Sendyka Fit Over 40

The Twin Death Valleys of Fitness

Pawel Sendyka — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 05:14:34 GMT

Japanese woodcut by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi from 1864. See why below.**

There are two ways to die in fitness.

The first is obvious to everyone (and maddeningly, most everyone doesn’t do anything about it). They just do nothing. They sit, in their cars, in their offices, on their living room couches. As they get older and no longer have to sit so much, it has become an unstoppable force in their life. They take every opportunity to sit down. They think they are resting, but they’re dying in little installments. They stop going out when it rains, then stop going out at all. Then they fall and can’t get up or break something and get taken away to a home. The obituary will say “natural causes” but there is nothing natural about what they were doing to themselves across decades, it was neglect.

The second is less obvious. They think they’re doing everything right. They train for and run marathons. They lift heavy. If exercise is good for you, surely, a whole lot of is a whole lot better. They push their limits because the industry told them that suffering is virtue and meaning and if you aren’t gasping like it might be your last breath, you’re wasting time. On day they develop A-Fib, that dreaded tell-tale sign of endurance training abuse, or drop dead outright. Friends at the funeral will be shaking their heads. “They were so fit,” they’ll say. They were. In fact, they were super fit. And that’s the problem, because that’s what killed them.

I call these the Twin Death Valleys of Fitness.

Because I like being dramatic. Because it has a nice ring to it. Because I hope you’ll remember. And because the data backs it up.

The Copenhagen Problem

The Copenhagen City Heart Study tracked joggers for years. They found something that should have been front-page news then and also now.

Light joggers had the lowest mortality. Moderate joggers had higher mortality. Strenuous joggers had mortality rates statistically identical to people who didn’t exercise at all.

Pause here to read it again. That’s not a mistake. Let that become something you know, not just something you’ve read.

Those guys, powering past you in the park at 6 AM, dripping sweat, looking like warriors storming a citadel? They’re racing towards an early death. At least couch potatoes know what they are (not) doing is bad for them. The endurance warriors are thinking they’re doing themselves longevity favours. They die in equal numbers, whether in their pajamas, or with Strava chronicling their last move.

Recent research in Japan confirmed the benefits of light exercise. And also showed that it is the light activity that promotes the new neuron formation best. That’s because the positive effects of the exercise are not being eaten away by the stress hormones which get released when you are pushing yourself hard.

The fitness industry doesn’t want to talk about it and rightly so. It would mess with their business model. If light and easy works, who needs the gym? Who needs the trainer? Who needs that latest wearable and its app?

The Ancient Wisdom Nobody Reads

The ancient Greeks had it all neatly figured out and Girolamo Mercuriale figured this out again in 1569 in his De Arte Gymnastica Libri Sex*. He revisited ancient Greek writings on exercise and classified them into three types:

Legitimate exercise: for health and longevity. Light, varied, sustainable. The goal is maintenance and durability.

Military exercise: for war. High intensity, high impact, high risk. The goal is battle readiness. Acceptable when the price of not being ready is death.

Athletic exercise: for competition. Extreme, specialized, inherently dangerous. The goal is the accolades and the glory in the Hellenic world.

The Greeks knew that not all movement is medicine. Some of it is poison.

We forgot.

The industry sells us military and athletic exercise and labels it “legitimate.” Marathons. Spartan Races. HYROX. CrossFit. HIIT. All of it falls squarely into the military or athletic categories. None of it is preventative medicine. It is stress testing. We all know that saying, what does not break you, makes you stronger, but nobody talks about the flip side: what does break you… well… breaks you. And what almost breaks you, makes you weaker.

The Middle Path

Between the two death valleys of fitness there is doing enough with restraint. It is not glamorous. It will not get you on a magazine cover. It will not make your ex jealous. It will not garner likes on social media (quit social media by the way, if you haven’t already).

But it will keep you alive and capable.

This is the way of DSY: Don’t Shit Yourself. Move enough to trigger adaptation. Not enough to trigger destruction.

