What I Would Do Differently If I Could Work Out All Over Again
By: Anthony J. Yeung
Tags: Health, Life Lessons, Exercise, Fitness, Self Improvement

Do fewer powerlifting exercises

When I started taking fitness seriously, I did the StrongLifts 5x5 program, which is a simple workout routine that uses powerlifting staples: The bench press, back squat, and deadlift.

Three times a week, I did my training and I gained basic strength and decent size. And in hindsight, I’m grateful for the program because it gave me the regimented approach that would help me throughout my fitness career. It taught me the value of free-weight exercises versus machines. It also taught me the value of actually getting strong.

But damn, those exercises were rough.

(And there are way more numbers of sets and reps than just 5, 3, or 1.)

Even though I had great technique — and this isn’t me saying this, but other coaches and competitors — it still put a lot of stress on my body that I didn’t need to put on it. Fortunately, I never needed surgery or something that serious, but there were a lot of avoidable annoyances.

Yes, back squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are great exercises. But there are so many other exercises to strengthen those same muscle groups without putting as much stress on your muscles and joints.

And while you can definitely do those exercises, I wouldn't overly specify in them unless you plan on being a powerlifter.

Fitness, after all, is about improving our bodies, not improving our ability to do a man-made exercise. (In fact, after training people for years, I’ve rarely met someone who has the mobility and flexibility to do power-lifts with great technique.)

Nowadays, I train almost exclusively unilaterally, which means training each side of my body separately. Single-leg exercises, single-arm exercises, dumbbell variations instead of straight-bar ones, suspension trainers, etc.

Not only do these exercises have unique benefits you can’t get from bilateral exercises—like traditional bench presses, squats, and deadlifts—but it’s also a lot easier on your joints. And yes, you can get strong as hell doing them too.

Not all healthy foods are good for you

Eggs, oatmeal, spinach, fish oil—these are all healthy (and delicious) foods, with tons of great nutrients, proteins, and more.

My body, however, doesn't really react to them well.

Now, don’t get it twisted: I'm not saying you shouldn’t eat those foods. I'm saying that, even though something is “healthy,” it’s important to listen to your body and see how it reacts. You might find that certain “superfoods” screw your body up.

My best advice here is to take a food tolerance journal. Track how you feel after eating certain things. You might learn that specific meats, carbohydrates, or vegetables make you really sleepy or fatigued, get bloated, or even cause your nose to run.

And once you avoid them, you’ll feel a lot better overall.

Get more rest and recovery than you think

For about 5 years, I tracked my heart-rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate (RHR) every day to assess my readiness to exercise as well as my recovery.

I thought I did a good job of taking “off days,” doing recovery work, having “deload” weeks, getting good post-workout nutrition, and doing aerobic exercise, but I noticed I kept plateauing and my body wasn’t responding well to recovery.

Then, just as an experiment, I stopped all exercise for a month. Wow. My HRV went on a wild ride—for 7 straight days, it dropped before slowly climbing for the remaining 3 weeks.

My body was clearly fatigued. And despite the fact I tried to add recovery into my routine, it simply wasn’t enough. I realized later that my body responds best to complete rest and that I should've just taken more time away from the gym and done nothing.

Now, this is just my example, but if I could go back, I would’ve taken far more days off than I did. Training is stressful on the body. And while it’s nice to think that we need to be super consistent with our routines and never miss a workout or run, life isn’t perfect and there will be many times where we’ll need to dial things back.

Remember: We’re playing a long-term game. There’s no need to cram everything in when you’re going to be exercising for the rest of your life.

More stretching

In the strength and conditioning world, I learned early on that "passive stretching" isn't as good as "dynamic stretching." Passive stretching is like a traditional stretch where you lengthen your muscle and hold it for time; dynamic stretching is more like warm-up drills where are you take your joints through a full range of motion (something you might see on a football/soccer pitch).

The research suggests that, before training or playing sports, dynamic stretching is probably better for you.

But I learned later on that there really is a time and place for passive stretching—and a lot of it.

Now, I don't believe stretching is the end-all-be-all for injury prevention. And I don’t believe you need to be able to bend over and put your palms on the ground or have the flexibility of a gymnast.

But having decent flexibility in your muscles goes a long way. Not even for injuries, but just for feeling looser and more pliable. And even though I did a lot of dynamic stretches and mobility drills over the years, I've recently made an effort to do passive stretches and my body feels so much better because of it.

Eat less sugar

Thankfully, I never really had a sweet tooth; I stopped drinking soda in my teens and never really snacked on candy.

But it wasn't until a few years ago when I cut out all sugar for 30 days, that I realized how much sugar we really consume. Unless you make everything from scratch, there's sugar in damn-near everything—even so-called “healthy” stuff.

And the craziest thing: After my fast, I had a few bites of a pastry and I had the biggest sugar rush of my life. And as I laid in bed feeling wired and struggling to sleep that night, I thought to myself, “So this is what I've been doing to my body my entire life!?”

Look, I don't believe that refined sugar is “evil” and that everyone has to stay the hell away from it. To me, everything in moderation. (After all, how can we enjoy life without an occasional Nutella crepe or scoop of ice cream on a summer day?)

But I would've told myself to be way more conscious about the sugar content in my foods, and I would've tried to eliminate more of it from my diet earlier on.

Get lean first (before bulking)

When I started my fitness journey, I had a less-than-ideal starting point: I was “skinny-fat.” I weighed 120 pounds with no muscle and a lot of flab.

As I started doing my workout program, I wanted to cure my skinniness as quickly as I could so I decided just to eat a lot and even drink a gallon of milk every day—anything to put on the calories.

Ultimately, I gained a lot of weight and cured my skinniness. But if I could do it all over again, I would've actually tried to get leaner first. Because when you gain weight from a lean starting point, you tend to put on less fat and more muscle as you bulk.

The fact is fitness is a very long-term game; it's something you do for decades. And while I understood why I wanted to change my body image so quickly, it would’ve helped to understand that I would've been working out for the next 10 years anyway. So long-term, it would've actually made more sense to do something different rather than try to cram in results.

Less Is More

Life happens outside the gym.

In the grand scheme of things, a “healthy life” isn’t a badge of honor that comes from working out six times a week, bench pressing 325lbs, or getting a six-pack. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) It’s also not about having a perfect cocktail of supplements and eating nothing but organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO foods.

After spending years in the fitness industry, I’ve realized that a lot of the industry is fueled by people who are trapped on the hedonic treadmill (or trying to make a buck). It doesn’t matter how “lean” or “ripped” they become—there’s still something lacking.

And that’s not healthy.

Health doesn’t have to be difficult, complicated, or masochistic.

Get more sleep. Lift weights, but don’t go crazy. Try sports you’ve never tried. Drink more water. Take a walk on a sunny day. Smile more. Play tennis with your friend instead of watching TV. Cook at home instead of eating out.

Enjoy the journey and you’ll improve your chances of living a long, happy life.

I hope it helps.