Luis T. Gonzalez
Level 7 Valued Member
Heck yeah, that’s awesome!
Off-Topic How much money should I invest in physical education and well-being?
- Thread starter Tobias78
- Start date
Tobias78
Level 2 Valued Member
The best fitness and performance items that I have purchased are the following: the Second Wind online course by Pavel, the Great Gama Protocol by Pavel Macek, and 'Dawn of the Deadbug' by Aleks Salkin. Applying the principles in the Second Wind course increased my health and performance in a noticeable way more than anything else that I have tried. The Great Gama Protocol acts as an emergency back-up plan to utilize during times in which I would rather not exercise; the organization and selection of the exercises makes it incredibly approachable even when I am tempted to lay down on the couch instead. Aleks Salkin's 'Dawn of the Deadbug' program may not be the program that I want but it is the program that I need (and I suspect many others need it too.)
The items that ended up being a waste of money for achieving my specific goals would be the following: a steel club, instructions for using the steel club, instructions for achieving the Pistol and 1-armed pushup, instructions for improving the 1-armed kettlebell press, minimalist kettlebell programs (excluding S&S), some of the older DD related materials, and the gymnastic rings. These are all valuable items and have their uses but they weren't right for what I was trying to achieve. I should have asked better questions, clarified my goals, and sought appropriate guidance instead of clicking 'purchase' right away.
I've purchased a lot of other stuff that I use on a daily basis and that I don't consider to be a waste but I wouldn't consider it to be the best stuff that I bought either.
IMO, investing in yourself ( an appreciating asset ) is an excellent idea.
offwidth
Level 10 Valued Member
Indeed! And more important than investing money in oneself, is investing intent, courage, and time…
@Tobias78, what are those goals?
Of all the items you list, the first one I'd quibble with is gymnastic rings - they're inexpensive and useful for a wide variety of things. Even though I'm not a gymnast, I use mine every day. They make a great place to do dead hangs and those are good for everyone. They are also in the direction of the Naked Warrior skills but allow different variations which could function as stepping stones to the pistol and 1-arm PU.
Still, good to know more precisely what you're trying to achieve because that would allow the conversation to be much more specific.
-S-
Boris Bachmann
Level 8 Valued Member
Spend some time on this thread and feel better about yourself: Other/Mixed - Recent Fitness-Related Purchases
I have a 150 pound slam ball in my garage. I trip myself on it occasionally to remind myself that I still own one.
L5S1
Level 2 Valued Member
When I started bells a couple years ago all I needed was a 12, 16, and 20kg to do an array of single arm exercises. Then I started getting serious about S&S a year ago and I would say I currently only need 16 (warmup), 24, 28, and 32 kg. Because I’ve been trying to get my wife and kids into bells I own 4-24kg in 2kg increments. Obviously have the 28 and 32…36kg I have on notify me from kettlebell kings.
I said all that to say I own a full gym that will last generations for like 2 grand? What more could you ask for?
I said all that to say I own a full gym that will last generations for like 2 grand? What more could you ask for?
Attachments
Yes, as Warren Buffet says, "“Generally speaking, investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Anything that improves your own talents; nobody can tax it or take it away from you."
Great topic and thread. All I can really add is that in hindsight, I don't regret any of they money I've spent on fitness learning, equipment, and other resources. I guess my best advice is to really align your output with your input, or vice versa. Spend on what keeps you engaged and feeling good about things in whatever way this realm of life does -- enjoying physical activity, ability to positively influence your physical and mental condition, a feeling of how you show up in the world, better relationships with others including having something to offer in the way of teaching and knowledge, participating in fun activities, building of skills, intellectual pursuits within the topics, etc.
Tobias78
Level 2 Valued Member
Mr. Steve, I don't post often on this forum but I read it quite a bit and I always enjoy your responses to the various topics that arise here. Thank you!
Goal 1: Physically fit for job.
I was a college student who suddenly found a summer job working in a warehouse. Moving furniture and cases of merchandise was hard work! Over the school year, I trained with kettlebells. I became strong and fast. After a while, I was offered a full-time position.
Goal 2: Rehab and strengthen weak points.
I continued with kettlebells but my progress halted and I started to get some nagging pains in my body: my ankles, back, shoulders, and knees. So, I started to try different exercises and I purchased programs that I thought would help me strengthen the areas that hurt. (I also purchased some programs and exercises without much rationale. For example, I thought "Maybe a better military press will fix my back pain!" Eventually, I found some solutions that work for me and today I feel great!
