How many times a day do you tell yourself you can’t do something?  A couple?  A dozen?  Even better, how many times each day do you have a negative thought?

If you’re like most people your answer is likely “I have no idea”.  The real answer is dozens, scores, or more.

“I can’t finish this”

“I’m tired”

“I’m too [blank] to do that”

“Why did I even try that?”

…and so on.  If you’re like most people, whenever you encounter adversity you have an uncontrolled, negative thought about the situation.  Think back to the last time you were in the middle of a particularly tough waist exercise workout.  How long did it take before thoughts like “Jeez I’m tired” or “There’s no way I can finish this today” started creeping in?

It’s normal, so don’t sweat it.  The problem with negative thoughts is that they are like computer programming:  each is similar to a line of computer code, and the more thoughts you have, the more powerful the program becomes.  After awhile you begin to believe the negative thoughts, bad things happen, and the thoughts turn out to be true, which in turn leads to more negative thinking.

Negative thinking is programming.  The good news, however, is that any kind of thinking is programming.  Positive thinking will also program you, but for success.

Therein lies a killer solution to a nasty problem:  instead of programming with negative thoughts for failure, program with positive thoughts for success.

Step 1:  Tune Into Your Own Thoughts

The first step to solving any problem is becoming attuned to it.  So in order to replace all the dozens to hundreds of negative thoughts you have each day with positive ones you must first become sensitive to when you’re having a negative thought.

Write a note in your calendar for tomorrow or place a sticky note on your mirror or desk:  “What is my first negative thought today?”

Once you catch yourself thinking something negative, write it down and start looking for the next one.  The first day you’ll likely forget soon after catching the first one or two negative thoughts, but don’t give up.  Write yourself the same reminder for the next day and do it all over again, this time trying to become aware of just one or two more negative thoughts than the previous day.

Keep doing this until your inner response to any negative thought is “Aha!  A negative thought!”

Now that you’re catching all these nasty little damage-inducing thoughts, let’s talk about what to do with them.

Step 2: Replace the Negative with the Positive

Since you’re now painfully aware of all of the negative thoughts you’re having it’s time to substitute a positive thought for every one of them.

Think of yourself as an engine:  each time you go to put a quart of crappy, gunky oil in, stop yourself and replace it with high-tech, race-quality motor oil.  If you keep your engine filled with good fluids it will get you where you need to go.  Otherwise you’ll go nowhere.

Each time you have a negative thought, stop whatever it is you’re doing and think of a powerful positive thought to replace it with.

If you’re in the middle of a workout and you catch yourself thinking “There’s no way I’m going to finish this thing”, instead think “I’m going to finish, and finish strong!” over and over again.

For each negative thought, pound a positive thought into your mental machinery several times.  If you catch yourself thinking “I’d love to run a marathon but there’s no way I can find the time to train”, replace that thought with “I’d love to run a marathon, so I’m going to be creative, figure out a way I can train for it, and make myself proud.”

Keep at this until it becomes habit.  Once you’re constantly programming yourself with positive thinking there is literally no limit to what you can do.

We’ve all been there.  The sky seems gray and the things about which you were previously passionate don’t have the same sparkle.  You’re blah.  You’ve got the blues.  You’re not interested in doing anything you have scheduled, let alone working out.

It sucks, I know.  Don’t let it get you down.  We all get that way from time to time, and it’s important to realize that it’s fixable.  The worst thing you can do in such a situation is get down about being down.

Another Name for Blue

The first step to getting past “the blues” is to realize that much of the time the cause is lack of inspiration.  Mornings when it’s difficult to get out of bed are those days when nothing seems to hold any promise, nothing excites you, and it seems there’s nothing to look forward to.  Alternatively, on those days when we can’t wait to jump out of bed it’s often because we’ve been inspired to tackle something: an exercise routine, a task at work, a project around the house, etc.

Start trying to become more aware of when you’re feeling blue or uninspired.  We’re not just talking about general glumness here:  sometimes those things about which you were previously thrilled no longer hold magic for you, even when you know you need to keep doing them.  When most people encounter this obstacle they quit the activity.

