Hey!
Hope your Sunday is off to a good start. Thanks for spending a few valuable minutes of it with me here. I appreciate it.
The 3 things for today,
3 questions on strength training. Will it help you lose fat? Will it help you build muscle? Will it make you bulky?
3 quotes, as usual.
on the ever-expanding universe of our lives. You realise that some things were scarier in your head than in the real. But now, with more years under the belt, you see better. And when you were bored, you were just not challenged enough.
3 questions on strength training
#1 Will strength training burn fat?
Fat loss happens in the kitchen. More than 50% of your results are to be found in what you eat. And this is assuming you are sleeping at least 7 hours every night.
Fat loss eventually comes down to calories. Did you burn more calories than you consume? And this adds up over days, weeks, months, and years.
With that in mind, let's approach the question. Yes, strength training will help you burn fat in a few ways.
By building muscle. Muscle is expensive i.e. it consumes more calories. It requires a lot of upkeep. Which is great, as you want to expend more calories. So, the more muscle you build, the more your body will spend to keep it.
The increased strength means you now produce more output, doing whatever you do. You do a workout, let's say 100 swings, 50 squats, 50 pushups. Previously, if you did this with a 12 kg and today you do it with a 24 kg kettlebell - the amount of work you did just went up dramatically. More output = more calories spent.
And more output = potentially more muscle mass. But before you expect to blow up and look all Arnold, please ensure you read the second question.
By stoking our metabolism for the better. Our body will learn to use the right fuel as we fuel it better and if we stoke the furnace better - which you do, in part, by strength training. Without getting into jargon like IGF-1 and all that, strength training will help you improve your hormonal processes and your metabolism.
In conclusion, strength training can aid your fat loss journey. In the long haul, it is amongst the best methods for better health and fat loss. But in terms of calories spent, you are better off doing something you suck at. Let's say you are a solid runner - well, go to the swimming pool. Oh, you swim really well? Then, might be a good idea to take up running. Whatever you suck at, you will waste more energy.
#2: Will strength training build muscle?
Yes.
But learning to lift heavy weights is a skill. Learning to create the tension required to lift heavy weights is a skill. It will take time.
There are two types of muscle building - using light weights and lots of repetitions. I don't prescribe that method. I prefer heavier weights and low repetitions. This builds adequate muscle. The more tonnage you move, the more muscles you will put on.
It is totally possible to be rather strong and not look like a gym rat. It depends on what you want.
#3: Will strength training make you bulky?
No.
It can if that's your goal.
Bulky = what gym posters or the typical Arnold photo looks like.
But it is much harder than you'd think. Especially with the heavy weights and low reps approach.
Getting big and getting strong can be disconnected from each other. But if you are strong, you can get big. You just need to do a lot of work - remember heavy weights and low reps. So, a lot more sets!
A strong person need not be big/bulk. A big/bulky person need not be strong.
Strength training and bodybuilding are completely different.
3 quotes for this week
Excuses are easier than sweating. We blame the culture, the fast food companies, the government, the schools, corn, our spouse, and our parents, but nothing changes until you look in the mirror and say loudly: I am who I am because of the choices I have made.
– Thomas Plummer
Last week, we ended with a slap in the face. Today, let's start with it.
Until we can be honest and face up to something, we cannot get over it. This is not about beating ourselves up. But calling it as it is. Then, we can get to the second step. Action.
Once we've acknowledged it, we need to move on and do something. Anything.
If you lose the spirit of repetition, your practice will become quite difficult.
– Shunryu Suzuki
Reps. Lots of reps. Purposeful, focused practice.
If we get bored with reps, then we will stagnate. Think about driving - we've all stagnated at our current level many years ago. Or in lifting weights. Or cooking a dish you've cooked 100s of times before.
If we look at each rep as practice and focus and give it a great effort - that mindset bleeds into everything. Sounds exhausting. Feels totally exhausting. But I think it becomes a habit.
That's just my hypothesis. If in a few years it becomes true, I'll be sure to yell it out.
A practitioner must learn to perform at top speed all the time, not to coast with the idea he can "open up" when the time comes. The real competitor is the one who gives all he has, all the time. The result is that he works close to his capacity at all times and in so doing, forms an attitude of giving all he has. In order to create such an attitude, the practitioner must be driven longer, harder and faster than normally would be required.
