We're all trying to find the guy who did this

Today on Dad Strength

• We're all trying to find the guy who did this

• The master exercise

• Who you are vs what you do

• Some links, a quote, and a dad joke

Next week, this email will look different. Possibly worse. I’ll be shifting to a different email service – and that means plain-text emails without any bells or whistles. I’m not sure if you care much about how polished these things are (I’m guessing not very much) but I’m also hoping that nothing goes horribly wrong (i.e. check your spam folder if you don’t hear from me).

We're all trying to find the guy who did this

Whenever the current U.S. administration makes a statement about public health, my questions aren’t about where they got their science from (LOL) – but how they benefit.

One of the wilder things about RFK Jr. (and it’s a long list) is how he leverages critiques of big pharma – some of which are valid – into selling less-regulated supplements – or otherwise finding other ways to grift off of institutional mistrust. Now that the world is just a giant casino, being able to influence how the wheel spins is a huge advantage. That’s just short-term stuff, though. The real beneficiaries are those who don’t want to invest in public health.

Moving the discussion of any kind of health-related issue into an oversimplified, single-factor cause helps dumb the public conversation down. And that works for conspiracy-theory-fuelled, racists, authoritarians, and supplement salesmen alike. Even when they’re all just three kids in a trench coat.

Health is a complex system. Upstream solutions, from community-level resources to thorough research take time, money, and thought. Shifting the conversation into a grade-school level understanding of science helps distract from that inconvenient truth. Here, the Overton window shifts a little farther away from non-reactionary, grown-up strategy and a little closer to blaming single ingredients. And women, obviously.

But what happened to vaccines causing autism? They’ll get back to that, I guess. But September is winding down and it would be embarrassing to miss the deadline on solving the whole thing like it’s an Encyclopedia Brown mystery. The problem is that it’s tough to put out a statement about the mechanisms behind vaccines causing autism that isn’t riddled with verifiable errors. So, like all conspiracy theorists, the folks involved just move the goalposts whenever something – however fundamental to their claims – becomes inconvenient.

Engaged dads benefit from support and community. Curious about our Tuesday calls? Start here.

The master exercise

Somewhere out there, you’ll find an exercise that demands full-body strength along with some combination of coordination, mobility, and movement speed. What is it? Well, that’s for you to figure out – but here are some examples:

• Triple jump

• The manna

• Caber toss

• Swinging Persian clubs (meels) 

• The macaco (from capoeira)

• Mallakhamba

• Tutum ergiir↓↓

You may have watched one of these and thought, “Cool. Except that my vertebrae would explode like a series of firecrackers.” Fair enough. But the purpose here is not necessarily to attain the final form but – instead – to ask what attributes you’d need to work on to move in the right direction? For example, how could you work on trunk rotation (or shoulder mobility, or isometric strength with extended arms) in a way that makes sense for your body right now?

Odds are you’ll have to break things into multiple pieces AKA exercises. And in pursuit of something audacious, you’ll find a program that addresses your weak links in a novel and interesting way. The other great advantage is that nothing feels arbitrary because you feel clear about how everything fits together – and what progress looks like in each component.

Some less exotic top-level exercises might be 10 sets of 70-metre sprints; five sets of five bodyweight pull-ups; or performing this full dance.

Here’s an example of how to deconstruct the rotations from the final video above:

• Stand two or three feet in front of a wall

• Place your hands on the wall at head height

• Take one hand, drop it down, across, and up to the outside of your other arm, making an X at the wrists

• Follow that motion into a 360º rotation

If that’s too easy, go lower. If it’s too hard, try doing just a cross-step and building from there.

Want me to help you build a program by deconstructing an exercise and building a program around it? Hit reply and say, “One ring to rule them all.” I’ll give you a couple of options, including rates.

Action vs identity

A reliable way to poison any relationship is to mix up what a person does with who they are. For example, being mad that someone neglected to take out the trash is understandable, calling them a neglectful person is a lot harder to walk back.

But what’s going on inside your own internal chatter? Do you ever mix up a behaviour you do with who you are? That’s worth pulling apart because you have to nurture your relationship with yourself too.

What I’m reading/watching/making beats with:

Beat Maker

The Nordic way to stop bullying

ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners

Context-free patent art

A quote

A dad joke

There’s a fee to watch the origami competition.

It’s paper view.

Take care of yourself, man!

GG

Geoff Girvitz
Father, founder, physical culturist
dadstrength.com