Self Experimentation in Fitness and Fighting

I'm 28 now. I can remember being about 18 or 19 and being frustrated at how the older guys who I worked out with and worked around at supplement warehouse knew what worked for them. The smart ones had dialed in their methods and tabulated what foods, lift techniques, and volume of training was working best for them. Some of them were lazy and just sort of faked it through a lifetime of training, others had done the work and actually plotted their course. I wanted to be like that. The problem with where I was at the time was that I hadn't been lifting long enough to be able to change one variable and see the outcome of that one change. It was about chasing multiple variables around and trying to figure out which one is making the difference. In doing that, eventually I would plateau in strength, weight, fat loss or whatever it was. I was trying to emulate everyone who I saw as successful all at once, which is akin to just playing QWOP. There was no central focus.

I guess everyone has to sort of go down that path.

The beautiful thing about the decision I made to be rock solid consistent in muay thai and bjj for a year, as well as dedicate myself to losing a significant amount of weight (50 lbs over the course of a year) is that I now have a baseline. I can feel it when I get too much salt, or carbohydrates. I just feel bloated. I can feel my body recover quicker when I eat extra protein. When my blood sugar is low, I know it, and I know what is the best way to get to feeling normal again. I know the effects of being dehydrated on my performance. The only way I would ever know how each of those things trended and affected me is by having a well known baseline, and having done the work. It's an ongoing learning journey, like any of this, but I'm getting a feel for it FINALLY.

These aren't groundbreaking revelations to most athletes, but I'm not an athlete. I'm a dude who faked my way through many years of average joe weight lifting (no records, no goals, just "lifting") and tried everything at one time, and inconsistently to "improve". Oh yeah, That's another thing that I didn't know how to quantify. Improvement was a nebulous goal that I'll write my thoughts about later.

Now that I'm putting the sweat-equity into laser sharp goals, and I have reached a baseline,  I can listen to my body and improve as I get feedback from my results.

I'll post about my goals and plans in another entry. For now, this covers how I feel about being consistent and the importance of self experimentation.