Scott Godwin - Fitness, Nutrition, Wellness
  • Blog
  • About
  • Bookstore
  • Subscribe for Free
  • Free E-Books
  • Services
  • Best of the Blog
  • Endorsements
  • The 12 Rules of Fitness
  • Models
  • Speaking Profile
  • Contact
  • 3.0 Fitness Personal Training VIP

The Therapeutic Modern Self

4/11/2022

 
When you start studying mental health, like I did a few years back when I wrote my book "Movement & Meaning" about exercise and mental health, you can go down quite a rabbit hole.

The conception of the self is something that has changed over time. It used to be pretty well set, and rooted in a particular time and place, a particular culture.  As the sociologist Phillip Reiff taught in his work, we no longer in modern American society live in a culture, we live in what he called an "anti-culture."   Cultures are defined by values and morals, and what they forbid. Scarily, our culture only forbids forbidding, a recipe for nihilism and anarchy. Which is what we're getting more of every day.

There are of course outposts of culture within the anti-culture, and I've written a lot about that.  This blog is one outpost. 

I wanted to share a book I just finished that is an excellent synopsis of how we ended up in this mess, where people are "identifying" as the opposite sex, as animals, and all sorts of things. 

Truth is no longer based on truth, but is based on feelings, in other words there is no functional concept of truth.  If I feel like a woman, or a black person, then I am, because to me it's true.  How someone feels about something determines whether it is true or not. You have your truth and I have mine. 

This is the rise of the "Therapeutic Self" or the "Modern Self" where reality is based on the psychologized self. 

Years back I started studying theology as a natural process, that came from studying the mind and philosophy. You can't understand the modern self without studying metaphysics (the study of "being") and theology.  As Chesterton said, "All arguments are theological."

The therapeutic, modern self identity is based on emotions and emotivism, the philosophy that emotions reveal truth.

Carl Trueman has written an excellent and accessible book on this subject for the lay reader:

"The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self"

It's based on the work of  3 writers I’ve previously read. He synthesizes the work of:
  • Alasdair Macintyre in "After Virtue" a pivotal work I read a few years back. One of the best and most influential nonfiction books of the past century.
  • Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, a dense book I enjoyed but was a grind.
  • Philip Reiff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic, fascinating look at how modern man largely has entered a 3rd stage (versus political then religious) of existence - therapeutic.

You would not have to had read these 3 to understand Trueman, which is good, because those are all much harder reads.  I highly recommend anyone who wants to make sense of our current pathologies.


Picture

I enjoy writing and helping people, and write on all sorts of health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness topics.  
 
Read Next: 8 Simple Cardio Workouts
 
Want to sign up for email newsletter? Sign up on my home page:
www.scottgodwin.net
 
If you like the blog, please share it with friends or on social media.

John Adams Predicting the Future

2/3/2022

 
Picture
John Adams, US President 1797-1801
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."   - John Adams

I like to take walks outside and think.  I never take my phone with me unless I'm listening to an audiobook, because walking is a perfect time to think.  Lightbulbs go off while you walk, and your conscience speaks.  You connect dots.  

Sometimes they're happy thoughts, sometimes sad, sometimes both or in between.  

I've been thinking a lot lately about John Adams, specifically a quote of his.  

I saw a story this week about yet another freeway shooting in Atlanta.  Someone I know had a friend shot at who had their small child in a car seat almost killed, spared by a few inches.  

"In just the first month of 2022 in the city of Atlanta alone, police are investigating four interstate shootings.
Last year, police reported at least 30 shootings across metro interstates."

Read the whole story: 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/rising-number-of-road-rage-shootings-in-metro-atlanta-leaves-drivers-wary-of-interstates/ar-AAToeau


John Adams was correct.  This quote keeps popping up in my head.  He was a very wise man.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams

This is why the life of the spirit is so important.  A purely materialist concept of the human person, or human soul, without morality, or a religious anthropology will allow and even promote anything, no matter how degraded, nihilistic, or banally evil.  Just ask the Chinese or Russians, victims of a materialist communist ideology that took the life of over 100 million people. 

People can't hope to live in a free society without some limits or objective conception of good and evil.  The great hope of America was that with the right amount of virtue, people could be free and self-govern.  Unfortunately, no one seems to want to talk about virtue anymore.  

John Adams predicted the future.

-----

I enjoy writing and helping people, and write on all sorts of health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness topics.   

Remember...there's never been a better day than TODAY to make it happen!
 
Read Next: The State as Revolution (Against Community) 

Want to sign up for email newsletter? Sign up on my home page:
www.scottgodwin.net
 
If you like the blog, please share it with friends or on social media.

The Two Keys to Building Muscle

1/26/2022

 
Picture
George Hackenshmidt, Famous Estonian Strongman, Bodybuilder and Wrestler. He Understood Muscle-building. "If I wasn't president of the United States, I'd want to be George Hackenshmidt." - Teddy Roosevelt
The Two Keys to Building Muscle 

  1. Higher Volume of Weight Lifted
  2. Lower Rest time Between Sets

Volume of Weight Lifted
I’m a big proponent of total volume of weight lifted when it comes to building muscle.   An added benefit is that the higher the volume of training, generally speaking, the greater the health benefits.

