value in quality is not an inevitable consequence of prosperity. These are qualities not of prosperity or education. But are an attitude of mind we sorely lack. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Coaching never stops being a client facing job. Ever. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/coaching-never-stops-being-a-client-facing-job-ever-cmchdfb1t0023j102xh3r43v7/ --- Before a client signs up, everything they hear about what it is like to train with you, the experience, the results and of course how competent you are at your job.  When they sign up, they need to understand why you are worth their time and premium. This calls for a great deal of clarity on the coaches end. Mainly that they are no buying access to my gym equipment. They are paying for a coaches judgement and to participate in three hours of thoughtfully curated activity.  After they sign up, how is their experience going? Are you accessible enough? Is the coaching experience good? A good time or enjoying the vibe might keep them going for a few months. But results in the form of greater mobility or quality of life is a must for a client to keep it going.  And if they drop out, it is critical to know why. Is it scheduling? Is it a case of they could use more attention? Or is it a case of our programme and their goals not matching.  Even as my client base grows, I’ve tried my best to be accessible to all my clients: potential, current or past.  I talk to them all. I sign them up. It’s my contact number on the website. The price I pay is slightly delayed responses versus a sales person who’s always ready to go. The reward is a good pulse on what people are looking for, how they found us and sharpening my capacity for delivering a quick, crisp pitch for why I think my gym is an awesome place to train and why our online coaching is distinct. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## You don't matter Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/you-dont-matter-cmchd5gs10022j102j5dztpku/ --- You don't matter  That says it all.  How we feel about public spaces. How we feel about the personal safety about our loved ones and ourselves. And how little say or control we have over those things.  If you have a rundown road, broken streetlight, clogged storm drain and no sewer line. The only way to get any public amenities or attention is to hope and pray someone from the civil services or affiliated to a political party moves into the neighbourhood. Or maybe if an election is around the corner, they want you to have pleasant thoughts about the system. You may run into the occasional person who does their job. But these brave souls are far and few.  The lack of care for one's work is evident in roads, offices, highways, airports, railways, parks and most services really. It feels like a logical extension of our indifference to our physical capacities, environment and food.  I have no clue what threshold of power or wealth one has to cross to gain any degree of agency or influence to improve the public sphere.  But I am guessing it's easier to flee it all and head for the less populated hinterlands or just go anywhere really. As is evidenced by efflux of immigrants, passports and pincodes are easier to change than people's attitudes.  And just reduce your interaction and dependence with agents or services of the government for anything related to quality of life. Akin to reducing our carbon footprint, we can call this our regime footprint and try and reduce this footprint to a pinky print. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Small is good Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-29 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/small-is-good-cmchd2tj60021j102c061zy15/ --- A business that pays its own bills, funds its own dreams, and builds loyal customers. That’s freedom. That’s success. Dilip Kumar Such a terrific line! I wish I had come up with it.  For the longest time, I’ve been looking for a way articulate why we are happy running one gym in a quiet corner by the beach in Madras and a large online service. And we are not looking for a second location. And most definitely not trying to franchise etc.  The freedom to explore is such a powerful motivator. We do some incredibly irrational things that most businesses would not: 1\. The gym is locked for 18 out of 24 hours a day for clients. The 6 hours we are open we run a service run by coaches. We work only during peak hours. We try and turn every hour that we work into a peak hour. 2\. We are constantly upgrading our space with new equipment and iterating on existing equipment. Clients don’t ask for this. We do it because we have better ideas that are worth acting upon. 3\. We only have monthly memberships. Clients, old or new, pay us for a month at a time. If they don’t enjoy how we coach, they walk away. They don’t pay for what they don’t use. And if we do our job, we get paid every month.  4\. No torn upholstery, no bent or rusted barbells and a weight tree that ensures no queues for equipment.  5\. Weird bets on novel equipment that you won’t find elsewhere. Our coaching feeds into our equipment fabrication. And our equipment feeds into coaching choices. Our push up and pull up progressions are nuanced and ahead of the curve. And we’ve got 10-12 ways to squat to find the most comfy way to progress the client. Few gyms have 5 glute-ham raise stations. Some of these choices are counter-intuitive and leave money on the table or burn it in a welding workshop for a better experience for clients and coaches. Short term returns be damned. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Self awareness and training expectations Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-28 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/self-awareness-and-training-expectations-cmcg698sg001212oka61u2i9v/ Keeping it honest in the gym is the simplest yet most challenging thing.  There is always going to be someone stronger than you. Bigger than you. More jacked than you. More experienced than you. Someone who lifts more than you. Someone who makes it look easier than you can. And someone who can make it look simpler than it is for you. They can get away with eating a lot more junk than you can. Or the eating well part comes more naturally for them than it will for you. The allure of parties and friends is less attractive for them. They’re geared and wired differently.  And every single person who steps foot in a gym will face this dilemma.  What you have is your progress. Your adherence. Your discipline. And whatever it is that drives you to make the choices you make.  Keeping it real and being honest is simple. At any point, you should have some handle on how well you are moving. If could be video logs of training or a training log. Are you squatting as low as you can. Is your form on your pull ups or chin ups as good as can be. At a minimum, are you making some progress? Or are you blissfully unaware on the ways in which you are getting better.  Worse yet, are you delusional enough to believe you are progressing when all the evidence shows otherwise? This happens a lot! Especially when you have coaches and a community validating your lack of progress as great work! I’ve seen people walk in with all kinds of baggage. I am this old and my recovery sucks. Or I used to lift in college, it’s been downhill since. The most popular delusion is: I am a former athlete, but it’s been downhill since.  The beauty of training or any other athletic endeavour is simple: The proof is in the capacity to do and show rather than tell and proclaim.  Honesty and clarity matter. Only if you know what you are doing, can you know why you have what you have to show for it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Adaptations don't care what they are called Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-28 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/adaptations-dont-care-what-they-are-called-cmcg35p62000x12oksyvrlby7/ --- \*Yoga makes you flexible \*Strength training makes your muscles stronger \*Cardio makes your heart stronger  The body really does not care how you categorise movement or activity. It gets the job done. And if the job is strenuous, it adapts and becomes better suited to getting the job done. My basic grouse is compartmentalising specific adaptations behind marketing categories.  You can get plenty of flexibility, mobility and stability with deep single leg squats. So that’s strength training producing that.  You can get very strong traps and neck muscles with headstand work. That’s a pattern we traditionally associate with yoga.  Your cardio-vascular recovery capacity is significantly boosted by circuit training. That’s strength training producing an adaptation we think of as cardio.  And the calf muscles on someone who is terrific at jump rope or sprint cycling? That’s cardio producing an adaptation we think of as strength.  Adaptations don’t fall neatly into the compartments we assign to them as activity categories.  Real world adaptations are messy, diverse and rarely linear.  Embracing that by deconstructing patterns, activity and movement has a lot of value by helping us understanding what we gain by doing certain movements in different doses. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Silence is golden Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-28 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/silence-is-golden-cmcg33sb9000w12ok85igqnij/ ‘One day man will have to fight noise as fiercely as cholera and pest’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Koch in 1910 Both observational and experimental studies indicate that in particular night-time noise can cause disruptions of sleep structure, vegetative arousals (e.g. increases of blood pressure and heart rate) and increases in stress hormone levels and oxidative stress, which in turn may result in endothelial dysfunction and arterial hypertension. [https://lnkd.in/gd4EGD\_x](https://lnkd.in/gd4EGD_x) Epidemiological studies have shown that noise caused by air, road, and rail traffic has a dose-dependent association with elevated cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. [https://lnkd.in/gcTgedHr](https://lnkd.in/gcTgedHr) There’s atleast a 100 studies out there talking about how noise pollution tends to mess with your health at many many levels. The evidence is overwhelming.  But forget the evidence. Just ask yourself, what was your experience. The edgy feeling while sitting in traffic. A loud loudspeaker blaring at 5 in the morning. A family munching and bellowing on a train.  You know life is better sans unnecessary noise. You feel less anxious, less stressed and time almost slows down.  No easy solutions though. Beat the traffic when you can. Get great windows, thick curtains/blinds and live as far away as you possibly can from dense or mixed-use neighbourhoods. Needless to say make or generate as little noise as you can. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Diet culture Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-28 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/diet-culture-cmcg2ygsz000u12okr0kxdt91/ --- People hate diets or the idea of it. So much so, that they think there’s a culture to it. And all the science behind it is also a sham that doesn’t work.  I didn’t enjoy going to school or college very much.  You don’t see me calling civics, moral science, history or a second language like Hindi or French a waste of time or denounce education, reading, writing, math and organised learning in institutions.  You not being able to adhere to a rigid set of rules that underpin an effort to lose, maintain or gain weight does not make the rules wrong. Calorie deficits, surpluses, high satiety foods, foods effective at satiation, increasing the amount of fiber you eat or picking quality sources of protein or dietary fat are effective habits rooted in science.   A rigid set of dietary recommendations starts with a calorie intake level and individual targets for protein, fat, carbohydrate, micronutrients and water. Foods are picked to fit those targets. This approach definitely works but it can be incredibly challenging. It might require you to make extensive changes to how much food you are eating, what foods you are eating, when you eat and how you prep the food you are eating. This move is the hardest intervention one can pull off. Yet, this drastic intervention is what most people gravitate towards. It takes a great deal of conviction, will-power and motivation to stick with a rigid plan. And when you stick to it, the results are predictable and self-evident.  But it takes a lot of time and energy that most people can’t muster up. And when they fail, they blame the science, the process and label it a culture that failed them.  In reality, they picked a game they did not have the skill or time for. But there are plenty of people playing the game and having a good time with and a lot to show for it. Hate the player, not the game. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Accidental hypertrophy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-28 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/accidental-hypertrophy-cmcg2wqm5000t12okmhvsvhn0/ --- ![IMG_C6819DE45135-1.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/imgc6819de45135-1-1751105360220-compressed.jpeg) I don’t do transformation stories, but this was too good to pass. 1\. What did you eat? At least 102 species of plants mostly leaves and lots of fruit. By fruit I mean figs. Like kilos of figs a day. Not the dried, tough chewing gum crap homosapiens eat. Softer, watery figs which feel like a baby’s bum. Speaking of baby bums, I occasionally go through a monkey or two. But those assholes don’t venture into my territory often. So I get to eat them once in 40 days. I do make up for it with termites. Eating termites also keeps my home safer. They’re packed with protein. A woman named Jane tried giving me some milk once. It helped for a couple of months. But I don’t have thumbs to milk cows so I went back to eating monkeys and termites for protein. Fun fact: I get about 15-20 grams of protein from figs. Leaves give me a bit too. But I mostly eat leaves for the fiber so I have faeces to fling at my neighbours. I do treat myself to the occasional tortoise since they are rich in anti-oxidants. But what the hell, everything is rich in anti-oxidants. 2\. What did you do to get jacked? Mostly I throw faeces at my neighbours to build shoulder and arm strength. Climbing trees is how I get to my home. I occasionally get into a fight over property and or food. Climbing trees and throwing faeces helps with that. Beating the shit out of monkeys before eating them help with fights too. 3\. Any other takeaways? I can’t tell you how important it is to sleep 10 hours everyday. It gives me an edge over those baboons who haven’t figured out how to chill out and lie on some bamboo yet. Idiots are so riled up and who sleeps sitting still ? So behind the evolutionary curve! Spending 40% of the day sleeping and 50% eating is key to jacked deltoids. 4\. 50% on eating ? How much do you eat? Isn’t that stressful? How else does one get through 5-10 percent of their body weight in food a day. I am a pretty chill chimp usually, but I do get stressed when I have to interact with the other sex. But as the famous ape adage goes, if it ain’t broke, keep it simple and throw faeces at it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The moment I stopped lifting weights, all my muscle turned into fat. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-moment-i-stopped-lifting-weights-all-my-muscle-turned-into-fat-cmcf073o90008rwcck0k4xyds/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0227-1751040343943-compressed.jpeg) Here’s another absurd belief that needs to be vanquished.  Muscles exist to contract and produce force. Activity is the reason muscle exists. And strength training is activity designed to maximise the muscles capacity to get work done.  Muscle does not just disappear the moment you stop training. Like a parked Porsche, muscle lays in limbo waiting for activity and a chance to work. The longer it remains idle, the more work it will take to get it started.  After a while, the Porsche rusts away and can’t be used. But at no point does the Porsche become a Wagon-R.  Takeaway Here’s what happens when you stop training: 1\. The muscle gradually goes away. Simply because, systematic activity or regular load bearing activity is the reason muscle exists in the first place. When the stimulus stops, the muscle slowly but surely starts to go away.  2\. Strength training is not the most energy intensive thing one can do. But it provides the best value for time spent in terms of improving joint health and optimal stimulus to retain muscle. When you stop training, you stop spending the 200-500 calories possibly spent on exercise. If you don’t reduce your food intake by a similar level, this amount contributes to an energy surplus that becomes body fat.  In summary if you stop training especially after a productive stint packing on muscle and strength, the result is a double whammy, you spend fewer calories and you lose muscle too.  Your body composition worsens as you lose muscle. And surplus energy is stored as fat since there is no stimulus for muscle to be retained --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## ‘If I lift weights, I am scared my fat will turn into muscle.’ Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/if-i-lift-weights-i-am-scared-my-fat-will-turn-into-muscle-cmcf0385j0007rwccqlpx9rl8/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0226-1751040214101-compressed.jpeg) ‘If I lift weights, I am scared my fat will turn into muscle.’ This common misconception is possibly the most absurd concern.  It’s the equivalent of wondering if revving your WagonR too hard will turn it into a Porsche.  Hard truth  The content of muscle cells is very different from fat cells.  The fundamental parts that make up a muscle cell be it actin, myosin, titin among many components are very different from the giant globule of fat inside a fat cell.  Fatty detail Among fat cells, the brown and white variants look quite different. One has several droplets (brown). The other has one large droplet (white). The brown has more mitochondria than the white.  Muscles have many more mitochondria and different kinds of protein in them.  Simply put, your body does not have a mechanism to  rearrange fat cells into muscle cells if you do a few squats or bicep curls.  There needs to exist conditions for the fat cells to be mobilised and used as energy. The conditions are usually an energy deficit or a tonne of activity.  There needs to exist conditions for muscles to grow The exercise, nutrients, rest etc to facilitate said growth.  But under no circumstance, do fat cells 'transform' into muscle.  Takeaway  The effort to grow muscle is entirely underrated by the general population. Not to mention, most people wildly overestimate how lean they are. And they underestimate their body fat levels to a gargantuan degree.  This is a problem given the overwhelming evidence that carrying too much body fat is just counterproductive for health and quality of life.  Body composition is not about not about the photoshop lobby, vanity or about how your body looks. It’s about how it works. Or rather how much better it can work sans a few percentage points of fat. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Making a push and pull rig Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/making-a-push-and-pull-rig-cmcez9aac0006rwccum7kgmw7/ Ideas, by definition, are always fragile. If they were resolved, they wouldn’t be ideas. They would be products that were ready to ship. Jony Ive We need a pull up and push up rig. The push up rig should accommodate push ups from 6 inches high all the way through 36 inches. And it should lend itself to inverted rows. It should also be able to accommodate 4 people doing pull ups at once as they perform pull ups at different heights ranging from 6.5 feet through 8 feet high. A few people might also anchor straps to it to perform assisted squats. We want to run a class without compromising on exercise selection.  What does that mean? The strength level of the average trainee at our gym is highly variable. You have folks who have never done a single push up in their lives working towards one. You also have people who are working on weighted pull ups. And single arm push ups. Or people with knee issues working on a squat isometric.  To accommodate all of these capacities and goals, we need tools that are not found in the marketplace.  And I am not talking India. Some of the stuff we make is found just in our space.  We need these tools since we don’t like compromise. We don’t want to run a random program with a pressing variant or just bicep curls.  When a client joins our space, we want a clear path from plank to floor push to dip to single arm push. Same for the pull up. A hang or row should lead to a pull up. It can take a while but we want tools that give clients a chance to work to it one incremental step at a time.  So I built one. It has plenty of parts. We can’t just weld the whole thing together. Since it needs to disassembled and reassembled on the third floor. Also stainless steel is ridiculously hard to weld without a jig to hold everything in place.  There’s a total of 66 parts secured with 70 bolts. That’s not counting all the sub-parts it takes to make each part. Each X bar has 17 components.  Here’s how we put it together. One piece at a time.  I’ll chronicle how we use this gadget in future videos. In this video I just captured the 6 hour assembly. It took 3.5 weeks from the first order for stainless steel to final assembly.  For anyone curious enough, here’s the final part list! Two long base tubes 14 feet long 8 base pipes to keep the 8 uprights in place. 16 bolts to secure the uprights in the pipe.  6 pipes to support the 8 base pipes. These are welded. 8 uprights.  4 pull up bars 27 mm, 30 mm, 32 mm and 38 mm in diameter with 8 bolts to secure them in place.  20 adjustable sliding hooks to latch on pull up bars. 20 pegs to secure those in place.  2 cross bars to stiffen the whole thing. 8 bolts to keep it in place.  2 X bars to connect everything and also give you a cool new way to do pull ups. 8 bolts to keep this in place. A total of 16 bolts 2 connector pipes to attach the whole thing to the building frame so it does not move around when 20 people work in it. This needed 2 bolts. And two pipes.  2 base plates to connect the base tubes at the floor level 10 rods that can be used for pull ups, push ups, isometric work etc.  That’s a total of 66 parts secured together with 70 bolts.  There more complexity here too. The X bar is actually made of 17 different components. Each sliding hook is made out of 3 different components. So that’s 86 components right there. Each pull up bar is 3 parts welded together.  Unlike our usual work, the recycled steel count is only at 20 percent --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Compromise quality of life for opportunity Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/compromise-quality-of-life-for-opportunity-cmcez7n700005rwccvz45lmru/ --- Seeing posts about collapsing food poisoning, tourism numbers, poor air quality, water pollution, noise pollution and increasing urban density paints a picture of growth at the price of quality of life.  My friends abroad admire the bustle, energy and dynamicism of urban India. But they can’t wait to catch a flight back home. And I can’t blame them. The growth at any cost approach will result in a populace that is too unwell, stressed and zoned out to enjoy the spoils of growth. Sitting here in rural Kerala, I appreciate why something like my gym can only work in an affluent neighbourhood in urban India. I can see why I can’t make equipment here, why the unreliable internet won’t allow for a reliable coaching service and there are not enough people willing to shell out what I charge for a month.  But hearing birds chirping, crisp and clean air, a quiet rarely disturbed by a lone vehicle and clear skies calms the soul and deepens sleep much more reliably than a drink and a rant. The reliable mounds of plastic and litter still ruins the green scape and this is worrisome.  And at this point in my career, I am forced make a Faustian bargain. I have to give up on air, water, land and space to run my business.  That truly sucks. In a country our size for some reason there are only 7-8 pockets each covering 60-70 square kilometers that has the population to run a viable coaching service. I know I am going to be filled with some degree of regret for trading quality of life, environment and food for a chance to work with more clients. And I really want to imagine a world where I did not have to make that choice. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## World protein day Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/world-protein-day-cmcez4vvz0004rwcc5x57zkfm/ --- The fact that world protein day falls on my daughters birthday made me chuckle. So much cake, so few eggs and dairy on the day to celebrate protein intake.  Here’s my favourite quote about protein:  I tell my grad students that we can put a man on the moon, but we still can’t come to a consensus of how much protein to give him here on earth.  Dr. Rajavel Elango Rajavel Elango is one of the most important researchers in the field of protein intake and measuring the quality of protein. He is shaking up the old standards of how we measure the quality of protein we are consuming.  And in his words: there is an urgent need to reassess recommendations for protein intake in adult humans. Here's a sample of his work: [https://lnkd.in/grMmhw52](https://lnkd.in/grMmhw52) [https://lnkd.in/gfpuCe4g](https://lnkd.in/gfpuCe4g) The man is prolific and brilliant.  Here are a few stupidly simple takeaways from his work: Eat more protein makes sense for Indians makes sense in light of ICMR estimating most Indians get less than 40 grams of protein a day. Here are three crucial questions for anyone looking to bump up their protein intake: How many grams of protein do you eat in a day? It needs to be somewhere in the range of 50-150 grams a day.  What percentage of your total calorie intake comes from protein? For this having a simple understanding of how much different foods on your plate contains helps.  Are you adjusting your protein intake factoring for the lower quality of plant sources? I wish you a happy protein day. May you find satiety and peace in at least 75 grams of protein a day :D --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Let's wait for a study to try something? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/lets-wait-for-a-study-to-try-something-cmcez3ebw0003rwcclgau28hk/ The single most complicated thing that I am uncertain any study can fully capture is the client or patients attitude to pain, movement and general demeanour. And how this affects pain, rehabilitation and training outcomes. Many a inept plan have been salvaged by a cheery, optimistic client with a terrific attitude.  ​And let’s hypothetically assume that we will only do or try things are entirely scientifically ‘validated’. That is to say if there is no high quality study to prove something, you will not try it. Be it exercise selection, rep schemes, cues, use of different training protocols or tools. But that can be very limiting. And lead you to say no to ideas and protocols that can help the client.  Case in point. We have a weird pull up bar at the gym. Two rods angled at 90 degrees to each other. I’ve had three clients who cannot hang without pain on straight bar comfortably perform pull ups on the unconventional pull up bar.  I speculate it’s the relative position of the humerus in the shoulder socket that allows for the comfortable flexion, rotation while the scapula glides, retracts and depresses. The shoulder is unable to do so in when the palms are prone and shoulders rotated in. The externally rotated position that is not quite neutral seems to be doing the trick.  I have no study to prove this. Should I not do this and wait for high quality evidence that it is fine to do this? Should I not let clients do this chin-up variant. I know studies don’t prescribe individual exercises. But when you can use sound reasoning and have tangible evidence in the form of a happy client who is feeling better, does it matter? When you are in the trenches working with clients, I am fairly certain there will be cues, exercises, protocols that are not by the book. You will find clients respond positively to these measures and interventions. And there will be a perfectly sensible and scientific explanation for why it works. The evidence will follow. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## I find sucker comfort in strength Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/i-find-sucker-comfort-in-strength-cmcektho300008wes63rkeijk/ I first heard this idea of succor and comfort from beliefs being expounded upon by Lee Kuan Yew. I misheard it as sucker comfort. We believe in silly things simply because it helps us make sense of things as they are. Everyone has these beliefs. Be it for health, wealth, work, personal relations, accidents, good luck, misfortune or anything trivial or of note, belief is a useful construct to fall back on. Be it religion, habits, hobbies, consumption habits. We find comfort in the silly, simple and the profound. Lee Kuan Yew defended the beliefs of ethnic Chinese, Malays and Indians based in Singapore against evangelical Christian churches who derided those groups for being superstitious and were seeking greater influence: His words: You may say superstition. That’s Chinese and Indians gods and the stories are superstition. But they have provided succor and comfort to successive generations for 1000’s of years. Who are you say that your bible is not superstition? ————————————— Lee Kuan Yew was a rationalist. He didn’t belief in a god or an afterlife (his words). People have a variety of beliefs. Holding on fiercely to them in private. In public, all groups find common ground to build an economy and country. Chineses, Tamils, Malays would learn English. And places of worship would be discreet. And an education and national identity would exist alongside your ethnic identity. You did what you have to for public peace, a thriving city and economic prosperity. And Lee Kuan Yew was harsh on any religious tenet that came at the expense of a coherent national identity that could maximise economic potential and social cohesion. Back to the topic at hand. I find sucker comfort in trying to get stronger and I made that my work, sole investment and my hobby. Not in religion, language, politics, god, identity, culture, institution or anything that we usually find sucker comfort in. It’s the only thing other than family that i can wake up for in the morning at 4 am. To get to the gym every single day regardless of how I feel: tired, ill, under-appreciated, craving for novelty or wanting to be on a quiet, clear beach. Ideally to train but most of the time to coach. And it’s absolutely irrational for me to be like this. Clients come and go. Not everyone buys into the cause and understands why it matters. And showing people the science is not enough. People who I thought had the genetic gift for lifting and strength would walk away to do little about it. It would anger and baffle me. I’ve learned to mute this feeling. And plug away at making more people into believers. Where they practice what I preach should not matter. The sucker comfort I find in training is not something everyone can or will find appealing. Nor will the need for it feel obvious. But try to sell it I will. On the gym floor, zoom rooms and beyond. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Using what you know Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-27 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/using-what-you-know-cmcekofxu0003114ttcxae4pf/ --- How well are you applying what you think you know or the content you’ve been exposed to that you. Over the last decade, here are concepts that are recognised as commonplace and a necessity for quality of life:  1\. Compound lifts  2\. Resistance training  3\. Calorie awareness 4\. Protein intake  5\. Sleep hygiene  6\. Training to improve your VO2 max  7\. Fiber intake 8\. Omega 3 intake  9\. Dealing with hunger  10\. Even within the framework of appropriate calorie intake, prioritise high quality foods over poor quality foods. This matters for health outcomes, gut health etc.  Let’s forget for a moment about everyone vying for priority or importance in that list.  Most struggle to just use this awareness, knowledge or whatever they glean from content to just do something. Anything. This isn’t really a complaint or a rant.  It’s just me thinking out aloud. Is there value to consuming content without acting on it.  I am not going to look too far to see this lack of knowledge translating into action. How well do coaches train?  How effectively do they communicate what they know?  How effective are they at packaging what they know the theory, the cues, their experiences into a coherent package.  Are they able to eat or train (as appropriate for their capacity) as they ask you to?  Same for nutritionists, dietitians etc.  Can we solve our own problems just as we propose to solve our clients?  I propose more doing. Less consuming of content. Or atleast some degree of self awareness or introspection at what and how you consume content. When you learn something, trying to use it asap rather than filing it as a cool thing to use someday. