you know i am always seemingly trying to get people to quit asking for variety and stick to the plan.  Most of the time for most people this is sound advice.  When it comes to training people have the attention span of a gnat and yeah that includes athletes as well.  They have been blitzed with things like muscle confusion and “blast your bi’s into submission” (what did bi’s ever do to you?  they are just fun lovin)

a little while ago fellow RKC Boris Bachman had asked if we thought the internet has made us weaker or stronger.  I said stronger because it allows me to find all sorts of great training methods.  If i hadn’t found them i would probably still be in the gym still doing the 3 sets of 10 and doing preacher curls but i have the discipline to buckle down to a program.  Trying to mix and match and confuse your muscles will just confuse you into thinking that you have progressed which is the reason people would be weaker.  Where are your markers of progress?  and does that mean you should never have fun with your training?

I don’t think so.  Every once in awhile I’ll do something I hadn’t done before just to see if I can.  This is one of the things that puts fun back into training.  Most of  the time it doesn’t have any real purpose other then to prevent burn out and just to see if I can.  And believe it or not most of the time when I do these its after I have finished training for the day.  Here are some examples.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to do this so I tried it out.


I saw a dude that’s known for picking people up over his head with 1 hand do this with kettlebells only 9 lbs heavier then this…and he’s twice my size. I wanted to see if I could do it with this weight…and well I can.


Same kind of goes with this. I wanted to take 2 of the more difficult exercises, put them together in some form of mutant exercise and see if I could do it. I was almost able to do it with the 20kg but kept losing balance.

Now keep in mind I don’t train any of these lifts (well I do the pistol and I do the sots, but not together). I stick to the basics, pretty much all the time. These I just did to see if I can, and knowing I can helps me stick to my training programs.

So every once in awhile leave your comfort zone and see if you can come up with something difficult and try and achieve it without training for it. That sort of thing is fun and can keep your head sane. Just don’t make it the bulk of your training because you’ll veer off course, but taking a pit stop every once in awhile and racing a bit can help you out in the long run.

Eric Moss… over and out.

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