THE BESTOF’S
With last month’s Bestof’s clocking in at roughly 20 hours of reading, we’re looking at a far lighter edition this round.
Beginning with—not criticism, but observation— that the Bestofs “have become political”.
Which I take to mean more political than fitness-themed.
But the Bestof’s have always branched out into the events of the day. If they seem more political than usual, it’s only because a recent US election, and chaos that has stemmed thereof, has been to the fore of late.
In any case, I don’t see it as political per se; there’s an Australian election today, and I couldn’t be less interested.
It’s certainly not partisan. And, in fact, if only tangentially, always related to fitness. Criticisms of left and right alike are, at bottom, only ever arguments for truth, reason and other essentials for fitness as I understand and promote it.
Pointing to the absence of these qualities on the world stage is not merely illustrative of the problems we can expect at an individual level, but instructive, because, as I have said, Leftfield is, first, a philosophy of fitness.
First, because everything you might ultimately do or not do lies downstream from what and how you think about it. So if I intend for you to do something different, and I do, I must change how you think about it.
So I try. And it only stands to reason I’ll lean on the heavy-hitters, including, but not limited to, the ancients:
Stalwarts of more recent times:
To the sages of the modern day, like
Godin (below)
But it hasn’t escaped me, it might be considered vainglorious to piggyback off these ideas— to point to these giants and say 'that'.
The soaring heights of great minds reckoning with the jewels and jaggeds of the human condition, pulled through a lens about as lowbrow as it gets in the modern day: fitness.
Although not in my estimation. And that is the change I seek.
The idea that fitness is just as fundamental to a life well-lived. Although never an argument for its elevation to the pantheon alongside other rightly exalted concepts like love, beauty, justice and so on, only as a precursor to all of it.
A view echoed in our approach to make it effective and efficient, as targeted and complete as possible, so we’re not spending any longer on it than necessary, and so a then suitably equipped body and mind can move on to other things.
But, nor has it escaped me that this might be a fool’s errand and that the whole premise of a fitness practice is one time-locked to those with the requisite runs on the board.
And that, if you’re at point A, I can point to C all I like, but the only way to get there is to go via B first.
In any case, you’ll only be ready for C when you can see it yourself.
That rather than sidestepping the dogma, ideology and myth you’ll invariably be exposed to, these barnacles are the price of admission, and the sooner you get with a whole series of other people’s programs, the sooner you’ll get to your own.
And that, for all my talk about how the body won’t be hurried, it is me who is aiming to upset the natural order of things!
And that makes some sense.
There is no substitute for experience.
I would not argue that it’s easier for beginners to develop a fitness practice than those with a self-awareness suitably ripened by the trials and errors of a long training history.
Noting that even if we generously assume the ‘long’ when short, intermittent or non-existent would be more common descriptors, a long training history and a long exercise history are very different things.
Are you curious?
Are you looking?
Are you learning?
Of course, it’s not that such a history lends itself to developing a fitness practice—that is the practice, but few, if any of these qualifications are likely, much less can be assumed in the modern fitness climate.
And while throwing people in the deep end might teach some how to swim, many more will drown, and a cursory glance around any public space tells us few reach the far, fitness-enlightened, shore here.
So while we might change our minds via the hard road of experience, we’re better to change our experience through the mind.
And that is the value of philosophy. Indeed, that describes much of human progress, where behind so much of what we take for granted is some philosophical shorthand saving us the trouble of forever figuring things out for ourselves.
But when we take it for granted, it doesn’t change how we think. And that’s what we’re trying to do here, so the only way to do that is to upset the apple cart.
To bump people, obviously and undeniably, off the rails of the seen-it-all-before, I-know-what’s-going-on-here, same-thing-a-hundred-different-ways, unconscious ride on the fitness roundabout.
That, like any roundabout, will leave you right where you started.
And I’ve found the easiest way to do that— like when people have first signed up for The Practice Project, for example— is to say “go and find yourself a program— or use AI — bring it back to me, and we’ll audit it together for suitability.”
If you’re thinking that sounds suspiciously like the hard road described above—do somebody else’s program— you’re right, it is, but again, the difference is all in how you think about it.
And if you’re having trouble with it, consider those who have literally just signed up for what they believe is an exercise program, and this marks the end of our first conversation.
So I take a few minutes more to explain:
Yes, I mean an exercise program. And;
No, it’s not included.
Before we get to variations of:
3. Trust me, it’s for good reason. And it’ll be fine. I promise.
Nevertheless, they still feel like they’ve ordered an Uber, only to have the driver show up and say, “Right, let’s go… where are your car keys?”
But, I’m happy to say that on exactly zero occasions has anybody asked for their money back, despite on roughly 100% of occasions, quietly planning on doing so.
Now this isn’t some sort of bait and switch. Exercise is one facet of such a program, but what that exercise might be is immaterial compared to a series of far more important considerations in the scheme of things.
Could I offer an exercise program— even a generic one? Sure, but when that is expected, it doesn’t disrupt anything.
And I could talk until I’m blue in the face, and have done, about all these other more important considerations, but none of them will land because people are simply going through the same old motions.