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## All the shapes and sizes Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-25 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/all-the-shapes-and-sizes-cmcc4jiub000wx7xnvloclm84/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1624-1750867038743-compressed.jpeg) Why is the dumbbell so popular? Does it approximate everyday objects? Nope. Is the shape uniquely suited to performing every exercise? Not exactly. Is it easy to hold in multiple ways? Nope. Kettlebells have been giving them slight competition. But dumbbells are much more popular. For one simple reason. Tradition. Familiarity. Everyone knows what to do with a dumbbell. The design is self evident. And we’ve seen enough people use one. It’s the norm. That hasn’t stopped the industry from trying to improve on it. In the slides, I take a look at the many different tools that have been introduced in the last decade. To be sure, objects like the stones with handles, maces, long rods, top loaded rods have prominently featured in many cultures across the millennia to train athletes. We continue to iterate and refine these ideas to make them more accessible and scalable. Takeaway The simple idea underlying the need to create a new tool: there is always a better tool for every job. There is a whole lot going on in the world of fitness to make lifting more accessible that is not quite mainstream just yet. I hope you learn something new from the slides! All the images are from the company sites: Watsons Dumbbells:  ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1625-1750867022354-compressed.jpeg) The classic dumbbell. Handles may spin or not. Made of steel or rubber. Grip can be fatter or thinner based on weight. Tried, tested, found everywhere and familiar. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1634-1750867000227-compressed.jpeg) Adjustable dumbbells like the Pepin Rep dumbbell and Gungnir loadable dumbbell A convienient twist on tradition. Adjustable dumbbells come in different forms. Some allow you to use standard plates. Others sacrifice that convenience for proprietary plates that can be adjusted much more quickly. Kettlebell Kings kettlebells ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1626-1750866930687-compressed.jpeg) Neatly complements a dumbbell. Load is directly below where you hold it. The best kettlebells have smooth and grippy handles. Have an even coat of paint around a smooth surface without bumps or bulging branding. It is better for carries and rows than dumbbells. But not as comfortable for pressing. You can't swing a dumbbell like you can a kettlebell. Snatches and cleans on both objects are completely different movements. Dynamax med balls ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1627-1750866914265-compressed.jpeg) Throwing is an underrated and under-utilised exercise. Muscles work quite differently when you use them to throw forcefully versus do a push up or press a barbell. The way you can hold a ball shaped object makes it uniquely suited for throwing, hugging to squat and carry around. They come in cloth, leatherette, canvas or rubber filled with air, sand or fabric. Goruck Sandbell ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1628-1750866894657-compressed.jpeg) Kettlebells are not built for dropping. And carrying training implements while travelling is not practical. But there are fabric based sandbags, kettlebells, cans and balls that can be filled with sand.  Loading it with sand makes it easier to handle, more portable. It adds a lot of bulk though. And bulk can change how certain moves feel. But you can drop it unlike a cast iron kettlebell. A terrific detail is how there are three compartments in the sand kettlebell that keep the load distributed evenly by not letting the sand slosh around. You get these shaped as a ball, stone, sandbags and jerry cans too. Hyperwear steel bell ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1629-1750866879201-compressed.jpeg) Companies like Goruck and Hyperwear are using textiles, metal and sand to make more adaptable weights. They do not lend themselves to neat, ergonomic lifting like dumbbells and kettlebells. But they approximate the messiness of handling everyday objects. They're safer to throw around. The sand or bearing filling also quickly takes shape in the form of your shoulders or upper back or chest, making them useful and comfortable for picking up, carrying and performing a variety of exercises with. Rogue Centermassbell ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1630-1750866859866-compressed.jpeg) Introduced in 2016, these hand weights spread the entire load around the handle. That lends itself to a more balanced lift. Not to mention, the load feels smaller and more compact than a dumbbell or kettlebell. How a load is dispersed can change the feedback from a move. It can also make it easier to get a firmer grip on the object. This again is a game changer as stability Is less of a constraint for a good lift. A compact load also makes for more ergonomic lifting. ATX Deltadumbbells ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1631-1750866838987-compressed.jpeg) Also introduced in 2016, the ATX Delta Dumbbells tries to incorporate the best of kettlebells and dumbbells into one object. The rack position makes for a better starting point for pressing and squatting. The shape also makes the load travel more smoothly on rows and sit more comfortably while carrying. The feedback on raises and flies makes it more challenging than dumbbells. The shape and dual handle makes it uncomfortable to handle as a single load for squatting. But the design informs me that it is not intended to be used that way. They would make for terrific push up handles. TRX Y-bell ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1632-1750866818046-compressed.jpeg) A 2020 entrant. The Y-bell follows the Centermass bell and Delta bell in providing multiple ways to interact with the object. You can hold it like a kettlebell, dumbbell or slightly off-center Center mass bell. This can make the same load feel different based on where you hold it. The double handle setup allows you grip it with two hands more comfortably than a dumbbell or kettlebell. Havak Triad ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1633-1750866789075-compressed.jpeg) Another 2020 entrant that aims to provide more grip widths, versatility and loading profiles. The handles come in three different thickness. This can help you challenege your grip strength. Like the ATX triad and Y-bell, you can hold it like a dumbbell, centermass bell or kettlebell to vary how the load feels on different moves. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Dubious badges of honour Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-25 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/dubious-badges-of-honour-cmcbtxnip0002x7xnk8oj9998/ --- There is this really silly idea and it is quite popular:  Indians have a higher tolerance and better immunity against water-borne diseases and pollution because we are dosed against it in the cesspools of pollution and filth we call cities.  But this embarrassing, self-bestowed badge of honour is a double edged sword.  If you keep exposing yourself to pathogens, faeces, pollution and heavy metals . Keep popping antibiotics. And are indifferent to water and air quality, it’s a matter of time before the pathogens are antibiotic resistant, pathogen counts are so damn high they overwhelm your immune system, premature deaths rise and IQ’s fall off a cliff.  There is a price we pay for indifference. And there’s an even steeper price for the arrogance in the misplaced conviction that we are robust enough to adapt to filthy conditions. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Kids need to be strength training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-25 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/kids-need-to-be-strength-training-cmcb7a5cq0001ps1lrn9och7v/ --- It does not matter how it is framed.  Circuits, obstacles, competitions, lifting seminars, structured training programs.  Whatever format works. Whatever can be sustained. Anything that can be thoughtfully implemented with good technique in the right doses. The effect it has on tendons is just incredible. Tendons are the attachments between your muscles and your bone. A simplified take: muscle is a puppeteer, bones and joints are the puppet, the tendon is the string that connects the two.  And the how effective that tendon is at sending all the force the muscle produces through to the joint matters. Exercise can make the tendons stiffer and stronger. Making them better at doing their job.  No prizes for guessing that resistance training helps stiffen the tendons and make them much better at transmitting force.  And kids are the ideal population to produce these tendon adaptations in. It really does lay down the groundwork for much better movement and joint resilience later in life.  Here’s the study: [https://lnkd.in/gP5hWEPg](https://lnkd.in/gP5hWEPg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The voluntary con Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-25 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-voluntary-con-cmcb78i820000ps1lslr5g9e3/ --- Most people are just aching to be conned and/or overpay for shortcuts that don’t exist. ‘Smart’ devices and supplements top the list of things people will overpay for hoping it is some vague proxy for portion control or a calorie deficit. It is not.  You are never going to lose more than a few kgs. And even if that happens by some inadvertent portion control, your body composition will not improve unless you do some form of resistance training to improve your muscle mass. Yoga, pilates, stretching, walking, running, Zumba, aerobics don’t count. There is not enough resistance being worked against nor is there enough force being produced. There are a million ways to feel like you are doing a lot for your health. Most of those try and make you spend money on things that are neither impactful enough nor essential.  The things that are essential need your time, attention and effort. Those are things money can’t buy. Those being challenging training, adequate sleep, time/attention management and portion control. Takeaway  Optimising your health solely for longevity is not the same as optimising your habits for quality of life. One involves embracing your life as finite and doing the best that you can with the time you have. As for the other, only you can gauge the value of spending the time you have worrying about how little time you have. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Feel the training in your bones Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/feel-the-training-in-your-bones-cmca8pds6001dxt6tp439m4m9/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0217-1750752352798-compressed.jpeg) Mechanical loading has profound influences on bone remodeling. Disuse or lack of loading causes an acceleration of bone turnover with bone resorption overwhelming bone formation resulting in a rapid loss of bone mass. This type of bone loss is observed in astronauts who spend extended periods of time in the weightless environment of a space station or shuttle. Overuse of bone can cause small cracks or focal damage within the tissue, which in turn stimulates bone remodeling as a reparative process. One of the important roles of bone turnover is to continuously replace and repair damaged bone tissue. Osteoclasts target microcracks within bone tissue preferentially and remove compromised bone tissue. The damaged tissue is then replaced by new bone tissue. If damage accumulates faster than the tissue can be repaired, larger microcracks develop and propagate to form a stress fracture. From [https://lnkd.in/gg2kJB5u](https://lnkd.in/gg2kJB5u). \*You don’t have to enjoy deadlifting  \*You don’t have to be a cardio-junkie  \*You don’t want to have to squat 1.5 times your bodyweight \*You need not look forward to progressing from push ups- pikes- dips-one arm push ups You need to train simply because your bones demand it. To remain dense and robust. Stress fractures are not inevitable. Loss of bone density is not a given. You have some say in how much calcium gets deposited back onto your bones.  Or you can do it for vanity or pump like most of the training world does and get the strong bones as a bonus. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## No training no cry Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/no-training-no-cry-cmca8gmln001cxt6tcv2rei68/ --- There are plenty of reasons to not train:  1\. People are living longer than ever. They are not exactly training or being very active to achieve this outcome. 2\. There are always demands on your time. Exercise doesn’t feel like the most pleasurable way to spend it.  3\. It is not the societal norm. Besant Nagar beach does not have the same vibe as a Bondi. Our open air gyms largely lie in disuse. And you get an unusual amount of scrutiny when you do workout in public. Especially women.  4\. Society gives women with muscles a harder time about how they look. This attitude needs to be disappear. A muscular, mobile body is a healthier, robust body. How is that not a good thing ? 5\. There are more entertaining ways to spend your time. Exercise competes against a zillion, less demanding ways to spend your time and attention.  6\. Is there any payoff to being stronger? In a world where it costs next to nothing to have groceries home delivered, travel luggage dropped at your doorstep, elevators and lifts are ubiquitous, strength seems cheap and unnecessary. You can pay someone to do things that require strength for you.  7\. While a zillion studies, influencers, evangelists and coaches will tell you strength training can sharpen your mental faculties. The evidence for jacked people being the brightest isn’t overwhelming. So it’s hard to take this seriously.  Takeaway  I have to explain to my child everyday why reading can be empowering. The benefits aren’t as obvious as they seem to me. But once you learn to read, it’s hard to go back to not reading. I am not talking Russian classics. Even Tinkle comics do the trick.  I obviously believe there is value to strength and physical independence. It’s not just about longevity. Or avoiding disease. There is something about strength beyond the insulin sensitivity, body composition and vanity that makes it worth your time. The way a good book or a movie can move you in ways that are hard to describe. Strength can give you moments of clarity, independence and joy. I am out of words to sell this feeling. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Online coaching is a complicated business Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/online-coaching-is-a-complicated-business-cmca8f7as001bxt6tcqbary9y/ The odds are stacked against it working. Most people want their strength training to contain doses of community, outdoors, options, equipment, physical experiences and of course human interaction. Even with all of that, gyms suck at retaining members. And people also don’t try hard enough to make informed choices at gyms.  Getting coached online can be effective. You can get a well crafted program and a person to nudge you to eat better and stick to your plan. That’s the essence of online coaching. A person nudging you to follow a plan. And making tweaks as you progress. And mixing it up when the clients enthusiasm wanes.  But for a majority of the population, the above format just does not work. They want the live experience. I try to find some middle ground by coaching live online. Basically coach people on how to do a whole bunch of moves well, scale it for them and then throw them into our class to practice and scale what they learn.  I personally love ‘live’ online coaching. Managing an hour of training, communicating clearly with some humour, getting details right, keeping people engaged through it and getting people stronger is a challenge I enjoy. And there’s the joy of working with constraints such as limited spaces and less equipment. That forces me to work with a lot more single leg work, bodyweight exercises and unconventional exercise choices. Zoom fatigue means there is a large section of the population who are wary of the format and don’t like it. And that’s OK. The small percentage for whom it resonates is big enough for me to find enough willing and paying participants to work with.  Takeaway  Online coaching is a sensitive game. The first 3-4 weeks are critical to push clients into a regular schedule and make a habit of training. They need to learn the names of exercises. Both the coach and trainee need to figure out if they learn better by seeing someone do it and follow along. Or verbal cues produce better outcomes.  There’s a lot to get right. And the client needs to quickly see the value of what they are doing. Much like a baby turtle crawling to the sea. The predators of inertia and lifestyle are looking to snatch the baby turtle before it reaches the relative safety of the seas of consistent training.  I am just going to keep pacing the coastline and see how many turtles I can get to the sea and keep them swimming. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The necessary, unnecessary and the counterproductive Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-necessary-unnecessary-and-the-counterproductive-cmca8dpzh001axt6t5c76vbfx/ --- ![The-necessary--unnecessary-and-counterproductive-Holidays--shopping--work--travel--friendshi-1.png](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/the-necessary--unnecessary-and-counterproductive-holidays--shopping--work--travel--friendshi-1-1750751745086-compressed.png) Holidays, shopping, work, travel, friendships, gym equipment, clothes, books, bags, watches, hobbies, exercise and food. A few of the things we consume every single day. There is of course more to add to the list. But let’s start there. You can judge consumption on some simple parameters. Excess, like porn, is easy to call out. You’ll know it when you see it. I am going focus on our consumption of food and exercise. When I say consumption, I mean how you spend your time, energy and money. There is a necessary amount of exercise. The minimum dosage you need to get to remain healthy. This dosage keep joints functioning as optimally as when you were at your most active. This ‘necessary’ dosage can be nudged higher to maintain a higher quality of life or support a more active lifestyle. Things can tip into unnecessary when you run or exercise or lift for sport. Unnecessary is not necessarily undesirable. Nor is it counterproductive. It can be incredibly empowering. A lot of content posing as fitness education are people who are into bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting and calisthenics. Running distances that are no longer about maintaining a healthy heart. Lifting weights is no longer about maintaining muscle or joint healthYou don't actually have to do most of what you are watching. The dosages and choices are unnecessary for you to remain healthy and functional. Then comes counterproductive. Just insane amounts of activity for activity’s sake. Taking chances that you need not take. Activity where risk far outweighs rewards. You risk injuring, hurting or killing yourself with certain endeavours. You compromise long term health for the sake of short term performance. Useful adaptations are sacrificed at the altar of more activity.  Food falls into the same three traps. But society has normalised counterproductive consumption. The necessary amount of food provides you all the nutrients and energy you need to get through an active day. Your muscles, organs, bones and every cell get all the protein, fat, carbohydrates and micronutrients they need to thrive. No more, no less. Unnecessary gives your body more energy than it needs. This is shunted away as adipose tissue in the body. Food choices that lead you to consume far more or far less protein, fat or carbohydrates than you need are also unnecessary. It is unnecessary to exclude food groups on the basis of morality or false claims of being better for your health. Unnecessary becomes counterproductive with time and consistency. Counterproductive food consumption inevitably results in obesity, heart disease, poor joint health and all forms of avoidable lifestyle disorders. We know it will hurt us. But we do it. Because we can. Society neither disincentives or disagrees. Your insurance premium does not go up if you take extra helping of calorie dense food everyday. You don’t always feel the pain of bad choices. The fear isn’t there when most of society chooses to kick the can of good health choices down the road. Better quality of life is not part of most conversations. Shame is out of fashion and you are shamed for shaming. Lack of resources is the only factor that keeps you from crossing the lines of necessary, unnecessary and counterproductive consumption. Sadly we have all the resources to cross those lines and most of us do when it comes to food. Doing what is necessary is you choosing to make better choices. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Think beyond walking Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/think-beyond-walking-cmca8b32m0019xt6tl06azb2g/ Walking is good for you. And there are very few people who disagree with that assessment.  Doctors, therapists, coaches, governments all encourage you to walk.  But it’s not enough. Far from it. Walking is a low intensity, low impact activity that has many benefits that includes cognitive ones.  And 4000-5000 steps a day is a terrific way to keep your heart rate buzzing and burn some energy.  But is it enough? Enough for what is the question.  Enough to retain muscle around every major joint group Enough to ensure every joint can be as mobile as possible.  Enough stimulus for your heart to handle the variety of stressors you will throw at it.  Walking will not cut it. Simply because it does not provide every joint group in your body enough work to stay mobile and strong.  Solely walking for health, quality of life and longevity is akin to depending on only one ingredient for all your nourishment. You know it’s not going to cut.  Your activity diet has to be diverse. Push ups, hanging, carrying things, squatting deep, rounding your back to pick things up, rotating your hips. The list is long. And it takes work.  While walking is terrific, it helps to think about adding a few more capacities for quality of life:  There is a subjective component to this. But the constraints we seek to eliminate are clear. All joints working well, staying robust to produce force, being stable and being resilient. Now ask yourself can walking alone address all those things?  1. 10-15 push ups  2. Hanging for a minute  3. Carrying half your body weight in each arm for 20-25 meters  4. Squatting to full depth with control --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Vague generalisations to justify bad habits Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/vague-generalisations-to-justify-bad-habits-cmca88qrl0018xt6tqutx458v/ --- Things coaches hear on daily basis: \*You know how we South Indians love our white rice.  \*Punjabis are foodies.  \*Telugu folks love our avvaka rice. \*All my weight gain is due to (insert phase of life you think it the catch all reason here).  These statements are not imagined. I am straight up quoting clients.  People will stereotype their behaviour to absolve themselves of  responsibility for personal  choices.  I understand our eating and exercise habits are captive to our culture, environment, and convenience. And we deal with the can of worms called stress with food, inactivity (or activity) and entertainment in different ways.  But you control a few variables to take care of your health and physical capacity: 1\. Food 2\. Sleep 3\. Stress 4\. Activity  5\. Medical intervention  If you truly care, you will embrace your capacity for making these choices to any degree possible and stop clutching on to convenient excuses that your identity, culture and environment serve up. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The sense of wonder Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-sense-of-wonder-cmca7n1550015xt6thy1e4lh9/ My daughter twirls and spins without inhibition and without giving a hoot as to who is watching or where she is. The kid next door jumps simply because she can. She jumps off cots, sofas, stairs, anything really. Kids do skin the cats on rusty monkey bars because they can.  They move with a sense of wonder and fascination simply because they can. There is no deeper meaning, philosophy, finding peace, better body composition or agenda for them. It’s just fun and they do it because they can. Behind all the science about contractions, sets, reps, exercise selection and gym equipment there is a really simple truth:  If you are not absolutely blown away by what your body can do, you might never find the motivation to do what your body is capable of doing. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Hunger is ridiculously complex Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-24 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/hunger-is-ridiculously-complex-cmca57q3f000rxt6tmjrb9hko/ --- ![1690864656281-1.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1690864656281-1-1750746441805-compressed.jpeg) But how successfully you grapple with hunger will determine how successful you are at sustaining any effort to reduce your calorie intake.  The context here is most of us are eating too much. And we have no clue what the right amount of food to maintain status quo or achieve a more optimal body composition looks like.  When you moderate your energy intake, your brain and body will protest.  It’s not because you won’t provide your body with all the nutrients that you need.  It won’t be because your body does not get enough energy.  It will be because you changed your habit. You broke a pattern.  And you need to get used to this. It will take a couple of weeks.  It matters how effective you are at convincing yourself that to ignore the voices from your stomach and your head. Takeaway \*You can’t always listen to your body. Sometimes your body is habituated to counterproductive behaviour.  \*Activity can help with managing huger.  \*You need to make an effort to pick foods that rank high on satiation and satiety to help with managing the feeling.  \*Foods that provide fewest calories per bite are your friend.  \*Most of humanity cannot judge if they are half full or ascribe any reasonable value to how full they are. Some sense of portion control is the only reliable guiding star. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## I feel full … Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/i-feel-full-cmc8xq8r4002u559rirl7xtdn/ --- Can mean two things     I am so stuffed, I can’t eat another bite. This ability of a food is called satiation. It is a meal or food’s ability to make you stop eating with smaller portions or fewer bites.     I am so full from my last meal, I don’t feel like eating yet. This ability of a food is called satiety. It’s a food or meals ability to keep you full for long periods of time before you feel the need to eat again.     They are not the same thing     Why does this distinction matter ?    Foods have texture, taste, volume and chemical composition that give them an ability to trick our head and stomach into feeling pleasure, fullness or hunger in ways that you cannot easily anticipate.     For the same volume of rice and potato, potatoes will make you stop eating earlier than the rice would.     If you take an identical scoop of casein and a scoop of whey, the casein will leave you feeling fuller than whey.     It’s established that foods such oatmeal, potato, lentils, meat, fish, oranges, whole wheat pasta, apples predictably rank higher than croissants, cakes, doughnuts and peanuts.     Takeaway     \* The stomach is a muscle. You can train it to feel fuller with less food or train it to need copious amounts of food to feel full. But results take time, effort and energy. You have to gradually reduce portion sizes.     \* Calories and portion sizes being equal, there are objectively better foods that can keep you fuller between meals and require fewer bites in a meal to achieve fullness. Not coincidentally these foods are less processed and contain more fiber and protein than foods that rank poorly in satiety and satiation.     \* Hunger is not just response to needing nutrients. You eat for pleasure, pain, stress and memories. Mindfulness can go a long way in cultivating restraint, portion control and better habits when it comes to food. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Can't forget to forget training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/cant-forget-to-forget-training-cmc8xobho002t559rgas28vju/ --- The hardest game to play is to remind oneself that staying lean, packing on muscle and having good body composition matters. Now for some folks a combination of traits, habits and preferences helps with maintaining good body composition and a number on the weighing scale that coincides with healthy joints and the ability to move well.  1\. Think of your basal metabolic rate as falling on a curve. It could be so low that eating what most would think of as an unreasonable amount of food is still far too many calories. Or their BMR is high enough that the client finds it hard to consume enough food to enter the territory if surplus.  2\. They enjoy physical activity. And gravitate towards activity choices that makes it fairly easy to maintain reasonable lean mass levels. 3\. They don’t enjoy eating. Some people just don’t find most foods appealing. It’s easy for them to eat what they need to survive.  4\. They feel full fairly quickly when they do eat. Some folks find it hard to over consume foods. 5\. Competitive and motivated. Some folks just don’t need much nudging or reminding to keep their eye on the good body composition prize. They enjoy the rewards of training and eating appropriately. Even if they don’t really enjoy training.  6\. They fidget a whole lot and are restless. They compulsively moving around a lot. As insignificant as this sounds, this can add up.  7\. Work that requires moving around. Labourers, cleaning staff, working on the gym floor, airport staff and a few other folks are constantly on the move while working. This category can and do undo the unintended benefits of their job by eating too much.  For those of us who do not fall into the above brackets, we need reminders, professionals, counselling, training community, meal preparation, a carefully stocked pantry, constant environmental reinforcement, measurements, report cards and supportive families and friends who tell you that your health and wellness goals are worth pursuing and you being active, leaner and healthier makes life better for you and everyone around you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A primer to all the ways your body spends energy in a day Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/a-primer-to-all-the-ways-your-body-spends-energy-in-a-day-cmc8xmgef002r559rs15l6pm4/ --- Your BMR (Basal metabolic rate) is the calories you require in a day sans any activity. It’s a starting point for the calories you need to survive in a day. Eating less than this is not advisable in the long haul since it is bad for your health. The calorie requirement is more contingent on how much body fat you are carrying rather and not just your sex, ethnicity or race . You can’t control your BMR, it’s a basic function of your height, weight and body composition. The Cunningham equation also known as the Katch-McArdle is one of the preferred starting points for determining your basal metabolic rate (BMR). But here are the ways in which you control the number of calories you burn: 1\. Calories spent digesting food - thermic effect of food 2\. NEAT - non exercise activity thermogenesis  3\. Calories spent on exercise - thermic effect of exercise For the population as a whole, height, weight and body composition are largely predictive of BMR. There is very little variance to it. Some medical conditions are the exceptions. But largely two people with identical height, weight and body composition will have similar BMR’s. The thermic effect of food is what makes gives higher protein diets a small edge for fat loss. If you eat 100 calories of protein, anywhere between 10 and 30 calories are spent digesting the protein. This effect is less pronounced in carbohydrates which require 5 to 10 calories per 100 calories and fats which require almost no calories to be digested. The greater the protein intake in a diet, the higher the thermic effect and the calorie deficit is a little bigger everyday. This adds up. Calories spent on exercise depends on intensity and experience. But you can find an rough estimate of the number and adjust it.  If thermic effect of food is a pigeon pulled out a hat, NEAT is the 200 million dollar Avengers production. This is the number which people refer to as ‘a higher metabolism’. It is all the activity you do in a day which is not exercise. And it adds up. A walk to the local shop here, climbing a few flights of stairs to hang clothes, taking your dog for a walk, carrying your own groceries etc etc. An entire industry of trackers which are largely crapshoots were built on the idea that if NEAT could be measured as steps, it could be quantified. But even hand gestures, fidgeting with your leg under a desk seem to add up. And this is the biggest variable or differentiator between people. You might not be able to control how much you fidget under a desk but you can choose to make it a walk to and back to your local store instead of a car ride. It adds up. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The truth in the loo Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-truth-in-the-loo-cmc8xlb2e002q559r514lkzyn/ --- There is a profound truth in this. How a bathroom is maintained reflects a great deal about the business.  One of my greatest regrets is the fact that our restroom cannot accommodate a nice shower area, changing area or expand in any way. Limitations of our space. A pressure pump, toilet seats, new taps can't fix the space constraint.  There have been points that the maintenance of our toilet has flagged and we as coaches would not like to use our own toilet. But we would clean it ourselves. I know this is candid. But I have visited theatres, restaurants, hotels, gyms, cinema-halls, museums, malls and shops. The better ones have cleaner restrooms. The ones we don't enjoy frequenting have terrible restrooms. And I don't think that is a coincidence. How a toilet is maintained or not is a canary in the coal mine. It tells you much the people running the show care about hygiene and client comfort.  There have been times we have dropped the ball on this and I hate that we didn't keep our eye on the loo.  We are a coaching service. Even when you sign up for our in-person gym. You aren't paying to use the space. We build the service around coaching, exercise selection, cueing, batches, community and certain sensibility. There are gyms that bond around playlists, competition, competing, weekend workouts. The main conversation is how thoughtful they are in speaking about the adaptations from training.  