Keep Your Training Simple For Greater Gains

If you’re struggling from “information overload”… if you are getting conflicting advice from many different sources…

If you’ve read a LOT of fitness information, but you still can’t seem to put it all together to make any real difference in your life in the way of getting stronger, building more muscle, or burning more fat… then you’re going to love this article.

Keep Things Simple!

Getting greatly increasing your performance and getting into great shape and staying that way should NOT be confusing. There’s really only a couple fundamental things you have to do right to start seeing results, so in this article I’ll show you some of the mistakes I see people making when they email me.

Mistake #1: Muscle Groups?

I get questions like this a LOT: “Can I divide muscle groups so I have only two groups to work on on certain days of the week? If so, what would my routine look like?” or “How many times should I work X muscle group per week”, etc.

Don’t focus on muscle groups. Focus on movement patterns and train those. Focus on having a pressing movement, a pulling movement, a leg/squat type movement and if possible, an explosive/hip dominant movement. This concept is explained more fully on my Strength Training 101 and DoubleYourGains 3-5 Program pages.

Mistake #2: Time?

I get a lot of questions about “how long should it take before…” or “how much could I lose/gain in x amount of time…” when really that all comes down to you, and it’s not an important question anyways.

Instead of worrying about how long something will take (like losing fat or building muscle) why not just get started right now?

I realize some people who are emailing me are just wondering if they’re on the right track because they’re maybe not seeing the gains/losses they’ve heard are possible in certain time frames… but the important thing in that situation is to just stick to it!

If you’ve seen ANY results then you have something to build on. Still not building muscle? Eat more! Still not losing weight? Eat a little less… etc. So don’t worry about time and only focus on the things you can CONTROL!

Mistake #3: Anti-Healthy Lifestyle

I think some of this has to do with the fact that people aren’t looking at this whole process of increasing performance, getting stronger, burning fat and looking better with a lifestyle outlook. That is, making the decision that you’re going to be a fit and healthy indivdual for the rest of your life.

Because there are some ways you can speed up weight loss for instance, that aren’t exactly healthy… going on a totally liquid diet for 5 weeks will probably help you drop a lot of weight… but it might not be the healthies thing in the long run.

That said, I’m as impatient as the next guy (probably even MORE impatient) and I like my results to come in fast and furious too… so I’ll keep trying to help you out and you just promise to keep plugging away at your personal goals, ok?