Never Too Late.

I think the one thing a lot of people don’t seem to understand about fitness is that its for life.

As long as you’re still able to eat, sleep, breathe, and move, you can lead a healthy, active lifestyle.

I started training a client last week who had trained with me before, but for whatever reasons just stopped. When he contacted me again, I didn’t judge him, nor did I ask why he quit in the first place only to come back nearly a year later.

It doesn’t matter. Unless you’re a fitness model or preparing for a physique/bodybuilding show, the majority of us just want to feel comfortable in our own skin.

Its the one thing time has no control over.

Limitless.

Knowing your limits can be the difference between greatness and making a complete full out of yourself.

The idea of motivation is such a paradox these days. You’re supposed to push past your pain threshold, past your comfort zone, and still show a sense of composure and a willingless to continue, even though you’re hanging on by a thread.

A thread that, no matter how much your heart wants to continue and your brain wants to carry on, will always break.

This is all random, I know. The point is, no one is invincible. I feel like knowing your limits is actually a powerful form of knowledge, because once you can pinpoint your exact breaking point, you can begin to strategize how to banish it. You can begin to strengthen that thread, to move as close to unbreakable as you can.

I see so many personal trainers in the gym literally putting their clients one rep away from the emergency room. That’s not “pushing past your limits”, that’s just stupid.

I guess it all goes back to our society’s need to get everything NOWNOWNOW.

Patience died a long time ago.

Seratonin.

I can’t stop singing the praises of fitness and what leading a healthy life can earn you. I know my readers are probably sick of me going on about “the fit life” but with each day that goes by I am given another reason why its changed me for the better.

Its been a rough year. Between looking for a job in the writing field and homelife troubles, stress has found its way to me time and time again. And for someone who is, for all intents and purposes, an eternal optimist, that’s not an easy thing to do. I have avoided the effects of stress all my life, no matter how down I got, but this year, my usual impregnable defenses just could take no more.

That’s where the gym came in.

I’ve always been interested in fitness and athletics (as I’ve mentioned in previous posts) but for the last year and a half I have truly given myself over completely to the dedication and consistency required to lead “the fit life”. And it has been undoubtedly my greatest weapon in my fight against those days where stress creeps up on me again, trying to catch me off-guard.

Not only are the physical results inspiring, but the mental (and, for those who believe in this sort of thing) spiritual results are gratifying to a much higher degree. As the cliche goes, exercise, training, diet, and the like just make you feel better, mind body and soul.

I went for a haircut today, and as a member of the receding hairline club, my haircuts are few and far between. My barber (a bodybuilder and personal trainer), after cleaning me up, looked at me and said “brother, you realize you’re hair is growing back, right? you have more hair this time.” I looked in the mirror and, though skeptical, realized that what I thought was optimism was actual reality: my hair is growing in again. Then he whispered, sage-like “That’s the gym.”

We had a laugh but I find it to be true. Stress had reached into my very scalp, and the benefits of exercising and eating right have begun to reverse the damage. Literally, fitness heals you.

New Beginnings.

This is the last week at my current gym, which I’ve been a member of since God-knows-when. I usually just renew my membership there over and over but I’ve finally had enough. My gym is prehistoric in its equipment and its policies. In the past I was proud of this; I didn’t need much, just a few dumbbells and a bench. Leave the fancy stuff to those more interested in pretty things than actual fitness.

But the machines and weights are so outdated that, with all the knowledge I’ve gained about working out, nowadays I fear getting injured because the machines aren’t built the way they’re supposed to (some have even needed to be fixed for months). And since I am practically obsessed with my fitness, its time I give my muscles the opportunity they deserve to work out with state-of-the art weights.

Maybe it’ll make my body state-of-the-art too, who knows.

And that concludes this non-writing-related post.

Useless Hate.

I have been a lover and student of fitness since I was 15 years old, when I was introduced to boxing. Because of all this time in the “fit life” and being in and out gyms, you tend to pick a lot of things up. I consider myself very knowledgable about nutrition, muscle-building, supplementation, and fatloss. I understand the struggle, the toil, the literal blood-sweat-and-tears that go into getting and maintaining a physically fit body.

That’s why it pisses me off when someone who ISN’T informed makes a comment about someone else who is successfully making gains.

