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Will miss posting here for sentimental reasons! :-)
Thank you blogger for a wonderful run!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Gym Phobia
If it's been a while since you've been to the gym, you might find that you've become a little more hesitant to walk in the door. You're not alone.
Before I go further, let me say that I use the term "gym" loosely. Your "gym" could be outdoors, a climbing gym, a yoga studio, a martial arts dojo, a circus school, a fitness center or anywhere else where you exercise on a regular basis.
It starts with a missed training session, a skipped class or a cancelled workout with a friend. Something came up. You were under the weather, work got too busy, you had a social obligation that couldn't be changed. And then the next day...well...what's one more day of skipping the gym? The third day, "Hey, this is getting pretty comfortable. I like sleeping in (or coming home early)." More difficult yet is when travel interrupts your workout schedule - especially if you don't keep up some sort of exercise routine while you're on the road.
I'm not talking about when we miss our workouts because something major has happened in our lives. Those things can't be avoided. We adjust and adapt as best we can. What I'm referring to are those episodes when we simply experience a slow attrition. Our willingness to get in that gym door and start our workout simply fades. And before we know it, we've stopped going to the gym and can't imagine how we will ever get back to it.
The idea of going back to our regular workouts, training sessions, classes becomes a bit daunting. Further avoidance builds distance, anxiety and worry that we won't be able to keep up, will embarrass ourselves in front of others, or have to "start all over again." Staying home and not working out becomes its own self-fulfilling prophecy and helps reinforce the reasons we develop for not getting back into our workouts.
The good news is that avoidance of this nature - where our rational mind knows that there is really no actual danger - evaporate quickly in the face of decisive positive action. I.e. if I go to the gym, walk in the door, put on my workout clothes and start to move, my physical actions will help to change my thoughts, and the fear I was feeling will lessen and eventually evaporate.
The other great thing is that many of us have experienced at one point or another a desire to avoid something that is actually good for us. This usually happens when the thing that is good for us also makes us emotionally or physically uncomfortable. We know how to help each other through these challenges. Tell your friends what's happening and ask for their support!
No easy solutions here, but a desire on my part to see more people who start off with great dedication to their workouts stick with the plan and continue moving forward. Bumps in the road are inevitable. The trick is to recognize them as such and not let them stop you. Just look at them as little opportunities to reinforce your commitment to your own wellbeing.
Before I go further, let me say that I use the term "gym" loosely. Your "gym" could be outdoors, a climbing gym, a yoga studio, a martial arts dojo, a circus school, a fitness center or anywhere else where you exercise on a regular basis.
It starts with a missed training session, a skipped class or a cancelled workout with a friend. Something came up. You were under the weather, work got too busy, you had a social obligation that couldn't be changed. And then the next day...well...what's one more day of skipping the gym? The third day, "Hey, this is getting pretty comfortable. I like sleeping in (or coming home early)." More difficult yet is when travel interrupts your workout schedule - especially if you don't keep up some sort of exercise routine while you're on the road.
I'm not talking about when we miss our workouts because something major has happened in our lives. Those things can't be avoided. We adjust and adapt as best we can. What I'm referring to are those episodes when we simply experience a slow attrition. Our willingness to get in that gym door and start our workout simply fades. And before we know it, we've stopped going to the gym and can't imagine how we will ever get back to it.
The idea of going back to our regular workouts, training sessions, classes becomes a bit daunting. Further avoidance builds distance, anxiety and worry that we won't be able to keep up, will embarrass ourselves in front of others, or have to "start all over again." Staying home and not working out becomes its own self-fulfilling prophecy and helps reinforce the reasons we develop for not getting back into our workouts.
The good news is that avoidance of this nature - where our rational mind knows that there is really no actual danger - evaporate quickly in the face of decisive positive action. I.e. if I go to the gym, walk in the door, put on my workout clothes and start to move, my physical actions will help to change my thoughts, and the fear I was feeling will lessen and eventually evaporate.
The other great thing is that many of us have experienced at one point or another a desire to avoid something that is actually good for us. This usually happens when the thing that is good for us also makes us emotionally or physically uncomfortable. We know how to help each other through these challenges. Tell your friends what's happening and ask for their support!
