💪 Prison Workouts

In this week's P.O. Box:

A few years ago I set a personal goal to be able to bench more reps at 225 pounds than Christian McCaffrey, who managed "only" ten at the 2017 combine.

It was a silly, arbitrary number that gave me a specific carrot to chase as motivation whenever I didn't feel like "getting after it" on chest day.

I failed, by the way. I had stayed pretty consistent with a program for almost six months, but topped out at 8 reps before hurting my elbow and realizing that getting injured trying to "too small" the best RB in the NFL was not exactly what I was going for.

A byproduct of "working out" is mind games and tricks that we play on ourselves to stay motivated, or at least it is for me. Whether it's a prop bet or a streak displayed in an app or even simply the desire to dunk on all of the haters and losers who told me a dad bod was inevitable, manufactured motivations help fuel us normies toward results that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.

Similar to my morning routine getting flipped on its head since having a kid, I've also had to readjust my approach to exercise. There simply isn't enough time in the day anymore for me to indulge in a long gym session topped off with a trip to the sauna. I can barely get to the gym once a week, much less enough times to maintain any kind of consistent program.

Initially I was worried about what this would mean for my fitness, but like with any curveball in life, I've adapted.

Instead of setting specific fitness goals and optimizing for improvement like I've done previously, I've shifted to optimizing purely for showing up and doing something, anything. I realize that sounds trite, but I don't really know any other way to describe it. If I can just do one thing every day, even if it's only for 20 minutes, I'm chalking it up as a W.

I've started to call these quick sessions "prison workouts" because most of the stuff that I can reliably squeeze in is all bodyweight stuff with very little equipment needed: pushups, pullups, planks, burpees, sprints up a hill near my house, etc.

And in doing this the past three months, I've learned that I'm getting nearly all of the same benefits (in a fraction of the time) that I was getting from my more bloated, pre-kid workout routines.

The mental health benefits I get from the quick workouts are the same for me. My weight, aesthetics, and overall fitness levels are relatively unchanged. And hey, I can do more pullups now than at any other time in my life (wonder how many CMC can do??).

I'm sure eventually I'll get bored with this jerry-rigged maintenance program and find a new way to re-motivate myself (maybe Chasing Rudman??), but for now it's getting the job done in a way that fits with my current situation.

One of my high school basketball coaches used to say, "You either get better or worse, you never stay the same." Maybe that's true, but for me right now staying the same feels just as good as getting better.

📈  The three players who dominated the NFL Combine. 60-second summary.

🍳 The biggest rookie risers and fallers post-NFL Combine. Jumped into two Big Board drafts on Monday morning, rocked out, and found some of the new rookie ADPs very interesting. Also wrote about the new drafting landscape on Fantasy Life.

😉 I learned an important lesson with Trey Lance. I'll never make the same mistake again. 

💦 Spags vs. Pete draft. Normally draft together with my co-hosts, but went H2H for this one. The piss boys forced me into another double RB start.

🤑 The Roham article. The Club was full on Tuesday with Peter Jennings back in the mix and we dove into the recent controversial piece about the Top Shot CEO. Also talked some Underdog strategy for the NBA playoff best ball contests.

🚢 Dissecting a polarizing rookie class. Lord Reebs joined us on Ship Chasing to dish hot taeks on the 2023 prospects, including some spicy thoughts about the QBs.

🙏 The WR on a mission in 2023. Highly recommend checking out Calvin Ridley's piece in The Player's Tribune.

💰 Why the sports betting space needs to drink bleech. Captain Jack Andrews brought the heat on LOLz.

The Badge Bros are a relatively new addition to the Deposit Kingdom server, but they've already formed one of the most active sub-communities within the Discord. If you play at all on Underdog Fantasy, it's the place to be. There are sub-threads for all of the sports so you can pick and choose which conversations you want to be apart of:

I generally stick to football, but recently got the NBA Playoff best ball bug and am trying to soak up as much NBA knowledge as I can so I'm not fully punting it off (oh, Ja Morant is out, interesting!). Although, if you played any of the NFL playoff best ball, a lot of the same macro construction concepts are the same. Anyways, join us...

Congratulations to reader (& longtime Deposit Kingdom member) Bethany/WOMANZ on winning the signed football giveaway. She's auctioning off the ball to raise money for charity if you are interested in getting in the mix: