Today’s post is our latest installment of a new series called the “Coaches Corner.” Our Adonis Transformation Coaches will share their knowledge, experience, and best practices to help ensure your successful transformation. To continue the series, our topic comes from none other than Adonis Legend and AGR Pioneer, Jason Haynes.
Discover why…
I don’t know if maybe I subconsciously intended to have another blog about what some people may call “semantics,” or not. Maybe on some super-ultra subconscious level my English-teacher brain is working out some frustrations about proper usage of words, but I can assure you who read this blog that this week’s topic is not driven by some conscious-minded need to correct peoples grasp of the English language.
It was not my intention to follow up last week’s blog with another similar one. At least, it wasn’t my intention when I wrote last week that I would follow–up with a similar topic this week.
Yet, here we are again, but this week’s topic is the difference between simple and easy. Again, the two topics are oftentimes used interchangeably, yet there ARE major differences between the terms.
For the context of this blog, let’s define them as:
Simple: the opposite of complex. Not complicated.
Easy: requiring minimal or no work or effort, free from pain, comfortable
As you can see, both of them do have different meanings. See, something can be easy but not simple as well as simple but not easy.
Let’ take eating, for example. The process is easy for us…find food, eat food and the body takes care of the rest. It actually requires minimal work or effort on our part and is actually designed to be a pleasant experience. We can do it whenever or wherever we choose, and we can do it with a variety of foods in a variety of situations and contexts.
However the process of digestion and all the little processes that our body has been designed with to absorb nutrients and eliminate wastes (thereby keeping us alive and fueling our body)…that is NOT simple.
Quite the opposite, it is amazingly complex. Easy, but not simple.
In a similar way, something can be simple, but not easy. I dare say that many of the things we aspire to do or be can fall into this category. For example if you want to learn a language, the process is simple: study, memorize, and practice…then rinse and repeat as many times as needed. The actual method and “path to achievement” is simple. The actual study, memorizations, and practicing however…now THAT is not easy. One must put in literally hundreds of hours (if not thousands or even tens of thousands, depending on the language) in actual book memorization, listening practice, pen-and-paper writing, and face-to-face speaking time in practice in order to achieve the goal. Yet the actual “roadmap” to how to do it is quite simple and basic: study, memorize, practice.
Over the course of several years interacting with guys on the AGR forum, I see that oftentimes there is a misunderstanding about the difference between something being simple and easy when it comes to earning an outstanding physique. Somewhere, somehow, there is some kind of great disconnect that many guys (and probably ladies too, but we don’t get many of them around the AI forums) fall into; and that is that just because the AGR System (especially when coupled with Eat-Stop-Eat and the Anything Goes Diet) is designed to be as simple as possible, that it is also easy:
…that somehow, it is magic and there is minimal effort or even willpower and determination involved in it.
This could not be further from the truth!
Look, the concepts are simple: if you want to lose fat, eat less and exercise more. If you want to gain muscle, eat a LITTLE bit more and exercise with intensity. If you want to do both, then that is simple too: eat less and exercise with intensity.
Simple? Yup. The actual “how to do it” is simple!
Easy? No way, dude.
Let me restate our working definition of “easy,” as a reminder: “requiring minimal or no work or effort, free from pain, comfortable.”
Eating less calories IS uncomfortable especially during the first week or two as your body is SO accustomed to eating as before that it actually goes into outright rebellion in order to tell you that something is missing! The following headaches, dizziness, stomach growling, mood swings, and all these “fun” kinds of things that happen as our body deals with it’s food withdrawal is certainly not comfortable or pleasant. In the meantime (and even for a time afterwards), we have to fight to not give in to those cravings and to continue forward with that plan (the simple plan of not eating as much)…and that certainly requires work and effort!
But if you don’t do these things…you won’t lose fat. Period.
Training intensely IS uncomfortable especially as we start to drip sweat and start to fatigue. As muscles start to burn with acidic agony yet we still have 7 reps to go in those oh-so-hated sets of 21’s of triple raises. (Side note: John Barban is a sicko to put sets of 21 of those into the program…I mean, a total of 63 reps for a single set for shoulders????) Yet, we push on through the agony, even as the pain continually builds up more and more until we get to through that 21’st rep. We growl in a strange mix of pain and relief as we violently shake out our arms after nearly hurling the weights through the floor.
That is CERTAINLY not “free from pain,” or “comfortable” or “requiring minimal or no work of effort,” is it?
How about those sets of 5? Pushing those last reps as we grit our teeth so hard that it feels as though we will crack our teeth like some kind of old cartoon, our arms shaking as if we are have lost total motor control, and our eyes squinting so tightly so as to see the world as a blur.
Serious effort there, fellas. It is, and should be, a far cry from easy.
But if you don’t work hard and push yourself…you won’t build muscle. Period.
See, just because John Barban designed the AGR Systems to simply give you the best results in the shortest amount of time possible, that does not mean it’s easy to do. It requires work, dedication, consistency, sacrifice, sweat, and discomfort…lots of discomfort and effort.
And whether you choose to use the Anything Goes Diet or Eat-Stop-Eat, that does not make it easy to diet. Surely, they are VERY simple to understand and to put into practice, but the actual WORK associated with DOING it is NOT easy at times.
Staying consistent in both training and diet, tweaking them, and not falling off track is simple in concept and “on paper,” but it is not EASY, which is why we have Adonis Premiere Coaching to help you with your struggles!
Don’t fall into the trap, people! Just because the concepts and the methods of training and nutrition are simple…they are NOT easy! You simply CANNOT achieve an outstanding physique by not putting in the work and the sacrifice. Yes, with AGD, ESE, and AGR we provide the simplest ways to lose fat and gain muscle quickly. Yes, these methods minimize lots of uncomfortable and simply “unfun” factors normally associated with the process of losing fat and gaining muscle.
However, YOU MUST STILL WORK HARD at it!
It IS NOT easy. I know. I’ve been there.
But once you accomplish the goal, it does become easy to maintain…easier and more enjoyable than you can possibly imagine.
I know that too…and am doing that now.
Simple is not easy. Get over it and get ‘er done.
Until next time,
Train Hard, Train Smart.
Jason
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ADONIS ORIGINS: Jason Haynes | Circa 2009-2010
Jason Haynes is one of the oldest members of the AGR community and has been around since he participated in the first and second AGR Transformation Competitions, of which he placed second and first, respectively. Having found a system that he is confident in and that works, he has faithfully stuck by it ever since. Now in his 40’s, Jason enjoys living the life of maintaining his physique easily and with little effort, thanks to the AGR system and tools provided. He is also a coach in the Adonis Premiere Coaching program and desires to help anyone to achieve their fitness goals.
ADONIS LEGEND: Jason Haynes: May 2014
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