The Body is a Limited Resource –How You Treat It Now WILL Impact Your Future

By: Brian Carroll

Ground breaking right?

Everyone knows that money and assets is highly important in life, correct? I don’t know that this can be debated, but none the less – in this piece, I’ll be discussing and comparing things that most of us can easily relate to – money and finances in general. Keep in mind, our body is a limited resource and very valuable as we only have one shot in this life, right?  Once it’s Done and over, no going back one we travel down certain paths both good during the time we have. The choices we make both good and bad will impact us for the rest of our lives regardless of how we feel about it right now in the present.

[wa-wps]

Think about this for a minute. Everything we do is a transaction of sorts; good or bad. Believe it or not, everything we do does become cumulative over time and has an effect on us both mentally and physically. A little bit of good over time adds up to a LOT of good. Conversely, a little bit of bad over time adds up to a LOT of bad with enough time.  In my experience, it is generally the little things that end up causing us the most problems in life that end up mounting up (since we don’t notice it much at the present time). Think of things that are repetitive and easy to do, but overtime can cause some serious issues; like typing on a keyboard, doing it on occasion or even for a couple of years won’t hurt you much in most cases, but over time, the results can be literally crippling for some. This is an example of how little things can sneak up on you and become a serious issue.  

For the sake of this article I’m going to illustrate a few things to get my points across and use me and my past as an example. For me, and my situation, the subject is specifically my back but applies to the body as a whole. Now bear with me, I know that some of you may want to nitpick me for my analogies, but I think you will be able to see my points as they are pretty clear.

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The Deposit

This is a good thing for our bank accounts, right? We LOVE deposits as it is ADDING to our wealth or putting us in a positive state financially, right? Think of a deposit in my case (back situation) and how wrecked it was.  Once I started to be good to my body outside of the gym and made good choices at all times with the positions I put myself in and how I moved, I started to gain a positive balance in my lifting bank account instead of expecting big things from my body in the gym after being bad to it all day outside of it. I actually had a positive balance to use and ‘abuse’ my body without suffering for weeks after.  This took a lot of time to build a positive balance and to start to regain my lost athleticism. This became cumulative after thousands of movements done every day were corrected and went from taking away from my healing and athleticism to actually contributing and re-teaching my body to move well 24/7. Let’s face it; if you’re pain free outside of the gym, you have a punchers chance of getting back successfully under the bar. But if you’re causing your pain outside of the gym 24/7 and in pain, how do you expect to be able to lift decently in the gym and without pain?

The Check

We have all written checks that we have forgotten about and come back to get me when I wasn’t ready i.e. didn’t have the correct amount of cash in my account. Or am I the only dude who’s done this at times, especially when I was younger…Doubt it!  Think of a check as you getting away with things for a while (think bad form, bad posture, abusing your body all the time and moving bad day to day)  and pretty much writing checks you won’t be able to cash and don’t even concern yourself for a minute along the way. This was me for years; compete as much as possible, don’t worry about health, only focus on getting strong, never taking into account moving well outside the gym and not the balance needed in the human body. Then when the piper comes to visit a.k.a cash your frivolous check, you get sidelined and act as though you had NO idea it was coming. I wrote many, many checks that I wasn’t prepared to cash after years of abuse. The check is not something you want to write with your pants down, especially costly ones.  Again, it will catch up to you when you least expect it at times.

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The Investment

Good investments can really pay off for people who do the diligent research and make the right moves in the stock market and such right? The trick here is it’s not usually an immediate benefit; you won’t necessary see gains right away or even much improvement. Well, those that invest in their body are super intelligent, wise and actually pre-emptive, and ahead of the curve in most cases. They aren’t reactionary like I have been in my past. Rehabbing before they’re forced to, they are pre-habbing, taking time off, doing things right by laying the correct ground work and always attacking their weaknesses as they arise and work their asses off.  Now, as I have messed up so many things, I invest in my body as much as possible with rehab, prehab, massage therapy, NMT, graston, core work, good nutrition, rest, walking and the like BEFORE it’s actually needed, totally necessary and I’m not FORCED TO.  It’s an actual intelligent choice.  It’s always a good idea to get our oil changed as routine maintenance instead of waiting till your head gasket blows. Do the things necessary along the way before its 100% a major issue. Make intelligent decisions not just for the short term but the long term.

The Overdraft

Overdraft fees hurt bad, we have all been dinged with them and most of us are very aware of how that works. You spend too much money and next thing you know, stuff starts overdrawing and costs you $30-$100 per draft.  One person I knew who did the books for a large company said that in one year the company had $300,000.00 in OVERDRAFT fees because of their poor money management. HOLY SHIT.  These are not always a terrible thing when you catch them right away. You can get your stuff together, get a little bit mad at yourself and the make a serious mental note as to what went wrong, why it happened and how much it stings to just simply give money away. Think of an overdraft as a bad choice in or out of the gym. Picking up your buddies truck to show off and getting hurt, letting your ego get the best of you and you go too heavy, or fall of the plan for the day and you get dinged up because ‘you felt so strong that day’. This is your body saying, HEY, NO THANK YOU and now you are having to go sit in the corner now! This usually leads to having to take a week or two, maybe longer off of the gym. This is usually something you notice right away that is acute (think of a strain or a tweak that gets your attention) and easily corrected and learned from right away. If you’re smart, they don’t sideline you for too long and you take it as a lesson learned.

