Rules are Made to be Broken

When you are running a fitness business you absolutely must have a presence on social media.  Or so they say. Who are "they" anyway? What else do "they" say?

You must have your post-workout shake within minutes of your last set or else all your lifting will be wasted and you will not grow any muscle... so they say..

"They" say a lot of things. Full range of motion. Compound movements first. Machines are worthless.. squat ass to grass..be hardcore, hustle.. Most of which I have learned. Then I learned to forget them.

I've been doing this all my life.

Whenever I didn't do this and I did what I was supposed to do, my results were average at best. It doesn't matter what I was doing. And more importantly, I am not happy when I go according to the "rules"..

What does this have to do with you and your fitness pursuits?  Glad you asked.

You have to learn the basics first. Of nutrition and training. The most effective ways to lift weights, burn fat, gain muscle and strength..

Once you learn your way around and you achieve some results you can start to tweak to your own design. Eventually you may break every rule.

I'll use myself as an example-  I ate every 3-4 hours, decent amount of lean protein, small amount of carbs, very small amount of fats. I saw some results.

I also made sure to focus on the "most important meal of the day"- breakfast and the post-workout shake. I got some results.

Eventually I started to break those rules. And guess what,  I got results that way too.

So yes, you need to learn the tricks of the trade. Gain some discipline and make some progress. Then you will hit a plateau. This is normal.

Then you start to experiment. Find out what really works for you. What speaks to you. What do you really enjoy and know that you will be consistent with?

Maybe one exercise is not effective for you or makes you feel too much pain in a joint. Or maybe it's one specific food you think you're supposed to eat, according to the rules, but you can't stand the taste of it and dread packing it in your lunch..

Break the rules. Find your own way.

As Jim Morrison once said "Learn to forget"..

That's what we need to do. In fitness and in life.  There's only one you and I believe that within each of us there's some sort of wisdom, an instinct and knowledge that we can align with, that will give us great strength and lead us to evolve and adapt as we go through life.