HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER

I miss arcades: they were such a pivotal part of my upbringing as a child of the 90s.  These days, they’re a dying medium, but in the 90s, there was nothing better than a real live arcade cabinet, let alone a whole bank of them all in one concentrated location.  If it was a Round Table Pizza, it was really like having arrived at the land of milk and honey.  And of all the many amazing arcade games out there, “Street Fighter II” will always hold high acclaim among those of us that “were there”.  Even if you owned the home version for the Super Nintendo, the arcade classic just blew it away with its superior graphics and sound.  BUT, what made the game a TRUE classic was that, at the arcade, you could get challenged by random people: not just family and friends.  Yes, these days you can accomplish that by being linked up with the entire world over your internet connection, but back in the day, if you wanted some fresh blood, you waited for some dude to plunk down next to you at the arcade cabinet, throw in their quarters, and be greeted by the phase “Here comes a new challenger!” flashing across the screen.  Suddenly, you knew: it was on.

It's honestly for the best, because this match has been done to death...and Ryu is still better

What if you just wanted to play the game on your own?  What if you just wanted to square off against the woefully inadequate (yet often cheaty) computer AI?  Sorry dude: you showed up to the arcade, you opened yourself up to these random challengers.  Your hard earned quarters just got taken from you as some pro came by and whooped you into oblivion.  Little did you realize just how awful of a choice Dhalsim was compared to Ryu.  Little did you realize WHY, despite looking so awesome, Blanka was a terrible decision.  But from it, you learned, and you grew, and perhaps you even started your very own revenge epic to come back one day and claim what was rightfully yours.

Ok, I’ve bombarded you with my nostalgia long enough, thank you for indulging me.  Why am I talking about this?  Because as you’ve most likely sussed out: this arcade experience is a microcosm for training (and life for that matter). So many of us are content to just play against that familiar computer AI with our absolute favorite character and just keep spamming the same Hadouken over and over again until we win…but do we grow from that?  NO!  What creates growth?  When that new challenger shows up!  Some rando that we’ve never played against before who comes up with combinations couldn’t possibly fathom and just absolutely wipes the floor with us and takes our quarters away.  And if we wanna beat them, we gotta plunk down some more change and get in a few more rounds to learn their strategies and come up with our own to overcome.

At the arcade, this was proverbial, but for Mike...

And much like our time at the arcade, there won’t always be a “new challenger” to force us to grow.  Sometimes, we WILL have to spend a few lonely hours just beating up the CPU.  But when the opportunity finally DOES present itself: we need to be ready FOR our new challenger.  There’s so much in those thoughts already.  We just re-described Dan John’s “Park bench-bus bench” principle, wherein the majority of our training time is going to be “punch the clock” workouts, but occasionally we really dig in and pour ourselves into our training.  Dan’s “Mass Made Simple” program is one that Dan himself says can be run “2x a year, tops”.  It’s only 6 weeks of training, and 14 workouts today.  So that’s 12 weeks and 28 workouts in a year where you’re facing “a new challenger”: the rest of the time playing against a CPU.  But also, let’s talk about “being READY for the new challenger”.  THIS is about taking on these protocols WHEN APPROPRAITE.  If your work schedule is exploding, your wife is in her third trimester, and you’re getting a masters degree, it’s probably NOT a great time to start up “Building the Monolith”.  But you’re a high school kid and it’s summer and mommy and daddy are footing the foodbill, why AREN’T you eating your face off and lifting like an inmate?

And what IS a new challenger in the world of training?  It’s something that FORCES us outside our comfort zone.  It’s something different.  We’ve already memorized the pattern of the CPU: the rando down at the arcade is entirely unpredictable, and we have to learn how to adapt.  In the world of physical transformation, this can be a training program that forces us outside of our comfort zone (hello Super Squats/Building the Monolith/Mass Made Simple/Deep Water), or it could be a nutritional protocol that runs opposite of everything we know (Feast, Famine and Ferocity/Carnivore/ABCDE diet/Velocity Diet).  And these are simply self-imposed “new challengers”.  Think about the obvious: ACTUAL challenges.  Signing up to compete in a powerlifting meet, strongman competition, bodybuilding show, crossfit comp, a marathon, a triathlon, etc etc: SOMETHING outside of your comfort zone that forces you to grow.  

Both men seen here outside their comfort zones

And rest assured: you WILL get your quarters stolen from you the first time you square off against that new challenger.  If it DOESN’T happen: you cherry-picked and didn’t gain ANYTHING from the experience.  You became that predator of the arcade looking to stomp newbs just go bolster your own ego.  We don’t grow from that.  Being king of Chuck E. Cheese is a title that no one wants.  “You are not a warrior: you are a beginner”, “Go home and be a family man”, and all the other fantastic taunts from such a legendary game are all too ready to employ here.  Instead, use these new challenger opportunities to realize your max potential and grow into something TRULY fearsome.  Make it so that when “Here comes a new challenger” flashes across the screen, you’re all too excited for it.  Finally: a challenge!