Week 10: Are you giving away your greatest power?

Jo and Stacey on the bench press, one spotting and one lifting

YOU spend years in the gym and don’t get results. You ask yourself why and reach a conclusion: exercise doesn’t work.

You go on a diet, fail to lose weight and determine that diets aren’t effective.

Or you take up weight-lifting, pull a muscle and decide that weight-lifting causes injuries.

Those are real life situations and common reactions. But there’s some missing data. How many people regularly visit the gym and don’t actually follow or stick to a progressive resistance program?

Or how many people go on diets, but either adopt a diet that is fundamentally flawed (in the long term) or cheat on the details?

Pressed for time, Adriano working hard to make the most of the final weeks

And when it comes to getting injured lifting weights, how many of us have failed to listen to instructions or ‘switched off’ at that all-important moment? To then say weight-lifting is dangerous is as illogical as a parent who hurts their back picking up their children saying they will never lift their children again.

In each of these real examples – and there are thousands more – I’m highlighting how we, as people, outsource responsibility for our mishaps or lack of success. I’m as guilty of it as anyone else. 

There is an often uncomfortable truth we are trying to avoid: we are where we are largely because of choices WE have made.

Unleashing strength through deadlifts

The day when we start to reverse this trend is when we take ownership of the problem. It means to admit the only way to achieve lasting results is to recognise fully we are the ones in charge.

One of the greatest powers we have as human beings is knowing we can change things and that we have choice, because in the absence of choice we have hopelessness. The moment we blame others or circumstances we relinquish our power.

An artistic (10 and 5-year-old) impression of transformation

If you keep blaming and looking outwards instead of inwards, you are developing a practice – the practice of becoming better at blaming and squandering your powers.

“The body becomes what you teach it.”

Simply put, if you don’t own the problem, you can’t change the problem.

Who is in control when you pick up your phone at bedtime and start scrolling through messages or social media? Does the phone control you?

Who buys the food that goes into your fridge and cupboards that, when consumed, cause your health issues?

Taking a walk, farmer’s carry-style

The Amazing 12 is a unique program that offers the opportunity for change and, as you will know if you have been following my blogs, food and sleep should play an integral part of any healthy physical transformation.

You have to follow the program. That’s not a catch. It’s a requirement for it to work.

A reason people come to me or have personal training is because they want/need to be held accountable. They pay me to take them through the program, show and instruct them how to perform the movements, organise what weights to lift, how long to recover, watch their form etc.

Paying for my services and having me pull the strings helps motivate them to turn up when they don’t feel like it and do the exercise even if they dislike it.

So here we are, 10 weeks into the Amazing 12 Chichester at the Core Results Gym. The ‘end’ is in sight and some will be satisfied and some will not. 

Whether the group are content or not at the end largely comes down to three things: mindset, expectations and honesty.

Are they a glass-is-half-empty or half-full type of person? How honest are they with themselves about what they have put into the program? How realistic were their expectations?

Adriano putting everything into the heavy battle ropes

Irrespective of the results, here’s the truth as I see it: this is just the beginning. Here’s another truth: what they do next and how successful they are going to be moving forwards is ALL down to them. We need to own that reality.

Stacey told me, “I don’t think I’d have got back into shape had I not done this [the Amazing 12].” She’s lost over a stone in weight and returned to her pre-pregnancy bodyweight.

I’d like to think, however, that Stacey is also much better equipped and informed now than when she started.

Still, Stacey feels disappointed whenever her scale weight hasn’t budged even if her strength and fitness has increased, which raises the question of what means of testing we are attached to for determining how well we are doing. Again, this is something we need to take ownership of by understanding it is a choice. 

Finishing the week strongly with the prowler and kettlebells

Jo’s admitted she hasn’t been following the diet for weeks and that she’s really been struggling at times. But she was committed this week and, when she puts the work in and eats correctly, I’ve noticed big changes.

I can’t fault Adriano for commitment. Some days he gets stranded in London coming back from work yet busts a gut to make it to the gym on time. Occasionally, we’ve had to reschedule his sessions and started super-early.

The bottom line is he’s made his training a priority. If we can do the same with sleep and diet we have the winning ticket!

Ben, who is almost back to full fitness after a recent injury, has been working practically two jobs in recent weeks and after training in the evening has had to then do a night shift. Therefore his sleep has been massively disrupted and, as I’ve written about previously, it’s through quality sleep that the body does its restorative work, growth and majority of fat-burning. That’s a biological process that can’t be short-circuited.

At least Ben’s been following more rigidly the diet I gave him last week and has noticed almost immediately the difference (and I’ve seen it) which has made him – and me – wonder just what his results would have been had he nailed it from the beginning.

However, what these past 10 weeks has taught me (and I’m always learning from the people I coach) is that motivation only goes so far for some and that over the longer duration you need to have a plan for when the wheels come off.

Plans are systems or frameworks that help keep you on track with your goals. “Fail to plan, plan to fail” is how the saying goes.

Upping the stakes, Adriano, Ben and Jo going through a conditioning workout

Plans don’t magically appear. You have to create them. You have to foresee where you have gone wrong previously and determine what is necessary or helpful to avoid that bump if it comes up again.

If you don’t plan, you’ll wind up repeating the same actions and you know what Albert Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?

Stacey showing her deep back squat

So the big lesson for this week is to recognise you – and no-one else – are in charge. Stop blaming anyone or anything. Take command. Make a plan. Stick with it. If you don’t like it, know that you can change it. 

It requires discipline and discipline can be learned and practiced. As Aristotle once wrote, “Through discipline we find freedom.”

My next wave – an eight-week version – starts on May 8. If you’d like to be considered and think you have what it takes to commit to training, following a healthy nutritional plan, want to dramatically improve your strength and fitness, change your physical composition and learn how to lift and train efficiently and effectively, contact me at Claude@intelligentstrength.co.uk