New Rule for Bodybuilding #9

9. Know what you're going to do in the gym that day--before you get there.

Walking into the gym with no idea of what you'll be doing that day is a recipe for failure. Training requires a bit of forethought. Not knowing what you'll do that day can lead to spending too much time lifting.

Workouts are more effective if they last from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours at the most.

Workouts lasting for 2-3 hours means that the volume of work is too high while intensity is suffering as a result. If both intensity and volume are high at the same time it could lead to overtraining. But doing both at the same time is likely not the case. The more likely case is resting for so long that one totally cools off, back to resting heart rate. Get warmed up and stay warmed up.

If one usually works out for hours, it might make it easier to rationalize not exercising by saying, "I don't have the time to workout." If workouts normally exceed an hour and a half, they're not most effective anyway. What one is really saying is, "I don't have time to workout [the way that I'm used to working out]."

Many lift rarely yet so hard that on their first day or "first day back," overdo it and become so sore and stiff the following days that they associate lifting with "bad pain."

For many who lift regularly then take a long break, on returning, try to lift the amount of weight they were lifting when they lifted last. Yet when they lifted last they were at their peak of endurance and strength for those exercises. All they while, they remember how it feels to lift ("good") and maybe beat themselves up about not being "as strong" or not keeping an "ideal" workout schedule ("bad"). Why anchor good [physical] feelings to bad [emotional] feelings of disappointment?

Be nice to yourself. Don't lift for other people. Lift for yourself. If your mind-muscle connection is developed, the numbers on the weights do not matter; how you want others to perceive your workout does not matter.