Philip Stefanov

You know that feeling in a dream when you’re running toward (or away from) something, but you can barely move, no matter how hard you try, like you’re knee-deep in mud?

That’s me right now. The bad news is, I’m very much awake.

For the most part, I’m pretty consistent with my schedule. I never skip workouts, I always stretch and meditate in the morning, I make (mostly) good food choices, I always make sure to read before bed, and I make it a point to write every day.

But occasionally, I lose some of my momentum, and things get a bit out of control. I guess it’s part of being human.

In work-life balance, there is a popular concept called the four burners theory. I first learned about it back in 2016 from an article James Clear wrote on the topic.

The idea goes that one burner represents your family, one is for your friends, the third burner represents your work, and the fourth goes for your health.

The basic argument here is that, if you want to be successful, you need to cut off one burner. If you want to be really successful, you need to cut off two.

The idea here is pretty good and makes a lot of sense - we only have so much time and energy we could dedicate to these four burners, and we can’t possibly crank all four to the max. At least, not for long.

But, I’ve been thinking lately:

The four burners theory doesn’t just apply to work-life balance, it also applies to lifting.

In fitness, there are tons of misconceptions, myths, and lies. We often put too much value on stuff that doesn’t matter and completely ignore things that deliver lasting results. 

With that in mind, I’ve put a list of 22 overrated things and their underrated counterparts.