WT's 20 Tips for Gym Immortality.

I asked the REAL PEOPLE of WT to give the aspiring amateur athletes of internetworld the benefit of their collective knowledge. Having collated their mumbles and grunts I hereby interpret the sounds and gesticulations into 20 tasty morsels of training wisdom. Enjoy.

1."Eat real food. Lots of it."
Everyone knows what "real" food is I hope. Nutrition is the base to EVERYTHING training-wise. If you eat shit, you will be shit. If you eat lots of shit you will be fat.

2."Do not underestimate the importance of sleep, rest and mobility"
Recovery. We do not get strong in the gym, we get strong when we recover and the muscles repair themselves. Intelligent rest and recovery is key.

3."Never underestimate the power of a deload week."
Any weightlifting programme of any merit will include a period of deload or reduced weights. Busting ass is all well and good, deloading (or tapering) can be an essential tactic for continued progression or peaking for an event.

4."Hill sprints."
Yes they suck, but so do you if you don't do them.

5."Homemade training equipment can be as good, if not better than commercial equipment. It is also cheaper and fun to make."
There was a time; before Rogue fitness, Nautilus and the shake weight; when man trained with whatever he could find. Cast off the shackles of your modern conformity. The aspiring athlete can find solace and satisfaction in a bag of sand or in the weight of a rock. The true gurus create their own equipment. Don't be a slave to the inflated equipment manufacturers prices, embrace your inner hobo.

6."Don't make stupid excuses for not training or I'll find you."
Having read this, I actually trained. He is like the Freddy Krueger of strength and conditioning.

7."Use axles instead of olympic bars wherever possible."
Why? Because they're harder to lift. When you return to the olympic bar it will feel like a friend. The axle is a bigger challenge and will improve grip and brute force.

8."Train to compete."
Yes because:
"Competitions are great for getting new PBs"
Enter competitions, they'll help you set goals and write programmes.

9."Keep a log - record your efforts. Beat them next time"
Record your workouts, success and failure are both relevant. Learn from you errors. Videos are brilliant too. Record your lifts and critique your own form.

10."Training outdoors in crap weather makes you a badass."
Who won the last fight in Rocky IV? Was it modern gym boy, or running up the snowy mountain guy? Yes, its all there - documented.

11."Dont neglect the core and pull ups."

12."Training with stronger people than you, helps alot."
Yeah, because who wants to be the weak one? Healthy competition will drive you to suceed.

13."Good coaches are the bomb diggidy."
I don't know what a "bomb diggidy" is but I know good coaches are worth their weight in gold. I guess it must be some kind of really exquisite explosive.

14."Compression gear rocks for recovery." 
Wear compression tights after your squats. You'll look a bit of a dick, but it'll stop you walking like John Wayne. It works, trust me. Wear them under you work clothes, its like your own little naugthy secret...

15."If you're not making gains then you should be making changes."
Excellent advice. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

16."Don't assume someone elses training is right for you."
Modern strength and conditioning is a bs minefield. You need to pick you way through it. There are a million pointless training articles in the ether (much like this one). Establish you goals, find the methods to overcome them and train smartly.


17. "Fish oil."
...will help you recover and make life a hell of a lot easier. Research it. I take 5 capsules a day currently and it works.


18."The best supplement is hard work." - Ross Enamait
All: Amen.


19."Doing the prescribed reps is simply testing your strength. Anything over and above that builds strength, muscle, and character" - Jim Wendler
All: Amen.

20."Don't train like Jay Cutler...
Train like Jim Wendler."

Train Smart, Charlie.