The Regiment v. The Routine

           We hear all the time about the “same old routine.” By its very definition, a routine is just the same old same old. It is boring. It is mundane. I thank goodness that I do not have a routine but what I do have is a regiment. My boss at work (who luckily is also one my best friends) chastises me over the fact that you can pretty much set your watch by my schedule. He believes you have to take different routes to work and arrive at different times to be able to throw off the assassins. You don’t want to make their job easy for them. And yet, I leave the house at almost the same time every day.
           I eat the same breakfast. I eat my morning snack at the same time. I eat my lunch at the same time. I eat my afternoon snack at the same time. I am in bed at the same time. I wake at the same time (pretty much). While I know this sounds routine but let me tell you what this also gets me. 
           I get necessary sleep for recovery. I am never hungover headed into work. I cannot remember the last time I was sick. I am not out until all hours of the night. And while this sounds like a boring life, I can also tell you that my bills are paid on time, every time. 
           I told you from the beginning that this journey is about improvement of body, mind, and spirit. It is an odd thing. Once you start seeing results – and I mean real results – it becomes this wonderfully addictive drug but it is a drug of self-improvement.
           You start out saying, “I am going to lift some weights but I am not going to be supplement guy.” Then the results start and you want more. So now you are doing the research. You see how whey protein and Vitamin B and C can help you. Then that starts snowballing.
           The Little Debbie snack cakes start to fade away. To make sure you have a good healthy meal for lunch, you start planning ahead and cooking pounds of chicken in the crockpot the night before. You start investing in Tupperware. You are buying flats of green beans and planning snacks rather than just eating whatever is easily at hand. You start seeing beer for what it really is – liquid bread. And then you start making choices. Do you really want another beer knowing how time it is going to take on the treadmill to get rid of it?
           Now, I don’t want you to take this wrong way. I am not against having a few social drinks with some friends every now and again. There are days where a nice cold beer after a hard day’s work or after excessive time out mowing the lawn is perfectly acceptable. But as your training continues, you begin to cut out things that are going to jeopardize the next day’s training.
           A drink is fine. Falling down blackout drunk is not acceptable. At my age, it would take me days to recover from such nonsense. And for what? A momentary escape from reality? I like my life. What do I need to escape from? In the words of that once popular internet meme, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”  
           I am not telling anyone how to live their life here. I am not so vain as to believe I can shake a moral finger at you and tell you what to do. As always, this blog has been about what works for me. But over the last year, I have seen dramatic improvements in my life. I feel better. I feel healthier. My mind has become more studious as I have been doing research on how to make improvements. This process has taught me patience. It has taught me that hard work put in daily through small increments pays off tremendously in the long run.
           It is not just about lifting the weights. It is about packing the gym bag the night before to make sure you have everything. It is about smart planning at the grocery store. You find that striving to be the best you can be in the gym starts bleeding over and improving other aspects of your life as well. And that, my friends, is pretty darn awesome…

Be Your Own Renaissance Man

           In the movie Renaissance Man, Danny DeVito is discussing Leon Battista Alberti who was an Italian humorist, author, artist, poet, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer amongst other things. According to the dialogue of the movie, “They said that he could stand, with his feet together like this, and spring straight over a man's head.” To which DeVito’s character says, “If Leon Battista Alberti couldn't have done that, I wouldn't have remembered a thing about him.”

            This made him an oxymoron. It made him a smart jock. Now, what have I said since the beginning? Furyan Strength is about developing your body, mind, and spirit. Keeping your body sharp will also help keep your mind sharp and I think it works the other way too. Before I started this journey I had no clue what whey protein did for my body. Or BCAAs. Or why I should take Vitamin E. Or the importance of muscle balance and symmetry. I think most people associate all bodybuilders as dumb jocks who just lift heavy weights. But listen to any of the testimony of Dr. Jim Stoppani and I don’t think anyone can deny that lifting weights is a science. But then I saw an image on the internet that really made me think.

Lifts v. "Little Kicks"

           I know. I know. Once you start reading this, you are going to assume that I am serving up an ice cold bottle of Haterade and to an extent I am but bear with me. So, it was a few months into my workouts and as I will espouse often in this blog, people are creatures of habit. Eventually, your schedules are going to start synching up with other gym-goers and you will inevitably start seeing the same people in the gym. So for around six weeks, I came to be in the gym as the same time as an individual that I will call “Little Kicks.” I didn’t know his real name. It is not like we wear name tags. I always wear headphones in the gym and that limits my interactions and conversational engagements. I am not anti-social or a jerk. I often make eye contact, give thumbs up of encouragement to the elderly ladies on the cardio machines, and I am happy to talk after my workouts when my headphones are off. But during “game time,” I am there to work.

