Highlights? Here you go:

• After some reshuffling at work, I spent a few months in the interesting position of managing, uh, basically everything Men’s Fitness magazine did: from recruiting celebrities for covershoots to pitching/running ad campaigns and devising and compering a CrossFit-style fitness competition (and being on the judging panel at a different fitness model competition). I was also in charge of the day-to-day running of the magazine and all of its supplements/books/offshoots for quite a while, which, if nothing else, taught me the value of being confident in making decisions incredibly quickly, especially when nobody else wanted to do it.
• I ran my first Tough Mudder, which was a lot more fun than I expected – and gave me a reason to throw some pullups and burpees into otherwise-boring runs. I followed up with a half-marathon – which, as it turns out, is probably my favourite running distance: it’s long enough to make it feel like a day out, but short enough to race at a decent speed, rather than just trying to survive. I did it in 1:44.19, bringing it in just under the magic 1:45 by sprinting the finish. And then 6 days afterwards…
• I hit a 212kg deadlift, which is my new all-time PB. Then I decided to get back on Jim Wendler’s 531 programme and immediately started wondering why I’d ever left it: it’s perfect for the time-pushed gent, since you basically only need to hit four lifts really, really hard every week to see progress but you can bolt on extra accessory work as time allows. I hit a 105kg clean and press the morning after the Tories won the general election, mainly because I was so furious.  I rounded out the year with a 132.5kg front squat and a 75kg overhead press, but there’s more in the tank for both. Oh, and I did a farmer’s walk with 110kg each hand and an overhead squat with 110kg, which aren’t strictly lifts anyone cares about, but which pleased me a lot.
• I did a lot more wrestling, a bit more parkour, a lot more calisthenics and even a bit of acrobatics. I went to Norway to watch some wingsuit flyers do their thing, saw wild deer up close in Pennysylvania, and had a bloody good year. More to come. Live hard!

Is there a better Arnold Schwarzenegger film than Commando? Well, yes, obviously: Predator, the first two Terminators, Total Recall, and maybe True Lies if you really like Jamie Lee Curtis. Let’s rephrase: is there a more quintessentially Arnie film than Commando? I submit to you that there is not: the story of John Matrix, a man defined by his love for his daughter and his expertise in killing, is the most ‘Arnie’ of all Arnie films, two hours of flexing and murder backed by a rocking saxophone soundtrack. Endlessly rewatchable, gloriously quotable, it’s the film that gave us the line ‘Why don’t they just call him Girl George?’ and invented the idea of ripping out a car seat as a way of hiding in a convertible. You should probably watch it again.

You should also, of course, do some pressups. And that’s where the ‘Arnie Day’ comes in.

Invented by my good friends Adam Smith and Mark Omfalos, the concept of the Arnie Day is simple: you watch Commando and work out. More specifically, you treat it like a drinking game, with pre-set exercises for everything that Arnold does. You can do this with other Arnie films – believe me, we’ve tried – but nothing works as well as Commando. Here’s how to do it:

1. Recruit some friends

Doing an Arnie Day alone is possible, but dispiriting. Get some likeminded friends along, and promise beer. If one or two don’t want to get involved, that’s fine: just make sure you’ve got a 2:1 ratio of exercisers to non-exercisers, which will give you a good chance of shaming the reluctant ones into it.

2. Find a venue

All you really need is a room with enough space for a few people to exercise (you can always take turns, but you don’t want to get too backed up) and a massive TV. 

3. Get some kit together

Yes, you can do a kit-free Arnie Day, but having options at your disposal will widen the variety of moves available and make things more fun. Bare minimum I’d suggest a set of hand-grippers (preferably a Captains Of Crush, not the Argos sort), an ab wheel, a resistance band and as many dumbbells as you can wrangle. Kettlebells and a pullup bar might also work, but be wary of anything that gets dangerous when you’re drunk or takes you too far from the TV.

4. Decide on the exercises

This takes experience, and depends on the participants’ fitness level, aggression, and the kit available. You want to make it challenging but not unpleasant, and bear in mind that the bodycount in Commando ratchets up to an insane degree in the final act of the film. This is personal preference, but you might also want to focus on upper-body vanity moves – there’s something very ‘Arnie’ about curls that no amount of bodyweight squats or burpees will replicate. Remember: this is about fun, not long-term training. Save the mobility work for the gym.

