Ben Pollack is one of this generation’s greatest lifters and geniuses, a physical culture expert, world record holder and US Open powerlifting champion. Know as “PhDeadlift” on social media, Ben is currently wrapping up his PhD and is one of the most educated and insightful competitors to grace the platform. Check out his site at phdeadlift.com. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with Chris Duffin about training recently. It was a great conversation because we both have a similar mental approach to training: if we’re going to make it worthwhile, we need to go into the gym with a very concrete goal in mind. And the more frequently we do that, the better. While light days have their place in any sound training program, they’re just not fun.But as Chris pointed out, training doesn’t always have to be fun. He put it really simply: training is your job. I love that analogy, because I think it captures the essence of what makes a successful program and a successful lifter. In the rest of this article, and in the video below, I’ll go into more detail about what that means, and how you can apply it to your own plan. Staying Consistent Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to strength, and just like you can’t skip work because you’re “not feeling it,” you can’t skip training without a good reason, either. Of course, just like you might take the occasional sick day from work when you have the flu, there are legitimate reasons to pass on the gym. If you’re sick, injured, or you have a really significant life event that precludes you from following your plan, you’re not going to help yourself by trying somehow to train anyway.But for the most part, you should take steps to...