The amount required to get your body in shape is shockingly small, it is even smaller to keep in shape. You should exercise for your health, not aesthetics. Muscles are important., not as a stuffing for your shirt so that you look big, but because they release myokines, chemical messengers that travel through your bloodstream, reducing inflammation, burning fat, repairing tissue, and whispering to pre-cancer cells to kill themselves. You don’t need to exhaust yourself to trigger this.

10 to 15 minutes a day. Most days.

Don’t tell me you don’t have time. You do. That’s less time than you spend brushing your teeth and sitting on the toilet. Maintaining your body is as important as those two bathroom activities.

The Cost of Each Valley

If you sit in the first valley, the cost is obvious. Weakness. Stiffness. Diabetes. Falls. Dependency. The slow erosion of personal freedom until your world shrinks to a room and a chair.

If you sit in the second valley, the cost is hidden behind a mask of “wellness.” You look great. You tell yourself you feel great (though you feel the accumulated exhaustion in the background, but you don’t let yourself admit it). Then one day, the body you’ve been treating like a horse that must be egged on all the time sends an “I want to rest” signal that cannot be ignored.

Jimmy Fixx wrote the book on running. Died of a heart attack at 52. While running.

Edmund Burke had a PhD in exercise physiology. Trained Olympic cyclists. Died on his bike.

Three physicians at Johns Hopkins. All runners. All dead.

If PhDs in exercise physiology can’t save themselves, what chance do the rest of us have?

The answer is: stop trying so hard. Stop running from the first valley straight into the second. Stop thinking that more is better and suffering is virtue.

DSY

You don’t need to choose between decay and destruction.

You need to walk (or slow jog) that middle path. Move, because your body requires it for maintenance. Know when to stop, so that you have plenty left to go through your day. Repeat.

Not sexy. Not marketable. Not something you can post on Instagram with a flexing emoji.

But it works. And it won’t kill you.

That’s the whole pitch.

Below the line

*Chill, libri sex means 6 books, not free love.

**The Death in Action of Musashi Gorô Sadayo at the Battle of Karashima in the Earlier Taiheiki (Zen Taiheiki Karashima kassen Musashi Gorô Sadayo uchijini no zu). I’m so tired of AI generated images, aren’t you?

I’m an anthropologist who tackled the fitness industry like a research project. Unsurprisingly, turned out it’s mostly nonsense. But buried beneath it all I found enough ancient wisdom and sound science to put together something that works: ten to fifteen minutes a day, most days. Just enough.

You’ll find the free stuff here and on my YouTube channel. The paid work, for people who want clear structure to follow, is on Buy Me a Coffee. The book is in the works.

Not Your Usual Fitness Video (Season 3 Begins)

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 10:02:09 GMT

This is Season 3. We (you and me) will do things differently...

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Why the Truth about Fitness is Maddeningly Simple

Pawel Sendyka — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:34:08 GMT

Fitness was one of those areas of life, which for the longest time went under my radar, until one day I realised it just doesn’t make sense (not unlike Santa). The realisation about the fitness industry came pretty late, around 40 when my body no longer accepted neglect or punishment without consequences. It came as an anthropological reflection that… wait a second, something really weird is going on here. Advertising shows unrealistic bodies, gyms promise delivery, shame follows (unavoidable) failure.

Not from Mercuriale's De Arte Gymnastica. Story below.

The premise of what I do is simple. Before all the advertising, unrealistic body images and guilt, people have been strong, lean and capable in every era throughout history. The ancient Greeks’ thinking on the subject is especially good for cutting through the nonsense of today’s training regimens. They divided the exercise into three categories. The first: gentle movement for everyone. The second: military training for warriors. The third: athletic pursuit for those seeking laurels and admiration. Only the first category was “legitimate” and pro-health while the rest was inherently risky. But the damage was acceptable because there were good reasons to accept it.

Today we get a lot of military and athletic variety trickling down to the unsuspecting public under the label of wellness. That the exercise is good for you, is true, but that more exercise is even better, is only true up to a point.

My own approach lies between the twin death valleys of fitness. One is where you don’t do nearly enough to maintain your body, the other is where you’re tearing it down. Both result in a reduced quality of life, a hastened expiry date, or both.

