You Can't Lift Because You're Not Trying

I have a few things to say here, so let me say them all up front. Your diet doesn’t matter. Your training plan doesn’t matter. The reason you will never reach your goal is because you don’t want to. You don’t work hard enough to achieve it, and nowhere near hard enough for anything like a diet or training plan to make a difference. Those factors come into play at such a high level, one so far from where you are now, that all the time and effort you pour into these areas is wasted. Now let me explain.

I’ll start by telling you something about myself. I don’t enjoy running, so I am not good at it; and because I am not good at it, I get injured easily. So when I read about a Nike shoe that makes its wearer three to four percent faster, I almost bought it. I had found the shortcut to conquering the one thing I could not do. I said no, though, and here’s why: a 4% boost to someone who puts as little effort into this activity as I do would amount to nothing. Running more often would dwarf the minimal gain I might see from those shoes, if I saw any at all. The one step I can take to make the greatest improvement here is towards the track. Getting outside and putting miles behind me will help more than anything else. That is the reality of my situation, and the reason I did not hand Nike $250.

Regardless of what you hope to achieve in the gym, it’s not your diet that’s holding you back; it’s not an imperfect routine that’s keeping you from reaching your goal. You will never succeed because you do not work hard enough. You do not put forth enough effort to achieve anything more than mediocrity. Worry about the perfect meal plan once you stop skipping workouts. There are no rest days. Worry about crafting a training plan when you start spending more than an hour working out. There are no time limits. If you want to grow, if you want to make progress, train long, hard, and every day. There is no secret, and there are no shortcuts: go to the gym and lift as heavy as you can, as many times as you can, for as long as you can. Only then will you have any hope of succeeding, and only then will things like diet and volume make a difference; until then, the reason you can’t lift is because you’re not trying.