Hey Everyone –
Thanks to everyone who made it in for a session or 3 last week. I really loved my training and – whilst it has been a little tough staying on the straight and narrow path now that the Summer Slam Challenge is good I actually think some of the good habits I spent all of that time working on are starting to pay off…who knew that results didn’t necessarily arrive on YOUR time-table but – if you persist long enough, they eventually arrive on THEIRS!
Please remember we have our Christmas Get-together NEXT SUNDAY (December 5th) at the King Road Brewery. We are starting off at 2:30pm…if you haven’t marked it in your diary, please stop reading now – add it to your calendar – and we’ll see you all there!
I sorta feel like I’m writing this blog for a whole heap of people who will never, ever read it. I mean – everyone who will read it is probably coming to the gym and ‘relatively’ engaged…and everyone who might get something out of it will be ignoring any and all correspondence relating to training and exercise. Which I guess means I am writing it for the same reason as I write 99% of these – for me!
What do I mean by that? Well – most weeks when I sit down to write I am pretty much just clarifying my thoughts as they relate to whatever the current goings on are either in the gym or (more likely) specific to a couple of members who have reached out to me during the week.
Anyway – I feel like what I am talking about today is something that happens all the time. Well. Maybe not ALL the time but yeah – all the time. New person starts at the gym. They are coming in religiously for some time between 5-7 weeks. They have busted throught those first two weeks of ‘Holy Hell – these people are crazy’ and ‘OMG – I never had to do that stuff at ‘insert gym name here’ – how is anyone even keeping up” stage and are starting to get FITTER and finding that they are ‘ACHIEVING’. But then – slowly – they start coming in a little less frequently. And then they reach the ‘DARK ZONE’ – 1-session per week…random times from one week to the next…missed weeks…
Then the email: “I need to freeze my account for a “WHILE”. I’m busy at work/home and I just have no ‘MOTIVATION’ right now…
Let’s face it. We are ALL busy. But – and here’s the kicker – there is ALWAYS time for things that are important. I mean – sure, they have to be important to YOU…but if something is important, well, somehow the time appears. Now I will admit that we aren’t at the gym 24x hours per day 7x per week – and I admit that we do lock the doors. But we do have sessions from 4:50am every day. And sessions that start after 7pm 4x nights per week. And (of course) sessions in between. Basically, there is time to get a session done if your training is important to you.
Anyway – getting back to the point, I guess people aren’t ALWAYS saying that they are un-motivated and need to take a break…but they ARE saying it just about often enough for me to write about it. But – and I mean this in the nicest way – they’re WRONG. It isn’t that they aren’t MOTIVATED…if they weren’t motivated they never would have stepped foot through the doors in the first place. If they weren’t motivated there wouldn’t have ever been those weeks when they were in the gym 5x (or even EVERY DAY). Motivation? Motivation is a big YES.
So – what is it then? If motivation isn’t the problem, what is? The problem is that they are FRUSTRATED. Frustrated with the outcomes they are getting. Frustrated with the ‘GRIND’ of it all. And frustrated that no matter how HARD they try, it never seems that it is enough. I mean, they look in the mirror and see the same person they have always seen – and whilst that person can probably do a few things they couldn’t do a few weeks ago – they pretty much still look like the SAME person. And there is NO END IN SIGHT.
Now – when people start we SAY quite a bit about this exact thing AND we give them a heap of ‘words’ (written down) about it to take away and read ‘later’. We talk about the BEST model being ‘3×52’ (3 sessions per week, 52 weeks of the year) and how our ‘most successful members’ train on the same days each week and on the same times on those days (which sucks for shift-workers but we do try to ‘use more words’ for those who fall into that category)…but those words really DON’T MATTER. So many people come flying out of the gate – 4x sessions, 5x sessions…they’re FLYING. The problem is (of course) that they are setting themselves up to fail in a few different ways:
1/. First of, they are training a LOT. From what is often a base of ZERO to 5+ sessions each week without appropriate nutrition changes? Tired, exhausted, sore…and over it.
2/. If you train 5x per week for a while – then all of a sudden find yourself only doing FOUR (4) sessions (or 3, or 2!) – well, it FEELS like you are failing. It FEELS like you aren’t doing enough. Even though what you are doing is GREAT and AMAZING, somehow it doesn’t FEEL that way. Even though you were only asked to do THREE (3) sessions, somehow that doesn’t feel like it is enough now…so you feel like you are FAILING.
And because of those two things, well…it all feels like it was easier when you weren’t even trying. But here’s the thing. You don’t need to be PERFECT to be successful (And what is being perfect anyway? I mean…who exactly are you comparing yourself too?). Success comes by doing the simplest things consistently well over a LOOOOONG time. It kind of looks like this.
1/. Eat 3-4 meals per day following the ‘Perfect Plate’ model. This means your plate looks like it has 50% veggies, 25% protein and 25% carbs on it.
2/. Do 3-4 sessions in the gym each week.
3/. Look after your incidental (aka ‘accidental’) exercise by walking 11000+ steps per day and taking 5-10 minutes every morning to stretch/do a quick yoga routine.
4/. Be ‘responsible’ with your alcohol (and I know what is one person’s “binge drinking” is another person’s “responsible” but whatever part of that spectrum you might be on you need to be responsible!).
5/. When it’s night time, go to sleep. (As in don’t worry about your new PS5 or catching up on ‘Tiger King 2’)…..go to be and go to sleep!).
Once you have nailed ALL of that stuff to the wall and are pretty much doing it ‘AUTOMATICALLY’ you can pretty safely say that you’re doing EVERYTHING pretty much RIGHT. And then the results will be yours not only for the taking…but for the keeping. For the REST of FOREVER (and I know that doesn’t make sense but I’m pretty sure the meaning is 100% clear)! Let’s be blunt though – It takes a “little while” to get to that stage. It certainly takes longer than a few weeks or even a few months – after all, the old ‘comfortable’ habits that keep dragging you back in were developed over a lifetime. So don’t be FRUSTRATED. Just keep on rolling along – accept that there will be days when you are great and others when you are less so…and remember that today isn’t the most important day…tomorrow is!
We know this can be a daunting time. You’re probably wondering if we really are the right fit for each other. And it’s OK! Many people before you, have felt the same, and that’s why we want to offer you something special – our $29 Health Check.
Let’s work out together to see if we’re the right fit. Just hit the button below to let me know if you’re ready to see what’s included.
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