It’s Not Always Easy. Sometimes It Sucks.

Time for some Tuesday, trainer tough love. Every once in a while, I have a few topics that come up – either common misconceptions, ideas and exercises people get wrong, whatever they may be. We’re going to tackle these on Tuesdays with bonus articles. They might be what you want to hear. They might be something you don’t want to (but need to) hear. Regardless, let’s get into the fourth installment of Trainer Tough Love.

We’re all looking for the secret, the magic pill, the hidden gem that will help us reach our health and fitness goals. But, as I’ve said before, there simply isn’t one. Sometimes, this whole health and fitness, just plain sucks.

It’s not fun to track your food or what carefully how much you’re eating.

It’s not fun to wake up at 4am to get a workout in before an early meeting.

It’s not fun to go to the gym when you can hardly walk down stairs after the previous day’s training session.

But on those days that you don’t want to get up early or you’re “too sore” to go train, those are the days that you have to just get it done. Plain and simple. There’s not a secret that will make it easier to take those first few steps out the door.

Three pieces of advice I give my clients:

1. Commit to finishing the warm up. Make it a goal to only get through the warm up. Short bout of cardio to break a sweat, a little foam rolling, some mobility and stability to get the body loosened up and ready to go. You’d be surprised how much better you feel after just a quick 10 to 15-minute warm up; you may just be ready to hop into the workout!
2. Throw the program out the window for the day. Sometimes, you may feel unmotivated but really you might just be bored! If you’re used to a set program, mix it up. Go into the gym and do whatever you want; don’t think about what provides the most benefit or fits your goals. Do whatever looks fun, new, and interesting.
3. Save the rest day until tomorrow. You wake up, sore, tired, unmotivated. There’s really so much you’d rather do than go to the gym. But this is the day you should go to the gym. Get going! Use one of the above two tips and simply make it happen. Then, if you wake up the next day and you’re still sore, tired, and unmotivated. Take the rest day then.

None of these are quick fixes. It doesn’t make the tough work any easier. They all simply make it seem a little more manageable to accomplish. To reference last week’s TTL, if you want to take credit for your results, you have to put in the work to get them. In the words of Nike, “Just Do It.”