Don't Want to Train? Do This Instead.

You’re supposed to train today, but you don’t feel like it.

In fact, you really don’t want to train today.

So, naturally, you choose the second best option, which is - of course - that you don’t want to train and you still train anyway.

This is a public service announcement - and it’s as much to myself as to anyone else - that when it’s time to train . . . 

Of course geneva doesn’t feel like squatting heavy . . . but she squats anyway.

Do. Not. Trust. Your. Feelings.

Go train regardless of how you feel about it. Don’t let your feelings enter the equation. You have feelings, of course, but you make a conscious decision to disregard them, and you train anyway.

Hot? Humid? No airflow in your garage gym? You train.

Low on sleep? It’s a training day, so you train.

Is your back bugging you? You’re a responsible adult, so you train (training may have to be modified, but it’s especially important to train in this situation).

It’s also useful to remember that these are all champagne problems - first world problems, if you will. Not wanting to train is not a real problem like starvation or losing someone you care about.

You already know that training is a challenge you subject yourself to. You know that you don’t have to train - you get to train.

To anyone out there who’s thinking about skipping a workout . . . don’t trust your feelings.

You might regret walking in the gym door, but you’ll never regret having trained when you walk out.

Train.

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.)

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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?

These Aren't the Cues You're Looking For

Stop cueing your muscles.

That’s essentially it. If you stop reading right now (this article, mind you - not reading in general), you’ll already have improved as a human.

Hungry for more? We’ll keep it short and tasty.

Cue Movements - Not Muscles
When training, you want to move in a specific manner. With this in mind, when necessary, you give yourself a cue that reinforces that movement.

Megan correctly executes the “knees out” cue.

Do your knees tend to cave in when squatting? Cue “knees out.”

Perhaps you pull the barbell around your knees on the deadlift? Cue “push the floor,” “straighten the knees,” or “knees back.”

Struggle with the bar path on the press? Try cueing “aim for your nose” or “throw it back.”

Movements generally rely on the contributions of multiple muscle groups, so trying to cue the muscles involved is usually counterproductive and often rather complicated.

This is true of most physical endeavors. Can you imagine a basketball coach - trying to help a player with his shot - cueing “squeeze-the-quads, activate-the-glutes, fire-the-gastocs, flex-the-delts, contact-the-triceps, use-the-wrist-flexors!” One gets the idea.

But What About . . . ?
Of course, there are exceptions, and these can occur when you are trying to prevent movement (not cause movement). This is what happens when you think of contracting a specific muscle group.

Try it. Tell yourself to contract your biceps. You’ll instantly find yourself with a perfectly immobile elbow joint - frozen in place as if you’re prepping for a bodybuilding show.

So, if you’re getting ready to squat, you might cue, “tight abs” to help get your trunk rigid and immovable before starting your descent.

Trying to prevent knee flexion in your press? Trying cueing “flex your quads.”

You don’t cue “squeeze your glutes” in the squat or deadlift, but you might use this cue to prevent a reaching back or “winding up” motion of the hips at the start of the press.

In general, keep it simple - cue the movement you’re looking for, and the relevant muscles will get involved automatically (you’ve got your cerebellum to thank for that).

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.)

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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?

What Personal Trainers Don’t Tell You About Lifting Weights (7 Facts!)

There's a lot your "personal trainer" isn't telling you about lifting weights. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers gets right to it with 7 very important facts.

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.

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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?

Stretching is Dangerous?! (Why You Should NOT do Mobility Work)

Make no mistake - stretching is dangerous. However, it’s probably not for the reasons you’re imagining.

Is Stretching Ever a Good Thing?
Before we talk about why stretching is generally a bad idea, it’s useful to cover a few instances wherein stretching might actually be a smart move.

In general, if there is a position you cannot achieve without a typical warm-up - e.g., squatting is the warm-up for squatting - then you might benefit from some stretching. Using the squat as an example, if you can’t get the barbell into that nice, low bar position on your back due to tight shoulders, then you may benefit from simply stretching out your shoulders. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes each training session, and over time, your shoulder flexibility will improve. We’ve got a video below that covers the stretch to perform as well as the process, so be sure to check it out if you struggle to achieve the low bar position.

As an another example, if you perform cleans and front squats and the act of cleaning and front squatting is not sufficient to improve and maintain your front rack position (the position wherein the bar sits on your delts in front of your throat) - this could be due to inflexibility or long forearms - then you may need to spend some time actively stretching to improve this position. Again, this shouldn’t take a lot of time, and we also have a video that covers this process (see below).

How Do I Know if I Should Stretch?
The key in both of the aforementioned cases is that you are stretching because you can’t hit the positions you need to in order to successfully execute the lift (i.e., the squat, clean, or front squat).

With this in mind, if that situation describes you, then go ahead and stretch. However, if you can already achieve the proper positioning for a lift, then I would not recommend stretching.

But What About . . . ?
Some people might complain that they can’t hit proper squat depth when warming up with the empty bar. This is not a problem. The squat is an excellent warm-up and stretch for - not surprisingly - the squat, so it’s not unusual to squat a bit high for your first empty bar set, and then you squat a bit lower on each subsequent warm-up set so that you are achieving depth by the time your reach your work sets (and typically well before that point).

Squatting to depth isn’t an issue of flexibility - it’s simply an issue of sufficient strength and efficient technique.

Don’t complicate your training. In most cases, the lift you’re performing provides all the stretching you need to perform that lift, so your training already provides all the stretching you need for training.

Why You Shouldn’t Stretch
Remember, you stretch to increase your range of motion (ROM), and if you already have sufficient flexibility to go through your daily activities as well as your training, then you certainly don’t need to stretch.

