Why Waiting Until Monday Is for Quitters

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

The Scenario
It’s July, so January 1st has come and gone by a long shot, and so has your New Year’s resolution of consistently training. 

Not a problem. Today is Wednesday, and you’ve told yourself the following . . .

“Self, I’m kicking it off next week.”

“Come Monday, I am going to get this thing going.”

“The gainz train starts on Monday!”

Don’t do this to yourself. Monday is the worst day to start training - the absolute worst.

How Can This Be True?
Am I being mildly facetious? Of course I am - my training week typically starts on a Monday. However, the point still stands - the reason why Mondays are so terrible is that when people miss a training session (and specifically the start of the training week such as a Monday or Tuesday), they get to the middle of the week and - instead of simply going in and continuing their training - they often give up on the rest of the week.

This is usually paired with inner dialogue along the lines of “Well, I didn’t get my training started this week the way I meant to, but I’ll definitely get it going next week.”

This is a big problem for two reasons.

Problem #1
If you skip the rest of the week, you’re missing out on perfectly good training days and the progress that would have come with them. If you typically train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but this week you missed Monday, you can still get quality training done on Wednesday and Friday.

Missed Monday and Wednesday? Training on Friday or Saturday is still better than waiting until Monday. Better by far.

In suboptimal circumstances, training is not all or nothing. It’s all or something.

You don’t stop brushing your teeth for the rest of the week simply because you fell asleep before brushing them on Tuesday night. You wake up the next morning, brush your teeth, and continue with your life. Training is the same. Just go train.

Problem #2
The more insidious problem is that, by deciding not to train for the rest of the week, whether it’s Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc., you have now decided to practice skipping workouts.

You have now decided to make skipping workouts your new habit.

You’re practicing the very habit you’re trying to avoid - that of missing training sessions.

The Solution
Don’t complicate this and don’t wait. If it’s too late to train today, grab a barbell tomorrow and train.

The bar weighs the same seven days a week, and putting off your training another day or two only reinforces the habit you want to eradicate.

Need an extra kick in the pants? Remember that if you have kids, you are either demonstrating - whether you mean to or not - how to get back on that horse . . . or how to just stay down.

Don’t wait for the calendar’s merry-go-round to bring Monday back around to you.

Get back on that horse. Today. It might be tough to walk in the door of the gym, but by the time you walk out, you’ll be glad you did.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

The Best Way to Put On a Lifting Belt! (and a secret weapon)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 05/26/23)

A lifting belt is an extremely useful tool for your strength training, and within a month or two of starting to train, you should be using one regularly. Putting on a lifting belt, however, can be a bit tricky, so let’s sort this out.

How to Do It
There is one way - that’s right, just one - to put on a belt correctly, and it involves the upright of your squat rack. The photos here show a double-prong belt in use, but the method works just as well for single prong belts (in fact, it’s slightly easier). The steps are below, and to learn it even quicker and better, watch the included video.

  1. Put the nose of your belt through the buckle and wrap the nose of the belt around the upright.

  2. Lean away from the upright. Be sure to lean away so that your hips move away from the rack as well (Figure 1); don’t lean away like you’re trying to avoid a punch (Figure 2).

  3. Twist your body away from the rack. For example, if the nose of the belt came around the right side of your body, twist to your left (Figure 3). This will tighten up the belt.

  4. Put the prong(s) through the appropriate hole(s).

Taking off the belt is much the same as putting it on - wrap the nose around the rack, lean away, twist to loosen, and then remove the prong(s).

Squat Stands vs Squat Racks
If you have a squat stand (free-standing, two uprights) instead of a squat rack (anchored to the floor, four uprights), it may tip toward you when you lean away. This is bad. However, it’s an easy problem to solve. Simply place your foot down on the far side of the floor support, and you’ll be able to keep the squat stand anchored in place.

Secret Weapon
I told you there’s only one way to put on a belt, and this is true . . . mostly. If you’re at a meet, you might not have a squat rack handy when you’re about to step on the competition platform. Oh, you’ll have plenty of racks in the warm-up room, but there will quite possibly be none near the competition platform. Here’s what you do (and again, watch the video above to see this in action):

  1. Put the nose of your belt through the buckle.

  2. Place the pointed end of a screwdriver through one of the holes of the belt (Figure 4).

  3. Grab that end of the screwdriver (don’t impale yourself), and pull back, treating the screwdriver as a lever (Figure 5). This will get the belt as tight as you like.

