'I lack the motivation to keep fit' ...'I haven't got the motivation to train like you'...'I can't be bothered to train today'...Throughout my life I have heard people say these things about exercise. I can honestly say I can NOT relate. Growing up I would smile politely and agree with friends when they made such statements but I knew I lying, so I could try to fit in. I've always loved fitness and I've never really lacked the motivation to train.
I say this not to rub anyone's face in it. Or to try and act as if I am somehow better than anyone...if anything the opposite is probably true. I have seen so many people with more talent and good genetics for sport lack the motivation to stay consistent with fitness. I've actually always believed that my lack of natural strength, flexibility and speed was what actually gave me an advantage over so many of my peers. I've always had to work twice as hard to reach my fitness goals. I have seen so many people who had never trained until in their 20s or 30s years, overtake me in terms of strength and speed. But this has never put me off. It motivated me even more. The way I learnt to look at it was, you have to enjoy the challenge of not being as naturally good as everyone else, and instead focus on training my mind. Turning my mind into a muscle and learning how to properly train it to help me in fitness. Some of you may be thinking, 'what the hell are you talking about'...what I mean is I used my mind to make up for my lack in physical strength and to try and figure out what I should be doing to catch up with everyone else in terms of fitness. Let me give you an example, I was not very good at sprinting and whenever I would go to the running track I would be at the back of the group in training. After weeks of being at the back I started to think, there must be a way I can try and catch up with everyone else. And there was...I had to first learn about myself. The disadvantages of my body type when it came to sprinting...and then I had to learn about the advantages my body type in sprinting. I had to learn about sprinting technique and drills to help me practice. I had to learn what muscles I needed to strengthen and what muscles needed to be lengthened (more flexible)...attention to detail is so important and so I really worked hard on each point. I enjoyed working on each individual skill. I enjoyed learning strengthening exercises related to sprinting and I enjoyed learning flexibility techniques related to sprinting. The great thing about not being as talented as the others is that you learn so much. And I'll say theis to you...don't overlook how fun it can be for us as humans to learn a new skill. Knowledge is power. You learn things others will overlook. And it can be almost like putting together a puzzle. I began looking into a sprinters nutrition and training regime, ideal bodyweight for competition and the correct clothing items for sprinting. I was never going to be a pro sprinter, that was far from my intention. All I wanted to do was improve, get better and keep up with the group more comfortably. I set myself a challenge and I wanted to see it through. I also knew at the end of it, I would gain the benefits of the extra training, because when you are motivated and training consistently, you lose some weight, gain some muscle and feel really good about yourself. You feel more confident, knowing you have a new skill and can join in certain activities comfortably with others. Your physical appearance changes too when you train consistently and this is an added bonus. Although this does all sound straightforward and logic I do want to remind you that real life is far from straightforward. I really had to push myself hard in training to get to a level of fitness where I could keep up with the others. Of course this can be physically demanding and 'painful' but you have to learn to push yourself to reap the rewards of training. And you don't have to go from 0 to 100. Learn to push yourself in your own time, bit by bit. At the beginning of your fitness journey Its better to train little and often, than to train once a week or once every two weeks. ...'but training is boring'...I've also heard this statement too, and I agree, there is some truth to this. Training can become boring, if it does, change up your routine a bit, introduce some new exercises or consider is this training method right for me? There are so many training methods that can help you achieve your goal you don't need to force yourself to stick with one. For example if you hate weights and weight training and find it boring but want to gain muscle, then look at the alternatives...for example bodyweight training - this can be very challenging but rewarding...TRX training... Rowing-which is a full body exercise that can be done powerfully in short bursts to help gain muscle... HIIT training- pick a muscle group and do HIIT exercises for that group of muscles...there are many methods to reach your goal. And that is one reason why each year I pick a new discipline, exercise routine or sport/s to complete or compete in. I set myself a goal. For example one year I set myself the goal of learning to squat over 100kg. By the end of the year I was able to squat 140kg...which to some may not sound like much, but for me it was a lot as I started squatting only 40kg, which I struggled on and could not even get very low with. Another year I chose to compete in a cycling race. I spent the year training all things related cycling, I changed my diet, I bought all the correct gear and learnt about how cyclist should train. At the end of the year I had gained all the rewards that would come with cycling fitness. I had lost some weight, gained some very powerful legs and my cardio had improved dramatically. I would say training is only as fun as you make it. If you set yourself challenges and try to learn new skills you can also make new friends as you enter these new disciplines. You meet new people who have a similar interest. And then you can make the whole experience a really fun one. So that's a little about how I have stayed motivated for so many years and how I will continue to motivate myself for many years to come... I hope some of this information comes in useful for you on your fitness journey til next time Baz :)
0 Comments
Hey guys! I hope your having an amazing week and you are all smashing your fitness goals and targets!