If you enjoy stretching, feel free to do so, but since stretching is not necessary, I recommend avoiding it sheerly because it is a time suck on your life. For most people, stretching is a waste of time.

Most people need to get into the gym, train, and then get out of the gym in a reasonable amount of time because they have other things that they either need to do or they want to do. If you have all the time in the world to train, more power to you, but you are a unicorn. Additionally, even if you do have a lot of time, there are other things to do in life far more interesting and enjoyable than barbell training (remember - this is coming from a guy who promotes barbell training), so let’s be efficient.

Stretching is dangerous (I’ll cop to using that word liberally) because it wastes precious training time, so ditch the time suck that stretching represents, warm-up using the lift itself (gradually and progressively loaded), train hard, and then get out of the gym and move on with your life.

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.)

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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?

It Doesn't Get Easier - But Everything Else Does

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 02/05/21)

A while back, one of our younger lifters - we’ll call him Mike - finished a set of 5 reps at 275 lb on the deadlift. Mike thought this was a pretty tough set, and upon lowering the barbell to the floor after the last rep, he stood up, turned to me, and we had the following conversation:

Mike: Phil - that was awful.

Me: The funny thing is, as you get stronger, someday you’re going to pull 315 lb for that same set of 5 reps, and it will be just as “awful,” but by the time you can do that, then doing what you did today - pulling 275 for 5 reps - will no longer be terribly difficult.

Mike: So . . . it’s kind of like eating really terrible food so that other food won’t taste as bad.

Me: Sure.

While this definitely made me chuckle, Mike actually understood the point quite well: Training doesn’t get easier, but everything else does.

When a lifter is new at Testify, it’s pretty common to get some version of this question at the end of a set: “This Weight was pretty heavy - I should probably just stick with This Weight next time, right?”

While this is an understandable line of thinking, it misses out on a key concept, which is that only when you force yourself to lift The Next Weight and The Weight After That does lifting This Weight become easier. If squatting 135 lb is difficult right now, don’t worry - it will become easier after you’ve squatted 140 lb, 145 lb, and so on. Squatting 135 lb until the end of time doesn’t work.

In school, when you pass 6th grade, you move on to 7th grade, and then to 8th grade. By the time you’re in 8th grade, your 8th grade homework might be challenging, but the work you did back in 6th grade is easy by comparison. . . because you’re now in 8th grade.

Not only do previous work weights become easier to lift as you get stronger - other physical tasks in your life become easier as well. You become stronger, but the driveway doesn’t get any longer, and snow doesn’t get any heavier, so shoveling the driveway becomes easier. You become stronger, but gravity doesn’t become more powerful, so keeping your balance becomes easier.

Training will always be challenging, but the fact that you continue to step up to that challenge means you become stronger and more capable. So keep eating that terrible food. You’ll be better for it.

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.)

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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 Warm Up for Lifting (do not do this...)

Never use 2.5 lb plates . . .

Specifically, never use 2.5 lb plates in your warm-ups . . . mostly . . . kind of.

using 2.5 lb plates in your warm-up? Let’s not be crazy here, folks.

Some elaboration is warranted here, but we’ll keep this short and quick.

The Three Criteria for a Good Warm-up
Remember that there are three criteria for a good warm-up. First, the warm-up needs to prepare you for your work sets, so the weight needs to get heavier throughout the warm-up, and this will typically be done in roughly equal increments.

Second, the warm-up should not exhaust you by the time you get to your work weight, so you’re typically going to taper your warm-up reps from one set to the next. Once you’ve put weight on the bar, something like 5-3-2-1 works pretty well as you’ll see in the example below (with 225 lb as the work weight):

45 lb x 5 x 2 (empty barbell)
95 lb x 5
135 lb x 3
185 lb x 2
205 lb x 1
—————
225 lb x 5 x 3 (work sets)

Could Julie do 90b for a warm-up? sure, but it takes two 10 lb plates and one 2.5 lb plate per side. 95 lb (i.e., one 25 lb plate per side) is far simpler.

Third - and this is what we’re talking about today with the absence of 2.5 lb plates - the warm-up should bow to convenience whenever it’s possible and reasonable to do so. It’s very convenient to choose your warm-up weights so that they end with the number five, e.g., 85 lb, 95 lb, 105 lb, etc., and if you do this, you don’t need to use 2.5 lb plates when warming up (if you use 2.5 lb plates, your weight selection will end with a zero such as 90 lb, 100 lb, 110 lb, etc.).

“Are You Sure This is OK?”
This works well because, in general, you don’t need to be nitpicky with your warm-up weight selections, and by avoiding 2.5 lb plates, we’ve now simplified the process by reasonably reducing the options we choose from when warming up.

Two Exceptions
This is a general recommendation, and as such, there are some exceptions.

First, you might want to be slightly more picky with your last warm-up set, and if that’s the case, you might choose to use 2.5 lb plates so that your last warm-up weight can end with a zero.

Second, if your work weight is less than 100 lb, you might need to use 2.5 lb plates in some of your warm-ups. For example, if you’re pressing 87.5 lb for the work weight, your warm-up might contain some weights ending in the number zero such as 70 lb or 80 lb, and you’ll need 2.5 lb plates to load those weights. However, if your work weight is 100 lb or more, most or all of your warm-up weights can end with a five, and thus you can skip the 2.5 lb plates.

Keep it simple, ditch the 2.5 lb plates in your warm-ups (with an exception here and there), and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better . . . and train more efficiently.

-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.)

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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?