Thoughts On Training Circa 2001-2002

I was just going through my archived web site files looking for a photo when I came across a folder with an online journal from another site I had from 2001 to 2002. The following are a few training and diet related entries I found I think are still relevant, along with some of the photos originally posted with them.

Tuesday, February 6, 2001

I believe that it is important to perform difficult things, to endure discomfort, even pain, regularly. To test your limits, and push them. There is something very satisfying about difficult achievements or hardships persevered, and the more difficult the achievement, the greater the sense of reward.

Exercise, for example, is not productive unless it is hard. The greater your effort, the more productive the exercise, and the greater the benefits. The essence of exercise is effort. Without intense effort there is no exercise, only movement. Exercise, properly performed, is the single most painful thing I believe a person can endure without actually harming themselves in any way. Your heart pounds in your chest, your pulse races, your breathing labors to keep up with your muscles’ demand for oxygen, and those muscles burn. And that’s where the real exercise is just beginning.

When it’s over, only you know whether you really pushed to your limit. It doesn’t matter how hard everybody else might believe you were working, or not. Only you know if you went the distance, or if you gave up. Only you benefit from your effort, or lose from your lack thereof.

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

Ours is a culture that is obsessed with appearances. Right or wrong, we judge the people and things around us by the way they look. Our purchases are influenced by the visual appeal of product packaging and advertisements. Our social interactions are influenced by the appearances of those with whom we associate. Few of us leave the house in the morning or go out for the evening without first checking in the mirror.

We do this because we associate certain visual elements with the qualities we believe they represent.

The media feeds and fuels these associations.

We perpetuate them.

Everybody, every group, every thing has an “image”.

But “image” is not the same as “identity” and identity is what truly matters. Identity is the nature or qualities of a person or thing, while image is simply surface appearance. Images can be deceiving.

Physical health, for example, is a part of someone’s identity, a quality we associate with a lean, muscular appearance. An appearance we associate with the discipline and effort required to achieve and maintain it.

For those of us who posses those qualities; discipline, determination, perseverance, and apply them to our lifestyle in the form of proper exercise and balanced nutrition, the image of health is a true representation of an aspect of our identity.

For those who achieve the illusion of physical health through cosmetic surgery, liposuction, implants, etc., the image is superficial – a lie. An attempt to reverse cause and effect – to posses the product of a particular lifestyle without having to actually live it.

But once the product has been purchased and removed from the box, the most beautiful packaging and creative advertising in the world can not compensate for it’s faults.

Tuesday, March 27, 2001

Contrary to what the popular bodybuilding and fitness magazines would have people believe, productive exercise is a relatively simple thing. You don’t need sophisticated routines, dozens of exercises for every muscle group, or complicated set and repetition schemes to develop stronger, larger muscles.

What you do need to do is work extremely hard at a few basic exercises for each of the major muscle groups, gradually increase the resistance used for each exercise, allow your body adequate time to recover and adapt between workouts, eat a well balanced diet and get plenty of rest.

It’s that simple.

From Wednesday, May 23, 2001

When most women ask “Does this (item of clothing) make me look fat?”, what they really ought to be asking is whether or not the particular item of clothing sufficiently conceals how fat or helps them appear less fat than they really are.

No, babe, that skirt does not make you look fat. You are fat. The clothes have nothing to do with it. Overeating on a regular basis, drinking too much (alcohol), and/or not exercising properly is what makes you look fat.

While I’ve known numerous women who ask this question despite having incredible, very physically fit bodies, I think most realize on some level that, if you aren’t fat to begin with, nothing you can wear is going to make you look that way.

So why do some insist on blaming the clothes?

From Sunday, June 3, 2001

Recently, while training my friend Jason at the gym he works out at, I was reminded how fortunate I am to have access to a private, by-appointment-only training facility. While custom state-of-the-art equipment and 24-hour access are nice, what I appreciate the most is not having to deal with the circus atmosphere so typical of open-membership gyms.

