Beyond Strength

You might think that Michelle is listening to the 80s classic “Karma Chameleon” by The Culture Club in this picture. But the truth is that she is.

You didn’t see that coming, did ya?

A nice little Monday surprise for you.

Enjoy the day!

Want to know how to keep your head on straight when dealing with setbacks or injuries? 👉🏻

Monday, an old, old German word for let go of the bullsh*t and get on with moving forward.

(Don’t check into that. Just trust us.)

You’ll live for about 4,372 weeks. If you’re 35, you’re down to a little more than 2,000 weeks.

That’s about 5 year’s worth of Mondays.

That’s a lot of f*cking time to either kick some ass or whine about a day of the week.

We’d rather spend time with people into using that 5 years to kick some ass.

Happy Monday.

Come join us at Beyond Strength.

Swipe 👉🏻 through then click on the link in our link tree to get 4 more tips in our newest article.

In 2017, Chris and I were in a weird spot with our training. Neither of us wanted to do it.

That’s right, two gym owners that spent the balance of their adult life as coaches struggled with training motivation. At the time, we filmed a segment every week called “Coaches in Chairs.” We’d sit in pleather chairs in the previous gym location and discuss all manner of training topics. The discussion sometimes meandered through tangents as we made our way to the point. But the discussion was always honest.

During one recording, we got really real about the fact that neither of us felt like training. We’d each hit our big, in-the-gym training goals. Some were strength related. Others were body composition focused. Now we were beyond them. What were we training for? Nothing, really.

I remember being in that head space. It felt like the foundation of my identity cracked. I’d lifted weights consistently, and with purpose, since I was 12 years old. At 31, I wasn’t sure why I was doing it anymore. Partly, I felt like a fraud. Here I was, a seasoned coach helping people to train and get their lifestyle in order, and I didn’t even enjoy it. But that was the beauty of it.

One monumental thing that came from that Coaches in Chairs conversation all those years ago. Despite low training motivation, despite not wanting to train, Chris and I made something clear: We still trained.

Regardless of how we felt, we showed up at least four times per week and lifted or conditioned. It wasn’t about motivation, and that was beautiful. Maybe that sounds a little nutty to you, but I think it’s wonderful. In spite of not wanting to train, in spite of lacking direction, we showed up and did the damn thing. That did something invaluable for us. It gave our future selves a chance to fall in love with training again and to use it to pursue life outside of the gym.

Life Beyond Your Gym Goals In 2017, Chris and I were in a weird spot with our training. Neither of us wanted to do it.That’s right, two gym owners that spent the bal...

“Don’t be hangin’ with no fools that cry about Monday. Don’t be pityin’ those fools neither.”
-Mr. T

Want an easy guide for figuring out how much weight to use?
👉🏻

I started lifting weights when I was 12 years old. Initially, my brother took me along with him to work out at a gym in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Soon after, I hit the Juniata Valley YMCA with my middle school buddies. We’d scour the muscle magazines for the next program that guaranteed us bigger, stronger muscles. And I needed those suckers. There were fools to tackle on the football field, and there were chicks to impress in homeroom. What the muscle magazines don’t tell 12-year-old boys is that pre-pubescent testosterone levels aren’t enough to stack on muscle like the fellas in the magazines. They also don’t tell you that the big, veiny bastards in the magazines inject a teste-shriveling cocktail of pharmaceutical enhancement.

What they did offer, though, were a lot of programs based on percentages of a lifter’s one-rep max on a given lift. So, magazine in hand, we’d set our one-rep max on the bench press, the deadlift, and the squat. Then, with admirable levels of adolescent hope, we’d hit the gym, strictly following the percentage prescriptions of that month’s program. This went on for years. We should have learned faster that exact percentage prescriptions don’t work. But boys of that age have impressively thick skulls.

A week or two into each program, we’d realize that we couldn’t keep up with the percentages. Try as we might, it seemed our strength failed us. We blamed it on ourselves, figuring we just needed to work harder. Once we got stronger, the percentage programs would work. False.

What we didn’t realize is that a one-rep max is a snapshot in time based on your abilities on a given day. And physiology is always in flux. Some days we have all the smoke. Other days we’re behind the curve. Those percentage-based programs didn’t account for the reality of human physiology. Even if we nailed every aspect of recovery, which no adolescent boy ever does, we would not have kept up with the increases in volume and intensity. Since max output fluctuates from day to day, we needed a system for managing training intensity that accounts for fluctuations.

