Wow.
Finally saw a UFC fight that was worth staying up late to watch.
(and trust me, this is an AMAZING feat of will power for me..)
Now, regardless of whether or not you approve of Mixed Martial Arts I can tell you that there is some valuable lessons to be learned from this sport.
After watching George St. Pierre continually improve as a fighter (he’s the guy who one the main fight) I realized some rather obvious things and some not-so-obvious things.
Firstly, the Obvious:
Progress needs Progression.
Next, the non-obvious:
You can’t FORCE progression.
These two rules go for building muscle or losing fat or getting better at an activity….really, they go for everything in life.
Everybody talk about progress, but nobody talks about the fact that progress doesn’t work when you force it.
In fact, the go-to health and fitness Bravado is FORCE IT, FORCE IT, FORCE IT!
The mantra of almost any get rich quick scheme is FORCE IT, FORCE IT, FORCE IT!
Yet, in my opinion the truth is:
You need to improve, BUT you need to get rid of the obstacles that are preventing you from improving.
You just can’t push your way through everything (Forcing it doesn’t always work).
Sometimes you need to be smart and remove your obstacles INSTEAD of going through them….
Banging your head against a brick wall so to speak.
Some Examples:
When it comes to losing body fat, it’s all about eating less.
But ‘eating less’ is much easier to type, then it is to actually do.
Most of the time, it’s because, well…we really like to eat.
So an example of REMOVING The problem instead of FORCING your way thought it, would be not keeping foods in your house that you
‘love’ enough to pig out on (even though you know the consequences).
(And you know I’m a big fan of allowing people to enjoy their food.)
But there’s a BIG difference between allowing yourself the occasional piece of cake, or dessert at your favorite restaurant
and DESTROYING a box of Orea Cookies every week, just because they are there.
Remove the problem instead of trying your force yourself through it.
Don’t make every day of your life a constant WILL POWER BATTLE…
The easier solution is to simply avoid keeping the Oreos in your house.
When it comes to workouts, it’s all about lifting “more”.
Now ‘more’ may be volume, weight, intensity…however you personally want to improve, something has to increase.
In the case of working out, it’s typically things that you ignore or try to ‘push through’ that are preventing you from
progressing.
From my experience this doesn’t work….EVER.
If you have a weak point it needs to be fixed…you can’t just ignore it and force your way though it.
(just like you can’t pretend the bag of Oreos isn’t there)
Getting back to George St. Pierre, this is how he became champion -
He consistently improved his weak spots…he didn’t ignore them.
For you, this means addressing injuries…
Especially those nagging injuries that you ignore thinking they will ‘go away’
It doesn’t work, and its preventing you from reaching your goals.
Get them fixed.
Don’t force your way through them, roll with them..rest if you need rest, get it fixed if it needs to be fixed.
Ignore exercises that aggravate and concentrate on the ones that seem to help.
I’m bench pressing again because I finally took the time to address my shoulders.
The result is bigger, stronger shoulders and a pain free bench press (and a stern lesson to treat this lift with a little more respect)
For many people, it’s the lower back.
If you have a bad lower back you can’t squat, or bench, or even curl without some form of pain.
If you are going to progress, look for things you are trying to ‘force’ …..then remove them (If you can).
As funny as it sounds, you can’t force progress, you allow progress to happen.
For fat loss, if food is your issue, instead of ‘dieting’ and fighting a hard battle, you could just use the Eat Stop Eat philosophy and simply remove the problem once or twice a week. (Basically ‘Allowing’ fat loss to happen, rather than trying to force it to happen).
Saves you lots of effort, lots of decisions..no more forcing it, you just remove it.
BP
PS- Speaking of MMA and bad backs, Eric Wong is an MMA specialist who has a free report on exercises that help back pain.
Obviously, I’m not an expert in back pain by any means, but I know Eric had a really (really) messed up back, and now he’s pain free so it may be worth a look..you can check it out here:
http://www.bulletproofback.com/back-pain-report.html
Tags: Caloric Restriction, Eat Stop Eat, gain muscle, MMA, Muscle, UFC, Weight loss
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What if there is no consequence to having dessert(s) every night? I have been rationing calories because I like to eat in the morning and at night. During the day I am usually pretty good. I am not putting away a bag of Oreos every night by any means, but I do eat dessert every night. And I haven’t put on any weight (I exercise and do a fast every week). I am in maintenance mode in terms of weight.
