6 things that might help you with your training (and living in general)

COH

In no particular order of preference here are six things that I have done in the past few years or so that have drastically improved the quality of my training and day to day life....

1 – Stop relying on pre-workout supplements. Yes, I still drink coffee, but even at that my consumption is a fraction of what it used to be. Pre-workouts on the other hand are loaded with stimulants and a host of other things you probably don’t NEED. If you absolutely NEED them to train then I would suggest looking at the bigger picture to see why. If you are severely depleted, or are competing on that day and want a boost then that’s one thing but if you require huge quantities of stimulants to get through a fairly standard training session then you need more better calories, more rest and a less stress in general. (And of course, a cup of rich coffee goodness)

2 – ‘Sitting is the new smoking’. No, it’s not. In fact it’s not even f*cking close.... I spent many years chain smoking, and many years chain sitting and I can tell you now with 100% certainty that smoking is quite literally the dumbest thing you could ever do. It has literally zero positive health benefits. So stop. Now, that being said, I scrapped sitting for the most part too and my back has never felt better. When I’m at home watching TV etc. I usually do it from the floor, when I’m working I’m standing. I only ever feel what sitting does to my posture after a long car journey that leaves me feeling jacked up for days after. So, spend more time on your feet, and more time on your back (you can use your imagination here as necessary :P) and where possible dump the chair/couch/stool for something a little less compressive in nature.

3 – Food. People think all I do is eat all day. This is correct! But it wasn’t always the case as I used to generally survive on coffee until lunchtime. I’m not making any judgement calls here, do whatever makes you happy and fits your lifestyle. All I’m saying is that there is a direct correlation between my increased energy and training quality and a more even dispersal of calories throughout the day. In my case that was making a conscious effort to eat more before 11am. When I do this I recover better, train harder and am actually hungrier sooner again in the day than on the days when for one reason or another I find myself living off coffee and protein bars and consequently end up blowing bubbles out my ass.

4 – Stop giving a **** about what other people think. Your training is for you – people will always offer their opinion whether you want it or not but in reality the only person that is truly invested in your training is you, so make it about yourself and when it changes your life for the better the happier version of you will make the lives of those around you better in turn. Just remember to maintain balance and don’t sacrifice the rest of your life along the way as a result. Simple!

5 – Find something you love, make money from it if possible and let it ultimately kill you. You’re going to die eventually; the quality of what happens between now and then largely depends on whether or not you have purpose in your day to day life. The more people I talk to who are further along the road I want to walk the more I hear about the necessity of having things like passion, purpose, adversity and integrity in your life to help shape a general sense of well-being and happiness. I’m 33, and will reserve judgement with the benefit of hindsight for another decade or two but while I’m nowhere near where I want to be I’ve decided to invite those qualities instead of running from them and as a result I’m confident all roads are leading to the right place.

6 – Surround yourself with good people, reach out to the people you admire and try your best not to be a asshole

Transform

COH wrote: »

In no particular order of preference here are six things that I have done in the past few years or so that have drastically improved the quality of my training and day to day life....

1 – Stop relying on pre-workout supplements. Yes, I still drink coffee, but even at that my consumption is a fraction of what it used to be. Pre-workouts on the other hand are loaded with stimulants and a host of other things you probably don’t NEED. If you absolutely NEED them to train then I would suggest looking at the bigger picture to see why. If you are severely depleted, or are competing on that day and want a boost then that’s one thing but if you require huge quantities of stimulants to get through a fairly standard training session then you need more better calories, more rest and a less stress in general. (And of course, a cup of rich coffee goodness)

2 – ‘Sitting is the new smoking’. No, it’s not. In fact it’s not even f*cking close.... I spent many years chain smoking, and many years chain sitting and I can tell you now with 100% certainty that smoking is quite literally the dumbest thing you could ever do. It has literally zero positive health benefits. So stop. Now, that being said, I scrapped sitting for the most part too and my back has never felt better. When I’m at home watching TV etc. I usually do it from the floor, when I’m working I’m standing. I only ever feel what sitting does to my posture after a long car journey that leaves me feeling jacked up for days after. So, spend more time on your feet, and more time on your back (you can use your imagination here as necessary :P) and where possible dump the chair/couch/stool for something a little less compressive in nature.

3 – Food. People think all I do is eat all day. This is correct! But it wasn’t always the case as I used to generally survive on coffee until lunchtime. I’m not making any judgement calls here, do whatever makes you happy and fits your lifestyle. All I’m saying is that there is a direct correlation between my increased energy and training quality and a more even dispersal of calories throughout the day. In my case that was making a conscious effort to eat more before 11am. When I do this I recover better, train harder and am actually hungrier sooner again in the day than on the days when for one reason or another I find myself living off coffee and protein bars and consequently end up blowing bubbles out my ass.

4 – Stop giving a **** about what other people think. Your training is for you – people will always offer their opinion whether you want it or not but in reality the only person that is truly invested in your training is you, so make it about yourself and when it changes your life for the better the happier version of you will make the lives of those around you better in turn. Just remember to maintain balance and don’t sacrifice the rest of your life along the way as a result. Simple!

5 – Find something you love, make money from it if possible and let it ultimately kill you. You’re going to die eventually; the quality of what happens between now and then largely depends on whether or not you have purpose in your day to day life. The more people I talk to who are further along the road I want to walk the more I hear about the necessity of having things like passion, purpose, adversity and integrity in your life to help shape a general sense of well-being and happiness. I’m 33, and will reserve judgement with the benefit of hindsight for another decade or two but while I’m nowhere near where I want to be I’ve decided to invite those qualities instead of running from them and as a result I’m confident all roads are leading to the right place.

