Check out the “Mash Squat Every Day” E-Book with 4 twelve week programs for weightlifting, powerlifting, super total, and bodybuilding. Find out more below:
Join Team Mash Mafia for weightlifting, powerlifting, athletic performance, bodybuilding, running, or a hybrid approach. This team is already taking over weightlifting, and I plan on taking over all of the other disciplines one at a time. Check it out below:
The Squat Every Day Learn 2 Lift Clinic is coming to Canada, and then the 3-Day Mash Camp is happening at the Compound. To find out more, check out the link below:
Mash Mafia Squat Every Day Learn 2 Lift Clinic
Daily 180 Lifestyle
In this article:
1. Ideas to define the important things in your life.
2. Ideas to get the important things scheduled.
3. Ideas for an awesome workout in 60-75 minutes
4. Ideas to keep that workout short
5. Tips on nutrition
Last year was an incredible year for my strength and fitness. The Squat Every Day program allowed me to lift weights that I hadn’t lifted in over 12 years. I was also able to move better and find time for some fitness. However from December until May 1st my time has gone 100% to growing my team, supporting my family, and spending time with my family.
In April I was the Head Men’s Coach for Team USA at the Junior Pan American Championships. Kevin Simons, Coach of the 16-year-old phenom Harrison Maurus, was coaching on this trip as well. Kevin inspired me to find balance once again. This time my goals are a little different.
My wife is pregnant with my third child. I am 43-years-old. That means I will be 61-years-old when Baby Mash #3 enters college. I want to be active an in shape for this child. I don’t want to be the grumpy old man sitting around in his chair all day.
Another motivating factor is that all the middle-aged men and women in the country struggle to find balance in their lives. There is nothing better than inspiring an entire population to improve their lives. Remember this key statement, “Life is not about achieving success. It’s about what you do with that success.”
Daily 180 is about turning your life around and finding balance. However, it’s not about finding the balance that I define. You must identify and define the things that are important in your life. If you just try to get in shape because I tell you that you should, you will fail 100% of the time. If you get in shape to better support your family, well now you have a mission.
Step 1 Define what’s important in your life. Here are the important things for me:
• Family- spending quality time, taking time to teach my children, showing my wife the love that she deserves, and letting them know that nothing on earth comes before them.
• God- spending time in the word, prayer alone and with family, worship, and living a life that is glorifying to God. If people can’t see change in your life, then something has to change.
• Growing my team- this is referring to online and onsite. I want to provide all of my athletes with the best experience, and the best tools to reach their goals.
• Writing- I love to write and provide people with the information necessary to reach their goals and improve their lives.
• Inspiring others- a true joy in my life is getting emails from people that I have inspired to improve their life. I want to inspire my family, friends, athletes, and the whole world to reach for the wildest dreams while striving to inspire others themselves.
• General Fitness- for me to do all of these things at my very best, I am going to have to stay in shape. I want to be strong, mobile, lean, and fit. I don’t want to be one or the other anymore. I want overall fitness.
Once you have defined the important things in your life, now it’s time to plug them in on the calendar. You can’t just say that you want to do all these things. You have to plan and coordinate. It’s not easy, but nothing awesome is ever easy. However, I can promise the closer you get to balance the happier you will be.
Here’s a typical day for me:
Monday
5am to 8am- write a blog, analyze videos, answer emails, and work on programs
8am to 10am- family time and breakfast together
10am to noon- workout
noon until 3p work on some new books that I am writing
3p until 6p Coach my crazy athletes
6p until 8p family time and dinner
8p until 9p bedtime and story time for Rock. (I love to read to my son.)
9p study the word, prayer and sleep. (However I am considering moving this to the morning)
Everything has to be scheduled. If not, something will always get skipped, and normally that is working out or time with the family. I don’t want to skip either of those. Therefore they have to be an appointment on my calendar, so I can’t schedule anything in their place.
I can definitely tell you from experience that balance causes me to be better at everything. If I am not working out, I don’t coach as well. If I don’t spend time with my family, I am grumpy with the world. If I don’t spend time with God, then I question everything that I am doing. You get the point.
My workouts have changed drastically since last year. I still squat every day, but the focus isn’t just strength. I want to improve my cardiovascular system. I want to move better. I want to improve my bodyweight strength and target my weaknesses.
My workouts normally take 60-75 minutes. I have cut out all the fat. That means if I don’t absolutely need to do it, I throw it out. Here’s what a typical day looks life:
Wednesday:
Front Squat to a max with a pause (I will perform mobility and activation work during the warm up sets to save time)
Bench Press 3×5, work up to a single, and then another down set of 10
Bodyweight Met Con: Pull-Ups, Dips, and Lunges x 3-4 sets
Cardio 30 minutes
Last week I added in some snatch and clean & jerk. I will probably perform those movements twice per week. I also ran my first mile yesterday. Guys it takes under 10 minutes to run a mile. We can all make time for that.
I am also going to add in yoga, stability work, and more mobility work specific to my needs. Like I said none of my workouts take more that 75 minutes. Here are the keys to a fast and effective workout:
• Hood up and head down- stop the talking and get to work. I wear headphones so one interrupts me. I am not being rude. I am just getting my work done.
• Have a plan, so you know what to do. I watch a lot of people looking around deciding what to do.
• Perform mobility, movement prep, and activation with your warm-up sets to save lots of time.
Nutrition has been a big part of this whole thing. My amazing wife helps me with this part. I will be honest. My nutrition isn’t perfect, but I have made amazing strides. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not a diet. It’s making a decision to drink water instead of coke. It’s avoiding fast food.
So far, here are some of the changes that I have made:
• Drinking water for meals instead of a carbonated drink.
• Avoiding restaurants except maybe once per week.
• Eating mostly meat and vegetables.
Next week, I am going to start tracking macros. However I am going to guesstimate with specific parameters in mind. For example, if a chicken breast fits in the palm of your hands, that’s about 4oz. I don’t have the time to measure everything, and truthfully I don’t want to measure everything. I will write about the results of this experiment in the next few weeks.
I love coaching athletes, but I am very excited to motivate the people of the world to take back their lives. Nearly two-thirds of adults in America are considered obese. I can’t sit back and watch all of those people eat their way into the casket. I want to inspire them to get off the couch, into the gym, and spending more quality time with their family.
This is my new mission. I hope that all of you will follow along with this journey. My prayer is that all of you will try to inspire the people that you can influence. Let’s work together to get people strong, in shape, and healthy.
Stay tuned for more information about the Daily 180 Lifestyle. My goal for the second half of 2016 is to inspire all the adults in the world to take back their lives. I want to see more balance leading to more joy and happiness.
#Daily180 “Let’s flip our lives around!”
Don’t forget about the Mash Elite Weightlifting Team Camp:
We are hosting a three-day camp July 8-10 at the Mash Compound. It’s going to look like this:
• Day 1 Max Out Friday with the team and social afterwards
• Day 2 Clinic with Coach McCauley, Coach Wilkes, me and the team
• Day 3 Clinic about meet day prep and strategy, and then a sanctioned meet
We’ve decided to limit the camp to only 20 people, so don’t wait if you’re interested. Here’s the link to find out more:
Thank you Travis, it was a great article and it’s been amazingly awesome to watch you grow your team and your business. Thank you for sharing and helping us all get better.