Step off the hamster wheel and start getting the results you came for!!
In case you hadn’t heard, I’ve started operating from a commercial gym (thanks COVID). Over the past 7 weeks, I’ve been doing the commercial gym floor things… you know.. chatting to members, inductions for new members, offering help where it’s needed, stuff like that… PT things.
A common occurring theme when speaking to people about what they’re up to, why they’re in the gym, or even what they’re training today is uncertainty. The general response is “oh i’ll just do a bit of this and a bit of that”. Me being me, of course i’m going to probe a little more and get a little more information out of the person such as “what weights usually go on the bar?” “What reps do you usually do?” Anything program related. More often than not, it’s followed by “I’m not sure” or “I just go by feel”.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are people in the gym that just enjoy the presence of a half wiped down gym bench and the weird noises that come out of the guy that’s wearing a hoodie and glasses in the corner, that’s awesome, I’m all for that, BUT there is a huge percentage of the gym floor that are slugging away for hours a week (some even literally running on a hamster wheel) trying to reach a goal they aren’t even sure of. This hurts me because I have empathy for people that aren’t sure about what they should be doing. Of course I’d love to take them all on as clients and help them one by one, but to be honest a lot of people aren’t ready to financially commit to additional services or even approach someone for free information. This is where my emotions start to kick in. Everybody deserves to be progressing if they’re willing to put the work in, so here’s four things I think any gym goer should sit down and think about.
Weekly schedule and training program
- How many times this week will I be training and for how long?
- What type of training will I focus on each day?
- When will I take a rest day?Progress projection
- When should I increase the weights on my *leg press?
- How will I know if I’m progressing?Training objectives
- What am I specifically aiming for on this day (before you enter the gym, are you going to finally reach your 5km run goal today? Or beat last weeks 1km sprint time.)Progress measurement / reflection
- What method will you use to track your progress?
- How often?
For example (WARNING self promotion incoming) all of my online clients check in every Sunday with how their week went, any issues they had, things that went well and things that didn’t go well which allows me to do the work for them and restructure their next weeks program and ensure that they’re progressing.
Now obviously programming from a professional would be a better choice but some people aren’t willing to pay for these services, that’s cool. Implementing these strategies will get you one step closer to kicking arse.
