I’m not the smartest guy on the planet. Chances are you’re not either (if you are, please let me know, I have a few questions for you). But one thing I can take pride in is finding lessons in the most random and seemingly insignificant experiences. A few weeks ago some friends and I met up in Raleigh, NC for a weekend. Were bad decisions made? Abso-freakin-lutely. Would most people classify it as just a random weekend where four assholes got together to drink copious amounts of alcohol and be completely inappropriate? Again, absolutely. Regardless, here are some lessons I took away from that incredible weekend…

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80% of your success’s are a direct result of 20% of your efforts. 80% of your intelligence is a result of 20% of the lessons you’ve learned. 80% of the STD’s you contracted are a result of 20% of the dirty skanks you’ve picked up at closing time.

Any of that sound familiar? Hopefully the last one isn’t actually true, but you get the idea. Pareto’s Principle has been attributed to many peoples success and many more people see that as the key to getting the most results from whatever you happen to be doing.

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I’m in the list-making mood again. But instead of being a Negative Nancy and telling you what you should stop doing, I’m going to fill you in on things you might not be doing that will help reach your goals.

1) Setting Goals: Speaking of goals, do you have some? Are they tangible? Written down? Realistic? Have an end date? Posted in a manner that you’ll be forced to see them multiple times everyday?

If not, you better get on that. This is by far one of the easiest things you can do to get on track. The key here is to make it tangible. “Getting in better shape” might sound good, but it’s not tangible. “Losing 20 pounds by next week” isn’t realistic. You can try to drop that much weight, but with the exception of liposuction, 99.999999% of the people out there will not be able to do it in a healthy manner.

Goal setting is a balancing act. Make the goal lofty enough to motivate you, but not so much so that it is completely out of reach. Set an end date that you want to reach it by, but don’t set it so far out that you can half-ass it and still reach it. Challenge yourself, hold yourself accountable and become that competitive asshole who will do anything to achieve those goals.

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Quick list of some things I feel are 98% useless when it comes to strength training.

1) Isolation Work: I’m not a fan of isolation work at all, with the only exception being if it is for rehab or pre-hab. The way that the body reacts to strength training makes “isolating” muscles a complete waste of time. I put isolating in “sarcasti-quotes” because it’s damn near impossible to isolate any muscle in the body. Having sex to keep your virginity intact is a more worthwhile adventure than trying to isolate a muscle.

The human body is a system and works best when used as a system. Building up one part of the system does not make the rest of the parts magically get bigger/faster/stronger. Big biceps don’t lead to a thick back; a thick back leads to big biceps. Huge triceps don’t lead to a massive chest; a massive chest leads to huge triceps.

Solution: Step away from the dumbbells and for the last damn time, stop doing curls in the squat rack. If you want to trade in your peashooters for a MK-19 you better start doing some pull-ups (palms turned away from you) and chin-ups (palms facing you).  A chin-up is the exact same motion as a biceps curl anyways, and I guarantee that most of you can’t curl your body-weight. As for your triceps, try improving your bench press form first (elbows flared out = bad, elbows tucked in at a 45 degree angle = good). Add in some close grip push-ups and you’ll soon have “higher caliber weapons” than Barry Biceps Curls. No more isolation work, ever. Isolating biceps and triceps is the most common example, but this applies to every muscle.

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