If you finished a night out with a bunch of friends and did your part to get everyone home, you wouldn’t give them all the directions that you take to get to yours. We all have a concept of “home” but it is different for everyone. So is a goal. If 3 people say they want to get “buff” these people may all be picturing a different physique. To take that further, the point that these people are starting at makes these even more different, it makes them different every time you start again in fact. So WHY WAS 20 YEAR OLD 0 ATHLETIC BACKGROUND ANDREW FOLLOWING A PROGRAM THAT A COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL PLAYER TURNED TRAINER WROTE FOR HIM.
Because he was muscular and strong. I fell into the trap that nearly everyone does when they first start in the gym, monkey see monkey do. I saw big muscles and assumed that meant the program would do the same for me. Some of you may be reading this and thinking “well yeah, of course it will” If you do, Go reread that first paragraph again you silly goose.
This program was actually the one that initiated my knee pain, I was doing a lot of athletic explosive movements that I didn’t even have control over doing slow and controlled. I was squatting too narrow because I assumed my body moved the same as someone 8” shorter than me. The basics of that are true, I can squat, but your friends can also all drive to your house by following what you do. The program was not built for me, or my body, or my goals, or my start point. I spent a year driving to the wrong house and was mad at the end cause the directions were wrong.
The reality is, If I started over knowing how wrong this is, I would probably still do it wrong again because of this one issue; 20 year old Andrew didn’t know how to program.
What would it have actually taken for me to know what was right? The nice thing is it really only takes 3 things.
1. A clear goal: there is a BIG difference in saying you want to go to the east coast vs saying you want to go to New York. There is a large amount that can be interpreted incorrectly about “I want to be healthy” vs “I want to lose 20 lbs of fat, gain 5lbs of muscle, not have loose skin, get rid of my lower back pain and be able to pick up my kid. A clear goal gets a clear program.
2. An assessment: Are you able to make this journey To New York? Will your car make it, do you have enough cash? Is New York having a zombie outbreak? There are so many HUGE things you can learn about yourself just from doing a few assessments. My favorite two are a Contact squat test and an Overhead Reach Test. These two can give you a pretty clear picture of your body and what it will take to get to that clear goal. It should allow you to create a step by step for yourself so you don’t just “drive east”.
3. A fitness forecast: Bad shit will happen. Life will come up. Work will get busy. Family will need your time more than those beautiful plates of metal. How will you respond to this? Will you let that be the excuse you accept or will you create a plan to get you back on track and realigned when the inevitable does happen. A forecast does not make bad weather go away, It lets you know what is coming. Make sure you Prepare accordingly.
When you have all of this handled, treat yourself like a human, move like a human, eat like a human. We have the ability to squat, push, pull, twist, lunge, walk and run. We have foods that we can kill or cultivate. The best components to a program are to follow those guidelines at least 80% of the time. Pick workouts that fit that criteria. Eat the way humans did thousands of years ago.
As a wrap to this, you may be thinking this is too simple. You may be thinking you are the God of fitness and the basics don’t apply to you, you are the special snowflake. You are wrong. Squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press have been a part of the most effective programs ever created, there is a reason they have stood the test of time (and a lot of stupid machines). No one has ever hurt themself eating a whole food diet (autoimmune and allergies might be the one exception) thousands of years ago, obesity didn;t exist, those with the food available built muscle and had strong bodies.
If you want a program to look and feel great, look no further than this. Move like a human, Eat like a human
