I am sure this is a subject near and dear to a couple of folks on this site. I am really amazed at how many people I see in the gym that are not writing anything down or at least have anything written down for their workouts.
I am not talking about the ultra hardcore body builder which obviously has his routine in his head, although I have not seen a bodybuilder in my gym that looked like they had the type of incredible results working out strictly from memory.
I have made great progress simply by writing down and/or printing out my work outs and my eating habits. I went to Books-A-Million and got a small notebook called a Moleskine. Look it up. They are great little notebooks and actually have a great history behind them. They say they were the choice of famous artists and writers throughout history. Hemmingway is a famous author rumored to have used these small notebooks to take notes. What better way to track my progress and workouts?
Back to my point. I have discussed this with many people. I am amazed at how many people will not make a plan to follow. Everything is done twice in this world. First you make a plan then you follow the plan.
The great Niccolo Machiavelli summed it up best in his quote: “Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.”
Of course it does take time to sit down and make a plan or a schedule but once you have done it and once you have followed it and seen the results, especially if you maintain the discipline to stick with it, you will be sold on the idea.
Maybe it is because of my military work as a planner. We used to start making plans, even for exercises sometimes 18 months in advance! Now some of this might sound like over kill but the bottom line is that if the military makes a plan to have a soldier squatting over a hole in the desert in 18 months ready to take a crap, then you can bet that in 18 months some soldier will have his or her pants down squatting over a hole!
I am amazed at how many people will take the time to show up in a gym and spend their time, sometimes hours on end, without detailing their progress or having a plan. You can see these folks and identify them because they are walking around the gym, seemingly with so much time on their hands. They will pick up dumbbells, move to machines stand and watch TV etc.
I think to myself, if this is how this person intends to get measurable results from their activity, then I can only imagine how jacked up their diet plan, if any, is!
This is not really rocket science we are talking about her. This site, along with countless magazines and other resources actually has workouts READY TO PRINT OUT! How much easier can it be? Print the sucker out and carry it to the gym if you do not want to write it down.
Diet is another thing. I keep a workout diary and a diet diary. Diet is like keeping track of money. I had a friend that always seemed broke. I told him to keep a small notebook and any time he spent money, to write it down in the book. First, he was amazed at where his money was going and secondly he got into the habit of asking himself “Do I really need to spend money on this?” Simply by having to write it down, it impacted his behavior.
Try it just for a day. Write down your training PRIOR to going to the gym. Follow your plan and I can promise you it will cut down on your work out time and you will maintain focus while working out.
Write down your diet and you will start to see some interesting trends in what is going into your body, I also add supplements and it helps to keep me on schedule.
The end result will be very surprising to you. Yesterday I pulled a new abs routine that lasts for six weeks. It looked pretty easy and I figure it will help change up my routine and shock my system. Three exercises, three sets. Each exercise works a different part of the abs starting with lower abs first. The first exercise was for 10 reps, second exercise for 15 reps and the last exercise was for 20 reps. I thought easy work but I will stick to it.
I got through with my second set and was smoked! I felt like such an idiot! I had been doing abs for months now, machines etc and here this routine smoked me! I learned a very valuable lesson once again.
Our bodies can adapt very quickly. Sure I have been documenting my routines and doing well on them but changing up my plan to hit new areas and different exercises is a MUST. If you are not changing up your plans on a regular basis then you will not see any new growth
Albert Einstein said it best. “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.”
Einstein was no bodybuilder but I have no doubt that if her were, he would have a plan, he would follow it but he would also occasionally change it to produce different results!
Remember, this is not rocket science!
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