Touching the sun
If you want to achieve great results, become a high performer, or become the best version of yourself physically .. there is one absolute practice you must adopt.
That is the most effective advise I give my clients and it works.You must go maximum speed and or exceed maximum sustainable pace, occasionally.
Let’s break this down — you want to run faster, be a better athlete, more explosive, be a better endurance athlete, or a better gymnast, or even a better weightlifter. You don’t repeat the same work every day to gain that result, you must be smart and one element is intensity maximums.
How to touch the sun
Yes, I literally want you to structure short effort interval pieces where you are literally working so hard (110–120% of capability), that you literally have a high degree of burning up into a fiery mess on the floor.
If you fail to go hard enough you won’t exceed your faithful maximum work effort. Failure to exceed this threshold will fail to teach the body that we WANT to develop more capacity.
Let’s think of a simple 6 round effort. Your job is to sprint for 15 seconds and then rest for 2:45. That is it. Done properly, you’ll see yourself done for the day by the end of the 6th round. If you finish and grab your phone… you didn’t achieve the goal, you paced. (it happens, it’s ok .. let’s try it again with a different structure, people, music, or the right amount of fire in our belly)
How often should you do this training style?
Only 2x maximum 3x a week. If you are competing in a few weeks, 3x a week is smart (as you won’t gain strength in that period, but you will gain capacity and absolute power). If you are training daily, 1x a week would be just fine — as a finisher.
What should you expect
10–15% bump in absolute power. The ability to work harder, longer, and more efficiently across any sport.
This benefit transcends sports because we are building your HEART and you LUNGS and growing new pathways within your muscles to more effectively deliver oxygen and energy. Who wouldn’t want these benefits! In addition, we are teaching our body to clear damage and waste — the lovely lactic acid too.
Now let’s go
Touching the sun is hard, uncomfortable, and best done with friends. Be kind to yourself when you do these — that inner voice. Physically you need to be doing something that poses zero risk if you completely melt. Stationary bikes, sleds, ski ergs, rowing for some, etc.. What you use is based on where YOU can express power. It’s a personal thing, be smart and achieve your health goals.
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About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity veteran, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I study the science of movement, athletic performance, and work with the best in the world in this space to better the long term quality of life of athletes I coach. In addition, I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.