The best routine is the one I like to do that continues to challenge me. That means trying different things until I find the ones that work for me. Once I get an idea of what is working that I can sustain doing it gets much easier to actually program something around those things. I hate cardio and core work. Thus they are minor outliers in my program. I still do them because the heart is a muscle and arguably the most important and everything benefits from core work. Still I only do either one 3 times over a 4 week period. If I had to do it more I don’t think I would stick with doing it.
The most important aspect of any program, by far, is consistency. Consistency requires discipline. Discipline means sometimes I am doing it even when I don’t feel like it or it seems so much harder than usual.
2nd to consistency is Diet. Diet is kind of a dirty word. For me I sought to gain lean mass for a long time and nowadays I seek to maintain it. Finding information on those goals is much harder than if the intent is to lose weight. Key thing, diet is not just losing weight. Diet is feeding your program which is built to achieve your goals. For example, if you want amazing six pack abs you might be surprised how very little core work you even have to do. Cutting fat away from them is the actual work involved. I put consistency ahead of diet because diet necessarily falls within the same precepts of consistency. I have to find something sustainable that I can get behind and not drop out over.
3rd comes effort. While a lot of gains will be had in initial stages due to rapid adaptation, in order to see continued development effort must come in to play. What this looks like is dependent on the goals involved but it always means going harder, heavier, farther, quicker, more, etc. than previously done.
At the tail end of all this is Recovery. Believe it or not, when I am asleep or taking time off is when I grow. The work in the gym is largely destructive so that my body can rebuild bigger and better as an adaptation to the stress applied to it. Without sufficient recovery my progress will stall and injury becomes the most likely outcome. Stress comes in many forms. Gym stress is but just one form and the one I arguably have the most control over. When life is handing me lemons I have to accept that those stresses are just as cumulative as any other which sometimes means curtailing the stresses I have control over in order to ensure adequate recovery.
For me, it’s a simple triangle. Diet, Effort, Sleep. When all these things are on point and in balance recognizable progress is made. Consistency and Discipline teach me how to keep these things on point and in balance.
Thank you for attending my Fitness TED Talk as
@Teeeee would say.
