And it is quiet. Except for crows and the occasional car/truck/bike. And we have a no music policy at our gym. So we are not a pollutant. Except for the sound of re-racking a bar and chatter during class hours. But there are downsides to the location. We are invisible. There’s a reason commercial spaces pay top-rupee for Main Streets. ...

If you ask a bodybuilding coach the value of hip rotation, you might get a shrug and a talk about hip abduction, adduction and flexion. If you ask a powerlifter about pistol squats, you are going to get a groan. If you ask a physiotherapist about a conventional deadlift or dips with full range of motion, an eyebrow may be raised. If yo...

But that's all just numbers. What really gives me a geeky tingle is seeing the hardware racked up and ready to rock. In the cloud, you never see what's actually yours. It's all opaque. Not so with your own gear. DHH It’s good fun to see someone who’s in the upper echelons of running a firm actually talking like a real human about what ...

When you follow rules, it works. Be it exclusion diets, rigid volume or weight targets for food, training plans with progression and volume targets, body composition targets, photo shoots, competitions, workshops etc. They work. Until you hit a wall. The wall is the ability to adhere to the rules. The wall comes in the many forms: It c...

Murky does not begin to capture this. But it’s not really the tip of the iceberg. It’s more like sticking a finger in the Kola Superdeep Hole. That hole is close to 13 kms deep. And the Russians would have made it deeper too if they had the tools. But our proverbial hole of pollution, corruption and discord grows deeper with every brea...

When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat. George Carlin Replace USA with India and it works even better. My general policy is if I really like some stand up, art or music, I’ll share it with 3-4 people. And we generally enjoy a good chuckle over a drink. I’ve generally s...

1 Being on time. Let’s take our online service. We’ve conservatively run atleast 5000 hours of group classes. We’ve had a late start during 2 hours online. Once when I forgot I had to coach our European batch at 11 am on Thursday in 2024. I started that session 6 minutes late. Another time, when we had to reset our password in 2021. We...

Our inability to buck up and learn to adjust to new textures and tastes is childish. I’ve heard the same complaint about Skyr and Greek Yoghurt. It does not taste like full cream curd. That’s because it is not full cream curd. Removing the fat makes is better for most of us who need to restrict calorie intake. Same goes for vegetables ...

Who should be allowed to talk about food, eating and nutrition. I got a bachelors of science degree in biotechnology. I was far from the best student but memorising how cells work for two semesters left me with some elementary understanding of how it works. I got a diploma in broadcast journalism from the ACJ. I then got my diploma in ...

Goals change with age. But I’ve stopped framing goals. I chase skill and adaptations. I’ve seen my goals go from training for vanity to training for strength to training for skill to training for maintaining physical capacity and skill. There are five key points: 1. You will never have enough time to do all the activity you need to do....

I feel like my squat is getting better I feel like i am getting thinner I feel like I am eating less I feel like I am bulking up when I lift weights I feel like my pull up range is better Why do you want to have feelings about something you can objectively measure and know as true or untrue. You know if your squat is better 1. If you a...

Gestational diabetes is far too common in India. And this is a direct function of inactivity and a surplus of calories consumed during pregnancy. Besides, the quality of calories i.e protein, omega 3 and micronutrient intake by the mother has a much more direct and critical impact on the brain and healthy development of the foetus. Far...

I wrote about coaches that pander to their trainees by not nudging them enough to train harder. The greatest pandering, bordering on manipulation, is by any institution (corporate, government or any group of people trying sell services or products). Once they latch on to some simplistic/silly ,messaging that resonates, they lean into q...

The evidence that we are a serious people or worthy of the tag of ‘civilised’ diminishes dramatically with every passing day. Having visited Lakshwadeep, I know what Pragya says in this piece is true: https://lnkd.in/gx-wJvff There is no evidence that we deserve any of the land, freedoms or privileges we get to enjoy. We have in Bharat...

You don’t remember the tech. You remember 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞. Kumaran Anandan These lines ring true for any business. I’ve heard really good directors like Tarantino and Nolan speak to this too. I’ve heard the same from great chefs. You can weave a terrific story about ingredients and agonising over slow cooking etc etc but the food ha...

