Did you achieve your goal this year?

New Years Eve…

Time to wave goodbye to 2017 in style.

Well, more like a blurry mess of alcohol fuelled rage.

Then it’s 2018 and all those goals that didn’t get achieved can be forgotten and new ones can be written down.

A little tip for your resolutions –

Write them out by hand in 300 words or less.

This will take less than 5minutes to do and hopefully give you some accountability.

In this 300 words you want the following:

– What the goal is
– Why you want to achieve it (feeling/emotion)
– The good behaviour you need to achieve the goal
– How you will make lifestyle changes to achieve the goal
– Which methods you will use to track your progress
– Time targets

Once you’ve done this print 3 copies.

One to be placed somewhere at home you will see it everyday.

One to be given to someone your trust to help you stay accountable.

One to be kept on your person at all times so you can give yourself a reminder of why you’re making a change.

By doing this little task you will give yourself some more accountability.

The funny thing about goals that people never tell you is that for them to actually stick, they have to give you an insurmountable amount of pleasure that can’t be drowned out by the pain of change.

Yep, people fear change because it’s painful.

All that aside, it’s in your hands now, it’s your play, try not to make it a tragedy.

Happy New Year 🙂

Ross

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How the early 1900’s can help you in 2018

Are you looking for a new year challenge?

It’s good for Strength, Fat Loss, Hypertrophy, Mental Toughness and much

I have a very simple one for you that you.

20 rep squats.

They’re glorious.

Say you’re training 3x a week, this would be perfect as you can have either 1,2 or 3 20 rep sessions, I’d probably go for 2 initially.

It might look like this:

Day 1 –

A1 – Squat – 1×20
B1 – Press – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
B2 – Pull – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
*C1 – Remedial movement of your choice – 50 rep total

Day 2 –

A1 – Hinge – 5-15 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
B1 – Press – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
B2 – Pull – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
*C1 – Remedial movement of your choice – 50 rep total

Day 3 –

A1 – Squat – 1×20
B1 – Press – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
B2 – Pull – 25 total reps, rep/set method of your choice
*C1 – Remedial movement of your choice – 50 rep total

*Optional postural/remedial exercise if time is a plenty. Perhaps reverse flies, curls, tricep extensions, etc.

Simply marvellous 🤗

It also offers a great method of progression too.

You start at 50% of your current 1RM, so if that is say 120kg, you start at 60kg.

From the starting 50%, add 0.5-1kg every successful session.

When things start to get hard and say you only hit 13/20 reps, you keep the weight the same and focus on building those reps to a solid 20/20.

At this point you could drop the 20rep day to once per week and use one of the following set/rep protocols for the other squat day:

Rep/set protocol examples for the 25 rep goal:

– 5-3-2-5-3-2-5
– 5×5
– 5-5-3-3-2-2
– 3×8
– 8×3
– 5-4-3-2-1-10
– Ramp to heavy 3-5RM (alternate 3-4-5RM each time)

^^ You can imagine this goes a similar way for the 50 rep goal, so 5×10, 3×15 etc

Plenty of choice.

The seconds day also doesn’t need to be a back squat, it could be a front squat, a zecher squat, or any other variation, again this would be cycled, ideal spend 3-6 weeks on each variation before changing it, aiming to add a small amount of weight each session.

Personally I quite like changing the variation as it allows you to drop the overall intensity while keeping up the relative intensity, however that’s a chat for another day.

The same is true for the press/pull/hinge – you can stay with the same variation (bar, dumbbell, trap bar etc) for 3-6 weeks adding anywhere from as little as 0.5kg to as much as a whole 20kg plate each side, although the latter would mean you’re literally a god among mortals.

It might seem like 3 training session per week is not much, however if you follow this and apply the basic progressive overload as described above, you’ll find you can stay on this almost indefinitely.

If needed you could also do this program only twice per week, meaning you drop day 3. Very useful if you also have other goals, such as sports or martial arts.

I wish you all the gains for the new year.

Enjoy,
Ross

What’s old is new again

The Purposeful Primitive:

From Fat and Flaccid to Lean and Powerful:

Using Primordial Laws of Fitness to Trigger Inevitable, Lasting and Dramatic Physical Change

by Marty Gallagher

Have you ever read it?

You should, it’s a very good book with a wealth of experience in it and one simple take home message.

Success requires heart.

Morning All,

If you take the time to look there is a plethora of good books surrounding the realm of fitness.

Some are filled with numbers, plug & play programs, explanations of the basics and of course the principles/foundations of lifting, yet it’s the ones that are written in a story telling manor that hold the most secrets.

Ironically these are the books people will skip over because they want the quick answer.

This is understandable, however not too wise.

We can all read and gain a basic grasp of the numbers.

I’ve been such a person and has read hundreds of books of the years, admittedly skim reading the story-esc ones, due to my of foolishness at the time.

