📩 In Today’s Email

• Deep Dive: How Movement Transformed My Life (And How It Can Transform Yours) — From losing 60 pounds in 6 months to feeling like a kid again, this is the journey of turning motion into power.

• The Read: Stronger by Michael Joseph — A modern-day classic on muscle growth, why strength matters, and how to make your body work the way it’s supposed to.

• The Stream: Knees Over Toes Guy — Ben Patrick’s revolutionary approach to knee health. Want to climb Sigiriya or trek Petra pain-free? This is how you do it.

📢 Newsletter News

1. Subscriber Growth Is Taking Off: The ATN community is growing fast, thanks to you. More readers join every day, and your feedback is shaping something special.

Want to help us grow even faster? Share this newsletter with a fellow traveler. 

Our mission is to be your go-to guide for travel, the nomad lifestyle, and bold, borderless creativity.

2. New Language Options—With a Twist: Starting next week, new subscribers can choose English or Spanish upon signup.

But this isn’t some dull, automated translation.

The Spanish version is bespoke-crafted by yours truly, infused with Colombian slang, youthful energy, and action-oriented style.

It’s built to hit harder, feel fresher, and speak directly to the culture.

The way it’s meant to be.

(Both versions will, of course, be accessible through the Archive.)

🤿 The Deep Dive - Journey to Health, One Step at a Time

I used to be the kind of guy who could rattle off the top ten delivery apps in any city without breaking a sweat.

Walking? That was something I did to answer the door when Uber Eats arrived. But something shifted. Something had to.

The truth is, I was running out of energy. And not just the physical kind. It was like my body was telling me, Enough already.

You can’t keep sitting still and expect everything to work. I was glued to my laptop for hours a day, creating, writing, planning, and building a life that required me to sit still.

And it was killing me.

And I’m not alone in that. Maybe you’ve spent years hunched over a desk, cranking out work like a machine, only to stand up and feel your joints creak like rusty door hinges.

The slow decay of a sedentary life catches up to everyone eventually.

You start to feel like you’ve lost a step. Or maybe ten. And the longer you wait, the harder it feels to make a change.

But here's the thing: It’s never too late. And there’s nothing like travel to jolt your body awake. To pull you out of the rut.

There’s something about going somewhere new, hitting the streets, climbing hills, dodging rabid dogs, and just moving because it feels like freedom.

I started walking. Not some grand fitness transformation, just something to shake the decay off my bones. At first, I was the walking version of Forrest Gump. Everywhere I was going, I was WALKIN!

One foot in front of the other. Just keep going. I didn’t care about being fast or even consistent. I just needed to move.

But it wasn’t easy. The wind was in my face—literally and metaphorically. My legs ached, my feet screamed, my lungs burned. But I kept at it.

A few thousand steps turned into five thousand, then ten thousand. Eventually, I was hitting twelve thousand steps a day, most days of the week.

And I cut out delivery. That was a big one. If I wanted food, I had to walk to get it. And if I was going to walk to get it, I was damn sure going to make healthier choices.

Then something interesting happened. The weight started dropping. I added the gym. More dropped. My body began working the way it was supposed to.

I lost 60 pounds in 6 months! 

And I wasn’t trying to hit some magic number on a scale. I was trying to get my body to work the way it’s supposed to.

And the weight loss? It was just a by-product of moving like I was meant to.

The wind that had been in my face for so long was now at my back, pushing me forward. And I started by walking.

But it’s not just about me. It’s about people who feel like they’ve lost something along the way.

The traveler who hits the road and realizes they’ve been dragging around a broken-down body. You know who you are.

Maybe you’ve dreamt of hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It’s something almost anyone can do, regardless of age, if you’re prepared.

The Inca Trail rule is ages 17 - 70. Every week 70-year-olds complete the journey, legs burning but spirits high. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about preparing. 

Training your body for the climb. Knowing how to balance strength and endurance so your knees don’t give out and your lungs don’t catch fire from the altitude.

I have been spearfishing with people in their 80s.

THAT is Living Boldly, my friends. That is an aspiration.

That’s who we, as explorers, want to be.

And if you think age is a factor, think again. Jack Eckenrode started cycling at 75 and still rides daily at 96. That’s not just genetics. That’s intention. Effort.

Moving when it’s easier to stay still.

Or maybe it’s the Great Wall of China you’ve got your eyes on. The sections range from tame strolls to brutal vertical climbs. People of all ages tackle it.

But those who prepare, who build the resilience to handle the endless stone steps, those are the ones who walk away with more than just sore legs. 

They walk away with something that lasts.

The truth is, your body is your greatest asset. And if you want to see the world, it needs to work or you need workarounds. Modern technology to the rescue.

The more I walked, the more I realized I was preparing my body for everything I wanted to do. And for everything I wanted to write about.

But you’ve got to be smart about it. Because travel isn’t just a series of Instagram-worthy moments (at least let’s pretend it isn’t for a second).