...So I'm not much of a writer but over the past couple months I've been playing with the idea of starting my own fitness blog. I thought about the importance of sharing experiences in a group to help people and how it can motivate others, how it may provide people with information they may have not known otherwise and how it may even help people to get to know me (Baz) better. I can't promise I will write consistently but I will try my best when I have the time to keep this page updated with posts. The intention of this blog is to share with you all a bit about my fitness journey and my own personal journey, some tips and tricks I've learnt over the years, people I admire in this business and i'll share with you all some of my favourite health and fitness products. As this is my first blog post, I thought it be best to start right at the beginning and share with you all a bit about my journey and why I got into personal training. Many personal trainers (on instgram) will tell you the typical story of how they were really unfit or made fun of or played video games all day, ate junk food and then one day had a revelation and began training and became a bodybuilding world champion. This is most definitely not one of those stories or anything like it for that matter. If anything this story is closer to the opposite. I've always been into fitness, from a very young age, I've never been able to sit still, I've always loved running around and playing. And as I grew up my interest in this type of 'fun' drew me into sports. I gave everything a go in terms of sport, you name it, I've played it. I've always loved the thrill of competition. The butterflies in my stomach, the pressure of it all, putting your pride on the line in an attempt to beat a friend. I love it! Although I've never been talented at any sport and I've never found it easy to gain strength, flexibility or speed, I have always been good at copying exercise techniques. This one skill helped me to become one of the best football players in my area at a young age. I had none of the muscular development of the other boys my age, but I was very good at learning techniques. At a very young age I realised this and tried to use it to my advantage... You see my thought process was, if I am good technically then the only thing from stopping my turning pro... the physical aspect, which I can gain easily from training. I thought it would be easy! I began training...I began to gain some strength, some speed, even a bit of muscle. I thought this was it...I'm going to make it pro...that did not happen at all. haha by the age of 18 I could no longer play due to reoccurring injuries. I tore hamstrings, injured my knees, pulled muscles in my shoulders. I picked up loads of injuries. You name it, I had it. I had to stop playing football and I didn't know what to do. I had tried many times to play with my injuries, I tried to work in the gym to out-strengthen my injuries. None of it worked. If anything it just made it worse. At this young age, I had learnt a bit about training techniques from my sports science college course but not enough to effectively know how to strengthen and condition myself. So I stopped playing competitive football altogether and focused on my university studies like everyone else, having a good time and enjoying my 20s. But I'd always loved running around, I couldn't just sit still. Its like having ants in your pants and no matter how many times you wash them, they are always there. I couldn't just sit still. So throughout my university years I trained with one of my best friends. He wanted to lose weight. I couldn't gain any in those years (something I was always quite insecure about growing up- being called lanky was just soul destroying when you spent as many hours as I did in the gym) so our training relationship flourished unbelievably well. He didn't know much about training. I knew some of the exercises from college and uni studies and some of the exercises we used to do in football during pre-season (this is the time before the main season, when teams do a lot of physical fitness exercises) I started teaching him these, I didn't think anything of it. It was fun, training with my best friend and sharing my knowledge. I liked the feeling. Slowly, slowly my friend started losing weight (and a lot of it might I say!) and I started getting a bit stronger, a feeling I was really happy about. So I started reading up more about training techniques, correct form and how to avoid injuries. At this point in time training was part of my routine, so we signed up to a gym, we started going swimming, using some of the weight machines. The simpler things we had seen other people do. Sometimes we would go to the track near primrose hill. We associated weight loss with running. So we thought if