From long experience, this is the ‘Recommended’ difficulty level:

Death (gun): 5 pressups

Death (explosion): 5 shoulder presses (dumbbell)

Death (other): 10 biceps curls (each arm)

One-liner: 5 hand-gripper closes (assuming strong enough handgripper)

Nudity (per nipple): Ab wheel rollout

Needless flexing/showing off: 5 dips (or 10 chair dips)

Tender moment between Matrix and Jenny: Hold plank for duration

It’s a good idea to have your rules written down where everyone can see them, though it doesn’t have to be this elaborate.

5. Drink

It’ll make the final M60 spree more manageable.

This starts laughably easy (apart from, no spoilers, one early montage), but gets very, very challenging by the end. Also, something about sporadically doing curls and pressups for two hours will also give you an insane pump for about 48 hours afterwards, so it’s a good one to do before you go on a first date. It’s also a great reminder that exercise does not always have to be to-the-death, go-hard-or-go-home, serious business: it can be a social event, something to enjoy with some friends and a beer, and a thing to look forward to. 

Also, it’s a good excuse to rewatch Commando, one of the greatest films of all time. Because if you aren’t inspired to work out by a man who’d rather rip a car seat than slide slightly over in his seat, I’d question why you’re even in the gym in the first place. Live Hard!

5. Most people aren’t judging you

One of the most common fears among – well, anyone – is that they’re being constantly judged or made fun of by people around them. ‘This is half right,’ points out Neil Strauss, author of The Game. ‘People may notice you, but most of them are too busy worrying about what people are thinking of them to judge you. Once you realise that most people are just like you, you’ll start to become socially fearless.’ PUAs ‘learn’ this by relentlessly approaching groups of girls – you can do it more easily. From now on, when you’re worried about people judging you, just think about how infrequently you worry about what anyone else is doing. That ought to fix it.

4. Some people are just naturally better at X – but that doesn’t matter

Let’s not get into a nature/nurture thing and just accept that, yes, some people seem ‘naturally’ better at talking to members of the opposite sex, just like some people are ‘naturally’ more confident in job interviews, presentations, or BAFTA acceptance ceremonies, or ‘naturally’ better at maths, running fast, or kicking a ball into a net. Maybe they are. But that doesn’t matter, because if you aren’t ‘naturally’ talented, it’s not about who you are – it’s just about what you do and how you present yourself. Fix that – even if you have to fake it at first – and soon (well, at some point) you’ll have people envying your ‘natural’ talent. At this point, you can charge them two thousand pounds for a seminar, or break the cycle by, y’know, acting like an actual human.

3. ‘Being yourself’ is overrated

You’ve been told by dozens of films, cartoon animals and bitter X-Factor exit interviews that ‘being yourself’ is the highest ideal you can aspire to – but is it, really? Yes, it’s great if you’ve got a strong sense of who you are, what your strengths and values are, and how to convey them effectively – but no, it isn’t, if you’re using it as an excuse not to improve. Or, as Strauss has it: ‘What most of us present to the world isn’t necessarily our true self: it’s a combination of years of bad habits and fear-based behaviour. Our real self lies buried underneath all the insecurities and inhibitions. So rather than ‘being yourself’, focus on discovering and permanently bringing to the surface your best self.’ Seems legit.

2. Outcomes aren’t everything

Yes, it’s possible to be too outcome-focused. Life is unpredictable: even if you do everything exactly right, you aren’t always going to get exactly what you want: whether that’s a phone number, a date, a marriage, a specific job, a six-pack or a book deal. Being too outcome-focused, as most PUAs learn, can turn into a form of self-sabotage. Instead, emotionally detaching from the outcome – while taking rational steps towards smaller goals – can keep you focused. It’ll happen sooner or later – the important thing is doing everything you can to get the process right, and not beating yourself up over missteps.

