are you feeling the pain or the gain

7/30/2019 Are You Feeling the Pain or the Gain

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Are You Feeling The Pain or The Gain

2008-06-25

Are You Feeling Just the Pain, or the Gain?

No pain, no gain - right?

Well, it's September and you've put in 8 months of painfully hard training thisyear - so, what are the results? Are you feeling the emotional pain of 8 monthsof training with little, or no, results or are you feeling the 'satisfaction ofthe gain' as a result of 8 months of productive hard work?

It's time to buck-up.

Take stock of what you've done so far this year. Sure you've busted your butt -wait a second, maybe you didn't bust it enough. If you did, what do you have toshow for it? Are you stronger? Are you bigger? Did you lose some of that spare tire? Did you get a rock and practice lifting it so that you can make that dreamtrip to Scotland to lift The Blue Stones of Old Dailly? Did you stay in a 6-month fight against 20-rep squats hitting a PR - or did you chicken-out after 2 months? Did you finally nail a 136-kilo clean and jerk? Did you put the new runningshoes to use and run 2 times per week like you wanted to? Did you even buy the shoes? Did you start that daily stretching program for the hammies to help with t

hat low back pain - or at 35 years of age do you continue to walk more like you're 95?

Did you do - or are you on the path to do - what you set out to do?

I know, I know - not everyone that hits the weights is after adding 10 pounds ofmuscle to their body or 20 kilos to their press. Many are just after 'staying fit'. But, unless I'm way off, I don't remember Milo ever being a "fitness magazine". Now this isn't to say that I (or Randy as far as I know) ever want any of my (his) trainees, regardless of their goals, to do anything that doesn't promotegreat health and well-being. It's just that my guys - and gals - want both.

You may not like to hear this, but if you didn't hit your goals -or at the least

moved closer to achieving them - then you just wasted 8 months of training. I guess I could be politically correct and say, "you didn't optimize your trainingtime", but that's not me and that's not how my trainees like the truth dished up. No, wasted is a better word, because it probably pisses you off. And then after you're done being mad at me maybe you'll do something to improve your next four months of training that will propel you into a great new year.

So now what are you going to do about it?

You need to make some changes obviously. And, you know, I could give you the details about what changes you need to make to get on track - to make the next fourmonths productive. I could give you the specifics to get that bench moving up,to help you get that rock over your head, to improve your 'second pull'. But tha

t list would be impossible to put together for everyone reading this journal since I don't know all the readers goals, lifestyles, limitations, job requirements, etc.

But what I can do is to make you think. First of all to recognize the facts about how productive your training has been, or hasn't been (I've already done that), and then to recognize what you need to change, and then to actually do it.

To make your training productive and keep it that way there are four very powerful things that you need to do (and I've done a little of #1 for you already).


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1. Check out your results.2. Question what you're doing - or not doing.3. Change something4. Just focus on taking the first step.

Results - What We're All After

You are either getting them or you're not. As I started out in this piece, you need to see if you are really on the path to accomplishing what you're after. Ifyou're not, then your training is not working.

Checking out the bottom line is simply a way to hold yourself, or the program you're on accountable. So, go get your training journal. You are keeping one aren't you? Now, you know what your goals are, what you did in January and what you are capable of doing now. Have the numbers improved? Really, have they improved?Did they even have a chance to improve if you didn't even start what you wantedto do - like running, or stone lifting, or trying to eat right to drop some of that tire?

One thing that is great about almost all strength sports - and the training thatis required - is that they are quantitatively based; results are measured in hard numbers. And so are a couple of other important things, like your bodyfat level and your resting heart rate.

Sure this is simple stuff, but a powerful tool doesn't have to be complicated -the hammer has been around for a long time and has been an integral tool for thebuilding of some great structures from the Stone Age to the 21st century. I hope you get the point. Your numbers are either the same, going down, or going up.Go ahead check your journal. What's really happening with your numbers?

And keep something in mind, - the numbers don't lie.

Questions are the Answer

Now you've got to ask yourself some hard questions about what you're doing. I'llget you started.

Are you hanging onto the same old exercises that brought you results an eonago, but that haven't produced diddly in the last 2 years?

Are you switching your exercises / programs all the time to whatever the 'flavor of the month' is?

Are you training with the frequency of a Bulgarian Weightlifter when you area Pittsburgh Weightlifter who has to hit the iron at night after hitting it allday?

Did you really give each workout your best effort, or has your 'best effort'really denigrated to a 'good effort' relative to what a new motivated trainingpartner would put out?

Are you training 1 time every 7 days because you're soooo tired for severaldays after training - so you are convinced that you're a "hardgainer" when in re

ality you are just out of shape and eat like crap?Have you tried 'everything' to make your press (insert any other exercise he

re) go up - except maybe just working harder at pressing (re-insert other exercise here)?

Did you give up your quest to start a running program because your knees hurt so bad after your initial 3-mile jog - even though you haven't jogged 3 milessince high school? Maybe you should have just tried to walk 3 miles the first time out?

Are you holding off on performing aerobic work because you're still hangingonto the myth that it'll prevent you from gaining mass and strength - instead of


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accepting the facts that it'll help you recover faster from workouts, hence making you bigger and stronger?

