
Why I Fucking Hate Unicorns and the Culture They Breed - adventured
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2015/09/27/why-i-fucking-hate-unicorns-and-the-culture-they-breed/
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AndrewKemendo
_Measure yourself in gym visits, in 3-yard gains, in sacrifice and dedication.
Avoid the metaphorical parties and the alcohol and the extra pounds and know
that your gains will come in lines of code and purchase orders and signed
offer letters and repeat purchases._

This is the most salient point for me. I think it needs a little refinement
though. I think each of those things needs a little victory party because they
are stepwise movements upward. Just like you get the celebration of a post-
workout high after going to the gym, you need a little high after the small
wins to keep motivation going strong.

I know I personally have a problem celebrating the little things because I am
expecting a big thing later on that I find _worth celebrating._ In reality
there will probably never be a big enough thing worth celebrating - and by not
celebrating the small wins it doesn't feel as satisfying.

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x0x0
I take Mark's point, though I have to wonder if some of it isn't traditional
finance moving in on the VC's world and finding VCs are overpaid.

That said, the quoted article about how to lose weight, while inspirational,
is a little bit delusional. The guy talks about working up to two hours in a
gym. He's either exaggerating, wasting time, or wasting tons of effort. You
can get seriously strong and in very good cardio shape in 4-5 60 to 75 minute
strength workouts, plus 20 minute cardio workouts the off days. The secret,
though, is you have to actually be busting ass during the time you're at the
gym.

Two hour workouts are reserved for serious powerlifters and other strength
athletes, and they're most likely on celltech, since your body simply doesn't
recover quickly enough unless you're 17 years old.

Diet matters. So does sleep. But you don't have to live a monastic life.

#s 1,2,4 are spot on though. Weight comes from your mouth, not from the gym.

~~~
busterarm
I'm not by any stretch a "serious powerlifter" but I am powerlifting 3x a week
with a buddy (who is a serious powerlifter) and our workouts go anywhere from
60-90 minutes and we _speed_ through them.

When we're serious about recovery between sets, at the weights we're lifting 2
hours is very reasonable and other folks working out with us are taking that
long...now add in warm-up stretches or some cardio and you hit 2hrs easily.

NB: As far as what our workout is, the programming is in the vein of Starting
Strength or Texas Method.

We're both over 30 (buddy close to 40) and we don't supplement. The trick is
that we don't do anything else to work out so that we're mostly/fully
recovered. Just lift 3x/week and bust ass when we do it. The only cardio I get
is from walking long distances around NYC. Added over 100lbs to my squat and
deadlift in the last 6 weeks (5RM).

Edit: That said, I wouldn't recommend it if the goal is solely weight loss.
Pure strength training is better for recomp/gains, but I have lost 10lbs over
the course of this and am in significantly better shape.

