Are you looking to make 2017 your best year yet in the gym?

Are you trying to take your training to next level?

Do you need to get re-motivated?

Are you questioning is it all really worth your time and money?

Before you quit, have a long hard look at yourself and consider these things.

If you aren’t assessing, you’re just guessing

I remember a particular client came  to me once, dismayed and upset, feeling like they aren’t getting anywhere. We had a goal to lose a few kilos and reduce body fat so our training and nutrition programming was based around that goal. When she came to me I pulled out her data that we had collected prior to starting training and compared her starting and current data. By using actual data, I showed her that she had in fact lost several centimetres of girth in ALL areas of her body and that her “before” photo clearly showed a difference to where she was at now. The client had lost a net amount of weight that equated to a mere 1kilo. She was alarmed at first, but after our meeting together she found a newfound source of motivation and a renewed sense of purpose in the gym. She went on to lose an additional several centimetres of girth and her body shape and size continued to change dramatically!

Moral of the story? Assess, track, record.  

How to keep track of your training

You’ve really got a fair few options up your sleeve in terms of actually keeping track of what you do, but most people don’t really know what to do with the boat loads of workout data that they accumulate. I’ll show you what to do here.

  1. Buy a training diary
    You can get a fancy-pants one like this from the WOD Life, or a simple 2017 diary from the newsagent. I have training diaries for 2014 all the way to 2016. I can tell you what I did in EVERY SINGLE TRAINING SESSION since 2014!!! I got serious in my training around March that year, so the entries start about then. Can you do that?  

    Look, I think that there is motivation and power in KNOWING that I am improving. I can take the bad days, weeks and months on the chin because I understand and can prove to anyone that there are ups and downs associated with my training. If I get injured or I sleep poorly or eat less than I should, I notice the difference in my training. How do I know? Because I track those things.

    Do you? 
  1. Buy an app
    Get yourself an app to use on your smartphone. There’s a plethora of good ones out there and even more dodgy ones, but hell, even they’ll do a better job than nothing! I like MyWOD. Sure it costs a few bucks, but it’s my long term favourite for keeping track of benchmark WOD’s, strength lifts and it even has built in timers and a few other doo-dads that are really cool and very nifty. 
  1. Use your note taking software
    I like to use NOTES on my iPhone because I can sync it up with my other devices over iCloud, but I really love using it for my personal training clients as I can also sync it up with THEIR PHONES! Pretty cool 🙂

    Another option is Evernote. It’s basically a beefed up version of Notes. It’s pretty cool and you can do heaps with it.

Set some goals

Look, if you’re struggling with focus and motivation, I honestly don’t think you really know why you’re training in the first place. I appreciate your patronage and business of course haha, but I often think, man, how many people do I train that are just not getting everything they could be out of their experience with me. These people wander around the gym aimlessly until they quit. If only they took a little bit of a step back for a second and made some real goals and figured out what was really important for them – and then flaming go to work and just get the darn job done!

These people wander around the gym aimlessly until they quit.

Here’s my way of staying focussed on the big picture with goals. First, set a big goal, one that scares you. One that you want but are a little apprehensive about working towards. This has to be out of reach for you this afternoon, this week, this month, year or maybe decade. It’s a big deal. Huge!

Then go ahead and set some smaller landmark goals to help get you there. By ticking off these smaller goals you are essentially getting your butt moving and working on achieving what you really want long-term.

Maybe you want to do a competition, or get stronger or fitter or look better in the nude. Whatever floats your pickle, I can guarantee you that you’ll get there easier and faster if you actually get organised in your head and set some goals.

A goal not written down is only a wish!

Get help from a coach

Finally, before I make you go and buy some fruit and ice-cream to serve up with all this waffle! Why don’t you come and have a sit down with me to discuss the direction your training is going. These are the top reasons why I would recommend coming in to chat with me:

  1. You just hurt yourself
    Oh boy, if had a dollar for every time a doctor said told someone who got injured “don’t go to the gym for 4-6weeks until your injury heals” or some crap like that. Doctors, I’m so sorry medical folks, don’t know DIDDLY SQUAT about what we do here in the gym. They don’t know how I operate my gym. They don’t go the the damn gym themselves and they probably couldn’t even tell you 10 exercises for you to do. I absolutely most definitely am blowing my own trumpet when I say I KNOW MORE THAN A DOCTOR, A PHYSIOTHERAPIST, A CHIRO and any other health professional about EXERCISE! It’s my damn job and I’m better at it than they are! But…I’ll still refer you out when I need to get you assessed and fixed…they just need to give me parameters as to what exactly is going on and what body structures are damaged. I’ll train you around those things until you’re healed and then we can start building you back up from the start. Man! Don’t go see these guys without coming to me and just having a chat! A doctor and a strength and conditioning coach should work together. I know I need them, of course I do! But why do these doctors and some physios and massage therapists think they don’t need me/us? Boggles me!

2. Dial in your technique

Are you struggling to do kipping pullups/hspu’s, deadlifts, squats, overhead work like jerks or snatches, pushups or anything like that? Well, why are you not sitting down in front of me asking for a personal training session to fix, learn or get better at this stuff? 

Come have a chat. 

3. Get a program to do in your own time

Do you want to get better at something? Refer to point 2. If I think you need it, maybe I’ll give you a dedicated program to help you get better. Maybe you want to do that competition that you had your eyes set on or get prepared for the CrossFit Games Open coming up in a month or so. Let’s get you ready for it and start you on a little additional training if you can handle it. We sell keys and 24/7 access if you wanted to come in and do some extra work outside of class times.

4. Eliminate pain while doing exercises

I specialise in training people who are banged up, broken and in serious need of a bit of TLC. I am certified in the Functional Movement Screen system and can figure out areas of greatest need to help you move better. This system works. It’s fantastic! I am also certified in lower and upper extremities for Active Release Techniques (ART). ART is a quick and easy way for me to improve your mobility, and reduce your pain with only a couple of treatments. I am also a REHAB Trainer and have done more courses than I can think of and learned more stretches and releases than anyone I know. I can help you, don’t suffer in silence. I’ll probably send you off to a good doctor or physio to get assessed as to what’s going on inside your body, and the people I work with then tell me what is going on with you so I can devise a way for us all to work together at getting you better. We’re your own little team, dedicated to helping you! Yay, so sweet 🙂

Last word

Finally, I just want 2017 to be a year of success for you. I stopped working in commercial fitness centres and gymnasiums because I was sick and tired of being shackled by unscrupulous bosses and corporate greed. I had little to no desire of being a thief and actually wanted to help people out. Move Strong Gymnasium was opened April 1st 2013 and in the nearly 4years since we’ve been open we’ve forged the way ahead in the fitness industry in Devonport and the North-west coast of Tasmania. We are the home of CrossFit Devonport, Strongman Tasmania and a healthy group of accolytes dedicated to improving their fitness and seeing REAL RESULTS. 

As our tagline says – serious training, real results.

What’s stopping you from getting those results is probably yourself 🙂 Let’s fix that hey?

Love Bigdog