I’ve actually heard a lot about how powerlifters love to load up on high salt and carbs before a meet, so this definitely seems to be a universal thing. In fact I read about it recently here on T-Nation - Dave Tate talks about it specifically in this article 6 Dirty Tricks (scroll down to “Get Bloated for Big Lifts”).
Yes, absolutely. I’m always scared that I’m missing something crucial, and that if I am then it’ll lower my genetic potential or make it harder for me to make gains in the future. Whether such a fear is justified or not is another question altogether though.
This is how I train. I read the Dan John article about only using big plates many years ago. It’s how I trained my squat and deadlift 95% of the time. I never train low reps, or ever had a peaking phase and I’ve squatted 230kg for a comfortable single.
I spent ages with140kg, then 160kg, 180kg, 200kg etc until it became very easy.
I think so many people over complicate training and nutrition. If I was training for a comp, I would follow a more structured program, but if you’re just trying to get big, strong and lean, it’s very simple.
I’ve had people smaller and weaker tell me it wasn’t optimal. Most novices focus their energy on the stuff that doesn’t matter and not on the stuff that will be responisble for the majority of their gains.
It’s funny how you read this in a lot of places yet there are literally thousands of people who don’t achieve any of these three. Seems like it might not be that easy.
It’s the clash between simple and easy. Many things are simple and not easy. Boxing is simple: hit and don’t get hit. That’s not easy. With training though, people try to trick themselves into thinking that the reason that it’s not easy is because it’s just so goddamn complicated and they can’t figure out the right way to do it. They don’t want to admit that it’s honestly a simple process, because then the failure is more one of character than of intellect.
I used a little poetic licence there to further the discussion. Simple it may be, but there are also lots of people making a living making it seem very complicated.
100%. There’s no “fitness industry” without manufactured complexity. The secrets are hard work, performed over long durations, without interruption. Try selling that! Weider almost went broke selling fitness equipment, so he switched to supplements and made millions, because supplements are “secrets”.
I’ve been reading a lot about nutrition recently, as I’ve been interested in it, and the vast vast VAST majority of material written about fat loss is REALLY written about hunger management. Why? Because losing weight is stupidly simple: eat fewer calories than you need. But people find that hard to do if they’re hungry. If you’re willing to just be hungry, most of the writing is just pointless.
This is actually funny: I basically stopped reading anything about nutrition for fat loss a long time ago because all the articles were in fact mostly about hunger management. I would get through the article and be like, “yeah but where’s the interesting stuff?” because I’m lucky enough to be very good at coping with hunger, so I find all the tips and tricks about doing so not interesting.
I’ve lately had some fun watching YouTube videos from bodybuilders in which they talk about nutrition for mass gain (if you said you’re interested in consuming material about the topic, I recommend you check out Fouad Abiad. He might not discuss the topic with a scientific approach, but he’s very in the trenches when it comes to knowing how to eat and grow, and his videos are fun), and you’ll see the same pattern: it’s all about making meals a little tastier and more appealing because they need to eat large quantities of food. Some tips are given about meal prepping as well.
This is very meta—it’s like saying the difficulty isn’t in understanding how to eat (which foods, quantities, calories etc.) but rather how to actually eat. If that makes sense.
Been doing a lot of reading on weight gain as well, just because it’s entertaining to me to see all the ways dudes come up with to get in more calories. Still can’t bring myself to watch videos on lifting/eating. I hate videos.
Consistency
Something I am good at. I very rarely ever want to train, I hate it but I do it. So many people take breaks and never gain any momentum.
Same with nutrition. I’m very active and need a lot of calories. I hate eating as much as I do, but I get it done
Start light and progress slowly in weight
I’m 37, and never had any injuries from lifting weights and very rarely have any slight niggles. Nothing that has ever stopped me training. I put this down to not being in a rush to add weight to bar. I rarely go below 5 reps unless I want to test a 1rm soon, which I haven’t done in years.
I like to go for rep pr’s.
This is probably my biggest principle I stick to no matter what program I’m doing.
Focus on the basics
If I’m not making progress, I look at sleep, nutrition, mental health/stress from not managing life or am I training hard enough before I look at my program.
It’s doing the basics consistently over many years that gets you results.
Take responsibility for your results
People always have excuses for failing. Your family didn’t force you to drink and eat over a weeks worth of calories in three days. If you skipped a week of training because you were tired, go to bed earlier and maybe ear more, or train when tired. Or dont, but understand that life isn’t the reason you didn’t train, it was your decisions and lack of planning that caused it. You’re in complete control. Those two examples are from two clients of mine. Also, don’t blame genetics.
You have to decide you want the results.
(Not really a principle when it comes to my training. Just something I have to teach my clients)
Also, do mobility and conditioning.
I’ve never done 5/3/1, but a lot of the way I think about training come from Wendler.
Probably have more. I’m tired and need to sleep. I’ll add them tomorrow if I think of more.
I lost ~18lb in the last three months by just eating very little on non-training days. I more often than not eat garbage on the eating days. Yesterday I effectively ate hot wings and 3 packs of ramen noodles for dinner. I frequently have 5-6 pizza slices for lunch or dinner and fast food. It’s whatever is convenient to eat.
It is very simple. I also feel very hungry as the day goes by on the non-training days. I personally don’t mind said hunger that much, presumably because I’ve skipped breakfast and thus done some form of intermittent fasting fasting for a very long time now, but others around me literally cannot stand the feeling of being hungry.
So… weight loss=simple. Is it easy? It doesn’t appear to be.
Gaining weight is also simple. I went from an average of 182lb to 189lb in a couple of months by just adding 2 spoonfuls of almond butter and stuffing myself at dinner with a bit more meat, fat, and vegetables.
Not easy though- It took me close to an hour to eat lunch simply because it got hard eating each freaking forkful of ground beef and vegetables.