THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE

On the very first day of your strength training journey, your body is unfamiliar with the kind of stress you are about to experience from your workout. Like with any new activity you are learning, your nervous system is craving new connections, you have a big window of opportunity for developing your physical capacities, and - in the case of building up your strength - you have a massive scope to get stronger.

Every human being has a genetic 'plateau' of how far they can improve their strength. Trying to guess where this maximum is is a rather wonderful way to waste time - just as there is no point in fixating your mind on a fictitious number which you call your perceived limit. If you are 60 years old, and you believe that 70kg is all you will ever squat, then you are setting yourself up for failure before you have even started.

After you have sailed through your first weeks of training, you will start noticing that the weight on the bar does not seem to get any lighter, and that the effort required to complete your lifts does not get any easier. To the contrary, it gets harder. And that is exactly what we need in order to get stronger.

There is one particular thing which makes barbell training different to any other form of exercise: the further you advance in your training, the more your willingness to pursue new PB's and push against an increasingly heavier weight is being tested. You can get away with doing less in your circuit class and still break a sweat to make you feel like you have done a great workout. Just like hopping between 15 different exercises which 'work your legs' will give you the feeling that you are training productively.

In reality, you are clocking down the miles in a hamster wheel which may charge your house with electricity, but once your energy to push the pedal is used up, you are still finding yourself in the same spot. Nothing has changed - other than you being out of breath.

Admittedly, pushing against heavy weights is not everybody's cup of tea. In fact, most people are reluctant to it - as operating outside our comfort zone brings a certain level of nagging pain with it. In the world of barbell training - I am afraid to break the news - we have to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Effort equals progress - not less effort.

In my opinion, the 'light weights' mentality is one of the worst things that has ever entered the fitness industry: you are not forcing your body change, you are not getting any stronger, and you will never find out what you are actually capable of.

Shame, isn't it?

Then choose otherwise.

Just be aware that getting stronger and walking the path of least resistance are not compatible. You cannot build up your strength, muscle mass, bone density, or connective tissue strength by waving a 2kg dumbbell through the air. Nor can you achieve these objectives by thinking that training for strength should be 'comfortable.'

Don't get me wrong: you should not be piling weights onto your bar which you are clearly incapable of lifting. But:

You have to understand that in order for your strength to go up, your numbers on the bar have to go up.

I can tell you that none of my clients I have ever worked with has said that they have been disappointed by how strong they have gotten. It does not happen.

But what does happen is that a high number of people still decide to remain weak, frail, and physically incapabable of getting about in their life.

Because they have chosen the path of least resistance.

Lesson learned?

#strengthtraining #barbells #getstrong #hamptonwick #teddington