4 Secrets To Getting Ripped
To be successful in life you need to deal with reality, the truth, in stark, often non-emotional terms. You deserve the truth from me in your journey to ever increasingly better health and fitness. The truth is, I don’t look like most other guys in the gym, even those half my age. I have 4 simple secrets as to why that is the case. Most other people have excuses, or lack of knowledge (it’s usually just excuses). It is my goal for you to be armed with good information so that you can evolve into the best you possible. Here is what I do / don’t do that is different from most others:
I don’t drink alcohol. Especially as we get older, excessive alcohol consumption is one of the biggest impediments to total health – physical, mental, spiritual. I’ve written extensively on this in the past, see prior blogs for detailed thoughts.
I lift very hard/with intensity. As the musician said in Spinal Tap, “…these speakers go to 11.” It takes literally an extra 10 – 15 seconds to hammer out those last few reps that make the difference between losing and gaining muscle over time. It is just a matter of attitude, state of mind. I think about it very rationally: if my goal is to get really fit, and I’m in the gym anyway, and it is those extra few reps that make a difference, and those take only a few seconds, then I owe it to myself to do them. It’s really that simple. After that it is about execution.
I don’t sit around between exercises. The average guy does a lift, picks up his phone, texts/surfs the web for 5 minutes, then lifts again. That is such a monumental waste of time. It’s like baseball where there are 7 minutes of actual playing time in a 3 hour game. Most people lift for only a few minutes out of an hour. Use time between sets to do something else. If you are lifting chest (e.g. bench press), go do back (lat pull downs), then core (abs), then return to chest. Other than getting a drink of water, there should be virtually no down time. In the same hour (or in my case 45 minutes), I’m easily doing the equivalent of most others week’s worth of lifting. My mindset is to lift as much weight as possible in 45 minutes. When I finish a lift, my mind is already doing the next lift, it just takes my body a moment to catch up and go pick up the weights and start.
I’m consistent. I don’t make excuses because there are no legitimate excuses to make. If I’m travelling I hop in the hotel gym. If I only have 20 minutes, I lift for 20 minutes (or do push ups at home or sit ups or whatever after my kids are in bed). Short of being very sick (even when I have an injury I can still lift body parts that aren’t injured), which happens extremely rarely to me because I treat my body well, I consistently workout about 6 days a week, even if just for a few minutes. Having the habit of being active is like the habit of savings – you just get into it and do it, day after day after day, and watch the results compound over time.
That’s it. That is what separates me from most others, these are the basic reasons why I carry more muscle and less fat than most men my age, even those much younger. These are obviously not ‘secrets’ at all. In fact, they are in full display every time I enter the gym (minus the lack of drinking). There is no magic formula or pill. What I do doesn’t take any more time or cost any more money than what others do/spend. In fact, I save time and money – on lower health care, on not sitting around, on not consuming expensive booze, etc. So it is win-win. Once you get on the virtuous cycle of being very efficient and effective in the gym – and treating your mind/body well with good nutrition – you will soon look at others and wonder why they haven’t figured out the simple formula for total health and fitness.
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