If you work out regularly at a commercial health club, either you know what I’m talking about, or you’re one of the oblivious meat-heads or gym-sluts who’s behavior I’m referring to.

First, and most importantly, despite the fact that way too many people view going to the gym as more of a social function than a matter of physical conditioning, the function of the facility is to provide a place and equipment for people to exercise, and any behavior that interferes with that activity is out of line.

When you finish using an adjustable barbell or plateloaded machine, unload it. Leaving massive amounts of weight on a bar or machine doesn’t impress anybody, it only pisses off the women and older people who have to get help to unload it. And we know that if most of you were using proper form and performing the exercise full-range you couldn’t use half that much weight any way.

If you sweat a lot, carry a towel with you and wipe the equipment down when you finish with it. While the better gyms will have someone go through and wipe down the equipment with a mild disinfectant several times a day, the staff can’t run around cleaning up after every sweaty pig in the place. Nobody wants to lay down on a bench or sit in a machine someone just sweat all over.

The same goes for chalk. If you make a mess, clean it up.

Enough with the grunting, screaming, yelling and slamming things around. We know you do this to call attention to yourselves, and nobody is impressed. In all honesty, it makes you look like a complete idiot. If you must psyche yourself up, do so quietly and don’t disturb the people who are actually working out, rather than posturing and trying to show off. If you are impressively built, you don’t need to act like a retarded baboon to get people to notice, and if you aren’t impressively built, acting like a retarded baboon isn’t going to convince anybody otherwise. You just make yourself look like a moron.

Gym-sluts aside, there are a lot of women who actually go to the gym to work out, not to be hit on. Leave them alone and don’t interrupt them. No, they don’t want your help. No, they don’t want your advice. And no, they don’t want you to stand in front of them grunting like a constipated boar and flexing in the mirror. If they did, they would ask.

If, on the other hand, the woman in question is wearing a pound of make-up, an outfit consisting of less than a square foot of material, and an entire bottle of perfume, and spends the majority of her time looking in the mirror to check out who’s checking her out, she’s probably a gym-slut who’s only there looking to get laid any way, and is fair game.

Other than the meat-heads screaming and grunting and slamming things like idiots, and the half-undressed gym-sluts, most people do not like to be stared at while working out. Particularly women, and especially while performing exercises requiring their body to be positioned in such a manner as to prominently expose their breasts, pubic area or ass, like chest-flies, hip abduction or adduction, prone leg curls, and stiff-legged deadlifts.

If you are a gym owner, be considerate of the fact that the majority of your female members are probably very self-conscious about their bodies, and position machines which would place them in such positions so that the exposed area is facing a non-mirrored wall. Despite what some people might tell you, they don’t need mirrors to “check their form”. Most people, so-called personal trainers included, don’t know what the hell proper form is any way. The truth is, people want mirrors because they like to look at themselves, and gym owners want mirrors because it gives the facility the illusion of being much larger than it is. Some people, however, don’t want to be looked at, much less stared at while working out. Respect that.

If you’re one of those people who believe it’s necessary to perform multiple sets of an exercise, let other people work in between your sets. They’re paying the same membership dues as you, and have just as much right to the use of the equipment. On the other hand, if you want to work in between someone’s sets on a machine, ask first.

Don’t, however, ask while they’re performing an exercise.

Never, ever, ever walk up and start talking to someone while they are performing an exercise. Don’t hold a conversation right next to someone performing an exercise. Do not walk or stand directly in front of someone performing an exercise. Do not in any way, shape or form disturb, distract, or interrupt someone in the middle of an exercise. The only person who has any business talking to someone while they are performing an exercise is that person’s trainer, spotter or partner, and only for the purpose of instructing or motivation. Anything else is an absolute fucking no-no.

All in all, you just have to respect the fact that some people are actually in the gym to work out, and refrain from any type of behavior that would interfere with their ability to do so.

Get in, get it done, and get out, but don’t get in anybody’s way.

From Monday, August 13, 2001

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion of your walks.”

-Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1785