Goal 3: Satisfy my curiosity on how a person's physical performance and health can be improved using low tech/high concept methods.
I hope that I have clarified my initial post. Thank you for your interest!
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Indeed, you have.
Working a physical job - I assume you're still working moving things in the warehouse you mention - makes training a more complicated thing, and one with which I have no real experience. OTOH, I will say that sometimes my lifting effects my music making so there is that in my life. I haven't found all my lifting to get in the way of playing the piano/organ or guitar except for perhaps a few awkward minutes if I transition from weights to playing music quickly. But playing trumpet and French Horn - that's an area in which I do feel the connection, and I'd be lying if I said it was easy to play brass after a tough lifting session - for me, at least, it's not. @Adachi perhaps you can comment on this? If memory serves, you're a brass player. I took up brass instruments only at around age 50 and have worked hard at acquiring the meager skills I now possess.
Another complication for training with which I have zero experience is being in the military or law enforcement. From what I understand, there the challenge is to be ready for anything the job throws at you and you can't afford to be worn out by your workouts.
It sounds like you're doing well overall. For me, someone who suffered a bad back injury 27 years ago, the keys have been back strength and hip mobility. Working on my barbell deadlift and being able to do splits has been my winning combination.
-S-
SteveR
Level 6 Valued Member
I would suggest $0 (zero) dollars is needed to invest for fitness. With common sense, patience and creativity we can get fantastically fit with body weight exercises, isometrics, manual labor, stairs, hills, heavy objects, etc. And free useful information is voluminous on the internet (again common sense). Everything else can be considered a luxury although not necessarily bad or wasteful.
I would further suggest a great place to consider investing is a quality diet. Eating healthy and home food preparation can be more expensive and time consuming than a poor diet. Finding quality local grown sources and preparation equipment may be a good place for $. Of course, family size and dietary needs will affect how much you need to invest.
I would further suggest a great place to consider investing is a quality diet. Eating healthy and home food preparation can be more expensive and time consuming than a poor diet. Finding quality local grown sources and preparation equipment may be a good place for $. Of course, family size and dietary needs will affect how much you need to invest.
Adachi
Level 7 Valued Member
Yeah I've been singing in choir since I was 5 , and played brass instruments since I was 10. I played tuba for about 20 years in the army band from which I'm now retiring. I started on trumpet played everything else on the way down.
When you're playing a wind instrument there are only certain areas you want muscular tension and only specific amounts of tension. Everything else needs to be relaxed and stable. Tuba playing and vocalization require the least tension of all. And any ambient or extraneous sources of tension should be reduced and eliminated.
I once sat in master class lecture that Alan Baer was giving and he said sometimes running up and down a couple flights of stairs helped him get his breath going before an audition. I subsequently tried it and he was right. Bigger sounds came out as a result. But anything I do that leaves me feeling tense stiff or ragged can only detract from my ability to generate a nice big sound.
Getting the breathing deeper is one thing. Getting yourself to a place where you're huffing and puffing can help remind you how much room there is in your lungs. But if there's anything that changes your ambient amounts of tension stiffness or comfort, you're not going to be at your best. A stiff neck, back, or shoulders will create tension in regions that interfere with your ability to breathe deeply and move air with ease.
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Boris Bachmann
Level 8 Valued Member
I don't think it is. I'm guessing that many of us, if we totaled up all the money we've spent on gym memberships, coaching, seminars, webinars, certifications, supplements, books, magazines, clothes, and equipment, would arrive at pretty shocking figures.
This thread combines two of my favorite topics: finances and fitness. I often think how fortunate I am to have two interest areas that provide great returns on time, effort, and learning. (If I could only get interested in cooking and food prep!)
It is quite amazing how little one could spend, and still do well. A good learner could read free articles, this forum, watch YouTube and other free video resources, and invest $100 in books and a few hundred $ on kettlebells and/or barbells and be set for life, if they so choose, and if it worked for them. I think this describes some people here. Add in some rucking or running and other life activities and they could easily meet all minimum activity guidelines for health and life-fitness needs.
