One day at the gym I saw this catalog atop the pile of magazines:

It reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer finds the overturned sugar truck and is sleeping in front of the sugar mound:

All I could hear in my head was “first you buy their supplements, then you get the abs, then you get the women”. 🙂

Flipping through the catalog, it was the same old thing of overhyped promises: promises to get h00g3, ripped, be better (and more legal!) than anabolics and other PED’s, and of other enhancement — if you just buy and take our expensive product. Oh yeah… and when you take our product, you’ll get the body you want, and the woman it belongs to (thank you Paul Stanley).

Of course, few of these products are proven to work; heck, even the bro-science is often weak. And when you have places like examine.com to give you the straight story well… you do realize how much of this stuff is just parting foolish you with your money.

But still… we dream. And still we throw our money away.

Yes, if there can be a short-cut that is proven to work, we will take it. Why? Because we are human. We want to bigger, better, faster, more, and we want it now. We also find it difficult to be patient. We also find it difficult to accept that this is going to take time… a lot of time. So if we can find a way to still get to the same place but do so in a faster or more effective or more direct manner, we’re going to do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s winning the Tour de France or just choosing to go straight down the street instead of around the block when driving — we’re going to do what it takes to accomplish things in the most expedient manner.

I have lifted weights on and off since I was a teenager. I never stuck with it, and looking back I can see why: I either got bored, or I didn’t see the results I wanted (bigger/stronger, and sooner rather than later). I think that’s why I’ve stuck with now for the past 2+ years: I’m far from bored, and I see awesome results.

But still, I think to myself… gee, over 2 years at this, and I’ve only come this far? I thought I’d be further!

Furthermore, when I think about where I want to be in terms of my strength levels and body appearance, I think it might take me another 3 years. The strength gains will not come like they did the first few months on Starting Strength. In fact, a simple calculation like on Wendler of having 4-week cycles thus 13 cycles per year, and if you go up 10# per cycle on squat/deadlift, that means you should gain 130# per year, right? No, if you get 50# you’re doing great, because you’ll go maybe 6-7 cycles, then reset, then another 6-7 and reset, and those resets take a large chunk out of your numbers, so looking year to year and it may only be a 50# increase. If you’re lucky.

Is that so bad? If I’m honest with myself, no it’s not. In fact, it’s quite realistic. It’s actually the way it is… just that no one tells you it’s going to take this long. Thankfully, that’s starting to change.

Read this article from Paul Carter about Patience and Belief.

If he’s right that Andy Bolton started with a 600# deadlift and it took him 20 years before he pulled 1000#, that averages out to like 20# a year. I’m sure that wasn’t Andy’s actual increase, but it gives you some perspective. So next time you get mad because your lift isn’t going anywhere, you have to step back and really see if it’s not going anywhere or if it’s just going really slow.

Or just look at Paul’s own story. Two years before he could bench 135. But now he can close-grip 445. But it’s been 20+ years to get there. If anything, it makes me wish I was back as a teenager and knew then what I know now, so I could have stuck with it. I’m way behind the curve.

But, Paul teaches another thing:

It took me more than two decades of struggle to climb to those numbers. Regardless of how they compare to anyone else’s, they are mine, and I’m proud of them. I put in a lot of time and effort to reach them. I do not apologize for not “measuring up” to what someone else can do. The only person I need to measure up to each day, and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror. That guy needs to be better today, than he was yesterday. And tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.

He’s quite right. It doesn’t really matter if your numbers aren’t killer next to someone else. Sure, to compare your numbers to charts/standards or to what a federation establishes for “raw elite” or just to someone else’s numbers… it is useful to a degree because it gives you some perspective about what’s achievable, what’s realistic, etc..  But in the end, it’s more about you improving yourself. I’ve found myself doing that too, telling people my numbers and minimizing them because I know compared to the big boys, my numbers are nothing. But I have to remember they’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ve been doing it for 2.

Another bit of perspective came from Mike Mentzer’s book, High Intensity Training.

Those readers who have been engaged in serious bodybuilding for more than a year probably have realized that the growth of muscle tissue beyond normal levels is a relatively slow process. And while I have never seen the results of studies that might reveal exactly how many pounds the average bodybuilder gains in the course of one year of hard training, I think that most experienced bodybuilders would agree that a five-pound gain of pure muscle tissue – as opposed to give pounds of body weight, despite its composition – would be considered a considerable achievement.

Think about that. You read the bodybuilding magazines and are bombarded with how with this product or that technique you’ll put on 20# in 20 weeks, and get 20″ biceps in a matter of minutes. And here’s Mike Mentzer, one of the best bodybuilders ever, and he says if you can gain 5# in a year, that’s a “considerable achievement”. That implies in normal course you will probably gain less than 5# in a year! But then, Mike continues and puts it into perspective.

Five pounds of muscle tissue may not sound very impressive, but if a bodybuilder were able to sustain that rate of growth (5 pounds of pure muscle tissue per year) for five years, he would, at the end of that period, end up some 25 pounds heavier. If you could envision that much beefsteak laid out in front of you on the dinner table, you would then get some idea as to just how much “meat” 25 pounds of muscle is – enough to transform the average American male weighing 155 pounds into a veritable Hercules at 180 pounds of solid, cut-up muscle. It should also be remembered that of that average American male’s 155 pounds of body weight, the muscle weight component is roughly 20 pounds (the remainder being bone, water, fat, and waste materials). Given this fact, his muscle weight gain of 25 pound over five years would represent a transformation that would more than double his existing muscle mass!

Is 5 years that much to ask?

Well, yes it is. But what do you want?

I’ve been around now for long enough. I’ve done enough things that take time: 4 years of high school; 4 years of undergrad, 2 years of grad school, 4+ years to get a black belt. And yeah, you come to realize that you just have to put in that level of time before you can really understand. To ask 4-5 years of work under the bar really seems a minimum to not only get the strength levels or physique or whatever that you want, but also to have enough experience to know what you’re doing, to know what to keep doing, and to get somewhere satisfactory.

So really no, 5 years isn’t much to ask.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t get impatient. That doesn’t mean it won’t be easy. That doesn’t mean we won’t long for something “more”.

But I think about it. I can see if I stick to a good long-term diet strategy, I’ll be able to look in the mirror and see precisely what I want to see.

If say I can gain 50#/year on my deadlift and squat and 25# on my bench and press (as rough numbers), then 3 years from now that’s 150 and 75… and that will mean things like squatting in the mid-400’s, pulling low 500’s, benching maybe 3 wheels and pressing maybe 2. Hell, that’s damn respectable.

Yes I’d love to have those numbers now, but that means I should have started 5 years ago. There’s just no getting around having to put in the time.

Really, there aren’t any shortcuts here. No product in a catalog will get me the body I want (and thankfully I already have the woman). And I just can’t get around the limits of human reality – 5#/year might be all I pack on.

I just have to wait.

No, it’s not easy to accept (yet again), but it’s refreshing. It frees you from burden. It lifts off pressure. It helps you see clearer so you can know what’s useful and what’s useless towards helping you get there. Accepting the reality that it’s going to take time, that’s OK, because so far the journey’s been a good one, and I look forward to the road ahead.