Time Travel Part I

Only in the movies

What’s up guys let me tell you something, I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was a teenager.  And the phrase “if I only knew then what I know now” has been discussed between my friends and I many times.  These conversations range from girls, wishing you actually doing your homework and every other thing under the sun that we either neglected or did not think about.

Since we cannot time travel yet, and even if we could I am sure it would cause more harm than good.  I want to pass on some of the things onto you that I would have whispered in my own ear if I had a hot tub or DeLorean to time travel with.  I am going to focus on sports performance since that is one of the topics this blog is intended for; you can use your imagination about the girls and so on.

1.      Hit the damn weights.  Now, I would lift from time to time back then and I actually enjoyed it when I did.  I even had one of those old weight sets that had cement encased in plastic for plates and would mess around with it as far back as middle school.  In fact, one of the exercises in the book was some weird behind that back deadlift I did that for a few weeks and the work showed off one day.   I was at the field in town where we played football hanging out by the field house with my buddy.  I than looked up at the overhang jumped and touched it.  My buddy looked at me in shock and grabbed one of our coaches and said look at this, so I did it again with the same result. 

Looks so good I could eat it.

Now I do not know how high it was or if my buddy was making a lot out of nothing, but I do know I tried it before and I was not even that close.  Looking back at this now I know that lifting the weights gave me the strength to jump that high.  Unfortunately for me I did not make the connection back then and never stuck with a weight program long enough to maintain these results.

Also, we never adapt to training as well as we do when we are in our teens and early 20’s.  We recover quicker, grow faster and have more energy than ever.  So why not hit it hard and enjoy the benefits of being a strong young stud, who would not want that? 

2.      Find someone that could teach me how to lift properly.  Some of the things that I would try when I did lift weights back then were downright idiotic, and I am lucky I did not hurt myself badly.  The fact of the matter is I did not know what I was doing, and there was no one around to straighten me out. 

Ronnies gun routine is not for you

One of the worst things you can do is follow a workout from a bodybuilding magazine; these are highly advanced and usually performed by men with at the very least a decade of experience and/or on steroids.  It can be very easy at a young age to be mystified by these freaks of nature and want to copy everything they do, but they all started from scratch learning how to lift the right way.  Believe me when I say that if you do not learn how to lift properly your career will be a short one.

I did not find the benefit of this until after college when I hired a personal trainer to help me prepare for a football combine I was going to attend.  I was on the way to crippling myself before I made this decision, pretty much everything I was doing was setting me up for failure.  The time I spent under his supervision made me enjoy training again and showed me the way to lift safely until the day I day.

3.      Do not chase numbers.  The last thing you want to do when starting to lift weights is worry about how much weight is on the bar.  The main focus should be using weights that allow you to complete your set with good form; if you do this consistently the numbers will follow.  Weight training cannot be rushed, hard work and determination is required.

Marty the meathead may be able to squat 315 for a few reps.  But is he going down far enough?  Is his back hunched over?  Is he crooked? etc….  If so an injury is inevitable.  And even though he thinks he looks like a badass with 3 plates on each side no one looks cool on the side line unable to perform.

Not where I want to be, YOU?

Being able to move heavy weights is what you want to shoot for but quality reps should never be sacrificed just to add more weight so you can impress the cheerleaders stretching in the corner.  It is important to realize that heavy does not mean benching 405 because that is considered a milestone of strength.  Heavy is relative you and you only, what is heavy for you is heavy even if it is not impressive yet.  So stick to your heavy and do not worry about what anyone else thinks.  Believe me there is always someone stronger, just realize the real competition is between you and the weights.

Finally do not underestimate the power of body weight movements, especially when you are starting out and need to build a solid foundation to move heavy weights in the big lifts such as bench, squat, military press and deadlifts which always seem to work for me.

Stay tuned for Time Travel Part II coming soon…..