Sam Crawford 13/04/2022 Sam Crawford 13/04/2022

The weird art of sauna networking

Did you know that there’s an art to networking in the sauna? Yep. Read on to find out more.

Here’s something you’ve probably never thought about. Networking in the sauna. Well I’m here today to let you into this strange little networking secret that I recently discovered. Are you ready?

A bit of background

I was sat in the sauna the other day chatting away with a few guys and it dawned on me. Has anyone every thought of the insane stealth-networking potential of this situation? If you’ve ever been in the sauna for any prolonged period of time, you’ll know that eventually, you’ll get chatting to whoever you’re in there with.

The type of person in a sauna

If that person you get chatting to happens to be a fellow entrepreneur, it’s essentially an elevator pitch on steroids.

Think about it.

High level guys care about their health more than most. If your gym has a sauna then it’s probably quite a high end facility. A plethora of health conscious, wealthy members means an increased chance of chatting (in a very personal setting) with a business owner for a fair amount of time. Not just a quick 15-second pitch.

An example

For instance yesterday, the two guys I was talking to both turned out to be businessmen in my area. One owned some bars in the city and the other owned a few barbershops.

Guess what? Both their businesses had websites that needed some major work. I told them a bit about what I do and booked a couple of meetings in there and then. In a sauna. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. A great workout, followed by ninja-closing some potential clients whilst sweating out toxins.

Next time you’re sweating your balls off, maybe ask that guy next to you what he does for a living. You never know who you might meet.

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My modafinil review | Real life Limitless pill?

I'm sat writing this at precisely 04:26am. I'm almost 24 hours deep into my very first experience with modafinil - this sketchy little pill. I've got about 26 tabs open trying to do as many things as possible and write this at the same time - it's all a mess - but is it a coherent mess?

Am I Bradley Cooper from Limitless? Or am I Russell Crowe from A Beautiful Mind? Or neither?

So many questions, so litt- actually, so much time. There seems to be quite a lot of it when you don't sleep. Anyway, let's go back to the beginning - here is my modafinil review.

What is modafinil?

According to Medline Plus, modafinil is described as:

"...used to treat excessive sleepiness caused by narcolepsy (a condition that causes excessive daytime sleepiness) or shift work sleep disorder (sleepiness during scheduled waking hours and difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep during scheduled sleeping hours in people who work at night or on rotating shifts)."

Essentially, modafinil promotes wakefulness. Not the jittery type that coffee induces, but something entirely different. Hard to describe, but I'll take my best stab at it in my breakdown of my modafinil experience further down.

Why do people take modafinil?

As stated above, it's mostly prescribed for narcolepsy, but can also be prescribed for obstructive sleep apnoea. Finally (and also unofficially), it is used for being productive and pulling all nighters. That last one is a complete misuse of the drug, but at the same time, it is an effective use. Modafinil has been tested on army troops throughout the years to keep them sharp and turn them into 'super soldiers'. After your first stint of wakefulness, a few hours of sleep can then allow you to go up to 48 hours without sleep again. So you'd be looking at almost 3 days awake. That is if you really tried to stay awake though. I managed to get off at a somewhat reasonable hour the day following my experiment.

Why did I take it?

So, why did I actually opt to give this wünder drug a go? Well, because I could. As you all know by now, I will try pretty much anything in the pursuit of being a better human. I'm like one of those gimpy biohackers, but much less of a weirdo. I think...

My modafinil review

So, what is modafinil like? Did it give me superhuman productivity? Did it make me a charming swine? WHAT HAPPENED? Well, first of all...nothing.

The come up, if you will, was really subtle. I had 100mg (which is half a pill) at first and felt nothing, so took the other half about 40 minutes later and my baseline then begun to feel a little different. Then I had a coffee and everything changed. As soon as I took that first sip, the caffeine must have interacted with the modafinil and caused some super saiyan reaction because I was walking down the street like Evil Peter Parker.

Productivity

I got a helluva lot of work done. I literally just sat down and cracked on with my web design client work all day. This is a little bit misleading though, as I will often do 16+ hour stints without modafinil if I have a big deadline coming up. This did facilitate getting into the zone a bit easier though.

Unreal pump

After getting a fair few hours of deep work under my belt, I decided to test out modafinil's supposed benefits in the gym. Apparently, it can illicit some naughty pumps. This one was an undeniable success. Paired with the coffee, it had me feeling fantastic. A strange caveat to this though, was that I actually felt weaker overall even though the pump was enhanced. Strange one really. My recommendation if you were going to do it, would be to have an arm day where progressing your big lifts isn't the priority and your sole aim is to get the filthiest little sleeve-busting pump possible.

Laser focus

Like a lot of people have alluded to, the buzz you get from taking modafinil isn't some crazy, 10-coffees deep chaotic thrill ride. It's more of a laser focus that sits just a little bit above your baseline. It is genuinely just like being you, but about 10% better. I can't describe it any other way. Whether that extra 10% is worth the potential downsides is up to you.

There were 5 minutes around the 15 hour mark where I was just sat at the kitchen table feeling like my throat was about to explode. Looking back, this was 100% anxiety about the side affects I had been reading up on and being a bit of a hypochondriac, I had worked myself up. After those 5 minutes passed, I got what felt like a second wave and was able to crack back on, but that's definitely something to watch out for.

Do I endorse taking modafinil?

Yes. Go ahead and snort it until your heart explodes and you die.

...of course I don't endorse taking it for any other reason than what you have been prescribed it for. I've only taken it once and to be honest, don't plan on taking at again. It was fun, I got a lot done and it isn't addictive, but there can be potential side affects.

This includes:

Anxiety
Feeling dizzy or nauseas
Headaches
Diarrhoea (or the other way - constipation)
Heartburn
Loss of appetite

And some more serious ones (which you should see a doctor immediately about) are:

Rash, blisters or peeling skin
Sores in your mouth or hives externally
Excessive itching
Pain in your chest, fast heartbeat or irregular heartbeat
Problems breathing or swallowing
Swelling anywhere on your body

These aren't common and I don't want to give people anxiety about it, but I always like to play devil's advocate and ensure you all have a balanced picture of things before making any decision.

So to conclude, it was a great experience, sans the 5 minutes of mental breakdown. Do I recommend it? No, but if you want to, who am I to get in your way?

Why you need a yearly Instagram sabbatical

So, it's over. I have just completed by second annual Instagram sabbatical.

I've written about my first experience quitting Instagram for 30 days here and I've also written about quitting Twitter indefinitely here just in case you want a little read of these after you've made your way through this goldmine of an article.

Anyway, the point is, ya boi has got previous with quitting social media so I'm quite well versed in this space.

Essentially - trust me on this.

What is a yearly Instagram Sabbatical?

It's simply taking a break from the gram for a prolonged period of time.

At the end of the day, Instagram is just a free app on your phone - it isn't a divine entity.

It's just as much of a meaningless abyss as Candy Crush or Google Maps.

Repeat after me... "Instagram is just a free app on my phone".

Good.

Now taking a time off might seem sacrilegious to some of the great unwashed out there, but once you get past that mental hold that Insta seems to have on every man and his dog, you'll realise that a measly 30 days really is nothing.

Taking a set break each year is one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Is this the same as quitting Instagram?

No.

You're just taking a break. So don't get all hot and clammy and start having palpitations at the thought of never going back again.

Your Instagram sabbatical isn't a social death sentence, it's the start of Operation: Plug Out. You're gonna feel like you're living outside the Matrix for a bit, that's all.

What benefits are there to taking an Instagram Sabbatical?

You're gonna get all sorts of benefits from taking an Instagram Sabbatical. You can see some others here, but I'm gonna list a few new ones below for your perusal you sexy unplugged swine, you.

Life feels less rushed

Life when you've got Instagram burning a hole in your pocket can really pass you by in an instant.

You're always rushing to get your drinks or your meal so that you can capture it perfectly at *just* the right moment.

You're always rushing to get to the end of a conversation so you can respond to your DM's and comments.

You're always rushing through just about everything in your life at the behest of Zuckerberg and his underlings.

When you take even just a second away from its all-too-alluring pull, you can actually take time to do the things you're so busy capturing. Without sounding hippy dippy à la Eckhart Tolle, being present and not fast-forwarding your life to accomodate an app is a breath of fresh air.

You genuinely become happier

Trust me on this one.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you take time out from Instagram, you will become happier. That might sound like quite a blanket statement (which it is), but you're not constantly checking your phone, draining your attention, being bombarded with people living an infinitely better life than you and Saudi Princes with pet tigers shooting dollar bills at you.

Life becomes what it once was - life.

Not some mad pumped up, Life 2.0 matrix that we've all become so accustomed to.

Get yourself reacquainted with boredom

Who would have thought it?

I genuinely missed boredom.

When was the last time you were really bored? Like actually bored?

Bet you can't even remember.

Seriously, as soon as we feel even the slightest twinge of boredom, out comes the phone and in swoops The Zuck™ and his cronies to offer salvation from a second alone with your thoughts.

When I instinctively reached for Instagram I literally had the muscle memory to open up my phone and keep clicking where it was, only to click the random app that had moved into its place. I kept doing this for at least a week, probably longer. But eventually, I came to accept that sometimes, it's okay to just sit there for a bit and think.

Scary, right?

But it was great. I would sit and actually concentrate on something. A problem I was thinking over for example, would often get solved as I sat in the sofa binge eating popcorn and scratching my arse. It was magical.

Focus out the wazoo

This was probs my favourite of the benefits.

When I work, I often have my phone chilling right next to me, whispering sweetly into my ear; "come on papi, open me up and scroll all over me..." but since I deleted Instagram and I'm not on any other social media (unless you count WhatsApp), there was literally nothing to do on it, so I was able to resist its advances.

I found myself focusing for long periods, boxing off work on my business in record time. Before, I'd do about 5 minutes of work then pat myself on the back, scroll for 15-20 minutes on Instagram, go on my emails, watch a few YouTube videos, stuff my face with some chocolate, get very guilty and then do another 5 minutes of work, only to repeat that process ad infinitum.

Now I will sit there for at least half an hour, up to around 3 hours and just do what I set out to do for the day.

Honestly, it's like taking NZT-48.

When should I take my sabbatical?

Take one whenever you damn well please my friend.

I usually take mine in June/July to get a nice summer month of enjoying myself and getting my life together.

You might opt to do one in December to enjoy the run up to Christmas and New Year or you might do January to really attack those new year new me promises.

At the risk of sounding like one of the worst types of people (the "well, it depends" brigade), it depends. What is your goal or purpose for the Instagram sabbatical? Are there any events that you truly want to be present for? Or are you just at the brink and need a month off? I've been there for that last one especially, trust me!

What if I never want to come back?

Then don't.

Obviously.

Instagram is great for making pals and being a snoop.

But it comes with many, many pitfalls.Unfortunately for me, my job requires me to be on there at least some of the time (as a blogger and digital marketer). It's a bit like a heroin addict living in a crack den.

If I didn't have to be, I'd be as far away from the app as humanly possible. But there we go.

A 3-month review of the Wim Hof Method Fundamentals Course

I have to start this off by saying that I am a massive Wim Hof fanboy and have been for years. This being said, I had been putting off the purchase of the full Wim Hof Method video courses.

Well, that all changed about 6 months ago when I took the plunge and dropped £150 on the Wim Hof Classic 10-week course. I threw myself into it head first and loved it.

But I wanted more.

That's why I reached out to Wim and the team to see if they'd be game on sending me the Fundamentals course to see if it would meet my lofty standards.

Laura, Wim's daughter, agreed to it and the next day I got cracking.

Who is Wim Hof?

Wim Hof is the main man.

He is a dutch 'extreme athlete', yogi, multiple world record holder and all round madman (in the best sense of the word).

Think this sort of thing, then imagine that all the time - and more extreme, and basically you've got the life of Wim Hof:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wim Hof (@iceman_hof)

I won't drag out this bio because I can't do him justice, but check out his Wikpedia page if you want to learn more. You'll be flabbergasted by what this man has done in his life (marathon in the Sahara...with no water, etc, etc, etc.).

What is the Wim Hof Method?

Essentially, the method is stretching, breathing, stretching again and then cold water exposure.

An average bout looks something like this;

Yoga poses
3 rounds of 30 Wim Hof style breaths (Deep inhale, shallow exhale, followed by max effort breath hold on last exhale and 15 second hold on the next inhale)
More yoga poses with deep breathing
Cold exposure in the form of cold showers or ice baths

It really is as simple as that. You can see it explained far better by Wim in the video below.

You can also see exactly how to do the breathing exercises correctly in this one:

Wim Hof Fundamentals vs Classic 10-week course

As stated at the beginning, I actually dropped £150 of my own dough on the Classic 10-week course - and was about to pay the £225 for the fundamentals course too before I shot the team a message.

So, what's the difference? Why is one worth more than the other and do you need both?

The classic course is exactly that - it's the original. It involves doing the breathing, post-breath stretching and then some yoga poses followed by cold exposure.

The fundamentals course goes deeper. There are more homework tasks, more variety of breath work and different little snippets that help to really perfect your practice, such as isolating your hands to cold water exposure to increase blood flow. This is meant to help battle Raynaud's disease - something I, and a lot of people (whether known to them or not) actually suffer from.

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A post shared by Wim Hof (@iceman_hof)

In short, the fundamentals course offers much more 'take-home' value than the classic course. That being said, I have taken lessons from both and applied them to my own variation of the method. This is just my favourite stretches, amount of breath work and length of cold exposure.

Once you have tried the method for a few months, you'll get a feel for what you like best and can adjust your practice accordingly.

How do the paid courses differ from the free one?

In the full method, each week ramps up the intensity. You'll do varied rounds of breath work, different styles of yoga and you'll even get homework activities to take your practice to the next level.

The free method, to my knowledge, is just the breath-work tutorial and cold exposure. The stretching is actually a key component and I certainly felt the difference when I incorporated things like headstands, upward dogs and cat-cows into my practice.

With each paid course, you also get a workbook which allows you to log your breath retentions alongside the weekly videos of Wim guiding the class, a 1-on-1 breathing lesson, stretching how-to's and your homework video. It's rather jam-packed...

There's also an option for a stripped back version if you're ever in a rush. Perfect for you busybodies.

My progress

From week 1, I could feel the changes already taking place.

The one thing I noticed more than anything during my time on the fundamentals course was that my cardiovascular performance was absolutely flying.

I love the gym and lift weights 4 days a week, but I had always neglected my cardio, despite needing strong lungs for when I play football.

Silly boy I know...

But as the weeks passed by, I noticed that my breathing was becoming nice and steady, whereas before it had been quite laboured, even when walking around at a leisurely pace.

I also noticed that my mood improved greatly too. I'm usually a chilled out bloke, but I can get stressed out quite easily. Doing the breathing and the exercises was almost like meditation without having to meditate - if that makes sense?

It also helped curb my road rage which is a nice bonus...

Sleep was another huge improvement. I love sleep, don't we all? But sometimes I find it really hard to nod off at night. My thoughts usually race around for what seems like forever until I finally drift off. After religiously doing the method for a few weeks, probably around week 5, I noticed I was getting off to sleep much quicker and wasn't waking up at all in the night.

And finally, since starting on the Fundamentals course, I haven't been ill once. This has coincided with switching back to a plant-based diet which I fully recommend if you want to really boost the benefits of the program.

Wim himself is a vegetarian, which I believe goes to show that it's probably the way to go. Don't take that as gospel though - if you want to crack on with the animal products, feel free. I'm not going to stop you.

But as someone who used to get sick constantly, this has been a godsend, so I won't be going back.

Is the Wim Hof Fundamentals course worth it?

In my humblest of opinions - yes.

The Wim Hof Fundamentals course takes the regular method and completely pimps it up. This is the method that Wim teaches his in-person students and is what he uses to take them on a walk up mountains in blizzards wearing just their shoes and shorts.

It's crazy. It's mad. It goes against everything science has ever said. But it works.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wim Hof (@iceman_hof)

The Iceman has endured study after study, with science finally conceding that he has completely shifted the paradigm of what they thought the human body capable of. There's a reason he holds 26 Guinness World Records...

If you want amazing health benefits, try out the free method. If you want to change your life, the fundamentals course is the way to go.

I had been practicing the method for about 18 months prior to this review and I can't tell you how much difference it made to actually sit down every day with a full plan laid out for me.

In short, the Wim Hof Method is an unbelievable tool for wellbeing. The Fundamentals course takes this a step further and takes you to health heights you never thought you could achieve.

I'm not going to say to buy the courses straight away, because I didn't. But definitely try the free method first and you can see the benefits first hand. When the time is right, you might want to then go and take the plunge.

And when you do, you can find Wim's courses here.

Meditative exercises for people that can't meditate

Meditative exercises - that's probably a phrase you've never come across before.

I mean, there's either meditation or there's not - right?

WRONG.

People who can't meditate...

Personally, I absolutely despise meditation. I can do it, but I find it boring and I am a terrible fidgeter, so I never really get the full benefit.

But I love immersing myself in doing stuff. I love putting my full focus into a game of football, getting into a flow state when I'm writing or even just the calm that cooking a meal brings about.

So actually - yes, there are meditative exercises that aren't actually meditation. You just need to look for them.

The biggest hurdle

Your phone is going to be your biggest enemy when starting your meditative journey.

How often do you start doing something, have a quick check on your phone, then catch yourself 30 minutes later scrolling through Instagram?

I've done it countless times and I'm certain you have too.

Taking away your phone's grasp on your attention should be your first step. If you're going out and about then leave it at home. If you're staying in and want to get in the zone, then you may have to take drastic measures. Try locking your phone away for a set amount of time.

At the end of the day, our willpower is much weaker than we think. Taking away the choice is the best option in the long run. It creates much else mental chatter and we will eventually adapt to our circumstance. Try using a kitchen safe to store distracting trinkets in. This is also useful when you're looking to get some flow state built up during work hours too.

I can't seem to find anything cheaper than the 'safe' linked above, but if you do then let me know because these things are weirdly expensive. Probs worth it though...

What is a meditative exercise?

Basically, something that gets you into a flow state.

That's pretty much it.

Meditation quietens the mind and helps you to not get attached to your thoughts, instead, allowing them to drift on by, free of judgement.

This creates a sense of inner calm, which can also be achieved when your mind if focused on just one thing. When you are completely invested in one activity, your mind becomes instantly calm. Just think back to how engrossed in your video games and sketchbooks you were as a kid.

When was the last time you felt that connected to a task? To anything at all?

Meditative exercises tap into this zen state, letting you reap the benefits of meditation without having to be bored and sat completely still whilst doing so.

Meditative exercises to try out

There are bucketloads of meditative exercises to try out that will get your mind zen AF, but these are some of my personal favourites.