No easy solutions here, but a desire on my part to see more people who start off with great dedication to their workouts stick with the plan and continue moving forward. Bumps in the road are inevitable. The trick is to recognize them as such and not let them stop you. Just look at them as little opportunities to reinforce your commitment to your own wellbeing.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Laura's Laws of Leadership - Plus One of My Own
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| Laura Goodin - photo: Michael Salerno |
Laura has been a friend of mine for almost 20 years. In addition to her current leadership roles as producer, director and mom, Laura has taught self-defense and martial arts to people of all ages and spent over a decade as an emergency-management professional, leading, training, and managing a corps of paid and volunteer media officers and participating in the development of state- and national-level emergency-management policy.
1. Feed 'em. Whatever that means.
You have to "feed" your team what will give them sustenance, energy and encouragement as a whole while also "feeding" each person's unique motivational needs. You need to know your team members and provide the best support you can to help them be successful. One of the greatest tools I have begun to use in this regard is Process Communication or PCM. For more on this, visit my friends at Next Element Consulting.
Laura pointed out that "feed 'em" also often literally means "Give them something to eat." It's amazing how clearly that will communicate to your people that you care about their welfare. I can attest to the impact of such a seemingly simple gesture. Years ago when I was working at an outdoor adventure school, we were unpacking in the cold rain from a large expedition. Our manager came out of his warm, dry office, started up a portable stove, and made hot chocolate for us all. This simple gesture not only strengthened the loyalty I already felt; it also gained him about 4 more hours work from each one of us.
2. Make their success more important than your own.
I think this is perhaps the most important leadership rule I know. As a leader, my goal is and always has been to help my participants, team members and clients shine! It is not important that I am out ahead getting the spotlight - unless that is necessary for a particular purpose. What is most important is that each person on my team is doing what they do best and challenging themselves to grow in areas where they need further development.
3. Lead by example (this one's from me).
If you want your team to excel, show them how to do it. You may not be performing the same functions as others on your team (that's why you have a team!), but you must show the same energy, spirit, enthusiasm, talent and commitment to what you are doing.
You also have to model good self-care. Working on a high-functioning team is exhilerating but also tiring. Model good work-life balance and encourage your team-mates to take care of themselves. Practice what you preach, as they say. Especially in the fitness industry, we need to walk our talk!
I have been fortunate to have worked with a number of fabulous leaders over the years. I have been "well-fed" both literally and figuratively! I hope to use that sustenance to create something beautiful for a brand new team!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Continuous Improvement is the Name of the Game
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.”
This quote has been sticking in my head lately. I’ve seen it attributed to Mark Twain, and also to Tony Robbins. Either way, this saying holds a lot of truth when it comes to developing and maintaining a lifelong fitness program.
For many people, taking that first step into the gym to sign up for a membership is the result of months of thought and preparation. But it is only one part of the process. Did you know that only 40% of people who join gyms continue coming regularly after the first six weeks of their membership? In my opinion, gyms share the responsibility for that very poor statistic, but that is a subject for another post.
If you’ve passed that first six-week hurdle and are exercising regularly, congratulations! If you’re still working on it, don’t give up. Experiencing failure along the way is a natural part of any growth process; the important thing is to learn from what went wrong and make changes that help you move forward in a better way on your next attempt. Take small steps and keep moving forward. Some days, it’s just a matter of packing up your workout clothes and walking out the door. Start doing something. Once you’ve started, you’re likely to continue!
Once you’ve become a regular exerciser, you still have to keep updating and changing what you do to keep your workouts fresh and challenging! Your body will get used to what you are doing if you do it over and over again, and you will become more efficient at it. Therefore your workouts will become less and less challenging over time - resulting in fewer benefits to you! Our bodies need challenge in order to improve!
Workouts can be progressed and adjusted in a number of ways depending on what you want to accomplish and what works well for your specific goals and needs. It’s not just a matter of lifting more weight. There are a number of variables at play and the important thing is to change the right ones to help you keep moving forward.
If you are working with a trainer, that partnership should result in you continuously changing and progressing your workouts as you get better at what you do. Other ways to keep your fitness program fresh include taking classes from seasoned and talented instructors, working out with a partner who challenges you in a good way, or signing up for an event you want to participate in such as a race or other fitness challenge and working toward that goal!
The important thing is to keep raising the bar in ways that are appropriate for you. You’ll have more fun in the process and keep your workouts interesting!
This quote has been sticking in my head lately. I’ve seen it attributed to Mark Twain, and also to Tony Robbins. Either way, this saying holds a lot of truth when it comes to developing and maintaining a lifelong fitness program.
