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I love that saying because it sums up LIFE!

This is the way life is, it is the way it always has been and I am going to suggest that it is the way it always will be.

And that is good!

I don’t think it should be any other way because it is through the trials, pains, and failings we ALL experience, that we become the person we are.

The better you become at dealing with hardship, struggle, and suffering, the better equipped you are to deal with the crap life is going to throw at you.

The younger you are exposed to hardship and challenges, the soon your mind adapts to accepting life as life, and the less likely you are to fall prey to the "poor me" syndrome.

Every generation becomes softer than the last as modern ways of living took hold and become part of everyday life.

I remember being blown away by a square dot bouncing side to side on the TV screen when the Atari first came out, I remember 2nd year and the NES and everyone talking about the AMAZING graphics.

Now our children are born into a world where the internet and computers are just normal.

We can video call our family with handheld devices, order anything from anywhere at the click of a button. But this ease of life has its costs.

The cost is our ability to deal with discomfort.

For generations, humans had to endure hardship daily.

Winters were cold, clothes were hand-me-downs, kids slept 6 to a bed, food was whatever was put in front of you and you either ate it or you went hungry.

Nowadays kids cry because they don't like peas or carrots or they didn’t want smiley faces and us, the parents, react to their cries like trained chimps and give them what they want, even though they were the ones asked for the food they no longer want in the first place.

Are we really doing them a service?

Is pandering to their every desire and allowing them to vegetate in front of screens all day, helping them to become the best possible versions of themselves?

What happens if the net goes down?

What happens if there is a war/natural disaster/alien invasion

You get the picture.

We grew up building forts and dens, climbing trees, running, jumping, getting dirty.

It has been something kids have always done and it is something they still will do IF we expose them to it.

We give them the electronic devices because

A. There mates have them

B. Life has evolved and they are an integral part of society today

But that doesn’t mean they need them all the time.

Think back to your childhood.

Sports, two-man hunt, football in the street, scouts, rainy holidays in a caravan in some coastal area of Ireland playing snakes and ladders or yatzy or watching a black & white tv powered off a car battery.

But we LOVED THEM!

We went out in the morning and didn't come back to we were hungry then back out again, you couldn’t keep us inside if you tried.

Nowadays it’s the complete opposite and WE are responsible!

We are the parents and we gotta own this shit because then we open the door to changing that.

We are helping to shape their outlook on life.

What happens in 25 years when these snowflake kids are faced with REAL LIFE CHANGING decisions and events?

This is why the likes of weightlifting, martial arts, team sports, athletics, etc are so important for development.

It teaches ownership

It teaches responsibility

It exposes them to pain

It exposes them to suffering

It exposes them to self doubt

It removes the blame on others

It shows them that they are the deciding factor in their success

It doesn’t care if they are finding things tough or not, it is there to conquer or be conquered

Why do you train the way you do?

For most people, it’s a really simple answer

“Because that’s how you were shown to train”

We believe when it comes to weights, we all need to do certain moves.

These all involve a barbell

Shoulder Press

Bent Over Row

Bench Press

Deadlift

Squat

Why? Well there are a few common reasons


If you only ever did these five exercises, you would be pretty strong
Most PT’s you hire will have been trained to use the barbell as their main tool
The barbell is synonymous with getting strong and putting n muscle

But just because others are using them, does it mean you should be as well? My opinion is a resounding NO!

In fact, I would go as far as to say that for the vast majority of the demographic I train, a barbell is not necessarily the best way to train for the goals they are trying to achieve

A barbell is a TOOL!

It has thousands of ways to be used and the purpose for how or IF you use it is determined by the goal of the individual

Let’s use the squat as an example.

Never in the history of modern lifting has there ever been a more misused exercise.

We live in a world where the VAST majority of our time is spent sitting or lying. Compare this to 100 years ago, when we were much more active due to working requirements and access to sugar and a multitude of other food additives that weren’t part of everyday life.

We were fitter and more mobile AND we had no PT’s or science papers explaining how’s and why’s of what we were doing, we just did it because it made sense.

These men and women would have had the ability to squat safely but sadly not us. It doesn’t mean there are people out there who can, nor does it mean that everyone reading this couldn’t get themselves to a point where it is possible, I just mean that as it stands, in my experience, most people I train, do not need or should not do barbell back squats.

EVERYONE who sets foot in Primal is first given a light bell and shown how to goblet squat. This is one of the most underutilised exercises there is and if you aren’t capable of at LEAST 50% of your body weight for 10 reps, then there is no need to be under a barbell.

The goblet squat will probably produce better results for the muscles you need to train to allow a safe and strong barbell squat.

The same applies to ALL of the barbell exercises I mentioned. For a lot of untrained people, they are down the road, there are much better and safer options to use that will build the foundational levels of strength required to allow longevity in your training while keeping you safe.

This is why spending time looking for a coach with a solid reputation is one of the most beneficial things you can do when starting out training again. Why risk injury or waste time making so many mistakes when there are people out there with the skills and knowledge to help you avoid the pitfalls and take you closer to your goals in a much faster time

Here is me telling everyone that you need to accept you are older now and not in your 20s.

That you just aren’t capable of jumping back into training the way you did, when you haven’t done it in 10-15 years.

Then I decide to do 10 x 3 min rounds on the punch bags and then spar for an hour.

Today I CANNOT MOVE!!

What did I learn?

