Mastering Martial Arts Ep.11: Lifestyle Challenges

Three weeks in and I was shredded. And I mean Arnie level shredded. Not Arnie in Terminator Genesis, I’m talking Arnie in his Mr Universe days.

I had a full six pack and my back looked like the Himalayas. All I’d done is make one simple change to my lifestyle. I was drinking 3 litres of water a day.

For many years, I’ve been doing 30-day lifestyle challenges and monitoring the results.

This is a form of self-experimentation I’d first heard about from Tim Ferris in his book ‘The Four Hour Body’

In case you haven’t heard of him, Tim is a best-selling author and perpetual student of self-improvement. He also holds the world record for most spins in Tango and won a San Shou world title with only six months training.

The basic concept of self-experimentation is try something out on yourself for a set period of time and monitor the results.

By using this type of self-experimentation, you can easily make positive lifestyle changes.

30 days is long enough to see a difference and start building a habit, but short enough to not be daunting. And by only changing one thing you can more accurately monitor the results and not overload yourself with too many changes.

These are two of the big reasons most people fail to make positive changes to their lifestyle. They try to change too many things at once and don’t set a goal date.

Episode 11 of Mastering Martial Arts covers the basics of self-experimentation and a few ideas for you to try.

Key Points:

1) Most people fail because they try to change too much and don’t set an end date
2) Only make one change at a time
3) 30 days is long enough to see benefits and build a habit but short enough not to be daunting
4) Track your results to know how your challenge has benefitted you.