What will be the "theme" of your year?

I've given the New Year's Resolutioners the first week in the gym to get acclimatized, to get into a routine... or to just get out of the way.

I'm a very cerebral person. I enjoy playing head games with myself to keep myself on-goal and focused. I enjoy the mix of the surreal with the real, it helps to add some fun to what can otherwise be considered a "chore" at times - even for us "die hard" MuscleHackers.

So, I've realized in the last year as I've used different approaches to MuscleHacking (more strict, less strict, experimentation on basic principles), I need to stay pretty close to MH canon while adding my own over-arching themes to my workouts.

I'm also of the mind that we do our best work when we have both short-term and long-term goals that are both in play. Each goal should complement the other while positively reinforcing the final outcome that you desire.

Therefore, I've decided that my theme of 2013 will encompass one word. One tiny, often ignored word that has the capacity to change the future of so many people in so many different ways. For me, it's something of a clarion call, a reminder to get back in that gym and finish what I've started. I've been sick, I've had injuries, I've had successes, and cumulatively all of them have slowed me in the last year. My drive has fallen, my desire to be back in the gym, to get back into "the mix".

My word for 2013 is simply... rise.

To quote Tom Hardy's "Bane": "Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you!"

And in some way, my own victories had indeed defeated me. I lost some of my drive, having accomplished so much in 2011 and into 2012. I grew lax, complacent. An eye condition flared up and I let it bully me into not working out before I understood everything about it.

That will be the end of deterrents and other negative things like that. Sickness can be minimized, but not avoided. The same with injuries, and again with work and other life complications. However, I cannot and WILL NOT allow any of it to derail me further.

I've deferred my goals in weightlifting / bodybuilding over the last year or so for a number of reasons. Enough is enough. It's time to RISE.

Lift hard and train smart, MuscleHackers!

Adam