Hey everyone!
As I started training I all cared for was getting big guns - I wanted to impress the girls, other guys and be a real man physically.
I had no clue about bodybuilding science and just did what I had seen somewhere: mostly standing dumbbell curls, push-ups, sit-ups and a weird modofication of dumbbell shrugs. I did not follow a particular diet, just ate what I had always eaten. Never heard of “high volume, low volume, intensity, frequency, rep speed, …”.
When the weight I worked with got too easy, I put some more pounds on the bars - when I felt tired, I took a day off. Everything I did was so simple that it worked amazingly well. I got significantly stronger, gained about two inches on my upper arms in 8 to 9 weeks and got leaner, my abs were showing real nicely.
Then I bought an exercise book and did most of those exercises shown and explained - I got stronger, wider … everything was great.
Unfortunately then I got injured and was unable to train properly for over a year. Of course I got weaker, and I got fat. This made me sad and mad - I was disgusted looking at myself, some of my self confidence was gone because I was so unhappy with my physical appearance, and there was nothing I could do about it as I was injured (long story, do not want to go into details).
I was waiting for the day I could finally train again - I was thinking it would be great to come back better than ever, which is why I started researching on bodybuilding history, well-known training systems, and so on, and so forth. I spent hours and hours and hours reading.
Now I am able to train again and loved it. But I think I was overanalyzing things - now I cared too much about tempo, intensity … I was counting and systematically thinking more than I was training. I did gain some muscle mass, but it was nothing like before.
Therefore, my motivation right now is almost non-existent. I feel too much “knowledge” really damaged something inside me, like I lost the eye of the tiger - I am not as focussed as before, I am not the wild animal I used to be.
This is my personal experience, my personal opinion, which I’d like to share with you - can you relate or do you maybe have some advise? I am looking for genuine support. Thanks for reading. 