Gattaca (1997) is one of those movies that never really made a big splash at the box office or achieved mainstream fame, yet, is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. Aside from the beautiful musical score, it illustrates many extremely powerful messages, with the most important being: you are the authority on what’s possible.

There are many great quotes throughout the film, but their true impact is within the context of the storyline. Quoting them on their own doesn’t do them justice, however, there are a couple that hold up…

“It was the one moment in our lives that my brother was not as strong as he believed, and I was not as weak. It was the moment that made everything else possible.”

“I was now a member of a relatively new and particularly detested segment of society; one of those who refuses to play the hand that he was dealt. I am most commonly known as a borrowed ladder, or a de-gene-erate.”

This movie mainly deals with the power of determination and willpower in a dystopic society heavily involved with eugenics. If you are looking for entertainment and inspiration at the same time, I would highly recommend you watch this movie. If you don’t have 1 hour and 46 minutes, then maybe you’ll enjoy this short video synopsis that sums it up very nicely…

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I am a full believer in the theory that music absolutely helps with training intensity. Music evokes emotion. Emotion is the difference between a mediocre workout and a remarkable one. I personally sway towards powerful lyrics and powerful scores. That probably explains why rock and metal seem to always have a place on my iPod shuffle.

The only problem is that like any music, over-playing tracks inevitably lowers the appeal of the song. Eventually all tracks get played out.

With that being said, I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 training songs… for the moment.

1. Crystal Method & Filter - Trip Like I Do (Remix)
2. Alkaline Trio - Burn (Underworld Soundtrack Mix)
3. Metallica - Blitzkrieg
4. “Gattaca” Movie Theme (Soundtrack)
5. Apocalyptica - Nothing Else Matters (Instrumental Cover)
6. A Perfect Circle - Passive
7. A Perfect Circle - Halo
8. Jay-Z - The Ruler’s Back
9. Eminem, Obie Trice, and DMX - Go To Sleep
10. Gary Jules - Mad World

Whenever I have a new rotation of songs, I’ll make sure to share them. If you have any recommendations, I’m always open to suggestions!

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I stumbled upon the Gym Jones website a few weeks back and had planned to share this link earlier.

The following link is a whole list of their training videos:

Gym Jones Videos

I especially recommend watching “Gym Jones Intro”, “The Captain”, and “One Piece” if you ever feel like you are lacking the motivation to hit the gym with some intensity.

This is an article written by Chris Shugart from T-Nation, a few years back. Whenever I lack motivation, reading this article in it’s entirety completely resets my perspective, which reminds me of a quote…

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