100 Percent

These short excerpts are taken from the Sylvester Stallone website under 'Exercise and Nutrition', Chapter 4 on 'Training and Exercise'. The reason I'm putting these in my Blog is to remind myself of the value & importance of mental intensity & determination in striving for our goals in life.

Here is the short excerpt:

Sylvester Stallone had trained with Franco Columbu to get in shape for Rocky II, so he knew the services of the two-time Mr. Olympia did not come cheap. Still when he heard the amount of the fee Franco would charge him for the next six weeks to train for his new film Rambo II: First Blood, he was shocked.

"Franco," he told the Sardinian, "why don't you just take my house and be done with it?"

"I had to charge Sly a good amount for the training," explains Franco, "because he wanted to train full out, just as if he were preparing for the Mr. Olympia contest. That meant two workouts a day, six days a week. I had to drop almost everything else in order to concentrate on getting him in the best shape of his life."

According to Franco, motivating his pupil was not that difficult because of Stallone's tremendous mental intensity and competitiveness. "Sly gives 100% all the time," Franco says, "and his determination is awesome. He is an achiever. A leader. He never sits back and let's things happen, he is the one who makes them happen.”

"With Sly, I worked out a program that was right for him," Franco explains, "and then I led the way, constantly increasing weights and reps. I knew for sure that this would motivate him to try and keep up with me. If I took a weight and did 12 reps, Sly would have to try and do at least 7. After all, I may be stronger than he is, but not that much stronger. Then, next set, I would do 15 reps, so he would have to increase his reps to at least 10. By the end of our training, he was doing curls with 70- pound dumb-bells. You should have seen how strong he got!"

Now this is one BIG reason why I totally admire Sly for his achievements in life. Not because he made it BIG at Hollywood & around the world, but because he took every opportunity he had & gave his best; nothing less. That's what I want to be - someone who don't look back & regret.