Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

When I first stepped into a gym, I didn’t know anything about lifting weights.

I was a skinny kid who had put off getting a gym membership because I was worried that I’d look stupid.

So I was hellbent on doing things right.

I’d spend hours scouring YouTube and Bodybuilding.com, looking for answers to what I thought were the important questions. How long should I rest? How many reps should I do? Should I be using the hack squat or leg press?

Looking back, I was a little misguided. My curiosity was coming from a good place, but I was focused on the wrong things.

While finding ways to optimise your training is valuable, it’s easy to overanalyse every aspect of training and get bogged down in the trivial details.

So much so that you risk missing the forest for the trees.

Think of your training as a jar that needs to be filled.

To fill it, you have the choice of Big Rocks and Little Rocks.

In our case, the Big Rocks are the most important training variables, like adherence, volume (the amount of training you do), and intensity (how hard you train).

This is where most of your progress will come from.

Then there are the Little Rocks, like exercise selection and rest times, which won’t have as much of a bearing on your results.

If you try to fill your bucket with Little Rocks first, you won’t have room for the Big Rocks. But put the Big Rocks in first, and there is room for the Little Rocks around them.

The point is, there is space in your training for both.

But the Big Rocks are going to take up the most room, and it’s not productive to add the Little Rocks first.

Nowadays, I see lifters asking the same questions I was. And I have nothing but time for anyone wanting to get better or learn more.

But if you’re not following a program, or training close to failure, then you probably don’t need to worry about whether you’re hack squatting or leg pressing.

80% of your gains are going to come from doing the basics well, consistently. That means following a program, tracking your training, and working hard enough to drive progress.

In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff.

If you don’t know how to structure your training to achieve your goals, feel free to get in touch. I’m always happy to answer questions.