The Client Side: Why Train?
Because you have everything to lose and everything to gain
By Trina Diner
Training feels risky. It feels risky because it is. You are paying out hard earned dollars for gym memberships and trainers for non-instant gratification. You are risking this for gains that take shape over periods of time and rely on what you do outside the gym as much as on what happens in the gym. You are risking feeling like a fool and maybe looking like one too. You risk that you will be seen as stupid, inept, use girly weights, bad technique, because other people that do it look so confident in your eyes. You risk facing yourself, how things got this far, how you ‘let’ yourself get out of shape. You risk your known comfort zone. Comfort is warm and fuzzy and there are lots of wine, chips and chocolates there. Why leave that for risky? If you can face your fears to take the first step towards risky, you might be surprised at what you can gain and the forms it will take.
The largest single risk hurdle is to choose you. To choose to forgo the cost of a dinner out, entertainment, clothing or other pleasure in order to train is the first step. Deciding that your health and wellbeing is a priority over “shoulds” in your life and giving yourself the time to do so is a conscious choice. It is made by you and only you. This act, by itself, tells you that you are worth investing in. You are worth it, you will master what seemed impossible and you have faith in yourself to achieve. Motivation is an interesting phenomenon and can be an ongoing challenge, but likely there was or will be an initial something that has gotten you thinking about training. Whatever your initial trigger, maybe a health complication, inspiration, death, new baby or other event that has almost gotten you to the point of training, it will not translate into commitment until you decide you are worth it. You may lose on dinner out but you will gain in innumerable ways. You will achieve in small ways each time in the gym and you will see these small steps translate into gains that you will not understand until much later.
The things that you will begin to see over time are hard won. These gains are yours. The feeling of accomplishing something physical in the body can uplift the spirit. The feeling of accomplishment and the connection between mind and what your body can do will become known to you as you begin to get to know yourself. You will gain in increased confidence, there will be that day when someone says casually ‘you look good’, and you will begin to do more because you know you can. You will begin to understand your own internal battles. You will understand that the outside job was actually an inside one all along, you may have lost some things. You may lose inches, pounds and a negative self image, and gained a level of mastery of your body. Confidence in understanding yourself, your triggers, your fears, your risks, these are different for everyone but you will begin to know this as you train.
Training is risky. If anyone tells you it’s not I’m here to tell you it is. If you hear that its time wasted, too expensive or you tell yourself you can’t get up early, or go late, or possibly do THAT, I say phooey! It boils down to understanding that yes there is a very personal risk in undertaking this. Yes, it will be trial and error. But you will begin to understand yourself and your body in a way that you didn’t before. You will begin to feel like an athlete, sexy, confident, esteem. You do have to lose your old self, but you will gain a new self, a brighter self, an accomplished self. It is an inside job. Once you make the first critical decision that you are worth it you are then ready to start, you have inches to lose and yourself to gain.
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