Two videos to share, both from Renaissance Periodization.
A disclaimer first: RP is a great channel. They are very rigorous and very scientific with how they think about training. Perhaps too much so for many people. There is no bullshit, no hype, no supplements, no skits, no humor just knowledge and numbers and Dr. Mike Israetel's enormous traps. I picked these videos because they're NOT your average RP video; they don't include numbers or a shit load of acronyms like R.P.E or M.R.V or any of that stuff. It's mostly simple, conversational wisdom.
So video #1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FAbbTKuD5gFat Loss RATES. I found this video very affirming because it speaks to something I've been coming to over the last year: there are RATES of fat loss. All get you to the same place but they involve different protocols, have different pros and cons and very different time frames. I've been on the extreme low end of fat loss, to the point I've had some issues (as I've noted here) of occasionally wondering if I'm actually getting anywhere or not. On the flip side, there's rapid fat loss, which to me carries a lot more potential failure points versus a slower fat loss rate. They advocate for something in the middle for most people. Not so fast you get a whiplash effect or get crushed by hunger and fall off the wagon, but not so slow that you have problems tracking what's happening and seeing progress. To me, as long as you're consistent, time doesn't really matter. Time is a mental construct when it comes to body transformation and recomposition. By that I mean, you create arbitrary deadlines in your head for the most part. Unless you're an athlete or an actor or your job depends on how you look and your physical performance, time isn't something most people should worry about EXCEPT in how it affects their motivation. If you NEED to see results to keep you on track, then time is a relevant variable. However if you've come to enjoy the process, and you're still making progress....then you're not really "dieting." You've graduated from dieting to "lifestyle." Most of the people on Youtube I follow stress that lifestyle is vastly more important than any training or nutritional protocol that is short term in nature. If you can make eating reasonable calories and working out regularly a lifestyle, then time frames don't matter. You're going to do it regardless, and you'll reap the benefits over time as they come however long that takes.
Video #2 goes right along with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bgPIAb_cw8Motivation. Why are you doing what you're doing? And it goes along with what I said above: when you can start working out because you just enjoy the process, everything comes easier. Making the right nutrition choices to fuel your workouts, leads to better workouts, leads to better results and it all starts because the training itself is important to you. It's why I go to the gym super consistently, even on days I don't really want to.....because the act of training is that important to me now. I realize if I don't train, I won't grow. I'll regress even. I'll stop burning as many calories. Stop losing body fat and even start adding it back. My minimal gains will diminish, my strength will diminish and I'll fall out of the rhythm that has kept me going these last few years. But beyond the consequences of not working out, there are days I just. Want. To. Train. I want that pump. I want that burn. I want that flex and stretch. I want the process and the pain of the training process. And in truth, I've never had a workout I've regretted. Even ones where I've legitimately injured myself. Why? Because I learned something. I learned what not to do. I learned what the warning signs are that something is going wrong. I learned where my current limits are. And on days when I didn't really feel like working out but did anyways.....I've never walked out of one of those sessions going "man I wish I hadn't spent my time doing that." Never. It's amazing to me how I can go from dragging myself to the gym...to exiting feeling that "fuck yeah" feeling that I didn't have when I walked in.
Like last night I felt myself getting amped up for today's workout. Can't wait to go "crush" squats and deadlifts. Today, near the end of the work day, it's Friday, there's my Friday night ahead of me to enjoy....that same motivation isn't there. I start thinking "maybe I can just skip it this week......" So you can't ALWAYS rely on motivation to help you cross that threshold. You can't be excited to train every single day you plan it on, the mind and body just don't work like that and I don't care what any hot head youtuber says. No one ever shoots a youtube video when they're NOT motivated. You only see fitness professionals professing the way things are when they're fired up, when they're motivated. They have their sluggish training days like anyone else. So when that visceral motivation isn't present....that's when you have to rely on discipline. And through the process of working out that day, somewhere in the early or middle part of my workout, that discipline turns back INTO motivation. "I'm here, I'm sweating, I know how much I have ahead of me to do, let's fucking DO IT."
Lastly.....when you can come to love the process itself, as RP puts its "Everything else falls in to place. You can pick whatever goal you want, it doesn't really matter. At that point it just becomes your excuse to train, not your reason for training." Because eventually you will achieve your goal and chances are......it will not really change you. You won't be a different person by virtue of the fact you have a six pack, or 8% body fat, or hit your PR goal of a 300 pound deadlift or whatever. The goal isn't what changes you. It's the
process that changes who you are as a person, and you may only realize that some time AFTER you've reached your goals. Of course, depending on how dramatically you changed your habits as you've gone through the process, maybe you'll get to enjoy that realization sooner rather than later.
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Topic: The Fitness Thread - THE RE-SWOLLENING (Read 62946 times)