As a beginning trainee, regardless of your age, goals and background, the smartest thing that one can do is to adopt good practices from the start. Very often, this is not the case. I attribute this mainly to the fact that adverse reactions from training are not seen until years later. For example, the High School Coach can do whatever he/she wants to the athletes, and they are unlikely to experience problems at all.
What I argue in my previous article about accumulation, is that this is a wrong mindset to adopt. Instead, we should try to get things right from the start. This article does not contain many explicit precautionary measures. First, because it would be boring. Second, because it would be too much information to contain. But most importantly, it takes away value from the intended outcome.
What I intend to do, is to make you decide to think of training in this way. Once you have decided that you want to train with a specific purpose and a specific set of principles, I’d be rest assured that you will take all the necessary precautions. It’s something like sex; we just need to hint at it, you’ll figure out the details on your own.
Still, I will provide some links at the end of this article. Now, let’s get into the fundamental principles of training.
All your training must be geared towards 2 things and two things only.
- Progression
- Safety
To lay out a specific plan we need to take into account 2 important things
- You are Not Different
- The Human Body is Complicated
What the first point means (and Lyle McDonald explained it exceedingly well in his article of the same name), is that though there is a certain range of phenotypes among humans, they tend to fall into that range pretty predictably. One person may have a little lower baseline metabolic rate, but that may only fall into a +- 10% range. This means that the methods one uses will be predictable, because the experience of different human beings in training (for whatever goal) will be somewhat similar.
This brings us to the second point, which implies that many things happen in the human body that defy our common logic. It’s probably because of the way we do research (looking at particular indexes for example) and more likely because the fluctuations of the systems of the human body leave us with confounding experiences.
One example is the phenomenon whereby a dieter sees no weight loss and still looks puffy for 2-3 weeks, then suddenly drops 4 lbs in the span of 2 days, looking a lot leaner at the same time. Obviously, it was water retention at work. Why it works this way is basically unknown: we just know it happens.
Thus the best solution is to look to other people pursuing similar goals and draw from their own experiences. It also serves one well to accept that the body is the temperamental bitch that it is; we’d be a lot happier that way.
With that in mind we can go on to the right mindset, which comprises 3 aspects:
- Drive towards clear goals in the best way possible
- Appreciate the role of Accumulation and Start with sound Practices Right from the Start
- Be Willing to Experiment with Yourself
I will touch on each, but I felt that the last point was so important that I would tackle it with a completely different article, with only a brief description over here.
Clear Goals
I have talked about this once in the article “Dietary Self-Sabotage“, within the context of that article. It deserves to be repeated here in this context.
In essence, when you train, train for a reason. Fundamentally, this is to train to get better at doing something.
However, I would like to add something to the content of the previous post. Despite having clear, quantifiable goals, the vision of where you will be once you achieve that goal does not, as is often not specific.
The preferred future vision should be something that can be called upon to be uplifting and invigorating. It should be like a shot of adrenaline straight up your spine. It should also be a quick concise reminder of where you want to get to and why you are working hard.
Examples of such visions in the fitness context may be to stand out in a gym, or to impress your peers. It may be to become the best basketball player in your collegiate division, or perhaps even make it as a pro. It may even be as simple as to be able to walk to the supermarket pain-free.
No one else has the right to judge you for your vision. If it is to impress the opposite sex, make sure you believe it. The onus is not on others to say “why not?”, it is on you to say “why?”. Thus, the vision is not judged based upon its content, nor is it based upon its context. This is applicable to the 15 year pubescent male just as much as it applies to the 70 year old grandmother who has just undergone hip replacement surgery. It is thus judged only upon its resultant effect on the individual.
I repeat: you should strive towards a vision of where you want to be. Let this be your motivator
Then we can go about setting the specific goals. These simply facilitate the progress towards your preferred future vision. They tell you that you’re on the right track.
I say this since some goals are more easily quantifiable than others. Losing fat is a quantifiable goal, whereas walking without pain is not so. We will simply have to deal with the inherent ambiguities in life, and always measure what we can.
Either way, if you are aligned towards your vision, you will find a way to achieve it regardless of the circumstances or the methods to get there.
Do Things Right From the Start
In their youth, many people can get away with sub-optimal or unsafe practices.
Such can be seen with numerous examples. When you’re young, perhaps you can afford to eat more and sleep less. You can deal with work stress better. Healthy eating may leave no noticeable impact, as with unhealthy eating.
