Category: 50 day challenge-day one motivation

An important question was asked to me tonight. “How do I know every member’s name”?

The reason is simply I take a keen interest in everyone we train as we always spend a lot of time with them, and you have to know everyone’s name and their story to shape their training too.

Everyone’s recovery/success story has to start somewhere after all and how well we serve them from that point ultimately dictates to a large degree how well they will do. They need to realise there are no short cuts along the way too.

You have to know or sense when someone’s having a bad day when you take the pressure off or a good day when you can push them more and make the most of their enthusiasm and energy.

You have to know their previous and current injury status, and it’s important to have a mental record too of everyone and where they are right now in that moment.

You have to do your best for everyone all of the time, when they have experienced the ravages of isolation like the last 18 months and the mental health destruction of that, to the highs of new personal achievement when they are at the top of their game.

Life is a rollercoaster for everyone and when you get individuals fit and healthy, their extreme highs and lows automatically get levelled out so everyday life ends up far more on an even keel and more enjoyable full stop.

My days are always different, I get many different stories happening ever hour of the day, many come in struggling, nobody’s perfect, and everyone has a different motivation for getting fit and healthy finally, but every single one of those individuals has to know we are all in their corner no matter what.

Taking a big interest in everyone you train and getting to know their deep reasons why they are in the gym in the first place automatically signifies to the person you are training that you are prepared to do above and beyond what is required to get them where they really want to be, and then some more often way beyond they thought even possible.

Then they have to realise it’s a two way street and the effort and respect you are prepared to put into them, and unless they put the effort in too and show respect needed to give their all, then incredible results can never happen. 

Teaching them a hard work ethic ought to be one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone you train.

It’s heartbreaking to hear people say many big gyms are often “impersonal”, when the truth is if you are dedicated to giving results to those who you train, you must know their story, their motivation and find ways to lift them up on their bad days too.

If you are a coach or teacher, it’s all got to be about the person you are coaching and their journey along the way, never forget the huge positive impact you can make and the responsibility that comes with it.

I relay this story now and again, and its about the time I stopped exercising for 2 weeks over christmas around 30 something years ago.

I didn’t lift weights, I didn’t run and here’s what happened.I had really bad asthma as a child frequently being in hospital I must add. Towards the end of the two weeks, I tried a run uphill, like I normally did, I struggled so much i couldn’t breathe, and brought all of those problems back full force.To be honest it scared me and i vowed to never feel like that ever again.

For those of you who have exercised for many years, you will know what I mean.

Stop exercising and you feel like trash full stop.I don’t call that a relief at all, I call it a hardship and breathing properly is very important to me!

So exercising and getting a sweat up is a necessity for me.So your call on exercising over christmas or not, but I do it simply to feel good, not have any breathing difficulties and to keep my immune system in good shape. it’s needed now more than ever

We wish away time constantly, we wish it was christmas already, we wished we could read a book quicker, we wish we could do a qualification quicker, we wish the week could go quicker because the weekend would be here, we wish we could be on holiday permanently, we wish our troubles/problems/worries would go away even quicker without us putting an effort in.Then we get to the end of our lives, wishes we had that lost time sent back to us, for just one more chance at it, one more go at the time we let go from our grasp, let go of the chances we had to be healthier, the times we had opportunities right in front of us, instead we wasted those chances take the “safe” option..Question is, would you rather be the one who kept on having a go every day with a strong sense of purpose, no matter how much life beat you up, sometimes you won, sometimes you lost, or would rather be the one who stayed in the house peeping through the curtains living your days listening to trivial gossip as life and opportunities went right by you, and you didn’t even give yourself one shot at it because you thought you might fail, even though everyone fails regularly, some just get back up and have another go, refine their approach and eventually succeed?Give yourself a chance every day, time waits for nobody, don’t let anyone tell you that opportunities don’t exist because they do each and every day. The clock is ticking, make the most of it and see every day as another gift.When you’re healthy, you have a thousand dreams, when you don’t have your health, you only have one dream-your health.