Change your expectation and change your results...
By Andrew Bryant MCSP, Lic.Ac, NLPP, ASM, AIMM
The door of my office at Fitness Force was open and Megan popped her head through very excited, "I managed a pull-up by myself!" she said. After just a few weeks of training she had achieved what she thought was impossible - to lift her own bodyweight up to a bar.
I stopped what I was doing and took Megan back into the gym and assisted her to do four more, to reinforce that she could do it and prove it was not a fluke. Megan was amazed and so I told her about Wanda one of our trainers.
Wanda came to us from America and was studying for a master's degree in human movement. We were short of staff one day and asked Wanda to instruct an exercise class. Wanda did a great job but was embarrassed that she could only do push-ups on her knees whilst many of the female class participants could do full push-ups.
"How many full push-ups can you do?" I asked. "Three" said Wanda. "OK" I said. "You know the theory of muscular development, set yourself a program and start training, you should be able to do forty." "No Way!" said Wanda.
Interestingly although Wanda had all the theory, she had never applied it to herself and her expectation was that she couldn't do it.
It is my management style to coach rather than instruct and so I scheduled some time with Wanda to get her started on a program to increase her upper body strength to do push-ups. We started with some chest press exercises to the point where she couldn't lift the bar any more. This was typically 5 or 6 lifts more than she thought she could do after some encouragement and cajoling. Very quickly Wanda saw results and her expectation changed. Being busy I left Wanda to her own devices and promptly forgot about the lesson. Some three months later Wanda managed her 40 push-ups and has set the goal for 50!
It is possible to explain these results in purely physiological terms, muscles respond to overload by repairing and then getting stronger. However the lesson to learn from Wanda and Megan is to expect results and then put in the training to achieve them.
Andrew Bryant is a Physiotherapist and Professional Speaker. He is also the Director of Fitness Force Australia www.fitness.com.au
Andrew Bryant is a Physiotherapist and LifeCoach, he writes for a number of health publications and is managing director of Fitness Force Australia.
For further information e-mail: andrew@fitness.com.au
The door of my office at Fitness Force was open and Megan popped her head through very excited, "I managed a pull-up by myself!" she said. After just a few weeks of training she had achieved what she thought was impossible - to lift her own bodyweight up to a bar.
I stopped what I was doing and took Megan back into the gym and assisted her to do four more, to reinforce that she could do it and prove it was not a fluke. Megan was amazed and so I told her about Wanda one of our trainers.
Wanda came to us from America and was studying for a master's degree in human movement. We were short of staff one day and asked Wanda to instruct an exercise class. Wanda did a great job but was embarrassed that she could only do push-ups on her knees whilst many of the female class participants could do full push-ups.
"How many full push-ups can you do?" I asked. "Three" said Wanda. "OK" I said. "You know the theory of muscular development, set yourself a program and start training, you should be able to do forty." "No Way!" said Wanda.
Interestingly although Wanda had all the theory, she had never applied it to herself and her expectation was that she couldn't do it.
It is my management style to coach rather than instruct and so I scheduled some time with Wanda to get her started on a program to increase her upper body strength to do push-ups. We started with some chest press exercises to the point where she couldn't lift the bar any more. This was typically 5 or 6 lifts more than she thought she could do after some encouragement and cajoling. Very quickly Wanda saw results and her expectation changed. Being busy I left Wanda to her own devices and promptly forgot about the lesson. Some three months later Wanda managed her 40 push-ups and has set the goal for 50!
It is possible to explain these results in purely physiological terms, muscles respond to overload by repairing and then getting stronger. However the lesson to learn from Wanda and Megan is to expect results and then put in the training to achieve them.
Andrew Bryant is a Physiotherapist and Professional Speaker. He is also the Director of Fitness Force Australia www.fitness.com.au
Andrew Bryant is a Physiotherapist and LifeCoach, he writes for a number of health publications and is managing director of Fitness Force Australia.
For further information e-mail: andrew@fitness.com.au
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