Beast Life: Lessons Learned

Three of the most important lessons I’ve learned since embracing the Beast Life:
1.      Make a plan, adjust plan when needed!
You’ve made it to the gym, good!
But now what? What muscle group are you working on? Are you trying to get lean or build mass? How much cardio?
These are all questions you should answer before stepping into a gym because if you don’t, you won’t last long, you won’t see progress, and you’ll get burned out.
If you’ve made a workout plan and implemented it at the gym, good!
Be prepared to adjust your plan as needed. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to change something in my workouts because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted or it didn’t fit into my fitness goals.
2.      Set short term goals to meet long term goals.
When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I had a plan but it was no where near what it should have been. It was basically one line that said, “Go to the gym”.
I didn’t know the different muscle groups and what they did. This was the time before the Internet so I couldn’t look this stuff up.
My goals were to get big!
I could barely lift 135 lbs off my chest, so I figured that was a good place to start.
7 sets of 10 reps on the bench later and I couldn’t move my chest without it locking up in extreme pain.
Lesson learned!
My short term goal was to build up my strength in my chest so that I could handle heavier weight; 135 lbs on the bar was a short term goal.
My long term goal was to bench press 315 lbs.
I now have a new long term goal of 375 lbs.
3.      You get out what you put into it!
If you go to the gym twice a week and use the treadmill for twenty minutes, that’s what you’re going to get out of it. 
If you go 4 days a week, 45 minuets of balanced weight training, core, and cardio, you’re going to see better results.
I personally go 6 days a week, for 1 hour of weight training, (today was arm day) core, (I worked on my obliques) and cardio (20 minuets on the treadmill, steep incline at a moderate pace).
Tomorrow will be chest day, my core training will focus on my upper, mid, and lower abs, and cardio.
If you want results, you have to put in the time!
The Beast Life is a life style, embrace it!