We’ve all been there. Long day, work sucked and you’re tired. You know you need to workout, but you just don’t feel like it. You can very easily justify it saying things like “I’m really tired today, I need to rest” or “If I workout tired I could get hurt.” You can justify any decision, convincing yourself of anything! It doesn’t matter how motivated and inspired you are, we all have days where we don’t feel like it.
Now, if you’re a lone wolf in the gym then that’s the end of it. With no one to hold you accountable, you’re very unlikely to muster up the motivation to get in the gym on the tough days. This is where a personal trainer or workout partner can make the difference. Having someone involved provides all of these great benefits:
- Accountability: When you know that someone is counting on you to make your appointment, it helps pressure you to show up. This is where I think peer-pressure can be a good thing, it helps you get better! You have the increased pressure to show up when you’re working with a trainer. You don’t want to devalue their time or waste your money. This can be a great motivator!
- The Push: Most people will stop well before they’ve hit their limit. There are many times when I’ll push a client WELL PAST what they thought their limits were. I’ve also done this with training partners as well. We have to be forced out of our comfort zone to be successful in the pursuit of excellence.
- Program: This isn’t foolproof, but typically when there are multiple people involved in an endeavor there’s a plan! If you’re working with a trainer, there should be one seeing as that’s one of the most important aspects of the service they’re providing. Having a program to follow will optimize your time in the gym and keep you on-task (remember when your teacher used to shove that concept down your throat???).
Basically, we all need that someone to get in our face and tell us to tighten up. Having that person in your corner pushing you can be the difference between good and great.
To your lifelong health and success,
-Coach D.
