Why do you have to crush my dreams!?
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I think I’m using the term much more casually than you are! I don’t mean contest ready - that look is actually pretty off-putting to me, though I get why it’s necessary for competition. I mean in a regular-person-you-could-meet-hiking-who-is-hydrated-and-fed kind of way.
I never had any trouble with workouts becoming less effective until very recently, and that’s because I injure so much more easily now I’m probably doing 30-50% of what I formerly did in terms of effort, whether cardio or weights.
Adding a more serious lifting element, even if only upper body, made for a significant positive change, but weight maintenance has never really been an issue for me. I just dialed back my eating briefly and got more serious about working out if I’d been slacking off.
Lifting is something I tolerate because it requires focus on something uninteresting to me (counting and tracking things). I absolutely know it’s where my focus should be, however. I’d love to find a friend around my age who’d make a good workout buddy. I’ve been looking for this new friend for a long time, though, and so far nothing.
Probably looking at a gym would be more fruitful than looking at home and work. 
Arm wrestling…when I was an idiot 21-year-old and worked at a gym and part time waitressing, I’d challenge men to left-handed arm wrestling when I’d been drinking, and pretty often win. Some of it was element of surprise, but mostly it was that I spent my evenings carrying trays full of food and my days playing at the gym.
I liked a good drinking sit-up or crunch contest, too.
Boy, did I know how to party!
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@Christian_Thibaudeau used to comment back in the day that of the people he trained, the people who seemed to “care” the least about muscle building were often the people who would build the most
I think he used to say compared to hyper obsessive forum posters who want nothing more than to add 10 pounds of muscle, the athletes he would train were so aloof about it… just doing whatever he said to do without much thought , they would just throw on slabs of muscle.
Or even people like male gymnast, who would probably benefit from shedding size and weight, can’t help but have ridiculous arms.
I forgot where I was going exactly but somehow that was suppose to tie in with the obsessive cardio bunnies getting better results when they “let go” and didn’t obsess over it and do so much. Maybe a cortisol thing ??
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There may be something to be said about the idea that those who are naturally predisposed to putting on muscle never needed to worry about it. Similar to the whole “sex is like oxygen: it’s no big deal, as long as you’re getting it” quote. The people that ARE getting muscle when they train aren’t going to really obsess over it. The dudes that aren’t? They’re going to keep doing down the rabbithole.
But in THAT regard, THOSE dudes SHOULD just stfu and do what the coach tells them to, because most often these dudes are so in the weeds on the details they miss out on what REALLY matters. This is why Stuart McRobert made a killing with abbreviated training: he took a bunch of strung out, overtrained, underfed volume junkies and told them “Get in 1-2 GOOD sets, go home and rest, eat some food, RECOVER and you will grow”
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That’s what I suspect too. Great tie in! It’s counterintuitive isn’t it?
Maybe those who overdo the volume in an effort to try and build an area have more in common with those who overdo the cardio in an effort to lose fat. They strive for something only to get subpar results.
Now that you mention what Coach Thibaudeau said, I think that might’ve been what happened with my shoulders when I was obsessed with trying to grow them. They were my worst body part (even according to my prep coaches) and didn’t seem to grow until I stopped caring and finally let them recover sufficiently. You could be onto something by associating that with cortisol though too!
On the cardio front, it speaks to how powerful hormones are, and I suspect that a lot of people — who do “chronic cardio” as Mark Sisson aptly named it — just elevate their cortisol on a constant basis, which messes with all the other hormones that affect fat loss, muscle growth, sleep, appetite, mood, and body fat distribution.
Even just pushing the intensity in the gym (with metcon or lifting) during weeks when the female body is naturally trying to slow down can mess with those same hormones that influence body comp. And trainers are noticing this too given all the cycle-synching workout plans out there.
Something similar can be said for intermittent fasting. Do too much too often, and a lot of women (possibly men too?) notice they start gaining more fat in the love handle and belly area.
Overkill with anything seems to be the enemy of testosterone and the best friend of cortisol.
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Yeah, for myself I would say I train quite a bit less than 10 years ago… maybe even half as much, and I probably still maintain about 90% of the physique?? Hell maybe even 100% of it
The idea that “more is better” is so, so easy to gravitate towards in lifting/exercise… and juiced up lifters going insane in YouTube videos and Magazine physiques certainly help to reinforce that
Combine that with how slow results can be even in the best of situations (let’s say… 10 pounds of actual muscle in 6 months, and even that is optimistic) and it’s easy to see why doing more is so alluring
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Haha awesome, I love that! You have such a fantastic writing style.
You and me both! I think Quad Queen has mentioned the injury rate too, so she’s right there with us.
I blame declining testosterone. The minuscule amount of hormone replacement therapy my doc started me on seems to be helping heal a lot of stuff. It sucks to have to rely on that but it sucks worse to hurt all the time.
