Find the difference between sustainable intensity and burnout.

One learns from books and reels only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that y [View online]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( One learns from books and reels only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things. ~ Children of Dune - - - - - The most popular link in yesterday’s newsletter was the [one about breaking toxic mindsets](. That then begs the question: how? - - - - - To start changing a mindset, work on your self-talk. Once you know a mindset you want to change, you need to start by noticing how it shows up in your negative self-talk. Then you need to rewrite your self-talk to be more positive. A lot of people struggle with positive self-talk because it doesn’t feel authentic or true. If this is you, try settling for neutral. Like this: As far as positivity goes, it doesn’t have to be all rainbows and puppies right away. However, starting to move from negative thoughts to neutral ones is a good start. Instead of “it’s disgusting how out of shape I am,” you could say “I get tired easily during my workouts right now.” It’s just a neutral awareness. No negativity. No mean inner critic. More like that from [7 Ways to Change Negative Self-Talk](. - - - - - Stress and cortisol resistance. Two things from this study, [Chronic Stress, Cortisol Dysfunction, and Pain](. First, here’s a massively simplified summary. Each time you are stressed, your body first puts you on alert and then, shortly after, releases cortisol as a sort of healing response (it’s an anti-inflammatory). But if this happens too often, your cortisol system breaks down. Thus, too much stress can lead to inflammation and pain. However, prolonged or excessive cortisol secretion may result in a compensatory down-regulation or resistance of the GR that blocks cortisol binding, similar to the mechanism underlying insulin-resistant diabetes. Second, you want to avoid getting into that dysfunctional state in the first place. And that’s the tie-in to self-talk, especially a form called catastrophizing. Exaggerated psychological responses (eg, catastrophizing) following maladaptive cognitive appraisals of potential stressors as threatening may exacerbate cortisol secretion and facilitate the consolidation of fear-based memories of pain or non–pain-related stressors; however, coping, cognitive reappraisal, or confrontation of stressors may minimize cortisol secretion and prevent chronic, recurrent pain. - - - - - Buy a resistance band for travel. I bought two of these [Rogue resistance bands](. I use one for assisted pullups and the other is in my backpack for travel. I can’t say for certain that they are a good value, but I can say that, like everything I’ve bought from Rogue, they seem extra sturdy. What I didn’t have until recently, though, was a simple workout routine for them. Here’s [the routine I use now]( and that we just published in Better Humans. - - - - - Of minor interest, how does the new 1500m indoor world record holder train? I’m always interested in improvements in endurance training and so was on a deep dive on Jakob Ingebrigtsen after his [recent world record](. There are a few articles, but this [Reddit thread is actually the best](. The innovation is that they do a high volume of training at their lactate threshold, but then they use lactate meters (pinpricks like blood glucose meters) to make sure they don’t push too hard. They actually seem to regard pushing beyond that as a major risk for injury. This is a very tricky balance in any profession: how do you find the difference between sustainable intensity and burnout? - - - - - Thank you for reading this newsletter. I have a dual mission right now and I would love to hear from you if you can help: A) I'm doing research for an unannounced project. If you have tips, tricks or insight related to any topic you see in this newsletter, please share them with me. B) I want to inspire you to change your own life. If this newsletter ever turns into real impact, please let me know. Don’t miss out on the other issues by Coach Tony [Become a member for $5 per month]( Did you enjoy this issue? [Yes]( [No]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Tips, inspirations, and knowledge on productivity, happiness, health, and making an impact on our world. Official email of the Better Humans publication on Medium. (@bttrhumans) You can manage your subscription [here](. In order to unsubscribe, click [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Created with [Revue by Twitter](.