Biggest Lesson Learned??

[RichardDavis]

So, you've been working out for awhile now, making good progress. Your diet is on point, and you're doing great. Looking back, what would you say was the one tweak - the one new thing you tried - the one lesson you learned - that made the biggest impact on your physique? What was your game changer? The thing that made everything fall in place?

[coachcalande]

So, you've been working out for awhile now, making good progress. Your diet is on point, and you're doing great. Looking back, what would you say was the one tweak - the one new thing you tried - the one lesson you learned - that made the biggest impact on your physique? What was your game changer? The thing that made everything fall in place?

Well, I cant say everything has fallen into place. What I can say is that I am much happier now that I have clear goals and understand what I need to do to achieve the goals.


I have trained for as long as I can remember- perhaps doing my first set of dumbbell curls at age 10. I can remember making my first bench out of a set of bar stools pushed together, with a sleeping bag laid on top for cushion...I used to do chins on the I beam in my basement....


In any case, If it was ONE THING Id say FOOD.

You have to eat to match your goals. If you want to get big and strong, you have to eat accordingly. If you want to get lean and ripped, you have to eat accordingly.



A second thing, and its huge, you have to pick a routine that fits. I settled on an every other day plan where I never train two days in a row because I like HEAVY and I like HIGH INTENSITY and I like ENOUGH VOLUME to feel worked. That leads me to my routine. I do 8-10 sets for small body parts and 12 sets for larger body parts. Every set is to failure or near failure and often very heavy...3-8 reps. When I am working out, I like to know I can work hard and have the following day to recover. That's been huge for making a big leap in size and strength (along with eating for mass.)

Finally, Id say learning to just listen to my body...
I no longer worry about sets and reps for "optimal" growth, I listen to my body and train accordingly. Some days Ill hit triples, doubles, singles on compound lifts. I chase numbers and record my PRs. That's fun and its bucket list stuff.
Other days Ill work for control and pump and deep tissue burn. Just squeezing out 8-10 on some lifts while staying true to my heavy training in the 5-6 rep range for other movements. It really depends on how I feel. But what I have learned is that you can have "rep PRs" so I am always trying to a) keep records and b) break records.

The big takeaway....none of this makes me smaller and I fear being small and weak.

[steffo99]

I'm not advanced or very far into anything, but the biggest change for me is (right now) due to tracking food intake/diet. I seem to personally respond extremely well to keto, which I have done for a little over a month now but want to continue for much longer so I can see how it feels/work at maintenance/surplus as well.

[JediRN]

I forget who wrote it in O35, I think Pharmamaketeer (sp.??) but something along the lines of.

Do not think about 90 day transitions. Have a five year plan.

[ajdahlheimer]

I spent 15+ years kicking my ass in the gym, but didn't like my progress (in my own opinion, of course) until I finally got a basic understanding of diet and nutrition. I just wish I would have known how large a part of the battle that was--back in my 20's.

[induced_drag]

the one lesson you learned -

Diet drives everything....AND most people (even me at one time) GROSSLY overestimate the amount of muscle they actually have and UNDERESTIMATE the fat by at least a factor or 2. Many "big" guys are attached to their fat. DONT BE.

If building lean muscle is a goal, stay between 10-15%bf. Approaching 20% you are growing man boobs. Many hormonal things go to crap at those levels of bf.

[ironwill2008]

Actually weighing/measuring/tracking my food. Prior to that, I only thought I was eating enough. I wasn't; guessing at portions/macros kept me skinny and weak.

[AbuDina]

Question to ajdahlheimer/induced_drag

How long did it take you to notice differences in your physique once you corrected your diet. Also would you please share the sort of changes you made to your diets?

I was going to reply to the OP but then I realised I only have 7 solid months of proper training/nutrition/recovery so I'm bound to learn a lot more from my mistakes over the next few years. For now though, I'm all ears.

p.s.
Ah feck it! The most valuable thing I've learnt so far is to listen to the advice of those who have put in the time and effort and got the numbers and physique to prove it. I say this because I'm a stubborn kunt and "wasted" 5 months on a bro split when I was clearly far too weak (still I'm lol) to do such a training program! I took advantage of newbie gains for sure but strangely enough since switching to UPPER/LOWER I have made more strength/size gains in 6 weeks than I did in the 4 months prior.

