Transcription
All right, this is rather late for me to do my first session of cardio, but today I wouldn't say it's a rest day; I get to rest extra. So far, I've had about 120 grams of protein. It's now 2:00. I had breakfast, slept for a while again, had lunch, and now it's time for cardio. I'm going to save the lift portion for later, so back will be probably a little bit later.
I'll be back in 30 minutes on the seat of the bike tonight, but I don't think it's too soon to start saying this. Every year, I say the same thing, almost as if it's on repeat. But guess what? 2025 is about a week away from being 10% over. We're already there; January is nearly done. Odds are it happened like that. I don't think anybody is really sitting around like, "Oh, January's taking forever."
Oh man, this time is passing. Thirty days almost gone. By the time I post this, it'll be the 28th. One month, one out of twelve—what is that about? No, it's about 8%. But still, how many people do you know who have been talking, maybe not smack, but kind of hyping themselves up?
"All right, I'm locking in this year, man. 2025." I can't think of something that can rhyme with that, but either way, that classic sentiment, dude. "All right, you're not even going to recognize me come summer, come graduation, bro. I'm going to be a whole new different guy."
You may as well put me in the—um, in the crap—what is it? It's not the parametric, eco, echo, echo, baric, parabolic. I don't know. I get the gist of the Dragon Ball Z storyline, but I haven't actually watched any of it. The parab—well, the Time Chamber. You know, guess what, man? We're living in one of those Time Chambers right now.
We can't speed up the fact that time is passing by, but you can make use of it by incremental improvements. And that's really anything. With any kind of skill, with any kind of endeavor, you obviously need a baseline level of effort. Right? That's got to be here on the regular, and then add on top of that, usually by repetition, practice, and gradual improvements of what you're doing.
So, who's going to make more gains this year? Right? The guy who doesn't really improve his training—like, he just trains the exact same way. He's not really making any adjustments, but he lifts six days a week and he lifts hard. Like, he's not doing the most up-to-date whatever. He could work on his form, he could work on his tempo, and his mind-muscle connection, but he's still clocking hours and getting high-quality, or at least reasonably stimulating, lifts under his belt, written down on the docket day after day after day.
That guy is miles ahead of somebody who isn't doing that. You know, so of course there is benefit to trying to improve your training. In no way am I trying to say, "Dude, who cares, bro? Just bench, just do barbell curls." Like, that's not what I'm trying to say. But you can't outperform effort, you know what I'm saying?
So, it's like you're trying to start an investment account. You've got, let's say, a hundred bucks in your Robinhood. How are you going to make that balance go up quickest? Is it by making smart investments or clocking hours and then just making deposits into the account? Right?
So, it's like every time you deposit something and you just put in a good workout, that's going to up your balance. And then when you improve your training and you start to dial in with your own routine, and you get yourself doing something that you can work on repeat week by week consistently, that's sort of like your percentage return. You know what I'm saying?
So, it's like you can't remove the effort through optimization. The logic—it's such a weird fallacy that I think some guys kind of get into because there's almost two trains of thought. It's, "Okay, how hard can I go and still recover?" versus "How easy can I go and still make gains?"
I think that that's a very strong difference, at least in terms of end results. Because if you're going into it with the idea of, "Okay, how little can I do and still get results?" it's like you're skipping so many steps. You know, there's a huge difference between the guy who has been a crazy powerlifter for ten years talking about how the barbell squats' fatigue-to-stimulus ratio no longer aligns with his goals, and he's focusing on more isolation, like squat machine-based work instead of barbell.
For him to come to that conclusion is very different than, you know, the 160-pound beginner guy who watched a TikTok where somebody said that, and he's like, "Dude, squats are nerf, bro. It's all about hacks. It's all about Smith squats, dude. It's all about Bulgarians, bro."
Like, not exactly. You know what I mean? So, this is where it's kind of like a gray area because, yes, I want to do different machines. I want to do different movements. I want to make sure that my training has good variability. But if all I could do for the rest of my chest days of my whole life was incline Smith machine and cable flies, I would be totally cool with that.
I think I'd still be able to make legit chest gains because I'd still be able to hit my chest. Right? Now, is that the most optimal, perfect situation? No. I want to change it up, you know? Do some decline work every so often, do some different kind of squeezing pressing. But if that's all I had at my disposal, I don't see that as a reason to complain.
Because as long as my effort is there and I'm consistently getting good workouts and good pumps, and pushing myself harder and making reasonable gains over time—obviously, I'm not making any strength gains right now because I'm really steep into the diet. But fast forward a few months, once I start bulking up, there will be a bit more progressive overload.
You could even say progressive overload of just intensity because I'll be able to lift for, you know, longer reps, longer sets because I'll have more energy at my disposal. Like, it just irks me, you know? Because even on days when I take a rest day, half of the reason why, in my mind, I don't like it—and obviously, rest serves a purpose; that's not what I'm saying—but like my initial gut reaction of, "Ah, I want to take a rest day, man. I want to lift."
