People are always telling one another that moderation is the key. However, just what is moderation the key to? I am going to just put this out there right off the bat: Moderation is the key to mediocrity. Let’s be clear, going to the gym to work out 3 days a week

Moderation and Man Tits. No thanks.

is not going to do much of anything for you. Combined with a good diet it will, at best, result in you being average. Average is fine, but do not pretend that you can achieve something extreme with minimal effort.

If you want an extreme weight loss, an extreme muscle gain, an extreme conditioning or body composition change you need to make extreme sacrifices for them. You don’t lose 40 pounds or get yourself under 10% body fat or become strong enough to hit a 1000+ pound raw score or pack on 20 pounds of muscle by putting in a moderate amount of work.

In this game your first step is to seriously asses what you want out of yourself and your body. After you know what you want you have to figure out how to get there. I have known guys in the gym who will get on that elliptical for an hour three times a week and think that they will get themselves looking lean and cut for summer. They won’t. The funny thing is, because they aren’t putting in the extreme amount of work that is required for their extreme goals they won’t see any real change and because they don’t see change they tend to get disheartened and quit. They blame the lack of change on quitting and then next year try again.

You can’t get superhuman results without superhuman effort

The same goes with lifting. I think anyone with more than a casual interesting in weightlifting ought to be able to do a set of 10 deadlifts at 1.5x body weight. There is absolutely no way you will get to this by going to the gym 3 times a week for moderate exercise. People who are looking to get their bodyfat % under 10-12% cannot just do a little work here and there and try to eat healthy. Maintaining muscle at 10% bodyfat is a real commitment and not a moderate goal and so you need to put more than moderate work in.

I am all for demanding more. More from life. More from your body. More from your mind. I will never tell anyone that their goals are too extreme. What bothers me, and I see this every day, are people who have extreme goals and are either unwilling to put in extreme commitment or don’t really understand enough to realize that what they are asking requires a lot more than what they are offering. These are the people who have created a billion dollar supplement business. I am telling you now, there is simply no way around an extreme amount of work for an extreme change in life and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.

So take a minute today and assess your goals. Remember,  we are now a week away from the end of February. March 1 is going to hit hard next week and with it the promise of spring. Did you have goals you made? What are they? How far have you come in achieving them? I think you should stop and rethink. Is the amount of effort you are putting into your goal attainment commensurate with the nature of the goal? If not, you should either reconsider the effort you are putting in or reconsider the goal.

Where are you? Where do you want to be? What are you willing to do to get there?

If you are happy with your physique, strength and overall fitness level but enjoy a trip to the gym a few times a week; by all means…have at it. You certainly aren’t hurting anything. However, it is only by continually challenging the body that you ever get real progress. Do you want to drastically change your body composition for the summer? Do you want to lose a significant amount of weight (say more than 20% overall weight)? Do you want to put the kind of muscle on that people notice at the beach? Do you want to look in the mirror and be proud of how you look, how strong you are and the effort you put in to get there? These are extreme goals and diet and exercise in moderation simply will not get you to them.

So make those sacrifices, put your sweat, blood and tears out there, work through the pain, fatigue and find the time. Avoid the pitfalls. Stop rewarding good diet with bad food, forget your “little treat for doing well,” go to the gym even though you are tired after work or don’t want to wake up early in the morning. What are you doing? You owe it to yourself to put the best possible you out there and you can’t be the best version of yourself simply by wishing for it and half assing the effort. So get out there and kill it!