I haven’t even been out of the gym for a week yet and I already miss my routine.
I don’t mean the workout schedule. I mean my literal routine of going through the day, which includes my workouts.
Holidays are great for a rest and reset but they bring their own anxieties and stresses. The Big Tourism industry doesn’t want us talking about that.
At the same time, it’s pretty depressing to think of how addicted a soul can become to boring monotony. I’ll spend months looking forward to a trip and then find myself wanting to be back in my hobbit hole.
It doesn’t help that it’s been raining a deluge the whole time I’ve been here at Secret Beach Getaway.
Speaking of boring monotony:
I got to reading this morning about yet another “new” study with yet another shocking insight that I was already aware of and talking about before 2005.
To set it up, let me ask you this:
When you do a set, do you push hard into the reps? I mean really digging in and pushing to the point of a few tricky reps at the end?
Based on my people-watching observations over the decades, you can see who does this and who does not.
Effort is written into a physique. Including lack-of.
It turns out that The Science vindicates the need for pushing hard so that you get at least a few “grunting” reps as your muscles tire out at the end of a work set.
I already knew that a long time ago, thanks to previous research showing this, along with my on-going debate with Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates fanboys.
Not to mention simple common sense observation: When you challenge yourself, you get better results in return.
Tension is the secret sauce that makes a muscle grow.
Struggling against more resistance creates more tension.
Do work under tension, and the muscle receives a signal that makes it grow larger and stronger.
Feed and water that bad boy and within a few weeks, your brachialis is swelling.
It ain’t rocket surgery, no matter how the nerds and bros try to hide the simpleness beneath layers of nonsense and ego.
You don’t get tension if you don’t put some oomph into your sets, though.
This little gem is the major reason I quit putting so much stock into precise sets and reps, by the way.
I can write “3 sets of 10” on a piece of paper, hand it to five different people, and get five different results when they load up their plates.
One guy will hardly load up the bar and sail through all 30 reps without barely squeezing his chestorals.
Meanwhile another more aggressive lifter will push closer to the limit on each set. He may not make all 10 reps on his last set, or he might adjust the weight down to get the volume in.
The quantities don’t get you to the quality that your muscles demand.
Don’t get hung up on details. What matters is that the more aggressive lifter puts more effort put into each set and isn’t afraid of going after the harder reps at the end.
He’s not afraid to throw more weight on the bar in the future in order to challenge himself.
Watch how most people lift in commercial gyms. They do neither one of these things.
While I don’t believe in burning yourself to the ground by pushing to absolute voluntary failure, I do believe that resistance training without an attitude of aggression is pretty pointless.
Don’t misunderstand me when I say “aggressive”. I don’t mean being a blind idiot.
My advice to get aggressive is a warning against being too conservative.
There’s a fine line between pointlessly punishing yourself and doing productive work. You want to be on the right side of that line.
Your job with the weights is to push your body-parts out of their happy boredom. Challenge them. Don’t be afraid to push. Don’t be afraid of throwing on an extra five pounds if you’ve stayed at the same weight for awhile. Give your body a reason to change.
Get after it and your body will bless you with gains.
Much as I will bless you with wisdom when you subscribe to my email list.
Matt Perryman