It took me a while to get to this. I went through a phase where I would percieve every niggle and every little strain as an absolute disaster. After a while of feeling like I was somehow “broken” and feeling sorry for myself, I noticed that one of the best ways for the pain of one niggle to go away was to unintentionally niggle something else which would make me forget about it, or to let my warm-up sets guide me better. It dawned on me just how much pain and discomfort is in the mind, and it isn’t always injury or disability.. Just a little poke from the body saying “Hey dude, that thing you did wasn’t great, can you do it better, or at least stop doing it like that so much?”.
Our own bodies really can be our best coach once we develop a good relationship with pain.
Timed training sessions are great for getting a lot of work done quickly, but my goodness me the timer is a relentless slave driver, not caught your breath, not recovered, still cramping? Tough, it’s time to go again… No excuses!
People talk about time travel like it’s a myth, but lifters know the secrets.
If you ever want to speed up time: do 10x10 squats with 1 minute between sets.
If you ever want to slow down time: do a plank for max time.
I think this is key, it’s understanding what the pain is communicating, like some times it’s been yea stop right now, and I’ve not listened and it’s made a bad situation worse. Other times I’ve had a minor tweak which is saying something was off there but no biggie, carry on.
I think being experienced enough to know the difference and sensible enough to listen is a boon that really comes with age (training age) - mind you I matured in that regards really slowly!
Haha for sure, at the start of EMOMs I’m always like, eh this is alright, by the end that 30-45 secs of rest goes by in 10 seconds for sure. Probably because I actually can’t stand up and look at the timer until it’s at 10 seconds (it’s funny I’ve done enough EMOMs that I know the timing almost to the second, but still need the timer otherwise I’d just lie to myself and not go again).
And this I always try to do planks RKC style and I could swear I’m holding those things for 45-60 secs, but 20 secs is about the max.
Haha, I must confess to not loving them but being repeatedly drawn back, like some sexy but crazy ex. It’s probably why Brian’s programs always resonate with me, always a sense of time pressure, if left to my own devices I take too long, because I don’t love being hot sweaty and out of breath, but in doing so find training dull and lose interest. Not sure what that says about me, hedonist with ADHD?
Thanks, my wife said today, have you put on weight? I said a sarcastic thanks, to which she replied I know you have but wasn’t sure if it was muscle or fat, ouch.
With friends like that… But yea I’m fluffier than usual but t-shirts and shirts are tighter in the shoulders, chest and arms, so at least the fat is going somewhere productive !
She also commented on me pouring double cream (heavy cream I think in the states) on my Greek yogurt for breakfast, and no joke said that’s not very healthy, whilst plating up 2 pan au chocolat (not even fresh, the packaged garbage). I did point out that everything I was eating was in fact fresh and minimally processed. Funny how even having been with me for nearly 20 years I still haven’t had enough of an influence to override the fat=bad message.
Funny how even having been with me for nearly 20 years I still haven’t had enough of an influence to override the fat=bad message.
Dude, nutrition is an absolute battlefield of insanity for women. My heart goes out to them. Bro-science has nothing on what women have been sold as “good ideas” as far as nutrition goes. My wife has expressed concerns about eating “too much protein” at breakfast. It’s this idea that meat/fat is somehow “masculine” and they’re supposed to subsists off of croissants, fresh strawberries, and the tears of angels.
Oh my god they have it the worst! There’s already the pressure of body image in general, especially in a world that is the fakest it’s ever been with literal AI women to “compete” against, but then it’s balancing the demands of eating for performance AND weighing “right” for performance. It’s a battlefield I never want to fight on.
My wife ran Division 1 track in college for five years. I had just achieved my first six pack shortly before we started dating. She tracked her food more than I ever did. They basically run around in their underwear all day and fat not only looks bad, it impedes performance. I could see veins in her lower abs during her last season. She was thin, missing her cycle, and everyone told her she looked great.
She’s not the biggest for her events. She did the heptathlon and maybe that’s how far she had to go to hang in there and compete. The girls they have now are bigger (taller and more muscular) and carrying a bit of fat. And they’re still breaking school records. I’m glad to see some progress there because she was not healthy in my book.
It’s so strange how our society embraces extremes. You go from the rail thin models who look like they are starving to death all the way to the body positive models who glorify obesity. They are both unhealthy. And then we take athletes and expect females to have zero body fat and still function at the highest level. It’s no wonder so many women who have what would probably be a pretty healthy body have poor self images. What’s wrong with a woman who is strong and a little soft around the edges? To be fair, I’m not sure men have it much easier. A six pack is kind of unrealistic to walk around with all the time if you aren’t a professional athlete.
I think I just talked myself into feeling pretty good about my body. Who needs therapy when I have the log of @alex_uk to work out my insecurities.
I was watching MLB baseball last night and the closer for the Braves was unavailable in the previous game because he slept on his throwing shoulder and it felt off for the game.
I can tell you for sure that I never have had and never will have visible abs, but the amount of strength that I can feel in my core has increased significantly in the last several months. Like, if someone sucker punched me in the gut they would have a pretty good padding to protect their hand, but solid steel behind it.
That’s crazy to think that even having spent so long with you, she’d still be concerned about too much protein.
Haha, if the diet industry could sell tears of angels they definitely would, then someone would release a hydrolysed version for extra absorption and someone else would release a slow release version, and no one would question whether or not any of it has any real impact.
I was only guilty of that once, but mind you I was married by 23.
That’s good to hear. Unfortunately there’s still immense pressure, I can’t even imagine how much worse it is now all the celebs are using the drugs to get ultra skinny (which is pretty gross to me).
Nothing at all!
Not sure if it’s just me but I honestly don’t feel that pressure and judging by the men around me they don’t either. I might be the only person I know of personally who’s had a 6 pack that I had to earn*, and it’s definitely not there anymore, and I’m not even particularly worried - I’ll hopefully get lean enough for it, in time Zakynthos in August!
One of my longest friends, nearly 30 years, is a guy who’s never trained a day in his life, but sported a year round 6 pack up until the last couple of years when beer and takeaways finally caught up with him (also got him to check his T levels, they’re lower than mine when I started TRT!). Meaning this:
Abs are an interesting one, I’ve only ever had faint outline of the top 4 when i was younger but not any proper abs. Now i’m 40 i’m only ever topless with the rugby lads (in which case i’m one of the leaner guys anyhow) or on holiday with other families where i often don’t see anyone more musculure or leaner than me anyhow regardless of age.
I’d much rather enjoy a few beers every now and again rather than have abs.