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The Withdraw

A withdraw is not really a great thing in any case, is it? Is it always bad? No, if you are intending on spending a little bit, it’s not much of a surprise. A good example of a good withdraw would be a successful competition where you hit your goals but remember, it’s still takes a toll on your body, a withdraw if you will.  The unnecessary withdraws are the ones we should avoid at all costs because: a bunch of small unintentional withdraws add up and can really end up hurting us over time, and this really amount to benefitting you zero. This could be chalked up as moving badly day to day for a few years but not really noticing it much as one is in great health. Well, in my case, I was moving badly every day constantly and was withdrawing like crazy but thought that the way I moved couldn’t impact the way I felt in the gym right? Wrong. When it was time to ‘abuse’ my body a bit in the gym (lift big weights), I had no balance in the account that day so when it was time to ‘pay’ the price for the day, I was tapped out with nothing to give or offer for the training session. My body was used up was not going to cooperate and let me abuse it outside and inside the gym anymore. I was actually on the verge of being 100% done.  Nearly physically bankrupt. Luckily, this isn’t always a life sentence for MOST OF us. We can correct this over time by taking some time off, reevaluating our training, our movement and our investments in our body. In time, this can be corrected unless you have simply pushed too far for too long.

 Bankruptcy

We know what this means right: too many withdraws and you’re broke.  Well, this is what happens to a LOT of athletes that stay in too long, and don’t do the right things along the way. I was on the brink of this, according to Dr. Stuart McGill on the visit in May 2013 and the way I felt mentally and physically for a LONG time. Not enough deposits, too many poorly written checks, lack of good investments, too many overdrafts with too many reckless withdraws will leave you high and dry way before doing things the right way would have lead you to the end.  I’m not saying being physically bankrupt is avoidable in all cases, but it can be mitigated with the tips I’m giving in this article. By taking care of your body and being mindful of it 24/7, listening to it, taking breaks from heavy training before you are forced to, having a good warmup and prehab routine, a massage therapist and chiro that work with athletes like you to see on a regular basis and staying ahead of the curve can really help you avoid worst case scenario. At least should give you the time that you are really meant to have, instead of cutting if far too short due to avoidable situations that are self inflicted.

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Let’s not pretend that anything at a high level is contributing to our health in ANY way. It’s taking a way a LOT more than you think, especially if you are guilty of the few things above and are bad to your body and not an athlete 24/7. With 10/20/life we are athletes 24/7 no matter what and take all things we do into consideration – from taking the trash out, to carrying the baby to deadlifting 800lb.

Next time you start to feel bad, or in pain, or even if you are lucky enough to be pain free – take a financial inventory of your body and how you treat it and move every day and if this article is pointing to you, try for a month or two to be good to your body and make the adjustments necessary before it’s too late. After a while, no surgery, rehab, specialist, guru or the like will be able to help you and then you have waited too long. Do NOT wait until it’s too late, life it too good to live in pain when in most cases a lot of the accrued damage that incur could have been avoided and lengthened a lifting career.

Get the 10/20/life e-book HERE.

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Brian Carroll

Owner and Founder at PowerRackStrength.com
Brian is a retired world-class powerlifter with over two decades of world-class powerlifting. From 1999 to 2020, Brian Carroll was a competitive powerlifter, one of the most accomplished lifters in the sport's history. Brian started off competing in bench press competitions 'raw,' then, shortly into the journey, he gravitated toward equipped lifting as there were no "raw" categories then. You only had to choose from single-ply (USPF) and Multi-ply (APF/WPC). Brian went on to total 2730 at 275 and 2651 at 242 with more than ten times his body weight in three different classes (220, 242, 275), and both bench pressed and deadlifted over 800 pounds in two other weight classes. He's totaled 2600 over 20 times in 2 different weight classes in his career. With 60 squats of 1000lbs or more officially, this is the most in powerlifting history, regardless of weight class or federation, by anyone not named David Hoff. Brian realized many ups and downs during his 20+ years competing. After ten years of high-level powerlifting competition and an all-time World Record squat at 220 with 1030, in 2009, Brian was competing for a Police academy scholarship. On a hot and humid July morning, Brian, hurdling over a barricade at 275lbs, landed on, fell, and hurt his back. After years of back pain and failed therapy, Brian met with world-renowned back specialist Prof McGill in 2013, which changed his trajectory more than he could have imagined. In 2017, Brian Carroll and Prof McGill authored the best-selling book about Brian's triumphant comeback to powerlifting in Gift of Injury. Most recently (10.3.20) -Brian set the highest squat of all time (regardless of weight class) with 1306 lbs – being the first man to break the 1300lb squat barrier at a bodyweight of 303 lbs.
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