I just saw an up-and-coming trainer on Instagram put up a video bench-pressing 405lbs for 5 solid reps. Very impressive. Now the majority of the comments were positive, but then there was one that stuck out like a sore thumb:

It simply said “Roids.”

Now, who knows if the person behind this comment was joking, but honestly, I don’t appreciate these types of envious, ignorant, and stupid comments.

I know about “steroids”, and I put that term into quotes because there isn’t a bottle of pills or a needle somewhere that’s labeled “Steroids”; there’s more to them than that. With that being said, if one does not know about steroids or has experienced them or has seen someone who has used them, why are you accusing someone else of taking them? Just because you can’t fathom how this person is achieving this body or this lift or w/e, doesn’t mean you should try to undermine them. And this applies to all things, not just fitness.

Why hate on something you don’t understand simply because you don’t understand/appreciate it?

That individual is going to continue making muscle gains and lifting 400lbs and beyond, and the person who made the comment will be no wiser, or better, or stronger, or faster. WHO CARES if he actually took steroids? If you know about ‘roids, then you know the work that is required to make them function correctly within your body (and I am not defending steroid users, just pointing out scientific facts). The point is, useless hate doesn’t earn you anything. Perhaps he felt better about himself for that comment, but that’s a false feeling, the empty promise of positive evolution.

Ignorance is dangerous to both people, even in a simple comment on a video of a bench press max.

Pugilism.

I started boxing training when I was 15, when I heard of a deal that was going on at the local Y from my gym teacher. I trained for almost four years, went from 183-158-173lbs, and learned an encyclopedia’s worth of fitness, health, self-defense, and the sport itself. It was a life-changing experience to say the least, and that’s why a lot of my work tends to latch onto my boxing backround.

The following is a snippet from a piece titled “Take Five” I wrote last year:

“He needed a breather.
He started to remember the old days, back when he was 19 and felt like he could do anything. Like he could’ve been Ali or Dempsey, fighting for 15+ rounds with those little itty-bitty gloves that might as well have been socks.
Like he was immortal.
But now, at 46 years old, only three rounds into defending a title he didn’t even care about anymore, he could see the deterioration in his body as if it was a separate entity, standing in that very ring with him. He could see it in the eyes of his 24-year old challenger with the 32-pack abs who clocked him over his right eye.
Boxers sometimes do this thing where, during their 60-second breaks, they stand instead of sitting on their stools. Like they’re not tired. Like psychological firepower.
Like they are invincible.
But he gave up on that move after he turned 33.
He couldn’t pay up anymore. Trying to maintain that…that trying to be God among men…he just couldn’t anymore. The physical sacrifice was too great. He needed more time, especially now, when he was sure his lung had just collapsed and his meniscus was torn.
Invincibility costs too much.
Immortality, more.”

Willpower.

I am extremely interested in this idea of willpower. I think the term “motivation” is just a scapegoat for a lack of willpower.

“I need to get motivated to hit the gym.”

“I want to ask her out, but i have no motivation.”

“What will I gain if I do that?”

Its almost like we’re programmed to expect immediate, tangible results from everything we decide to partake in, and somewhere along the line we lost the simple satisfaction that comes with seeing something through to its end. This is because our collective will has dulled over time; too few people are willing to struggle, to get dirty, to sacrifice in order to complete something. A little willpower can go a long way.

I don’t know how many people love to complain and have pity parties about things, claiming a lack of motivation as the main reason why they just don’t do what they want to do. You want something? You want a change? GO. DO IT. That’s all the “motivation” you need. Willpower is the only weapon one needs against any obstacles one may meet along the way.

To me, it gets no simpler.

Consistency.

Throughout my fitness journey, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that of the value of consistency. I have been consistent for the last year and a half, and when I compare it to my younger years, when I was in and out of football, boxing, and weight training, not able to keep my head pointed in any direction for long, the results are not even close.

Just now, I ate a dinner of lean ground beef and turkey with two slices of cheese on top. I was ridiculed for having such a strict diet, especially at dinner. But in the end, the naysayers will never understand because in essence, they don’t want to. 

I believe this idea of consistency can be applied to many aspects of life. Hopefully you can apply it to yours, with positive results.