REGRETS

I’ve made my share of mistakes through training, and ultimately from making mistakes one can learn.  In that capacity, I rarely have regrets, as almost everything can be a learning opportunity.  However, occasionally I’ll make a mistake that just wasn’t worth making, and from this stems regret.  In 18 years of training, you’re bound to have a few, so I wanted to share mine.

I haven't made this one...yet

-I regret buying a swiss bar.  I really thought it was going to be something awesome to include in my training, as I’ve torn the labrum in my right shoulder, dislocated it 6 times, and subluxed it a few dozen times.  I figured a neutral grip to press with would really help things along.  However, most swiss bars have VERY long handles, and when you unrack them from the j-hooks to bench, it’s incredibly unstable, which I found put a good amount of pressure on my shoulders and jacked up my wrists, as I spent all of my training time stabilizing the implement.  It was ok for pressing overhead, but put the weight pretty far out in front of me, like a log, without the benefit of being a shorter ROM press like a log would have.  It feels ok for floor pressing and incline, but that’s about it.  These days, I leave it at the top of my power rack to be able to do chins with a bunch of different grips, but that can be easily replicated with a lower cost ad on.  Just not worth it.

-I regret buying a Glute Ham Raise.  I read everything about it from Westside and Dave Tate, and thought for sure it was going to be the future of my training.  It definitely works, it will hammer your glutes and hamstrings…but so will so many OTHER lifts.  It’s just super niche for what it does, and for a guy running off a 1 hour clock for training, I can rarely find a time or place to include it in my training.  Pretty much any time spent doing that is time that could be spent doing something much better, especially if reverse hypers are an option.  These days, about the only thing I use a GHR for is weighted sit ups.

-I regret buying any band above a miniband.  I will say that I use my light bands to help make the bench sticky so that I don’t slide down it for bench pressing, but otherwise, there’s no room for bands in my training.  Every time I set them up, they get shredded on the equipment, because my plates are jagged and I don’t have band hooks.  I can get like 3 weeks out of use of them before my joints start hurting.  Yeah, they’re low cost and portable…but what good is that if they don’t get any use?  Once again, if I gave myself more time to train, maybe I’d play around with them more, but they take so much time to set up that they just aren’t worth it.

But without bands, you can never do this!

-I regret buying a dragging sled.  Once again, Westside and Elitefts had me convinced that this was going to transform my training.  However, about a decade later, Jim Wendler pulled an emperor’s new clothes on us and pointed out that looping a sled through your belt and walking with it probably doesn’t actually do anything.  A sled with an actual pull harness isn’t bad, but a dinky sled looped through your weightlifting belt is very little stimulus.  The prowler is awesome, and what we needed all along.  These days, my sled just leans against my wall.

-Ok, how about one that isn’t about something I bought?  I regret the years I spent thinking I didn’t need direct arm work.  For some reason, we all thought we were cool by what we DIDN’T train, and one of the biggest status symbols was not training arms, because that meant you WEREN’T a bodybuilder, which is what we all wanted to be…for some reason.  All I was doing was denying myself an opportunity to become stronger all over.  Big, strong arms are awesome, and even if you can train them with rows, chins, and presses, you can train them MORE with curls and extensions too.

-I regret NOT buying a 13mm belt from day 1 of my training.  Once again, I gate keepered myself and was convinced I had to hit certain lifts before I was allowed to use a belt.  One day I finally went out and blew out my back on a set of squats to pins, ordered a belt, waited for it to arrive, and it was night and day the amount of confidence I felt under heavy weight.  I learned how to brace hard with a belt, which meant I learned how to brace hard WITHOUT a belt, and I believe the belt would have taught me that valuable skill MUCH earlier.  I would have been lifting heavier weights earlier in my training, and in turn got bigger and stronger.  No shame in wearing a belt if you only squat 95lbs: only shame in caring that OTHER people care about you wearing a belt.

But maybe stick with neutral colors

-I regret not learning how to hinge at the hips much earlier in my training.  I’ve been an oaf for life, and it meant I was able to be quite strong without knowing what the hell I was doing, but it also meant that I wasted a lot of training time forcing deadlifts to be all lower back when I could have developed a strong hip hinge early, experienced much less back pain, and really gotten to see what I could do at a young age.  I wasn’t stubbornly refusing to learn the hinge: I simply had no idea what it was.  It wasn’t until I got a kettlebell and practiced some swings that I noticed the VERY distinct difference between hinging at the hips vs flexing at the lower back to complete the movement.  The former felt powerful and explosive, the latter HURT.

-I regret not focusing on my conditioning much earlier in my training.  This is a pretty obvious one, but I started lifting with a VERY solid foundation of conditioning due to combat sports, let it almost completely go away, then clawed my way back up.  I just wonder what could have been if that middle part never happened.

-I regret ever concerning myself with what people on steroids can do vs. what natural lifters can do.

-I regret taking Animal Pak vitamins, even if it was just 1 bottle, even if it was on sale.

-I regret ever posting a form check video.  What was I hoping for others to see that I didn’t?

-I regret not taking creatine sooner.

-I regret caring about my Big 3 more than I cared about getting bigger or stronger.

-I regret letting fear of injury hold me back from reaching my potential earlier in my training.


Early entry this week folks, because I'm going on a cruise and won't be back until the 4th.  I'll get some inspiration while I'm there, but can't promise an entry next weekend.  Stay tuned until then.