Category: motivation

It’s easy to dismiss our weakness and why we stronger all the time in all ways, why we failed at this, why we didn’t take that opportunity, why we didn’t start earlier, we shouldn’t have listened to them on that because it didn’t work to etc etc.

BUT we aren’t FULL of weakness. All of us have our strong points too.

Some of you are very good at showing up constantly, but don’t pay as much attention to your food maybe as you need to, to make sure you get even better results.

Some are you tight on your food, but won’t go the extra mile on your training.

Some of you have a lot of confidence, but maybe you need a reality check on what’s needed to get better from here, try new things maybe you have always put off or dismissed.

Some of you have little to no confidence, you always put yourself down even though you are doing great, and some more self-belief injected into your day would do you the world of good.

Nobody’s perfect, but we can ALL get better by taking a little daily action.

We all have our weaknesses, but we have plenty of strengths too, once we realise that we can slowly work on the things that have constantly let us down bit by bit, creating a better self overall becomes a reality very quickly..

Plenty of people in life are very quick to put us down you may notice, it would be a massive step forward for all of us if we appreciated what we really have and embrace it, and working  bit by bit within our very supportive environment on how to get better would be the biggest blessing we could all give ourselves. 

Why get better? Why show up and try to put the effort in? Why not “coast it” in life? Why not go around the shops every day?

 Why not catch up on all the TV series’ your fiends keep telling you about? Why not reminisce about the “good old days”, because “life used to be better then” didn’t they?

You may have heard these words off people you know, and they may have half-convinced you of accepting you’re top old, you’re too overweight, you have too much joint pain, you don’t. Have enough ability any more, you are “entitled” to feel sorry for yourself.

If you want all of these things, then you will have a whole stack of people to back you up, to enable these highly limiting thoughts, to let you sink into obscurity bit by bit, because this lifestyle doesn’t demand anything out of you.

You will become a very big moaner, complain that life passes you by, and before you know it, it’s impossible seemingly to turn the tide.

At the gym, you decided to become different. You decided to push yourself and turn back the clock and become better again. 

You became fed up with the lack of energy in your life, the lack of ambition and being scared of taking on challenges again.

The funny thing is though, no matter how tired you seem after work, when you show up you feel much better, especially when you didn’t even feel like coming in the first place.

A decision to get better and improve your life across the board is exactly that, a decision. When circumstances seem against you, you need to act even when you don’t want to, putting on that red t-shirt you know elevates your mood, especially when you show up and test yourself, and brings back your self-esteem and self-confidence in abundance, when done regularly.

Getting your trainers may always seem tough, but following the process through by showing up makes a massive difference in every area of your life.

Tyson Fury, the unbeaten world heavyweight champion, tells us in his recent book about his deep battles with mental health. 

He says that all was good climbing up the ranks, and when he won the world title and achieved “ultimate success”, when he got to the top of the mountain, it’s then that the problems started.

He felt set decline start, just like in his mind the astronauts who went to the moon experienced deep psychological problems when they returned, they got to the moon and what was the next goal that would top it?

Fury descended on a food, alcohol and even drugs binge. He got up late, didn’t train anymore and went down the pub, and he was still treated like a hero by many (especially in the pub).

He started to lose his mind though, his purpose had gone, life was “too easy” and had constant thoughts of suicide and hated himself.

Before killing himself, he heard a voice he said tell him to STOP. He slammed on the brakes on his Ferrari in the process of going off a bridge and to cut a long story short, started to exercise again, eat right and got back in the ring for the right reasons, setting new targets and didn’t want to let his family down anymore by his very erratic behaviour.

His now daily habits of exercise, eating right and a deep sense of purpose keeps his life on an upward trajectory and simply feeling good every day, and keeps his demons at bay.

The lack of purpose suddenly in anyone’s life can be highly destructive. We think that doing “nothing” is an utopia, a nirvana, when it is a dastardly trap to send us not only into deep physical decline, but a sense of hopelessness in our mind which drops our self-esteem and self-confidence extremely rapidly.

