Right and Wrong.

I planned on doing one of those year in review logs this week with the stuff I did right this year, and the stuff I did wrong. And what I learned. But, I changed my mind. For a few reasons. I did way more stuff wrong than right, so that section would be huge(er). And, it’s just passe. Instead, I am just going to free write and dump some thoughts. Using training as an example, I did a lot right this year. I decided I wanted to run a programming experiment on myself and see how it would work. My primary goals for training are:

• Be healthy
• Be more mobile
• Compete in Bench Only and hit more in the 220 Master than I did in the 308 Open (lofty goal)
• Not get injured

So, I mapped out a template and decided to use a different movement pattern every week, not just different exercises. Sure this isn’t groundbreaking, but my approach would be different. As I have zero intentions of hitting huge squats any time soon, it would be ok to not squat every week. My thought process was that if I rotated movements it would give my beat up areas more recovery time and still build strength. Plus, it could serve as a guide for training the growing older population. I would do a squat movement one week, a loaded carry such as the SpudInc wheelbarrow the next, a deadlift movement the week after and bodybuilding assistance the next week in a monthly cycle. For upper body, it was similar, but it is not as easy to vary the upper body movements. I rotated Bench Press,

Edema/Floor Presses, and Overhead Presses with a bar or a log, and then a week of bodybuilding. I also did a lot of very high rep work at the end of the sessions. Things like 100-200 reps of:

• Pullaparts
• Pushdowns
• Curls
• Flies
• Lateral Raises
• Rows

This was going pretty good (RIGHT) until I fell onto the WRONG path. Without getting too in detail, I fell for some gym shenanigans-you know, we all do it, and tore my right bicep. This was the WRONG path. And to make matters worse, I tore some forearm muscles in my left arm the week after trying to grab a 150 pound floor jack as it fell on the ground. Now I had two useless arms. This is where right and wrong come into play. I should have known the difference. Right: Having a plan, yes, a loose plan, but a plan and sticking to it to avoid injury and reach my goal. Wrong: Succumbing to childish, but fun gym challenges and getting hurt. I know the difference between right and wrong but I did it anyway. Lesson learned. As I wrote before, I violated a primary rule: Don’t be an asshole. Being an asshole usually will get you nowhere fast. In this case, it set me back months in training and goal achieving. So how does this apply to you? Easy. You should know the difference between right and wrong. If you don’t, your parents didn’t do a good job. We all make mistakes from time to time and some of them can be minor. Some can be catastrophic. Trust me. If you are going to do something, in the gym, out of the gym, in your personal life, in your professional life, take a moment and think: Is this the right thing to do? Sure, you may not know if it the right thing and that’s ok. You damn well know if it is the wrong thing. Avoid the wrongs. Try to make 2019 the year that your Rights and Wrongs are not balanced. Make this the year of mostly Rights. I tried to do this in areas outside training and had a lot of success. I expect 2019 to be an even better year in this area. Training wise, I am not sure. I’ve got a lifelong habit of doing dumb stuff in the gym and it has been hard to break. I have the bicep to prove it. Going forward for the coming new year, I am going to move more to the RIGHT side of things in the gym as I did in other areas. Hopefully, it will pay off. As far as you are concerned, I hope that all of you reading this will look at your training, your careers, your relationships and see what is right and what is wrong. Figure out how to move to the right and away from the wrong. If you do this a little more today than you did yesterday, pretty soon you will see big changes and huge progress. A little everyday is a lot over time. I hope I have given you some food for thought as we enter the new year. Did you miss last week’s Log?

Read it here.



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C.J. Murphy December 27, 2018