Living with no regrets: If I were starting again

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

If I were starting again - Part 1

I have been lifting for the past 11 years. I started out looking at NBA players and wanted muscles and performance like them. To get to where I am today took 11 years but I had no coaching, no mentorship and no help whatsoever from a real life person. Most of the stuff people told me was uh... (there is really no nice word to use here). They had good intentions but lousy implementation and 0 science to back up the things they say. I beleive with the right training methods and knowledge (and of course the discipline to practice them) I could have gone from a tubby 15 year old to my current state in 3-4 years. no kidding... thats 7 years learning from mistakes. So here are some of the things I have learnt. Hope it helps you.

If I were starting again I would...

1. Never listen to 99% of what bodybuilding magazines say. The articles are written by some skinny weak guy and then they just have the rights to put some muscular guy's name attached to the article. Do you really think that guy got to that level of development by using the latest stability ball training? And uh the training programs there are firstly fake, and secondly way too much for a non drug enhanced person to tolerate. Everybody wants to make a buck out of poor newbie athletes and lifters. Why 99%... even a spoilt clock is right 2 times a day so i am factoring in luck here.

Swiss balls the key to fantastic strength!

2. Find a good coach/mentor in real life. I wish I had one, but all i know are from interactions with the good ones on forums and from their writings and interviews. Then trying these things out on myself and then on the athletes I coach. Its tough to find a good mentor anywhere but even more so in Singapore where this field is really backward.

3. Spend money on education not supplementation. Besides protein, fish oil and multi vitamins there arent alof of good supplements out there. (another way to cheat newbies of money...eat this, tomorow you will look like the hulk!) I have spend more than $4000 sgd on education/training equipment. Has it all been good? No. But at least I find out what doesnt work. And even the worst books/videos can teach you something. Many people buy supplements, how many have spent money on a piece of literature written by an expert in the field you are interested in? Is it expensive? yes it is. But what I am paying for is not the book itself (these books are ususally epxensive for their page/word count) I am paying for the thousands of hours experience this guy/lady has worked with high level athletes. Its really priceless. Contrary to what people think the best info is not available for free on the net.