Yet, the truth about fitness is maddeningly simple. 10-15 minutes a day is all it will take you if you want to get away with the bare minimum. No judgment, that’s how I started too. The point is, I know you have that much time. How? Because it’s less time than you spend each day sitting on the toilet and brushing your teeth. If you’re not doing it, you’re erasing the future in which you’re “living younger” instead of succumbing to many illnesses we associate with age, but are really turbocharged consequences of neglecting your body.

I say that the truth about fitness is maddeningly simple, because on the surface of it, everyone can get it. And yet, hardly anyone does it. Once in a while, I’m able to grab a friend of mine by the hand and explain it to them. And if they listen, it changes their lives. I do this because I worry about my friends: those that don’t do enough and those that do too much. There is a friend I’ve lost because I’ve kept quiet, because I let her get away with the excuses of bad back, bad neck, bad something. We all have bad something. You may even get other people to buy into your excuses, but your body won’t. Our bodies demand action and that action does not need to be heroic. It can be gentle, but it must be consistent.

Radio Taiso (3 minute Japanese stretching routine), Asian squat, animal movements, isometrics, all take a few minutes each and can be incorporated into your day easily. Out of these building blocks, you slowly chunk up and build your routine that lets you “live younger”.

“Gym Culture” and De Arte Gymnastica
Is CrossFit a Legitimate Exercise?
On Ego and Training for the Wrong War

Below the line

You can find more of my thinking on YouTube, my website, and if you’d like to support this work, Buy Me a Coffee members get access to the course beta.

*this is AI-generated, inspired by Mercuriale's work. The real illustrations have already been used in three articles I wrote on the subject:

WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE OF S2 FINALE

The Fitness Industry Won't Like This! feat.⁨@bnsgokugreat⁩

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 10:02:11 GMT

My first step to Youtube stardom! I got interviewed by ⁨@bnsgokugreat⁩. All your questions about the Sendyka Method answered (maybe...).

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Enshittification Of Fitness Has Got To Stop

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:01:51 GMT

It’s been 2 years that I’ve been on YouTube and something’s got to change...

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The Cultural Logic of Recreational Suffering

Pawel Sendyka — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 01:01:24 GMT

Damn it! Another fitness trend called HYROX is here. Haven’t we just been here with CrossFit?

Yes, I know it’s “different” (a little). The format is standardized. The branding is sleeker. But strip away the veneer and you are looking at the exact same phenomenon: ordinary people paying good money to wear and tear themselves down recreationally... while calling it wellness.

I read Wilson Wong’s piece in The Guardian on HYROX. He seemed simultaneously seduced by it and suspicious of it and I think I know why. I see it too. As an anthropologist, I can’t look away from the cultural logic behind these systems. And what strikes me as (historically) unusual is not the hardship itself, but who is embracing it and why.

Ordinary Civilian’s Search for Meaning

In the ancient world, the athlete accepted damage in pursuit of glory. The soldier accepted it in pursuit of the survival of his community. The suffering had purpose. The pursuit was for something bigger than the self. And it was external.

Today, the “civilian” accepts this damage in pursuit of... what exactly? A number on a screen? A feeling of “I did it”? Instagram likes? By the way, I use the word “accepts” here in the loosest sense here, because most people are not aware of the health price they will have to pay later.

The fitness industry has taken the logic of the battlefield and the stadium and somehow repackaged it as a health pursuit.

“Push harder.” “Give it your all.” “Embrace the suck.” All lies.

Suffering, contrary to the industry’s subtle propaganda, is not a proxy for meaning.

When you train for a war that doesn’t exist, or a race with no stakes, you are only causing yourself pain that serves no purpose.

The Industrialization of Burnout

What HYROX and CrossFit have perfected is the industrialization of burnout.

They take the human desire for structure, community, and measurable progress, and they funnel it into a system that extracts maximum effort for minimum functional return or worse, outright damage. The structure is great because you don’t have to think, the workout is prescribed. The community works because you are surrounded by people doing the same thing, giving you the social proof. And the progress is measurable because you get a time, a rank, and a dopamine hit.