6 – Surround yourself with good people, reach out to the people you admire and try your best not to be a asshole

only thing i would add - mobility - do more of it than you think you might need and if you cant get up from sitting on the floor without using your hands or can touch your toes comfortably from sitting with legs straight then short that sh1t out asap because later down the road its going to be hella hard to change

other wise carry on clocking up likes but no one comments on the good stuff

COH

Transform wrote: »

only thing i would add - mobility - do more of it than you think you might need and if you cant get up from sitting on the floor without using your hands or can touch your toes comfortably from sitting with legs straight then short that sh1t out asap because later down the road its going to be hella hard to change

other wise carry on clocking up likes but no one comments on the good stuff

100% agree!

Following on from the OP....

Can I eat whatever I want?
Can I skip the warm up?
Can I just do what I think is right despite it never working?
Can I just ignore this injury?
Can I still expect the same results if I never sleep?
Can two hours a week in the gym offset the other 166 hours a week I spend sabotaging myself?

The advice you WANT to hear is rarely the advice you NEED to get.
So, If you ask the question - be prepared for an answer you might not like.

99% of people who fail will ignore the answer and will instead keep asking the question.

COH

Consistency VS perfection


At the gym where I work there is a guy. I don't know his name as he comes in to train and keeps to himself. Every day he puts his headphones on and does what can only be described as the worst lifting form imaginable. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is done with far too much weight, no control, partial range of movement.

Think 3 inch lat pulldowns, 3 inch chest presses, no scapular control, knees in, rounded back, up on his tip toe lat raises and curls, he's doing sprints with his eyes closed, he's on the rower without fastening his feet in and he's only using one arm, he probably swims with a weighted vest too. You name it, he's butchering it ... and between sets of these he does some crazy aerobics routine.

Anyway, every day he comes in and people look at him and you can see the 'WTF' expression on their faces. He breaks literally EVERY single conventional exercise rule.

He also doesn't give a f*ck.

I mean not even one singular f*ck.

If he was a super hero his name would be Zero-F*ck Man.

This is a 100% f*ck-free zone.

I imagine that every morning he wakes up listening to 'Here I Go Again' by Whitesnake. When he packs his gym bag in the morning he puts in a spare change of clothes, his shaker and his ipod and he looks at the pile of f*cks that he has to give that he keeps on his kitchen table and he thinks to himself 'nah, I'm not packing those'.

However, he does this every single day. On the days when you decide to skip training he's in doing partial ROM leg presses with about a billion kilograms supersetted with partial ROM burpees. In fact he's actually inventing new ways to do things incorrectly, and I'm not even angry,I'm impressed.

Now you might have the best technique in the world, an excellent programme, you've read everything on the internet and bought all the latest gadgets that you track with your next gen app on your phone.
But this guy is getting it done with everything he has when you're second guessing 50% the things in your life and half-assing the other 50%

'It' might not look pretty... but here's the thing. I've been watching him do this for years now and he's dropped a TONNE of weight, he seems pretty happy, carry's himself well and now looks pretty damn good by any standard. Conversely in the same time-frame I've seen people follow all the latest programmes, endlessly try to perfect their form and look the same or worse than when they started.

I'm not suggesting that we should all lift like this guy, far from it... and I sincerely hope he does't run into complications in the form of injuries etc down the line but that's not the point.

We could all learn something from his approach. He found something that he loves, he does it with maximum effort and absolute consistency and he got great results while you wasted all your energy giving f*cks all over the place and having your feelings hurt.

Get in, be a f*cking savage, leave & repeat.

Consistency is king.

COH

Quantifying strength standards.

There are three options here. To highlight them lets make someone up to use as an example and call him 'Person X' . Person X is grown man who has been training for a few years and can squat 100kg.

A) The first option available to Person X is to compare his data against the untrained uninformed population. In this regard a 100kg squat might sound like a huge number - because his mate and his mum who have never set foot inside a gym can't do it nor do they understand what that number represents in the broader scheme of things. Now, if it represents his best he should absolutely celebrate his progress, that's fine. But remember who he is probably really trying to impress - the really really strong people, not his mates mum (unless he has a plan on over stepping an age old boundary).

Building upon that, the second is to compare the same data against the very best in the world. The 100kg squatter might be good, and the importance of his training undiminished, but in comparison someone who is also a grown man squatted 438kg last week wearing the same equipment. Now lets not get bogged down in weight categories here, lets just call this two grown men comparing numbers. So, grown man strength. From here he gathers an appreciation of where he stands in the broader scheme of strength standards and whatever component of it relates to his chosen sport if he has one. Basically, he's on his way, but he's not quite there yet, and that's OK.

C) The third option is to do repeat option B but complain that its not a level playing field for whatever one or more of the billion excuses available to him are and proclaim himself a world champion despite never actually competing against anyone and selling online programming to people who unfortunately don't know any better from option A.

Option A is a bit tragic but ultimately harmless. Live and let live. Option B is great - celebrate your achievements and keep on trucking
Option C - Distinctly uncool but unfortunately common

Strong is strong, your strength is your own and how much of it you can accumulate will ultimately be a very personal endevour. Someone much smarter and stronger than me summed it up when they said 'imagine a pyramid. At the very top is the best of the best, the top 1% of the top 1% (the 438kg squatter). At the base of the pyramid is the general untrained population (your mates mum). Now, imagine where you stand on that pyramid, then assume you're probably a little bit below that point'.

When the dust settles the numbers will matter less than if you were a sap about it or not so just try to maintain a modicum of realism and integrity a long the way. Who knows, you might end up standing on top of the pyramid, and with any luck you'll have a clear conscience and a hell of a lot of fun in the process.