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Today’s guest is incredibly impressive on multiple fronts. He’s pursuing FIRE partly to own a gym one day. He’s dabbled in loads of side hustles. He’s trained FBI agents, SWAT teams, Michigan athletics, and even Mad Fientist. Doug from Monumental Strength drops by to lift our FIRE spirits in a strong way. /endpuns He’s a sincerely nice guy, and on this episode we chat about…
- If you could only do one, which would be better: exercising or eating healthy?
- Doug’s side hustle ideas!
- Is sitting the new smoking?
- Why back muscle training is where it’s at (and how to look sexy when we’re all old and stuff)
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Show notes and links from today’s episode
- Doug’s site – Monumental Strength
- Charles Poliquin – Strong proponent of the meat and nut breakfast 🙂
- Intermittent Fasting – Sounds hard. And awesome. And effective.
- Airex pad – Much better for backs, posture, etc
- Drive, by Daniel Pink. The surprising truth about what motivates us – HIGHLY recommended book
- My Fitness Pal – app for tracking food
- Headspace – great app for meditation
- Mint and Personal Capital – the PF tools we use to manage our money
- Mad Fientist – amazing blogger, and also one of Doug’s clients! He describes working with Doug in his 1-Year of Early Retirement Recap Post
Key takeaways from our chat with Doug from Monumental Strength
1 – Nutrition is the single most important facet of being healthy.
We asked Doug a theoretical: “If you could ONLY choose one…”
- Eating healthy, or
- Exercising, working out, etc
(Of course he hinted the correct answer is both…but…) Eating healthy. Hands down. Exercising is fantastic, and strength-training IS how you build muscle…but there are loads of additional, long-lasting health benefits that can only be obtained via diet. Eating healthy is the single most important thing you can ever optimize for your body. Balanced diets = getting in shape, preventing diseases/cancer/etc, (or at least lowering liklihoods), and generally increasing happiness and overall well-being. Yet… We still do a horrible job eating healthy (the collective “we,” not Doug). Let’s get better at this, live longer, and be sexier, yes?
2 – FIRE is not about not working. It’s about choice.
Doug is NOT slaving away in a cubicle. He’s mentoring and training high-powered athletes, SWAT teams, etc. He isn’t really trying to escape a rat race. Why then, is he choosing a FIRE lifestyle? What’s the point of current sacrifice? “I don’t want to have to do anything.” This was Doug’s response, and a fantastic one. Reaching financial independence is the goal, the purpose of which is to have the freedom to choose how you spend your time. Nobody really likes to be forced to stay in a job, hence the whole “rat race” phrase. Doug’s no different, and his answer to “why pursue FIRE?” echoes are own: To obtain freedom of time, and the ability to choose what one works on, and who one works with. Powerful. #fire
3 – Side hustles are where it’s at.
Doug related the incredible value of side-hustles for achieving FIRE. Generally, saving is key to financial independence…but the more you earn, the more you can save. Furthermore, the barrier to entry has never been lower to get started (also making “success” and “standing out” more difficult, but), and even an extra $100 a month can do wonders for accelerating your savings. Maybe grab Chris Guillebeau’s new book? He’s a side-hustle master.
4 – Do back exercises!
We all want to look great at the beach. <3 <3 some big biceps…. but… Doug relayed that back exercises can be incredibly beneficial for long-term health (and preventing bad posture in old age, etc), even though it might not improve physical appearance as much as we’d like. Still, we’d prefer to remain sexy at 75 years old as well, and if working in regular back training will help with that…we’re in 🙂 Doug gives two awesome ‘moves:’
If you’ve never ever done these before, start with your bodyweight only (as opposed to loading up 100 lbs on the bar to impress fellow gym rats) Don’t just focus on bench press and curls, ladies and gentlemen. Get a balanced workout in.
If you want to learn more about Doug’s workout program for the Mad Fientist, check out his page HERE.
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