Our deepest fear

Why do you work out? Is it to become the strongest, fittest and healthiest you that you can be. Is it to push the physical boundaries and unveil your physical potential or is it to comfort yourself that you've done something good today and that you can let go on the weekend a bit without worrying too much about the consequences.

I suspect that with most people it's the latter, which is sad. I appreciate that most people are not into this as much as I am and I'm glad because I wouldn't have a career if that wasn't the truth, however I cannot escape this quote whenever I think about it:

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training.

 

 It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”     Socrates

 



This is what I am thinking about when training clients, it could be very easily misunderstood as being overly critical and aiming far too high. But the truth is that I want them to get the best results possible. So having said that, when I have clients' results as a top priority and not how much they like me, at what point do I tell people that they don't get a new programme, or that their nutritional habits have clearly not set in yet and so we need to regress to day 1.

After all there is a conflict in that they are paying for a new programme and advice, every few weeks. But there is no point in progressing them if they haven't improved.

This happens quite regularly, those who turn up to the gym to 'work out' (the latter from the first paragraph) will hand in their programme after 6 weeks and they will have made no progression whatsoever. When questioned, they will usually reply "The weights are really heavy..."



Of course the weights area really heavy, that's why they're called weights... It's going to be uncomfortable and it will hurt but you won't regret it.

Here is the uncomfortable truth, if you are not making some sort of progression every session then why did you train? If you aren't stronger or fitter as a result of your training then what was the point? You either: didn't train hard enough, didn't recover well enough or didn't eat well enough, something's wrong.

Then what if I come to ask you about your food? How have you been eating? Can I see your food journal?

It's not been done, and the reason is this;

'I fell off the wagon a bit, and so I didn't bother writing anything down. I also haven't been taking my supplements because there's not much point if I'm not eating properly.'

....

1. If you only show me when you eat healthily, don't bring in a journal when you eat things you shouldn't, and your results stay the same; then I think you're ill. I only see a good diet and no changes, something doesn't stack up.
2. What am I supposed to say? I want to help you but the quality of my advice is as good as the quality of the context which I am given. No food journal, means no specific advice.

Congratulations, I am now as valuable to you as a Google search.

I end up saying, 'Don't eat crap and replace it with healthy food'

What's healthy food? I don't know because I have no context, anything unprocessed should be OK.

Here's my opinion:

• If you don't progress enough on your programme you keep going until you do.
• If you show me evidence that your habits are not ingrained properly then we start again.

What do you think?