Embrace The Suck - Buff DM #4

​  I'm having trouble walking at the moment.  My whole body hurts.  I am currently lying on my back, pondering all the ways in which I have destroyed myself.  A beautiful boulder rests upon every fiber of my being, like some stone slab cut perfectly Looney-Tunes style into the shape of my prone body.  I am sore, bruised, and broken.

​And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Earning It

  Motivation is something so many of us struggle with, and so many give up just when we start to reap the benefits.  A lot people think it comes down to convenience, but I think it more specifically defined to a lack of resistance.  We bring it up a lot in this blog and our podcast as a State of Flow in gaming, but flow can be achieved and maintained in all facets of our lives.  The key here is building in that lack of resistance.  
  We recently opened a gym in addition to other things we offer through my business at large, not just my Game On! stuff, and the impact is palpable.  I can now schedule my workout days around my work at the center, and already I can feel the shift in what has become possible for my training, my health, and my mental focus.  But with those gains, I can already feel the familiar pull away from it all.  
  We all get it sometimes.  The nagging, lazy bit of ourselves that manifests when we start making the most progress toward leaving it behind.  It is the tiny voice that tells us we'll never get there, the one that complains in the middle of your chest press, that hammers your legs with doubt, and that seeps pride into your skin so you avoid safety in favor of stubbornness.  
  This is not something that is given to you after a week of work.  Hell, you won't get it after a month, or maybe even a year.  Great progress will be made in this time, but it is not the result.  We will be shrouded in tiny victories; threads of hope bound together each day to form an unbreakable cord of resolve and perseverance.  
  Everything that I am and could be has been a product of my own choices.  I am not the victim of my own circumstance and I prove this every day that I rise from sleep and seek the greatest version of myself, and it is with this knowledge that I take hold of the tethers of my own destiny...and pull.  And I do this with the full knowledge that I am tearing down what I once was - the habits formed, the mistakes made, the lessons unlearned, and all the ugly bits.  This will be painful, and I accept this pain, for I will rise from it, building as I go.  I will sift through my own rubble, deciding what to keep and what burns.  

This is going to suck.  And here are some practical ways - mechanical habits, devoid of motivation, but full of functionality - that I'm going to do it.

Rest Times and Rest Days

Only key in on one rest day, never two in a row.  That's mine anyway.
This past week looked like this:
Monday - Gym after work - Chest and Legs
Tuesday - Rest Day 1
Wednesday - Gym before work - Back and Arms
Thursday - Rest Day 2
Friday - Home workout - Bodyweight Blitz
Saturday - Kickboxing, Karate, then Gym - Arms and Shoulders
Sunday - Home workout - Bodyweight and Cardio

This sort of works, but I'd like my Rest Days to be Thursdays and Sundays, instead opting for Tuesday as another "gym rat" day.  I think I'll get a better spread, and I'm working out consistently at 5x a week while avoiding a two-day rest period where I can fall into a slump.  DISCIPLINE is key here to build the better habit.

But DURING workouts, I find my biggest time suck is in resting.  My home gym workouts would take far too long due in no small part to the amount of time I was carelessly resting between sets.  In the gym, the focus is different.  I have taken the time out of my day to go to a space that is not my home to use equipment that isn't mine in order to build my best self.  There's an onus there.  Other people are here to do the same thing, so I'm not going to waste my time or theirs; the pressure's on.  
  So, I give 20-30 seconds between sets - sometimes I even count out loud, especially if I pushed hard enough to shatter my own metacognition.  It keeps me moving.  Instead of workouts taking 3 hours, I've knocked them down to 90 minutes for the same benefit.  Employing my next element, I've got 'em down to under that.  

Supersets, "Triplesets," and Circuits

Sometimes I get bored.  Sometimes I get distracted.  Sometimes I have a lot of workouts to get through and I feel pressed for time.  So I double them up.
  Single, focused sets are good.  Great, even, and certainly have their place.  But I'm always one to use Supersets and Triplesets to keep me moving and motivated on those days I have difficulty focusing.  
A Superset is when you take one exercise, perform one set of it, then immediately perform another set of another exercise without resting between.  For me, this practice serves two functions: 1) It's more efficient, and 2) for muscle growth and dynamic fatigue, it's amazing.  Instead of just extending an exercise, or performing another set on the same exercise, I'm still working but the muscle groups are different enough that the grouping of the previous exercise "rests" while another works.  That aspect of rest isn't actually true, mind you, but the difference in movement is the point here.  I do my 20-30 second rest after completing the second exercise.  
  And if a Superset is effective, then a Tripleset must be awesome, right?  Well, yeah, but we can also call that a Circuit.  A circuit is a set of 3 or more exercises performed one after the other, then resting.  I use Circuits to keep me moving (efficiency) and to pump (reach hypertrophy) faster, while maintaining strength training.  It also lets me check off more exercises in my book in bigger, more satisfying chunks.  :)

One More Rep...

Yes, the name of this week's blog is Embrace The Suck.  And I mean it.  Embrace it.  
  Accept that this is going to be uncomfortable.  Anything worth it will reach a point of discomfort.  This is mine.
There will be days that I will crave the things I don't need.  Days I don't want to work out.  Days I want to lay in bed and avoid the challenges my life will bring.  And those days will SUCK.
  But those days won't stop me.  Because I know they're coming (a few have happened already, and I've crushed them).  I know the feeling of doing pushups and your body lazily prodding you with "you don't need to do any more, that's enough," and the feeling of pushing through that to get one more rep.  I know the feeling of pushing to failure, even when one more rep feels like miles away, and you have to fight against your own doubt and pride and hunger just to push through.
But I will.  And it's going to suck.  This is going to hurt.  This is going to challenge every fiber of me.  But I will become stronger; I will become better.  And it will be that one more rep that is the difference between raw willpower and falling off this wagon.  And to the latter: I REFUSE.  
BEAST MODE ENGAGED.  
  I'll see you at the gym.
​-Adamus

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