Have a read through and try to gauge whether you think you could get involved with some of these.

Walking (on one condition)

You can't take that pesky phone.

When we go out for a walk, we have all the good intentions of getting back to nature, but then we just check the time, then just a few messages, then BAM, you're walking with your head buried in your phone.

No earphones, audiobooks or anything else with you either. Take a little notepad out to jot down any ideas or thoughts you have so you can check them out online later if needs be.

During this time is when I always feel calmest and have some of my best ideas.

Maybe you will too.

Cooking and cleaning

Cooking and cleaning is one of the best ways to get into a flow state.

How good does it feel to whack on some tunes and just start cleaning your room? We all know that feeling of accomplishment you get when you've been rearranging your house for 3 hours. It's addictive.

Hell, Marie Kondo made a career out of it!

But don't forget cooking either. Prepping, cooking and eating are all meditative exercises and if you really take your time, you'll feel a huge sense of joy and calm. Make sure you keep that phone away though and really immerse yourself in it.

Colouring

Adult colouring books are the cats pyjamas.

They are so effective in fact, that they are used in the treatment of PTSD. Remember how good it felt as a kid when you spent hours on that perfect drawing? Or when you had the latest and greatest Star Wars colouring book?

Well thankfully, shops are cottoning on that we adults still love a bit of childlike artistry, so grab yourself a colouring book and get involved.

Sports

This is probably my favourite.

When you're fully engaged in sports, you don't really have time to dwell on anything outside of the game you're in.

There's no time to stress, no time to worry about what you're having for tea tonight - you're just fully immersed in the now. Competing and being in a team are also great for mental wellbeing. Not to mention, winning creates a huge spike in Testosterone - just saying.

The gym is also a form of sport and is widely accepted as a tool for battling depression and anxiety, much like meditation. If you take one thing away from this article, let it be that.

Join a gym.

Having a good old read

Obviously this site is your best starting place for reading the best of the best... but settling down to a great book comes in at a close second.

It is so easy to lose yourself in a great book and it is infinitely more beneficial than sitting and watching Youtube and TV for 5 hours a night.

Whether it be fiction or non-fiction, it really doesn't matter. If you can rediscover your love for the written word, you'll become a far more zen person - that much I can guarantee.

Learn a skill

Instruments in particular are very effective at cultivating a quiet and peaceful state.

When you have to concentrate on learning a new skill, it is all you can think about at the time, because otherwise you're not going to learn anything are you?

Things like learning to draw, paint landscapes, play guitar or even learning something left field like origami would be perfect for entering the meditative state we all crave.

If you want to try out meditation but you've never been able to sit and actually do it, trying out these meditative exercises may well be for you.

The Dr. Sebi Bodybuilding Diet

Dr. Sebi is a man that needs no introduction.

One of the world's most celebrated natural healers, the man has millions of adoring fans across the globe. One thing his diet does get a bit of stick for though, is that it can be restrictive.

Personally, I think this is down to a lack of imagination. I believe that this diet can not only be enjoyable, but it can help you to build muscle too, which is why I have written this article.

I pretty much agree with everything else Dr. Sebi's diet promotes. He advocates whole, plant-based foods, no processed garbage and to live as natural as possible.

But I have only one issue.

My issue with the Dr. Sebi diet

Sebi claimed he cured his impotence (he ended up with 17 kids to be fair), asthma, diabetes and just about every other ailment he had when he came to America - but one thing he didn't like was...

Muscles.

Simply put, he had an aversion to muscle growth and protein, believing muscle was simply inflammation manifesting itself in the body.

He weighed 120lbs.

I’m a massive believer in the plant-based way and being as healthy as possible, but at the same time, I also love the gym, working out and bodybuilding.

With that in mind, I decided to use Sebi's nutritional template and pimp it up a bit with more protein to get what I believe to be the healthiest bodybuilding diet the world has ever seen.

You're really getting the best of all worlds - a plethora of fruits, veg, herbs and minerals but also lots of healthy sources of protein with complete amino profiles.

The Dr. Sebi approved food list

For those of you wondering what the Dr. Sebi approved food list looks like, here it is.

The Supplements

Ignore his supps.

He was a wise man, but he also loved his moolah, which may be part of the reason he ended up in a Honduran prison on money laundering charges (although some believe it was a cover up - I do too).

His supplement range can cost up to £1,500, with the ingredients being a 'proprietary blend', meaning we don't even know what's in them.

Basically, I'd give this section a miss and stick to a quality multivitamin if needed.

The Dr. Sebi Bodybuilding Diet

Personally, I'd like to think of this diet more as the Dr. Sebi X The Man Blueprint Bodybuilding diet, but whatever.

Meal #1

3 dates
1 apple
2 slices of honeydew melon
Seeded Grapes

Meal #2

30g protein powder

Meal #3

100g mixed berries
1 mid size banana
15g shelled hemp seeds
30g protein powder
45g kale
7g maca powder

Meal #4

2 Brazil nuts

Meal #5

45g spelt flakes
30g protein powder
15g chia seeds
15g flaxseed
140g frozen berries

Meal #6

75g red lentil fusili
240g chickpeas
100g aubergine
100g courgettes
100g mushrooms (not shiitake)
100g passata (blended tomatoes)
1tsp onion powder
1tsp habanero powder

Meal #7

1 slice fonio bread
15g hazelnut butter

Totals

Calories: 2,249 kcals
Protein: 140g
Carbs: 296g
Fat: 47g

Non-approved foods I have added in (and why)

Vegan protein powder
Chia seed
Flaxseed

You're going to want a hefty portion of protein with good amino acid profiles (full-spectrum vegan protein powder provides this) along with healthy fats and omega 3's, both of which chia seed and flaxseed provide in abundance.

Simple really.

And there we have it.

The Dr. Sebi bodybuilding diet, courtesy of yours truly. Some people might kick up a stink about a few 'non-approved' items on the list and the fact I've poo-pooed his supplement range but at the end of the day, I don't care lol.

Le Sebster was lightyears ahead of his time, his diet has cured the ailments of thousands of people and he will forever be an icon of the health and wellbeing space.

And now, even those who want to build muscle can get in on the action! It's the best of both worlds.

The simplest workout for gaining muscle and strength

Everybody wants simplicity deep down, don't they? Whether it be the simplest travel route, the simplest instructions or in this case - the simplest workout.

The simplest workout for gaining muscle and strength is one I've cobbled together from reading Jim Wendler's 5/3/1. It is also a version of the workout recommended in my very own book - The Bulking Blueprint.

This workout is so simple it should be criminal.

All the fat idiots in the gym who think you need to focus on all the little micro elements of lifts in the gym will be having mini strokes in their knee straps and lifting shoes.

Leave them to focus on practicing the upper third portion of their snatch and continue to get nowhere because they aren't juiced up Olympians.

You should focus on the simple stuff.

That's what'll get you big and strong.

Why do I want the simplest workout?

Because it's the only way to go if you're serious about lifting.

We've all heard of paralysis by analysis.

If there is too much choice you end up making a bad one. Even if you make a good choice, you'll always be thinking you could have made a better one.

When it comes to workouts, this is especially true.

Because there are so many new and sparkly workouts with all the most cutting edge, science-backed, wonder techniques, we want to try them all, like a kid in a sweet shop.

We hop from one program to the next in the hopes that it'll get us big overnight. In reality, it never does, so we pick up our new copy of Men's Health and we try this month's workout, then next month's, then we hop on the internet and try a new workout each bloody day!

Simplicity takes away all this noise.

It sticks to the basic principle that governs strength training - progressive overload.

You don't need to shock your body with new exercises all the time, it needs to be shocked by new stimulus. By exposing it to heavier loads instead of new stupid exercises, you break down the muscle and force it to adapt and to grow.

By sticking to the simplest workout you possibly can, you limit yourself to the fundamental exercises. If you progress on these, without distraction, you will get to where you want to be.

Your goal should be the fabled 1 plate press, 2 plate bench press, 3 plate squat and 4 plate deadlift. Once you reach these numbers, you're all but guaranteed to be in fantastic shape, especially if you've been consistent, you've been hitting those assistance lifts and you've been smashing your diet.

What's so simple about it?

It revolves around 4 simple lifts - the bench, the squat, the press and the deadlift. You start every workout with one, then use another as an accessory lift. It is almost too simple.

You'll only be doing 3 exercises per workout (6 on some days if you want to add in the optionals, but whatever) and you'll see tremendous results from doing so.

You will almost feel guilty about how simple this plan is, giving the fact that every man and his dog seems to be doing a million sets of this, that and the other during their insta-workouts that they love to show off, even if they have no results to show for it in real life.

Okay, so what's the plan?

The basic premise of this workout is simple enough:

There are 4 workouts per week - preferably done on Mon, Tue, Thu & Fri.
Each starts with one of the big 4 lifts - Bench, Squat, Press & Deadlift.
For each of these exercises, you will do either 3 sets of 5 (week 1), 3 sets of 3 (week 2) or 1 set of 5, then 1 of 3 then 1 of 1 (week 3). You will then take a de-load week.
You will then follow the main exercise up with 5 sets of 10 reps on one of the other big 4 at 50% of your 1 rep max. For instance, with deadlifts, you'd follow them up with squats. With the press, you'd follow that up with 5 sets of 10 on bench.
On your upper body days, you'll then follow that up with 5 sets of 10 on either a horizontal or vertical pull exercise. For instance a pull up or a row.
After that you can add in some optional arm and shoulder work.
On lower body days (squats and deads), you'll follow this up with 5 sets of 20 on an ab exercise like the reverse crunch or cable crunch.
After you've done 4 weeks, you will up the weight of your main exercises by the prescribed amount (5-10lbs) and add 5lbs on to the 5 x 10 exercises too.
Download this spreadsheet if you want to save having to calculate anything. By putting in your stats, this spreadsheet will work everything out for you for the next year. Adjust accordingly if you stall, etc.
Eat a lot of protein (1g per lb of bodyweight), load up on as many veggies as you can and make sure you're in a slight caloric surplus (more calories in than you burn). If you do this, your strength should consistently increase - as should your muscle mass.
Refer to Jim's post for a better understanding.

Here is my current workout;

Monday - Upper Body

Bench press (3 sets of 5, 3 or 5/3/1)

Press (5 sets of 10)

Lat Pulldown (5 sets of 10)

Optional

Skull crushers (3 sets of 10)

Barbell Curl (3 sets of 10)

Face pulls (3 sets of 10)

Tuesday - Lower Body

Squat (3 sets of 5, 3 or 5/3/1)

Deadlift (5 sets of 10)

Reverse crunch (5 sets of 20)

Thursday - Upper Body

Press (3 sets of 5, 3 or 5/3/1)

Bench press (5 sets of 10)

T-bar row (5 sets of 10)

Optional

Incline dumbbell curl (3 sets of 10)

Rope pushdown (3 sets of 10)

Lateral raises (3 sets of 10)

Friday - Lower Body

Deadlift (3 sets of 5, 3 or 5/3/1)

Squat (5 sets of 10)

Cable crunch (5 sets of 20)

Devilishly simple I know.

There are only 14 exercises used during the entire duration of this plan - even less if you leave out the optional exercises.

I would probably opt to include the optional stuff though as it's always good to add a a little additional arm and shoulder work isn't it.

And be sure not to skimp on the ab work as a strong core is key to progressing on these big lifts. A weak core will create instability and stop you from reaching your full working capacity, thus limiting those sweet, sweet gains.

Track every session and make sure you're making progress over time. I have created a printout for you which covers 6 full cycles. Print it out, share it with your mum, whatever it takes.

Benefits

There are so many benefits to keeping your workout simple. Here's a quick list of the sort of things you can come to expect from this program.

No distractions

You aren't distracting yourself from the important exercises with pointless fluff like tricep kickbacks and 5 different bicep supersets.

These distractions can feel good to do in the moment if you're chasing the pump because they're easy and give you a nice sensation in your arms, but they aren't what's going to get you big and strong.

Squat, deadlift, bench press, (overhead) press, rows and pull ups/downs should be the main players in your workout with just a few accessory lifts in there for your arms, abs and delts.

Anything else is just fluff really. The more time you invest in doing these main movements, the quicker you'll get stronger and more proficient at them, thus getting swole as sin in the process.

Everything is done for you (sort of)

You have the print out and the spreadsheet that tells you exactly what exercises to do, what weights to hit and for how many reps every single session.

The whole program is laid out for you - for free!

Now all you have to do is follow it to a T and you will get bigger and stronger. I guarantee it.

Rapid progress

The Wendler 5/3/1 system is without doubt, the greatest way for beginners, intermediates and maybe even advanced lifters to add serious weight to every single one of their lifts.

Your strength is going to skyrocket, especially if you're new to lifting.

This will keep you motivated, keep you on track and best of all, keep you big and strong.

Misc

You will probably experience a whole host of other related benefits when you hop on the world's simplest workout. I'm too lazy to write fat paragraphs for each, so here's a list of what you can expect:

Increased testosterone
Bulletproof confidence
Better form on lifts (thanks to doing them twice a week and in different rep ranges)
Less time needed in gym
More motivation to work out
Increased energy

There are so many more benefits to this workout and keeping things simple in general, but you get the general gist - simplicity is good.

Some tips

Okay, now you know what you've got to do, here are some tips to supercharge your results. Forgive me, as the first 2 are very very boring, but rather important.

Read 5/3/1

Jim Wendler is a very smart man.

He is also a very big and strong man.

Surprise surprise, he also likes to keep things simple...

Read his book on the 5/3/1 method to understand why it's so effective and why adding more doesn't necessarily mean you'll make more progress.

By reading his book, you'll have a much better overview on the inner workings behind the program which may help you stick with it longer and also to understand why you're doing what you're doing.

Form videos

They're boring, but form videos on Youtube are a great way to learn the basic movements correctly from the off. I spent years doing exercises wrong and then forgetting about them because they hurt.

But the reason they hurt was because my form was awful, which got me injured and hindered my gains.

Take it from someone who's been there - learn correct form.

There is no excuse nowadays with so much ridiculously informative content on Youtube and Google for free.

Just do it.

Sauna

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the sauna is man's best friend.

Sauna's are great for increasing cardiovascular capacity, strengthening the heart and boosting the immune system.

It's also great for improving skin and boosting cognitive performance but they're not particularly useful for the gym lol.

Foam rolling and stretching

You simply can't beat a good bit of foam rolling and stretching.

It's a great way to boost muscle recovery and keep you injury free. Read my guide on exercise recovery if you want to learn more about the dos and don'ts of stretchin' and rollin'.

Wim Hof Method

I have recommended the Wim Hof Method to just about anyone that'll listen.

This breathing/meditation/yoga combo will transform your life - guaranteed.

But how can it be applied to making gains in the gym?

Well, the WHM teaches you how to breathe deeply and properly - two things that us modern peeps have completely forgotten how to do.

This is so important when it comes to bracing for big lifts, especially the squat or deadlift. It will help you to stay calm whilst performing with super heavy weights and aid in hitting those PR's with ease.

I honestly can't recommend this step enough.

Ice baths

And finally, you've gotta be taking ice baths - or maybe cold showers.

If you do the Wim Hof Method you'll already be doing these but even if you opt out of the breathing exercises, do some cold water therapy boi.

Not only does the cold water make you feel unbelievable, you'll get some good recovery bonuses too with lowered inflammation.

How simple was that?

Very simple.

The simplest.

Simples.

Etc.

Anyway, the simplest workout is often the best. It stops you becoming obsessed with minutiae and fluff that holds you back from making the big strength gains you need in order to get strong and therefore (if you're eating well), big.

Try doing 6 cycles of this workout using the linked spreadsheet and my printout log and watch how much progress you make.

And don't forget: simplicity is key.

Fitbit Flex 2 Tracker Only review: Worth the money?

Recently, I bought myself a shiny new Fitbit Flex 2. This blog is going to give a comprehensive review of the fitbit flex 2 tracker only.

At first, I really wanted one of fitness tracking rings as I thought a Fitbit might look a bit garish, but then I realised a big chrome ring wouldn't be much better.

I then looked for the cheapest possible Fitbit as I am a fat cheapskate (at times), despite running a luxury lifestyle blog.

It was then I came across the subject of this review - the Flex 2.

Let me just get this one out there, I’m not being paid or gifted to say anything here. Even if I was I’d still give my honest opinion obviously BUT I’m probably going to gush a bit about this so I just had to clear the air first.

Enough talk anyway - let’s…erm, talk some more!

What can it do?

It doesn’t even tell the time for God’s sake!

But dya know what it does do? Everything you need it to.

I was desperate to see how many steps I did in a day - desperate I tell you! This was the primary reason I got the Flex 2. It is an accurate step counter. I didn’t want to have to carry my phone with me at all times to track steps so this was a nice compromise.

It’s also handy for the phone haters as it stores 5 days worth of data for you before you need to sync it with your blower.

There’s actually a bucket load of features that the Flex 2 is packing but the main ones that you’ll probably be interested are as follows;

Step tracking
Sleep tracking
Activity minutes & type
Daily calorie burn
Distance travelled

It also lets you set silent alarms which is great if you want a slightly less calamitous wake up call than your phone or an alarm clock.

I find this a great way to wake up without having to look at my phone when I’m travelling. Usually I’ll use an analogue alarm but it’s much harder when you’re not at home so this has actually been a bit of a hidden gem amongst the feature set.

Positives from this Fitbit Flex 2 Review

Things are about to get a lil’ gushy people. You have been warned.

Gamifies activity tracking

The biggest thing for me was that the Fitbit Flex 2 completely changed the way I viewed physical activity - steps at least.

I love getting active but getting my 10,000 daily step goal in used to be a bit of a chore. Working from home means I have become a bit of a lazy oaf - I often get less than 3,000 steps a day.

Seeing my ‘score’ on the Fitbit app really motivated me to get out and about to try and beat yesterday’s totals. If I was about an hour or so away from going to bed and had 1,000 steps left to go, I’d just start walking round the garden or up and down the stairs.

This all sounds a little bit Patrick Bateman I know but you’ll see for yourself, gamifying your activity really becomes addicting.

It actually looks cool

On the aesthetic side of things, this thing actually looks the business, which is hard for something as frumpy as a fitness tracker to pull off.

The fact that it is so sleek due to having no clock or any frills makes it seamless on your wrist and just looks like a snazzy little bracelet. If you want to go one step further, you can actually get a pendant for your Flex 2 which sits under (or over) your top.

If you’re concerned about looking a bit too try-hard this is the option you might want to take but I think it’s a bit unnecessary personally.

