I didn’t have the experience of looking in the mirror one day at a person I no longer recognized, despite a frowning face and tired looking eyes, and the small sized t-shirt hanging off an even smaller frame. I did not correlate the pile of cigarette butts accumulating on the porch, in the ashtray at my work and the dash of the car I drove to it, with the shortness of breath I experienced every time I carried groceries from this car to this porch. I didn’t have a doctor make the subtle suggestion to eat better and get more exercise - the kind of dialog found in a tired movie and never in real life. Self improvement was not something I wanted but didn’t realize. It should have been, but it wasn’t. The strength of my physical body and consequently my psychological well being owes its development to something seemingly unrelated: A movie about chess. 

While attending a film festival in Sedona, AZ, I had the opportunity to watch a film called Magnus, a documentary portraying the life and accomplishment of the world champion chess prodigy, Magnus Carlsen. Much of the film is comprised of the Carlsen family’s home video footage, beginning with Magnus as a small child, and communicates his life into his early adulthood. Magnus was mocked and bullied at school, often not speaking and seemingly without friends. The film proceeds to show Magnus overcoming the introversion of his youth to earn the title of Grandmaster as a teenager and eventually becoming the World Chess Champion. I do not make the assumption that the film is an accurate portrayal of Magnus Carlsen’s life, only that this description is an honest reflection of the film’s impact on mine.

There is a scene depicting Magnus, now in his early 20s, playing volleyball in a swimming pool with his family. What struck me most significantly in this scene was that Magnus had pretty broad shoulders, a flat stomach, and appeared to be a pretty fit person. 

Sitting in the theatre, my attention slowly fell from the screen. The audio seemed to get lower, the image became blurry. I thought clearly, hearing distinctly in my mind my own voice: “I have been miserable for so long. I don’t feel confident like I used to. I’m weak all the time. I get short of breath carrying groceries from the car to the front door. I used to skate every day and not get winded. I used to play soccer in high school and never get subbed. I used to feel fast and hop the fence without thinking, having forgotten my house key but remembering the back was unlocked. Now I don’t even see the fence, because I keep my eyes on the ground. Now I’m a skinny person with fat. How did this happen? I need to quit smoking and be healthier. Magnus Carlsen was mocked and bullied, without friends all through his youth, plagued by his thoughts continually, constantly, without interruption, every day of his life. At thirteen he played Kasparov to a draw and became champion by defeating Anand. He is the greatest chess player on Earth, and he is also in pretty good shape. The least I can do is get in shape.” 

I am a motivator and strength programmer. I believe that the barbell is the most effective and efficient method to develop physical strength and to manipulate body composition. Strength and cardiorespiratory capacity are the foundation for all other physical activity. They ultimately are the most important things in life. They are the basis for our physical interaction with the world. This remains true whether one wants to believe it or not, because when you are on your deathbed, gasping for the air that seems suddenly absent, or you find yourself unable to use the bathroom without assistance, you may think back on all the squats and deadlifts and benching and pressing you didn't do. 

However, I also believe that the absence of equipment is not a hindrance to building strength. Strength, cardiorespiratory fitness and improving both your physical and mental health do not depend on being a member of a gym or the owner of calibrated plates. It exists and is achieved wherever your body happens to be. Being strong and powerful should not be considered luxuries. They are in fact the natural state of human existence. Physical strength was a hard won adaptation for our distant ancestors and that genetic potential does not suddenly vanish over the course of a hundred thousand years simply because people now have jobs where they sit eight to ten hours a day, only to come home and continue sitting until it is time to turn the sitting into laying, lay down and eventually go to sleep. 

In addition to being a strength and conditioning coach, I also play the guitar and drums. I write lyrics for songs and sometimes even sing them. If the singing is super I’ll record it at night, but only if the time and the lighting is right. Every five to ten years I stretch a canvas and make a painting, with the only criteria being that the dimensions of this panel exceed my wingspan and height. When I attended the University of Southern California, I studied fine arts and cinema. When I dropped out of that school I knew more than the day I arrived. I write screenplays, make short films and occasionally cook my own food. As for my own strength routine, I train with a barbell three days a week. I attempt to drive progress toward new maximum efforts. My cardiorespiratory training is occasionally facilitated with a row machine, a jump rope and a collection of kettlebells in a variety of archaically defined weights in arbitrarily determined colors. 

These are the methods of manipulation. They are the tools by which we quantify progress and design protocols to produce an adaptation. Understand that it is your nature to reach a homeostasis with your environment, and that this relationship is defined by the nutrients you ingest and the physical activity you engage in. Accept the fact that whatever you have been doing is what has gotten you here. Your routine is not only what you do, it has literally made you what you are. This applies to your delicate psychology just as much as it does your delicious tissues. The power derived from the knowledge of this fact is only surpassed by one’s application of its truth. Disrupt your routine and you will produce physiological change. To train is to engage in the beautiful business of disruption. 

- Josh Nicolas