As I’ve gone back and reread these story books of lifting, Ive found new appreciation for them.

They hold not only training principles and methodologies.

Oh no, they hold something much more valuable as well.

Heart.

They hold heart, or what some might call indomitable spirit, perhaps even attitude, regardless of the semantics, the message is clear.

Those lifting legends thought differently, they had that extra gear as it were. That defined focus that many of us lack, hence why we only really make mediocre progress – yes, mediocre.

Even those who we think are training hard are lacking.

In the book mentioned above there are many excerpts that speak of people lifting only twice per week and hitting world record numbers (if you check the records you’ll find it all true).

Could you make such progress on two sessions a week?

I highly doubt it. I couldn’t, not with my current attitude in training.

This goes to show just how things have changed, and by things I mean people, or at least our resolve and work ethic.

We’ve grown lazy, so very lazy.

If you’ve just sat and thought “What… screw you, I’m not lazy” or something similar, that’s your ego talking and unless you’re at the peak of your own personal pyramid and chosen endeavour you’re not working hard enough, or rather, working hard enough in the smartest way possible.

Here is an example of just how an attitude was back in the day –

Bill Pearl, he used to train at 4am.

Yep, 4am, before the world got p he’d already be grinning away to forge his body in a fire of iron, sweat and many repetitions.

He had a normal job too, plus lived a fairly busy life, so before you bring up your excuses understand this person had them as well, he simply didn’t let them stop him becoming a legend of lifting.

From reading in to the lives of people form yesterday I fear we’ve grown soft, reliant on our comfortable lifestyles. We’ve lost our edge.

The attitude now is one of ‘I will do more but with less intensity’ – for most people anyway, I’m sure you will explain how you’re the exception, that being the case I wish I was you.

In the book you also get the sense that theme & women of yesteryear trained to break boundaries and hammer their of limitations, I’m not saying some don’t do this now, they just lack the conviction of old.

The modern world has beaten people down with how we ‘should’ look, behave, think, feel and ugh more. It’s no wonder people have so many mental health issues these days.

If you want to expand your thought and learn what it is to I speak of in this post, I suggest reading these three books:

The Purposeful Primitive – Marty Gallagher

Super Strength – Alan Calvert

Secrets of My Strength – Paul Anderson

There are many more great books of old, you can find them here:

http://superstrengthtraining.com

What’s old is new again.

Enjoy,
Ross

It’s only packaging, it doesn’t matter that much, right?

Three things you should ask yourself before asking everyone else for the world best training program.

 

1 – What is MY goal? No, really, what is it?

 

2 – Is this actually what I want?

 

3 – How will this benefit me & is it sustainable?

 

With the modern world being in a rush for quick fixes, instant results and everything else under the sun, many forget to ask; why is this important to me?

 

A common goal – lose fat, tone up, not feel terrible for once.

 

Don’t get me wrong, having a rocking body does make life better for you.

 

You get more attention and people treat you more favourably.

 

You feel more confident.

 

You increase your self worth and appreciation.

 

There are a myriad of benefits to improve your self image, anyone who says differently is wrong, sorry, that’s just how we work as a species, we are shallow and always like the pretty things.

 

Now this doesn’t mean everyone needs to be models or at the peak of physical condition, however trying to climb your own mountain of potential will be to your benefit.

 

Remember though it’s a choice.

 

If you want to achieve such things, go for it, however if you’re truly happy as you are then that’s also great.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for acceptance of all, however no matter how much society would like you to believe how everything is on a level playing field, its not.

 

I have yet to meet a person (when inebriated) who when asked this one simple question doesn’t answer with yes.

 

The question?

 

“If you have a magic wand that would transform the way you look to your ideal, with no side effects of consequence, would you use it?”

 

As I said above, not everyone wants to be cover model ready, however everyone does have some desire to look better, be that in their eyes or in someone else’s.

 

The sad part is we’ve been taught as a society that trying to improve your image is vain and makes you a bad person, so it’s okay to not look great. Then on the other side of that coin those same people will make passive comments about how you look or dress if it is not to their liking.

 

*Face palm.

 

We are a culture that is heavily influence by aesthetics.

 

Don’t believe me?

 

Give this some thought.

 

Which of the two would you buy:

 

1 – A food item that has packaging that is heavily damaged

2 – The same food item with no packing damage, that just so happened to be sat right next to the damaged one.

Obviously the goods are still equal in value, taste and awesomeness, so the external appearance and state of the packaging doesn’t matter, right?

Surely no one would be influenced by the way something looks in our modern world of acceptance of all.

 

Take you time with your answer, I’ll wait.

 

You get the point.

 

So let me ask you again, what is YOUR goal and WHY is it important to you?

 

Think about it.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Success, what they don’t tell you

We have those who do, those who don’t, and everyone else.