Then there are more conventional gyms. You build the membership around size, wide selection of equipment, a tonne of amenities, cardio zones, strength zones, plenty of classes, open hours and location. There are at least 3 occasions to pick up a membership on discount.  But what unites the two is the loo. Clients appreciate a well-maintained rest-room and we owe them a hygienic, comfortable space. : “We don’t make money from bathrooms.” That was the previous CEO’s stance when I took over operations at a family entertainment company. To this person, restrooms were an afterthought—functional, but unimportant. If they weren’t actively generating revenue, why bother prioritizing them? But that mindset was costing the business more than they realized. I walked into one of the company’s locations and decided to experience it the way a guest would. The games were running, the food smelled great, and kids were racing from attraction to attraction. Then, I stepped into the bathroom. The first thing that hit me was the smell—stale, musty, with a hint of industrial cleaner that wasn’t doing its job. The tiles were worn, grout discolored, soap dispensers half-empty or broken. It was the kind of bathroom people rush out of rather than use comfortably. And it was sending a silent but powerful message to every guest who walked in. A mother bringing her kids for a fun afternoon notices more than just the attractions. She notices the details. If the bathrooms are neglected, what does that say about food safety? About the cleanliness of the play areas or attractions? About the overall care put into the business? She won’t take a chance. No visitor will ever tell you they left because of a dirty bathroom or one that needs a serious remodel. They just won’t return. And worse, they won’t let their friends or family come either as they will be very vocal to them. Tim Murphy --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The pandering coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-pandering-coach-cmc8xk7x7002p559rk34qcfcs/ --- This person is the single most counter-productive figure in the fitness industry.  It could be a coach who claims to cater to entrepreneurs, a specific gender or men over 40. There are biological differences between men and women that need accounting for while training and eating. But does an entrepreneur really need a different exercise plan than a small business owner or a government employee? It could be a coach who uses the guise of mindful eating, false precision or self care to never actually teach you how to portion control or how to actually serve yourself the right amount of food.  Or coaches who keep pushing their personal habits as profound life choices that you need to adopt without regard for context.  Or the coach who keeps throwing fake percentages, James Clear quotes at you. Without actually giving you information that you can use.  It could be the coach who never really tells you that you aren’t training hard enough as long as they get paid. Or the coach who really doesn’t care how you are lifting as long you are paying for the hour.  Then there are coaches who will hide behind semantics of ‘wins’, war metaphors or hacks while never actually helping you inculcate a training or eating habit that you sustain. And of course coaches who refuse to even remotely walk the talk. And the talk seldom translates into any useful takeaway for the client. They talk down to clients under the guise of empathy.  There’s a good reason the fitness industry is seen as a faddish, flavour-of-the-season, whimsical and silly one with a poor track record of actually consistently translating into results for the paying customer. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## When short on time, move for muscle Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/when-short-on-time-move-for-muscle-cmc8xirpr002o559rz0cxj29g/ --- The less time you have to dedicate in a day to activity, it becomes crucial that you spend all of the little time you have in a day to build muscle and move as many joints through as many range as you possibly can.  If you have fewer than 3 hours a week to spend on being active. And most of us actually have only that much time. You should spend it on the activity that can retain or pack as much mobility, strength, muscle and power that you possibly can.  If you spend the little time you have in a day on activity solely with the intention to burn calories, you are not spending your time in the best way possible to improve quality of life and joint health.  You could pick any mode of resistance training: plyometrics, calisthenics, powerlifting, bodybuilding, movement-skill or even sensible circuit training. They are all much more useful adaptations than just walking or running for those short on time. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Introducing friction where it matters Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/introducing-friction-where-it-matters-cmc8xhklw002n559rd7ykvgvf/ --- You can get your favourite ice cream in 10 minutes to 30 minutes. But introduce a constraint. Make it that you need to travel 30-40 minutes to have that indulgence. Put a label on the bar marking when you are going to have it.  Make it inconvenient to consume those 100-500 calories. You pause to consider the commute before you choose to consume.  You can treat this as a metaphor and think hard about consuming easy calories. That’s the principle. Or make it a literal rule. I will only consume the minus 30 mini vanilla bar on days of the week starting with M or W purchased at a shop 5 kms from home. As absurd as it seems, rules can be useful.  Flip those constraints for working out  Have a pull up bar at home. Hang for 15 seconds every time you pass by. Make it easy to get a good dose of skilled, thoughtful movement everyday.  Aim to practice your push up for 10 minutes everyday at 7 am. Make it a ritual. Make it convenient to get a quick, intense dose of movement.  The national weekly recommendations of between an hour and 3 hours of strength training can be better visualised as 100-120 squats per week (or any knee-dominant exercises), daily doses of pushing, hanging, pulling, reverse planking, carrying things or hanging, hip rotations, bending the spine or a whole gamut of moves any reasonable, pragmatic coach can prescribe that suits your strength and constraints. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes a move. You can spend longer on each, pair them up or circuit them as you get stronger and more disciplined.  You can finish your workout in 10 minutes if you have only 10 minutes. Or 30 minutes if that’s what you have.  And it should take an hour to get your favourite ice cream and 10 minutes to get a reasonable workout. Physical exertion should be convenient. Indulgences and easy calories should take some jumping through hoops. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why are we here Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/why-are-we-here-cmc8xg65x002m559rqf6t8bl9/ --- I work 60 hour weeks. Not all of it spent coaching. Some of it is on admin stuff and a chunk of it on equipment etc.  I like hanging out with my wife and my daughter.  I find my work meaningful. And the 60 hour weeks while taxing have something useful to show for it. My clients are stronger, healthier and enjoy their exercise sessions by virtue of training with me. Me spending that hour doing what I do does tangibly improve quality of life for those around me. When I spend 3 hours rummaging around a scrap yard, sit in a welding shop or lathe, the equipment that is a result of this saves my business money and results in a better product that clients enjoy using for years.  When my welders spend hours talking to me and making something and finally see the object in action, they feel pride in their output.  My coaches should feel happy they get to work with the clients they have. They should look forward to coaching and spending that hour training people. My clients look forward to the hour of training. That hour of work I do is a hour of fun for many. And its an hour of work that is better off existing than not.  There is zero unnecessary paperwork. I would argue we could use more management or administration and marketing for our gym. But I can’t imagine making up things for my team to do to fill a certain quota of imagined work hours needed.  When conversations about quantum of work come up, I really don’t understand why we cannot discuss what it is that we are working towards and does that work actually need to exist. And does that work actually need the quantum of time our doyens of industry say it does.  More importantly if the work was meaningful or enjoyable, people might want to step up to the plate and do more of it without all the peer pressure, fear or perception, politics or just feeling the need to look busy.  When someone spends the least amount of time they need to get something done to get paid, it’s generally a sign that the work is a means to an end. And the end is not usually found in a cubicle. And the end for me is me ranting to my wife over early morning coffee or laughing about the periodic table with my daughter at 8 pm. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Consumer culture Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/consumer-culture-cmc8xe57m002l559ra6xlgu6g/ The Japanese consumer culture never ceases to amaze me. I love Sori Yanagi cutlery. Japanese stainless steel cutlery has a subtle matte polish and the edges are soft. It speaks to a certain craftsmanship and thought behind the making of the die used to make the vessel. The pour from the a Sori Yanagi bowl is precise and directed.  Same goes for bags, glasses, plates, clocks, knives, pens, watches, cars, notebooks, teeshirts. It's better in a tangible way. Not just branding. I've never cared for that.  The titanium on a Japanese watch holds up better than the titanium used on a Swiss watch.  I've had Zebra Sarasa pens that write after 6 years spent in a shelf. The ink does not dry. Same goes for Uniball pens. My wife's Porter bag costs a fraction of what European brands cost. But it is more practical, better built and much more subtle.  The Uesaka barbell costs a bomb. And has a distinctive knurling that is applied by hand unlike many modern manufacturers that use more sophisticated computer tools.  I've read several articles, watched documentaries about obsession with craft, process etc. The legendary tales of a rapid path to industrialisation over a century that quickly incorporated and bettered Western practices is stuff of legend. And the durability of Japanese businesses. And how the culture values order and cleanliness. It sounds fascinating. And I don't need to remind people about their public transportation and punctuality.  From a health and wellness perspective, the Japanese have the longest live spans, eat ample protein and seem to be an active lot.  This is not to say they have no problems: a shrinking population, well documented rise in mental problems, a work-culture that seems all consuming and counterproductive and attitudes to women that seems odd.  But there is a lot to learn and admire. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The idea of eating well appeals to people much more than actually eating well Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-idea-of-eating-well-appeals-to-people-much-more-than-actually-eating-well-cmc8x85a0002k559rpxfreph3/ --- Our inability to buck up and learn to adjust to new textures and tastes is childish.  I’ve heard the same complaint about Skyr and Greek Yoghurt. It does not taste like full cream curd. That’s because it is not full cream curd. Removing the fat makes is better for most of us who need to restrict calorie intake.  Same goes for vegetables sautéed in very little oil.  Low fat paneer will be harder than paneer with more fat.  Cottage cheese can’t taste like paneer.  Tofu does not play nice with most Indian dishes.  Not dousing your sambar rice with ghee will make it less umami.  Using Skyr to make your curd rice will change the texture a little.  But we refuse to change. We think of it as compromise. Or worse yet, my ancestors ate like this, why can’t I?  Your ancestors didn’t live as long you are likely to.  Your ancestors did not have access to as many calories as you do everyday.  And your ancestors moved a little more than you do since their lives had far fewer conveniences baked in.  So buck up and deal with slightly less rich food for the sake of healthier joints and better body composition. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The categories of fitness content Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-23 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-categories-of-fitness-content-cmc8x6fzr002j559rudvbh4p3/ Motivation ------------- Watching folks doing things you’ll never do or better yet hope to do. Watching them do those things makes you try or try harder. If you need to watch this everyday or even every week, it might help to revisit why you really want to train or why your training choices or environment is not motivation enough.  Explainers Content that tells you what you are doing is working for you. Or better still why what you are doing is not working or will not work. It comes in the most entertaining forms (most YouTubers) down to debates, fights and books. This is for true enthusiasts or people paying the bills with coaching.  Instructional How to squat, how to plate your food, what is meal prep, how much protein do you need. You watch it once, maybe twice or a third time if it is complex and you start using it. If you pick the right content, you watch it once and use it for life. If you have to rewatch this stuff every other week, you picked poorly, you are not practising it often enough or you are trying too many things too soon. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Move to heal Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/move-to-heal-cmc711knc000uoqwtshpfu8nc/ Far too often medical professionals recommend rest and inactivity as tools for recovery from non-traumatic injuries. This approach is clearly counterproductive. And the opposite camp that espouses movement as part of the solution is fast emerging. In a nutshell: rare is the injury that requires you to lie still and do absolutely nothing. Healing and adaptation require loading and movement. A muscle, ligament, tendon requires compressive, stiffening and thoughtful loading to heal properly. More importantly, movement is a skill that we are constantly adapting to. What are you adapting to when you are not moving? Inactivity is an adaptation. A terribly counterproductive one at that. Instead of don’t squat at all if you have wear and tear in and around your knees, one needs to reframe it how can I load the knees without hurting them and gradually building tolerance for harder positions. Same goes for shoulder, hips, back and virtually every other joint capable of articulation. Much like the use it or lose it binary, there is truth to move to heal. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The neighbourhood Auntys first pull up Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-neighbourhood-auntys-first-pull-up-cmc70z2t4000toqwty0k6ikwx/ I get a whacky number of sport science grads who promise to revolutionise our practice but can’t teach a person to squat. But even more silly is why do strength coaches so badly want to work with athletes? If it’s coaching you really care about, you’ll be happy to try and make anyone stronger. And my take is athletes get enough and more attention. And that’s what most coaches who aspire to work with athletes want. The attention and recognition. There are a few who genuinely believe I don’t think this group of athletes is doing enough isometrics or eccentric training and be an evangelist for the use of a specific training modality. But majority of programming for athletes is incredibly cookie cutter and templated stuff. I am yet to hear a revolutionary cue trickle down from a court or field to the neighbourhood gym. And the even harsher truth, someone competing at the highest level of a sport is probably someone who had a whole bunch of traits that were well-suited for that sport. They’re going to be fine even with MEH or less than bespoke program. But I get why everyone wants to be next Pierre Paganini (Federer’s fitness coach). You want that fame that comes with being associated with a successful athlete. Hell, even NYtimes did a piece on him. There is no fame or glory in getting the neighbourhood aunty to her first pull up. There’s joy to it. But that’s the thing. Coaching for joy is not the same coaching for fame or glory. Keeping a person coming back to gym when they have no olympics or national open is much harder. But there’s money in it. Can you find the joy in it though? Especially when there is no fame that comes with it --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Avoidable stressors Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/avoidable-stressors-cmc70xuwi000soqwtq2t2jzf8/ There are stressors in your daily life that you control and can avoid : neighbours, family members, friends, social events, family gatherings, unpleasant holidays, pointless meals. The list is long and you generally know when you can avoid something that stresses you out with nothing useful to show for it. Then there is your everyday environment: urban chaos, pollution, road rage, work hour traffic, work place politics, unsavoury environment at home. Things that are incredibly hard to change or manipulate. No easy answers. Someone has to make very hard decisions to opt out of this. It is economically and emotionally challenging. I personally know. I decided 11 years ago, I could not commute on Indian roads on a daily basis to make a living. I found a space for my gym 150 meters from my home. It is a relatively peaceful neighbourhood. Not everyone has that privilege. But we have to start somewhere. And these choices matter more than you imagine. At some point, the economic advantages of living in a dense, commercially vibrant urban environment will be far outweighed by how much harm it inflicts on our health and need for quiet and space. Our person tolerance for this harshness varies. But make no mistake. We pay a price for this literally and metaphorically toxic, mis-managed and ill-planned environment. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Think bites and flavour Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/think-bites-and-flavour-cmc70wuh9000roqwty592rstr/ It’s not pragmatic or possible to completely lay off sweets, snacks and calorie-dense food this festive season. We eat to bond, celebrate and enjoy. But also eat with intent. Take a bite, really taste the food that you are eating and take your time with each bite. The second bite is not as flavourful as the first bite. Maybe that’s the time to stop? Or a third bite? You eat sweets, snacks and calorie dense food for taste. It’s not for energy. It’s not for nourishment. It’s only taste. That’s the intent behind eating that food. So eat with intent. Don’t just eat it because the food is sitting there in front of you. Feel free to break a piece into two halves. Eat for flavour. And try and taste what you are eating. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Fast food can be good Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/fast-food-can-be-good-cmc70uyg2000qoqwtz9mb2p9k/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1575-1750557737515-compressed.jpeg) Fast food is crap. Convenience and 10 minute deliveries will destroy society and our health. The mass hysteria has everyone condemning processed food and quick commerce. The condemnation is universal and unwarranted. As a father, I sometimes find myself in a McDonald’s. You can fault them for many things. But the kitchen is largely clean and hygienic. Exhibit 1 : McDonald’s Mcegg is a burger with a patty made literally with one egg cooked on a griddle. It’s the equivalent of a compacted omelette. It’s quite lean. McDonald’s adds a bit of mayo and onions. You can add one more egg to the burger. My hack. If and when I have to eat at McDonald’s, I get two Mceggs. I ask them to go very easy on the mayo. Each with a double patty. I put four pattys together in one sandwich. There’s 20-25 grams of protein in one sandwich (4 eggs). And by current standards 170 bucks for two of these is not too bad. We love throwing the baby out with the bath water when it comes to eating out, processed foods, fast food and conveniences. But it does not have to be so drastic or dramatic. Just scrutinise the menu, find something that might be lean, ask questions, be courteous and ask the staff to go easy on condiments and added fat. You can find lean protein in places you least expect to. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What makes you memorable as a coach? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/what-makes-you-memorable-as-a-coach-cmc70swwl000poqwt3kj5ur4j/ This is a question i grapple with a lot. For the sake of my own career and to ensure I remain effective as a coach for most of the people who choose to train with me. It’s clearly not just the gym or equipment. There are plenty of successful online coaches such as Ben Bruno. They don’t have the largest or most spec’d out gyms. It’s not size of community alone. Else Cult would be renowned for outcomes and not just ubiquity, pricing and variety. It’s not results alone. Else bodybuilding coaches will be among the richest people on the planet. It’s not exercise selection. Powerlifting and bodybuilding gyms are filled with knowledgable exponents of both those sports but far from packed gyms. It’s not cueing. Every coach is convinced the way they coach an exercise is unique and better than the rest. And god knows it’s not degrees or certifications. There are plenty of client-starved sports science and CSCS grads out there. There’s the coach’s body language and voice for a start. Whether we like it or not, clients need to like you and enjoy being around you. Since they will have to be around you and listen to your advice, cues etc. There’s how the coach communicates their exercise choices, frames them with respect to your goals and constraints, ensures you are benefitting from training and gives you enough attention as you train. And there’s the training outcomes clients were not aware that training could produce. But you make those choices for them and have to frame them in ways that are interesting and engaging. There’s no way around the idea that to be an effective coach, you have to be an interesting, knowledgable and a thoughtful person. You have the read the room you are in to tweak your message and service without diluting it’s effectiveness. And that will mean you can’t appeal to everyone. You have to make choices and communicate them distinctly. And not everyone will like what is served or how it is served. And you need to make peace with that as a coach. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Conversation with potential client Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/conversation-with-potential-client-cmc70ql1w000ooqwtf3svbhz7/ Client: after a couple of months, I should be able to train by myself at any gym of my choice ? Me: Yes but here’s the deal.. The norm is you pay for the gym and you pay for coaching separately. This makes sense for some people. Especially if you know how to find/write a program that can give you the adaptation you’re after, know how to train and have a realistic sense of how long it will take to get there. Not to mention understand that you can never stop training or moving. You might change the exercises, intensity or take a week off. But you have to keep at it. Traditionally you pay a gym for the equipment, adequate space and a few amenities. The what to do in the space comes at a premium. You pay a coach for it. This is the reason gyms don’t resonate with most people. They think they are paying for guidance on how to use the gym. But they are getting access not advice. It’s akin to buying a car without knowing how to drive it. No lessons are included in the price of the car. Takeaway For people to think of gyms as more accessible spaces that work for them, the thing that needs to change is their perception of what they are paying for. We try to make this clear when people sign up to train with us. You pay for the coach. The access to the gym is free. We literally have to turn away people who know how to train or point them to other spaces. They don’t need our coaching. And that’s fine. But our space makes sense only if you need our guidance. Both as a business and a community with a certain sensibility. We teach you how to train. We try to foster independence. But our primary audience is those who don’t want to think too much about their training. They want to get it done and get on with their day. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Home is where the business is Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/home-is-where-the-business-is-cmc70p781000noqwthd6kq0fe/ The big questions are often unanswered by equating earnings: 1\. Does the job you want to do exist in the place you want to live in? I would love to flee to literal greener pastures, but I can’t replicate my current client base, access to talent to make gym equipment, a home close to my work and my daughter’s unconventional school within a kilometer of home. My brother on the other hand has a job in the US that does not exist in India. 2\. How much do you value the culture etc. I have zero value for temples (mosques, churches too), customs, rituals, religious practices, movies, the languages etc. I would be thrilled if all of it disappeared overnight. What keeps me moored to Madras is my work (or rather whatever limited success I have with it), a comfortable no-nonsense neighbourhood and my support system. 3\. Do you get to do things that you love? I’d love to live near a clean, pristine beach filled with people who respect their surroundings. Or pathways that allow long walks by the river. You might have access to a couple of hiking trails around Bangalore. But that’s pretty much it. If you value nature and quiet or quick access to it, you automatically rule out India. 4\. How much time do you actually have? India is a fairly competitive and cutthroat place. Even if you don’t have office politics or participate in industry networking or events (I do neither), the sheer work volume in India gives you little time for the long weekends etc. I am sure this varies but more often than not your work and business wind up owning your calendar. 5\. Your immediate surroundings. The odds are really high that you will wind up with a nosy neighbour, uncooperative neighbours or just have a hard time taking your building and personal space. I have no numbers to prove this. If a fight is plausible, it will happen. People squatting in common areas, ill kept common spaces, poorly managed garbage, iffy security etc. If you want to help me out in the comments with your story, go for it. But I have heard atleast 15-20 instances. And if you decide to live in an independent house, your maintenance costs and hassles are higher. It takes a fair bit of coordination. 6\. The Indian school conundrum. I’ve opted out of the rat race for my daughter. But if you do decide to send your kid to a conventional school, it can be challenging to find something that ticks most of the boxes. 7\. Urban traffic and rampant law breaking. If you have any degree of dignity or honour, India’s lawlessness will slowly kill you. There are ways to work around this. But no one can pay me enough to commute for more than five minutes everyday for work in this country. And I’d rather have my nails plucked out than suffer the indignity of interacting with a government employee. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Biggest and most often missing piece in the eating puzzle. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/biggest-and-most-often-missing-piece-in-the-eating-puzzle-cmc70oahb000moqwtmav0edic/ I have a weighing scale the size of a microwave on my kitchen counter. You can plonk a plate or glass on it. Fill it up and know exactly how much you are drinking or eating. I started this habit in 2015. And it’s been a terrific way to have the most objective perspective on explaining my improved or worsening body composition. My weight has remained within 5 percent of 74 kgs since 2008. I’ve had some clients tell me that they feel anxious about using a scale. I tell them the scale is much more objective and judgement free than any technique out there. It trumps volume, using your fingers, fist, palm, eyeball, apps, photos or anything else you can think of. It definitely trumps you basing your nutrition interventions on what people telling you that you look good or you’ve packed on some pounds. Weighing your food also provides a common language for dietitians and other nutrition progressional to converse. Rice is rice. Butter, ghee, oil have the same calories. As does dairy. Energy is the currency of food. And weighing speaks to it’s value reliably. It doesn’t matter how it was prepped or what’s in it. How much is the most important part of the eating for health and wellness puzzle. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Consumption has to moderate or stop Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/consumption-has-to-moderate-or-stop-cmc70n5qq000loqwtfx34cq1z/ This narrative of green energy, clean transport etc falls apart when you actually knock on the doors of people living next to mines, refining facilities and factories. Economic activity has a price. If you think it is clean, green or sustainable, odds are you are not close enough to the action to be paying the actual price. Fewer kms travelled, fewer goods consumed and less food wasted is the only way to dig ourselves out of this hole. Less mining at every possible level. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## What does desire have to do with it Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/what-does-desire-have-to-do-with-it-cmc70mgo1000koqwt7gev2mcs/ Every time I run into a former client, a few thoughts run through my head. Are they still training? If they are not training, what’s the trigger for the switch that can get them going again. These thoughts get especially amplified when I meet a client who got really strong, mobile, well conditioned and had a consistent, long stint before dropping off the radar. They didn’t need to be sold on the virtues of physical strength. They were living it. And once they got a taste for the strong life, I figured there would be no going back. I was wrong. The desire to be strong, physically capable and conditioned waxes and wanes. And the waning phases are much easier to maintain than the waxing that requires plenty of elbow grease (every joint really). Long story short, I have no clue how that desire goes dormant. Priorities, stress, life, loss of novelty must be part of it. The sad truth about physical strength is that it takes years of effort to acquire it. That required effort, desire and discipline. Losing it took a loss of those things and much less time. All I can hope is they find the trigger words, space or event to spark the desire again. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The equality of all cultures. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-equality-of-all-cultures-cmc70lroe000joqwtzrltpd6n/ 'If one begins with the multicultural premise that all cultures are equal, then the world as it is makes very little sense,' he says. Some cultures have completely outperformed others in providing the things that all people seek—health, food, housing, security, and the amenities of life. Thomas Sowell The context for that Thomas Sowell quote is dicey. I won’t go into it. But culture is too often framed as an unchanging monolith. When in reality, it is a rapidly evolving and changing organism that absorbs, assimilates from all sources. And it’s such a broad catch-all term to encapsulate so much starting from our eating habits, how we grow food, how we communicate, how we work, how we organise society, how we govern and pretty much everything under the sun that constitutes living and organising our lives. Individuals, families, neighbourhoods, villages, towns, cities, states, provinces etc. Suffice to say, we are going to talk, work and live very differently 200 years from now than we do today. And we are entirely different beasts from what we were 100 or even 50 years ago. My point is the value of our culture will be measured and boil down to this. How effectively can a good chunk of our citizenry be provided a reasonable access to these things : health, food, housing, security, and the amenities of life. The value of a culture is how it can be used to give us access to a life, education, security, safety and improved quality of life. It’s not something we gatekeep, protect or worship as a monolith or one right path. It’s something we live every single day. Every one of us a little differently from the next person --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The primacy of energy balance Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-primacy-of-energy-balance-cmc70jul2000ioqwtnkxi78ze/ You could be someone who struggles to stop at one bite of something. Or regularly binges on something. Might eat the same amount as someone who is just as tall as you. You are of slight built and you have time establishing how much you need to eat. Weighs just as much as you but they are a leaner 70 kgs versus your pudgier 70 kgs. You stock your fridge with the most thoughtful ingredients and haven’t seen the weighing scale or measuring tape budge. There are all the things you do to lose inches. And all the challenges you face: impulse control, portion control, using food to cope with stress and counterproductive existing habits. All of this can be real. And you know what gets harder? Maintaining a sustained calorie deficit that gives your body the opportunity to eat through existing energy stores since your intake isn’t enough to get through a day of surviving, living and being active. In my experience, most people go with their feelings of how much they are eating. I am eating so little. Or my servings are so small. But a little digging reveals, they are eating more than they think. And they’re using more oil than they thought. Snacking more than they thought. And just getting energy from places they didn’t think they were getting any from. