Negativity: The Good The Bad and How to use it.

Negativity is usually thought of as, well, negative. A lot of the time this is definitely the case. We miss a lift that used to be easy before an injury and we get down on ourselves. You don't get along with a coworker and all you do is bitch about it. The list is endless, but if we put our thinking caps on I bet we can figure out how to leverage this destructive mindset. 

Let's take the first example. You were squatting four slabs of beef but hurt your back and had to take a few months off. Now you are stuck at 225lbs. That sucks compared to where you were without a doubt but what if you used how pissed you are about your situation to drive progress? Instead of saying, "Geez! I'm a weak sack of crap!" And stopping there, you could follow this thought up with, "I am going to work my tail off and crush my former PRs!" The first thought is short term wallowing. We need to realize that if you were off for months it may take months or more to get back to where you were. That's okay. What's a few months or even a year in the grand scheme of things?

Always have the long game in mind while taking the steps now that will let you hit your smaller goals now in the near future. It's the same in all of life's circumstances. Take your negativity and strangle it to death while achieving your goals. Use it to motivate you. Don't let it be a crutch or an obstacle. No excuses. Just incremental progress until you have achieved what you were shooting for then find a bigger better goal to pursue. Do some research and you will find that the most successful people typically had big set backs and short comings. The difference between them and the people who are still failures is hitting the grind again harder than ever and time.  Dedication and time breed success.

Talk soon,

Dan is a top 10 ranked amateur

strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. He is also an Elite level lifter in the USPA/IPA. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004.

You can follow Dan on Instagram @RoninStr
For training and nutrition advice and tips email roninstr@gmail.com

Why Supplements Suck

 

So let's get this out of the way right off the bat. You are not fat because you haven't found the best fat burner. And you...skinny guy over there! You are not skinny because you don't buy enough mass gainer. The secret sauce? The magic trick? Food.

There are so many reasons why food is awesome compared to supps and here's just a few.

-Food is cheaper! Tuna and rice with ranch and Buffalo sauce is less than 2 bucks for 50g of protein and 70g of carbs. And if you are going dirty, a large Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza is 150g of protein and 250g of carbs for $5.00. Whole milk is dirt cheap too. Stack that up to your mass gainer and see what's a bigger bang for your buck and what actually tastes better.

-The second big bonus to food is that it has a more complete hormone profile. Now I am just a dirty meathead so I don't know the specifics of why that's a good thing but I heard a smart sciencey guy say it once so we will just go with that. Feel free to Google if you really care to find out specifics. I am a cheap bastard so the cost effectiveness is all I needed to hear.

This isn't to say that supplements don't help, but for crying out loud. They are called "SUPPLEMENTS" not "MAINS!" The real issue isn't supplements it's lazy people who spent 100% of their efforts unintentionally trying to get fat or unintentionally trying to stay skinny, in the hard gainer's case, for the past 20 years wanting a quick fix that takes as close to zero effort as possible. You may have to put that kind of dedication toward your goals on purpose to change your body. But time and time again I will see people piss and moan about changing 10% or 20% of their habits. 20% of eating poorly and being lazy didn't make you 5'4" and 300lbs. It was 110% (which is impossible. I hate that term.) dedication to not moving much and eating doughnut holes by the handful while you empty a bag of Doritos down your gullet as a chaser which had that effect.

So the  title was kind of appropriate, but really it should have been "No Magic Bullet" or "Why are People so Dumb?" All harshness aside. If you want to change your body, career, or anything else you are going to need to put some serious work in. The magic doesn't happen by accident or over night. Change is a series of choices made every moment of every day for months or years that result in where you are at now or where you will be the future.

Don't be a slacker. Get to work.


-Dan

Dan is a nationally ranked amateur

strongman competitor in the 242lb

and 275lb classes and a powerlifter in the 275lb class. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He as been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004.

You can follow Dan on Instagram @RoninStr
For training and diet plans email roninstr@gmail.com