           Now, the Wellness Center that I work out at is pretty darn small. It is essentially a one room facility. So for about six weeks, I found myself working out alongside “Little Kicks.” Now, I will be the first to tell you, I don’t know what he was training for. Maybe he was looking to build stamina. Maybe he was doing the cardio to train for a marathon or cycling. He was in a lot better shape than me and his body fat percentage had to be pretty darn low. And most of the time he had a girl working out with him that had a killer body. She had that “onion booty” – a butt so good it brings tears to your eyes.

           So next to the free weight squat rack is a television and this duo would come in and perform some routine by following along with a DVD. I don’t remember what it is called. I know there are dozens of these programs out there. Billy Blanks has Tae-Bo. There is Insanity, P90X, and whatever the flavor of the month of those routines is. (I honestly cannot remember which one they were doing. Something called T-25, maybe?)

           Now, the goal of any exercise routine is to get that heartbeat elevated. That is burning calories and that means burning fat and losing weight. Seriously, if you looked at that guy and you looked at me, you are taking advice from that guy over me any day of the week. So, whatever he was doing, it was working for him. I guess.

           I never try to paint myself as better than anyone else. But there was a moment where I could see him out of the corner of my eye. Here I am loading up heavy plates on the squat rack. I am pushing iron. I am clanging and banging. And here he is doing his exercise routine that involves all these hops and jumps and little kicks (hence the nickname).  And despite my 20% body fat, I just felt like that if the Most Interesting Man in the World walked in the gym, he would see me racking the weight, sweat dripping off of me, and all huffing and puffing. I think I would get his nod of approval. Whereas I feel like Little Kicks should have his Man Card removed from his wallet.

           I guess at the end of the day, you can JUST do cardio. I see gym goers all the time that come in, hit the treadmills or the elliptical machines, walk their miles and then go home. I was speaking with one older lady in the gym who tells me she walks four miles. I will not lie to you. At a brisk pace, I do not think I could walk four miles straight. Being on the treadmill for an hour has zero interest to me.

           But the counter to this cardio argument is that if the goal is to elevate that heartrate, I would rather do it through steady lifting. The cardio person is burning calories and fat and getting their endurance up. I get all that but to me you are not building anything. I would rather get that double dose of success by burning calories through lifting weights. No one ever jumps off the treadmill, stands in front of the mirror and flexes their legs. It makes me much happier to complete a chest routine or an arm routine and then stand in front of the mirror and perform a Front Double Biceps or the Most Muscular pose.

           I often hear ladies commenting on how they want to look like So-and-So from Hollywood. They want this girl’s booty or that girl’s butt. But I never see them on the squat rack or doing deadlifts or one-legged cable kickbacks. I want that one two punch of exercise where I am lifting weights and getting cardio via lifting. If just cardio is your thing, then by all means, get after it. But I still feel if you want to see real improvement, you have to pump iron. And that is not just me saying that. That is medical science that is pushing heavily towards resistance training for weight loss.

           So, clanging and banging. Or little kicks. Choice is up to you.

Fat-Shaming or Motivation?

          I saw an article on Thursday that really got me thinking and I figured my Friday entry was as good a place as any. I try to keep Friday more humorous than most but as I have explained, Furyan Strength is about creating a better you through bodybuilding. This is not just limited to the physical. This should include mental and spiritual improvement as well. So a prominent celebrity on Facebook posted an article debating whether something is motivating or fat shaming. The article revolved around a 33-year-old single mother from the UK who wrote in an Instagram post, “I have a six pack, a kid and no excuse.” The picture when viral and people are divided. Some are saying she should be proud of what she has. Others are saying that she is fat shaming.

           I am oddly conflicted by posts such as this. My message has long been one that comfort is the bane of self-improvement. As much as I love Meghan Trainor, I do not believe in her message that every inch of me is perfect from the be bottom to the top. While I am proud of the work that I am doing, I still inevitably feel that I have a long way to go. I still hate my gut. I want more defined muscles. But I am infinitely better than where I started. I like the current size of my muscles but now I am trying to strip away that layer of fat that is concealing them. 

