What are you training for?

This blog is aimed at making you really question your own motives for training…

What pushes you? What drives you to keep going day in day out? What makes you want more rep or the extra 5kg on the bar? 

By answering these questions you may realise you aren't actually doing as much as you can or conversely maybe you are trying far too hard for no actual reason.

My fitness career has been split pretty much 50/50, I’ve worked with people who train within the Crossfit methodology for 6-7 years and then the same in a commercial setting. Now for those of you who haven't stepped foot in a Crossfit gym I must stress that the average commercial gym member isn’t like an average Crossfit gym member. The level of motivation and dedication I’ve seen in commercial gyms towards the effort they put in when training doesn't even sit on the same scale. Crossfit gym users tend to train at a very high intensity almost every day of the week, all year round, it's not uncommon for me to see a member 7 days a week for weeks on end, in a commercial gym this does still happen but generally that person won't be all out and leaving themselves in a heap of sweat at the end of the workout. Now over time I’ve questioned and quizzed members what makes them tick and exercise motivation is something that intrigues me non stop, why is it that some people feel that need to workout and exercise to the extreme and some don't, there are no right or wrong answers but I feel I’m experienced enough to shed some light on why possibly you don't want it enough or why you are trying too hard.

So you don't want it enough?

Are you the person who just falls short of your expectations, quits too soon or feels annoyed you’re not making the progress you want? 

First things first, this is completely normal at times to feel like that, being completely focused and highly motivated is a tough job but for some people it comes naturally, you have to know yourself before you make some decisions. If you’ve failed at sticking to a task before it has a high chance of happening again and now it's down to you to identify the reasons for that, so in the future you don't make the same mistakes again. For example, are you the person who constantly starts a new diet only to quit 4 weeks in when you don't see progress? Nine times out of 10 the person who does this has set unrealistic expectations for the diet, they haven't actually sat down with a trainer and discussed what will happen, how it will happen and how long it will take. Without understanding the time frame and the expected weight loss numbers it's extremely disheartening after a few weeks to find out you’ve only lost a couple pounds when you expected to lose a stone. Unrealistic expectations come at a high price - loss of motivation, high chance of relapse and long term negative feeling towards a new behaviour. Once you’ve failed once it's easy to think you’ll fail again, but in actual fact you were set up to fail in the first place.  

Another big reason for not quite reaching your potential is you concentrate on what other people are doing and not on yourself. Everyone is different, everyone will see different results on the same plan to a degree and everyone has different things that motivate them. The more you look at social media and other people around the gym and what they’re doing the more you will be frustrated you aren’t reaching your goal, this can then have a negative effect on your motivation as you were naturally start saying ‘what's the point’, when once again, you’ve compared yourself to an unrealistic expectation for the outcome. It’s tough, but you have to focus on you, what you’re doing every day and compare yourself to yourself yesterday not someone else today!

My advice in this instance is to really say to yourself, ‘this is who I want to be’ and then get the correct support on seeing if this is possible with your circumstances, this isn't aimed at disheartening you or telling you that you can’t do something, I’m a firm believer that we are all capable of some amazing things but if you’ve failed before and haven't outlined what you need to address you will just keep repeating the same over and over - and that's called insanity.

Are you trying too hard?

Now you and the person who keeps failing aren’t dissimilar to each other in terms of a repetitive behaviour that isn't helping you progress. I see with my own eyes day in a day out people completing workouts at 1000%, leaving everything they have on the floor, taking every supplement on myprotein.com, buying every bit of kit that helps recovery, eating the ‘perfect diet’, not having a drink on a weekend and making sure they go to bed at 9 every night. This person may look like a saint at the gym, the person everyone wants to be a bit more like and the person who probably hasn't got one good story to tell besides that once they deadlifted 5x their body weight after fasted cardio. I’m over exaggerating a bit here but we all can identify with someone of this ilk and maybe just maybe you haven't ever just stopped and asked yourself, why am I doing this?

Why am I sacrificing so much for some numbers in the gym that maybe I can put on instagram to get some likes or brag at your next comp that you come 34th out of 50 at. I know I sound cynical but I’ve been that person from time to time myself, I’ve dragged myself to the gym to complete workouts I really didn't want to, I’ve turned down the beer at a bbq and I’ve spent stupid money on supplements I just kept pissing out. I’m asking the person who feels guilty for not going to the gym, the person who it doesn't sit right if they don’t count their macros, the person who sets their alarm at 4am because some celebrity trains that early to really question your motives, is this behaviour making you and the people around you actually any better because when push comes to shove I truly hope your 2k rowing split and 6 pack abs put a smile on your face when you’re 70.

Now to conclude, I’m fully aware many people train to the extreme to maybe escape the mundane, they enjoy pushing themselves to see how far they can go but I want to highlight that the cost to you and others may not actually be worth it. The countless hours put in learning how to snatch or the horrendous assault bike intervals might not ever get you to where you want to get to and be prepared to live with that. On the other hand if you keep quitting and giving up you need to find the support and knowledge to get you over that stumbling block, don’t just keep repeating yourself with the same outcome.

There has been a common theme here and its reflection, too often we dont ask the question as we dont want the answers. We are happy to let the days drift on, not getting to where we perceive we want to be, when in actuality, your perception is wrong in the first place.