A Survival Guide to Lifting

As a novice, the only thing you need to do is to survive.

Those who survive it – make it. Novice syndrom is a disease: it
prevents you from going where you want to be and makes you
quit. It manifests itself through multiple things:
Great filters are eventually going to be encountered. They
put you to the test. The novice syndrom is one of them.
YouTube fitness is a man-made element that is also a part of this
great filter: it brings a lot of help but can also push you away
from lifting.
Your novice period should be pure. It should be the most
fun and the most exciting one. It shouldn’t be something that
leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Preserve it and prolongue as
much as possible.

Advice

1. Don’t rush it. Becoming an intermediate lifter after a

course of 6 months is not possible. Be very patient and take your
time, both for progression and knowledge. You don’t need to
absorb everything too fast. You just need to know enough.
2. Leave the herd. Select your goals and make your
decisions. Do what makes you personally happy inside, even if
you find your passion in being the strongest bender of spoons.
You are lifting to be yourself.
3. Don’t let a channel define you. Stop being a copycat, and
be careful who you follow, never do it blindly. Always look for
multiple sources.
4. Start with an actual program. Where you want to be:
being able to write your own program.
5. You don’t want to be fast: it is not conducive to
hypertrophy and good physique. Slow it down, taking a deep
breath. Stick to the work even if you don’t have massive results
and returns. Don’t let the progression addiction to get to your
head. Noob gains may spoil you.
6. Think long-term, without obsessing over the future.
Instant gratification is the worst enemy. You want to avoid
taking breaks, pumping, ADHD training, “magic pills”, and so
on. Long-term gratification is your best friend.
7. Do not buy anything. None of the supplements you buy
really matter. Powders are not more efficient that the training.
8. Stay the course. No need to kill yourself, be consistent.
Don’t add a weight, add a set.
9. Besides the training, you want to have everything stable.
If you modify the baseline and not the training, you’re losing the
plot. If you start eating massive amounts of food and the training
doesn’t actually follow, guess what, you’re going to just get fat.
Telling that diet is the most important part of training is a
terrible lie to tell novices. It’s a baseline, a constant. Be
focused on your training stimulus.
10.