Moderation Sucks

and Other S**t I Learned from a Lifetime of Training in Zen, Martial Arts, and Powerlifting

Tom Platz's thighs were built through some of the most extreme, non-moderate training one can imagine!  And the results speak for theselves.

Okay, so the title of this post is a little over-the-top.  It’s supposed to be.  But that also doesn’t make it any less true.  Whether you want to get in the best shape of your life, or win a powerlifting competition, or become a martial arts “expert,” or any dream that you have in life.  If you want to achieve any of those things, or anything else for that matter, then you must be determined to work extremely hard, moderation be damned.

Modern “self-help” books recommend moderation as one of the ways to achieve your goals - especially in the West, where we think there is something “Eastern” to moderation, a balance of yin/yang or a balance of mind/body/Spirit.  But moderation is really NOT an Eastern “thing,” not any more at least than it is a Western one.  This idea mainly comes from Western New Age folks attaching ideas to Eastern philosophy that were never really there to begin with.

Diet and nutrition experts tout the benefits of moderation.  There is an underlying idea throughout the diet and nutrition industry (industries are typically not a good thing when it comes to getting in shape, by the way, so think about that the next time you hear the words “fitness” and “industry” together) that you will achieve your results faster by somehow practicing moderation.  In other words, eat a balanced diet (“balanced” is just another word for moderation), exercise a moderate amount, make sure you get enough sleep, and you know, balance your work life with your “play” life.  Does any of that sound familiar, too?  Of course it does!  But it doesn’t work, as many of the failed practitioners of the myriad of diet and lifestyle programs out there can attest.

The “modern mindfulness movement” often touts the benefits of moderation as much as any other self-help group currently popular.  This movement - be it Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “mindfulness-based stress reduction,” or Mindful Magazine, or any of the other myriad of related movements - is an attempt to re-package Buddhism as “secular” or “scientific”; and definitely “non-religious.”  And even though it’s a sort of “Buddhist Light” approach, it still takes its understanding of moderation from Buddhism, or what it thinks Buddhism teaches about moderation.  The Buddha recommended a “Middle Way '' between self-mortification on one end, and gluttonous self-indulgence on the other.  In Western Buddhism - and this almost always includes the modern mindfulness movement - this has come to mean that we should practice a balanced lifestyle where we don’t push ourselves too much but also not overindulge in any sensorious pleasure.  And this is touted because it’s what the Buddha did, right?  Here’s what I had to say about this very subject of the Buddha NOT being moderate in a previous post on this blog entitled “Simple Not Easy”:

All of these "moderation-sellers" are quick to "sell" you on moderation because the Buddha chose the "middle path" between extreme asceticism and opulent luxury.  And, yes, that's true.  But keep in mind that moderation for the Buddha involved leaving his family to live a mendicant lifestyle, eating only one meal per day (and that meal always before noon), ONLY eating what was given to him when he begged - that’s right, he BEGGED - on his morning alms round (no matter the food given), not to mention walking the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent for over 40 years, preaching his Dharma.  I don't think that is "moderation" for any modern person.

With all of the above being said, the next question you may have is: what now?  If moderation isn’t the key, then what is it that you should be doing to achieve your goals?

First, and this is important, I’m also not telling you to go “balls-to-the-wall” or “all-out” in your training at every single session all year long, or for the rest of your life.  In other words, I’m not saying that extreme is good anymore than I’m saying moderation is good.  But when you are attempting to achieve something, whether that is to lose a lot of body fat, or gain as much muscle as possible in the shortest amount of time, or be the best martial artist you can be, or even write a book, or pass a subject at college that you absolutely suck at - whatever it is, you will achieve your desired outcome in the quickest time possible if you realize that, in order to do that, you must be incredibly driven, determined, and honed in on your ONE goal.

Another strength-training writer who has said much the same thing is lifting coach Dan John.  Here are a couple of quotes from him from different articles he had written for T-Nation:

Without challenges, the human body will soften. We thrive when we push our boundaries, reach goals, and blast personal records. We perform better, we look better, and we feel alive.

You're either progressing or regressing. There is no maintenance phase. Moderation in training can easily turn into stagnation. And moderation is for sissies. So if we want to improve, we have to seek out new challenges, struggle, and win. (from “The 10,000 Swing Kettlebell Workout” by Dan John, in T-Nation, June 4 2022)

Fat loss is an all-out war. Give it 28 days - only 28 days. Attack it with all you have. It's not a lifestyle choice; it's a battle. Lose fat and then get back into moderation. There's another one for you: moderation. Revelation says it best: 'You are lukewarm and I shall spit you out.' Moderation is for sissies. (from “I Hate Medium”, in T-Nation, August 6 2008)

Well, I think the first thing we can take from those two quotes is that “moderation is for sissies” - he clearly is not a fan of moderation, either (I wonder if he intentionally used those same words in different articles?).  The second quote is from the article “I Hate Medium” which could very well be another way of saying that “moderation sucks!”

