Key Points:
- Body transformations take a good plan and patience
- Extreme workouts are piss poor for results
- Love the process
Wouldn’t it be sweet if you could snap your fingers to get an internet ready body transformation?
That would also suck because then everyone would do it making it less meaningful and that feeling of accomplishment and immense level of confidence you would gain wouldn’t be there.
Instead of being a life changing event, it would be like owning an iphone.
La-di-dah, right?
I don’t want that for you. I want you to have that big dick energy as you transform your body to better than it ever has been in your 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.
In this article you’re going to learn how to set yourself up for life changing success in the body transformation department.
Patience is Key
In our over-caffeinated, over-stimulated, I need this done yesterday world, patience has fallen by the wayside.
While the times have changed, our bodies haven’t.
They are still working with old software.
So shit takes time.
Patience and consistent effort are needed to change it.
Trying hacks, supplements, or workout equipment that looks like you’re the chick in a bukakke to shorten the timeline is a waste of time and money.
Getting mad that you didn’t get abs in a week or build 10 lbs of muscle in a month is like slamming your balls in a drawer and getting mad because it hurts.
Having realistic expectations will help motivation.
In the beginning you are excited for the future results. In the end excitement grows as you see your final product.
But the meat of the results and work happens in the middle. Changing your body is like a series of Tuesdays. There’s no excitement to it, it’s a normal day of going to work and doing what you need. Get comfortable with those days.
Here’s some realistic guidelines to make sure you are on target or when putting together a plan:
If you’re looking to lose weight, aim to lose 0.5-1% of body weight per week.
If you’re looking to build muscle, aim for 0.5-1% of body weight per month.
Lay Off The Extremes
If you scroll through social media would you stop at someone doing a basic incline bench press or some maniac doing a pushup with two truck tires on their back while balancing on a ten pound weight?
Extremes get clicks.
Same holds true for diets.
And unfortunately some people think extremes are what’s needed to get results.
I can honestly say having gotten great results for myself and my clients for the last decade, they aren’t.
The basic shit people were doing in the 60’s and 70’s in the gym will work amazingly to get you results today.
To burn belly fat the timeless art of calorie restriction is what is needed.
Extremes are good for clicks but piss poor for results.
Think of your plan sitting on a continuum. The further to the extreme end you go the quicker you’ll see results but the harder it is and the quicker you’ll burn out.
The opposite end is where you do nothing and achieve nothing.
The sweet spot of consistency is the middle.
It ensures you’re doing something but it’s not ape shit crazy where your life sucks in the process.
For example, if you were to do a crazy workout to build muscle that entails spending 90-120 mins in the gym and taking all sets to failure, you’re going to jack up your joints and feel like you’ve been hit by a bus everyday.
Plus, you have shit to do.
But if you can spend 45 mins in the gym, stop at 2 reps from failure and leave feeling like you could have done a little more, you’ll be able to stick to the plan longer, achieve better results (because you can be consistent longer) and you wouldn’t feel beaten down every day.
As long as you can do slightly more weight, reps or volume in the gym you will build muscle.
On the dieting side, if you want to get lean, it’s gonna take time. I’m not gonna sugar coat it. If you have 25+ lbs to lose you’re looking at least 6 months of commitment.
If you go to the extreme you might be able to shorten that to 4 months. The amount you’ll have to sacrifice wouldn’t be worth it.
If you can consistently restrict calories in literally any way humanly possible, you will lose weight.
Changing your body is all about doing things that are sustainable. If you can look at a plan, being honest with yourself and say “Yea, I can do this everyday for 6 months” then you have a good plan. If not, it becomes a prison sentence and your cellmate is licking his lips looking at your booty hole.
Do You Need A Break Or Are You Being A Bitch?
If there was ever a fine line, this would be it.
With your plan being a revolving door of Tuesdays motivation will hit peaks and valleys. In times like this you have to figure out if it’s a motivation or physical/mental reason.
When I stumble on these times I first look if I’m trying to avoid something then I look at what has been going on lately.
A lack of motivation happens when you are trying to avoid an uncomfortable situation.
Let’s take me for example. I’m still working out in my uninsulated garage. This past winter there were days it was in the single digits outside and 26 in there.