Life promises you “once you get to that level”, “once you retire”, “once you do this and that” that life will continue to be amazing, but it can be the biggest lie society tells you and enters you into life’s most dangerous phase, lots of people suffer ill health, loneliness or even die in the 6 months to 2 years after retirement because their purpose has gone.

Daily routines are vital, keeping active even more so, eating well not only makes you feel better but fights off disease, hanging out with uplifting people is a daily necessity and the goal of continual self-improvement is not only possible at any age, it’s an absolutely imperative fact of life.

What happened to the “OLD GYM”?

The gym always evolves, history has proven it, some last the course, some come to church with us daily and deal with their daily stresses, their dark moments, celebrate their victories with us, and many of you have brought your children and grandchildren through the gym with you.

People ask me what the gym was like in 1957 but I wasn’t around then, but I know it was very basic but functional. That was the “old gym”.

Then I remember the 70’s in my earliest memories, and some very fond memories of some great characters. That was the “old gym” I learned a lot there!

The 80’s saw an extended gym, with plenty of fresh new characters and some women starting to train with us. Ground breaking but that was the “old gym” for you.

The 90’s brought more cardio machines into the gym, but still weight training remained our strong foundation, but things were-a-changing, full of amazing people and some train with us today, but that was the “old gym”.

The 2000’s Brough fresh new characters into the gym, mixing in with the old, we had a load of laughs, saw some great people come and go, some moved overuses, some moved away, some came and went, then came back again, but that was the “old gym” for you.

My dad got ill and I took over full time, we started having a lot of youngsters in the gym from a very young age, we had lots of females training with us, we started to replace all the old stuff bit by bit when we could afford it, it was an exiting time when so many doubted us-but I’m talking about the “old gym” if you wondered, we caused a ruckus daily,

We went into the biggest recession since 1930 in 2008, but coincided with our greatest growth period in history which ran strong right up until the government closed us in march 2020, but that was the “old gym”.

We found our greatest spirit and fight in those darkest of times when we had to workout outside in the freezing rain, Ice and monsoons but you all came out breathing fire in great numbers, we had support like no other time in history, but that was the “old gym” even when people doubted us most.

We came out of that dark but enlightening period for us stronger than ever, invested more than ever, and brought a great number of characters into the gym, again mixing with the older members, all valued, but this again is the “old gym” in case you wondered.

The gym is ALWAYS changing and evolving, but the fun, exiftqment, hard work ethic and incredible results will never change, There will always be the “old gym”, every month for the last 66 years!! I’ve seen most of it, and underneath all the radical changes, the heart of it has never changed. 

I always concentrate on who’s training with us right now as THAT IS A LOT to deal with and it’s all consuming trust me. The old gym has gone and then gets constantly REBORN, change is good, we embrace it and love it. LONG LIVE THE CURRENT “OLD GYM” because it’s breathing fire like never before.

In school, we have to get through a series of passages of work, disciplines, subjects, to make sure we have a wide range of knowledge and ability to take into the outside world. Bit by bit, and when kids follow a syllabus, they get where they want to be however tough and sometimes unenjoyable it is along the way.

In mixed martial arts, you see their students learn kicks, punches, chokes, out to escape from seemingly impossible situations until they become excellent righters prepared for any eventuality. It all takes time but is very much worth it, the most dedicated become in the ring fighters that we admire.

At the gym, I see it important to prepare you for any eventuality in terms of daily life, sporting performance, gain excellent balance, gain impressive strength, develop lower limbs that can be strong, jump well, stay on one leg no problem and attain excellent endurance that lets you take on any task or activity you choose.

This is why your programme must always always have some weight training in it, why you must always test your heart and lungs to gain great endurance, why you must develop great balance through a lot of time on one leg and balance pads, why you develop great power through prowlers, sleds and ropes that can’t be replicated on any machine, all of these exercises count much more than you ever thought.

To achieve anything meaningful in life and in particular good health, we need to get good at a number of things, even at some of the things we don’t think we are good at, because a complete programme demands we work on our weak points as well as our obvious strengths.

We may struggle at times but long term we will be much happier we tested ourselves, and came through the other side much better for it.