“YOU HAVE TO LIFT 6 DAYS A WEEK. BULKING BRO. EAT EVERYTHING. LIFT FOR 2 HOURS IN THE GYM. SKIP CARDIO. NO DAYS OFF.”
-Congratulations. The genius plan above is officially the “7 day plan to having no sex drive, sore joints, dog shit energy, outrageous stress, and a no life balance.” VERY NICE
Funny part is: This outrageous plan is how lots of people start off their strength training journey in their teenager to early 20s.
I was one of these people. Don’t get me wrong: you don’t necessarily feel the effects of hammering the nervous system and joints when you’re 14-23. You can fall down the stairs and feel perfectly fine the next morning closer to your adolescence.
This doesn’t mean from a longevity standpoint that we should continuously beat the body down to the core just because we’re taking advantage of recovery benefits from 14-24. I am now 29. A majority of my buddies who started 10 years ago when i did are now suffering lots of consequences. Bad hips. Bad shoulders. Bad backs. Bad knees. You name it.
How have I managed to maintain a pretty healthy physical and mental health? its taken lots of undoing the damage of what I did to my body from 19-24. Add in the drinking habit with college during that time and BOOM. You’re hit your body with a nuclear bomb for a solid 5 years.
This is part of the reason I’ve became obsessed for years with massage gun work, chiropractic, epsom salt baths, stretching, yoga, focusing on upright posture, consistent supplement intake, enhancing sleep quality, and you name it.
We’re constantly healing from something. Whether its the gym, mental stress with responsibilities of life, injuries (present and past injuries), food habits that have led to skin, bone and organ damage.
Back to the overworked nervous system and gym correlation. We become obsessed with intensity at some point or another during our strength training careers. Even in all sports or anything that required high output to achieve results. We’ve all had days that have beat us up in one way or another.
While this is a good thing. Knowing when to rest is key. knowing when to take a day off and simply go for a walk, hike, or some sort of low intensity activity is very key. Skateboarding with buddies, a bike ride, yoga class, simply walking your dog. The list goes on.
To this day, I’m going to the gym 2-3 days in a row AT MOST. sometimes I’ll do: 1 day on, 1 day off. 2 days on, 1 day off. 3 days on, 2 days off. 2 days on, 2 days off. 3 days on. 3 days off. I’ve noticed this to be a sweet spot to where the joints and nervous system aren’t burnt out. I’ve paid lots of close attention to this. Also being aware to never eliminating cardio. The heart is a priority. Not only that: we need cardio and movement to help balance out those blood sugar levels and really use nutrients to our best ability from doing so and being active.
I hear people intensely lifting 4-6 days in a row and its no wounder they aren’t getting the results they want. Their muscle lacks density. They experience mid day fatigue and crashes. They wake up brain foggy in the morning and never feel quite 100% rested. They have plateaus with fat floss. On top of that, they’re putting down boat loads of calories every single day. Spiking blood sugar levels and having enormous crashes from the gut demolishing amount of food being put down. Inflammation rapid because the stomach is not handing the copious amounts of calories.
I’ve seen a balance as follows to work a bit better for most people:
Simple: Eating a little more on high activity days. Eating a little less on low activity days, working out 45 minutes-1.25 hours 3-5 times a week, and doing 4-5 exercises instead of 6-10. Even giving the stomach a little break and skipping breakfast once in awhile to achieve that 14 hour-ish fast by the time you eat lunch. Morning movement and sunlight into the eyes and skin. Boom. You’ve just increased your likelihood to feel much more amazing while also having a great life balance. Oh and the reduced stress and better recovery means you’re going to get the fat loss/ muscle building results you really wanted when you used to think you needed to “absolutely kill it 6 days a week” to obtain those results.
The answer is simple. Eat for the demands of your life. Next: work hard, but know when to tone is back. Its that simple. Humans from the beginning of time were meant to move their bodies. Period. You had to contribute to your tribe by being a active member that could give back with their skills. There’s absolutely no excuse to being a statue.
That is all for now.
Adios.
THE_HUMAN_EXPERIMENT1993 