Let me start off by saying this….fuck that hurt.
I haven’t had any weight in my hands since late August, have eaten poorly and drank too much. Suffice to say I look and feel like shit. So what was day one like for me?
In the locker room I suited up in my early in the season fat boy workout clothes, not my super awesome stuff that I break out April 1. I was feeling shitty. Then I put my shoes on. I don’t know what it was, but something about lacing up my lifting shoes started to wake me up. I put on my headphones and started walking down the hall to the gym floor.
Yes I felt sluggish and fat, but for a quick moment a memory — visceral and life like — of the feeling I would get late spring and early summer of last year when I felt that every single one
It will take a little while, but I will be back and even better soon and keeping that in mind is sometimes the best fuel there is.
of my steps shook the earth. I am not there, but the memory is so vivid it served as a reminder and motivator. Grabbing a towel I marched, Gorilla Walked, to the power rack. Do you guys feel like you walk differently in the gym. Like your stride has more strength and confidence, like your posture is better? I got to the rack and did a couple squats (I do high bar, I think we should discuss high bar versus low bar squatting at some point) with no weight and to my delight I found that my form came back to me almost instantly. Yeah, there is more fluff to contend with at the bottom, but i was ready to go. So I added the weight and jesus of fucking christland I am out of shape. Man did I feel weak! After my second set I honestly contemplated walking off and getting to the next lift. The squats had me winded and exhausted. But I remembered two things. The first is that I owe it to you guys to get every rep out. I lose all ability to tell you fucking pricks to put everything you have into it if I quit and that is one reason I moved to re-rack. The other is that I owe it to myself. Yes, I felt weak. But I wasn’t any WEAKER than I was the day before, I was merely confronting that weakness and doing something about it. I owe myself more than hiding from a problem when I know full well how to remedy it so long as I am willing to put in the blood sweat and tears. Once squats were done I moved through the rest of the workout. I never touched my phone the whole time. I took as little time as possible between sets and when I hit the last rep of the last set for one moment I felt like a champion.
Day one was a success. I wrote it out in my diary (I recommend you guys get a diary and at night you jot down notes. I wrote how I felt, where i felt weakest, that i had a cramp in my hand but that it went away quickly) this way you can look back and see and better understand your progression.
I know it hurt, it hurt me too. The best part is that I know from years of experience that in just a couple of weeks this will feel too easy and then we will hit a phase change.
Keep getting those meals in, keep drinking that water. Step one has been taken. There is no where to go but up. All I ask is that you don’t leave anything on the floor. Do it all and do it hard.
Two last little things I want to mention. I know I have said it before, but haven’t really hammered it home. After you get to the floor, but before your first lift, walk to the treadmill and put it on at a speed that allows you a slow walk. Walk, stare out at the gym floor, close your eyes, mentally prepare for your lift, go over in your head your stations, where things are, then take a moment to be quiet….let everything stop and after that 5 minutes is up come out like a fucking cage fighter.
The other thing I want to mention is ego lifting. Don’t fucking do it. Now, I know that come
Just remember the this picture the next time you go to grab 35 or 40 pound dumbbells to curl.
may when you are in shape and people in the gym are asking your advice and people stop to watch you lift it is almost fun to grab those light weights. One of my favorite things when I am at my biggest and leanest is standing there curling 15 pound dumbbells next to some girl who weighs like 105 pounds who is using 30’s and watching her look over with a “what the fuck am I doing wrong look on her face.” However, when you come in fat and sloppy in your b list fat boy gym clothes looking out of shape and fluffy I know that avoiding the ego lift is harder. It is much easier lifting light when you know you are stronger than everyone in the room. Let’s face it fellas, now is the time that is dangerous. Do not let that take you off of your track. Acknowledge your body and focus on the RPE. The weight in your hand DOES NOT MATTER. Only results matter and results require repetitions to failure. Use the correct weight to allow for the program to unlock your body’s potential.