Lift. Heavy. Weights.

One of my closest friends – and amateur bodybuilder – often stresses that it doesn’t get any more complicated than just lifting heavy. He always says, “ Like Dave Draper always says, “Train hard, eat clean, and be happy”.

You can sugar coat it any way you like, but at the end of the day if you’re not challenging yourself in the gym, you can’t expect to reap the benefits. Not only that, if you’re still hitting the same 3×8 with the 30lbs on dumbbell curls you were last year, don’t look in the mirror and wonder why you’re struggling to fill out the sleeves of that Hollister t-shirt your girlfriend bought you last Christmas. The only way to expect muscular gains is by challenging your muscles to handle greater and greater loads. The only way to do that is by fighting each and every session to increase the weights you’re using.

Anyone who thinks that light weights and high reps are the keys to getting ripped is kidding himself. You want to get huge? Lift heavy weights. You want to get ripped? Lift heavy weights. What’s the main difference? Nutrition. Feel free to cycle your training and throw in some moderate to light work to give the central nervous system a break, but the meat and potatoes needs to be heavy and demanding. So join the battle on the rubber mats the next time you’re training and blast it. Start leaving the gym with the knowledge that you defeated the iron – it did not defeat you. As the days fall away and those small victories start to add up, the time will come when you’ll reach the mountaintop only to set new goals and dreams far beyond anything you ever thought you could accomplish. Now that’s hard work and there isn’t anything finer.