Take your ego out of the equation

Today I am going to explain to you the single biggest reason why you aren’t making better progress in the gym. I don’t even know you and I already know what your biggest training mistake is already. I’m talking to the men here, women are different (duh, no shit) and a lot of them have a very different reason why they aren’t making progress in the gym.

A lot of you are thinking, Nate this is nonsense, you aren’t even a coach.

How can you tell me what my biggest training problem is? Well I know because it used to be my problem too.

Ego.

That is it in a nut shell for the majority of guys I know who aren’t making the progress they want. This was definitely my problem. Most of us guys who have been training for a while all think we’re pretty damn smart. A lot of us are bigger then average guys, stronger then average guys, more dedicated then average guys and so on and so forth. That is definitely true for most of us. The problem is, at least here in the USA, the average guy is a pretty weak, out of shape slob, being better then that isn’t saying much. So we are more knowledgeable then a guy who knows nothing at all…seems like a pretty low bar doesn’t it?

I started lifting weights when i was 13 years old, currently I am now 31. That is a long time of mostly consistent training. I still have almost every issue of Flex magazine I ever read. I’ve read a ton of books on bodybuilding, I’ve tried dozens of variations of exercises, I’ve tried lots of different routines, I’ve rehabbed numerous injuries sustained in a fairly dangerous and debilitating sport and I even managed to build up and maintain a decent base of strength in the face of those many injuries. I’d been writing my own seemingly successful programs since I was in high school. Needless to say I thought I was pretty knowledgeable.

My first reality check came in early 2014. It was at that point that I actually realized that I was stuck at using roughly 215-225 pounds on the bench press for years on end with no real improvement. At that moment I realized that I wanted to get a 300 pound bench press. After a one rep max test of 265 pounds I created my own plan which got me to a 300 pound bench press in 4 months with an ultimate record of 315 pounds in 6 months at a body weight of 205 pounds. While this plan worked, it worked for reasons I couldn’t entirely explain and this further fueled my ego.

 

The second reality check came the next year when I decided to enter some powerlifting contests at my local gym.

I began reading all I could about powerlifting. I read almost every article in the Tnation.com archives and I used almost all the various advanced powerlifting techniques to try to increase my one rep max. With all my years of training I was positive that I was an advanced lifter. I clearly knew what I was doing…..boy was I wrong.

While that year was not entirely disappointing, I eventually realized that I really had no idea what I was doing when it came down to real, legit strength training, and even the things I did get right were not always for the reasons I thought. All those years of bodybuilding books and magazines had left me unprepared.

Basically my two biggest mistakes were over estimating my level of advancement, and not sticking to a proven plan. I let my ego dictate my training. I thought I was knowledgeable enough to write my own effective program. Starting to sound familiar? How many of you are writing your own routines but deep inside you realize that you are not really reaching your goals despite the high opinion you have of yourself?

The good part of all this is that the reality of your situation is not nearly as harmful to your ego as you think.

First off, being advanced has nothing to do with your knowledge of training; it has to do with how your body responds to the training stimulus. A beginner who has never lifted before has the best response to training. They are able to make progress almost daily on the major lifts. An intermediate lifter is now stronger and is now responding to the training slower. Progress has slowed to making improvements once a week or so. While their ability to adapt and progress is less, it is now much more sustainable and a lifter may be in this stage for a really long time. An advanced lifter is one who has now gotten so strong that his response to training is now at a monthly frequency or even longer. This is where elaborate training methods like the conjugate method or block periodization come in. These lifters are very strong and it is getting very hard to get stronger. Who do you think has the hardest time adding 5 pounds to their bench press, a guy who can bench 225, or a guy who can bench 600? adding 5 to 600 is going to be way harder then adding 5 to 225….. this is an advanced lifter.

Think about all that for a minute, which one of those would you rather be? A beginner making rapid gains but for a fairly short period of time, an intermediate making slower gains for a very long time or an advanced lifter making small gains in a few months instead of a few weeks? You want to be an intermediate lifter.

For a lot of men, the guys we are most familiar with who are most likely to be intermediate lifters are pro athletes. These guys are all big, strong, agile, powerful, sometimes freakishly so, yet they are mostly intermediate lifters. It’s possible that the strongest guy in the NFL still isn’t an advanced lifter yet. Being an intermediate doesn’t mean you aren’t strong. Being an intermediate lifter is a great thing. Being as strong as a pro football player isn’t hurting your ego that much now is it?

So if we are intermediate lifters, or even beginners, what plan do you think we should be on? This is where your ego is hurting you. Choosing to be on an advanced plan when you are not an advanced lifter will cause you to make slower progress then a good intermediate plan. You are capable of recovering and growing faster then an advanced plan is designed for. You are actually going to be less strong at the end then if you chose a simpler and possibly more boring intermediate plan. That doesn’t sound exciting on the face of it, but this isn’t P90X or Insanity, this is training and exciting or not results and progress should be your priority. Getting stronger should be exciting enough.

Writing your own plan as an intermediate is a foolish idea. No matter how much you think you know you don’t know more then the combined knowledge of all the other lifters, coaches, and scientists from the last 60 years. They have already done all the work for you and come up with great plans that work for tons of reasons that you don’t even know you aren’t aware of. Why make it harder on yourself? The easy road this time is the best one to be on.

A wise man knows that he knows not.

Be smarter; realize that you don’t know everything, and that you don’t need to. Take advantage of the proven methods and start making some real progress; pretty soon you’ll realize that you’re now moving so much weight that you don’t even worry about it anymore.