Total Volume Formula
Weight x Reps x Sets 
Example
Bench press
100 pounds x 10 reps x 4 sets= 4000 pounds of volume 
More volume = more muscle 
(Versus dumbell flys, 40 pounds x 10 x 4 = 1600 pounds lifted) 
In this example, it’s easy to see why bench press is so much better for building muscle than flys.

If you pick exercise like squats which you can do more weight on, then your volume will be higher and you’ll build more muscle.

Focus on:
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps per exercise for building muscle, using compound (multi -joint) lifts.
If you do less than 5 reps, you’ll lift lesser volumes. If you do more than 15, the same thing occurs.


Rest Time Between Sets
Lactic acid accumulates and thus growth stimulation occurs when muscles are fatigued, which means lowering the rest time between sets to 15-60 seconds.  Never rest longer than 60 seconds between sets when you're trying to focus primarily on building muscle.

So to build muscle:
Focus on high volume training (a lot of sets) and short rest between sets. 


The type of training needed to focus primarily on building strength (versus mass) is different, involving longer rest times and heavier weights with fewer sets. For endurance focus, 15-20 reps or more is appropriate.

Application:
Alternate compound (multi-joint) exercises with little or no rest and do multiple sets:



Squats / bench press
Rows / deadlifts
Leg press / pull up
Lunge / overhead press
Dips / bar curls

-----
I enjoy writing and helping people, and write on all sorts of health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness topics.   

Remember...there's never been a better day than TODAY to make it happen!
 
Read Next: The "Religion" of Health
 
Want to sign up for email newsletter? Sign up on my home page:
www.scottgodwin.net
 
If you like the blog, please share it with friends or on social media.

The Best Books I Read in 2021

1/21/2022

 
Hey Happy New Year Everyone ! I took a breather after finishing The Quest for Community. Wow what a project that was. It drained me but it was worth it. I hope you had a wonderful 2021, and are going to have an even better 2022.

What I'm seeing based on 2021 amongst the disintegration, and nihilism (and there's plenty of that) is green shoots of community, new foundings, and new traditions. A good-size chunk of the populace in my corner of the universe is turning off the fake arguments and propaganda and getting down to living, by building better friendships and small groups of community.

One trend I'm particularly excited about is the increasing number of groups of male friendships that are forming amongst younger men. I'm personally involved in this in 2 or 3 separate groups. This is something that the oligarchs and powers that be are vehemently opposed to, and so to see it happen, outside of our dying and decaying institutions in so many ways is really exciting. They want us atomized and powerless, but the opposite is happening.

We live in an age of disintegration, and most of us who are paying attention know this, and are preparing as such. It's not all bad news, disintegration means reorganization. It means regrouping and founding. It's exciting really.

I'm working on several big projects this year so stay tuned!

The Best Books I Read in 2021

I used to do book reviews at the end of the year, but it was taking too much time. Instead, I'm sharing the best books I read in 2021. The top ones have an asterisk and are listed first.

I enjoy reading for sheer enjoyment, but I also read because of my passion for truth, health, and because I love my country and community. It is also helpful in my speaking engagements to have a wide and vast array of knowledge on a broad number of topics. As GK Chesterton said "There's only one subject" which I've adopted as my unofficial motto. Personally, I get bored with speakers that are over-specialized. Specialization is for ants.

My book of the year is from a Law Professor at Georgetown called *American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell has assimilated thinking from many different fields into the most comprehensive explanation I've yet read about the dire state of American culture. If you're in a position of leadership you need to read this book.

Secondarily, and it's really no second place, is Richard Weaver's The Ethics of Rhetoric. It's an older book but should be required reading in all ethics courses and in law schools. I would even say in order to be a judge or politician, or the leader of an organization you should be required to pass a test on it. Since I've read it, I constantly notice the unintelligent and / or unethical nonsense spewing out of the mouths of people in important places who have no idea what they're saying.

The Best Books I Read in 2021

*The Ethics of Rhetoric by Richard Weaver

*The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari

*The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom by Robert Nisbet

*Boomers: The Men And Women Who Promised Freedom And Delivered Disaster by Helen Andrews

*New Functional Training for Sports by Michael Boyle

*From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe

*Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness by Walter J. Ong

*Meditations Before Mass by Romano Guardini

*Why We Drive: Towards a Philosophy of the Open Road by Mathew Crawford

*Shop Class as Soulcraft by Mathew Crawford

*American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell
- Book of the Year

*Pandemics by Sunetra Gupta


A Handbook Of Traditional Living: Theory & Practice by Raido

A Handbook Of Traditional Living: Style & Ascesis by Raido

The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Bulldog Drummond by Sapper

The Lord’s Prayer by Romana Guardini

A History of France by John Julius Norwich

The Conservative Mind: From Elliot to Burke by Russel Kirk

Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students
By Allan Bloom

American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup by FH Buckley

Heretics and Believers - A History of the English Reformation by Peter Marshall

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

A Conflict Of Visions: Ideological Origins Of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell

<<Previous
    Picture

      Sign up for my free "3.0 Health" Newsletter:

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Categories

    All
    Fitness
    Nutrition
    Wellness

    Picture
    Picture
    Watch the
    Movement & Meaning Trailer
    :
    Picture

      Survey

    Submit

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

Proudly powered by Weebly