The Absolute Biggest MISTAKE You Can Make In the Gym

The #1 Way People Stifle Their Progress & Condemn Themselves to ZERO Gains 

by Alec Enkiri | 11/15/21

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Introduction

Did you know there are complete non-responders to weight training? They exist! It's true, man. Some people just don't respond to the training stimulus. Their body decides there's nothing to bother adapting to and so no appreciable adaptation ever takes place. And I'll tell ya, if you're hoping to make solid progress in the gym being one of these people is literally the WORST mistake you can make, man. If you decided to be a training non-responder you're not going to build any muscle, you're not going to build any strength, and really you're just going to be a pencil neck for the rest of your life.

I Kid, I Kid

Obviously, I was being a little bit factious there. No one chooses to be a training non-responder. Some people just have the terrible misfortune of being born that way due to circumstances beyond their control. But the fact of the matter is, you almost certainly aren't one of them either. Statistically speaking, I would bet the existence of true non-responders is about as prevalent as the number of obese people who truly have a thyroid issue preventing them from losing weight. Like yeah, they're out there, but that's not really why we have an obesity epidemic. And being a non-responder to weight training is not why your skinny little ass cant get swole.

The true major culprit that prevents people from getting where they want to go, sabotaging their fitness journey before it ever really even starts, is CONSISTENCY. Or unfortunately, a lack of it. Consistency is the most important factor. If you take nothing else away from this article it should be that little mantra: consistency is the most important factor. Without consistency there is nothing. Fitness, the entire game of physical improvement, no matter what type of physical improvement you are seeking, is all the same: you are trying to build a house. Brick by brick, piece by piece, every single day and every single week, you are building a house. You can only stack so many bricks a day before your hands start to blister, so each day you do what you can. But those last few bricks are always a little bit unstable, a little tenuous, and they'll never really be solid and locked in until they've got more bricks on top of them holding them down sturdy and cementing them in place for good.

But the thing is, every night a hurricane comes into town. It whizzes by and it brushes up briefly with the house that you're building and it knocks off some of those bricks on the top layer. Not all the ones you laid today, but some of them. No matter! You'll come back tomorrow and you'll lay more bricks on top of it. You'll build back up what got knocked down and you'll build a little bit more on top of it as well. And eventually, in time, brick by brick, piece by piece, and day by day the adaptations will stack on top of each other and over a period of several years that will turn you from an unassuming physical specimen into a freak of nature. And that's just the way its done. That is the cold hard truth of the matter, I swear to you.

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There are no shortcuts or magic pills or secret sauces (other than trenbolone acetate, but I wouldn't recommend going that route).

Everything is Hunky Dory...Until It's Not

So there are no problems! Everything is all hunky fucking dory when you're consistent and you do the work that you're supposed to be doing. You gradually make your way towards your goals as physiology and adaptation dictate. Now, the problem arises when you lose that consistency. You're building your house, laying a few bricks here and a few bricks there. Little victories each day. But like I said, you can only lay so many bricks a day, man. Your hands get all blistered and start to peel open and bleed and all that nasty shit. Eventually you've gotta go home and rest, right?  all that nasty shit. Eventually you gotta go home and rest right?

Gotta catch some zzz's eventually, right?

But if you never come back, or you don't come back for a week, or you only show up every other month...what's going to happen? The hurricane isn't going to stop coming. The hurricane is consistent as fuck. The hurricane is ready and waiting at the helm to fly by Every. Single. Night. And so it will. And day by day, and piece by piece, and brick by brick, the hurricane is going to destroy what you have worked so hard to build. A few bricks here, a few bricks there. You forget to build your house for a month and then you come back to it one day and there's nothing left. But you knew the hurricane was coming so why are you surprised that your got destroyed?

A Subtler Form of Inconsistency

Another inconsistency error people make is with the type of structure they're building. One day they lay down bricks; then the next week they come in and try to put wood on top of it only to realize that the pieces don't fit together like that; then they try to mold with stucco on a partially pre-existing structure, and the whole thing is a just a damn mess. And they can never finish the house because they didn't use a consistent type of build and they tried to fit together pieces that cant go together.

Adaptation is the same way. It's a series of small bricks stacked on top of one another, but it can't work if the bricks don't fit together to begin with. You can't do strength training this week, and then endurance training the following week, and then bodybuilding training the week after that. If there's nothing to build off of from one microcycle into the next then there will be no adaptation because there is still no consistency. It's a different type of inconsistency from skipping out altogether, but it's still inconsistency. With the popularity of Crossfit these days amongst laypeople - and all the haphazardness that entails - along with longstanding silly notions regarding "muscle confusion,"  this is something that also needs to be noted.

Conclusion

Consistency is the most important factor. Without consistency in the gym then you have nothing to build off of and you won't build an impressive structure in the end no matter how many years you've been "kind of sort of working out." Do you want to build a mansion or are you content with building just a little shack? That's a question you have to ask yourself. I already gave you the answer: consistency.

If you enjoyed this article it please feel free to support the production of more free content like this by picking up one of my training programs! The Ultimate Performance Manual is my pride and joy and the feedback I have gotten from the program over the past year has been immense. If you need a solid program to get your ass in gear then you should definitely check it out. Keep training hard and I will catch you guys next time!

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