 

Where do you fall?

 

Morning All,

 

Have you ever wondered why some people succeed where others fail?

 

What is the reason for it.

 

Is it because of their upper hand starting in life, the people they associate with, good luck or perhaps some divine intervention?

 

It might be some or all of those reasons, or maybe, just maybe it could be the simple truth that they just wanted it more then everyone else.

 

Have you ever considered that?

 

When it comes to achievement this is often how it looks:

 

Initial success

Initial praise

Initial praise fades

Plateaus begin to appear

Get ready butter cup things are about to get hard

Dues paid for the require amount of time

More dues paid

A few more dues

The last couple of dues

Long term life changing success

 

The part people forget to tell you is that to achieve anything you need to be prepared to work for it and this important little gem:

 

YOU DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE, NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

 

Now it’s fair to say that not everyone will survive, that’s just a sad truth. Did you know that sometimes paying your dues can take you a lifetime, just something to remember. 

 

This is where some introspection is required.

 

Do you have what it takes to weather the storm and do what needs to be done or not?

 

If the answer is ‘you don’t’ it’s okay, put that endeavour to bed and move on, not everyone is meant to succeed after all.

 

However, if you’re that rare individual who knows they can survive and do what needs to be done then you brave the storm, then once you’ve given all you have you come out the other side and are welcomed/rewarded for your efforts.

 

Congratulations, you succeeded.

 

I would love to say that everyone will succeed, I can’t, they won’t.

 

Which side will you end up on?

 

The one looking to the horizon of wishes and dreams or the one who makes it past the horizon and sees what the other side has to offer?

 

Your choice.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

To vegan or not to vegan, that is the question.

Should you go vegan?

Yes or no?

The choice is yours.

I’m not vegan, however I know plenty and they’re happy as Larry.

Fairly healthy too.

They’re also not the preachy kind either who try to force their beliefs on you, they’re like real sensible people who just want an easy sustainable life 🙂

Did you know there are a lot of reasons going vegan improves people health:

– They start eating more nutritious vegetables
– Processed food intakes takes a considerable dive
– A greater awareness of their food is gained
– Accountability, consistency and adherence suddenly appear
– Eating more nutritionally dense foods, yep this again

There are more reasons, however those are the initial ones.

Do I feel this is for everyone?

Nope.

However it’s not as terrible as some people make out, for starters you won’t waste away (unless you’re not planning your meals correctly and eating enough calories).

You will get plenty of protein.

The food options you’ll have are numerous.

All in all you’ll have little to none of the perceived issues that people say you will have, unless YOU aren’t planning your nutritional needs correctly, however that’s all on you, nothing to do with being vegan.

As with anything it’s a choice, be that for moral or perceived health reasons.

You often find when you get in to discussion with people about these topics they take one of two routes for some reason to convince you of their bias/point:

– argumentum ad passione (appeal to emotions)
– argumentum ad hominem (personal attacks)

Sometimes both.

Occasionally people draw in morality to the fray as well, usually rendering their points moot at best.

If you want to get a point across try to be reasonable and friendly, attacking someones morality or trying to emotionally blackmail them isn’t the most optimal route to take, just saying.

Now in our modern world we can live in any which way we choose, however it seems that people want to force others to conform.

If said people don’t conform all hell breaks loose.

When contemplating a choice try to gather the facts, the unbiased, non-emotionally charged facts.

Them look at the bigger picture and decide if it’s for you.

Say it is for you, great, fill your boots.

However perhaps it’s not, no worries, let go of that thought process and move on.

Seems simple enough, right?

If you’ve been toying with the idea or transitioning, do your research and perhaps give it a go, or don’t, it’s your choice after all.

Enjoy,
Ross

Simply Complex

How to make a simple thing complex –

 

Ask for a short answer 😂

 

Morning All,

 

In fitness there are a few rules you must adhere to.

 

Yep, these are pretty much non-negotiable

 

Training wise:

 

1 – You must training with/have specificity

2 – Progressive overload is needed

3 – Fatigue Management

 

Nutrition wise:

 

1 – A specific goal

2 – Appropriate calories for your specific goal

3 – Consistency & honesty with yourself

 

While there are literally hundreds of permutations the basic principles are almost always the same.

 

We want things to be more complicated than they are, perhaps because it makes it easier for us to come up with excuses for our own shortcomings and failures.

 

Maybe not, I suppose it does’t really matter.

 

We can discuss programming until the cows come home, what I’ve found over the years is that most people won’t really listen to what you have to say unless it’s what they want to hear.

 

You’d think by now people would understand the necessity to listen to the professionals rather than thinking they can do it themselves.

 

After all, you wouldn’t hire a plumber and process to tell them how to do their job, or as an investment manager for advise on to ignore it because you knew better. Yet in fitness this happens all the time.

