My current workout routine for legs is tough, it’s long, it’s heavy, it’s challenging, and every time it’s leg day, it gets harder and harder to find the desire to do it.
What’s been keeping me going is trusting the routine will continue to produce the results I want, and so far I’ve seen more results with this routine than I have EVER.
As I sit on my workout bench taking a rest between sets, feeling like I want to quit, I think about how most of the time I enjoy my workouts, I like the exercises I’m doing, the time it occupies and how I feel, usually when I start to dis-engage from the desire to workout it’s a sign to change things up, but for some reason there is a part of me saying “ no, not this time, this time, you need to dig deep for the reasons you started, this goes far beyond just wanting bigger hamstrings, a more toned butt and defined quads”.
I knew what this meant, I needed to connect with what I tell my clients, it’s that really good f@#king reason for doing what I’m doing. I ran through my process and remembered “working out is about Freedom and Possibility”
The freedom to change what I don’t like in all areas of my life including work, relationships, my home, hobbies and so on, and what will be possible for me if I do make those changes?
This requires me saying to myself “I will no longer allow myself to make excuses and say, “I’ll never” this or “I’ll never” that and use my family genetics or what people have said about me in the past to dictate my future. I decide my future, I decide what’s possible for me.
Changing the body for me, is no different than changing other things in my life, it’s all an experiment in which I get to consistently learn from, it’s “if I do X and Y what will that equal?” “If I do A and B what will happen?” If I do this many reps and sets and I eat this, what results will be produced? I remove the emotional attachment out of the results, and look at it basically from a mathematical formula. Now that’s not to say that I don’t’ get frustrated about my results, but when I do I ask myself, “do I honestly trust this process I’m on?” and “are there any more changes I am willing to make?” From what I know about fitness and nutrition my answer to the first question is usually Yes I trust the process, if I don’t trust it, then I do a bit more research and usually end up confirming the process I have chosen is correct. When I ask myself “are there any more changes I’m willing to make?” sometimes I am and most recently I added 4 more sets, other times I’m not willing to make any more changes and proceed to carry on.
Trusting a process to getting fit is hard, especially when you’ve tried, achieved and then haven’t been able to maintain. Wherever you feel you’ve failed or haven’t achieved something in the past doesn’t dictate or have any bearing on the present or the future. If you quit a process too soon, you believe it doesn’t work, but your expectations were likely way to high.
Think back to all the achievements you’ve made in your life, they likely took you a long time and you trusted the process likely because people you know have gone through it before you and have been successful. Like a post secondary education, you made a commitment to do it because you trusted it would yield you a specific end result and why did you trust it? Because it appeared as though from the many, many people who have gone before you, were successful.
It is difficult to trust something without proof, and this is where you need to call on that part of you that is “wise” to step up and lead the way.
When making a decision on a direction to take with anything in life, ask yourself these questions, write them down right now and post them somewhere you will see them everyday to keep you motivated!
1. What is the goal I want to achieve?
2. What will I gain in my life from achieving this goal?
3. Does this method seem reasonable?
4. Does this method fit with my lifestyle and what is important to me?
5. Does this method honour my personal values?
Trust the process and when you start to get discouraged, check in with that “wise” part of you and remind yourself about that really big f@#king reason you started.
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Sincerely,
Heather Layton – Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Life Coach
Livit247 – Get Fit, Eat Cupcakes