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Always Look One Step Ahead
Articles, Nutrition & Supplementation, Rehab, mobility & injury prevention, Training
A big issue I see with a lot of lifters and athletes is them thinking they’re not
advanced/experienced enough to start doing certain things to improve
themselves. Or rather that they don’t NEED to yet. I’m not talking about giving
advanced training methods to beginners here. What I’m talking about is
conversations such as:
Me – “Have you started tracking your macros/having regular sports
massages/taking those supplements I told you to take?”
Them – “I don’t need to be doing that yet, I’m still a beginner/intermediate (or
whatever”
Look, it is NEVER too early to start doing things properly. Honestly, a lot of the
times it seems to stem from fear (or laziness). People are worried about being
judged by others for doing things that will lay the foundation for their future.
They’re concerned that because those things haven’t bared fruit YET that it will
seem silly. Or they’re scared that if they start doing these things but STILL don’t
progress to where they want to be then they don’t have any excuse to fall back
on. They’d rather have a ready-made excuse than give their 100% and
potentially have to deal with the possibility that they still came up a bit short..
“Well, I would have gotten super shredded for my holiday but I was too busy to
follow my diet.. blah blah blah”
Well, if you really want to achieve your goals then you quickly have to start not
giving shit about what others think about your actions and you also have to
accept then at some point you will invariable come up short. Very few, if anyone,
will ever understand what you’re trying to achieve. Which ultimately also means
very few, if any, will be supportive of it (we can’t support what we can’t
understand). You’ve got to do this stuff for you, if you depend on some kind of
external validation then you won’t last long I’m sorry. Likewise, failing is an
integral part of long-term success. As one of my favourite bands, Listener, say:
“Failing is not just for failures; its for everyone”
The best example that springs to mind is a client of mine who said:
“I’m not going to wear chalk to deadlift; I’m not some serious, competitive
weightlifter!”
This lady was someone who was deadly serious about changing her body and
getting STRONG. And yet, because she perceived herself as weak and/or a
beginner she thought people would laugh at her for wearing chalk. Again, fear.
So my mantra has always been to treat yourself like you are already what you
are striving to be. Or as a minimum, treat yourself like you’re one step further up
the ladder than you are. At the end of the day Olympic athletes didn’t start behaving the way they do when they got to the Olympics. They started behaving
that way years and years before to be able to develop the skills and capacities
needed to perform at that level.
Unfortunately there still seems a bit of a social stigma around being committed
to being strong/muscular/lean either just because you want to, or because you
want to compete in a “niche” sport like powerlifting/strongman.
Here’s what I mean. Let’s take a soccer player (I’m UK based ok, cut me some
slack). They do an interview about how they eat a super regimented diet, sleep 9
hours a night, train twice a day and spend all day obsessing about their next
match/training session. The public all respond with admiration for the
dedication to his sport.
Now let’s take our average-joe powerlifting/bodybuilding competitor. If they
make the same statement then most people will likely view it as obsessive or not
respect it.
Same behaviours, but because one individual is getting paid for their habits (and
performs in a sport that is socially popular/accepted) the reaction is different.
When in reality, the reaction should be MORE positive. Why? Well I don’t know
about you but if I was getting paid $300,000/week to eat well and train hard you
can f***ing bet I’d be motivated! What takes real dedication is doing all that
when you’re simply doing it for your own personal reasons (health/competitive
spirit/world domination etc).
Yet another reason I choose to ignore the opinions of other people (except for
my wife…. because a small part of me still wants to live)
So if you’re currently in a bit of a rut progress-wise perhaps it’s time to ask
yourself; “Am I doing the things that people better than me do?”.
Every step up the ladder takes more and more commitment and this isn’t a linear
relationship either. At first small investments (getting a bit more sleep, cutting
down on alcohol) can bare great rewards. But the higher you get the more and
more you need to put it to just get a little bit back.
Now that I’m done ranting inanely I will begin the useful part of the article.
