Where's The Beef?

By Phil Stevens

We are in world full of people that are all buns and no filler. Touting what they read, but have never experienced. They are all show, no go. Or as I touched on last week, paying all the attention to where they want to be. The end, and giving no attention to where they are starting from, the meat, the beginning.

You now have your current margins set. You now know your comfort zone. You know the current “meat” content you have, and how much bun you have to play with. The thinking is done, now its time for action. It’s time to get cooking. Time to start to chisel away at that bun, your growth potential, and raise the quantity and quality of the MEAT in your sandwich...

How the heck did we get from margins to meat and buns? Take the first example from last week, the newbie. Think of his current starting point as your run of the mill Mcdonalds cheeseburger. His current ability as that ¼ thick machine pressed, paper thin, poor excuse for a protein source,. His growth potential is the two oversized, overly processed and worthless buns that overshadow his meat and try to disguise him as something more then he is.

The newbies end goal, the worlds strongest man, is the polar opposite. Now were talking about a 20 ounce rib eye, cooked to perfection. Maybe a roll on the side, maybe not. Maybe you just slap that ribeye in a paper thin tortilla, just enough bun to serve as a delivery vehicle for the real ability. No extra added fluff. All ability and very little, margin for growth and error.

So how does he start this progression. Simple. He needs to take an approach that has him consistently stepping out of his comfort zone. Due to the large amount of bun he has the luxury of a ton of lee way. Largely anything he does is going to chip away at that bun and make potential room for growth of the meat of his sandwich. He just need to be consistent in those small steps. The problem is, while that bun is easy to chip away at, its also easy and cheap to swell and fill back in if you don’t stay on top of it, stay consistent. Its also VERY easy for a newbie to take to big of a bite of that bun. A big ole chomp and he can leave his meat, his comfort zone exposed.

This is where your two most common mistake arise for those new to training, or considering training.

#1 they get OVERWHELMED by the amount of bun they have, and / or lack of meat.

They compare their piddly lil fast food burger to the Ribeye with the minimal sides and flat out never start. They think their aint no way they can transform themselves into a delectable dinner admired and desired by many, so why even try.

Or #2 They come in headstrong and want to go from zero to hero in one day.

They burn hot and fast,. They chomp into that sandwich so big, and so hard, that they not only swallow the bun, but take a big chomp out of the meat they already have. They step so far out of the comfort zone that they are racked with pain and soreness. Its takes weeks for them to just heal the meat they were trying to expand to the point of not being able to sustain there current meat (ability), let alone fill in the bun. They acted to far and hard. They wanted there lil cheeseburger to be able to be as filling as a ribeye and just couldn’t handle it so they stop. They have no consistency.

The trick is to be consistent.

Step out of that comfort zone. Do it on a small consistent basis. Take a lil bite at a time on that bun and chew it up. Meat takes a long time to grow. But if you keep at it. Slowly feed the beef bits of the bun, and give it time and space to grow. All those lil bites add up.

In time it wont be “where’s the beef,’ but the opposite, and you’ll have to very carefully and selectively look for bun to feed that beast to make it grow. That meat (ability) will begin to overshadow the room for expansion (bun / groth potential) and you’ll have to look for creative ways to expand the pin, to gain the smallest bit of room to grow the monster you have become. But that’s another story, for another time.

Every one of us has the ability to be a grade A cut of beef. Its all in in the processes and steps taken, day in, day out, that determine if were going to be dog food, or delicacy. Take that burger you began with. That lil baby calf. Slowly feed him. Slowly enlarge his pin as he out grows his surroundings. In time he’ll grow to a big stud steer that can roam the pastures with the other bulls.

Just don’t open that gate to far, to soon, or that cow may just run away never to be seen. He’ll get trampled and processed before his time. Keep a firm grip on the reigns, but at the same time consistently let that calf roam a little more each day.

Now go feed that cow and introduce him to new and larger pastures so he’ll grow.

About The Author

Phil, while attaining both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in studio art found another passion, that of training and nutrition. A constant student, his real-world under-the-barbell and behind-the-fork approach has led to many an opportunity, experience, and change in his life as well as those he has worked. Phil currently, aside from his varied work with Team Staley, is a working and showing artist (http://www.philstevens.com). His current personal fitness goals are to become a competitive force as middleweight strongman competitor, while building upon his power lifting experience in which he has seen as high as a top ten national ranking; with a two year goal of obtaining an elite ranking as a 242 or 275lb weight class RAW power lifter.

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