I didn’t find that system until I became a strength and conditioning coach. But now, we use two tools to make sure we are training with the right weights and conditioning with the correct intensity. Those tools are Reps in Reserve (RIR) and Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE). Each is a relative rating of intensity. That means each accounts for the fluctuations in your training readiness so that you can train in a way that makes sense for your body on a given day.

We’ll walk through a description of each tool and then further describe how we apply it in the Beyond Strength training system.

Reps in Reserve vs RPE: What’s the Difference? Have you ever done a set and thought, “Man, I could have done more.” Well, then, you had reps in reserve. It means that you used a weight

Eyes up. It’s Monday. Let’s party.

Cory Hudson has done what you want to do.

He’s done what every person that’s ever lived has wanted to do.

He’s transformed.

Cory’s lost 40 pounds since joining Beyond Strength in November 2021. More than that, he’s improved his performance during all of our testing weeks, shaving significant time off of his rows, jumping farther, as well as improving on the other battery of tests.

But how he did it...

Well, it's not how most people would think.

The Most Important Fitness Variables: Consistency and Continuity Cory Hudson has done what you want to do. He’s done what every person that’s ever lived has wanted to do. He’s transformed. Cory’s lost 40...

Got consistency?

Swipe to get you some 👉🏻

🏋️‍♀️CrossFit for Smart People🏃🏽‍♀️

That's how we answer when people ask...

What's Beyond Strength like?

You see, CrossFit has the right idea.

We should have bodies that are physically prepared to take on any challenge whenever we want to take one on.

The problem is, CrossFit can't deliver on that.

What it heralds is its very downfall...constantly varied high intensity exercise doesn't work long-term.

But our training does.

While our training includes every type of exercise, it does so in a well-planned, layered way.

Rather than being constantly varied and random, it is intelligently designed and progressive.

That mean that each training day is in tune with every other training day.

It means that each training program progresses into the next training program.

Working in this way, it improves your strength while also improving your endurance.

It trains you to move better while also giving you the fitness to move more.

It makes you a stronger, more resilient person while improving your longevity.

So, while we can't promise the constantly varied entertainment that CrossFit provides...

We can promise that if you do your part and train with us consistently, you'll have all the strength, endurance, power, and mobility you need to take on any physical challenge you want to conquer.🏆

“Pissed that it’s Monday? That’s fine. Chuck some balls, homie. You’ll feel better.”
-Kathie Lee Gifford

Guess What? 😬

Jacking yourself up to hoist some weight isn’t doing you as many favors as you think it is 👉🏻

Cory Hudson transformed his body and his life in a year and a half. He lost forty pounds and overhauled his lifestyle, and he did it one, small step at a time. Now, with the confidence of a man that knows how to transform, he’s set his sights on bigger goals.

Cory is Beyond Strength Cory Hudson transformed his body and his life in a year and a half. He lost forty pounds and overhauled his lifestyle, and he did it one, small step at a tim...

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…” -Epictetus

Epictetus’s chief task is simple but often difficult. It’s easy to complicate life. It’s easy to let things that shouldn’t affect us, affect us. And we’re often frustrated by it. I can hear the voice in my head from times past saying, “Why am I letting this bother me?” It could have been someone driving like an absolute butt sucker and cutting me off in traffic or a negative comment on a video or article posted online. Regardless, what should have been a passing blip of minuscule emotional reaction became a lingering, hot emotional needle.

And other times, the darkest paintbrush in my mind, sopped with black paint, swirled into scenes of the worst possible scenarios. I was intrusively shown my failures before I even began. Every negative externality, every circumstance I couldn’t control unfolded nightmare-like in my mind’s eye. I took it as truth. Anxiety grew into a spiked ball that bounced through my guts and stabbed me in the chest. I fear mongered myself into being overwhelmed by what I couldn’t control. It happened because I didn’t have the tools and skills to focus on what I could control.

We hear it often, though, don’t we? So many voices from the past and present echoing in chorus: focus on what you can control. Yes, of course. But it’s like any other positive action – it’s just a nice idea until you have a strategy for how to do it. And it’s a disembodied fantasy until you have a means to practice it. Without a strategy, and without practice, you’re left to remind yourself, “I should work on that,” without ever making progress. You’re left at whim and mercy of a mind without a sharp scalpel to separate internal control from external circumstances.

Eustress strength training is that strategy and that means of practice.

But it’s also something else. It’s a great method for building strength endurance, something that most training programs, especially hybrid training programs, miss on.

Being strong and having endurance is great. But you’re at another level when you combine them and you’re able to express that strength over longer periods.

So, we have a training technique that sharpens our sense of control, enhances our emotional control, and builds fitness in a way that makes us stronger for longer. It really is that powerful.

Learn more ⤵️

Eustress Training: How to Lift Weights and Manage Stress at the Same Time It’s easy to let things that shouldn't affect us, affect us. And we’re often frustrated by it. I can hear the voice in my head from times past

“I’m not sure why everyone says ‘grab the bull by the horns.’ Seems like if you really want to get his attention, you’d grab him by the testes.”
-Christopher Daniel Merritt

The only strength training you need is heavy barbell strength training.

There are a lot of folks that live and die by that philosophy. They think that as long as they are barbell strong, and they’re training others to be barbell strong, they’ve done enough. And they’re wrong.

As much as I love the big lifts, they have their limitations. Yes, it’s important to build good amounts of systemic strength with deadlifts, bench presses, squats, rows, and overhead presses. However, that kind of strength training isn’t enough for performance, health, or longevity. This might sound like sacrilege to those of you that know my past, that know that I powerlifted for over a decade. But even then, I knew living and dying only by the barbell was an assault on real-world strength. Worse, it’s an assault on musculoskeletal health.

Keep reading ⤵️

Exercises That Build Real-World Strength The big lifts have their limitations. That kind of strength training isn’t enough for real-world strength.

“A man once said to me, ‘But, ma’am, Mondays make me long for the comfort of a warm Sunday bed!”

To which I replied, “Only a punk ass wishes for the comforts of days past!”
-Susan B. Anthony

Another flex Friday down!

“Working hard for something we do not care about is called stress, working hard for something we love is called passion.”
-Simon Sinek

A little nervous about something new you’re starting this Monday? Let this quote from philosopher Immanuel Kant calm your nerves:

“You’re gonna die some day.”

See. Feel better?

Enjoy your Monday!

Chicago traffic sped by. We weaved through cars and accelerated through cross streets. We’d stop at traffic lights and the L clamored by, protesting against patience along with the car horns and people shouting out driver’s side windows. I sat in the backseat, enthralled.

“That’s it, honey. You can’t just take up space. You gotta do something with your life. That’s the rent you pay for being here.”, my Uber driver said that as she stole glances at me in the rearview mirror.

She told me about her daughter who would soon graduate from high school. In her mother’s eyes, the girl lacked direction. The mother’s love poured into our conversation. I could feel how badly she wanted her daughter to live a big, purposeful, fun, fulfilling, and happy life. She wanted her daughter to do something worthwhile, and to enjoy her life while she did it.

I was happy to have the conversation. Each person has a story to tell, and so many are shared with strangers willing to ask and listen; the car and the mind’s eye combine to form the stage of life’s great dramas. I will always ask and always listen.

When we got to my friend Mike’s house, I got out of the car and gave the woman the fullest thanks I’d ever given to a driver. She drove off, taking her thoughts, dreams, and wishes with her. And I took with me the words I’d been looking for to give life to my purpose and define what Simon Sinek calls your “Why.”

(keep reading ⤵️)

Why Find Your Why? Chicago traffic sped by. We weaved through cars and accelerated through cross streets. We’d stop at traffic lights and the L clamored by, ...

It was Flex Friday up in this…

~About halfway back, I was in real trouble. My vision blurred and I could walk for 10 or 15 minutes at a time~

During the newest podcast episode, Todd tells a story about something pretty stupid that he did while rucking.

The damn fool could have kilt hisself!

He and Chris also share some solid rucking tips.

The episode is aptly named — Rucking Tips!

Find it at the link in our bio or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Swipe for the goods 👉🏻

Let’s begin with a thought experiment.

Try to remember a day that you spent in total comfort. Not a pinch, not an awkward seat, not a weird sense of pressure, not a worry and not a care.

Can you remember the day? I doubt it. But let’s say that you did.

Remember a series of days that you spent in total comfort. Or find a week of your life without a stitch of discomfort.

You couldn’t, could you?

There’s a good reason. Discomfort is part of the human condition. You can dull it. You can remove some of it. But discomfort ain’t goin’ nowhere.

The truth is, most folks could use more discomfort in their lives.

Rucking: A Great Tool for Dealing with Discomfort When I first started rucking, I’d toss a 35-pound kettlebell into an old Jansport backpack. (The first thing I’ll do is recommend that you...

“Chucking balls cures all.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Enjoy you some Monday!

Flex Friday all up on ya!

This isn’t the typical weight loss article. There are no before and after photos, and I won’t tell you how much weight I lost. I won’t say, “Here’s what you need to do to lose 10 pounds in a month,” or some such bu****it. I lost the amount of weight I wanted to lose for the reasons that I wanted to lose it. So, I won’t slap some arbitrary weight loss goal and timeframe in your face.

