Really like the combination of a lighter shaded suit and a dark shirt, not to much John Wick, and working good with mir light Caucasian skin tone before I could enjoy the summer sun.
Sneakers always dress down the suit a bit, so I don’t stand out too negatively in the office.
Enjoy your work, or atleast try to tolerate the bullshit as zen/stoic as you can.
I love wearing ties, but in the modern office environment pairing it with a suit really offends most people, when even senior leadership is showing up, like the just came down the mountains in functional outdoorsy stuffy and birkenstocks.
So oftentimes I swap the suit for a cardigan and some chinos and dress it down even further with some white sneakers.
The cardigan hides the better part of the tie and minimizes the gap to all the coworker.
If you have customer contact, go for the classic suit& tie look, embrace it.
We already discussed, why strength training is paramount, for dressing well. Now let‘s have a look how to do it as cost and time efficient as possible. If you are as busy as most people are in our era, you can save a lot of time and money building your own gym. No monthly fees, no commute to a gym, no waiting in line after work, to use one of the two squat racks that are available to 100 eager trainees.
To start a new habit, in this case lifting consistently, you have to minimize resistance. Make it as easy as possible to get going, by having your personal gym in your own place. You don’t need a lot of space, cellar, balcony, spare room, terrace everything works, if you want to.
Cheapest way to get going and get the most out of your first investment, buy/ make yourself a pull-up and a dip bar. You can go a long way with pull-ups, dips and air squats before you need to add any weight.
Next up would be a sturdy Olympic barbell, even if you don’t want to learn the Olympic lifts, the spin is pretty nice for power cleans, and those will give you a lot in reward, easy to learn, easy to progress, pretty low risk & huge potential for overall body mass & speed. if you have very limited space, you can go with a 1.5m or 1.8m long bar as well, search for one that can be loaded for ~250kg that will be sufficient for a long time.
Get some bumper plates next, 50mm bore with a metal socket to fit the Olympic bar. The rubber coating will keep training more quiet & your neighbors will stay your friends, even after picking of lifting as your new favorite pastime. Get enough weights to do challenging deadlifts and rows, get smaller plates for curls and extensions as well (5kg or sth.) but try to get those in the same diameter as the heavier ones, this makes changing and adding weights easier. Don‘t worry about the money you spend on weights to much, those are better than gold or silver. Price only goes up over time, so when you decide to sell your equipment, you will make some profit and in the meantime they will support you on your way to become your best self.
After having a bar and weights you can already do most of the stuff that will get you jacked, joked or toned or whatever you want. You can substitute benchpresses for floorpresses like the Oldtimers, you can do front or zercher squats instead of back squats.
If you want more variety in your training and make things easier and safer, if you are pushing yourself with maximum weights, I suggest you look into getting a power-rack or squat stands and a bench next. Lock for sturdy stuff, don‘t be so cheap, that you hurt yourself because you saved some 20€!
With that you can workout for years to come and make progress forever.
If you are stalled after reaching an intermediate level, you might want to add fractural plates, to keep progressing in weight. 0.25kg 0.5kg and so one, make small additions in weight possible when the next 5 or 10kg jump just is not manageable.
If having a barbell gets boring start looking into kettlebells and dumbbells or even rubber bands. Depending on space available of course. But a barbell and some plates might be all you need. Simple always trumps complicated and keep in mind consistency is key here, enjoy the way to your dream physique, enjoy clothes starting to fit better, enjoy the additional strength in your day to day life, be it when helping a friend move, or throwing you kids around in the pool. Being physically capable is the one capability improving all the others, and all other aspects of your life, if you are in it till the end.
And with another motivational picture of Arthur Saxon, enjoy your lifting!
Pictured above: Steve Reeves, on of the golden era bodybuilders, moving on to Hollywood to be the main actor in the Hercules movies, long before Arnold hit the stage.
As we already learned, some of us the hard way, the most important feature to looking dapper/ dashing/ stylish or whatever is not buying a fancy brand or clothes that maybe men’s health advertises, it’s how the things you own will fit you. Now maybe you did hit the genetic lottery and have a very well developed physique from doing next to nothing but my guess is, there will be areas you want to improve no matter what. Who doesn’t dream from wide shoulders, thick arms and a narrow waist. If you grew up in the 80s/90s like me chances are your idols were Arnold, Sly, Bruce Willis and the likes, as well. And man had the characters in those blockbusters style back than, before a t-shirt and a pair of jeans or joggers became the official uniform for next to everybody.
But I’m derailing the article so back to hitting the (home-)gym.
For health and wellness, as for the quest of building muscles the same principles are true as in fashion, less is often more and simple is most of the time more beneficial. So please just don’t show up in the next globogym or cleverfit or any other cheap franchise and do what the instructors are suggesting. You won’t need to train 5-6 times a week, you don’t need to do 365 different exercises for your biceps and stay away from machines, if you are healthy and somewhat flexible. Either write your own plan, or google starting strength, leangains method or Madcow’s 5by5, those are great low volume starting points that can transform you into your own marvel superhuman fantasy. If the ironbug really did hit your hard, check out the tan tight slacks of dezo ban, with enough resources from the golden-era and the old-timers, to keep you reading and evolving for serval years.
If you made it this far I want to give you some actionable things to start with, so first two workouts, I tend to always circle back to, when life gets busy (and it is most of the times).
The Powerlook, originally from John McCallum.
It’s recommended to do this workout on three non-consecutive days per week. For me this is too much volume to recover from, so I personally would suggest 2x a week, Maybe Monday/ Thusday, or Tuesday& Saturday, depending on your schedule.
Maurice Jones’ Supersetting
You will go back and forth between two exercises with close to no rest at all, after the second exercise you rest enough to catch you breath and continue with the next round. Do 3 rounds in total for the first to exercise bundles and keep the repetitions in a range you feel comfortable with, I would suggest 6 to 12.
Finish your workout with one set of squats, with a challenging weight for around 12 repetitions followed by one set of heavy stiff legged deadlifts also for 12 reps.
Do this workout on 3 days a week and you will not only feel great, but look great as well.
If you are starting out and are closer to 20 than you are to 50, don’t even bother with running, biking or anything else, you can get away without that and still have great health and enough cardiovascular capacity. Plus you can get & stay very lean with diet alone.
If you are closer to the second half of your life, run. Two to three times a week on days you are not weight-training. If you life close to the mountains go for a hike twice a week, but running might be the more cost efficient way. Don’t kill yourself, if you want to progress with weights and in muscular size and eat enough real food, skip the candy-bars and donuts.
As for most things in life, don’t expect magic to happen over night. Good things take time and for weightlifting and staying healthy the two key ingredients are patience and being consistent.
Like the main character in the animated movie „The twelve tasks for Asterix“ working in today‘s world oftentimes tests you in ways you didn’t expect. Navigating a day full of Teams meetings and meetings for the meetings may feel like you ended up in the place that sends you mad, but at least try to look professional while going mad. So you have atleast something to hold on to. If making your bed can be therapeutic, the way you dress also qualifies for that.
And now, have a glass of wine or two and gather enough mental power, to do it all over again tomorrow!
Sebastian Strobl 