1. ‘Inner game’ is better than ‘game’

At some point, all ‘PUAs’ make a distinction between ‘outer game’ – ie all the pre-prepared lines, routines, magic tricks and general bullshit that most ‘gurus’ teach – and ‘inner game’, which is basically shorthand for ‘being a slightly better person.’ Ultimately, the theory goes, confidence is difficult to fake, and so becoming genuinely more adventurous, curious, sociable and confident is much, much better than pretending. Instead of faking it until you make it, the idea goes, fake it until you become it – an idea which, like all the ones above, goes far, far beyond hitting on ladies in bars.

So on Christmas Day 2014, I woke up with horrendous food poisoning and then jumped off a series of cliffs. True story. I still don’t know what bad thing I ate, but I’d already booked a boat to try out deep-water soloing (where you boulder up rock walls above water, so that you don’t need ropes to save you from falling off) and knew I wasn’t going to get another chance at it – so when I woke up projectile vomiting chunks of pineapple, there still wasn’t much question of me not going. I’m still glad I went, even if clambering up and then leaping off a 12-metre rock outcrop into the sea probably didn’t do much for my recovery.

If there’s a point to this story, it’s probably that I believe in taking opportunities when they come up, which is another reason that I’ve had an excellent year. Apart from buying a house and getting married (more on this in a second), highlights included:

• Having an hour-long chat with the magnificent Andrew WK, who partly inspired this site and who continues to party, think, and live harder than most people realise is possible, all while remaining a gracious and lovely guy. You can read the whole thing here and here, and you probably should.
• Taking the Gym Jones Level 2 seminar in London. I’ve been in on-off contact with the GJ team since 2011, and they remain an inspiration…and a reminder that, however hard you think you’re working, it’s probably possible to work a hell of a lot harder. Two days of workout-based savagery in the company of men (and women) who are much fitter and stronger than me drove the point home, and gave me a lot to think about (and work on) for 2015.
• Filling in my live-American-sports bingo card and seeing Def Leppard play live on the same day, at the now-annual UK NFL game. I think I understand the appeal of American football about twice as well now, which still isn’t very well.
• Creating and launching a magazine of my very own (well, sort of). EatFit, as it’s called, is about killing the idea that eating healthily means endless tupperware full of chicken and broccoli, and I sourced, edited, art-conceptualised and generally spent hours worrying about every single page. I think it does something that no other productions out there are doing, and I’m very, very proud of it.
• Flying in a tiny stunt-plane piloted by one of the brave men of the Red Bull Air Race, who corkscrewed and death-looped us around at what he said was about 7G. I’m pleased to report that I was not sick on this occasion.
• Watching my new brother-in-law finish the Houston Ironman in 13:06, despite the raging temperatures in Texas at that time of year. For a few minutes, I thought that I might actually like to try an Ironman myself, then sanity returned.

And then, of course, there was the wedding. Some people will tell you that buying a house and getting married are the two most stressful things you’ll ever do, and so obviously my wife and I decided to get them both done in the same six months…and, somehow, it worked out brilliantly. I strongly recommend getting married if you can manage it: apart from the fact that I’m now married to a lovely, smart, kind woman who makes me a better person than I am without her, it’s also a great excuse to have a big party and get all your friends and family together. I did a speech: it went really well. We also did a big dance number: more on that soon.

So: a brilliant year, all in all. But the next one will be better. LIVE HARD!

LH: On a different tack, something that not everyone knows is that you’re amazing at piano, which you’ve been playing for years. Can I ask what you think of the whole 10,000 hour theory?

AWK: Well, I’m all right at piano, and I appreciate the compliment, but I’ve met people who are so much better at piano than me – and at other instruments – that I might as well not even know how to play. It’s just one of those things I spent a certain amount of time with, and not only have certain people spent more time on it than me, they’ve spent more concentrated, focused time on it. My piano teacher, that I took lessons with most recently – this sounds like an exaggeration, that it shouldn’t be possible, but he really can pretty much take any sheet music, extremely challenging music like Rachmaninov or Liszt, sit down and play it like you and I would open a book and read the English language. I asked him about that and he said ‘Well, pretty much anyone can do this, it just takes an amount of time dedicated to it, much like learning to read a new language.’ I do think that there is something about that, that the human brain will figure out how to learn what it thinks you need it to do. Finding the 10,000 hours, maybe having the patience to dedicate to those hours – maybe that’s the talent, having the will to subject yourself to that level of intense practice.

