Tips and Reminders

by Jim Steel | July 16, 2026

I haven’t been writing much lately about training and all the stuff that goes along with it. Sometimes I think that I’m just saying the same old shit over and over again: Keep it simple with the basic lifts, lift progressively heavier weights, and eat beef until it’s coming out of your ears. I have to tell you that if an athlete dedicates themselves to these three things, they will not fail. At least I have never seen it fail.

Some key facts fit under those three. I can’t help but share these. It may be old news to some, but to others, some of these points may help you put a few pounds on your total or make sure you don’t make as many mistakes as I did coming up as a lifter.

When I coached the defensive line in college years ago, every Friday before a Saturday game, I would put out “Tips and Reminders” for the next day’s game. Here are some “Tips and Reminders” about weight training and the overall lifestyle that you may find helpful.

If you miss any training, you might as well hang it up. Or at least you should reconsider your goal. Consistency is the key here: Just think that by not skipping training sessions, you are one step closer to where you want to be. But you must take those steps.

Sometimes you don’t want to train, but you do it anyway. You must keep showing up. You had a shitty day, you caught your old lady banging the mail man, you are traveling, you cussed your boss out and got fired, none of that matters. I will permit you to miss if you have a fever. Fevers suck, and I don't know how you can be productive when having one, but go for it if you can. Other than that, get your ass to the gym. Getting it done is everything.

I encourage you to treat every part of the workout as an important set, not just the main work sets. You will make faster gains if you perfect the skill of the lifts, and all of them require time and supreme focus. These main lifts – the squat, bench, deadlift, clean, press, and bench press – require precise form to do them correctly and in the most efficient way possible.

Also, I think everyone should visualize themselves lifting the weights in the upcoming session. Sit in a quiet room and watch it all like it's a movie. See yourself dominating the weights. I used to picture the bar moving so fast that smoke would come off the bar. Sometimes I would sit in a deep squat during the day and just picture it happening. World champ Rob Wagner told me one time to get so comfortable in the bottom of the squat that I could sit in it for ten minutes. If you do the visualization consistently, you will be impressed by how much easier the weights feel. You don't have to do it for long, just a few minutes each day.

If you have never tried eating correctly for your gains before, and just eat haphazardly, you will be surprised at the difference a decent diet makes. When I was 312 pounds years ago, I ate like shit, and I was pretty strong. When I got smart with my diet choices, I was much stronger at a lighter bodyweight of 268 pounds. If you are trying to gain weight/muscle, sit down and eat, and don’t stand up until everything in your bowl is gone. Beef, rice, and fruit are perfect, and massive quantities of them. Beef is a magical food – I swear it has anabolic properties. I buy bricks of grass-fed ground beef for my kids, and they eat it at least three times a day. I ate it when dieting for every bodybuilding show.

You can have other carb sources, but rice is easy, and most people digest it easily. I have one of those small rice cookers, and in a pinch, I will buy those packets of rice that take ninety seconds to cook. Potatoes and pasta are fine too. Pasta makes many folks bloated and feeling like shit, including myself, but if you don't have that issue, by all means have at it.

Forcing yourself to eat to get big may seem like an unnatural thing to do; getting massively strong and big is unnatural also. Nobody is supposed to be massive. You have to force that growth with massive weights and massive calories. You’ll put on some fat, but as long as your diet isn’t Zebra Cakes and chocolate milk, you will gain mostly muscle. So, do you want to be big and strong, or not? It may not be healthy to have traps that are so big that your breathing is compromised, but damn, that sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?

If you are trying to lose fat, you can keep the beef in there and just reduce the rice and fruit. Keep the carbs close to your training sessions if you are really trying to cut fat. Go for as long as you can without a bunch of cardio work. Then, if weight loss stalls, add brisk walking to your daily routine for 30 minutes. The key here is not to cut into your strength by doing endless amounts of cardio. Remember, the lifting comes first. You don’t want to lose any of that hard-earned muscle.

Intensity is also paramount. To me, that means to try as hard as you can when you are training. I always figure that if you are going to do something, attack that shit and attack it correctly. No phones and no talking about anything other than the current training session. I see people talking while doing sets at the same time, and it makes me apoplectic. The weight room is a special place, a place of reconstruction, of gaining confidence, of doing a special thing that is only for the hearty few, Treat your time in the weight room with respect and reverence.

Make your training session the most important part of your day, and you will succeed fast. It has to be important and, for a short while (if you want to get to your goal of super strength) at the exclusion of many other things. Late nights are the worst. Get your ass to bed in order to grow. You are not missing anything by going to bed early, but you’ll be pissed off at yourself if you miss a rep because you had shitty sleep.

All of these tenets are simple. Too simple, I know. But all of it works. Sometimes the most simple things are the hardest to follow – to have discipline day after day. But that is what will set you apart from the other citizens out there, who will never learn what you know about transforming everything about yourself.