The Digest Issue #14


How To Adjust Sets And Reps To Fit Your Training GoalHow To Adjust Sets And Reps To Fit Your Training Goal

Breaking Strength | Dresdin Archibald

The number of warm-up sets done on the way to work-set territory can vary. Many beginners make the mistake of taking too narrow a step between each set. By the time they get to their work sets, they are showing signs of fatigue and cannot perform at their best. Excess warm up can be a sign of lack of confidence. This is especially seen to be true in competition settings where stress is high and those extra sets pile up quickly.

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5 DEADLY KINDS OF EGO THAT PREY UPON YOUR SUCCESS

5 Deadly Kinds of Ego That Prey Upon Your Success

Ryan Holiday

When success arrives, ego begins to toy with our minds and weaken what made us win in the first place. This is the worst thing that can happen, because things get harder as we become more successful. In sports, the schedule gets harder after a winning season, the bad teams get better draft picks, and the salary cap makes it tough to keep a team together. Taxes go up the more you make.

If you want to survive those new challenges, you must learn to fight these five manifestations of ego.

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How Being Bored Out of Your Mind Makes You More CreativeHow Being Bored Out of Your Mind Makes You More Creative

Wired | Clive Thompson

Unless it turns out ennui is good for us. What if boredom is a meaningful experience—one that propels us to states of deeper thoughtfulness or creativity?

That’s the conclusion of two fascinating recent studies. In one, researchers asked a group of subjects to do something boring, like copying out numbers from a phone book, and then take tests of creative thinking, such as devising uses for a pair of cups. The result? Bored subjects came up with more ideas than a nonbored control group, and their ideas were often more creative. In a second study, subjects who took an “associative thought” word test came up with more answers when they’d been forced to watch a dull screensaver.

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Whitney’s Everything Energy Bars

Whitney’s Everything Energy Bars

Outside | Whitney Spivey

I used to live in Columbia, Missouri, where I frequented the Saturday morning farmers’ market. I’d usually show up after a long run, which meant I was hungry. Really hungry. And I discovered there was nothing more satisfying after pounding the pavement for a dozen-plus miles than a huge (I’m actually embarrassed to admit how huge) helping of watermelon, followed soon thereafter by a granola bar from local Uprise Bakery. These $2.50 chunks of goodness were an amazing blend of peanut butter, chocolate chips, oats, honey, cranberries, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and a few other ingredients that I could never seem to recreate in my own kitchen... Until recently.

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