[bodyhard]

There is no one single thing. As the years start piling up under your belt you have to adapt to change. I have been extremely successful in training because I adapt to change and I never stay doing the same thing. But the factors in training remain the same, build a foundation by sticking to heavy compound movements, and always keep them in your schedule even when you include isolation movements. Redirect your diet accordingly with your goal, eat at a surplus when trying to gain mass/size/strength and eat a deficit when trying to lose weight/BF/Cut-up.

People like to make this out to be so complicated, but it really isn’t, train hard, eat accordingly, get enough sleep, stay consistent and you will see steady progress. The key word is consistency…

[DuracellBunny]

Deciding what you are willing to sacrifice. Training, nutrition etc is always a compromise with other things in our lives and we have to establish in our own minds how important it is and what time and energy we are willing to devote to it; instead of just "doing it".

Once there is a clear mental picture, everything else will fall in to place; so get a clear mental picture.

[shaneinga]

I am still learning like AbuDina, but it all clicked for me when I learned the importance of macros, a food scale, and running a program that introduced me to the idea of actual tracked progress in the gym.

[ajdahlheimer]

Question to ajdahlheimer/induced_drag

How long did it take you to notice differences in your physique once you corrected your diet. Also would you please share the sort of changes you made to your diets?

Well ID is much more invested in diet than me. He basically keeps himself in competition form walking around in day to day life, I just wanted to look less blocky and more defined. I also have never gone to levels such as weighing food, figuring out macros, or even counting calories. For me it was just knowing what I was putting in my body. I was never a junk/fast food, snacky, or sweets guy. But a lot of the stuff I ate really had no nutritional value (think stuff like sandwiches, lunch meat, pasta, etc.). So what I did was make a small number of foods the staples of my diet. Tuna, chicken, steak, eggs, oatmeal, avocado, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and nuts are pretty much all I eat (aside from the one time a week I go out to eat with my wife and kids). I also am big into home-made smoothies with frozen fruit, bananas, nuts, PB Fit Powder, and spinach/kale. Provides good energy pre-workout as I don't get a lot of carbs otherwise during the day. Eating the same stuff probably seems boring/bland to many people, but it just works better for me as I am much too ADD to ever do macros or calorie counting.

As far as noticing changes, I felt better almost instantly. And there was a huge water-weight loss the first month due to the high BF % I initially had.

[Guinea-pig]

Attending my first bodybuilding show. ....

[Plateauplower]

Interesting Thread!

For me training consistently for years then taking a decade off and restarting has taught me a few things.

1. Fitness, leaness, muscle mass etc are never "owned" they are just "rented" and you need to make the payments (by training and eating accordingly) regularly to keep it/improve it.

2. Consistency with both training and diet are VERY important to me. I let loose on the food intake occasionally, but I have not missed a single workout in over two years. That is the foundation for my training.
I'm lucky I have not had anything major come up yet, obviously some circumstances will require time off...

3. When trying to make progress, I need to Eat to the goal (usually less food ) and track intake ACCURATELY- using a food scale doesn't even matter if you subvert the process my not tracking little bites here and there, that chit adds up. I don't track as precisely when in a surplus but still keep it pretty close and weigh almost everything. Just allow myself more meals out, portion estimated meals etc. I gain very easily so, its never an issue of not eating enough for me.

4. Always try to improve. Its very easy to stagnate and not push for progress. I still struggle with this because sometimes it feels daunting to try to improve when you start a hard lift and wonder how on earth you got X amount of reps with it before. Although admittedly when dieting my focus shifts from trying to improve to trying not to lose ground on the big lifts.

5. KISS theory (80/20 rule etc) applies more than people think. The basics that have been done for years flat out work and will build a body that you just will never get with the goofy chit that goes on in most commercial gyms. You can pretend your chopping wood with a cable machine standing on a ball for the rest of your life and will never get the benefit that would be there from 6 months of progressive overload on compound movements.

6 The further along you get, patience becomes more and more important. Plan on making changes to your lifts/physique but they become increasingly slower the more advanced you get (or at least they do for me).

[Bo_Flecks]

Set a goal and train/eat consistently to meet that goal. Anything else is just working out.

[ArchAngel'73]

When I quit asking;
"What is left to do?"
and started asking;
"What else can I do?"

[Jtbny]

Most of the good stuff was already said so I'll add these

What I've learned during my time training and visitin here that have helped me are -

Dont take yourself too seriously. Have fun and enjoy your journey because there isn't a final destination. Numbers on the bar or on the scale don't define who you are but neither one lies.

Effort is often over exaggerated and many don't put in enough effort even though they think they do. Be honest with yourself when it comes to this. Also, be honest about form. You're fooling yourself if you aren't.