It works. Until it doesn’t. The body, treated as an obstacle to overcome, finally sends a signal that cannot be ignored: the joints are shot, tendons are torn and the heart develops the dreaded A-Fib.

The DSY Alternative

My philosophy is almost the reverse of HYROX. Though I am not anti-effort and anti-performance, I always ask the simple question: “Fit for what?”

If the goal is to run a race, then fine. Train for the race. But please, don’t say it’s for health.

If the goal, on the other hand, is to live a long, capable life where you get to play with your grandkids and tie your shoes without a stool, then the “push harder” mantra is counterproductive.

My core principle is DSY: Don’t Shit Yourself. It may not be polite, but it is clear. It means leaving yourself enough capacity to get through your day, today and the day after that. It means sustainable routine that powers your days and recognizing that less is often more.

The Older (and Smarter) Adult Advantage

Older adults seem to get it faster than the young athletes. When you are 25, you have a recovery buffer. You can do the HIIT, Tabata, power lifts, and bounce back. You feel invincible.

When you are 40, 50, 60, that buffer is gone. The body stops just taking it quietly.

The one who chooses to walk, to stretch, to move gently, is not “lazy.” They are prioritizing longevity over the temporary high of a leaderboard and likes on social media. They are playing the long game.

So, here is the choice we all hold, “sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake”: You can continue to pay for the privilege of breaking yourself in a game with no stakes, or you can admit that the “hardship” you’ve been sold is just a very expensive way to get injured and frail.

Red pill, anyone?

Who, what and why?

I am an anthropologist turned fitness YouTuber, and my work focuses on something most of the fitness world gets wrong: how to build strength and flexibility without surrendering your life to the gym, and without breaking yourself in the process.

The course I have built is shaped by long-term thinking about our bodies, minds, and habit formation. It is designed for people who want to stay capable for decades.

Supporters on Buy Me a Coffee get access to the beta version. This is early access to the system while it is still being refined, before it is packaged and priced and released to the world at large. If my way of thinking resonates with you, this is the moment to step inside.

To those who already support my work, thank you. You are backing a model of fitness that refuses to accept frailty as the default. It’s an alternative to the Fitness Dark Ages we’re currently living through.

The Church Of Fitness Is Killing You!

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:09:00 GMT

Today, we take a playful look at five ways that fitness industry is like a church. How it strayed from the path of health and the five theses I'm pinning to its door...

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I Was So Mad At Him!

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:00:43 GMT

We've all heard that phrase “old and frail”. In English, these two words have fused into a single idea. We say them together, as if one naturally follows the other. And it's wrong...

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Bull***t You Didn't Sign Up For

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:03:07 GMT

I would have looked all right in the 90s. These days I get derided in the comments section for being skinny or “sarcopenic.” When I was a young boy I saw the Bruce Lee films. His physique looked extraordinary. He was fast, lean, and exceptionally defined but still very much human. By the time I was finishing high school, things started to change…

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What’s the most difficult part of the method to practice?

Pawel Sendyka — Sat, 09 May 2026 01:01:14 GMT

It’s not Radio Taiso, animal movements, isometrics, planks or even horse stance. (Although that one is pretty difficult).

It’s restraint. Because it’s counter-cultural.

Trusting that what feels good is enough and not pushing it.

That’s the DSY principle, written in torn tendons, or in Brad’s, a meniscus.

I’m sharing his comment under one of my posts:

I have had an experience that has really enlightened me as to EXACTLY what you are talking about. I have followed your fitness suggestions for quite some time. I slow jog almost every day… in the winter (in Oregon) I have to do it inside on the treadmill. No problem. I started mixing in some full-out sprints for 20-30 seconds. Really enjoyed it. On the day in question… I thought I could take it a bit farther (and faster). I felt it! My knee suddenly hurt. I stopped and got off the treadmill and went out to the golf course (my biggest passion). Played a few holes… and then I realized my knee was really starting to hurt. I decided to walk in. On my way back to the club house POP!!!! I heard it and felt it!! My knee!! Popped in a bad way. I could barely take steps.

Much better now. Functional… however I have a torn meniscus… and will require surgery.

