I was looking at a meathead at the gym today. Great physique, very muscular and lean. A thought crossed my mind : “Damn that must have taken a long time and hard work. »
He really does looks like a meathead. His lower lip hangs constantly, his mouth half open, glazed over eyes, his tank top hardly has any fabric on it, he is a caricature of the gym rat. He talks too loud because his music is blasting in his ears, and honestly wouldn’t strike you as having much knowledge about anything.
But you know what? To get what he has, it has taken at least 10 years of near daily practise. He needs to have a minimum of 8-9 hours of sleep per night. Alcohol is probably out of the equation. His paper thin skin letting some veins show lets us know that he eats clean. And that he needs to eat a lot to keep that muscle packed on.
He is probably sore 360 days a year. I have seen him work out, he doesn’t joke around. He’ll tell you if you’re in his way. He’ll take your weights if you are taking remotely too much time to rest. He sweats profusely, and growls when he lifts. He knows what he’s doing, and he has a plan to follow.
You could judge him, but what he does inside and outside that gym to have that body is no joke.
It is a commitment to being better every single day. You drink clean, you eat clean, you go to bed early so you can recover, so no more than one episode on Netflix. You go to the gym 5 to 12 times a weeks. It takes up most of your evenings, and you usually have to include one or two of those workouts on weekends.
If you drink too much or go out too late, your workouts will suffer. If your workouts suffer, you lift less, if if you lift less, your muscles will shrink. If they shrink, and you eat the same, you get fatter.
And this is true every day of every year, for at least 10 years, to have any kind of satisfactory result. That is the one and only truth. Constant hard work, and paying attention to your lifestyle all the time.
I find the motivational videos and pictures, quotes and t-shirts silly, but that is because I love going to the gym. I had cut down on my training time to make progress.
I respect those who need fuel to keep going. When it’s cold, when it’s wet outside, when you’re tired, when you get invited to restaurants, parties, nights out, and you have to make judicious choices to stay on track of your goals. THAT is when you know if the commitment you made with yourself runs deep.
That’s when you know that you’re truly dedicated. Are you amazed that meatheads and muscular people walk around together? Or just generally bond easily? Or look at each other, congratulating? That is because they know what it took to get where they’re at.
You can be jealous. Tell yourself the guy, or girl, was genetically gifted. That they use steroids. The only truth is that whatever else there is, there is always hard and consistent work, over a VERY long period of time to get results.
Now you may not be ready to put in all that effort, but you will only reap a fraction of the results. But I would advise you DO take this road.
This is a path of mastery. As Miyamoto Musashi said “to know ten thousand things, know one well”. And learning to craft the body you want will teach you more about organisation, planning, nutrition, rest, stress, recovery, fatigue, and fear than anything else in the world.
So, how committed are you?
Take it easy.
Morgan.