Tons of people on this forum are only here to tear others down. Don't be one of those toxic people. Write exactly what you'd say in person and be supportive of others even if their goals aren't my goals. I learn more from others here than anywhere else (mostly in the journals).

[sumtaz]

Definitely diet. You can work out until you are blue in the face but if the diet isn't there, you will run in circles. As the saying goes, "you can't out-exercise a bad diet".

[Lou1se]

Great topic and some excellent contributions to this thread!

Knowing your destination is the first step. Then you can look at your diet and training to get you there.

But it is so much mental - if you enjoy it and have a good attitude, everything else should fall into place. And believe me, life has a way of knocking you off your feet. No matter how tough or where your head is at, get up and keep moving. Life is a battle so keep up the fight

[blue9steel]

Diet drives everything....

Actually weighing/measuring/tracking my food.

^These

Everyone knows that you need diet and exercise to look good, for me the key was the realization that the AND was the important word in that phrase. I'd worked out hard before, I'd also dieted hard before but I had rarely done both at the same time in way that supported each other. Now I do and the results have been amazing.

[Pokernutt]

Definitely tracking my macros was the biggest thing for me.

Since that's been mentioned I'll add another... taking progress pics and sharing them online and with friends. It gave me extra motivation to always look better in the next progress pic. I was ashamed to take them when I weighed 230 lbs, but now I wish I took them. I took them when I lost a lot of weight and still take them now at 180lbs. I'm currently happy with my looks, but not nearly satisfied. So I'm still chasing a better progress pic constantly. I'll post another one on here next month.

[Thegainswarden]

Carbs>protein & push myself harder. Perfected my form. Feeling solid and tight.

[magic15]

It took me a while to where I understood what bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, and going to the gym for overall health really engulfed. For a while I got hooked on certain youtube channel/s and trying to do everything like that person was doing or believe everything that channel was saying was gospel. I do stay open minded. I still take peoples opinions and advice seriously. The one lesson I learned is the belief people should be able to go or not go to the gym and be able do whatever they want to if they're enjoying themselves. Its a free world. I know I am going to do whatever I want to do in the gym and in life and I don't owe anyone an apology or explanation if I'm not hurting anyone.

[drkelly74]

I never had a gym mentor, so for years just did 3 sets of 10 reps of a few different exercises. I wasn't really commited to weight lifting though. I mostly focused on cardio when I went to the gym. About two years ago I decided to see if I could get bigger and put on more muscle. I'm still a beginner when it comes to body building. I can't pin down one biggest thing, but here are a couple:

- Eating more protein/eating more often
- Doing MUCH more volume than I used to do. 5-8 sets of three to four different exercises for each body part

[Payton1221]

most people GROSSLY UNDERESTIMATE the fat by at least a factor or 2.

Actually weighing/measuring/tracking my food. Prior to that, I only thought I was eating enough. I wasn't; guessing at portions/macros kept me skinny and weak.

Several years ago I had a hydrodensity test conducted at the local University that told me what I refused to believe and that was how much bodyfat I was actually carrying. That prompted me to start weighing food and counting macros which transformed me like nothing before.

[NYkarate]

This thread is sticky worthy!

[induced_drag]

Question to ajdahlheimer/induced_drag

How long did it take you to notice differences in your physique once you corrected your diet. Also would you please share the sort of changes you made to your diets?
.

Immediately. Eating for a purpose means you are always headed in ONE direction. It is pretty amazing how big a difference this can make vs a shotgun approach.

This applies just as much for strength. I have posted the tracking I have done that shows as little as a 200 cal/ day **** can TOTALLY shift the direction of strength progression.

I dont think I can understate it. This sequence of pics is my first 11 weeks back in the gym. These are not doctored before/afters where I am trying to look bad in the first one and better in latter ones. They were shot only for me, and as much as I hate to admit it.....I really was trying to look good in the first pic

Below that is the same time frame from my back shot where you can see 5+ inches dropped off my waist and over 1.5" added to my arms. (you can see the biggest difference in my arms (larger) and waist (smaller)

Not sure what else I can say....

So yes...to answer your question, changes can happen pretty fast when you apply yourself. There is always the response factor....but regardless....your best response will always be with proper nutrition.

[drudixon]

Consistency trumps all....

[BergMuscle]

Focus on working the muscle - not what goes in the log book. That's lead me to my biggest muscle gains.

[RichardDavis]

Attending my first bodybuilding show. ....

What changed?