Lesson learned. I need to be satisfied with where I am and not push to go farther. You are right! Again! Consistency beats intensity! And now I am missing some of the things I really enjoyed.

I’ll report back after my surgery… and back on track.

You. Are. Right. Brad.

We’re all up against the same thing. A culture that tells you to push harder, go further, do more.

If it sets you back, it wasn’t worth it.

If you want the structure behind this, you can find it in the course here.

How to spot when you’re Overdoing it

Pawel Sendyka — Sat, 02 May 2026 01:06:54 GMT

From the Graduation Handbook. This is the kind of thinking that keeps you out of trouble:

Stick to the method because I experimented on myself, so you don’t have to.
Err on the side of caution (it’s always okay to scale down) and remember this critical test: how do you feel at the end?
Energised, or drained? If you feel drained you crossed the invisible line.
Now here’s the tricky part. If you feel great, you’ll be tempted to do more. Just a bit more. Just a bit harder. Just a bit longer.
Don’t.
That feeling of almost dissatisfaction is actually the signal you got the balance right.
You’ve got some oomph left.
Keep it.
Use it for the rest of the day. The rest of the week.

Most people don’t fail here because they don’t know this. They fail because they won’t follow it.

If this resonated, there’s more of this inside. Members get access to the full course. After 3 months, you can also work with me directly.

How People Break Themselves Doing Everything Right

Pawel Sendyka — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 01:07:26 GMT

Whenever someone in the fitness space dies young, a thought creeps in.

“Was it the thing that was supposed to make them healthier?”

I came across the death of Michael Mosley recently. A doctor turned broadcaster, known for making sensible, evidence-based programmes about diet and exercise. He died on a rocky part of the Greek island of Symi after setting off on a walk in extreme heat. One litre of water. A biscuit. A hat. An umbrella.

The official cause is unclear. Most likely heatstroke, or some “non-identified pathological cause”.

That should be the end of it.

But it nags.

Because if you’ve seen his work, like The Truth About Exercise, you know how reasonable it all is. Measured. Practical. The kind of advice I agree with and talk about myself.

Which raises an uncomfortable question.

Where does “sensible” turn into “too far”?

I don’t want to speculate about what happened to him.

But I am interested in a pattern I recognise.

You start with something reasonable.

A protocol. A method. Something that works.

Then curiosity creeps in.

“What happens if I push this a bit more?”

And because your body adapts, “a bit more” keeps moving.

Those 20 or 30-second all-out efforts get stronger. Harder. More convincing.

And at some point, without noticing, you’re no longer exploring.

You’re testing limits.

I know this because I’ve done it.

More than once, in fact.

One example I wrote about in detail in Sprints – None Better Than Overdone. If you’ve read it, you know how easy it is to take something time-limited and still overdo it. The ceiling comes fast. After that, you’re not building capacity any more. You’re just increasing the chances of something going wrong.

The second one was truly dumb.

I went for a winter dip in the Mediterranean. Not extreme, but cold enough. Came out, saw a clear path, and decided to sprint.

I remember pausing for a moment.

Wondering. “Is this a good idea? What’s going to happen when all that cold blood gets pumped back quickly through the heart?”

Then I did it anyway.

My heart did not like it. It hurt in a way that made me fearful. That was enough for me.

There’s a trait that shows up everywhere. In bacteria, in animals, in humans.

The ones that explore the edge sometimes gain an advantage.

But they also disproportionately remove themselves from the population.

So what’s the takeaway?

Please, understand where this goes if you’re not paying attention.

Reasonable → curious → excessive → regret.

It’s a smooth slope.

You don’t feel the moment you cross into a dangerous territory.

This is why I keep coming back to DSY.

Don’t Shit Yourself.

It sounds like a joke. It isn’t.

It’s a constraint. A way of stopping that creeping escalation.

I talk about it a lot. I even build things like Pretend-Injury Time Off into my method, to force restraint.

And still, I manage to mess up sometimes.

So don’t take this as advice from someone who has “nailed it”.

Take it from someone who has seen where it leads.

Be smarter than me.

