Spend Time on Krypton
Geoff Girvitz
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21 November 2020
Superman’s home planet sucked. The air was noxious, the radiation was intense, and the gravity would have flattened you like a space pancake. I imagine Krypton as a pressure cooker—a meaner, less habitable version of earth. Yet, Superman’s ancestors survived and his family did just fine there—at least up until the planet exploded. By the …
Your OTHER Core
Geoff Girvitz
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14 November 2020
Here’s a question for you: when you hear core training, what words come to mind? Stability Strength Performance Injury prevention I’m sure there are some aesthetic ones too but aesthetics are harder to maintain when exercise hurts so… Let’s focus on keeping you healthy and pain-free. The rest flows from there. Strength typically radiates from …
Why saying, “I want to eat less” doesn’t work
Geoff Girvitz
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24 August 2020
I’ve become an expert on what doesn’t work. That’s even less glamorous than it sounds. My credentials? Experience as both a coach and a human. I’ve dropped countless balls in each domain. However, I’ve also seen how they bounce. Whether it’s about nutrition, exercise, or anything else, most advice on behaviour change isn’t useful. SMART …
Does the way you practice gratitude matter?
Geoff Girvitz
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8 July 2020
You might be familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule—the idea that mastery has a hard minimum for time. You may also have heard the idea refuted. One important argument against the rule is that the quality of practice matters. The magic word here is deliberate. An old martial arts joke: Guy A: I’ve been training …
Cognitive Bias In Fitness
Geoff Girvitz
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5 July 2020
You are likely already familiar with the idea of cognitive bias—a rogue’s gallery of flawed thinking. There are many flavours—all of which increase our chances of making errors. For example, confirmation bias puts its thumb on the scale when it comes to comparing what we already know with new, challenging information. We have a tendency …
Obvious and Not-So-Obvious Fitness Stuff
Geoff Girvitz
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3 July 2020
Today, we’re going to look at how I believe fitness needs to evolve—starting with our reopening plans (the obvious stuff) and then getting into the evolution of fitness (the not-so-obvious stuff). The obvious stuff: Space, airflow, surface contact, and screeningManaging space means starting with a minimum of 150 sq ft per person (I’m thinking more …
Should I buy…
Geoff Girvitz
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12 June 2020
“Should I buy a Peloton bike?”“Should I buy a treadmill?”“Should I buy a kettlebell?” Want to know how to approach a potential investment in home exercise equipment? There are six considerations to go through. There’s no magic bullet Let’s start here. It’s easy to get stuck thinking that there’s one thing that will miraculously solve …
How important is it to count calories? A mindfulness-based perspective
Geoff Girvitz
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9 June 2020
I will eat the nachos Over the quarantine, I came to a simple but important truth: if there are nachos in my house, I will eat them. This is not a knowledge issue. And while I can certainly gear physical activity to minimize the impact of tasty, tasty, nachos, it’s far less mental work to …
Tiny Actions for Big Change
Geoff Girvitz
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9 June 2020
Can we predict what kind of person will do the right thing in critical situations? Can we predict what kind of person will do the right thing in critical situations?Back in 1973, a couple of social psychologists were feeling stuck when seemingly obvious traits—like social responsibility—were not predictive. So, they turned to the parable of …
Exercise for ADHD
Geoff Girvitz
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4 June 2020
You know what it’s like to live in a world where everything’s familiar but nothing quite fits. Your mind whirs and your to-dos pile up to the sky. You have hyper-focus in moments of intense interest and intellectual stimulation but doing mundane work is like treading water while holding a heavy weight. Your never-ending stream …
New research on bone density for postmenopausal women
Geoff Girvitz
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2 June 2020
One of the scariest things about growing older is the chance of a hip fracture. If you are a woman over the age of 75, you have about a 1 in 5 chance of dying within a year of a hip fracture. This is from a combination of factors but—for the purpose of this discussion—let’s …
Supporting you (supporting others)
Geoff Girvitz
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2 June 2020
How are you? Really? I can’t imagine that anyone will not remember 2020 as a defining year. It’s been my hope all along that we can get through this and come out ahead. Not everyone will, however. The things that have been happening to Black communities in North America make it clear that some of …