Stacked 013 - Living with Integrity & Strength with Dan John

Dan John is an icon in the world of…well, pick one: Olympic lifting, throwing, academia, Highland Games, coaching, instructional fitness writing - the list goes on. After becoming an All-American discus thrower and competing at the top levels of Olympic weightlifting, Dan started coaching the next generations of athletes. Over 40 years later, he’s still going strong.

“The word ‘integrity’ comes from the word ‘integer.’ It means ‘one.’ You should be basically the same person in every situation.”

Dan and I sat down during our lunch break at the RKC II to talk about mortality, building a legacy, and how your goals might be tanking your health. We discuss the differences between resume-building and eulogy-writing, evaluate the characters we’ve encountered at high school reunions, and take some shots at conventional health and fitness beliefs.

“Will this make a difference? You need to have some kind of mission statement.”

• Dan John is a legendary strength and conditioning coach…but that’s just the beginning (1:00)
• The higher you go, the fresher the air…and the nicer the people (6:30)
• Let’s talk about life and death (not taxes though) (8:30)
• Olympic medals don’t make you a good person, and other life lessons (16:30)
• The 10,000-hour rule is actually bullshit, and there’s always someone better, hungrier, meaner than you (19:00)
• 15-20 pushes, squats, pulls, is all you really need in a workout (24:00)
• You can’t have Christmas every day: how to set goals you can accomplish without sacrificing your wellbeing (25:30)
• What do recovery and wedding planning have in common? (28:00)
• The most important practices for longevity: you’ll reap later in life what you’re sowing right now (33:00)

Find Dan

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Mentioned in This Episode

• Dan’s Books
• Dan’s Workout Plans
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
• The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance
• Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) by Bill Gifford
• RKC / HKC

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