I talk often about overcoming obstacles and being resilient.
As you are faced with a challenge today, what is your mind telling you to do about it?
Every day we have to face these thought patterns.
We CAN change them but only by awareness and ACTION.
Take this morning for instance.
I didn't NEED to get up early and go train. I could have slept in until it was time to go train my clients at the studio.
But I decided it was important to get up early and be one of the first people to walk into the gym when it opened.
Three weeks of running on knees that weren't ready for it, caused me to shift my program around.
GOOD. Makes me learn, adjust and evolve once again.
Instead of being sad or upset about not being able to do what I want to do, I do what I CAN do.
For days I have been looking at the Jacob's Ladder at the gym.
Intimidating piece of cardio equipment, just sitting there DARING me to climb it.
This morning I said LET'S GO.
See if you can relate to some of these thoughts I had which prevented me from trying it sooner:
I don't know how to use it, I'll look foolish.
What if I can only do it for 2 minutes and people see how lame that is?
I don't NEED to do that, there's other cardio options that I know how to use..
These sound familiar?
Have you avoided trying something new because of fear?
How about choosing to take an easier route because you didn't want to push so hard?
It's a battle in the mind that WE ALL face.
I'm all about attacking these weak thoughts.
Take them HEAD-ON. Never avoid them.
The more you do, the stronger you become in your mind AND body.
Pullup/pushup pyramid
After I was dripping sweat and invigorated by the fifteen minutes of climbing the Jacob's ladder, I proceeded to get in some pullups & pushups.
One way to increase your reps on bodyweight exercises is to perform "LADDERS" or "PYRAMIDS".
There are many variations of ladders/pyramids but a good one is like this:
-1 pullup/2 pushups/3 reverse crunches (that's one ladder)
-2 pullups/4 pushups/6 reverse crunches
Keep adding one more pullup and double up the pushup/ab exercise until you reach failure on the pullups.
Then you reverse the pyramid and go down all the way back to the first round of 1 pullup/2 pushups/3 reverse crunches.
This is a great way to get in more reps on bodyweight exercises and do them quickly to increase your strength endurance and work capacity.
I got this idea from Stew Smith- the former Navy Seal/current strength and conditioning coach.
You can also do pyramids for other exercises like dips, lunges, squats, other ab exercises.
Get your mind right today and tomorrow and keep ATTACKING your training AND other challenges in life.
At the end of the day, it's a GREAT feeling to know you did not back down. You did not quit. When you continue to PUSH ahead and DO those hard things you don't want to do.
You BECOME strong FOR life.