Oh, and one last thought.

Peter Attia wrote Outlive.

If I ever write one, it’ll be called Outsmart.

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What I’m doing, and why

The course I have built is shaped by long-term thinking about our bodies, minds, and habit formation. It is designed for people who want to stay capable for decades.

Slow Jogging Is Embarrassing… And It Works (1 Year Review)

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 10:01:39 GMT

I’ve been slow jogging regularly for more than a year now! And today, I want to share what I've experienced with this Japanese practice of Slow Jogging. What it is, how to do it, and what happens if you stick with it for a year...

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Most People Need Better Judgement

Pawel Sendyka — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:57:03 GMT

Hello,

I’m back from a hiatus during which I was helping a relative recover from a fall. Through working with her and talking with her physiotherapist, something became very clear to me:

We really need better judgement about how we approach fitness, and context matters a lot more than we’d like (age, past injuries, etc).

You can do too much, too soon, not enough of the right stuff, or apply the right stuff the wrong way.

The DSY principle is the saving grace. I’m now more convinced than ever that it should be the default for anyone training for health and longevity.

Inspired by this, I’ve started doing something differently behind the scenes. It’s essentially the same level of help I’d normally reserve for people close to me. (Available to longer-term supporters.)

If you’ve been on the fence about supporting this project, this might be the thing that tips you over.

This Hack Can Save You A Shoulder Surgery!

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:01:48 GMT

It's been over a year since my popular dead hang video was published. Its benefits have been proven by a lot of my audience. Watch this episode to find out what happens when you keep it up for a year!

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“Pretend-Injury” Time Off

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:02:24 GMT

This week’s post is something I wrote for the Graduation Handbook of my course. It describes how to apply the DSY principle on a “life scale”. Below it, I’m also sharing a comment from my BMC member David, who gave a perfect illustration of how it could (and should) be applied":

Let’s talk about deliberately stepping back, what I call a “pretend-injury” time off.

The idea is simple. And you probably know this from experience: you feel so great that you keep pushing it. Your body eventually protests (sometimes violently) and you’re forced to stop. And you are in pain for a few weeks. Why wait for that moment? Why not take the time off yourself, on your own terms, and enjoy it pain-free?

Some fitness influencers talk about constantly improving, about always adding weight, “exploding” their pecs or what may. They talk about pushing the boundaries of human abilities. That path may sound heroic, but it’s insane and is also a clear road to injury. The truth is that no one can improve forever. Eventually, the body demands a pause. Pretend-injury time can be that pause, instead of a real injury. Preemptive and deliberate.

This doesn’t mean completely stopping everything. Certain anchors remain non-negotiable: stretching in bed, Radio Taiso and slow jogging (closer to 20 minutes than to 50). These are your cornerstone exercises, small maintenance procedures that keep your body happy and engaged.

Life itself often provides the cues: the changing seasons, unexpected chores, a burst pipe, or a broken water heater. These are annoying obstacles to life’s not-so-smooth sailing but they are also invitations to let go. Take them. Allow yourself to slow down. Your body, unlike a machine, moves in ebb and flow. The carpenters of Edo respected this rhythm: they didn’t work in winter or when it rained. Just go with it and be guilt-free about it.

You can just chill or you can explore in that time things for yourself that are new and fun and easy on the joints (and can be done at the niko-niko pace while adhering to the DSY principle). One of you suggested rope flow to me. That does sound like fun. Or just walk and be chill. I practice something I call MF, for manual (or meditative) focus when I let my eyes focus far and near on everything I can find. It’s fun to realise that there are so many things in your surroundings that you have stopped seeing. The list of ideas is long and only limited by our imagination. I hope you’ll contribute yours in the comments.

The reward of the “pretend-injury” time is that you rest before rest is forced upon you, and you get to enjoy it in good form and not in pain. When you re-enter your practice it’s with strength, energy, and gratitude.