This is very timely for me because I’ve been discussing this with a friend who is also exploring ESE. I have learned in my life that if I force/push too much with certain things it’s pretty much guaranteed that they will not go ahead.
I agree that obstacles should be removed when possible. For example, I know that if I’m experiencing a lot of stress, a fast is too challenging, so I must try to reduce the stress and then a day of fasting becomes almost effortless, natural and inevitable. If instead I try to force a fast w/o reducing the stress first, to perhaps make up for some stress response overeating, it backfires. In fact, I may end up eating MORE on that forced fasting day than I would had I not pushed! How funny.
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Brad,
What was the problem with your shoulder? How did you go about rehabbing it?
I’ve been lifting weights recreationally for 2-3 years and have begun to notice a slight, nagging pain in my left shoulder when I bench press.
I’ve taken a few weeks off bench pressing (while admittedly, resisting the urge to “force it”), but I’m assuming the only way to really come back at it is to talk to a doctor/chiropractor and go from there.
Having been there, is there anything else you’d recommend?
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Honestly, I want the hard battle! lol.
Today, I decided to be more strict over the weekends. Over the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve been losing weight from Monday to Thursday, and maintaining/ slightly gaining from Friday to Sunday. I feel like I’m treading water for half of the week. I’m still losing weight overall (~20 pounds so far,) but I just don’t have the patience to waste nearly half of my week any longer.
I have 50-60 more pounds to lose, and I want to do this over the next several months, so I don’t want to waste any time. I want a deficit 6-7 days a week. If that means forcing the issue, or putting in a lot of effort (well, I guess eating less is just mental effort, not physical effort,) that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
What I’m really looking forward to is maintenance. I’m hoping that I can indulge more, and then compensate with a couple of IF’s per week. That would be sweet!
I took more than a few weeks off.
I took a couple months off of chest training.
Then I spent a year getting my shoulders much stronger.
Then i started back with chest training, then after I was happy with my chest training (mostly weighted chins) I started Bench Pressing again.
Bottom line, just because you stop training bench press, doesn’t mean you’ve rested the shoulder.
In fact, If you think about it, Biceps, Triceps, Back, heck, even squats, deadlifts…they all stress the shoulder girdle to some degree.
B
If there are no consequences then go for it.
I think of a piece of birthday cake is the healthiest food in the world. But a eating a Birthday CAKE may be one of the worst.
The poison is in the dose.
B
It’s also definitely a mental thing too. When I realize “hey, from my calcs I am 450 under maintenance, I can have another small piece of my wife’s ginger cake (yes, it’s AWESOME), I sometimes feel guilty. And then you can also feel weird when you know you are under your maintenance cals, and you turn down said ginger cake. Weird.
The human mind is a deep trench of weirdness….
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This is insane, read the book 3 weeks ago, i am now on my fourth 24h fast in 2 weeks and almost all my cravings are gone, i need to force myself to eat. I feel so much better, no more bloating, feeling full.
I was mixing the warrior diet but modified it a bit more because eating once a day you really go overboard on calories and that might make the stomach even bigger.
Now i feel that food does not control me anymore, and everything i think i am feeling hungry i wait a few minutes and it goes away.
I also read the how much protein you really need, kind of sucks because before i read this i had ordered the new fat burner USPlabs OxyELITE Pro
and a that new creatine EFX Kre-Alkalyn. GRRRR with that eating 6 small meals a day i always felt hungry and tough i needed a fat burner to cut appetit. Now with eat stop eat i just dont need that. I must admit that Oxyelite does a great job at giving some very good energy but even then when doing cardio after an 18 hours fast and not taking Oxyelite i still have plenty of energy. That makes me wonder if you really need that recovery drink after a workout or you will lose all your muscles.
I cannot comment on the Kre-alk creatine because i did not try it yet, i know that in the book how much protein you really need Brad says creatine is good.
I cant wait to see how i am going to look in a few month of ESE and also i think i might add another 24h fast to make it 3 days a week just to kick start everything.
I would have a question tough, what happens if i am not hungry and i undereat most of the time, i am 220 pounds and if i check my calorie requirements they are around 3400cals a day, i am doing some P90X workouts 3 times per week, mixed with some cardio and yoga, i really keep active, also doing the WII EA active more workouts, the cardio beach blast hard is 43 minutes and very intense, as you jumping, running, squash, and more, that is really intense and leaves me sweating, i also do around 30-45 minutes of infra red sauna a day, and drink a lot of water.
