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DEWJ15 | What you can learn about English from my (rather unsuccessful) weight training?
Disclaimer: I’m in no way qualified to give weight training advice
If you want to join the Doing English Daily Newsletter, you can do so here:
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
You wouldn’t know this to look at me (I’m pretty small - 180 cm, but only 60 kg). But I life weights.
The reason I started doing that is because a few years ago I was feeling tired and had no energy, so I started running (see episodes #3 and #4 to hear the story of this) but I also thought it’d be a good idea to do some strength training.
But it went nowhere.
Nothing.
And for several months I did it with no results at all.
It wasn’t until one of the Doing English+ members pointed out my mistake and told me why it wasn’t working that I actually started to see results.
My mistake? My weights were too light.
He advised me to change to heavier weights. I was using tiny, tiny weights. I could lift them all day… and they did nothing. I didn’t even get tired. But I didn’t know any better. I thought as long as I lifted the weights, I’d get stronger.
Intensity is key.
It’s the act of lifting a heavy weight that will force your muscle to go PAST what it can do… break, and grow back bigger and better.
Recently I’ve been a bit lazy with the old weights recently.
So today I psyched myself up, and did a proper workout. Felt damn good, I can tell you.
It's also a good feeling picking up weights that are double the size of the ones I was using this time last year. Could have gone at it harder I guess, but hey, what's the rush.
Somewhat tired now.
And arms are somewhat numb. As limp as a squid washed up on the rocks. Not the best analogy, I know. Whatever. I'm going to be in pain tomorrow, I'm sure.
And that, Julian, is a good thing.
Feeling tired and numb tells me what I did WORKED.
And sure, I don't *like* the pain.
But hey... no pain no game, as they same.
And this is very true of English too. In fact, language learning and muscle building are very, very similar.
Muscles grow through something called "progressive overload". That is, you constantly overload the muscles. Push them PAST their limits. This is what causes them to grow. So if you don't push them hard enough (by using weights that are far, far too light for example) nothing happens.
So you increase the weight
But we see EXACTLY the same thing in English.
It's why a lot of people reach the intermediate stage... then just stop improving.
You’ll never improve by doing things that are too easy (just like me lifting wrights that were too light didn’t work).
The solution?
Add intensity.
If you don't feel tired when you finish your English "workout", you just ain't doing it right.
I’m not going to give you specific excerises to do in this podcast, because that’s covered in one of my courses (and you can find out about that by joining the Doing English daily Newsletter). It’s also something I talk about in the Book i’m about to publish.
But the point here is -
Intensity is the key. For wright lifting. For running. For learning English. And really, for just about anything else too.
If you want to know more about this topic you can (and should) go and join the Doing English Daily Newsletter. This is a topic I talk about quite a lot - so you’re definitely missing out by not joining.
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
If you want to join the Doing English Daily Newsletter, you can do so here:
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
You wouldn’t know this to look at me (I’m pretty small - 180 cm, but only 60 kg). But I life weights.
The reason I started doing that is because a few years ago I was feeling tired and had no energy, so I started running (see episodes #3 and #4 to hear the story of this) but I also thought it’d be a good idea to do some strength training.
But it went nowhere.
Nothing.
And for several months I did it with no results at all.
It wasn’t until one of the Doing English+ members pointed out my mistake and told me why it wasn’t working that I actually started to see results.
My mistake? My weights were too light.
He advised me to change to heavier weights. I was using tiny, tiny weights. I could lift them all day… and they did nothing. I didn’t even get tired. But I didn’t know any better. I thought as long as I lifted the weights, I’d get stronger.
Intensity is key.
It’s the act of lifting a heavy weight that will force your muscle to go PAST what it can do… break, and grow back bigger and better.
Recently I’ve been a bit lazy with the old weights recently.
So today I psyched myself up, and did a proper workout. Felt damn good, I can tell you.
It's also a good feeling picking up weights that are double the size of the ones I was using this time last year. Could have gone at it harder I guess, but hey, what's the rush.
Somewhat tired now.
And arms are somewhat numb. As limp as a squid washed up on the rocks. Not the best analogy, I know. Whatever. I'm going to be in pain tomorrow, I'm sure.
And that, Julian, is a good thing.
Feeling tired and numb tells me what I did WORKED.
And sure, I don't *like* the pain.
But hey... no pain no game, as they same.
And this is very true of English too. In fact, language learning and muscle building are very, very similar.
Muscles grow through something called "progressive overload". That is, you constantly overload the muscles. Push them PAST their limits. This is what causes them to grow. So if you don't push them hard enough (by using weights that are far, far too light for example) nothing happens.
So you increase the weight
But we see EXACTLY the same thing in English.
It's why a lot of people reach the intermediate stage... then just stop improving.
You’ll never improve by doing things that are too easy (just like me lifting wrights that were too light didn’t work).
The solution?
Add intensity.
If you don't feel tired when you finish your English "workout", you just ain't doing it right.
I’m not going to give you specific excerises to do in this podcast, because that’s covered in one of my courses (and you can find out about that by joining the Doing English daily Newsletter). It’s also something I talk about in the Book i’m about to publish.
But the point here is -
Intensity is the key. For wright lifting. For running. For learning English. And really, for just about anything else too.
If you want to know more about this topic you can (and should) go and join the Doing English Daily Newsletter. This is a topic I talk about quite a lot - so you’re definitely missing out by not joining.
