Approximate read: 3 minutes;
When people think of fitness training, they think of it as a way to stay healthy: physically, mentally and even spiritually. However, on top of all of that, there are incredibly valuable life lessons to be learned from engaging in physical exercise.
As you’re thinking about your goals and what you want to get out of your fitness, I hope this article will inspire you to think of fitness more as a life journey, than merely physical exercise.
Fitness lesson #1: Patience
Usually when you become active, you aren’t able to do very much. Your body is freaking out, it’s sore, tight, achy, you name it. When my husband and I started partner training through P90X, it was seriously pathetic. One hour of working shoulders and arms. Are you kidding me? I was done after the warm-up! I didn’t even know shoulders needed to be worked on! After our workout, lifting a glass of water seemed like a daunting task. We were miserable.
It would have been easy to just give up. Instead, we pushed each other through it, and we improved. Now, doing that shoulders and arms workout is not a problem. But to get to that point, we needed to learn to be patient. If you are patient and stick to it, results will come. It’s inevitable. You take it one workout and one exercise at a time.
Fitness lesson #2: Things take time
I know this one is really obvious, but soooo many people expect instant results! We live in a world of instant gratification but we need to remind ourselves that some things really cannot be rushed. Think of all the big achievements in your life.
Did you get your post secondary degree overnight?
Was your baby ready to be born right after conception?
Of course not! And yet for some reason, when it comes to fitness we don’t apply the same logic. As a personal trainer, I would like to challenge all of you to think of your fitness the same way you think of your career.
It is a long road, peppered with changes that takes YEARS, but you are learning and growing along the way and that’s really what matters
Fitness lesson #3: It’s ok to suck
This lesson is probably my favorite. The reality is you may never become an Olympic athlete. You may never be able to do those crazy yoga moves, or walk on your hands, and you know what? That’s ok. It’s just who you are.
Whenever my husband and I start a new exercise program, we ALWAYS suck! Always. It’s a lesson we learn over and over again, and it’s painful every single time because it’s a huge blow to our self esteem, and our self esteem doesn’t like that.
But let me ask you this: did you struggle with math in school? The majority of us did. But you didn’t give up – because that wasn’t even an option! – and you never rocked the math olympics (yes, there are math olympics) but you got better. Fitness works the same way. You may never become a star, but you will always get better and improve if you stick to it!
Here’s another way to think about it: if you’re rocking your workout, what benefit are you gaining from it? You are rocking it probably because it’s too easy. When you are challenged, there is sooo much room to grow and that is the beauty of it: you get to see results and improvement, and that will make you so proud and so happy!
Embrace your fitness journey: understand that it will teach you patience, that good things take time, and, most importantly, that it is only by sucking at the beginning that you will ever get better.
Now go out there and kick butt!
Let’s work (out) together
My specialty is working with clients who want to become more active but don’t know where to start. Check out these links to learn more about how I got into fitness, my personal values, and my personal training approach.
If you are ready to begin your personal training journey, I look forward to hearing from you through my Intake Form. You can also email me directly with any questions: irina@toneeveryzone.ca
