Coach AA's Sunday Newsletter

Hey hey! Welcome to another edition of the Sunday newsletter. Here are the 3 things for today. * Hot water + lemon + ginger is a famous solution, but to what, no one really knows. Should it be derided? Or is it magic? The science might be irrelevant here. * Do you stifle your stupid ideas? Or do you let them out? * A student story to inspire you. From being unable to walk pain-free to making their...

Hey hey! I am excited about the three posts I have for you today. * How to use the concept of reverse linear progression to help you stop when you are full, rather than overeat without meaning to. * A simple thought on Play. * How to learn to create the hardest plank you have ever done. And why that is important! Here we go. Reverse Linear Progression Free lunch The first time I heard the word bur...

Hey hey! Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with a few members of The Quad community about motivation. These are not folks I interact with on a regular basis, as our community has grown truly beyond the confines of our first two centres. Every time I have to verbalise my learnings, by speaking or writing, the push to be more clear is scary and useful. Feynman’s “If you cannot explain to a 7...

Hey hey! Hope your Sunday is going well. Here are the 3 things for today: * Bleary-eyed and Sleepy . When you wake up groggy, do you go back to bed? Or do you suck it up and head to the gym? A guideline for answering perplexing questions. * Missing out . What are you truly missing out on? * Fear of the Start . Three simple steps you can take today to work on this fear, and transform your fitness j...

Hey there! Hope your weekend is going well and you have had some time to chill. Here’s what I have for you today. * on Exams and Recalibration . I love the metaphor of exams and since it is something that has affected most of us who grew up in the Indian education system, I think this will help you look at modern-day examinations differently and productively. * on Tantrums and Zero Progress . What...

Hey hey! Here are the three things for this week’s edition. * On highlight reels . And how everyone has it easy. Or do they? * On the curse of busyness that seems to afflict us all. Part of my sandbox series where I apply my learnings from a simpler universe of a gym to the larger, more complex universe of life. * On a simple/trivial thought after seeing my dog do the same thing consistently. On h...

Hey hey! Here are the 3 pieces I have for you today. * Overthinkers United . My thought for the week. * Should we spice up the truth to make it compete against fads? * Remove the option to change your mind . A powerful method to help you achieve your fitness and nutrition goals. Overthinkers United and Quotes for the week Sometimes, you just know it is right. My move from SF back to Madras, on pap...

Hey hey! Thanks for checking out my Sunday digest. Here are the 3 pieces I have for you today. * One rep at a time . The real story of how you can conquer your impossible and insurmountable task. * What do you do after you climb your Everest ? Do you hang out there? Or do you come back down? * My thought on celebrating and acknowledging our uniqueness . And on snowflakes and how it is mind-bogglin...

Hey hey! Here are the 3 pieces for today. * Digging deeper into conditioning and stamina. Let’s look at a few mental models which will help you unlock your training. * How can we look at the past and learn? And not just use it to whip ourselves? * Just do your best. And remember, that changes all the time. Thought for the week The most precious and important things in life are, by definition, nont...

Hey hey! 2022 is here and all that. My last post did abysmally, as apparently none of you give a rat’s ass enough to respond :) But that’s okay. It allows me to continue making s**t up and going along. So, for this year, I thought I’d take one more baby step and tweak my “3 quotes” and reduce the quotes by one and add a thought of mine in there instead. I would also like to continue making this a...

Hey hey! On to the 3 things for today. * The metaphor of big rocks and pebbles and how if you go the big rocks, followed by pebbles, and followed by sand we can get to do everything. But if we go the other way around i.e. sand first, we cannot fit our big rocks in. Fair enough. But what if there’s a glitch in that metaphor itself? * 3 quotes for this week. Featuring Steven Pressfield, Pema Chodron...

Hey hey! You wrote down all your goals for 2022 already, right? Of course, you did, being a loyal reader. Now, time to do a 2nd draft. Yes, seriously. Mull it over some more. I love writing ideas at different points of time during the day. When I write them down, irrespective of my level of awake-ness or weirdness, I think they are always pure genius. When I read them the next morning, some of the...

Hey hey! We are 11 months in, and one to go before the end of the year. As we gear up to close out the year and begin a new one, now might be a better time to set some goals and all that for the next year. Rather than in one month. Why? Well, the same principle as “never go grocery shopping when you are hungry.” You will be harsh on yourself. You will want to do 27 different things and then not pu...