          I am really not trying to blow my own horn here but I think there is a difference between putting out something like Furyan Strength that reveals HOW I did something as opposed to just a woman posting pictures saying, “Look at how sexy I am! Yes, I have a kid but look I am in shape. How come you aren’t?” Now, I could be way off base here. I do not follow this particular person on Instagram where her message went viral but if she is not posting HOW she achieved her body, well, then she is just flaunting. That is something that I have a problem with. 

          One picture doesn’t paint the whole picture. Is she up at 4:30 in the morning doing cardio? What is her diet regiment? I seriously doubt she is just doing a set of planks and calling it a day. Is she a personal trainer, yoga instructor, or Pilates instructor and so it is her job to workout six hours a day? If that is the case, then I feel she has a leg up on a woman who sits behind a desk in a cubical or stands behind a teaching lectern all day.

          There are times where I do look at myself in the mirror and wish I could look like John Cena or Hugh Jackman. But then I remind myself. Hugh Jackman is a millionaire. The film studios grant him access to personal trainers. He can hire personal chefs and strength and conditioning coaches. I can’t even afford a housekeeper.

          And this is where the problem lies, people. We spend too much time comparing ourselves to other people. We say, “Oh, I wish I looked like [insert celebrity name here].” But these are often unrealistic goals. The only person you need to be better than in the person you were yesterday. That is the demon worth defeating.

          Of course, just because a person has a six-pack or can bench press more doesn’t make them better than someone who doesn’t. Whenever I post a “selfie” of all the hard work I am doing, I always accompany it with a message of how I am not special because truthfully, I am not. I post these things to motivate with the mentality of “if I can do it, you can do it.” But people at the Wellness Center also recognize that I am in there five days a week, going hard, sweating up a storm. I have heard people say, “I am tired just watching him.” But to a professional lifter, I am sure I still look like I am amateur.

          Don’t kid yourself though. When this British mom is posting a selfie, she is not rolling out of bed looking like that. No one takes a bodybuilding selfie before their workout. It is always after. And there is a reason for that. It is because we want to look good!

          If you are posting a picture saying “What is your excuse?”, that just infers you are better than others and I consider you an attention whore. If she just would have posted, “If I can do it, you can do it. And this is how I did it…” that person then becomes my new hero.

Unintentional Wiener

          Okay, so stick with me on this one because I am going parable for the first time. The Wellness Center that I workout has two dressing rooms that have a mirrored layout. They are essentially L-shaped with the longest L being the section for bathroom stalls, a shower, and two sinks. If you are taking a shower, you are blocked from the view if someone enters the locker room from the short part of the L. But the lockers are clearly in view every time the doors open.

          A few weeks ago, they went and put a retractable curtain so in theory you can stand in front of the lockers dripping wet and naked and if the curtain is pulled, you cannot be seen. The facility is relatively new but I have been attending the gym for well over a year now and a few weeks ago, they finally put the curtain in. My immediate question that came to mind was: “How much unintentional wiener had to be seen before someone finally said, ‘We really need to put a curtain in there’?”

          By the way, Unintentional Weiner is totally going to be my band name if I ever get a band or musical talent or the ability to sing or play an instrument. I am calling it right now. So I have dibs. I think the “dibs” argument totally holds up in a court of law. I can imagine it now. “Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Unintentional Weiner!”

          But I digress. Sometimes, something comes along that is literally a “smack your forehead” moment where you proclaim genius and wonder why this hasn’t been done like this all along. It’s like the Christopher Nolan version of Batman or combining sea salt with caramel. You see it and you say, “Why hasn’t this been a thing from the beginning?”

          So, I rant and rave about Single Arm Linear Jammers as a wonderful way to work the front head of your shoulders. I am reading an article yesterday and this guy is performing the same maneuver but he is doing it two handed. I get excited and say, “Two handed linear jammer? Why have I not realized this is even an exercise?” It makes total sense. I often harp about how anything that can be done with a barbell can be done with dumbbells. Anything that can be done two-handed can be done single-handed. The theories are essentially the same but the results are very different. So now I am penciling in notes to attempt this exercise on my next Shoulder & Lat days.

          I used to do Upright Dumbbell Rows to work my trapezius muscles with dumbbells but I would do lifts with both hands at the same time. Now I do them one side at a time so I can really focus on pulling with that single side. Reiterating my point from yesterday, this is where you need to be constantly looking at research for ways to improve your technique, find new exercises, or see what the pros are doing because you never know what is going to spark that catalyst for improvement.