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Number one client request: Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/number-one-client-request-cmc70i702000hoqwt8ivirpfu/ I don’t want to count calories, I don’t want to measure my food: neither with a measuring cup nor with a weighing scale. How can I lose weight? Answer: Since you’ve decided to tie your hands behind your back for a boxing match, the next best strategy is to just run away from certain categories of food. This is far from ideal or healthy. Moderation requires measurement. Sugar, ghee, butter and desserts can be a sustainable part of your daily eating. Provided you make an effort to be measured about it. And since measurement is out, meet the distant second next best thing: exclusion. Rigid rules like no sugar, no fried foods, no eating out, no cheese, no foods that contain xxx type of carbs or xxx type of fat, no stocking certain foods at home or in your fridge. I really don’t get why people embrace rigid rules instead of flexible principles. Brings to my mind this quote by the always relevant Lee Kuan Yew: I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained; he can be disciplined. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Giving training a chance Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/giving-training-a-chance-cmc70go1a000foqwtv2k2b4z4/ Psychological needs does not dictate physiological realities. What you want to do is not relevant to what you should be doing. Lyle McDonald The above words ring in my head every time someone complains about not finding the right place to train or that they don’t enjoy lifting weights or doing some basic bodyweight movements. Modern life is demanding. It has us spending time on and paying attention to things we would rather not be doing just for the sake of paying the bills. So we expect everything outside of what we do to pay the bills to be a joy ride or for pure hedonism. It helps to enjoy training. And motivation and joy in training can come from a variety of sources: 1\. Community 2\. Progress 3\. Aesthetics 4\. The desire to be an athlete 5\. How it helps with everyday life But you need to give any process, environment, lifestyle, food or training a chance to make an impact. If you bail within two weeks of trying something, it probably means that you just don’t care enough to try enough to make something stick --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Little boxes Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/little-boxes-cmc70fs01000eoqwtqiif17bj/ \*Yoga makes you flexible \*Strength training makes your muscles stronger \*cardio makes your heart stronger The body really does not care how you categorise movement or activity. It gets the job done. And if the job is strenuous, it adapts and becomes better suited to getting the job done. My basic grouse is compartmentalising specific adaptations behind marketing categories. You can get plenty of flexibility, mobility and stability with deep single leg squats. So that’s strength training producing that. You can get very strong traps and neck muscles with headstand work. That’s a pattern we traditionally associate with yoga. Your cardio-vascular recovery capacity is significantly boosted by circuit training. That’s strength training producing an adaptation we think of as cardio. And the calf muscles on someone who is terrific at jump rope or sprint cycling? That’s cardio producing an adaptation we think of as strength. Adaptations don’t fall neatly into the compartments we assign to them as activity categories. Real world adaptations are messy, diverse and rarely linear. Embracing that by deconstructing patterns, activity and movement has a lot of value by helping us understanding what we gain by doing certain movements in different doses. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## When a human response is the exception not the norm Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/when-a-human-response-is-the-exception-not-the-norm-cmc70euef000doqwt6qmnhtt6/ It should terrify us and sadden us that tales of good customer service make for such a heartwarming stories. It should not be this rare for one to have a productive interaction with a person to troubleshoot or deal with an issue one has with a product or service they purchased. AI maybe the future but at the moment it makes for a horrible experience. I just give up and close the window. There maybe exceptions but I am yet to encounter it. Or maybe AI can narrow down the issue and put you onto a relevant human to solve it? I have no clue what the future holds. What I’ve tried to do is template or FAQ all the common issues into blogs, posts or on my site. And when the client finally speaks to me, it’s usually about their individual context and concerns. We’ve tried CRM’s and they’re usually quite onerous. It feels like you need to hire a manager for a CRM tool. WhatsApp has interesting tools to label and tag clients which is what we use. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Something obvious that bears repeating Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/something-obvious-that-bears-repeating-cmc70e6en000coqwt34fvuna3/ You don’t just squat to get stronger. Or gain muscle. You squat to be able to squat. You may go weeks without be able to lift a kg more than you are able to. Or weeks without being able to lift a single repetition more than in the session before. You may squat for years without seeing your quadriceps get any bigger. But squat you must simply because it is a capability worth fighting to maintain as a biped homosapien. And it also goes without saying that pulling, throwing, pushing and carrying are all capabilities worth having. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## An ode to zoom Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/an-ode-to-zoom-cmc70cl55000boqwtbor44pno/ By my conservative math, we have used zoom for close to 10,000 hours since March 30, 2020. We coach live online for between 4-10 hours a day every single day except Sundays. And the app hasn’t failed us once. I don’t want to jinx it. But that’s an admirably consistent record. When things have gotten patchy, it is my Internet connection to blame. But even then, it’s me sounding like robocop and a frozen frame. Hell, we’ve had to shut the gym for Diwali, Pongal and a couple of cyclones. Leaks, a blown off roof (improper installation) and flooded roads have happened. But zoom has not failed us once. Zoom was game-changer in one more sense. Since Madras has the vibe of a retirement community with its underwhelming coastline, unexciting food scene and poisonous booze, people routinely flee for Bangalore and Hyderabad. And we would lose clients to this migration. Not any more. We manage to win back clients who had moved. And find new ones too. Across the world. And this was enabled solely by Zoom and a computer. It’s not for everyone. But way more people have embraced training at home than I would have ever imagined. Anyways thank you Zoom. It’s allowed us to build a business I would have never imagined! --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Corporations are the best bad idea we have to organise society and resources Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/corporations-are-the-best-bad-idea-we-have-to-organise-society-and-resources-cmc70bk95000aoqwt6jve6rq3/ I’ve always assumed we transact with corporates. There is a price to the transaction even when the transaction goes absolutely awry and had fatal consequences. I never understood why we expect corporations or those who run them to act like actual, empathetic humans. There is rich history of them being cold, profit-driven at all cost creatures from the very first one (Dutch East Indies company) through Ford, DuPont, Union Carbide, a slew of mining and metal companies, power companies, oil exploration companies, banks that governments bailed out etc etc. You get the idea. You give corporations a set of rules to play by. They push the said rules to the absolute limit, break or bypass a few, pay fines, make some money and that’s that. Everyone can be thrown under the bus to make a profit including the consumer. Corporations are just designed to be transactional, profit-driven and heartless beings that get the job done as legally mandated. And there is nothing wrong with that. Air India should pay up, provide the medical care and counselling needed to everyone affected and just keeping moving ahead to avoid this again. Fix the planes, bolster engineering and make sure of you do right by everyone affected. To expect genuine remorse, contrition or regret from the managers of corporations is a stretch. I’d argue if you actually got an honest apology that felt heartfelt, check if there’s a knife hidden behind their back or if a beverage that accompanies the apology is poisoned. To quote Argo: they are the best bad idea we have to organise society to provide jobs, goods and services needed to keep consumer-capitalist society chugging along. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## There’s a popular saying; ‘Do your own research’ or ‘Do your homework’ or ‘Figure out what works for you’ Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/theres-a-popular-saying-do-your-own-research-or-do-your-homework-or-figure-out-what-works-for-you-cmc70abhe0009oqwth95mb4p6/ But in an era of cherry picking, echo chambers and confusing anecdotes for evidence, you are much more likely to find yourself well and truly lost or conflicted long before you find any practice that has universal consensus backing it. Part of it is the overwhelming number of studies coming out establishing correlation between a variety of health outcomes and foods, food prep, different chemicals and various lifestyle choices. The other part is the ease with which you can find enough social validation for any lifestyle choice. There’s a person out there eating the weirdest of foods and looking fabulous. Or a friend who died after being on a certain diet. Between studies (regardless of how weak) and anecdotes (regardless of how whacky), everything can be justified. Your best bet? Seek out causation as much as you can. Or find someone who can give you a straightforward explanation for why something is plausible or completely implausible. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Imaginary conversations that I know people have had: I used to lift weights in college but the moment I stopped lifting weights all my muscle turned into fat. I put on more weight. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/imaginary-conversations-that-i-know-people-have-had-i-used-to-lift-weights-in-college-but-the-moment-i-stopped-lifting-weights-all-my-muscle-turned-into-fat-i-put-on-more-weight-cmc6zzk2m0008oqwtqaask-cmc6zzk2m0008oqwtqaask406/ Lots to unpack in this fun line from the greatest hits of things said by inactive people who consume too much in their late 30’s. Let’s go one point at a time: 1\. The decision to stop lifting weights had nothing to do with you putting on weight. When you stopped lifting weights, your body started losing muscle mass. This lost muscle mass could have made you look leaner and more athletic. The loss of this tissue makes you weaker and more frail. 2\. Muscle cells neither look nor behave anything like fat cells. To put on weight you had to provide your body with more energy than it expended in a day. The surplus of energy gets stored in brand new fat cells the body conjured up just for the energy storage cause. This makes you look 'fat'. 3\. Your activity levels probably started to dip when you left college. Between a desk job, poor time management, ‘lifestyle’ choices and making your own money, you probably started eating and drinking more without spending more energy. This made you fat. Or as the cool kids call it ‘plus size’. Takeaway : Don’t blame an activity or cessation of it for putting on weight. You put on weight simply because you eat too much. You don’t look athletic because you make no effort to be athletic. And it is not your metabolism, it is your ignorance of how much energy you require to sustain your metabolism. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Imaginary conversations I know people have had: the perfect plan Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/imaginary-conversations-i-know-people-have-had-the-perfect-plan-cmc6zy0em0007oqwtv40dfqkp/ My nutritionist gave me the perfect plan. They followed up with me, but I just couldn’t keep it going. I fell off the wagon 3 weeks in. Here are the free resources : 1\. Calorie calculators 2\. Calorie counters 3\. Food logs 4\. Meal plans 5\. Calorie counted plans 6\. Recipies 7\. Instruction videos for every single physical act you can imagine Here are things you can pay for : 1\. Coaches 2\. Nutritionists/dietitans 3\. Doctors 4\. Gyms 5\. More refined training and meal plans 6\. Vitamin, mineral and protein supplements 7\. Chopped vegetables 8\. Portion controlled meal plans 9\. Variants of everyday ingredients that are processed to reduce the calorie count. This can improve fiber and protein content. 10\. Membership to space where you enjoy moving Takeaway As a client eloquently put it: ‘Can you incentivise me to behave’. I have no profound spiel as to why one should pursue better health and quality of life. I think the value is self evident. But environment is everything. The spark to pursue those things comes from community, family, friends and fear. Keep manipulating your environment till you find a combo that you can afford, minimizes friction, convenient and works for you. Sometimes all it takes is different voice that can resonant with what you are feeling to get you moving in the right direction. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Imaginary conversations I know people have had: ‘I have very slow metabolism. I have put on so much weight after my holiday binge’. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/imaginary-conversations-i-know-people-have-had-i-have-very-slow-metabolism-i-have-put-on-so-much-weight-after-my-holiday-binge-cmc6zwdz20006oqwtxk6x9nml/ ‘ At least yours is from just a weekend. My metabolism has been slowing down since I turned 30!’ The fault, dear reader, is not in our metabolism, but in our energy intake Metabolism like the word \*uck means so many things. It comes attached with several adjectives or adverbs: slow, fast, high, low, medium are just a few that get strung to it. Metabolism, by the book, is the complex chemical processes the body uses for normal functioning and sustaining life, including breathing, breaking down food and drink to energy and building or repairing the body. The word is a loaded one. It captures the millions of interactions and processes that occur to keep us alive. The body uses a basic xxx-xxxx number of calories to keep one alive. This is basal metabolic rate ( BMR). It is the calories you need to provide your body to stay alive and not do much else. Coming back to our imaginary yet very plausible conversation. Your metabolism remains intact. It keeps you alive and gets you through the day. You might consume far more energy than your body needs for its metabolic processes. Or your body might require far less energy than it once did to keep you alive. TAKEAWAY Here’s a simple way to communicate the reality of body composition and metabolism : ‘I am not able to eat as much as I once did without packing on a few pounds rather swiftly’ ‘The pounds seem to pile on a lot quicker since I turned 36 even without changing a single habit’ We directly linked energy intake to body composition. By eliminating the nebulous middleman called metabolism that we have minimal control over, we can address the things we do control: food intake and activity levels. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Goals evolve Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/goals-evolve-cmc6zu9j00005oqwthfflxvo2/ --- Goals change with age. But I’ve stopped framing goals. I chase skill and adaptations.  I’ve seen my goals go from training for vanity to training for strength to training for skill to training for maintaining physical capacity and skill.  There are five key points:  1\. You will never have enough time to do all the activity you need to do.  2\. I will never get to say mission accomplished when it comes to exercise and training. Bodybuilders have competitions. Power lifters have meets. Athletes have wins, losses and tournaments. Celebrities and influencers have shoots, movies, reels and roles. The general population has a mirror to stare at, niggles to soothe, clothes to fit in, medical check ups to get through and a day to get through.  3\. Longevity is a nebulous goal. You can maintain decent body composition. Aim to be pain free. Maintain stable joints. Be able to produce force in many positions. And have a level of conditioning that gets you through most outlier demands (hikes, treks, chase a bus). Longevity like performance is a nebulous goal that allows people to send you down an increasingly complicated and obsessive rabbit hole that leaves you agonising over all that you can’t afford to do to feel a certain way. 4\. Most of us are carrying way more fat than we realise.  5\. We are not as active as we think are. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Never has there been a more accurate graph. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/never-has-there-been-a-more-accurate-graph-cmc6zspkh0004oqwtuijsiuib/ --- ![1742809838889.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1742809838889-1750555928327-compressed.jpeg) When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat. George Carlin Replace USA with India and it works even better.  My general policy is if I really like some stand up, art or music, I’ll share it with 3-4 people. And we generally enjoy a good chuckle over a drink.  I’ve generally stopped worrying about free speech simply because most of our public isn’t worth speaking to. Trying to get any public discourse or engagement going with uncomfortable or honest material in this country is a fools endeavour.  The people who probably agree with you have no power to change a damn thing. And the folks who get riled up over politics, bad jokes, nudity, movies, language, mosques, churches and temples deserve to get manipulated and ripped off by politicians and demagogues. I know that’s not how free speech works. A key tenet of tolerance is the ability to let someone laugh at or enjoy content we don’t like, understand or hate. You simply ignore what you don’t like and encourage what you enjoy. But that tolerance does not exist. Simply put, it’s not worth speaking truth to power when you have no faith, conviction or love for the land or people.  So I am just going to enjoy the good stuff in private. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The value and context of an exercise Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-22 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-value-and-context-of-an-exercise-cmc6zqc3d0003oqwtdgzw1ml8/ --- If you ask a bodybuilding coach the value of hip rotation, you might get a shrug and a talk about hip abduction, adduction and flexion. If you ask a powerlifter about pistol squats, you are going to get a groan.  If you ask a physiotherapist about a conventional deadlift or dips with full range of motion, an eyebrow may be raised.  If you ask a Starting Strength coach or powerlifting purist about trap bars, you’re going to hear a groan.  Some functional training coaches will groan about double leg squatting with a barbell.  Ask a calisthenics coach about bench pressing and you’ll get a groan.  Ask strongmen about push ups and they will rightfully complain about how little range they can get due to their massive size. Ask Olympic weight lifters why they don’t bench or kettlebell swing and they will look at you like you’ve lost your mind.  Ask Hyrox or Crossfitters about 1 rep maxes and they will stare at you like you are talking about a unicorn.  Gen-pop coaches will routinely swap out deadlifts with glute-hams and back extensions.  There are exceptions. There are physios who are power lifters, power lifters who are amazing at calisthenics, calisthenics chaps benching 150 kgs etc etc. Crossfitters who actually win events don’t train CrossFit.  Every category of lifter will value the adaptation their exercise choices produces.  This is a hugely subjective and personal choice. And one can never win an argument about what adaptations are worthy of pursuit.  Within the exercise science and training community, there are frequent arguments over how close to failure one should train, how often one should train, how much range of motion one should use, what exercises are actually useful, how dispensable are barbells or other implements. Everything is up for debate and almost every tool or exercise is dispensable. And there are many ways to produce results.  The only questions that are undisputed: 1\. You need to be pursuing any one or more of the above forms of resistance training consistently. 2\. If you like the results of your training and are able to consistently train without getting hurt, don’t let anyone talk down to your training choices. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The difference between coaching, instruction and motivation Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-difference-between-coaching-instruction-and-motivation-cmc5z3k8d001hsi2ojryzeomf/ Instruction: \* Do this like this Motivation: \*Let’s do this ! Coaching: \*Here is what you need to do. \*This is how you do it. \*This is how you should not do it. \*This is how often you do it. \*This is when you do it. \*This is what happens when you do it. \*This is when you should not do it. \*Chill and don’t do this now. \*This is what you can do instead. \*This is why it is important to do this. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Why the tool matters Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/why-the-tool-matters-here-is-a-timeline-of-when-we-first-introduced-different-tools-in-our-gym-cmc5yx4b3001gsi2owglmsu7i/ Here is a timeline of when we first introduced different tools in our gym: 2014 Barbells  Rings  Kettlebell  Resistance bands   Bumper plates  Pull up bars  2015 Trapbars  Dumbbells  Sleds  2016 Squat racks  Benches Push up handles Ab wheel 2017 Centre mass bells Landmines  Swiss bars Split squat stands 2018 Peg board  Lat pull-down handle  Open back trap bars  Pulleys 2019 Plyoboxes/ stools  Dip stands  T-bells Cushions Stirrup handles  Compact flange plates  Belt squat stand 2020 Training bars  Glute ham rigs  Pivot arm attachment 2021 Farmers carry handles  Slide board 2022 Weight vests  Push/pull rigs  Squat slant board 2023 Landmine and pulley row attachments  Belt squat  Lever squat  180 degree back extension  Neutral grip deadlift bars  Safety squat bars  Air bikes (from Octane Fitness) 2024 Weldless pull up bar  Ladder squat  Sandbags  Chains  Nunchuck grips  Tribells  Muscle up/ isometric bar Cambered fat neutral grip bar  Surfer grips  2025 Indian clubs  Boomerang/spider bars 90 degree neutral grips  Shoulder rotation sticks  Free standing belt squat  Trapbar 4.0 Our list is up to 53 tools in our gym.  There’s a simple idea behind why we have these many: Versatility comes at the cost of comfort The older I get and the longer I coach, the more I seem to value a deeper and stable squat over a heavier one.  I know those three things are not mutually exclusive. A heavy squat can be stable and deep. But if I had to choose depth, stability or weight, I prioritise the first two.  A versatile tool is not always the best or most comfortable way to do all or most moves. Every tool excels in certain positions for a move.  Ab wheels are built to be compact. But tweaking it with a longer rod and more room to hold it makes it much more comfortable and challenging.  A ladder squat is more comfortable for some than a barbell since your upper back does not have to remain in hyper extension through the movement.  A belt squat is great for folks who don’t like a load bearing down on their spine.  Neutral grips are parallel. But people seem to tolerate varying degrees of shoulder rotation, only fair a 90 degree neutral grip exists alongside a parallel neutral grip.  The more comfortable it is to perform and scale a movement, the easier it is to become stronger with the pattern. And that gives you the confidence to build tolerance for positions you are not as proficient at.  And that’s why choosing the right tools matters. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The distinction between coaching and training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-distinction-between-coaching-and-training-cmc5yqxab001fsi2o391g6k1f/ In our gym and online, we try operate in this nebulous zone between getting out of the clients way when they are training and intervening only when we think we have something truly useful to say or cue. When a client first walks in, we spend a lot more time coaching. Showing them how it looks. Telling them what it is. Finding out if they learn by watching or respond to hearing. We say it many ways to figure out what resonates best. With time the client learns the ropes, my role is to keep things moving. Cueing, nudging and moving things along. On occasion, we get to coach again. Teach something new. Figure out how to say it and show it so it gets done reasonably. And we iterate to make it better. And again get out of the way. Me and my team have done this for a decade. Day in, day out. That’s us coaching our clients to train. Knowing what to say, show enough and mostly get out of the way to keep things moving. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Time is such an absolutely odd construct. Especially when it is forced. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/time-is-such-an-absolutely-odd-construct-especially-when-it-is-forced-cmc5ymspu001esi2og0dmhrh1/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1572-1750493527823-compressed.jpeg) I can see the sun rising at 4:40 in the morning upon the Andaman Islands. One would think that is an ungodly hour (not for me personally). But Port Blair is oddly up and about. The way Madras would be at around 6:30 am. And Bangalore a little later. While the Andaman Islands have the same time zone as the mainland. In reality, they are probably 60 to 90 mins ahead of us. And it shows. When people eat. How active they are. When businesses start prepping for the day. Just how awake a place is. The sun decides the course of the day. You can see the sun set at 5 pm. People ready for dinner by 6:30 pm and it’s not forced. It’s just living life under the sun. Or without it. When you see the widespread dissonance between time and light, you understand exactly how smashing ourselves with artificial light and device backlights could be messing with our body’s sense of what needs to get done when. We are actively messing with time and natural light to get things done, pointless entertainment or just for cheap thrills. Question is do we fully understand how this choice impacts us. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Noise Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/noise-cmc5yl7ec001dsi2oxwwx8eyt/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1571-1750493461723-compressed.jpeg) I could not hear a pin drop as I sat in this observation tower for over an hour. Except for the occasional and very unnecessary cackle of a family playing antakshrir in the middle of protected wildlife reserve (not sure how to spell that, but people sing and start with the last letter blah blah). You realise how noisy our everyday environment is. Life is noisy in urban settings: the din of traffic, music and videos blaring from mobile speakers and loud speakers, public conversations, horns, revving engines, televisions, private processions in public spaces, wedding parties, death processions, neighbourhood skirmishes. The list is endless and real. I would add my life includes an added personal stressor: a gym. No music. But lots of metal on metal. Rubber on cement. It’s quite common in industrial settings. Hence their use of headphones to muffle all the ambient noise. But not an option in our gym. There never is real quiet. And it leaves you uneasy. I could never tell if it was mental or physical. Turns out it is both. I feel naive to not have taken this more seriously. I never looked up how sound affects sleep or health until now. Unsurprisingly it does. A lot. Turns out literal noise is counterproductive to quality sleep and good health. There are a tonne of studies out there that validate this idea. Almost none seem to suggest otherwise. Takeaway Urban dwellers are excited by the idea of living in quieter, calmer and picturesque settings. The idea that we can control our auditory environment feels impossible. And I have no evidence to suggest otherwise except to point to obscure places in Japan, Scandinavia and elsewhere. Cities are loud. Cities are dense. And perhaps we need to re-examine what is economically so unique about the urban construct that requires density instead of sprawl. And then see if sprawl can help. But until then noise cancellation headphones, keeping my hands off the horn and lots more crash pads in my gym are the way to go. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Muscle misnomers Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/muscle-misnomers-cmc5yi0lu001csi2o7g37n9qt/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1570-1750493300045-compressed.jpeg) 1 Force produced is not solely dependent on the size of the muscle. This is self evident if you watch sports, athletics or martial arts. Pudgy cricketers smashing the ball 100’s of meters away, lanky tennis players socking the ball, Thai teenagers punching harder than bodybuilders more than twice their weight. Force and size don’t go hand-in-hand. Size matters but skill takes you further. Only when skill is matched, does size or fitness make a difference. 2 Strength is task dependent. A strong throw ≠ strong punch ≠ strong kick ≠ strong squat ≠ strong jump. While there is some spillover, every skill or expression requires a distinct capacity, nuance control. Brute force does not result in precisely applied force. 3 Strong muscles are not necessarily less susceptible to injury. The generic ‘strengthen joints and muscles advise’ is over simplistic. Our tolerance for positions, how rested we are, how much time we spend on individual positions, genetics, phased exposure to stimulus are all factors. 4 You can injure or strain yourself even if you have ‘perfect’ posture. Conversely you can go years without feeling discomfort with less than perfect posture. Tolerance to positions is a spectrum not a single ideal. Your attitude to pain and movement goes a long way in how you adapt to it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Celebs are full of shit Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/celebs-are-full-of-shit-cmc5y2hkb001asi2og2w101uf/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0211-1750492580132-compressed.jpeg) I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again: celebs will endorse anything if the price is right. And even if they would never be caught within kilometers of the crap they’re selling you. First up, government needs to do nothing more than make sure our food won’t kill, poison, injure or maime us. I have zero faith in our governments or anyone in their employ telling me what to eat or how much to eat. And the title of celebrity nutritionist is pursued and embraced by those with a peculiar kind of talent or ambition. The talent for recommending supplements no one needs because they get a cut, the talent to recommend obscure foods, the talent for needlessly excluding food groups, the talent for inculcating unhealthy fear and loathing of foods , and of course generally saying and doing unsustainable things because it garners attention. And it’s not because they do not know what sustainable or pragmatic looks like. They just know that people will not lavish you with attention if you say sensible and pragmatic things. If you buy or consume anything based on watching a celebrity speak highly about it, I have a Byjus course and a reliable Ola scooter to sell you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Practical portion control Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/practical-portion-control-cmc5y0us70017si2on9d4b4t4/ Here’s a stupidly simple hack to be able to grapple with the problem of how much are you eating in a day. Just know the volume of the cup you are serving yourself with. A standard cup is 240 ml. Volume is measured in milliliters or ml. Knowing how much ML of rice, curd, vegetables, dal and anything that can be put in a cup whose volume you know can quickly tell you how much food you consumed. This can quickly be used figure out the amount of protein, carbohydrate and fat in your meal. More critically, how much energy did you get from the food you just consumed. This awareness can also give you actionable information. If you need to half your starch intake. That means literally cut your rice and potato or yam serving by half. Same goes for volume of juice, milk, coffee etc. Takeaway If you find weighing your food to be onerous, start by understanding volume. It doesn’t have to precise down to the single mL. But you get a simple number to act on. PS: Take a cup you use at home. Fill it with water. Empty this into a measuring cup. See how much mL this comes up to. If it exceeds the 240 ml mark. Figure out how much your standard everyday cup needs to filled till to reach 240 ml. