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Saif Shaikh

@saif.strength

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No Nonsense Strength Coach for 21 years.
DM if you wanna seriously change the way you look & feel about yourself from the inside out.
Let's Change!!!

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5:28 Ladakh 2025.
4:44 Ladakh 2026.

But the 44 minutes were never really the point.

The real difference was everything between those two start lines.

1,700 km became 2,700.

Erratic training became consistency.

An injury became a rebuild.

A 54K DNF at Goa became fuel.

And the final month became about adding speed to the endurance I had built.

Last year, I was audacious and spent the race saving myself for the final 6K.

This year, I trusted the work enough to run the first 36.

The final kilometres still hurt.
The mountain was still the mountain.

But this time, I had the evidence that I’d done the work.

4:44 was simply the outcome.

The honest effort was the realest achievement.

#Builtintheboring #Sufferwell #Running #Hybridtraining #followObsession taken in Leh, Ladakh by @saif.strength

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25

25 days ago

“The Pygmalion effect”.
When you have high expectations of yourself you will tend to do better, rather than having low expectations where you might end up doing worse.

When I completed Hyrox Mumbai in 1:37:18(97 mins) I was almost certain that 1:30:00(90 mins) would be easily doable and hence I set my eyes on 1:25:00(85 mins).

At this point in life for me setting a goal that slightly out of reach and kinda crazy is the only way forward, it hasn’t always been the same.

The Sub 85 goal that I set for myself and spoke out loud about to everyone made sure that I dug deep enough and set and follow systems that helped me raise to the standard of my expectations.

I ran a lot, I weight trained enough to support my running and trained specific to Hyrox with a lot of intent but not as much intensity, which was part of the plan.

Compared to Hyrox Mumbai I spent more time on almost all the stations in training but I wasn’t pushing myself all that hard because I’m kinda new to it all and I know and accept the fact that it will take the time it will take for me to get efficient at these movements and that is when I will be in a great position to push myself hardest.

Eventually on the day at Hyrox Delhi I did manage to do better than Mumbai by 4 mins in total, if I hadn’t goofed up the sequence of walking lunges and farmers carry it would have been a 7 mins PR and I would have finished in 1:30:08, which was my first modest goal for this event.

But I’m just glad that goof up only incurred me a 3 mins penalty did not lead to a disqualification in which case I would anyways finish the race but not officially.

Onto the next one, Hyrox Bangalore April 2026 !!! by @saif.strength

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17

a year ago

“Learning is not knowing, it is change in behaviour”

Clearly not the outcome I was expecting for myself but for today it was the best outcome.

Very very proud of myself for the work I put in, the attention to detail I demonstrated in all the minutiae with my limited knowledge about this sport that I’m falling in love with every single day.

It breaks me and humbles me ways I never imagined, I trained my ass off and if it was just about my past work then the whole of today should have been smooth as butter like the first 30 kms, IT WASN’T !!!

Everyone who wished me well was also very confident (more confident than me) in my ability to sail through today but I was always very well aware of all the possibilities of it not being as smooth.

On race-day every single variable in my control was spot on and I could not have been prouder about that fact because as for the overall performance that will inevitably get better with time.

My Sub 4 hour goal for today was anyways a false peak, if I would have gotten it nothing much would have been different in my mindset going into tomorrow.

The fact that I did not achieve my goal came with a silver lining because it taught me a very valuable lesson that I will take into all my future preps and I will not repeat ever again.

I appreciate all the love & words of encouragement.
All of it means a lot to me.

Thank you.

#Run2026 #FollowObsession #GoOneMore #ItsJustPain #SufferWell by @saif.strength

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7

9 months ago

65 Days out — The Border

This AM, a solid 14.5k odd run in 90 mins.

Day 2 of the strength block was knocked off in under 90 mins as well.

Plyometrics were an important part of today’s session.

Beyond that, no isolation movements for the lower body. Cossack squats to train the body laterally, Jefferson curls for the posterior chain, and a concentric-focused unilateral pin leg press.

Upper body was a superset of two personal favourites — low incline DB press and wide-grip lat pulldowns.

Finished off with uni-lateral calf raises and barbell side bends.

Tomorrow, it’s road intervals before Friday’s rest day.

One session at a time. Keep building.

#builtintheboring #Sufferwell #followobsession #hybridtraining #running by @saif.strength

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0

3 days ago

I know how far I’ve come.
I know how far I still have to go.

For once, I don’t need to be at either end of that spectrum to be okay with where I am.

I can be a work in progress without treating myself like a problem that needs fixing.

#builtintheboring #sufferwell #followobsession #hybridtraining #running by @saif.strength

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3

4 days ago

67 Days Out – The Border

A good night’s sleep.
No run this morning because it’s a rest day.
Some client rescheduling left me with 2 hours to strength train.

And trust me, I made the most of it.

Last week, I managed only 2 strength sessions, but running mileage was finally getting back up.

Today’s session felt good. I didn’t have to rush through anything, had enough time between sets, and could push the intensity where I wanted to.

There was progression in almost every exercise today.

I also switched the Zercher-position hold split squat for a conventional barbell back split squat.

The upper-body circuit felt strong too, with intensity going up across the board.

Hoping to squeeze in one more strength session this week before a hectic weekend.

