Lift heavy weights.
Be strong, get stronger.
Train your body to deal with failure and how to recover.
You will learn self confidence because nothing tells yourself you can do something like the ability to lift hundreds of fucking pounds above your head and off the ground.
If you’re weak I’m not going to tell you it’s ok, because it’s not. No man should be weak, and like we discussed in the article about respect, no man or woman will ever fully respect someone who is weak.
As such if you are weak, then I want you right now to do something about it. Stop reading and do 20 push ups.
Right now.
1
2
3…..
Ok, so you’ve done that, now how do you feel? Regardless of how many sets it took you (1 set would be if you did all 20 in a row, 2 sets would be 10 push ups and 10, etc) your body is now pumping blood and oxygen to those muscles.
You will feel energized. You will feel powerful.
This is only an example of 1 exercise, there are countless more that we will discuss later.
For now all you need to know is this. Start today, and right now. Get a gym membership, in fact if you don’t have a gym membership then you do not have permission to continue reading this blog until you get one. Of course if you have one at your school, or you are in the military, police, fireman where they provide a gym at work even better.
There is not a single excuse why anyone, especially a man does not at least have access to a gym. The only caveat is if you have a home gym with at least enough weights to do squat, bench, and deadlift. Most people do not have this and that’s fine, but I also don’t want to hear “I have 2 25 lbs dumbbells and a trx band does this count?” No it absolutely does not.
Every workout and exercise is good but you’ve probably heard of the 80 20 rule, this states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
I will tell you right now, that 80% of results are from bench press, squat, and deadlift.
The only other exercises that even deserve to be mentioned next to that holy trinity are kettlebell swings/turkish get ups and pull ups.
Everything else is a 20% waste of time until you are in shape.
You need to be focusing on strength first.
Pumped up arms and legs are great but if you can barely lift more than spongebob and his pillow pets we have a problem.
I want you to be relentlessly pursuing the pyramid of plates.
2 plates each side for bench press (225)
3 plates each side for squat (315)
4 plates each side for deadlift (405)
Bonus once the above have been done * 1 plate each side for overhead press (135)
These standards aren’t set in stone but it’s a good benchmark for strength in comparison with your fellow gym peers. Plus it feels good as hell to be moving this much weight. Some lifts you will be better at than others.
Bench press comes very easy to me I did 365# a few years ago and have been maintaining around 315# currently. The 365# is almost more than I squat but I have been working hard on squatting to prevent this.
Strength is step one gentlemen. When you are strong you can trust and have confidence in yourself and others will too. I have yet to meet any depressed people in the gym. I don’t know if lifting makes you happy or happy people are more likely to lift but either way being strong and in the gym is always my go to to deal with any emotional or mentally frustrating problems I may have at the moment.
It all starts with the physical.
Start today and now, and the secret is: you’ll never want to stop.
Stay strong friends and I will see you in the gym
- Spencer