Hey there! I am excited to present the second part of the “Core”. When you understand these metaphors and frame it for you in your head, your lifting and output at the gym will go to the next level! And these will be concepts you will apply and build on for the next few years. I also wrote a piece about calluses, metaphorically, that seems to be a hit. For reasons, I don’t quite understand. But he...

Hey hey! After an amazing bit of weather, the sun feels a bit strange and welcome in my hometown of Madras. This week, I wrote about 3 things. I am particularly excited about the core piece. * Friendly fire . I’ve written about saboteurs before. In our journey of health and fitness, we are the biggest saboteur. And when we out-manoeuvre that fellow, our friends and family turn to be saboteurs. Wit...

Hey hey! Hope you had a great Deepavali or at least used it as a solid excuse for a long weekend and lots of food and chilling. I certainly did. On to the 3 posts for today, * on traditions and Deepavali . Should you burst crackers? Should you pollute? What about the dogs and the noise pollution? And where do these crackers come from? * 3 quotes , as always. With a book recommendation and a movie...

Hey hey! Hope your weekend has been a blast so far. I’ve had a good couple of weeks - training is going well and reading is going well too. I love the concept of mental models. They help you frame certain concepts differently and understand them better. I’ve used one in my writing for this week and I hope you find it useful. Before we get started, thanks for spending your time here. And if you thi...

Hey hey! Hope your weekend is going great. My new quarter is off and running. I had a great time at the StrongFirst barbell certification last weekend, and am excited to apply my learnings over the next few weeks (and years). I am also making one big change to my work - coaching much lesser than I normally do. More on that over the next few weeks. On to the 3 things for this week. * How do you fin...

Hey hey! Today marks 10 years since we ran our first-ever class at Bamboola. I can still see flashes of that day, feel the butterflies in my stomach as I coached my first-ever class. We even have some footage of Raj and me coaching in the old tennis court - makes for great nostalgia. There is a lot to be grateful for. There is a lot to celebrate. So, yaaay! On to the 3 things for today. Find your...

Hey hey! Hope your weekend is going well. Mine’s been a blast so far. I had a fun time coaching yesterday morning, and also had the chance to hang out with some of my favourite students at lunch and see them outside of class. And chilled, watched some football. And that's just yesterday! Enough about me. On to the 3 things for this week. * Simple or Easy . What if we make 4 quadrants from there, c...

Hey there! How’s the weekend going? Have some unwinding planned? If not, what?!?!?! On to the 3 things for today. * The critic and the other guy . We all have our inner critic. Why do we pay so much attention to that manifestation? * 3 quotes for this week. Featuring Bruce Lee, Nassim Taleb, and Derek Sivers. * What makes you tick ? Have you thought about it? Are you playing the game that you thin...

Hey hey! Hope things are going well at your end of the Universe. Over the past 8 weeks, I’ve had four good training weeks and four not-so-good training weeks. For the first 4 weeks, I kept trying to make things happen. I kept trying to over-engineer things. Then, I did what I eventually do and write copious notes on it and keep repeating to myself that THIS IS WHAT I NEED TO DO (only to promptly f...

Hey hey! Three things for today, * a post that was hard to hit publish on. Includes a bit of profanity, so if that’s not your thing, skip this one. * 3 quotes, featuring Bruce Lee and Derek Sivers. * when do you rebel? And when do you follow the rules? And the golden rule that has served me rather well. the villain and the hero This was a hard post to hit  publish  on. The first hour after hitting...

Hey hey! Hope your weekend is going well. Three things for today. * is sitting the new smoking? or just click-bait nonsense? * 3 quotes, featuring Pressfield and Bruce Lee. * 3 clarifications I needed to write on my earlier articles, as I realise I am not as clear as I think I am. #1 is sitting the new smoking? do we sit too much? This makes the assumption that the hunter-gatherer, our forefathers...

Hey hey! Hope your Sunday is going swimmingly well. My weekend is going great. We got a chance to hang out with a bunch of friends last night and eat great pizza. And play with some new dogs. Makes for a perfect night. Plus, lots of cake. So, on to the 3 things for today * why are kettlebells the primary tool of choice in my training, and why did we pick them 10 years ago for The Quad? At a time w...