The Opposite Machine

Today on Dad Strength

• The Opposite Machine

• Losing fat, not muscle

• A beautiful second act

• A book, a quote, a dad joke

Fatherhood

When asking teens to do something, be careful not to accidentally put a quarter into the Opposite Machine. For a great example, let’s go to London, 1972. Alice Cooper was largely unknown in the UK at the time and tickets to the band’s London show simply weren’t selling. So their manager, a marketing genius named Shep Gordon, arranged for a billboard truck to carry a huge photo of the singer wearing only a boa constrictor. And then he arranged for it to “break down” in Piccadilly Circus. Old people were predictably enraged. Newspapers and elder statesmen condemned the stunt. Teenagers, listened carefully and stayed away. Wait, no. The show sold out immediately. The kids didn’t even know who they were paying to see. They just knew that it made granddad angry.

According to David Yeager, Teens push back hard against things that make them feel judged, disrespected, or incompetent So, if you want the opposite of the Opposite Machine, consider… Doing the opposite.

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Coming up on the next Dad Strength call (Tuesday at 3 PM EST): The care and feeding of the middle-aged body.

Fitness

Can you lose fat while gaining – or at least holding onto – muscle mass? That’s the dream. But is it also a fantasy?

In reality, this is possible for beginners (and re-beginners). However, as you progress into the realm of intermediate, progress becomes tougher to pull off. Here, if fat-loss is still your goal, chronic caloric deficit becomes necessary.

Is less better? I have seen many people quickly drop fat from a combination of restricting intake and huge amounts of cardio. The problem is that muscle mass drops with it. It’s a devil’s bargain because the benefits of muscle – strength, increased exercise output, aesthetics, etc. – are sorely missed once the muscle is gone.

The smart play is to lose fat without sacrificing too much muscle. So what’s the right-sized deficit?

This study says to keep the caloric deficit under 500 calories/day.

Meanwhile., the most important things you can do to maintain muscle mass are strength training (2-4x/week); a high-protein diet (according to the literature, this is at least 1g per lb of body weight per day but I find even getting over 100 grams per day to be productive for most people), and the usual suspects: sleep, hydration, and stress management.

Want to get into the nitty-gritty about your own health and fitness? Book a consult with me here.

Mindset

There’s something beautiful about a great second act. I was recently reminded that J.R.R. Tolkien was 44 or 45 when he started writing Lord of the Rings. I think that there’s hope for all of us to do great work in middle-age and beyond.

I’m not here to offer any kind of life coaching advice (although general practice would be to rope you into a pyramid and/or crypto scheme). Nor am I saying, “Hey, just be Tolkien.” I would advise you to ensure that your exercise and other lifestyle habits are well in place. That’s because a beautiful second act is fuelled by the practice and benefits of exercise and daily movement.

A Book

J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter

From the book:

“The shelves are crammed with dictionaries, works on etymology and philology, and editions of texts in many languages, predominant among which are Old and Middle English and Old Norse; but there is also a section devoted to translations of The Lord of the Rings into Polish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese; and the map of his invented ‘Middle-earth’ is pinned to the window-ledge.”

Please note that J.R.R. Tolkien stands for John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, not Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien, as I’ve been telling my family.

A Quote

A Dad joke

“Somebody told me that it’s not opposite day. But that’s exactly what they told me last opposite day.”

– Norm Macdonald.

Take care of yourself, man!

Geoff Girvitz
Father, founder, physical culturist
dadstrength.com

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