I Stopped Going to Failure and Business Skyrocketed

Feb 6 (edited) • 💬 General

When I first started my HIT business, I had a FOUR exercise routine that put me on the map. Low back, leg press, pulldown, chest press in that order. If I needed a 5th exercise it was Hammer Strength Deadlifts. The low back was a warm up exercise. Nothing fancy. Not too light, not too heavy. Then we took it to the limit… leg press to failure plus forced negatives followed by pulldowns to failure plus forced reps then chest press with whatever they had left. Many passed out after this routine to the point where it was a running joke about stepping over the bodies to start the next session.

My reputation was getting around town and people were looking me up and asking for a workout. “My trainer kills me in 15 minutes once a week and that’s all I have to do to get results” was commonly spoken about.

The problem with this routine was that the workout was accomplished in 15 minutes or less but it would take an average of 30 minutes before the client was able to stand up and leave. Obviously not as time efficient as I would like. One of my clients was a cardiac surgeon. A brilliant lady. She would tell me upfront that I could not make her exhausted and “unsteady” after the workout as she had surgeries scheduled. Point taken. I wouldn’t want to be her next open heart surgery after a workout with me. I shared that I get the best results when I push people to “failure” and beyond while maintaining a high intensity level. She challenged me with, “I don’t have to kill my patient to prove I saved their life. I’m sure you can come up with a solution to measure results without killing your clients.” I took her words seriously and started looking into it. After all, the future of my business relied on finding a solution.

It was then I came across a paragraph in one of Ellington Darden’s books about performing a one rep chin or negative only chin. In either scenario, one full rep with a positive and a negative or negative only the REP was measured in time and exceptional coaching was beneficial to getting a good result. Immediately I started experimenting with my clients. Negative only on all exercises except the low back. That was still my warm up exercise. Within weeks I got great feedback and results followed by an increase in referrals. Since I was measuring all sets with a stopwatch, I renamed the program and protocol to ChronoDynaMetrics which translates to Timed Strength Measurement.

I called it CDM for short.

There are two versions of CDM;

- CDM Measured which measures the set in seconds and

- CDM Limited which works within a specific time frame.

I used 90-Seconds as my CDM Limited time and made a game out of it. I would tell my clients do AS FEW reps as possible in 90-Seconds (not as many). This is like a game where the lowest score wins. I would chart weight and reps and we would discuss goals every set. “You did 6 reps in 90-seconds last time, see if you can get 5 reps or less?” When the clients would reach 3 reps or less with a given weight it was time to increase. It's an intelligent approach that delivers results. If it didn’t, I would not have been offered a book deal and featured in Oprah’s magazine as well as a write up on the front page of The New York Times.

I have a few different versions of CDM to keep it interesting and avoid boredom. The program and protocols are not only very marketable but very desirable and generate a lot of new business. I thank Dr. Kathy and Ellington Darden for challenging me to come up with a solution which took my business to 7 figures per year. Much of this is written in my first book The 90-Second Fitness Solution published by Simon & Schuster.

I encourage all to try it and see if it’s a fit for your business model.

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