As the old saying goes; All work and no play makes Phil unhappy, injured, unmotivated and downright discombobulated. Make 2010 the year you make a pact to above all bring fun back into your life, back into your training and nutrition. Fun or more so the lack of effects your life as it pertains to training in more ways then you know.
“Troy Paradiso and I acting a fool, Goofing off shooting a parody video at the end of a hard training session”
For start let’s look at simple choices people make on exercising. If you have had the joy to go and see Charles speak at the Your Work Out Sucks seminar, or more recently viewed the videos of one such seminar we hosted on Youtube you’d get this message point blank. One thing I, we, preach is training above All should be enjoyed. You should love it and look forward to it. Athletes view call training practice not the more negative exercise. If what you are doing is not FUN. If you lack motivation, your training doesn’t leave you with a passion and something to strive for change. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
I would urge you first to find an activity or sport your thoroughly enjoy. Something you have a passion for. Then once you have that in turn gear your training to it. If you love Olympic curling great play that its sport it is exercise. So is tennis, ping pong, flag football, hiking rock climbing, and many, many more. Then you can gear your training. Your gym time and the way you eat to become better at what you enjoy.
The gym, training, it should enhance and better your life and sport, not detract from it. Don’t let training be an Achilles heel, find a form and activity you enjoy and make it a pact this year to train for YOU. At what YOU want for the reasons and the physique you want and get joy out of NOT at or toward something others say you should want. If you don’t have or desire to have a six pack, or to be huge and powerful and lift ginormous loads and be a mass of humanity Fine that’s great. ID that. You need to train and live for you. Until you do you aren’t living, you are existing and living for others. Find what you love, have fun at, and enjoy. Aim your training around that. Find others and find a coach open minded enough, and smart enough to help you with YOUR goals for you, not their goals for you. Once you do that you’ll be amazed at how all the other stuff falls into place. This in itself will make training more fun.
Like Dan John so eloquently explains when he speaks of his football players. Some of the hardest and best work they do is when he purposely lets them PLAY. Once a week he will have them break up into teams and they will play a game. Maybe its kick ball, or soccer or ultimate Frisbee. It’s something besides their sport, and is seen by them as play. Once in action thought you see it time and time again the players are going balls out, sprinting faster, running longer and harder then when lined up and forced to in practice, all the while they are laughing. Why because they are having fun. He broke the monotony of their practice that in time can be seen as work up, and added a new element of fun.
Training SHOULD be Fun.
You can and should laugh, and have a good time while you are also busting your butt to get the results you want. Its shouldn’t be more stress and discomfort then enjoyment. Go watch some kids run around and play on a play ground. Running like chickens with their heads cut off not a care in the world, going up ladders down stairs over monkey bars up a tree, through a pipe and over a wall. They are in reality, and literally, training their butts off, but they are having fun and don’t view it as exercise. You need to find an activity that’s makes you do the same. If it’s not power lifting fine, that’s normal it’s not for everyone. Find what does and no matter what it is, I assure you some type of resistance training can be used to better it even if it’s one day a week. However, instead of dreading it you’ll enjoy that as it is part of and to better something you love.
Nutrition is the same way. I’ll save a detailed discussion but there are too many diets out there and they ALL work. If you are getting results but hate your diet, find a new one, keep looking until you find one you can live with and enjoy.
OK, so your training hard. Your giving it your all and more, Your having FUN and love your training. You never miss a training session, never take a break not even for the holidays you LOVE this so MUCH. Yet your ran down, possibly injured a lot, even if lil nagging injuries is what ails you. Maybe your having too much fun training and not enough FUN in other aspects of your life away from training. Get some other FUN in your life. Whatever fun is for you be it hanging out with friends, going to movies, out for the night, a weekend away with NO organized training, relaxing and reading. Whatever.
FUN away from training can impact your training, nutrition, and physique in an enormous way. More than you think. It can impact recovery, both physical and mental/CNS. Just the act of laughter and joy has a huge effect on the human body and the way the rest of your day, week month goes and how the other systems in your body work. Does your life lack other FUN?? If so you better find some this year. The harder you work, even if its FUN, the harder you need to rest and play.
Now let’s go have some fun in 2010.
