No time to train? Too busy being busy?
Head Coach Jerome unpacks motivation, time management and goal setting.
It’s disheartening hearing people say they don’t have the time to train. Usually what they really mean is they don’t prioritise their training. And fair enough, maybe. We don’t all need to be super-athletes, we don’t even need to love our training, but if you’re reading this, you’ve probably realised the benefits of exercise, either directly or indirectly. So, rather than highlight those benefits, I want to talk about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ to prioritise training for the sake of dealing with the uncertainties in the rest of our lives.
When life gets busy, exercise is often the first thing to go, and often, unjustly. As to-do lists lengthen, and deadlines compress, an hour spent in the gym may seem futile in the scheme of life events. I’ve been there, only to then spend 2 hours brazenly searching for TV shows that I don’t yet know to exist, staying up later than I should.
I want to convince you why you should prioritise your training, not because I’m some sort of health tyrant, but because having a purpose in my own training, and committing to that, has helped me enormously in every other element of my life, and I want that to be understood!
In the gym, you are in control of how hard you work. There are really no ramifications for slacking off, and that’s important because it means that you are willingly suffering, you are delaying gratification (that of ceasing to move) in every moment, for the sake of a better you. If we can get comfortable with the uncomfortable – the distress we put ourselves through when training – we are better equipped to deal with the unknown stresses that manifest in day to day life. We have not only worked our physical muscles, but the mental muscle of ‘sacrifice’ also. Like your bicep, the strengthening of sacrifice and delayed gratification will leak into the rest of your life. Procrastination is easily overcome, healthy eating doesn’t seem miserable, you prioritise sleep over TV; the effects are far-reaching.
So, what’s the best way to prioritise your training?
Plan. Build your training into your weekly schedule. Of course, not all of us work 9-5 with a rigid weekly structure in place, but if you can sit down at the start of your week and map out training times into your weekly plan, you’ll have a much easier time getting to those sessions. Don’t be the person that only trains when they feel good. Some sessions are harder than others, and it’s often the sessions that you are most apprehensive about attending that end with the most satisfaction.
With The Fit Project’s new timetable integrated into Zen Planner, there’s great opportunity to plan out your weekly routine on the basis of your goals.
Where will you be in 3 months, 6 months, 12 months time, if you keep showing up, week in, week out, no matter how crazy life might get?
We’re here to help,
Coach Jerome