There is some down time and recovery time that we all need after dieting and training hard and pushing our bodies to a new level.
Managing the physical and physcological states after recovery might be an even bigger challenge than getting in shape in the first place. You can trick yourself into thinking that maintaining your new shape is effortless but it isn’t. Staying in shape takes a new kind of effort compared to the effort it takes to get into shape in the first place. This is the elusive state of ‘maintenance’ that seems to be the hardest part for most people.
Jason got into awesome shape
This is the Adonis Index look
At some point you need to come to a realization that it has to become a lifetyle that you live and embrace. It’s something different from preparing for a contest or dieting for a photoshoot. In many ways it’s less strict and less intense, but it’s a new skill set and a new mindset that you must learn.
Once you’ve gone through a transformation you will know what it takes to change your body and you’ll know that you have it in you to do so. Maintaining that new body is a different step entirely. The physical effort isn’t has hard, but the psychological and mental effort will be a new challenge and new learning experience.
It’s not always going to be an all or nothing 100% blitz the way a contest or photoshoot prep is. Maintenance requires smaller changes but ones that must last for longer.
The real game of maintenance is not a physical one but a psychological one. It’s learning to see what you really look like on a daily basis. It’s learning to adjust your daily routine and your social routine to fit with your body ideal goals as well as your social goals. It’s learning to manage your overall stress and pick your spots when to push hard and when to back off.
This is the first part of a two part podcast were Jason and I talk about how he managed his condition and learning to maintain his shape from one contest to the next and got into phenomenal shape and won the open contest. We discuss how he is learning to deal with maintaining his new shape and some of psychological tricks he uses to objectively perceive where he is and not let his mind play tricks on him (and believe me, your mind will play tricks on you)
This is something we all have to deal with after getting in shape. Making it a lifestyle and having the body you want on a daily basis while enjoying life is the ultiamte goal. Jason has made some major strides to making this a real lifestyle and he shares them with us in this two part interview. Today is part 1.
John
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