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Posts Tagged ‘training’

Competition and Standards

Posted in Economics and Culture, Health and wellness, Hobbies, Links, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Eleanor wrote an article about her gym membership experience in China. Regardless of the field, I also prefer coaches who are skilled practitioners themselves, maintain high standards, and remain passionate about their craft. External standards, such as those set by employers, may ensure competence, but intrinsic motivation is what sustains excellence.

Competition governs almost every aspect of Chinese life. From the notoriously gruelling university entrance exams to industrial price wars, success depends on standing out from a vast pool of hardworking rivals…

Oxygym’s standards for staff are exacting. They are assessed according to nine criteria, each stricter than the last…Male and female trainers are expected to maintain body fat below 15 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, while passing physical tests befitting Navy Seals. Male trainers must deadlift twice their body weight, run 2.7km in 12 minutes and complete 15 unassisted pull-ups. For women trainers, the requirements include deadlifting one and a half times their body weight and 24 consecutive push-ups. While trainers are permitted to exercise on the gym floor, they are discouraged from visibly sweating while doing so.

When I ask Will what a trainer’s personal fitness level has to do with their teaching ability, he appears surprised by the question. “Even if a trainer is very experienced, if they are fat and don’t take care of their appearance, clients won’t want lessons with them,” he says. “The coach should represent an aspiration. They should embody what the student hopes to become.” If a trainer fails to meet those standards, there is a long queue of applicants waiting to take their place.

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Dunk Dream and a Bet with My Boys

Posted in Happiness, Health and wellness, Hobbies, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I drew this back in 2023

Like many basketball players, I’ve dreamed of being able to dunk. But when I was younger, I never took that dream seriously. At 180 cm, it felt unrealistic. I wasn’t particularly athletic, and I couldn’t even touch the rim.

In recent years, as I became fitter, I started seeing videos of people shorter than me jumping high enough to dunk. Most were younger, but they showed me it was possible. So I made a bet with my boys that I would dunk a small ball within five years, before turning 45. They both bet against me, which only made me more motivated.

My first recorded attempt was in May 2023, when I still couldn’t touch the rim. From there, I added strength training, plyometrics, sprinting, and jump-specific work to my routine. It took about half a year to touch the rim, another year to dunk a small massage ball, and then I plateaued.

Training in my 40s has been tough. Work, travel, sickness, poor sleep, and life events all interrupted my progress. Recovery takes longer, and pushing too hard usually leads to knee pain. Progress was slow, uneven, and sometimes frustrating.

But this year, almost three years after I started, I finally dunked a size 1 basketball, and eventually a size 3 basketball. While it is not as cool as dunking a proper basketball in a game, it is good enough for me. I don’t want to risk injury chasing too much more, though a size 5 alley-oop dunk remains an optional next challenge.

My boys treated me to ice cream, and we also celebrated together at one of our go-to izakayas. This goal has little practical value for most people, but it gave me tremendous satisfaction. I’m happy to have finally fulfilled a childhood dream.

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Book Notes: The Running Ground by Nicholas Thompson

Posted in Books, Daily Life, Health and wellness, tagged , , , , , , on January 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A nicely written book about his relationship with his father, kids, and running, from the CEO of The Atlantic. Here’s an essay adapted from his book. I share many of his sentiments toward running, and I’m grateful that I can still run whenever I feel like it and see the world while running.

Excerpts:

Every action we take helps to build our habits. Quit once and it’ll be easier to quite the second time too.

When I arrive in a new city, I like to circle it with a run. I’ve seen more of the world while running than I have while walking.

I learned that pain has physical causes but that it’s mostly a mental process: we slow in races less because we reach our physical limits than because our minds get scared.

Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions. –Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Olympic marathon gold medalist for Kenya

The sensation of growing stronger is one of the most beautiful things about this sport. As my training intensified, everything about my body–and my awareness of it–sharpened.

She hadn’t touched money or bought anything for two months. Her life had been distilled to its essence: run, eat, sleep, repeat.

Running has become part of my day where I disconnect from screens and let my mind drift usefully and turn over problems. It encourages simple habits–heathly sleep, healthy eating, moderate drinking–that help as much at 8 a.m. meetings as they do 6 a.m. runs.

It taught me to have total trust in the compound interest gained by steady day-by-day work. I got fast by running hard, consistently, and wasting very little time worrying about how ambitious my goals were.

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Hyrox Training

Posted in Health and wellness, tagged , , on September 11, 2024| 1 Comment »

My gym coach invited me to join a Hyrox team relay, which is an event that requires a good balance of aerobic fitness and strength. We placed 25th out of about 125 teams.

It was a great experience, providing motivation for training and suiting both competitive individuals as well as those looking to have fun while exercising. I’m considering trying the Double next time to train for every station.

It’s encouraging to see that, with proper training and discipline, even someone over 40 can perform as well, if not better, than many younger participants. Both of my boys want to join the next Hyrox event for kids, so it’s also a good source of inspiration.

For those interested in seeing how the event is like, here’s a link to the men’s world championship. And here’s an earlier one in Taiwan featuring one of the Korean Physical 100 celebrities.

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Marathon training and becoming a different self

Posted in Health and wellness, Recent activity, Reflection, tagged , , , , on June 30, 2014| 3 Comments »

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I will be doing my first marathon in New York City later this year. I still remember how much I struggled mentally in my past 10K races, thinking thoughts like “why did I sign up for this”, “when will this ends”, and “is there a way to quit in the middle without embarrassing myself”. I think I felt that way because I didn’t train for them.

As I started training for the marathon and running 10K or more regularly, running the same distance seems to have become a much easier task. I struggle less and don’t think running 10K is a big deal anymore. During my training process, I’m becoming a slightly different person, physically and mentally becoming a person who can finish a marathon. And this is probably similar in many other endeavors, like becoming a professional musician, athlete, or CEO. We hone our skills and mental capacity to achieve things that wouldn’t be possible without those training and experience. Things that seem incredibly difficult at first become ordinary (and something else becomes the new challenge).

Goal seems to be a useful tool to change ourselves. When we strive for goals that stretch us, we need to become different from what we used to be to achieve those goals. Ideally we should also learn to enjoy the process when striving for those goals. For marathon it might mean enjoy eating healthy, staying active, and running regularly. When these activities turn into a lifestyle, it likely means we already become different selves. Dan Gilbert noted that we are always changing but tend to underestimate those changes (he called it “the end of history” illusion). Perhaps we could use goals to change ourselves more consciously.

I think training for a marathon is a great way to experience the power of training and discipline. It is a good challenge because most people can finish a marathon if they train for it, but at the same time it’s not an easy task. It’s also a good way to understand the importance of genes, as there are likely people who can run much faster than you no matter how hard you train.

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