For many people, taking that first step into the gym to sign up for a membership is the result of months of thought and preparation. But it is only one part of the process. Did you know that only 40% of people who join gyms continue coming regularly after the first six weeks of their membership? In my opinion, gyms share the responsibility for that very poor statistic, but that is a subject for another post.
If you’ve passed that first six-week hurdle and are exercising regularly, congratulations! If you’re still working on it, don’t give up. Experiencing failure along the way is a natural part of any growth process; the important thing is to learn from what went wrong and make changes that help you move forward in a better way on your next attempt. Take small steps and keep moving forward. Some days, it’s just a matter of packing up your workout clothes and walking out the door. Start doing something. Once you’ve started, you’re likely to continue!
Once you’ve become a regular exerciser, you still have to keep updating and changing what you do to keep your workouts fresh and challenging! Your body will get used to what you are doing if you do it over and over again, and you will become more efficient at it. Therefore your workouts will become less and less challenging over time - resulting in fewer benefits to you! Our bodies need challenge in order to improve!
Workouts can be progressed and adjusted in a number of ways depending on what you want to accomplish and what works well for your specific goals and needs. It’s not just a matter of lifting more weight. There are a number of variables at play and the important thing is to change the right ones to help you keep moving forward.
If you are working with a trainer, that partnership should result in you continuously changing and progressing your workouts as you get better at what you do. Other ways to keep your fitness program fresh include taking classes from seasoned and talented instructors, working out with a partner who challenges you in a good way, or signing up for an event you want to participate in such as a race or other fitness challenge and working toward that goal!
The important thing is to keep raising the bar in ways that are appropriate for you. You’ll have more fun in the process and keep your workouts interesting!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Empowerment and Fear
For me, being a personal trainer and teaching group exercise classes is about empowerment. My goal is to help people understand themselves better and learn how to move more efficiently and effectively.
My time in the industry has been rather brief so far - just four years. But that follows almost 20 years of adventure-based and experiential education and about 10 years of clinical social work. In those fields, empowerment is the focus: helping people access and build on their strengths.
We say that empowering others is our focus in the training field as well, but sometimes I see other motives coming into play. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but, from my perspective, diluting our motive threatens the effectiveness and honesty of our work.
One way that our motives can get clouded is by fear.
Fear that there will not be enough money
Fear of making a poor decision
Fear of competition.
There are likely many other fears as well, but these are three that come to mind for me.
For gym owners and managers, giving in to that first fear (that there will not be enough money) can affect their policies for managing personnel and distract them from listening to members (without whom there would be no business). As a trainer, fear that there will not be enough has always led me to greater stress and lower self-confidence. I have learned not to give energy to this fear and instead put my focus on my work.
I still struggle from time to time over fear that I will make a poor training decision. But over the years, the biggest lesson I have learned is to trust my instincts. I am not perfect, and I will sometimes make a mistake, but if I approach my work cautiously and with respect, continue to learn, access all of my senses (including intuition), and really listen to my clients, I am putting myself in the best position to make good decisions.
The last fear: fear of competition, is a tough one. With all the messages I can infer from media these days about how perfect I am supposed to be and how everyone else is having a fabulous time while I'm trudging through the trenches, it's easy to succumb to a belief that others are better than I am and that they will usurp whatever small piece of the market I have. However, I have found that for the most part, we are all in the same boat together. Trainers that I have come to respect focus on learning from and helping one another. As a result, we all benefit and can do our jobs more effectively.
I try to check in with myself when I sense that I'm giving in to fear. It usually shows up as anxiety and I feel a little "off." At those times, I try to stick close to nature and take in the sounds and smells of my surroundings. I also pray to be at one with my higher power and to not let my ego or emotional confusion block that clarity.
My time in the industry has been rather brief so far - just four years. But that follows almost 20 years of adventure-based and experiential education and about 10 years of clinical social work. In those fields, empowerment is the focus: helping people access and build on their strengths.
We say that empowering others is our focus in the training field as well, but sometimes I see other motives coming into play. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but, from my perspective, diluting our motive threatens the effectiveness and honesty of our work.
One way that our motives can get clouded is by fear.
Fear that there will not be enough money
Fear of making a poor decision
Fear of competition.
There are likely many other fears as well, but these are three that come to mind for me.
For gym owners and managers, giving in to that first fear (that there will not be enough money) can affect their policies for managing personnel and distract them from listening to members (without whom there would be no business). As a trainer, fear that there will not be enough has always led me to greater stress and lower self-confidence. I have learned not to give energy to this fear and instead put my focus on my work.