Instead of throwing in the towel, acknowledge that you may simply be lacking inspiration and then set about finding some.  Once you’re inspired you’ll feel recharged and ready to take on life – and your exercise program – yet again.

Find Your Rock Music

What inspires you?  The answer is different for everyone, and something you find inspiring one day may not have the same power the next.

When I’m feeling particularly blah about a training session I queue up some blistering rock music and in no time I’m fired up and chafing at the bit to get back to work.

Try watching a TV show with an inspiring, fitness-related theme, like “The Biggest Loser” or reruns of “The Crossfit Games”.   Find exercise clips on YouTube.  Pick up an inspiring exercise-related biography or grab a copy of a fitness magazine (the latter usually contain a good deal of downright crappy information, but if you’re the type to be inspired by pics of perfectly chiseled men and women it’s worth a try.)

If you don’t find something right away, look harder:  art, architecture, music, dance, news articles, photos, talking with friends, reading a blog, etc.  There is so much in this world that can be inspirational.  Find it and use it.

The wall squat is a variation of the squat that will stress your core and challenge your flexibility.  In addition to working your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and core, the wall squat will also put significant stress on your upper back and shoulders, which over time will help give you a deliciously sculpted look.

If you’re finding that squats are getting easy to perform it may be time to add the wall squat to your workouts.  Once you have the movement down, try doing a 5-minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of

• 9 wall squats
• 6 v-ups
• 3 pike pushups

The wall squat is also an excellent warmup for the overhead squat.

The Starting Position

Stand in front of a wall in the squat position with your feet under your shoulders.  Set your toes about 6 inches from the wall, stretch your arms straight over your head and place your palms flat against the wall.

The Movement

As with the standard squat, the first movement you make should be to send your hips backwards as if squatting on a low box.  Keep your chest up and your palms against the wall, and be sure to press your knees outward as you squat, not allowing them to cave inward.

Throughout the movement your weight should be in your heels.  If at any time you are unable to freely wiggle your toes, you have too much weight in the balls of your feet and should shift more weight to your heels.  This reduces strain on your knees.

When the crease of your hips is below your knees you have reached the bottom of the movement.  Your torso should be as upright as possible and your back flat and straight.  Reverse the movement by standing up while keeping your core tight and your chest up.  Once you’ve reached the upright position and both your hips and knees are fully extended, begin the next rep by sending your hips backwards.

Scaling the Wall Squat

This movement is particularly difficult on your core and very challenging if you have flexibility issues.  To make it easier try setting your feet a little farther out from the wall.  As with a standard squat, you may also place ½”-1” plates under your heels if you have difficulty getting to depth while keeping your torso upright.  Just be sure to continue to work on your flexibility so that you can eventually do the movement without the plates.

The movement can be made more difficult by placing the feet closer to the wall.  Fight to keep your torso upright throughout and your core strength and flexibility will grow.

Few waist exercises are more difficult – or more effective – than the v-up.  The movement requires core strength, balance, and concentration.  It’s difficult to learn and execute but well worth the effort because when made a part of a well-though-out waist exercise program it can help shred your midsection.

If you find your butterfly situps are getting a little too easy during your scored workouts (you are doing scored workouts, aren’t you?) try mixing in some v-ups to kick things up a notch.

The Starting Position

Lie flat on your back on the floor with your hands extended straight overhead.  Your legs should be extended straight out as well.  It can be uncomfortable to perform this movement on a hard surface so if necessary lie on a rug or yoga mat.

The Movement

The beginning of the movement is much like the butterfly situp:  keep your arms straight while you raise them off the ground, then follow with your shoulders and upper back in a situp motion.  When your balance allows, lift your legs as well and keep them as straight as possible.  Continue to lift your upper body and legs until you can touch your feet with your hands while only your butt is resting on the ground.

If done correctly your body will form something close to a “V” shape.

Reverse the movement by lowering both your legs and upper body to the ground while moving your arms back up over your head until they come to rest on the floor in their starting position.

It can be difficult to figure out your balance at first, but continue to experiment and don’t give up.  If necessary, bring your arms and shoulders off of the floor quickly to give yourself a little momentum.   Play around with different speeds to see how quickly you need to do the v-up in order to complete it.