How Tight Should Your Belt Be?
When you’re new to wearing a lifting belt, it should be uncomfortably tight. If it’s comfortable to wear and easy to wiggle around, it’s merely a fashion accessory. Don’t let your belt be a fashion accessory. With practice, what was uncomfortably tight at the beginning will simply feel correct.

Need to Buy a Belt? Watch This First.
If you’re getting ready to buy a lifting belt, I’d recommend watching the included video here to get a good sense of what to look for when purchasing one. You’ll also find some links below to a few belts we recommend to our members.

Belts
My belt is from Best Belts, and I’d love to recommend them to you, but as of May 2023, they're backlogged and aren't taking orders, so with that in mind, here are a few belt options we often recommend:

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

Your Rest Periods are Adorable . . . Now Quit It.

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Things are harder than they should be because of your rest periods.

You are failing reps because of your rest periods.

So knock it off.

The Phenomenon
We see and talk to people who are missing reps a few weeks into their barbell journey, and the conversation often goes something like this:

Coach: “How long are you resting between sets?”

Lifter: “A couple of minutes, at least one or two, sometimes three.”

Coach: “That’s so tiny and cute. Let’s fix it.”

When members start training at Testify, we discuss the fact that, at first, they are going to rest three to five minutes between work sets. In other words, three minutes is the bare minimum for the first session or two, and that will increase over time as the weight on the bar increases and things become more challenging.

What is the Goal?
Keep the goal in mind, and the goal is to get strong, so here’s the quick and simple version (courtesy of the transitive property):

You want to get strong.

To get strong, you need to complete the prescribed reps.

To complete the prescribed reps, you need sufficient rest between work sets.

So, to get strong, you need sufficient rest.

Don’t Be Silly
Don’t worry, I’m not telling you to rest twenty minutes between your work sets. But if you want to get stronger - and I hope you do - then resting three to four minutes isn’t going to cut it after the first few weeks.

There’s a time to get sweaty and out of breath, and that’s during your conditioning, but in the wise words of one of our dads at Testify, don’t be one of those people who confuses “strength and conditioning” with “conditioning and conditioning.”

More Resources
To learn more about why you might be missing reps early in your training career, be sure to read “The First Three Questions” by Mark Rippetoe.

Finally, sometimes (perhaps most of the time) you’ve got to get your workout done in a quick and efficient manner, and the video below covers exactly how and where to save time at the gym.

As always, we hope these tips help you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

How to Convert Kilograms to Pounds Fast - Easy Math Trick!

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 05/19/23)

Whether you're doing your physics homework, your chemistry homework, or you're lifting weights, you sometimes need to be able to convert from kilograms to pounds. Let's figure out how to do this fast - and by fast, I mean “in-your-head-faster-than-whipping-out-your-calculator” fast. Fast like you read about.

The common wisdom is to multiply by 2.2, but you don’t want to multiply by 2.2 in your head, and neither do I. The method you’re about to learn will get us to the same answer, and it’s quicker and easier. Using 35 kg for our example, here’s what you do:

  1. Double it. That gives you 70. No problem.

  2. Find 10% of that new number, and yes, that old gradeschool shortcut of moving the decimal over 1 place still works just fine. That gives you 7. Again, no problem.

  3. Add those two numbers together. That gives you 77.

There you have it: 35 kg is equal to 77 lb.

Now, your turn - albeit with a slightly harder example. Repeat the same steps, but this time with 95 kg, and try it out before reading ahead for the solution.

Got your answer? Let’s see how you did.

  1. Double it. That gives you 190.

  2. Find 10% of that new number. That gives you 19.

  3. Add those two numbers together. That gives you 209.

Thus, 95 kg converts to 209 lb.

It takes a little bit of practice, but not much. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s very accurate (within 0.2% of the true value). As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better . . . or at least stop struggling with cumbersome conversions.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

How to Build Strength after 50 Without Complication or Confusion

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Want to build real strength in your 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond — without all the fluff and confusion? In this video, Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers breaks down a simple, proven approach that works, no matter your age or experience. No gimmicks, no guesswork — just clear steps to get stronger, feel better, and stay active for the long haul.

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

Slippery Lifting Platform?! Use THIS for Olympic Weightlifting & Strength Training

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Do you have a slippery lifting surface? A slick platform can cause a lot of problems, whether you're snatching, clean-and-jerking, squatting, etc., so Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers lets you in on a very simple (and rarely discussed!) method to make sure you've got good grip between your shoes and the platform.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 12/12/22)

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?