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0208-1750492495506-compressed.jpeg) feed-shared-update-v2\_\_description feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--minimal-padding feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--3-lines feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--expanded " tabindex="-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 1.6rem; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); position: relative; max-width: 928px; display: block; max-height: none; overflow: hidden; line-height: 2rem !important;"> " style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding-top: 557.71875px; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background-color: var(--color-background-container); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); height: 0px; width: 555px; display: block; position: relative;"> update-components-image--single-image feed-shared-update-v2\_\_content" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0.8rem; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent);"> --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Stop listening to your body Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/stop-listening-to-your-body-cmc5xz7em0014si2o3cg7hqf2/ Eat till you are xx percent full is the single most pointless advice one can give you. Your stomach is a balloon. A muscular balloon that stretches as you fill it with food or water. And shrinks as it empties. Your brain tracks this and regulates appetite. Only problem is all the other stimulus competing convincing you to eat again. Content from chocolate companies, self help gurus and even doctors flirts aggressively with self-help content. Its not uncommon to hear things like: \* Listen to your body \* Stop eating when you’re full \* Love yourself as you are \* Be kind to yourself Most advice is along those lines. I have a bone to pick with this specific bit of advice: ‘Listen to your body and stop eating when you’re full’. It’s hard enough to have a conversation with a fellow human being let alone jumping in on a chemical conversation that involves the brain, gut, endocrine system, emotions (also brain), adipose tissue (energy storage) and your environment. Then there are experts tilling us to eat till we are xx percent full. Or listen to your body. Most of us live in environments that are manipulated with foods engineered to look better, taste better, go down smoother and leave us wanting more ASAP. It requires many many calories per bite to produce that effect. More calories than is productive for most of us. Even simple foods like ghee and butter paired with carbohydrates and salt that are not a result of complex engineering can be a rollercoaster for our brain and gut. Look at the few pictures in the image below. We don’t want you to fully understand what’s happening. I am supposed to be helping people with this stuff and I would be lying if I said I fully understood what’s happening. All I can tell you is hunger and biological urge to eat is not simply a case of ‘Stomach grumble, brain say I need to eat”. TAKEAWAY Hunger is an incredibly complicated song and dance that is not determined solely by how well nourished or well fed you are. The complex problem requires some restraint, thought and planning. All of those require motivation. It requires us to redirect time and energy. Your mind will want to spend that finite attention on more entertaining fare. All of this will need you to pause and sometimes tell that voice in your head, ‘I don’t trust you’. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0209-1750492445125-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0210-1750492417589-compressed.jpeg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The most unlikely business advantages (for a gym) Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-21 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-most-unlikely-business-advantages-for-a-gym-cmc5oef6y000esi2ovbhb3ndz/ --- 1 Being on time. Let’s take our online service. We’ve conservatively run atleast 5000 hours of group classes. We’ve had a late start during 2 hours online. Once when I forgot I had to coach our European batch at 11 am on Thursday in 2024. I started that session 6 minutes late. Another time, when we had to reset our password in 2021. We started it 13 minutes late.  We have had a late start once for our in person sessions. I started a 6 am session at 6:06 am in 2017.  Being on time while crucial for a gym that runs batches also tells someone that you value their time.  This might seem elementary. But i think it is underrated.  2 Taking pride in being a well maintained gym. Stainless steel is rust resistant not rust proof. Even our nine year old squat racks and ten year old trap bars shine like they are a few weeks old.  Patina or wear and tear is a normal, natural and admirable quality of gym equipment. But corrosion reduces the useful life of equipment and unsafe to use. A little WD40 and an appropriate scour pad can go a long way. If you have painted surfaces, a fresh coat once in 6 months and wipe down every day is a necessity.  3 Taking pride in the job and being able to talk about it. I am not a content creator. I coach people and help them pick the most useful exercises to do for 3-6 hours a week. I make equipment. I run a gym. And I write about these things that I do. And I take pride in my work. It fills me with joy that clients pay me to build and run a gym. And I would have probably wanted to build a gym for my personal use (I built my first bit of equipment in 2008). People respect you more if they think you take pride and enjoy your work.  The way I see if the CEO of Proctor and Gamble that sells toothpaste, detergent, soap and razors is revered, the chap who’s helping someone be healthier, live longer and move better deserves just as much if not more reverence. And reverence and respect needs to demanded from society.  4 No quick bucks. And being clear about doing the job you were paid to do. We don’t sell supplements. We don’t have premium batches. We charge our overseas clients the same amount we charge our domestic clients. You pay us for the month and duration that you train. It’s that simple. No discounts. My rent and salaries don’t change for new years or Diwali.  There is a whole cottage industry of behavioural psychologists who needlessly make consumers seem more complicated than they are. Our charge is 7250 not 6999. We don’t contrive scarcity of slots. Or tell people an offer will expire. We tell people what we do and how much we charge, show them our service and let them decide if there is value in it.  5 Always asking ‘Is there a better way to do this?’ . Equipment, coaching, cueing, conditioning, exercise selection, foam padding. Every detail deserves scrutiny and questioning. Scrutinise, iterate, improve, implement and repeat. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Corporations are full of shit Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/corporations-are-full-of-shit-cmc4sdgp30004vdvq107mlzhv/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0207-1750422549756-compressed.jpeg) Corporations excel at the art of saying a lot without meaning anything. All their talk will not stop them from taking our money. Nor should it. Apps to see how you use your phone such as Screen Time have existed for a while and most of us simply ignore it. What next ? Will Apple packaging feature a photo of a dinner table with family members staring at their phone, ignoring a meal as a wailing mother protests? We keep arguing that food packaging needs to be clearer about portion sizes, macronutrient content. But putting a diseased lung did not stop anyone from smoking. Are we going to plaster a photo of an obese person’s funeral on a packet of Bournvita? We fetishise marketing, communication and packaging at the expense of better ingredients. That pack of Bournvita cost Cadburys next to nothing to produce. 90% of the price probably went to packaging, administrative and marketing costs. Corporations can pick up milk protein for between 30 paisa and 50 paisa per gram. Essential fatty acids cost more. Bournvita sells for 40 paisa per gram. They cannot sell you anything better. And they don’t want to either. Expecting a corporation to serve up something healthy is naive if not stupid. They serve one master: shareholder capital. Customer well-being will be sacrificed at the altar of short term profits even if it means they will have no customers in fifty years. Nestle has been accused of actively promoting infant formulae over breast feeding in sub Saharan Africa. Nestle’s infant formula is not cheap. This behaviour is the norm, corporates are manipulative trolls who will say anything to sell us overpriced crap. They have done next to nothing to earn trust. The only way to show them we mean business is to not let them hear the sweet ding from our UPI app. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Motivation is often messy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/motivation-is-often-messy-cmc4sb7dk0003vdvqyym54w40/ In 2003, a girl I liked in school commented how good Nikhil Chinappa’s biceps looked. The shame of my puny biceps sent me scrambling to the gym. In retrospect, a single, stray comment sparked a hobby that turned into my career. Shame has helped me a lot. Life is strange and motivation to train or exercise is not always found in profound places or drawn from the deepest or cleanest wells. Proverbial sewage and shame work just as well if not better sometimes. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Taking pride in being a coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/taking-pride-in-being-a-coach-cmc4s7x5m0002vdvqerp2addk/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0205-1750422296501-compressed.jpeg) The trainer or coach is seen as a fairly lowly job by most Indians. This is a shame. When I visit gyms outside of mine, I see clients treat their coaches with disregard and for the lack of better word contempt. I still cringe at the one time I saw a man snap his fingers beckoning his trainer to fetch his towel. Our attitude to vocational jobs is not dissimilar. Welders, cooks, cleaners, tailors, cobblers, farmers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, machinists have it rough. Anyone who can actually put their hands to good use has a lowly status. And this will bite us in the ass. 3 out of 4 of the welding workshops that I have interacted with are family businesses. The grandfathers were welders, fathers are welder. But the sons work in Accenture. And they have no intention of teaching their kids to weld. I don’t mean to gender this. But I write it as I see it. In 20 or fewer years, our contempt for physical work will result in a shortage of talent that can actually build a physical economy. But I digress. This is about coaches. Coaches are here to make you physically stronger. When they do their job well, a few things get done. They have a plan. They teach you how to move well and perform an exercise effectively. At their best, they hold you accountable, can crack a few jokes, help you slow things down at the gym on a bad day and make you feel like you belong on a podium on your good days. The gym can make you a better person and the coach facilitates that. Sometimes you could even find a friend in a coach. The fault lies partly with trainers and coaches too. We need to be punctual, talk clearly, draw clear boundaries and through our demeanour communicate that it takes understanding science, knowledge and experience to be good at the vocation. Dignity in labour needs to be confidently asserted and no one will give it to us on a platter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The right price for a gym membership Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/the-right-price-for-a-gym-membership-cmc4s5hur0001vdvqtgdv0vn2/ I cannot run my gym at a fee of 18000 per annum. If my current client base paid me what the average gym in India makes, almost half the revenue would be funneled into rent. 10-15 percent would cover maintenance. I would then be able to pay one of five coaches and take home just as much as I pay a coach. Mind you, I have no air conditioning bill. I spend extravagantly on fans, equipment, upholstery and maintaining and adding equipment. My rent is steep on account of being in one of the better neighbourhoods of Madras. But it pales in comparison to rents on the high streets of Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore or Madras. There would be next to no incentive to upgrade equipment, read up to get better at my job let alone expand my business. Gyms in India make an unkeepable promise. When they take your money, they are rooting for you to not show up. Simply because they are charging you a fee that factors for only 1 out of 2-3 clients actually showing up. And this is just for rent, air-conditioning and maintenance. They are not factoring for anyone to actually show you how to use the gym effectively. The business of gyms is not the same as the business of coaching. The business of coaching needs you to show up 3-6 times a week, do a program, think about your eating, rest adequately and make progress. I get paid only if you stick to my program, enjoy it and make some incremental progress. That’s what you pay someone running a coaching business for. I happen to have a terrific gym to run my coaching business out of. I care enough about how my clients move to learn more and build equipment to help them move better. I have five coaches (six including me) who spend the hour teaching clients how to get stronger and make progress. That’s the coaching business. It is distinctive. Every coach has their voice and style of delivering their service. They believe in their program and they make choices about what adaptation would best serve their client. If I was in the business of gym memberships and I was to charge 20k a year. I would have to sign up thrice as many people as I currently have. I would have two coaches. I would pay them half of what I pay my existing coaches. And their job would be to ensure no one dies at the gym or breaks anything at the gym. If I had air conditioning and higher rents, I would have to sign up even more people, pray they don’t show up and pray no one opens an identical location across from mine. The business of coaching is about effectiveness and retention. The business of gyms is about footfalls and finding guaranteed absentee suckers to cover the bills for those who actually show up. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Think beyond walking Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/think-beyond-walking-cmc4rlqfr000e4vbywc8iz32u/ Walking is good for you. And there are very few people who disagree with that assessment. Doctors, therapists, coaches, governments all encourage you to walk. But it’s not enough. Far from it. Walking is a low intensity, low impact activity that has many benefits that includes cognitive ones. And 4000-5000 steps a day is a terrific way to keep your heart rate buzzing and burn some energy. But is it enough? Enough for what is the question. Enough to retain muscle around every major joint group Enough to ensure every joint can be as mobile as possible. Enough stimulus for your heart to handle the variety of stressors you will throw at it. Walking will not cut it. Simply because it does not provide every joint group in your body enough work to stay mobile and strong. Solely walking for health, quality of life and longevity is akin to depending on only one ingredient for all your nourishment. You know it’s not going to cut. Your activity diet has to be diverse. Push ups, hanging, carrying things, squatting deep, rounding your back to pick things up, rotating your hips. The list is long. And it takes work. While walking is terrific, it helps to think about adding a few more capacities for quality of life: 10-15 push ups Hanging for a minute Carrying half your body weight in each arm for 20-25 meters Squatting to full depth with control There is a subjective component to this. But the constraints we seek to eliminate are clear. All joints working well, staying robust to produce force, being stable and being resilient. Now ask yourself can walking alone address all those things? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Constraints Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/constraints-cmc4jley5000r8t8ns8481uqq/ --- When you follow rules, it works. Be it exclusion diets, rigid volume or weight targets for food, training plans with progression and volume targets, body composition targets, photo shoots, competitions, workshops etc. They work.  Until you hit a wall. The wall is the ability to adhere to the rules. The wall comes in the many forms:  It could be changed circumstance: a new cook, shifting homes, changing jobs, work pressure, injuries, a new relationship, testing time in existing ones.  It’s most common to run out of gas trying to power through a demanding plan.  The ability to work through this wall or constraints will come in one of two ways : You muster up the sheer conviction and will power needed to stick to the plan at all costs. You will do what it takes. No cook? You meal prep or find a home chef to send you meals. Work is hard? You wake up earlier. Training has no time? You get up earlier or stay up late.  These solutions get oversold on social media and celebrities. It is neither pragmatic nor smart of us to try and run through this wall.  Suffice to say most of humanity rarely finds the conviction. Even the best of plans is sacrificed at the altar of shit happens in life.  There’s a second path. You understand the principles behind an effective rule-based plan.  There’s the protein you need in a day. There’s the rough calorie count. You improvise. Your 100 grams of low fat paneer can be subbed out with a 25 gram protein shake in a pinch. Your 3 eggs can become 1/2 tub of Skyr. You don’t agonise over specifics. You find effective replacements. Ditto for training. Don’t have time for an intricately crafted push-pull-squat-hinge routine over 4 days? 15 mins in the morning to do some push-pull work 4 times a week. Another 20 mins thrice a week to get single leg squats and jumps.  No time for 5000 steps. How about just a few rounds of wall sit, duck walks and calf raises. The steps aren’t the magic. It’s the movement that counts.  Same goes for sleep, stress etc.  There’s a time and place for rules. But for most of us having some sense of why the rules exist gives us the wiggle room needed to lay low and get something done when the going gets tough. Status quo is preferable to reversed gains. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Not everyone is going to love how you sound or coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/not-everyone-is-going-to-love-how-you-sound-or-coach-cmc4jk5vr000q8t8ng7mg56ql/ --- This might apply to other spheres too. Say website design, restaurants, cars, bikes.  Why do people like a service ?  I used to think it’s pragmatic programming, picking the right exercises,sticking to the science and being punctual.  But with every passing year, I am beginning to think body language, personality and how you communicate the things you know are going to matter much more than I imagined.  Lots of people are going say DUH to this.  But the bigger point here is it’s incredibly hard to predict why people stick with a training plan or why they like it.  It’s not just going to be how well thought out the program is. Nor is it going to be just the terrific gym equipment that sells itself.  Why a training program works will lie at the intersection of pragmatic planning, accessible exercises, right community, camaraderie, openness to being coached, conviction in cultivating a new habit and of course how much you enjoy the pitch and cues from the coach in front of you. It’s messy why it works and glorious when it works. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Sustaining a training habit Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/sustaining-a-training-habit-cmc4jeisq000p8t8nx6xa136k/ There are many things that it takes to sustain a training habit (training is exercising done with structure and purpose). And it's not money.  ​Time. We overestimate how much time we need to invest into strength training. Most people believe they need to train '5 or more days a week'. This is an overestimate. Most people will do just fine with 3-4 hours of training a week. The catch is to fill those hours with useful, productive exercises in the right doses and intensity.  Attention. Are you doing the right things at the gym? Is your strength training actually challenging and intense enough? Are you spending too little time doing resistance training. Paying attention to how you spend your time and where it goes is just as important as choosing to spend time on something.  Focus. You've made all the right choices. Compound movements. Check. Some machine based patterns. Check. Paying attention to every major joint function. Check. Now are you doing those things well? When you train, do you have some sense of awareness that you are executing things well rather than just going through the motions. Do you find that repetitions are feeling 'easier' than the last time you took a stab at it. Is it time to make things a little harder. Attention and time without focus can feel like an unproductive blackhole bereft of progress and returns on time spent.  Time, attention and focus go hand in hand in sustaining a good training habit. I have heard people complain that lifting weights or strength training does not work for me. When in reality, they spent time on exercise. But rarely gave the attention or focus needed to productively train. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A different angle Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/a-different-angle-cmc4jckpw000o8t8nhdbg1ad6/ --- ![IMG_0498.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0498-1750407367211-compressed.PNG) The pull up bar is one of the most elegant and straightforward gadgets in a gym.  It’s a straight bar mounted at a height.  You can hang on it. Do chin ups, pull ups, muscle ups or leg raises on it.  You have three ways to grip this bar: 1 Thumbs pointing to each other (palms away from you or prone grip)  2 Thumbs away from each other (palms towards you or supine)  3 Mixed grip. One palm towards you, one palm away from you.  4 You will find neutral grips on most bars. This allows for your palms to face each other.  While doing pull work, all these grip positions have an impact on a variety of things: To what degree, different muscles in the arms, back and shoulders get involved in the movement. Biceps kick in more on chin ups (2). The brachioradialis kick in more on neutral grip pull ups (4). These muscles are less involved in a strict pull up that is achieved with a prone grip (1).  The ease with which your scapula moves during the movement. This varies from person to person. Your grip changes your intitial shoulder position. This affects how your humerus (upper arm bone) is positioned in your scapula (glenoid fossa) affects the ease with which you can depress, retract and rotate your scapula as move up on a vertical pull. The efficiency and control with which you can move your scapula will determine how well you recruit all the muscles in your upper back including the lattismus dorsi to get the pulling done.  Simply put, the grip can change your comfort and control with which you can perform the movement.  We are toying with gripping an object shaped like an X. My daughter calls it a spider. It puts the head of the humerus in a much more favourable position in the fossa. This allows for clients to move their scapula more freely and with greater control. This makes for a better vertical pulling experience!  The bar is two rods positioned perpendicular to each other. This is distinct from a neutral grip that puts two bars parallel to each other.  While it might not sound like a revolution or dramatically different position. Subtle changes like this have a dramatic effect on how the move feels. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## They tuk our jubs Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/they-tuk-our-jubs-cmc4jbt67000n8t8nm09azx07/ If you zoom out, the purpose of life is not just to do jobs.  ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Gates I found the above quote to be entirely asinine. There has always been this rosy notion that take away all the pesky jobs and give people a basic income, we unlock a million Shakespeares, Tolkiens, Louis CK’s, Bill Burr’s, Tarantinos or whoever else evokes the idea of great art for you.  With no work, a little cash and lots of time, we will tap into our creative potential.  We ran this social experiment five years back during COVID. We locked people at home. Told them here’s a little more time with your family and at home. We will pay you too.  I didn’t see a lot of poetry or art come out of it.  Just a lot of sulking, pissed off, depressed people and plenty of home bakers. And home bakers made plenty of crap that made the population even less healthy by launching a missile of sugar and butter right to your doorstep. No inconvenience of taking 20 steps to buy this crap.  Some people picked up a training habit. But most people lost the habit. And they replaced that time with more screen crap.  Even if most of our jobs are bullshit jobs, just like most of the stuff we learn in school is a bullshit education, it fills our days with something. It might be nonsense. It might not be productive. But it lends us with some sense of identity, purpose and social structure.  To take that away and say ‘go find your inner artist’ is exactly what I would expect from someone who owns an island and a private military to say.  There’s little evidence that any time or attention freed up by technology will be spent on creative endeavours. Our only hope is if and when AI blows up an industry, out of the ashes will emerge some new industries. Humans have a terrific gift of inventing widgets, gadgets to build transactions and economies around. Something that AI can’t do or more likely can’t make any sense of.  Perhaps subsistence farming, cults, new religions, hand written books, jousting on Pulsars, small concerts, live plays and cage fights to the death will come back into vogue. That will surely give us greater purpose. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A higher standard Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/a-higher-standard-cmc4jap66000m8t8nb19nz5b7/ --- Here are all the other ways in which FOMO and the fear of not fitting in or losing a competitive edge kills us, both literally and metaphorically : Drug use in college and alcohol consumption at all ages. I like the occasional beer. But too often alcohol consumption is a slippery slope that turns into many more drinks than is fun or desirable. And what happens in college sets the tone for life at work and home.  Drug use in sports. India is among the top three countries to return the most positive doping test results. More embarrassingly this doping does not result in great medal tallies. Which probably means our athletes are not cycling their drug use well. This is probably more shameful than the actual act of doping.  Breaking traffic rules. The things we do to save a couple of minutes and few bucks in fuel like taking the wrong side, darting through service lanes is probably costing everyone a lot more fuel and plenty of needless deaths. Steroid use in most bodybuilding competitions. To call it an open secret would be silly. It’s a competitive necessity. The great Indian wedding is a silly game of one-upmanship. Bigger venues, gaudier events, ostentatious displays. Sure, it’s a choice. But it also feels like a race.  Loudspeaker use and public displays of private faith or beliefs. Why is loudspeaker use in mosques, churches and temples use even a thing? In an era where everyone has a speaker on their phone, this is pointless. And temples planting tents, poles etc in roads. Mosques and churches building onto periphery of roads. Religious expression is an arms race of increasingly public displays that inconvenience the public.  Paying bribes and receiving bribes. You get ostracised if you don’t take bribes. And you feel like an idiot navigating red-tape if you don’t pay them and deal with the legal consequences.  Test scores and schools. Need i add to this?  The worst part. This sense of seeking a competitive edge rarely extends to good habits like personal upkeep, hygiene or care for ones personal space. We mock people for restrained eating or being organised with their food.  Far fewer people think ‘look at them doing single leg squats, they’re going to have healthy knees for decades. I am going to do this too’. Or admire frugality. Same goes for admiring restrained celebrations of any personal beliefs or occasions.  Our competitive streak emerges only when it is counterproductive. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## You don’t remember the tech.⁣⁣ You remember 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/you-dont-remember-the-tech-you-remember-cmc4ja1tt000l8t8nzzldmzka/ What works ---------- These lines ring true for any business. I’ve heard really good directors like Tarantino and Nolan speak to this too. I’ve heard the same from great chefs. You can weave a terrific story about ingredients and agonising over slow cooking etc etc but the food has to taste good.  Overwrought, undercooked, over seasoned, over-written, characters not-fleshed out. There are many many things charisma, technology, story telling, marketing, hype and publicity cannot make up for.  There has to be substance. This is true in every industry.  I will never forget a gym that was coming up at the start of my career in 2012. It had terrific flooring. A very good layout. An Ivanko barbell. Agassi-Reyes gym equipment that was well put together by someone from Taiwan. They hosted a variety of classes. They tried hiring coaches that coached actors and socialites (i refuse to use the disgusting term : celebrity trainer). It was slick. Madras had not seen anything like it ever. And it went broke in 2 years.  I can only speculate why they went broke. But I am willing to bet that none of that flash and bang made any difference to a client trying to train. The service had no substance. And it was no different from any gym floor that came before. Which is to say it was not fun. And this remains the case. Very few people describe going to the gym as fun, enjoyable and fuilfiling. They can’t tell why their quality of life is better or how they feel stronger. And that’s a failure of intelligence and imagination for my industry. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The moment I stopped lifting weights, all my muscle turned into fat. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-moment-i-stopped-lifting-weights-all-my-muscle-turned-into-fat-cmc4j7n3s000k8t8nf0vbjcjy/ --- ![IMG_0144.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0144-1750407138376-compressed.PNG) Here’s another absurd belief that needs to be vanquished.  Muscles exist to contract and produce force. Activity is the reason muscle exists. And strength training is activity designed to maximise the muscles capacity to get work done.  Muscle does not just disappear the moment you stop training. Like a parked Porsche, muscle lays in limbo waiting for activity and a chance to work. The longer it remains idle, the more work it will take to get it started.  After a while, the Porsche rusts away and can’t be used. But at no point does the Porsche become a Wagon-R.  Takeaway Here’s what happens when you stop training: 1\. The muscle gradually goes away. Simply because, systematic activity or regular load bearing activity is the reason muscle exists in the first place. When the stimulus stops, the muscle slowly but surely starts to go away.  2\. Strength training is not the most energy intensive thing one can do. But it provides the best value for time spent in terms of improving joint health and optimal stimulus to retain muscle. When you stop training, you stop spending the 200-500 calories possibly spent on exercise. If you don’t reduce your food intake by a similar level, this amount contributes to an energy surplus that becomes body fat.  In summary if you stop training especially after a productive stint packing on muscle and strength, the result is a double whammy, you spend fewer calories and you lose muscle too.  Your body composition worsens as you lose muscle. And surplus energy is stored as fat since there is no stimulus for muscle to be retained --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## If I lift weights, I am scared my fat will turn into muscle. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/if-i-lift-weights-i-am-scared-my-fat-will-turn-into-muscle-cmc4j6p7o000j8t8najoyijf2/ --- ![IMG_0139.PNG](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0139-1750407094451-compressed.PNG) This common misconception is possibly the most absurd concern.  It’s the equivalent of wondering if revving your WagonR too hard will turn it into a Porsche.  Hard truth  The content of muscle cells is very different from fat cells.  The fundamental parts that make up a muscle cell be it actin, myosin, titin among many components are very different from the giant globule of fat inside a fat cell.  Fatty detail Among fat cells, the brown and white variants look quite different. One has several droplets (brown). The other has one large droplet (white). The brown has more mitochondria than the white.  Muscles have many more mitochondria and different kinds of protein in them.  Simply put, your body does not have a mechanism to  rearrange fat cells into muscle cells if you do a few squats or bicep curls.  There needs to exist conditions for the fat cells to be mobilised and used as energy. The conditions are usually an energy deficit or a tonne of activity.  There needs to exist conditions for muscles to grow The exercise, nutrients, rest etc to facilitate said growth.  But under no circumstance, do fat cells 'transform' into muscle.  Takeaway  The effort to grow muscle is entirely underrated by the general population. Not to mention, most people wildly overestimate how lean they are. And they underestimate their body fat levels to a gargantuan degree.  This is a problem given the overwhelming evidence that carrying too much body fat is just counterproductive for health and quality of life.  Body composition is not about not about the photoshop lobby, vanity or about how your body looks. It’s about how it works. Or rather how much better it can work sans a few percentage points of fat. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Movement as medicine : getting the dosage and prescription right Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-20 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/movement-as-medicine-getting-the-dosage-and-prescription-right-cmc4j5frl000i8t8npprmmsbh/ --- The broad consensus is that movement is good for your existence.  But every existence has different constraints and pains.  So if movement is medicine. Some prescriptions are clearly more appropriate than others. Take walking. Necessary? Yes. Overdone at the cost of getting stronger? Hell yes.  Take squatting. Necessary? Absolutely. But think step ups, single leg, heel elevated and sumo. Load and control trumps volume.  