173: Power to Change Friday Book Club: Part 2

So let me take you into my barn, my workout area this morning.

It's 545 and Fridays are deadlift days, right? So I'm standing over a fairly heavy loaded barbell.

I'm working through the Jim Wendler 5-3-1 program.

And the last set is what we call an AMBRAMP, or as many reps as possible.

Based on how I felt that morning, I'm a little tired because I was out late at a lacrosse trial the night before.

I was a little cranky.

I didn't sleep great.

I figured for this final set, I might get seven, maybe eight reps, right? Yeah.

Here's the deal.

I got 14.

I'm like, what? What just happened? 14? Are you kidding me? So here's the question.

Standing over that bar at 545 in the morning, Did I try to get 14? No.

I tried to do the minimum, to be quite honest with you, based on how I was feeling.

And I couldn't have tried my way to 14 reps if my life depended on it.

The number was already in the bank before I even touched the bar.

It was paid months ago.

It was paid through many, many Fridays of showing up when I didn't feel like it and doing the work.

It was paid for on days where nobody was watching, where I was fanatically consistent with getting up, putting on my deadlift shoes, throwing on the belt.

So this morning, I didn't try to get maximum reps.

I really cashed a check that I've been writing for a long, long time.

And that's kind of where part two of the power of change lands.