ACT, DON’T THINK (IN EXTREMES)

I’ve frequently written about the extreme methods I’ve employed in my pursuit of physical transformation, to include extreme programs such as Super Squats, Mass Made Simple, Deep Water and 5/3/1 Building the Monolith, alongside extreme nutritional methods such as a gallon of milk a day, the dozen eggs and 1.5lbs of meat from Building the Monolith, the Velocity Diet and my nearly zero carb carnivore-esque approach that I’m currently employing.  I’ve also engaged in extreme bouts of conditioning training and taken extreme competitive measures, such as doing NO training whatsoever before going for 10 mile races, grappling competition and strongman competitions.  I live in extremes as, quite frankly, I find that simpler than a nuanced existence…but I don’t THINK in extremes.  No, quite the opposite: my THINKING is moderate and balanced, which is what AFFORDS me the ability to act in extremes…at least, compared to those of you I observe who think so much IN extremes that you can only act moderately…and achieve moderate outcomes.

I assure you this was NOT achieved with a gradual calorie reduction, macro counting, and 3 30 minute cardio sessions a week

Examples?  Of course.  The primary focus here is on the very subject OF physical transformation.  I recognize that, despite my extreme measures, I’m only going to achieve GRADUAL results in my pursuit.  Physical transformation is NOT the process of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly: spending a brief period in a cocoon before emerging radically and completely transformed.  No: physical transformation is a process of maturation: going from adolescent to adulthood with a long, awkward, sustained period of puberty.  That puberty is the phase where transformation occurs…and the phase that trainees are hoping they can bypass (much like we hoped we could bypass REAL puberty and avoid all that unpleasantness), but, no matter how hard we wish and think it: it’s an inevitable part of the process.  At least so much if we actually wish to achieve success.

 

I realize I gave no actual example in the above, despite saying “examples” as my leadoff, but my regular readers are already aware of the insanity inherent in my string of consciousness style of writing.  So let me get to that: the primary example of this is “the lean bulk”.  How is that “extreme”?  Wouldn’t that be considered moderate?  It’s about trying not to be extreme and “overbulk”, right?  NO!  It is a byproduct OF extreme thinking….primarily because it presupposes that there was originally ONLY the choice of “lean bulk” and “overbulk”.  Specifically, it presupposes this idea that a trainee can go from “not fat” to “fat” at a rate so incredibly fast that there is NO opportunity for intervention, and that the ONLY possible solution to prevent this non-problem is to engage in a “lean bulk” vs a “bulk”.

It would seriously take mutant genes to have this sort of different outcome

 

What IS a lean bulk?  A lean bulk is moderate action in response to extreme thinking: because the trainee is so terrified of accidentally “overbulking” and “getting fat”, they try to add as LITTLE fat as possible in the pursuit of gaining muscle which, in turn, results in adding as little MASS as possible, primarily because they try to keep their nutritional margins so thin out of fear of accidentally succeeding in the pursuit of getting bigger that they often undereat and do not provide their body the necessary fuel to recover and add tissue to their body.

 

What’s more, think of the OTHER extreme thinking that goes into the terrified lean-bulker: they think that there is NO way they could possibly lose whatever fat they can from bulking via a dedicated fat loss phase…something that all other folks that have achieved success in physical transformation have all managed to accomplish.  OR, perhaps their extreme thinking has lead them to believe a fat loss phase is going to somehow be SO insufferable that they need to avoid it at ALL costs by means of a lean bulk…which is, again, extremist thinking that leads to moderate action and, in turn, moderate results.  In either case, these trainees need to think moderately and ACT extremely…and not just here!

Seriously: you aren't doing this

Because, in turn, these trainees also TRAIN moderately as a result of their extreme thinking.  BECAUSE they have convinced themselves that fat loss phases are insufferable and unsuccessful AND that the risk of overbulking is so significant and rapid that they must engage in some means of intervention by way of a “lean bulk”, they engage in training protocols that are lukewarm at best.  They INTENTIONALLY pursue a “long, slow, gradual bulking phase”…as though it were some sort of badge of honor to plod along, barely achieving results, taking before and after photos where people have to ask “which one is which?”  Why?  Primarily because, in their refusal to actually EAT enough to fuel extreme efforts, they relegate themselves to lukewarm, moderate modalities…and achieve those very results.

 

The kind of training that promotes RADICAL transformation is going to require radical amounts of food to recover from radical amounts of effort.  Dan John calls these programs “bus bench” programs, suggesting they best be run twice a year, and during a time where one can wholly vest themselves into the program and recovery.  His classic example from his own programming is “Mass Made Simple”, and once you’ve tried to squat your bodyweight for 50 reps without racking the bar AFTER engaging in heavy barbell complexes, you’ll understand exactly WHY this meets that mark.  You’ll know the same feeling when you go on a vision quest between sets 6 and 7 of your 10x10 set of squats with 2 minutes rest on Deep Water and actually dream about selling all of your lifting equipment, giving up the sport entirely, and starting over.  Or when you spend 15 minutes staring at your feet in the shower after your first day of Building the Monolith wondering “what the f**k have I gotten myself into?” 

Yup

 

And in bringing up Dan John’s “Bus Bench” principle, I acknowledge in turn his “Park Bench” programs: those very moderate, slow, gradual programs that the extreme thinkers felt necessary to undertake for extreme results…how completely backwards.  I pursue these extreme measures knowing FULL WELL that the outcome will be moderate, that the “secret” is time and consistency, but that the timeline is punctuated with bouts of extreme FOLLOWED by moderate.  Simple, basic periodization: some phases of eating and training dedicated to one goal, some to another.  The extreme thinkers want to believe you just pick ONE way of eating and training and do it for the rest of your life: they refuse to acknowledge a moderate way of thinking wherein we achieve balance by having periods of feast and periods of famine (which, speaking of, is another fantastic dietary intervention to employ as a means of accomplishing physical transformation…which I’ve discussed previously).

 

We ACT extreme BECAUSE we think moderately.  This thinking frees us to be extreme in action, with the full expectation, awareness and understanding that this is what achieves us those consistent, moderate results that, over a long enough timeline, accumulate into greatness.