This person is the single most counter-productive figure in the fitness industry. It could be a coach who claims to cater to entrepreneurs, a specific gender or men over 40. There are biological differences between men and women that need accounting for while training and eating. But does an entrepreneur really need a different exercis...

There is a profound truth in this. How a bathroom is maintained reflects a great deal about the business. One of my greatest regrets is the fact that our restroom cannot accommodate a nice shower area, changing area or expand in any way. Limitations of our space. A pressure pump, toilet seats, new taps can't fix the space constraint. T...

The Japanese consumer culture never ceases to amaze me. I love Sori Yanagi cutlery. Japanese stainless steel cutlery has a subtle matte polish and the edges are soft. It speaks to a certain craftsmanship and thought behind the making of the die used to make the vessel. The pour from the a Sori Yanagi bowl is precise and directed. Same ...

Motivation Watching folks doing things you’ll never do or better yet hope to do. Watching them do those things makes you try or try harder. If you need to watch this everyday or even every week, it might help to revisit why you really want to train or why your training choices or environment is not motivation enough. Explainers Content...

Our online service is turning five years old in a couple of weeks. We sat on the fence for the longest time when it came to online coaching. Call it inertia. Or just a reluctance to figure out how to coach online. Covid forced us to get our crap together and coach online. Or the gym would die. And it saved us. And then some. I try to t...

Squatting is one of those almost everyone needs to be doing. And there are zillion ways to squat: * Single or double leg * Jumps, isos, eccentrics or the whole rep * Weight vest, kettlebell, barbell, trapbar, tbell, tribell, Center mass bell or chains * Ladder, landmine, belt, hack, pendulum or swing * Supported or freestanding That’s ...

I have no background in design and my drawing teacher in 3rd grade asked me to quit after one lesson. I never tried again :D But to take our ideas and make it into reality I need lots of help. Enter Hari who owns and runs one of the best laser cutting and press brake workshops in town. He is very patient too. He takes my ideas and make...

How well are you applying what you think you know or the content you’ve been exposed to that you. Over the last decade, here are concepts that are recognised as commonplace and a necessity for quality of life: 1. Compound lifts 2. Resistance training 3. Calorie awareness 4. Protein intake 5. Sleep hygiene 6. Training to improve your VO...

Here’s an area that was in need of improvement so we attacked it. The padding we use on our ladder squat machine. The padding on our benches, split squat stands. All needed an upgrade. It’s really hard to get foam right. There’s 100’s of compounds out there. And companies rarely talk about what they use. It’s proprietary this or patent...

The fact that world protein day falls on my daughters birthday made me chuckle. So much cake, so few eggs and dairy on the day to celebrate protein intake. Here’s my favourite quote about protein: I tell my grad students that we can put a man on the moon, but we still can’t come to a consensus of how much protein to give him here on ea...

The hardest game to play is to remind oneself that staying lean, packing on muscle and having good body composition matters. Now for some folks a combination of traits, habits and preferences helps with maintaining good body composition and a number on the weighing scale that coincides with healthy joints and the ability to move well. ...

I first heard this idea of succor and comfort from beliefs being expounded upon by Lee Kuan Yew. I misheard it as sucker comfort. We believe in silly things simply because it helps us make sense of things as they are. Everyone has these beliefs. Be it for health, wealth, work, personal relations, accidents, good luck, misfortune or any...

This might apply to other spheres too. Say website design, restaurants, cars, bikes. Why do people like a service ? I used to think it’s pragmatic programming, picking the right exercises,sticking to the science and being punctual. But with every passing year, I am beginning to think body language, personality and how you communicate t...

Your BMR (Basal metabolic rate) is the calories you require in a day sans any activity. It’s a starting point for the calories you need to survive in a day. Eating less than this is not advisable in the long haul since it is bad for your health. The calorie requirement is more contingent on how much body fat you are carrying rather and...

We have 2 coaches handle groups of 10-20 people. Multiple times a day for an hour each time. A common question: How do we create an individualised program for each and every client? We don’t. We have goals for every client. 12-16 quality sets of squatting. 12-14 quality sets of pushing. 12-14 quality sets of pulling. 12 sets glute ham/...