Just 6 years ago I was an idiot.

I’ve changed so much and matured beyond recognition.

“If I had known then what I know now“

That’s what we all say at some stage in our lives.

Here’s 10 things that I wish I had have known when I was 21….

(1) Low carb is the most effective way to burn fat – So many wasted years trying to burn fat while preserving muscle on a low fat diet. Guess what? I lost the muscle too. Every year I was starting from scratch again.

(2) 8-12 reps is best for hypertrophy. I first started working out at 25 reps, then switched to 4-8 reps. While this wasn’t useless, I also wasn’t maximizing my gains.

(3) Most supplements don’t work. I wasted a lot of money buying hyped-up crap. The only supplements I use these days are Creatine, L-Glutamine and Whey Protein Isolate. If and when I find anything else that works, I’ll let you know.

(4) Weight gainers add fat, not muscle. As a guy who started weight-training because he was sick of being skinny, I fell for the lure of quick weight gain. Well my wallet got thinner and my waistline got fatter. These can only be recommended for extreme ectomorphs who find gaining weight almost impossible.

(5) Stress stunts growth . I had no idea how thoughts lead to emotions and emotions trigger biochemical changes in the body. Being stressed out will hamper your bodybuilding goals so for God’s sake chill out.

(6) Binge drinking is stupid – Hey I’m Irish, what else was going to happen? I started drinking at age 14 - what a dumbass. I quickly developed something called Acid Reflux which is acid coming up the throat regularly. It burns like crazy and sometimes would happen every minute of every hour for days and days. I also lost interested in making something of my life and got more depressed as I got older. I drink on special occasions these days, that’s enough. If you’re young and want some advice, listen to this:

“If you want to be happy, look around at what the mass of men are doing and do the opposite”

(7) I can survive on less sleep - I was always struggling to get 8 hrs sleep a night when I didn’t actually need it. I average around 6 hours a night these days.

(8) I can change myself in any way I wish – you can too. I can build any character trait I like into my consciousness. Basically we all have thought ourselves into being a certain way, but you can always change your mind . There is no permanent ‘you’ that must settle for, you can be any type of person you wish.

(9) I can do anything put my mind to – Yep you’ve heard it before but now I know it. Simply put, we all get what we focus on.

(10) People are basically good. 6 years ago I would have told you that the majority of people were not integrous. Now I believe the opposite. At the heart of it, people are good. They want to treat others well even if they don’t always do it.

Is there anything you wish you had known then what you know now??

Stay Positive!

Mark McManus

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Misc., Motivation, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.