Welcome to 60 Days of Dread 2021 edition. I promised basic bitch mode to combat the weakness I see in here with new guys. Your trial by fire begins now.

The basic idea of 60 DoD is that you suck. You know you suck, we know you suck, and your wife absolutely knows you suck. You're fucking lazy. You're fucking soft. You make excuses, you muse about what you'd like to do or what you wish you could do, but you never actually do it. That ends now. Take the ticket, ride the ride.

Over the course of the next 60 days, you will change your habits. You didn't become a piece of shit overnight. Rather, you piled small habits on top of small habits, until you were habitually shitty. So, to undo this, we will strip away all your ego, all your assumptions, and start layering good habits on you, one per week for 8 weeks.

Every year I say this, so this year should be no different: the challenge here is to change what you do and how you do it. You can find other challenges where people get you to hold your breath under water for 5 minutes or do a million pushups a week. That's admirable, but not what we're going for. Even if right now you can only do 2 pushups, my goal is to get you doing them, every day, at a set time, starting now and ending never. Progress will come; first the habit.

So our first week is lifting. It is foundational, and you've seen us harp on this on this forum every chance we get. Much of the negative self-image you hold of yourself (or, conversely, the reason your small amount of positive self-image does not include being strong and fit) is because you think you can't do it. You think "I'm not built for that," or "I'm too old." These are all bullshit excuses. Go watch the movie “Pumping Iron”, the classic 70’s documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger competing in Mr. Universe competitions. You will see a real champion who was 5’ 5” (Franco Columbu) alongside Arnold (6’ 2”) and Lou Ferigno (6’ 4”). In the background are guys of all sizes, ages, and races training in the same gym in Santa Monica that Arnold was. No, your problem is you’re afraid. Afraid you’ll fail, afraid you’ll look dumb, afraid of the unknown. That’s all ego. Cast it aside, it’s time to work.

People new to lifting will say, “But I don’t know how!” Check the sidebar. We have 60 DoD posts from prior years that have a lot of info about what programs you can do. That could spark a big debate here (and has many times), but let me leave you with this: start simple, and be consistent. When you’re after the n00b gainz it doesn’t really matter what you do, so long as you’re consistent, both in the workout and how often you do it.

The logistics of this are simple:

  1. Pick a program. If you’re truly at a loss to decide after reading prior 60 DoD posts then do Strong Lifts 5x5, it’s a local favorite for beginners.
  2. Pick a place. Even crappy Blue states should have gyms open by now. If not, get creative; if you want it bad enough you'll find a way.
  3. Pick the times. Put it on your calendar, burn it in your brain. Your gym time is non-negotiable. No matter what someone wants to do, if it’s during gym time the answer is NO. Treat it like another job you can’t miss.

I invite veteran members to offer encouraging words and/or throw tomatoes. Some of these maggots don’t deserve your encouragement or wisdom, but maybe they’ll get off their asses and start being deserving.

For those of you participating, post your new habits, successes and problems in your weekly OYS. (You ARE doing OYS, right?)

That is all for this week. Now get to work.