by Mike Haydon on April 28, 2009
There are many reasons you might want to build muscle. No reason is wrong; every reason is valid. One of the keys to your success is finding your Why. Try this exercise:
Choose a time and place you can be alone and uninterrupted for 15 minutes. Find a picture of a guy or girl that looks the way you want to look. Make sure it really is how you want to look – it’s worth taking the time to find. Get a piece of paper and a pen (you can use your computer, but somehow it becomes more real when you write it down) and set a 15 minute timer (don’t rely on checking a clock, set a timer. If you need a free one, use this one). Turn your phone off, close down your email, facebook, twitter and anything else that could distract you. Close your eyes and just be still for a few moments, breathing deeply.
My Visualization Image
Get out the picture you found. Imagine yourself looking like that. Imagine that’s the body that stares back at you when you look in the mirror.
Still imagining you see that body in the mirror, write down your answers to the questions below. They are not in any particular order. Just write as many answers to as many of the questions as you can in the 15 minutes. It is a brain storming session, so don’t think whether an answer is “good” or not, just write.
- What do you think when you see your body looking that good?
- How do you feel when you look like that?
- What thoughts go through your mind when you picture yourself walking around like that? To the shops… to the beach… to a party… ?
- What do your friends think when you look that good?
- If you have a significant other, what do they think of your new look?
- How do you feel when you catch a cute girl/guy checking you out?
- How does the extra energy you have improve your life?
- How does the extra strength and confidence improve your life?
- Why do you want to look like that?
- How badly do you want to look like that?
- What are you prepared to give up to look like that?
Take the full 15 minutes, even if you think you haven’t got any more answers. Don’t look back over your answers yet, except to inspire more answers…
Once the time is up, look over your answers. You can use these as motivation to get the body of your dreams. Take the picture you got earlier. If it has the person’s head, crop it because we are programmed to look at a person’s face and you only want to focus on the body. For a free photo editing program, I have used and recommend Photo Filtre.
Take the photo and stick it up wherever you will see it regularly – on the fridge, above your desk, on your set of drawers, your computer wallpaper – using the most powerful answers to the above questions as the caption for the photo. Try to use a different answer for each place you put the picture.
Try to do this exercise every few weeks. You’ll soon notice a whole new energy flows through your workouts, you’ll be eating better and you’ll see great results much quicker than otherwise.
by Mike Haydon on April 11, 2009
So my week long 300 Challenge has come to an end. The challenge was to do the 300 workout every day for one week. Here are the day’s results:
Looking back on the week that was, this is what I learned, in no particular order:
- Going hard every day causes you to adapt quicker that I thought possible;
- By working out regularly, you can overcome DOMS;
- Being sore shouldn’t be a reason not to train or to train light;
- A training schedule that seems impossible can become possible just by going hard at it and sticking to it;
- An alternative to the 30, 60 or 90 day plans is the 7 day plan, just to get you moving;
- If you are struggling to make gains, take one week to do something you think you can’t and just go for it. You might surprise yourself;
- You can increase strength significantly in only one week;
- The 300 challenge is great for boosting your metabolism;
- Doing a workout outside is a great way to add some variety to your training schedule;
- As a whole body workout, the 300 challenge is a fantastic way to figure out which body parts are lagging and need to be focused on;
- No matter how hard you think you are training, you always have that little extra to give; and
- Before training, setting your mind to really push yourself on your most difficult exercise is a great way to perform well at that exercise without compromising your performance on the others.
I highly recommend you take on the 300 challenge for yourself. I was fitter and stronger after completing it. Maybe you could be too. Don’t let the intensity scare you off. Just do it 
by Mike Haydon on April 9, 2009
So the challenge is finally finished. I pushed hard all the way and romped home in a time of 18 minutes 25 seconds, more than half my original time just one week ago.
I knew that to beat yesterday’s time, I had to improve my floor wipers. For some reason, they were not too difficult today. I guess because my abs aren’t nearly as sore as they have been. I also made it through the box jumps without a rest, which all adds up.
Surely I'm not the only one who wants to look like this?
I think I figured out why my elbows were so sore: towards the end of the last set of pullups, I’ve been hyper-extending my elbows at the bottom of the lift, then trying to throw myself back up (no feet on the floor, but kicking my legs for momentum). Is this cheating? I think as long as your feet don’t touch the floor, it’s not cheating. I know that I could have rested for ages and still not been able to pull myself up right even for one at the end. The first set of pullups was fine every day – no problems getting through them with strict form. It was only the last set, after I was exhausted.
It’s good to have completed the challenge and I may do it again some time, but for now, I just need to rest I feel like you do when you’ve just played a really hard soccer game in the heat and even though you won, you just don’t care – your body just wants to go slow for a change. I’ll do a proper post on what I learned from doing this challenge, but with all the Easter services starting in a few hours, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it. Hopefully Saturday.