If you’re someone who is serious about performing at a high-level or making
some big physical improvements these are my recommendations in terms of
habits that you need to implement:
**Please note that I am leaving out the painstakingly obvious habits like; train
HARD on a sensible program, eat well, get enough sleep and so on. If you’re not
doing those then those are big issues that you need address first.**
Habit 1 – Build Mental Strength/Toughness
Everyone knows that mental fortitude is important for achieving anything of
note in life but in the fitness industry we often like to skim over this part. Maybe
it’s because it’s seen as too intangible or subject to really talk about. Whatever
the reason is, you can’t escape the fact that is important.
Mental strength, like physical strength, is built, not given. Those people you meet
who are incredibly mentally tough, they weren’t just born that way…. chances
are they’ve gone through some really tough sh** that made them become that
way.
So how do you build mental strength? Do hard things. Things that challenge you.
Things that you don’t REALLY want to do.
The types of things that make you wonder “why the hell am I doing this” (for me
this is spending more than 30s on an exercise bike)
Find those things and do them; then do them again. Do them until they feel as
normal to you as brushing your teeth. Then find something harder.
To give a personal example; I hate squats and yet I have completed the infamous
Smolov Squat Program SIX times. Three times for back squat and then a further
three times for front squat.
I don’t even particularly rate the Smolov program, in fact for most it’s a silly
option. But I did it purely because it made me train squat (which I didn’t enjoy)
and train it HARD, several days a week, for weeks on end. It sucked and it didn’t
suck any less by the 6 th time either.
But that wasn’t the point, the point was purely to get outside my comfort zone
and make me do something I normally wouldn’t do. If I went through a period
where I thought I was being weak with regards to my training efforts then I’d
make myself go through it again; a sort of mental strength”refresher”.
Likewise I had a similar relationship with Christian’s Built for Bad program. I’d
run it for 4-6 weeks at a time just to make the rest of my years training seem like
a walk in the park by comparison.
But this doesn’t have to be limited to the gym. It could be making yourself try
new things outside of the gym that are tough. In fact, JM Blakeley came up with
the best one that I’ve heard (to paraphrase):
“If you think you’re mentally tough, I want you to read a book for one hour
straight. One hour without doing or looking at anything else, just head down in
the pages. ”
And make sure it’s a book about nothing that interests you. Sounds laughable but
tragically most people barely last 10 minutes.
Mental strength must ALWAYS precede physical strength.
Habit 2 – Focus on the quality of your actions
Martha Beck coined the quote “How you do anything is how you do everything”.
What this means is how you perform any task or action will bleed out and
influence how you perform others. Just like mental strength, working hard is a
habit that is built through time and effort.
The most obvious example here is lifters who pay zero attention or put no effort
in to their warm-ups. Whether it’s stretching, activations exercises or squatting
the empty bar (or light weights); they’re totally clocked out and paying no
attention. Then they wonder why their work weights/sets look like garbage.
How do you expect to lift 90% well if up until that point all your sets have been
poor because you only start paying attention once you’re up to your work
weights.
You can often tell a truly serious lifter by the way they warm-up and lift the
empty bar. When I coach at competitions the dedicated lifters are in the warm up
room over and hour before stretching off, lifting the bar, seeing how they feel
and so on. They take their first warm up set with the same focus that they will
take their last warm up.
You’d be amazed at the amount of really strong people that turn up 20-
30minutes before they’re due on platform and just rush through some rushed,
haphazard sets (they may be strong, but imagine how much better they could be
if they prepared properly…).
Once again, this principle encompasses EVERYTHING that you do (that’s the
whole point of the quote). I have yet to meet a person who is a genuinely driven
work-horse in their professional life who is then a slacker in the gym. Work ethic
is a transferrable trait between different facets of your life, provided those facets
are important to you (this is key, you can’t work truly hard at something you
don’t care about).
So be conscious of the quality of your actions, not just in the gym but all day
every day. HOW you do something is just as important as WHAT you choose to
do. If all your actions are performed with attentiveness and your best effort, only
good things will happen.
So in summary, if you look like an amateur while you’re warming up, then you’re
laying the foundation to stay an amateur.
Habit 3 – Those you spend time with effect you
This has been said in many ways:
“You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with,” – Jim Rohn
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” – Dan Pena
“If you walk with the lame, you will develop a limp.” – Louie Simmons
You get the idea.