Putting this principle to work

When presented with a philosophy - and “moderation sucks” here is also a philosophy of training, lifting, and living - you should always ask, “how do I apply this philosophy to daily life?”  And if that can’t be explained, then it ain’t much of a philosophy!  So let’s look at some practical ways to apply this to different aspects of one’s life.  Even though this doesn’t cover every aspect of how it can be applied, it covers enough that you should be able to discern other areas for yourself.

When is it time to toss out moderation?

When you have a single-minded goal, and a set, firm date for achieving that goal, then you have no business using moderation.  You need to throw everything but the proverbial bodybuilding kitchen sink at your hypertrophy workouts, for instance, if you’re trying to get as large as humanly possible.  But you obviously can’t do that for the entire year of training.  If you were to always do it, then you would have no way to hone in on a well-defined goal.

I think here is another area where Dan John might help to clarify when - and when not - to take the moderation sucks approach.  He likes to use the analogy of a park bench and a bus bench.  Here are his words on it:

Another way to look at a year-round approach to reasonable training is my "bus bench" and "park bench" workouts.

• Bus bench workouts: You're expecting results – on time! (Like you're hoping the bus will be.)

• Park bench workouts: Are an opportunity to explore and enjoy where you are in training.

It's a simple concept. Like weights, benches have multiple uses. If you're waiting to get to work sitting on a bus bench, you don't just hope, you demand that the bus be on time. If it's even a little late, it could ruin your day at work.

Park benches are built the exact same way, but when you sit in a park, you don't expect or worry if Toby the squirrel comes by or not. You sit back and enjoy the process.

My good friend, Josh Hillis, believes that almost universally, people need four months of bus bench training a year, split into two-month periods (so, two two-month blocks of focused training a year).

The rest of the year should be park bench workouts where the training goals are simply to train. So, one could "X" out eight months a year and still follow a plan that could achieve just about any goal.

This is contrary to what most people think. There's this idea that constant exhausting training is the only path to the goal. It's not true – and it's destroying many people's journey to their goals.*

So you need to spend most of your training life actually on the park bench - this is where all of the learning takes place.  This is where you learn exactly what kind of training your body responds to the best, or this is when you do your research for your project.  The bus bench is where you take the knowledge you learned during park bench-time, and use it to be laser focused, honed in on your specific goal.  It’s where you toss moderation out the window, because moderation sucks when it comes to achieving a time-bound goal with limited time involved.

Spiritual Practice

By the way, if you think - based on the above analogy - that this must not apply to spiritual practice, you would be very wrong.  In Zen training, you do spend the majority of time on the park bench, true, and this is where you learn a lot about how much zazen you can handle, or when you pay attention to how your mind works, whether on the cushion or in daily life, without attempting to change or alter your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, etc.  But you spend quite a bit of the year on the bus bench, as well.  Take sesshin, for instance, when you may spend as little as 3 days (a weekend retreat) or as long as 40 days in intensive practice.  The meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg tells of a time when he trained in Korea, on a 40-day sesshin, and they would wake at 3AM to begin their meditation training, and would meditate around the clock until midnight, taking a 10-minute “break” after every 50 minutes of sitting for walking meditation.  They would then sleep on their meditation cushion, or their bus bench in this case, before waking and beginning over again at 3 AM.

Even if you were to never go on such a weekend retreat, if you’re a regular meditator, then it’s still good to spend some time doing intensive practice, even if it’s one day a week on the weekend, or for one long sit sometime once during the week.  During this period of more intense zazen (seated Zen meditation), you can try what I have come to term Samurai Zazen.  Here is what Roshi Philip Kapleau had to say about Samurai Zazen in his seminal book The 3 Pillars of Zen:

 “It is the mind of somebody facing death. Let us imagine that you are engaged in a duel of swordsmanship of the kind that used to take place in ancient Japan. As you face your opponent, you are unceasingly watchful, set, ready. Were you to relax your vigilance even momentarily, you would be cut down instantly… This state cannot be maintained for very long - in fact, you ought not to do shikantaza for more than a half an hour at each sitting… If you are truly doing shikantaza, in half an hour you will be sweating, even in winter in an unheated room, because of the heat generated by the intense concentration… Compared with an unskilled swordsman a master uses his sword effortlessly. But this was not always the case, for there was a time when he had to strain himself to the utmost, owing to his imperfect technique, to preserve his life. It is no different when doing shikantaza.”

That is obviously a very intense form of zazen, but I have mentioned before on this blog that it’s also exactly the sort of Zen training I did in the Karate dojo that I trained in during my formative years of martial arts practice.  We would only do it for 10 minutes, but it was very intense, and it had a much deeper resonance with me than if I had, for example, been introduced to a more “soft” mindfulness-based or “gentle” meditation as promoted by the modern mindfulness movement.  Gentle practice has its place for sure - it’s one of the things you need to experiment with on the park bench - but it’s not going to bring about a radical change in consciousness the way very intense, albeit periodic, practice will.

