The other day one of our members asked about Momentum. He said I hear you talk about momentum a lot Wade but what exactly do you mean?

This really got me thinking...

Momentum is summation of forces that are actively propelling you towards you goals or against your goals in the case of negative momentum. Successful people build up a series of positive mental habits, that lead to postive action behaviors which eventually lead to success. The energy of these forces over time is called momentum. Momentum can be postive or negative depending on what the desired result is which is determined by the individual's goals.

Momentum classically defined actually refers to Newtons first Law of a body in Motion tends to stay in Motion. In other words every force (action) placed on an object will propel an object until the summation of opposing forces stops the objects trajectory or path. Although Newton was referring to the motion of planetary bodies, decoding the pull of gravity and discovering the foundation of Newtonian Physics, the application of this law is relevant to the everyday trainee as well as the seasoned lifter.

So how does Momentum affect your results in the gym and outside of the gym?

Of course modern science has moved beyond the Newtonian physical laws and into Quantum Physics which governs even thoughts as they too are forces not considered by Newton. Your thoughts create unseen but very real forces that shape every aspect of your life and your body. These positive or negative thoughts lead to behaviours and beliefs which in turn lead to actions and behaviours that shape the course of events in your life.

Okay, you migh be wondering what does physics have to do with me making gains in the gym?

Too answer that question we must first determine where your are right now in referance to achieving your goals. Too do so you will need to closely and objectively look at your life right now. If we examine your day to day routine we would see that you perform a series of actions from the second you wake up until you go to bed again. Many of these habits are so ingrained they have become unconcious programs running in your brain that you are not even aware of.

Things like breathing, your heart pumping blood, blinking, and so on... Although some Eastern meditation masters can control automomic body functions we are not going to deal with them in the context of this article. Other activities that you perform might be eating, driving to work, talking with friends, watching TV, the list goes on an on. These activities can be easily affected by breaking old patterns and replacing them with new patterns of action.

How do you replace old negative habits with new ones to produce the results you desire?

If you want to find out your thought/action patterns write down everything you do for a whole day and see your daily activity list. Review the list at the end of the day to determine where you spent your time. This basic exercise in self examination will quickly reveal the content of your thought and behaviours as well as there connection to the success or lack of it you are currently experiencing.

Basically the summation of your daily activities has gotten you where you are today. Some of these activities you have been performing for a long time and some for a short time. The longer you have been performing a habit the more energy it has or the deeper that pattern is ingrained into your consciousness. These actions have a momentum of their own which goes back to Newtons first law of force in a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Activities that you perform routinely are called habits. The fact of the matter is almost all of your activity is based on habits, so the question arises; are your habits result producing in relation to your goals, or they opposing forces that are slowing your "body" down?

Here is a simple formula that illustrates the positve result producing habits subtracting negative result producing habits the summation of these two forces results in the momemtum you experience in obtaining the desired goal.

Momentum = (postive result producing actions - negative result producing actions) X time

(Of course time is a key factor here meaning the longer you have performed and action, as well as the freqency and the intensity of each action determines the total force that action has either postive or negative)

Although in relative terms it is impossible to examine the exact effect of each force on you goals you can get a rough idea of the forces that are contributing to your success and the forces that are slowing you down. It's really easy to determine whether you are on track for your goals are not by examining your progress in the last three months. Did you improve? Stay the same? Or did you go backwards?

This simple exercise will tell you the nature of the summation of forces in your life creating positve or negative momentum. Now if we look back to our examining of our daily activities we can quickly see which ones are producing negative or positive forces. So once the review is complete you simply replace result killing forces like skipping workouts with postive result producing forces such as performing every workout. You can apply this to every activity such as eating, sleeping or watching tv etc. again the list is endless.

Since all habits first start in your mind you need to examine all the thoughts that are running through your brain and become aware of the ones that are negative and quickly replace them with positive thoughts and beliefs. This is a challenging process and overcoming negative behaviour patterns created from negative mental patterns is ongoing process for everyone, however even a little headway can produce dramatic changes that eventually lead to unstoppable positive momentum.

Remember, you is where you is... but where you are going is up to you.

No matter where you are now you can start producing postive moemtum today with the following action plan. By sticking with this you will eventually build unstoppable momentum and quickly and easily achieve whatever you desire.

First analyse your actions and thoughts for a whole week, don't edit them just write them down.

Ask yourself why am I doing what I am doing to look at the thoughts behind the actions.

Now at the end of the week pick out all the negative habits and write them on one side of the page and take all the postive habits and write them on the other page.

Pick out one negative habit and replace that behaviour with a positive habit. Build a strong reason why you are doing this and commit to eliminating the negative habit by postive habit replacement. An example of this instead of eating desert after supper resolve to go for a 10 minute walk instead. Everytime you feel the habit of eating desert immediately get up and go for a 10 minute walk, don't think about just do it.

At the end of the week examine how successful you were, pick new habits to work on or work on the same one if you did not quite reach your objective of eliminating the negative result producing habit. It's best too first pick little negative habits and work up to the biggest ones. Every time you replace a negative habit with a positve habit you are setting in motion postive forces in your life that will help you reach you goals no matter what they may be.

Although this approach seems simplistic is extremely powerful to overcome negative belief/action/habit patterns with positive belief/action/habit patterns. By faithfully analysing your training and recording your biofeedback and diet each day you will be able to quickly identify and eliminate all of your negative belief and actions. The gradual change of these net forces starts propelling you on towards your goals.

Like a freight train you keep picking up speed and momentum and after a while you have so many positive beliefs and action habits that you seem to achieve almost impossible accomplishments with little effort. Champion athletes followed this exact process in order to build themselves to world class athletes capable of remarkable achievements.

You have this same power and can exercise it right now. Take action today, discover your inner power and build unstoppable freight train momentum to achieve your goals. Commit to this routine for 120 days and check your results. I guarantee that you will not just understand intellectually what momentum is but you will have experienced it for yourself.