What I Would Tell My Twenty Year old Self Now
Have you ever looked in the mirror and realized “I’m not getting any younger”? You may start to think about your impact, your goals, your appearance & the mistakes or victories you made along the way; this has been me recently. What would I tell my twenty year old self from an advice, health and fitness perspective?
I would start off with some simple thoughts such as go easy on the tasty cakes, stick to just one can of soda per day, don’t experiment with foreign substances in college, having more then ten beers isn’t fun (its destructive), but from there it would become a more challenging conversation.
I’ve always been disciplined. I started working and lifting weights at thirteen and they are the two things which have served me well thus far in my relatively young life (work hard and train hard). I certainly made mistakes such as lifting too heavy, lifting too often, undereating to get lean, overeating to get jacked, taking supplements to get fit faster & taking fat burners to get lean faster. Ironically most items had a placebo effects or potentially left my body susceptible to long term issues at the young age I was taking them.
I dabbled with every type of supplement you can imagine; fat burners, protein powders, creatine (powders and under the tongue tinctures), fat burners, multi-vitamins, testosterone boosting supplements, energy drinks, ephedra, intra-workout drinks, brain supplements & more. One thing I never did was steroids. My body did stop producing enough testosterone at twenty-three so at thirty-five I decided to get hormone replacement therapy. If you ever need hormone replacement therapy it is imperative that it be doctor supervised!
The reason my body stopped producing adequate amounts of testosterone is undetermined but potentially be attributed to the sheer volume of experimental supplement consumption. Which is why today I will tell anyone who will listen that supplements are not the answer to getting in shape; it’s food and hard work.
Here is the most important part of this article:
You should get blood work every single year. Blood work is even more important if you are working out. Bloodwork allows you to look under the hood and realize what you NEED to supplement with and not simply what you WANT TO supplement with. Some supplements I do still consider vital including pre-workout, sugar free energy drinks, fish oil, d3, multi-vitamins, red rice yeast, protein powders and creatine. I now know why I take them (many of them are for genetic high cholesterol), my blood work says I am deficient, or I’m taking it for muscle building. Caffeine is the exception; I take that for focus and because being tired is not fun.
So here it is the unedited version of my letter to myself when I was twenty summarized.
“Michael it’s nice to see you; in fifteen to twenty years most of what you think matters now wont. Keep being nice to people and working hard and eventually you will meet that beautiful woman of your dreams who cares for you like no one has ever cared for you before. Working out and playing guitar will serve you for the rest of your life and keep you out of long-term trouble so keep doing those things. Stop taking unnecessary supplements and stick with proteins, caffeine, creatine & multivitamins. Give up the binge drinking & eating pizza and cheesesteaks all of the time as soon as possible. It’s ok to ask for help. Hug everyone you love and tell them how much they mean because one day they will be gone. Lastly; life is a gift; you can’t imagine the things you are going to learn and the people you are going to meet. The one thing I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt is if you love people, work hard & keep learning; people will love you back and life is going to be beautiful! The best is yet to come”
Now it’s your turn reader; write your letter to your twenty year old self and tell them what you learned and what they can do to get better now! Remember to visualize the younger you reading it and hearing what you have to say!
Michael Hartman
My mission is to give personal training participants a safe and effective workout designed specifically for their goals. Dealing with many sports injuries over the years taught me how to come back stronger every time. The competition is with yourself... Strive to bring out your best self and get better every day!