 

To those of you that this applies to, get your head out of your ass please.

 

While we can all make progress to some degree on our own in a great many things, to get further we need help, even if that comes in the form of books, blogs, internet forums or generally chatting with people, we need to get the information from somewhere.

 

If someone claims to have done it all themselves call them out, because that would mean they didn’t use any resources at all, they simply just knew what to do. Yea… Not likely.

 

Been a bit of a rant today.

 

The moral here is this: Ask for help, don’t ask for agreement.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

It’s okay, it’s only Christmas weight

With Christmas fast approaching, all eyes are on the scales.

 

Morning All,

 

This is the time of year where people will be watching their weight up until the day itself, then they will binge right the way through until the new year.

 

There might be a small hiatus of a few days in this period.

 

The question is, why binge at all?

 

It seems that people wait for the excuse for it to be acceptable.

 

This is your life people, if you want to binge every day, feel free, just don’t try to skirt around the issue and create an acceptable time for such behaviour to alleviate your guilt.

 

Did you know if you feel guilty that’s probably a sign you know that you probably shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing.

 

The next time you binge ask yourself why you feel the need to do it.

 

I say this because it’s a potential sign of some deeper issue that might need addressing.

 

Food is fuel, however food is also to be enjoyed.

 

A little something worth remembering:

 

Eat for the body you want, not the body you have.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

7 NEW revolutionary lessons to a stress free life…… Just kidding, you can find this shit anywhere online these days :)

Morning all,

 

There are hundreds of posts like this out there.

 

You may recognise some of what you are about to read.

 

All of them however are based on my own personal experience, they might help you, I hope they do.

 

They might not and that’s okay too.

 

1 – Stop trying to control everything.

 

2 – Things get done when they get done, if you’re being pressured for something you can ignore that pressure and just go at your own pace, lest you buckle to it and end up procrastinating with endless excuses.

 

3 – Don’t worry about offending people, after all, you can literally offered someone by holding a door open for them these days. Let them be offended.

 

4 – You don’t have to carry other peoples stress, worry and bad emotion. By all means empathise, understand and listen, then leave it at that, their problems are exactly that – theirs.

 

5 – Smile more, you look miserable.

 

6 – Write more, even if no one reads it, you’l find it puts life in to perspective for you, especially when you realise your problems are not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

 

7 – The classic; let go of bad experiences, feelings, people and so on.

 

If you hold on to things such as anger, resentment, bitterness and other such things it’s like drinking poison and waiting for the person you dislike to die.

 

Give it some thought.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Tough Love –

No programming jargon today.

It’s time for some tough love.

You ready?

Nobody cares as much as you think they care. Really, they don’t because how you look, how strong you are, how fast you are, how much you’ve achieved is just not that important to them. They only really care about themselves.

Have you ever been in the gym and felt that people were watching you?

The probability of this being true for longer than a few seconds is incredibly low.

Believe it or not they’re not judging how much you’re lifting, or how much excess fat you have, they’re there for the same reason as you – To shift some unwanted love handles, feel better physically/mentally & get shit done.

We’ve all been in a place where we think all eyes are on us.

It’s rarely the case.

Such thoughts will only serve to bind you in invisible chains.

Don’t misunderstand me though, I understand that for some people this ‘social anxiety’ is truly crippling and for them even stepping foot outside is a struggle and for those people I can only extend my hand and wait for them to take hold when ready.

As for everyone else, you probably don’t have social anxiety, you’re just a bit awkward, perhaps because you spend too much time on the internet and social media.

Did you know that excessive amounts of time on the inter-webs lead to increase chances of mental instability, body image issues, the inability to converse and much more.

Now before you gather the mob to hint me down you need to realise that most of the problems the majority of people face are self imposed.

F-E-A-R guides them.

When working with people (depending on their needs and genuine level of distress), I try to get some unnderstadnign what fear is:

False – Evidence – Appearing- Real

So in a gym situation – you walk in and you feel everyone is watching your every move from start to finish.

Initially people may indeed see who’s walked in, then they get back to their focus (what ever that is).

If you start lifting you may again have a few people watch initially, then they will get back to their of session.

The funny thing is one people start to let go of the fear that they’re always being judged, they become far less stressed.

*If you feel you’re always being judged this may stem from he fact that you yourself watch other people with an err of judgement in your eye – not gospel, however it is common as we can only base others potential behaviour off of our own learned ones.

I often speak of writing things down, you should try it.

Once you see on paper what your fears are they’re not quite as scary as you might think.

Try it. Write down you fear and the potential outcomes of that fear, then how likely those outcomes are.

You’ll soon find your worry is potentially unfounded 🙂

Letting go of our preconceived ideas, believes and thoughts is hard, however it’s worth it.

The hand is held out if you need it.

Enjoy
Ross