SURPRISING OURSELVES!

 

There is nothing better than surprising ourselves… and AMAZING ourselves!

I have learned over 22 years of personal training and coaching that one of the most important parts of my job is how I speak.  I love what I do and you all know I am wildly passionate about health and fitness and performance, but I’ve had to really learn to “get over” the fact that I have to talk a lot, and my feedback is very often eye rolls, looks indicating I am crazy, shaking of the head, and very rarely smiles.  (disclaimer: I try to also add in humor, lightness and fun to any and every

 training session because if you have not smiled at one point in it, then I don’t feel good about myself as your trainer.  Simply put, part of fitness is long term consistency and you won’t stick with it if you are not smiling, laughing, having some level of fun and connection).   That being said, I think every person who has ever worked with me has literally thought at some point in our time together, “she is out of her mind.”  And that is okay with me that you have thought that, because that is MY JOB.

Right there:  it is part of my job, I said it.  Part of my job is to SHOW YOU WHAT YOU CAN DO!  Sometimes that is proving to you that you can do 100 pushups in a workout, 100 pushups in a row, that you can run a half marathon, that you can do epic workouts to get you to your goals, that you can train yourself to balance for 30 seconds on one foot, that you can run indoors on your treadmill for 10 miles when it is snow/icy outdoors.  I won’t list all of the fun exercises you may have done with me such as one arm squat thrust, side plank with hip taps and toe touches, all the things.  We move in different ways so that we are challenged, so that our body learns new ways of moving, so that maybe we spot muscle or side to side imbalances, and it keeps it NEW and FUN- there is never a reason to be bored in fitness, right?  But within all of these fun challenges, yes…. I know… there are times that you may not have thought what I was asking you to do was possible.

Which brings me to the importance of my speaking and communication.  I have learned how important it is to make sure I have a plan of “gentle entry” into hard things😊 when possible, and this is not just the physical entry into the movement, but trying to be nonstop with my cues so that one movement somehow just leads into the next with no breaks.  It is much harder for someone to try something if they have stopped their feet, stood and watched me and had time to make a face like “this is insane.”  At that point, I have more work cut out for me.  If I can be quick and smooth and try to make it SEEM like this is just the next OBVIOUS thing to do with our bodies, it can be so much better!  HA! Who knew that it isn’t all about science, physiology, metabolism and anatomy.  Sometimes it is how I can keep us in the moment, in the movement, nonstop.  An interesting thing I have noticed that zoom classes gives us is the “opportunity” to NOT be with each other and looking around finding someone else who also thinks the exercise is unfair!  When everyone is in their little squares on the screen, there is less likelihood of the class rebelling against me, haha!

One of my favorite parts of my job is when people do say after the fact, after the workout, “yea- I did not think I could get up that hill one more time, but I did.”  Sometimes, I have had to hold people accountable and not let them off the hook when they flat out tell me they cannot do something BEFORE THEY TRY.  Uhhh uhhhhh.  We do NOT do that ; we do not say that we cannot before we even try.  BECAUSE:  when we try, we FIND what is possible.

Just last week, someone wrote to me, “I think easing back into exercise is over. We are in it. I thought I was not going to make it through class but I did. During class you had us do a one arm push up and put the other arm up. I thought when you said what we were to do you were crazy there was no way I could do it but I went down and did it. Not pretty but was something a few years ago would have been impossible. So, thank you for that.”  (I save emails and notes and cards with things like this and it gets me through weeks of watching people roll their eyes at me!)

And I want you to know that this is not just me doling out challenges to you all.  When I sign up for a race and begin writing my own training plan for that race, one of the things I always ask myself is:  What are some workouts/ training sessions that I’m not sure if I can even do.  For example, if I want to run a marathon and qualify for Boston at my next marathon, what are some key critical run goals along the way that I need to hit, but am not even SURE if I can.  So, I also ask myself to do the (near) impossible.

IS IT NOT JUST FUNDAMENTALLY AMAZING that during our days, we get to do things that surprise ourselves and amaze ourselves!  That we get to FIND what we are capable of?  I remind people often, “I wouldn’t have you do it unless I knew you could.”  Admittedly, sometimes that isn’t the full truth- there are always workouts that maybe you actually CANNOT DO.  (ahem….. I had a long run goal last week that I could not do in terms of executing my pace plan).  However, for the most part, we are capable of so much that we don’t even KNOW that we are!

It's interesting how much we learn through exercise and one of those things is to trust ourselves.  That we can rely on ourselves to focus, to try, and to be OPEN and ADVENTUROUS to the spirit of the effort!  I don’t take it lightly that you all show up at training sessions or classes with me with an open mind.  I fully recognize that you have no idea (sometimes thankfully) of what I have planned.  But there you are, open to the “test of the day” that you may find within your workout.  You are open to working, trying and potentially doing things that you did not think you could do.  I think that is pretty cool.

 I truly think that is living fully, ALL IN. **think on it and email me 1-2 things that you have been AMAZED that you have been able to do that you didn’t think you could!