So let's look at instruction and coaching. In any complex area, which exercise and fitness can be, problems do arise, and we often need help to get around them. StrongFirst forum to the rescue again! You can always post here and get some advice. But most people do better by taking a better, deeper dive into proper technique via in-person courses/classes, seminars, or individual coaching. No telling how many problems some of us have avoided by getting good instruction before adding enough weight and volume to effectively obtain training adaptations. And how valuable is that? To not have pain, setbacks, missed work time, medical expenses... It's impossible to quantify what doesn't happen, but I sense the presence of that for myself, and value it quite a bit. Also, by way of having great technique and knowledge of what to do and what not to do, better progress is made from a similar investment of training time/effort. This may not make that much of a difference in health (which is more about doing fitness things with some regularity than one's actual achievements in these areas), but it makes a huge difference in function and performance. And making progress in these areas is often the magic ingredient to keeping us engaged in the process, thereby continuing the health benefits. Also, thinking beyond oneself, having this knowledge and sharing it with others can provide a feeling a usefulness to positively affect the people around us.
As for equipment, I think to whatever degree one has space for things and actually uses them, the return on investment is usually pretty good, especially if it provides the ability to train without spending money on gym memberships. Exceptions would be 1) outrageously priced specialty items that claim to do something special, and don't, 2) premium version of things (Eleiko barbells etc.) for a beginner who never advances to the point where the quality matters very much, 3) redundant versions of things, 4) things that depreciate or deteriorate, like machines, and never get utilized to their potential. I'm sure there are others. Generally speaking, there's a lot of cost up front, but then it continues to provide value without costing any more money. I think of this a lot with my bicycles and riding gear. It was an expensive endeavor, those first few years. But now with well over 20,000 miles on my Trek Madone bicycle and having most of the other gear I need, I continue to benefit from having it with hardly any ongoing costs. The same could be said for kettlebells and barbells.
Money spent on all of this is not equal for all of us, because we all have a different amount of disposable income. Therefore it's hard to say if expenditures are "worth it" for one person vs. another. You have to consider the outcomes achieved by the expenditure (sometimes challenging to assess), and the true cost for that individual vs. other things they could have spend the money on (opportunity cost). However, we all have 24 hours in a day. So in terms of time, we are all equal. And we should all be cognizant of how we spend our time. In this area, there is time spent training, and time spent on training where one is not training (reading, writing, watching videos, talking, etc.). I could argue that we should all spend approximately the minimum activity guidelines of time training (150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and 2 days of muscle strengthening activity, according to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.) but time spend ON training when one is not training depends greatly on what you get out of it. I know I get a lot out of it. I enjoy learning in this area. It becomes one of my primary lenses through which to view the world, and that extends well beyond training. Not to mention all the great people it's brought into my life. Priceless!
Certifications are another area entirely. I need to re-up my NASM-CPT and USAW Lvl 1 certs this month. StrongFirst Elite is really pretty easy to maintain with the the various recert options. A very good value. I think the only other cert I've done is Flexible Steel and I think of that as more of a learning seminar. Anyway - with certifications, there is attaining, and maintaining -- two different things. Attaining is an achievement and marks a certain amount of knowledge. Maintaining is a degree of ongoing dedication to remaining current. These decisions may be more driven by career and business factors.
So that's my ramble on the subject. More directly to the OP:
Goal 1: Sounds like you met this goal!
Goal 2: Sounds like you met this goal also! You chose wisely and put the new knowledge to good use.
Goal 2: This one is deep and endless. I would say, don't undervalue this one. Invest in yourself, pursue your passions, and feed your curiosity. You won't regret it!
So all in all, I think you've done well. Use what you've learned to go farther, but don't feel like you have to continue spending at the same rate. Much of what you have already can continue to serve you, just like I keep riding my Trek Madone year after year and getting more and more out of it.
It is quite amazing how little one could spend, and still do well. A good learner could read free articles, this forum, watch YouTube and other free video resources, and invest $100 in books and a few hundred $ on kettlebells and/or barbells and be set for life, if they so choose, and if it worked for them. I think this describes some people here. Add in some rucking or running and other life activities and they could easily meet all minimum activity guidelines for health and life-fitness needs.