Unconscious.
So, straight off the bat, this does the heavy lifting—you’re not in Kansas anymore. They know it. And I know they know it. And in every case, they come back with something that is, fine. Not great, but fine. But far better than even a program they get from me, because they got it.
I want them to go ‘shopping’.
Not the fitness consumerism as a sidetrack or obstacle to getting fit, like activewear or a water bottle with a phone stand, worse still, the potions and pills purported to sidestep the effort, but to go shopping for the means to your desired fitness end.
To find a program suited to your age and stage while allowing for your time, space, equipment and other constraints.
To pose the same sorts of questions as if:
You were going on holiday—is that where I want to go?
Or purchase a special item of clothing—does this fit?
A piece of furniture— will that work in that space? Is it right in that colour?
You know, the sort of questions that are only due diligence in every other facet of life, only in fitness, if we give it any consideration at all, we outsource it so we don’t have to think about it.
Of course, some will jump on the equipment, program or method flavour of the day, but, at best, they’ll find themselves in the same place as any similarly driven decision above: on holiday with the rest of the world, in last season’s colours, returning home to their outdated curtains.
In any case, what they choose is of far less consequence than their choosing it. Programs are a dime a dozen. I’m happy to claim that — for a series of reasons— a Leftfield program will be better than most, but this further underlines that it’s less about the program—any program—than what you do with it.
Because, following the same guidelines as outlined in the past few weeks, by observing the Golden Rule and autoregulation, you can take any generic program and make it perfectly suited to you.
[Noting, I don’t mean you make it your own.]
In a group-coaching cohort, programs will vary in quality, and the various pros and cons are discussed so that, very quickly, everyone learns the features common to all good programming.
But never have I asked somebody to go shopping again.
Equally so, nobody has ever selected something ‘perfect’. By which I mean it’s both suited to their needs, but also addresses all necessary fitness departments - power, strength, hypertrophy, mobility and (3 modes) of conditioning, so that’s a tough ask.
So, along with the features of good programming, everyone quickly learns to identify the gaps.
[While most Leftfield programs do address all these areas, the catch is we do none of this as well as if you were dedicated to fewer or even one focus. Cycling through areas of focus is an equally legitimate approach, as long as everything (physiological demands) is, ultimately, addressed.]
But shopping time is over. Next on the agenda is to discover— through experience— that whatever the features and flaws, three factors above all will raise an average program from the dead, as surely as they’ll make the best one dead in the water.
None of which you can buy: Consistency, frequency and intensity. And they start to get familiar with the ever-shifting sweet spot of enough.
And at every point, and damn near every question, I will turn the focus back to them.
What do you think?
So reliably that people stop asking them. Which, admittedly, could easily be interpreted negatively when read, but in practice could not be further from the truth.
They don’t not ask because I’m dismissive, critical, or anything of the sort, but because whatever expertise is brought to the table here (coaching, programming or whatever) it is always filtered through an understanding, or lack thereof, of you.
There is one person forever best placed to provide that. And it is never me.
And the rest of the time I’m saying nothing. In 6 weeks, I’ll stand by and watch you make (non-calamitous) mistakes, and the more the better.
Some involved choose to remain under the Leftfield umbrella with ongoing coaching and community, but in the final week, everybody —stay or otherwise— is sent shopping again.
Not surprisingly, this time around, their choice of program is that much better informed.
And it further serves two other vital functions.
Nobody starts the new program until the one they are doing is finished.
They have something all ready to go when it does.
Because this is a process that never ends. And that is (the training component of) a fitness practice.
Could I have served up a better program and (metaphorically) whipped them into better shape?
Could I, at the very least, have sent them shopping from a list of previously vetted, quality-controlled sources?
In every single case, yes. And by some margin. But then they are beholden to me. At best. Or some other trainer, that statistically speaking, is not likely to be flash.
Even in a literal worst-case scenario —although in over a decade of doing this, it has never eventuated, everything will still be fine.
Better than fine.
Although in either case I would send them shopping again, just for the sake of shits and giggles, let’s saddle some poor hypothetical soul with a Tracy Anderson program or an infomercial-sourced Shaker Weight.
Either of which guarantees you will not get anything remotely close to ‘the most’ out of it. But nobody will die. And you’ll further have such a solid, experiential understanding of the features and (mostly) gaps calculus described above that you’ll never forget it.
And you will chalk it up to experience.
But next to the upside— the long arc of an ongoing fitness practice— like any other single program or decision, it is of literally zero consequence. Certainly, by comparison to other points of note, beginning with an idea that would have seemed laughable to most mere weeks beforehand.
You’re now a person who buys fitness programs!
You can evaluate them with a practised eye.
You know that good, bad or indifferent, you can customise it to you.
All fantastic. And all impossible by any conventional means. And now looking forward, not to number 200 or even 20, but program number 2.
I’m never one for shortcuts, but this is akin to going from absolute beginner to grizzled vet in a matter of weeks. But what truly makes the fitness world your oyster— and a point that many, even in a lifetime of exercise, never arrive at— is that you have the confidence to NOT know.
