Tuesday, 1:51pm
Perth, WA
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” (Socrates)
Introducing the Big Five.
Isn’t hindsight a beautiful thing? The following is a condensed list of the things I wish I knew starting out in fitness. The common mistakes that distance you from your end goal.
To look and feel amazing is NOT something we can achieve overnight.
That being said, there’s no point making it harder than it has to be…
My hope is that this article will save you time and effort.
Why learn things the hard way?
Abide by these principles, avoid these pitfalls and rest assured you’ll be on the fast-track to reaching your goal.
Mistake # 1 – Listening To Physically Weak and Inactive People.
The harsh and sad reality is; the average person is weak, inactive overweight and quite physically incapable. It’s factually true. I don’t say that to be rude or condescending, but if you are aspiring to go beyond the norm then you really can’t afford to follow the mainstream, drift, or adhere to conventional advice.
But hey if you want to look and feel like the average person, then do what average people do.
In the case of all things fitness… my advice: don’t listen to just anyone. Don’t let physically weak or uninformed people have a voice in this area of your life.
Realise that no matter how ‘good-intentioned’ or genuine they seem. They cannot and will not help you. In fact, entertaining their prattling and suggestions will cause you all kinds of strife.
It will cause you to spiral in doubt and question the good things you are doing.
Stop the conflict before it starts.
Silence the unqualified and the haters who will project their own views onto you.
Reserve your ears for the people who are credible… or, those with results.
Ideally those with the exact results that you want. Everyone else is simply irrelevant.
It’s not always easy, but maintaining a productive outlook is important so avoid these:
#1 The Comparison Trap
Be wary of average. The benchmark is so low that if you are in the game of comparing yourself to others; being average or even slightly better than average is still undesirable. In many cases you are better off disregarding what other people are doing completely. The better idea is to find people who are extraordinary, that you can aspire to be like.
#2 The Blind & The Delusional
Weak people walk around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t realise the state they are in.
Physically weak people manifest in different forms:
- Skinny fat people are more than happy to preach to you about exercise best practices.
- Your average gym bro will share with you his ‘winning’ routine.
All of these people suffer from the same delusion. They think because of their token fitness efforts that they are somehow credible or have a worthwhile opinion. Some of them even form groups and communities to validate what each other are saying. It is the blind leading the blind.
Mistake # 2 – Being Scared of Getting “Too Big”.
Not everyone is aspiring to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, I get it. So maybe you’re not trying to get super jacked, but like me maybe you want to look extraordinary. Whatever that means for you, the fact is you are not aesthetically where you want to be. So, even for the person just wanting to look fit, healthy and in ‘good shape’ this being scared of getting “too big” is a troublesome mentality.
It is irrational and comes from a number of false assumptions…
#1 It assumes that ‘getting big’ is easy and happens quickly. Worse than that, even if that were true (it’s not), then wouldn’t you then simply ‘get big’ quickly and then stop once you reach the size you want?
Rest assured unless you are pumping hormones and injecting things into your muscles you probably aren’t going to get ‘too big’. Ever.
#2 It assumes that all weight-lifting or strength-based exercises will cause you to put on size. You can get stronger, build great muscular endurance and stabilisation all without putting on much size. Putting on size has a lot to do with training volume, frequency, progressive overload and diet.
I don’t think people understand the damage this belief does to them. It causes them to lift lighter weights, to avoid hypertrophic training (training for muscular size) and even avoid some exercises entirely.
And look I get it, people have different opinions on what a good body looks like. That’s fine, my point is even if you want results different to me, this belief is counter-productive and destructive.
Mistake # 3 – Making Things Complex & Overthinking It.
This problem stems from the overabundance of information we have available to us. If there are so many theories, articles and opinions on a topic, we perceive it as something complex, something hard to understand. An illusion of complexity is created.
We reason, that we must read everything. Think long and hard about our choices. Only then can we hope to make an informed choice. And so, we dabble, we try this for a while, then switch to the new thing. We ride the waves of trends and fads. Consequently, we never commit to the consistency required to generate real results.
Keep in mind ‘over-complicating’ is something that sneaks up on you. At first it is tendency to fiddle with your existing routine, to tweak here and there.
This may not impair your results in its initial stages. However, once it has reached a severe state, you may end up with a patch-work, best-of-no-worlds routine which dramatically interferes with your progress and usually stalls it completely.
The better strategy, is to find something that is proven, tested and works. Then follow it religiously for about six months. Look back at your results, consider your diet, stress, sleep and other life variables. If it worked continue. If you plateaued, then be open to change. But give things at least six months. Otherwise you are not giving yourself an honest test window.
Find something that works and stick with it. Keep it simple and master the basics.
Mistake # 4 – Not Taking Progress Seriously Enough.
Progress Inhibitor #1
Have you ever noticed that most ‘busy’ people are liars? Like they aren’t actually THAT busy. Or, they’re busy with things that are unimportant or optional. Popular culture will tell you that if you are busy, then you are being productive and making the most of life.
Which again, is utter nonsense.
So, what happens is; people bring this same philosophy into their training. They scurry around the gym performing a smorgasbord of exercises. Lifting light-weights, pursuing a pump and chasing a good burn. The reality is; they are short-changing their results. I won’t bog you down in the science of it here. But this trail-blazing type of training hinders your performance potential, progress and recovery. It is a short-term, busy-body outlook. For many it is the chief contributor to the gap between their effort and their results.
Why train so hard when there is a simpler, more time effective approach?
In business there is something called the Pareto Principle, it dictates that 80% of results come from 20% of your effort. This is true for most things. For instance, in weightlifting, hypertrophy (building muscular size) will primarily come more from performing heavy compound movements (like the bench press) rather than doing a million different niche chest exercises.
