"This Could Only Happen In The Gym... or On the Toilet!"

About five months ago, I began a program espoused by a trainer who believes in body exercises without weight lifting. In the four months that I used this type of program, I gained just over an inch on my arms. This was quite amazing since in the previous four years, despite diligently working out on my own, I enjoyed “0” growth. That’s right…NO growth! However, a month ago, I hired a trainer and we started working together where I meet Lyle every Tuesday and Thursday in the gym. The program is amazing! Not only am I finally putting on some serious size, I am also being noticed by more than just the older woman huffing and puffing on stationary bikes and treadmills. (Don’t tell my wife!) Today, my trainer made a very astute comment. He had me up on two half moon “pedestals” so that the curved part was down and the flat part was up. They really are two halves of a balance ball. I was suppose to stand up on them…without falling off of course…and begin some squats. Now if you have ever seen a Chevy Chase act, where he goes thru some incredible body gyrations before he falls flat on his toosh, you will get a great picture of the lack of grace I have even when I am standing on normal ground. In fact, the first and only time Fiona and I have danced together, I had friends yelling at me to move my hips. I was certainly born ‘balance challenged!’ Now put me on one of those half balance balls and the comedy hour begins…the arms begin to flap, the legs tighten, and hyperventilation begins to set in with look of stark terror very evident on my face. Now I don’t know about you, but I have never seen anyone do squats so that the entire time your body is wobbling all over the place…I certainly felt like a Weeble! (Remember the ‘Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down’ commercial?) These toys were created to be pushed and shoved but they would never fall over. Well, now you have a great picture of what I resembled. Except, Lyle wanted me to hold a 45 pound weight and begin to do squats. And all that was going thru my mind was “why?” Imagine how difficult it would be to sit down on the toilet, but first you had to step onto two half balance balls, stick your butt out and wind up directly on the point of intended destination! And now picture doing this holding a 45 pound newspaper! Except, my 45 pound newspaper was a weight and there was no toilet to break my fall. And imagine having to do this over and over again! Not a pretty sight for sure and this certainly caused some looks from onlookers as Lyle worked hard to keep me from toppling over! I realized that a trainer’s chief function, besides inflicting pain, making you look ridiculous in the site of others, and getting you to do things that has your body totally confused, is so that you don’t hurt yourself! Lyle pointed out that this exercise was tapping into my ‘core’…a term related to the muscle groups in your midsection which are focused on creating functional and increased strength in your body. In fact, I am quoting Lyle here, “Muscle has a memory. When you coordinate the movement and allow the movements to happen unconsciously, it allows you to really move to the next level as you actively are able to focus on doing more than just worrying about your balance…you can begin to actively coordinate the activity into a concerted outcome.” Working on my own, it took me several months to gain an inch of muscle growth on my arms. Working with a coach, I gained a second inch in less than one month. Things are really happening at an accelerated pace! And this after no growth for 4 years of going it alone! Building a business is just like standing on two half balance balls. Even when you are not actively thinking about it, your legs are constantly moving. They are working together to gain a great feel for balance so that you can create a more concerted effort at completing the squat. Synergy sets in to allow you to increase weight without a greater experience of feeling out of balance. This is because your muscles have been conditioned to balance you without you actively thinking about not falling over. What you focus on becomes your reality. When I was focusing on not falling over, I was focusing on not being out of control, which hindered my focus on using weight. When I had created a sense of balance, my muscles were able to store this information, allowing me to channel my energy at lifting more weight. If your reality, for example, is trying to figure out why your marketing is not working…that’s your reality. If you feel unstable and out of control, you will be unable to move forward properly. Unless one thing happens. You need a coach to provide a new framework…a new reality…a new paradigm…to allow you to recreate an exercise that will allow you to leverage your mind to move you forward on your problems and truly create the success that you want to achieve. Without a coach, not only would I have been unable to accomplish the exercise, I would never have even thought up the exercise in the first place. I would have missed out on a great leveraging exercise to tap into my core strength to allow me to push myself to new heights. With a coach, you have no idea what is possible for you until you begin to see this new reality. Just be careful if the coach suggests squats while standing on two half balance balls!