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
View all episodes
By Julian Northbrook: the go-to guy for English for Entrepreneurs and business ownersDisclaimer: I’m in no way qualified to give weight training advice
If you want to join the Doing English Daily Newsletter, you can do so here:
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
You wouldn’t know this to look at me (I’m pretty small - 180 cm, but only 60 kg). But I life weights.
The reason I started doing that is because a few years ago I was feeling tired and had no energy, so I started running (see episodes #3 and #4 to hear the story of this) but I also thought it’d be a good idea to do some strength training.
But it went nowhere.
Nothing.
And for several months I did it with no results at all.
It wasn’t until one of the Doing English+ members pointed out my mistake and told me why it wasn’t working that I actually started to see results.
My mistake? My weights were too light.
He advised me to change to heavier weights. I was using tiny, tiny weights. I could lift them all day… and they did nothing. I didn’t even get tired. But I didn’t know any better. I thought as long as I lifted the weights, I’d get stronger.
Intensity is key.
It’s the act of lifting a heavy weight that will force your muscle to go PAST what it can do… break, and grow back bigger and better.
Recently I’ve been a bit lazy with the old weights recently.
So today I psyched myself up, and did a proper workout. Felt damn good, I can tell you.
It's also a good feeling picking up weights that are double the size of the ones I was using this time last year. Could have gone at it harder I guess, but hey, what's the rush.
Somewhat tired now.
And arms are somewhat numb. As limp as a squid washed up on the rocks. Not the best analogy, I know. Whatever. I'm going to be in pain tomorrow, I'm sure.
And that, Julian, is a good thing.
Feeling tired and numb tells me what I did WORKED.
And sure, I don't *like* the pain.
But hey... no pain no game, as they same.
And this is very true of English too. In fact, language learning and muscle building are very, very similar.
Muscles grow through something called "progressive overload". That is, you constantly overload the muscles. Push them PAST their limits. This is what causes them to grow. So if you don't push them hard enough (by using weights that are far, far too light for example) nothing happens.
So you increase the weight
But we see EXACTLY the same thing in English.
It's why a lot of people reach the intermediate stage... then just stop improving.
You’ll never improve by doing things that are too easy (just like me lifting wrights that were too light didn’t work).
The solution?
Add intensity.
If you don't feel tired when you finish your English "workout", you just ain't doing it right.
I’m not going to give you specific excerises to do in this podcast, because that’s covered in one of my courses (and you can find out about that by joining the Doing English daily Newsletter). It’s also something I talk about in the Book i’m about to publish.
But the point here is -
Intensity is the key. For wright lifting. For running. For learning English. And really, for just about anything else too.
If you want to know more about this topic you can (and should) go and join the Doing English Daily Newsletter. This is a topic I talk about quite a lot - so you’re definitely missing out by not joining.
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
If you want to join the Doing English Daily Newsletter, you can do so here:
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com
You wouldn’t know this to look at me (I’m pretty small - 180 cm, but only 60 kg). But I life weights.
The reason I started doing that is because a few years ago I was feeling tired and had no energy, so I started running (see episodes #3 and #4 to hear the story of this) but I also thought it’d be a good idea to do some strength training.
But it went nowhere.
Nothing.
And for several months I did it with no results at all.
It wasn’t until one of the Doing English+ members pointed out my mistake and told me why it wasn’t working that I actually started to see results.
My mistake? My weights were too light.
He advised me to change to heavier weights. I was using tiny, tiny weights. I could lift them all day… and they did nothing. I didn’t even get tired. But I didn’t know any better. I thought as long as I lifted the weights, I’d get stronger.
Intensity is key.
It’s the act of lifting a heavy weight that will force your muscle to go PAST what it can do… break, and grow back bigger and better.
Recently I’ve been a bit lazy with the old weights recently.
So today I psyched myself up, and did a proper workout. Felt damn good, I can tell you.
It's also a good feeling picking up weights that are double the size of the ones I was using this time last year. Could have gone at it harder I guess, but hey, what's the rush.
Somewhat tired now.
And arms are somewhat numb. As limp as a squid washed up on the rocks. Not the best analogy, I know. Whatever. I'm going to be in pain tomorrow, I'm sure.
And that, Julian, is a good thing.
Feeling tired and numb tells me what I did WORKED.
And sure, I don't *like* the pain.
But hey... no pain no game, as they same.
And this is very true of English too. In fact, language learning and muscle building are very, very similar.
Muscles grow through something called "progressive overload". That is, you constantly overload the muscles. Push them PAST their limits. This is what causes them to grow. So if you don't push them hard enough (by using weights that are far, far too light for example) nothing happens.
So you increase the weight
But we see EXACTLY the same thing in English.
It's why a lot of people reach the intermediate stage... then just stop improving.
You’ll never improve by doing things that are too easy (just like me lifting wrights that were too light didn’t work).
The solution?
Add intensity.
If you don't feel tired when you finish your English "workout", you just ain't doing it right.
I’m not going to give you specific excerises to do in this podcast, because that’s covered in one of my courses (and you can find out about that by joining the Doing English daily Newsletter). It’s also something I talk about in the Book i’m about to publish.
But the point here is -
Intensity is the key. For wright lifting. For running. For learning English. And really, for just about anything else too.
If you want to know more about this topic you can (and should) go and join the Doing English Daily Newsletter. This is a topic I talk about quite a lot - so you’re definitely missing out by not joining.
http://DoingEnglishNewsletter.com