Recently, my son, who is a personal trainer at a well known gym, switched my workout for me. Instead of having a set rep and set workout, he put me on the same workout but suggested I go hard until failure. Basically to do 3 sets of my normal workout and do as many reps as I can.
I’ve noticed a huge difference. Not only strength that is returning to my body, but also the growth of my muscle size. The growth is when it hurts, when you think you can’t do anymore at all but still dig in and go as hard as you can until you can’t do anymore. This got me thinking about everything else in my life
Allah says:
لَهُۥ مُعَقِّبَٰتٌ مِّنۢ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِۦ يَحْفَظُونَهُۥ مِنْ أَمْرِ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ وَإِذَآ أَرَادَ ٱللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوٓءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُۥ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن دُونِهِۦ مِن وَالٍ
There are guardians over everyone, both before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah’s command.18 Verily Allah does not change a people’s condition unless they change their inner selves. And when Allah decides to make a people suffer punishment, no one can avert it. Nor can any be of help to such a people against Allah.
I started to think about the strength and growth in my physical workouts and applied it to everything in the four quadrants. Physical, spiritual, intellectual, and financial. To grow in any of these quadrants, I must go hard until failure or so that I can’t go any harder.
If we do the same mediocre things daily, we will get mediocre results. But the man that is interested in more, whether it’s physical, spiritual, intellectual, and financial growth, lives in that painful zone where the weak stop and the strong keep going at all costs.
As the ayat says above, “Allah doesn’t change the condition of a people until they FIRST change themselves”.
