Physique Update and 6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Gym

Key Takeaways

what's going on y'all so the other day I answered a question on Quora that was what should I know before going to the gym and I can answer them as if I like what I've learned I sort of put in my own perspective and what I'd like to if I was just going back and starting now after sort of six or seven years of training on and off well at least five years of solid training what would I like to know before I go into the gym so I answer do with a few points and I thought I turned it like that answer got it turned out to be pretty popular at the moments ago about 40,000 views I'll put it in the link in the description as well so I put my turn this video into a sort of physique update as well as a video version of the points I gave and so there's a pretty I just finished gym and there's a pretty good downline here I haven't actually had a calorie in about 24 hours so it's surround 7 p.m. 7 p.m. where I am right now I haven't eaten since last night's dinner which is around 8 p.m. so I'm doing about a 24 hour fast so I'm probably going to look a little bit last but that's all right not really trying to work on I'm having the best physique anymore that was a previous goal but not so much anymore so we'll just do an update it will look like untense in relatively good down life like it's not the best but it's also not the worst so it is front side back do a few poses so this sort of stuff I used to live for I've imposed in a long time don't get me wrong every time I heat a mirror I still managed it to bust one of these there so what am i way in right now about awaiting this morning about seventy five and a half kilos I don't know what that is in pounds maybe a hundred and seventy pounds I'm guessing one hundred two point to kilo so I'm still going to calorie intake not tracking kind of diet protocol or a food consumption protocol I stopped eating generally around a p.m. and don't eat until after 12:00 p.m. usually most days but within those sort of that eight hour window we're going to be consuming I'm guessing around 2,000 3,000 calories and that will vary of days so I'm not I've changed my training philosophy from like building muscle and being as shredded as possible I'm pretty lean at the moment but not as lean as they have been to more of a functional types like if you look up ego foretell any kind of gymnastics types workouts like that's what I've been moving towards like gymnastic rings animal flow not so much like bench press overhead press squad I still do them but they're not they're not my primary focus so without further ado that's not the physique let's get on to the I think it's six six things I wish I knew before I went to the gym so number one food is more important than working out and I've probably go back on this maybe update my answer because I would say rest is more important than work that than food and then food is second and then exercise third reason being I've done a few a bit of research on sleep lately and I worked out like we started to realize sorry how important that is like to get proper sleep proper rest so I would say you sleep in food actually on par and then working out is is sort of an addition to that so sleep and food are the force multipliers of everything you do if you're not sleeping right and if you're not eating right or then you're not going to get the results you get in the gym I'll link my video on sleep in the description as well but just essentially think of sleep as your body's we all know it's time to repair and the same thing is with food like when you're in the gym sort of a lot of people put too much focus on on the workout they really kill themselves in the gym and to train all out the hours on end and then all the time they're not getting results well I used to be like that I'm that'll be another point in the future point three or something like that but since focusing on my food intake and my rest I've got the best results in my life and I'm sort of I'm in the best condition I've ever been in right now certainly not as lean but just amazing physical condition no injuries but yeah focus on your food if you're not tracking calories I suggest trying it out just so you understand how much you're you're in taking as well as your micronutrient and macronutrient goals and whatnot and then sleep you may be getting seven to nine hours but how does it quality of sleep again I'll put this sleep video in the description there's a whole bunch of things you can do to improve your quality of sleep because most of the time you may be getting enough quantity of sleep but you might not be getting quality sleep which is fundamentally important so that's number one our food and rest are more important than working out number two you're supposed to feel better after a training session so in my opinion that's that's what training is going to be for right to make you feel better now your body is going to be in a worse condition after training because you're breaking down muscle tissue you're breaking down connective tissue you're breaking down you're just breaking your body down right and the way you get better is from the body healing itself ask the training session so if you're all going too hard like I used to like training for hours and hours on end okay maybe you might be a professional athlete but for the 99% of the population you're probably not a professional athlete including myself but if you're if you're busting yourself like let's go anything over two to three to two in the realm of two or three hours right if you're not getting at least 24 hours rest before your next session then you're not going to feel