A few things to keep in mind when you’re in the gym:
- Your ability to focus will be the key to success. Put away all distractions.
- Train your ability to focus; it’s easy to become distracted and it takes work to focus intently on one thing at a time.
- Prepare the mind to be clear of distractions using your breath.
- The mind will always quit first. Training your mind is just as important (if not more) as training your body.
- Like moving toward a hot fire, your brain begins to sense danger when training and will shut down. Breathe, meditate, smile, keep going.
- Control your breathing. Increasing your tolerance to CO2 will drop your perceived effort dramatically. Inhalation can be your best stimulant; exhalation can be your best sedative.
- Create a rock solid, stable core. Find complete stability before you move/lift a weight.
- The direction at which the resistance applies force on your body should directly oppose the action of the muscle you’re trying to train.
- Choose exercises that fit your body and your physiology.
- Do the things you’re bad at twice as much as the things you’re good at.
- Muscle and joints move in straight lines. Train that way.
- Use high reps when learning or improving a skill.
- The best workout in the world is the one that is different from what your body is adapted to.
- Train and adapt to one system over time, then change the stimulus.
- Stability is everything in training. Your ability to stabilize will govern your ability to contract.
- When you think you’ve done enough, do five more.
- Initiate with the working muscle.
- Before doing an exercise, look at the path of motion of that exercise (machine, cable, free weight). Look at the path your body moves in to challenge the muscle you’re training.Set up your body to perfectly match the path of the exercise.
- How many exercises per body part? The number of exercises you can perform perfectly with maximum tension.
- Use warm-ups to practice new exercises.
- Challenge time, distance, load, in that order.
- Fully lengthen a muscle, stop, squeeze, use that squeeze/contraction to propel motion.
- Stabilize the scapula. Your upper body growth will be governed by your ability to stabilize and control the scapula.
- Stabilize the pelvis. Your lower body growth will be governed by your ability to stabilize and control the pelvis.
- Talk less, do more.
