To Train or Not To Train?

Firstly, I need to make this clear. I became a PT because I trained often. I don’t train because my job says I need to. My mental health and my fitness goals along with the usual aesthetic appeal that training brings told me that I had to. So hopefully there won’t be any doubters saying ‘but you’re a PT’ from now.

Also before I continue I should define what training is to me. How I define this to my clients is a set time where we dedicate to moving. It doesn’t need a gym. It doesn’t need equipment at home. You just need to move. Everybody will have goals in mind that will then determine the best sorts of movement, but training is just moving in a set period of time.

Making positive decisions on your health, lifestyle, gym goals or nutrition can seem like a difficult task. It can be daunting. But it is important to realise that making the right decisions is still easier than making the wrong decisions. Training should be challenging yet rewarding. Training isn’t meant to be easy. The human body was ‘designed’ to be tested, both physically and mentally. But it should be YOU who decides what those challenges are. Not friends or family, not your boss, not a cover of fitness magazine, not a government and not a God. Making decisions for yourself is empowering and instead of thinking that it is selfish, try taking the view that a healthier, empowered you becomes a much nicer son or daughter, mum or dad, friend or work colleague, husband or wife.

To Train or not to train isn’t even a question. Not when we define training as positive movement in a dedicated time frame. You don’t have time? Yes you do. You are lying to yourself. You don’t have energy? Then your diet is not balanced. You need to change what is stopping you from finding just 20 minutes a day dedicated to moving. Watch the binge programmes, play Xbox, enjoy a pizza now and again. Do all the things that you enjoy! But don’t tell yourself that you haven’t got any time to exercise. Tell yourself this often enough and you will believe it.

So, I have had messages a couple of hours before a PT appointment saying that a client feels a little under the weather. They don’t want to come to their session. (Covid guidelines aside) I will encourage them to meet me still and get them to do something once their session begins. Nobody has ever left their session feeling worse, in fact it is very much the opposite. It’s like saying that you won’t bother going to the trouble of making a tasty nutritious meal because you won’t be able to taste it with a heavy cold. You are giving up the one thing that can help you feel a little better.

Small steps is all you need. I’m not saying you need to start with 100 Burpees a day and let someone scrape you from the gym floor. I’m saying that you can park your car further away from the gym entrance, take the stairs, go for a walk, squat or lunge during the adverts, stretch or yoga. You need to start telling yourself that you will train, rather than looking at the excuses of why you can’t. I guarantee that you will feel so much better for it.