I always hated doing cardio because that burning feeling when you’re sucking wind was even less pleasant than a trip to the HR department.
After the mental flip-flop of the Squat Every Day experiment, my attitude changed. What I discovered about the illusions of our feelings made me look at the suck and suffering in a new way.
Pushing up to or near the anaerobic threshold always sucks, for biological reasons.
The anaerobic threshold is where your body flips from using oxygen and fat for fuel and begins to use stored energy sources that don’t require oxygen.
This happens in any kind of very intense but very brief activity, like lifting or sprinting.
It’s faster and more powerful energy, but you’ve only got so much of it in your battery. Like all things that threaten its precious energy reserves, your body pushes back by making it feel terrible so you’ll stop doing it. That happens long before you tap into the real physical limits.
This is why muscles and lungs burn during lifting and sprinting activities.
Red-lining with high-intensity work that pushes you to the anaerobic threshold always sucks. But once you understand that this is a feeling, and you aren’t actually harming yourself, you can change the experience.
The kicker is that pushing the red-line never stops sucking.
But you can get used to the sucking.
It sucks but you don’t care so much that it sucks.
100% mind-trickery.
Pain, but it doesn’t hurt?
It’s weird but that is exactly how it works out. You train your mind and body to work in the pain and in exchange, it becomes less painful.
You know what I just did by telling this story?
I ran off anyone who has little or no experience exercising.
Sally, who is 49 and wants to fit back in the jeans she wore at 30, is backing slowly out of the room.
Dave, who is 46, stays busy with work and his kids, and likes beers on Sunday, might say “neat” but he’s not inspired to follow my path.
I’m living in a whole different universe as far as they are concerned.
And this is MY FAULT for not making myself clearer as far as what I have to offer them.
This is what I call The Gap.
Let me give you an example.
When I started my doctorate many years ago, I walked into a field I knew very little about. I didn’t know the big names, the big ideas, the major works, the who-is-who and what-is-what, or the lingo around here.
I barely spoke in seminars and Q&A sessions because I felt totally lost around all these people that knew what was going on. (So I believed at the time.)
It took years of reading, writing, thinking, talking, and speaking in front of groups before I even began to feel like I belonged in the room.
And then when I started writing the dissertation, it was like I’d climbed Mt. Everest only to find myself staring at Mt. Olympus on Mars. I had a whole new challenge ahead of me, the biggest yet, and felt totally unprepared.
The big mountain ahead of you always feels impossible when you’re at the base camp craning your head up to the summit.
This is exactly how it is for people with minimal, or no, experience with consistency in their nutrition and exercise, be it lifting or anything else.
This is the stage where most everyone feels the crushing weight of the Can’t Be Done. Their minds fill up with horrors that only exist in their imaginations, but are no less real to them.
No doubt there were plenty of days between 2015 and 2019 where I almost rage-quit out of frustration and self-doubt.
I didn’t quit, and I’m damn grateful that I didn’t, because at each step where things felt the worst was right before the breakthrough happened.
That feeling of not knowing what to do or how you can do it creates anxiety. Anxiety creates pressure, and pressure can blow even the most motivated people right out of the room.
The “motivated” people are the ones I worry most about. Motivation wears off and all that’s left is the boring work of the climb. That’s when the “motivated” are most likely to break and run back to the familiar safety of the couch and potato chips.
In my ideal world, I can take one of these anxious intimidated souls and, through a gradual process of learning and guidance, transform them into one of these unstoppable creatures who laughs at their own pains and fears.
But I can’t lead with that out of the gate. That’s too big a mountain. It’s unbelievable, and most people don’t believe in themselves enough to see it happening.
You want to climb the mountain, you gotta start with baby steps down at the foot-hills.
There’s a reason that I preach small steps, simple behaviors, and above all, getting clear as crystal on what you want for yourself and where you already are.
So many people will not do this.
Even after I explain it until I’m blue in the face I still get people in my inbox asking “if they can get a workout”.
They’ll do anything to get in shape except face the truth about themselves and how to get there.
Even if I make it so easy you cannot fail.
I can make anybody better except for a liar. Folks that don’t want to be helped won’t be helped.
On that note:
If you’re feeling the aches and pains and low-energy effects of being over 40 and you’d like my personal guidance to steer you to the body you want…
…and you’ve got the genuine desire and intention to change, not just “feeling motivated”…
…I’m opening up a handful of coaching slots for the mid-February intake. If you’re interested, you’ll need to be an email subscriber. You can opt in at this link:
Matt Perryman