Now I’m not saying you need to only spend time with the World’s Strongest Man
competitors. What I am saying is that you need to spend time with people who at
least take this as seriously as you do, ideally even more so. That doesn’t mean
they have to be stronger/bigger than you or whatever, it just means they need to
be committed.
Picture this; you’re 3 weeks out from your first bodybuilding show. Your
“normal” group of friends are trying to drag you out every weekend to have
dinner out and then go out partying, giving the usual “Oh but one
meal/drink/night out wont hurt!” type message. So you go along but you don’t
drink and you bring your own food, you know, because you’re committed. So
then you get the inevitable comments:
“So why are you doing this? Do you REALLY have to just eat that type of food?”
“There’s no way I could do that (referring to your training/diet regime), sounds
awful”
And so on. When you’re in a situation where you’re dragging yourself through
each day, probably even asking yourself as this point “Is this really worth it?, is
that the type of influences you want around you.
To give a real world example, Dave Hoff, the man with the biggest powerlifting
total in the world (yes in equipment/gear), has a training crew that consists of a
wide variety of people in terms of strength/performance level. The way he put it
was (to paraphrase him terribly):
“First off they need to committed, if I need you there every Saturday at 8am so
that I can squat, you better show up every week. Secondly, they’ve got to not be
an asshole. If you’re going to be in my crew and I’m going to achieve what I want
to achieve then we’re going to be training together for several years. I can’t
spend that much time with someone who’s an asshole.”
Train and spend time with people who respect your goals as much as you do;
create an environment for your own success. No one can reach their true
potential in an environment that pulls them away from their goals.
In reality, I’m not necessarily referring to just the gym or to people who are in to
lifting etc. either here. Someone who is a really driven individual will respect you
for your commitment to a goal/pursuit, even if it completely different to their
own. With respect will come motivation and support.
Habit 4 – Be an athlete 24/7, not just in the gym
This will seem quite obvious to some but it’s amazing how many people expect
to get elite level results from the only part of the equation that they’re paying
attention to is the training.
Training is the easy part; training is part we all WANT to do. Ok yeh, it may suck
at times and be difficult but we still enjoy it in a masochistic sort of way. But just
training hard will only get you so far if you’re not doing everything else right.
You can’t be an athlete in the gym and a lazy bas**** outside it. Yes, I know there
are a few exceptions, but if you’re reading this article then trust me, you’re not
one of them.
The better you want to be the more your lifestyle must alter to support and
encourage that progression. So what does being an athlete outside of the gym
look like exactly?
Getting enough GOOD QUALITY sleep – I’m not going to go in to why this is
important. Do it.
Solid daily nutrition strategy – Again, you know this.
Have a plan – No, I don’t just mean have a training and diet plan to follow. I
mean plan out your progression in the moderate and long term. Where do you
plan to be in 6 months, 1 year and 3 years? Olympic athletes plan their
progression FOUR YEARS ahead, so you can plan where you want to be in 9-12
months. It’s all well and good having goals; but how are you going to get there? A
goal without a path is meaningless.
Physical Self-care – we’re talking stretching, mobility work, recovery protocols
(hot baths, sports massage), you know, all that boring stuff everyone knows they
should do but don’t.
“Mental” Self-care – performing at a high level is taxing on your nervous
system and you won’t be able to perform for long if it isn’t given enough time to
recover. Scheduling “down time” for your nervous to recover becomes very
important, especially if you’re a performance based athlete. The harder you push,
the more “down time” you need. Some methods I like to use for this are:
Breathing practices – spend time in a quiet, non-stimulating environment and
focus on breathing as slowly and deeply as possible, solely through your nose.
Nasal breathing along with slowing your breathing rate with stimulate your
parasympathetic nervous system to aid with recovery from strenuous training,
or just stress in general
Meditation – similar to the above really, but with more of an intention to
purposefully clear your mind and allow your whole body to relax. The goal is not
to think of nothing; that’s impossible. The goal is to simply allow your thoughts
to pass by and not attach yourself to them. An analogy that is often given is to
allow your thoughts to drift past you like they were a river running in front of
you. Posture is very important here, make sure your posture allows your spine to
fully lengthen whether it be seated or lay down.