Half of it is probably I'm just a nutcase meathead. I like the gym; that's definitely half. But the other half is I know that this isn't what it takes to get where I'm aiming for. Like, obviously, it has a place, you know? So that's me just trying to maybe improve my mindset just a touch.
But the things that actually progress you forward in your training are the clocked hours of doing things which actually induce gains. Right? Be it your diet in a bulking up or dieting down, fat loss context, or just your general training and clocking your cardio.
The part that is a little bit underwhelming to some and maybe turns some off from really getting consistently into it is it's not the flashiest thing in the world. You know? I mean, I'm making a whole little trip. Like, this is an hour of time for me to go to the gym, park, unload all my stuff, you know, hoodie on the coat rack, hang up my keys, pop a squat on the seat of the bike, just playing on my phone, finish, get back in the car, drive home.
Not the most exciting thing in the world, you know? This isn't like a John Wick mission where it's like high adrenaline, high intensity. I've got my whole football team screaming at me, "Keep paddling! Keep paddling that bike!" Not really, man.
You know, but even though it's not the flashiest thing in the world, having done it time and time and time and time and time again—basically, well, you know, not to infinity, of course, but for quite a while—then the gains, even though very marginal and you can even probably say insignificant from each instance of doing these kinds of things, they add up.
And they add up quicker and quicker over time. It really does sort of begin to be an upward spiral, but you've got to kind of be consistent even during the, you know, the not-so-fun parts.
Like, there were a couple of guys at the gym a few nights ago when I was working out. I'm doing legs; I'm thrashing hamstrings, and it was their max-out day. You know, they're getting—they're screaming, they're deadlifting 500. Cool, certainly cool. But it's like, don't forget, max-out days and things like that, those aren't exactly getting you towards the goals you want to be at.
You know, it's definitely an indication of making progress because now you can do something which you could not do before. I mean, that's basically the definition of making progress. But, you know, don't forget for every one plate or for every one rep max squat and bench, the reason that that guy was able to now reach that new strength level is all the working sets that he has done behind the scenes.
You know, so it's like maybe not with everything, but for the most part, everything is very pyramid-like. You know, you've got this pinnacle right up here at the top—that's a lift, that's a pump, that's, you know, looking diced after a crazy dieting phase, and/or, you know, being extra big and huge after a long bulking phase.
That's the pinnacle; that's the cool part. Underneath of that is the support system of the hours and hours that went into it—unseen, not really hyped up or anything—just making things happen. You know?
So all I'm trying to get out there is somehow try to rewire your brain into being able to get amped up about the small day-by-day work because that's what's going to get you the long-term results that most people are kind of aiming for.
Right? So for me, I mean, I've obviously got plans for the future, right? I want to be bigger, I want to be leaner, I want to be everything. But I'm not really thinking about it that much. You know, I'm much more concerned with, "All right, am I going to have a good lift today? Am I going to lock into my calorie deficit today? Am I going to hit my cardio today? Am I going to have a good lift tomorrow and get some good rest tonight?"
Even though it might feel a little, you know, shortsighted and you kind of have the blinders on, I think that's a bit of a better scenario because it's kind of like, you know, it's almost like you get—not hyper-fixated, but hyper-fixate isn't the worst word in the world to describe it—where it's like you get kind of lost into the act of actually making the progress.
And then before you know it, you're like, "Whoa, dude, I'm 200 pounds! I've been trying to break 200 pounds for six months. I finally did it! Holy crap!" You know?
So it's like if you can reach a point where essentially just being locked into the grind—you know, I don't usually—I feel like that's kind of a silly way to think about it, but it serves a decent purpose as a descriptor.
Like, if you can just be locked in as a baseline state, then the likelihood you're actually going to make gains no longer becomes something of a probability; it's simply a certainty. Right? It's only a question of when, which I really like about working out in general because it's not a question of if.
You know, the "if" is, you know, if this guy actually clocks in hours of cardio this year and if he counts his calories and if he trains hard consistently, then he's going to make gains. I mean, let's—uh, you could ask a ten-year-old kid who knows nothing about fitness, "What would happen if you took somebody and you had them work out every day for a year?"
"What would happen if you took somebody and instead of giving them cereal and ice cream, you had them eat healthy—just chicken and eggs and steaks?" We all know what would happen. It's not a—it's certainly not a situation that requires the IQ of a quantum physicist to wrap your head around.
But the execution—that's where you can kind of separate yourself from the herd, which is cool for me at least because it's not like there's nothing super complicated about it. It's really just a question of doing it.
But for me, I've got 30 minutes on the seated bike. Actually, no, I'll probably do 30 minutes on the seated elliptical. I'll see whichever way is open. I'll see whichever one's open, and then I'll see you for whatever's next. This might even be it. I don't—I don't know. Well, we'll see. Yeah, maybe we'll do a pose down or something.