Has your bench press really gone up, or was it just the switch from the double-ply shirt to a double-denim?

How can you become a 'Captain of Crush' if you didn't even buy a gripper?Did you really 'eat like a horse' to gain weight - or was it more like the c

aloric intake of a high school cheerleader addicted to 'metabolic optimizers'?

Now it's your turn. Be tough on yourself.

Embrace change.Do you keep doing the same things and expecting different results? Sure, I know,you've done certain things that have brought you to your current level of success, but old beliefs will not lead you to new achievements. Try something different - no, don't try it, do it. And when I say that you keep doing the same old thing, I don't necessarily mean that you've stuck with the same program, same philosophy, same exercises and same eating, etc for years. I'm also speaking to thetrainee who has a pattern of switching programs and trying new diets every timethey turn around.

Most avoid change because it gets them out of their comfort zone. And I'm not implying here that Milo guys avoid the physical discomfort that comes with hard, productive training. I'm talking about emotional discomfort; the unsure feeling created by a lack of faith that something different will produce better results.

Well, you're never going to know, and you'll stay in your current rut, unless you have the courage to embrace change. It all starts with a single step.

Take the Hardest Step - the First One.

"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance" - Robert Collier.

Quit being a 'wishy-washy' dreamer - become a doer. Quit being so negative. Quitthinking so much about "why" you can't, or shouldn't, do something: no time, won't keep it up anyway, I'll wait till I squat 300 first, if I eat more I'll justget fat, maybe it won't work anyway, my dog will eat the new program, etc.

Just begin.

If you want to 'someday' lift The Blue Stones of Old Dailly then go out to aquarry - today - and pick out a rock and start lifting it as part of your program. Make someday start today. See, just thinking about it gets you fired up! Imagine how fired up you'll be when you bend down and 'grab rock' during your workout tomorrow. And when you wake up the next day with cuts on your forearms you'llknow that Steve Jeck would be proud.

If you want to start a running program when you have more time and can be consistent - forget it. You'll never have more time. You have to make time. Don'tworry about that anyway. Just focus on today. Put on the shoes and get your butt

outside (or on the treadmill). Simply take the first step - run (or walk if it's been a while) today. When you've done it today, you will have broken through the hardest barrier - getting started. And I'm positive you'll do it again.

If you want to try your hand at the Olympic lifts, but don't have anyone locally to teach you - so what? Don't let that stop you. Teach yourself. Order Tommy Konos' book Weightlifting, Olympic Style or Jim Schmitzs' book Olympic-Style Weightlifting for the Beginner and Intermediate Lifter right now. Have it shippedovernight. Then, guess what? That first workout when you practice the snatch with an empty Olympic bar - you are officially an Olympic lifter.


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Want to start a DB bench press program but don't want to give up the barbellbench even though you've been stuck at the same 'raw' bench for 2 years. I knowyour competition lift keeps going up: the switch to a 2-ply added 50 pounds, then the denim shirt added another 50 on top of that. But deep inside you know thetruth. And you also know the solution isn't more speed work, accommodating resistance training, or using more rubber bands: You need to increase the strength and size of the pressing muscles 'for real', like Pat Casey did with big dumbbells before anyone came up with the idea of the bench shirt. Take the first step -go for it. Grab some big dumbbells today and hit them hard for 3 sets of 5. Andtomorrow when those 'bench pressing muscles' feel sore - you'll know you've donethe right thing. Stay with it for 6 months and work up to a pair of 150's for atriple - practice the bar bench every couple of weeks to stay in the groove - and kiss your raw 350 good bye, as well as your denim 470. Hello 500.

Want to drop some bodyfat, but you're afraid you'll lose strength? How do you know that? Fat can't lift the weight - only your muscles can do that. Educateyourself. Order Rob Faigins' book Natural Hormonal Enhancement or Mauro DiPasquales' book The Metabolic Diet right now, have it overnighted and drop some of those carbs and some of that spare tire tomorrow.

Make a protein shake now, so you can start a new trend tomorrow morning - having breakfast. I heard somewhere this really helps (sarcasm intended).

Now, what do you need to do - today not tomorrow, now not in another hour - to put a positive change in motion?

And I suggest that you make a new commitment from now on: Never leave the sceneof a new desire without taking some kind of action - a first step - towards its'achievement.

In Conclusion

How's your job going? Have you produced so far this year? How well did you produce - new productivity level, the same as last year, or did you fall off the chart? I bet your boss (replace with 'customers' if you own your own business), knows how you did and will hold you accountable. And I'm sure your pay will show it.

To bad this same scenario doesn't exist with most trainees in weight training. Because if most trainees where held accountable by a "boss" or a "sage mentor" toproduce results, they would keep a close watch on their results, they would question what they were doing wrong (or right), they would change something, and they would try the new 'change' immediately. Boy, if this were the case there would be a lot more big strong people walking around.

Hopefully, I've got you questioning what's happening with your training, so thatyou can make the last four months of this year the best part of the year.

are you feeling the pain or the gain

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