Overkill
I’d imagine you’re anxious to dive in and start building superhuman power but before we do I strongly encourage you to hold off for one more moment in order to save yourself from our final trap – Overkill.
A lot of my clients are eager to jump in headfirst and get started on how to increase testosterone. While I admire this enthusiasm if you’re not ready for a certain level of exercise you could injure yourself and just end up back on the sidelines as a prisoner to couch crush.
Question: Have you ever tried something new and had a negative experience?
I can’t tell you how many hundreds of people have complained of fitness programs that made them never want to return. I’m going to list a few examples below; as you read them, notice if any relate to a situation you’ve experienced in the past.
- My first yoga class was brutal because the teacher didn’t know what they were doing and I threw my back out.
- I went to my first HIIT class, which was 60 minutes long and I felt like throwing up.
- I did a routine strength training exercise and was sore for seven days.
Can you find the common thread between these examples? If you guessed overkill, you’re right. But before you dismiss this as unimportant and miss out on some of the greatest treasures of life, make sure you familiarize yourself with the three primary factors that create it.
The 3 Factors of Overkill
1) Lack of Proper Instruction – First, without proper instruction to guide you gradually towards optimal health, you may injure yourself and give up. So I want to take this moment to advise that you take into consideration your current health and fitness level.
If you are new to a particular discipline you’ll need to really listen to instructions and shoot for gradual improvement rather than overnight superhuman strength.
2) The Lesser Ego – Second, regardless of who you learn from, if starting at the bottom isn’t something you’re willing to do because it makes you look bad in front of others, you’re in for a very long and painful road ahead.
As a yoga instructor for over 14 years, I’ve watched countless inexperienced men and women attempt something way out of their ability level and not only make a fool of themselves but injure themselves at the same time. So I encourage you to let go of your smaller ego that needs to be at the top immediately and embrace your greater self by shooting for gradual progression towards superhuman strength.
3) Confusing Fitness with Health – Both modern and ancient societies have glorified both the beauty and power of muscle and endurance since the times of ancient Greece when perfectly chiseled statues graced the city streets of Athens around the year 700 B.C. While these statues were created to commemorate great athletes who accomplished great feats and soldiers who gave their lives in the service of others, ultimately this laid the foundation for the ideal body regardless of whether or not it created optimal health.
Fast forward roughly 2,500 years into the 18th Century and we find weightlifting as an official competition and entertainment spectacle where strongmen who would risk their lives by picking up cars or dragging a train to please a crowd.
Naturally, weightlifting continued to progress and through much evolution became an official event in the Olympics where an athlete’s sole goal is to lift as much weight as possible one time. Unfortunately, this goal has little to do with creating optimal health.
And while weightlifting for sport may have had a measurable winner – he who lifts the most wins – with the advent of bodybuilding came an entire sport, which used neither strength, endurance, or health as any of its primary objectives. Instead, it’s primary goal lies in the quest for perfect symmetry and muscular monstrosity most famously demonstrated by one of its greatest statues – Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Perhaps even more vexing is the endurance world. If we simply retrace the origins of the long distance race called “Marathon” we find the story of a Greek messenger named Pheidippides who ran from a city called Marathon to Athens (26.2 miles) to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Now can you guess what happened to him after he delivered his message?
He died on the spot. It should be noted, however, that Pheidippides did run an addition 150 miles (estimated) over two days prior to his run to Marathon.
Despite this account and dozens of studies, which prove running for long distances to be harmful to your long-term health, millions of people make running a Marathon as one of their primary goals in life.
Even worse, ultra marathon runners, who complete similar feats as Pheidippides did, are seen as godlike. That is of course until they get ill or die from over exhaustion.
When we look at the most notable people in the fitness world like world class athletes and bodybuilders, we are conditioned by society to believe that being fit somehow equates to being healthy and the more fit you are the more healthy you will become. Unfortunately, being more fit only helps you become more healthy to a certain degree.
If you struggle with this concept at all think about it this way. Your heart only has so many beats per life. Nobody knows exactly how many you have and we are all unique, but no one can dispute this fact. This doesn’t just apply to your heartbeats but your muscles, bones, brain cells, cartilage and everything else that holds you together. If you use all your available resources over a short period of time (overkill), sorry but you just aren’t going to live that long, nor will you have optimal health.
Solution To Overkill
The solution to overkill is again to follow the training manual and honor yourself whatever level you’re at. Fortunately, the Fired Up manual and video program will guide you step-by-step in choosing the best program for your current ability level and get you to the “where you want to go” part of that road map.
If you want more information on how to get fired up, check out the video course here: https://chadscottcoaching.com/fired-up
