This entire problem is in your head Lupo. You lack clarity of your objective. Lock in the objective, execute it without thought of others. Don't get distracted and stick to a plan. Things will progress.Originally Posted by Lupo
Good luck.
Starting Strength Coach
Well chap, if the modern aesthetic is your issue, then there’s not much we can do to help. Body image is a deep seated psychological issue and personal preference that only you can figure out for yourself. Here’s a starting place to break out of it:
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Member
This entire problem is in your head Lupo. You lack clarity of your objective. Lock in the objective, execute it without thought of others. Don't get distracted and stick to a plan. Things will progress.
Good luck.
✓ Member
I also believe that reading comprehension is not your problem here. We can all agree that Rip has created, in an unprecedented manner, a universe of well-though of strength training information. You exactly pinpointed the problem that not only you but the vast majority of people have with the NLP. It is not physiological but psychological. On the other hand, it is well comprehensible that Rip cannot be our online-psychologist. Thousands of people, including me, come to this forum asking him advise about stuff he has already stated his opinion about as precisely as one can do in his books and numerous articles. We read it, understand it, and still are not able to execute it due to the many reasons you already pointed out. Being much faster than I am, you also figured out a good solution pretty - hiring a coach.
225 bucks a month is a lot of money even though I am certain that the service will be worth every cent of it or it wouldn't be Rip-approved. Now I hope I don't step out of line by saying that there are also alternative online coaching possibilities. I joined Andy Baker's Online Coaching Group a couple of years ago which is less than 30 bucks a month. Granted it doesn't include personalized but only group programming but Andy has a Forum and FB Group where he answers whichever stupid question we pose. I only mention Andy's services because I know that he is an affiliate to SS, one of the first SS coaches, co-author of Practical Programming and Barbel Prescription and he moderated the programming Forum here for several years.
Member
either stop trying, or start eating sufficient. Simple choice. You are letting other people decide for you because you rely on their approval for your sense of self-confidence. It’s either time to kick the bad habit of living outside yourself and get busy training, or give into every whittle and split of your peers. It’s your choice. The first will begin to give you a sense of your own inner confidence, the second is miserable victimhood.
✓ Member
You cannot really talk to people about this type of training. Most people do not understand it and even fewer people have tried it.
Starting Strength Coach
The unending repetitive nature of posts like this continue to boggle my mind. Somehow, I must have missed the instruction that in order to properly conduct the NLP you have to become a giant fat ass. I have been a faithful practitioner of Rip's method of training for over a decade now. At no point in any of the last ten years has Rip ever told me that I needed to get fat. Countless times, for sure, he has told me that I needed to gain weight, and over the past ten years I have gained upwards of 70#. Granted, I may have made quicker strength gains had that weight increase happened faster, but I have still been able to squat over 500 for reps, deadlift over 500 for reps, and bench press over 400#. I tend to hover around 185-190 most days of the year, and I have not ever been above 200# for a single second of my life.....though I have tried for many years to do that.
During that time, I have maintained my body fat percentage at 15% +/-, which is exactly what it was when I was far thinner. I have eaten until I have been sick, and I have consumed more milk than probably anyone else on this earth...... but (AND THIS POINT IS DREADFULLY IMPORTANT) I did not use Rip's advice of "YOU NEED TO GAIN WEIGHT" as an excuse to eat like an a$$*&^. I make good food choices, although it would be far easier to eat in a caloric surplus eating tasty garbage. But, then again, never once has Rip told me that I needed to be a big fat ass.
I've achieved moderate levels of strength, and at a few weeks shy of 40 years old, I'd be willing to assume that most forty year old dudes would be somewhat happy to look like me. Hell, it is probably within reason to assume that most 20 year olds would be okay with looking like me. I've gotten this way as someone who did not have good genetics for an appealing physique. I haven't done a lot of "power building" or "bodybuilding" shit. 99+% of the last ten years plus has been spent squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, and pressing very heavy. It has been an absolutely miserable existence in the gym for the past decade. I do not enjoy what I do. My personal satisfaction comes in the form of being able to to whatever the hell I feel like doing outside of the gym, despite my advancing years.
My personal satisfaction is in knowing that I came back from a major elbow reconstruction, one that ends athlete's careers, and I did so in record time and hit lifetime PRs in all of my lifts after that. My satisfaction comes from getting to the gym a mere two hours after I buried my mother. My satisfaction comes from the fact that in ten years, no matter what life threw at me, I have only missed a handful of planned training sessions.
Satisfaction also comes from seeing what my life could have been. I see my peers limp and wheeze their way through daily life. I see their extending abdomens and their supportive braces on their knees. I see them physically breaking down and hear them talk about their glory years. I have yet to see my glory years. I'm going to be stronger next year than I am this year, and that is going to keep happening until it doesn't. Once it doesn't, I will finally realize that I will not be able to knock Death out, but I will keep punching until he puts me on the canvas for good. Being able to live into my older years and not be an absolute burden on my children is far more important to me than my quad sweep or how my biceps look or how shitty it feels under a 500# squat. That's why I got into this in the first place, and it is my singular recommendation on why you need to find a way to figure your own shit out and get back to training.
Member
Thanks for all the great responses, I am really taking something away from this post. I wanted Rips opinion on what I need to do in my position and I actually got an answer (which can usually only be acquired by provoking him a little bit). So concerning my training I take two things away from this. Firstly in Rip's opinion the way to bounce back from being stupid is to do the program, but do it right. Secondly there is a difference between overtraining and under-recovering which I find thought-provoking. For anyone with similar problems I myself might add, that Rip himself wrote about some programs for people with limited ability to recovery in Practical Programming - Special populations - Older lifters. It could be my laziness, but I think the programs mentioned there are a great way to train for people with a physically challenging everyday life.
Concerning the food issue I know that it is up to myself to break free from modern expectations and I am not yet fully able to that. But in my opinion Rip is still not accepting all the responsibility he should in this matter. If you're doing NLP and it works "you're doing the program". If it doesn't work "you're not doing the program". If you do get fat "you misinterpreted something". It is easy to create the perfect program, if everything that works is called "the program" and everything that doesn't is something else. I have immense respect for him as a strength training pioneer, but that seems to be a business rather than a coaching mindset.
Thanks for listening and responding
Lupo out
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