What's important to achieve success?
Effort, Consistency and Time
How to make progress in the gym is often confusing to people.It’s understandable as the fitness industry is full of salesman who claim they have the secret to success. Then there are YouTubers who need to put out content regularly in order to stay relevant. They have to make a big deal about every part of training to get views.
All this leads to people being confused and believing it’s more complicated than it really is.
All this leads to people being confused and believing it’s more complicated than it really is.
The four things that were always there when I made progress and are vital are,
- Effort
- Consistency
- Time
- Injury free
I have clients that are always ask questions about programming and exercise selection. Should I do this curls with dumbbells or barbell? What frequency should I train my muscles/exercises? Should I do 6 or 10 reps better? Should I do the Starting Strength program or 5/3/1? Is this program better than that program?
Asking questions is always a good thing, and the answer is normally it depends, but the people asking these questions aren’t getting enough sleep, binge drink every week, miss sessions, don’t eat well for their goals and don’t actually train that hard. They’re focusing on the stuff that makes up a tiny percentage of what’s needed to progress and ignoring the stuff that actually matters.
Asking questions is always a good thing, and the answer is normally it depends, but the people asking these questions aren’t getting enough sleep, binge drink every week, miss sessions, don’t eat well for their goals and don’t actually train that hard. They’re focusing on the stuff that makes up a tiny percentage of what’s needed to progress and ignoring the stuff that actually matters.
I've made some of my best progress following very simple training programs because I was doing the basics well.
The basics might not be exciting, but it's what's need to succed.
The basics might not be exciting, but it's what's need to succed.
Effort
Most people think they put in a lot of effort into a training session, but they don't
A lot of people haven’t ever exerted themselves physically in their life. As a result, once they start a training program they don't know how to exert themselves to a level that will produce results. Often they will convince themselves that they are exerting themselves, but they have much more in them.
Leg training is where you see it most. Leg training is hard and uncomfortable. It’s not unusual to see someone stop a set believing they could only do one or two reps when in reality they had 5+ reps left in them. They give up at the first sign of discomfort but then wonder why they haven't made any progress.
This doesn’t mean you should push all your sets to failure, but it does mean you need to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I see very few people training with any intensity and actually putting some effort in.
- Do you spend most of the training session talking instead of training?
- Do you play on your phone resulting in taking longer rest periods between sets?
- Are you 100% focused when doing a set?
- Do you quit a set the moment feels slightly challenging?
A lot of people haven’t ever exerted themselves physically in their life. As a result, once they start a training program they don't know how to exert themselves to a level that will produce results. Often they will convince themselves that they are exerting themselves, but they have much more in them.
Leg training is where you see it most. Leg training is hard and uncomfortable. It’s not unusual to see someone stop a set believing they could only do one or two reps when in reality they had 5+ reps left in them. They give up at the first sign of discomfort but then wonder why they haven't made any progress.
This doesn’t mean you should push all your sets to failure, but it does mean you need to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I see very few people training with any intensity and actually putting some effort in.
"Training is 85-90% effort and consistency and 10-15% programming/knowledge."
Jim Wendler
Jim Wendler
Consistency
When I'm talking about consistency, I’m talking about about the consistently training with proper amount of effort.
Lots of people train hard for a short period.They’ll do to much per session and/or aim to do too many days a week, but then they end up stopping training. They come back back to the gym insisting they’ll stick to it and again stop.
The stop-start cycle continues and they never make any progress.
Lots of people intend to train 4 or 5 times a week, but they can’t stick to training that frequently I would rather people only train twice a week if it means they’ll continue to train for years.
While training hard is important, but problems arise when people allow the intensity to interfere with consistency. No single workout, no matter how good it was, matter that much.You don’t need to kill yourself every session.
What matters is putting in consistent work and making improvements over a long period of time.
Lots of people train hard for a short period.They’ll do to much per session and/or aim to do too many days a week, but then they end up stopping training. They come back back to the gym insisting they’ll stick to it and again stop.
The stop-start cycle continues and they never make any progress.
Lots of people intend to train 4 or 5 times a week, but they can’t stick to training that frequently I would rather people only train twice a week if it means they’ll continue to train for years.
While training hard is important, but problems arise when people allow the intensity to interfere with consistency. No single workout, no matter how good it was, matter that much.You don’t need to kill yourself every session.
What matters is putting in consistent work and making improvements over a long period of time.
Training is a marathon, not a sprint.
Time
It takes time to build strength, gain muscle, get fitter and lose fat (though losing fat can be done fairly quickly). While you will get quicker results when you first start training, to achieve anything that’s impressive will take time and consistency.
If you’re 30 years old and out of shape it’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll undo 30 years in a couple of months. It takes time to build muscle. If you’re underweight and want to gain muscle it will takes a long time of consistent effort. There aren’t any short cuts.
Don't train for 3 months and then be shocked you don't look like someone who has trained for years.
If you’re 30 years old and out of shape it’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll undo 30 years in a couple of months. It takes time to build muscle. If you’re underweight and want to gain muscle it will takes a long time of consistent effort. There aren’t any short cuts.
Don't train for 3 months and then be shocked you don't look like someone who has trained for years.
If you train with intensity, consistency for a long time, you'll suceed no matter what you do.
If fail to do one of these you will fail no matter what you do.
If fail to do one of these you will fail no matter what you do.
These are the things that are needed. Even now, if I’m not making progress and look at these three things and I’ll always find I’m slacking on one of them. The program I’m following doesn’t matter that much if these three things aren’t there.
I’ve made great progress following the most basic training program ever. I remember squatting 140kg x 7. Over three months the only weight I used was 140kg and built it upo to 14 reps. I then did the same for 160kg, 180kg and got up to 200kg x 7 reps. If I had posted this plan on an internet forum I would have been laughed at and told it was stupid. However I trained extremely hard, was consistent and was patient enough to see the results.
I’ve made great progress following the most basic training program ever. I remember squatting 140kg x 7. Over three months the only weight I used was 140kg and built it upo to 14 reps. I then did the same for 160kg, 180kg and got up to 200kg x 7 reps. If I had posted this plan on an internet forum I would have been laughed at and told it was stupid. However I trained extremely hard, was consistent and was patient enough to see the results.
Focus on the basics first. Find any proven program and train with consistently with high effort for years. Only once you've done this, does the other details matter.
Nail the basics. Train consistently with high effort for a long time and you will succeed