People may be able to jump straight into playing sports without a warmup, and experience no side effects for years. Similarly with weights training, we ay be able to get away with non-balanced approaches to training.
The key here is to appreciate the role of accumulation, and recognise that doing things right from the start has two distinct and significant benefits.
First, the risk of a negative result is greatly diminished. Although we may be able to play sports without a proper warmup, the potential for injury is always greater. To some unfortunate people, their bodies may simply give way prematurely, be it anything from sprains and tears and even joint dislocations.
There are some areas where the list of good practices may be ambiguous. For example, in terms of diet, there seems to be favourable evidence pointing towards an omnivorous diet with adequate animal proteins along with lots of fruit and vegetables. There is no evidence though of saying that veganism is superior over vegetarianism, or other diets (especially those popularised by the media). Even the occasional fast food meal doesn’t get treated much different in the short term in terms of the body’s hormonal response. Diet is one of those areas whereby we know roughly what is right, but cannot really tweak it beyond some vague recommendations and macronutritional parameters.
Then there are some areas where the list of good practices are very evident. Practices such as adequate warmups during exercise should be practiced right from the start. Other examples include flexibility, joint mobility, soft tissue work, core stability training, balance in strength between both sides of the body, proper exercise technique, proper exercise programming, and many more. If you have not heard of many of the above, I have provided a list of links in the footnote of this article, so check it out. In essence, to do things right from the start reduces your risk of negative consequences.
The second benefit then follows that we establish habits that will last a lifetime.
The most useful way of thinking about this is to imagine what it would be like to implement solutions only when the problems become obvious. Losing weight after a lifetime of eating fast food is definitely going to be much harder mentally. As is with trying to train with proper technique after sustaining an injury. Old habits need to be unlearned and replaced with new habits. At best, it will be tedious and difficult, for example trying to apply a daily stretching routine to a sedentary office worker. At worst, past bad habits may have buried you in a hole too deep to climb out, for example getting a heart attack due to clogged arteries at age 80.
Be Willing to Experiment
I will reserve much of this point for the actual blog post and hence will now only highlight the main points to get things started.
The first key is to recognise that every single person has a different background, different tolerances and different genetics.
That’s just a way of saying that what may have worked for somebody may not work for you.
Instead, we should experiment. Firstly, we gain a greater understanding of our body, and secondly, we can then apply this to greatly improve our future progress.
In the context of health and fitness, there are many, many variables at work which affect the end result. It is basically impossible to correlate minute changes to the overall gains that we make.
It is hence vital that we experiment broadly and pick out what helps us the most.
I will talk much more about this in the post to come, but let’s leave it there for now. For now, I hope that the above has laid out some ideas for your continual success in your endeavours.
*****
Links to some great articles:
- Smart from the Start – Eric Cressey
- Neanderthal No More Series – Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey (linked to part 5 since it gives the rest of the links) on posture and how to fix it
- Soft Tissue Work @ Stronglifts.com – follow the links in the article to some great content, especially the one on using a tennis ball for soft tissue work
- Starting Strength Wiki - For Young Beginner Trainees interested in moving big weights
- Squats vs Leg Press for Big Legs - Lyle McDonald. Addresses the concerns of machines over free weights
- How to Construct Your Own Workout Routine – Long but informative
- Weightrainer.com articles – More Technical, but worth it if you’re into the stuff. Most notably the articles on dietary fats, muscle growth, and Maximum Muscular Potential
- Shoulder Savers Part 1, Part 2 – Eric Cressey
- Westside for Skinny Bastards (Read all three, should give some ideas for training) – Joe Defranco lays out a general program for gym goers
- Warming up For the Weights Room, Part 1, Part 2 – Lyle McDonald. Absolutely essential for any trainee.
- The Pregnant Athelete – Lisa Druxman, one last one for the moms out there
This list is non-exhaustible, but I hope it gives you some links to get started. Note that this is intended largely for younger trainees, particularly, those in decent health. This is certainly not for older folks or those with severe medical conditions. In those cases, a professional hand is always the best option.
Related posts:
- The Experimenter Mindset In my last post about The Right Beginner Training Mindset,...
- Bodyweight Strength Training: 6 Reasons That It’s NOT The Path to Your Goals I make it very clear that I’m a big proponent...
- Training with weights: Do it right from the start When I started out training with weights for my sport...
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