“My body will tell me,” Chasing the Physique ’22-Ep 2 (3DMJ Godfather Contest Prep)

This week’s 3DMJ Godfather contest prep video, in addition to more soothing images of Jeff Alberts lifting calmly and with intent, includes some thoughts on how to manage aches and pains during training. He mentions some specific exercise substitutions he keeps in his back pocket for when his body gives him feedback that something needs to change.

Listening to folks like Jeff who have trained for decades has informed my perspective immensely to keep me focused on the long term and not stress over lifting minutia day to day. If Jeff can keep training around pain by switching up his exercises, so can I. If Jeff finds he continues to progress when having to adjust on the fly, then I don’t need to worry that I’m “messing up” when I need to adjust, too. These changes have become second nature for me, and sometimes I wonder if perhaps I’m too lax? But then I ask myself, too lax for what? Am I still getting stronger? Is my physique continuing to show more muscularity? Do I still go out there and do the damn thing, consistently and with intent? Then I’m all good and the rest is just gravy.

There’s an art to these dynamics of course–what are the things we can be relaxed about and what are the impactful things we need to prioritize and try to keep the same or similar to see results? The answers to those questions come from personal experience and may change throughout our training careers. Exercise selection seems to be an area most of us have a lot of wiggle room, and I’m grateful to see the example of someone who can make these changes and bring a world class physique to the stage as a result.

Have thoughts on changing up exercise selection to reduce aches and pains while training? Watch the video? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or find and follow Progressive Strength on Facebook!