Do you even lift?

[JustBe]

Yes my own self doubt through this experience is escalating. This body mind connection is really opening up all those pockets in me-‘you can’t do it this way’ ‘why do you think you can fix this?’ It’s teaching me to not let my mind focus on the problems but open to the process as a process.

Changing the physical movements foreign to my body, I am witnessing myself on a number of levels quite profoundly..

And I’m not giving up ..

[Gem]

Originally Posted by JustBe

Yes my own self doubt . This body mind connection is really opening up all those pockets in me-‘you can’t not let my mind focus on the problems but open to the process as a process. Changing the physical movements foreign to my body, I am witnessing myself on a number of levels quite profoundly..

I'm going to take a round about way to say this... so it closes in at the end...

My approach is different to most PT's because I start training with GPP (general physical preparation), and even though people all have their different goals, I train everyone the same at first. I don't 'personalise' programs for individual goals until after they complete GPP.

GPP takes a minimum of 4 months for young fit athletes, and usually 6 months, and anything up to a year, for sedentary populations, but I know that most people start their goal without the exercise skills, mobility capability and the strength base they need to sustain the lifestyle, and that's why nearly everyone fails in their fitness goals.

GPP gives them the skills, mobility and strength base that is required, needed, to progress safely, injury free and succeed in a lifestyle that requires their fitness.

People say they want to lose weight, for example. Well, the way they live is making them fat. To succeed they have to live a different way. Otherwise they do a diet, lose weight, then end the diet, and put it back on + more.

They have to be 'rewired', so we start by connecting the mind to the body, being aware, like really conscious of how it feels to contract a muscle and move a bone (that's what movement is). With repetition, that conscious connection starts rewiring the neural pathway into the physicality-mindset of an athlete. Mind and body, all changing together, and world transforms around them. By the end of GPP they're already thinking through the body/mind, and strong in both ways.

It thinks through the body by feeling, and feels hungry for a different reason than it used to. Before it didn't know what it felt like, but there was still an unconscious reaction there, craving food, habitually. After it connects in unison, it directly feels what hunger is like as a conscious sensation, and without craving, it just thinks 'I'm running low on fuel', and seeks out nutrition - (with an idea of mealtimes).

Thus the person is conscious, and as result thinks in a different way, and knows losing fat means feeling hungry (not as a person, but as a sensation), while keeping muscle means moving heavy things. The mind just accepts, 'this is true', and if you disobey it's mental complaining for long enough, it gives up, and you become the master. You have to get to 'know' it, like it, and own it.

Weight loss is just an example, but all the different goals work in the same way of feeling differently, thinking differently, and therefore acting and living differently, but it's unforced and unexpected, organic, as if you're changing anyway, with the world around you.

If you leap off the deep end it will seem too big and you get lost, so It just starts small. It should be easy to do the exercises, nothing complicated. The simple little success, "I can".

[Lucky 1]

[quote=Gem

My approach is different to most PT's because I start training with GPP (general physical preparation),

GPP takes a minimum of 4 months for young fit athletes, and usually 6 months, and anything up to a year, for sedentary populations, but I know that most people start their goal without the exercise skills, mobility capability and the strength base they need to sustain the lifestyle, and that's why nearly everyone fails in their fitness goals.
[/QUOTE]


I agree....There is a PT at my gym that wants to start the youngsters (kids and teenagers) coming in on nothing but machines....I personally am not a fan of that because machines working in a single plain of movement do not I believe work all the little ancillary muscles and such that promote balance and control of a weight.....and since evolving the nervous system to be in control of weights and what's going on with the weight is as much a part of a beginners development at lifting the weight is.

I read an article some years ago that research had shown that most of a beginning lifters gains in strength the first 6 to 8 weeks were more about the nervous system learning to control the muscle effectively then actual gains in muscle strength were.

So first the nervous system learns to "fire off" the muscle tissue you've already got efficiently....then after that you start gaining muscle.

Better to start then off with light free weights

[Lucky 1]

duplicate post

[Lucky 1]

duplicate post

[Lucky 1]

Here's where I work out!

https://usgym.org/

it's about a 35 minute drive in from out on Mustang Island where I live but I don't mind!.... I love this gym!

It's very much an old school lifters gym and I have been going there for years!!

Watch the video and 1:15 minutes in...you'll see a very muscular old baldheaded guy.....that's George and he's 73 years old in that photo!
George talks a bit too at 8:23 into the video

I hope I look that good when I'm 73!

