Pushing to your limits

"Most people stop way before they should," Tony Horton says in one of the P90X videos.  That's a lesson I took to heart from the very day I started P90X, and one of the reasons I believe my transformation was incredible.

We all have those voices in our head that say "this hurts too much," or "I can't keep going," when in fact you can.  They say it's the last 2 reps past where you think you should quit that give all of the results.  I believe that.  Similar to the saying that all of the rewards are 2 steps beyond what you think yout limits are.

When you push hard, right up the the point where your body is ready to give out, you make minute improvements over time, so that your limits expand.  This doesn't mean push to the point where your form gets bad, that can lead to injury.  What it means is push to the point where you are huffing, puffing, and your mind is screaming at you to stop, but your form is still ok.  If your form is still good, you can keep going.  If your form sucks, you have to stop.

Push ups are a great example.  People pick a number and go to it, and quite often underestimate themselves.  When Tony says, "Go until you can't go any more," that's what he means.  You should not be able to push yourself back up to the top of a plank while keeping your back in alignment.  If you can, do more reps.

By doing this, and pushing yourself to that limit, you'll see the numbers you can do go up well beyond what you think is possible.  My first day of P90X I didn't break a total of 100 push ups.  Now if I work at it, I can clear 400 push ups in Chest & Back.  My record is 460.   I never ever would have thought that possible, but I worked harder to get one more here, one more there, and eventually they added up.

This applies to your fitness, your business, your life.  Do all you can, then do some more.  When you've finally hit the limit, really hit your limit, you'll know it.