HOW YOU FEEL IS A LIE

How You Feel is a Lie

A.K.A.: No Matter What, Just Do the Workout, and Other Crap I learned from Hard-as-Heck Training Programs

C.S. pulls 500 pounds at 40 years old using the methods - or madness- contained herein.

I first heard this saying probably a little over 20 years ago.  (I think it was the lifting coach John Broz that made the statement.)  At first, I probably thought something similar to what a lot of people think when they first see/read/hear it: “Well, that’s stupid.  Shouldn’t I go by how I feel?  How the heck am I gonna make progress if I don’t go by the way I feel every day.”  And so on and so forth, making an internal list of not just how stupid this saying is, but how downright weird and odd that a lifter would even think such a thing.   Right?
Not so fast!  I think this is actually one of the truest maxims ever uttered when it comes to strength training and muscle building.  Let me explain.

I discovered firsthand the truth of this statement almost 20 years ago when I embarked upon a “Sheiko” powerlifting regimen.  Created by the famed Russian powerlifting coach Boris Sheiko, I thought the program was insane—or, at the very least, simply too damn much work—when I first looked upon it, but I also had read about powerlifters that were getting fantastic results from it, so I thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a try.  At the time, it must be noted, I could already squat and deadlift over 500 lbs in competition (in the 181 ln class) so I was already well advanced compared to most other lifters my size.  But I wanted to get my strength up to a 600 lb+ squat and deadlift, and I knew the training that I was doing just wasn’t getting the job done.  I was stuck.  I needed a change.  Also generally, it must be noted, I got bored as hell following the same program(s), so a change of pace was something I was looking for anyway, something completely different.

Being an already “advanced” lifter, I jumped right into one of Sheiko’s advanced programs.  And, if you’re not familiar with Sheiko—although I have no interest right here and now to explain the entire friggin’ program to you—let me just lay out the basics of what his advanced programs looked like.  First, I trained 4-days-per-week.  Four-days-per-week, that’s not very damn much, you’re saying to yourself right now, proverbial eye roll and everything.  But you would be wrong.  As in dead wrong.  On each training day, you trained your bench press.  And on each training day, you trained either your squat or your deadlift (that’s two-days-per-week of squats and two-days-per-week of deadlifts, performed on separate days, if you happen to be mathematically challenged).  Also, you would often squat, then bench press, then squat again in the same workout.  Or deadlift, then bench, then deadlift again.  An “easy” day meant you would bench press for 12-15 sets, then do about half of that (but heavy) on the squat or deadlift, and then return to the bench press at the end of the session.  So, yeah, real easy.  So a very oversimplified outline of it would look something such as this:

Monday: squat for 8-12 sets, bench press for 8-10 sets, squat for 8 sets
Tuesday: deadlift for 8-12 sets, bench press for 8-10 sets, deadlift for 8 sets
Thursday: bench press for 12-15 sets, squat for 12 sets, bench press for 8 sets
Saturday: deadlift for 8-12 sets, bench press for 8-10 sets, deadlift for 8 sets

Since my squat was my strongest lift it got the least volume, but still enough that the squat portion of the workouts alone would tire a well-trained thoroughbred.  I can still remember the feeling from my very first Sheiko workout—and by feeling I mean the sheer dread of, after squatting, wondering how in the 8-realms-of-Buddhist-hells was I ever going to make it through the damn thing.  I finished my 12 sets of squats, covered in sweat, legs fried like Nashville Hot Chicken, and I swear just doing 135 lbs on the bench press (for the start of my warm-ups) felt as if it was going to crush me.  But somehow I finished that first workout, and then I finished my first week of workouts.  At that point, I thought, what-the-heck, I’ll give this thing another week and if I can’t get through it, I’m just going to quit.

The second week was almost as hard as the first week, but I got through it and started to feel, well, strong, powerful even.  After another few weeks, I was sold.  From several years of competitive powerlifting, I knew when a workout program was working—and when it wasn’t.  This thing, crazy as I kinda still thought it to be, was decidedly working.

Fast forward to almost a year and I was squatting and deadlifting over 600 pounds, which was 3 and a ½ times my bodyweight!  Not shabby for a program that makes you feel like hell when doing it.  Oh, and by the way, as a meet would approach, when training Sheiko, I would often come down with a cold, and feel like pure D cow dung.  But I was still stronger than I had ever been.

So, yeah, how you feel is a lie.

But this applies to more than just hardcore strength training.  Fast forward another several years after my powerlifting days.  (I had to hang up my shiny Titan powerlifting singlet because of surgery for multiple herniated disks.)  At this time, a little over ten years ago, I was almost 40, and decided I would see just how big I could get using a high-frequency training program.  I trained very similarly at the time to how the great—but little known— Decso Ban trained, with a little Bulgarian training to boot.  If you’re not familiar with Bulgarian training, basically you work up to a max squat, clean, or snatch every single day.  And if you’re not familiar with the (what appears at first sight to be crazy) training of Ban, here is an example of his training (taken from and Anthony Ditillo article):

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: Legs and Shoulders
 - Back Squat
 - Front Squat
  - Lunges
On all of these, perform 8-10 sets of 5 repetitions, 5 x 5 with the heaviest weight. 
 - Standing Press
10 sets of 3s and 5s working up to a heavy weight. 
 - Bench Press
8 sets of 5 working up to a heavy weight. 
 - Roman Chair Work
6 sets of 5s working up to a heavy weight. 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday: “Pull” Day
 - Power Clean
 - High Pull
 - Stiff Legged Deadlift
On all of these, do 10 sets of 3s and 5s.

And, of course, when I first started training this way, it didn’t “feel” good; I was often tired and “hangry,” but I got strong again, and the biggest I had ever been since my bodybuilding days of the early to mid ‘90s.  The results can be seen on the cover of my Ultimate Strength book (and at the top of this post):

So, yeah, how you feel is a lie.

And when all was said and done—when I finally realized the truth of this statement—it dawned on me that I should have always understood its utter, simple truth.  For instance, looking back over my lifting/bodybuilding/fighting career, I cannot count the number of times that I didn’t want to train, didn’t feel good, or lacked energy, and yet had one of the best workouts ever when I trained anyway.  I have shattered PRs while sick or depressed.  And I have had awful workouts despite being full of energy, excited about working out, and/or plenty rested and “recovered” before the workout.

When you come to realize that how you feel is a lie, an important thing happens: you learn to just show up and do the workout, come what may.  As you do this, you will begin to realize that you have more good workouts than bad workouts, and these have nothing to do with how you feel.

This understanding carries over into life.

Too many people in our society are concerned with feeling, and this hinders them from doing what is necessary, whether it’s lifting weights, doing a hard day’s work, or anything else that they either want or need to do.

It may be a hard lesson, but it’s one whose truth will ring in my lifting ear to the very end.

So, yeah, how you feel is a lie.