Just How Hardcore are You?

I had a question posed to me about a week ago and it went something like this:

Do you feel that if you were to pull out all of the stops and just hit everything hardcore from training to nutrition to supplementation, with the psychological approach of, "no matter what it takes" would you have made better gains than you have to this point?

My response was that I have done that.  I have had years where nothing else mattered other than how big or how strong I could get or how ripped I could get.  I did everything perfectly and I approached every meal, every workout and every night of sleep as if every second mattered and nothing else did.

I did not make any better gains doing that than I did with balancing other things in my life at the same time.

I bring this up because I had to shelf my training (and meals, supplements, etc.) due to a death in the family.  While packing, I was throwing all of my workout clothes into my suitcase and had all of my meals packed when I stopped and stood there looking at what I was doing and I dumped everything out and started over.  I threw away the meals and left my gym bag at home for the trip back to Michigan.  Why?

I decided that my wife was going to lose her Mother, any day, and I was not going to try to justify getting to the gym while she was sleeping in the hospital, glued to her mother's side.  I was also not going to show my kids that working out was more important than supporting my wife and her mother during this very difficult time for the entire family.

What we do is sometimes very selfish.  In fact, MOST times it is selfish, if I am being honest.  I did not want to not train.  I did not want to not eat my meals and continue my supplement protocol.  However, there are times in our lives that this shit needs to get shelved and you have to do what is in the best interest of the people you love and step back from your own selfish interests.  This was definitely one of those times.

There certainly are those who would have made it work for them and still trained, still prepped meals and ate them on time and not missed any supplements.  I won't judge those who would do this but I will say that I am not that guy, anymore.  I used to be and I am ashamed to admit it -- that's speaking for ME, so if you are offended, that's on you, not me.

I have been having an excellent year and progressing very well.  I certainly would have rather been training and stayed on track but I also bet that my wife would rather have not watched her mother pass, either.  There will be more workouts, for me.  There will be more progress, for me.  There will be more meals, supplements and more days to train.  There are no more days for my mother-in-law, of whom I have known for almost 30 years and supported and loved me that entire time.  It was the very least that I could do, under the circumstances.

Coming back to the question that was posed to me earlier in this coach log:
Missing those workouts and meals did not help me get further ahead.  However, it will take me a couple of weeks to get back to where I was.  It is a small price to pay and I guess that makes me not very hardcore.  It does, however, make me a good husband, a good Dad and a good son-in-law.  I would also hope that my kids would not feel that they had something better to do if I were dying because that day will come and I would hope they would be right there with me, as well.  I am confident they will.