This week, our Ultimate Transformation Moment provides a follow-up to the last discussion, which focused on losing a quick 10 pounds before the first day of summer.
There were two concepts that sparked a lot of questions. People approached me and asked, “OK, I haven’t been working out at a very high level, and you’re asking me to go change my body by lunging 80 yards, and what is this thing about failure?”
It’s real simple. Let’s look at Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. Einstein says that if you continue to do the same thing, and expect different results, this is insanity. This same logic follows with exercise. If you continue to do the same thing in your exercise routine but you want a different result, it’s not going to happen. To see a change, you’ve got to force change.
So today’s Ultimate Transformation Moment deals with letting go of the boundaries in the mind to help the body force a change. Now, to do this, it’s really, really important that we understand this concept of doing something different.
I like using lactic acid workouts to see this type of change. Lactic acid workouts push you beyond your norm, and you start to feel a tightness and sluggishness in the muscles. Well, that feeling is lactic acid.
What’s important about lactic acid is that after that workout, if you feed your body system properly by hydrating, getting protein, getting amino acids from leafy greens, the body recovers. However, the body will recover because of an important signal being sent. It says “body repair yourself, but repair yourself to be leaner and stronger.”
Note it is really very important that after you complete an intense workout such as the one I mentioned last week, that you rest. The purpose of that rest is to provide the body with the recovery time required in order to gain leaner muscle and increase your strength. Then, when you get ready to push the body hard again, you will be able to push it even further and get even greater results.
The second area in question is the concept of failure. I know the word sounds like it should be a negative, but it’s not. Failure simply identifies what the body is able to do in a given moment. When you push your body to the point of failure, and give it the recovery time we discussed above, the muscles will respond as noted. The muscles will recover and bounce back leaner and stronger. Incorporating the system of change, and failure workouts, I guarantee the next time you push it to failure, the ceiling for failure will have increased. For example, instead of doing 75 straight push-ups, you might be able to do 85. I have clients that do 1,000 push-ups a day. They have simply conditioned their bodies by taking them to the point of failure.
Today, our Ultimate Transformation Moment reviewed the definition of insanity–you cannot continue to do the same thing, and expect a different result. In order to cause your body to change, and make it what you want it to be, you’re going to have to unlock the limits. Force it to change, push it to failure.
Peace and be more.
Erich Nall is the owner and founder of ultimate transformations training in Los Angeles. The certified trainer, nutritionist, motivational speaker, and dedicated life coach is a regular guest and commentator on KJLH 102.3 FM’s the “Front Page with Dominique DiPrima.”