And here is David’s response

“Hi, Pawel. I’ve just come off a three-and-a-half week break from several parts of my routine: slow jogging, Sendyka sprints, and dead hang. This was occasioned by an unusual weather event for my area, which saw a fairly thin layer of very cold arctic air near the surface surmounted by a slowly moving warm, wet front from the southwest, resulting in a 24-hour period of snow followed by sleet followed by freezing rain. The result was a thick and slippery layer over everything of what local weather reporters were calling “snowcrete”. It was impossible to clear with normal snow shovels. People were resorting to axes, hammers, and even chain saws to cut through this stuff. Given that, sidewalks and many roads were basically impassible.

The temperatures stayed below freezing for the better part of two weeks after the storm, so there was very little melting and it was pretty dangerous to try walk or move over the ice. I heard an interview with an emergency department nurse soon after the storm and she said that they had seen over 40 people that day, all for either fractures from falling on the ice or for heart attacks from trying to clear it. Needless to say, during all this I could not do my regular slow jogging or sprinting, nor could I get to the playground where I do the dead hang.

But as it happened, this post about taking a break appeared as all this was going on, so I took your advice and didn’t worry about it. I did, however, keep up with Radio Taiso, some isometrics, and a few minutes of Asian squatting each day. Also, I finally tried out the animal movements, one of the few parts of your method that I hadn’t yet attempted. After a bit of awkwardness, I’m getting better at these and starting to have fun with it. I like the gorilla walk the most. And yesterday, with the weather having warmed up and almost all the snow and ice finally gone, I got back out for a slow jog and a dead hang and it felt great.”

Good job David, for enjoying your forced time off guilt-free.

And what about you? I’d love to hear about your experiences. Do you have a story of how your body (or circumstances) told you to pause and you listened (or maybe a cautionary tale when you didn’t)?

Let me know.

What Happens When You Asian Squat For 1 Year?

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 10:02:24 GMT

Asian squat is a human primal posture that helps with many things. Watch this video to find out what happens when you do it for one year… and how to do get into it without hurting yourself!

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How Modern Fitness Is Bad For Your Health & What To Do About It

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:02:13 GMT

We are still living through the Fitness Dark Ages. (maybe for the ending?) I for one, cannot wait for the Fitness Renaissance and I hope it will come in my lifetime. I’m going to do everything I can to bring it about.

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The Male Body Lie

Pawel Sendyka — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 01:01:21 GMT

I would have looked all right in the 90s. These days I get derided in the comments section for being skinny or “sarcopenic.”

It started with a glitch of my AI art bot. It forgot who Shirtless Simon and Jumbo the Cat were and generated something obscene. No, not in that way, but instead of a white‑haired, lean Simon I got a dark-haired young gym‑bro with a likewise dark (and clearly evil) cat. Huge chest, bulging deltoids, wide torso. When I rewired the bot’s rusted memory, restored Simon (and Jumbo) and placed the two images side by side, the contrast was stark. And I thought it’s a perfect snapshot of what’s been happening in the male‑physique department for the past six‑plus decades. What used to be exceptional, even freakish, is now a baseline. Pity the young men.

Physique inflation

When I was a young boy I saw the Bruce Lee films. His physique looked extraordinary. He was fast, lean, and exceptionally defined but still very much human. You could imagine him walking around somewhere in the world, wearing normal clothes, doing normal things.

By the time I was finishing high school, things started to change. The Terminator hit the big screens as well as other Arnold vehicles. They helped to move body building from the freak-show margins into the mainstream. In the nineties it was still Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in Fight Club that captured the imagination as the male ideal. But not long after that the dam broke. The social media came on stage and flooded us with one endless, inflating, comparison feed. And what were once outliers, stopped being perceived as such. Arnold was never normal, yet he was normalised. Everyone below that new reference point started feeling inadequate, unfinished, and behind.

The Damage

We are always a product of our era* and we’re brought up with those images that are considered “normal”. We try, and we inevitably fail to get anywhere close. We get discouraged and, because of the “all or nothing” mentality, we frequently quit the physical development and muscle building effort in its totality. Why bother training if “normal” already looks impossible? I fell into that category too for a while.

Others do the opposite. They chase the image at all costs: ego lifting, ignoring pain and training like recovery does not matter. Injuries make sure that that type of training eventually stops too.

Then there is the problem of…