By Dr. Ben Lerner
In 1986, as a sophomore in college, I began what, at that time, was a dream job: Working in a gym. I was a personal trainer before they even called them "personal trainers." Back then, they just called you "Guy (or girl) who shows you how to workout." In fact, this gym was really more of a "club."
Having always trained as an athlete in environments where everyone was serious about getting bigger, stronger and faster, I was shocked, confused and sometimes amused at people's workout style at the club.
While I was used to people exercising in a way that made them reach their fittest the quickest, most of the people I saw at this new club, and all of the gyms and clubs I've worked in, owned or consulted for since then, exercised in a way that likely didn't make them fit at all.
Most people who worked out at the club fit into one of five categories:
- Talkers: For many in the gym, the only muscle getting a thorough workout is their mandible (jaw). When I was 19 and working in the club, I would consistently chide these people on saying, "Let's move it! Is this a weight room or a tea room, a fitness center or a country club?"
- Cruisers: These are people who can carry on a conversation while simultaneously lifting a weight. They could be telling jokes, discussing work, or looking around the room checking out the ladies (or men) all the while doing their set. They didn't have them back then, but now I see people doing a dumbbell curl with one arm and talking on their cellular phone with the other.
- Attendance only: The great truth of working out is that showing up truly is half the battle. Unfortunately for many, they believe it's the whole battle. Show up, work your mandible, hit a few machines and spend five minutes on the bike, then head for McDonald's. Perfect attendance doesn't equal a perfect body.
- Weekend Warrior: For many people, their gym membership is more of a weekend pass or something they use to work off a hangover.
- The Executive Workout: Steam room, sauna, whirlpool, and way too comfortable walking around naked. You get the picture.
The people in these five categories have one thing in common: None of them have any chance of getting in shape.
It's vitally important to understand the "Laws of Adaptation" that I explain in Body by God and my new book One Minute Wellness. Your body adapts or unadapts to whatever stresses you impose or don't impose.
For example, people who come from desert regions in the Middle East have dark skin to help them absorb the sun while people from Scandinavian countries, where there's little sun year round, tend to be blonde with fair skin.
Similarly, cultures that live in the mountains have bloodstreams that adapt to the altitude and all communities adapt to the local foods, bacteria and weather. God put you here to survive. The body's greatest God-given survival mechanism is the law of adaptation.
Due to the Law of Adaptation, muscles that are continuously under "resistance" become stronger, leaner and better developed. Muscles adapt to whatever force you apply to them, or don't.
If you consistently put a strain on a certain muscle group, it will adapt by getting more physically powerful, more tone, and will change its shape. If you consistently do not put strain on your muscles, they become weaker, flabbier and shapeless.
When you do an exercise until failure, the body will adapt by wanting to survive beyond the point of exhaustion. That's why, when you run as far as you can today, you'll find the next time you can run farther. Muscles and lungs get into shape by adapting to forces that push them to a higher level.
If I do bicep curls with 20 pounds, and stop at 8 all the time because that's when it gets difficult -- even though I can really do 10-12 -- I'll get no results. If I go past 8, until I can't possibly do another repetition, and, in fact, I fail to do the last repetition I try, my muscles are forced to adapt to the strain and get stronger and leaner from virtually every workout I participate in.
Stronger and leaner as a result of imposed strain is a law, the law of adaption. For more information on how you can perform safe, fast, easy to do failure types of exercise, there are pictures and in depth explanations in Body by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living.
Use It or Lose It
Unfortunately, the body is not very forgiving when it comes to the Law of Adaptation to resistance exercise. Within as little as 48 hours after performing resistance exercise, the muscles involved begin to atrophy. When muscles atrophy, that means they get smaller and weaker. In other words, they go away. God has set it up so that it is important you consistently apply some sort of resistance to your muscles.
Remember the law of "use it or lose it." No resistance, no muscles. So, for you talkers, cruisers, attendance only, weekend warriors and executive workout people fail to fail, then plan to fail.
Dr. Ben Lerner, along with Dr. Greg Loman, owns Teach The World About Chiropractic, a Chiropractic training company. They have helped build the largest spinal correction clinics in the history of Chiropractic. Their new book, One Minute Wellness, shows people how to overcome their frustrations with life and health without the use of dangerous medications. It's already a dramatic, runaway bestseller.
