People often ask me what I wish I knew before I started working out and that’s tough to answer, since I fell like I’ve always been active and have been doing this for a while and forget. However, after working with so many people, I hear comments and remember many of the misconceptions that I had when I first started to get fitter. My first realization was that it all started with healthy eating and that a great body begins in the kitchen, not the gym.
Everyone needs to find his or her own motivation and set their own goals.
No matter how much you want to motivate someone, if you don’t find out why they want to look and feel better through a healthier lifestyle, you simply can’t. People need to have a personal reason and a personal motivation for those times that going to the gym isn’t a top priority. Nobody can give you that motivation or set your goals. Those things must come from you. If you’re here because your doctor said to come, then staying healthy is your goal and seeing your kids have kids or enjoying a healthy life longer.
Seeing progress takes time.
One of the biggest misconceptions, and often one of the most detrimental to your workout program, is the desire to see immediate results or thinking that you’ll get the same results every week. It took time for you to get out of shape or overweight and takes time to get your body back into shape. You should track your progress, doing everything it takes to see weight loss and a difference in your appearance, but some weeks you won’t see that progress. That’s because fitness isn’t always linear. We track your fitness to make sure that if it occurs for longer than a week, we make some changes to your program.
NEVER compare yourself to another person or their progress.
No two people are alike. That’s a mantra personal trainers say every day. Their progress will go differently, too. Men may lose weight faster than women because they have a higher ratio of muscle tissue. Your neighbor may progress faster when it comes to strength. Don’t compare yourself to anyone, even if you’re the one that’s making the best progress. At some point, the tables will turn, so only compete against yourself.
- Fitness can be fun. If you’re looking at the workout in the gym with awe and some reservation, you need to take a step back and reconsider. You can do fun activities to get fit. We even offer small group activities, where you and friends can have fun getting fit together.
- You don’t have to go it alone or reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, using the expertise of others is the best route to take to get the quickest results. There’s no shame in getting help from experts in any area.
- Scheduling a time and making an appointment with fitness will help you stick to the program. When you are developing a habit, like working out, doing it at the same time encourages it to develop.
- Changing your mind about working out and eating healthy makes a huge difference. If you only focus on the negatives and not the positives, you’ll get discouraged really soon. Feel how the workout energizes you and how tasty healthy food can be, not on what you can’t eat.
For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training