Turn Yourself Into A Greek God Sculpture (Hacks I Use)
The Mastery Letter #11
I’ve tried everything.
All the fad diets from keto to vegan.
I’ve done all different types of exercises, workout programs, cardio etc.
These are the 6 things that helped me the most that are considered simple and easy for the average person to implement slowly over 6 months.
1) Lifting
This is the foundation of being lean.
There is no point in being lean and skinny.
Muscle wins in life.
It keeps your bones dense.
Muscle deteriorates with age, so lifting is paramount to counteract that.
Muscle mass and grip strength are associated strongly with increased lifespan.
Muscle burns more than fat, it primes your body to be a fat burning machine.
It also teaches you to be consistent and disciplined.
And of course, it makes you look like a Greek God.
I recommend lifting 2-3 days per week and focusing:
Incline bench press
Pull Ups
Bulgarian Split Squat
Overhead Press.
Those are your 4 key lifts and will have the greatest impact on your physique.
Beyond that, for isolation movements you can do curls, dips, RDLs, lateral raises, bent fly’s, calf raises etc.
Always do a couple of the compound exercises first and finish with a few isolations. Make sure you are lifting heavy enough for it to be difficult.
Consistency + high intensity wins.
2) Fasting
Fasting gets your body in the habit of being hyper efficient while you aren’t eating.
Think of fasting as doing the dishes.
The longer you are awake and eating, the more dishes piling up it becomes messy.
If you are constantly eating throughout the day, the dishes pile up.
When you are fasting, autophagy occurs and restores your cell structures, helps lower insulin and glucose, and is overall very good for longevity.
Mice live 30% longer when under a time restricted feeding window due to the cellular repair that occurs during autophagy.
You want to eat in an 8-hour window if possible so you can maximize autophagy and fat burning.
Delay your first meal about 4-5 hours after waking.
Example:
6am - wake up & work
10am - protein bar + banana
11am - workout
1pm - high protein meal
This also helps with focus and getting your deep work complete.
From 6-10am I get 90% of my goal moving tasks done. This is when most people are in a breakfast carb coma.
3) Mini treadmill + Standing desk
The data is out.
Sitting is terrible for you.
Our ancestors were walking 15-23k steps a day, and now. The average person walks 3k steps a day and probably less in the west.
Sit as few hours as possible.
Instead:
Walk
Stand
Lay down
The mini treadmill can be rolled around with ease in between your standing desk during meetings or watching youtube/tv.
When it’s cold outside, you have no excuses to get 10k/steps in.
I also love a 20m walk early in the morning to get my body warmed up.
The standing desk will allow you to not sit all day at work.
I stand while playing Overwatch on the PC. Better than sitting.
Sitting shrinks your hamstrings and leads to shitty rounded shoulders. Over time it also causes lower back issues.
You can adjust to sit when you are doing deep work.
These two tools allow standing/walking to be much more available during meetings if you work from home.
Use them liberally.
4) Protein
Protein is the golden macro.
High satiety (Fullness)
Protein = muscle
Muscle = More fat burning
More work to metabolize it, thus burning more calories in the process compared to carbs and fat
It’s a win-win-win.
I like to pair Aloha protein bars with a banana, and this gets me by about 2-3 hours before my first meal for less than 400 calories.
Convenience
Satiating
Flavorful
Unbeatable combo for leanness.
High protein foods to include in your diet:
Beef, chicken, salmon
Eggs
Lentils
Greek yogurt
Whey
Nuts/seeds
5) Coffee
Coffee is an appetite suppressant and improves focus.
A potent combination while fasted that will supercharge you for deep work and morning tasks.
It has neuroprotective affects as well.
I’ve been drinking coffee for over a decade.
I’ve tried 0 cups to 3 per day.
After troubleshooting for years, here is how I optimize coffee consumption:
Delay 60-90 minutes to allow adenosine to fully dump from your system.
Only drink 1 cup during high lever tasks in the morning
Don’t drink after 3pm. I sometimes drink half in morning, half after lunch.
If you drink too much, you lose focus, get anxious and jittery.
Avoid shitty energy drinks too.
Just enjoy 1 single cup of coffee and learn to cope with not being blasted with stimulants all day.
6) Sparkling water
I didn’t figure this one out until about 2 years ago.
The carbonation helps trick your body into feeling full for 0 calories.
I usually have one about 2 hours into my morning fast, and couple more throughout the day.
I like whole foods' ginger flavor, topo chico lime, or San Pelegrino.
It keeps you full and replaces a high sugar soda.
Simple wins
That's my lean stack folks.
I use it to effortlessly stay around 12% bodyfat for rock climbing.
No supplements, nootropics or any of that bs is needed. Keep it simple.
Talk to you next week.
- Brandon
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