Inspired by Nia Shank’s post The 10 Commandments of Simple Weight Loss from a couple months ago, I decided to write The 10 Commandments of Strength Training! So, thank you Nia, for the great idea! Here are my 10 commandments!
1.Thou Shall Keep Workouts Short and Intense
This is something I will never get tired of repeating! You don’t need to have half of your day free, in order to find time and fit a workout in your schedule. If you keep your workouts short and intense you will- achieve faster and better results; you will always have time to work out, you won’t get bored with long, monotonous cardio.
You should take the most out of every second spend in the gym- no pointless time sitting on the machines, reading magazines, talking on the phone. You should train with intensity- use heavier weights.
Read this:
What is the Missing Link in Your Workouts? What is the Key to an Effective Workout?
How to Structure a Short But Effective Workout
2.Thou Shall Lift with Proper Technique
I know that lifting heavy is tempting. I know how it feels to load the bar, and feel the burn in your muscles, BUT you are allowed to do it ONLY if you are not compromising with your technique. After all , health should be the most important thing for you. You wouldn’t want to get injured, by performing an exercise with crappy technique. Besides that, in order to get the most out of an exercise, you should perform it correct, so you can load the right muscles!
How Heavy is Too Heavy: When You Should Stop Adding Weights to The Bar
3.Thou Shall Use Compound Movements
You know that I am a big fan of compound movements. I love whole body workouts. I love using my time efficiently, so it is kind of understandable why I LOVE compound movements. Nothing can give you as much as a squat, a deadlift, pressing movements, pull ups, push ups,lunges and so forth could do for you!
4.Thou Shall Plan Your Workout and Work Your Plan
Most people work out just for the sake of it. They don’t have any idea why they are doing a particular movement, they don’t work out to improve their weaknesses or better their health. That is a wrong approach and you should always have a plan. I am not saying, that you should stick to it a 100%, but you should have the mere idea of why you are doing, what you are doing!
I recommend you read:
6.Thou Shall Take Time for Rest and Recovery
Nowadays rest is neglected. We live in a fast paced world, where we are trying to get as much done, in the least time possible! But that is not always a good strategy! Sometimes the unplanned rest, leads to an unexpected rest, i.e. if you don’t give your body some time to recover, you risk getting injured!
Make sure to plan deloads, so you can get stronger, better and fitter, without torturing your body and ruining your health!
Read this:
7.Thou Shall Be Constantly Learning
Have you met the kind of “know it all” person? Ah, I really dislike them! No matter how much you know, how much you’ve read, you could always learn something new! Just because what you do now, is working, doesn’t mean that you should be with your head stuck in the ground, never listening to anybody!
When somebody has something to say, listen to them! It is your decision if you are going to follow the advice, but you never know how much you could learn from others!
Respect them, their knowledge and experience!
Never stop learning!
8.Thou Shall Work Out for Performance and Eat for Weight Loss
I know that is already lame, but it is so true. Forget about doing multiple training sessions a day. Forget about spending countless hours doing cardio. Work outs are mainly to improve your athletic performance. To help you get stronger, faster, jump higher, run faster. Yes, workouts could help you become leaner, but food is the main “tool” to help you get rid of the fat! Eat good, quality food! Food that nourishes your body! Eat enough, to sustain your daily activity! Don’t starve! Don’t overeat! An overfed body, can’t keep up with your soul, and an underfed body, can’t bear your soul’s desires!
Read this:
Work Out for Performance vs Work Out for Weight Loss
9.Thou Shall Train The Whole Body
When I read this, I immediately imagine a person “suffering” from the Chicken Legs Syndrome( read here about it ). Don’t get fooled to train just your upper body! Your legs and your butt are really important! You should make them stronger if you want to look symmetrical, if you want to be healthy and pain free. You should train your body in all planes. You should incorporate pulling and pushing movements! I know that most of you, are really keen on pushing movements, but if you do not balance them out with some pulling movements, you are gonna have serious problems with your posture!
Read this:
Three Mistakes That Killed My Progress
10.Thou Shall Not Make Excuses, but Find Solutions
How often do you skip workouts? How often do you let yourself indulge in unhealthy foods? Just because you are tired, just because you lack motivation, inspiration…
If you have such an attitude towards life, you aren’t getting much out of it! No matter how difficult it seems, you could always find a way to do the things you wish! It is a matter of priorities, it is a matter of consciously choosing! I know people, who are really busy, people who have the best excuses to ditch everything, but they don’t do it! Because they have a goal in life! They know what they want to achieve, they know who they want to become and they never compromise with it!
No matter how challenging it seems, you can always find time to fit a workout in your schedule, you could always find time to grab a steak or prepare yourself a salad!
Read this:
How You Could Always Find Time to Work Out
What Keeps Me Motivated to Train? Check Out and Try It Yourself!
No Excuses: How Gabi Manages to Stay in Shape with Crutches, After Surgery?
How to Find Motivation to Work out and Eat Healthy?
My Four Steps to Stay Motivated
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With havin so much content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My site has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization.
Do you know any solutions to help protect against content from being ripped off?
I’d genuinely appreciate it.