As I was stranded at Newark Penn Station last night - God willing - I found myself gravitating towards the waiting area for the next train to come, which was a whole hour away. As I sat, this sense of awareness overcame me, telling me to stop burying my nose in my reading and look up, just to observe. Having done so, it opened my eyes to see something truly remarkable. I noticed dozens of homeless people: some sleeping, some sitting, some chatting with each other. I realized that these were repeat visitors coming into the train station to seek refuge from the wintery streets. Out of my peripheral I could hear a man calling to another "Andy... Andy.. come here" he said. "Did you go to church on Sunday? How are you? How are you?". I watched as this man (I never got to ask him his name) interacted with Andy. After several minutes, I saw that man walk over to his own belongings, pull out a neatly folded plastic bag, which no doubt he had used many times before, and gave it to Andy. I don't know what he was using it for, but he freely gave it to Andy, telling him to keep it. I felt like I was watching a modern day parable:
Luke 21 New International Version (NIV) - The Widow’s Offering
21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
I thought to myself, how RICH this man must be. In his seemingly destitute situation (which of course, is my own bias/pretentious observation) he gave freely to his friend. It was a vivid reminder to me that we, on a daily basis, struggle with giving up our worldly possessions, as if they had a single meaning. Yet we lack what is so integral to what true life really is. Love. We spend our days toiling at work, gathering our nuggets of fortunate like Scrooge would, hoarding them and hoping they would bring real value to our lives. Please don't confuse fortune either. It may be a blanket thought to assume it can be just about money, but we horde time, resources, jealousy, pride, hatred, selfishness, you-name-it. We keep them close to our hearts (and our pockets) like children we were meant to protect. Last night was a reminder to me that although it is good to work and good to keep and bring up, we must never lose sight of the most important things. That is to give thanks to God for what He has allowed us to have, appreciate those who are in our lives and honor the both aforementioned. For what is enjoying life if you can't share it with those whom you love?
May your meals be light and your lifts be heavy - Swolltech motto
I figured I'd switch it up from all this heavy, philosophical stuff and just get to the heart of things. Plenty of people ask me how to kick start their weight loss / muscle gain growths. So, here's all the bro science I've gathered for the past 4 years, all rolled into some tongue-in-cheek advice. This is just my take on dieting, lifting and living a healthy life - so please, take it with a grain of salt.
Speaking of salt, stop eating that shit. It'll kill you. Do you know what salt does for you? It sticks in your system, it fills you with water and it makes you soft and fluffy. Which, by the way, is the total opposite of what I'm sure you're looking for. So here's my number one recommendation - Limit your salt. Realize that the average person (according to the CDC, so no bro science here) only needs about 1500mg of salt. That's less than a teaspoon! Most Americans eat double or triple that amount daily, especially if you're one of those guys that eats out all of the time. So I challenge you, go on a SALT diet. SCREW all of the rest of the diet nonsense until you're further down the road - counting macros (fat, protein, carbs), weighing food, portion sizing, simple carbs vs complex carbs - throw it all out. Just make sure you throw it all out in front of you, because in a few weeks you'll be far enough in your program to have to pick it back up.
Now that we've got the diet thing out of the way (caveat: yes, once you get past "phase 1", you can start focusing on macros, portion, etc. - this is just to get you going) let's talk about lifting. Just like number one, stop focusing on all of the complex gym jargon about muscle-ups, clean and presses, olympic snatches etc. Are those great, fully-functional exercises? hell yes! Can you do them? hell no. So stop trying. Focus on building a base first and then as your body gets more adept and stronger, then move to the more complex moves. Getting healthy is a marathon, not a sprint. No one picks up a light saber and expects to fight Darth Vader on his first night out.. so why the hell would you want to be the guy trying to deadlift 4 plates with me, saying "I got this bro". So put your weight belt, metal hooks and knee wraps away, you don't need it yet.
The reality is, most guys can get to the gym maybe two or three times a week. Cool. You know your body best and you know what you like and what you don't like. Keep your lifts simple! Be deliberate about your program and stick to it for the next 12 weeks...yes, the whole 12 weeks (change your program at the end of this time). The third fundamental shift is stop giving yourself excuses. The words "I can't work out right now" needs to leave your body. Pick the schedule that works for you, pick the times, pick the workouts and stick to it. again KISS (keep it simple, stupid) - just pick something and do it. Also, if it's easier for you, bring a log. Most gym noobs don't realize this, but you don't look like a noob because you're carrying around a notepad and writing stuff down. You look like a noob when you wander around aimlessly doing 2 sets of a half-ass workout, moving from one machine to another. Most gym rats respect it when they see a beginner making a deliberate attempt at learning the craft. My fourth and final recommendation is just freakin' show up. Now that you've picked everything out and customized your own gym schedule, just get in the car - no matter how tired, busy, hung over, blah blah blah, you are and just get to the gym, scan in and get your gym clothes on. I guarantee you just being at the gym will get you psyched up enough to do what you have to do... Oh and please remember to look at yourself in the mirror, gaze for miles into your own eyes and say, yes, I will look sexy as f--k, naked.
Here's my list of lifts - add any variation you want (grip, machine, inside, outside, upside-down, rope, barbell, dumbell, whatever), there's a ton of ways to do these - you can also combine them in whatever days you want. Common ones are chest/tri, back/bi, push/pull, shoulders/legs, quad/ham, leg/abs, chest/shoulder, etc.
Start on one side of the street and the artist seems like he's cock-eyed and out of his mind, but take a few steps around the corner and you get to see a masterpiece. This shift in perspective can spell out whether or not you get to see a beautiful piece of artwork, or just a waste of paint, chalk and time. If you've been reading my writing, you probably already know where I'm going with this. As 20-something year old's, I think we're already aware that we have very little influence on how the storm can roll through our lives, yet we do have the choice to dance in the rain. Let's be honest though, for most, learning how to be one way after being another way for so long is an arduous task. It requires steady diligence, sight of goal and an uncompromised strength to achieve... or so we think. I invite you to entertain the thought about the what if. What if it were easy to change? What if it were easy to just wake up one morning and say, "You know what, today I won't hate Mondays". Then think about the "what-if"...what if it weren't so hard to actually know that "what if", doesn't really have to be a "what if". Matthew 18:2-6 describes how we need to become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Having spent my entire life thinking I was growing in 'wisdom', I've realized that with this 'wisdom' comes hard rules and restrictions, mostly created out of the fear of what is to come if and when they are broken. No, you have to act this way because you're a man or No, I don't deserve to be loved - it all boils down to fear. Fear that if I act a certain way, others will judge me and perceive me a certain way, fear that if I let my walls down and let someone in, I'll just get hurt again. Tough stuff to ingest, I admit, but as I grow as a man, I realize that there are things that should be left in the care of a child. How easy is it for a child to hug another? How easy is it for a child to smile at the small things and not let a drab morning affect their day? How easy is it for a child to trust that those around them will love them as they should? What if we could trust like a child, but to trust with the understanding that there is evil in the world and to trust anyway. Then take away the "what if". Let's trust anyway, let's love anyway, let's act without fear of being judged, anyway. How awesome would life be if we could just do this.. and what if we actually did? I won't sit here and tell you that it's easy, or that you won't make mistakes along the way, (Lord knows I have and will) but in order to improve our own qualities of life, we need to see the silver lining in all things, change our thoughts from the glass being half empty to the glass being half full to wow, that's a nice glass I've got.