But at some point what happens if i really dont feel hungry, since starting eat stop eat after each 24 hour fast i feel less hungry all the time, i did not get any sugar cravings and i did have a huge sweet tooth. But what will happen if i just eat when i am hungry and at some point that could be only once or twice a day. With eat stop eat seems like my mind isnt thinking about food anymore?
I will try to eat some frozen fruits usually the berries mix, and also some veggies soup, i also eat some chicken and lean red meat but for the rest?, should i force myself to eat at least my required amount of calories per day, to be honest right now i barely eat 1400 cals at 220 pounds?
Brad,
Another great post! It was funny that I read this last night because I was just going through this same conversion with my wife and friends. They were all getting on me for ESE(but im losing weight), they were all getting on me for not keeping foods in the house that I really really enjoy (but im losing weight)!! The funny thing is everyone kept saying I need to have self control. I mean what more self control do I need other than to no my weakness and simply being smart enough to not give in.
I see it time and time again my wife buys something and inside of eating little by little like she says its all gone in a matter of hours. Of course to others I have no weight to lose as since im 6’3 199lbs but I look nothing like you or John B. and could stand to lose a few pounds to see abs and 5lbs of muscle we be great!
I think if there were a ‘self control’ contest I would come in dead last. Probably why fasting works so well for me.
I’m better at on/off then I am at turning the volume up or down.
B
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that doesn’t solve the problem. example :
how about if you live with people that have Nasty Eating Habits ?
( aka, lots of tasty crap around all the time)
in that case “get rid of the obstacles” = FORCE IT
ultimately, there is only one solution, it may fail sometimes, but most of the time it works, and it is there with you all the time. It really builds your character and sense of empowerment. just another type of training that i do. i call it : YES, BUT NO.
be strong . CRAP FOOD. Yes, it IS there. Yes, IT IS super tasty garbage. I would love to eat it. BUT NO. Not now. maybe latter, maybe tomorrow ill go and buy MY crapfood. Maybe not. its my choice.
So yes, Indulge yourself, but on your therms. so there is an open bag of crapfood there and you didn’t bought it? YES, BUT NO.
Yes, but no. I like it!
It’s true, when we live with other people, it can be harder to just keep stuff out of the house. I live with other people, and I’m not going to tell anybody what they can and can’t bring home. And besides, I want to have some of those foods, too! Just on my terms, and in smaller amounts. Fortunately, my discipline has been good enough. Not perfect, but good. I’ve turned down foods, and I’ve been able to eat small amounts and stop. I can eat one chocolate donette (small donut) and stop. I never thought I could do that! I think our discipline/ self-control can become much better than we think. What seems unrealistic can become realistic once one improves, once one applies commitment and resolve.
Of course, Brad isn’t wrong for keeping tempting foods out of the house. That’s a good strategy! But discipline is possible, moderation is possible, saying no is possible, it really is. I had a horrendous diet, I had zero self-control for years. If I can do it, just about anybody can.
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I would have a question tough, what happens if i am not hungry and i undereat most of the time, i am 220 pounds and if i check my calorie requirements they are around 3400cals a day, i am doing some P90X workouts 3 times per week, mixed with some cardio and yoga, i really keep active, also doing the WII EA active more workouts, the cardio beach blast hard is 43 minutes and very intense, as you jumping, running, squash, and more, that is really intense and leaves me sweating, i also do around 30-45 minutes of infra red sauna a day, and drink a lot of water.
But at some point what happens if i really dont feel hungry, since starting eat stop eat after each 24 hour fast i feel less hungry all the time, i did not get any sugar cravings and i did have a huge sweet tooth. But what will happen if i just eat when i am hungry and at some point that could be only once or twice a day. With eat stop eat seems like my mind isnt thinking about food anymore?
I will try to eat some frozen fruits usually the berries mix, and also some veggies soup, i also eat some chicken and lean red meat but for the rest?, should i force myself to eat at least my required amount of calories per day, to be honest right now i barely eat 1400 cals at 220 pounds?
I think if there were a ‘self control’ contest I would come in dead last. Probably why fasting works so well for me.
I’m better at on/off then I am at turning the volume up or down.
B
There is no reason to force yourself to eat, and I would guess that your 3,400 is a miscalculation, unless you are 6’8″ tall.
B
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