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Beautiful Badass Strength Training Principles

• Posted 11/03/2011
• Tags:
  beautiful badass, personal AND strength training.
• 12 Comments

The next few articles I post will be follow-ups to my recent article My Battle with Disordered Eating. Originally I planned on sharing my current nutrition guidelines that helped me overcome my disordered eating habits, along with the simple guidelines I use with the majority of my clients.

However, there is another important piece of the puzzle that helped me overcome my poor relationship with food and my negative body image that I didn’t mention in that personal article – the way I trained.

So today I am going to share with you what I am now calling Beautiful Badass Strength Training Principles.

Something I didn’t mention in last week’s article was that at the peak of my disordered eating habits strength training became a chore and form of self punishment. I once loved lifting weights, but at that point, it was something I “had to do”.

Whenever I was in the gym my only concern was burning as many calories as possible. I would do endless circuits of squats, chin-ups, push-ups, Romanian deadlifts, and other exercise combinations. I would do as much as possible and try to keep moving at all times. I was determined to lose the excess fat I had put on from the disordered eating and to “look better”.

The workouts were nothing less than brutal. My lungs would burn, my muscles and nervous system would get extremely fatigued, but I would keep pushing harder and harder. I loathed every moment of it and did those types of workouts for a couple of years, at least four times each week.

Once I started recovering from my disordered eating habits, I decided it was time to simplify everything – my nutrition and my training. During the entire time I battled the disordered eating, my workouts were fueled by negative motivation – I didn’t like how I looked and all I wanted to do was burn as much fat as possible and improve my physique.

Time for a Change

I was desperately in need of a mindset change when it came to my strength training. My workouts could no longer be driven by negative motivation; things had to change.

It was around this time that I reread Muscle Gaining Secrets by Jason Ferruggia and for the first time read Beyond Brawn by Stuart McRobert. Those two excellent books (both are highly recommended) reminded me of something I forgot during my disordered eating times and marathon workouts, and that was what the weight room is truly for – getting stronger.

After reading those two books, I committed to going back to the basics of barbell and bodyweight training. I focused solely on improving my performance and getting stronger. Nothing else mattered – no more focusing on burning calories or working myself into a puddle of sweat and moving non-stop – all I cared about was getting stronger.

Admittedly it was very tough as first. My workouts were much shorter in duration (no more than 45 minutes) and I finished my workouts feeling fresh and energized, and not completely and utterly exhausted like I usually was. It was during this time that I also completely cut out all of my cardio work on elliptical machines, bikes, and treadmills.

My only training consisted of weight lifting three to four days per week and walking my dog. I was tempted to do more each training session, but I managed to stick with the plan and focus on nothing but improving my performance in a few basic exercises.

Gradually I started to enjoy training again. I actually looked forward to going to the gym. I was finally driven by positive motivation – to beat my previous performance; whether that meant adding more weight to the bar or squeezing out an additional rep. My love of lifting weights was returning full force and was no longer a dreaded chore.

I completely changed my strength training perspective; lifting weights was a positive activity and I was always motivated to train hard. This is what led me into competing in my first powerlifting meet. Changing my view and approach to lifting weights was a big contributing factor to my disordered eating recovery, and led to positive changes in my body composition as well. The best part: any fat loss that occured was just a welcomed side-effect from training. Fat loss was not the goal; getting stronger was, but it led to body composition changes.

Keeping it Simple

This “simplification” process has been carried over to how I work with clients as well over the past several years. The majority of the clients I work with fall into a general category – men and women who have busy lives (with work, family, children, hobbies, etc) and their main priorities are looking better (lose fat, build muscle), feeling better, improving their overall health, and getting stronger in the gym. My clients are busy individuals who want the maximum results in minimum time.

It’s common sense, in my opinion. If you want the best results in the least amount of time, you have to focus on the big, basic exercises. Here is the primary list of exercises I use with my clients and in my own training:

The Basic Beautiful Badass Barbell & Bodyweight Exercises

• Squat (back squat, front squat, safety bar squat, goblet squat, or kettlebell squat)
• Deadlift (rack pulls, trap bar, sumo, RDL)
• Push-ups
• Parallel bar dips
• Inverted rows
• Horizontal presses (barbell, dumbbells, floor press, flat and incline)
• Various rows (chest supported, cable, dumbbell)
• Chin-ups (various grips)
• Overhead press (dumbbells, barbell, kettlebells)
• Hip thrusts (glute bridges, back extensions, single leg back extensions)

In fact, it’s not uncommon to narrow that list down even more and focus on just six exercises for several months. The exercises don’t need to be changed frequently; it’s the programming that changes. For example, leading up to my 330 pound deadlift, I was doing nothing but deadlifts, squats, floor presses, barbell rows, chin-ups, and standing presses for several months. The only training tool I had available was a barbell and power rack, and it’s clearly all I needed.

My 330 pound Sumo deadlift. Onward to triple bodyweight!

The programs I have used over the years with my clients are featured in Beautiful Badass – they revolve around the basic barbell and bodyweight exercises and are designed to provide the “most bang for your training buck” and the focus is on improving performance in the weight room. That means more results and less time in the gym. That’s not some slick sales pitch – it’s the truth that people have forgotten because they simply think it takes hours and hours of training time each week to get positive results.

The shows on TV have people convinced that they must train to complete and utter exhaustion; hell, I’ve been there myself! If you want to enjoy training again, I strongly suggest you get back to the basics, spend less time in the gym, and focus on improving your performance.

The Take Away Message

Have a positive reason for going to the gym; it’s was truly helped me get through my disordered eating and negative self image. Get in there and get strong, and then after that get even stronger. Make the goal of improving your performance the only focus of your training sessions. Yes, it may be intimidating at first knowing you’re only going to spend about 45 minutes in the gym three to four days per week, but that’s all it takes as long as you work hard.

Forget about the number on the weight scale, burning calories, or working yourself into a puddle of sweat. Pick up some heavy ass weight via loaded barbells and dumbbells. Work your way to a double bodyweight squat and/or deadlift. Work your way up to dominating your bodyweight and bust out sets of parallel bar dips, chin-ups, inverted rows, and push-ups. Don’t be afraid of pressing a loaded barbell over your head either.

If you are used to marathon workouts or being fueled by negative motivation to train, it could take a lot of work at first to focus only on your performance in the gym and finishing a training session feeling energized. Stick with it for at least eight weeks; you’ll find training more rewarding and motivating.

I’ll be back next week with the Beautiful Badass Nutrition Principles I used to overcome my disordered eating habits and the ones I currently use with my clients. Even if you have never had disordered eating problems, it’s still useful information for people who want to keep things as simple and stress free as possible when it comes to eating, improving health, performance and body composition.

UPDATE – be sure to check out Beautiful Badass Nutrition Principles.