Sebastian Strobl

Author: Sebastian Strobl

  • The light blue dress shirt

    The light blue dress shirt

    No matter if you are getting ready for a date, running some errands, picking up the kids from school, are headed for the office or working from home, a light blue shirt is always a great option. It‘s just as versatile as a white shirt, but those often times tend to be heavily see through, so you have to either layer up or wear a wifebeater beneath it. Both options are not too great in the summer months, if you tend to sweat easily like I do.

    How it looks like vs how it feels

    Therefore I find myself oftentimes grabbing on of the light blue shirts I own, since it pairs naturally with tan chinos, a grey or navy suit but you can also wear it to jeans or shorts or any other way you can imagine.

    If you want to wear your shirt untucked, I would advise you to get a button down that is designed to be worn over the pants or at least find something with an length that doesn‘t look like you‘re wearing your wife’s summer dress. A side from that every style option is available to you.

    Blue generally goes with nearly all different colors, so you can pair it with all the common chino colors like navy, grey, charcoal or black and tan/sand and it will also look great with khaki, pastel green or rosè or even a slightly different shaded pastel blue. You can wear it either with light washed or dark jeans as well and all the suit options from brown, to navy to grey for business related stuff are viable choices.

    As are the summer suits, no matter if tan, green or light blue, it will most definitely work the same way a white shirt would and you don‘t have to show off your nipples when losing the jacket.

    I personally like the fully monochrome option of pairing a navy suit and a blue shirt with a navy tie and throw in either a white highlight (sneakers & pocket square) or combine it with black slippers.

    As for quality/ brand, I had various shirts over the last 15 years and I tend to always go back to Olymp, a brand that my dad already like decades ago. Their level 5 bodysuit suits me quite good, since I‘m relatively rugged and their fabric is always easy to iron or even completely iron free. You can put all their stuff into the dryer and the shirts won‘t lose size , fit or color plus they don’t get wrinkled easily, when you are packing for a trip.

    So maybe next time, you are heading in to give a important presentation to management or the customer, pick a blue shirt over the with one, lose the jacket after work & find yourself a neat cafe or bar and enjoy a spritz.

  • Feels like winter again

    Feels like winter again

    After having plus 30° Celsius in the beginning of the week, we are now back to below 10°, which feels colder than it actually is, since the drop in temperature is pretty massive.

    Decided to go with a cashmere troyer over a black shirt today, since the additional wool layer not only comes in handy while sitting in the office all day, it also prevents you from sweating to easily, while taking the dog for a hourlong midday walk. Wore the same chino with it, I nearly wore all week. If you don’t sweat massively, you can get 3-5 wears out of a good cotton chino before needing to wash it. Less washing, less aging. Shout out to Massimo Dutti here, I have had those chinos for 2 years now and put them in the dryer every time after washing, the didn’t lose any size, shape or color and seem to be massively durable. In their mid season sales, you can get those chinos for less than 20€, which is an outstanding deal for this kind of quality.

    Enjoy your day, don’t take life too seriously, since you won’t make it out alive & have some fun while dressing well.

  • Working from home in the summer

    Working from home in the summer

    Or working from the coffee shop, a cool bar, the beach, the mountains, with good mobile connectivity the opportunities are nearly limit less.

    Nearly as limitless as your options for spots to work from are your choices for attire.

    If you have a lot of meetings you need to have the camera on, I would suggest wearing some kind of shirt (button down or dressier), if you are only producing information/ content remotely and mainly interacting via mail or chat there is nothing wrong with a good fitting, clean t-shirt.

    If you feel like it, you can always throw a blazer on top or switch the chino/ jeans for slacks (light traveler wool or some linen blend).

    In general I tend to get less sweaty/hot in cotton chinos/ wool slacks compared to wearing jeans.

    Enjoy your day! Have a good one.

  • On training down or how to get shredded for the summer

    On training down or how to get shredded for the summer

    With nearly endless information on the topic floating around the internet, why exactly should you bother reading yet another article on losing weight for the summer body and acquiring outstanding definition?

    Since there is nothing new under the sun, I want to recap a training regime that not only worked for hundreds of people including famous movie actors of several decades, but also worked quite well for me in different decades of my life. So let‘s start of with paying respects to the man who told Arnold the following straight to the face, right after Joe Weider brought him over to the US.

    You look like a at fuck to me

    I‘m obviously talking about the iron guru himself, Vince Gironda, how not only trained the first Mr. Olympia ever but a boatload of other bodybuilders and Hollywood actors and didn‘t look to shabby himself up till old age.

    So what’s the method, to get into shape the fastet way possible? Easy: train one exercise for every body part you want to improve with 8 repetitions for a total amount of 8 sets and repeat 3 times a week.

    There are nearly as many split schedules and exercise selections for 8by8 out there as there are fad diets, but I think the original schedule had you workout 5 days in a row, alternating upper and lower body days.

    Below is my selection of exercises, that is different from what Vince was prescribing, since I have limited choice (training from home) and I don‘t quite like the trap-less, v-shape look he was after.

    What to do

    Upper Body days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)

    • Behind the neck press with a wide grip for triceps & shoulder girdle
    • Barbell Bicep Curls
    • Barbell Upright row with a very narrow grip (really feeling those in the traps during peak contraction)
    • Barbell Bench Press (narrower grip, arms nearly parallel to the torso, since wide grip is bothering my rotator cuffs)
    • Barbell Bent over Row (narrow or even underhand grip, try to feel it in the lower last, when the barbell hits your stomach)

    Lower body days (Tuesday and Thursday)

    • Barbell Squat (I‘m using front squats, since I don‘t have a squatrack in our new home yet)
    • Stiff-legged Deadlifts (try standing on a block for better stretch)
    • Standing Barbell Calf raises
    • Hanging Leg Raises

    How to do it

    As mentioned earlier , you will be doing 8 sets of every exercise for 8 reps, except for lower body days. Here Vince was suggesting 8 total sets per muscle group for 20 repetitions each.

    Choose a weight you can handle for 3 sets of 8 pretty comfortably. Move quickly and try to feel the muscles contracting, that you are working. No need for extreme yanking the weights, controlled movements with a full range of motion. But no need to think about timing or cadences. This isn‘t an overly scientific HIT workout!

    If you never trained some high volume program like 8×8, German Volume Training (10×10) or even a CrossFitesque schedule, I recommend easing into the workout by starting with 3 sets per exercise and moving up one set in each per workout for the first weeks.

    Once you are getting all the 8 reps in all the 8 sets, it‘s time to increase the weight slightly.

    Nutrition

    As for nutrition, you want to aim for maintenance calories or slightly less, stay active overall and maybe just reduce portion sizes a bit, or have less side dishes. You will need a whole lot of protein to really melt the fat but not overly loose the muscles you built during your personal winter arc. If you are over 30, I would recommend you do two easy runs a week, just for overall health benefits.

    And of course go easy on the drinking and partying, unless you are as legendary as Zabo Koszewski was in his days.

    Enjoy your lifting & enjoy your days, one never knows how many are left. Find bliss & happiness in the hardworking.

  • Monday fun day

    Monday fun day

    Grey suit, blue/white striped shirt, navy tie and light brown accessories. Perfectly dressed for any workplace, destined to catch some funny looks from the colleagues showing up in cycling/ functional clothes made from shredded plastic bottles and Birkenstocks.

    To stand out has some pros and cons to it, but if you own your style and have some good story on your why for dressing well the pros outweigh the negative aspects.

    Keep it fun & don‘t take other people’s opinions to seriously!