Light exposure – we all know limiting blue light exposure is good for us (unless
you’re reading incredibly useful and intellectual articles on Thibarmy.com).
Mainly because it stops us from over-stimulating our dopaminergic system. So
we know we should be limiting our screen time, especially in the evening/night-
time.
But rarely do we talk about the benefits of red/orange light. Just like nasal
breathing, red/orange light has the effect of stimulating the parasympathetic
(rest and digest) system. So this actually helps our nervous system wind down. I
mean, the sky is blue at sunrise and red/orange at sunset; so makes sense right?
So just like getting out in the natural light in the morning will help you wake up
and be alert, going outside around dusk will have the opposite effect.
My wife and I have started walking our dogs twice per day recently, one in the
morning and one around dusk for this exact reason. If getting outside at night
isn’t an option then maybe try lighting your fireplace or using some candles (cue
Barry White music). You can even get red tinted light bulbs, which you could put
in your bedroom. It does make your room look like a brothel or a crack den (or
even better, a crack filled brothel.) but we’re not judging here.
Social media – OK OK, this is where I sound even more like a grumpy old man
with no life. Truth is, I’m not old, I’m not grumpy, I’m just anti-social. But hear me
out anyway
Obviously social media involves blue light exposure, which we’ve already
touched on. But more importantly, generally speaking, more social media
exposure is quite strongly associated with people feeling less happy and content.
You can look up the research and have it explained to you by people much
smarter than I. But basically social media seems to give us a lot of instantaneous
dopamine hits which in turn end up over-stimulating our dopaminergic system
even quicker.
To be honest, when people ask me about it I simply reply with some version of
“The more time you spend worrying about someone else’s day/life, the less time
you spend investing in your own”.
It’s the exact same when I have lifters prepping for meets. Half of them end up
watching their close competitors on Instagram to see what they’re doing. But
why put energy in to worrying about someone else’s lifts when you could be
investing that energy in your own performance?? Seems silly to me.
I know there are positives to social media such as funny animal videos and gym
fails where people get hit in the crotch by snapped resistance bands. But if you
find yourself going on there every 10 minutes and/or scrolling aimlessly, you’re
just wasting time and burning your nervous system out unnecessarily.
I essentially wrote an separate article on all this stuff here –
Habit 5 – Stubbornness/Determination
This one may sound obvious but trust me, you’d be amazed at how many people
are “all in” until sh** starts to get tough. Progress will slow, you’ll have to work
harder for less reward and yes; sometimes you may even regress. The better you
get the more effort you have to put in every day just to MAINTAIN, never mind
improve.
There will even be times when you do everything right (at least, so you perceive)
and you don’t get results. I’ve had plenty of lifters have great comp preps and
then not show up on the day. Sometimes they didn’t do anything wrong,
sometimes life is just a bitch.
So at some point you need to just learn how to put your head down and graft
away even when it all seems like it’s going wrong. Because at some point it WILL
pay off, it’s usually just a lot later than you would like it to be.
To give a personal example not long ago it took me almost 25 months to the day
to add 2.5kg to my PB Bench Press. And I can guarantee you that it wasn’t for a
lack of trying! During those 25 months I probably tested by bench 3 or 4 times
and didn’t even match my current PB.
But once again, given enough time, all the hard work paid off and I was very
slightly happy for a whole 1.5s before I decided that I wanted more. What a truly
inspiring story.
If you’re planning on achieving a high level in anything then you will inevitably
go through at least one period of time like this. It takes a lot of stubbornness to
navigate these times but sometimes you have to ignore what the world is telling
you and simply trust the process. If people aren’t telling you that you’re at least a
little but un-hinged then you’re not doing it right.
So there you go, the habits that make a great athlete (not that I would know, I
stick to Zumba).
We all love to talk the training side, sets, reps, special methods blah blah blah.
But in reality there are plenty of people who have achieved great results using
some of the most absurd training programs. They simply applied the right
attitude and level of effort to it consistently. So don’t forget how much the
mentality side of the equation can determine the level of your success.