I would probably agree with that. Conversely, what do you think of the idea of ‘flow’ – that actually being in a relaxed state where you’re having fun is the most optimal way to learn?

Probably both come into it. It’s probably both. I would imagine that the very rigorous 10,000 hours style learning facilitates one’s ability to get into that happy-go-lucky, open-minded ‘flow’ type of learning. It seems like they’d work hand in hand. Once you have the tools to learn, then you can enter that state – for example, if you’re an athlete, you can get in that zone where you’re playing basketball with this sort of intuition and second-natured ease that someone who can barely dribble would never be able to attain. Maybe in those moments where you’re using all these skills, all these tools and resources that you’ve developed from very rigorous practice, that’s when you can find breakthroughs into other levels of ability.

Speaking of breakthroughs, an album I only heard for the first time recently was the Japan Covers, which is a bit of a departure for you. How did that come about?

Well, I was very fortunate to have a lot of great experiences in Japan, even before my first album came out. I was very lucky to visit Japan, specifically Tokyo and Kyoto with my dad, who was invited to teach over there for a couple of months. And he was over there for those months, my brother, my mom and I joined him for two weeks, and those two weeks just had a huge impact on me. One: just getting to travel to another land entirely, going overseas was huge. It seemed like it was a precursor to prime me for more Japan adventures. And once the album came out people, and I got this exciting opportunity to do Japanese songs in English. Armand, the main guy I still work with at Universal Japan was incredibly devoted but also creative, and has presented me with all kinds of ideas that I would have never thought of or had the confidence to do. And he said ‘Why don’t you do an album of all these classic Japanese pop and rock songs?’ The most challenging part was translating them into English with a translator, and retaining not just the meaning, but the phrasing and the rhythm and the rhymes, and learning the songs. And every time I do a cover song it’s challenging, because there’s a feeling like – does this really need to be re-done? If it’s a great song, that version can be so definitive that it feels almost pointless and disrespectful to do it again. But if the song’s so great there’s a joy in just playing the music, in singing the song. So I tried to stay true to the spirit of it, the style and the tone and the arrangements. So yeah, that was very exciting to be able to have that experience. Have you heard the Gundam album?

Um, no.

Well, one of my favourite songs on Japan Covers was I-Senshi, which was from Gundam, it’s huge – it’s among the first robotic science fiction fantasy adventure stories ever, it’s very beloved. So I was actually approached to do a whole album of Gundam songs, it’s called Gundam rock. These songs were even more challenging, more ornate…and more rewarding, ultimately, to record. Try to listen to it if you can.

I definitely will. Can I ask which song by someone else gets you in a party state of mind?

What’s one…Good Golly Miss Molly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that song and been like ‘Eh, well, whatever.’ I really like national anthems in general – I like the British one, I like the American, the US one, I like happy birthday. Isn’t the British one the same as some other song that we have over here?

I…think so? [ed note: He’s right, My Country ‘Tis Of Thee has the same tune as God Save The Queen]. I’m a big fan of the Russian one.

Yeah. You really notice them at the Olympics – in Russia, I just noticed…they always work. Even if they start off quite boring they’re always really interesting – they build and they swell and it’s just great, emotionally stirring music. What else, uh…I kind of think of all of music these days as just one big song, you know, that’s just broken up into different moments and different parts, and the whole thing is just this incredible gift, this incredible phenomenon. No-one invented it, that’s my favourite thing about it – no-one invented it. It’s this thing that we all get to participate in and we all get to add to, and we all get to make, and we all get to play this song, that…who knows how it emerged, but it’s probably beyond all the amazing things that the world has given to us, music is this unbelievable miracle. It’s so baffling and strange, and yet so vast and we’re so immersed in it that…it’s a very difficult one to step back and look at.

Have you heard any Girl Talk? I always think his stuff feels like one huge, extended celebration of music.

That’s actually a very good way to describe it. It’s just snippets of different songs, and you get to see how they relate, and realise that disparate genres of music perhaps aren’t as distant as you thought they were, you know, and that things connect and literally mash up better than you would ever expect. It’s like they’re all singing along with each other in one big long song.

