Getting it

Underground S&C Underground
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FRAT warning

Hey guys, I hope the training is going well.
Just wanted to share some thoughts on my advancements (mostly mental). The basic roots were a few sentences planted by Jon by way of Doug..took me a year or so but I got it.

(Newbies this can be helpful to you.)

"Fitness is a lifestyle not a destination."

I have heard it and similair things said here before when weekend warriors like myself would beg to the forum gurus for advice whether it be to lose fat, get ripped, gain muscle, or learn sport specific lifts and exercises.

Usually the flock comes before summer when everyone is looking to enhance thier apperance or before a tournament. I never understood what the gurus here were getting at. I wanted to know what fat burner is the BEST!.. or how many grams of protien I should be eating? and what brand delivers the most blah blah

I have been guilty on all charges. I would train rediculously hard for 2 months, face adversity (injuries or lack of motovation), quit and fall out of shape only to create another thread about fat burners 4 months later. This cycle can literally go on for the rest of your life and does for many.

I have tried many diets and many workout regiments only to get bored or feel burdened by them and quit. Well I have recently over the past 8 or 9 months had an enlightement about training.

I no longer view working out and eating healty as something I have to do.. it's apart of my life like taking a shower in the morning, why? because I am an athlete and that is what we do. I don't stress myself out about what I can eat or the weight I need to lose or the muscle I want to gain or the amount of minutes I would like to be able to wrestle, or if it's chest and bicep day lol.

It's simply about fun now.. I do what the hell I want, when I want to do it. I don't keep myself on some tedious schedule that I dread. I do not lift weights 3-4X's a week (I barely lift at all) or consume dry chicken breast 7 days a week (okay maybe 3-4). The point is I have made working out really fun again.. it's something that for once I don't feel I have to do I just want to.

And my motives for working out are not to "look better" or "win a tournament"..my motives are about having fun. If I feel like training jiu jitsu, I do it, if I feel like bagwork, I do it, If I feel like doing BW exercises, I do it and so on. I do whatever the hell I want and this has seriously impacted my results for the better. If a pizza rolls around here and there I will eat it but I get right back on my routine of eating balanced without a worry about how I should "not have ate that".

Or If I need a couple days off I don't stress out about how I need to get back to working out. I just take a couple days and start working out again.

Adopting this mentality has allowed me to probably be in the best shape of my life right now, pretty much without even trying it seems. I went from about 190lbs give or take a few to about 160lbs where I have been for quite sometime. Sure you might be able to find an average dude out on the street who doesn't workout and he may be a better athlete than me.. but I bet you I have more fun.

This is something that many have known but took me a long time to understand.

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great post!

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Good post. I totally agree. Over the years, I have constantly gotten burnt out because I have done too much. I have also found that if I didn't do anything for a period of time (usually the time I am resting from being burnt out), I can't get back into the "grove". I have found that if I do something fun that is athletic everyday (same as your idea SD), I can keep up with being pretty fit. It doesn't even have to be for a long time either. 30 minutes to 1 hour a day. I think that "FUN" should be the number one factor you should think about when you workout. The benefits of working out will come with the fun.

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Tim, today you are a man.

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nice, ttt

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great post and hopefully an inspiration to others out there!

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Awesome post...

I always get bummed when I see some (usually overweight) person setting up an unsustainable routine or workout and diet.

They go around telling everyone about their "new changes" and then within a few weeks when they have fallen off the wagon, not only are they still in bad shape physically, their emotional well-being gets way off course too.

They have failed and a person can only take so many failures (true failures...things that they had complete control over but lack of discipline, knowledge etc. cause them to fail) before it starts affecting everything they do.

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Thanks guys

"I have found that if I do something fun that is athletic everyday (same as your idea SD), I can keep up with being pretty fit."

EXACTLY.. I have such a wide variety of things that I do now..snorkeling, surfing, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking ect.. all things I can do and get a great workout without knowing it.

ryanj, I have people asking me for nutritional advice all the time.. I have gone out of my way to write up some detailed plans and basic guidlines for them. They all ended up quitting shortly after they begged me for this information. Now when people ask me, I give them the "you have to change the way you think about fitness speech" before you change the way you are eating..

If they get what I am talking about then I make them a plan, if they don't I won't.

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When i was a kid i used to love to hike around in the woods behind my house. I'd kick down dead trees, throw rocks, lift up logs and toss them, smash through dead branches, etc. I had no clue (nor even cared) at the time that this amounted to hiking, running, lifting, throwing, jumping, and climbing for 1-2 hours a day, and upwards of 5 days per week.

