On “cankles” and more . . .
- The terms people come up with, hehe.

A person on this list pointed this term out to me, and I gotta be honest,  I just had to Google it. Hehe.

I had NO clue what the word meant, but now I do “fat ankles” basically – apparently there is no separation between the calf and ankles if you’re really fat.

And there isn’t, but anyway, blast from the past, which seems way more recent than it is in reality (and I wrote about this before, but let us revisit again in brief, as there is a reason I’m mentioning it).

In 201… I think 2013 or so, I was literally so out of shape that one fine day I woke up with an immensely painful right ankle.

It was “somewhat swollen” but not a lot, yet, even if I touched it with the tip of my finger, I’d SCREAM FOR MERCY – that is how painful it was (and I don’t scream for mercy often).

(the same guy who does fingertip pushups with dislocated thumbs to give you an idea of my pain tolerance levels, I ain’t even Tom Tomming here, I’m just giving you the overall picture here).

It was basically water retention from what I figured, it went away within a few days, but boy oh boy, was it PAINFUL.

I dont know what it was till this date for sure, because the Indian doctor I went to shyed away it like I was a leper or something when I took my socks off to show him, he was more concerned about “keep the socks away”.

Maybe the Bozo in Socksford should have been present? Hehe.

Reminds me of a certain Indian lady (doc) Uncle Bob once visited (bless his soul) when he had the flu, the lady “she, her” (pronouns matter, right? LOL) or “Madam” or whatever the P.C. dumbass term is was more concerned about getting the flu from him than treating him.

He accidentally sneezed, and she literally drove him out of her office.

True story.

When I think about doctors in general, and even a medical problem my wife had – has till this date that we literally spent TONS and tons of money on, wife even got a colonoscopy for it … it was ultimately some Ayurvedic herb that “put a lid on it” for a while – just ugh.

Medical tests that did not need to be done, doc visits they’d do nothing and charge us and so forth.

And of course, docs will do everything they have to to convince a woman to get a C Section when NOT required. Ugh.

Anyway, this isn’t about “immoral capitalism”. Hehe.

This is about me thinking back to that time and thinking, but hey, Rahul – wait a minute.

You worked out then too!

You still got your chin over the pull-up bar, albeit for fewer reps.

You still walked a hell of a lot.

You even jogged.

I did all this, I even did my 500 pushup workouts back then.

I did jump rope workouts.

Yet, the building shook when I jumped.

Nothing I did would get rid of the phat.

You know what though?

It’s that old axiom of “you cannot outtrain a bad diet” that was biting me in the ass, I knew it, yet didnt do a damn thing about it.

Fried chicken damn near every night for one, lots of and lots of “brew” – a generally “follow the pundits lifestyle” – breakfast is the most important meal – and three squares a day, essential! – and other BS I did back then were really what was keeping the weight on rather than off.

(the above is just the tip of my iceberg in terms of my diet back then, hehe)

Look, in Eat More Weigh Less I say you can outtrain a poor diet, temporarily you can.

Permanently though …

Exercise is king, Nutrition is Queen, TOGETHER they make a kingdom.

Not me saying that, Jack La Lanne did. (The Simple and Effective Diet).

You just cannot keep burning the candle at both ends, its that simple. Eventually it will run out, something will give.

Now diet doesnt need to be perfect, or even damn near perfect, or anywhere near it.

Its really WHAT you put in your mouth, your mentality – and how many times, and in what quantity you do so that counts.

WAY too many people are guilty of eating too much – not less.

I realize with inflation etc going on that is not a nice thing to say, but I’ve said before, I’ll say it again, people need to eat less and exercise more, not the reverse.

And you simply need to stop buying into the soft, molly coddled mentality so many people have, it makes things even worse.

I finally (at the end of that year) resumed my hill climbs – and the fat instantly started to fly off.

I reduced my FOOD intake too – though not necessarily the beer, hehe, and it showed.

But you know what I was doing back then – or what I was NOT doing then – that really, really mattered?

THAT is the reason I wanted to write to you about this.

I was not doing SQUATS.

I was doing pushups, pull-ups ,jump rope, all of it.

But not 100 squat workouts daily.

Not 700 squats once or twice a week, or more.

Not even 50 squats a day …

Look, point of me saying this.

If you ain’t squatting, you aint training hard, it’s that simple.

Squats, the very action of bending the knees “ass to grass” does something for the body NO other exercise does. It gets the heart and lungs pumping and muscles working in a manner nothing else except perhaps sprints do, but mental focus and gumption, nothing beats squats.

“If you’re not doing Hindu squats, you’re not really doing Combat Conditioning” said Matt Furey in the world famous book.

He’s right, except I’d remove the word “Hindu” because it applies to any sort of high rep squat training, or even the 20 rep squats made so popular by the legendary Brooks D. Kubik in Dinosaur Training.

Not just Dinosaur Bodyweight Training where he says you should do bodyweight squats DAILY, for your whole life.

(I still remember talking with Kubik back in the day – some good stuff there! Legend, like I keep saying, consistent till this day, more than what you can say about blowhards that blow whichever way the sales pendulum “tonks” – pun not and never (right! hehe) intended)

The first book was what really got him off the ground, and with damn good reason, he’s got PLENTY of solid stuff in there, even though it’s “weights” and not bodyweight.

Plenty of ways to skin that cat…

Anyway, if you ain’t doing squats, I dont care why, how, or how you justify it to yourself.

It’s none of my damn business to be frank.

But you’re not really training in that case, it will show, and I’ll leave it at that!

And last, but not least, I’m sure Squat 101 will be the next book out. In case Charles is reading this, yes, Charles, the book on plyometrics is long overdue, but I’ve got a lot of it written, much like with Lumberjack “Lodestone” Fitness.

Living in the flow, catch as catch can, we’ll see how it all eventually comes out.

In the meantime, keeping the above in mind, the two courses to rectify excess blubber PRONTO?

Or, perhaps more than two …

All of my work will do it, but if I had to name three?

The 0 Excuses Fitness System.

Advanced Hill Training.

Pushup Central.

And thats that.

Back soon.

BEst

Rahul Mookerjee

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