Great battery life

According to Fitbit, the Flex 2 can last up to 5 days on a single charge. I find that this is pretty much the case, just make sure you don’t have ‘all day sync’ activated and you’ll be fine.

I tend to top up the charge every couple of days while I’m sat down working as that way I won’t miss any significant activity plus I can track my sleep every night as opposed to charging it overnight and skewing the data for the week.

Waterproof

This is a huge bonus and means that all you swimming buffs can go ham.

Being waterproof rather than water resistant is such a bonus for the Flex 2. It means it can withstand a lot when it comes to water, sweat and sport. All you have to do is wipe it down every so often and dry it after you’ve been swimming or taken a bath/shower - hardly a mammoth task.

Great app

The Fitbit app itself is really easy to navigate, customise and keep up to date with. The first time you set up the device, you’ll be taken on your own little virtual guide which sets you up perfectly for a lifetime of life tracking.

Email notifications when battery is low

You can choose to have this on or off but I like getting an email notification through when my battery is low as it helps me to remember to charge the bloody thing.

Otherwise, I’d be forgetting all the time and lose days worth of data because I’m a big stinkin’ eejit.

It’s a handy little tool but it isn’t necessary so I’ll leave this one up to you.

Holds data for ages

The Fitbit Flex 2 can hold up to 5 days of data before you need to sync it with your phone. Most of us will be syncing every few hours to keep up to date with every single step of the day but it’s a very handy tool to have just in case.

Friendly competition

If your friends and family have Fitbits, you can set up challenges for the week. This sounds extremely beige but it's actually pretty fun. Having even just a bit of competition can spur you on to do an extra thousand steps, which all count towards becoming a fitter you.

They do kid's ones too, so it can be a fun way to get your sprog into keeping fit.

Negatives

I’m not gonna lie gang, there isn’t many negatives. After a month or so of testing, I can only think of a couple of minus points.

Doesn’t track weights sessions

This was the main gripe I had the Flex 2. It bugged me that my weights sessions weren’t picked up by the activity tracker.

I go to the gym 5 times a week-ish, which is a decent chunk of activity for the day. By not tracking this calorie burn or activity, the Fitbit isn’t really giving you the full picture of your physical performance for the day.

You set daily goals for your fitness when setting up the Fitbit - be that 10,000 steps, 30 minutes of exercise - whatever.

The Flex 2 only records sports, swimming, aerobic and anaerobic activity, which means that those doing weights may think they’ve barely burned any calories or hit their activity quota when in fact, they’ve probably smashed through it.

To combat this, I just mentally made a note of this and adjusted my diet accordingly. Just don’t got overboard with your estimations and start downing coke and Doritos you big heffer.

Maybe something Fitbit can do to combat this would be to add in a section to log workouts performed like MyFitnessPal does. Or, maybe they have got this capability already but I was just too stupid to find it - who knows?

No clock

This didn’t bother me as it helps the design to stay sleek AF but I have seen that a decent chunk of people thought this lack of clock was a negative.

The Fitbit Alta (Affiliate link) is basically the same but with a clock and doesn’t cost much more so just go for that if you’re gonna get your knickers in a twist about keeping track of this manmade concept.

Verdict

I’d give this little fella a solid 9/10. I don’t think anything deserves a 10/10 but the Fitbit Flex 2 comes close.

My experience with the Flex 2 has really changed my perception of fitness trackers from something your dad buys after the divorce to something that can genuinely improve your fitness pursuits.

With that in mind, I’m really looking forward to upgrading in the next year or so to a slightly more advanced one - probably the Fitbit Charge or Fitbit Versa (Affiliate link) - these automatically tracks activity, allow for incoming calls and cover walking running.

If you like the sound of the Fitbit Flex 2 then you can pick one up here (Affiliate link…again).

What happened when I quit Instagram for 30 days

I have a somewhat love hate relationship with social media. It has connected me to so many people who I would call genuine friends and it has given me a platform to blog full time, but sometimes it grinds my gears - which is why I decided to QUIT INSTAGRAM!

...for 30 days.

The problem with Instagram

This isn't just specific to Instagram - all social media is pretty much giving everyone a complex, anxiety, depression and turning us all into addicted zombies who can't handle ourselves in real social interactions.

But less of that!

That's not important right?!

Here are a few doosies that might resonate with you.

Your phone has become an additional limb

If you're anything like me, your phone will feel like an extra limb. You'll touch it all the time, not only just to check it's still safely snug in your pocket, but because it is a habit you've developed over the years.

The temptation to check Instagram will be an ever-present devil on the shoulder that just won't go away and you'll feel naked if you don't have your phone with you.

How ever will you cope?

No wifi/data = Tension/Stress

Knowing that you can't access your social media profiles will become a daily stressor whenever you don't have wifi or data.

Going through a tunnel on a train, driving through somewhere with no signal in the car - these times will often be some of the worst of your life.

You'll be desperate to check that feed to fill any gap in time and the absence of any form of connection will start giving you anxiety.

Confidence plummets

Because you spend so much time on Instagram creating a fake persona and acting like the life of the party, you may find that in turn, your real life confidence takes a big hit.

When you become so accustomed to all of your social interactions being through a platform on your phone, you might end up struggling to cope in face-to-face situations.

Social occasions become a worry and you'll resent the fact that you can't hide behind a profile. There are so many case studies out there to back this one up.

Here's a quick google search to show you.

You'll never be good enough

This is probably the most cited of the Instagram negative effect culprits.

Everyone posts their very best self - and then some, on Instagram.

It's not real, which we try our best to tell ourselves, but we just can't help but buy into it.

We've got people hiring professional photographers, lighting crews and god knows what else, just to get that perfect shot. Then we look at ourselves in the mirror with our dingy bathroom light for lighting and wonder why we don't look the same.

Of course we're not going to be like them. The people that make it big big, or even just big, on Insta are the elite - they're the 1% of the 1%. They put in thousands of hours of dedication to what they do, they make sacrifices that most of us aren't willing to make and sometimes, just sometimes, they're simply born with all the gifts.

To try and compare yourself to someone like that is actually an insult to them. How can we expect to look like a bodybuilder or a swimwear model if we're not willing to do what they're willing to do? Steroids, crazily restrictive diets, daily sacrifice - the list goes on.

Instead, we should use these people as inspiration - a ballpark to shoot for (shoot for the moon, land amongst the stars, etc) like older generations would do with celebrities in magazines. They knew that these people were doing crazy things and that they'd never look like them, but they knew they could get close and they knew they could do it in a much safer way.

Except, with Instagram, these people don't feel like celebrities do they? They feel like you or me, normal almost... This drives the comparisons through the roof and making us feel like we're simply not good enough.

Nothing gets done

Oftentimes, you'll wake up in the morning, switch your alarm off and then open up Instagram to scroll for 2 minutes, okay just another minute - okay let's make it 10...

And before you know it, you've spent 45 minutes mindlessly scrolling through everyone and their dog's feed. Then on your lunch break (and probably even during work hours you sly dog, you) you'll hammer out another hour of scrolling, messaging and liking. And after work? Well that's about 6 hours of prime scrolling time right there isn't it?!

You'll knock out another few hours of the good stuff until bed.

But wait!

We didn't think about bed.

Wouldn't a nice little night cap scroll be nice? You know, just to get you off to sleep? Why not ey? Oh wait, you've just spent another hour scrolling, you've messed up your circadian rhythm with blue light overload, wasted hours and hours of your day that you could have been either fully relaxing to recharge or actually working on something important/bettering yourself.

But no, that cruel mistress has got you in her clutches.

Maybe it's time to take an Instagram break.

Why I personally decided to quit

As a full time blogger, I thought I had to churn out daily Instagram content, no matter what.

Guess what?

I didn't.

I was putting content out every single day and my likes were beginning decrease, even though my followers were going up through my relentless engagement.

So, what was happening?

Well, my account (and blog) has always and will always be about 3 things - Style, Wellbeing & Culture. I had started to upload things on to my Instagram for the sake of it and whilst they may have been of decent quality, the passion and the 'on brand-ness' of them was missing.

And this filtered through to my followers.

I had become obsessed with getting out there for the sake of it. Just to be seen. But I wasn't enjoying myself. People weren't enjoying my profile like they used to and it just turned into a bit of a misery going on there.

I decided enough was enough. I needed to quit Instagram.

Cue dramatic music.

What actually happened when I quit?

Not too much really.

Well, none of the bad stuff anyway.

People think that when they quit Instagram, their life will fall apart and no one will know who they are once they get back. Even if that was the case, so what?

If someone forgets about you after 30 days, you clearly weren't exactly a someone in their eyes to begin with were you?

But yeah, back to me - the main man.

Once I quit, I felt immediately liberated. I didn't have to capture every moment perfectly, I could just enjoy it for what it was. Of course, there were the times where I was desperate to get back on to check up on my pals, do a quick update for my followers and just check that everything was fine and dandy.

I won't BS you, I missed it. And that's because I genuinely enjoy Instagram.

But quitting for 30 days really let me realise what it was that I actually missed. I missed the thrill of creating content that I enjoyed, regardless of an upload schedule. I missed messaging people and having a laugh. I even missed making stories on Unfold - the best app ever.

It also made me realise what I didn't miss - and that I wouldn't stress about these things again.

I didn't miss checking my account once every 5 minutes to keep tabs on how my new picture was doing. I didn't miss stressing that I should be replying to messages and comments right away. And I certainly didn't miss trying to beat the algorithm by any means possible.

I guess taking the decision to go on a mini Instagram detox has elucidated the good and the bad, giving me the knowledge to use the platform to it's full potential, falling prey to its pitfalls less often.

Would I recommend an Instagram hiatus?

Absolutely.

Definitely.

Yes, basically.

Taking these 30 days off has been a big step for me as someone who has been absolutely laser-focused on growing my presence over the last 18 months.

Taking that decision to quit Instagram, albeit for a relatively short period of time, has given me a new impetus to grow, engage and all that good stuff, but it has shown me that it also isn't the be all and end all.

Are there any benefits to quitting?

An absolute heap of benefits my good sir/madam/humanoid.

Savour the moment

I'm cringing as I write this as it is such a cliched point to make, but I'm going to make it anyway goddammit.

When you're not so caught up in trying to capture that perfect shot of the moment, you can fully immerse yourself in whatever it is you're doing without thinking in the back of your mind about which angle it would be best to capture it from.

Comparisons are gone

When you take away the source of comparisons, you stop them dead in their tracks.

Now all you'll be doing is comparing to others in real life which isn't nearly as damaging as doing it online. The majority of people are cripplingly normal, so you shouldn't feel as terrible about your self-image as before.

You'll get more done

You won't get the false sense of accomplishment that comes with sharing your goals and ambition online. Once you quit Instagram, you won't get the false positive feedback from strangers online which makes you feel like you've actually done something when in fact, you haven't done anything.

By taking a step back from the social media circus, you'll be able to get your head down and work on all the projects that you should be doing without people making you feel like you've completed it long before you actually have.

Real life becomes the priority

You might start to feel a little bit lonely once you shut off the unbelievably loud community that is Instagram. You will no longer have the illusion of interconnectedness that you once did with that lovely app powered up.

You'll realise that in real life, you probably see your friends much, much less than you used to.

Then you'll realise that real life is where it's at, making it the priority.

You'll begin to make more plans to do stuff and it'll be the best decision of your life, because you'll reconnect - properly, with your pals again.

Good stuff.

Bonus: You can feel morally superior to everyone

You can write articles like this preaching the benefits of eschewing the gram which inflates your ego to new, never-seen-before levels.

You can also tell everyone you know that you're on an Insta Detox™ and rub your smugness all up in their faces.

I kid, but you will feel slightly better than everyone else.

Just saying.

How to quit Instagram easily

The easiest way to quit Instagram for your experiment is pretty complex, but I'll walk you through it.

Take your phone out of your pocket

Oh, you were already on it? Okay.

Hold your thumb down on the Instagram icon until it starts wobbling about.

Click delete.

*Designated crying and existential crisis time*

Yes, yes. I know that for some it "JUST ISN'T AS EASY AS THAT!". Except it is. The only reason you think it's not that easy is because you've put barriers up to justify not quitting for a bit.

Everything is going to be there after 30 days. All your pals, most of your followers, any messages, anything worthwhile will all still be there.

Don't stress too much. It's the classic bandaid (plaster for my UK brethren) metaphor. Just get it over and done with straight away and it'll lessen the blow than trying to gradually phase it out.

More actionable steps going forward

Not everyone is going to read this and try to quit Instagram, no matter for what period of time.

I get it.

Addict.

But, you can try to cut down your time and still reap some benefits. In fact, this is what I have settled on myself since coming back into the fray.

Put your phone away

Just put your phone somewhere where it's annoying to get to.

If you want to concentrate on your work for a while, go and stick your phone in your car, in your garage, in the attic, even just another room in a drawer inside a load of clothes.

That way, if you're anything like me, you'll be too lazy to navigate these self-imposed barriers and you'll just get on with what you need to do.

Swap Instagram to an iPad

Just download Instagram to your iPad and get rid of the app on your phone. This is another way of putting a barrier between you and Insta.

The act of searching, downloading and signing back into the app is too much of a process for a lot of us, meaning we can catch ourselves during the twitch to go and scroll our feed.

Don't take your phone out with you - buy a burner

If you don't want to even give yourself the chance to go on Instagram, a great way to go about it is to buy yourself a burner phone.

This way, whenever you go out, you can leave your smart phone at home but you'll never have to miss a call or text if it's important.

I talk about this at length in my article on why I traded my iPhone X in for a £7 Alcatel.

Quit Instagram for good

If you absolutely loved your break, why not quit Instagram for good?

For those looking to go completely off grid and live their best life away from the prying eyes of social media, why not?Could be worth a shot.

The only book you'll ever need for building muscle

How many of us have spun our wheels in the pursuit of building muscle, getting next to no results despite turning up every week for the last 5 years?

That was me.

Turning up to the gym really isn’t enough.

You see, building muscle in principle, is easy. It’s just putting it into practice that’s hard. Turning up and doing the latest workout that you’ve hopped over to for that week may feel like you’re putting in maximum effort but in reality, you’re not.

This is why I decided to write my very own book.

Having been in this situation literally thousands of times throughout almost a decade of hitting the weight room, I knew I had to put my knowledge into writing.

The Bulking Blueprint: Building muscle made easy

Now obviously, I give lots of fitness info away for free on the blog, but this book is something else entirely.

So many guides out there talk around the subject and say a whole lot of nothing until they come to the conclusion of “there’s lots of great workouts out there so pick one that is best suited to you”, leaving us confused, disheartened and worst of all - no better off than before we read it.

I have absorbed so so so many books, articles, research papers, courses and videos on every aspect of health and wellbeing - hell, I’m a qualified personal trainer and sports psychologist! But although I have these nice certificates and am well versed in the theoretical side of things, nothing can replace experience.

Unfortunately, experience in what not to do is something I have in spades. Luckily though, I knuckled down and completely overhauled my approach to fitness, giving me a boatload of experience in what to do - correctly…

I have extracted the needles from various haystacks and put them into one big encyclopaedia that will give you the blueprint for building muscle quickly and efficiently.

This is; The Bulking Blueprint.

What does it offer?

The Bulking Blueprint is so much more than just a fitness book. It is an all encompassing wellbeing course that will improve just about every aspect of your life. From building solid slabs of muscle and crushing strength PR’s to how your grooming products affect testosterone, this book has got you covered.

We’ll walk through a few topics that include a lil extract from the book so you can get a feel for things - I’m nice like that.

The Big 4

The big 4 will form the core of everything we will go through in this book. It is absolutely essential that you perform these 4 exercises if you want to get big and strong.

Here’s an extract that outlines our #1 exercise in a little bit more detail;

“…Squat is king. Squat, then squat some more. The squat will build strength, mass and athleticism in your legs and through your core. It will teach you how to brace your body properly and to keep tight and solid under heavy resistance.
The one caveat to the squat is that it is almost impossible to get right on the first few attempts. It
took me years to master my squat. You will have to find a stance width that suits you, whether you would like to squat with the bar higher or lower on your back and a myriad of other little cues that will help you to build a competition worthy squat.
If you look at toddlers, they can squat down with ease, often staying in this position for prolonged
periods. So, why are we so bloody awful at it once we grow up? Well, because we all have bad
backs and tight hamstrings from being sedentary and craning to look at computers and phones all day…”

Nutrition

Equally, if not more important than your training plan is the nutrition that goes with it. The old sayings are there for all to see;

“You can’t out train a bad diet”

“Abs are made in the kitchen”

These are oldies but goldies and they are covered in depth during the nutrition section of the book, choc-full of tasty, easy recipes, a breakdown of essential macronutrients and how to split them up for optimal muscle growth.

Expect stuff like this;

“…Everyone loves to indulge in marathon 3-hour pump sessions but no one wants to eat to grow. ‘Eat to grow, bro’ is such an overused yet under-practiced phrase.
People think they’re smashing the calories, when in actual fact, they’re eating at or below their maintenance level.
Tracking your calories accurately and honestly is the only way to guarantee muscle gains in the long run. To do this, you must work out what your maintenance (total daily energy expenditure - or TDEE) is and then add 500 calories.
This way you will be gaining 1-2lbs every month. If you are gaining more, then you should probably scale your surplus down to around 250. If you are gaining less, up it to 750…”

Stress

Stress kills testosterone, it kills muscle building, it kills sleep and it will kill you.

We will be going through how to battle stress and how best to get rid of it once and for all.

Here is a little snippet on meditation to whet ye olde appetite;

“…Without a plan in place to deal with life’s hassles, you’re asking for trouble. The best tactic I have used when combatting stress is meditation.
The trick with meditation is to become aware of your body, breathing and thoughts. By recognising your thoughts and taking note of what is actually going through your mind, you become more conscious of your cognitions and therefore can exact more control over your reactions…”

Typical results

I pride myself on writing about practical topics that get my readers genuine results. I tend not to talk about tailoring things because you’re so very special - I give advice that works for everyone - period.

Although I can’t guarantee it, if you stick to this program like I outline in the book, you will more than likely experience all of the below.

Solid muscle

First and foremost, this book is called The Bulking Blueprint. If it didn’t add mass to your frame it wouldn’t be living up to its billing would it?

I’m not promising crazy results, but building muscle to the tune of one pound per month certainly isn’t unheard of. If you’re a beginner, expect closer to two pounds, maybe more.

Long-term strength

This book shows you a couple of training options for building fantastic strength.

The workout plans that I have included are the two very best when it comes to adding weight to the bar. The beauty of them both is that they work long term, with one starting you off and the other taking over once your progress slows down.

That means that they focus on consistent growth over time and don’t try to progress you too quickly, resulting in early plateaus.

