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The 3 Key Training Hurdles: Part 3 “the Old Me Hurdle”

The 3 Key Training Hurdles: Part 3 “the Old Me Hurdle”

The old me hurdle is a place gym goers get to where they have been training at a gym for a while and they are stuck, they aren’t progressing, they don’t know anyone because they’ve spent the last year or two training with their head down and their headphones on and they feel embarrassed, bored and literally stuck. Or they’ve just been doing the same old thing, the same classes, had the same attitude and haven’t really changed their training or mindset.

One of the great pleasures you will experience at Coolum Fitness, is that of being a part of a caring and considerate gym community, feeling like you are walking out of your home and into your gym and still feeling “at home”. When you walk into the gym whether you have a short time to train, a long time to train, whether you want to talk to your mates or just get it done and get out, being able to do exactly that whilst respecting others is a great feeling.

Along with this is a great opportunity become your best self, where each day, each session is an investment in a future you that is more kind, healthy and value to the community than the old you. It is easy to get stuck in our ways and think a gym is just a gym, but in my experience each of us have the unique opportunity to impact this community with our own unique flavour and to be able to bring to this experience what we have is your special offering. For us all to grow out of the old and into a new, I encourage us all to have a chat, stay hungry to learn and to balance the effects of our training so that our bodies, our minds and our gym experiences stay fresh and new for the longest time.

1. Have a chat

The reason why I have, “have a chat” as a key principle in overcoming the old me hurdle, is because we are a unique group of people here at Coolum Fitness that are seeking to better ourselves and we attract an incredibly diverse community with various abilities, skills, experience, wisdom and backgrounds. We are all training in some way shape or form and we are all doing it for slightly different reasons. Despite the urge to get in and get out, and granted, we all need to do this at times. Embracing the opportunity when it rises to have a chat, get to know your fellow gym buddies and see if their training perspectives and life perspectives bring more insight, joy and wisdom to your day is something I truly encourage.

2. Stay hungry to learn

As mentioned in previous articles, a lack of progress, continues to be a major factor in why people stop going to the gym. As we have covered trying harder, going more often and doing the same thing over and over for years is a repeated strategy that continues to be unsuccessful for gym goers around the world. Our tools to overcome this is a thirst for learning, a curiosity around training, a hunger for new exercises, insights, tips or programming methods that can break us out of the old and into the new. Professional Olympic Weightlifters will train 2-4 hours every day at their craft year round, for the soul goal of increasing their main lifts by 1-2 kilograms. Even matching their previous personal bests is cause for great celebration during a training year. Imagine the hunger for learning they have, the thirst for feedback, the commitment to the process that is required, a yearly commitment to a 12 month plan to see if what they learned from last year has made 1 kilogram of difference to this year… Imagine how much the average gym goer can learn from a hungry Personal trainer who has had a 20 year hunger for learning. Imagine the mistakes that you will not have to make by spending some time listening to podcasts, reading the occasional Coolum Fitness Blog and or acquiring some Personal training on a weekly basis.

3. Balance the effects of training and life

Finally my friends, balance is the key to life. We know this of life, do we know it of training. The Yin and the Yang. I spoke about it briefly in article 2 with the need to be able to recover from our training. If we are not recovering from our training all we are doing is beating ourselves up over and over again, without allowing ourselves the opportunity to recover stronger, fitter, faster or more flexible. In our overstimulated lives of business, stress, demands that buzz in our pockets or come up on our watches, and caffeine that keeps us going until we need it to keep us going again… gym for some people is a stress release, a place to escape the business, to escape the phone, to escape the demands of life and just do me. We must be mindful of balance. If our lives are full of stress, demands and chaos, going to a highly intense group training class and smashing ourselves 5 days a week with the expectation that anything less that our best is not acceptable we are digging ourselves a hole that will be hard to get out of. We must bring awareness to our life.

Training is not seperate from life, it is a part of the life we live. By training in balance with the demands of our life, we get to live a better experience of life itself. That means at times training may need to take on a more gentle and steady pace. There may be days when flogging yourself silly in the gym brings about a great sense of satisfaction mentally and leaves you drained physically. Notice this and do more stretching and body care exercises the following day. There may be times when work is smooth sailing and the kids have had a sleep over at someones house and you have loads of time and loads of energy, this is a good day to go hard. Our bodies and minds are connected, so is training and life. Give yourself some slack on days when you are overworked and under-appreciated, and light a fire up your arse days when you are lazy and un-grateful of this opportunity to create a strong, healthy vessel for life.

Thank you for reading this 3 part series.

Blog Post By

Tristan Enright

Physical Training & Health Coaching

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