We’re also not a “weight loss” gym. We’re a performance gym for adults. But aside from extreme cases, most people in Western civilization want other people to have a gander at them and think, “Well yeah, I’d do them.” It’s nice to feel desirable. More importantly, a healthy body composition leads to a healthier life that you may fill with the things you love. That’s what spurred my weight loss.

Full disclosure: I didn’t have a radical transformation. I’ve been muscular and mostly lean my whole life. But I did change my body composition within a healthy timeframe and by doing simple things. Those simple things apply to anyone that wants to lose weight – no matter how much they want to lose.

Here are those things.

How I Lost Weight This isn’t the typical weight loss article. There are no before and after photos, and I won’t tell you how much weight I lost. I won’t say, ...

🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️Get Back Into Running 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏿‍♂️…

Without beating the heck right outta your legs.

“The best way Monday course of action is to do all of your ZOOM meetings naked from the waist down.”
-Epictetus

“There are now ways around uncomfortable truths. We can avoid them and we can pretend that they don’t exist. But the truth is the truth whether we like it or not. And it always comes knocking even if we lock the door. It will find its way in.”

Our newest blog talks about learning the truth from health and fitness trackers Oura and Morpheus, and how they can create huge, positive changes in our lives.

https://www.bspnova.com/how-tracking-health-and-fitness-data-changed-me/

There are no ways around uncomfortable truths. We can avoid them and we can pretend that they don’t exist. But the truth is the truth whether we like it or not. And it always comes knocking even if we lock the door. It will find its way in.

I spent much of my adult life up to a few years ago disregarding a particularly uncomfortable truth: Only one man in my recent paternal lineage, my great uncle George, lived into his 70s. There are many men in that lineage.

Of course, ignoring reality is part of being young. I don’t think people truly grasp that they’ll die until they’re in their 30s – unless they have a chronic illness or do some kind of duty that frequently shows them that life ends. So, it’s not surprising that I didn’t start acknowledging the truth, and really paying attention to it, until I reached my mid-30s. It’s a product of maturity. But for me, it was also a product of love.

In my late twenties, I fell in love again with things that were my persistent obsessions during my youth, adolescence, and early adulthood – hunting and fishing. Through those loves, I found new ways, and new places, to do them. Western hunting in big mountains and open country became my lifeblood. Everything came together for me in a new way: I’d organize my life so that I could spend as much time as possible hunting, fishing, practicing photography, and writing about it all.

I realized something in the midst of my new romance with life, there is a time horizon. This ends. And for people like me with poor family health history, it often ends sooner than we’d like. Time flashed and I felt afraid. There I was in my 60s with darkness falling and disease stealing my fervor for life. I couldn’t let it happen, so I accepted the truth on the other side of fear. I made peace with the cosmic truth that the deck was stacked against me. To unstack the deck, to live long and do the things I love, I needed another truth.

I needed the truth in real time.

I needed to know how to better manage my training, my nutrition, and my behaviors to give me the best shot at longevity.

We know that the biggest factors affecting longevity and sustaining quality of life are sleep, exercise, and nutrition.

Chris had been using Oura for a couple years and had shared with me how he used it, what learned from it, and how it changed his behaviors. I was finally at a point where I wanted to learn and change, too. So, I bought an Oura ring. Soon after, Joel Jamieson released the Morpheus heart rate and recovery system. I bought it, too.

I decided to use the two tools in tandem to learn as much as possible while dialing in my lifestyle and nutrition. Here’s what happened.

How Tracking Health and Fitness Data Changed Me There are no ways around uncomfortable truths. We can avoid them and we can pretend that they don’t exist. But the truth is the truth whether

Live well today and enjoy.

Flex Fridays.

Wanna know why endurance training is worth it even if you’re not an “endurance athlete”? Swipe on, friend 👉🏻

We’re a gym, but we’re not, like, gym people.

To us, training is a tool that builds our bodies and minds so that we may live the fullest possible life. And while we enjoy training, it’s not entirely an end in itself. It is a means. So, we don’t spend hours in the gym every week just to spend hours in the gym – to stare at ourselves in the gym mirrors and take butt cheek selfies for Instagram. We do it to play harder – to get outside and do fun s**t for as long and as hard as we want to do it.

To that end, we’re starting an article series about the places close to home where we go to run, hike, climb, bike, kayak, hunt, fish, and just generally get outside while using our bodies.

First up is a place right here in Sterling: Algonkian Regional Park.

Places to Play Harder: Algonkian Regional Park I’m starting this party with a seemingly contradictory statement: We’re a gym, but we’re not, like, gym people. To us, training is a tool...