#025 The Endless Struggle

Welcome back to the 25th edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Today is March 10th. Not only does that mean we are already 10 weeks into 2024, but it also means that nearly 20% of the year is already over. I hope you made good use of the first months of the year and are following your plan to achieve your goals.

And if you do, I’m sure you are aware of these two things:
1. You need to do the same things over and over again. Every day.
2. Progress is slow but steady.

Everybody who is at least half-serious about the sport faces the same struggles and doubts, which lead to the following thinking patterns:

Progress doesn’t happen fast enough. I need to change X/Y/Z to get better results.

When I bench X pounds for Y reps, I will be satisfied.

I want to start bulking; I’m getting too lean.

I need to start cutting; I can’t see my 6-pack anymore.

When these thoughts occur, it makes sense to stop for a minute and focus on what really matters: The Basics.

And no matter how advanced you are, these thoughts never stop. I’m currently midway through my bulk. Now, with my body fat increasing, so does the desire to stop the bulk and start a cutting phase. And sure. I could go into a cut now, keep most of the gains while going down to 10-12% body fat, and look better than I did at the start of the bulk. But that would also mean that I leave gains on the table by ending the bulk too early. As a consequence, I am sticking to the plan and keep bulking for a few more weeks.

You may be wondering at this point where we are going in today’s newsletter. And that’s a fair point. This is not our usual newsletter, where we discuss a “hard topic” - such as protein or how to train specific body parts.

Today’s newsletter is your guide for when you have doubts about where you are going.

It doesn’t matter what your goal is. You need to find the right basics for you as a pillar of your habits and, therefore, success. Generally, these basics should evolve around:

• Training Volume (at least 6 sets per muscle per week; better 10)

• Training Intensity (train to failure; progressive overload)

• Calories (calorie surplus or deficit depending on your goal)

• Protein (at least 0.7-1.0 grams of protein per lb. body weight)

The reason why I always highlight focusing on the basics is because it simply works.

If you are working a job, you could be working many extra hours and doing great work but still not getting the promotion or salary increase you deserve. If you are studying for weeks and weeks for an exam, you could still fail it. If you are dating someone, you could do everything right and still not attract the person you are dating. If you are spending all your time building a business, the business could still fail.

But if you are doing the basics to build muscle right and are doing that consistently over weeks, months, and years, you will be successful. That’s the beauty of the sport. It’s one of the only areas in life where you have a guaranteed outcome - assuming you did the basics right.

But that also means that there is only one person to blame if you don’t make progress in the gym. You.

Coming back to the topic of the endless struggle of doubts when building muscle: You need to trust the process. Things will work out in your favor.

It isn’t complicated, but you need to make a plan and stick to it. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be experimenting - in the end, this is how you will learn more about your body and the process of building muscle.

Let’s take the example of the workout program, as most people start to question and change their workout program at some point:

Everybody knows the feeling of seeing a new exercise or split and considering replacing the current program with the shiny new object in the hope of supercharging progress. And let’s be real: changing exercises or plans probably wouldn’t negatively affect your gains. But it also wouldn’t really positively affect your gains.

It simply doesn’t matter much. As long as you are getting around 10 high-quality sets per muscle group per week, the “How” is of lesser importance and will only provide a small up- or downside.

Generally, there are two good reasons to change the plan or single exercises: If you are bored with the current plan or if you stop making progress with the current plan.

Other than that, it is mostly counter-productive to change plans too much. You want to give yourself the opportunity to grow over time with the plan and get stronger from week to week. By changing exercises too often, you are missing out on a lot of potential growth.

The same goes for your current diet. Stick to it until you reach your goal. You will get nowhere by switching from shiny object to shiny object. The gym rewards consistency.

There is a lot of talk about the scientific approach to growing muscle, and especially intermediate lifters dive deep into this rabbit hole in the hope of accelerating their gains again once they are past the newbie gains stage.

But the truth is that while following a science-based approach to building muscle generally makes sense, the effect of optimizing for gains is quite small when you are already following the basics. Instead, the risk increases that you will lose focus on what really matters - hard training and proper nutrition.

That’s also why buying an influencer’s workout program doesn't make sense. It’s simply for you to feel like you accomplished something and got closer to your dream physique. There is nothing special about it that isn’t used in thousands of freely available programs online.

So please remember:

Most programs are good. If you get stronger consistently, you can keep doing what you do. The odds are low that changing your workout will improve your muscle growth significantly. Instead, try to optimize calories and protein.

Progress in the gym takes a lot of time, but it is guaranteed. So simply relax and trust the process while you stack little wins every day. It will take as long as it takes, but you will get there.

Thank you for reading today's newsletter. I tried to answer as many of your questions as possible. 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.