I still struggle from time to time over fear that I will make a poor training decision. But over the years, the biggest lesson I have learned is to trust my instincts. I am not perfect, and I will sometimes make a mistake, but if I approach my work cautiously and with respect, continue to learn, access all of my senses (including intuition), and really listen to my clients, I am putting myself in the best position to make good decisions.
The last fear: fear of competition, is a tough one. With all the messages I can infer from media these days about how perfect I am supposed to be and how everyone else is having a fabulous time while I'm trudging through the trenches, it's easy to succumb to a belief that others are better than I am and that they will usurp whatever small piece of the market I have. However, I have found that for the most part, we are all in the same boat together. Trainers that I have come to respect focus on learning from and helping one another. As a result, we all benefit and can do our jobs more effectively.
I try to check in with myself when I sense that I'm giving in to fear. It usually shows up as anxiety and I feel a little "off." At those times, I try to stick close to nature and take in the sounds and smells of my surroundings. I also pray to be at one with my higher power and to not let my ego or emotional confusion block that clarity.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Using "Sex" to Sell Fitness
I just saw a class advertised as “sexercise.” What in the world is that? It looks to me like it’s a cheap way to try to draw attention to a class by using sex, once again, to SELL.
While having a healthy sex life and exercising on a regular basis each have a positive impact on our physical and emotional health, and they can certainly enhance one another, I think of them differently. For me, sex is something really personal and intimate. Exercise, while it can have its moments of closeness and a different kind of intimacy, is not the same thing.
When sex is used to sell fitness, I find that the message actually cheapens both. Sex becomes a commodity rather than a connection, and fitness becomes something we do to make ourselves more “sexy” - therefore commodifying ourselves.
As a trainer, I hear daily about people’s dissatisfaction with their bodies. I do my best to help people improve their health and become more comfortable with themselves. For me, the beauty of a person is who they are radiating through the body they are in. So looks matter, but what really really matters to me is who’s inside.
So please, don’t try to sell me fitness by confusing it with sex. The two are different things. I will go to the gym or work out wherever I choose and feel good about myself, my body and my experience. When I choose to have sex with someone, I will do that on my terms - far out of sight of any marketing person!
While having a healthy sex life and exercising on a regular basis each have a positive impact on our physical and emotional health, and they can certainly enhance one another, I think of them differently. For me, sex is something really personal and intimate. Exercise, while it can have its moments of closeness and a different kind of intimacy, is not the same thing.
When sex is used to sell fitness, I find that the message actually cheapens both. Sex becomes a commodity rather than a connection, and fitness becomes something we do to make ourselves more “sexy” - therefore commodifying ourselves.
As a trainer, I hear daily about people’s dissatisfaction with their bodies. I do my best to help people improve their health and become more comfortable with themselves. For me, the beauty of a person is who they are radiating through the body they are in. So looks matter, but what really really matters to me is who’s inside.
So please, don’t try to sell me fitness by confusing it with sex. The two are different things. I will go to the gym or work out wherever I choose and feel good about myself, my body and my experience. When I choose to have sex with someone, I will do that on my terms - far out of sight of any marketing person!
Monday, September 3, 2012
How Hard Should I be Working?
How Hard Should I be Working? (Part 1 - Philosophy)
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| Practicing my front kickthrough! |
That’s the place you want to be in most of your workouts. If you challenge yourself less than this, you are merely going through the paces - which sometimes is ok. It’s ok to take it easy and just have a relaxing run or spend some time lifting weights because it feels good. These are “recovery workouts” where you return to your comfort zone to refresh and restore. Conversely, if you push too hard, you run the risk of injuring yourself. I’ve done this numerous times - ignoring that little voice in my head that says “stop” because I want to reach a certain number of reps, or a certain speed, or worst of all, show off for someone! Next thing I know, I’m hurt. Again.
So how hard should you push? Exercise should be engaging. You are training your mind, body and soul as you move. You have the opportunity to form new neural pathways as you challenge yourself in different ways, creating opportunities for your body to continue to develop and for your movement to become more efficient. As you build your skills, things that used to feel difficult will start to feel effortless. That’s when you up the ante and try something new that challenges your edge.
Try to get the most from your workout - not by pushing past the point of pain or where your body wants to stop - but rather by training smart. Focus on your craft. Find your learning edge and push gently at it. Be consistent in your practice, changing the variables when things start to feel “easy,” learning from your mistakes and reinforcing your successes.
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