I don't know anyone who doesn't like reading a good list. Letterman has his Top 10 every night, ESPN has their top plays of the night and everyone tunes in for the greatest songs of the year during the holidays. I've come up with this list mostly because I've made some mistakes along the way, followed poor advice and read into misconceptions and fad training tips. After reading this you may think "Oh shit. I've done that!" or "Hell no. You must be an idiot to think that." And in no particular order...
1) Getting big does not mean getting strong. I recently read an article on AnimalPak.com about looking like you can bench 600lbs doesn't mean you actually have to be able to do it. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. I'd rather be the guy that doesn't look like he can bench 200lbs but then settles under the bar and punches out 315. Me and my two buddies in high school were so focused on "bodybuilding" that we didn't care what we were doing as long as we were getting bigger. I'm talking about "Squat Days" where we would just rep the crap out of our legs and believed because we couldn't walk for the next 3 days we were doing something right. Train for strength. Being big is great if your into contact sports and what not, but being strong has a lot more advantages and is far more impressive in my mind.
2) You can't out train a shitty diet. Ha! I remember coming home from a tough workout and just ravaging the fridge for anything that had a lot of protein in it. I'd be making 8 egg omelette's and drinking down a protein shake with it. Or having steak as an appetizer and then wolfing down something my dad cooked which was usually a carnivore's dream. If I had worked out during the day and was with my friends at night, I could justify eating 3 Burger King chicken sandwiches or mowing down 50 wings at Duff's. It was insane! All the while, I'm wondering why my pants are getting tighter, and my shirts aren't starting to fit as well. Ummm.... Ye. You're getting fat(ter). I didn't believe this, I just assumed I was getting bigger and stronger. Sure in high school being labelled as the big kid only helped personify my hard work in the gym, but I was on track to looking like an NFL lineman and being labelled by my rugby coach as part of the "Tragically un-fit". Fuel your body the way you want it to perform.
3) Train for a purpose. I've said this before. To motivate your training, you've got to have something to reach for. We're not all trying to enter a strongman competition, or entering the NFL combine but we can at least train like we are. Getting your mind right as to why you're training is the first step to really being serious about fitness and your health. That's why we see gym attendance spike in January and February and then by March it's dead. People want to lose the 15lbs they gained over the holidays and when they've lost 10lbs they're ecstatic and take off. Ummmm... do the math! Ever wonder why all those gym specials happen in spring? Because sign up is slow and the only way gym's make money is if they sign new members. So no matter what your reason is for training, make it something worth while and something you've given thought to. Wanting to look good is fine, but wanting to be purposeful with your body is even better.
4) Read! Read! Read! I'm not talking Men's Health or Oxygen Magazine here. I'm talking about books, journals, encyclopedia's. Those things you get at the library and need a card to borrow. Magazine's make money by selling you crap information. Sure they can cite studies, but you don't know who was involved in the study. You don't know how it was conducted. A magazine article reads "Increase your bench by 40lbs in 3 weeks". Sure that's achievable, use this program the University of Miami uses with their football team. You're only getting one side of the coin. They don't tell you what the diet is like, tempo, testing protocol and whatever else. Read scholarly journals where you can actually dissect where the information has come from. And always question what you're reading. Me and my two buddies from high school bought Arnold Schwarzenegger's New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding and considered it to be our bible in high school. It now sits on my book shelf and hasn't been looked at in 4 years.
5) Pull more than you push. One of the first exercises I see people doing when they get into the gym is Bench Press. Second is probably bicep curls, but I don't have room for that rant in my list. Everyone's always talking about "Hey, whaddya bench?" Bench Press is a staple exercise. No doubt. But if you don't balance out the push exercises with the pulls, you're gonna end up looking like an ape with forward shoulders, an aching back and injury prone. I was a big fan of the squat. It was my meat and potato leg exercise which made me neglect the deadlift. Big mistake. I should have done both but I didn't. I only started seriously training deads a couple of years ago and I'm still no where near where I should be for my size. My brother on the other hand... I wish I could dead like him. Advice: for every 1 push exercise you do (bench, military, squat) do at least 1 pull exercise (pull ups, deadlift, db rows). I'd even go as far as saying 2 pulls for every 1 push. Chances are you're probably already severely imbalanced so you've got work to do.
