[center]Stimulus Addiction[/center]
I’ll tell you something weird. Every time I go to Colorado to work on a project at Biotest HQ I end up experiencing formidable gains over a 3-4 week period, gains far exceeding anything I achieve at home.
To give you an example, last time I went to Colorado I started out with a 385 pound bench press from pins and a 275 pound snatch-grip high pull. Three weeks later I was doing 425 and 396.
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[/center]Nutrition and supplement-wise I didn’t do anything different. The only difference is that I took a bit more Mag-10 because it was pre-mixed in the fridge.
The only big difference was the amount of training I did: I trained a lot LESS while in Colorado.
To be more specific, I did a lot less volume and spent less time in the gym, but I trained with the same frequency.
You see, at home I train with my best friend. We’re both very competitive when it comes to doing more work than the other. We both were athletes who were short on talent and had to work extra hard all the time. We tend to pride ourselves in doing more work than everyone else.
This is an illogical way of looking at training and it’s counterproductive. Because of that mindset, we keep on training way past where we should have ended the workout.
We don’t want to look weak to the other and I don’t want him to leave the gym unhappy because I “cut the workout short.”
Waste-Volume
In Colorado I do my own thing and do not do “waste-volume.”
At home I have the habit of training for about 90 minutes; in Colorado I train on average between 35 and 40 minutes.
Not only that, but because of the high amount of work I impose on my body, I don’t have that extra edge that allows me to push maximal effort to its highest level. Because of the amount of work I do at home, my “max effort” really is a 92-95% effort. In Colorado, a max effort is a 100% effort.
At home I do too much of the wrong things, but not enough of the right things.
Be a Results Addict
I see that pattern a lot among those who are passionate about training: they become stimulus addicts. They take pride not in their results, but in the amount of work they do.
But sometimes it is the amount of work they’re doing that’s limiting their progress.
From now on, I will be a result addict, not a stimulus addict.
Heck, if training for 35 minutes gets me stronger and bigger than training for 90 minutes, why waste time and energy? Sure, training is fun, but improvement is even more fun.