Like me, George has been a lifter his entire adult life so i think that really shows the benefits of the exercise lifestyle.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Lucky 1

Better to start then off with light free weights

I think it is best to start by establishing

mind muscle connection
full range of motion
deliberate hard contraction
move/control joints in isolation

And isolation exercises are the way to do it, so I use the leg extension and ham curl machines, but I have two different workout days, so some simple compounds like, step ups and isometric wall sits, usually some ham curls with a stability ball, and push ups all the way to full shoulder protraction are also in the mix. There's not much point starting with cable or machine rows because new lifters can't feel their lats, control the scapulae or hold solid postures, and lying lat pullovers with dumbells enable them to feel the lat stretch right out and pull from pull from where they feel the lat stretching, while isolatiing that muscle, and also preparing for work in the overhead position. I don't actually do any cable rows until much later. I do start with machine press, but only to set the shoulder blades back against the backrest when pushing. For rows I prefer the prone bench dumbell row, but only to get control over shoulder retraction. I use dumbell shrugs for shoulder elevation. The same for hips and shoulders, flexion, abduction adduction extension all done in isolation so the athlete learns which muscle does the work and what that should feel like.

Since a newbie will adapt no matter what, there's no need to do anything complicated, so my newbies can come on the first day and do the workout. (I'm not trying to make a newb hip hinge or anything hard) We don't fap about learning technique. We just do simple things, but there is still skills practice like retract shoulders first before bending arms, and press the weight without losing the scapula position etc... it's all about becoming aware of and establishing command of the body through each joint's full range of motion. All the ab work is isometric, plank, side plank, back extension holds, cable anti rotation, because we need to establish stability and spine protection, first.

This way, for example, using a glute bridge for isolation an athlete can flex the glutes and be aware that that they are both firing and contracting the same, and control that by contracting hard deliberately.

Since it's very simple and the volume is very low it only lasts 4 weeks, or maybe 8-10 weeks depending on age etc.

Now the athlete has all the 4 listed skills, and 'knows' how to consciously move all the joints in all ranges of motion, independently of other joints, we need to fix up posture and strength balances. This really has to be done while the athlete is still getting stronger really fast. Then say if one tricep is way stronger than the other because they are right handed, the weak one can be equalised in less than 6 weeks, no problem, strength rebalancing in a trained athlete can take months on end, and posture correction is a huge training regression.

It's not until all this is established that I use compounds like goblet squats, seated rows, lat pulldowns, RDLs, bent over rows, dumbell bench press, because we already know the barbells are going to need whole body positioning and core/air bracing, and one has to be conscious of all that happening at once in unison, and we also know the weight on barbell is much bigger.

Since I know where it ends, when I begin, I am already training for what is going to happen in 6 months. You can't heavy bench if you can't plant your shoulder blades, so I make people plant their shoulders on the seated press machine day 1, not to work the chest, but to control the press while keeping the shoulders back and down, chest up with a small arch in the back. When they do the lying bench lat pull over, I'm already introducing foot position and leg drive so the body doesn't move, which comes up again later in the bench press. The beginner doesn't know it, but the advanced bench skills are being incorporated gradually, and when they finally do get on the bench press, they are already proficient in technique with a few easy cues, because these aren't actually bench-press skills, they are how the body moves things in a protected way without getting hurt, which they have been learning all along.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Lucky 1

Here's where I work out!https://usgym.org/

Nice. It's a lot like my gym. We also have the old fashioned Hammerstrength machines that I like best. The main reason I go there is it's more like a community gym with a good friendly and suportaive atmosphere. There are 2 gyms closer to me, which I could easily walk to, and they are bigger with fancier shiny equipment, but I still prefer to drive on by and go my own gym because it makes me feel at home. Oh, and it's about the cheapest gym around here as well. The best for cheapest. What a deal.

[JustBe]

@Gem. Thank you.

What you’ve shared in the last post response to me, is creating some new awareness about measuring success and expected time frames. I’ve taken pressure off my mind talk just by reading through all that you shared.

[Gem]

It's the new year, and as always, a good point to reflect on what went by, and try to be smart about leaving useless things behind and pick up something new and beneficial.

It's a goal, and it's a way of imagining oneself. This has nothing to with what anyone 'should' do. It is about realising what is actually important to you.

This an exercise tread, but exercise only works if it is done consistently for a long time, and to achieve that it has to integrate seamlessly into your overall lifestyle. That means, to go from not exercising to exercising regularly, other things in life have to change - in a way where it better fits the person you want to be.