Depending on your flexibility you will likely also need to bend your knees a bit in order to touch your toes.

Scaling the V-up

The v-up is a very challenging movement, but don’t worry, there are several different ways to scale it and make it easier.

The first is by using momentum and speed.  The more momentum you use by swinging your legs and arms, the easier the movement will be.  As you become more proficient at the exercise be sure to slow the motion down to make it more difficult.

Next, try shortening the distance you have to reach to touch your toes by putting the soles of your feet together (as in the butterfly situp) in the starting position.  When you raise your legs, keep the soles of your feet together in the butterfly position.  To make the movement easier, bring your heels closer to your butt.  To make it more difficult, move them farther away and straighten your legs more.

If you still have trouble with your balance, revert to the prescribed starting position (legs together, arms straight overhead) and keep your legs together as you lift them and bring your knees to your chest to touch your toes.  This adaptation is much less taxing on your balance.

To make the v-up more difficult, try doing the movement more slowly (unless doing the exercise during a scored workout, which you’re doing regularly, arent’ you?) or try holding progressively heavier weights in your hands.

If you’re doing “cardio” to get in shape – i.e. long, slow aerobic workouts like running, biking, swimming, etc – stop doing it.  It isn’t helping.

You heard me right.  Cardio is not just boring, it’s inefficient.

Running 40 miles a week is not only bad for your body, it’s a horribly inefficient way to burn fat and improve your body’s performance.

Let’s look at a better way…

The Real Deal: Intensity

Training at low intensity for a long period of time causes your body to burn a steady amount of energy during the session.  Burning calories is great and is exactly what we want to do to lose bodyfat.  The problem is that in order to burn large amounts of energy at low intensity it’s necessary to train a lot, which is not only tough on your schedule but on your body as well.  High volume running in particular can cause injury to your knees, ankles, and back.  High volumes of any kind of exercise (e.g. training for hours each week) is a great way to get burned out and miss out on the things you enjoy in life.

The good news is that there’s a solution.  When stressed by high-intensity, short duration training your body consumes calories much faster than it can make them available and replace them, which creates an oxygen and fuel debt.  This debt isn’t magically erased once your training session ends – a growing body of research indicates that your body continues to work on catching up for hours after you stop working out.

If you’ve ever done high-intensity training then you have experienced this first hand.  After stopping you’re still gasping for breath and shaking.  For hours afterwards you can feel the effects of the workout.

This means that not only are you burning calories for the brief period you’re training, but for hours afterwards – while you’re enjoying other activities.

Studies indicate that the number of calories burned by a short high-intensity workout and an hours-long training session are the same.  So the high-intensity workout can give you the same results or better without the wear and tear and in much less time.

Great!  How Do I Get Started?

Here is a simplification of what a high intensity training session looks like:

1)      Warm up for a few minutes

2)      Work like a mad person for 20-60 seconds

3)      Rest

4)      Repeat 2 and 3 until the workout is finished

Simple, yes?  But not easy, because in (2), when we say “like a mad person” we’re talking 80-90% of your maximum intensity.  The effort during these intervals is extreme, thus the term “high intensity”.

There are a few different ways to pattern your intervals.  One popular method is the Tabata protocol, which uses intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest.  The number of intervals used may vary, but eight is a good place to start.  If you’ve done the math, yes, 8 Tabata intervals is really only 4 minutes of work including rest periods.  That doesn’t seem like much until you realize that it’s 4 minutes of extremely intense work.

It’s difficult but effective, very efficient, and strangely satisfying.

You can use many sorts of exercises in an interval workout.  If you have access to a treadmill or rower, try sprinting or rowing for 8 intervals at 80% of your max speed.  If you prefer to build some muscular endurance, do Tabata squats or butterfly situps:  as many as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat for 8 intervals.  You can substitute just about anything:  pullups, pushups, crunches, jumping rope, etc.

Instead of cardio, substitute 8 Tabata intervals 3 times per week, or roughly 12 minutes per week of work.  Train with intensity and you’ll see gains in far less time than you would have with cardio.

It’s time to kick cardio to the curb.