Less Is Better for Amazing Results
Less is better for amazing results, and I have realized this after years of lifting and chronic pain. These last few years, I have learned that doing more is only hurting my body and results. My issues started back in high school, and if you know anything about high school coaches and lifting, you know that they were not about form.
How my Pain Started
I been exercising since I was 8 years old but didn’t start using weights until I was a freshman in high school.
Back then, exercise was all about getting stronger and bigger. Part of it was for the girls and football, but thinking back, being stronger was a big interest of mine.
I wanted to be the strongest that I can, for the sake of being stronger than those around me. This is partly due to my dad, who was crazy strong, and by Dragon ball Z, an anime.
I wanted to be strong like my dad and the characters in Dragon ball Z because it looked fun being strong.
Also, it was fun being able to do things my friends couldn’t, like pull ups. It felt great when I could do more than those who were older than me. It was a good feeling being stronger than those around me.
Then I got to the weight room at the school gym for the first time, I was humbled. I thought I could do the same weights that my teammates of the same size could do.
I was not only wrong, but embarrassed. During a barbell bench press lift, I failed and needed help to get the weight off my chest.
At the time, I didn’t know there was a skill component to lifting. My teammate has been in the gym using weights longer than me so was more skilled and stronger.
I wanted to get stronger than my teammates and be able to do more than them. Motivation and dedication took over.
For 3 months, during summer break, I spent every day in the gym, getting stronger and stronger. At the time, I thought I would get amazing results if I went to the gym everyday. It fueled my interests of being stronger even more than before. During that summer break of lifting, I gained 15lbs and got significantly stronger.
Details are a little fuzzy, but I can not recall the coaches spending any time on form. For the coaches, it was all about getting stronger and bigger for football. At that time, I thought my form was perfect since no one ever corrected me. I was also a stubborn teenage boy, so of course I thought my form was great.
In hindsight, my form was horrible, and my shoulder joint proves that.
One day in the gym, I let my ego on the bench press get ahead of me. The constant pushing of weights and trying to do more got the best of me. I was alone in the gym at the time and thought I could manage the weight on the bar.
This I remember vividly, it was 200lbs and I was going for 5 reps. I got 3 reps in with no issue, then the 4th rep felt much harder and on the last rep, things didn’t go well.
I was able to get my right arm up while the left arm struggled. During this struggle, my right arm gave out and went behind me my while loaded with the 200lbs. I heard a pop and instant pain.
Luckily, nothing was torn when I got it checked out, but to this day, I have issues with the shoulder.
This could have been avoided if I didn’t push myself so hard, going to failure all the time. Also, if I had a spotter this accident would not have happened. When you are pushing for max weight, have a spotter to keep you safe. Doing less would have been better for me and would had better gains without the injury.
Want Amazing Results, Less is Better
Today, I experience less issues with my shoulder than just 5 years ago. Occasionally I will get tightness, but no pain and it’s gone within a day.
How did I get to this point?
Working on mobility and stability of the shoulders helped tremendously. You can check out my other blog about mobility to learn more. I also stopped going to failure with all my training, including legs. I have learned, and hope you do as well, is to do way less than you think. This is truer if you keep experiencing pain from exercises.
For example, using the tricep dip bar for dips always bothered my shoulder. I have done them for reps and for weight, but the next day would have pain.
This was frustrating for me; I should be able to do this movement with out pain. Even though I could do it weighted and for reps, I thought, maybe I should start at the beginning. Using bodyweight, I started with 3 reps for 4 sets, 90 seconds of rest in between sets.
It felt super easy and didn’t feel like I was doing any work. The next day, I was surprised because I had little soreness, and no pain. This was a great reminder that just because you can, does not mean you should. I never thought about what my body could handle when it comes to recovery. The extra weight and reps were too much for my body to handle.
If you want amazing results, Less is better when it comes to old injuries.
Less is Better to Pain Free Movement
Less is better to help you get pain free movement. This is exactly what I did with the dip exercise. I went well below what I could do in that moment so that I can improve my capacity to handle the exercise.
Think of a movement that gives you an issue and do less. This could mean less range of motion, less weight, less reps, or a combination of all. This will take trial and error on your part but find the variable that allows you to train the movement pain free, and able to recover from it. Overtime, progressively overload that exercise to keep getting stronger, pain free.
Pain is only a signal for the body that something is out of place. Pain isn’t bad, it’s information. Use this information to keep training, and overtime progress so you can keep improving.
The key is slow progressions so you can recover and adapt to the new stresses. Do less to keep training and get better results. Don’t let pain keep you from moving your body.
Movement is medicine. Less is better for amazing results.
Want results?
Go on any social media fitfluencers page and they will push high intensity, push to failure, and train every day. This is unsustainable, and will lead you to pain, frustrations, and quitting.
I have done this method, and the results were always the same. It kept me at a plateau of getting stronger, and if I kept pushing, eventually some kind of overuse chronic pain.
That’s no fun at all, and I am sure you want to keep training without these issues.
I am not going to talk about what is optimal for training, instead, will talk about consistency. Staying consistent with your training will give you better results than any study results that you can find.
How can that be?
You can have a picture-perfect program, but if you don’t like it, you’re not going to stick with it. Same thing if that program causes you discomfort for an unknown reason, or you don’t like the style.
You’re better off doing a program doing less than optimal, while you are enjoying the workouts and sticking with it.
If you want results, have the mindset to do the least amount of work to elicit results.
Great analogy for you. You are a salary employee; you work 60 hours in a week, but you are paid the same for doing 40 hours in a week.
There is no extra benefit going over the 40 hours during that week. If you consistently did 60 hours/week, your risk of burnout increases while work performance declines.
Same thing with your training. Why do 6 days/week when you can do 2 days/week for the same or even better results? Look for ways to do less, to get the same or better results. For some, this will take practice to push the ego aside. This was the hardest part for me, and most likely for men in general.
If you want to see long term results, while feeling great, do less.
Less is better for amazing results.
If you have any questions, please email me at cory@caruthersfitness.com.