Are you at 100%?

We have been talking a lot about having a balanced life in the last few weeks, and I wanted to add some perspective and personal experiences.

The great thing about the family at ChrisFit is that all of us are highly motivated with specific goals. We are all dedicated. I am the first to admit that I preach that if you want something bad enough, you develop the mindset that nothing can stand in your way and you can achieve anything you set your mind to. 

But how far is too far?

Too often, through conversation and observation, I notice that many people are following a workout and nutrition program that resemble that of a precontest bodybuilder 3 weeks out form competition, whose goal may simply to be healthier and fit in to a size lower clothes. Is this healthy?

Or the person who wants a PR so bad, they simply load weight on the bar, often more than is realistically possible to handle, or when they are beat down after too many weeks of heavy training, all in an effort to hit that number as soon as possible. Is that healthy?

When you want something so bad, you have your eye on that final end goal, it is very easy to get too carried away, and you start trying to too far too fast and lose sight of intelligent training and eating. I am guilty of this myself. BALANCE truly is the key.

The only person that should be doing 3 a day workouts and in a major calorie deficit all the time training like a precontest bodybuilder, is a precontest bodybuilder. 

While you need to test your strength to hit new PRs and work towards a higher total in powerlifting, you should never handle a weight that is obviously to heavy. When you miss a weight one, two, sometimes 3 weeks in a row, that is 3 weeks of no progress and benefit. Had you made smaller, realistic jumps, chances are you would have made it to that specific weight by then (or sooner), and you also have a string of great training, PRs, and great momentum moving into a competition. 


I believe that too many people need to ‘feel’ that they are dieting to feel as though they are making progress. This often means a few things-
-    too large of a calorie deficit
-    eating food they are unhappy with
-    slowed progress as a result of not supplying your body with the nutrients it needs
-    unhappy with life

Do you need to eat nothing plain chicken breast, plain green beans and plain brown rice? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not only is this not sustainable it is not healthy. 

Do you need to miss every social occasion because they are not serving the above mentioned food, and you will be out too late and you need to train the next morning? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I am not saying you can out diet and out train binge eating and drinking every weekend, but in the grand scheme of things, is one meal and then or 1-2 drinks every couple of weeks going to completely derail your progress. ABSOLUTELY NOT!

There is a time and place when you may need to be that strict for small periods of time, but for most of us most of the time, it is not necessary or conducive. You need to live and be happy. Otherwise what is the point. I want to share a couple personal experience to put this into perspective with you. 

I have not had a guilt free holiday meal since 2004. I will usually stick to the protein, veggies, and occasional potato if I am training the next day. There are also holiday meals I straight up did not eat at. I had my cooler and that was it. Sometimes I was cutting weight for competition, sometimes I was not. This never did bother me, and still doesn’t, because I know that I am still spending time with my loved ones at the table, enjoying conversation. To some this is extreme, but I am more than ok with this. But then there was my brothers 21st birthday. I was not directly in preparation for anything. I am always training and watching what I was eating, but that was it. I did not have a drink with my brother that day because of my ‘diet’. I lost my brother 9 months later. This is something that I regret. It was not so much about having an alcoholic drink, it was about the experience. The older brother having his first legal drink with his younger brother on his 21st birthday. Something that only happens one time. I lost the chance. For what? Would having 1 drink that day impact where I am right now? ABSOLUTLELY NOT! 

Powerlifting is a numbers game. You train with certain percentages for certain waves or programs, all leading up lifting the heaviest weight you can possibly handle. I was preparing for a competition April 23rd, and in the gym squatting heavy one week. I did not have any one with me to spot me. So rather than play it safe and back off the weight, I went ahead and worked up to a max effort double, RPE 10++. I was successful in the lift, however I was so shot after the second rep, I was unable to rack the weight. The bar rolled off my back, taking my left arm with me, and causing damage that resulted in surgery. Now, I am making tremendous progress in my recovery, but I am not able to compete in that meet. Because I did not want to deviate from the plan, was too bull headed with my training, and made a bad decision, all in the name of lifting heavy weight, I set myself back probably 9-10 month, rather than 1 day. 
This meet that I was planning on doing fell on the 1 year anniversary of my brothers passing.  I was very fortunate to have competed numerous times with my brothers. It was something I will cherish forever. Before my brother passed, he had mentioned how excited he was to get back to training and how excited he was to compete again. This competition was going to be dedicated to him, accomplishing things that we both had talked about for so long. Now, that is not happening. This entire chain of events because I didn’t want to alter my plan. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

This is an extreme example, but how many experiences have you un-necessarily  missed out on? In the long run, is one event, one meal, one life experience going to ruin everything that you have worked for, probably not. The reason I wanted to share this with you is so you can really understand the impact trying to be too strict can have, not just form a fat loss/muscle building perspective. 

Please keep this in mind, 100% discipline 100% of the time will not lead to 100% happiness in Life.

Paul Emmick