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Discipline of steel #29

Bulletproof obliques, don’t train to look fit, mindset shift for consistent gains, and don’t quit what you can fix.

Hey Warrior,

There is a difference between being patient and taking your time.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

It’s important to enjoy the thousand miles, but it is urgent to take the first step.

Understanding that the journey is the destination doesn’t mean we can procrastinate.

It means that the whole point is in the daily improvements we make.

Take action as if you were in a rush.
Be at peace as if you were already arrived.

This is the key to consistent and sustainable progress.

If you need any help with your training, please let me know by replying to this email and I’ll share my answer with everyone.

Now let’s start! 💪

1. Build bulletproof obliques.

Who doesn’t love strong and lean obliques?

Here is a very simple but powerful way to train them.

It’s also the very beginner version of the human flag.

In fact, when I finally achieved the strength to hold a human flag, my body wasn’t straight enough and I had to practice this exercise again.

Which tells us one thing about it: although it’s accessible to beginners, this exercise is powerful enough to increase core strength at any level of training.

This is usually true for any type of static hold anyway.

PS: the side plank gets a bonus point for building shoulders of steel at the same time!

Click this link for the full YouTube video and instructions.

2. Train to become the real thing.

If you trained to actually be what you want to look like, you would already look like it.

The problem is it takes longer not to cheat (or so you think), and you’re impatient.

But in the end you never quite get the result you’re hoping for, and it’s disappointing.

So much time and studies are spent trying to find the fastest way to burn fat, build muscle or look toned.
But Nature is well made, and always rewards people who do the real work and do things right.

If you trained to be fit and strong, that’s how you would look like eventually, and you’d be happier.
Not to mention this type of look, the one that comes from natural work, stays.

Yes, it takes longer, but not as long as the time you’ve already wasted trying to cut corners.

The next 3 years are going to pass no matter what.
It’s up to you whether you spend them looking for more shortcuts or doing real work and finally reach your goals.

3. When the plan becomes the goal.

Shift your goal from a desired outcome to a desired lifestyle.

Instead of obsessing over the end result, focus on being the person you need to become to get there.

If the goal is the plan, then you reach it every single day you stick to that plan.

One of the most important things we can do to reach our destination is to enjoy the journey, and understand that this is where the real change happens, continuously, along the way.

You don’t need to reach your destination to become who you want to be, you become that person every time you do something for it.

And if you never get there, that’s ok. Because the most important is knowing you’re doing everything to deserve it.

As long as you keep showing up and live this lifestyle, you deserve whatever it is you want to attain, and you can already be proud.

4. Stop quitting what you could fix.

How many times did you tell yourself things will get better when you get the new job, or that moving will change everything, or your life will be perfect when you find the one?

And then you get what you wanted, and it’s great in the beginning until it’s not so much anymore.
Because everything fades and eventually our real problems resurface.
The problems we had to fix but chose to run away from instead.

It’s exactly the same with fitness.
The next program, the new coach, the latest diet trend…
None of this will fix us if we don’t work on the real issue.

We have to do it long enough to make things work and fix the problem.
We must stay consistent and work hard with whatever we have until we become fit and achieve our fitness goal.
Then and only then can we look for ways to optimize that, or make it easier or more fun.

Things won’t change with circumstances, they will change when you choose to do the work, right here, with what you have in front of you.