5 Things I Wish I knew When I started Lifting

SUMMARY

There are dozens of things that I wish I knew when I started lifting, however these 5 are some of the most important ones:

• Nutrition always comes first. Doesn’t matter how hard you train (or you think you train). You can never out-train a bad diet. Take care of what you put on your plate. 
• It will take you way longer to achieve your results that you would like, and that is okay. Fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. 
• Form > weight. Always. No matter what. Weights are just a tool to create a certain stimulus, stimulus that can only be generated as long as an exercise is executed properly. 
• It is when you rest and sleep when you grow, so do not underestimate the importance of recovery and sleep. 
• Always be critical with your nutrition and training and never, ever, stop learning. 

Let me elaborate a bit on these. 

The beginner life… if you knew the amount of mistakes I made when I started lifting…

Trust me, if there is a list with all the possible mistakes you can do when you start working out, I’ve done them all.

And to be honest, it is kind of normal.

Let’s face it, most of us start working out because we just want to look better, and we start without having a clue of anything, which leads to a very unproductive first phase of our fitness journey… Yet, our first year is one of the most important ones, since you can really have a massive change if you do things right from the start.

That’s why today I want to talk about 5 things I wish I knew when I started lifting so you won’t make the same mistakes I did. 

Let’s get started. 

1. NUTRITION ALWAYS COMES FIRST

I don’t care how many hours you spend in the gym, you just cannot out-train a bad diet. If your nutrition is not properly managed, you are wasting your time at the gym.

Food is fuel, and food is what will determine if you progress or not. It determines if you lose fat or build muscle or vice versa, it determines whether you recover properly from your sessions or not and it determines whether you keep moving forward or not.

Having a good macronutrient balance, consuming nutrient dense foods, high quality protein sources, variety of carbohydrates, all the essential fatty acids, etc. Nailing your nutrition will take you to places you can never get to without it.

2. IT WILL TAKE YOU MORE TIME THAN YOU THINK.

This happens to all of us. The goals we set for ourselves often take quite a bit more time than we expect. Yes, we all want to see results very quickly. We want to start doing things right and then suddenly have the same physique as our favorite fitness influencer in a matter of 2 months, but that is not how it works. 

Nothing worth having comes easy in life, and fitness is no exception. Be patient and keep in mind that the goal you have set for yourself will take more time than you think. 

Losing fat takes time. Building muscle takes even more time. Getting stronger takes more time. Changing your body composition takes time. Building a new healthy and balanced lifestyle takes time. 

Be patient and don’t get discouraged when you don’t achieve the results you expect in the time frame you expect. It was unrealistic from the start 🙂 

3. FORM > WEIGHT. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

If someone paid me 1 € for every time I’ve seen someone ego lifting at the gym, I would be rich by now. Don’t be one of those people.

Form > weight.

All day every day. Lifting is not just about lifting more weight. It is about lifting weight with proper form and execution to provide your muscles with the stimulus they need in order cause the reaction you seek for. And that is only achieved by training with proper and safe technique.

Yes, every now and then it is cool to ego lift a bit to have some fun, but for your day-to-day training, focus on form, contraction, execution and quality work.

4. DON’T UNDERESTIMATE SLEEP AND RECOVERY

A lot of people often underestimate the importance of sleep and recovery and yet, it is one of the fundamental pillars. Fitness is a tripod: training, nutrition, recovery. What happens to a tripod if you take out one of its legs? Exactly, it falls down.

Same here. Training and nutrition are important. But recovery is just as important. 

Enough quality sleep on a daily basis will skyrocket your progress. It is when we sleep when we produce the most amount of growth hormone and when we sleep is when our muscles repair and grow. In other words: when we train, we stimulate certain reactions in our body that happen when we are actually sleeping and resting. 

Rest days will also allow your muscles and your central nervous system to have plenty of time to recover before hitting the next session and will help you avoid burnout and overtraining. 

Don’t underestimate the importance of resting, it is absolutely crucial for progress.

5. ALWAYS BE CRITICAL WITH YOUR NUTRITION AND TRAINING AND NEVER STOP LEARNING

One of the reasons why a lot of people hit plateaus is because they think they have it all figured out and they know it all. Let me tell you something: “when you stop learning you stop growing”. Simple as that. 

There is ALWAYS room for improvement and more to learn, so don’t you ever think you know it all because *SPOILER ALERT* you don’t…

Always keep doing your research about training, nutrition, supplements, recovery, etc so you can perfect and master your craft and become better and better over time.