An Unfair Advantage

We just received this email question from a SGPT athlete.

“Hey Coach Brad,

Do you have those days where the day before and the day before that you were working your ass off, where you were grinding away, getting tons of exercise in but then, a couple days later all that motivation is lost and your sore and tired and you just get in a funk.

What do you do in those situations?” David W.

That is a really good question, David.

I go back to my daily practice. Here are my notes below.

#1 DEEP BREATHING

I go and do yoga and work on deep breathing.

Or I sit and stretch and perform box breathing to calm my mind. When I workout I pay attention to my breath and inhale deep through my nose and deep into the belly on the exhale. I think of my breathing as a way to clean out my whole entire body. I think that there is gunk and cobwebs in my mind and that deep breathing is like a vacuum that will clean it all out.

Check out the SGPT Audio “Adapt, Improvise, Overcome” Here:

#2 VISUALIZATION

Think of your goal that you are wanting to complete.

See yourself going through the paces with grace and finishing the race.

Feel the sun on your face and the cool breeze on your back. Smile as you rejoice and let the moment sink in as your celebrate calmly. The more you see yourself completing your goal, the easier it is to take the next step and get closer to it.

#3 AFFIRMATIONS

Say in your mind a positive affirmation to calm and reinforce your mind.

A good one for me is “All good”. I will say this over and over when a workout gets tough. Or when I want to stay calm I say “Thank you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, I love you. When you say something positive it is impossible for your mind to think negative thoughts.

#4 MOVEMENT

Put one foot in front of the other towards your goal.

You can think about your goal and deep breath to stay calm and energize your mind. But in the end you have to take that first step perform an action. Any action will do as that is better than staying put where you are at and just thinking. You must move in order to progress towards your goals.

#5 CLEAN FUEL

If you don’t put clean fuel into your body, you are like an expensive sports car that is running on bad gas.

You will sputter and run erratic and the engine may seize up. Take the time to eat vegetables and lean meats in your diet.

I use a green supplement every day as sometimes it is hard to get all of my vegetables in daily. Drink water and hydrate my body with electrolytes to prepare for a hard workout.

#6 SOLITUDE

Find a way to get away from the ringing of cell phones and drone of busy traffic.

It may be yoga in your back bedroom with the lights turned low and ocean sounds playing on your speakers.

It may be hiking in the forest or walking in a local park. Maybe you sit on the beach and reflect on your day. The point is to get away from the stress of day to day life and spend some time working on your mind.

The UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

It is an almost unfair advantage to be able to know this stuff as this is how we demolish obstacles and meet our goals time after time.

You become unstoppable when you do this on a daily basis. You are now truly limitless. You suddenly realize that you can do anything in life that you set your mind to. You just have to use those basic principles that we outline.

It is crazy cool when you actually do it and you see the results as your life completely changes for the better.

Many people will read what is written above and think, “OK, whatever” and maybe try one of the steps.

But when you put all of the six steps together it will open your eyes to a new world of possibility.

Don’t do three steps or four or five. Do all six steps in a day.

Take the time and complete all of the steps above and you will see find an inner motivation that you never knew you had.

If you would like to learn more check out SEALgrinderPT audios.

Question: Hey Coach Brad, I just read your advice about putting clean fuel into the body in order to run on all cylinders throughout hard workouts.

Do you have any other advice when it comes to getting as good as possible day-to-day recovery through hard workouts?

I’m only getting about 5-6 hours of sleep per night because of work and my morning/evening workouts and am just curious about how I can make sure I am recovering as efficiently as possible in order to continue getting good results. Thanks so much for the help, Ted.

Answer: Ted; check out these tips on recovery and sleep here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brad McLeod is married with two kids and an all around average family guy.

He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida and despite training all the wrong ways – made it to Navy SEAL training in Coronado, California.

He flunked out of Navy SEAL BUD/S training after making it over half way through (6 months of grueling training). After a year in the Fleet Navy on the USS Cleveland (LPD-7) he came back to graduate BUDS and serve on SEAL Team Four.

His story is simple–Don’t Ever Quit on your Dream! Put one foot in front of the other and fall forward.

Proceeds from this website go to help raise funds for the Navy SEAL Foundation.
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