I hope you find someone! There should be a (non-creepy) app for finding local workout partners.
HAHAHAHA true! I keep meeting so many awesome women in the gym. They work so hard that just glancing their way is motivating.
Ummmmm didn’t you say you weren’t strong? You were (and are) a rockstar! That’s such a cool freaking memory!
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We, as a species, are fantastic do-ers and terrible no-do-ers. When people want to lose fat, they always ask “what do I eat to lose fat?” They HATE the answer that it’s about what you DON’T eat that gets you to lose fat.
Wanna lose fat? Stop eating so much f**king food, to quote David Goggins. Instead, people wanna know what greens smoothie to drink, superfood to eat, how much celery to maximize “negative calories”, etc.
Once again, McRobert at play. Trainees are great at the training and SUCK at the recovering…unfortunately, it’s the latter where the muscle is BUILT.
Silly humans.
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That’s a great point!
And another one. It’s crazy when you think about it. For some reason, avoiding something or even just limiting it are so much harder than doing something extra.
Maybe this is why a lot of people use strategies like drinking extra water, eating more vegetables, or emphasizing protein. Because adding stuff (that makes it easier to limit the higher calorie stuff) leads to more adherence than just limiting the higher cal stuff in the first place.
True.
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Now that is really cool to hear! That goes to show over-exercising is not just a female thing and those who simmer down quite often get better results.
For sure. I also think those who are passionate about fitness tend to hold themselves to unnecessary standards that cause them to go all-out too often. Maybe it’s the glory of doing “hardcore” things or maybe it’s the need to show other people how driven we are. Regardless, it’s counterproductive. And you’re right, it doesn’t help that we’re so influenced by those who are on a bunch of gear.
That’s funny, a lot of that tracks with the general parenting advice I hear out there. Don’t tell your kid what not to do, tell them some alternative instead.
So you don’t just yell “hey don’t do that!” You would say like “you should probably use a chair so you can reach that”
I guess for dieting it would be very similar… humans want to hear “eat more broccoli and tuna” and they don’t want to hear “eat less food”
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Justin Harris has talked about this with comp prep for his bodybuilding clients. Specifically the competition week. He talks about how there is NO need to change anything on that week: the plan that worked for 11 weeks will work for the 12th. But there is so much mysticism around this week that if he DOESN’T change something, it will screw with his clients’ heads and they’ll think Justin doesn’t know what he’s doing. So he makes meaningless changes to satisfy the need for change. “I need you to drink ONLY distilled water this week: no more spring water. You need to switch your 4oz of chicken breasts to 4oz of white fish. Swap your tablespoon of peanut butter to a a tablespoon of almond butter. We’re gonna get you peeled!”
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It’s so amazing how poorly we deal with restriction. Dan John talked about this. He read an author that commented on how oranges were a source of some sort of metabolic derangement, the details of which escape me. But you tell someone that they can eat whatever they want EXCEPT oranges, and suddenly that’s the ONLY thing they want to eat. “I CAN’T give up oranges! How will I get my vitamin c?! What am I to drink in the morning if I can’t have orange juice? I HAVE to have my orange slices after a soccer game: it’s a tradition!”
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HA!! That’s so crazy! The stress of prep messes with the mind.
I think bodybuilding lends itself so well to all that stuff, the “voodoo” and the superstition
It has judges so it’s not an objective sport, and then you hear about (insert guy or gal who did really well) doing (XYZ weird thing) and that’s good enough for lots of people to at least try it
“Hey I heard Ronnie Coleman used to Switch from chicken breast to tilapia 6 weeks out… that must have something to do with his conditioning”
That and lots of people are trying to manipulate the body, which is actual quite complex, and if you aren’t just gonna DNP and Lasix your way to a ripped physique you gotta find something to try
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That is so funny and so true.
Seems like there were also a lot of old school prep coaches who didn’t keep up with any research or get any real nutritional education. So, among their decent ideas (like avoid junk food and track macros/calories) they had some of those off-the-wall voodoo instructions.
For instance, I was told to eat 4 ounces of haddock (specifically) on certain nights 2 hours after dinner, and then on other nights I had to eat 11 almonds soaked in water for 20 minutes. I wish that was an exaggeration but it’s not.
Not sure if that’s much of a problem anymore now that people can find science-based coaches in a heartbeat using social media.
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One night you had 12 almonds and that’s why you didn’t win the overall. 
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I won novice and my height division though. Good enough for me.
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Of course, much like in boxing, sometimes all the science in the world can’t compete with alchemy. “If it’s stupid but it works, it’s not stupid”.
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That’s good! If you want to keep improving, you’d at some point have to figure out which part worked and whether it could work better, or be more sustainable, for the long haul.
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