Why Everyone Needs A Lion In Their Life!
posted on: September 06, 2016. posted in: Fitness, Motivation
"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running."
I remember the first time I read this story.
My instant reaction? Wow. Just WOW.
I'd spent years studying fitness, nutrition, psychology, NLP, coaching, and numerous other fields in my quest to become a better personal trainer. I had immersed myself in books, journals and research papers, looking for the answer to one question...
"How can I get better results for my clients?"
Then when I read that quote. When I visualised that battle between the lion and the gazelle... both of them running for their lives... it all fell into place.
Fitness is about SURVIVAL.
And the only way to survive is ADAPTATION.
By getting fitter, faster, leaner and stronger.
When you see an athlete, a sports person, a fitness model, or anyone else with the kind of physique you dream of achieving, you're looking at ADAPTATION.
You may think you're looking at "sculpted arms" or "toned abs" or "firm glutes" or "lean legs", but what you're really looking at are "chronic adaptations". Adaptations which occur as a result of repeated, chronic stresses placed on the body.
Aka HARD F**KING TRAINING.
And in our quest for a fitter, leaner, stronger body, we try to replicate those chronic stresses through something we commonly call EXERCISE.
We jog. We cycle. We do some pushups. We join that bootcamp or zumba class. All in our quest to stimulate those adaptations that sculpt, shape and transform our bodies
But here's the thing...
Most people don't adapt.
Most people don't see results.
Most people don't transform their bodies.
Millions of people don't look like athletes, yet they spend hours of their lives exercising each week, and if you added all those weeks up, YEARS and YEARS exercising in their lifetime. Never achieving a level of fitness, or a physique that reflects that time invested.
Why?
The answer lies in the story above.
The body only adapts...
The body only gets fitter, stronger and leaner...
When it's got a LION clawing at its ARSE.
When an athlete trains, they train like their life depends on it. They take themselves to a place, a simulated, stressful, fatiguing environment, that convinces the body that survival is hanging int he balance, forcing it to ADAPT.
When the pain comes on and they want to stop. They don't. They keep going. They keep pushing. And they keep reminding themselves why they're doing this...
Their LION.
That fear they're going to be eaten by the competition.
Compare this to the average exerciser, who doesn't have a match, a sporting event, or a stage to stand on in their bikini.
When they exercise they want the experience to be entertaining, not fatiguing. They want to dance... they want to laugh... they want to chat... and ok, they want to sweat to make them feel like they're doing something... but they don't actually want to push their bodies to the point where it's forced to change.
And why not?
Because they don't have a LION.
They're not competing with themselves or anyone else. They're just there to have a good time and tick the "I've done some exercise this week" box. Which is fine. As long as you're not scratching your head after 5 years of fitness classes, wondering why your body still looks the same, if not worse.
But for those who are fed up of putting the hours in and not seeing the results, the solution is simple.
Find. Your. Lion.
Or more accurately...
Find someone or something to drive you, push you and chase you both TO your workouts and THROUGH your workouts, so you reach an intensity that forces the change.
Liam
p.s. You can call me "Liam the Lion" and I will happily bite your arse on Rebel 2.0™ if you need a little push! Just 6 days to launch, find out more here!