Huge increases in testosterone

I consider testosterone to be my strong suit. Having built a bit of a reputation writing about niche and not so niche ways of boosting that fabled T, it would be remiss of me not to include a big fat section on how to supercharge it in this book wouldn’t it?

There are some great writers out there who cover testosterone and they all seem to talk a good game, but one thing they all have in common is that not a single one of them shows their blood work, and most importantly - their testosterone levels.

The NHS states that the normal range for testosterone is 10-29 nmol/dl, which can also be displayed as 288-836 ng/dl.

Here is a picture from a recent-ish study on the median decline testosterone levels in men over the past few decades:

And to compare, here are my results:

As you can see, my testosterone levels are 30.1 nmol/dl or 867 ng/dl- above even the highest part of the ‘normal’ range and over twice the amount of the median for today's males (even though the males observed were a good bit older).

My diet is far from perfect, I still get pretty stressed from time to time and I’d just had a stomach bug before testing, so these results could easily be a lot higher all factors considered.

I’m putting my neck on the line and showing that I walk the walk. No pseudo theoretical BS here.

The Bulking Blueprint lays out exactly how I did it.

You can get these sorts of results too. Expect benefits such as increased energy levels, better mood, improved sex drive, better recovery, deeper sleep and loads more.

You’ll be surprised at the night and day difference having high testosterone makes.

Improved mental wellbeing

A big factor of fitness isn’t just physical - there has been a huge push in recent times for the improvement of the mental side of things too.

Being physically active is one of the most effective ways to battle both depression and anxiety, with a relapse rate far better than that of prescription drugs - trust me, I wrote a paper on it!

Eating well, working out and seeing your progress first hand will give you a much more positive outlook on life. You will wake up feeling excited to better yourself, you’ll have more clarity, your work will improve and you’ll develop healthier relationships with both people and vices.

Less achy joints

If you follow the routines, recipes and correct workout form all outlined in the book, you may notice that your aches and pains that you’ve just become accustomed to over time have disappeared.

Contrary to popular belief, heavy weight training is good for joints. Add to that the inflammation busting foods and muscle & joint recovery plans and you’ll feel like a completely new person.

Building muscle that is strong and functional around your joints is also a great way to keep them healthier for longer, so you're in a win win situation really.

Future proof knowledge

This book doesn’t just tell you what you need to do, it explains in detail, exactly why you’re doing it and the benefits you’ll experience.

That way, you’re not in the dark, blindly following my guidance. You can make decisions based on the information provided and going forward, you can keep your habits up long term, leading to a happier, healthier life.

Where can I get a copy?

The book is available to download via on Kindle and Paperback. You can also directly download a PDF version from the blog here.

Don’t forget to leave a review if it transforms your life. Even if it doesn’t, I’m always open to hurtful comments from disgruntled online strangers so don’t be shy.

Why I swapped my iPhone X for a dumb phone

So, I went and swapped my iPhone X for a ‘dumb phone’ - a £7 Alcatel to be precise.

Am I an attention seeker? Maybe.

Was it wise? Most definitely.

It may seem very much 'out there' to suggest that you should trade in your latest smart phone for a far dumber phone, but if you hear me and my personal story out, your mind may just be swayed a lil’ bit.

My smart phone journey

Way back when, not long after the dizzying heights of the Motorola Razr, I decided it was time to try out these new ‘smart phone’ things.

I opted for the LG cookie - what a phone that was! It even came with a slide-out stylus pen, way ahead of its time…

Anyway, the Cookie had me hooked. Then I got myself a Blackberry Bold, which was a strange mix of touch screen and keyboard. The important thing at that time though was the inclusion of Blackberry Messenger, which I hoped to use to pick up droves of hunnies from school (in reality, all I ever used it for was sending FIFA team ideas to my equally-uncool pals).

After that, I discovered Android and stayed with really cheap, poor quality smart phones from China for a a few years. They were alright to be fair. Because of their slower quality, I didn’t spend that much time on them and they were always more of a help than a hinderance.

Once I come across the iPhone though, things seemed to accelerate a bit.

I’ve always been a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to tech - I had a £50 HP laptop from the early 00’s for years, even when I started this blog.

So my first foray into the iPhone market was the 3Gs. ‘Not bad’, I hear you say. Well, considering the 6 was out at the time, I would probably class that as cheapskating to the max.

Once I got into the apple ecosystem it was hard to get out. I found myself getting sucked into its lovely operating system, it had a nice camera and it was easy to use - much easier than Android.

Luckily at the time (2013), we weren’t quite as interconnected as we are now and social media, phone internet usage, etc, were still in their relative adolescence, so I didn’t become too obsessed just yet.

I felt the pull of the iPhone though, which is why I sold it on and got myself another android - back to a Motorola in fact.

We had a great relationship so we did, but then I felt the pull again and at the end of 2017 I took the went and got a brand spanking new iPhone X.

It helped propel the blog to a completely different level thanks to being ultra-connected to all social media platforms and the unbelievable camera it had.

In fact, everything was pretty rosy until I took a long, hard look at how my habits had changed over the past 18 months...

Where did it all go wrong?

As I said, I had to take a look at myself because I felt like I was slipping away from reality a bit.

Whenever I was on my own in public, my hand would slip into my pocket to grab my phone. When I was walking down the street, I’d be glued to my phone. When I was bored? Phone.

Dinner with friends or family was interrupted by conversations with others who were in my pocket and worst of all, I would cut off and zone out of conversations because I’d be scrolling the latest social media feed, start messaging friends on WhatsApp or simply just have a quick look at my emails.

This wasn’t exclusive to me though. This is basically everyone nowadays, but I knew deep down it wasn’t going to be me for much longer.

We have become zombies. We have semi-conversations that we barely remember with people because we’re doing something else on our phones.

We can’t enjoy anything fully because we’re obsessed with capturing the moment through a screen, putting it on our Instagram and Snapchat stories for a day and then never looking at it again.

Do people ever genuinely look at their videos again from a gig? Or a football match? Or a night out whilst they mime their favourite song?

I doubt it.

As much as I hate these people, I was one of them. I used to preach about how much these people were wasting their lives and how they were all vapid, shallow goons, yet I had wilfully become part of the circus.

Something had to change. If this resonates with you, make sure you’re reading carefully in the next section.

What did I do?

I took the bloody plunge.

Not on a whim though. If you’re going to trade in an iPhone or an equally smart device, you’re going to want a plan in place.

What apps do you need? Both for work and for play.

First, I’d recommend trimming them down - check out my quitting twitter article for more on that.

I decided I needed some apps for work and a few for pleasure, so I set up an iPad with everything I needed on, such as Instagram. The fact that they’re on an iPad makes it much less likely that I’ll binge on social media due to the fact it simply isn’t as easy to.

I also needed WhatsApp because I speak to a lot of my copywriting clients and like to arrange stuff with my friends on there.

For this reason, I bought a second Alcatel.

This time though, it was a smart phone version *shocked screams*. I purposely bought the worst smartphone I could get my hands on (this cost £15) so that it would be clunky and slow to use.

This means I hate spending time on it, so only check it once or twice a day. I also leave it in a drawer somewhere and never take it out with me.

It’s not like you’re going to miss any emergencies if you’ve got the dumb phone on you at all times and the WhatsApp messages will still be there when you get back, so I would definitely recommend the second phone for those who don’t want to give up their group chats.

Benefits of going back to a dumb phone

There are so many amazing benefits to trading in your new fancy tech for a little old dumb phone.

Here are a few of my favourites.

Back to the real world

I liken this to Neo taking the red pill in the matrix.

You may even go for a poo without taking your phone with you. The shock! The horror!

When your head isn’t buried in your phone all day, you’ll start taking in life again instead of numbing it constantly.

You might go for a walk without listening to music and texting the entire way. You might even just sit down and watch the world go by for a bit without reaching down to respond to messages about nothing in particular.

Bloody hell, you might even interact with strangers!

God forbid.

Improved planning skills

You won’t have a map to get you everywhere now.

That means you might have to plan your journey in advance. This may seem a bit daunting but it’s not hard.

Your planning skills will get so much better as a result and you can even go back to the old technique of asking locals where something is.

This might improve your confidence too which is a handy bonus.

Save yourself a lot of money

The majority of people are slaves to a contract, I know I was.

A £60-a-month slave to be precise.

That works out to £720 a year. Just to use free apps, distract myself on the internet, message people and make a few phone calls.

And I got a heavily discounted rate because I have a friend who worked for the provider - it would have been about £85 otherwise.

What a joke that is!

Paying such an extortionate amount of money for a little bit of tech in your pocket.

Listen, I know I sound like your senile grandad who berates all forms of change, but come on, that is a waste of money.

Luckily for me I used mine to my advantage to better the blog and made that money back, but that was lucky. If you’re not using it for business then there is literally no point in wasting almost a grand a year on this subtle little humble brag.

Even if you are using it for business, it’ll still take over your life - and your savings - much like it did mine.

Don’t fall prey and spend that money on something better. You could buy yourself a big stinking trip to Thailand for that money.

Just don’t waste it on a stupid contract.

If you need a cheap provider, I got myself a 1p mobile sim. It’ll cost you about £15 every 4 months. Cheap as bloody chips.

Battery

"Have you got a charger mate?"

"Any plug sockets around here?"

The usual questions you’ll get from a smart phone user. In fact, I’ve probably asked them exact questions about 764 times.

What sort of bum deal is that? You pay all that money, but you have to charge the thing 3 times a day? Then the battery life worsens until it frustrates you enough so that you go and upgrade to the latest model.

With a dumb phone, you’ll never be caught short.

I tested this theory out to see how much battery life I could eek out of one charge.

I got 5 days.

This wasn’t just leaving it untouched either - I used it for all the usual calls and texts I needed to. This isn’t uncommon - some of the more niche dumb phones boast over a week’s life from one charge.

No need to worry about being caught at the end of a night out with no battery to ring a cab now, you dirty stop out.

No fear

This is a bit weird but...you won’t have any fear attached to your phone.

Get mugged? So what? Good luck selling that bad boy on.

Smash it? Drop it in water? Stick it up your bum? So what? It won’t break. Even if it does, just buy a new one.

Lose it? DOESN’T MATTER.

You see, once you have a stupidly cheap handset on your person, you no longer feel on edge about anything happening to it because it simply doesn’t matter.

You can let go a bit more and stop ya worrying. It’s all good.

Escape the upgrade rat race

What happens at the end of our 2 year contract? We are bombarded with ads trying to get us to upgrade to the latest and greatest smart phone.

Even after just 1 year you are offered the chance to trade in your current phone for a new one.

This creates a never ending FOMO cycle that never rights itself and you’ll always be stuck upgrading your phone for fear of feeling outdated when in fact, the phone you’ve got will be good for another 5 years!

Investing (can we even call it investing if it costs about a tenner?) in a dumb phone will get you out of the rat race and allow you to just get on with your life and not have to think about whether your current phone has hyper supersonic retinal display in mega detailed 8k or not - it’s just a phone - and it doesn’t need an upgrade.

You’ll realise no one cares

We think that people will take offence if we don't reply to them straight away - or even in a day's time, but the truth is, they don't.

Especially once they become accustomed to having to wait for your replies. They will learn to respect your time and construct their messages so that it becomes a lot easier for you to keep the conversation short and sweet.

It's a genuinely liberating experience untethering yourself from the constant back and forth of modern comms and you'll feel much less guilty about missing calls and texts - I know I do.

The thing you need to remind yourself of is - important stuff very rarely ever comes up. What people think is important, they can solve themselves 9 times out of 10 but instead, they use you as a first port of call because it is comfortable to do so. Let them deal with the problem themselves.

If something is genuinely important, they will find a way to contact you.

Regain your focus

With distractions almost completely gone (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc) after ridding yourself of a smartphone, you will probably get a bit bored.

But boredom is where productivity comes into its own.

When we have nothing to distract ourselves with, we will inevitably come back to our work to keep us occupied and eventually, the task at hand becomes as enthralling as the empty distractions of a smart phone.

This will drastically improve your work quality and your overall enjoyment/fulfilment.

Promise.

It will also push you to look for other forms of entertainment that have fallen by the wayside over the years. Recently, I have fallen back in love with reading and sketching, the stuff I'd do for hours as a kid.Stuff like this is so much more fulfilling than checking your phone every 30 seconds and you'll get far more from the experience as a whole.

Will I ever go back?

Well technically, I already am back since I do have a banged up smart phone for Whatsapp, but day-to-day? Definitely not.

I feel so much better without looking down at my phone all day, every day.

The moment I swapped my iPhone was the moment I got back to who I used to be.

I’m pretty sure I’ll stay true to the dumb phone life for the foreseeable future.

Should you take the plunge?

Why not try it out for a month?

It’ll cost less than £10 and may well revolutionise the way you live your life.

There are literally no downsides to giving it a try.

Quick recap: Your action plan

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve discussed and how you can action your swap of a smartphone for a dumb phone:

Buy a cheap dumb phone (Alcatel do the cheapest I think).
Top it up with a £10-£15 credit from 1p mobile or an equally cheap provider.
Work out what you will need to keep in terms of apps, files, etc.
Try to trim those apps that you use.
Download remaining apps to an iPad or Computer if possible.
If WhatsApp is an issue, purchase a terrible, cheap android to keep in a drawer.
Get used to going out with no access to the internet.
Live your life to the fullest.

So, I traded in my iPhone X and re-embraced the dumb phone life.

The question is - will you?

What is and How to Deal With Imposter Syndrome at Work

Imposter syndrome can be a real bugger. A lot of us suffer terribly with it but we don’t actually realise what it is so we get worked up and quit without really knowing why. This blog is going to tell you what is imposter syndrome and how to deal with imposter syndrome at work.

So what is Imposter Syndrome, why do we all seem to suffer from it at some point and what can we do to combat this widespread, insidious dream crusher?

All shall be revealed in the next 1,000 or so words.

What Is and How To Deal With Imposter Syndrome At Work

WHAT IS IMPOSTER SYNDROME?

In its simplest terms, imposter syndrome is feeling like you don’t deserve to hold the position you do, or that you’re simply not good enough at something, despite being more than adept at the task. It can impact your mental health, make you feel like a fraud and leave you feeling like an imposter.

So many people have suffered from Imposter syndrome over the years, including myself very recently - despite it going against my personality traits.

After the two year anniversary of the blog, I found myself in a bit of a rut.

Despite consistently posting once a week for 104 weeks on the bounce, I felt like my blog simply wasn’t good enough, that people didn’t care what I was writing about and that truth be told, I was just a big stinkin’ failure.

I started looking on job sites to see if there was any work going and after finding nothing I fancied, I reluctantly persisted with the writing.

I didn’t really understand at the time, but I was suffering from imposter syndrome.

I felt like I wasn’t good enough, and this permeated through my effort levels. I wasn’t pitching to brands as much, I wasn’t writing content regularly enough and I just wasn’t giving it the beans I knew I should have been.

One morning, after sitting myself down and basically telling myself that I was being stupid, I fired off about 200 emails to companies, I sent hundreds more freelance copywriting pitches to potential clients and within 2 weeks, I had turned it all back around.

Imposter syndrome almost derailed a career that I love and I can put good money on the fact that it has claimed a lot more budding careers of people who weren’t as fortunate as me.

If someone like Michelle Obama suffers from it, we can rest assured that it isn’t just a mental issue of peasant rat-race dwellers like us – so don’t be disheartened – that’s my main message.

But, I don’t like people who wallow either, so although we can admit that Imposter Syndrome is a cruel mistress, if you’re not willing to put the work in that is required to flourish again, then quit yo jibba jabba foo’.

However – if you are ready to put that fire back in your belly, then read on… do you feel like an impostor or are you suffering from impostor syndrome?

WHY DO WE SUFFER FROM IT?

It’s not exactly known why we suffer from crippling self-doubt and imposter syndrome but there are a few theories flying about.

For some reason, it seems that the more successful we become, the more likely we are to suffer from imposter syndrome. This is why we see imposter syndrome in the workplace and many professionals are experiencing imposter syndrome. This is why many high achievers and high achieving women get imposter syndrome.

You work harder and harder to justify yourself to yourself, which becomes a never-ending cycle of pushing and pushing to try and prove to yourself that you are worthy, even if you were already to begin with.

HOW TO QUIETEN THE SELF-DOUBT

Overcoming imposter syndrome can be hard. There are a few ways that I have learned over the past few months that have really helped me to quell the inner doubt in my mind and that has allowed me to push on to start to really make a career out of what I do best – writing.

I’m probably not even a very good writer truth be told, but because I have almost bulletproof confidence, people believe in me – and so I believe in myself.

Here are the tips that can help you do the same.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

Once I realised that what I was suffering from was a serious bout of Imposter Syndrome, I did what anyone would do…looked for celebrities who shared my flaws. You are not alone in the impostor phenomenon.

This sounds a little bit daft I know but it’s a great way to realise that what you’re going through isn’t just happening to you and that it isn’t an ailment the elite are immune to.

Once you realise that it is actually quite a common occurrence, you will come to realise that it isn’t that big of a deal if you don’t let it become one.

It was comforting to realise I wasn’t insane for thinking this and that actually, my thoughts were common – but also that they were symptomatic of Imposter Syndrome and not actually of the facts, because the facts were – I was doing well! I just didn’t (want to) see it.

The same is more than likely happening to you if you’re reading this article, so just know that you are more than good enough and that you shouldn’t quit your mission just because you have a bad few days, weeks, months or even years.

Things have a habit of working themselves out for those that believe in it.

AFFIRMATIONS

I have actually written about affirmations before at length.

I believe them to be a huge help for those that need to give themselves a mental boost.

Having used them for about 3 years now, I can safely say that they have helped me in whatever I have utilised them for.

As cringe as it sounds, I used to have an affirmation a couple of years ago when I first started out that went as follows;

“I am an elite-level writer and successful businessman”.

At the time? An absolute load of bollocks – I was neither.

But now?

Still bollocks!

However, I am getting much closer. I write for a living and work for myself, two things that weren’t true at the time of affirming them but that became true after hard work, belief and consistency.

Using affirmations can remind you of your mission every day and keep you on track to become who you want to be.

My imposter syndrome did actually come at a point where I hadn’t done affirmations for a few months actually…maybe I should start doing them again…

MEDITATION

I harp on about the benefits of mediation like I was on commission from Buddha himself, but it really is a life-changing habit. Many people use meditation to get over the imposter phenomenon.

If you can find the time to be still for 10 minutes per day and meditate properly, you will literally become a different person in a drastically short period of time.

I’ve always been a very calm bloke (with the exception of stress from time to time) but meditation just blew everything away.