Fat Loss

There is a reason that the competitors on The Biggest Loser lose so much damn weight: they do extreme training.  The downside, as many commentators have weighed in, is that this approach isn’t something that you can sustain for the long haul.  But that’s okay.  It shouldn’t be bus bench or nothing!  You will maintain your fat loss, and even lose a little bit more, but the key is what you do during those times when you throw caution to the wind, and scream to the world of Dan Johns that moderation is for sissies - those times that you are on the bus bench.

This is one of those times when it’s great to follow an “eat this, not that” diet, the very kind of diet you decidedly do not want to follow the majority of the time.  Diets that are too restrictive can cause some health issues, whether it’s a lack of vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, a specific macronutrient, or whatnot.  But when you’re on the bus bench, it’s not just about health, it’s about aesthetics and body composition.

An extremely high-fat ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting is an example of a “double restrictive” diet, but that’s also the reason it works so well; there’s no moderation in sight.

As far as training, this is where you throw as much at your body as it can handle considering the already calorie-restricted nature of a fat-loss phase.  But you should be able to handle double-split workouts fine, something where you do your intense cardio in the morning, and your fast-paced bodybuilding-style weighted workouts in the PM session.  Or vice versa for those of you who are morning people, and need the AM for your more intense workout.

Muscle-Building

Muscle-building is one area where many have intuitively or culturally (due to the impact of gym culture) known that moderation sucks.  Any skinny kid who walks into any gym damn-near anywhere in America is going to get the same advice: eat a LOT of food, and train as HEAVY and as HARD as possible, and none of that can be called moderation.

For diet, you need as many calories from all three macronutrients that you can get, assuming you're a true ectomorph, the kind of kid who’s sick and tired of having sand kicked in his face.  And true ectomorphs - often referred to as hardgainers - need to not just eat a lot, but to eat often, very often.  When I was a young bodybuilder, hell-bent on being the biggest dude, with the lowest body fat, walking the planet, I would set the timer on my watch so that it went off every two hours.  And every two hours, I ate a meal!  Come hell-or-high-water, I didn’t miss a meal every time my watch went off.  Because if you want something bad enough, you will do the hard work necessary.  And you will know that moderation sucks!

Final Thoughts

The examples that can be used are almost endless.  For any well-honed goal, there is a way that the moderation sucks principle can be utilized and implemented.  Now, speaking of “well-honed,” this is another aspect in which balance and moderation will not help you to achieve your goals and desires.  You need a very specific, concrete goal.  You must be supremely focused.  And there’s nothing “balanced,” and therefore moderate, about a solitary aim.  “Balanced moderation” would mean having several goals at one time, and not focusing on any one aspect to the exclusion of all others.  And, yes, there are plenty of people who offer this sort of advice, and many followers of the advice given.  How many times have you heard, or read, that you need to have a good social life, a balanced exercise routine, a “religious” life by being involved in a local church, temple, or community center, a spiritual life that allows you to spend some time away from your other pursuits, and, of course, a work-life that is in balance with everything else?  It is, in fact, the sort of “go-to” advice that the world offers!  But it doesn’t produce results.

In his book The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality, author and New Thought historian Mitch Horowitz has this to say about the power of “the one thing”:

We like to think that we can balance everything in life.  And we are, of course, faced with multiple and sometimes shifting demands.  You likely want happiness at home, health for yourself and your family, material comfort for people around you, and so on.  These are all sound.  But you must take this self-knowledge I’ve been describing, and, accepting that life’s needs are multiple, use it to dedicate yourself to your core aim.  One well-selected aim will facilitate the others.

Your aim must be specific, concrete, and plain.  It must be achievable, even if greatly bold.  Beware of aims that are self-contradicting, such as traveling to exotic places while also raising young children.  Or becoming a great leader while having lots of leisure time.  An aim is single-minded.

Lastly, moderation sucks.  Until it doesn’t.

But a weird thing will start happening when you do have to return to “moderation” - it will actually suck less than it did before.  An example is the bodybuilder who has to do some extreme training and nutrition to prepare for a bodybuilding contest.  When the contest is over - after a few days of food gluttony, of course - he returns to a period of a much more moderate lifestyle.  He trains less, and not as intensely.  He eats more food, but also doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the macronutrients.  Yet somehow he gains muscle while keeping his body fat relatively low.  But it’s all “set up” by the period of incredibly intense, slave-like devotion to insane training and insanely restrictive eating.  So, basically, the only reason it no longer sucks when you return to moderation - for a short period of time - is because of the focused, non-moderate period that preceded it.  But be careful.  Because before long, once complacency sets in, at that time, you can bet on a sure truth:

Moderation sucks.

*from “Training Clarity: One Goal at a Time” by Dan John, April 6 2012, in T-Nation