What did You do Wrong??

What did I do wrong in the beginning? I did too many small, fine-tuning exercises. See, before strength and conditioning coaches were given a voice in popular media, we had to rely on the info in bodybuilding magazines. That meant most of us copied the pros. That’s not always a bad thing. In-the-trenches experience of successful people is valuable. But it also made us myopic.
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For example, as a googly-eyed teen, I picked up a book by bodybuilder Bob Paris. In it, he said to do tibia raises. That’s like a reverse calf raise where your heels stay put and you lift your toes up. I was convinced that if I left out this tiny muscle group, my physique would be “unbalanced.” The problem? I was doing these silly tibia raises instead of doing deadlifts. That’s like polishing the wheels of your car but neglecting to gas it up.
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Today we’re seeing almost the same thing. Too many people are spending too much time focusing on the small stuff. Excessive corrective exercises, excessive mobility drills, working on “balance” for some reason… when their goal is simply to lose fat and build some muscle. That stuff is fine, but don’t forget to throw around heavy weights and do things that actually make you strain, suck wind, and sweat.
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And that’s the core issue here: the small stuff is easy, so people gravitate toward it. But easy doesn’t force the body to adapt and change. Easy doesn’t make you strong, and it doesn’t make you look good naked.