Never be sore after a workout. This is the way I roll nowadays.
My number one rule when I lift and exercise is to avoid injury. This supports my overarching guiding principle that has me lifting every day. I’ll outwork and outgain you with my consistency.
This applies to the gym, and increasingly in many other areas of my life too.
‘Make your workouts a 7 out of 10, and do them every day.‘ – Firas Zahabi
This podcast from Joe Rogan was forwarded to me by a very close bud of mine, and the headline hooked me immediately. I have not gotten into Joe’s podcast, although I’ve heard awesome things about what he does on it. This podcast is the first of his that I’ve listened all the way through. I really enjoyed the authenticity from Joe and Firas, they did not hold back at all on this podcast.
This podcast/YouTube really resonated with me, as I have adopted a ton of this mindset in the gym over the past couple of years.
Rate of Perceived Exertion
Firas Zahabi outlines this concept I have never heard of – the rate of perceived exertion. This concept is a scale that ranges from a 6 (low intensity) to a 20 (maximum intensity). If you want to geek out of the concept in detail, check out this link. The takeaway is that intensity can be evaluated on a scale.
So Firas describes a scenario where this notion of volume will win the day.
Here’s the scenario for you:
If the maximum amount of pull ups is 10, you do 10 pull ups on Monday. You are maxed out to the point of exhaustion, and you cannot lift until Thursday. This is how I used to lift…
Now what if you do 5 pull ups each day.
Monday you do 5.
Tuesday you do 5.
Wednesday you do 5.
Thursday you do 6, as 5 was so easy the prior 3 days.
How many did you do compared to the guy that did 10 on Monday through Thursday, you got 21 reps in for the week.
Volume is key.
He’s a big believer in consistency over intensity. When I restarted my gym career a couple of years ago, I went max many times per week – or what I thought was my max. Looking back, I definitely burned my body out with multiple systems teetering on failure for a couple of reasons. My gym habits
I pressed through the overtraining for months, although ultimately I know for a fact now that I killed my innards in terms of hormones and energy. It took a professional to help me unwind my need to kill it at the gym, and to finally break through on this notion of consistency.
Even my father brought me up – many times saying –
‘do a little bit each day, and then tomorrow – do a little more if you can.‘
I definitely forgot this guidance when I returned to the gym.
Volume is way more important than intensity. Consistency over time will overtake the intermittent surge. The best model, in my opinion, is a combination of both – where the consistency is the priority – with the occasional surge.
This is easily applicable at home and in the boardroom at work. There is definitely a time and place for intense surges, the best know when to invoke it.
Then about 15 minutes into the podcast he flat out says that Crossfit is wrong. Talk about throwing some judgement around. Now I have never done Crossfit, and I know a ton of friends that swear by it. I have personally witnessed some incredible transformations using that program.
He claims Crossfit ‘is wrong’ as it is fatigue seeking.
I do not know if this is entirely accurate, and for me – I can say for certain that I do not leave the gym anymore fatigued – unless it is a max out day. Most days, when I roll out of that gym – I’m bounding out of the gym after my last set. I get energized, rather than fatigued.
I’ve done both the exhaustion-based approach seeking a personal record and the 7 out of 10 – volumized approach.
I know for certain now – this notion of volume, consistency, and leaving energized is the way to go. This approach also reduces the chances of me injuring myself, which is the whole point as I need to be in there tomorrow hitting the weights.
If you are looking to restart your gym program, just get started and build a little bit each day. Once the habit is cultivated, then you can begin tweaking the lifting, cardio, and intensity mixture for your own goals.
It took me over 6 months to firmly re-establish this as part of my lifestyle, and over 3 months to truly start to notice any gains. This is after never missing a day for the first few months, and truly doing my best every day in there.
It takes time.
It takes consistency.
It takes a first step.