To get amongst it and figure it out on the way. And know you’ll be fine.
Better than fine.
Embracing uncertainty.
Bringing us to Rilke. In reading these words, it’s not only that they capture the essence of the fitness practice as I know it to be — and have endeavoured to do so myself — but, by contrast to Rilke certainly, I’m happy to accept that I can’t.
So I'm left to point and say, “that.”
For now, live the questions. If you do, then maybe, gradually, without your realizing it, some far-off day you will live your way into the answer.
https://bigthink.com/thinking/the-1903-letter-thats-helped-countless-people-embrace-the-unknown/?
That.
BEST IN SHOW
I see this all the time: those who have already done the hard work and dragged themselves out of a warm bed on a cold, dark morning, got themselves to a park to then, after all the effort to get to that point, do barely enough to make a difference.
Your body will not change without good reason.
Raptitude, on standards, and why you might find that putting in a little extra is easier. And the only way you’ll know.
That might be why some people do so much better in a given endeavor. It can seem like people getting wildly better results are built differently, or enjoy advantages that are unattainable to you.
https://www.raptitude.com/2025/04/doing-more-is-often-easier/
Spare us committees of the uninformed tut-tutting and making decisions on the dangers of ‘choking’. Yes, it’s possible people can be hurt through any physical restraint, including chokes, even from a trained practitioner.
Contrasted with the near certainty, they will be hurt through striking with a baton or impacting the ground (taser).
Given it is the ultimate currency of employ, all police should have (ongoing) training in the language of physical control — ideally, as Jiu-jitsu black belt and former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink recommends, one full day per week dedicated to weapons and grappling skills.
And if that sounds like a poor use of police time, he makes the excellent point: Would you rather have 4 well-trained cops show up, or 5 untrained ones?
…since implementing Jiu-Jitsu training for all new hires, showed significant reductions in officer injuries, suspect injuries, and TASER applications.
https://www.police1.com/defensive-tactics/why-jiu-jitsu-is-the-best-training-cops-arent-getting-yet
All my reservations still stand, but this is amazing— and a mere glimpse of things to come. Knock out the curriculum in 2 hours of the day, and then learn what you want.
Alpha students learn twice as fast as their peers and rank in the top 1% nationwide.
The problems of our accelerating evolutionary mismatch.
This rapid psychological shift reveals why even the luxuries of modernity are psychological dead ends.
Bestof’s frequent flyer and sage of the modern day Seth Godin with two key Leftfieldisms:
First, why we focus on the principles.
If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result.
Until the world changes.
https://seths.blog/2025/04/the-steps-vs-the-concept/
And second— with echoes of the Raptitude post above— making the effort to learn.
..we prefer tools that give us quick results, not the ones that are worth learning.
https://seths.blog/2025/04/the-use-and-design-of-tools/
Fat loss is a problem readily solvable when you focus on solving it. Only we aren't.
Well, I am.
But that aside, EVERY 'solution' you ever see - from one end of the spectrum of credibility/ legitimacy to the other - from medical and governmental guidelines to fitspo 'influencers.'
Every.
Single.
One.
Is either:
1) aiming for a DIFFERENT physiological outcome that may/may not happen concurrently (losing weight)
2) the illusory 'controlling' of a measure that in this context is infinitely variable and therefore meaningless (Calorie juggling either through exercise and/or diet)
And usually both.
The worst lens through which we might come to view exercise, and a waste of time, money and effort looking to control/direct/adjust our behaviour with a blinkered focus on the two metrics— kilograms and calories— that tell us next to nothing about whether we have/are/will lost/losing/lose fat.
It’s not surprising then, that in trying to lose weight by controlling calories, one thing reliably (80-90 percent) happens.
We get fatter.
We’d all be better off if we put our bodies to work breaking down whole, unprocessed foods, rather than reading calories off the side of a box.
https://elemental.medium.com/the-calorie-myth-f9e5248daa0c
Two important training concepts here: the MED, and everything, all the time, is training.
Your body maintains no steady state. At every moment, your physiology implements one of two programs: adaptation or deterioration.
Strength, muscle, fat loss, power…. whatever the desired outcome, you’ll need a suitable program and, as above, the required consistency, frequency and intensity to achieve it.
None of which will matter without good sleep. Fitness adaptations are, in the physiological scheme of things, a luxury.
Your body will not change without good reason. And no bigger fish to fry.
PN with a world-leading sleep expert and a 14-day plan for a better night’s rest.
To understand sleep, don’t think about it as an isolated daily event, but rather as a 24-hour sleep/wake pattern.
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/how-to-sleep-better?
GMB and the drills that I used to rehab a real pain in the neck.
…exercises that address, not just strength and mobility, but also the motor control aspect that is so often neglected.
I rode through the desert on…a Kawasaki
MISCELLANEOUS
Recommendations reflect what I’ve been reading/listening to/watching/using recently but, in most instances, and especially where music is concerned, will not have been released in the past month.
MUSIC
BOOKS
TV
Peaky Blinders
APP
CLIP
Have a great weekend.
- OLI