If I Miss A Rep, I Punish Myself. And The Results Are Amazing.
Often I hit the gym with a certain target and a goal of what I want to achieve that day. It helps my mind to stay focused while I put in the hard work. It allows me to get things done for the day. Most importantly, it provides me with the necessary motivation to put in the time where I need the most.
We all know how tough it is to carry your sorry ass out from the couch, get into your gym clothes, pick up your shoes, and get out of the door. All these are inertia checkpoints. You skip any of those, and you are back on the couch with a bag of potato chips and a chocolate tub to end the day.
I am no Mr. Perfect. Despite working on a plan, often I used to miss my targets by a mile. And that used to hurt. Not physically, but mentally. ’Cause I had worked hard against the Newtons’ 1st law to get out of the door.
And not being able to hit the preset targets at the gym, is like spending all your money on taking your girl out, but not getting invited in for a cup of coffee when you drop her off at the house. You feel great that you had a fantastic time all day long, but it did not end well — at least per your target for the day.
P.S — am a married bloke with 2 kids, so the above example does not apply to me anymore (used to once upon a time). And to think of it now, it's not such a great analogy after all. Maybe am not wearing my “witty” writing hat today, or I just suck miserably at analogies. (my wife always says that my analogies are massively disastrous, so I guess she is right. After all, she is my wife)
Well, coming back to some realistic “fitness” targets. Whenever I missed my goals at the gym, I consoled myself by saying that — I will cover it up sometime during the week. But you know that day never comes. Once the day is gone, it's gone forever.
So, I started working on a plan. And that plan had to be simple. A complicated fancy plan almost never works. It all looks good on paper with colorful charts and numbers, but many times it leads to poor execution.
My plan had to be based on the KISS principle. Make it so damn simple that it is a no-brainer and that it has to work every day without fail. Many folks work their plans to incentivize themselves. For eg, if you hit the 25km mark on your run, you may treat yourself to a glass of smoothie, order a pizza, or any other fetishes that people may have.
I didn’t want any of that. Incentives actually don’t work for me. If I want to drink a smoothie — I just go ahead and make one. If I want a pizza, I don’t hesitate to order. I had to come up with something different and radical.
So I decided to punish myself. Yup, that works for me. If I put myself on the chopping block, I would have to work extra hard to avoid the guillotine.
And this is how it works (but first a little bit of my earlier routine to set the context)
On any given day, I spend roughly 1 1/2 hrs in the gym. 15–20 mins of warmup exercises. 1 Hour of my main exercises (the target) and then another 15 mins of cool-off and stretching.
During my main exercise routine, I usually pick up two muscles to work on. I will either do a Bicep-Tricep routine, or do a Chest-Shoulder routine, a Back-Abs routine, or a Legs routine. On some days, I will just do cardio for the entire duration in the gym. As you can see, it's a very simple routine. Nothing extraordinary.
If I took up a Bicep-Tricep routine, I would mostly do 7–8 exercises for those muscles with 15 reps per set. And 4 sets per exercise. If I missed a rep (14 instead of doing 15) in a particular set, I used to just go to the next set after taking a short break. On the face of it, it does not look so bad. You could say — “Hey, at least you got the 14 reps done”. But you see that’s not good enough for me. I want my 15, no matter what.
The problem was — missing that single rep in a particular set had a domino effect on almost all my other sets across all my other exercises. It’s like a tsunami building up with every passing second. By the time, I had reached my last exercise, I would end up doing only 9–10 reps for that set. It had a cascading effect by the end of it all. Mentally, I would enter a “give-up” zone, and recovery from there was almost next to impossible.
Sure, I spent the 1 1/2 hour in the gym, but was I maximizing it? Hell, No. I used to be left hanging at the doorstep, waiting to be called in for that cup of coffee.
I Love My Cup Of Coffee & Would Do Anything For It
So I stepped up the game with a new “punishing” routine —
In this new routine, if I miss even a single rep in any set in any exercise, I just repeat that entire set again. So, If I end up doing 14 reps out of 15; I now take a very small break for a few seconds, and I get down to repeating that entire set again.
This not only allows me to recover my missed rep(s), but I get to add another 14 reps to that specific exercise (sometimes I do try to add one more rep to make it a full set in respect for David Goggins). If you haven’t heard of him, I strongly advise you to look him up. He has an amazing session with Joe Rogan on YouTube. And most definitely read his kickass book — You Can’t Hurt Me.
With his new approach, I punished myself to do one more set. By grinding it for another 15 reps, I was actually giving myself a freakin’ BONUS (5 sets instead of the target of 4).
I am now able to over-achieve my targets for the day, especially on days when I may be running low on fuel in my tank. To think of it, those are the days when you actually need more fuel. It's relatively easier to achieve your daily fitness goals on an energetic, sunny day. But to be able to max it on a day when you are low on fuel is when you can say — “I rocked it today, baby..!”
This new “punishing act” has done wonders for me, both physically and mentally. I am now able to put myself more into the game every day. My overall workout intensity has increased, am more energetic throughout my time at the gym, and am wanting to do more. And, the most amazing thing is — now I stop only when it's time to get back home, not when I am tired or exhausted.
The cherry on the cake is if I am able to complete all my reps for a particular set — I achieve my target. If I miss a rep in any of the sets, I have to do an additional set, and I over-achieve my target. I win the battle and the war too.
One could say, I am overdoing it or I may be hurting my body in that process. I like to believe differently, not because I want to prove anyone wrong. But this is allowing me to explore my limits. When I was doing 4 sets of 15 reps each, I used to think — this is the MAX I can give today. This was my mind-block. I still had fuel left in the tank, just that I didn’t know how to tap into it.
Final Thoughts
Now by incorporating this new routine, I am able to break my mind-block and go hunting for that extra fuel that is sloshing around in my tank. Those last few ounces of fuel are helping me.
To steal the words of my 6-year-old son —” go beyond my finish line”. He is my inspiration. He knows how to do it already.
And, am thrilled to report that these days am not being left hanging at that doorstep. Am getting my cup of coffee every day.
Stay Strong. Do 1 More.