There is nothing I hate more than working out in the cold. Wearing four layers of clothing, a winter hat and gloves to lift sucks a fat one.
Every day I’d have a mental wrestling match of should I workout or push it off to warmer days.
In the end I always worked out because physically I was fine enough to workout but I was avoiding the cold. It was completely a motivation issue.
Translation: I was being a giant bitch and needed a way to fix the thing I was avoiding aka the cold.
So I switched from working out at 5am to 3pm. It was warm enough by that time to take the edge off. Plus, my core body temperature was higher later in the day so it made it a little more palatable.
When you lack motivation, figure out what you are avoiding, fix that and the task becomes hella easier. Don’t skip workouts or what you need to do because you lack motivation.
Now let’s talk about what you have going on.
Learning the signs that you need a break is crucial for long term progress.
Factoring in what’s going on in your life and how long you’ve been consistently crushing your workouts.
If you are having a hard time falling or staying asleep for a week or more, or stress is high for a period of time, you prob need a break.
In order to make real progress your body needs to recover and lower that stress. If you don’t purposely take a break, your body will ensure it does it for you by getting sick or injured.
This could mean dialing back the volume or intensity of your workouts, taking a deload or active recovery week or skipping a workout to get some extra sleep or rest.
If you’ve been dieting, that might mean taking a Maintenance week.
A stressed body does not make progress.
In this instance, taking time off is totally fine. Recovery is where the gains are made and those little nagging injuries heal, you need to make space for that or your body will.
Think Longer Than Your Dick
You don’t need to win every day.
Some workouts are just going to suck a fat one and there’s nothing you can do about it.
There will be days you’re tired, stressed, or have a million other things on your mind.
And some days while you’re dieting you will get caught with your pants down.
It’s cool.
One workout won’t make or break progress just like one salad won’t get you dick skin shredded.
The transformation you are trying to accomplish is built over time. As long as you see progress month over month you’re going in the right direction.
The extra sets and reps you pile on today because you felt weak is not going to translate to anything besides your ego.
Flogging yourself after a bad diet day or bad weekend isn’t going to make anything better unless BDSM makes your pee pee dance.
When it comes to progress, think in terms of months and years instead of weeks and days. Again, this goes back to staying away from extremes.
As long as a majority of your workouts and diet days are good, you win.
Growing up a sports fan, I think of every workout and every diet day like a game. At the end of the workout or day I ask myself “Did I win?”.
If yes, pat myself on the ass and move to the next one. And yes, I do actually pat myself on the ass.
And winning the day doesn’t mean hitting PRs in the gym or eating PeRfecT. It means did you do what you needed to do and/or did you put yourself in a better position for tomorrow. If you can say yes to either of those, you won.
If not, I ask myself “what could I have done better?”, pat myself on the ass and move to the next day.
Over time this allows you to build a whole game plan of solutions to different obstacles in your life.
Aligning Effort With Timeline
More trade-offs and effort = faster results.
Everyone wants faster results, but not a lot of people want to make that sacrifice.
Completely fine.
But you have to be aware of that.
If you’re trying to build muscle but conveniently skip every lower body day, you’re prob not gonna get the results you want.
Likewise, if you are trying to lean out, but every weekend you fall off the wagon to start again on Monday.
This whole process is about being honest with yourself about your effort and what you can realistically do consistently.
Much like masterbation, if you aren’t being honest with yourself, you’re just fucking yourself.
If you can’t stick to the plan consistently, you need to adjust your plan so that you can. Which means it might take more time than you want.
Your plan might not be the OpTiMaL according to the internet but that doesn’t matter, it just matters that it is optimal for you.
You are the one doing the work and you have to incorporate what you need to do in your life.
So if it takes you a little longer but you can enjoy your life a bit and do what you need consistently, who cares?
When you are setting a timeline to hit your goal, take the realistic amount of effort and trade-offs you are willing and capable of doing everyday into consideration.
Otherwise you’re gonna get kicked in the nuts in a few weeks when you aren’t progressing as well as you’d hope.
Wrap It Up B
To be successful in transforming your body by either losing fat or building muscle requires a good plan, appropriate timelines, consistent effort and patience.
There are no exceptions to these.
Embrace them and you will be rewarded handsomely.