It takes reflection, to imagine your best self, which is not a 'real self', but a self of a particular sex, age, height and other things that can't be changed will set the boundaries for what is a realistic aspiration.

Everyone is going to have a unique self-image in this regard, but there is one way to approach it that works, and it all comes down to what is most important to you.


This is how it works:

Being the new year, we have a goal... a fitness goal in this case, which could be to lose fat, get strong, build more muscle, climb a mountain, have energy to play with the kids, or any number of physical and/or athletic aspirations.

The key to is be fully clear about why that goal is important to you. If it's an 'I should' thing, that's external and there's no reason it is important to you personally, from deep inside. That goal is not yours. That is other people's goal for you. This one has to come from the deep, I want it because it really matters to me. Why? Why does it really matter?

There we have the first 2 steps. 1) Define the goal. 2) Why is it important.

Give it some thought. Sit down, really think it through, write it all out and fully digest it.

With the goal do not be vague. It's not 'Improve Fitness' or 'Lose Weight" in any general sense. It has to be specific. I don't know your life, so I don't know what that is, but lets say it's something crazy like losing 30 kilos. That's not easy. You can't it tomorrow. Think about what is realistic. How long should it take given your current lifestyle commitments. Should we say realistically that it starts pretty fast like maybe 800g a week, and slows down to half a kilo nearer the end? And therefore losing 30kg takes, say, the whole year? Maybe. It's not impossible, so just pencil that in

Thus you have 1) a goal which is achievable 2) a good reason why 3) a deadline to aim for 4) and a schedule to follow.

But why? Why is important to lose the weight. Of course you'd want to look hot, so write that down to start. I really want to look hot. What else... keep up with the kids/grandkids, love to do some bush walking etc. etc. all the good physical reasons, and go further, feel better about myself, like the person I see in the mirror, and ponder a little about what's the negativity... don't be upset, just be challenged... and write about the body's appearance and feeling affecting self image, how it makes you feel. Start to realise how the reason it is important to you is deep, personal and really matters. Become clear on why it is important, because if you don't really understand the importance, you won't be able to persist when things get rough. When things get rough and you want to throw in the towel, remember why it's important, re-read what you wrote down about that, and even rewrite your reason, which might start to change, to make it clearer in your own head. This is not motivation. This is the inspiration that comes from deep inside you.

You have a goal, a deadline, a schedule, and a deep, personal reason behind it..

Put a short and powerful affirmation note on your mirror. Like, "Today I become stronger". Never put a negative word in your affirmation note. Don't say "Today I lose weight", for example. Better to say "I'm sexier and slimmer", or something positive like that.

The goal, just in in this example, is one year out, so there are steps. There are smaller milestones along the way which need to be planned and scheduled. The schedule can be adjusted if necessary along the way, but you need to to have some idea of how you are going 'get there'. Then you can break it down into monthly milestones, weekly targets, and daily actions. if you need someone to talk it through, support and give you tips, I'm on this thread and in PM, and Lucky also has a lifetime of experience.

Write out your schedule. If you don't write things down you'll get lost. Every morning you can see your mirror affirmation, be positive about that, and look at your schedule to remind yourself where u at, and then be clear about what you do today to make it happen. If that means you will take a ten minute walk, so be it, if it means planning your meals, getting protein, etc, that's good. If it means practicing and improving a wobbly exercise movement, then great. What ever it is in your own life...

... and if the negative one tries to take over 'I don't feel like it" "I deserve a day off" "I'm too tired" and all the other nonsense that fills our heads, you remember, and re-clarify, 'this is why it is important'. Never obey the negative one. Remember you are the master and the mind is the servant. If the mind tries to bring you down, reaffirm, 'Sexier and slimmer. Sexier and slimmer' or whatever your positive reference is, and revisit why your goal is important to you. The negative voice has no power. The one who determines is powerful.

You have your goal, the reason why, and the schedule, and what you do about it today.

What you do today is the step you take.

It's a long post, so to summarise:


How to make it work:

1) What is the goal?
2) Why is it important?

Reflect deeply on that. Write it out. Visualise yourself and feel good about it. Stick an affirmation note on your mirror.

3) When is the deadline?
4) What are the steps?

Organise a plan, and schedule it. Read it out and see it happening in mind's eye. Be excited and enthusiastic, and feel happy about it.

5) Take the first step

When it gets hard, when there are setbacks and obstacles, remember number 2 and persevere.