so great and and that is if you're a natural athlete getting optimal food intake as well as optimal sleep so I used to bash myself up in the gym being there two hours on end and I wouldn't get results that I wanted and then when I when I cut it back and sort of trust my training and was focused get in and out in 45 minutes to an hour look at look at Dorian Yates he was mr. Olympia I user I used to sort of had a goal of being being massive and building lots of muscle no get me wrong I have built muscle like over the past five or so years not nowhere near as much as some of the big guys like donators do but I used to Train four times a week and 45 minutes to an hour sessions its if you're putting in the work in that time you can get enough results or you can you can stretch your body enough to make it adapt to change there's no need to go those two to three hour long session really depending on what your goal is but if you're if you're not walking out of the gym feeling like a better person you're feeling but like worse well then you're probably overtraining a bit too much so number two I don't worry too much about the longer sessions keep it short and concise number three don't forget about mobility yes 100% so in the last I would say eighteen months to two years fifty percent of my training has been dedicated towards mobility and why is that well I go to a point where I was I had a sore knee constantly like even walking up and down stairs I had a like back spasms in my back I was stuck hunched like this from one side for three weeks four weeks at a time because my back was just so tight and I would still lift heavy deadlifts do heavy squats and I was putting too much pressure on my back my hips weren't really firing my glutes weren't firing and this is all due to my own fault not doing proper technique was certainly like deadlifts and squat and whatnot and I really could have educated myself to do it to do them better in the first place but once I started focusing more on mobility and by mobility I mean active stretching so if you follow mobility water on Instagram mobility WOD they're a great sort of starting point to learning about how to move probably I also bought the book becoming a supple leopard by Kellys direct that's an amazing book I actually fixed my my new problem with that after going to too many physios and even chiropractors and couldn't we couldn't solve it I ended up fixing alone and it was like I tie it back to a lack of hip and a lack of ankle mobility so it's too much pressure on my me and so since getting back into mobility all of my workouts all of my physical exercise and generally I played dodgeball once a week I played touch football like I could go to almost any sports and be very adaptable to that so that's one of my goals at the moment just be an adaptable athlete so it's sort of like CrossFit like you can go to any type of sport and perform well so mobility is now 50% at least of my training I'll spend 15 20 minutes before each session doing active stretching or some form of yoga actually that's that's practically every day 10 to 20 minutes of active stretching or yoga just to ensure availability and it's not gonna that's that's I don't see a point where I'll stop that like I can keep doing that sort of stuff for the rest of my life so mobility fundamental if you lived in the heavy weight I've tried the truth as an accordion like I think of the body as an accordion right if you're all like squatting under a heavy weight think of an accordion getting crushed accordion doesn't work well when it's just just stable like that when it's when it's tight like tight together it has to be pulled back out to work fully right so that's what I feel like with the body as well this is just my thoughts right I'm not sort of trained in physiotherapy or what knowledge is my logic running through the body it's not going to perform well if it's if it's constantly tight you have to also expand it as well as when we get the best performance and that's just what I've noticed over the past 18 months two to two years focusing on that mobility training so there's number three don't forget around mobility number four get a training partner all of my best friendships forwards through I forged to the gym boards through some sort of physical activity and you know who you are if you're watching this and so the reason why I say this is because oftentimes we'll let ourselves down like we're more easily let up cells down then we will let others down and that's I don't know what that's from I think that's maybe just wanting to fit in in society our bubble or also more easily to say no like if we're if we're just trained by ourselves then if we've got a friend expecting us to come there so you've acted like grateful it says you have to be pretty a pretty lowdown person to let your friend down constantly so you're not going to do that that's why having a training partner is good because not only will you have that sort of that pressure to go there and and not let them down but you'll also have that person who got to motivate you through your workout like if you're if you're struggling on some sort of way or I don't know if you just want to talk with someone during it because the gyms these days I feel a little bit with headphones in and no training I've trained in silence plenty of times but it's still it's still a good social so social thing - are the chat with someone lift some heavy weights and test your body and don't get me wrong like when you're on endorphins like that that's the greatest high there ever is it's free as well liquid and by endorphins I mean the feeling you get when you get the pump like when you're when your muscles that are full of blood and when you're sweating and when you're like you just got whole some great things launcher your body you have some pretty epic conversations as my training partners will attest to so number four get a training partner number five plus minors equal so what does that mean I think this this can be related to almost anything in life as well not just the gym and what I mean by plus minus equal is so I spend thirty percent of your time with someone whose is better than you that way you can learn from them and improve yourself spend thirty percent of your time or thirty three percent you break it into a third each so a third of your time with a plus at thirty good time when someone is equal to and a third of a time with someone who is less than you and so I thought at the time with someone who is equal to like on equal playing field with just as good as you in terms of weight in terms formats in terms of time etc that will give you someone to compete against so setting can't all of your time with someone is better than you main sort of I don't dis encourage you to keep going because you're constantly getting beaten and then spend 33% of your time or a third of your time with someone who's a little worse than you that way you can use the cement the knowledge you learn from someone is better than you as well as with competing with others and teach them and I believe that that that philosophy can be used in any aspect of life so whatever you want to learn think of plus/minus equal how can you learn from someone better than you how can you compete against someone on the same level as you and how can you use that knowledge you've learned from from those two experiences to help someone else because that's what it's all about right giving back so number five plus one is equal and finally number six there is no finish line so in the past I've competed men's disease competitions in men's bodybuilding competitions probably probably too early for if I'm if I look back and I'm honest because I should have let I'm at least I'm 23 years old 24 and actually two weeks I should have let my body grow and I was kind of looking at these these competitions is like the end point like once I get there yeah I'll reach my goal and I'll be oh I had the body always wanted and I look awesome and I'll have this distinct hand and I'll be on stage it from everyone and everything will be great well that's that's not true like you get there it's a great feeling don't get me wrong you do have to dedicate yes and pretty much have tunnel vision while you're or you're preparing for the show you're putting your body to an absolute extreme level of what it off performance or something like that but realistically looking back this getting on stage is just the note just icing on the cake the rest of the cake is the journey and that's that's another part of it you could almost put on anything in life so you may have these goals of like you look at me okay I'm going to I'm going to post it on my horse on my roof above my bed yeah I look at him and you may have a poster like that in your room you look at that body or whoever it is you know I want to achieve that or you see someone do a dance move or a backflip or some sort of physical maneuver and you know I want to achieve that okay yeah you may reach there one day and of course that's great achievement but in my experience the journey is so much like you look back in like wow I can't believe I've come this far like looking back and and seeing the progress shot and seeing where you were remembering how much you use if remembering what you wish to look like wearing what you used to weigh remembering how you couldn't do a certain movement before that that isn't like that's the best part the journey and that's that's was anything like you because if you tie too much happiness to the goal if you don't achieve that goal it won't be alone you'll sort of become unhappy and that's that's not the point line if you have if you set it up so that your goal is to just keep doing the things you enjoy which is maybe working out building muscle and you can you can't lose right so just remember that there is no finish line don't think that getting getting a six-pack is is the be-all and end-all I've been on both sides I was overweight as a teenager and now I'm a relatively lean it trust me it is good I do prefer being lean but it wasn't like it was an absolutely life-changing moment once once I achieve it you sort of get there and you realized okay what's the next goal what's the next goal they say this is a saying and they're lifting in the bodybuilding community the day you start lifting is the day you become forever small and I agree to that my goal isn't to build as much muscle anymore but I still look in the mirror sometimes and think hey my body could always be better so that's not the fix wrapping up there is no finish line that was that was about half a dozen things I wish I knew before going to gym and of course is it's probably a few more out there if you have any you'd like to add a plunger hear it in the comments and as well as starter do that was a bit of a physique update as I said like goal at the moment is not to sort of have the best looking physique I'm more enjoying being functional being how to do some things like dancing and going on gymnastic rings and doing flips and a whole bunch of movement that's that's what I'm about down movement but yeah thank you so much for watching leave a like comment subscribe I'd love to put more videos out for you guys and and those things really helped but we'll see you next week and I'm going to go eat some food because I've spent 24 hours almost without a calorie see ya