Boot Camp... Fun?

Here are some pictures from our boot camp. We're having a great time, okay, well, I'm having a great time. They're working their tails off! lol

-Steve

Look Good. Feel Better.

I guess it's the ads we see first, the ones with the ridiculously well conditioned athletes -- the woman with jutting abs and the man with rippled shoulders -- that draw us in. There's a deep exhale and sudden longing to look something like them. Something better than we do at the moment at least. There's nothing wrong with this initial jump into a life of fitness, so long as it is only the propellant.

There is an increasing divide between 'looking good' and 'feeling better', and it can be incredibly demotivating for many people. We live in a society of instant gratification (I remember writing that in my Grade 6 Social Studies essay) that has only increased in both speed and expectation. Even in a recession, cosmic surgery is on the rise. Like everything, we want to fast track to the perfect body we see on the fitness ads, and don't realize that overcoming twenty years of less judicious eating and exercise habits does not happen in a month or even a year. The real shame in all of this is that people decide fitness is not for them. That they can't make it to the gym six times a week. They resign themselves to the extra weight and sadness and health problems that come with it.

When the goal is primarily to "look good", we run the risk of high expectations and short term disappointment. But when the goal is to "feel better", we are far more likely to stick it out for the long term and find the results we are looking for.

The goal of fitness should not be "Look Good. Feel Better." but "Look Better. Feel Good."

Think of it in terms of relationships. The ones we cherish tend to be individuals who make us feel good about ourselves. The same is true of everything in our life. If we are only working out to look good, we will tend towards the disappointment upon comparing our bodies to those around us. But if the goal is to feel better about ourselves, both physically and psychologically, than we are in a great position to see change in our life.

A life of fitness is not easy. It requires work and consistency. That said, there is a great reward for those who are willing to adapt their lives towards one of exercise and careful (not crazy) eating habits. Don't be afraid to wade into the water. Take baby steps if you must. Use the stairs, not the elevator. Jog with the dog instead of walking. Join a gym. No matter what it takes, find a way to make fitness part of your life. We only go around this planet once. Much better that we're healthy enough to enjoy every step of the journey.

-Steve

What's Wrong with this Picture?

There are a lot of good things about the fitness industry, but this is not one of them. (See picture) Perhaps you've been mailed some soft-core porn, errr, gym advertisement in the mail with a picture like the one on the right. As a trainer, it represents everything wrong with the industry.

We get it. Sex sells. But it can also be destructive.

As a trainer I see a number of people, not the least of which includes fellow trainers, who get so hung up on how they look that they actually become quite destructive about it. They exchange the fun, healthy aspects of fitness for mirrored vanity and high heels and illegal fat burners.

We all want to look good, and in our quest to feel better about who we are, fitness is a great first step. When we achieve discipline in one area of our life, it proves, if only to ourselves, that we can achieve it other areas.

It pisses me off that gyms appeal to the lowest common denominator, and use unhealthy motivations to help people get "healthy". It doesn't work that way. I've seen it a thousand times, and the discouragement is always greater when someone realizes they are not going to become an airbrushed photo of someone taking HGH and whatever other fatburner they can afford, while their choloesterol and blood pressure levels spike.

Fitness should be about fun and health and learning to be more human, not some grainy image tacked to the bedroom wall of a twelve-year-old boy just going through puberty. Don't be intimidated from changing your life because of these types of promotions. Get out there and start exercising and have some fun. You won't regret it.

-Steve