I started lifting weights back in 2004, the year I graduated school and my focus shifted from playing CounterStrike and StarCraft to girls and partying. Originally I started to lose the last bit off fluff around the waist (former fat kid syndrome) so I joined up in the next best gym and did your typical bro-split for the first few weeks and months to follow.
Lucky me, the owner of the gym I joined was a former bodybuilding competitor and took my friends and me somewhat under his wings and showed us the ropes. 6 months to the future, I was fully immersed in the bodybuilding lifestyle, reading every piece of information I could get my hands on from team team-andro, to t-nation, to the tan tight slacks of dezso ban and a lot of books, from Stuart McRobert to Arnold’s encyclopedia. Bought creating, protein powders L-carnitin, BCAAs and mostly everything else that was marketed to give you an edge.
That went on throughout my time in university, mainly focusing on bodybuilding, before getting a real life (aka 50+ hour job, a wife, two kids and a dog) when training time took a backseat. Then I started dipping into more of the low volume stuff, powerlifting, what the oldtimers did (e.g. odd lifts) and learned some olympic weightlifting (thanks to Dan John).
So, if you made it this far into my blogpost. Here are the 20 lessons I learned and try to apply moving forward.
1. Strength, the skill that compounds
Being strong will make every other endeavor in life easier. Want to throw your kids around in the pool, be strong. Need to move, or help someone to move, be strong. Want to be able to play with your grandkids and great grandkids, stay strong as long as possible. Want to feel confident, be strong. Want clothes to fit you perfectly get stronger. You get the idea I guess.
2. 10,000 hours to be truly competent
No matter if it’s learning how to squat properly, feeling the muscles while training them, autoregulating frequency, intensity and overall volume. It will take time to learn those things, might be close or even over 10,000 hours. With 3 strength training sessions a week and round about 90 minutes per workout mastery will only come after 42 years. This does not mean, that you can only reach your dream appearance or strength level when turning 80.
3. Start out young and you will get laid
It will set you apart on the dating market, if you are carrying more muscle and are generally leaner. It might even make it easier to find your soulmate. All fluffy talk aside, attraction is always first and foremost based on outside appearance. You can have the greatest character of all time, if you look like the Hunchback of Notredam you will most likely not get the girl in the end of your personal fairytale.
4. Motivation is overrated, so is having a plan
Don’t get me wrong, use 5/3/1 or starting strength or Madcow’s 5by5 or any other linear periodization scheme you discovered in the interwebs. But 20 years down the road, it just will not matter. Consistency is the only thing, that will. So if you go full on CrossFit, but burn out after a year or two and never touch any weights ever again, the bro-split guy that did his thing for 20+ years will be fitter and looking better.
5. Progress is not linear, at least not for long
There will be periods of time where you can increase the weight on the bar from workout to workout or week to week and there will be time where you can see your arms growing in the mirror. Followed by a stretch of time where nothing at all happens, but looking back to old images of 2-5 years ago, the difference might be astonishing.
6. Try the fad diet or fad workout
If it keeps you going in the long run, try the “how Daniel Craig trained to be James Bond” workout or the 2 weeks pickled cucumber water fast. Try as many things out as you can, as long as you have fun with it and do it for 2 to 4 weeks, to see if it has any impact, be it positive or negative. Adjust from there.
7. I tend to always come back to the basics
There is a reason for squat, deadlift and benchpress being the core of any power lifting meeting and any sane training plan as well. Try stuff out, but come back to the tried and true exercises ever so often. Make adjustments dependent on your age, level of fitness or injury history.
8. Prioritize rest as you get older
You might not be able to train twice a day, seven days a week, once you have a career and a family and all the stress that goes with it. If your 22, only starting out and still in school, training or university, or if you have rich parents and will never need to work any real job, double down on training and eat like there is no tomorrow.
9. You are rotting, try to stop or reverse it
Once turning 40 it will become obvious, how is strength training and how is not. Posture, skin tone, cardiovascular capacity & general immune function will tell. Get strong, be strong, get even stronger, reverse aging & set yourself apart from your peers.
10. Bodybuilding is 100% lifting and 100% diet
This statement might be the best version of all the nuances regarding what is more important in the quest for size and strength. But only because the two are equally important does not mean, there is no room for errors or life to happen. 20% of your efforts will be getting you to 80% of outcomes, which is mostly enough. So instead of doing 123 exercises for biceps, do some pull ups, but with real effort. The 80/20 rule is reversible as well, so try to have >80% of your meals composed of the 20% of foods that will give you the protein and fat you need to thrive. Be committed 80% of the time, and life in the other 20%.
11. No need to track everything all the time
Track food and workouts for some periods in time and you will be able to eyeball it in periods where training and looking great naked is not the main focus of your time on earth. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t tracked anything and slacked off for quite some while. As long as you are making healthy choices in the kitchen and staying active with your workouts you are way ahead.
12. Supplements make your wallet lean
Coming back to 80/20, it’s just not worth it. Instead of mixing a protein shake, buy a ball of mozzarella or a slice of chickenbreast or what ever else will give you roughly 20g of protein. Eat real food, that our ancestors might have identified as food.
13. Minimize friction as you age & priorities shift
Homegym anyone? If you are already overcommitted chances are, you will not commute to the gym, get into your workout clothes, train there in the post-work crowdedness, shower and drive all the way home. If you equipment is already at home you can either have additional time training, or additional time for whatever else you enjoy doing. Hang a pull up bar somewhere in the house and do a couple of those every time you pass that door frame.
14. Training will set you apart from your peers
The difference might not be as visible in your 20, when everyone has been playing sports for the better part of their childhood, but it will be very noticeable once you are in your fourties and have kids and the difference will be enormous once you reach retirement age.
15. Not everybody is a fitness model
Once you start becoming interested in bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongmen or whatever, the algorithm will show you an endless amount of people that look like they were carved from stone. Don’t become discouraged, look around in university, in the office, workshop or on the construction site or wherever you might be reading this (I hope for you it’s a beach), if you train your are already looking better than >90% of the population
16. Your “looking good naked” will evolve
While you might be focused on having a sixpack in the beginning, like I was this will shift as you evolve, some will go down the powerbuilding routing trying to look as strong as possible, sacrificing leanness, some will want to look like their favorite Hollywood actor or maybe your are just happy if you have no cellulitis or dumps in your skin and everything is firm.
17. Don’t buy into the lifestyle niche
There is more to life than training and carrying Tupperware full of chicken and rice with you everywhere you go. Your time here is gone in the blink of an eye, enjoy the days you have. Have some fun, but try to stop the fun once it is severely impacting your health.
18. Drink more water, beer also helps
As Arnold mentioned, milk is for babies, if you want to grown, you have to drink beer. Jokes aside, chances are you need to drink a big glass of water right now, go and drink something.
19. It’s not a religion, don’t become dogmatic
Do some HIT, some CrossFit, some powerlifting, some odd object lifting, some bro split. Try everything and adopt what works for you. Don’t become engaged in discussion over the internet, what is the right cadence for what lift. You know, arguing over the internet is like starting in the Paralympics, even if you win, you are still disabled.
20. Love the process and yourself
Don’t expect wonders to happen over night, enjoy the huffing and puffing, the sweating the eyeballs pushing out of your skull during some heavy high intensity training. Become addicted to this feeling and to the pump afterwards. Stay training for as long as you are able to move, it will improve every other aspect of your life.
Cut yourself some slack, not every nanosecond of your day needs to be optimized.
Sebastian Strobl 
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