Take push ups. Necessary? Yes. But augment them with lateral raises, pressing in various planes and throwing too. The shoulders can do far too much and need to rotate, abduct, adduct, flex and extend.  Take deadlifts. Necessary? Yes. Picking a weight of the floor feels like a necessary life skill at any age. But your hips can rotate. That movement can help roll, get off the floor and help your back move freely.  Your heart can operate at multiple intensities. Just walking or even running won’t cut it. Learning to operate at varying percentages of your maximal heart rate and for different durations is necessary.  Movement can be medicine. But arbitrary prescriptions or overdosing on one medication can neuter their effectiveness.  Takeaway  Movement produces adaptations. The adaptions are the medicine. So the adaptations need the same amount of thought and informed implementation as real pills do. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Stupidly basic question to ask your coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-18 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/stupidly-basic-question-to-ask-your-coach-cmc1wnql40001xhuuwv56dv0t/ --- Why am I doing this exercise ?  Why am I doing these many repetitions ?  What is fundamentally changing in my body when I do this exercise?  Why am I not able to do more of this?  How can I work towards doing more of this?  Is there anything else I should be doing if I am not comfortable with this? How you spend your time on exercise matters. It is probably single most important component in the transaction with a coach.  They are making choices on your behalf. What exercises you do, how much of each and how often. Not to mention how you execute, the intensity with which you execute. There are many elements to a quality training experience.  And most people enter this transaction with no sense of what to expect or why they are doing what they are doing.  This is a problem. When you go in uninformed and with no expectations, the odds of leaving the room with nothing to show for your time and effort are very high. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The Team Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 URL: https://www.move101.net/team/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/b360dbcb-3842-43bd-9ca4-86df86dd3372-1750084009509-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/217366fd-2f56-4aa8-b215-2c8d31a263ac-1750084021147-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/bccdfcca-98a1-487c-aa46-a8dc1f5a488f-1750084042416-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/3ed41f06-8ccc-4a66-8620-8922c37e88e5-1750084054063-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/92c2dfb0-80b2-448f-9c16-f52014c81f2f-1750084067682-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/29b39b87-5af1-4409-878c-06a09d8e3e8b-1750084078544-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/c9bb2f4e-e67c-4b66-a9ef-ef227c17df0d-1750084092059-compressed.jpeg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/6cabe061-54c4-4bac-9d5d-03057d0a330e-1750084103768-compressed.jpeg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Gym equipment as art? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/gym-equipment-as-art-cmbyywbk5002fde1km6hyvk2h/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1500-1750070817885-compressed.webp) One could make a good case for certain pieces of gym equipment being worthy of applause as works of art or industrial design. But you rarely hear of gym equipment as being in the league of a well appreciated or admired bag, car, bike or wallet. But a few pieces readily stand out in my mind:  The Watsons Dumbbells Kabuki’s transformer bar  Gungnirs Trapbar Eleiko’s trapbar Gorucks plate carrier  Lacertosus stainless steel gymnastics rings  Hyperwear sandbells  Sorinex Centermass bells RPM training’s pull up bar and jump rope  Some of Technogym’s output too At a minimum, well designed gym equipment has to live up to all of Dieter Rams’ 10 rules. And a few added ones too. Good design should be adaptable to a variety of body frames, proportions and sizes without too much manipulation. And it should work just as well for everyone.  And gym equipment should be unobtrusive. When you use equipment it should feel like you have distributed the load as evenly as possible as you handle it.  One could say rules 5 and 8 captures both those aspects of gym equipment. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The things you can do 100 percent of the time Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-things-you-can-do-100-percent-of-the-time-cmbyxx6ft0022de1krge4cwao/ --- You must have heard some version of this: Fat loss is xx percent exercise and xx percent nutrition  Muscle gain is xx percent exercise and xx percent nutrition  Randomly assigning percentages is dumb and trying to sound precise about something you cannot be precise about. It is physics envy and it is unnecessary.  I think the statements are quite misleading. It makes you think a few decisions are more important than others. They are not. No one can predict what habits you will enjoy or which habits will stick. And good habits can give you confidence and snowball into more and better habits. Your fitness and wellness goals hinge on several decisions, of varying magnitude, that you take every single day.  Here are a few that involve training and nutrition: 1\. Getting that first repetition of the first exercise going 2\. Not order a certain dish  3\. Not put a certain ingredient in your virtual or literal cart  4\. Putting your spoon away from a dessert after a couple of bites  5\. Taking time to go through the menu and order carefully  6\. Not finishing those 4 bites of buttery pasta or cookie on your child’s plate  7\. Walk to the local store instead of hop on your bike  8\. Not have that second drink on a night out 9\. Hiring a coach  10\. Being more mindful and focussed on executing exercises well while you train  11\. Making an effort to understand what exercises could add to your training and utilising them in the right magnitude  12\. Locking away your devices after a certain time to prioritise sleep  13\. Ensure you’ve stocked up enough multivitamins  I could go on and on with this list. My point being I don’t think anyone can assign a weightage to each decision you need to take every day or every week to take care of yourself.  There are many many decisions you need to take day in day out until they become habits that you do without much fatigue or thought.  So here’s my pseudo-precise percentage for you. If you’re a new at the game, you dedicate 100 percent of your time to building new habits that stick.  The more experienced you get the less time you spend making habits stick and more time you spend refining those habits and ensure they stick.  On a sunny note, the sum of your health and fitness outcomes will be greater than the individual decisions you took day in day out. This compounds with time. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Love for online training Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/love-for-online-training-cmbyxuhwg0021de1kzfoc5g5w/ --- ![1741685261939.jpeg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1741685261939-1750068922015-compressed.jpeg) Our online service started in April 2020. We sat on the fence for the longest time when it came to online coaching. Call it inertia. Or just a reluctance to figure out how to coach online.  Covid forced us to get our crap together and coach online. Or the gym would die. And it saved us. And then some.  I try to treat my online service just like the in-person service. I coach just as i would in-person. We request a couple of different angles to capture as much detail as possible. And our exercise selection emphasises single leg squatting, lots of rotation of the hips and shoulders and pushing.  The obvious constraint is equipment. We have many more toys and weight in our gym than one could have at home. We manage our way around this. But clients have been upping the game by putting together compact yet beefy home gyms.  The pic below is a client in Gurgaon. He picked up a t-bell. And he’s been slowly picking up more weight to load up.  Yesterday he pulled 90 kgs from 7 inches off the floor for a deadlift. For 8 reps. It was spectacular to watch. And it’s been a pleasure coaching him.  I really do not think venue is a constraint to get stronger. Too many people fall into the trap of waiting to find something that they will enjoy (never to find it) instead of doing something for long enough to find joy in it.  And this really holds true for training. Most Indian houses will not have room for a gym. And many of us will never enjoy going to a conventional gym. The solution is find the will and footprint to train when and where we can. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The best bad idea Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-best-bad-idea-cmbyxfsuu001ude1kdrmslbop/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1499-1750068266407-compressed.jpeg) I’ve always assumed we transact with corporates. There is a price to the transaction even when the transaction goes absolutely awry and had fatal consequences. I never understood why we expect corporations or those who run them to act like actual, empathetic humans. There is rich history of them being cold, profit-driven at all cost creatures from the very first one (Dutch East Indies company) through Ford, DuPont, Union Carbide, a slew of mining and metal companies, power companies, oil exploration companies, banks that governments bailed out etc etc. You get the idea. You give corporations a set of rules to play by. They push the said rules to the absolute limit, break or bypass a few, pay fines, make some money and that’s that. Everyone can be thrown under the bus to make a profit including the consumer. Corporations are just designed to be transactional, profit-driven and heartless beings that get the job done as legally mandated. And there is nothing wrong with that. Air India should pay up, provide the medical care and counselling needed to everyone affected and just keeping moving ahead to avoid this again. Fix the planes, bolster engineering and make sure of you do right by everyone affected. To expect genuine remorse, contrition or regret from the managers of corporations is a stretch. I’d argue if you actually got an honest apology that felt heartfelt, check if there’s a knife hidden behind their back or if a beverage that accompanies the apology is poisoned. To quote Argo: they are the best bad idea we have to organise society to provide jobs, goods and services needed to keep consumer-capitalist society chugging along. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Climbing stairs is underrated Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-16 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/climbing-stairs-is-underrated-cmbyxbxaw001tde1kgm9uxcg9/ You know it’s hard work. The fact that lifts and escalators exist means we are avoiding the physical work of taking the stairs. If you are short on time, are injured or have to lug something heavy up, avoiding the stairs make sense. In other scenarios, why not take on the extra dose of activity? But in the era of step counters and running clubs, taking the stairs really feels like a no brainer. Here’s a nice study that showed the multiple benefits of taking the stairs: https://lnkd.in/gcPD5ggg The only thing that didn’t benefit from taking the stairs is the strength of the legs. That’s probably because a step is 6-9 inches tall. That’s not high enough to produce enough of a bend at the knee or hip joint. So the muscles don’t work too hard. Climbing stairs is a fairly economical activity for muscles. At the gym, I enjoy doing and making clients carry weights up and down the stair. Skipping a step or two, can increase the amount your knees and hips bend. This means more work for the muscles around those joints. And it’s a fair bit of cardio. Unfortunately we have only 3 small flights. There are terrific machines to mimic taking the stairs. These machines use taller steps to make the muscles work harder too. And then of course are step ups, it’s not the same as taking the stairs. But you have a few options in terms of height and approach. Will cover those in a next post. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Gym equipment: more a design landfill, less a playground Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-15 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/gym-equipment-more-a-design-landfill-less-a-playground-cmbwx3lgn00008tmstjgjy76i/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1474-1749946844047-compressed.jpeg) The margins to getting it right are really small. One of the things that really bugs me about equipment made by Decathlon, Amazon Basics, Cult Fitness, Flexnest etc is some of the choices they make for dumbbells, pull ups bars tells me they either think the users don’t care about the details. Or they really don’t think the details matter. Let me spell out what i mean by details. Amazon makes a dip stand. So do Decathlon. As do USI and many others. If you’ve done dips often enough, you’ll know that 38-40 mm is the minimum thickness to get a solid grip to push through the point of where the palm meets the wrist. A thinner grip makes it uncomfortable. Thickness up to 60 mm feels good. But most dip stands are made using 32-33 mm thick pipes. They put a slippery foam pad on it that wears through and provides terrible grip. The thickness of pull up bars? Between 27 mm and 35 mm based works nicely. Distance between neutral grips? 16-20 inches. Most bars are much narrower. The thickness of dumbbells below 10 kgs is over 40 mm. This is uncomfortable to hold. But it’s the norm. 28 mm is about right for that weight. Most Indian-made trap bars put the distance between handles at 24-25 inches. When most Indian frames could use 20-22 inches to be able to squeeze the shoulders and set it in place for deadlifts, shrugs and carries. Most hack squats do not allow people below 5 feet 6 inches to squat to parallel. Indian gyms still buy this and put it on their floors. And the floor plate cannot be moved to accommodate shorter people. Gym equipment is a great design playground. Textures, thickness, finishes, materials, distances, tolerances and adjustability all go a long way. Companies treat it less like a playground and more like a landfill. But how do the larger companies do it now? They piggyback on whatever is available and affordable in a factory in China or Taiwan, ship it down in a container, put it on a website with plenty of coupon codes and free shipping, and call it a day. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Not enough love for muscle contractions Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-14 URL: https://www.move101.net/not-enough-love-for-muscle-contractions-cmbwbcmi00018r7rrakqnp7rp/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1472-1749910239627-compressed.jpeg) Addressing our diet is crucial. But my experience tells me, even with a less than optimal-diet, the benefits of strength training is under-appreciated. I am not even talking about packing on visible muscle or looking like an athlete. That’s a different problem. Being able to generate force using your legs, arms, back. Being able to maintain inertia or stability using your muscles. These are capacities that vastly improve quality of life. And improve how robust you are as you age. Protein works best atop 3-4 hours of strength training a week. I am talking quality strength training using a reasonable amount of load and working towards control and coenptence with body weight movements like push ups, single leg squats, pull ups and dips. Not too many people how much they are literally and metaphorically half assing things in the gym. Abs may be made in the kitchen. But quality of life, robust joints and muscle that can generate force and tension are forged using steel. And no amount of protein can make up for not lifting enough steel. https://lnkd.in/gSPDRPyS --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The aesthetic ideal is not the athletic ideal. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-12 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/the-aesthetic-ideal-is-not-the-athletic-ideal-cmbtihh59000ei07xkd78au0v/ The aesthetic ideal is not the athletic ideal. And the athletic ideal comes in many shapes and sizes. Judging an athlete the way you would judge Chris Hemsworth or Hugh Jackman from that one 60 second sequence in a movie every two years is stupid and a disservice to the athlete. Firstly, most athletes who play cricket, tennis or any sport would not be well-served maintaining the low body fat levels and dehydrated status that would be a requisite for a jaw-dropping topless scene in a movie. Second, judging how much force or deceleration a muscle can produce by its appearance is an exercise in futility. Athletes react quickly and forcefully to produce a highly technical, practiced reaction. This requires more than just lots of visible muscle. It requires supple tendons that stiffen rapidly and efficiently. It requires ligaments to stabilize joints as the athlete moves quickly and aggressively. You cannot see a stiff tendon like a flexed bicep. You can’t see a robust ligament like a serrated six pack. But they exist and they are uncommon. The best athletes you pay to watch may have less muscle than your average body builder. But they have more than enough muscle to produce all the force needed to swing, throw or slash with an implement. They have brains that can quickly send an impulse to get muscles to fire and produce a reaction. The brain can quickly recruit much more muscle than the recreational athlete. Their hearts pump out more oxygenated blood and quickly clear out CO2 and other waste. The best athletes have traits you cannot see or admire in any aesthetic sense. When you comment on a high performance athletes ‘body’, it tells me you have zero clue what it takes to perform as the athlete does. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Self awareness and training expectations Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/self-awareness-and-training-expectations-cmbqnoxw30008zrfyca764739/ Keeping it honest in the gym is the simplest yet most challenging thing. There is always going to be someone stronger than you. Bigger than you. More jacked than you. More experienced than you. Someone who lifts more than you. Someone who makes it look easier than you can. And someone who can make it look simpler than it is for you. They can get away with eating a lot more junk than you can. Or the eating well part comes more naturally for them than it will for you. The allure of parties and friends is less attractive for them. They’re geared and wired differently. And every single person who steps foot in a gym will face this dilemma. What you have is your progress. Your adherence. Your discipline. And whatever it is that drives you to make the choices you make. Keeping it real and being honest is simple. At any point, you should have some handle on how well you are moving. If could be video logs of training or a training log. Are you squatting as low as you can. Is your form on your pull ups or chin ups as good as can be. At a minimum, are you making some progress? Or are you blissfully unaware on the ways in which you are getting better. Worse yet, are you delusional enough to believe you are progressing when all the evidence shows otherwise? This happens a lot! Especially when you have coaches and a community validating your lack of progress as great work! I’ve seen people walk in with all kinds of baggage. I am this old and my recovery sucks. Or I used to lift in college, it’s been downhill since. The most popular delusion is: I am a former athlete, but it’s been downhill since. The beauty of training or any other athletic endeavour is simple: The proof is in the capacity to do and show rather than tell and proclaim. Honesty and clarity matter. Only if you know what you are doing, can you know why you have what you have to show for it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Loss of context Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/loss-of-context-cmbq1shco00125gens5i8w1zz/ The more moral constraints, health restrictions or calorie restriction you require (let’s face it, most of us do), the more you need to rely on processed foods to get all the nutrients you need without eating too much or spending too much. When I say processing, it’s not Cheetos, Lotus Biscoff and flavoured milk Sensible processing could result in a few of the options below: Dairy with reduced or without fat and carbohydrate content. In powder, curd or beverage form Egg whites out of a box Nuts such as almonds or peanuts with reduced fat content Protein isolated from peas, rice, milk, eggs, soy Cheese made with milk that has had the carbohydrate and fat content removed or dramatically lowered Meat or poultry that has had the fat trimmed off Sweeteners that even when used sparingly contain much fewer or no calories Soy with reduced fat content and processed into flour or tofu Oil and fat extracted from fruits, plants, fish, algae or dairy. If enough constraints are introduced, it is going to be impossible to get all the nutrients we need from 1800-2000 calories a day eating just whole foods. Processing is not a bad word. The only bad words in the nutrition dictionary is ‘loss of context’. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Attitudes, inaction, deferred pain and consequences Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/attitudes-inaction-deferred-pain-and-consequences-cmbq1qkkt00115gen687nwduv/ I am fine as I am You live only once, eat some more I’ll start tomorrow I’ll start next week New year, new me is 10 days away What will they think of us if we don’t eat at the reception It’s how my ancestors ate, so I am going to eat like this You’ve paid 1500 for this, eat and drink some more to get value for money There are shootings in America, a little garbage and bad air is better There’s a pill for my cholesterol It’s ok, my maid will clean it up It’s not your home, it’s fine I pay my taxes, it’s the governments job to clean up after me What did I take medical insurance for? Enjoy the drink It’s the government’s fault for poor urban planning and not having better rules Much before you learn about portion control, protein content, omega 3 ratios, strength training, plyometrics, do zone 2 cardio, your ability to sustain any effort to become a healthier, stronger and objectively more robust human being will be decided by your ability to value certain intangible traits such as strength, hygiene, cleanliness, pristine environment, quality of life and physical independence. This attitude is a messy mish-mash of intelligence, foresight, accomplishment, self-interest, fulfilled ego, inadequacy, envy, insecurity, shame, desire, conviction, self-love, self-loathing and self-respect. But make no mistake. There is a better us. The moment we think we are fine as we are, it’s a slippery, smug slope of sloppy decisions and an inevitable path to regret for what could have been. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Overfed and under-muscled Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/overfed-and-under-muscled-cmbq1owuk000z5genbnobylr6/ Losing fat is a laudable goal. But a big part of the problem is being under-muscled. And we need to ram home this message. Too often the obesity problem is framed as bulging waistlines. The antidote is increased activity and reduced energy intake. But this perspective sets people up to have an undiscerning view of activity and eating. Deficits need to play along with sufficient healthy fat and adequate protein intake. Slashing your food intake alone is not enough. The lack of discernment also means to the regular person there is no difference between running and strength training. No difference between a routine that leaves your heart rate amped up all the time and one with a systematic improvement in your strength. It’s all activity. And you need to do what you enjoy. This is akin to telling a child it’s ok if you don’t like numbers, learn to draw instead. An incomplete education is bad education. Takeaway Most of us are carrying too much body fat. But we are also carrying too little muscle, lax tendons and brittle bones. The war against obesity is one that needs us to increase muscle mass and reduce fat mass. And that needs more than just activity and deficits. It needs ample nourishment and learning the skill of strength. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The more the merrier Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/the-more-the-merrier-cmbq1ngo6000y5gentnkddlcn/ It's easier to get everyone living under one roof to jump in on the eat sensibly bandwagon. This improves the ease and odds of adherence for several reasons : 1\. Lot less explaining to do about why protein needs to be bumped up and why you want to eat more vegetables 2\. Not cooking 75 different meals 3\. Lot easier to be more measured in the amount of junk which is stocked at home. We'd argue it's easier to buy a treat and finish it on the spot rather than stock up on a whole lot of them and have to practice impulse control 4\. Easier to track your macros if someone who is trying to eat along the same lines as you is cooking the food You would have to spend a lot more time up front convincing your family member to start training and eating better. But this will save you countless hours not answering dumb questions later if they actually drink the kool-aid err.. protein shake with you --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Optimal vs doable Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/optimal-vs-doable-cmbq1jnlg000x5genppfb8hpt/ There is reasonable science backing the idea that working out 6-8 hours after you wake up is optimal. But how many people can carve out time at 12 in the afternoon or later to workout? For a person with zero push ups on the floor and no pull ups, a CrossFit routine that calls for 15 pull ups, 30 push ups and 60 squats is counterproductive and pointless. An elaborate bodybuilding programme with upper-lower split across 4 days would very likely result in poor adherence. Instead compound and body weight movements programmed in 25-30 min chunks 4-5 times a week will likely result in better adherence. Once the client gets a taste and the habit for resistance training, they can go down the path of powerlifting, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, calisthenics or whatever they choose. There is a lot of evidence indicating optimal protein intake for a 70 kg individual is between 85 and 110 grams. But try getting a person eating 20-25 grams of low quality protein to 85 grams overnight with a complete rehaul in food selection. Spoiler alert: you are much more likely to fail than succeed. 50-60 grams is much more likely to result in adherence. And gradually bump it up to a more reasonable 80-85 grams. Optimal is not always practical. Sometimes sub-optimal is more sustainable. The road to optimal is bridged with suboptimal habits. An imperfect program done consistently trumps a perfect program that one fails at. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Are companies going overboard with the protein craze ? Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/are-companies-going-overboard-with-the-protein-craze-cmbq1hf2b000w5genv97vp9rt/ Probably. And they’re sticking protein in places that it doesn’t belong. And there’s strong pushback. Which is good. The argument is simple. If you’re getting between 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per kg of your body weight a day, that’s enough. That’s 70 to 105 grams of protein a day for someone that weighs 70 kgs. So far so good. Next comes an argument. That the body can only process 20-25 grams of protein in a meal. Is that always true ? How about someone that weighs 90 kgs and needs to eat 110-120 grams of protein. They eat 5 meals a day? That’s absurd. Or even a person like me who wants to eat 1.6 grams of protein a day at a body weight of 80 kgs (compensating for a predominantly vegetarian diet). 128 grams of protein divided by 25 grams is 5 meals. I can have a snack and 3 meals. But no way am I doing 5 meals. And what counts as the ideal duration between meals? If I have a shake at 7 am with 20 grams and 3 eggs at 8:30 am i pissing away 15 grams of protein? Would 9:10 am be the magic time? Context matters Your body weight, appetite, food choices and body composition will determine how much protein per serving makes sense for you. And the space between meals will come down to individual habits, convenience and preferences. Not a magic window between 20 grams of protein. And last but not least, what you eat consistently over a regular day of eating consistently day in day out matters. While it’s easy to make daily recommendations, your actual outcomes are going to reflect years of habits and choices. Adherence turns into nightmare when you’re stuck with stupidly precise recommendations that treat you like a machine. So don’t agonise over oddly specific recommendations. Getting things broadly right over years trumps getting it precisely right for a few days. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Who needs a protein supplement Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/who-needs-a-protein-supplement-cmbq1fqsk000v5gen99f9v5eo/ Start simply by figuring out how far are you from 70 grams of protein a day. If you depend on paneer, dairy and lentils alone, you probably need it. If you depend on paneer, dairy, eggs and lentils alone, you could do without it with a lot of effort. If you depend on paneer, dairy, eggs, lentils and soy, you could do without it with some effort. If you depend on paneer, dairy, eggs, lentils, soy and meat/poultry/seafood/fish, you probably don’t need it. Your need for a protein isolate is a game of percentages, grams and portion sizes. The more effort you put in to actively include foods that have atleast 35 percent of their calories accounted for by protein, the less likely you need a protein isolate or supplement to get you the protein you need. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## For the love of coaching Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-10 URL: https://www.move101.net/for-the-love-of-coaching-cmbpymddw000r5gen1e8w99e9/ I get a whacky number of sport science grads who promise to revolutionise our practice but can’t teach a person to squat. But even more silly is why do strength coaches so badly want to work with athletes? If it’s coaching you really care about, you’ll be happy to try and make anyone stronger. And my take is athletes get enough and more attention. And that’s what most coaches who aspire to work with athletes want. The attention and recognition. There are a few who genuinely believe I don’t think this group of athletes is doing enough isometrics or eccentric training and be an evangelist for the use of a specific training modality. But majority of programming for athletes is incredibly cookie cutter and templated stuff. I am yet to hear a revolutionary cue trickle down from a court or field to the neighbourhood gym. And the even harsher truth, someone competing at the highest level of a sport is probably someone who had a whole bunch of traits that were well-suited for that sport. They’re going to be fine even with MEH or less than bespoke program. But I get why everyone wants to be next Pierre Paganini (Federer’s fitness coach). You want that fame that comes with being associated with a successful athlete. Hell, even NYtimes did a piece on him. There is no fame or glory in getting the neighbourhood aunty to her first pull up. There’s joy to it. But that’s the thing. Coaching for joy is not the same coaching for fame or glory. Keeping a person coming back to gym when they have no olympics or national open is much harder. But there’s money in it. Can you find the joy in it though? Especially when there is no fame that comes with it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## An ode to the G-shock Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-08 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/an-ode-to-the-g-shock-cmbnv9d4v0005c07f8g1g18b1/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img1411-1749399476003-compressed.jpeg) My name is Adarsh. I am a G-shock addict. This is a weird Sunday night post before i revert to my fitness, nutrition and quality of life rants on Monday. I’ve just loved g-shock squares since I first laid my eyes on one in 1992. More specifically the GW5000 series. In a world filled with Swiss, German and mechanical watch addicts, I love how unapologetically simple the G-shocks mechanism to show time is. It’s a stupidly simple digital screen that has been largely unchanged barring a reverse contrast on some models. There’s a solar array in a few that keeps it ticking with no need for a battery change. Better yet, they flip the entire premise of a delicate, complex and intricate construct of the mechanical watch (i know there are more robust constructs too) into let’s show the time digitally and house it in a case that’s incredibly robust and likely to hold up against all kinds of rough use. I love that Casio go crazy with materials like titanium and sapphire crystal on higher end models. And they’re using much more robust finishes and alloys of titanium than their European counterparts. All this in that old shape that i love. And the screwback case on more pricey models is quite a thing of beauty too. I agonise over the display and wonder why can they upgrade to an MIP (battery life sucks). Then realise the LCD does the job just fine. To be sure, this is a very subjective post. Stuff like design is incredibly polarising. But one can’t deny that Casio built something robust and does the job it was meant to do rather well. And these things last forever. They are thoughtful about the materials used to build these watches. They’ve spruced it for fans over the years. They are unapologetic in staying true to the original design that so many love. I am a sucker for stuff like this. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Giving training a chance Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-07 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/giving-training-a-chance-cmbm666fa002m13ca4rhipuih/ Psychological needs does not dictate physiological realities. What you want to do is not relevant to what you should be doing.  