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eazy · #2 (**permalink**) 03-02-2012, 08:07 AM

8. Thou shalt Sleep
This must be the commandment which absolutely gets ignored, the fitness equivalent of trying to stick to "Don't covet your neighbour's wife" when your neighbour is Hugh Hefner. That is gonna’ be a hard one to stick to.

Why is sleep so difficult to get right, given a large amount of research showing it is invaluable for boosting testosterone, controlling cortisol levels (elevated levels of which are responsible for increased abdominal fat storage), and boosting mood, recovery and performance even in skill based events. For more on sleep read our article on sleep.

To help ensure you get enough sleep you should avoid stimulants at night and aim to go to sleep at the same time of night every day and try to rise in the morning at the same time also avoiding weekend lie-ins. Once you get your body to a solid sleep routine aiming for 9+ hours of sleep a night you should find yourself requiring less of a pick-me up in the morning or before workouts and your performance in training should be much improved.
9. Thou shalt implement Periodisation
Periodisation is a fancy name which basically means having some type of structured training plan or philosophy which allows you to manipulate variables such as the exercises, frequency of workouts, number of sets and reps as well as type of training performed with a view to constantly challenging the body so that over the long term you make progress even if occasionally this means you will backslide potentially.

Traditionally, periodised training routines were designed to ensure success in Olympic sports and led athletes' coaches to formulate a plan designed to ensure their charges hit peak performance for a single period of time. While this may work it has drawbacks which led to it falling out of favour.

For bodybuilders an example of a periodised plan would be to assign a 4-6 block of training to high rep work to build muscle endurance, and size and then follow this up with another 4-6 block where the number of reps are reduced while the number of sets are increased which is following up a hypertrophy block with a strength training block. The pricing behind this is that the body requires a certain period of time to build optimal muscle size and by focusing purely on this you can gain muscle optimally. Then, after a period of time where the body has adjusted to this type of program you switch to a strength oriented routine where the increased muscle mass you have just gained allows you to push more weights.
10. Thou shalt manage their Stress
Ever noticed that when you go through a rough period in life such as exams, or relationship problems that your performance in the gym suffers and you struggle to motivate yourself to train?

What is going on when we encounter stress is that our levels of testosterone will drop while the catabolic hormone cortisol will rise. This leads to the reduced motivation and sex drive as well as the increased difficulty in gaining muscle/losing fat which is common to high stress situations.

In life we are always going to encounter stress but we should do our utmost to mitigate its effects. For instance, ensuring we sleep enough, eat adequately, practice mindfulness when eating to avoid overeating without even being aware of it or taking supplements such as a good intra-workout or adaptogen complex which can help our bodies to help overcome the negative effects of stress.

It also means listening to our body and knowing when to cut back a little (which you should do in any periodised training plan) or when to stop obsessing over food and training and learning to enjoy life a little. As much as we should always remember not to miss workouts and meals, it is also important that we do not sacrifice our social lives to our training and diets as doing so will probably be the worse for us leading as it does to a type of stress (boredom).
Conclusion
The Ten Commandments passed down to Moses were not so easy for his followers to live by. The same applies with our Ten Fitness Commandments but if we do adhere to them we will ultimately benefit massively by reaping all the rewards of a healthy and powerful physique which draws admiration from everyone. More importantly you will know that it was a hard won victory like anything in life that is worth having.