I turned 39 yesterday. I woke up and walked out on the balcony to practice some deep breathing, as I do each day, and noticed an incredible sight. The beach and surrounding parking lots were nearly empty. There was hardly anyone on the bike path. All of the summer tourists had disappeared overnight. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Now I know how the locals must have felt the day after Labor Day each year at the Jersey Shore when we all cleared out until the next Memorial Day.
As a kid I always thought I had the worst birthday ever because it marked the end of summer and the start of school. I hated school. A lot of times my birthday was the first day of school. That pretty much sucked.
But now, it’s just another amazing day to be alive. I’m healthy, I get to help people, I get to train and be physically active for several hours, and I get to spend time with my incredible wife and great friends. Plus, the start of football season is right around the corner, so what could be better than that?
To celebrate the last birthday of my thirties I started with an early morning mobility & SMR session with all my favorite toys (pictured) followed a few hours later by a bodyweight workout at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, sprints on the beach in the afternoon and a long bike ride in the early evening.
In between the physical activity I deviated from my normal Renegade Diet plan and stuffed down about 600 plus grams of carbs for a little cheat day fun, hitting three of our favorite spots in Venice and Santa Monica.
So now we’ve got 364 days til I hit the big 4-0. I’m training harder than ever and feeling great. My goals at 39 are different than they once were. I used to freak out if my weight dipped below 220. Now I want to make sure it doesn’t go over 200. It’s a better long term, healthy weight for me; 190 might be even better.
I have a history of back injuries that started in grade school that have left me with a few herniations and degenerated disks. So I don’t push the squats and deads quite the way I used to.
At least half of my training is all bodyweight. Oftentimes I do nothing but that for 3-4 months at a time. But I still love to move weight as well. So I do snatches, high pulls, clean and presses, heavy sled work and loaded carries.
My goal is to be in the best shape of my life this time next year.
And I mean true physical fitness. Strength, conditioning, movement ability, speed, no pain, low body-fat and health.
Not just some guy who looks decent while flexing but has zero hip mobility and can’t run fifty feet without gasping for air.
Specifically, my goals are:
- To train or do something physically challenging every day.
- To continue to improve my performance-focused-nutrition plan, based on some recent blood tests I had done so I can keep inflammation down, recover faster than ever and keep pushing the pace I like to set for myself.
- To get at least two yoga sessions in every week.
- To get at least two sprint sessions in every week.
- To continue working towards mastery of a handful or so of bodyweight/gymnastics exercises that I focus on.
- To keep my conditioning at a level that ensures that I’ll never be embarrassed by a training partner.
- To never go a day without doing at least 45 minutes of mobility work and self myofascial release.
- To completely alleviate/heal the low back, knee and hip pain I have dealt with for years.
- To continually improve my ability move in all planes and directions with zero pain or restriction.
Right now the last four are the most important. For me to be forty and have zero pain for the first time in my life would be incredible. I’m a lot better off now than I was 5-10 years ago but I know I can get better. And I will.
I’d like to document some or all of this along the way and share it with you guys.
I’m thinking blog posts, videos, Instagram pics and clips, reflections, journal entries, what I’m eating, how I’m training, what my daily success routine looks like, who I’m going to for treatment on old injuries, my schedule, and whatever else we can collectively think of together.
So let me know what you’d like to read or see more of by dropping a comment below and let’s get this rolling.
PS. We’re running a birthday sale on Body Weight Body Building until Friday where you can get a free copy of Basement Beast Building with your order. Click HERE to check it out.