          Then once those new articles are implemented, you will wonder why you haven’t been doing it that way all along. It is not to say that the things you are doing are wrong but you want to keep dialing in your exercises and your routine to perfect your program.

          And by all means, whenever possible, avoid that unintentional wiener…

Giving Voice to the Demon

           So I noticed something odd the other day and Friday seems like as good a day to comment on it as any. I cannot recall specifically but it was a story detailed in either Schwarzenegger’s book THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BODYBUILDING or his autobiography TOTAL RECALL. In the story he was talking about how a reporter commented how Arnold was always smiling when he was in the gym. He was always exuberant and happy. Arnold explained this joy came from the knowledge that all the hard work he was putting in was transforming him into something better.

           Now, when I am in the gym, I am wearing my headphones 99% of the time. I listen to music that pumps me up and it brings a certain focus and intensity to my countenance, I am sure. There is also a bursting levels of testosterone that comes with heavy lifting and I do find myself making certain “angry faces” when lifting heavy. This is not to say that I am mad. It is just the natural physiological response that comes from your body firing on all cylinders and this flood on natural chemicals would put a woman’s pelvic bones as risk if approached immediately after said workouts.

           When my workout is done and the headphones come off, I consider myself to be a happy person. I joke with the employees (who now know me by name). I give thumbs up to others working hard. And I will smile and laugh with the best of them. And when my routines are done, I do spend a few moments flexing in the mirror. I feel a person should admire the results of this hard work. That is where the smiles come in earnest.

           So, with all that being said, I think it is safe to assume that I enjoy my time lifting weights. I really do. It has become my routine now. I enjoy seeing gains. I like seeing the separation between the muscles in my arms and legs and seeing muscles emerge that were not there before. I still have a long way to go but my limbs don’t just look like tubes of hanging sausage anymore.  I take great pride and satisfaction in that. I do believe that is the attitude of a champion.

           Now, let’s look at the flip side of the coin. We all know that person. They are working hard. They are putting in the effort. For that they should be applauded. But they are complainers. They whine about how much an exercise hurts. They are vocal about the exercises that they dislike. They comment how much they hate this exercise or that exercise. They are too focused on the immediate pain and not the rewards that they are striving to attain for “bikini season” or whatever event.

           There is probably a moment in every coach’s career where they ask their athletes if they are having fun and if they are not having fun then they should quit. This is typically after your eighth wind sprint and you feel like your lungs are about to explode. Here is a hint. In that moment, everyone wants to quit. But you push on because you know all those wind sprints will give you victory in the fourth quarter when your opponent is out of gas. You don’t mind the pain now because you know it will give you an advantage later on.

           Like the great ones say – and this is true – no pain, no gain. You have to find a way to enjoy all that hard work knowing what is waiting for you on the other side. Everyone is miserable in the moments of lifting all those heavy weights but the rush of endorphins that you get from getting one more pull up than the week before or setting a personal record on the Bench Press is what you push through that pain to achieve.

           So what good does it do to complain in the moment? You are miserable doing burpees? Everyone is miserable doing squats. Being vocal about it gives a voice to that demon. Now, maybe the complainers are just naturally negative. That could be the case. Those people are out there. But I think you have to enjoy what you are doing. If not, where do you draw your motivation to continue?

           If I am placing a wager on which person will turn fitness or bodybuilding into a lifestyle, I am betting on the guy who is smiling as he is walking out of the gym over the person that is vocally whining about how much they hate Exercise X or Exercise Y.

           Is it going to be painful? If it is not painful, you aren’t going hard enough. But can you embrace the pain? Can you maintain your morale knowing that the pain is molding into something better? Can you stay focused on what you are going to become? Can you focus on why you are doing this in the first place? If you can answer yes to those question, congratulations. You just made it to the next level.

           And if you can apply that happiness level to aspects outside of the gym… you might just be on your way.

Finding Your Why

           To those on the outside looking in working out sounds pretty stupid. Via your gym membership, you are actually paying someone to let you torture yourself. Why would a person willingly take an hour or two out of their day to punish their bodies by lifting heavy weights over and over again?

           What I have found in this world is that you have to “find your why.” You have to choose why you are doing something. And to quote Eric Thomas, “Your why has to be greater than you.” When you are doing something for someone else, you can go one more day at work. You can go one more mile. Because it is not just about you. 

