Hey gang,

So last week I got tossed out of the game for a few days with severe back pain and muscle cramping. The first day this started happening I went to the gym and tried to work through the pain. This was stupid.

Fellas, when you are sore….no excuses, but if you are banged up get the hell out and rest.

Having had a bunch of injuries in the past, including back, I started to worry. One sign that things would be alright was that there was no involvement or tingling down my leg signaling disk problems.  So what was the issue? I did a quick recap of the things I have been dropping the ball on. Hydration and I have been forgetting to take my daily multivitamin.

I immediately decided to stay out of the gym until the issue ended, drank my 2 gallons of water a day, took my vitamins and, thanks to fellow contributor here at WB Fitness Lou Skunt, I remembered to start eating watermelon again. Also, because my body fat had dropped so low I thought maybe a little carb load would be good. Bagels for the win.

Watermelon is great for hydration for sure, but there is more. Watermelon also contains as much potassium as a banana. I, unfortunately, have a serious allergy to bananas and due to that wind up on the light side with natural potassium intake.

What was important here and the advice I want to give you guys is while we are all on team #noexcuses we can’t just keep our heads down and move forwards blindly. We need to stop and recalculate constantly. Whether the issue is an injury like I had or a plateau or something just not going the way you want this game requires constant rethinking of what we are doing. By stopping the gym (which really killed me) and seriously considering where I was fucking up I was able to make the corrections and in 2 days was back at it at 100%.

So today I challenge you guys to take a moment and ask yourself about your habits. How is your diet? How is your hydration? Are your workouts getting you where you want to be? Are you prioritizing your weak spots? How is your sleep? Let me know below in the comments what your deficits are. Remember, we all have them…the difference between the mediocre and the great isn’t that the great lack flaws it is that the great are willing to analyze those flaws and  make the requisite changes to fix them.

Speaking of challenges, you guys are not going to want to miss out on Friday’s WB Challenge. For guys on Team WB Fitness I am making this one mandatory, but you really ought to do this one…it will push the limits of your body and your mind and when you are done you will know you are stronger than you thought.

Tune in Friday and keep the grind going!