Slow and Steady Wins the Race

A few years ago I was lifting with a buddy of mine. We were both bench pressing about the same amount-five hundred pounds...give or take a few hundred. Okay-we were both maxing out around two hundred and seventy five pounds. I felt pretty good about this. After all, when I first started lifting seriously at twenty one I was a one-hundred-forty-pound weakling who could barely bench the bar! So, two seventy five was great!

My buddy was a wrestler and quite a bit shorter than me. For his frame he was pretty strong. He was a little heavy but in pretty good shape overall. Over the course of about two months, through an intense routine of careful dieting and high intensity workouts I gained an incredible...zip, zero, zilch. My friend on the other hand had gained nearly fifty pounds on his bench press. Not only that but he had lost weight and was substantially more ripped.

What was his secret? Steroids. To be fair to my friend, this particular flavor of steroids was mostly legal at the time. A few months later the FDA banned them and, a few days prior to the ban, my buddy purchased a six month supply.

Was it worth it? I can't speak for my friend and I've since moved away and lost touch with him. However, I've had several other friends and acquaintances who've seriously regretted their choice to use steroids. One was dishonorably discharged from the military for illegal steroid usage.

The truth is, weight-lifting can be excellent for your health but, if done wrong, it can also be severely detrimental to your mental, physical and financial health.

Steroids are not the only pernicious path to pain and suffering for serious weight-lifters. I have another acquaintance whose back and shoulder have been so completely torn up that, often, he can barely move. There are times where Oxycontin and a six pack of beer are the only things that keep him sane. His problem wasn't steroids-he just pushed it too hard, too fast.

Why do I mention this? What can be learned from my experience? One, I have some interesting friends. Two, you've got to lift hard; but, most importantly, you've got to lift smart. If you're going to make weight-lifting a lifetime sport, you need to pace yourself.

The last several weeks I've been doing the Russian Bench Routine. This is a very intense, six week training regimen. I do bench press three times a week. I start by doing significant volume (combination of medium weight and relatively high reps) and progress to going very heavy. By the end of the program I should be able to max out at ten percent more than when I started the program.

What does this have to do with going slow and steady? There is no way I could continue to do the Russian Routine indefinitely without severely injuring myself. Six weeks of this kind of intensity and frequency is about all my body can handle.

People that lift for a lifetime cycle their routines. You can't always go heavy. You can't always have super-high intensity and frequency. And, you can't always focus on the same body part.

So, take a tip from me and my friends. Steroids aren't worth it. Change up your routines periodically. If it hurts (in a bad way), don't do it. And, finally, listen to your body. If your body's telling you to take a break, listen to it. Weight lifting can be a fun, healthy, lifetime sport but you've got to lift smart.