           In June of 2014, I made a decision to improve my life through exercise. The majority of this was for me but there were other motivating factors. I would be lying if I said there weren’t a few dashes of hate sprinkled in there as well. I know that isn’t healthy but it is what it is.

           But one major motivating factor was the dream that I wanted to cut a sharp figure in a tuxedo at my daughter’s wedding. As I walk my baby girl down the aisle, I want to do it on my own knees, preferably without wheezing, and without the aid of a rascal scooter. I figure that since she is who she is, the gentlemen callers will be a plenty. By my estimates, I have ten years minimum. And thus, the campaign began.

           As I have mentioned already, I am the product of divorce. It is a sad and horrible thing to go through a divorce and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. But as you go through that baptism of fire, you find that it is a fantastic time to work on yourself both mentally and physically. A broken individual is perfectly timed for the self-improvement that a program like Furyan Strength can bring.

           Look, the guy that my wife left me for, I don’t know who he is in real life. Mentally, I have painted a picture of him in my head and I think about him when I am tired and don’t want to get another set. “Is HE putting in this kind of work? No.” My goal is to be better than him and I am achieving this on all fronts. Granted, he is an imaginary enemy but it is motivation for me. We all have that imaginary dragon that we want to slay and it keeps me focused when I want to quit. (I am aware that this is not healthy emotionally but if it gets the job done…)

           If you were like me when you are starting this journey of self-improvement, there are going to be times where you think it is going to be impossible. It will seem like you are facing a seemingly insurmountable task and that the mountain is too tall to climb. That is when you have to find your why. Because when you find it, you dig deep down and find reserves that you might not have even known were there.

           That will keep you going and that will keep you motivated. So, let’s end this lesson by tasking you with your homework. Take some time and really ask yourself what you want to get out of training. Decide why you are doing it. Maybe you are like me and you were tired of being fat. Tired of not taking selfies or pictures with your kids because you were ashamed. Maybe there is that moment where you don’t know if you can get another rep. That is often when I look at myself in the mirror and think, You know that little red-haired girl didn’t go out with you because you are fat. Suddenly motivation springs eternal. Whatever your reason, you have to find your why. That gives you direction and it gives you purpose.

           Thus endeth the lesson. Now go forth and do likewise. 

Feeling Like a Fraud

           I read an interesting piece on the Internet that said, “Making fun of a fat person at the gym is like making fun of a homeless person at a job fair.” I want you to imagine an excessively overweight person coming into a gym. Most people act like they don’t exist or will watch them out of the corner of their eye, silently wondering to themselves, What are they doing here? I know this seems inherently cruel and there is a chance you might have caught yourself doing the same thing. Don’t fret. It is actually basic human nature. The problem is that the overweight person does not look like he or she belongs in a gym therefore they are looked upon as being out of place.

           Unfortunately, these are the people that deserve the most encouragement and need to be made to feel like they belong. They have swallowed enough pride to actually make it to the gym. I think it was Woody Allen who said half of success is just showing up. So here is a person that maybe doesn’t know what they are doing and doesn’t feel comfortable wearing yoga pants. It was hard enough for them just to walk in the door. The last thing they need is a lunkhead making fun of them when they are trying to improve their lives. Everyone has to start somewhere.

           For the longest time, when I would get out of my car and made that walk from the parking space into the gym, I felt like a fraud. I could see my shadow as I walked up and I just wanted to hang my head in shame and tiptoe inside. It was nothing that anyone did to me directly. I just knew I didn’t belong. That sensation washed over me three fold whenever I was making purchases at Walmart during the initial weeks of my training. Whenever I was just getting started and I went shopping for my gloves, my weight belt, my protein powders, or other miscellaneous equipment, I had this crippling fear that the lady running the check stand would look at my purchases, look at me, look back at my purchases, look back at me, and then place the items in the checkout bag while thinking sarcastically to herself, Yeah, that gym belt is going to see a lot of use. There were even times where I would try to intentionally hit the self-checkout stands just to avoid that situation.

           I am very much aware that this fear is unfounded. I know most checkers rarely pay attention to the thousands of individual items that run through the checkout stands on a daily basis. When I was working in a grocery store, I never paid attention to such things. Truth be told, most good checkers want you checked out as quickly as possible. They are not analyzing your purchases. They are just cranking your items across that scanner to get you out as fast as possible. Still it was my fear. Welcome to the labyrinth of psychoses that is my mind.