Definitely. Okay, last thing: can I ask what one thing you think anyone reading this could do to make their life better, today?

Take notice of the things that are already in your life that you really feel thankful for. Take the things that make you feel good, that have proven themselves to make you feel good time and time again, and cherish them. Protect them, keep them very close, you can doubt them in a healthy way – but at the same time, protect them and be glad that they exist. Whether it’s a song, or a place, or a person or a food or anything that has that ability to make you feel better rather than worse. Those are magical, powerful tools, and as much as we strive constantly to fix ourselves or find something better, or do more or get more, there’s already so much there right in front of us that…we can be distracted by our pursuits and miss out on. Remember what’s already there and let it fuel you to add more to your life – but not to replace it or make you abandon it.

HOMEWORK: I’ve got nothing to add to that. Do what Andrew WK says. And party hard!

Just so it doesn’t seem like I’m picking on Crossfit, I should mention that I don’t think there are any other decent all-round tests of fitness elsewhere, either. The NFL Combine gets no respect even among NFL players – it’s really a question of how well you can game a system that doesn’t really test any qualities you need in the NFL. Powerlifting tests how strong you are, but also your technique in two highly technique-dependent lifts (and the deadlift). Marathons are a great test of how fast you can run a distance you’ll probably never need to run, Olympic lifting tests how well you can manoeuvre a lovely straight bar around your body, and I quite like strongman comps but there’s no denying that you can win one while still looking (and wheezing) like a circus fatman.

Now to the point. I got angry about this to the point of going ‘Well, what do I do if I don’t want to spend my life doing handstands?’ And my friend Pieter Vodden, fully certified Gym Jones disciple and all-round badass, replied:

‘There’s always barber college.’ 

At this point, angels sang.

If you don’t get the reference, it’s a quote from Roadhouse, one of the finest films in Patrick Swayze’s career. And that was all it took for me to have two separate-but-related revelations, one after another. First:

I could make my own fitness challenge. 

Then:

It should be a tribute to Patrick Swayze. 

Why Patrick Swayze? Because he lived hard. His dad was a rodeo champ, and his mother was a dance teacher. He was offered dance and athletic scholarships when he went to college, and learned to skydive for real when he made Point Break. He did gymnastics, and he could surf, and fight. He was, apparently, a nice guy. He was awesome.

True, the Barber College Challenge doesn’t have crowds, or prize money, or plaudits for the winner, but who gives a shit about any of that? The point of a fitness competition is to test your fitness, and let you improve it. And so here we are. And the rules are simple:

1. You have to do all the below tests over the course of a weekend. The order doesn’t matter, and you can do them all back to back, or spread them out. Just get them done. And since the point is to test for weaknesses, you should probably do them this weekend. Don’t train for this: it’s supposed to be a reflection of how your training has prepared you for life, not how well you can prepare for a set of tests.

2. The Barber College Challenge works on the honour system. Yes, you can use RunKeeper or your camera or whatever to document your scores – and that’s what I’ll be doing – but you don’t have to. Again: this is about improving your life, not showing off.

3. There are only two rules. Cool? Cool. Onto the challenge!

BUY-IN: Diving forward roll over something.

Aha! Maybe you’re already out! But you shouldn’t be. Swayze could definitely do a forward roll. Everyone should be able to do a forward roll – and if you can’t, congratulations, you just discovered a weakness that you can improve instantly. I chose a Reebok step to dive over, but you can go smaller or bigger if you like. Try a shoe! A water bottle! A picnic table! And if you can’t do one, work on it.

Now: the actual events. I’m not posting standards for these, because, really, there are lots of reasons why you’d be better or worse at some of them, and I don’t want anyone getting discouraged. Remember: the only failure is not caring how good you are at any of these things.

Event 1: 1 mile run for time

Fundamental, even if you don’t have to flee from Johnny Utah: your cardio should be up to this, and it’s not like you’re going to row away from a mugger. Do it outside if you can, and preferably on a loop so that the elevation gain/loss is equal. If you’re doing it on a treadmill, honour demands that you set it to  If you’re a big guy, I can only apologise, but I’ll make it up to you on…

Event 2: Overhead press 1RM

The most Swayze-endorsed of all the events. Anyone who says they’ve never wanted to recreate the final scene from Dirty Dancing is a goddamned liar, and this is the closest you’ll get in the gym. Well, technically a push-press would be closer to the actual dance move – but going heavy on those gets a bit sketchy form-wise. So here you are: no leg drive, just a strict press overhead with a barbell. Better than a bench press, because it tests your core and stability. Yes, you need a gym for this, but you can probably get a day-pass from somewhere. Non-gym workout regime hasn’t prepared you for this? Do more handstand press-ups.

Event 3: Max pull-ups

Because Roadhouse-Swayze didn’t get in throat-ripping shape with curls. The rules are simple: straight arms at the bottom, whole head goes over the bar at the top, your attempt ends when you fall off the bar, and you should use absolutely minimal amounts of kicking. Yes, you’re going to wiggle your legs a bit if you go for a proper max, but no ‘kipping.’ You’ll know in your heart whether you do this properly or not. And Swayze knows too. 

 Event 4: Max press-ups

Honestly, I’d rather this was an all-out-effort on a Sonic Blast Man punch-machine, but they’re a bit of an endangered species these days. Instead, do these, strict: chest touches the floor at the bottom of the rep, arms are straight at the top. You can ‘rest’ in downward/upward dog, but as soon as any part of your body touches the floor except for your hands, toes and chest, the attempt is over. As much as anything, this will let you know if you’ve been slacking at the gym – almost anyone can do pressups almost anywhere, so if you’re terrible at them it’s essentially because you don’t do them enough. And when the lactate builds up, remember: pain don’t hurt.

Extra credit: BE NICE

Oh yes. It’s a key part of Roadhouse Swayze’s credo, and an essential part of life. I’ll leave it to you to decide what this means – perhaps you’ll help an aging couple with their gardening, or bring the concept of caffé sospeso to your local coffee shop. Perhaps you’ll spend the weekend working on your empathy…or perhaps you’ll skip the last part of the challenge entirely. If it’s the last one, please consider what Dalton would think of you.

HOMEWORK: Do the challenge! And remember: it’s not what score you get, it’s what that score tells you about your weaknesses and strengths. Post scores, thoughts and results in the comments (or via the Contact form if you’re shy). Either way, know that if you give it your all, Swayze would be proud.

UPDATE: Thanks to a few kind people who’ve contacted me since this went live, the winner will actually get a pretty sweet prize package, including goodies that I’ll mention in the follow-up to this. GET SWAYZE-ING.

Well, maybe not.

People love to cite the so-called 10,000 hour rule popularised by Malcolm Gladwell (basically: it takes that much practice to get world-class at anything) but at least one study of elite-level performers says there’s more to it than just cranking out the hours. For starters, your practice needs to be deliberate – targeted at improving something specific, in the sweet spot outside your comfort zone but before you panic. That kind of practice is difficult and boring, and tough to do for more than a couple of hours a day.

More importantly, though, a 1990 Berlin study found a couple of interesting differences between elite musicians and average ones – differences that suggest how you work might be more important than how hard. The elite and average musicians did the same amount of hours – but the elites split their practice into two well-defined daily practice sessions, while the average guys spread the work out throughout the day. The average guys also slept, overall, for an hour less a night than the elites.

What does that mean? It means that by splitting up your work throughout the day, doing it all day, and cutting your sleep short, you might actually be ruining yourself. Add to that the fact that Anders Ericsson, author of the study the whole 10,000 hours thing is based on, says, ‘To maximize gains from long-term practice, individuals must avoid exhaustion and must limit practice to an amount from which they can completely recover on a daily or weekly basis.’  Tony Schwartz, founder of The Energy Project, has made a career from making businesses more productive by instituting more breaks. And I’m pretty sure even Will Smith relaxes enough to keep himself productive.

