What I’m Reading: Stop Trying to Make Things Perfect (via Lifehacker)

Striving for constant perfection slows you down. By shooting for “fine” [instead of perfection] you’re lowering your expectations, and helping yourself move forward and be more productive.

Again, this isn’t something you should apply to all aspects of your life, but if there’s something that you routinely get stuck on or keep avoiding doing because you’re afraid of failing, shooting for fine rather than perfect can help motivate you to get through it.

The idea here is to just make a decision that helps propel you forward…. Shooting for “fine” can be a solid procrastination killer, make you more productive, and maybe eliminate a little stress as well.

I am the BEST procrastinator ever. It even crosses over to my gym attendance. “I’ll go later.” “I’m not very good at the workout today.” (oh yeah, I’ve been known to 🍒 cherry 🍒 pick workouts) etc, etc, etc. What’s holding you back? Are you a little bit of a perfectionist? Maybe a procrastinator? We all have times where we’re not 100%. It’s okay to have a subpar day at the gym, so don’t beat yourself up over a slow time or a missed lift. You don’t have to be perfect, just be present!

Warmup
0:00 – 12:00
Animal Mobility (emphasis on lateral low-gait movements)

12:00 – 25:00
Sumo Deadlift prep:

3x
5/5 Single Arm Ring Rows
5/5 Single Arm Swings
5 Depth Jumps (explosive hip extension prep)

L2-4 – step forward off a low box, and rebound up onto a taller box
L1 – (same as above OR) step forward off a 6″ box and rebound into a broad jump

Strength

Levels 2-4

25:00 – 45:00

Spend about 10 minutes on warmup sets, then in the next ten minutes:

3 supersets
5 Sumo Deadlift
5/5 Single Arm Kettlebell Staggered Stance Swing (hold the bell with the rear foot hand)

Notes:
– During your warmup sets, do NOT superset with swings, save that for the three work sets ONLY.
– The supersets should be done with the same weight for all three sets, do not increase/decrease the load.
– The kettlebell weight should be about 1/3 bodyweight

Level 1

25:00 – 45:00

5 sets (roughly E4MOM)
5 Double Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift (last three sets should be the same weight – heavy)
5/5 Single Kettlebell Swing (kettlebell weight should be about 1/3 bodyweight)

– Lower levels may try the staggered stance swing if using good form

Resilience

45:00 – 60:00

ALL LEVELS

3x Steel Mace Flow:

Warrior Walk Flow
– Reverse lunge with counter-rotated mace held in landmark 3
– Lower mace to saddlebag position
– Step through into a lunge on the other side, bringing mace across the body in an uppercut pattern
– Step back to standing and repeat on the other side
Tree King Flow
– Lateral lunge
– Drive off the lunging leg into a single leg balance
– At the same time ballistic switch the mace to the Archer position, pointing the globe past the raised knee
– Step back, shift to the other side and repeat

Then:
5 Strict Chest to Bar Pull-ups
Repeat until time is up.

Notes:
Be patient with the steel mace flow; there are a lot of moving parts. Just take it one step at a time and see what happens–you aren’t meant to perfect it today. The only way to do it wrong is to rush through it or to not even attempt to learn the sequence.
EVERYONE does chest to bar pull-ups. ALL LEVELS. Use tall boxes so you can stand up on the box with your chest making contact with the bar.