           But then months began to pass by and the trips to the gym began to uptick from three days a week to five days a week. I would even squeeze in a sixth workout on the weekend from time to time. Pounds began to shed. Clothes got looser around my waist and I started to drop a size. Suddenly, I began to feel less and less like a fraud. I began to grow more comfortable in my own skin. And instead of slinking into the gym, far too conscientious of my waistline, I began to walk in with a certain level of pride. The trainers started welcoming me by name. And it was here that I belonged.  

           When I am in the gym, I am there to work. I keep my headphones in. I don’t laze around. I grunt. I grimace. I get stuff done. But this doesn’t mean I am overly antisocial. I am quick to give silent “thumbs up” of encouragement and nods of acknowledgement to others that are there. Remember, be the change you want to see in the world.

           You never know how just a simple nod of encouragement can help someone… especially when they are feeling like a fraud. Silently, many people feel this way even when they are scared to admit it. Be nice. Be helpful. Be encouraging. Because the world needs more people like that.

           If I have to boil this down into a bumper sticker: Less lunk, more pump.

A Seat at the Table

           It took me a long time to come to grips with why I enjoy bodybuilding so much until one day it all crystalized for me. I’ve played competitive sports. And while many times we are told that these are just “games” or “friendly competitions amongst friends.” To this, Lieutenant Worf (son of Mogh) once said, “If winning is not important then, Commander, why keep score?” While I am not one of these people that believe all kids deserve participation trophies, I found myself drawn to games like World of Warcraft because it was five or ten friends against a computer as opposed to battling amongst other players. (I rarely participated in PVP battles.) And while I enjoy the look of STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT, at the end of the day, it is me against other players and as such I do not enjoy it as much. What does all this have to do with bodybuilding?

           At the end of the day, the only person I am competing with is me. My goal is always the same: Be a little better than I was yesterday. Five more pounds, one more rep, more precise in my form,   these are all ways that I can improve. While there are many bodybuilding competitions that are out there, I have said repeatedly that I do not feel this is my goal. I don’t want to be that guy with the seven-foot shoulders tapering down to a pair of four-inch jockey shorts. I just want to look good naked; to be physically pleasing to the eye.

           In your quest to achieve this goal, you can create an odd camaraderie at your local gym. It has been my experience that people are tremendously helping and encouraging of one another. Maybe I am lucky in my journey thus far. I am certain there are always going to be lunkheads that will chastise those of lesser skill. Or there are going to be those jealous girlies who see the hot chick and whisper to each other how she is a slut or a whore. I think it was the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle who once said, “Haters are going to hate.” I might be paraphrasing him. But I feel these are the far ends of the spectrum and do not represent that vast majority in the middle.

           Why is this level of camaraderie so evident in a gym?

           The reason is surprisingly simple. Your success does not exclude someone else from achieving what they want to achieve for themselves. It is not like there are a limited number of seats at the table. There is more than enough room for everyone and I am willing to bet that those already seated will be more than happy to reach back and offer you a seat beside them. Most are incredibly encouraging.

           What is more, most people are more than happy to share with you a formula that works. Once I started posting entries (and a few selfies) on my Facebook page about my progress, people would come to me wondering what I was doing. The approach was always the same. They wanted to know what I was doing but said that they understood if I didn’t want to share my secrets – like it was a top secret formula that I was keeping hidden all to myself. I can understand why people are reluctant to give up that information, like they found a fountain of youth and they didn’t want to share the location.  

           But here is the thing, I DON’T WANT IT TO BE A SECRET! This is why I am putting this out on the internet in the form of this blog. I want you to succeed. There is a very real chance that you will start working through the Furyan sets and discover something that maybe I am overlooking. Some simple advice from you – from the outside looking in – could help me elevate my game by giving me a different perspective.

           I think the only reservation that serious gym-goers will have is someone wasting their time. The washout rate in the gym is sickening. Want proof? Go to any gym on January 1^st and count the number of people and then come back a month later. So maybe a serious lifter doesn’t want his workout interrupted knowing there is a 75% chance his advice will not be put to good use. But once you establish yourself as a “regular,” I think you will be amazed at how included you will become within the family.

           Me? I will certainly give you that “thumbs up” and a nod of encouragement. Just don’t interrupt the middle of a Breaking Benjamin song or an intense lift.