What is the real reason you train?
98% of those who train will fit in one of the “big three” reasons for fitness:
- Lose weight (Biggest Loser)
- Gain muscle (Arnold!!)
- Look good naked (Six pack anyone?)
All admirable reasons and I respect anyone who is fully dedicated to any type of training. But there is another type of traininga training that few people pursue:
- Training to be harder to kill.
And I am not talking about CrossFit! I do CrossFit, but CrossFit is just a method to obtain a goal whether it is to lose weight, gain muscle, look good naked or to…become harder to kill. Many members of the military, particularly special operations, physically train to become harder to kill…And they are. I currently know guys who have been shot multiple times…and they can show me up in the gym any day.
So how does one train to be harder to kill?
Wait, first..
…let me start by telling you how I almost got shot
Despite my military service, my “almost-got-shot” story has absolutely nothing to do with the military.
Years ago many of my friends and I were meeting up in a local neighborhood to go out for the night. There were three of us outside, waiting for the others, when we heard yelling. We looked down the street and saw a man verbally ripping into his wife. One second later, we saw a man violently push his wife to the ground…
Being the three Type-A (and Texan) men that we are, we immediately started yelling at the guy and running towards him. Much to our surprise, when we were within about 100 ft. of the man, he pulled out a pistol from his jacket and pointed it at us.
Holy crap!
We all froze dead in our tracks.
We were at the corner of the street at this point and had the option to keep running towards him or to run down the adjacent street. In the interest of self preservation, we all we chose option two. But the man decided to chase us…and we saw him coming.
There isn’t much else like running for you life. And until you actually believe you are running for your life…it’s hard to explain, but I’ll try.
- You get tired, but you don’t stop.
- Your lungs and muscles burn, but you barley feel it.
BUT…your body is only capable of what it is capable of. Meaning you can’t depend on that adrenaline “super-human strength”.
Luckily my friends and I were all well-conditioned track athletes. The 40-something-year-old man with a pistol didn’t make it to the street we were on before we had jumped over multiple fences and sprinted a good distance.
What if I was 30 lbs heavier? What if I was incapable of pulling my bodyweight over a fence? What if I was slow? What if…?
Did my fitness make me harder to kill?
“Harder to Kill”
Definition: Having the mental toughness and physical edge to be ready to perform at your maximum potential at anytime.
How to train to become harder to kill
1.) Lose the crutches gear; be ready for anything
Does this describe you, or someone you know?
Alright let’s workout, but first I need…
- Straps
- Special shoes
- Gloves
- Chalk
- Knee brace
- Belt
- Headband
- Fanny pack…?
All those items are great, well not the fanny pack, but everything else serves its purpose. It is important to train with the tools you need, but when those tools become a necessity, they could become a crutch.
I once worked out with a guy who wouldn’t deadlift with me because he didn’t have his straps…
Maybe its my extremist view of fitness but if a heavy object falls on someone you know or love you won’t have time, or a way, for those straps to work.
Task:
- Ween yourself off the crutches.
Starting today, try to use less and less equipment. You don’t have to completely stop, but make sure none of your equipment is a 100% necessity or crutch.
Example: Using a weightlifting belt is fine, but not all the time. Try to only bring the belt out at 80%+ efforts, or not at all.
2.) Pretend your life depends on it
Have you ever done a workout and pretended your life depended on it? Give it a try! Focus on your workout and make yourself believe that your life depends on it, or better yet, someone else’s life depends on it.
Task:
- Try a “life-depends-on-it” workout
Workout, “Cindy”, as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
- 5 Pull-ups
- 10 Push-ups
- 15 Squats
Like your LIFE depends on it intensity!!
Also, any open water swim workout works great for this, because your life kind of actually depends on it. Don’t do open water swims if you are not a swimmer!
3.) Go there
We talk about mental toughness ALL the time at End of Three Fitness, and for good reason.
Get to know yourself. Find out who you are. We both know there is, you, and then there is the fatigued “you”. The guy or gal who wants to stop.
I find this version of myself frequently and I hate him…But the more I meet him, the longer it takes for him to speak up.
Task:
- Plain and simple – Go there!
You know where I’m talking about.
Now go become harder to kill!!
-Jerred
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PS
Don’t want to leave you hanging on my story…The cops were called and the man was arrested. We were all safe and his wife went to go stay with family.