we wanted to get lean then we should go running outdoors, and if we wanted to gain muscle then we should do the machines in the gym. We had no idea about any of the other things in the gym. Years past by and we kept training together, and more and more I was taking the role of the teacher and him the student. I did say I was always good at learning techniques. My friend of course naturally developed more strength than I did, but I didn't give up. I kept going. I wasn't far behind at all, and on certain exercises in which a lighter frame was an advantage, such as pull ups I was able to surpass him. Fast forward a few years, we are both regular gym goers. We train fairly regularly. But I now work at Watford Football club and I train at the club gym and he trains at home ( he created a type of home gym). For me these become some of the hardest years of my life...I'm away from my friends and family all the time, I'm in a bad relationship. And things become very negative very quickly. Add in a job in a high pressured environment, It just all became a disaster or at least that's how it felt and I quickly dropped my fitness regime as all my other problems began to take over. I began eating badly and drinking more. I quit Watford, ended the relationship I was in and I came back to London. I felt destroyed. Mentally I felt really low, I did not feel good about how things went or how I handled them.. but I will say I am ever so grateful to the fact that I have always come back to fitness as at times when I felt low, fitness has always been my saving grace. It always made me feel good about myself, more confident and happier about life. Throughout my life I felt like if I was in good shape, then I could take on anything. And that's what I began to do, I felt really fuelled up, I had motivation, something to prove now. I was training harder and smarter than I ever had in my life. I was researching, studying, training, applying all the training methods I learnt at Watford FC. I went from doing a few push ups to about 50 or 60 push ups in less than a few weeks. My 5km went from 23mins to 15mins40secs. I had so much pent up frustration and I was putting all that energy into training. I was training really hard. For what? I have no idea haha, but I felt good, I lost about 8-10kg in a short period, I was really lean and muscular. During this period I really began to take my training to a new level. I started looking at exercises from my university sports science books, I began looking at training exercises online. I bought books on training exercises to do at home and in the gym. Around this time I was working a part time job as a receptionist for a leisure company...so that was 3 days a week I was on shift. I felt so good I would run to work (which was 10km there and 10km back). During my breaks I would do press ups and squats in the staff room when nobody was around. Life had calmed down and fitness was a big part of my lifestyle now and I wanted to get back into a full time job in sports. I applied for many roles but I kept getting rejected. I couldn't figure it out. Everything I tried I got responses that started with "unfortunately on this occasion...". I stopped even opening emails by the end of it. But I felt good in myself, I felt fit, I felt ready to really go for something...a career in fitness...the only thing was I didn't know what exactly. I quit my part time job, it was too much of a mind numbing job I could no longer do, in my happier and healthier state. So I had some time on my hands, I met up with my best friend who I used to train with all those years ago, and we met up for a training session. We started talking... You know, I'm not sure if he knows this, but he is the very reason I became a personal trainer. I remember the day so well. We were talking and I told him what had happened. And he said to me, "why don't you work as a personal trainer, You would make a great PT. you helped me lose weight and become more confident and feel good about myself" And I remember thinking to myself...you know what that just makes perfect sense, I've spent most my life training and keeping fit,I've played lots of different sports, to different levels, I've spent years training my friend and helping him transform his body. I had some basic understanding of personal training...so I thought you know what f*ck it..'I'm going to be a PT! ' - I'm going to do a job that I enjoy and that makes me happy And that's how It began, I began studying, I began training, I took courses, and I began advertising my services and meeting clients... |
Health & Fitness with BazA space for me to share a bit about my own fitness journey, tips and tricks I've learnt over the years as a personal trainer and some of my favourite health and fitness products Archives
January 2020
Categories |