health – Six Pack and Senior

***“ALL PROGRESS IS NOT DONE OVERNIGHT IS A MAXIM”***

Let’s be real for just a minute. All of us wants (and brags) that we can and will make the necessary changes to attain the best body we will ever want. However, we create an expectation to ourselves and everyone else that we will have it all in place and ready for “showtime” in nothing flat. But, as life has it, that is never the case. When we sound off about how we are going to do this metamorphosis from puny to magnificent we are setting ourselves up for a gigantic disappointment and public embarrassment. When the reality of what we we want presents itself and it causes us to discover that it will take the following: 1.) A big belly full of want to. We have to decide inside our minds and hearts that we are willing to pay the price to get the win. 2.) A plan that is carefully crafted (with the help of real professionals and friends) that gives us direction, speed, and accuracy in what we do. 3,) A heavy dose of motivation and discipline that is undertook daily. 4.) A goal or in bodybuilding a show that is placed on the calendar that looms in our minds always. 5.) A coach that holds us accountable and directs our efforts to stage ready when the time is right.

Note that the first casualty we face is the old self that demands results with no effort and in record time. That man is dead. The realization that the journey is daily. There is no getting around this. We want to make progress fast but the reality is that we can only make about 1% improvement at a time. Sometimes we can do it in one day or it might take a week or more. There is no “MAGIC FORMULA.” So, as we begin to attack our goals we must allow for your body to respond to the heavy training in the gym, the cardio, the diet, the supplements in a determined but patient way. You are just going to have to adjust your expectations and change the dates on the calendar to accommodate the required time and effort it will take to “get there.”

I look at the 1% rule as a way of determining when I will be ready to compete again. Since I am totally responsible for the conditioning I arrive on stage with, I have to be constantly making personal observations, measurements, and using photos to determine my stage readiness.

Bottom Line: Be patient and be realistic. Be determined to move the needle of improvement forward but do not go beyond what is real regarding anticipated arrival at our best selves. Be gutsy, don’t miss workouts, ask for help, sleep hard and long, eat as you should. The world awaits a very patiently carved and sculpted body and only you can provide the body you have worked so hard to attain. Get it done! This is your life and nobody can take it from you. Until next time…..Doug Graham

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***“Just because you are out of patience does not mean it’s not going to come to you!”***

I was told once by a respected person of the clergy that “I would learn patience!” among many other things. In my wildest dreams I never thought that a quality like patience could be taught. Nor did I think that I, the “chiefest of the tribe of impatience” could be changed to make me the totally opposite of impatience. In short, I was ambivalent and on many days hostile to the notion that I could be broken and one of my personality traits changed. All this I faced and I hated it. I wanted, like most guys, to work hard, compete and be given what’s rightfully mine—yesterday!

Enter the world of reality. I train so hard that my ex-coach, Justin Dees was constantly dismayed that was forever over training. He lashed me on more than once occasion about the propensity (idiocy)! He was right but it has been worse than surviving multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds. I would try to reduce my workouts and be more strategic in my approach without destroying my next workout with exhaustion. Because I was such a slow learner I suffered the inevitable fate of delayed rewards. I like to say that I’m not smart…..but I was there nonetheless! Moral of this story is simply, “LISTEN” and obey what your coaches, clergy, friends, and fans tell you. They distance between where you are and where you want to be becomes exponentially shorter.

To the point: Following a self-inflicted wound you first go through a very dark period that causes you to want to give up and quit. Your self-talk says, “What’s the use? I’ve given it my all and I still can’t win.” Your behavior and your training drops off and you wonder if there will be another exciting day of training and anticipation. It’s at this point you rummage through the lessons learned and you stumble across the admonition to slow down, be patient, work hard and under no circumstances can you give up.

For me the “lightning bolt” hit me hard. Winning takes time and quitting removes time and effort from the equation. Bam! Just like that, I reset everything. I selected a show that was about 6 months away. I committed to never missing a workout. I listened to the advice of Justin Dees and trained to failure and stopped. My physique changed and my muscles grew in new ways. Heck! Even my posing improved with the help of my wife. Roll forward 6 months. In a weeks time I won 4 times and finished 4th in the Light heavyweight division in Chicago. Boom! The takeaways for me were: 1.) Be patient. 2.) Never give up. 3.) Push when you don’t have the strength to exhaustion and stop. 4.) Decide that nobody works harder than you in the gym. 5.) I finally understood that quitting ruins you and winning perfects you. Greatness takes more than a giant, “WANT TO!”