Another hard day to write. One filled with fear and anger over recent events in our country.

I’m a people-listener. I talk with folks all over the country, across ages, politics, industries, family structures. And the through-line right now is loud and clear: people are scared, and sad. And they’re angry. Anger is a reaction I’m intimately acquainted with.

When I was a teenager, my best friend used to lock herself in her room after fighting with her mom and blast Rage Against the Machine. You can imagine the song, it made me cringe but I also loved it. I was a punk rock teen (let's be real, I still am). My heroes are Joe Strummer and the Clash, and lately I’ve been cueing them up on the drive to school and educating my son on them. "This song is about this. It was happening then. It’s happening now.”

I was an angry kid. But I didn’t aim that anger where you might expect. I turned it inward. I restricted food, or I over ate. I procrastinated like crazy. I overtrained. I escaped into video games. I drank alcohol. I smoked. I was, frankly, a bit of a shithead. I was mean. Not because I wanted to hurt people, but because I was trying to protect myself.

I was mad at a world that told me to be strong, but not too strong. Be attractive, but don’t ask for it. Be capable, but don’t take up too much space. I was confused. So I harmed myself, and through that, other people too.

I would absolutely fight you if you messed with me, but maybe also just break down and cry. But my unsavory demeanor and cold shoulder kept most people at arm’s length. Armor does that. It works… until it doesn’t.

What flipped the switch for me was realizing this: I had internalized a world of hurt, and I was lashing out sideways because I felt powerless. My anger wasn’t the problem. My relationship with it was.

Things began to change when I started reclaiming my voice, and my power, through boundaries. At first, those boundaries were also angry. Accusatory. Rigid. Necessary. And over time, they softened. Not because I got weaker, but because I learned I could come from a place of trust instead, of threat. From clarity instead of defense.

So how do we get there?

First: we stop pretending anger is the enemy.

Anger is information. It shows up when something matters. When a line has been crossed. When fear, grief, helplessness, or another emotion, has nowhere else to go. The work isn’t to eliminate anger. It’s to notice it sooner.

Enter: STOP

A simple, imperfect, human tool.

S — Stop.​
Not forever. Just pause the momentum. Interrupt the spiral.

T — Take a breath.​
One breath counts. Thirty seconds counts. You’re not failing because you didn’t meditate for 20 minutes.

O — Observe.​
What am I actually feeling underneath this? Fear? Sadness? Shame? Powerlessness. Where do I feel it in my body?

P — Proceed with intention.​
Not perfection. Intention. Even if that intention is: I’m not ready to respond yet.

Strengthening the awareness muscle

This is practice, not mastery. You’ll notice anger after you snap at first. Then halfway through. Then right before. Each step counts. It may not be linear. Awareness grows the same way strength does, through reps, not willpower. And here’s the part we skip way too often:

Grace.

When you recognize it, but can’t stop it yet, that still counts. That’s not failure. That’s data. You don’t shame a muscle for shaking under load. You don’t quit because your first push-up was ugly.

Anger doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you care. The goal isn’t to become softer, or quieter, or more palatable. It’s to become clearer. More grounded. More deliberate with where your energy goes.

We don’t need more people numbing out or turning on themselves, or lashing out at others. We need people who can feel deeply, set boundaries, and stay human in hard moments. That road isn’t linear. But it is walkable.

And today, if all you did was notice? That’s enough to keep going.

NBC-HWC | ACSM-CPT

⛰️Physical PEAKS: Progress Isn’t Always Loud

Mental reps come first: the quiet practice of recognizing your patterns and meeting them with a different choice. Physical reps follow: the push, the shake, the rebuild. Same principle, adaptation happens when you repeat the work and respect what your system needs next.

If you’ve ever trained consistently and hit a plateau, you know how tempting it is to assume you need to push harder:

-More weight.
-More volume.
-More intensity.
-Less rest.

But plateaus in training work the same way emotional ones do: they’re not a character flaw, they’re information. Muscle doesn’t grow from effort alone. It grows from the conversation between stress and recovery. Without enough recovery, your body stops adapting, not because it’s weak, but because it’s smart.

Here’s what actually helps when progress stalls:

Rest (yes, really).​
Strength gains happen during recovery, not during the lift itself. Strategic rest days, de-load weeks, and sleep are not “taking time off”, they’re what allow your nervous system and tissues to catch up to the work you’re asking them to do.

Periodization.​
Training in cycles, changing volume, intensity, or focus over time, keeps your body from adapting too well. Linear progress isn’t real life. Peaks, valleys, and resets are how long-term strength is built.

Tempo work & negatives.​
Slowing things down increases time under tension and forces the nervous system to stay engaged. Eccentric (lowering/negative) phases build strength and resilience in ways that max effort alone can’t.

Partial reps (half reps done on purpose).​
When full range stalls, partials can overload specific sticking points. This isn’t cheating, it’s targeted problem-solving.

Variation, not chaos.​
Small changes, grip, stance, range of motion, load, or equipment, can wake up adaptation without throwing the whole plan out the window.

Recovery inputs matter.​
Fuel, hydration, mobility, and stress management directly affect performance. You can’t out-train under-eating, poor sleep, or a fried nervous system.

Here’s the bigger picture: Plateaus don’t mean you’re stuck. They mean your body has learned the lesson you’ve been teaching, and it’s time to change the stimulus or honor the recovery. Strength isn’t built by bullying your body. It’s built by paying attention.

Just like awareness, confidence, or emotional regulation, your physical capacity grows through intentional stress, adequate rest, and patience. And sometimes the most punk rock thing you can do for your training?

Take a step back… so you can come back stronger.

📚 Sources & Further Reading

A few of the research-backed ideas behind this week’s PEAKS section.

​Cunanan, A.J., DeWeese, B.H., Wagle, J.P. et al. The General Adaptation Syndrome: A Foundation for the Concept of Periodization. Sports Med 48, 787–797 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0855-3​

​Schoenfeld (2010) review of muscle hypertrophy mechanisms (PDF)​

​Kraemer & Ratamess (2004) fundamentals of resistance training (PDF)​

Erlacher, D., & Vorster, A. (2023). Sleep and muscle recovery – Current concepts and empirical evidence. Current Issues in Sport Science (CISS), 8(2), 058. https://doi.org/10.36950/2023.2ciss058​

​Damas, F., Phillips, S., Vechin, F.C. et al. A Review of Resistance Training-Induced Changes in Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis and Their Contribution to Hypertrophy. Sports Med 45, 801–807 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0320-0​

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