All things being equal, everything we do in the gym works; it's that simple. People try their damnedest to complicate it unendingly; but try as they might to piss all over the process, everything we do in the gym works. Now here's the rub: I didn't say there aren't qualifiers; as we know, mileage will vary from customer to customer. But leaving that aside for the moment, squats work, barbell bench presses work, and dumbbell curls work. Below are some observations relative to the "qualifiers" I mentioned previously:
Forget - Create - Remain
Forget all that you know once in a while; challenge your thought process and mental approach to training and nutrition. I cannot tell you exactly how often you should do this, but I will tell you that your process will be greatly enhanced by your efforts in this regard. I'm not advocating total dismissal of weight training fundamentals; I'm saying learn your craft and understand that there are many ways to increase intensity. Change to formation of training sessions. Stop favoring movements which compliment your strength and physique in favor of ones that challenge you more and develop blind spots you tend to overlook. Forget about training and eating one way for your entire lifetime --- it doesn't work. Forget about chasing numbers on the bar and on the scale; remember the first time you tried a movement, that sensation of trying to connect the movement with the muscles, focusing so intently on that mind muscle connection --- ask yourself when you stopped doing that.
Create new pathways for thought and refine your mental approach to training and nutrition. People seek stability and comfort; the farther you get from fundamental movements the more apt you are to train in a way that feels comfortable --- this is bad. By continually challenging yourself to re-examine your understanding of the way in which YOU apply the fundamentals you will come up with new and different methods and formulations of methods --- the possibilities are endless. The notes that Jimi Hendrix played can be played by others; Jimi didn't invent those and he don't own them either --- they belong to everyone. The same holds true for weight training; every time you casually adopt someone else's methods you quicken tedium and increase the chances of rapid disinterest --- you have to have ownership over your training.
Remain engaged and apply intense effort to your training and nutrition methods. As you forget what you know to stave off dogma, and as you create new pathways for development, be sure to remain completely bought-in to whatever methods you employ --- if you don't believe in your own magic then your rewards will be negligible. Remain steadfast and be ever secure in the knowledge that you are not restrained by one understanding of this game, you are free to apply extreme effort to any new or different phase of your training --- no matter what the popular fad or fancy is. No matter your age you have to marshal your energy and positivity aimed directly at your goals and objectives --- but never become enslaved by any one method or practice.
Adopting the methods of the highly successful seems unavoidable in the modern context; sometimes we have to listen to what comes from inside of us in order to become highly successful people in our own right. This is good.
Forget - Create - Remain
Forget all that you know once in a while; challenge your thought process and mental approach to training and nutrition. I cannot tell you exactly how often you should do this, but I will tell you that your process will be greatly enhanced by your efforts in this regard. I'm not advocating total dismissal of weight training fundamentals; I'm saying learn your craft and understand that there are many ways to increase intensity. Change to formation of training sessions. Stop favoring movements which compliment your strength and physique in favor of ones that challenge you more and develop blind spots you tend to overlook. Forget about training and eating one way for your entire lifetime --- it doesn't work. Forget about chasing numbers on the bar and on the scale; remember the first time you tried a movement, that sensation of trying to connect the movement with the muscles, focusing so intently on that mind muscle connection --- ask yourself when you stopped doing that.
Create new pathways for thought and refine your mental approach to training and nutrition. People seek stability and comfort; the farther you get from fundamental movements the more apt you are to train in a way that feels comfortable --- this is bad. By continually challenging yourself to re-examine your understanding of the way in which YOU apply the fundamentals you will come up with new and different methods and formulations of methods --- the possibilities are endless. The notes that Jimi Hendrix played can be played by others; Jimi didn't invent those and he don't own them either --- they belong to everyone. The same holds true for weight training; every time you casually adopt someone else's methods you quicken tedium and increase the chances of rapid disinterest --- you have to have ownership over your training.
Remain engaged and apply intense effort to your training and nutrition methods. As you forget what you know to stave off dogma, and as you create new pathways for development, be sure to remain completely bought-in to whatever methods you employ --- if you don't believe in your own magic then your rewards will be negligible. Remain steadfast and be ever secure in the knowledge that you are not restrained by one understanding of this game, you are free to apply extreme effort to any new or different phase of your training --- no matter what the popular fad or fancy is. No matter your age you have to marshal your energy and positivity aimed directly at your goals and objectives --- but never become enslaved by any one method or practice.
Adopting the methods of the highly successful seems unavoidable in the modern context; sometimes we have to listen to what comes from inside of us in order to become highly successful people in our own right. This is good.
