Goal Setting part 1

For me consistently doing the same routine week after week is difficult. Week after week doing the same old thing over and over again just seems so boring.

So what have I done for most of my weight lifting career?

Well in all honesty I have constantly changed and reinvented my routine to a point where I had no clue how strong I was. The routine would be different from week to week taking in and accounting for every new breakthrough and fad that was popular at the moment.

I guess the pop term for this would be “muscle confusion” (imaginary finger quotes not needed) and is basically what is being sold by every mail-order exercise routine at the moment.

So what does muscle confusion do for a person who wants to be strong like a powerlifter? The answer is nothing.

I went from having a thin body (I’m talking Kate Moss) to having a lean over sized cross country runner body. I ended college at 185-pounds and did not look or feel like the weight lifting machine I had always hoped to be.

People still mistook me for being in high school and instead of looking 185 I looked like an big 155.

Huh? Yeah my thoughts exactly.

So, lesson learned muscle confusion was not the answer. What I am now finding out

and really have known all along is that keeping a training diary, log, journal or whatever is important to become successful.

Stick to a core routine and write down everything you do and accomplish. Exhaust a routine until you stop making gains and then change things or start over.

Simple enough yet for me it was and still can be the hardest thing to do.

I want to bench and press massive weights, be able to deadlift a car and tear decks of cards like they were paper. Unfortunately, muscle confusion and even those bodybuilding routines published in magazines were not getting me the results I wanted.

So after reading Pavel Tsatsouline books, reading John Brookfields grip books and looking through Brooks Kubiks “Dinosaur Training” I have finally found what I believe works for me.

My first step was losing weight-- why keep it if it doesn’t help. I’m between 165 and 170 depending on the day. I checked my ego at the door and have yet to see if affect my lifting.

Why carry the weight if I’m not strong enough to use it?

Next I decided to put together a core routine consisting of two sets of bench and two sets of dead lifts with five minute rest intervals. Keep the sets in the two to three rep range.

I add weight at either the end of a week or the beginning of the next.

For me doing only two exercises for two sets is hard. I’m someone who actually likes to exercise so when I cut my work out down to about twenty minutes I actually get sad.

My solution here was to alternate days between grip and ab work and biceps and stretching.

Keep a log and be consistent and make sure every week you try to go heavier.

Finally, Friday is a fun day you do your regular routine and then you throw in whatever the hell you want to do.

Go nuts this day is for you and feel free to experiment.

I like to do keg presses, ring work and mace swinging so these are the days I usually mess around with these kind of lifts.