Loads of good stuff above and I feel like I am probably going to just repeat in my own words other great principles, but here goes anyway.
The slower I progress the faster I get. It has taken me years of pushing hard and either running out of steam or getting injured and starting again to realise that I make more progress with simple baby steps each week over a long time.
You don’t eat enough being the original skinny kid I eventually learnt that I just don’t eat enough. One of my oldest friends back in the UK was the totally opposite to me, going up through school I was always the skinny kid and he was the big kid. I always wondered why as a teenager I just didn’t put on weight. When we were in our 20’s he lived with me and my wife for a while and one night my wife made the biggest dish of noodles i have ever seen. My mate had a plate twice the size of mine and finished it in half the time it took me to eat mine. He then politely told the wife it was excellent and asked if he could have a little more. My wife told him to fill his boots, so he literally ate it all. It was like 3 more plates full ! It was then that I finally understood that I just don’t eat enough
Have a goal, just one goal. Whether I was running or strength training I always made the best progress if I stuck to one goal. The interesting thing for me is that when I stuck to one goal I often achieved others along the way. In running I ran my fastest 5km when I was training for a half marathon and all my efforts were on endurance. With strength training my legs gained more mass focusing on a big squat than years of pretending to bodybuild.
One goal doesn’t have to be forever Goals change over time and that’s OK but refer to number 3
I don’t think it has to just be about being lean. J M Blakely had a great way for one gain about eating 2 chocolate bars every 2 hours in order to keep insulin spiked. Total superstition , but clearly it worked, haha.
I really appreciate you bringing this up, as it relates to a discussion I had with someone else regarding weight gain. They were the typical forever skinny kid that talked about “Whenever I’m out with my friends, I eat WAY more than they all do.”
I pointed out that, typically, when people are out with friends, they’re going to eat LESS than they normally do: not more. Gluttony isn’t really a prized quality (Hell, it’s one of the 7 Deadly Sins), and lots of folks tend to be ashamed of their eating habits, and won’t cut loose in front of company. Meanwhile, you get these folks alone and out comes the gallon of ice cream and spoon, where they don’t stop until they hit cardboard. Perpetual undereaters can’t fathom the kind of nutritional debauchery these people are accomplishing at home, so they just see people eating like birds, assume that’s how they ALWAYS eat, and figure they must have some sort of metabolism issue.
Your buddy was comfortable enough around you all to really let loose and show his true nutritional side and you got to have that eye opening moment: how awesome, haha.
You are 100% spot on. Even in our 20’s when I was in the gym 5 days a week and Graham (that’s his name) did nothing much, he was still 4 inches taller but 35kg (77lb) heavier than me and he didn’t have a big belly. He was just a unit. 20 years later and I will still say to the wife, “I am going to do a Graham” just before finishing off all the food she cooked for the family. I might do that for one meal but I saw over those weeks he lived with us him do that for every meal.
This sorta cohabitation would be so valuable. Going out to eat jacks people up so bad for this. The people who “can’t lose weight no matter what” fall for the same trap in reverse: they see their skinny friend putting away the food whenever they go out to eat and say “He can eat WHATEVER he wants and eats a ton and is STILL skinny”, not realizing that this is most likely the ONE meal the dude will eat that day.
You are spot with both these scenarios. How many posts on here about either not being able to gain or lose weight should be directed to these examples?.. All of them
Good topic, and actually found it tough to think of any principles I really live by training wise that aren’t just things I do from personal preference.
Consistency beats intensity. 6-8 Okay workouts over 2 weeks will net you better results than 1 or 2 ‘insane’ sessions. If you’re not feeling it, just go in and get something of quality done, even if there is little to no intensity.
Any movement or exercise should feel ‘heavy’ for at least one muscle, ideally the one you are training.
Consume a good dose of protein at every feeding.
Long term, your muscles have to get stronger to get bigger. Many ways to define strength but this one I truly believe. If I’d focused more on muscle strength (specifically different from movement strength) in my first 5-10 years of training, I’d be in a better place now. Just to clarify this one, I’m not talking about adding weight to a specific movement like bench press, which can happen without an increase in muscular strength, or be absent despite an increase in muscular strength. I mean increasing the contractile force of individual muscles.
Fat loss hierarchy
A - To lose weight, you need a caloric deficit
B - Given A, to lose more fat (rather than lean mass) add resistance training and sufficient protein
C - Given A and B, to maintain hormonal and general health to continue to lose fat long term, add fat
D - Given A through C, Include enough quality food, and a variety thereof, to maximise micronutrient intake for long term general health.
E- Given A through D, if you have spare calories do whatever you want with them depending on personal preference and what you are trying to achieve.
Lots of solid stuff here. Number 4 is a very solid point, specifically relating to how numbers on movements can go up without strength actually doing so. It’s the issue about having number goals to tell a trainee “hit these lifts and you’ll be big/advanced”. They end up running Smolov so that they can add 40lbs to their squat in 10 weeks and then wonder why they’re not suddenly jacked. It’s about getting stronger THROUGH the process of training for your goals, rather than dedicating yourself to making the numbers go up.
Could you expand on point 5? I’m not sure what it’s saying.
Nutritional principles that I ACTUALLY follow consistently:
-I absolutely must have a carb snack just before training.
-I absolutely must have a PWO/creatine drink during training.
-I have to have gum in my mouth when I train. It makes me at least 2% stronger, I am convinced.
-I will tend to eat more the day before any truly challenging day at the gym.
Whether or not any of these things make a real difference may be debatable (not the gum thing, that is legit), I stick to them.
Now if I could figure out how to incorporate some truly beneficial habits, that would be something.
@Pinkylifting very well written. Would go a long way to help out those that struggle with it.
@Cyrrex THAT’S what I’m talking about. For me, I have to chew gum immediately before training but can’t have it while I train. It’s to the point that I might pop a stick and chew it 4 times just to spit it out and go train.
Something I definitely do during the day before a bigger session.
A powerlifting specific one is that I truly believe that salty carby foods make me stronger. At a powerlifting meet I’ll eat a family bag of Sweet and salty popcorn between each lift.
lol what?? What is the point of chewing the damn gum before training and then spitting it out? Sacrilege!
There have been MANY occasions in the past where I have a few shitty sets of whatever, and then it dawns on me…I forgot my damn gum! And then I go get my gum and all is right with the world.
I don’t like having a foul taste in my mouth before I train, but I can’t have something in my mouth as it screws with my valsalva maneuver. Occasionally I’ll use mouthwash instead, but I like how gum also makes my mouth a little less dry beforehand.
Either that happens, I choke on the gum, or I clench it between my teeth and then, with one side of my jaw uneven with the other, I don’t form as tight a seal with my mouth and air escapes.
Unless you are actually ill or injured, go. Often I wake up and start telling myself lies about how I’d be better off sleeping in today to aid recovery, or how I’m not feeling it so no point going and training legs half-heartedly today so I should wait until tomorrow when I can give it a proper go, etc etc.
If it’s a training day, I go.
I find once I’ve walked 10 minutes to the gym and the caffeine has kicked in, my attitude always changes to, well, since I’m here, I might as well make the most of it.
I’ll post more later, but what first comes to mind is…
Eat beef after deadlifting.
Whether it’s a green chile double cheeseburger or hamburger gravy on potatoes or a BBQ beef sandwich (or three), I legitimately crave beef after deadlifting, so I plan a beef dinner for deadlifting day.