How Do You Trust the Process?

Categories: Blog Jan 14, 2018

Recently, a reader named Martin wrote and asked, “...Because right now I am not confident enough to let go of traditional strength training. I want to progress and I don’t REALLY trust a play-like approach of crawling, carrying and playing with weights… Could you share some of your resistance training insights in another blog?”

So, I thought I would give this a shot...this is for you Martin...

First of all, I would just like to say that there is nothing wrong with traditional strength training, especially if you enjoy it. Having said that, I do believe there is more than one way to peel an orange - once you become curious.

The truth is, I kind of stumbled into my play-like, child-like, approach to training.  Once I realized what I had in my hands with Original Strength, I became curious and open to possibilities beyond my current experience and knowledge.

If you don’t know my story, pressing reset was a Divine answer to a prayer. I had become frustrated from my injuries (nothing major, they were just from overuse and being over-stupid). I had begun down a frustrating spiral of chasing pain in my body. So I prayed God would show me how to train to become bulletproof. Within weeks, I was rolling and crawling all over the place, a little bit here, a little bit there, and soon I started crawling for time.

One day, on accident, I discovered I could do a one arm and one leg pushup, or a “naked warrior” pushup. That was something that was like the great white whale; It was a myth as far as my ability to perform it was concerned. I just could not do it no matter how much effort or tension I tried to apply to it. I knew I was feeling good and moving better, but I had no idea I was getting so strong.

That was an “oh, wait a second” moment.

I realized right then that crawling had done something traditional weight training and strength training methods had not - it made me very strong. This moment, and others like this, combined with my AWARENESS that my prayer had indeed been answered, made me very open to exploring strength from other possibilities.

I became curious. I began crawling while dragging things and crawling for long durations of time. It was horribly difficult, but yet I loved it. It challenged me in a way strength training never did; it built my mind and my body. I soon learned, from the guidance of John Brookfield, that if my mind could endure such challenges, my body would follow it.

Eventually mentally and physically brutal tasks became easy because I had engaged in them so often. Then I began to believe I could do most anything I wanted to do, like crawl a mile without stopping. I would never suggest anyone do that, by the way. That’s just nuts...

Anyway, I sort of just let go of what I had done and known for over 20 years through curiosity. A curiosity that kind of pulled me along once I realized what I had been given.

You see - and this is the weird part, but this IS my story - I asked to become bulletproof....I asked to become strong.

Crawling was part of the answer. Part of the answer was also found in letting go to what I knew and becoming open to the possibility of something different, something more. I grew to believe we were made to be strong, we are supposed to be strong. And I think that is my secret to the strength I have enjoyed: I believe. At first I believed that crawling would make me strong, so I crawled more. Then I grew to believe that the Response to my ask made me strong, so I trusted more and I played more.

I know that probably seems very strange.

So I’ll leave you with this: In the grand scheme of time and the short span of life here on earth, if you have:

• spent years following a traditional strength training model

• spent years injuring yourself or training with and through pain

• spent years of doing the ordinary and coloring inside the line

......why not try something different, if only for a little while? Why not dance with something else to see what you can learn?

You can always go back to what you’ve always done before. But you can never know what you’ve never experienced.

What if the one thing you were looking for was simply waiting for you to show up?

Martin, I hope this helps a little.

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