The goal is simple: keep progressing in the gym while building the mileage on the road.

#builtintheboring #sufferwell #followobsession#hybridtraining #running by @saif.strength

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0

5 days ago

72 Days Out — The Border

Day 2 done in 48 minutes.

Lower body was the priority — plyometrics, strength work for the hips and lower back, a quick upper-body superset for a pump, then some core work.

It’s not about how long I train.

It’s about keeping my legs strong, powerful and resilient.

The gym is there to support the running, not compete with it.

Mileage is picking up well, so I’m doing enough strength work to maintain and build what I need — without chasing more sets, more exercises or more fatigue just for the sake of it.

Train enough to get stronger.
Run enough to get better.
And know when more is just more.

#builtintheboring #sufferwell #followobsession #hybridtraining #running by @saif.strength

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0

10 days ago

You don’t need to optimize everything. You need to earn the right to optimize.

One of the biggest things I see with younger lifters is an obsession with finding the most specific exercise possible.

The perfect angle for the rear delt.
The perfect cable position for the lateral delt.
The perfect grip for a particular portion of the lat.
The perfect machine used unilaterally to supposedly create a better stimulus.

And yes, exercise selection matters.

But there are levels to this.

If you’ve been training for years, have built a significant amount of muscle, are relatively lean and are trying to bring up a specific area, then manipulating exercises, angles and resistance profiles can absolutely have value.

But if you’re still relatively new to training, you’re probably leaving a massive amount of progress on the table by obsessing over the final details.

Get better at the basic movement patterns.

Accumulate quality volume.

Understand intensity.

Progress your lifts.

Recover.

Repeat that for years.

Then, when you’ve built the house, start worrying about the curtains.

Just Get Strong Bro/Bro-ette

#Builtintheboring #Sufferwell #hybridtraining #followobsession by @saif.strength

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1

10 days ago

74 Days out - The Border 100k

The real build starts now.

The week prior is done an iteration of the strength routine but work has taken over a little bit by choice and last week instead of doing 3 days of strength as per the programme, I ended up doing 4 days off the programme coz I barely had 35-40 mins each day.

From today I start the strength programme for The Border. Strength sessions will be limited to 60 mins done 3 times per week.

The start of the week will have more overall lower body volume and the Friday session will have more Upperbody work.

I don’t have a the perfect strength programme for myself with all the running volume that I’m going to add But that’s Wat I’m building for myself through trial and error.

I don’t have a running coach voluntarily not because I know it all but because I don’t want to rob myself of the process of learning all that I can as I progress over time.

#builtintheboring #sufferwell #running #hybridtraining #followobsession by @saif.strength

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2

12 days ago

There’s a concept I keep coming back to: motion vs action.

Motion can look like progress without actually producing much of it.

Signing up for the race.
Announcing the goal.
Buying the gear.
Talking about the training.
Getting validation for what you’re about to do.

Action is different.

It is the boring, repetitive, often invisible work that actually changes your ability.

And this is where the constant event cycle becomes interesting.

10K → 21K → Marathon → HYROX → another marathon → another HYROX.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that.

But if your objective is to become better, you need enough uninterrupted time to actually train, adapt and improve.

Training requires specificity, progressive overload, recovery and repetition.

If every few weeks you are shifting your training toward the next event, you can end up accumulating experience without accumulating much ability.

And this connects with Mark Manson’s point about validation: announcing a goal and receiving recognition for it can provide some of the psychological reward before the work has actually happened.

Once the novelty wears off, what remains?

The training.
The monotony.
The uncomfortable sessions.
The weeks where nobody cares.
The work that doesn’t make for an exciting Instagram post.

That is where the actual transformation happens.

So I’m not asking:

“Why are you doing so many events?”

I’m asking:

“Are your events serving your training, or has your training become a way of getting you to the next event?”

There’s a difference between being busy doing hard things and deliberately becoming better at one.

Bura laga toh maaf karna lekin jo hai woh hai !!! by @saif.strength

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14 days ago

8 hours in bed. Still woke up feeling terrible.
Late dinner, delayed bedtime and a disrupted night. Getting enough hours doesn’t always mean getting the sleep you need.

The hours looked fine. The night didn’t feel fine.
Dinner at 8:30 PM, bedtime pushed to 10 PM and a 4:30 AM wake-up. I was groggy enough to postpone my run.

I don’t leave my sleep to chance.
An early dinner at 6 PM is part of my sleep hygiene. Last night, I gave myself plenty of time between eating and sleeping, even though I still went to bed later than planned.

Same goal. A very different night.
8h 24m of sleep, with considerably more recorded deep and REM sleep. One more reason I prioritise an early dinner: it helps me protect my bedtime routine. by @saif.strength

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2

15 days ago

Before the thought even has a chance to creep in, I remind myself:

“I cannot afford to get tired running 800 metres @ 4:00/km when one day I want to run 42.195 km at that very pace.”

The goal isn’t to convince myself that 800 metres is easy.

It’s to remind myself that the discomfort I’m experiencing today is part of building the capacity I’ll need tomorrow.

And very obviously the voice of @aleksanderlingauer in my ears always helps. The man delivers sermons every time he speaks.

#Builtintheboring #sufferwell #hybridtraining #running #followobsession by @saif.strength

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16 days ago