It made me feel so composed and helped me to see the bigger picture. When something bad happens in our lives, we always tend to focus in on the micro, not the macro.

Your dinner tastes like uncooked pigs nipples, so what? You’ll have another dinner tomorrow. Hell, you’ll probably have another dinner later that night – get over it.

That’s obviously just a stupid example but hopefully it’s painted a picture of the sort of laissez faire attitude we need to employ if we are to beat Imposter Syndrome.

Meditation allows us to hone this mindset. It allows us to develop a thicker skin, more resolve and much better willpower to push on through the doubt and get to the other side, where we will find more work, more joy and more good vibes – true story.

PRACTICE

Just keep practicing.

I know it’s a simple instruction but I am a very simple man. Simple is what works best. It has done for a million years before us and will do for a million years after.

The chances are – you’re really good at what you do, but maybe you’re disheartened by a lack of progress – that was my main issue.

This is why keeping a log of how far you’ve come is exceptionally important to shake you out of a rut.

Whatever it is that you do, keep going, keep improving and KEEP A LOG.

The gym? Take pictures once every two weeks along with measurements, a log of amount of weight lifted per session, etc.

If you’re a social media star, look how far your pictures have come, how many followers you’ve gained, etc.

If you’re a shelf stacker, look how many more shelves you stacked this week than last.

It can be applied to anyone, anywhere, anytime. As long as you’ve got some form of log to look back on after 6 months to see how much you have improved, you’re on the right track.

When I was trying to get out of my Imposter Syndrome rut, I took a look back through my old Instagram posts and stories and good lord, were they bad.

Some of the crap I’d uploaded was off-the-scale bad and yet I thought of myself as not having changed, having basically been plateaued the entire time, when in fact, my content had improved a hundred fold and I had made so many more new friends online – it was a huge eye opener.

And that was all because I had a record of how far I had come.

As the old saying by C. S. Lewis goes;

“Isn’t it funny how day by day, nothing changes but when you look back everything is different?”.

Imposter syndrome is a curse but coming out the other side is a big fat blessing and one that can really give us the inner-confidence to push on and smash the back doors off whatever it is we have chosen to do with our lives.

Completely free and completely brilliant. Whilst you’re here, have a little browse of some other article you might like below too. You won’t regret it.

How to create your own real-life limitless pill (NZT-48)

NZT-48 is now one of the most researched pills on the internet, just after viagra and proprietary phallic enlargement blends.

I can’t actually confirm whether that’s true but I assume it’s pretty near to the truth…

Long story short, you’re probably not going to get a hold of it (I’ll explain why in a moment) so the next best thing is to make your own.

EXPLAIN THE TITLE PLEASE…

Have you ever seen the film ‘Limitless’? Chances are, if you’re reading this, you have.

Whether it’s fresh in the memory or this article has just brought back the mems, NZT-48, the pill that Bradley Cooper’s character takes, is the main star of the show.

It allows him to “unlock 100% of his brain”, something which apparently, we only use up to 20% of although this has sort of been debunked.

Anyway, Bradders takes this pill and instantly, he transforms from a deadbeat writer (much like myself), into a prolific author, stock trader, businessman, etc. He also bangs his neighbour’s wife like straight away, which was a weird scene to watch.

This pill gave him limitless self-control, memory, creativity and basically enhanced everything in his life.

The funny thing is though, this pill simply unlocked what was already there. He was calling on information and skills he already had, but were off limits due to his clouded brain.

This is the basic premise of what I’m trying to say. I want this article to be a guide that you can refer back to and share with friends – something that will help you to realise the vast potential that your mind already has – that just needs unlocking.

As a psychology graduate, I have always been fascinated by the dormant power of our minds and how we can improve and harness them to dramatically improve our lives.

To see the power of thought alone, just read some of the testimonies in The Secret, or even better, look at World War II, where they gave injured soldiers sugar pills for pain relief. They believed these pills would stop their pain and they did…

If that isn’t testament to the unbelievable power of our minds, I don’t know what is.

WHAT IS NZT-48 AND DOES IT REALLY EXIST?

NZT-48 is basically just a pill. It was what Cooper’s character, Eddie Morra takes that allows him to use 100% of his mind as explained above.

It is a very interesting concept, yes, but does it actually have any basis in reality? Is the limitless pill a real thing?

Unfortunately not.

There are ‘smart drugs’ which I’ll touch on in the next section a little bit but they are nothing like how NZT-48 is depicted.

Basically – it’s a great concept but completely made up for a film. Who’d have thought it?

There are ways you can boost your brain power, creativity and all those other things Mr. Cooper experienced though…

HOW YOU CAN BUILD YOUR OWN LIMITLESS PILL

If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m a big hippie and like to do everything naturally.

Recently, I even stopped taking supplements all together as I hate the feeling of having to bring my pill box round with me whenever I travel and relying on exogenous sources for my wellbeing levels – it feels like I’m on life-saving medication!

That’s why the scope of this article will be centred around natural, healthy ways you can expand your mind, unlock your full potential and get the limitless feeling without having to resort to potentially dangerous nootropics like Modafinil.

That being said, I’ll try everything once in the name of science so I’m not going to rule out a week long Modafinil binge/review in the near future – but that’s another story.

The essence of NZT-48 isn’t so much about the pill itself, but the unlocking of our main protagonists brain. It was there all along, but he just had to tune in to the right frequency to get all 100% of it firing at the same time.

I’m going to cover as many tactics as possible to improve all the aspects of your mental state.

Things such as energy, concentration, stress management, calmness, proactivity, stillness, creativity and a bunch of other amazing traits that, when working in tandem, will make you an unstoppable mental machine.

I’ll also be covering a few boring ones in here but their reasoning for inclusion might be a bit different to what you’ve heard before and I’ll try and throw a unique twist on each to stop them being too tedious for you and your yet-to-be-opened mind.

Do make sure you read each one carefully as they’re all important to the success of this process.

And don’t worry, I’ll be doing a full section at the end on how you can implement them all into your daily routine – trust me, it isn’t actually that difficult to just start every one of these habits tomorrow – even today – if you’ve got the hairy gonads for it.

Before we dive in, lets just establish/recap what we want from the NZT-48 pill. What does Eddie Morra (Bradders) actually experience?

Clearer thought, better recall & overall, just smarter
More energy
Motivation to be better (cleaning his apartment, sharpening his dress sense, haircut, etc)
Better attention span – more absorbent of all the information in his environment.
Gets into great physical shape
Improved productivity & creativity
More structured with time management, routines, etc.
Higher self-respect
Looked younger/more presentable/more attractive
Better social skills
Lowered stress – far calmer

Every single one of these steps will improve at least one of these aspects tremendously.

Now let’s start.

SLEEP

No matter what sort of health benefit article you’re reading, sleep is going to be in there somewhere – that, I can guarantee.

Sleep is the all-important factor for improving health. It helps your body to recover from intense exercise, it clears mental fog, makes you happier, helps you retain more (and higher quality) information and so much more.

If you want to get close to NZT-48 level ability then sleep should be your number 1 priority.

Try to get at least 6 hours per night, ideally 8.

RISE EARLY

Maybe this a juxtaposition to getting a lot of sleep?

But…

Rising early is potentially a more important aspect to getting stuff done than sleep. Not overall, but if you want to be productive then getting up early is peerless in its effectiveness.

As long as you adjust your bedtime accordingly, getting up at 5am should be no hassle at all. You can still stay up as late as 11pm and scrape 6 hours so it really isn’t that hard.

Hell, you’ll get your 8 hours even if you went to bed at 9 – that’s still pretty late!

When you’re up at 5am, it’s like someone has switched a different mode on in your brain. As I sit here in some random games room at 5:47 writing this, I can attest to the quiet that early mornings bring.

This room would usually be packed with people chatting, playing ping pong and smashing pool balls but I can sit here on one of the sofas and write some of my best work to date (right, guys?!) because no one else does this and thus, no one else is awake!

I know no-one else does this because every time I get up this early I am ousted from my girlfriend’s apartment to this very games room so I don’t wake her up…

Anyway, enough story time. 5am offers distraction free time to be by yourself, no phone calls, texts or people, just you and whatever you want to do.

If you want more detail on how 5am is the ultimate NZT-48 productivity companion, read it here.

MAKE YOUR BED

This may seem small, but making your bed every single day is one of the best habits you can develop.

Accomplishing a task that requires just a little bit of willpower sets you off on the right foot every day.

This will keep you in a sort of motivated, flow state whereby you don’t want to break your chain of good habits and accomplishing things, pushing you on to complete whatever tasks and goals you have given yourself that day.

Again, small steps, but big rewards.

READ!

What better way to expand your mind to superhuman levels than to read the words of men and women who have already done so with their own?

You want the sharpest mind in town? Read some books gosh darn it.

There are books that teach you how to go deep and work your socks off to achieve your wildest dreams, books that teach you how to manifest your goals with just your thoughts and there are even books on how to turn your body into a muscle building machine.

There are also books that teach us life lessons, books that thrill us, teach us new words and there are books that make us feel things we thought we could never feel.

In short, books will take you through the widest range of emotions and thoughts whilst swelling your brain with a ridiculous amount of new knowledge – much more than a 15 hour Avenger’s marathon ever could (although that is still pretty fun I will admit).

DRINK WATER

Right, this is the last boring-ish one I swear.

I SWEAR.

So, we all know why we should drink water kind of – it’s good for us!

But what makes it so good for us?

Why is water so bloody good for the mind, body n soul?

Because it gives us natural energy, keeps us hydrated (which is pivotal for thinking clearly and rationally and keeps us privy to breakthroughs), makes our minds sharper, makes us stronger, happier, less likely to develop diseases – basically, if we were to put the benefits of water on a supplement from a fancy store, they’d be sold out in seconds.

Do not underestimate the power of h2o fellas.

USE CAFFEINE TACTICALLY

Caffeine can be really good or it can be really bad.

It really just depends on how you utilise it. See, if you rely on caffeine as your only source of energy and depend on it to make you feel good, then you sir, have a problem.

But if you use caffeine as a tool to increase your output at work, in the gym or to sustain a nice fast you’ve got going on, then I’d wager you’ve got a pretty healthy relationship with it.

I try not to have more than a cup of coffee a day, I never have it after midday and I don’t drink it any weekends (I use weekends as a sort of mini-reset for my tolerance levels).

But during the week, I’ll use it to develop Eddie Morra-like laser focus on the task at hand or to really fire me up for a workout where I am still fasting heading into it.

Caffeine is also a great appetite suppressant so if like me, you do struggle towards the end of your fast, coffee is your best friend.

It lets you push the fast just a couple of hours further, leaving you to enjoy your huge meals later in the day.

*A quick side note – if you have a massively unhealthy food binge problem, maybe this pattern of eating ain’t for you.

Anyway, coffee – and caffeine in general – is a fantastic cognitive enhancer and can let you zero in on a task for hours on end.

I recommend sitting yourself down at your workstation with a wee cup of Joseph, setting up a flow playlist (classical works well), switching your internet off unless you reeeeeaaaaaally need it and just cracking on.

You should be able to naturally concentrate for a long time anyway if you’re following all the habits in this article but a tactical deployment of some heavy-hitting caffeine will help you work for 3+ hours straight (you don’t need to wear a nappy though, toilet breaks are allowed).

INTERMITTENT FASTING

I have written about intermittent fasting at length but the basic premise is you have an eating window (usually 4-8 hours) and fast the rest of the time.

During the fasting window you should only consume water, coffee and green tea.

Whilst in this fasted state, you will get a sort of tunnel vision for whatever task you’ve got your sights set on.

I find that since I’m not focused on food, trying to digest anything or the banal tasks that surround the breakfast/lunch rituals as we know it, I can hone in on what I want to achieve and give it my unwavering attention.

This is the sort of concentration and drive that Morra has in Limitless. No matter what’s going on around him, his concentration is so fierce that nothing can knock him off course.

The same applies here, when you’re fasting, you’ve used caffeine tactically and you’re up early, the focus you’ll experience will be nothing like you’ve ever felt before.

MEDITATION, THE WIM HOF METHOD AND ICE BATHS/COLD SHOWERS

These three really deserve a section each to themselves but I wanted to highlight the importance of utilising them in conjunction with each other so that you don’t skimp out on any of them.

On their own, meditation, the Wim Hof method and ice baths/cold showers are great tools for health, wellbeing and NZT-48-esque prowess, but when used together, they will take you to another plane completely.

Some of the benefits you can expect with these three are:

Complete mental clarity
Resistance to basically all diseases (within reason)
More energy
Better breathing
Resistance to extreme temperatures
Unbelievable confidence
Improved recovery
Better skin
Boundless happiness throughout the day

I know this all sounds like a really bad JML infomercial, but it truly works.

Here’s some links to full guides on each below:

SAUNAS

What can I possibly say about saunas that hasn’t already been said? These puppies should be a mainstay in every self-respecting man’s daily routine.

If you have access to a sauna then get involved.

They can boost your brain output, they help to flush toxins out of your body, they give you better skin, a more youthful appearance, they help to recover from hard gym sessions and so much more.

The humble sauna is one of the hidden gems in the natural NZT-48 stack. I don’t see them bandied about too much but trust me, they work.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

This is going to be a simple section.

A brief NZT-48 recap, if you will.

The only difference is, during our recap, I’ll be slotting these habits into various points in the schedule of your new NZT-48-optimised day…

I’ve done this routine for the average 9-5 worker as this is what most of us do.

To be honest, the most important parts of the routine are outside of these hours anyway so if you need to re-jig it to fit your schedule feel free.

Shall we?

05:00 – Wake up (try a natural light alarm clock), down a pint of water, make your bed & go through your morning routine. Don’t eat straight away.

05:30 – 10 minutes of mediation, 3 rounds of Wim Hof breathing & an ice bath.

06:00 – Self-improvement time. Try reading, writing, maybe the gym if you want (although this could be done after work).

09:00 – Work

10:00 – Coffee (pushes hunger back & helps you focus on getting that deep work done).

13:00 – Lunch (go heavy on the fat and protein, this will reduce any blood sugar spike and saves your carbs for after the workout later in the day).

17:00 – Gym time (do a weights session followed by a 15-20 minute sauna, 5 times a week if possible, then get showered and fresh at the gym).

18:30 – Home & your huge carb-heavy dinner (now you’ve changed at the gym, that’s one less thing to worry about once you set foot through the door. You can now concentrate on reaping the calorie-laden rewards of your fast and workout).

19:00 – Ready your things for tomorrow (should only take about half an hour. This is stuff like getting your clothes laid out, readying your meal prep that you definitely did on Sunday evening and any documents, etc you might need the next day).

19:30 – Now its time to relax. You did all your self-improvement work before and during your work hours, you’ve done your gym workout, sweated the toxins out and now your home can be used for what its meant to be used for – chilling the hell out.

20:30 – Night time routine (this should take anywhere between 30-60 minutes. No screens and lots of mindful breathing and you’ll be off to bed in no time).

BONUS BITS

These kind of fit into your daily routine but at the same time, kinda don’t, so I’ve popped them in a lil’ bonus section just for little old you.

If you want to take your NZT-48 journey to the next level, try these two.

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE

This is also known as the 80/20 rule.

It can be applied to basically all areas of life. In business, 20% of your clients probably bring in 80% of the revenue, 20% of your exercises in the gym get 80% of the results and most importantly for our natural version of NZT-48, it can be applied to learning new things quickly.

In the film, Morra is able to learn piano in 3 days, pick up new languages effortlessly and seemingly absorb knowledge left, right and centre.

Obviously this is exaggerated massively for effect in the film but the beauty of the Pareto Principle is that you can apply it here.

To learn a language, if you can master 20% of the words, you can probably get by in 80% of conversations.

Learning 20% of a full guide to playing guitar will probably allow you to play 80% of chords pretty well. It’s definitely a shortcut, yes – but is it effective? Damn right.

You won’t be a master but you’ll be bloody good.

TURN OFF YOUR INTERNET

This is such a huge step to take for all of us, I know.

If you can take the leap of faith though, and turn your internet off when trying to go deep with whatever task you’re trying to get done, you’ll notice remarkable improvements in its quality and quantity.

When you haven’t got the option to distract yourself, you’ll keep coming back to the task. By offering no alternative, you are forced to work.

This sounds a bit draconian but it works – and once you’re in the flow of things, you’ll never want to stop.

There’s a hell of a lot of info to take in there and I do appreciate that it might have blown your kite off a bit but even just taking up one of these habits is a really good start.

NZT-48 may not actually exist, but you can do the same, if not better, naturally and drastically improve your health while you’re at it.

The life changing power of ice baths

I love ice baths.

I'd happily marry one if I could, such is the feelgood factor they bestow upon me.

The fear can be crippling just before you dip your hairy wee toe in, but after 5 minutes when you get out, you enter into some mad state of euphoria, trust me on this one.

Let's give you a quick history lesson, run through the benefits then tell you how to do it.

And yes, I am teaching you how to take a bath...

Ice baths

Let’s talk a little bit about Ice baths shall we?

It’s as simple as it sounds, just get a bath that is ice cold. You can fill a tub entirely with ice if you’re crazy, you can fill it half with cold water and half with ice or you can just use the ice cold water.

I’ll be straight with you, I’ve just been using the ice cold water and that is more than enough to shrink your gonads inside your body.

Sometimes I’ll pop a bag of ice in with me but to reap the benefits, I’d wager the cold water does the trick.

Do you want a quick history lesson? No?!

Doesn’t matter, still gonna give you one.

Cold water immersion has been around since the dawn of time itself, with loads of different civilisations giving it a go - the Romans, Ancient Egyptians and more recently - sort of, the Victorians.

In The Victorian era, cold water therapy was prescribed for just about any ailment you could think of, be it hysteria (whatever that meant) or the flu.

People rated it.

And so they should have.

Cold Water therapy has come full circle and is now back in fashion thankfully, with Paula Radcliffe (famous for being a world class marathon runner, infamous for taking a poo at the side of the road during one of her races) attributing her 2002 Olympic gold to cold therapy - barmy.

What are the benefits?

The list is basically infinite when it comes to the benefits of taking ice baths. It offers even more than my trusty favourite, the cold shower.

Euphoria & Natural energy

This is without doubt my favourite byproduct of an ice bath. You get a sense of euphoria that’s extremely hard to match.

When you step outta da tub, you feel like you’re floating 3 inches off the ground - it really is heavenly.

Do some Wim Hof breathingbeforehand and you’ve got quite the potent 1-2 combo for a drug-free morning high.

Let’s call it; Wake and Lake (lake is the only water-based word I could think of to replace bake - maybe it’ll catch on, who knows - #WakeAndLake).

