Never Let Go by Dan John

The cover of the book shows Dan marching through snow with a heavy sack on his shoulders and a loaded sled being pulled behind him, the picture matches the title of the book: Never Let Go. This book isn’t about getting 6 pack abs (but if you follow Dan’s advice in the book you can achieve them) it is about Dan sharing the lessons from areas he is clearly passionate about – living, lifting and learning. I could barely put this book down and it actually had me laughing out loud (I didn’t use the internet acronym out of respect for Dan), and it has taken me almost two months to really process what I wanted to write about after reading this amazing book. He covers it all; picking up heavy things, carrying heavy things, exercise programs, food, sex, learning, throwing, competing, and beer. All of these great topics all loaded into one book.




It wasn’t until the end of the book that I found the chapter that truly blew me away. It is a simple idea, but doesn’t mean it is easy to do. The key to success is matching your goals to your behaviours. Reread that. Now do it again. Simple right? Easy? Take a look around and see how many people have big goals but can’t let go of behaviours necessary for accomplishing their goals. Dan’s solution is you either change your behaviours to meet your goals or you change your goals to meet your behaviours. I couldn’t get these words out of my head, I still can’t. I tell all my clients, I tell my friends, I tell anyone who will listen. Simple idea but not easy.

While winning the National Field Lacrosse Championships with my team the Whalley Ballers I suffered an injury. I had some training goals I wanted to accomplish but due to my injury there was no way I could get these done so I had to change my goal. My new goal was to completely heal my injury. That meant no more training and focusing on visits to an RMT and following rehab orders. A simple plan but not easy to follow because all I wanted to do was train. My past behaviours were train 3-4x week and play sports whenever possible, put those on the shelf I had a goal of being injury free. If I would have stuck to my old behaviours I would never heal my injury, thus not accomplish my goals. My goals currently match my behaviours and I am on the road to success and feel that when I come back I will be better than ever!

This is just one of many great lessons from Dan and I would highly recommend reading this book if you are interested in taking lessons from someone who has been in the fitness industry for many years and is an expert story teller. When you get the book you will NEVER LET GO until you reach the final page.

Josh Neumann, BHK

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

I kept hearing about the The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. by Daniel Coyle on the StrengthCoach Podcast, then Gray Cook talked about it in his book Movement, then I read this great blog post by Mike Boyle about it, and then a friend of mine who is a soccer coach told me he made all his players read it. With all these rave reviews for the book I had to find out for myself, so I borrowed my friends copy for my trip to Edmonton to celebrate my Grandad’s 89th birthday. The reviews were bang on, I started reading it on the skytrain to the Vancouver airport, read it on the plane, read it when I had a moment to myself during family time, and finally finished on the plane back home 2 days later... which is also where I left my friends copy, oops I guess he gets a new one minus all of his notes so he will have to read it again and then I will have to borrow it again to reread. Yes it is that good I will read it twice.

If you are in the business of teaching or coaching a skill to an individual or a group of individuals then this is a must read as Coach Boyle states in his blog post. Coyle travels the world to talk to the people who are responsible for producing some of the greatest talent we see in both athletics and arts (music). He travels to Brazil to figure out the ball handling secrets of the best footballers in the world. He goes to Russia to talk with the coach that has produced a number of top 10 female tennis players. He visits Curacao to figure out why they are producing great baseball players for such a small country. He talks with a former singer turned coach that is responsible for Jessica Simpson and many of American Idols top contestants. He goes for a burger with Tom Brady’s quarterback coach. He interviews the guys who studied John Wooden’s method of coaching. And the stories just go on and on, why I finished this page turner in about 48hours during a whirlwind family gathering.

Amongst the great stories of real life coaches Daniel Coyle mixes in the topic of myelin and how it relates to the development of talent. If you are unfamiliar with myelin you can get a quick overview here from Wikipedia, simply myelin is an insulator that covers the axon of a neuron. Why myelin is important is that it strengthens the pathways of our nervous system, and the stronger certain neural pathways are the easier it is to run the programs associated with the pathways. For example when you were a child you learned how to write and as you continued to practice (one of the major topics in the book) your writing got better; in other words you built strong neural pathways where your nervous system can communicate with your muscular and skeletal systems amongst others to allow you to write. Conversely as you got older and started writing less and using computers more the poorer your hand writing became, the neural pathways you created for writing weren’t lost they just aren’t running as strong as they were when you were practicing/learning to write. When you reach a certain age it becomes difficult to build more myelin but it is still possible to learn new skills, it happened as you learned to type! The neural pathways associated with typing became stronger the more time you spent typing, AKA you started surrounding the neural pathways with more and more myelin.




