This Exercise Advice Will Change the Way You Train, …. for Good!
In 2022, I changed something in my philosophy regarding fitness.
There was a time I would train with the ‘holistic’ approach, trying to be perfect down to the last rep of every exercise in the routine.
Now, I train with the ‘keep moving’ approach, trying to stay consistent instead of perfect about the exercise selection, rep ranges, weight selection, etc.
I go intuitive with my training and in the last few years it has worked out fine for me.
I cannot see any signs of muscular imbalance in the major muscles. There might be some in the minor muscles.
However, I am fit, strong and durable. Better than I have ever been in terms of shape and size.
It is far from perfect, or even an ideal way to train.
However, it has served me well and has kept me from going down the rabbit hole of inactivity, obesity, etc.
And so, I suggest the same for all working people.
In fact, if you’re a beginner, this advice is a starting point for you.
You MUST take this seriously because this can get you to your desired goals faster, without wasting time overthinking, and overplanning.
If I could go back in time and do ONE thing different about my training style, it would be to follow this approach.
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When you’re starting out, you’re in the stage of uninformed optimism.
You’re hopeful and optimistic about a favorable future outcome with regards to your goals.
You somewhere believe that no matter what you will manage to find your way to your goals.
However, it doesn’t take too long before you reach the stage of informed pessimism.
As it often happens, you come across some examples where people failed, got injured, or you recognised some of the risks with not taking care of the nitty-gritty of holistic training approach, and you ended up being stressed and worried.
All the enthusiasm and optimism you had when you began will seemingly evaporate.
You’ll lose hope.
You’ll reach the valley of despair.
But there’s hope.
There’s light.
And I’m here to help you in moving out of this when you do reach there some day.
Once you do, you’ll reach the next stage — ‘informed optimism’.
It is here where you’ll start seeing success.
So, if you’re interested in moving through this cycle with relative ease, hold yourself tight and read this through with absolute focus.
Cut out all distractions and read one word after the other.
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If you want to be big, strong and durable, the #1 thing you must remember is:
Slow and Gradual Progression for Long Term Unhindered Growth
Instead of chasing too many fitness goals at once,
Instead of trying to achieve things pretty fast,
Instead of trying to get good at multiple things together,
You SHOULD pick ONE goal and go at it with consistency…even if it means not being able to see any progression for a week or more.
In fact, there will be times when you wouldn’t be able to train for a week or more.
Forget progression, there will be times when you’ll come back to training weaker than before.
It can be due to anything — sickness, injury, whatever.
But that doesn’t matter.
As long as you’re training with the mindset of enjoying every moment of your training coz it’s the only thing there is to life, you will continue progressing and keep the risk of injuries at bay.
The advice is simple:
Start your journey with 1 exercise…ONE only!
Start with isometrics, where you do not move your limbs.
All you do is hold the most intense muscle-contraction position of an exercise for 10 to 60 seconds.
Benefit?
You’ll develop some real strength.
Not just in your muscles. In your bones, tendons, and ligaments, as well.
And since your bones, ligaments, and tendons take longer to heal and recover in comparison to your muscles, you’ll see some slow but significant change in your overall strength over time.
Once you’re able to manage holding the position for 60 seconds, you’ll be in the condition to do ONE slow repetition of that exercise.
Start with it…ONE rep only.
Continue this every day.
Every 3rd day, increase the rep by one more on that exercise.
One more, each day.
You’ll soon reach a point where you find yourself managing multiple reps on the exercise, easily.
Congratulations for whenever you reach that stage…It wouldn’t be a small achievement.
Being able to do what you never could is an emotion in its own right.
By the time you reach 20 reps on that exercise, you’ll notice that you’ve developed an appreciable level of strength.
You’d be able to lift significantly more weight for 5–8 reps than you thought you could.
At this point, you should bump up the resistance on that exercise by 1.0–2.5%.
There are two major benefits to this approach:
- You prevent overtraining and hitting any plateau in your training.
- You prevent injury to your connective tissues because you’re developing them through your training, inherently.
All these will also feel like a blessing or a boon in your old age.
Of course, you’re young and the realisation of old age doesn’t get to you yet.
But when you will, you’ll thank yourself for doing what you’re about to.
That’s it!
A simple approach towards training for the long haul.
Give it a try.
All the best.