Reduce stress, depression and anxiety

This is such a key benefit to consistent ice baths. They can actually help to alleviate symptoms of all 3 of these potent mental illnesses.

I can become riddled with stress really easily and I have no idea why but I find it can be kept well managed when I am taking cold showers and ice baths regularly.

This is due to the fact that when you plunge yourself deep into cold water, you cant think about anything else but breathing and the sensation on your body.

You become instantly present and it feels good. Your mind becomes empty and that immediate lift you get really gives some mental clarity to your day, trust me.

I like to do an ice bath in the morning, do a workout, go in the sauna, steam room then the plunge pool (if your gym has these - make use of them!), have a cold shower, meditate and do some Wim Hof breathing. This will all usually be done by about 2pm, meaning the rest of the day I can relax with a quiet mind.

I’m well aware that this sounds like some optimal guru parody but all of those activities have been clinically proven to alleviate stress, depression and anxiety and I know for a fact that doing them keeps all 3 at bay for me.

It is especially important in today’s climate that you take care of your noggin as well as your physical state, so doing a combination of physical activities like the ones I have outlined above is a double edged sword in terms of its efficacy at improving both the mind and body.

Mental willpower

Stepping into an ice cold bath every single day builds major mental fortitude. The willpower to force yourself out of your comfort zone every day will have a positive effect on your overall willpower.

I am notoriously terrible with my self-control and willpower but about 3 weeks after I started regularly doing cold immersion I noticed I was snacking less on garbage and I had managed to stick consistently to my 5am wake ups.

I think it’s a case of not wanting to waste your day now that you’ve done something so difficult if you get what I mean?

Say for instance, you take a big fat ice bath in the morning, do a bit of meditation and Wim Hof breathing - you don’t then want to break the chain by having a snickers for breakfast or drinking so much Guinness that you poo your pants.

Feel me?

How to do it

Ideally, you’d want to do this in the morning or if you’re at home, when you hit the afternoon slump around 2-3pm. I tend to do it in the morning as I wake up around 5am and need something severe straight away to wake me from my zombie-like state.

Fill the bath up so that when you get in and lie down, only your head will be poking out. This way, your full body is getting hit with that cold ass h2o.

I tend to put my feet in first (like anyone was going to dive into their bath head first...) and just stand there and take 5 deep breaths to brace myself for the onslaught of feels about to come my way - I highly recommend this step.

Then lower yourself in and sit in the water for another 15 deep breaths. This acclimatises the majority of your body to the cold.

Once you’ve taken your 15 breaths, it’s time to lower yourself down into the lying position. This takes major stones - it’s okay if you wuss out the first few times. But if you feel like going the full 9 yards, dump yourself back and let the water flow over you.

You’ll feel like screaming - do so if you wish. After a few sharp inhalations, you’ll actually get used to it and the water won’t even feel that cold at all.

You may also get some numbness but that’s all part of the fun - obviously if you start to feel too weird, get out. I won’t be held responsible for you drowning in a tub full of your own filth you animal.

Anyway, take another 30 breaths and then dunk your head under briefly before getting out. This will give you a final shock and if you weren’t already awake before that, you certainly will be after it.

Get yourself out of the tub and get dried. You’ll feel instantly better. Literally as soon as you stand up out of that water you’ll feel like a new person.

Take a look in the mirror and more than likely, your skin will be pink as anything and it’ll feel tight - in a strangely rather good way.

Put your clothes on, feel on top of the world and get out there to smash whatever goals you may have.

That sounded a bit GaryVee didn’t it lol.

The sentiment still stands though. An ice bath will set you up for success in whatever you do, I don’t care if anyone disagrees with me they’re all wrong and stink because they didn’t take a bath.

Floatation Therapy Side Effects and Benefits

I’m always one for trying new and innovative health trends. I have written extensively on just about every single one of them, from Intermittent fasting to cold showers and saunas, I’ve covered it all – hell, I’ve even got a book on them! But what about Floating?

I’ll be honest, floating has never really been on my radar until the past 6 months or so, when I was walking through Liverpool and stumbled across an intriguing little blue sign that stuck with me for a while – Float Planet.

What is floating? Will it take me to another planet? Am I going to try this? All these questions were flying through my mind as I walked past.

Luckily, I got my answers.

WHAT IS FLOATING?

Let’s kick it off with defining floating, what on Earth is it?

Also known as Floatation Therapy, floating simply means exactly what you thought – lying back in water and staying like that for a while.

It goes deeper though, believe me.

Starting out in the 1950’s as ‘sensory deprivation’ (which you’ve probably heard of), floatation therapy was shown to help myriad ailments, which led to it becoming commercial soon after.

It involves placing yourself in a tank or pod which has about 10 inches of water in it along with about 500lbs of epsom salt and is heated to precisely body temperature. You then lay there, weightless and reap the rewards.

Easy.

WHO ARE FLOAT PLANET?

Now we’ve got our heads around floating, who exactly are Float Planet?

They are a floatation therapy centre based in Liverpool city centre – the best place in the world.

Their mission is to create a fully immersive environment that helps lower stress, recover more quickly and live a bloody lovely life in general.

Float Planet’s environment is absolutely perfect for all of this. Kitted out with the best relaxing gear money can buy, I felt immediately at home as soon as I set foot in there – but more on this a bit later.

Does Floatation Therapy Work? Floatation Therapy Benefits

There are loads of things to shout about when it comes to floatation but I’ve condensed them down to 5 for now so I don’t blow your mind too much.

DECREASES STRESS, ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

I am the biggest stress-head ever although I don’t often show it. Tiny things stress me out so much and I know countless people like this. I also know that a huge percentage of the population suffer from anxiety and depression.

Studies have shown that floating can actually alleviate symptoms of all three of these.

Sign me up. There have also been people who have experienced reduced blood pressure, muscle tension, and additional health benefits after a float session in a float tank.

IMPROVES SPORTS PERFORMANCE

Float planet get dozens of athletes through their doors – front full top-flight football teams to champion boxers, athletes can’t get enough of it.

There’s a reason for this – floating can help to boost athletic capabilities, shown in case studies with Olympic medalists and human guinea pigs alike.

It could be down to the relaxation benefits of floating or potentially the minerals of the epsom salt – probably a mixture.

MAKES YOU CREATIVE

Spending so much time alone with my thoughts was such a surreal experience but one thing I did notice was just how much more creative my mind became without constant stimulation.

I found myself coming at problems from different angles, thinking up new things to do with the blog and different avenues to explore in terms of building my business #empire.

I forgot most of these afterwards because I’m an idiot but the thoughts were still there.

RELIEVES PAIN

If you read my blog, I will assume you’re into your physical activity. A lot of us who enjoy getting active put our bodies under a lot of stress. Couple that with all the mental stress we are exposed to on the daily and you’re looking at a recipe for burnout.

Floating helps to increase blood flow all around the body, which helps to provide tissue, organs and bones with much needed oxygenated good stuff.

Floatation Therapy Side Effects and Benefits

This can help alleviate stress around the body and can even rid you of chronic pain all together. Another reason to get to floatation therapy in an isolation tank or sensory deprivation tank.

IMPROVES SLEEP

A direct consequence of spending time in floatation tanks is relaxation. A relaxed body is a body in sync with its natural clock, hence those who float well, sleep well.

Loads of studies back this up too, with some showing immediate benefits straight after just a single, hour-long float. It is quite easy to reach a deep meditative state in float therapy flotation tanks without adverse effects.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH FLOATING

Forgive me, as this is going to be quite a long section, but I just feel like I have to get it all down so you can really imagine what this place is like. There are so many floatation therapy side effects and floatation therapy benefits for you to know about.

So…

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted and shown a load of floating tips on an iPad just to get me in the mood.

I was then taken downstairs to where the magic happens. After a quick tour of the vanity room, toilets and the like, I was shown to my personal floatation room.

Here, I was given the full breakdown of what was to come. Basically, you quickly shower before you enter the pod. Wipe your face dry as you don’t want to be itching it in the salt water (there is a spray bottle in there if this happens though), put your ear pods in so that water doesn’t get in (it also helps keep any external noise out – though the tank does this 99% of the time), cover any cuts with petroleum jelly and then slide on in.

And yes, go in starkers if you want the full experience. There’s a table and wall hooks for all your stuff so don’t worry.

I was surprised by the sheer power of the water when I got in. I was expecting to sink down and have my fat arse skidding along the bottom, but the water lifted me up and kept me there – it was like some form of black magic. Initially, I was a bit intimidated by it but once I let myself go it was an unbelievable feeling of freedom.

If I was to recommend a ‘strategy’ on floating for your first time, I’d say use the float halo provided for the first half of it. The halo is just a support for your neck – I felt it was good to help me ease in. Then just experiment with different positions. I tried elongating my whole body, doing some strange star shape, resting my hands on my chest, etc.

Just keep varying it ’til you find a good’n.

But let’s get back to the float.

So you climb in, there’s an inviting blue hue in the tank which you can either keep on or switch off for the full experience. You can then close the lid if you wish or leave it open if you aren’t up for it – the room will go dark anyway.

What are the benefits of floatation therapy?

Once it goes pitch black it’s game on. Music will start playing for the first 10 minutes to ease you into your float. It will also play again for the final 5 to ease you out. I loved this little touch as it really helped me zone in and out of my float.

About halfway through it really hits you that it’s just you and your thoughts with literally nothing else going on. This is going to sound really weird, but I felt like I was inside a mixture of the following; Heaven, deep space & the womb. Strange but at the same time, brilliant.

You really feel like it’s just you inside a void of infinite nothingness and it was such a welcome break from my monkey mind.

Afterwards, I realised that was the longest I’ve spent alone with my thoughts since I was about 8 years old and it couldn’t be more refreshing.

Harking back to my womb comparison, when the lights come on, you open the tank up and climb out, it feels like you’re being reborn.

Serious symbolism going on there but if you try it you’ll see what I mean. You feel like you’ve been in there forever and for just a moment simultaneously. Seeing light again is almost euphoric – I can see why some people cry (not me though because I’m such a manly man obviously!!).

Then it was time for a shower. Float Planet have got loads of nice toiletries to get you feeling like a high class member of society in no time. Once you’re dried and ready, you can hit the vanity room up if you wish. This is the start of the deep relaxation process that the guys have put in place post-float.

Once you’re done there, it is recommended that you chill out in the Float Planet relaxation room. This is a great place to meditate on your experience and just reacclimatise before you hit the big bad world again.

You can sit in alarmingly comfortable chairs, put your feet up and watch the world go by with a pot of their special brew tea and a book. I did some work on the blog during my down time and 2 hours went by in the blink of an eye!

VERDICT

So, would I recommend Float Planet? And floatation therapy as a whole?

Obviously. This blog has given you the complete run-through of floatation therapy side effects and floatation therapy benefits.

In my humble opinion, my floating experience was one of them most surreal, unbelievable experiences of my relatively short existence.

Apparently, it only gets better with each float too, so if your head is blown by your first session, chances are, it’s going to implode even further if you go again.

Floating is legit. Get yourself down to a floatation tank.

If you’re willing to go deep within yourself and reap some major benefits, get involved.

You can keep up with Float Planet on their site, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Completely free and completely brilliant. Whilst you’re here, have a little browse of some other article you might like below too. You won’t regret it.

The Bachelor's guide to healthy eating

Do men really need basic cooking/meal prep guides anymore? Is this Bachelor’s guide to healthy eating even NECESSARY?

Well, yes – sort of.

Long gone are the days when a squire’s wench would rustle up a stew and some mead for her breadwinner at the end of a working day.

And thank bloody God. Crippling sexism aside for a sec – what a bunch of man babies that dynamic created! Men who couldn’t cook their own meals, resorting to beans and marmalade with a side of skittles if their other halves weren’t available/didn’t exist.

Thankfully, us blokes are far more adept in the kitchen now, but that doesn’t mean we all have hours and hours of free time to rustle up healthy meals on the reg. Sure, you could do meal prep for the week on a Sunday night but who wants to do that?

This guide will show you the ultimate Bachelor diet. No cooking required – ever.

Yeaaaaaah boiiiiii you heard that right – NO COOKING.

Let’s get into it. This is The Bachelor’ Guide to Healthy Eating.

WHO THIS GUIDE IS FOR

I’ve gone for the title, ‘Bachelor’s guide to healthy eating’ because of the tired stereotype that single guys just eat takeaways and can’t cook for themselves.

I love stereotypes.

But this guide is for basically everyone who lives in the 21st century. We are so deprived of our own time that eating healthily is one of hardest things we are faced with.

Whose average day of eating looks like this?

Cereal/Toast/Nothing
Latte from starbucks
Soup/Meal Deal
Chocolate bar
Microwave dinner
Late night snack aka 3 bags of crisps

I bet at least half of you reading this probably have a diet similar to this. Obviously it is your fault but it’s also kinda not. Our lives are so hectic that eating well goes to the bottom of the priority pile and we opt for the easiest and *tastiest* grub that we can throw down the hatch and forget about.

Except eventually, we can’t just forget about it. Poor eating habits are going to put you in an early grave. I know there’s going to be exceptions to this; “My nan eats nothing but doughnuts and worms and she’s 125!” – good for her. The facts are still there though, eating garbage puts a strain on your bod and the older you get, the harder it’s going to hit you.

That’s not to say you can’t treat yourself every day, I often scoff sweets, chocolate, ice cream and whatever I can get my grubby mitts on, but for the most part, my diet is decent – which is what you should aim for.

Think 80/20 people.

Wouldn’t it be good though, if the food you ate was healthy, quick AND a treat in and of itself on account of its god damn tastiness?

That’s where THE BACHELOR’S GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING comes into its own. I love this title, pretty proud of myself for that one.

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT IT?

A meal plan that is healthy and requires precisely zero cooking sounds a little bit too good to be true, are there any other benefits? Yes there are.

Here’s a few to whet your appetite – pun intended.

PRICE

For £40 ($52), you can get a full week’s worth of food. If you did a bit of bargain shopping you could probably get it way cheaper too.

This works out so much cheaper than constantly eating out, saving you time and making you feel better in the long run. A meal deal every now and again won’t kill you though.

HEALTHY

It’s healthy! You’ll be getting lots of lean protein, healthy fats and a good mix of fast and slow releasing carbs throughout the day. Pair that with a plethora of fruits and veggies and you’ve got yourself a perfect diet.

EASY

The main selling point of this Bachelor diet is that it is so bloody easy. No cooking. Does it get any better? No sir it does not.

TASTY

It may look a bit simplistic on paper, but once you’ve tried the recipes below, you’ll realise just how tasty stripped back meals can be. The fact that they’re tasty paired with them being so satiating means that it’ll be a long time until you’re bored of them and you’ll be able to stay on track with ease.

SAVE TIME

With the lack of cooking and low prep times, this diet is going to save you so much time it’s almost laughable. When I’m meal prepping on a certain diet plan, I’ll probably spend 1-3 hours prepping and cooking per day.

With this diet, you’ll be hard done by if you spend more than half an hour prepping, it really is a life saver.

THE BACHELOR’S GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING

So let’s recap.

I’ve shamed you about your dietary choices and lauded my eating superiority over your malnourished, impoverished heads, I’ve told you that there is a solution and we’ve been through the benefits of the diet.

Now wouldn’t it be lovely if I actually told you what the diet was?

It’s simple.

Just eat more fruit and veg.

There we go!

Hope all that reading was worth it guys.

I’m just pulling ya leg, got you though didn’t I? I’ll outline the diet below. It’s basically exactly what I’m currently following at the moment and it’s giving me great results. It is high in protein, fruit, veg, etc and it’s way healthier and cheaper than your current diet plan – that I can guarantee.

Anyway, enough fannying about, here it is.

MEAL 1

150g Skyr

1 apple

1 banana

30g dates

PREP

Cut up apple, banana and dates.
Put them, along with the yoghurt in a bowl.
Look at yourself in the mirror, perplexed as to how eating healthily can be so goddamn easy.

MEAL 2

100g oats

40g protein powder

150g berries

Milk

PREP

Put it all into a bowl and mix.
Quick note – I use almond milk and chocolate peanut butter vegan protein powder just to try and reduce my dairy intake a bit. Could be a good shout for those who are sensitive to teet produce to make the switch.

MEAL 3

1 tin of tuna

250g microwave mexican rice

60g smoky shredded beetroot

1/2 avocado

30g salad cream

PREP

Microwave rice for a minute.
Add in tuna, avocado, beetroot and sauce.
Microwave for another 1:30 minutes.
Quick note – mexican rice and smoky shredded beetroot are quite vital to the taste of this meal. If you can, try to find these in your local supermarket.

MEAL 4

240g pre-cooked chicken slices

150g bag of salad

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt & Pepper

PREP

Put everything into a bowl.
Mix it up.

SNACKS (OPTIONAL)

Protein bar
Peanut butter
Chocolate bar
Basically anything snack sized that will stop your hunger for a bit.
Quick note – Frozen watermelon balls are great for snacking. Obviously it’s only really feasible when at home though.

CALORIES & MACROS

Here is the breakdown of calories, macros, etc before snacks are accounted for. Obviously feel free to add more snacks, more ingredients, less ingredients, whatever – to fit your calorie goals.

Calories: 2,203kcal

Protein: 156g

Carbs: 248g

Fat: 55g

What a great diet this truly is. Thank you me for being such a genius.

Western nutrient deficiency: Can we fix it?

We’ve all heard of the standard Western diet haven’t we? It’s basically a better way of saying “worst diet in the world”. Now with that in mind, I think we need to address Western nutrient deficiency.

Being the worst diet in the world is obviously going to throw up some negative effects, chiefly nutrient deficiency in basically 100% of its followers.

This article aims to educate you on what exactly nutrient deficiency is, why it’s so important and why the Western diet is such a big bloody bugger when it comes to it.

Oh – and how you can fix it lol.

NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY

Our bodies require a host of vitamins and minerals to simply live day-to-day. They need a whole lot more if they are to flourish and perform at the highest level possible.

Nutrient deficiency basically comes about because we are either not giving our body enough food (thus not enough nutrients) or our body has trouble absorbing nutrients, which is a topic for a whole other article.

WESTERN NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY

How many times have you heard Standard Western Diet, Standard American Diet or Western Pattern Diet? My guess is a lot – usually accompanied by ’cause of X, Y or Z disease’.

They are all the same thing, but just under different names, don’t be fooled into thinking they’re any different.

Anyway, Western nutrient deficiency is a different kettle of fish to your standard nutrient deficiencies brought about by lack of available foods or poor food selection.

You see, we literally have access to any food we want in the West. We are the luckiest humans to have ever existed and yet we choose to stuff our bodies full of garbage. I’m not here to preach though, I’ve been guilty of that late night Ben & Jerry’s splurge – 3 times a week – for the past year.

