Two Steps Back, Five Steps Forward

Watch the episode here

• It’s the Consistency and the Persistency 
• What happens when hard work pays off
• The benefits of rest days, or rest weeks
• What working out can teach you
• What you realize during rest periods

What shakin’! Hey, today we’re going ALL IN. I’m gonna tell you what happened this morning with me. All right? I was excited, you know, cuz uh, I took a week off of working out. And everyone who follows me knows how important that rhythm is to me. It keeps my mind right, mostly right, because that’s actually a good time of meditating. And I’ve talked about this before in leveraging your time, combining times for things. And that’s one thing that workouts do for me. But in addition to that, you know, it’s like I, I hear from certain people, it’s like, oh my gosh, you eat whatever you want to eat and you, you still stay fit And all this. It’s like, because I put five and six years of work into where I’m at right now from a fitness perspective and the muscle mass. But then it gets frustrating to me because sometimes I have to take time off. 

I have to let my body recover. And the reason this was, is because a couple weeks ago, I actually injured my left shoulder. Nothing bad, nothing bad at all. It was like a, I really don’t know what it is, except I went to the chiropractor a few times and that sort of helped. But where I got into trouble, if you want to call it that, is when I was initially injured, I was like, okay, this thing will heal in a couple days. No problem. So then I kept working out and every single time I would work out after that, you know, for a period of about three weeks, it just kept getting worse and getting worse and getting worse. I’m like, what the heck? But the thing is, with my personality sometimes to my detriment, it’s like, I’m not quitting. I’m gonna push through this thing. 

And then it got to the point to where it was really bad to where I was almost dropping the weights because the, the amount of strength in my left arm because of my left shoulder and this muscle going down into, into my, uh, into my triceps over the back, it was not good. I would lose my strength in this and almost start to drop the weights. So then it gets to the point where I was like, you know what, okay, what I need to do right now, because I, I’ve obviously been through this, anybody who’s ever had any kind of fitness whatsoever, and at least done it for real. Now, I say for real. I mean as in consistently as in, you know, three to four times a week for, uh, many, many months straight, you know, not even a year, but many months straight, you’ve noticed that once you get into this rhythm, right, you start to love it because you know what it does for you when you get into this rhythm. 

And the hardest thing is always beginning that rhythm, you know? And the last time I had to take a break was when I had surgery about a year ago when I had muscle repair in my abs, actually from when I was overweight. But this time I pushed myself and I pushed through this, and then my arm just kept getting worse. So I go to the chiropractor, I’m like, I’m gonna do that. You know, I go a couple times and she’s like, oh yeah, you’re, uh, you know, it’s, it’s like in your delta and it’s actually like your shoulder blade is kind of outta place. You did something there. So a couple of visits and she puts it back into place, place, you know, and it’s like 50% better. It’s 50% better. So still, I did something about it and my shoulder got about halfway better. 

Like, cool, I’m gonna keep pushing through and this thing is just not getting better, you know? And I’m, I’m struggling at this point to actually get through an entire workout when I move my arms, and it’s really upsetting me. So then the reason that it’s really, really upsetting me is because I know, and actually I knew from the very beginning when I injured it, I knew exactly what I should have done. Even when I injured it, I knew what I should have done was give my shoulder rest, give my arm rest. So last week, that’s what I did. I didn’t work out at all. And, and I freaking feel it too, because it’s not even like just your mind, but then your body starts to feel lethargic when you have to do this. And that’s what I hate when you’re in this rhythm for so long, because you almost feel it’s like a reminder of how you felt before you got into these rhythms, these good rhythms for you in the first place. 

And it’s just a kick in the pants because it’s like, Hey, remember when you were not doing jack shit before you got into these rhythms? This is how you felt. And it pisses me off because now it’s like I lost even more time because I had put in all these weeks of trying to push through the pain and get through this thing, and then all of a sudden I’m like, you know what? I’m up against the wall. I’ve been to the chiropractor, I’ve done everything else. I just need to rest. Last week, that’s what I did. So then this morning, right, I’m, I’m starting to work out and I’m like, man, this is great. I have no pain. And the reason I have no pain is because I actually took a step back to give my body the proper rest, timing, give my mind the proper rest time. 

But as I’m starting to push through this today, I’m starting to get sick to my stomach about halfway through my workout. And it’s like another reminder for me, like another punch to my face being like, Hey, remember when you started working out all these years ago? Or whenever you, you stopped for a minute and started back up. It’s like, you know what? Now I’m gonna remind you of how that feels. And the science behind it is easy when it comes to feeling nauseous. If you’ve ever worked out, if you’ve ever done anything, cardio, whatever the lactic acid builds up in your body when you, when you strain your muscles and it’s meant to do this, and then your body flushes it out, right? When you have a lot of lactic acid buildup, you start to feel nauseous. This is why people, I mean, I remember years ago when I was trying to do kickboxing when I was really fat and I would throw up every single time I would do it, but that’s because of the lactic acid buildup. 