Work when it’s time to work, rest when it’s time to rest – otherwise you’re half-working all the time and you aren’t hitting your full potential.  Don’t kid yourself that half-working long into the night means you’re getting more done: work as hard as you possibly can, then totally relax, and go to bed early. How? Here are some ideas I use:

• Go to lunch. Work out if you can, but go for a walk if you can’t- either will cut your cortisol levels and refresh you for the afternoon. Working through is madness.
• At the end of the work day, write what you need to do first tomorrow on a post-it, then leave work and don’t think about it until you come back in. Don’t make the habit of staying late: work often expands to fill the time you give yourself.
• The Pomodoro timer is a nice name for the idiotically simple idea of working for 25 minutes, then having five minutes off. It’s the perfect amount of time – not quite half an hour, so you really concentrate your efforts, and it’s just long enough to keep yourself off Twitter for. Usually, after five minutes off, I can’t wait to get back to work, for an hour of furious work instead of six non-productive ones. This is how I write in the evenings.
• Improving reading is important, but it’s not great at the end of the day – it can be hard to take in, or leave you buzzing with ideas. I save ‘improving’ books (stuff about talent, brain-science, weightlifting and social skills) for my commute, and fiction before bed.
• Sleep like a bastard. Ideally you’re supposed to switch electronics off an hour before bed, but I’m apparently incapable of doing that. I try to make up for it by making my bedroom super-dark – no phones – and taking magnesium.

If you’re working hard, you need to rest hard. You can’t do one without the other.

HOMEWORK: Every night this week, ask yourself: am I working or resting right now? And whichever one it is, make sure you’re committed to that one.

Stop drinking beer

Beer is possibly the worst thing you can drink. It’s stuffed with calories, relatively high in carbs, usually triggers a really high insulin response (making you store fat) and is oestrogenic – so it’ll make you grow a belly and, if you’re a man, turn you into a lady. Consider red wine, which at least has resveratrol in it (linked to anti-ageing effects), or Robb Wolf’s Paleo Margarita, which he claims will, thanks to the lime, blunt the insulin response from the relatively decent agave tequila it contains. Or just keep a nice bottle of vodka in the flat – in my experience, I’m much, much less likely to buy beer on the way home if I know there’s some sort of booze option already there, but crucially, when I get home, I never drink the vodka. This probably won’t work if you really like vodka.

Follow The Gentlemen’s Rules

The Gentlemen’s Rules are my own invention, and are by far the most civilised way to put restrictions on your drinking without curbing your ability to have a good time. If you commit to them, you may drink in the following scenarios:

a) A good friend of yours is having a celebration that you can’t honourably skip out on. This does not mean the birthday of someone from the office that you don’t really like, or that someone you do like really wants a drink. It means a proper party.

b) You are cooking something that takes more than an hour of prep. Because let’s be honest, making a Sunday roast without a glass of red is a ridiculous suggestion. Slow-cooked chili does not count.

Only you can decide if you’re honourable enough to stick to these rules, but they’re what I do most of the time.

Use The Two-Card System

A climber friend of mine introduced me to the Two-Card system, which is essentially Gentlemen’s Rules for people who don’t like cooking or hanging out with anyone else. It is essentially this: you start every week with two cards (literal or metaphorical, although if you’ve got a significant other then literal is better), and each of them allows you a night of drinking. Not one drink, or ten drinks, but as many drinks as you have that night. This isn’t a great system if you’re incapable of having a pint without waking up next to a Mariachi band in another country, but it’s one to consider, since it guarantees your body some chance of recovery.

Sign Up For A Fight

The nuclear option. Every time I’ve knocked drink on the head for more than six weeks straight since hitting the legal age to get served in a bar, it has been because I’ve signed up for a marathon, MMA fight or BJJ match. You don’t have to sign up for a fight – in fact, unless you’re good at fighting I’d call it inadvisable – but you should sign up for something that guarantees some form of unpleasantness if you don’t commit all available resources to training for it. Fights are especially good, because they allow me to ask myself, ‘Is my faceless and no doubt monstrous opponent slamming down Jagermeisters right now, or is he practising his leglocks?’ Thus self-chastened, I stand firm.

There you go. I’m not telling you not to drink, because that would be madness. But if you need to get a handle on things, try the above. And stick your own tips in the comments.

HOMEWORK: Drink a bit less, but enjoy it more when you drink. It’s the perfect solution.