Matt’s Mix Tape, Vol. 138

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: essays + links to help you write and workout your way to a remixed middle life.

This week’s Mix:

• We can all do work that matters

• Benefits of blood donation (and avoiding facial rug burns)

• Progress with the free weight experiment

• This week’s Florida photo

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We can all do work that matters

Write of Passage Cohort Eight is a wrap. I served as lead mentor, captaining a team of instructors who poured themselves into sessions and students over five weeks.

Write of Passage taught me we can all do work that matters. 

I didn’t always feel that way.

This week I reflected on my last year as a marketing director. My team made more than $65M in referral revenue that year and halved customer acquisition costs. It was a huge win. (Cherlyne, Riaz, Sam—miss ya!)

But now, I remember how hollow the achievement felt.

Hard work chasing numbers on a spreadsheet for indifferent leadership. What did it really matter?

Then came Write of Passage. First I was a trepidatious student. Then a mentor. Then lead mentor.

It’s been the most impactful work of my life.

Pleaes remember:

• We can all do work that matters.

• It’s never too late to start.

And we can’t do it alone.

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Benefits of blood donation (and avoiding facial rug burns)

I woke up, to my wonderment, face down on the carpet.

It was autumn, 1999. My employer offered cholesterol screenings. I was starving, but stopped by the break room before lunch to get my finger pricked. A few drops of blood, a Band-Aid, and I was on my merry way.

I charged through the lobby in hot pursuit of a cold turkey sandwich. Things went dark. Then I found myself sprawled out on the lobby floor.

I fainted.

Now you know the real reason I donate blood: atonement for weakness at seeing my own blood.

Donating blood has health benefits:

• Reduces iron stores, lowering cancer risk

• Lowers heart attack risk by nearly 90 percent!

• Burns at least 500 calories replacing the blood

Besides, it’s good for humanity. So donate blood.

But do keep your face off the carpet. Facial rug burns, unsightly and unpleasant, serve as a stark reminder to co-workers that you face-planted in the lobby. Every single time they look at you. For weeks.

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The unexpected effects of a free weight workout

Recently, I switched my Monday strength training from machines to dumbbells:

All single sets, done to failure.

Free weight workouts develop stabilizer muscles:

Machines don’t recruit stabilizing muscles the way free weights do since they often require you to move a load in just one plane of motion. With free weights, the load is free to go anywhere. Stabilizer muscles therefore must work to make sure the load is being controlled and moved efficiently—a job that simply isn’t required when working on most machines.

But what is a stabilizer muscle?

When performing an exercise, there are primary movers and stabilizer muscles. Stabilizer muscles are tasked with stabilizing the body and extremities during multiplanar movements, while primary movers are the muscles doing most of the work.

I’ve noticed this with my forearms, which are becoming more defined:

I’m still pro-machine-workouts. I use machines for legs and my Friday upper body lifts.

Mostly, though, I’m pro-experiment. This one seems to be paying off.

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This week’s Florida photo

An armadillo, out for breakfast.

(As I took this photo, I wondered, “Do armadillos have badger-like tempers? Will I be writing about an armadillo assault next week?)

This one was far more interested in grubs than in me.

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Hello to 32 new subscribers!

Thank you for reading.

And whatever you’re working on or working through: keep showing up.