It’s airports and bus stations, high altitudes and brutal hikes. And if your body isn’t prepared, it’s going to hit back.

Sprained ankles from uneven terrain. Neck pain from strange pillows. Back strain from lugging around an overpacked bag. Even worse? The stuff you don’t see coming.

Altitude sickness from pushing your body too fast without proper acclimatization.

Overworked quads and underworked hamstrings causing knee injuries. Poor posture from hours hunched over your laptop, leaving your back stiff and angry.

You’ve probably heard the basics a million times—stay hydrated, stretch, rest. Yeah, yeah. But there’s a reason the advice doesn’t change. Because it works. 

But there’s more to it than that.

If you want to really protect yourself, you’ve got to prepare. 

That means learning how to train both the push and pull muscles of your legs so your ACL doesn’t snap like a raw chicken leg when you decide to tackle something harder than your daily walk to the grocery store.

That means knowing how to acclimate to altitude before trying to power your way up a mountain.

But it’s not just about avoiding injuries. It’s about creating something better. 

Giving your body the strength and resilience to handle whatever you throw at it.

So you can stroll the Great Wall of China without wheezing, so you can push through the Andes and see Machu Picchu with your own eyes.

And here’s the best part—everywhere I go, whether it’s the city streets of Medellín, some remote village, or an airport in the middle of nowhere, I walk. I move. 

And it’s made all the difference.

Because if you want to keep traveling, keep exploring, and keep living, you have to take care of the only thing that truly belongs to you: your body. 

And I can tell you that I am in the best shape of my life and feel fantastic, bouncing out of bed like a kid.

🤓 The Read - Stronger by Michael Joseph Gross

6th Century B.C. —

Milo went to the field and picked up a calf. Every day, he returned and did it again. Every day, the calf grew. And every day, Milo grew stronger.

And thus… progressive weight lifting was born.

Today —

STRONGER reads like a novel. No, like a myth. A brand-new classic about weight lifting. You don’t have to be a Spartan woman to flash your thighs at that.

Michael Joseph’s book feels almost mythological in its approach to strength-building. It’s not just about muscles.

It’s about why muscles matter.

Why strength has been revered since the days when lifting a rock was a rite of passage. The Greeks believed strength came from the gods.

The truth? It comes from the last bit of power you never know you have until you push for it.

Joseph breaks down the fascinating push-pull architecture of the human body.

Why ACLs snap because the pull side of your leg (the hamstrings) often gets neglected while the push side (the quadriceps) hogs all the glory.

When those quads become disproportionately stronger, they yank the tibia forward, straining or even tearing the ACL like an overextended rope. The solution? Balance.

Build resilient hamstrings, calves, and glutes. Create real, functional power that lasts.

Then there’s the back pain. A plague for writers and desk-bound creatives.

Joseph makes it clear: The human body wasn’t built to sit for hours.

The solution isn’t just standing up more.

It’s about strengthening the posterior chain, stretching, and rebuilding neglected muscle groups until they remember what strength feels like.

But Stronger isn’t just anatomy and physiology. It’s a philosophy. How to sculpt a powerful body with or without a luxury gym.

How principles like progressive overload and minimalist routines work anywhere. It’s adaptable. It’s raw. It’s hardcore.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended it. I suppose I could have just written that. The period in Hypertrophy Periodization.

🍿 The Stream - Knees Over Toes Guy

Ben Patrick, aka the “Knees Over Toes Guy,” is redefining how we think about knee health and performance.

His methods challenge the long-held belief that your knees should never pass your toes. If that sounds confusing—it did to me—watch his videos. Astonishing stuff.

In fact, he shows that training the knees to handle this position can create bulletproof joints and unmatched strength.

What can he do? The man’s abilities are insane. He casually performs Sissy Squats where he lowers himself from standing to kneeling with his knees stretching forward.

His ATG Split Squats go so deep you’d think he’s trying to touch the ground with his quads. And the Nordic Hamstring Curls? Pure madness—controlling his descent with only his hamstrings.

These exercises are designed to build strength where most injuries occur: the knees, ankles, and hips.

Why does this matter?

Because if you want to hike up to Machu Picchu without your knees crying out in agony, or stroll the endless stone steps of the Great Wall of China without feeling like you aged twenty years, you need Patrick’s methods.

Even something as seemingly simple as shopping in Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, weaving through crowds for hours, requires real resilience.

Ben Patrick’s system isn’t just for elite athletes. It’s for anyone who wants to travel the world and not have their body break down along the way. And the crazy part? It works.

🛤️ Outtro

Travel isn’t just about where you go—it’s about how you show up. Every place you land is an opportunity to rewrite your story. Keep moving forward, and make it count.

If this newsletter gave you something to think about, send it to a friend, a fellow traveler, or anyone who could use a fresh perspective.

The best way to grow this community is through word of mouth.

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See you next week. Stay bold. 🔥