Balancing Working out and life

Ever since I was 18 years old one of the most common things I’ve heard from people when the topic turns to weight training or fitness is this “I just can’t stay in the gym all the time like you, I have a life” Ive heard this over and over again. Apparently I seem like one of the typical gym bros who just stays in the gym working out all the time.

Now I really do know a guy like this. He has the ultimate plan for getting jacked and then getting really ripped every year; he simply has no job or car and his wife drops him off at the gym when she goes into work and picks him up later when she gets off of work. He literally lives in the gym during work hours. Great for hard training, bad for almost everything else in life. This has never been me however.

I’ve been lifting weights since I was 13 and for the majority of that entire time I spent overall about 5 hours in the gym a week. All thru college my workouts only lasted between 45 minutes to an hour. For one summer I did a lot of cardio after weight training and maybe spent an hour and a half in the gym per session. Even now on the Texas Method I spend about 5 hours in the gym a week divided among 3 days. The foundation of my strength and physique was built on four hours a week.

Growing up one of my weight lifting role models was Steve “Hercules” Reeves and he was never known for being a gym rat. He had a “get in, get it done, and get out” approach to training and I’ve always tried to emulate that. Four hours a week was all I needed.  I often times lifted with no training partner to talk to, and no cell phone to look at. I’ve always had a strong social life and interests outside of the gym. I had a life just like you!

Anyone who really needs 2 hours of training per day is at a point where they know exactly what they need, they have experience, a coach, and probably a competition or livelihood on the line. Anyone who needs it isn’t making excuses about not having enough time for it. For the majority of us four hours is plenty.

I’m not knocking long training sessions if they are well designed and needed but a one hour training session done properly is nothing to snicker at. Most people in the gym are doing a lot other then lifting weights. Too many people are talking, talking to their training partners, talking to girls, talking to themselves. Too many people are playing on their phone, texting, snapchatting, instagramming, tweeting, or whatever else people can do on their phones these days. Internet porn between sets? Probably. Put away all the distractions and start lifting and I guarantee that hour will be much harder then you thought.

Let’s do a quick audit of our time to see if 4 hours a week is really that hard for someone to do. Ask yourself honestly, how much time do you spend on the internet looking at stuff that doesn’t make you money? How much time do you spend watching TV or movies? If both of those things combined are less then four hours a day, not a week, I’ll be really surprised. Flabbergasted actually. You have the time to hit the gym for four hours a week. You really do, I swear.

Let’s assume you are actually the busiest person in the world and you really don’t have four spare hours a week to lift weights. I’ll call your bluff, how much time do you have? Three hours a week can work, even two hours can work. Something is always better then nothing and there are a lot of trainers on the internet who can whip up some good plans for only 30 minutes per day.

The reality is this, you are making excuses. That is all their is to it.

The thing is, we all make excuses for something. None of us are perfect. I put off making this website for a year for the very same reasons that you put off going to the gym. I realize that it can seem daunting and you really do feel that you don’t have time to get the physique or strength you want and that can be a real bummer. I’ve been there many times in other situations, it’s just that on this topic, I made time and not excuses and you can too.

Making progress happens slowly and your training has a cumulative effect. Two hours of training a week is 104 hours of training a year. That sounds like a damn good amount actually. I know it can be tough to see the goal at first and tough to get started but I often remember a line from a movie regarding this. It comes from the movie “Knockaround Guys”. At one point Vin Diesel is talking about becoming a tough guy and he figured that it would take 500 real street fights to become a legit tough guy. He then says that at some point along the way you lose sight of the goal of hitting 500 fights and being a real tough guy, and you realize you already are one. The same goes for strength or muscles. Put the time in and at some point you will suddenly realize that you have already hit or exceeded your original goal.

You can do it. Start small, but start today!