– Bruce Lee
Yet another reason why I was always an average student in school and an average Ultimate frisbee player. I never gave it my all in training and practice. I did just enough. With school, it was boredom. With Ultimate, it was bandwidth. In both cases, it would've been better to have given it my best effort or just skipped it.
Footballers speak about this (presumably all other sportspeople do but I don't follow any other sport) often. Anything you see in a game, well, they've done it 1000s of times in training. In fact, the purpose of having a large squad with ultra-talented footballers who seem to play rather less in the actual game is they still are so valuable during training. If you haven't done it in practice, you won't do it in a game.
Put in the right effort. Put in the best effort. Even if you have a valid excuse.
the ever-expanding universe
back in school
Hark back to when you were a kid in school. You shudder when called into the Principal's office, whether you did something wrong or not. You worry about studying for exams, about your status games and roles in school, about trying to make the school cricket team (or the debate team, or the band), and sometimes the stress got to you. You were dependent on your parents for most (all?) things. You see your friend have the NES 64 and want one of your own but no.
You think that all your problems will resolve when you grow up and move out of your parents' house. No more rules.
Silly kid!
moving out
When you move out to make it on your own, it is liberating. And scary. You are now responsible for things that did not exist - paying rent, doing laundry, buying groceries, and hundred other things. The universe seems to have expanded quite a bit.
This expansion causes quite a stir. A lot of fun new things and a lot of scary new responsibilities as well. Figuring out how to navigate this is fun, especially if you have a safety net of sorts. You are playing the game in your sandbox. Whenever it gets rough, there's always a cheat code in the form of parents or relatives or someone to help you out.
You think that as soon as you get a job, all your problems are going to be a thing of the past. And the current pesky ones - the exams, the studying, well, vanish.
This growing up thing is still fun but not as carefree as you once believed.
the first job
Well, the first paycheck. The moment you've been waiting for. The freedom and liberation. The promised land. Let's buy the latest video game console. And the car. And all those things that are waiting to be found at the end of the rainbow.
And the list of adult stuff and yucky responsibilities have grown so much more. You are starting to realise that being 15 was the promised land. Well, a bit too late now. You make futile attempts to re-live and re-create it. But enough brainpower has developed to move on.
You have to do your job well. You have to figure out how to get promoted, how to be in your manager's good books, how to make yourself stand out and all that. As the grunt work increases, the promised land starts to get more bitter than expected.
As soon as you make manager, all your problems will be solved.
Haha.
go play somewhere else
When you start off, your universe is small. You get rather good at placing it in context, figuring out the various games that are in it and play them well. But of course, some of them irk you and you naively think that moving to the next level means you won't need to play that game or be confined by those rules.
Except, of course, the next level has different games to play, different rules. More freedom, of course. But more responsibility. The carefree nature of things starts to reduce bit by bit. And before you know it, you are an adult doing adult things you swore you'd never do - telling kids to go play someplace else and not next to your car as they keep hitting the ball on it. Oh boy, you are THAT girl/guy now. Scratch that, you are THAT uncle/aunty now.
Sobering.
the ever-expanding universe
By now, we should recognise this pattern. Every increasing level of this game of life brings about higher-level responsibilities. And higher-level benefits. Not better. Not worse. Simply different. And inevitable.
Hiding from them is not an option. Even if it were, would you take it?
Your function is to keep your universe ever-expanding. And to grow with it. And to keep growing and learning. There's no point saying you will not go to the 12th grade and you'd rather stay in the 11th grade. There's no point saying you won't go away to college. That is the path, or rather, moving forward is the path (not the actual specifics, like college).
Do you want your job to improve? Well, embrace the responsibility. Play the game better. Don't wish for a better job. Do your current job immeasurably well and you will realise there's so much more to you and your job than you previously thought. And before you know it, you are promoted. And hey, you seem to be doing half the things that your new role requires. This has also opened up a new realm of possibilities. Embrace it! Don't be overwhelmed by it - everyone around you is also figuring it out.
Looking back at high school, you realise let fear get in the way. You realise that some things were scarier in your head than in the real. Back then, it was obviously too real and scary. But now, with more years under the belt, you see better. And when you were bored, ahhh, you were just not challenged enough.
Well, you can wait 10 years to look back and today and realise the same. Or maybe, just maybe, tell yourself that (and hope realisation comes by later) and just act that way.
The universe will keep expanding. Expand with it. Be at the boundary, constantly pushing. Find the middle way.
Thanks for reading, listening, and sharing. I’ll see you next week.
