As I prepared for the 1997 New Mexico Physique Southwest bodybuilding competition I worked out 5 days a week, 2-3 hours a day. Although I won the contest and took state I realized as I got older there was nothing left to show from what I had achieved back then.

No, I didn’t get fat right away but there was no application for all the “working out” I had done. I had nice shoulders, triceps, quads and glutes but I also now had a gut, rising blood pressure from work/life stress and I no longer moved around as well as I used too. As well as I used too…

There was a phrase that kept floating around in my head I never fully understood during all my years of working out and that was “training and practice.”  As someone who played sports, dabbled in bass guitar lessons, riding horses and learning to breathe through a regulator in preparation for Great White shark cage-diving you would think I could have made the connection, but I didn’t.

Am I criticizing working out? No, but there was a disconnection between “working out” and training that had to be resolved, not only for me but for the clients I would eventually train.

When I first met Pavel Tsatsouline more than a decade ago I learned “workout” is not used in the Russian language. “That word does not exist in Russia” he said.  As a Special Forces instructor in the Soviet Union, Pavel certainly wasn’t putting down working with weight but he was addressing skill development. You don’t become a successful rock climber, accomplished musician, marathon runner, or surgeon over night. The same can be said for learning to ride horses, bulls, bodybuilding, losing weight or any activity that demands a level of consistent improvement.

What process improves your performance when you workout at the gym, go running in the foothills, sit in front of the piano, prepare meals, seek to increase speed, or chart a course for a long healthy life?  Do you have a plan that is guaranteed to make you better 6 months from now than you are today?

Remember, to succeed in the gym or get better at any activity it will never happen just because we go to the gym 5 days a week or simply doing something over and over, instead we get better because our level of skill increases. We increase skills through training and practice.

- Coach G

Greg McNeil is a StrongFirst Instructor, Professional Strength & Conditioning coach, Licensed Clinical Counselor (LPCC), Life Coach, Author and the owner of Gallup School of Strength (www.gallupschoolofstrength.com)