It might surprise you, but the price to be great isn't measured in dollar signs. It doesn't make a difference how much money you spend on the biggest and best machines, or how much more expensive your gym membership is. All those dollars spent mean absolutely nothing unless you apply the true currency needed to form an athletic physique. Time and effort are the things you need to achieve your goals. It's a personal issue between you and your reflexion. It isn't any body's fault but your own that you don't achieve the things that you want. The time you put into training and the effort used in each exercise is something only you are responsible for. Personal responsibility is a quality that many lose and is the only thing that keeps them from doing the things that they only dream of.

The more and more that I study and become familiar with biomechanics and sports training, the more and more I become convinced that the only thing separating the average person from star athletes is the quality of personal responsibility. Too often, people find excuses to quit instead of excuses to continue. Why do many of these athletes succeed in sports? It's because they created the time to practice more, to continue through that last rep, to increase the weight on the bar even when they though they couldn't. They gave up sleep and made sacrifices that in all actuality aren't too terrible, just for that extra 30 minutes to perfect their sport.

The body, anatomically speaking, contains the same mechanisms that everyone else's body does. Not counting certain special exceptions, the body contains all the same muscles, organs, limbs, joints, tendons, ligaments, and many other parts. When all of these parts are put into a kinetic chain of movements, the body can do incredible things and the greater adaptations that are created by it's movements, the greater and more incredible feats it can accomplish. Now, most people say that it's all genetics, that it's "God given." But even among elite athletes, the winners are the ones who take not only their bodies through the extra training, they also train a mental toughness that supersedes their bodily strength. Genetics can only take an athlete so far giving them a possible beginning advantage. Perhaps they were born with a greater proportion of fast twitch to slow twitch muscles, but this genetic disposition is eventually trumped by training properly. The great equalizer that gives everyone the possibility to rise above the existing records. The proper training and sufficient time and effort invested in training can adapt the body to go above and beyond it's initial genetic make-up. The suggestion is to train towards a sport or skill that compliments your body. For instance, me... being only 6'0" and 180lbs would be very difficult for me to effect the proper changes to become an elite linebacker in the NFL. Not impossible, but the numbers would be against me. I don't want to say that everyone can become world record breaking sprinters in world cup champions, but I do want to say that a greater, more impressive you is possible to achieve. Someone who is able to become as strong as possible. Limits are only developed by the correlation of time and effort placed into training.

Our responsibility to ourselves is to develop a work ethic that takes us to greater limits.

Every Day... A Little Stronger