A. I am as stiff as a wooden board

B. My sparring ability is as rusty as an 80 year old gate in rural Ireland

C. My body is simply no longer capable of pushing the way I once could

D. I don’t care! The pain was 100% worth it and regardless of how bad I was, I LOVED IT!!

So here is the contradiction to EVERYTHING I always talk about.

Sometimes the mental game is more important than the physical outcomes.

I KNEW today I was gonna be sore.

I KNEW my hips were gonna hate me.

I KNEW I would struggle with daily tasks.

I KNOW I cannot do this everyday and expect to function normally

I KNOW that I am going to make sure I pencil in some time each week to do this.

Now I train regularly enough.

Not as much as I would like to but enough to keep me ticking over.

I do enough to keep me fit for my everyday life as a 44 year old dad.

I DON’T train enough to be capable of doing 60 minutes of sparring (2 x30 minutes, with a few breaks)

Even though the guys I was sparing are untrained and I was only taking them around to let them experience the adrenaline dump, I am still in AGONY and my actions have ensured I won’t be capable of training properly for a few days BUT I did get up this morning and go for a swim, 100m laps x 10 sets, to loosen up (another thing I did for half my life but not for 10+ years)

And this is the point I am trying to make.

We do need to accept our limitations and understand we are older but we also need to make time for doing the things we LOVE.

Even if we aren’t capable of doing what we once were, we can still relive that time at a lesser intensity, as long as we accept each action has an equal and opposite reaction.

My action was I decided to spar

The reaction was my body is broken and I won’t be capable of moving for days 😂😂

But the training I do regularly, even though it is much less of an intensity than what I was doing, had a cross over.

I have pushed hard, now I need to recover harder.

A gentle swim (though I may find I am worse tomorrow because of it 😂) helped to loosen me up and will aid in my recovery.

This is the thing about age, we need to realise that recovery is as important, if not more so, than the actual exercise. Training x5 a week is probably not necessary for 90% of people my age, especially when just starting out. 3 times a week of resistance training along with gentle cardio like walking everyday will do more for the average man and woman than any of these instafamous workouts that seem to have everyone believing is the only way to train.

Find something you love doing.

Pencil it in to your weekly/monthly rota.

Ensure the training you do regularly compliments it so you can at least enjoy doing it, all be it at a reduced capacity to what you once did it and realise that it is ok to not be where you once were because you are no longer that person

Short version of this article

Women should lift weights.

The End

Longer version.....

Women, if you lift weights your life will improve in almost every way possible!

Body composition

Confidence

Feeling

Looks

What WON'T happen is you looking like Arnie!

Look at all those men in the gym, a LOT of them actually want to look like Arnie!

They are there day after day TRYING to achieve this..... and yet.... They don't?

Now when you understand the reason men have bigger muscles than women is due to testosterone and that the average woman has between 1/10-1/20th the amount of testosterone, compared to the average man and you think about how hard it is for men to gain muscle (so much so that those that achieve the "Arnie" look supplement their natural supply with CRAZY amounts of chemicals)

It is safe to say that no matter how hard you train, you will NOT look like a man!

The End

If you are interested in group training and live in or around the Lisburn area, then why not try out Primal Strength & Movement Group Training?

A 4 week trial of up to 20 sessions with times to suit even the busiest individual

6/7/9/10 am and 5/6/7/8 pm Monday to Friday.

No need to book into sessions, just pick the one that suits you best that day, rock up, and get involved. We offer coaching for both men and women

Click on the link below and get started

MEN: http://www.primal4weektrial.com/signup

WOMEN: http://www.primalladies4weektrial.com/sign-up

We also run MMA style fighter circuits for both members and non-members on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings at 8pm as well as teen training for 13-17 year olds on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon from 4-5pm

One thing I can say with absolute certainty

The older you get, the better you become at lying.

Not just to others, but to yourself!

The number of men and women (but more so men) with beer bellies, biceps like noodles, moobs, and the mobility of a rusted gate, who will stand directly in front of me, and tell me without a hint of a smirk on their face, that they train regularly, would blow you away.

These people have convinced themselves that a round of golf with their mates or a game of five a side, constitutes regular exercise. What they tend to forget (omit?) from their story is the 8 hours of drinking that follows the golf or the fact that after 5 minutes they went into nets or pulled up with yet another injury.

The facts are, most people in their 40's have allowed their health and fitness to slip. Working a sedentary job, comfortable in a relationship, stressful job, lack of regular sleep, poor nutrition, it all adds up and your game of golf is only allowing you to lie to yourself and others (though the belly tends to tell a different story)  that you are still doing something.

Like I keep saying, you need to train for your lifestyle, not Instagram.

So many people have this false idea of what training involves, based off what social media tends to project as truth.

If you are in your 40s or beyond, if you are a parent with limited time, you won’t need to do that much to make a big impact on your life.

Eat more veg

Get more sleep

Drink more water

Walk 5-10km every day

Train three times a week

That is all you need to make a MASSIVE improvement in your life

If you are interested in group training and live in or around the Lisburn area, then why not try out Primal Strength & Movement Group Training?

A 4 week trial of up to 20 sessions with times to suit even the busiest individual

6/7/9/10 am and 5/6/7/8 pm Monday to Friday.

No need to book into sessions, just pick the one that suits you best that day, rock up, and get involved. We offer coaching for both men and women

Click on the link below and get started

MEN: http://www.primal4weektrial.com/signup

WOMEN: http://www.primalladies4weektrial.com/sign-up