So this morning I had this lactic acid build up halfway through I’m like, I am so freaking nauseous trying to push through this thing, and it reminds me again, right? It’s like another, hello, remember this. Remember, this is how you used to feel before you got into these rhythms for so long before you actually treated yourself the right way, before you actually respected yourself, the right way to actually do something good for you, to get you into this place that you wanna be, this state, this perpetual state of consistency and striving towards something, and then maintaining this so that you remain at peak performance, both physically and especially mentally, because of these rhythms that you’ve put into place for yourself. And you, I see the results because I feel freaking amazing when I stay consistent at these things, doing everything that I can every day. 

And then it annoys the crap outta me when I have to take a week off because I did something to myself. Now, it’s not the fact that I injured myself, right? Cuz this stuff happens. This one, I don’t even know what happened. I must have just tweaked it one wrong way or something. I’m sure it’s some way that I lifted something. I’m sure it’s a way, maybe even like I’ve put a weight down before and I twisted the wrong way. I remember that’s where I injured my back a few years ago, because I was just rushing through this, which means it’s another good point, right? Because I was rushing through it and I wasn’t actually doing things the proper way, which means I wasn’t getting all the benefits out of it because I wasn’t doing it the way that my body needs me to do it. 

Because rhythms only matter if you’re gonna do it the fricking right way to begin with, if you’re actually gonna stay consistent and take the time and intention into it so that you have the outcome that you’re going to want. There’s times my mind gets, you know, I, I, I listen to audiobook, but there’s times I used to have my MacBook right there while I was working out. You know, I’d be on my phone looking up some, some stats about my company, some, some measurements, some KPIs, you know, getting set for the day. While I would do that, and I found that I got a much worse workout when my mind was on all of these different things, rather than focus right there when it was on all this other stuff, I would start to rush through my workouts because my intention wasn’t to be right there. My intention was just to get it over with. And my workouts sucked because of it. 

Now, I don’t care what you do, you know, I, you don’t have to lift like me. And by the way, I don’t lift that heavy either. It’s because of the consistency and the persistence over the years, why my muscle mass is the way that it is. And I love telling the story of how I started out when I couldn’t even do 10 pushups because I had just gotten out of a surgery that literally saved my life in 2015 when I started to put it on my muscle mass and get into these rhythms. I’ve never done these rhythms before, prior to 2015. It’s been seven years now, and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. What I look back on is the moments to where I start to have to get back into these rhythms where I do stupid, but it’s the stupidness. Now, when it comes to my own rhythms, it only has to do with my intention actually being present right there to get out of it, what I need to get out of it, doing it the right way, and then also staying consistent with it, meaning not pushing myself even. 

And consistency can even mean rest. I want to get that point across today is that consistency can even mean taking a break to get the best possible results out of whatever it is you’re going after with whatever rhythms. Sometimes that short rest is necessary, because when I push myself too hard, a couple weeks ago, I probably could have done with maybe skipping just one workout, that’s it, and allowed my shoulder to heal. But instead, I kept pushing it and I had to go to the chiropractor three times, in addition to taking an entire week off and missing four sessions. And then today I get back to it and it’s a reminder. It’s like, oh yeah, this is what it feels like now. I feel nauseous halfway through. This is what it felt like when I wasn’t even my, in my rhythms before. I am grateful for the reminders as to why I even started my rhythms in the first place. 

I’m so grateful for that. So I can actually say that I’m grateful that I almost threw up this morning because it reminded me of why I got into these things to begin with. And even more so reminds me of what it looks like when I continuously, consistently and persistently go after these outcomes with intention into each and every single session of these rhythms. It’s necessary to be fully present in each one of these things in order to achieve those outcomes. I’m grateful today that I got these little reminders. And sometimes, you know what? These little reminders suck ass, hardcore donkey ass. I love that phrase, by the way. It’s just funny to me. I think I said donkey toe the other day, but that’s a, it’s a squirrel that I’m chasing Now. Your rhythms in life are important. Your rhythms and work are important. Your rhythms and business are important. Your rhythms and relationships are important, and every time your rhythms with yourself are important. Whatever that looks like. 

And every time you get into a consistent rhythm, and then you’re reminded when you have to take a rest, be grateful for those times. Be grateful for those lows. Be grateful for those times. You almost wanna throw up in whatever situation that is recognizing. It’s like, I gotta put some work in to get back into this, because I probably did something bad prior. I pushed it too much. I didn’t have the intention of being present in what I was doing with my rhythms at the moment. So now I’ve suffered and now I’m being reminded. I’m grateful for these reminders of where I’ve been and where I’ve gotten to, and understanding that I’m never going back to where I’ve been. I can let go of the emotions and I can take away the learnings from those moments. Your rhythms in life are important for you to go ALL IN.