So let's look at instruction and coaching. In any complex area, which exercise and fitness can be, problems do arise, and we often need help to get around them. StrongFirst forum to the rescue again! You can always post here and get some advice. But most people do better by taking a better, deeper dive into proper technique via in-person courses/classes, seminars, or individual coaching. No telling how many problems some of us have avoided by getting good instruction before adding enough weight and volume to effectively obtain training adaptations. And how valuable is that? To not have pain, setbacks, missed work time, medical expenses... It's impossible to quantify what doesn't happen, but I sense the presence of that for myself, and value it quite a bit. Also, by way of having great technique and knowledge of what to do and what not to do, better progress is made from a similar investment of training time/effort. This may not make that much of a difference in health (which is more about doing fitness things with some regularity than one's actual achievements in these areas), but it makes a huge difference in function and performance. And making progress in these areas is often the magic ingredient to keeping us engaged in the process, thereby continuing the health benefits. Also, thinking beyond oneself, having this knowledge and sharing it with others can provide a feeling a usefulness to positively affect the people around us.
As for equipment, I think to whatever degree one has space for things and actually uses them, the return on investment is usually pretty good, especially if it provides the ability to train without spending money on gym memberships. Exceptions would be 1) outrageously priced specialty items that claim to do something special, and don't, 2) premium version of things (Eleiko barbells etc.) for a beginner who never advances to the point where the quality matters very much, 3) redundant versions of things, 4) things that depreciate or deteriorate, like machines, and never get utilized to their potential. I'm sure there are others. Generally speaking, there's a lot of cost up front, but then it continues to provide value without costing any more money. I think of this a lot with my bicycles and riding gear. It was an expensive endeavor, those first few years. But now with well over 20,000 miles on my Trek Madone bicycle and having most of the other gear I need, I continue to benefit from having it with hardly any ongoing costs. The same could be said for kettlebells and barbells.
Money spent on all of this is not equal for all of us, because we all have a different amount of disposable income. Therefore it's hard to say if expenditures are "worth it" for one person vs. another. You have to consider the outcomes achieved by the expenditure (sometimes challenging to assess), and the true cost for that individual vs. other things they could have spend the money on (opportunity cost). However, we all have 24 hours in a day. So in terms of time, we are all equal. And we should all be cognizant of how we spend our time. In this area, there is time spent training, and time spent on training where one is not training (reading, writing, watching videos, talking, etc.). I could argue that we should all spend approximately the minimum activity guidelines of time training (150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and 2 days of muscle strengthening activity, according to the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.) but time spend ON training when one is not training depends greatly on what you get out of it. I know I get a lot out of it. I enjoy learning in this area. It becomes one of my primary lenses through which to view the world, and that extends well beyond training. Not to mention all the great people it's brought into my life. Priceless!
Certifications are another area entirely. I need to re-up my NASM-CPT and USAW Lvl 1 certs this month. StrongFirst Elite is really pretty easy to maintain with the the various recert options. A very good value. I think the only other cert I've done is Flexible Steel and I think of that as more of a learning seminar. Anyway - with certifications, there is attaining, and maintaining -- two different things. Attaining is an achievement and marks a certain amount of knowledge. Maintaining is a degree of ongoing dedication to remaining current. These decisions may be more driven by career and business factors.
So that's my ramble on the subject. More directly to the OP:
Goal 1: Sounds like you met this goal!
Goal 2: Sounds like you met this goal also! You chose wisely and put the new knowledge to good use.
Goal 2: This one is deep and endless. I would say, don't undervalue this one. Invest in yourself, pursue your passions, and feed your curiosity. You won't regret it!
So all in all, I think you've done well. Use what you've learned to go farther, but don't feel like you have to continue spending at the same rate. Much of what you have already can continue to serve you, just like I keep riding my Trek Madone year after year and getting more and more out of it.
mfbunch
Level 5 Valued Member
Only you can do the cost / benefit analysis. Ask yourself two things: 1-what's your health and fitness worth to you? 2-can you afford NOT to invest at least some money to make sure your train in a safe and efficient manner. I've done a lot of discovery learning...in hindsight, I spent more money wasting time and getting injured than I saved by not finding a good coach or trainer.
I will reiterate a previous point (and disagree at the same time): you need to set realistic goals and invest in equipment - if applicable - and programming that moves you towards those goals. I would disagree that investment in something like S&S or another SF or DD program is a waste. There is solid programming advice that is applicable beyond the program itself. The PROGRAM may not move you towards your goals, but the concepts can be applied in ways that do.
I will reiterate a previous point (and disagree at the same time): you need to set realistic goals and invest in equipment - if applicable - and programming that moves you towards those goals. I would disagree that investment in something like S&S or another SF or DD program is a waste. There is solid programming advice that is applicable beyond the program itself. The PROGRAM may not move you towards your goals, but the concepts can be applied in ways that do.