But I am here to enlighten my fellow shite-eaters. We can improve ourselves – and it all starts with addressing our deficiencies.

Western nutrient deficiencies come about not because we aren’t eating sufficient calories, but because the quality of those calories is equivalent to stuffing a deep fried pile of cow pat in our mouths.

Highly refined, processed food is killing us. It may be tasty (so, so tasty) but it’s depriving our hot sexy bods of what they really need – nutrients.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

So, what exactly can we do about this lack of nutrient(s) in our diets then?

FOOD

Let’s keep this one simple. If you want to address nutrient deficiency then your food intake is the biggest thing you need to address. Here’s a simple list of food-related things you can do;

Cut out overly-processed foods (ice cream, sweets, ready meals, etc).
Add in more fruits and veggies (packs of frozen veg are really easy to throw in with meals).
Cook at least one meal a day.
Prep your meals in advance.

That was easy wasn’t it? It really is as simple as that. Just add in more quality and subtract more processed stuff.

DRINK

This is another easy one. You want to be drinking only water, coffee or tea – mostly water. Smoothies and juices are okay in moderation but I tend to avoid them nowadays unless it’s right before or after a workout.

Anyway, here’s a quick list to make your life a whole lot easier.

Cut out sugary drinks (Coke, Pepsi, Red Bull, etc).
Limit caffeine (Coffee & tea).
Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

Literally those 3 things will help you immeasurably in your quest to become a less nutrient deficient zombie so make sure you do ’em!

LIFESTYLE

Your lifestyle is such an important factor too, those who lead sedentary lifestyles and are alway indoors tend to get sick more often and develop nutrient deficiencies on the reg.

Here’s another lovely list.

Get 10,000+ steps every day.
Get out in the fresh air for at least an hour per day.
Get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day (weights, running, walking, sports – anything…)
Sleep at the very least, 7 hour per day. 8 or 9 is optimal.
Try to de-stress (meditation is your best option).

Those lifestyle factors will help you so much when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and bust those deficiencies. They’re all pretty easy to do too so it shouldn’t take long to implement these habits.

SUPPLEMENTS

Now, the supplements.

As we all know, the clue is in the name…supplements should be there to supplement your diet. But let’s be honest, none of us are these perfect machines that can eat the perfect diet day in day out are we.

That is why a good old multivitamin is perfect for the majority of people.

Most multis however, are a load of excrement. They are packed with fillers and subpar dosages, leading to basically no results.

There is one brand that I swear by when it comes to multivitamins though and that is Vitabiotics. Their Wellman range is off the charts effective and always gives me loads of energy. It’s also packed with nutrients that help to fight deficiencies, fatigue and basically anything else that’s related to vitamins and minerals.

They sent me over some of their Wellman Max again but this time, I’ve paired it with their Neurozan brain multivitamin, Ultra Ginkgo & Ginseng and their Wellman energy tablets for the ultimate nutrient boost.

Obviously you don’t have to go as ham as I have but if you really want to boost your performance both physically and mentally then this is the way to go.

Using adaptogenic herbs such as Ginkgo and Ginseng can be very beneficial for nutrient retention and energy levels and is something I’ve actually talked about in great depth in my book – link here if you fancy a gander.

Anyway, if your food, drink and lifestyle factors are all dialled in and you want to take things up a notch then invest in some top quality multivitamins. It won’t break the bank but it may just give you the boost you’re after. You can check out the entire wellman range here.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO FIX?

This is kinda complex but I’ll make it as simple as poss for you.

Depending on how bad your deficiency was and how solid your new approach is, you’re looking at something between 2-12 weeks.

If you completely overhaul your diet, take the best supplements money can buy and cut out 90% of the processed garbage you were consuming beforehand, you’re likely going to be looking at closer to a fortnight but if you want to take a less drastic approach and focus on improving one thing at a time then you’re gonna be closer to 12 weeks.

*This is how happy you can be if you sort your nutrient deficiencies. Foliage is not optional…*

Simple that wasn’t it?

But remember, this change is for life, so 10 weeks difference in the grand scheme of things isn’t a big deal. If you find it easier to do it in bite sized chunks then you do you – you’ll get there eventually and you will have formed a strong, healthy habit that’ll help you live a long, long time.

Old school muscle: The Dumbbell Pullover

The dumbbell pullover – where do we start with this one?

1911 sounds like a good place. This was the year that pullovers were first introduced into the world by a bloke called Alan Calvert – a bit of a fitness buff at the time.

Shortly after their introduction, the dumbbell pullover took the fitness world by storm. It was used as the main upper body movement in many fitness programs of the time.

Have you ever heard of the infamous ‘squats and milk‘ workout routine? This would have lifters drink a gallon of milk every single day whilst performing 20 rep ‘breathing’ squats in their workouts (not at the same time).

Well, the dumbbell pullover was actually the other main movement that has since been taken out of the name – although it does still feature in the program itself.

This is because the pullover was so highly regarded as a full upper body movement that works in perfect unison with the squat. That’s some pedigree for an obscure exercise that has been cast aside by the gym rats of new isn’t it?

THE DUMBBELL PULLOVER

We’ve talked about the history of the lift but let’s get into the nitty gritty – the mechanics. Knowing about the mechanics behind the lift is key to understanding how to target certain areas and why different ways are better for different situations.

The pullover allows for the chest to placed in an optimal position and the stretch that you get from it affects the muscles in the same way that flyes do but with the added bonus of being able to load heavier weight for more reps.

At the bottom of the move, the stretch places a huge emphasis on the lats too, although once you lift the dumbbell past your head, this effect is lessened to some degree. It does still offer huge benefits for building a back like a barn door though as we will discuss a bit further down.

THE GREAT DEBATE

There is a debate that rages amongst the dumbbell pullover community. Well it’s less of a community and more just a few fellas arguing online about muscle activation.

But anyway…

Is it a chest or a lat movement? Well, it’s both. It just depends how you perform it. With that in mind, let’s break down how best to perform a dumbbell pullover for each.

Starting with the chest – this is a bit easier as the pullover does lend itself more towards chest activation. Having the dumbbell behind/above the body and bringing it to the front of the body is naturally a chest-dominant move. This is why so many old-school bodybuilders such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Reg Park credit the dumbbell pullover for their amazing chest development.

All you have to do is really squeeze the pecs throughout the full movement as this is one of those exercises that actually requires that mind muscle connection. I hate saying that but it’s true. This will help to really empty the tank and isolate your pecs nicely.

Now for the lats. This is a little bit tougher but it’s not rocket science – you can still do it easily enough.

I’ll be honest with you, when I perform pullovers, I actually feel it more in my lats. This could be because I tend to hold the stretch at the bottom of the movement for about 2 seconds. As this is where the lats are most dominant, it could mean that I am getting a stronger mind muscle connection there. God I hate saying that so much.

All you have to do to really feel this in the lats is to get that stretch. Hold the bottom position for 2-3 seconds and focus on the contraction in your lats. Then, try to pull with your elbows like you would for rows – this allows for a clear focus on the back and will help burn the lats out nicely.

THE BENEFITS

The dumbbell pullover comes with so many benefits. It can be used at the begining or end of a workout, it can be a chest or a back exercise, it can be done low reps or high reps – it’s such a multi-faceted move.

Anyway, I’ve listed a few of these unique benefits below to whet your appetite.

The upper body squat

The dip is often touted as the upper body squat and with good reason – it basically is. However, I’d argue that the dumbbell pullover may just pip it to the post.

Just like squats working the lower body, pullovers work every last bit of the upper body. They work the chest, the back, the shoulders and to some degree – even the arms.

There’s a reason that this exercise was held in such high regard by thousands of bodybuilders from the golden era. The only reason it has fallen out of fashion is because so many people are simply afraid of hard work and are lacking the mobility to perform it due to their sedentary lifestyles.

Basically, you should build your mobility up and throw the dumbbell pullover into your routine, because otherwise, you’re missing out on some of the best upper body development you can possibly achieve.

The chest angle

This is a biggie.

With standard flyes, it’s quite hard to go heavy. In fact, I’d wager that it’s virtually impossible to go heavy. This is where the dumbbell pullover excels.

Obviously you don’t have to go heavy and it is more about getting a great stretch, but pullovers really allow you to load the stretch on your pecs so much more than flyes.

It is quite a unique stimulus for the chest as it is so used to pressing heavy loads usually as well as sometimes being placed under some stretch but never very heavy.

By adding this volume to your chest at such an alien angle, the pecs are forced to hypertrophy – which is always a good thing.

The lat angle

Weirdly, the dumbbell pullover is actually the only way to isolate your lats. It takes out a lot of the assistance work of all the other back muscles, forearms and even the biceps.

This is what makes it such a great pre-exhaustion exercise as it allows you to get the direct work in before doing heavier compound lifts where your other back muscles and biceps will share the load – taking emphasis off the lats.

AS FOR RIB CAGE EXPANSION…

The big selling point for dumbbell pullovers back in the day was that they expanded the rib cage. So, is this actually true?

No.

Obviously not you idiot. There’s no way to grow bone.

That was quite harsh wasn’t it? I shouldn’t have snapped on you like that – it won’t happen again I promise.

Anyway, like I say, dumbbell pullovers are no good for expanding the rib cage – nor is any exercise ever. However, they are fantastic for increasing all of the musculature around the ribs, which is what gives that look to the physiques of those who use them religiously.

So the answer really should be – no, they don’t expand the rib cage per se but they do cause hypertrophy in all of the areas surrounding the rib cage. So I guess the old timers were kind of right.

HOW TO DO IT

It’s a very simple move – when done correctly.

Lie down on a bench like you would for a bench press. Some people advocate lying across the bench but I think that’s a sub-par way of doing it. If you do want to do it that way obviously that’s okay but your hips may be robbing you of optimal muscle activation.

Once you’re lying down, bring a dumbbell up above your head with straight arms. Your palms should be facing up supporting the dumbbell and you should have a decent grip. Then you want to lower the dumbbell as far down as you can behind your head whilst keeping your arms as straight as possible (some bend is okay).

Once you’re at the bottom position, hold the stretch for a second or two – this is what will really give the lats a great workout. Then pull back up to the starting position, arms straight. The second portion will start as lat dominant and progress to chest dominant, meaning you’ll get a killer pump in your full upper body.

If that explanation hasn’t got through to you, just take a quick look at the video below.

WARNINGS

A lot of people hear ‘dumbbell pullover’ and say ‘what’s that?’ – the rest of the people that hear it will reply ‘nah mate, that’ll scupper your shoulders, I’m not doing it’.

Well they’re wrong – but sort of right. If you try pullovers without having adequate shoulder mobility then you’re asking for problems – as is the same with any other exercise.

All this means is that you have to test how well your shoulders can cope with the stress of being stretched. A simple test is to do a set of overhead press, rest, and then do a set of pullups.

If you can do a set of each with complete range of motion (and I mean complete – no cheating), then you have adequate shoulder mobility and should be able to perform the dumbbell pullover with ease.

If you can’t, then you should look at some shoulder mobility routines online and try again in a month or so. After a few goes, if you just can’t perform the exercise without discomfort then unfortunately, it may just not be for you.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT PULLOVERS CORRECTLY

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. The dumbbell pullover can be slotted perfectly into any routine but I’m going to give you three examples.

I do full body workouts three times per week – if you do this too, I’d recommend throwing them in at the end of each workout supersetted with dead hangs to get the ultimate stretch.

You can also use them as a pre-exhaustion exercise – I find this works particularly well before doing pullups as it really helps with lat activation.

But for those of you who split your workouts into, pushes, pulls, uppers, lowers and whatever else, here’s a few suggestions:

Push workout

Bench press – 3 x 5

Overhead press – 3 x 8

Dips – 3 x 10

Skullcrushers – 3 x 10

Dumbbell pullover – 3 x 15

Pull workout

Deadlift – 3 x 5

Dumbbell pullover – 3 x 15

Pullups – 3 x 8

Barbell rows – 3 x 10

Barbell curl – 3 x 10

Upper body workout

Bench press – 3 x 8

Pullups – 3 x 8

Dumbbell pullover – 2 x 15

Dips – 3 x 10

Barbell rows – 3 x 10

Dumbbell pullover – 2 x 15

The dumbbell pullover is easily one of the greatest upper body builders ever and should be treated as such by far more people than it is currently.

Throw these into your workouts once or twice a week and watch your chest and lats respond in an unbelievable manner. You’ll thank yourself and more importantly – me, in the long run.

Why practicing gratitude will change your life

Practicing gratitude will change your life – but you already sort of knew that didn’t you?

Everyone has this inkling in the back of their heads that being thankful for your fantastic life probably holds some sort of key to increasing your baseline happiness.

Yet we don’t every really practice it do we? We take basically every single thing in our lives for granted. Our food (how easily accessible it is, the amazing nutrition it provides and the fantastic taste), our water (same as food), our warm homes, balanced climate (for the most part), freedom to do what we want, amenities, clothes, transport, our ability to see, hear, touch, taste, smell and even just having all of our bloody limbs.

There are countless things to be thankful for every single day – the fact that you woke up today is an absolute privilege that we just brush off as normal. We never take the time to actually think about how blessed we are from the moment we wake up, til the moment we hit the sack.

WHAT IS GRATITUDE?

There has never been a better time in history to be a human being and we need to start being a lot more aware of that fact. Imagine how people from the past – even just the 1800’s – would react to today’s world. Clean water, sustainable cures for diseases, electricity in every home, working sewage systems, the list goes on.

Their heads would absolutely explode. Anyway, even all of that isn’t the point really; gratitude boils down to being intrinsically grateful. This means you are thankful and content with you. You are thankful for your own hard work, what is has brought to you and your life in general.

You created all of this and that deserves gratitude to yourself. Happiness comes when you are truly grateful and content in the present moment. None of this “I’ll be happy when I get this” or “I could be happy if I had only done that“. It doesn’t work like that.

Practicing gratitude simply means, give thanks to yourself first and your environment after. But always be thankful for both, no matter what the situation is.

Think back to a time when your current life was your dream life. This is one I find always gets people out of their blinkered pursuit of the future and helps them to realise that they are living a life that was once only a dream to them.

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to drive a car, be super strong like your dad or basically do any sort of adult activity ever? Well guess what? You are living your childhood dream! You just don’t realise because you see your life every day. As the famous quote from C. S. Lewis says; “Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?”.

You just need to look back a bit more to realise how unbelievably far you’ve come – just don’t dwell there otherwise you’ll never come back to the present.

Think of gratitude as a bit of modern day stoicism.

BENEFITS OF PRACTICING GRATITUDE

The benefits of practicing gratitude stretch far beyond the five listed below but these will certainly be enough to get you on your way.

Remember, there is nothing more inevtiable than the passing of time. If something bad happens, just remember that a week, month, year will pass and you’ll forget all about it. If something isn’t going to bother you in a year, why should it bother you now?

Practicing gratitude will help you to stop sweating the small stuff and look at the bigger picture. Sometimes, zooming out to see our situation from a different perspective is just what we need.

Anyway…

STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS

Practicing gratitude on the daily will help you develop a deep appreciation for your friends and family. You will want to spend more time present with them and will want to make the most of their company while you still can.

Gratitude will teach you this lesson before it’s too late and honing these feelings of gratitude can help strengthen bonds, it makes you a better listener, a more attentive partner and an all round good egg.

CALMS YOU DOWN

This is kind of linked to what I said above about the passing of time and zooming out on a situation. Being grateful in every situation no matter what it may be, will help you to stay calm in even the most intense, stressful times.

Practicing gratitude isn’t just about being thankful for the great stuff going on in your life. It is also about being thankful for the hardship – the tests that you have to endure throughout life to make you a better human being.

Framing these perceived negatives into positive situations creates many more positive outcomes and will serve you well throughout your life. For more advice on framing negatives as positives, look into Jocko Willink’s ‘good’ mindset.

YOU LOVE YOURSELF

When you start being thankful for your gifts and realise just how lucky and brilliant you are, you will come to love yourself, your abilities and every little thing you wouldn’t notice before.

You will want to take care of yourself and have far more self-respect. I find that this usually leads to greater pride, with people taking action on their fitness goals, career aspirations or simply just treating themselves a little bit.

I know it’s a bit cringey but self-love is a real winner and if you can master the art of loving yourself then it will lead to so many great changes in your life.

OVERALL POSITIVITY

This is definitely my favourite benefit that I noticed since starting practicing gratitude. Your overall positivity will soar. How can it not, when you are saying thank you for pretty much every single thing in your life?

I, and many others, have found that this overall increase in positivity attracts lots of great people to you. This doesn’t mean in a romantic way – but when you are putting so much positivity out into the world, you tend to have that reciprocated by others who share the same beliefs as you.

You become magnetic in a sense – people want to spend more time with you because you’re far more interesting and fun to be around. You are the sum of the 6 people you spend most of your time with. Practicing gratitude and increasing your positivity ensures that those 6 are the right kind of people – people that are going to propel you to achieve your goals.

BETTER SLEEP & ENERGY

This is something I noticed almost instantly when I started practicing gratitude. Your sleep quality and thus energy levels, will absolutely skyrocket.

When you start making gratitude part of your daily routine, you will experience a hell of a lot less ‘mental chatter’ at night – that stuff that keeps you awake for hours.

This is because you won’t be stressing nearly as much as you were before. You’re not rushing through life with blinkers on, always thinking about the next thing, you’re simply grateful for how good things are and this will genuinely help you to catch some top notch shut eye.

GRATITUDE STARTER PACK

Some of this advice may seem like really cliche bollocks BUT they do hold value. How often do we eschew the fundamental cliche advice in order to try far more complex solutions just because they’re different?

Basically all the time isn’t it? The basic, cliche advice is pretty much always spot on – a balanced diet, 45 minutes of exercise a day, fresh air, meditation, whatever it is, it’s pretty much always right. So trust me on this one. If you actually do these things, you’ll set yourself up for success, no doubt about it.

GRATITUDE JOURNAL

A journal is how I started on the road to practicing gratitude consistently. It’s not any special type of journal, any old book will do. But every morning and night, write down 3 things you’re grateful for at that exact point.

It can be literally anything you want!

I will often put down things that have manifested themselves as a result of my hard work to encourage more of the same, I also often put down things such as a strong, supportive ‘inner circle’, my privileges, my missus, even if I hit a PR in the gym that day – anything goes.

This creates such a positive mindset and helps you to realise just how much you’ve got going for you in your life. Try the journal first and then make your way onto the next few points when you feel ready. You’ll be practicing gratitude consistently no time.

SPEND TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS

The biggest cliche of them all!

