What Jeff Cavaliere of Athlean X Taught Me About my Limits
By: Richard White
Tags: Fitness, Motivation, Health, Strength, Self Development

As I write this, I’ve just finished BeaXst.

When I say “just finished” I mean that I had the final challenge yesterday. And it was the prompt to write this article.

You see, the BeaXst final challenge doesn’t have a time limit like AX1’s. It doesn’t even pretend like it’s something you should be able to finish, let alone in a specific period of time.

Oh, no. This challenge was developed with the infamous CT Fletcher, and let me tell you, it shows.

Of course, I peeked ahead. I knew this challenge was coming ages ago, and I told myself then “there is no chance I can do that.”

All last week, I told myself “I’m never going to complete that test.”

Yesterday morning, I told myself “No chance.”

I figured I’d fail in the first few sets.

Let me tell you what’s involved:

It’s a gauntlet challenge, consisting of 3 exercises: a dumbbell front squat, a dumbbell push press, and renegade rows.

There are 3 levels of difficulty in BeaXst, and the difference between them in the challenge is the amount of weight you start with. For me, each dumbbell needed to weigh 1/6 of my bodyweight.

So, dumbbell in hand, the gauntlet rules are to do 20 reps. Then you deload 5 pounds and do another 20 reps. You do this for the first 5 sets, then you start adding that weight back on for another 5 sets.

10 sets. 200 reps.

For each exercise.

So that’s 200 squats, 200 push presses, and 200 renegade rows.

To pass the test, it’s required to complete all of the squats, all of the presses, and at least one set of the rows.

And oh yeah, if you can’t complete a set, you fail. At best, you can use a ‘rest pause’, which means you still hold the weight but take a second to catch your breath.

I’m pleased to say that I passed.

Despite all my internal talk about how I had “no chance” of doing it, I did it.

I even racked up another set, completing 22 in total.

And the craziest part is, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I’d feared.

Yes, it was hard. Yes, my legs were shaking on those last few reps of squats. Yes, my heart rate was up and my muscles were very aware of their existence. And yes, in the very first set of squats (which are the hardest because you start with the heaviest weight) I thought “uh-oh, I’m going to do even worse than I anticipated.”

Yet I pushed through. I used some rest pauses, I set a 2-minute timer between sets, I did some stretching and had fast-paced music in my ears.

It took me 70 minutes, and I can still feel the effects in my back and legs today.

But I did it. I did something I thought was completely out of my reach.

Just as I did in AX1, where I not only finished that 400 rep challenge, but by the end of the programme I’d got my time down to 11 minutes.

In Core4Abs I tested my abs with exercises and time limits it didn’t know existed.

In BeaXst I tested my entire body, and then some.

And at each turn, my body responded. It said “Watch this” and surprised me.

Now I know that I can do more than I realised. I know I’m not just stronger, faster, and fitter than I’ve ever been, I know that I’m more capable, too.

And for all of that, I say: Thank you, Jeff.

What’s next, you ask?

That’s easy: the new AthleanX programme, Old School Iron.

I wonder who I will be by the end of it.