Lyle McDonald  The above words ring in my head every time someone complains about not finding the right place to train or that they don’t enjoy lifting weights or doing some basic bodyweight movements.  Modern life is demanding. It has us spending time on and paying attention to things we would rather not be doing just for the sake of paying the bills.  So we expect everything outside of what we do to pay the bills to be a joy ride or for pure hedonism.  It helps to enjoy training. And motivation and joy in training can come from a variety of sources: 1\. Community 2\. Progress 3\. Aesthetics 4\. The desire to be an athlete  5\. How it helps with everyday life But you need to give any process, environment, lifestyle, food or training a chance to make an impact. If you bail within two weeks of trying something, it probably means that you just don’t care enough to try enough to make something stick. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Pull, chin, boomerang, ladder gadget. Made for my weird choices. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 URL: https://www.move101.net/pull-chin-boomerang-ladder-gadget-made-for-my-weird-choices-cmbks4q4l000c11kb1svjl6h6/ Below is my gadget that has 8 different pull up grip options, has my dip bar nestled in there too. It also houses the anchor and pivot point for my ladder squat. The entire gadget dismantles into 8 parts that can be moved around quickly. The main chin up/ pull up bar is quite tall to accommodate different attachments like nunchucks or ropes. I use the foot-pegs on the dip stand to reach the bar. The bar itself is a single pipe that we folded into a U shape to slot into the frame below. The bar is 33 mm in diameter. That is my preferred grip. It is 4 feet wide allowing for very wide grip work. On the other end is a single square tube post. This houses both the pivot point for my ladder squat and the boomerang bar. The boomerang bar is two 35 mm rod's that weld into a 4 way connector. This is welded onto a square tube with a clamp. We then slot this on the post. This elaborate setup can be removed to attach a different kind of bar. The ladder squat setup can be adjusted for height to allow for squatting or deadlifts or rows. This is a very 'personal' setup. It accommodates different types of chin ups/pull ups, has room for dips, squatting, pressing etc. PS: The weighing scale is not part of the setup :D The thing has to be certified by the Tamilnadu government for accuracy every year. I also use it to check the weight of all our equipment, weight vest, plates etc.​ --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## You don’t matter Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/you-dont-matter-cmbks1d9x000b11kb0tyyke4b/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0190-1749212760477-compressed.jpeg) You are a vote when you are alive and a few lakhs and a government job when you are dead. And the government will pull no stops in their effort to create a conducive environment to hasten your demise. Perfectly avoidable tragedies are rendered inevitable with needless hero worship, unruly crowds, blinkered individuals and governments that view you as nothing but a vote to manipulate and entertain. Forget crowd control and poor infrastructure, what does it tell you about us as a people that we would risk life and limb to celebrate a corporate-owned team winning an annual cricket tournament. Are we that gullible to branding and marketing and that desperate in seeking a win to celebrate? --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Morality of calorie awareness Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 URL: https://www.move101.net/morality-of-calorie-awareness-cmbks0j9m000a11kb47uizdgv/ This is a slightly tangential take on why you should try to eat healthier. When you eat close to what your body needs to remain lean and healthy, most of us will wind up eating a lot less food and will eat out or order in a whole lot less. That matters. Each Indian wastes 55 kgs of food a year. This is not counting the third of our produce lost due to poor management and facilities. As an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I often sit on a rather high moral high horse. My consumption does not cause the direct suffering that a carnivore diet does. That is until I think about my personal consumption footprint. Between piped water, some roads, cement, steel, phones, clothes, fuel, electricity, cars, air-travel and my digital life, my life is expensive. I acknowledge the massive hidden cost to the environment and society for a relatively privileged, comfortable existence. And the land, electricity, water and fertiliser required for farming is just vast. I am not going down the road of how that food gets to your table from the farm. Takeaway There is a case to be made that if you are a ‘conscientious’ consumer who eschews fast fashion, fast food, pointless travel, embraces electric motors and lithium and tries to repair your electronics before your replace it, portion control is very low hanging fruit. Measuring your food and moderating your portions. Cutting back on eating out, wastage and eating just how much is right for you from a body composition perspective could be better for the planet. Needless to say, imported avocados, exotic grain and imported fish/meat are not frequent items on a healthier menu. It’s local dairy, eggs, poultry, fish, seafood, meat, grain, lentils/legumes, veggies, nuts and sugar. Whatever you eat in just the right doses that you need. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## More tools, more options Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/more-tools-more-options-cmbkrxl9r000911kb839h2x9v/ Gyms are expanding their toolkits rapidly. Machines are making a comeback. As are implements like centermass bells etc. 1 The barbell or trap bar will remain the single most convenient free weight implement to load as much weight on a squat, deadlift, push or pull. There are machines that will let you lift more weight on those moves. But a few players in the industry moving away from the barbell-dominant approach tells us that the heaviest squat alone might not be the most beneficial or useful adaptation for most clients. The strength outcomes that follow might not be as useful either. 2 Every tool has its constraints. Acknowledging and understanding the constraint will answer a crucial question: Will this produce the right adaptation and strength outcome for my client? Is it the right choice for them given their constraints and capacity? Dumbbells are great for pressing. There are better tools including the kettlebell for rowing. The dumbbell rack hold is less comfortable the kettlebell rack hold for squatting. But the dumbbell RDL is a more comfortable and less constrained lift than the kettlebell RDL. Kettlebell deadlifts are hampered by the size and grip of the bell. Kettlebell squats by the rack hold. Kettlebell presses by virtue of the instability due to the position of the weight. But kettlebells are among the best tools for farmers carry’s and rows. You get my point. Every tool, by virtue of how it is constructed, makes for a unique lifting position. How you interact, stabilise and lift the object will produce unique strength outcomes and very different adaptations. What we do in our gym? Have even more tools! Specifically designed for all kinds of lifts. T-bell rack holds while squatting feel different from dumbbell rack holds. Based on your wrist, shoulder and upper back health, you may gravitate to either. Don’t want to use your wrist at all, head to our ladder squat or safety squat bar. An object needs to reduce the friction between you and a controlled, stable lift. But sometimes the friction and constraints can produce beneficial outcomes and adaptations too. feed-shared-update-v2\_\_description feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--minimal-padding feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--3-lines feed-shared-inline-show-more-text--expanded " tabindex="-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 1.6rem; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); position: relative; max-width: 928px; display: block; max-height: none; overflow: hidden; line-height: 2rem !important;"> " style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: 0.8rem; padding: 0px 2px; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); position: relative; flex-grow: 1; flex-basis: 0px; overflow: hidden;">[](https://www.linkedin.com/company/madabolic/posts) pr4 display-flex flex-grow-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); overflow: hidden; padding-right: 1.6rem !important; display: flex !important; flex-grow: 1 !important;"> " aria-label="MADabolic, graphic." target="\_self" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/madabolic/posts" data-test-app-aware-link="" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 2px; margin-left: 2px; padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background-color: var(--artdeco-reset-link-background-color-transparent); text-decoration: var(--artdeco-reset-link-text-decoration-none); font-weight: var(--font-weight-bold); border: var(--artdeco-reset-link-border-zero); color: var(--color-text-link-visited); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans); flex-shrink: 0; height: fit-content; touch-action: manipulation; position: relative !important; outline-offset: -3px !important;"> " style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); font-family: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-family-sans);"> ![](https://via.placeholder.com/500?tmpsbpl) display-flex align-items-flex-start pt3" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.8rem; padding: 0px 0.8rem 0px 1.2rem; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); font-size: 16px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); align-items: center; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; flex-wrap: nowrap; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: flex !important;"> --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Time and energy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 URL: https://www.move101.net/time-and-energy-cmbkrw6ys000811kbvkql2cet/ Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, plants to grow, and civilizations to evolve. Vaclav Smil The food we eat. Coal we burn. Crude oil we burn. Crude oil we make into plastic. Crude oil we use to make chemicals. Natural gas we use to make fertilisers. Coking coal we use to make steel. Crude oil we use to operate vehicles to mine metals and other materials. All are transactions to convert energy into other forms. Or to produce goods. Things we actually use to tangibly improve quality of life and improve our odds of survival. Time and energy are the only real currencies. And we can manipulate them by only so much. We can become more efficient at using energy. Or we can be smarter with our time. But that we have to learn to put a better value on those two actually finite sources (unlike seemingly infinite Fiat currency) looks inevitable. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## NEAT is non-negotiable Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-06 URL: https://www.move101.net/neat-is-non-negotiable-cmbkrjndw000711kbz4sg1n4w/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0189-1749212067573-compressed.jpeg) Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, plants to grow, and civilizations to evolve. Vaclav Smil When we measure how much energy we spend in a day, we draw a distinction between calories spent on exercise (EAT) and casual everyday activity (NEAT). NEAT, as one study puts it, is somewhat unplanned and unstructured low level physical activities. They are inconveniences and friction in our everyday life. Walking from point A to point B to get a coffee, borrow a pen, pick up groceries. Every little key stroke, click of a pen, throw of a ball, squeeze of a stress ball, turn of a steering wheel needs energy. This counts towards your NEAT. The ubiquitous 10,000 step recommendation is to increase NEAT. NEAT, in a nutshell, is a low-impact, stress-free way to rack up calories in the energy expenditure column. Walking, cycling to work, squeezing a gripper and chewing gum all need you to spend energy. Even inadvertent fidgeting needs energy. Scientists even recommended making seated calf raises a habit to spend more energy. Habit being the crucial word. The crucial point about NEAT is adherence and it needs to be the way you live. This is distinct from EAT. Exercise is directed at achieving a specific adaptation or outcome. You are trying to get better at a sport or improve your strength, mobility or conditioning levels with exercise and training. This is quite distinct from NEAT which is activity for the sake of being active. TAKEAWAY A more active person does not just exercise. They are literally more active in how they get through their everyday life. You spend more energy to get through the day. It can produce some neat results over years. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Clean, green, lean and completely fictional. The only way out is less. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-04 URL: https://www.move101.net/clean-green-lean-and-completely-fictional-the-only-way-out-is-less-cmbi3zv76000kke80hzbiieo1/ ​[https://restofworld.org/2025/ai-resource-extraction-chile-indigenous-communities/](https://restofworld.org/2025/ai-resource-extraction-chile-indigenous-communities/)​ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0001-1749051436800-compressed.jpeg) This narrative of green energy, clean transport etc falls apart when you actually knock on the doors of people living next to mines, refining facilities and factories. Economic activity has a price. If you think it is clean, green or sustainable, odds are you are not close enough to the action to be paying the actual price. Fewer kms travelled, fewer goods consumed and less food wasted is the only way to dig ourselves out of this hole. Less mining at every possible level. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Standalone dip stands Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-03 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/standalone-dip-stands-cmbgkmvkw001exzc5m41j82mx/ Never having being a barbell enthusiast (helps that i am not great at the big three lifts), i gravitated towards pull ups, push ups and dips very early in my training-span. And you can geek out on dip bars or pull up bars the same way one can with barbells. Which isn’t a sizeable audience yet in India. For example, the ideal distance between dip handles is 22 inches for most Indian men. It is about 18-19 inches for most women. You could have parallel handles as in the image or V handles. The alignment of the handles subtly changes how the shoulder is rotated. That can more comfortable for some who don’t like doing dips on account of how it feels on the shoulders (lots of elevation, internal rotation, external rotation is not everyone’s cup of tea). Or the handle diameters 40-50 mm is the sweet spot for most people. Unless you have freakishly large hands, you might prefer larger. This build in the frame is a standalone dip stand. I really prefer standalone pull up, chin up and dip stands. They do the job better than combo units. Combo units smash an anemic dip handle into a pull up frame. It’s a little to wide or narrow based on the model. And it gets in the way of a good pull up too. My standalone dip stand is nestled in the middle of my pull up/ladder squat setup. This one can be dismantled. And the handle height is adjustable. As are the foot peg heights. Made in Madras as always with 70 percent of the material being reclaimed from scrap sources including those glorious handles made from seamless Japanese steel pipes. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Paralysed and frozen by the abundance of opinions and information Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-03 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/paralysed-and-frozen-by-the-abundance-of-opinions-and-information-cmbgjqmzv001bxzc5w8uczsaz/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0186-1748957234964-compressed.jpeg) There’s a popular saying; ‘Do your own research’ or ‘Do your homework’ or ‘Figure out what works for you’ But in an era of cherry picking, echo chambers and confusing anecdotes for evidence, you are much more likely to find yourself well and truly lost or conflicted long before you find any practice that has universal consensus backing it. Part of it is the overwhelming number of studies coming out establishing correlation between a variety of health outcomes and foods, food prep, different chemicals and various lifestyle choices. The other part is the ease with which you can find enough social validation for any lifestyle choice. There’s a person out there eating the weirdest of foods and looking fabulous. Or a friend who died after being on a certain diet. Between studies (regardless of how weak) and anecdotes (regardless of how whacky), everything can be justified. Your best bet? Seek out causation as much as you can. Or find someone who can give you a straightforward explanation for why something is plausible or completely implausible. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Acting on a label Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-02 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/acting-on-a-label-cmbewcllx000noiiosyh6zvbp/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0178-1748955418666-compressed.jpeg) ​ One of my favourite ‘explanations’ of the compelling dynamic between Federer and Nadal was Federer was an offensive whiz. And Nadal would be exceptional at defence.  I love the idea of offence and defence. There things you proactively do. And there are things you react to and hope to shape the outcome by working with what you have.  **In nutrition, you can play offence by:**  1a Measuring the food either volume or weight.  1b Stocking your fridge thoughtfully.  1c Planning the restaurants you visit carefully  1d Meal planning. Know what you will eat in every meal before hand.  1e Have a good sense of the ingredients that went into prepping your meal.  1f Knowing how much food you are eating.  1g Your indulgences are thoughtful and measured.  1h Prepping your food with a fixed quota of oil a day.  1i Snacks that are measured and boxed in advance.  1j You energy intake level is within a tight band and you know have a fixed expectation of what will happen to your bodyweight when eating that much food.  **And then there’s playing defence**  2a A sudden meal outside? You can restrict portions. You can read labels. You can beg the waiter or chef to dial down the salt, oil etc.  2b Your usually favourite ingredients not in stock? Read labels and ingredient lists to figure out what can be a substitute.  2c You eat what is served, you log your food and you track your weight, measurements and/or body composition. Based on how those metrics shape up, you tweak your food choices. 2d You shop impulsively or react to every new bit of marketing or shiny packaging and figure out later what to do with you’ve purchased. Hopefully 2c. 2e You eat by perception and feeling. You say things like ‘I am eating so little’ or ‘I am not eating much’. And you cross your fingers and hope the weighing scale lines reflects your effort.  2f Every new blog, podcast or marketing brochure makes you feel a bout of FOMO or wonder ‘maybe this was the missing piece of the puzzle’. And then you plug it in and see what happens.  **Takeaway**  Embrace offence. Adopt as much offence as you can. And when it comes to defence, hopefully you only need to use 2a and 2b occasionally. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A more nuanced idiot’s take on Ectomorphs, Endomorphs and Mesomorphs. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/a-more-nuanced-idiots-take-on-ectomorphs-endomorphs-and-mesomorphs-cmbdsk4s5000izx8k620xekum/ --- ![IMG_0519.jpg](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0519-1748790250906-compressed.jpg) 1 Overweight and under muscled  2 Underweight and under muscled  3 Right weight and under muscled  4 Overweight and enough muscle  5 Underweight and enough muscle  6 Right weight and enough muscle  7  Overweight and more muscle than needed  8 Underweight and more muscle than needed  9 Right weight and more muscle than needed 1,2,3 are always a problem. In more ways than one.  4 is not as problematic as BMI or traditional metrics indicate. Long walks and a little portion control would be nice.  5 is rare and takes a lot of work. Think Brad Pitt in Fight Club  6 is even rarer. It’s a unicorn. I mean a mythical beast. Not a company that has yet to turn a profit.  7 can be oddly problematic. It looks good, scary and we admire it. But it comes with it’s own set of problems.  8 even rarer than 5. Marry it.  9 the statues that the Greeks built to mess with our self esteem --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Metabolism madness Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-01 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/metabolism-madness-cmbdshsqt000hzx8k7yxzgcqb/ --- ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0180-1748955530407-compressed.jpeg) ​ ---- Metabolism  -------------- Metabolism (/məˈtæbəlɪzəm/, from Greek: μεταβολή metabolē, "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. A fast metabolism does not imply that the reactions are happening more ‘quickly’. Nor are there more ‘reactions’ happening.  The way most people speak about their metabolism is the ease with which they can remain lean or the difficulty in losing weight. While not entirely wrong, body weight or its maintenance is not the most useful measure of metabolism.  The most useful measure of our metabolism is our Basal Metabolic Rate. That is the basic amount of calories needed to survive. Not counting movement, exercise etc.  Basal Metabolic Rate varies vastly amongst the population. But a as general rule, women require fewer calories than men at the same weight and height.  People with larger frames require more energy to maintain their basic bodily functions than those with smaller frames. And some people seem to need 1xxx calories to maintain a steady weight. Eating less results in the body scavenging its own energy stores and tissue to make it through the day.  While others may pack on weight eating the same 1xxx calories. The body needed less energy. The surplus is stored as adipose. This variance can occur even between people with same height and weight.  Now here is another key factor why some people have an easier time not putting on weight:  1 their hunger signalling is relatively muted. Their brain don’t seem nudge them to seek out food as often.  2 some people are genuinely less interested in food. No amount of environmental stimulus in the form of ads, flavours, scents or imagery moves the needle. They just don’t care as much about food.  3 they feel satiety and satiation with relatively less volume of food. Some folks just don’t need to eat as much to feel full. I am an example of this. I struggle to eat a lot. I hit that point of feeling full long before my peers.  The above three points also illustrate why obesity is more complicated than just calorie counts. How you are wired to enjoy and behave with food can complicate the game a lot.  One measure of metabolism is calories required to meet your total daily energy expenditure. But the maze of how you behave with food, can complicate our ability to manipulate and understand our metabolism. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## The coaching imperative : Make gyms fun Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-01 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/the-coaching-imperative-make-gyms-fun-cmbdsg780000gzx8k5swslao6/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/mi-110-1748955602719-compressed.jpeg) _Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do._  _Walt Disney _ Here’s how people see gyms/workout spaces: 1\. Monotonous  2\. Boring  3\. Lonely  4\. Primarily for vanity for goals such as fat loss and to look more muscular On the other hand, sports with similar repetitive patterns such as forehand, backhand, front drive, fast bowling, spin, smash, shuffle etc are seen as : 1\. Dynamic  2\. Entertaining  3\. Community driven  4\. Requires skill 5\. Functional to improve quality of life This perception is arbitrary and misplaced. I would argue strength training is more reliable and a far more predictable way to build skill and improve quality of life. Here is how we drive home this perspective: 1\. Emphasis that lifting weights is to improve quality of life. Vanity, muscle and sport come later. Strength is the most reliable and predictable way to improve quality of life.  2\. No exercise is sacrosanct. Any exercise can be scaled, tweaked, dispensed with or altered to suit you.  3\. Every session has a win. Could be your first pull up or your first time hanging for 15 seconds or even your first weighted squat. Even the smallest wins deserve attention and celebration.  4\. Community means everything. I know this is important. Some of Madras’s more enduring fitness projects such as The Quad, Strength System and Madras Barbell thrive on shared values and shared goals. Needless to say Movement inc is on the list too :D 5\. Emphasis technique, mindful execution and the skill of training. Even when clients chase things like calories burnt, sweating during exercise or soreness after workouts, unapologetically emphasize skill and how useful an adaptation is. 6\. Training intensity is important. Just as important is being able to share a good laugh on the training floor. You can train hard and keep things light between bouts of exercise. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Empty authority Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-01 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/empty-authority-cmbcwvtcf001njc4nzvk3433j/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/img0183-1748955827817-compressed.jpeg) Why accomplishment, accolades in one sphere of life does not translate into common sense and sound judgement in another.  ​I’ve seen professionals spout nonsense with the confidence of godmen. And smart people not do squat or not literally squat for their health since they believe they don’t need it.  Here are few things people conflate or see as equal that skews their judgement. I am not going to call these myths. They are products of excessive confidence or worse yet poor logic : 1 Diminished physical and cognitive capacity is the norm.  Reasonable take:  You can’t fight time. But you can preserve physical and mental faculties to a much greater degree than you imagine. It takes discomfort, occasional embarrassment, time and attention. It helps to normalise the first two.  2 Longevity guarantees quality of life. Reasonable take:  Longevity is a relatively new human condition. Atleast for the society as a whole. And we adapt to our environment. Our current attitude to activity, food and money does not reflect the reality of lengthened life spans.  3 Your joints deteriorate with age.  Reasonable take:  The body operates on a use it or lose it principle. You lose capacities that you don’t work to preserve. Sure wear and tear does occur with age. But capacities diminish much more slowly when you take the time to preserve intelligence and the ability to produce complex and forceful movement.  4 A human isn’t built for ‘x’ food or activity or lifestyle.  Reasonable take:  Part of human evolution involved eating anything and everything under the sun including animals and plants. And we moved a lot in all kinds of funky environments to get food. You might not have the same environment as your ancestors. But the same capacities exist in some form.  5 Women and men need dramatically different activity diets.  Reasonable take:  A respected doctor told my client ‘don’t build muscle like a man, focus on toning’. I really wish I was making this up. Overreach is very real. Especially among professionals who have been validated for their competence by paying clients. Knowing the limits of one’s competence is rare. And the ones who don’t know what they don’t know routinely spout silly things that derail rational and reasonable aspirations among people who look up to them. (Training choices and exercise selection may vary based on individual context, but that’s not what the good doctor is implying). --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Tolerance vs optimal Author: Unknown Published: 2025-06-01 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/tolerance-vs-optimal-cmbcwuhs7001mjc4n8m91rf56/ --- Posture is framed as sub-optimal, optimal or perfect. Pain resulting from posture is framed as an outcome of bad posture. But one person’s bad posture can seem perfectly tolerable to someone else. Another person’s good posture can be painful for some. So what’s happening ?  \*\* Tolerance for an adaptation and different positions. \*\* You adapt to all activity. Even inactivity. And that’s both a problem. And the solution.  Every person has a unique capacity to tolerate different positions for varying amounts of time and intensity. Some people are natural at the bottom of a squat. Others topple even as they attempt a squat. Others can be seated in the least ‘ergonomic’ positions for hours. There are those who need a specific chair and a table at the exact right height for them. The range of what works is baffling.  This is a function of how your tendons, ligaments, joints and muscles respond and behave when put in certain positions for varying durations.  Takeaway  Perfect posture is a myth. The most simplistic idea planted by the medical and wellness community in people’s minds is the idea that there is one position that you can assume that will leave you able to sit for hours and work productively without pain or discomfort.  1\. Exercise and training can improve tolerance for positions. Having strong bones and ample amounts of muscle can help you tolerate positions for longer. Even if your natural tolerance wasn’t great to begin with. Prioritising stability and mobility in your training helps. Explore isometrics, eccentrics and use a variety of exercises to get the job done.  2\. Mix things up a fair bit. Don’t be stuck in any position for too much time. It could be sitting, standing, squatting or crouched over. Every position held long enough forces adaptations. And every adaptation has a price you pay in the form of stiffness and/or laxity in muscles, joints and soft tissue.  3\. Genetics plays a role. Things like the integrity and thickness of your joints, muscle bellies, muscle insertions are factors too. Since you can do nothing about this, your best bet is to read points 1 and 2 and act on it. ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/311c60df-ed17-4aab-9741-55ec75a9a2f8-1748956422529-compressed.png) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Feelings are the enemy of sustained progress Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/feelings-are-the-enemy-of-sustained-progress-cmbccawxs000tjc4n1ieot0kw/ I feel like my squat is getting better  I feel like i am getting thinner  I feel like I am eating less I feel like I am bulking up when I lift weights I feel like my pull up range is better  Why do you want to have feelings about something you can objectively measure and know as true or untrue.  You know if your squat is better 1\. If you are lifitng more and/or 2\. If the squat is moving faster and/or 3\. You are squatting with greater depth and/or 4\. You are squatting with greater control I am feeling thinner can easily be verified by; 1\. Measurements using an inch tape periodically. 2\. DEXA Scans from a well calibrated machine 3\. Calliper tests by someone with trained hands 4\. The trajectory of the weighing scale over the course of months I am eating less can easily be verified with  1\. A food log 2\. How your body composition has changed  3\. How your weight has changed I feel like I am bulking up when I lift weights can be debunked 1\. With a food log 2\. With body composition and measurements I feel like my pull up range is better can be easily verified  1\. Using a video of your pull up compared against earlier reps.  2\. How close is your chest to the bar? 3\. How rolled back are your shoulders?  4\. Are you pulling from a dead hang position?  5\. Are you originating your pull with your upper back? 6\. Are you just shrugging up your neck and relying too much on your arms? Almost everything in the gym, kitchen or home can be observed, captured and quantified, without obsession or fixation, to show you how much you have progressed. Stop relying on feelings for things that can easily be objectively proven as true or false. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Right for you Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Nutrition URL: https://www.move101.net/right-for-you-cmbcca487000sjc4nqjhgo1yw/ I wrote about coaches that pander to their trainees by not nudging them enough to train harder. The greatest pandering, bordering on manipulation, is by any institution (corporate, government or any group of people trying sell services or products).  Once they latch on to some simplistic/silly ,messaging that resonates, they lean into quite hard and make no actual effort to educate or inform their users on the consequences or reality of the choice they have made.  This is understandable. Their job is to make and sell things. Not to tell you what happens on consumption or how it compares with consuming something else.  Consumption that relies on marketing to tell us what is good for us is broken. Marketing is meant to get your attention. That’s it.  