We make ourselves stronger.
Being physically strong will and always does flow through the rest of your being. It helps you become mentally and emotionally strong and allows you to handle the challenges that life deals you and there are a ton of challenges we go through every single day.
About a week ago someone said a quote that really stuck with me. So much so that I wrote it on the quote chalk board in the gym. The quote reads "We make ourselves strong so we can dig ourselves out of the holes we create". So many times through life we find ourselves in a hole or a rut for that matter. We often don't know where to find the strength to get ourselves out of these situations and then we get used to them and become complacent and stay stuck. We all know what this is like and I would be willing to bet all of us hate this feeling with a passion. This is why you have decided to make your self strong. Being physically strong will and always does flow through the rest of your being. It helps you become mentally and emotionally strong and allows you to handle the challenges that life deals you and there are a ton of challenges we go through every single day. A lot of you have significant people in your life that rely on you to handle these challenges and quite honestly it's not OK if you don't handle these challenges. So keep on making yourself strong every day, weather it is by a little each day or a ton some days. You deserve to have this wonderful feeling that you, some way, some how will work your butt off through any challenges life throws at you, because you are strong and you work at it every day.
The family that works out together....
Committing to live a healthy lifestyle can be difficult at time. Trying to change ones life into a healthy lifestyle can be very difficult at first and having a life partner to join and support you in this journey can be priceless.
One of the really cool things at Big Tree Fitness is the amount of couples we have working out together at the gym during our classes. I am very impressed with all of their commitments to take on this lifestyle commitment with each other. There is more than enough evidence out there that shows that this kind of support for each other improves their relationship in so many positive ways. Committing to live a healthy lifestyle can be difficult at time. Trying to change ones life into a healthy lifestyle can be very difficult at first and having a life partner to join and support you in this journey can be priceless. So here's to all of you who have started to take this journey together. Keep up the hard work and be a positive influence on others, you never know who you might help!
Staying Committed
Sometimes life can get in the way of a commitment and that is OK from time to time. Too often though we use life as an excuse to stray from a commitment. Especially when it comes to our workouts
Staying committed to anything can be difficult at times. Sometimes life can get in the way of a commitment and that is OK from time to time. Too often though we use life as an excuse to stray from a commitment. Especially when it comes to our workouts. Trust me I know how hard it can be to get up the fortitude or the ambition to go to the gym. We say we are to tired or I am just not into it today. The problem though with all this is that the times we want to use our bank full of excuses, but chose not to, we forget that the first statement we make after going to the gym and working our butts off is "I am so glad that I decided not to skip the gym. That was exactly what I needed". Why do we forget so easily how good we feel when we do not allow ourselves to use excuses and we stay committed to our personal causes to improve ourselves and the world around us. The reason is excuses are easy and work is hard. Lets face it, why do we want to commit to "voluntary hardship". The reason is the great feeling of personal accomplishment that is impossible to get when we use our excuses. So next time we decide to start thinking about letting our excuses win, think about the statement we make and the feeling that statement creates in each one of us every time.
Spring Cleaning
You want to have the "need" to go the extra little bit all the time. It's this type of effort that pushes you over the top. In return for this extra effort the reward and personal satisfaction is ten times greater then just doing the average
This weekend has been absolutely awesome outside. I took advantage of the Spring like weather and did some outside cleaning of Big Tree Fitness. Like washing down the outs side walls, windows, sweeping out all winter and late fall debris from the sidewalk cracks and curbs. This little bit of work really made the front of the gym look nice and fresh. It made me notice the other tenants spaces and the lack of cleaning that had been done in a while. It's this type of detail or extra effort that you need to put into anything if you want a certain kind of result and succeed with your higher expectations in yourself. You want to have the "need" to go the extra little bit all the time. It's this type of effort that pushes you over the top. In return for this extra effort the reward and personal satisfaction is ten times greater then just doing the average. So with this change of seasons coming upon us take some stock in yourself and see what spring clean you need to do not just where you live and work, but also on yourself.
Listening
Listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. Recovery is very important and if your someone who is dedicated to his or her physical fitness and health and can sometimes be hard to stop and de-load, but it is necessary in order to continue positive growth
Recently I had to learn a valuable lesson. Since I was able to achieve my goal of the 1000 lbs combined lift my body has felt pretty much like crap. I pushed myself very hard for two months to gain the strength needed to hit this goal by doing tons of work at the gym and also on my own. After reaching my goal I just kept on going and ignored my body and what it was telling me. Because of that my workouts, my mental state of mind, my personal life all started to suffer. It took my training coach to put the brakes on me and give me some good tough love in order for me to learn this lesson. Listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. Recovery is very important and if your someone who is dedicated to his or her physical fitness and health and can sometimes be hard to stop and de-load, but it is necessary in order to continue positive growth. Become a good listener, your body will thank you.
Indoor and Outdoor
Hope to see you soon at our outdoor training.
Well it has finally arrived, the warmer weather. It feels so good to open the doors and start to use the outside as part of the gym again. There is a great feeling you get when the outside warm weather helps get your sweat on when you are working out. Mother nature is a great motivator and an awesome inspiration. The fresh air and the warmth of the sun make you feel alive again. Hope to see you soon at our outdoor training.
Goals
Are you writing down your goals? Are they lofty goals? Are they lofty enough that when you look back after YOU ACHIEVE the goal you can look back with this over whelming sense of pride of all the hard work and dedication you put in to accomplish the goal
This past week I turned 50. A couple months prior i set a combined lifting weight goal. Through hard work and the encouragement and coaching of my lifting partners and my own personal trainer I accomplished this goal on my birthday. Now in the world of power lifting my combined lift weight total of 1010 lbs is nothing to write home about, considering there are powerlifters posting 1000 lbs Deadlifts. The actual important part was a couple months ago I wrote a number down on the board, a number that at one point in time I would have never thought I could achieve. Tells you how much I know. Are you writing down your goals? Are they lofty goals? Are they lofty enough that when you look back after YOU ACHIEVE the goal you can look back with this over whelming sense of pride of all the hard work and dedication you put in to accomplish the goal. When times get tough and they will, that sense of pride is something you will be able to lean on and draw from. Now go set some goals and crush them and own them.
Spring is here (Maybe)
With the weather changing for the Winter to Spring, the gym will start to use the outdoors for parts of the workouts. This allows us to start crushing our conditioning programs, be more creative with the programs and take advantage of Mother Nature and all she has to offer.