Everything You've Built Will Crumble

I was only 30, and I needed physical therapy.

How did I let it come to this?

Well, I'll tell you how.

Cock.

To be specific, cockiness.

Despite me having been a personal trainer for years...

Despite me understanding quite well how a body can fall apart...

I had been neglecting the fundamentals of exercise for several months.

Self-myofascial release (using a foam roller)? Nah, it took up too much time, so I ditched it.

What a fuckin' idiot I was.

As I was doing pistol squats one day, I felt a very odd pain in my upper leg near my groin.

"Guess I'll take it easy for a week."

Nope. It persisted.

It was especially prevalent every time I jogged for more than 2 seconds.

Since I understand how important it is to treat your one and only body well (not well enough to prevent this, apparently!), I put aside my ego and saw a physical therapist.

Turns out I pulled a muscle.

I guess you can't do pistol squats all the time and not recovery properly. Who knew?!

Yadda yadda, I got better after a few months.

Moral of that story?

Never forget (or neglect) the damn fundamentals. And always roll out.

No matter what it is, if a basic part of your routine is wrong, then you’ll get very good at being wrong.

And getting very good at being wrong is the same as getting worse.

The longer it takes you to correct yourself, the more damage you’ll have to undo. It’ll take you a lot longer to get back on track, too.

"But Kevin, I'm dumb and think these things":

• Everything’s been fine so far, so why change? (You sound like a guy who jumped out of a 100-story building thinking "So far, so good" as he passes the 50th floor.)

• I’m not gonna verify anything, but I think you’re wrong. (Good luck, fam.)

• I saw another guy do it, and he’s fine. (You can watch him be not-fine later, too.)

Think about it this way, if you always keep the fundamentals at the top of your mind:

• More advanced knowledge will come to you more easily.

• You can avoid wasting your time and building bad habits. (In the fitness world, this means that you can avoid injuring yourself.)

• To be more poetic, you can build your house with stone and concrete instead of crooked sticks. That way, you won’t die in a wreckage of your own making.

Whatever the fundamentals are, do not skip or neglect them unless there’s been a massive change in what the fundamentals are.

If your fundamentals (foundation) are shaky, everything you build on them will crumble.