Therefore, as logic would suggest; why not focus on that one, or couple of movements that are going to deliver you the biggest bang-for-your-buck?
My advice for most people is to be a minimalist, focusing on these high value compound movements, and then add in more niche movements as long as it doesn’t interfere with your essentials.
Always keep the end in mind.
Master the 20% that produces the 80% and you’ll be in good stead.
Progress Inhibitor #2
Aside from too much exercise diversity and a lack of focus, the second element of this ‘no progress’ issue is not understanding recovery.
If you are training for strength and size, YOU MUST REST PROPERLY.
The two common errors with recovery are:
- Hitting muscle groups too frequently and not allowing them to recover. Resulting in either injury or performance well below your capability. Typically, rest anywhere between 3-7 days depending on your training specifics.
- Not resting long enough between sets. Many people perform a movement, wait 30 seconds (if at all) then go straight into their next set. From a set-to-set performance perspective, depending on the lift, you are better off resting 3-5 minutes between sets (if training for strength and size). The difference isn’t trivial either. If I benched 100kg for 8 repetitions, I may only be able to lift 80kg (with difficulty) if I only wait 30 seconds. If I wait 5 minutes I should be able to replicate performance fairly similar to the initial set. Stress on the muscle + volume (number of repetitions) + recovery is what will determine the quality of your progress.
Diet is a big deal, but from a training perspective these are the two keys: essential movements + recovery.
Don’t overtrain, and don’t short-change yourself on your progression because of a lack of focus, or a desire to be ‘busy’ in the gym. Be productive, not busy.
Think about it…
With all that time you’ll save in the gym, you can spend more time with friends, watch your favourite show or work on a different hobby. Life’s too short to be flushing precious time and energy down the proverbial toilet.
Mistake # 5 – Neglecting The Things That Actually Matter.
The trick to making solid, sustainable progress over time is to focus on the essentials. Neglect these, and your leaving results on the table.
Without any further ado, here is the rapid-fire list of 7 things that actually matter when it comes to transforming your body and ultimately the way you look and feel.
#1 Focus on compound movements.
Improving on your compound movements really is the secret sauce for the general population. If your goal is to transform the way you look and feel. If you aren’t all that interested in being a top competitor in some athletic-niche, or going down the steroid path, then it really is the secret.
#2 It’s all about the gains.
I’m aware that this makes me sound like your typical ‘gym bro’. But this is actually something they’re right about. Whether it is strength gains, bicep gains, cardio gains, relationship gains or sleep gains. It’s all about the progress. If you aren’t improving over time, then you are regressing or wasting time. Be obsessed with progress, let progress be your metric of success more so than a specific goal. Enjoy the process of improving overtime. Make fitness a sustainable lifestyle, not a chore or a grind. Yes, it is true that fitness in the grand scheme of life is not all that important. But if you are going to do something, do it well. Don’t waste the thing that really matters. Time.
#3 It’s consistency that counts.
If you train a compound lift once per week, then that’s 55 training sessions performing that movement per year. Each session you miss is roughly a 2% reduction in what you could have achieved for that year. Furthermore, missing a month in a row will be much more detrimental than simply taking a week off. A month off would NOT be a loss of 8% but more like a loss of 12% or more. In other words, even if its sub-optimal training, consistency is far more important than any single good training session. Play the long game.
#4 Don’t sell-out on your recovery.
If you aren’t recovering properly, you are leaving potential gains on the table. Neglect rest too much and you’ll end up injured or regressing in your results. Sleep enough. Leave enough time between training sessions. Rest between sets.
#5 Listen to your body.
Sleep deprived and sick? Take a week off.
Sore shoulder? Take a week off that movement.
It’s not worth risking your health or getting injured, that will affect your consistency.
#6 Get your diet dialled in.
If you want to lose weight, or get lean, then you need to find a sustainable way to get on a caloric deficit. If you want to put on muscle and get bigger, you’ll need to eat at a surplus. Just keep in mind, diet adherence is more important than the diet itself.
If you can’t stick to it, what’s the point?
Not getting on top of your diet, is leaving results on the table. But hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. For most of us; life is more than just making an ideal level of progress in fitness. However, be mindful of the consequences of your actions. If you are drinking too much; that’s effecting things. If you aren’t getting enough protein; that’s effecting things. If you are consuming not enough or too many calories; that’s effecting things.
#7 Play the long game.
Whether it’s with; training, weight-gain, weight-loss, dieting, strength. Examine your efforts over months and years, NOT days and weeks. Your body and life will fluctuate for a myriad of reasons. Don’t get caught up making decisions about what is and isn’t working based off a bad week or two.
Navigating The Nonsense?
Now if you are interested in transforming the way you look and feel, without having to sift through all the information out there.
Maybe you’ve made some of these mistakes I’ve talked about. You’ve come in and out of consistency. In shape, out of shape.
Or maybe you’re just getting into fitness for the very first time.
I don’t know where you’re at right now reading this article.
But I do know this…
If you are wanting to achieve real results, if you are willing to commit the time, then there is a step-by-step straightforward path to your fitness goal.
If you need some guidance through this crazy world of fitness and some support on this journey…
Then shoot me the word “help” on Instagram, and we’ll talk, and I’ll do all I can to help you step-up into success in this area of your life.
There’s no cost, just my way of saying thank you for reading this article.
Here’s to your fitness success!
Sincerely,
Curtis
P.S. It’s no secret that the fitness industry is saturated with conflicting information and advice. Finding something that is simple to follow, fits your schedule, and delivers the results you want isn’t always straightforward. That’s why it’s worth getting input from someone who has already walked that same road.
So, if you are wanting to block out the noise and actually start transforming the way you look and feel. Send me the word “help” on Instagram and I’ll be sure to get back to you.
