Work Hard Play Hard

"Work hard, play hard" is a statement I can't stand as much as "it is what it is." It's one of those statements that really tells me nothing but sounds good to say (to the person saying it not the person hearing it.)

People always ask me, "can I get to my goals?", "are they do-able?", "will it take me a long time?" What I tell people is, getting to your goals is not a big deal. You can't put it on some pedestal. It's not even that hard. If you do the right things at the right time and approach it scientifically you will just get there. It's not some miracle. You just have to do the things to get you there. When you put together a bike, its not a big deal or a miracle. You just have to go and put it together, and you know the outcome will eventually happen because it comes with instructions.

Our body doesn't necessarily come with an instruction book, but that doesn't mean an instruction book doesn't exist. It does and people use it all the time, the scientific evidence based approach to fitness. When clients ask me how long it will take, I tell them it won't take too long at all as long as they do the work. When clients complain about an exercise, I tell them this exercise is no big deal. It's not hard work, you're not doing more than you can do, it's just work so let's not make it anymore than it really is. You're putting one piece of the puzzle together.

It's only hard work when you feel like there's something better you could be doing with your time, or you just hate it. BUT once you feel like there is nothing better you could be doing with your time, that you enjoy it, then it's no longer hard work and it's now become a lifestyle change. You have made the right lifestyle choice that guarantees your success. It's what separates the winners from the losers. And only when it becomes a lifestyle change does it become easy. All it means when sometime tells me they work hard and play hard is that they hate their work and they have to play harder to compensate. I love my work and never consider it hard.

I trained martial arts twice yesterday, one block for 2 hours, one block for 3. Would it make other people crumble? Yes. Did I consider it hard work? No because I enjoy it, it's a lifestyle choice I've made.

The thing I get confused about the most is when a person who isn't even burned out quits on an exercise just because they hate it. In all my years of sports and martial arts I've never seen a coach assign an exercise and an athlete quit on it unless they just collapse. But otherwise we never had an opinion about what we were doing because we wanted to be there, because we ultimately want to win. Exercises should be dynamic but if the "fun factor" becomes a primary goal and not a secondary, then you will have a funny looking body. There's too much emphasis on something being fun, too much emphasis on "feeling it."

People come into the gym with some preconceived idea that they should always "feel it" where they think they should feel it. The most important things in an exercise are:

Can you do it properly with no dysfunction.
Can you do it with proper posture.
Are you being challenged.
Is it safe.
Is there any pain.

These are the top concerns because feeling it is just superficial, it tells us a little about the muscle (that you obviously don't feel something in a muscle that's underdeveloped and you won't for a while until it develops more) but nothing about the nervous system. Throw all those preconceived notions out of your head.

At the end of the day, you may dislike it, you may have a lot of questions about what you're doing, you may have your doubts, all the negative thoughts and preconceived ideas that will bring you down. I can go on and on to try to reason with someone rationally but sometimes none of that works as well as telling someone to just "DO THE DAMN THING!"



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

A Fit Body Needs A Fit Mind

One of the secrets of professional athletes is their use of Sports Psychology. To think like a winner. This is one of the most important aspects of training and depending on the coach, they will say it is the most important. This is also the aspect that is most ignored by the regular gym go'er or Average Joe and Jane.

A lot of business people or people looking to become a success read books on Sports Psychology. Thinking like a winner just means thinking like a successful person, going out there and creating your own future. It's why some athletes do so well in the business world even if they aren't educated.

So what does this mean? There is a lot of things that lead to your failure in your weight loss or in the gym that was is already a pre-learned response. If you were good at something, you were rewarded with "congratulations, or good job, or you're really good at that, you're a natural." Now if you didn't do so well in something maybe you were received with, "You suck, or that is not your subject I guess, you're not much of a golf player or math student or what have you, and finally you are a failure."

So what happens then? You have a learned response where now you associate yourself being good at one thing, and bad at another thing. That it's innate and uncontrollable. I'm good at math bad at English. I'm good at tennis bad at violin.

None of this is related to effort. Now if you were conditioned another way. You did something and you were met with, "Oh great effort." You did bad at something, "Try harder next time and you will succeed." Then you will no longer associate yourself as being good or bad at any one thing, that all things are based on your level of effort and hard work.

Now the first girl will go her whole life thinking she will either be good at something or bad at something and she will have very little control. It is what it is as a lot of people annoyingly say.

The second girl will go her life thinking if she tries hard enough she can succeed in anything (which is more true than you think if you factor in the 10,000 hours it takes anyone to master anything). Even in studies, sometimes brighter students who categorize themselves do worse than students who base their success on effort. Especially in moments of great pressure or stress when the brighter student sometimes crumbles or feels their vulnerability because they aren't perfect at something. It's why the people with the highest IQs don't always make the best scientists, or even do well in strategy games. It's why someone can come from moderate circumstances to a great level of success even if they had little natural ability, because they worked hard and based their success on their effort.

Which brings us back to your success and failure in your work outs, fitness, and in a greater sense life.

If you are a person who tries this exercise or that and doesn't feel you are good at it, you will end up sticking to the easy things, a treadmill of some sort and see very little results.

A person who tries something and finds it challenging will light up and revel in its uncertainty and complexity and will work hard enough to succeed.

If you're ever feeling like, I suck at this, I am not good at this, I am only good at running but my muscles are too weak to lift, then you will surely fail.

If within your inner dialogue you don't speak in terms of activity or success and failure, but in terms of effort, then you will surely succeed.

I never find that money is the reason people get personal training or don't get it even though they say so. I have had some of the richest people use money not to get training, and some of the poorest people buy personal training in spite of financial limitations. It's all on how they speak to themselves, their inner dialogue. This may not work I'm just not good at it, I don't want to risk the money. This will work if I try, I will invest in myself. Successful people go seek out others who will help them succeed, even before they become rich or successful. You take these people and take all their money or success away and they will find a way to get it back. Think like a winner! You're body will surely thank you for it.

Eventually you will get to a state of minimal effort for maximal results, but that's for another time.

UAP (Universal Athletic Position)

In my years of wrestling and kickboxing and every other sport, I have always heard my coaches repeat to me over and over one thing, GET IN YOUR ATHLETIC STANCE SAM! It's what is generally known in the world of Sports Performance as the UAP or Universal Athletic Position. It is the only stance a human being can take where they can generate the most amount of power with the least amount of strain onto their being.

It is the position outfielders in baseball squats into when they are trying to read where the player will hit the ball. It is the position a basketball player gets into before he shoots. It is the position that all football players start in. It is the position wrestlers will hand fight in. It is the position kickboxers take before driving a knee or throwing a knockout punch.

And it is the position you will need to develop strength. It will also be the key to your weight loss or any other athletic goal. You look at lifts that use the UAP and what do you have? You have the squat, the dead lift, the thruster, the push press, the clean, the snatch, kettebell swings, clubbell swipes, box jumps, power jumps, etc.

Any other exercise is inferior and should be used as a compliment to exercises in the UAP family. This is another secret athletes use in their training that a lot of regular gym go'ers do not know about. These lifts use more muscles at once, burn more calories, and produce more results. You ever seen a middle weight boxer, wrestler, or even a middle weight Olympic lifter? All of them will have shredded abs and a lot of them don't do any ab exercises. They get it from all their UAP movements. It forces every part of you to be lean, strong, and highly efficient. It is the reason athletes can lift tremendous amounts of weight beyond their own body weight yet the normal Joe strains his back lifting something light off the ground.

Add this into your work outs.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Working Out From Home