10 Old School Bodybuilding Rules To Live Your Life By

Rule #1 – Stop playing with your MP3 player or iPod in the gym.

Find one album or mix to listen to, and let it play the entire workout. No forwarding through songs, no searching around, answering phone calls or emails, just hit play and work out through one playlist. This will avoid additional distractions and save time. This will keep your workouts more intense. Stop fucking around in the gym!

Rule #2 – Stop walking into gas stations.

Avoid walking into them altogether! No more walking into a gas station or convenience store to spend your money on stupid shit like bottles of water. When I was a kid the only bottled water that existed came in gallon jugs and the people who bought it used it to take camping or to drink at home if they had bad water.

You didn’t see these little 16 oz bottles of water selling for more than soda’s, it’s pretty stupid if you ask me. I carry around a 30 oz. cup I use throughout the day called a Yeti. I like it because it’s vacuum sealed and I could throw some ice in there and it’ll literally keep the ice and drink cold for several hours.

I fill it at a tap and just take it with me. No, the cup isn’t the cheapest, but it sure beats buying stupid bottles of water all the time. Nobody is dying from drinking tap water in most places. Stop being a pussy and just drink tap water, and quit wasting money that could go towards good quality food!

Rule #3 – Start wearing tanktops more.

I say show off your hard work and it’s also good to be able to see your physique in the gym so you have a good idea of what’s improving and what you’re working on. I don’t understand why a lot of guys become more self conscious as they build their bodies better and better.

I’m not sure if wearing a hooded sweatshirt and hot ass clothes to the gym is some sort of style or what, but you shouldn’t be ashamed to show off hard work. And if you live in a hot climate, why wouldn’t you want to wear a tank top? It’s just a human body, don’t be afraid to wear a tank top or a wife beater! OLD SCHOOL!

Rule #4 – Limit caffeine consumption.

Ever since the explosion of the coffee chain Starbucks, it seems like coffee has become a daily norm THROUGHOUT THE DAY. All of that caffeine is fucking us up. You want to know why you’re awake at 1:00 am and on Facebook and you don’t feel sleepy yet? It may be those 2 lattes and 2 cans of Red Bull you drink everyday.

The marketing for this shit is terrible too. Everywhere you look or listen, it’s an advertisement telling us we need more energy. It’s gotten fucking crazy.

I highly doubt Arnold Schwarzenegger drank half a pot of coffee every damn day or had to have a fancy Latte’ drink to make it to the gym. I say limit your coffee to 1 cup in the morning, and if you need help tapering off caffeine(which can be an absolute bitch) then do a cup of tea in the late part of the afternoon. The 30 mg of caffeine from a bag of tea is far less than a coffee.

The first few weeks of this you will find yourself wanting to sleep a lot more. You will want to sleep because guess what? How long have you gone on no sleep because of too much caffeine? Wouldn’t it be nice to reset your system? An energy drink here or there is one thing, a daily habit is another, and it could be hurting your gains!

Rule #5 – Stop eating out!

Dedicate a month to not eating out and see if your body doesn’t start to look better! Everything should be prepared at home and if heating foods up is difficult on the run then bring fruit with you. I would stop worrying as much about macro intake during this time, just focus on real foods and get your protein in when you can.

Do not stress over macros while going through this, chances are you’ll look much better regardless. This could even go for cheat meals too. There is nothing wrong with buying a $5 pizza at the grocery store and coming home to eat, relax, and watch a movie.

Not every cheat meal needs to be an all-out binge and a $50 bill from a restaurant. Hell, you may learn to appreciate the time at home relaxing and unwinding rather than partying it up with assholes every weekend who don’t live the way you do.

Rule #6 – Go through your home and sell off what you don’t need.

This is part of “letting it go.” There are probably a lot of things that you have wasted money on in the past that you don’t need anymore. I would take the money from this and use it to try to simplify life even more.

You could pay off a credit card debt, maybe finally put new tires on your car, or anything else you can do to simplify life. What does this have to do with bodybuilding you may ask? Easy; it takes additional stress off your mind!

Rule #7 – Sleep on a firm mattress!

There is simply no reason for anyone to sleep on a $3K “cush” bed. We constantly hear about how our backs are bad from sleeping on a shitty mattress, but chances are your back is bad because your back sucks!