6) Conditioning and cardio are not the same. Sometimes you'll hear Joe Rogan talk about a UFC fighter's conditioning. Georges St. Pierre is a conditioning freak. But what if I told you that Vince Wilfork is also a conditioning freak. Or any other NFL lineman (minus Albert Haynesworth). Conditioning refers to being able to sustain a performance intensity RELATIVE to your activity. Could Vince Wilfork last five 5 minute rounds in the UFC? Hell no! Likewise, could GSP last a defensive drive in the NFL? Ye, I didn't think so. Cardio is schelpping around on an elliptical for 45 mins with no real purpose... Unless that is your purpose, schlepping. Plan your conditioning to suit your goals whether it's a 1okm race, a triathlon, football, rugby, hockey, basketball, whatever. Look at the performance and energy systems needed and train them. Quit wasting your time on the treadmill watching CNN or Dr. Phil.
7) Pride has no place in a workout. Just because you squatted 400lbs last week or benched 315 the week before means nothing. There is someone else out there doing more than you. More importantly, there is someone out there who knows more than you. I don't pretend to know everything and I really dislike people that think they do. If you don't know something or want to find out why that guy in the gym is standing on a BOSU ball squatting, ask him/her. The only thing you'll do is make them feel better because you noticed them. Training is not a race. It's a journey. If you approach every workout with the mindset of "I'm here to blow out the competition and show everyone that I'm better than them" you're never going to get anywhere. The best workouts I've had are when I've failed or didn't hit my mark. That humbles me. That's what makes me plan and come back at it again tomorrow.
8) Use the stuff no one else is using. Ever walk into a gym and wonder why all the cardio equipment and weight machines are placed at the entrance or near the windows? And all the dumbbells and squat racks are hidden in the corners? Because that's what the gyms want you to see. They know that having treadmills with TV's makes people "Oooooo and Ahhhhh" or having a $4000 lat pull down machine will lure in the Fortune 500 business exec. No one thinks an impressive gym is a squat rack, 1000lbs of weight plates and some dumbbells. That doesn't look cool. I'll tell you right now, if you walk into your gym and just use the dumbbells, barbells, squat racks and pull up bar for your workouts, you are well on your way to an efficient gym session and training with a purpose.
9) "This is not talk-out, this is workout!" Ah yes, one of my legendary phys-ed teachers from high school would shout this out when he saw too many kids in my class standing around in the weight room. And he's right. If your going to the gym to try and pick up (not weights) then please leave and go to the nearest bar. 1) You'll make space for those of us who are actually there to train and 2) You'll make it easier for us to pick up when we go to the bar because you'll be "tragically unfit". Me and my buddies would spend 2 hours at the gym after school. Seriously though, a workout session should not last longer than an hour. This changes if your training for an endurance event, but even marathoners don't weight train for longer than an hour. Be efficient with your gym time. Get in, go to work, get out. It's that simple. Most athletes train the same way. That's not to say their practices only last an hour but a workout session will.
10) Water. Drink it. I can't say it more simply. Water makes up more than half your body. It's a vital nutrient to your health and you should be consuming it on a regular basis. No, having a venti non-fat mocha frappaWhateverTheHellIsIntThis does not count. Nor does downing a case of beer every weekend. Your muscles need water to stay healthy and repair themselves so feed them what they want. I definitely didn't drink enough water while working out in my earlier days. I'd go to the gym and sip my creatine shake and then chug down a protein shake post workout. Hell, I think I was drinking 3 meals of just shakes. That's no way to live. Post-workout shakes and whatever have their place, but water should be your staple.
11) Rest. We are constantly faced with doing more, eating more, buying more. When it comes to training, sometimes less is more. I used to think that if I was feeling tired during a workout I was weak and needed to push through it. Missing a workout was like missing a meal for me. Absolutely unacceptable. But this is part of the training equation that I really neglected. I was always thinking, I've gotta do more, train more, lift more, sweat more. I read a quote from EliteFTS.com that said "The guy that under-trains will take longer to reach his goals but the guy that over trains will never reach his goals." And it's that simple. Over training will lead to mental fatigue and worse it'll lead to injury, which will set you back even longer. Listen to your body and don't fill yourself with guilt if you can't make it to a workout. The important thing is to stay consistent for the majority of the time. Is missing a workout this week going to impact your entire training program? Probably not. Think "Big Picture".
So there's 11 things I wish I had known. I'm sure there are a lot more but I'll have to save those for a different post. One thing I know for sure, is that there's a lot of stuff I still don't know and I'll continue to make mistakes in training and in life. I'm just hoping to learn from them and not make the same ones again. Keep working hard and moving forward. If you can be better than yesterday you've done a lot more than everyone else.
Train hard my friends,
Quan, OUT.
