Today I wanted to discuss with everyone the concept of working harder than you've ever worked before.  Everything we are doing on the fitness front is a progressive action.  We are aiming to continually improve our body and lose more and more fat and gain more and more muscle.  The only way that will happen is if you always work harder than the last time you worked out.  That means you are always working harder than ever before.

When you enter your gym (or place you workout) always leave your personal issues outside the door.  Don't let anything distract you.  You have a job to do and it involves working harder than ever before.  You can't do that if you are distracted. 

Think about this concept before every single lift.  My personal approach is as follows.  Let's assume that my workout for a Friday involves the following supersets:

Deadlift
Bent over rows

Seated cable rows
DB shoulder press

Lat pull down
Standing Military Press

Hammer curls
Tricep pushdowns

As I approach this exact workout, I would have my workout log in hand. (Note: If you do not log every single workout, start doing it now or you won't really work harder than ever before).  I review my numbers from the previous time I did this workout.  During a workout I always make little notations that tell me if I should increase the weight the next time and what the intensity level was (1-10) of the weight I just lifted.  As I do this workout I would review this information and make adjustments accordingly.  I am going to either add weight or add repetitions, but the next lift I do is going to be bigger than the previous time I did the lift.

Using the above workout as my example, I am aiming for 15 repetitions and 3 sets.  My trusty workout log says that last week I did 225 pounds on the deadlifts, the effort was a 10 and I managed 15 on the first two sets and 14 on the last set.  I will now aim to do 225 for 15 repetitions on all 3 sets.  That's working harder than ever before.  Next, I see that in my log, the last time I did bent over rows I managed 150 pounds for 15 repetitions on all 3 sets and the effort was a 9.  I am going to go up to 155 pounds for today's workout and aim to hit 15 repetitions on all 3 sets.  Again, working harder than ever before.

I had one of those days today where stress levels were high.  I realized that by doing my gym habit, my stress level is under control.  Even with outside influences on the stress situation, I was able to keep things under control today. 

What is the purpose of an imbalance?  In my case, I am trying to teach my body to use fat for energy instead of carbs for energy.  By keeping the carbs low for several days in a row I will accomplish that in short order.  I am finding that it is very easy to maintain this imbalance.  I believe I've finally learned how to just be disciplined whenever I need to be.  Not allowed to have carbs?  That's not a problem!  Increase the calories?  That isn't a problem either.  Whatever I am supposed to do I just buckle down and do it.  This discipline isn't easy, but it is required for me to make progress.  At some point I learned this (I can't currently recall specifically where) and realized that I would need to maintain my discipline or fail.  Since failure is not an option for me, I have to maintain discipline at all times.