Coyle takes the limited research there is on myelin and uses the stories from the people he has met to create the blueprint for producing talent. If you want to know The Talent Code
you are going to have to read his book!
Josh Neumann, BHK

Happy Trainer + Happy Clients = Profitable Business

After writing my first book review for this new blog I realized I didn’t really give an explicit reason why trainers should read the book Time Rich Cash Optional by Cliff Harvey. So here it is: happiness lifestyle design. Cliff’s book is all about how to create a lifestyle of happiness, most trainers are already happy (at least most of the trainers I know are) but if you aren’t completely happy or if you find yourself not reaching your full potential than you are more than likely to find some helpful hints in this book.

The words Time Rich in the title really hit home with me as a trainer, I want to be able to spend my time doing the things that I want to do. These things include: training clients, training myself, reading books, playing with my dog, playing sports, socializing with friends and family, and hanging out with my girl. If you aren’t in control of your schedule it makes it very difficult to do these things, and this is why Cliff puts so much value on the currency time. Cliff provides you with the tools to take control of your schedule so that you can live a life full of rich experiences. When you are in control of your time you are going to be better able to give your best to your clients and that is what your job is all about as a trainer.




If you are already a happy trainer or when you become an even happier trainer after reading TRCO you can take the lessons and exercises (from the ends of each chapter) and begin to use them with your clients. To be truly successful as a trainer and change someone’s life you need to do more than give them a great 60minute training session you need to affect their lives the other 167hours of the week. This is where lifestyle design really comes in handy, and Cliff has loads of experience in this department as he has been the trainer/coach/consultant to many world class athletes and athletes. Help your clients get the body they lust after by helping them create the life of their dreams!

Happy trainer + happy clients = profitable business.
Josh Neumann

Time Rich Cash Optional by Cliff Harvey

Time Rich Cash Optional in the simplest sense is a guide to happiness. Cliff Harvey calls it an unconventional guide but for me it seems common sense but I guess that is because it has always been my life goal to live a happy life and focus on what makes me happy.

The more complex summary of this book is that Cliff is challenging the norms of life. He speaks of a paradigm shift where we abandon the idea that money is our ultimate currency and adopt the idea that time is the one true universal currency. We all have 24 hours in a day, but what differentiates each of us is what we do with them? Is the life of your dreams to work 50+ hours a week until retirement and then do all the things you wanted to do when you were younger but can’t? If it is then put your head down and go to work you are living the conventional dream. If it isn’t do you have a plan in place that will allow you to live the happiest life?

This is where Time Rich Cash Optional takes over, at the end of each chapter Cliff provides exercises and reflections that help you develop the action steps to create the lifestyle necessary for living the life of your dreams. You may be asking how do I live without any money? There are ways, but this book isn’t about living life with $0 (although there are tips for doing so). The book is about designing your everyday life so that you are able to do the things you love to do. Yes this includes working the job and hours you want to work so that you can earn money to have the experiences that bring you the most happiness.

I am by no stretch of the imagination a rich man in a monetary sense but I live a life full of rich experiences. During the 4weeks I read this book I did incredible things: skinny dipped in the ocean and dried off by a campfire on a beach, celebrated my birthday by having a sports day with a ton of friends, nearly caught a homerun ball at a Seattle Mariners game, went wakesurfing, celebrated my grandad’s 89th birthday, and of course spent a number of hours doing what I love – teaching people to move well! Doing all of these things wasn’t an accident, it happened because I have surrounded myself with amazing people that make me happy and I have created a career for myself that allows me the time and freedom to both do what I love and have experiences that truly make me happy. If you want to live a life like this read Time Rich Cash Optional and start “LIVING THE SH%# OUT OF LIFE!”

Josh Neumann

PS. For those looking to lose weight there is a great section called Stop ‘Getting Through’ on page 137 that will shed some light on a common problem I see when dealing with clients.
PPS. A great complimentary book to read for lifestyle design is Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek