Back to Basics

Back to Basics.. why you should skip the bullshit and simplify things every now and again.

One thing we are all guilty of now and again is focussing on too much of the little things, or pebbles as it were, before really getting the big rocks in place.

It's like doing every exercise under the sun in your workout because it feels like you're hitting every part of the body, which is better right?!?

And whilst this is great for the short term (it stops the boredom aspect occurring for sure), it also doesn’t really serve for steady progress in the long term.

The thing is, we know that if we just did the basics really well over and over again results will be guaranteed...

but if you're reading this you may well not have focus and willpower right now to grind through the same workouts week in week out.

And that’s completely fine, but just know that without mastering the basics any attempts at progressing will be like trying to build a house and putting the roof on before the walls are set.

I thought I’d touch on this today as I have just programmed my own next 12 week training plan and it revolves around the same 8 or so exercises done 4 times a week for 12 weeks.

You may think that will get boring quickly but for me it’s not a fact of just ‘getting the work done’ but actually focusing on getting better at each exercise and getting the most out of it.

Obviously there’s progression built into my program so by the end of 12 weeks I’ll be stronger and more efficient at those exercises but the point of this post is not what I’m doing but what the focus is; the basics done well.

So if we don’t just take working out as the sole focus but diet, sleep, family time, work schedules, whatever it is you’re over complicating right now, I urge you to look at how to simplify things back to the basics.

Look at it as a reset; look at it as a fresh start after a lapse in focus; look at it as another new ‘block’ that makes up your year…

Whatever you think you need to work on and improve right now, scale it all back.

Let’s start with exercise; if you want to get fitter, stronger, leaner or whatever your goal health and fitness wise exercise plays a big part in sculpting your body shape the way you want it.

But just going through the motions time and again will keep you ticking along but never progressing how you’d like.

Instead, look at what it is you enjoy doing to workout and then what that entails; using our TUF sessions as an example, you could focus on nailing the basics fo the movements you’d do regularly with us such as the squat, pushup, overhead press, mountain climber, hell even something as simple as the plank can be done lazily and be worked on…

so whatever it is you do to get fit, look at how you can get the absolute most out of your time spent exercising.

Next up, diet and your nutrition.  This is pretty easy to do despite the minefield of dietary advice and content out there right now.  

The only thing we suggest members going through our initial 4 weeks to do is to focus on choosing a couple of easy to make, stress free meals that also fit their calorie needs and plan then into a weekly meal plan along with the things they enjoy.

Example; I could repeat the same 300 calorie breakfast that could be prepared the night before every day for 7 days.  I could alternate between 2 different quick and easy 400 to 500 calorie lunches that don’t require cooking so that’s work day food sorted.  Then have 2 or 3 dinner recipes that are around 50 calories which I repeat a few times that week.

If all time spent prepping food is set to a minimum and I have a weekly plan in place to guide me I can then know I have a few extra calories to spare for say a flat white and a brownie out one day, or a beer and a bag of popcorn on movie night.

The basics of the meal plan simplify what could become a stressful week of trying to think of, prepare and cook meals when time isn’t on your side!

There’s 2 of the bigger topics we help members with; diet and exercise, but you may be overcomplicating other areas of your life right now.

Take this as your wake up call to go back to basics and assess where you can strip things back in your life.

Rob.