I wonder whether you can relate to this gym goer I was talking to the other day who has been settled into their gym routine for nearly 12 months and despite previously being consistent, committed and highly motivated, all of a sudden, just in the last month or two, they find themselves at a point in their training where they are un-motivated. Previously they had a really good routine that was serving them well, it was back and bi’s on Monday, Chest and Tri’s on Tuesday, Legs Wednesday, Back and Bi’s Thursday and Chest and Tri’s on Friday and they had been getting great results for quite some time. So what changed?
Well recently they have been getting out surfing again. You see they grew up playing rugby, surfing and doing weights, and then got married, had kids and spent the last 15 years working 11 hour days to provide for their family and forgot about the importance of good health, exercise and doing fun things. So in the last 3 months they started surfing again and going for runs and realised that the training they were doing in the gym was making them stiff, bulky and slow and that even though they had lost a few kilograms from 12 months ago, they still felt slow and sluggish.
1. What we spoke about next is what I want to share with you and there were 3 main points:
What got us to the gym maybe isn’t what sustains us in the gym
Like many of you can probably relate, the reason why this wonderful man got involved in the gym after all these years of putting his family first and forgetting about himself was to give back to himself and his body. After all these years of feeling tired, lazy and fat pretty much anything he did in the gym whether it was lifting weights, cardiovascular training on the machines, group classes or bicep curls, everything was better than nothing and anything was going to feel like good positive momentum.
So for months and months giving back to his body was all that mattered, that was the motivation, reclaiming momentum, health, shedding some body fat and building some basic strength. Now, this old passion of surfing has appeared there is a lack of motivation to train this body weight split program… Why? Well for this man, it was like beating his head against a brick wall. He trained hard and he looked better than before however he had no energy to surf, little time to surf because he works hard, has a family and only has 60-90 minutes 5 days a week where he can get out and do this exercise and ultimately, he noticed he was slow, stiff and awkward and it was like the penny had dropped… something needed to change.
2. Know what matters to you and train accordingly
The way you train, determines the outcomes you get, I think a lot of people understand this to some degree, however I will share it anyway. The body adapts to the stimulus we give it. If each week we do some kind of deadlift, squat and bench press at a particular weight for 3 sets of 8 with 2 minutes rest, we are going to notice that our ability to lift that weight increases over the weeks that follow.
What happened for our gym goer above, is that he was getting positive results consistently in his seated row and bicep curls. His bench press for 10 reps was increasing fortnightly and so was his tricep press, and he could leg press double body weight for reps. These were all positive outcomes from his training. The trouble was, he was struggling to pop up and land his feet in the right spot on the surf board because he was so stiff in the hips and hamstrings and he recently strained his groin and has just stopped leg day all together. This was a big frustration because he was loving the time he was spending in the water surfing and had been struggling for motivation in the gym.
After talking about this for a while, our gym goer realised that he had been training his body the only way that he knew how, and it had become muscle bound and stiff and then surfing demanded his body to be dynamic and powerful and it said NO CAN DO BUDDY and the groin was strained. I also found out that he used to love doing leg day but now he didn’t know how to train his legs for the kind of flexibility and resilience he needed for surfing, he only knew how to make them have more muscle size.
So we solved that problem with weekly personal training to bring new tools to his leg day tool kit that improved his hip and leg mobility as well as improved his overall surf fitness and the gym goer started asking questions about his upper body program and we were able to bring in new fun and progressive exercises to that day to help with his shoulder stiffness and endurance in the water. Now, he is training 3 days in the gym, 1 personal training session and two sessions following the plan we set together, as well as enjoying 2-3 surfs each week and feeling good in the water. Getting to the gym to train is exciting and motivating again because he can see it as being an important link to maintaining good general health to sustain his surfing passion.
3. Be prepared to let go, to grow
The body is a miraculous working thing, I’ll admit that I don’t understand it completely and I don’t know that anyone will ever know the truly complex workings of the human body. Despite this, we are blessed with some incredible science as well as experience and from this we know that the body can only adapt to what it can recover from.
This point develops on from point number 2, asking us to appreciate that yes, the body adapts to the stimulus or stress that we give it, but only if we can recover from that stimulus. So at some point in your training journey you will be faced with a cross road where your current habits can be no longer sustained if you wish to make progress. It is likely that for some time you can sustain a reasonably average quality of sleep, nutrition and still train Monday – Friday and get some progress.
However, over time you will get rid of your weaknesses and turn them into stronger body parts, as you get rid of that slow running pace and replace it with a faster pace, as you get rid of the undisciplined mind and replace it with a very disciplined one, you will also need to let go of your habits that are making it hard for you to recover and return to the gym, surf, next session stronger, fitter, healthier and more energised. For example, the odd alcoholic beverage probably isn’t going to effect the average gym goers training session, however there’s a certain amount of alcoholic beverages that may lead to a hangover, or may increase snoring, or induce an irritable nights sleep. None of this matters, if just moving is all you care about, but when you’ve lost motivation, your aren’t progressing or you feel crappy, these are places to look for answers.
Many people say that when they come to the gym and start training that they start eating better too and thinking clearer and are happier too. It’s fantastic if that is true for you. If that isn’t you, you may have noticed that when you go to the gym you are actually hungrier than normal, stay up later and because you don’t really have very good habits yet around eating healthfully, preparing nutritious meals and carving out time in your day to rest or prioritising sleep you feel tired and don’t get the results in body change you may have expected.
The moral of the story is, if you’ve been training in the gym for a while and you have gotten to a place of frustration, you aren’t getting the results you wanted and have realised…”I have no idea how to get them”… just know that you are not alone, let go of the need to have it all worked out, we are here to support your journey if you wish to ask for the help. Choose to keep trying, let go of the need to know it all, let go of the need to have it all worked out, let go of the habits that aren’t serving you and choose new ones that help you to live your best life.
Training in the gym is a fantastic opportunity to create positivity in the rest of your day, choose to make the most of it by getting the support you need in the times when you feel the most stuck or un-motivated.
Thank you for reading.
Next up: “The old me hurdle“