We all claim we spend time with the fam and friends but how much time do we really spend with them? My guess is not very much.

When we get together with our mates in particular, we will all sit round and gawp at our phones, messaging others and tweeting about how much of a great time we’re having, instead of actually being present with our buds.

Then our families…we’re running out of time to spend with them. We know this deep down but ignore it. Guess what? There’s going to come a point where your entire family is dead. A wee bit morbid but it’s true.

Make time to do things with your parents (if they haven’t popped their clogs yet), siblings, cousins, whatever – I know you can’t choose your family but you can sure as hell spend more quality time with them.

If you’re lucky enough to still have grandparents, go and see them, listen to them and actually get to know them. These people have lived through wars, lived through so many decades and have countless stories and advice to give, yet we just see them as lovely old cuddly people. They’re so much more, so dedicate a little bit of time to them and be grateful for their mere existence. And if they’re already 6 feet under, ask your parents about them, they probably led lives that were a million times more interesting than you or I.

SAY THANK YOU

This can be in the conventional sense of saying thank you whenever someone does anything for you but I also find simply saying thank you when I wake up and then about 50 more times in the morning creates a really positive outlook on the day.

If you don’t fancy saying thank you a load of times, simply say it when you wake up and say it when you hop out of bed. Being thankful for waking up and having another day to live is about as basic as it gets, but isn’t that the best thing to be thankful for?

And if you can’t even do that, you must say thank you to anyone who does anything for you. Someone lets you cross the road? Thank you. Someone gives you some directions? Thank you. Someone mugs you and leaves you for dead? Why THANK YOU. In all seriousness though, even if you can’t be thankful to yourself, making someone feel valued by thanking them and acknowledging them could make their day – spread the positive vibes dudes and dudettes.

MENTAL CHECKS

Once I started doing mental checks, my mind was low-key blown into a million tiny pieces.

Every time you do something, try and note whether you take it for granted because you do it every day. I started noticing every time I walked on a soft carpet, put a heater on, used a bloody slow cooker, got on a cross country train, used the map on my phone, walked down the street without being mauled by a tiger – the list was endless.

Once you realise basically your entire existence is made up of thousands of tiny daily miracles that people have spent hundreds of years slaving away for, you will become truly grateful for your life – something which we have all lost touch with.

It’s time to reclaim our lust for life people!

Practicing gratitude will be by far and away the best habit you pick up in 2019. You will become infinitely more aware of your privilege in life and you will undoubtedly be a more happy, well rounded person.

I know these promises sound a bit too good to be true, but they simply aren’t. Implement constant gratitude into your life and be grateful for everything in it – the rest will take care of itself.

Why I quit Twitter: And why you should too

Have you ever gone to quit Twitter, only to open the app back up 2 minutes later, scroll for 15 minutes looking at nothing in particular then forget all about your grand plans?

God knows I have.

But have you ever wondered whether your instincts about Twitter (and most social media for that matter) were right? Is Twitter melting your brain? Well that’s what I’m here for. I’ve been off Twitter for almost 60 days now and I’ve never felt better. My business is flourishing without it, I have more time to focus on what really matters and I feel fantastic.

It feels like quitting an addiction (and the freedom of not mindlessly scrolling while you take a deuce is one of the greatest reliefs of all time).

THE PROBLEM WITH TWITTER

Social media can be used for so much good, but in reality, it really, really isn’t. Twitter especially is rife with issues and has caused so much trouble for even the most casual of users. I’m not going to write a big essay on this because let’s be honest, that’d bore the bloody socks off you, but…

I am going to present you with a lovely little list of the problems (we all love a good list don’t we?) I encountered on Twitter and that I know most others will too, then we’ll move on from there.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

This is the absolute biggest problem with the whole of social media but I found it quite prevalent on Twitter more so than any other platform.

It is a different type of keeping up with the Joneses on Twitter though. You’re not comparing yourself to pictures of people – in fact, you’re not comparing yourself at all really – you’re just trying to fit in.

There is so much pressure on Twitter to conform to the opinions of others. If your opinion is even slightly different to anyone else you are instantly branded as ‘Toxic’ or ‘Cancelled’. I didn’t suffer this ill fate but I got so fed up of seeing people tear others down so regularly that I felt like I just had to get off the platform.

Like most people, I’m not one for regimented conformity – so this form of keeping up with the Joneses really rubbed me up the wrong way. That’s the tea sis. Cancelled.

ANXIETY

Twitter can be a huge source of anxiety in the modern world. How mad is that? Something that didn’t even exist a decade or so ago, becoming one of the biggest sources of anxiety in today’s society.

The constant need to conform and the barrage of absolute bollocks that gets fed to us in 140 characters every second is giving us the worst anxiety epidemic the world has known. More so than during the either of the world wars.

A caveat – anxiety is much more well researched and acknowledged in modern times, but I would wager it is still higher than it was during those periods.

DEPRESSION

Closely linked with anxiety, depression is another mental illness that can be caused, or at least exacerbated by Twitter. Depression statistics over the past 15 years make for grim viewing – it also conveniently coincides with the rise in social media popularity.

This may be linked to the FOMO that Twitter brings. Being connected 100% of the time leads us to compulsively check our feeds every minute just in case we see something funny to retweet or we see our friends tweeting about something we simply can’t miss out on.

If we do see our friends tweeting about something cool they’re doing or god forbid – tweeting other people (gasp), we tend to feel down and jealous, which can lead to anxiety & depressive symptoms at the least and full bouts of the two at worst.

GENUINE HUMAN CONNECTION

Listen, we’re not living in Minority Report. We’re not part of the matrix or shagging robots (for the most part) and we’re still based firmly in the real world. BUT, we are heading that way – we’re losing our grip on reality and a large group of us would probably rather live in a digital world.

You see it everywhere – people meet their friends and they all sit around together on their phones, talking to other people and posting tweets about what they’re doing and how much they’re enjoying it instead of actually doing so.

We lose that sense of genuine human connection – instead opting for the allure of our screens, which is harming our ability to actually communicate and form meaningful, lasting friendships in person.

LACK OF ATTENTION SPAN

This may well be a symptom of the times we live in but our attention spans have regressed at an alarming rate. It is said that our attention only lasts about 40 seconds on average nowadays. How crazy is that? You can only do meaningful work for about 40 seconds before you are distracted by something like a notification or simply just the urge to tweet or scroll your phone.

The use of 140 characters has dumbed us down somewhat in terms of what we are willing to consume. Why read a full post about a meaningful topic when you could just read a few tweets in a thread? That’s the thought process of so many of us nowadays and I believe it’s partly down to Twitter.

SLEEP DISRUPTION

Blue light. This is the culprit for those 3am social media binges. The ability to refresh and refresh for hours straight, seeing new tweets constantly is addictive. We lose all sense of time and get sucked into this vortex.

Blue light will disrupt your sleep by itself but the combined with the addictive nature of Twitter, you will find yourself sacrificing hours of quality sleep to try and think up just one more tweet. This constant need for a few more retweets will keep the gears in your head spinning for hours, which is why you find it so hard to get off to sleep when the last thing you did was look at your phone.

If you want to improve your sleep, spend less time on your phone at night and have boundless energy starting tomorrow then check out my essential night time routine.

GUILT

We will often feel guilty about how much time we spend in Twitter, leading us to feel terrible for a while, before we go an another hour long binge and repeat the process.

We also tend to feel varying amounts of regret over our tweets with the majority of us feeling embarrassed or ashamed of something we tweeted – even if it was just a few days ago. This causes another onslaught of guilt and lowers your wellbeing just a little bit further.

In more severe cases, tweets can pose a serious threat to people’s careers. Twitter has been around for a long time now, meaning there have been a lot of past tweets racked up by celebrities everywhere.

These tweets have been responsible for tarnishing and sometimes completely ruining the careers of countless stars such as Brother Nature, Justine Sacco & Gwyneth Paltrow. The tweets from these people were stupid by the way, but it just goes to highlight how Twitter can go from 0-100 real quick.

TROLL BREEDING GROUND

This is huge. Although I never really got ‘trolled’, a lot of people have received abuse, death threats and worse through Twitter. It’s also a place where you’ll get sucked into needless arguments and ‘debates’ over things you don’t even care about.

I remember I got into an argument with someone because they tweeted a flippant remark about bloggers. Who cares? It didn’t make me feel better – in fact, it made me feel angry and stressed, and for what? Absolutely nowt – it’s a platform for nonsense debate and fierce arguments over faux-concerned people.

OUR OWN THOUGHTS

It’s gone quite unnoticed but we hate spending time alone with our thoughts – if even for a few seconds. Think about when someone goes the toilet on a date, what do you do? You check your phone for updates so you don’t have to sit there doing nothing.

We are afraid of our thoughts. Boredom scares us. It’s a shame really – we don’t even know what it’s like to just be anymore. That’s not in some spiritual way either – your grandparents and even your parents for the most part, didn’t have Twitter – they were just present and spent a lot of time with their thoughts, inadvertently getting familiar and comfortable with their own mind.

I believe this is why there are such higher rates of anxiety and depression in the present day – we hate our own minds and when we have to spend time thinking, with no stimulation, we don’t know what to do and it frightens us.

I recently read a book called Hyperfocus which has a large section on spending time alone with your thoughts and no distractions. It shows you how to be comfortable with your mind and enable your creative spark. It changed my life – you should give it a go.

OVERALL NEGATIVITY

I quit Twitter because basically – it’s boring. So many people just go on there to moan. At least on a platform like Instagram, people are striving for better, they want the best shots and creatives are constantly looking to perfect their craft.

Whereas on Twitter, people just like to complain to brands that their top is a bit too small or that their train is late. It’s just meaningless musings from people who find solace in bashing everything but themselves.

If you want to avoid the majority of negativity in your life at the moment then you should quit Twitter. You will feel an almost instant burst of positivity – promise.

SIDENOTE

A quick sidenote. I know these issues can probably be applied to both Facebook and Instagram too. The thing is though, why are you still on Facebook anyway?

And in terms of Instagram, I genuinely don’t believe it’s that bad. People can’t retweet nonsense onto your timeline and the whole environment is far more geared towards positivity, with much less emphasis on promoting people who moan and bitch about everything.

But if you really want to go full hippie then feel free to bin off all your social media and get that #RealLife experience.

I’M A PROFESSIONAL WHO USES TWITTER FOR BUSINESS, WHAT ABOUT ME?

This is sort of a solid argument, as I can see where business owners are coming from here. But I am a full time blogger and Twitter is supposedly a blogger’s best friend, is it not?

You see, if something is really getting you down, it really isn’t worth the hassle of keeping up with. If you’re feeling the negative effects of Twitter (or any social media for that matter) then maybe it’s just best to take a hiatus.

In the grand scheme of things, it simply doesn’t matter.

WHY IT DOESN’T MATTER

So why doesn’t it matter? Well if we zoom out to the biggest picture possible, we’re a microscopic speck of dust floating on a rock in an infinite blank space, but let’s not zoom out that far – I don’t want to give anyone an existential meltdown.

Let’s take a look a bit closer to home. What do you value more, your happiness or your social media score? Some people don’t realise that it might be this question that they have to ask themselves. You, and only you, can make that decision, but actually addressing the issue head on might be the nudge in the right direction you need.

It also doesn’t matter because Twitter really isn’t the place for businesses to flourish anyway. Twitter is the platform that customers go on to vent frustration. Very rarely will you have customers tweeting praise at you – they do that on other platforms, if at all. It’s like a public complaints mailbox.

That’s why you see so many disastrous PR fails on Twitter. One wrong word and people will jump on you for absolutely nothing. I’ve jumped at brands before too so I can’t preach, but in terms of creating a strong business, I really don’t think Twitter is the way to go.

BETTER PLATFORMS

There are so many better platforms for brands to be on nowadays that are far better suited to businesses. Facebook is still sort of relevant for the average business but Instagram and on-site content marketing will become your new best friends when it comes to growth.

On Instagram, if you post daily and interact with lots of people, you’ll be able to build your brand pretty quickly – especially if you invest in ad campaigns too.

Then there’s on-site content marketing. If you’re not creating quality content for a blog on your site then you’re missing out on potentially thousands of leads. Great content will drive lots and lots of unique visitors to your business, so make this one of your priorities. I guarantee you it’ll more effective – and fulfilling than Twitter.

WHAT ABOUT KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDS?

At the end of the day, their lives don’t really matter – yours does. You need to start living your own life for you and not for the adulation of your friends and random people online.

Once you get this into your head, you will start to realise how great life can be without flaunting it to everyone twice per hour. You can still keep in touch with friends – you’ve got a phone haven’t you?

Why not actually ask them what they’ve been up to and talk about instead of seeing their tweet about climbing Everest and replying ‘well done – maybe I’ll come along next time lol’. When you quit Twitter it will bring you closer to your friends and the connection will be far more real than a few likes and retweets every so often.

DOES IT HAVE TO BE FOREVER?

Nope. You won’t have to quit Twitter til you’re dying breath.

You can try taking a day off every week or a week off every month – whatever you feel comfortable with. You could try a full month and then see how you feel. I’ll go more into depth below about exactly what you can do when you’re looking to quit Twitter – even if it’s not permanent.

THE SOLUTION

So what is the solution? It’s all well and good preaching on my ‘QUIT TWITTER!!!’ soap box, but if I don’t provide you with the secret sauce then it’s all in vain. So, let’s get into the meat of it.

DEACTIVATE

Here’s the secret if you want to quit Twitter – you quit Twitter. Whaaaaaat?!?!?! I know it may be revolutionary but quitting Twitter really is the best way to quit Twitter. Who would have thought it?

I’m only semi-joking here too. It’s like the proverbial cliche – ripping the (American accent) band aid off. Just get it over with and deactivate straight away. No need for a big dramatic post trying to notify people of your noble quest. Just get off and tell anyone who you’re close to via text or carrier pigeon.

RIDE THE WAVE

The first week is by far and away going to be the hardest. You’re going to instinctively go in your pocket every couple of minutes. You’re going to scroll across your homescreen to try and find the app and you’re going to search for Twitter on your desktop. This is because over the years, you’ve built up a terrible habit – a twitch if you will. You have come to rely on this little app on your phone for stimulation and pleasure.

But you’ve just gotta ride that wave. You’ve got to see out this adjustment period of about a week or so. Once you get past this initial hurdle, it’s plain sailing. You will stop going for your phone every few minutes, you’ll stop looking for Twitter and you’ll stop thinking constantly about if a situation you’re in would make for a decent tweet.

You will come to realise that you don’t need this little bluebird anymore and that you have so much more free time and energy without it. You may even stop thinking in binary metrics of likes and retweets – shock horror.

REASSESS

After taking 30 days off Twitter, you can now reassess whether or not you need it in your life. Have you suffered any of the drastic consequences you thought you would? Do you really need to log back in?

If the answer is no to both of these, why not quit Twitter for good? If you think this is too big of a step, you can always log back in, make the world aware of your presence again and limit yourself to one or two scrolling sessions per day with notifications turned off.

Better yet, delete the app off your phone and force yourself to use Twitter only on your desktop – this is an effective way of limiting your consumption going forward.

BENEFITS OF TAKING SOME TIME OFF

Now for the juicy stuff.

You’re going to experience a looooot of benefits when you quit Twitter. It may also help to take on board the tips about reducing all social media consumption too. But anyway, let’s be havin ya!

YOU BECOME PRESENT

I have noticed this one the most. Instead of pulling out my phone every few minutes to check my feed and if I’ve missed someone’s tweet, I will barely go on it at all. Often if I’m meeting someone, I’ll keep my phone off completely so I can give them my full attention. After a while this gets a lot easier and you’ll find yourself enjoying the present far more.

INCREASES IN HAPPINESS

This is pretty much guaranteed. Once you block all the negativity and bad news that Twitter feeds you with constantly, you will feel yourself being more happy and more concerned with living your own life and not dwelling on someone else’s sadness.

I know that might seem a bit cold but you have to concentrate on increasing your own happiness before you try to increase everyone else’s. They always tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others in the event of a plane crash – this is no less true with happiness and life in general.

MORE TIME

I was averaging about 3 hours of screen time a day which probably isn’t even that bad compared to the general population. But that is still AWFUL. 3 hours per day spent gorming at a screen? That works out to almost an entire day per week lost to social media.

Twitter is the main culprit for this as it constantly feeds you new news stories, insights into people’s lives and just about anything else you can think of that would consume your time. By taking the decision to quit Twitter, you will be saving yourself so much of your finite time.

You can use this time to spend with your friends and family, work on a passion project, learn a new skill, whatever it may be – it has to be better than aimlessly scrolling through a screen hasn’t it?

YOU ARE MORE CREATIVE

Since you will be cutting down screen time (mine’s at about 30-40 minutes a day now), you will be spending a lot more time without this unnatural, novel stimuli and more time alone with your thoughts to be more creative.

Have you ever noticed how most kids are so bloody happy? Do you not think that has something to do with the fact they don’t have phones yet? They can spend their days socialising, learning and being creative. They don’t have the choice to go on their phones so they use their minds all the time.

Why can’t use adults be like that? I’m not stupid – I know that real life comes with stresses, bills, etc but why can’t we strive to just exist a bit more simply? Spend less time on our phone, socialise a bit more (in person) or learn a new skill – these can easily be done if you quit Twitter.

If you quit Twitter, it may just be the catalyst for change that you’ve been after – I know it certainly was for me. Keep your mind young, use your brain more and you will become much more creative and above all – happy.

NO MORE FOMO

There will be no more fear of missing out. You will stop spending your time refreshing friends’ feeds to see if they’ve posted updates or the day after to see if they upload any funny stories about the night.

You won’t care – at least you won’t after the first couple of weeks. Life will go on, the next night will roll around and you’ll want to go to that one because you want to experience it for real – not vicariously through their social feeds.

It’s a win win win win win situation. I can’t think of a single person that loses when you quit Twitter. Except for @Jack.

CAN TWITTER BE A FORCE FOR GOOD?

In short, yes it can.

However, it is pretty hard for Twitter to be a force for good over a prolonged period of time. Twitter was absolutely amazing for me for about 12 months. It allowed me to connect with lots of amazing people in blogging who helped me along the way and have genuinely become friends.

We all now follow each other on Instagram though, so I’m not missing out on any friendships. The only difference now is that the whole space I move in is far more positive and conversations are more meaningful.

If you can follow about 50 people, Twitter will probably be okay for the most part but let’s be honest – apart from your Grandma, who follows just 50 people? It’s impossible.

No matter how pure your intentions, your following count will always end up snowballing and you’ll find yourself getting angry at political threads and annoying trolls. The stress of Twitter really isn’t worth it – not for me anyway.

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