I DON’T KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS, BUT I KNOW WHAT IT’S TIME FOR

 Like many of blogposts, the above came to me in the middle of a workout.  Specifically, my most recent workout of 30 minutes of EMOM training, with axle zercher squats from the floor on one round, weighted dips on another, and weighted chins on the third, before rotating, giving me 10 rounds total of each movement.  Once this is done, I do one max rep set of trap bar lifts with 405lbs.  I was moving a little slow between the end of the EMOM workout and the start of the trap bar pulls, being somewhat leisurely as a means to recover before I put in one more hard set, and I had no clock set up to know exactly HOW off schedule I was at this point.  And that’s when I said to myself “I don’t know what time it is…but I know what it’s time for”, and I appreciated having thought that thought.  Because at that moment in time, it was true: it didn’t matter how late I was or what time it was: it was time to do my max rep trap bar pull.  It was time to perform.  And goddamnit if that isn’t THE right motto to have.

But I'll accept this as well...just because I miss the 90s

 

Too many trainees in the physical training realm become slaves to numbers, and in doing so, they’re never able to achieve true self-actualization.  They live on a timer and by an app, eating the macros and calories the app tells them WHEN it tells them to eat, making sure how much they eat is how much their food scale TELLS them is the “right” amount, following the “right” training program or the protocol that science tells them is the “right” protocol…and none of them actually achieve anything that is noteworthy given how much “right” stuff they are doing.  Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if a trainee is doing everything right at precisely the right time ALL the time without wavering, they would surely achieve greatness?  And if not greatness…at least success?

 

What is missing?  Humanity.  The actually strapping in and getting things done.  Stepping up when the signal is sent and the call of duty is heard.  Jon Andersen referred to these moments as “portals”, and we have to be on the lookout for them.  We can’t make them happen, we can’t will them to happen, we can’t construct a scenario to force them to happen: they are simply GOING to happen, and it’s on us, when the time comes, to do “what it’s time for”. 

This is what a REAL gateway drug looks like

 

And this includes when things are NOT ideal.  So many of these same trainees are so used to always setting up the most ideal circumstances EVERY time they train that they’re paralyzed whenever any sort of x-factor rears it head.  “What do I do if I only got 3 hours of sleep last night?” “What do I do if I ran out of pre-workout?”  “What do I do if I forgot to charge my earbuds?”.  Oh my god, what do you do?  You train!  Because THAT is what it is time for.  It doesn’t matter what time it is: what matters is what it is time for!

And this speaks even FURTHER, onto the level of understanding instinct instead of trying to deny it.  I may be a misanthrope, but I am human: all too human.  Some of you others are in such a rush to deny your humanity that you in turn deny your ability to ascend BEYOND humanity due to an unwillingness to realize your full potential.  You try to turn your complex, unique biological processes into a math equation so that you can attempt to play God by eating the EXACT amount of calories that will yield only muscular gains with no fat whatsoever, instead of listening to the signals your VERY intelligent body sends you saying “We NEED more food because we’re training HARD you idiot!  We WANT some bodyfat because it’s going to make us function better!”  You deny your body nutrients trying to hack it with “If It Fits Your Macros” quackery and then wonder whey you’re starving and underperforming on your diet of Pop Tarts, ice cream and protein powder.  You diligently follow your precisely calculated maximum recoverable volume with your specifically designated reps in reserve and scientifically approved training frequency, rather than listening to the ebb and flow of your body informing you when it’s time to train hard and stupid and when it’s time to throttle back, and recover.  OR when your body gasps and chokes in the training hall and you think the solution is simply more rest vs subjugating yourself to some hard and rugged conditioning to turn yourself into something greater.  Your body doesn’t know what time it is, but it certainly knows what it is time for!

For instance, when your body sees this, it knows to go into the fetal position and start crying

 

Unplug and go be something.  Listen not to the ticking of a clock or the sound of an alarm or the demands of your digitized outsourced thinking, but instead hear and heed the call of what it is time FOR!  These portals are limited windows, and refusing to acknowledge them when they are there is a surefire way to cut yourself off from them in the future, or, if nothing else, continue to remain unprepared to act when the time comes.  The experienced portal hopper is going to succeed more and more with each passing opportunity and gain the skillset necessary to be able to listen to the signals their body is sending and be able to respond appropriately, whereas the timid hopper will continue down the path of mediocrity.  Folks, if all it took was doing everything “right” all of the time, why aren’t there MORE physically amazing people out there?  We’re too good at “set it and forget it” living: it’s the folks out there that are doing what needs to be done when it’s time to do it are the ones that are going to achieve something greater than the others.

 

As I’m writing this on the 4th of July (Happy Independence Day to my American Readers!) and the band “Chicago” made an amazing song celebrating this particular day, allow me to end with a quote from another one of their songs.

 

“Does anybody really know what time it is?  Does anybody really care?  You know, I can’t imagine why”