Don't Use Phones During Training

"Don't use phones during training" - Charles Poliquin.

Many people are now starting to speak of this, but like many topics, Charles was way ahead of his time explaining the reasons as to why you shouldn't use your phone during training.

Don’t use your phone while you train. If you keep your phone in your pocket or in contact with your body while you train to listen to music then you could be lowering your androgens by as much as 31%. You do not want to be making 31% less testosterone. Most of us are already deficient so you want to optimize this as much as possible.

Close contact with your phone all day is bad for you anyway not just while you train, so you should try to limit the amount of time you spend on that device.

In Finland, where Nokia comes from, they have the most brain cancer in the world due to their use of mobile phones. There is a direct correlation between the time you spend beside your mobile phone and cancer.

Do not sleep with it next to your head. Put it on flight mode if you use it for an alarm and put it as far away from you as possible.

Another problem with phones is that the constant looking for updates, messages, likes or comments depletes your dopamine. Well, to lift big weights you need dopamine, so checking your phone constantly means you are wasting the most important neurotransmitter for neural drive.

Mobile phones are a training killer. You should stay away from them.

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3 Things for Continual Progress in the Gym

Here are 3 more tips from the great Charles Poliquin on how to make continual progress in the gym.

3 Things for Continual Progress in the Gym

Tip 1 – never increase the quantity of training at the expense of quality

Some days your strength may be up but your work capacity is down. Don’t drop the intensity, drop the volume. For example, let’s say you did bench and got 100kg x 5 reps for all 5 sets on Monday. Then on Thursday you do the same workout and do 100kg x 5 reps for 2 sets, then the third set you only get 1 rep. Stop there, no garbage sets.

It won’t do you any good to lower the weight and then proceed for the next two sets. It will just tap into your recovery and make the next session a struggle as well.

Tip 2 – 2% rule of progress

You should be able to add 2% more to the bar or add an extra rep every workout. If you are unable to do this then you are not recovering properly between workouts. It could be from not sleeping well, not eating enough, eating poor quality foods, spending too much time in front of screens, to name a few things.

So if you squat 100kg for 5 reps in workout one then in the next workout you should be able to squat 102kg for 5 reps or 100kg for 6 reps. This is why it is important to record all your weights and reps correctly so we can monitor your progress and use the correct loads.

Tip 3 – you have to take the time to lay the foundation

Be patient and take your time getting strong. Everyone who decides they need to get stronger wants it immediately. This is not the way to go about it and will often lead to stagnation and injury. You are better off bringing up your weak points and then progressing from there. We do this in your programs but for those of you on distance programs the next thing is to ensure you have perfect technique on each rep and don’t “cheat” do lift a load that you aren’t capable of doing with correct technique. You want to work to technical failure not absolute failure.

Getting strong takes many years of consistent hard work. It isn’t something that will happen in 12 weeks. Sure you will improve from your starting point but to get really strong takes a long time.

It's Hard for Everyone

Training is hard for everyone. It is relative to your level of preparedness.

For example, in rugby league we have front runners and slob’s way at the back of the pack. The blokes at the back of the pack will sook all day when there is a conditioning session planned. When one of the more conditioned guys says “yeah it sucks” and just shrugs it off, the slobs will normally say “well it is ok for you because you are fit”.

They have no clue. The blokes at the front of the pack hurt just as much, if not MORE than they do at the back of the pack. The reason is the players leading the way at the front actually make the set target times, beat them in fact, and strive to beat their own bests day in and day out. This is very painful to do and takes a lot of mental toughness to push hard for every day. The bloke at the back of the pack doesn’t make the set target times and for a lot of them, they just cruise at a comfortable pace they have determined for themselves accepting that they just aren’t fit. They quit. They just do the absolute minimal required and don’t try to improve because they fear getting uncomfortable.

Now, some blokes at the back of the pack do try. These are the guys that end up getting towards the front through a lot of hard work and effort. The thing everyone who was once at the back of the pack (like myself) and works their way to the front realises is that the amount of pain you go through from the days at the back to the front, are no different. The amount of effort remains the same. You just run faster, lift more weight, jump higher, jump further, whatever the task may be, you just do it better, which makes it harder.

There is no end. You have to work hard all the time. Sure, you can get to an average fitness level and just maintain it. That isn’t that hard once you stop trying to improve. But if you are trying to be the absolute best you can be, the pain never really ends. You just get used to it and learn to enjoy the challenge.

So, if you are a slob and you are continuously at the back of the pack. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to work. No one wants to hear you cry about it, especially when they see you aren’t giving it a proper crack because you’re too piss ant to get uncomfortable and have a real go. There is nothing more pathetic than the bloke who says he wants to achieve it all but does the minimum to get by. Then sits up the pub for the rest of his life telling stories of what could have been. On the other hand, if you bust yourself, giving a real effort from deep within yourself and don’t quite get there, you will still be respected and you can look at yourself in the mirror knowing you just weren’t good enough. You can have peace of mind. There will be no “what if” or “I could have”.