Here’s a message that I found waiting for me when I fired up the old email a couple of days ago. It’s a “confession” email, so I won’t share the name of the author – but it comes from a longtime Dino.
Here it is:
Brooks,
I’ve got as confession to make. Training the Dino way is easy for me! Training was always such a battle when I did it the wrong way – mistaking exhaustion for lack of will and motivation. Lifting heavy weights isn’t easy, but when you enjoy it and want to do it, it’s really not that hard.
But still, in about a third of my workouts I don’t feel energized or enthusiastic. That’s when getting golden advice in your daily emails really helps. Advice like “when in doubt do less.” So when I feel tired or am just not into it mentally, I take an additional rest day or just do less and/or go lighter. It’s simple, but it makes training easy again – and I love training now that I am doing things “the right way.”
Longtime Dino
Pretty good, huh? I thought so.
Here’s my detailed response:
Thanks for your email and your kind words!
I’m glad my advice has been helping – but I’m not surprised. One of the important rules of successful training is to listen to your body. There are times when your body is telling you – often very loudly – that you need to take it easy, scale back a bit, or even throw in an extra rest day. You need to listen to your body when it sends that kind of message.
Of course, that’s not to say that you should mistake laziness for helpful feedback – and it’s not to say that skipping a workout is always a good thing. But it’s important to train sensibly and intelligently – and not to let your ego dictate what you do. Remember, strength training is – or at least, it SHOULD BE – a lifelong endeavor. It’s not something you do for awhile and then stop.
Ideally, you start young and keep on training for the rest of your life – even into your 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and beyond. The only way to last that long is to train smart – to listen to your body – and to know when to push hard and when to hold back. And yes, as you noted, “Less is more.”
That’s actually one of the hardest things for trainees to accept – but it’s also one of the most important!
As always, thanks for reading and have a great day. If you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik