This past week, I spoke with a group of private clients.

During our weekly mindset class, I brought up the topic of being uncomfortable.

And why this is essential to creating transformation.

We don’t change when we reside within our comfort zone.

But rather when we challenge ourselves to step outside of where we normally live and into the unknown.

Being uncomfortable doesn’t mean it needs to be ‘painful’.

It just means you need to stretch yourself.

To challenge yourself.

Growth is always within our grasp.

We just need to reach out and be slightly uncomfortable.

Eventually what was once ‘uncomfortable’ for you will start to transform into comfort.

Then, you can repeat the cycle once more.

The never ending process of challenging yourself.

One final note here: in life you’re either growing… or going backwards.

Maintenance is an illusion.

Stay grounded in reality.

Lesson: You can be uncomfortable with exercise and nutrition now or uncomfortable later on with illness and weakness. Either way, you’ll still face discomfort.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

#1.) Model the World’s Strongest Vegan

The world’s strongest vegan (and possibly strongest man) is Patrik Baboumian.

A strongman and vegan for over a decade, Patrik has broken multiple world records in strongman competitions as well as being crowned as Germany’s reigning strongest man.

He also featured in the popular Gamechangers documentary back in 2016, along with other elite vegan athletes who are paving the path forward.

When it comes to strength, Patrik is second to none.

There’s several key lessons you can model form Patrik’s success:

Nutritionally:

a. Eat more to build muscle & strength

When it comes to building muscle and strength, it’s hard to do this undereating.

While dropping body fat requires being in a caloric deficit, building muscle is a different story.

You can’t build something out of thin air.

You need the building blocks (calories & amino acids) to do this.

Most of us hardly scratch the surface of our true strength and muscular potential.

Whether it’s due to inconsistent training, not challenging ourselves, or not believing our abilities, we all leave potential on the table.

However, eating more is a prerequisite to building muscle and strength over extended periods of time.

From Patrik’s diet, he focuses mainly on whole foods like potatoes, lentils, greens (he enjoys smoothies) along with multiple protein options including vegan sausages, protein powder, and plant-based burgers.

Eat more to build strength.

b. Eat your bodyweight in grams for protein

Another important nutrition lesson from Patrik’s strength accomplishments is his protein intake.

While competing as a strongman, he weighed nearly 300 lbs.

One of the reasons he was able to build extraordinary levels of strength and muscle was due to his higher protein intake.

Consistently each day, he averaged over 1 gram of protein per bodyweight.

This ensured he would build muscle over time while rebuilding muscle tissue post workouts.

While you may never need to eat 5,000 k/cal days like Patrik, following the overarching principles of success like eating enough and getting sufficient protein are important.

1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight has been proven to be sufficient for plant-based and vegan athletes.

However, if you’re trying to drop body fat, consider increasing this to 1.2-1.5 grams per body weight to retain muscle mass while dropping body fat.

Fitness:

a. Lift heavy to get strong

Progressive overload = lifting heavier with intensity over time.

This law was one that the Iranian-born strongman followed everyday.

And it’s the reason why paired with his plant-fueled diet, he became one of the strongest men on the planet.

Even if your goal isn’t to get as strong as Pat, if you want to create a bullet-proof body that’s resilient and can withstand long work days, travels, and raising a family, lifting heavy will protect your body.

One of the biggest concerns I’ve heard from clients is that if it’s safe to lift heavy…

If you’re using the right technique and giving yourself time to adapt to exercises, it’s absolutely safe (although there’s never ANYTHING without risk; to be fair).

In my opinion, it’s more dangerous to NOT strength train and let my body get weak and atrophy over time.

It’s a bigger risk to become apathetic towards my health.

To not care about my body.

That seems like the bigger threat to my life.

But we each have our own perspective.

If you want strong bones, powerful muscles, and a supple connective tissue system, lifting heavy will take you there.

But you’ll need to be uncomfortable to get there.

b. Train consistently

Nothing beats consistency.

The more consistent you are?

The better your results.

Patrik trained for 22 years lifting weights.

Most of us complain about working out for 2 months.

However, there’s a secret to his success.

He shared that being smaller (5’ 6’’) gave him a significant disadvantage against other athletes.

So he decided early on to make his perceived ‘weakness’ into his strength.

He focused on his mindset.

He trained his mind to power forward even when things felt uncomfortable.

(notice the theme with discomfort here?)

In fact, 3 weeks before his competition for Germany’s strongman, he tore his calf muscle and was unable to walk until 3 days before the event.

He still won.

Much of his success is due to his training and nutrition.

But discounting his consistency and mental fortitude would be a disservice.

Patrik is a prime example of what you can do when you commit yourself to a goal.

How successful would you become if you committed yourself to your goals?

Why not find out?

#2.) How To Reverse Aging Process

There’s a lot that can slow down the aging process.

But can you reverse it?

According to research, there is a way you can reverse aging.

It requires a commonly known form of activity called aerobic exercise.

Here’s what the current study shows:

 ​The Test​ 

“To get there, the scientists rounded up young and old mice and gave them access to a running wheel for three weeks. Then, with a battery of tests, they analyzed how the mouse’s muscle stem cells and muscle tissue responded [after the exercise].

They compared the mouse runners to a group of non-exercising mice who were given a locked wheel and no opportunity to run.

Within a single week, both young and old mice with the running wheels established a routine, running about 10 and 4.9 kilometers per night, respectively.

The human equivalent to the mice running wheel regime would likely be regular, aerobic exercise— swimming, running, cycling, Rando says. Not strength training or weight lifting.

After three weeks of voluntary wheel running, the mice were moved to cages without any wheels. Then, the researchers injured certain muscles and analyzed how the mice rebuilt the injured tissue.

They also transplanted muscle stem cells from old mice into other injured mice and saw how well the cells functioned. Compared with young donor muscle stem cells, old donor muscle stem cells formed smaller and fewer fibers in the injured mice.

But old muscle stem cells from exercising mice performed like young muscle stem cells, forming more fibers than non-exercising old muscle stem cells.”

Researchers also found after this study that there’s a specific protein called cyclin D1 that’s responsible for the exercise effect on muscle stem cells and tissue repair.

What aerobic exercise does is restore cyclin D1 levels in dormant stem cells back to youthful levels.

 

This is incredible.

However, there’s one caveat with this groundbreaking research (assuming this translates to humans).

You need to be consistent with aerobic exercise.

They found after the same mice that were performing ‘cardio’ stopped doing this for a week, they started to lose all the rejuvenating benefits.

Consistency is the key to exercise.

Not perfection.

Use aerobic exercise to live longer and higher quality of life.

Use strength training to build a bullet-proof and resilient body.

Use whole foods and lean protein to create high levels of health.

Use silence and grounding to master your inner world.

Consistency > perfection.

1 Action Step

Commit to 1 cardio session this week where you move your body for fun. Running, swimming, sports, chasing your kids. They all count. Just move. And have fun.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

It’s not about being perfect.

It never was.

But if it was?

Know you have everything you need.

Don’t forget this. 🙂

- Gabriel

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