The Stoic life centred around habits and routines — practices in which they engaged daily, from their waking moments until going to sleep, that provided the structure necessary for a day lived well. These practices can provide a blueprint for us, to help us to lead good and happy lives. This article outlines these practices, and how you can structure your day like a Stoic thousands of years later.

“Assemble your life… action by action. And be satisfied if each one achieves its goal… No one can keep that from happening…Action by action.” — Marcus Aurelius

Morning

Wake up early

“The day has already…

Detoxing is like a spring cleaning; it removes all the unwanted substances from your body. These include heavy metals picked up from our environment, various toxins, and metabolic waste.

Although we have built-in detoxification mechanisms such as the liver and kidneys, the amount of toxic substances we are exposed to now is a lot higher than when these processes evolved.

Back when we were living on the savanna or in the jungles we weren’t exposed to pollution, pesticides, or heavy metals. Toxins can be found everywhere, from non-stick cookware to the fire retardants put in mattresses.

Signs your body needs a detox

Do you experience any…

There are likely infinite exercise programs in existence. Everything from endurance-based to power-based, from CrossFit to yoga. It can become quite overwhelming, actually, with all the choices.

What am I supposed to be doing this week? Should I be periodizing my program? Should I do 5 sets or 10?

These are questions that have haunted me through myriad nights. And I have a wealth of experience with exercise, fitness, and program design. Yet I still get rattled when I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing.

But I was recently listening to The Ross Edgley…

I’ve always liked the idea of religious disciplines and practices — reading scripture each morning, praying, attending church. However, I don’t really resonate with religion. I like the idea of nourishing the soul and having spiritual practices but have always struggled to find such practices or to follow someone, a philosophy, or a school of thought that’d provide these practices and daily guidance.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve actively sought out nonreligious spiritual practices to include in my daily routines. …

I feel confident in saying yoga is changing my life. About a month ago, I started doing yoga daily each morning and sometimes again before bed. To be honest, I don’t even remember what compelled me to start this practice. I’d dabbled with yoga before, but it had never stuck. I was aware of the benefits — increased strength, better awareness of breath, improved mobility. But I never did it.

But since that first morning about one month ago, I’m hooked. I look forward to it each morning, and I’m always looking for an excuse to do another session during…

Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning from about 10 pm until past midnight, and then considered getting up at about 4 am. I knew what the issue was as soon as my partner turned out the light: I hadn’t had even a sliver of an evening routine.

I was in the gym until 8:30 pm, I had a snack at about 9 pm, and had a cup of tea at 9:30 pm. I should have known better. And obviously, things come up and sometimes we need to deviate from our routines. But it will do us…

So many of us like to finish off our strength workouts with some cardio or a quick bout of HIIT. But research shows this may actually be hindering our progress. Via the mechanism of concurrent training, training for both endurance and strength in a single session appears to dilute the body’s response to both — therefore decreasing the progress in both strength and endurance.

“Many experts warn against the dangers of adding cardio to the end of your weight training. It’s theorized that this floods the body with a cocktail of catabolic hormones that kills your body’s natural anabolic response…

Recovery is critically important for your health and fitness goals. However, not all recovery strategies are beneficial and appropriate for every situation. In fact, some recovery tactics can actually hinder your progress and leave you worse off than you would have been had you done nothing at all. Therefore, it’s important to understand how recovery works and to ensure you’re using the right strategies for your goals.

In this article, I will explain the importance of muscle soreness and inflammation for muscle growth, outline the recovery strategies that can inhibit progress, and then outline some more universal recovery protocols.

The role of muscle soreness and inflammation

Exercise…