I tend to sleep worse on softer beds that “give” too much. I could sleep better on a futon than most beds, and wake up feeling better. If the only way you can sleep is on some pussy mattress or in a recliner, I would evaluate the root of the issue.

I recently ditched a very expensive mattress for a normal mattress that is firm and on a plywood frame rather than a traditional box spring and my sleep has improved incredibly. I just don’t understand it.

You see these old women in foreign countries who live to be over 100 years old and have slept on a floor mattress their entire life, yet there are pussies dropping dead in their 50’s and 60’s who have the very best mattresses in the world. Maybe there is something to this? Hmmm… diet and activity level?

Rule #8 – Work on yourself first, women will come into play.

Stop wasting time on women if there are issues you’d like to improve with yourself first. Next, find a woman who understands that it’s the value of life and the quality, not the quantity. But work on yourself first.

Maybe try keeping a cleaner place, or buying some nice framed photos to hang on the wall. Part of attaining women is making your place welcoming to them. I used to have all kinds of shit in my apartment; plants, framed photos, wine fridge, nice coffee with magazines.

You think I did that shit for me? Hahaha, you need to make these girls feel comfortable. But if you’re a slob then it’s not going to happen, so work on yourself first!

Rule #9 – Stop wasting money on products that don’t make a damn bit of difference.

Think about this for a minute; you walk into a grocery store and there are 2 different types of deodorant. One of them is this $6 stick of “Axe” deodorant and another one is a $1.29 stick of Speed stick.

Do you really think that spending the extra $5 on  something as stupid as a stick of deodorant is going to help get you laid? Are you that pathetic that you need that type of an ego boost?

There are products that do a great job that cost less, leaving you more money for shit that does matter, like good quality cologne THAT WILL HELP YOU GET LAID. I don’t see anything wrong with store brand cottage cheese or other off brand products if it keeps more money in my pocket.

Rule #10 – Make money for the right reasons, but don’t obsess over it.

I’m guilty as charged. There are things I have purchased in the past I didn’t need, and what was even worse is some of them brought me no happiness like I thought they would have. They became more stress and a headache to me.

If you really stepped back and took a look at some of your spending habits, you may find that everything in your life that you feel is “missing” could possibly be fulfilled if you dropped the bullshit and changed your outlook on life, happiness, and things that really matter!

So what matters to me in life and why did I write this? Well, I began realizing the true meaning of life lately; relationships, family, quality time spent together, moments we can’t get back, seeing new things in the world, new experiences, and self fulfillment and peace at mind.

Becoming The Bull ebook

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11 thoughts on “10 Old School Bodybuilding Rules To Live Your Life By”

  1. Excellent post. I like the idea of simplifying things in all aspects of life even bodybuilding. I tend to complicate things even in that aspect of my life. Greetings from TJ Mexico

    Reply
  2. Rule number 3 I must respectfully disagree with on the tap water aspect. Flint, MI and the hundreds of other cities with absurd levels of lead. All the prescription drug residue in tap water (birth control pills aka estrogren included), fluoride (causes cancer, lowers IQ), BPA residue from said stupid plastic bottles (edocrine disruptors aka hormones all F’d up), arsenic, chlorine, etc. Research the water test of your area before assuming the water is safe, because we all know how much the Gov cares.

    Reply
    • yes, of course there are going to be areas where the water isn’t as good. In this case you need to substitute what you feel necessary, thanks for your input

      Reply
  3. It’s good to get back to basics sometimes.

    I recommend that everyone tries a month of:

    -No supplements (esp. pre-workout powder etc)
    -Bodyweight exercise only (with a vest if desired)
    -Whole food only.

    Bonus: try not counting reps. Muhammad Ali: ‘I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting… cause that’s when it really counts’

    Don’t be surprised if you still make gains while doing these things…

    Reply
      • Absolutely.

        As I get older and injuries become for of a concern I find that I’m reverting to bodyweight exercise more and more.

        Anyone with shoulder issues should consider switching from the overhead press to handstand work.

        Deep Handstand push ups on paralletes or boxes are a killer shoulder workout.

        Reply
  4. This was damn awesome.

    I read this with a Red Bull in my hands (after one of those fancy latte things) and then read #4 and thought, “screw this”. You’re right.

    And, man, I hate those water bottles too.

    Thanks for this, John.

    Reply

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