Insanity - the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Everything is done with a result in mind. We live in a world that is "results-oriented". For example, when I was in corporate America, part of my review every year was dedicated to how "results-oriented" I was. When you open the sports page you probably go to see what the results of last night's games were before anything else. When you start a fitness program you have a result in mind that will typically involve a new body and state of mind. Everything is done for a purpose and that purpose is always to achieve some kind of specific result.
But before any kind of meaningful result can be achieved, a goal has to be set, and a plan put in place to achieve that goal. When it comes to a person's health and wellness, many people set a goal, put the wrong plan in place to achieve that goal, don't achieve the result that they wanted, and in the end give up. A couple years later, that same person sets the same goal, puts the same plan in place hoping to achieve their goal this time around, inevitably fails, and gives up again. This cycle goes on and on. This, by definition, is insanity. The act of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Everybody has done this. You wake up one day and say "Holy crap, how'd I get so out of shape?" and you decide that it's time to turn things around. You dig out the gym bag you haven't used in over a decade with your Chuck's, the short gym shorts like you wore in gym class, the "Disco Sucks" t-shirt, and an old pair of tube socks (dude, you are so 1978) and you head down to the local chrome and fern palace where you meet the high pressure sales rep with the shiny smile, slicked hair, pressed khakis, polo shirt and a clipboard. They guarantee you that you've come to the right place and that if you sign up today you're going to get an amazing deal, but it's only today. What a stroke of luck that every time you walk in one of these places you happen to catch them on the only day of their amazing deal... You can't sign the contract fast enough. And then you start to put your plan in place.....
Warmup on the treadmill.. Monday is back and shoulder day, Tuesday: biceps, triceps, chest, Wed: leg day, Thu: cardio and abs, Fri: Uhh, maybe i'll just go in and do some more benchin' and preacher curls. Everything is done in 3 sets of 10 with long breaks by the water cooler asking others "whatcha benchin?" or talking about the 75 yd punt return for a touchdown you had when you were 12 years old playing Pop Warner football. And I know there's those of you out there shaking your head right now saying what an ass I am because "everybody knows you should do back and chest on the same day", but if that's your best argument then you're completely missing the point. The point is that after two or 3 months of this (or something similar to it that you may have gleaned from the pages of "Muscle and Fatness Magazine") you're painfully bored, you're not making gains anymore, you're starting to get injured because of the stupid machines you've been strapping yourself into, and nobody wants to hear the story about your touchdown anymore. So you stop going. But because of the contract you signed, you still pay a monthly fee to some faceless corporation who is thankful that they can still take your money and not have to worry about cleaning up after you anymore. Two or three years later you find yourself in the same predicament and you go through the same routine and think that this is the time that you're going to get a different result. But you don't get a different result, do you?
I used to lift weights at the chrome and fern palaces. I used to strap myself into stupid "one size fits all" machines and do leg extensions and hamstring curls and flys and lat pulldowns, blah, blah, blah... I used to hit the same training plateaus, get the same injuries, fail to get the results I wanted, and suffer from the same boredom as all of you. This is why I started Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. Because I believe in getting results and I believe everybody has it in them to get the same results that I've been able to get since I stopped going to places like Planet Fatness about 6 years ago. Functional strength and conditioning training works your entire body in a way that nothing else does. It translates to real world results and performance gains. It leads to huge increases in energy and self-esteem. It burns fat off your body. Actually I think the more appropriate way to describe it is that it scares fat off your body. It's never boring because every day you show up I will have a different, challenging workout for you that will be physically demanding and mentally stimulating.
There are a bunch of people coming to Dynamic that still go to those other "gyms". When I ask them why, I get three different answers..
1. I don't know
2. Because I'm under contract and I have to pay for it anyways.
3. Because I don't want to lose my muscle tone.... (no, i'm not kidding, people have said this to me)
Uh, yeah that makes sense, anybody coming to Dynamic will be the first to tell you how lacking in muscle tone both Michele and I have become since we don't do bench presses or preacher curls. This shows you just how deep the brainwashing of the bodybuilding industry has been ingrained into society. I think the re-education of everybody is happening slowly and people are starting to come around to the fact that if you want to really get in shape then you need to get active and get your whole body moving. Bench press makes you better at the bench press. Biceps curls make you better at the biceps curl. The Pec Deck makes you better at crashing cymbals together like those little wind-up monkeys. What we do at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning makes you better at living and enjoying the real world. We get real world results and we have a lot of fun doing it. Stop the insanity and join us!
Tomorrow there's a group of about 20 of us meeting on Nashua South High School football field at 10:00am. We have a lot of people trying to crawl 100 yards with a power wheel strapped to their feet. These are the same people who were lucky to get 10 feet the first time they tried it. We're going to have slosh pipe obstacle courses, tire dragging, some other running and jumping type exercises, and in general we're just going to be having a really good time working up a really good sweat. If that sounds better than standing around the water cooler during your breaks in between 3 sets of 10 listening to some meathead talk about his glory days as a teenage Pop Warner football player then you should come and see what we're all about...
All the best,
kevin
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