When I first started training way back in 2009, the “fitness internet” was very different.
It mostly consisted of long-form articles and message boards, neither of which are conducive to hours of mindless consumption from dozens of sources.
Nor was there half as much extreme material that is, at best, useless and, at worst, downright harmful to your pursuit of being strong and in shape.
Oh, sure, there were still grifters and nonsense churners, but most of what was out there was sound.
It was without a doubt a better time.
In fact, I don’t think I would have achieved a fraction of what I have if I was just starting out today.
It’s not that there aren’t any smart people producing quality material – they’re present in abundance.
The problem is information overload.
There’s so much excellent stuff you want to do it all:
Pre-hab, mobility, tempo training, contrast loading, bands, chains, pauses, pulses, burns, drop sets, supersets, negatives, pre-exhaustion, post exhaustion…
… and so on, and so on, and so on.
And when you try, you invariably end up going the square root of nowhere.
Much better, in my humbly correct opinion, to quadruple down on the basics:
* Building competence and confidence in the core barbell lifts,
* A modest amount of supplementary work with dumbbells, machines, and bodyweight to build muscle, correct imbalances, and prevent injury,
* Plenty of cardio for health, longevity, and to grow an almighty gas tank to fuel your gym work, and,
* Taking a little time to stretch and mobilise to reverse the damage done by the modern lifestyle.
I’d also recommend limiting the number of people you listen to, as you’ll be more likely to take consistent action on what you are learning, instead of endlessly consuming.
One of those people ought to be me, in my biased opinion.
But before you decide, do your due diligence by consuming some of the (over 300) articles on my site, listening to my podcast (available on YouTube only), and, at the bare minimum, carefully examining the below-linked sales page for my programme.
Fair warning: There’s a lot of text and not many pictures, so if you can’t get through it because you feel it’s too long, don’t enjoy my writing style, or identify as “neurospicy” because you’ve watched too many TikToks and now struggle to concentrate for more than a couple of minutes, the offer is not for you.
https://philtyreman.co.uk/programme/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman