That’s right you have read correctly, failure is good. I can guarantee you that that will never ring true in any other institution, except when it comes to exercise.

Now for those of you looking for more excuses, don’t misconstrue this to mean failure to exercise. What I am talking about is failure while you’re exercising. Pushing yourself to the point where you can‘t push anymore. Going the extra mile, the extra yard, whatever expression you’ve heard in the past, send your body into complete exhaustion and failure.
If you find yourself in a situation where you do that extra repetition, and you can’t do another, than you have crossed over into the “failure is good” zone. You’ve done a good thing. The best part about it is nowhere else is failure a good term except during exercise.

In some respect you need to fail because you need to know how far you can go, and the next time out you can go a little further. Take advantage of that notion. Tomorrow while you are exercising, fail as frequent and as often as possible. And when that’s all done, then fail again.

When one decides to set out on that road towards fitness, you are first confronted with a fork in the road. Already at this point you are setting yourself up for success or failure, whether it’s a conscious decision or not.

Choose the “Magic Bullet” and you are choosing a path to unfulfilled promises and guarantees. Choose the path to fitness as a lifestyle. It will be a much rockier journey, but ultimately one that will help you reach your goals.

If it’s too good to be true it probably is. More times than not, when you hear about some promise to get your body to look the way you always wanted it to, but with half the amount of work, you are probably going to get half the results. If you are not prepared for hard work and discipline then you are not prepared to make any changes to your body.

The “Magic Bullet” approach is appealing because it offers you an immediate solution with little or no discipline. It requires no responsibility. You simply put yourself into a system, and the system tells you what to do. You don’t need to think, understand, or learn you just need to suffer. They some how seem to promise all of the answers some how you never seem to find them.

There’s a reason why the largest concentration of books at Barnes N’ Noble is in the diet section, they don’t work. Use common sense, look for long term health and fitness goals. Prepare yourself for a lifetime of change.

It is unavoidable, wherever I go when people find out what I do for a living; inevitably the questions come pouring in. They range from the most absurd; If I walk around in heels am I getting a good leg workout? To the more common ones such as, How do I get a flat stomach?

It seems as if a fitness consultant’s opinion is in higher demand these days than any other profession. Well I am going to share with you a secret, the only thing you need to know about exercise and how to make it work for you, one word, SLEEP.

It seems so simple and obvious, yet nobody seems to understand. How can you expect to get a good workout in (let alone your daily functional activities) without a good nights rest.

If you’re thinking you can function on back to back 5 hours a night sleep, you’re probably thinking like somebody who just got back to back 5 hours a night sleep. If you think you can get a quality workout in under those circumstances, you’d be the first.

Essentially all you are doing is cheating yourself. Your body and mind will never reach its full potential, and guess what you’ll never look and feel your best. The harder you try to exercise the deeper the hole you’ll dig.

If you want to regenerate your muscles and mind, sleep the proper amount of time.

Your self image and habits go hand in hand. Change one and you automatically change the other. This is the ideal on which Mind Over Matter was founded. It is as simplistic as it sounds. The way you see yourself is the way you are, and more importantly, the person you will become.

Your habits, whether good or bad, will follow your self-perception. To achieve success when it come to fitness and exercise, step one is to always think positively. Believe in yourself and see yourself as the person you want to become. While this might not guarantee success 100% of the time, I assure you will not get there without thinking it.

Now when you see yourself as the person you want to become, step two would be to take the necessary actions to get there. If you want a newer, leaner, more fit you; you must put the hard work, and energy into becoming that person.

Break free of the old you. The old bad habits that have weighed you down, pun intended. The hardest part is doing it the first time. After that, every time out it gets easier. Surround yourself with the people who are going to help you get there. Surround yourself with positive reinforcement such as your friends, family, co-workers and the most important, a personal trainer.