The ‘is it right for you based on your context or worth the cost’ needs to be answered by you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Boomerang bar Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/boomerang-bar-cmbcc295q000rjc4nyhkelj18/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/tempimagephjpyq-1748702233588-compressed.jpg) ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/tempimageiati2w-1748702245376-compressed.jpg) Here’s my idea for reinventing the pull up bar. Pull up bars are usually straight. Or run parallel to each other. There are other instruments like rings and suspension trainers that have handles for each arm that spin. My pull up bar (christened spider by my daughter) is made by bending or welding bars at a perpendicular angle. You then use the bar by holding it on either side of the bend or weld. It might not sound revolutionary. But i think the resulting position for pull ups or chin ups with a prone or supine grip feels distinct and more comfortable. It is a 4 month old invention. And the early results have been encouraging. People who are not comfortable in straight bars or neutral bars (even with cueing to pack their shoulders) are comfortable with this bar. My theory is the your starting position on the vertical pulling movement has a significant impact on how your scapula and shoulders move. The ease with which your scapula can protract and retract, glide, elevate and depress. Same goes for the shoulder. How freely it can roll back external rotate and internally rotate can determine how comfortable you are with pulling. If it’s too challenging to engage your shoulders and scapula, your arms tend to kick a lot more. This happens with the chin-up. It’s easier for your brain and body to use the muscles around the arm by bending it to lift your body weight vertically. Takeaway Pull ups are hard due to two reasons: 1\. You are pulling your body weight. This is not insignificant. 2\. It involves four major patterns: the wrist rotates, the elbow bends and straightens, the shoulder rotate, the scapula rotates, elevates/depresses, retracts/protracts. The starting position can involve varying degrees of rotation of the scapula, shoulder, wrist and elbow. This will determine the ease with which you can recruit different muscles and complete the movement. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## No GDP, no cry Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Rant about town URL: https://www.move101.net/no-gdp-no-cry-cmbcc1a9m000qjc4noip7jxue/ It’s exciting times to be a prosperous person in India. The economy is growing. And I know the economy has grown. Be it the food we eat, travel we get to go do, books we read, computers/phones we use. There are more options to choose from. A business like mine might have been inconceivable two decades ago (with proper compensation). But growing per capita incomes and a growing economy is no guarantee that the growth is sustainable or healthy. We can be prosperous citizens, satisfied consumers and completely unsatisfied as urban dwellers. Those three things can unfortunately coexist. We have an amazing opportunity. Learn from the mistakes of all the cities and countries that came before. And emulate what they got right. We don’t have to repeat the poor air quality, polluted water bodies, stratified cities, poor urban transportation or even the crammed urban environs. We know alternative approaches exist to building economies, cities and towns. One could argue that it would be enlightened to learn from the tumultuous growth phase of American cities from the mid-20th century. Or Chinese cities rapid ascent in the early 21st. Or Singapore’s foresighted building of tunnels to ensure roads are not disrupted in the process of keeping a city chugging along. There are many examples. Use of gondolas in Bolivia. Cycle and car-free zones in Europe. Bus lanes in China. Car license systems in China and Singapore. The list is endless. There are things we can do with air quality, water bodies, urban planning, zoning, public transport, building regulations, ventilation, natural light, building insulation, choice of energy sources. An enlightened approach to this would be to search for the best ideas, embrace them and roll them out with conviction, speed and vengeance. But like an angry teen, we have conviction without enlightenment. Our growth while sure and immense is haphazard and reactionary. Neither our cities nor our country is going to look anything like Japan in 50 or 200 years. Simply because growth does not guarantee enlightenment or desire for better living standards or conditions. We are happy, prosperous consumers. Weary, cynical citizens (some of us). Unenlightened, jaded dwellers in this nation. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## All or something Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/all-or-something-cmbcbz7mb000pjc4ncuhsqrlx/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1741685261939-1748701972258-compressed.jpeg) Our online service started in 2020.  We sat on the fence for the longest time when it came to online coaching. Call it inertia. Or just a reluctance to figure out how to coach online. Covid forced us to get our crap together and coach online. Or the gym would die. And it saved us. And then some. I try to treat my online service just like the in-person service. I coach just as i would in-person. We request a couple of different angles to capture as much detail as possible. And our exercise selection emphasises single leg squatting, lots of rotation of the hips and shoulders and pushing. The obvious constraint is equipment. We have many more toys and weight in our gym than one could have at home. We manage our way around this. But clients have been upping the game by putting together compact yet beefy home gyms. The pic below is a client in Gurgaon. He picked up a t-bell. And he’s been slowly picking up more weight to load up. Yesterday he pulled 90 kgs from 7 inches off the floor for a deadlift. For 8 reps. It was spectacular to watch. And it’s been a pleasure coaching him. I really do not think venue is a constraint to get stronger. Too many people fall into the trap of waiting to find something that they will enjoy (never to find it) instead of doing something for long enough to find joy in it. And this really holds true for training. Most Indian houses will not have room for a gym. And many of us will never enjoy going to a conventional gym. The solution is find the will and footprint to train when and where we can. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Motivation is messy Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/motivation-is-messy-cmbcbwxsm000ojc4nla9lgydg/ In 2003, a girl I liked in school commented how good Nikhil Chinappa’s biceps looked. The shame of my puny biceps sent me scrambling to the gym. In retrospect, a single, stray comment sparked a hobby that turned into my career. Shame has helped me a lot. Life is strange and motivation to train or exercise is not always found in profound places or drawn from the deepest or cleanest wells. Proverbial sewage and shame work just as well if not better sometimes. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Say no to things Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/say-no-to-things-cmbcbvl74000njc4nsg2yfsdk/ What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack? Saying no. Techniques and hacks are all about managing what happens when you say yes to too many things. All the techniques and hacks in the world never add up to the power of no. Having fewer things to do is the best way to get things done. I’m very careful with my time and attention—it’s my most precious resource. If you don’t have that, you can’t do what you want to do. Jason Fried Once you decide to go down the rabbit hole of exercise and eating, there’s no end to the things you can do and approaches you can take. 1\. Include enough protein 2\. Bump up your veggie intake 3\. Strength train 4\. Get enough cardio 5\. Drink enough water 6\. Improve sleep hygiene 7\. Manage time better 8\. Isometrics, eccentric, concentric 9\. Training intensity ? 10\. Bump up NEAT 11\. How much cardio 12\. Balance everything with sport? The list is endless. Implementing every idea is impossible. Trying to do it all at once sets you up to fail. Pick two or three habits and adopt them with a vengeance. Even on the exercise front, variety is your enemy initially. Aim to master a few exercises and spend 80% of your gym time on 5-6 exercises. Bump up your protein intake. Every 5-8 weeks, once habits are set, add another habit or change. Aim to make it stick every single day. Takeaway ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1695294369277-1748701775463-compressed.jpeg) For every habit you try to embrace, there will be five equally impactful habits waiting in queue. Fight the temptation to do too much. Pick a few and make them stick. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## A personal story Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/a-personal-story-cmbcbul60000mjc4noxzq4bzs/ I move terribly. I was never good at any sport. Not particularly gifted with thick joints or any predisposition to pack on muscle readily. In short, never excelled at any sport or academics, did not take naturally to running, climbing, swimming or riding any thing or any animal. But I like problem solving. Again not puzzles, board games, treasure hunts or riddles. Just problems like making a better stool (to sit on), tables, squat racks, barbells, gym equipment, door handles and other random things. I also enjoy getting better at performing exercises. Making a push up, squat or pull up look simple appeals to me. It’s a problem I enjoy solving. At some point problem solving became a game for me. Doing an exercise well and digging into the how and why was fun. The way some people feel at the end of a long run, on stage in a bodybuilding competition, when they nail a promotion, pick a winning stock and cash out, have a great conversation with a friend. I have that feeling when I make progress on my one arm push up, single leg squat or glute ham raise. Getting better at performing an exercise makes me feel good. That might strike some as an odd motivation. Not a desire for a perfect body, chase low body fat or win a powerlifting competition. But it keeps me moving an hour or two a day. And this ‘habit’ has resulted in strength never being a limiting factor in my everyday life. I have never needed a hand with heavy objects unless they’re more than 80% of my height. Never struggled to hoist myself over a locked gate. Never used a stroller or baby carrier. Ava, my daughter, was always in my arms or on my shoulders as I paced around the neighbourhood. A friction-free existence is why I like solving the problem of getting stronger. How about you? ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1695709079515-1748701725673-compressed.jpeg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## An ode to zoom Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/an-ode-to-zoom-cmbcbskmt000ljc4n4o03gslh/ By my conservative math, we have used zoom for close to 10,000 hours since March 30, 2020. We coach live online for between 4-10 hours a day every single day except Sundays. And the app hasn’t failed us once. I don’t want to jinx it. But that’s an admirably consistent record. When things have gotten patchy, it is my Internet connection to blame. But even then, it’s me sounding like robocop and a frozen frame. Hell, we’ve had to shut the gym for Diwali, Pongal and a couple of cyclones. Leaks, a blown off roof (improper installation) and flooded roads have happened. But zoom has not failed us once. Zoom was game-changer in one more sense. Since Madras has the vibe of a retirement community with its underwhelming coastline, unexciting food scene and poisonous booze, people routinely flee for Bangalore and Hyderabad. And we would lose clients to this migration. Not any more. We manage to win back clients who had moved. And find new ones too. Across the world. And this was enabled solely by Zoom and a computer. It’s not for everyone. But way more people have embraced training at home than I would have ever imagined. Anyways thank you Zoom. It’s allowed us to build a business I would have never imagined! --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## T-bell's Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/t-bells-cmbcbbjia000kjc4nkxi89psd/ We have been building and using t-bell’s in our gym since 2018. It quickly became a favourite. The t-bell compacts any load directly between your legs and makes it more convenient and wieldy than a barbell or trapbar with the same load. This makes the t-bell deadlift a more accessible lift. You could sumo, squat or hinge to pick it up. And we would start with a squatty variation and progress it to a stricter hip-dominant hinge pattern. This gradual progression makes it a favourite in our gym. Not to mention, you add some height on either side or lower the handle down and you can quickly go from the default height down to a floor-level deadlift or a high rack pull and everything in between. Here’s how our t-bell has evolved over the years in terms of height, weight and features. V1 2018-2020 4 kgs 15 inches tall with holes at 13,10,8,6 inches for the handle 22 mm handle that rotates and slides side to side (I cringe to list this) We used a seamless 50 mm pipe that we milled holes into and welded a base circle onto. We made about 35 of these. We sold all of them. V2, V2.1, V2.2 (2020-2023) 10 kgs - 15 kgs 15 inches tall with versions having one hole at 15 inches or holes at 2 inch intervals throughout the length. I also made two tallboy versions that are 20 and 18 inches tall weighing 12.5 and 15 kgs respectively. 28 and 32 mm handles welded on a 60mm/50mm pipe. We have a long handle for squatting and short handle for swings and deadlifts. And an optional top handle for rows and carries. We also have a 25 mm handle that used a slot and key mechanism that was unreliable. Takeaway Part of our entire approach to make lifting accessible has involved embracing or making unconventional lifting tools and improving them over the years to improve lifting comfort and ease of loading. And for those who argue that this can’t scale. We’ve loaded t-bells with 200 kgs for a rack pull. And over 90 kgs for a front squat. The constraint is not the ability to load it but how to handle the load. A t-bell squat challenges your arms and upper back very distinctly. A t-bell deadlift allows for a very interesting vertical line of pull with a deficit. These make for very interesting lifts that produce strength outcomes and adaptations that are unique and useful in their own right. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Finding pride in being a coach Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/finding-pride-in-being-a-coach-cmbcb4qzw000jjc4nkwpmy10p/ ![](https://assets.superblog.ai/site_cuid_cmbbrwyus00ceyq8madk5j6ab/images/1735098865800-1748700548924-compressed.jpeg) The trainer or coach is seen as a fairly lowly job by most Indians. This is a shame. When I visit gyms outside of mine, I see clients treat their coaches with disregard and for the lack of better word contempt. I still cringe at the one time I saw a man snap his fingers beckoning his trainer to fetch his towel. Our attitude to vocational jobs is not dissimilar. Welders, cooks, cleaners, tailors, cobblers, farmers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, machinists have it rough. Anyone who can actually put their hands to good use has a lowly status. And this will bite us in the ass. 3 out of 4 of the welding workshops that I have interacted with are family businesses. The grandfathers were welders, fathers are welder. But the sons work in Accenture. And they have no intention of teaching their kids to weld. I don’t mean to gender this. But I write it as I see it. In 20 or fewer years, our contempt for physical work will result in a shortage of talent that can actually build a physical economy. But I digress. This is about coaches. Coaches are here to make you physically stronger. When they do their job well, a few things get done. They have a plan. They teach you how to move well and perform an exercise effectively. At their best, they hold you accountable, can crack a few jokes, help you slow things down at the gym on a bad day and make you feel like you belong on a podium on your good days. The gym can make you a better person and the coach facilitates that. Sometimes you could even find a friend in a coach. The fault lies partly with trainers and coaches too. We need to be punctual, talk clearly, draw clear boundaries and through our demeanour communicate that it takes understanding science, knowledge and experience to be good at the vocation. Dignity in labour needs to be confidently asserted and no one will give it to us on a platter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Lowball. Low expectations. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/lowball-low-expectations-cmbcb02py000ijc4nyruqxzld/ I cannot run my gym at a fee of 18000 per annum. If my current client base paid me what the average gym in India makes, almost half the revenue would be funneled into rent. 10-15 percent would cover maintenance. I would then be able to pay one of five coaches and take home just as much as I pay a coach. Mind you, I have no air conditioning bill. I spend extravagantly on fans, equipment, upholstery and maintaining and adding equipment. My rent is steep on account of being in one of the better neighbourhoods of Madras. But it pales in comparison to rents on the high streets of Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore or Madras. There would be next to no incentive to upgrade equipment, read up to get better at my job let alone expand my business. Gyms in India make an unkeepable promise. When they take your money, they are rooting for you to not show up. Simply because they are charging you a fee that factors for only 1 out of 2-3 clients actually showing up. And this is just for rent, air-conditioning and maintenance. They are not factoring for anyone to actually show you how to use the gym effectively. The business of gyms is not the same as the business of coaching. The business of coaching needs you to show up 3-6 times a week, do a program, think about your eating, rest adequately and make progress. I get paid only if you stick to my program, enjoy it and make some incremental progress. That’s what you pay someone running a coaching business for. I happen to have a terrific gym to run my coaching business out of. I care enough about how my clients move to learn more and build equipment to help them move better. I have five coaches (six including me) who spend the hour teaching clients how to get stronger and make progress. That’s the coaching business. It is distinctive. Every coach has their voice and style of delivering their service. They believe in their program and they make choices about what adaptation would best serve their client. If I was in the business of gym memberships and I was to charge 20k a year. I would have to sign up thrice as many people as I currently have. I would have two coaches. I would pay them half of what I pay my existing coaches. And their job would be to ensure no one dies at the gym or breaks anything at the gym. If I had air conditioning and higher rents, I would have to sign up even more people, pray they don’t show up and pray no one opens an identical location across from mine. The business of coaching is about effectiveness and retention. The business of gyms is about footfalls and finding guaranteed absentee suckers to cover the bills for those who actually show up. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Farmers carry handles Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Equipment URL: https://www.move101.net/farmers-carry-handles-cmbca63ww000hjc4nbnpx5nxc/ Comfort carry Farmers carries and hangs are constants in our gym. Carrying stuff is under-rated. Walk enough distance with a load and it turns into conditioning. Walk with enough load and it is quality grip training for the arms and upper back. Dumbbells and centre-mass bells are staples for our carry work. But once you hit the 25 kg mark, dumbbells are a sloppy implement. The instability of the object becomes the constraint. And kettlebells and centermass bells have the handles positioned 3-5 inches away from the user with the load pushing into your legs. Enter micro-farmers carry handles. There are more elaborate setups that allow for two-sided loading. And of course there are trapbars. But I like microhandles for a simple reason: they are more stable and they force each arm to bear the load individually. Not compensations. What we did better than the industry standard handles (in my opinion) The 28 mm handles are 1.5 inches away from the user as opposed to 3-4 inches away. This allows for more comfortable retraction of the shoulder blades and more natural-feeling position. The base weight of our handle is 27.5 kgs. It can be loaded with small plates through 95 kgs and with larger plates all the way through 150 kgs (per arm, never tried it). The construction is straightforward. It’s a 10 mm clamp bent into an L shape with a hole milled on top for fit a handle. A 50 mm rod was welded onto the clamp and a ring to reinforce things. The handle was a beefy 12 mm thick flat piece bent into a U shape. A 28 mm knurled rod was welded on the open end of the U. There is a diagonal piece for a different idea that didn’t pan out as expected. This handle was meant to be removable. But we welded it to make it for amenable for aggressive use. And then came the beefy 1.5 inch thick plate. This rectangle weights over 17 kgs. We used a water jet cutter to cut out a 50 mm hole right in the middle. We slotted this plate onto the 50 mm rod and welded it in place. And it works rather well! You also get a comfortable 20 inch height to pick the weight off from. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Industry feelings URL: https://www.move101.net/price-is-what-you-pay-value-is-what-you-get-cmbca2z8a000gjc4nh4azt8ab/ I’ve given up trying to rationalise why my service is worth it when you compare it against the cost of inactivity and the potential medical bills that follow. The greatest mistake one can make in fitness and wellness (in my opinion) is to appeal to the rational consumer. Vanity, performance, lifestyle and having a good time will win over any rational appeal. So what i try to do is ensure clients have a ball of a time when they come to train. When it comes to nutrition, give them recipes that rival what they normally eat. Paying you should feel like a no-brainer given how much fun they have working with you. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Patience Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/patience-cmbbsvanl00cryq8mcu8epbzb/ https://youtu.be/ys79H4\_jdmg Single arm push ups are just the worst. I’ve been plugging away at it for under a year. With a few breaks here and there. And it is taking a while to hit a set of 5-6 repetitions. Not my most consistent work. Progress has been hard in one sense. It has hard to string many repetitions together. I’ve managed 4 in a set. But in another sense it’s getting easier to do one high quality repetition. Small mercies. But a movement like the one arm push up is equal parts anti-rotation, anti-extension, shoulder rotation, abduction and flexion/extension. Basically there are a lot of moving parts. And when there are lots of moving parts, none of the parts get as much work done as they would if you simplified or isolated the movement as one would with a push up, dip, bench press or machine pressing. But on the plus side, plenty of ‘work’ is getting done. And all that stabilisation required to do the move has its rewards. You are constantly fighting the tendency to rotate. But I can’t rely on this move to be my primary push. Too many constraints on the shoulder and pec. So while i plug away at this movement, I throw in healthy doses of overhead pressing and dips too. The pay-off from a time spent perspective isn’t awesome. I could have gotten many more dips or push ups done in the same time it took me to get 10-12 reps of the one arm push up done. But chip away at it i must. Notes: while the center mass bell does shift a little load onto the legs, it allows me to go much deeper than i would if my hand was on the floor. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Train at our gym Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 URL: https://www.move101.net/gym/ --- Movement inc is one of the best equipped strength and conditioning facilities in India. You can find barbells, trapbars, dumbbells, squat racks, lever squat, glute hams among 62 pieces of equipment designed in-house and hand crafted in Madras.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The program is designed for everyone, age no-bar, from folks who have never set foot in a gym or touched a weight through to experienced trainees who have lifting experience.  Our training facility isn’t open all day.  We are open for what we call peak demand hours. Much like pubs and restaurants, we are open for business for a few hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and a couple of hours in the evening. We choose to not to remain open all-day.  This choice is based on a few factors: 1\. Majority of our clients will to choose to train either in the morning or evening. A few show up in our packed 11 am batch. It makes no sense to me to have our facility open all day to have a few folks amble in at 10.10 am etc or 2 in the afternoon. 2\. Coaching is a mentally intensive endeavour. I would rather me and the other coaches concentrate our efforts in three quality hours of coaching rather than diffuse our focus across several hours through the day.  3\. Work gets done. There’s a tempo to the training hour. Having a fixed number of people show and train in a planned manner over the hour gets a lot of work done systematically.  4\. Communities get built when people train together.  5\. Carefully planned work and rest. No time wasted. Lots of rapport built.  6\. No-one works in our gym unsupervised. For many reasons including safety, our love of equipment and ensuring people get work done well, we choose to not have unsupervised sessions in our gym. 7\. Having people commit to show up at a specific time and for an hour improves adherence. **An ever deeper dive**  For our in person service, we like to get 3 hours a week of strength training. We recommend active recovery like walking, jogging, jump rope or some light mobility work on the days off. The three days feature a lot of compound movements sprinkled with conditioning and mobility work. IN PERSON CHOICES Our in person programming is handled by me (during 5 am, 6 am and 11 am). And the other coaches during the other hours. Every coach might have a slight twist to the program and have preferred moves or things they are trying out. For example, right now i am using neck planks twice a week in person and four times a week online. But broadly for our in person service, i gun for 9-12 sets of squatting a week(single, double and reverse Nordic’s or sissy’s). 6-8 sets of hamstring dominant work. We use glute hams, sumo squats and deadlifts. 10-12 sets of pushes in the form of pressing, pushing, raises or dips. Same for pulling between cable work, rows and pull ups. There’s all messy movement like carries, hip flows, spinal rotation, lateral flexion, side bends, hip rotation, shoulder rotation, throws, stairs, airbikes, brachiation, jumps, sled pushes etc. These patterns matter since they ensure every joint and muscle group gets a good dose of usage. We frame it as circuits, one move at a time or conditioning circuits. As long as we hit a reasonable intensity and/or volume of work done, i am agnostic to the framing of the routine. We don’t really worry about week on week progressive overloads. We look at numbers every 6-8 weeks to see if there is adequate improvement. I also like to look at improvements in stability, range of motion and movement quality (subjective) and the relative ease with which the workout or move is performed. We have a template to ensure clients reach these targets. The template accounts for broad movement categories. What exercises are actually performed is tailored down to individual client capacities, requirements, constraints and goals. So a push can be push ups, one arm push ups, pike push ups, dips, floor presses, bench presses, landmine pressing, overhead pressing, lateral raises or sled pushes. Same goes for all the other categories. We can tailor down the exercise, volume and intensity to your capacity. And progress it and make it harder as you get stronger and better conditioned. Squats get heavier. Single leg squats get deeper. Less assistance is used to achieve more upright single leg squats. Basically plenty of tweaking. A sensible, pragmatic template. Lots of quality movement. And sensible programming choices that ensures no joint is left behind. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Move for fun Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 Category: Training URL: https://www.move101.net/move-for-fun-cmbbrzcpw00ckyq8m7oktefkj/ Our monkey bar is a fun and flexible setup. We can swap out rings, pull up bars, neutral grip handles, spider handles, boomerangs, nunchucks and pretty much any thing that can be held onto while attached to a harness. The clinical way to look at it is grip strength and generating momentum with your hips while maintaining steady shoulders . The more fun way to look at it: movement as a fun problem to solve. You swing and hang because you can. No deconstruction or appeal to fulfil activity diet necessary. The adaptation or consequent outcomes don’t matter. The brachiation in the video below was not part of our programme. It’s just people moving for fun. And that framing gets lost. I hear people often proclaim or question: ‘i prefer a sport, gyms are so sterile or rigid in their approach’. This distinction is silly. There is nothing natural about the movement, rules or outcomes in sport. People like sport because it is accessible, outcome led and makes you feel accomplished at the end of it. You see a racket or bat or ball. You want to pick it up and hit with it. You see a barbell or a pull up bar, your head naturally doesn’t see what needs to be done. And that’s where gyms need to change. The space needs to be more inviting, intuitive and lend itself to shared experiences. It should feel obvious and rewarding when you accomplished something that was neither simple nor easy. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## Train online with us Author: Unknown Published: 2025-05-31 URL: https://www.move101.net/online/ **Our online service has one simple goal: make you strong in any setting you are comfortable with: home, gym or in a park. We bring strength training to a setting you are comfortable in.**  Online coaching is a complicated business. The odds are stacked against it working. Most people want their strength training to contain doses of community, outdoors, options, equipment, physical experiences and of course human interaction. They want the live experience. We try to find some middle ground by coaching live online. Basically coach people on how to do a whole bunch of moves well, scale it for them and then throw them into our class to practice and scale what they learn. **HOW WE MAKE IT WORK** We personally love ‘live’ online coaching. Managing an hour of training, communicating clearly with some humour, getting details right, keeping people engaged through it and getting people stronger is a challenge I enjoy.  And there’s the joy of working with constraints such as limited spaces and less equipment. That forces us to work with a lot more single leg work, bodyweight exercises and unconventional exercise choices. You realise that with a little creativity your bodyweight and a couple of dumbbells can go a long way in the strength and conditioning game.  Zoom fatigue means there is a large section of the population who are wary of the format and don’t like it. And that’s OK.  The small percentage for whom it resonates is big enough for me to find enough willing and paying participants to work with. The online service is a godsend for folks who don’t want to commute to train, folks who have never liked the gym setting or crowded spaces and who prioritise quality of life and strength outcomes. Clients train between 3 to 6 times a week. I handle the programming for all the sessions online. And the split is a fairly pragmatic one. We do a lot of pushing, shoulder rotation and spinal rotation work twice a week. There’s squatting and using the hamstring and glutes twice a week. And there’s pulling and calf work twice a week. We spent an hour or two walking clients through all the basic patterns we use during the training sessions. This is done one-on-one. We make pick the appropriate difficulty levels on exercises, walk through each pattern in detail and most importantly try and make the client comfortable with our voice, cues and coaching style. People often zone out. We need to work hard to earn their attention and keep it for the 50 training minutes. We need their confidence that we are watching them carefully. We ask for changes in angles. Once we complete the one-on-one, it’s not yet mission accomplished. Clients need to consistently show up for the sessions. Get used to the lingo and the pacing of the hour. We do have some clients sign in from gyms. And we make extensive use of machines, barbells, pull up bars etc. But in case they don’t, we use plenty of single leg work, isometrics, jumping and calisthenics. We use slide outs, lateral squatting, single leg squatting, hinges, hip thrusts, squat jumps, wall sits, single leg isometric holds and emphasis control and stability. The volume is higher than what we use in our gym. With single leg squats, we use assistance to ensure control and comfort with depth.  For example, a routine could involve a push up isometric hold followed by push ups.  And we use deficit push ups to add range and difficulty to the exercise. For those who do not have push ups yet, we use elevated push ups on dining tables, chairs, sofas. Several clients also have dip stands. This lets us throw in inverted rows and dips into the routine. We now seen at least 7-8 clients actively work towards single arm push ups. Similar choices are made for pulling work too. Like with our in-person service, we use plenty of ankle rotation, shoulder rotation, hip rotation and lateral flexion of the spine drills too. This is in addition to healthy doses of planks, crunches, spinal rotation, flexion and extension. Our online-service also allows us to dose people more frequently with these patterns. This is useful since these patterns lend themselves to more frequent doses. We keep a close eye on clients. And when they have settled in and gotten comfortable, we notch up the difficulty. And with a community of over 200 trainees, more recent clients watch experienced folks using dip stands and pull ups. Or belting out weighted pistol squats and aspire to this stuff too. And we give them a clear road to these training outcomes. ​ --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. ---