I know. I just did a health-related post last week. It was a coincidence that my one-year mark fell just a week before Treg was scheduled to post, but I’m glad it worked out that way. I can’t emphasize enough how crucial being in shape is for both being a better man and being better dressed. Whether the goal is the physique of a body builder, an endurance athlete, or a fighter, a man’s life is vastly improved when he takes care of his body. All of the philosophical reasons I’ve addressed over the years that apply to a well-curated wardrobe are amplified when a man is healthy.

So, without further ado, here’s Treg’s intro to who he is and what he plans to accomplish with his quarterly posts.

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Treg Corbridge, I finished my undergrad this spring with a degree in Exercise Physiology and a pre-med emphasis and I am currently interviewing at med schools to begin next year. My degree honestly doesn’t do much but it did help me to get a basis to prepare me for graduate school and it also taught me a deep appreciation for the genius of the human body and its innate power. I love learning about how to improve my body and more importantly putting that information into practice.

I’m excited to come aboard and add to Masculine Style. Tanner and I are actually neighbors and the style help he has given me has been invaluable. I made a lot of excuses about my style sense, mainly that nothing would fit my physique. Tanner quickly helped me to realize that, like everything else, it was just an excuse and only required more thought and effort on my part. So I have seen first hand the benefits of Masculine Style and am looking forward to contributing in my own area of expertise.

I have been weight training since I was 13. I began with Olympic lifting geared towards producing strength and power for sports. I also had a lot of rehab through that time; just a couple years after I had graduated from high school I had already had 4 leg surgeries: a broken femur, a ruptured Achilles tendon, a torn meniscus and a partially torn ACL. They were all extreme injuries that were hard to rehab, but they taught me a lot and made me grateful to the physicians that performed the surgeries and helped me recover. I’m happy to say that, because of all their help, I can squat, deadlift, run (though I prefer biking) and do pretty much anything that I want! – other than calf raises…from my left calf muscle down is pretty much scar tissue and even though I’ve done rehab on it three days a week the muscle remains weak. I currently enjoy bodybuilding (men’s physique) with a lot of targeting and isolating specific muscles to bring up my weak points and create my best overall aesthetic.

I lift to be strong, both mentally and physically. I seriously believe that the mental gains I have made far outweigh the physique and strength gains. There are a lot of situations in the gym that correlate with situations in our everyday lives. A champion mindset doesn’t just happen; it is created by consistent effort and conquering each task that is placed before us day in and day out. And one best believe there’s no better way to start his day than demolishing an early morning gym session and strengthening his willpower.

“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

The body is beautifully engineered to thrive under stress and recess in the absence thereof. The body is one big machine hell-bent on surviving and will do whatever it takes to do so. For example, when we do weight training we cause micro tears in the muscle fibers and break down support proteins around the fibers. So what does the body do? It builds back those fibers and support proteins to be bigger and stronger to prepare for the next training session (For this reason progressive overload is one of the main keys for continual muscle growth). The same is true for cardiovascular training. It causes the heart muscle to become stronger and pump more blood per beat, it causes the arteries and veins to be able to constrict and dilate better and it causes more capillaries to form to supply blood and nutrients to each working muscle fiber more efficiently. Almost all strength gains in the first month of training are neurological, just from the body learning how to contract the muscle fibers efficiently and form the mind-muscle connection.

Building and maintaining a good physique is, in my mind, a status symbol to let others know what type of man one is. Building that type of body is not easy; it takes years of consistent exercise and focus.  A man that cares about himself, pays attention to detail, and is motivated to work hard isn’t going to skip out on the gym or not care about what he eats. Training is more or less the easy part; the real dedication comes from sticking to A diet. It’s impossible to out train a poor diet.

When the body is working well we feel good, and when we feel good we feel confident. Achieving something that almost two-thirds of the American population fails at is definitely something to feel pride for. Not the type of pride that causes a man to be arrogant to the point where no one can stand to be around him, but the type of pride that causes him to be confident and a source of inspiration to others. Self-image is incredibly important to one’s self esteem, don’t let a lack of discipline and self control cause feelings of inadequacy when looking in the mirror. Don’t forget to train the mind just as hard as the body. Training one without the other is like training chest without working on the back; it’s going to lead to an imbalance.

In the future I plan to write more content on training and dieting but I will always correlate what I write with the theme of Masculine Style, which is how you can use information in your everyday life to become a better man.

Tanner again. Pretty cool right? I’m excited to see what Treg brings to the table. As a final note, you may have noticed that the ability to comment on this post is no longer available. That is not because I don’t want to hear your thoughts, rather the other authors and I are better able to respond manage and respond to comments on Facebook or through Twitter. So feel free to check us out there and let us know what you think of the article.