Then i learned something about exercise, and it ruined any fitness level i had for years.

Exercise science is as rigorous a discipline as any science. If you are going to spend the time and energy necessary for you to be good at this science, you won't have the time you need to exercise. If every person who went looking for answers on their own in magazines, or forums spent that time playing basketball, or hiking instead, then the entire world would be in much better shape.

The problem is, a lot of sources (like bodybuilding mags) trivialize the science of sport, so every Joe Average weekend lifter at the gym, or the moron "personal trainer" thinks that they are experts. How many of them do you suspect are true experts in the field of biology? What about physics? Chemistry? Philosophy? The number of those type of experts in any given gym, or on any given field, mat, or ring, are VERY small if any there be. So why on earth does anyone believe that the number of true fitness experts in the gym is so much higher? Certainly, you're more likely to find a good biologist in a lab then elsewhere, sure, but even in labs, truelly gifted scientists are few and far between, and even at your gym, you aren't likely to run into one that specializes in exercise.

Forget about conjugated periodization, rep schemes, meal timing, proprioceptice neuromuscular facilitation, and whatever it is the germans, czechs, or russians are doing if you want to be in good shape. Go out and have fun. If you're having fun, you'll push yourself harder naturally, you'll be doing something more natural for your body, and you'll get much better results for your appearance and health. If you want to run a marathon, then run one. I don't care what Ross Enamait, Mike Mahler, Liam Bauer, or Doug Dupont has to say about LSD running, if you feel like doing it, or anything else for that matter, then go for it. You'll be in better shape than you thought possible.

IF, on the other hand, you want to be an elite athlete, you're better off paying a good coach (there's a damn fine list above to choose from) so that you can better spend your time doing what it takes to be elite. That's how you win in life and in sport. By doing.

So stop reading all this nonesense, and go climb a hill for christ's sake. What's the matter with you? Haven't you hear anything i said?

-doug-

PS. SD: do you have a paypal account?

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Cool posts. 

I remember as a kid when I would play on the monkey bars with friends after school for an hour or so everyday. All that climbing and playing around, amounted to pullups, dips, bodyswings, running, etc...and it was fun.  That is the way exercising should be...FUN

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damn good thread.

personally, i needed hear this.

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It's nice to read something meaningful and true in this forum. The UG is bogged down with so much shit talking and cyberballs that I spend less and less time there.

I did exactly what you mentioned, training for a world championships and digging deep to get all that info for training and diet, etc. Then the worlds came and went and now I realized that a day without a quality sweat wasn't that qualiy a day. A meal where I didn't balance my blocks is admitting that it was only for an event and not for life.

The journey is the destination and thankfully this journey is on a playground obstacle course and I'm gonna sprint hop leap and swing through all of it.

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"and whatever it is the germans, czechs, or russians are doing if you want to be in good shape."

lol..

Well.. I just got out of blazing hot water and was getting ready to jump in freezing cold water after I take my shot of vodka but forget about the paypal stuff.. I owe you for indirectly helping my "routine" through Jon anyhow.

1nation so true..I realize how truly lucky I am to be healthy and if I did not take advantage of this I would be doing a diservice to everyone who is not capable.

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LOL. Dude, i owe you. I havent forgotten.

At least tell me what jon said.

-doug-

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Remember that email you sent me oh so many moons ago?

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The one about swapping girlfriends?

-doug-

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Great Post.

Doug, I like what you said and I agree. I recently had a similar epiphony with my own training. I realized I was not doing things I loved I was doing things I thought I should do. That and I spend far too much time reading and studying and not actually doing.

So...I started playing soccer again. Even after the very first time back on the field I was so much happier about my choice. I hate running (always have) but I don't mind when I am playing soccer. I need to run to the goal or away from another player...And suddenly, I can run again.

I am excited and looking forward to my weekly sessions on the pitch. Meet some new folks, run around, and play a game I truly love to play.

Do what you like, like what you do.

TAKU

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Ya that one. Tim's girl is hawt.

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"Doug, I like what you said and I agree."

So YOU want to swap girlfriends now too?

Cool about your triumphant return to soccer. The thing is, when you are running at that goal, or chasing down that attacker, you'll run harder then you ever will in the gym, all because you're having fun. That's the way to be.

-doug-

PS. i just sent an email to an address i think is yours. If so, let me know so i can send the "real" email :)

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LOL, what i meant by that jon is that, no, i do not remember the email. Please enlighten me.

-doug-