Today I have a bit of a special update to WB Fitness as there has been a lot on my mind lately.

Change over time is the name of the game when it comes to bodybuilding and it is change that I have been thinking about….how we change as physical entities, how the world around us changes and how our very being changes over time.

Yesterday I didn’t go to the gym. I didn’t over sleep, I didn’t forget…I made the conscious decision that I didn’t want to go and said fuck it. I wasn’t particularly happy with this decision, but then I got to thinking about change over time.

Missing a day at the gym will, in the long run, have no impact over my overall progression and that is something that is important to remember. If you have to drag your sorry ass into the

People who say this shit are wrong. Some workouts injure you, some go too far past exhaustion and make future work outs harder. There are lots of ways to have a bad workout.

gym and half ass your workout then maybe a day off would actually do you well. The thing is, if you don’t have the motivation and push through anyway, often it is the case that you will just ruin the next days workout whereas sleeping in that one day might re-energize you so the rest of the week you can kill it. Missing a workout or two for the greater purpose of getting your mind and body right is not a crime.

We change over time. This sentiment about missing a workout would have been abhorrent to me just three years ago. The fact of the matter is that if we think all the same things as we did years ago, if we look the same way we did years ago or if we are the same level of strength we were a few years ago then we have not made any improvement. Improvement, by definition, requires us to change and change means

Starting to lean out and put on size, but need to keep reminding myself that I am ahead of where I was last season even if I am not at my best yet.

that we are not the same. I have often criticized people who are in the gym every day (often with trainers) doing the same work outs year after year without showing any change and this is true for thinking. People who have been following WB Fitness from the start know that the current program, Toxic Masculinity, is much different in form and philosophy than the WBF program we did 2 years ago. This is because there is constant research, thinking and rethinking and the program evolves with new knowledge.

The thing about change, even about change which signals improvement, is that sometimes it is hard to accept. I have been thinking a lot lately about an old friend of mine. At the age of 19, some 23 years ago this month, he was shot and killed in Bushwick, Brooklyn. For those of you who don’t know, Bushwick is, historically, one of the worst areas in New York. Growing up, it was a lawless area mostly and controlled by the gangs…the Latin Kings and the Bloods were very big there as were a few others.

Bushwick had a way of desensitizing people to violence. Gun shots, beatings, murder, robbery and every form of crime was just the normal. To this day I have friends that I can joke around with about “that time those guys were shooting at us” or things we experienced or saw or were part of that would truly mortify most people.

In a touch of irony which is funny in a kind of sad way, I was reading that an ice cream shop

For those of you who grew up or spent time in or around Bushwick, seeing this on Irving Street should evoke a strong response.

called Ollie’s just opened up in Bushwick a few days ago. Ollies is an artisanal ice cream shop that caters both to people and, with smaller portions, their dogs.

This ice cream store that is owned by a 24 year old Long Island native and caters to people and their pets is right where I saw gang turf wars, where crack was sold openly in the streets, where violence was a part of the daily experience, where my young friend was shot to death. But now,

It was dark as fuck on the streets
My hands were all bloody, from punching on the concrete

Bushwick has changed and, while there are times that it strikes me as a bad thing I am forced to realize that the change is for the better and the “bad” is just my reluctance to accept improvement. How can Bushwick of all places now be some hipster paradise? At one and the same time it is offensive, but also makes me happy. This hostility towards change for the better is something that I bet you guys are noticing as you work along with the program. People, myself included, are reluctant to change. Things fit in nice little boxes and categories. Maybe some friend of yours remembers you when you were fat or when you were scrawny. I bet they are the first ones to ask you why you are in the gym so much.

Just as it is hard for me to parse this new Bushwick, it is hard for people to process positive change over time. Thinking about missing the gym yesterday and coming to peace with it is difficult when just a few years ago I would have been very hard on myself as well as you guys for doing the same.

Change, even positive change, will always be met with skepticism. In a way we are gentrifying our bodies. Taking something that was run down and adding value to it and making it better. Not all change is good, of course. I guess what I want to hammer home here is that when you feel a change isn’t good, never just go with a gut instinct. The way of the bodybuilder is to constantly reassess so we can learn, grow and get bigger, leaner and better.

In the same way that hypertrophy works, so too goes the evolution of the self. We continually break ourselves down so we can grow back stronger and with more knowledge than before.

Keep on that grind fellas. We still have a little over 3 months to be pushing.

On a final note I want to say that this post was inspired by an old friend. RIP VE ONE. 19 years was far too few.

Bushwick Has Changed