#018 Optimizing for Sustainability

Welcome back to the 18th edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. Whether you are new here or a day 1 member, I really appreciate you being here.

As you know, I regularly interact with many of you on Instagram and am always happy to help you achieve your goals. But there is one common type of questions I would like to clear up today:

“What builds more muscle: Upper/Lower or Push/Pull/Legs?”

“Should I be in a 635 kcal. deficit?”

“Which type of cardio should I be doing?”

And please don’t get me wrong. I’m not making fun of you for asking these questions. You want to optimize your results, and that’s great. But the answer is quite simple:

Do what’s sustainable for you.

But what do I mean when I say you should follow routines that are sustainable for you?

First, we need to define our goal. As a gym community, we all want to build more muscles. Some may do it to get stronger, others to be healthier, and others simply want to look better. In the end, we are all united in our goal to build more muscles.

Having established our goal, we know what we need to do to achieve it:
1. Train each muscle for at least 10 sets per week
2. Determine your calorie intake based on your personal goal
3. Consume 0.7-1.0g of protein per lb. body weight
4. Sleep at least 7 hours per night

These four points are non-negotiable if you want to have success. You must show up daily and - just as a checklist - get them done. The cruel thing about the gym is that once you stop, you will quickly lose your progress.

Most (if not all) of you are not planning to compete in a bodybuilding contest. Therefore, you have little incentive to dedicate your whole life to building muscle. We focus on how we can get the basics done as easily as possible, which should grant us 80-90% of the gains somebody (naturally) gets when optimizing everything.

And that’s where we have come full circle: To actually be consistent and reach our goals, we need to have sustainable routines.

For me, sustainable means a definition of fun/enjoyable and a certain ease to implement into your life.

Taking myself as an example, canned tuna is a cheap and easy high-quality protein source. It would make a lot of sense to incorporate tuna into my diet, but I don’t like the taste. So, instead of forcing myself to eat tuna, I choose meals that fit my goals and I actually enjoy eating.

Another angle to consider is the time it takes to prepare food. I don’t have time and don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. Hence, I try to meal prep or pick meals that are rather quick to make.

In case it’s not obvious yet, what I want to say is: Decide on a protein and calorie goal and find the easiest way to achieve these goals. Only that matters.

You also don’t need to do aggressive bulks or cuts with a big calorie surplus or deficit, which will have you suffering over weeks or months. When in doubt, choose a more moderate approach you are comfortable with and can be consistent with until you reach your goal.

The same goes for choosing a workout split. What’s the point of trying to force yourself to train 5 times per week when you can’t consistently spend that much time in the gym or simply don’t want to? Another person could dislike a 3 times per week Full Body Split and find more joy following a bro split 5 times per week.

Both persons would most likely have the best results with the program they can and want to follow. There is no point in following a program where you have to regularly skip workouts. But there is also no point in following a program you don’t enjoy. Most will start to skip some workouts or half-ass their sets.

Make sure to pick a program that trains each muscle for at least 10 sets per week, that you enjoy doing, and that fits your life. People overestimate the impact of choosing a program on muscle growth. Find a program that ticks these boxes and stick to it.

Additionally, there is a psychological component to it. It’s easy to lose the motivation to work towards your goals if you are setting up unsustainable routines. You will inevitably fail and get drawn into a downward spiral of failing to take the necessary steps to reach your goals, which will result in you not making progress, which then will decrease your motivation to complete your routines.

But we can also use this to our advantage, as we make the routines we have to do as easy as possible. By consistently accomplishing them, we will see results, which will keep us motivated to stick to the routines.

Let’s not forget: We should make it as easy as possible for us to reach our goals. There is no prestige in making our life harder than it has to be. Sticking to the basics itself is a daily challenge in itself.

Thank you for reading today's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have further questions, simply DM me on Instagram.

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Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.