Fail: Having an absence of Win.
Paying attention? Doesn’t matter either way to me, because I am getting my goals faster now then ever. I am going to tell you why in this piece.
People contact me and tell me they are upset with their progress because they started working with grippers last week and they can’t close a #3 COC. They got back to fitness after 15 years of sitting on their ass and now their 46 inch waist is not coming off in two weeks.
Get real folks.
Looking at the belly problem, I have a question, do you understand how much fat you are carrying on your body if you are an average height male with a waist that big? How much do you think it would be? 10, 20, 50? Try the last one or higher.
Why would you think 60-70 pounds of fat is coming off in only a few weeks?
Frustrated with your grip progress? Frustrated with your deadlift progress? Frustrated with any movement? It’s all the same thing you know.
Frustration for many people comes from either a lack of progress, or progress which is too slow.
All goals stem from one of two areas- Physique transformation or Performance.
Do you understand what your goals really are?
Do you want to bench press 350 because you want to lift 350 pounds, or is it because you want to LOOK like someone who bench presses 350? Or, do you think you will LIKE YOURSELF MORE when you LOOK like someone who can bench press 350?
Only you can answer that question. In my opinion there is no wrong answer, anyone of the try is fine as long as you are fine with it.
So you can currently bench press 225, do you think 350 will happen next Tuesday?
Will you quit if you’re not there in 4 week? What about 16 weeks? What about 48 weeks?
How long will you invest your effort to reach the goal?
The answer to that question is the single best predictor of success. The person who is willing to go the distance to reach a goal will be the one to make it.
Do your gains come as fast as possible? Do you set a new personal record (PR) every time you exercise?
If you do PR everyday, you are moving as fast as possible. If this is not fast enough you need to adjust your view on how your body works.
Not every person will move as fast as me or Dave, but using the Gym Movement Protocol will get you to your goals (be they physique or performance) as fast as possible.
Back to fat loss.
Do you track all your food?
Do you understand the three components of fat loss?
Brad Nelson lays out the plan for rapid fat loss in Grip and Rip 2.1, are you working with that plan?
Do you cheat?
Do you have a solid physical practice?
Are you following your body in as many areas as possible?
Are you measuring yourself?
Taking before and after photos regularly?
Do you know how to spot the trends?
Back to performance.
Do you understand you will make faster progress if you test movements and do the better testing drills for your body?
Do you understand every movement either makes you better or makes you worse?
Are you spending the time in the gym doing things that help you or things that slow you down?
What slows you down? Anything that does not test well to include -Warm ups, stretching, foam rolling, corrective exercise routines, cool downs, periodization programs and any written template from any coach or trainer no matter how famous or educated they think they are.
What speeds you up? Following your body and doing the program specific to your tissue and your goal.
Agree or disagree, I don’t care. This year I have exceeded a World Record by 25 lbs. This year I have moved up from a #3 COC to closing in on a #4 COC Its only a matter of time. I have reached my leanest body weight, and my most muscular physique ever. I move more weight in one week then most people move in a month. I am stronger, faster, more coordinated, more flexible, more “mobility”, more “stability”, I have better endurance, more “work capacity” and more of every other motor quantity. I am far far better. The only program I know now is MY PROGRAM. Built off the requirements of my body.
This is the power of Gym Movement.
Either you understand what I am talking about because you are living this too, or you do not. There is no need to wait any longer is there? Start today.
I look forward to your win.
{ 9 comments }
Nice work.
I notice that your volume is very high day after day with no injury. I was wondering if there is anything you do to help with recovery (besides the normal eating well, hydration, sleep).
Also, it sounds like you do not have a “standard” warm up routine. Is the gym movement testing your “warmup”? That would be efficient and partly explain how you get so much into a hour.
No need to warm up when all the movements improve your mobility as it is
Gene,
If you test all your movement and avoid the elements of effort you will not get injured training.
As a logical extension of that, you will recover more quickly.
I have moved 254k lbs this week of no-bullshit lifting and I barely feel like I have done anything.
I’ve been applying the protocol for some 36 weeks or so, and sometimes it feels strange to not do some type of movement for months. For example, I can’t remember when I bent steel the last time, or when I did swings or snatches. Those time that I did, however, I made PRs. I learned to bend easier stock much faster and heavy stock much farther, and with swings I made at least a 1/3 improvement, and that was after a lengthy break from the aforementioned moves. So, I trust that I will progress in those moves as long as they test well.
Now I’ve been working on finger lifting, 2″ vbar and ring/handle lifting after making an apparatus for them, and the progress has been nice. Especially with finger lifting. I’m able to finger lift once a week or so, but taking things slow has allowed me satisfactory and pain-free progress. Actually, that is the number one thing about the whole protocol: getting to know your limits, and working within them. I’ve been lifting for some five years now, and still, still I find myself pushing the envelope against better judgement. It’s all about self-control and the acuity to know your limits. However, such wisdom comes only with experience, “in the trenches” so to speak, but it is well worth the effort.
I don’t DL much more than I did some four years ago, but certainly I am much stronger in every other way. Even just a year ago I was not as strong all around, but I’ve made at least a similar amount of progress with a fraction of the effort I used to invest in a programmed approach to training.
For me it appears that some movements like squatting and pressing rarely allow for increases in maximum weight (never have been good at them, either), and there is also the thing that because of this I am inclined to work past my limits with them, especially if heavier weights are in question. Deadlift is my pet lift, though, and I don’t have such blind and foolhardy ambition with it as I do with those two lifts. Then again, with squats I have improved a great deal overall in terms of work capacity, but I don’t know if I can say the same about presses, as I can’t remember anything as significant from my history of doing them as per the GM protocol. Although, if my memory does not fail me utterly, I’d say that I’ve atleast improved at the perceived ease of pressing in contrast to the volume and density of lifting.
Oh well, if it does not want to improve, then it doesn’t, at least the way I’ve done it. It’s not like I made much progress using programming in those movements past the initial jump.
As far as warming up goes, I’ve had a morning stretching/balancing routine for years now, but only lately have I allowed myself to skip it. Sometimes I don’t have the time for it (sleeping for too long), sometimes I don’t even feel like doing it. Sometimes it feels fantastic. I suppose an important thing about approaching exercise is to not stress about it, and avoid hitting your head to the wall.
Eetu
Could you email me a break down of your progress since you started with Gym Movement? I would be interested to see weights, volume, measurements and changes performance/physique.
Sure, I’ll see what kind of a breakdown I can put together. The training history is somewhat motley due to movements rapidly progressing and then shifting back into the background, giving room for something else. It’ll be interesting to give the log a lengthy perusal.
Off topic here. Every movement is either good or bad for us…I have learned this through extensive use of GM protocol.
What if the toe touch itself or other ROM testing is bad for you on a particular day? I’ve been thinking about this.
Now, I don’t want this misconstrued as me challenging the efficacy of GM…far from it. I have made stupid gains in LCCJ, pullups, getups, grip work, trail running, juggling, etc. I AM getting better everyday.
This is just a question I’ve been thinking about.
Loved the post, man.
Steve – absolutely. Spinal flexion is not always good which is why we use several movements to test ROM. first step is to test the test.
Adam, I was pondering that same question! This is one of the great things about GM; it makes one question and test everything!