I just received an email from an old client yesterday. He wants to come back and train with me. It's been more than a few years since I last trained him, but he said he's eager to put on some size.
I turned him down. I told him I was too busy, that I had no room in my schedule.
The part about being busy is pretty much true, but I would never turn someone down who was eager to train and was ready to sacrifice at the alter... er.. in the rack, under the bar.
So why did I turn him down?
Because I couldn't get him to focus 100% of his energies on his training. It's not entirely his fault anyway, let's just say he's got an incurable case of exercise ADD.
The exercise ADD industry, yes.. it's an industry, has got the internet and bookstores and magazine racks and supermarket checkout aisles flooded with so much contradictory information that many people feel like it's impossible to change their bodies.
While they're feeling helpless they're buying into every new exercise fad, gimmick, or magazine with some crazy promise of overnight abs, or nutritional supplement with a cure for their plumbers' crack, instead of buckling down and committing to sacrifice... in the rack... under the bar!
When I used to train this old client of mine, and please understand, this guy was 28 years old, 6'2" tall, and he barely weighed 140 lbs, he was always emailing me ads he would find on the internet for the latest nutritional supplement, and while I would be putting him through his workout, he would see a piece of equipment at the gym or in my studio that he hadn't used and ask me if he should buy one for his home gym.
And every week he would ask me if we were going to do this exercise, or that exercise, or some other exercise instead of just sacrificing... in the rack... under the bar.
If You See This Man On TV...Turn it off quickly or you might end up with one of his ridiculous exercise gimmicks!
I would tell him we were going to be deadlifting today, and he would respond with, "Deadlifts? again? Didn't we do them last week?".
Can you see how frustrating this was for me?
Folks... I've been training for more than 20 years, and I would say that there hasn't been a month go by in those 20 years that I haven't trained deadlifts. Now it doesn't have to be deadlifts, it could be anything. But deadlifts are one of the moneymaker exercises. You just always deadlift.
So getting these kinds of responses just bores down on you over time.
I just can't take it anymore!
And I made a decision afterwards that I won't take any more clients who don't have the right attitude. Because guess what? If you don't want to deadlift... you ain't gonna get strong! And you're definitely not going to reach your goals.
Back in the day when nutritional supplements didn't exist, and fancy-schmancy equipment didn't exist, there were Men!
Very Strong men!
Men who couldn't care less about whether they were lifting a bar, a stone, or the back of a car.
They didn't care about silly spandex outfits!
They just wanted to get STRONG!
And they knew if they just persevered through the torn and sweat stained shirts, that they would become Powerful Beasts!
They lifted kettlebells, heavy sandbags, they pulled cars, trucks, boats, and even airplanes using thick ropes. They flipped massive tires, and did thousands of bodyweight exercises.
The Great Goerner...
Deadlifting With Only TWO Fingers!
They'd even resort to lifting other people when no other tools were at their disposal... or.. if it might get them laid!
They'd never seen an exercise bike, a treadmill, an elliptical machine, or a stairmaster, and even had they seen them they would have probably tried to lift them not ride them.
The Great Paul Anderson Bench Pressing A Plate Loaded Power Rack!
These men were ripped to the bone and not one of them did any cardio!
Why?
Because they knew without knowing, that aerobic metabolism continues in the background throughout their tortuous workouts of lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling!
While spandex wearing fufu men would do traditional cardio, which is fueled by aerobic metabolism, these men would allow their aerobic energy system recover them from their lifting.
These men were committed...
These men came prepared...
These men sacrificed...
In the rack...
Under the bar...
Where do you stand?
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