Recently, my partner Leah and I went on a three month vacation to South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The trip was truly amazing and I was very blessed to have been able to see such beauty. One of the things that happens on a trip like that is that you have a lot of time to think about things. Once you get out of work mode, you begin to reflect on things you've done in the past, you think about your line of work and if it is right for you, and you wonder why things are a certain way.
These are things I thought about on this trip. Specifically, I started to wonder why we view strength and conditioning as such an important aspect in our lives. Why do I care so much about teaching others how to get strong and push them to their physiological and psychological limits? It didn't take me long before I could confirm why we do these things. Leah and I did a lot of hiking during our travels and although we did a lot of moderate 1-2 hour hikes, we also did a fair amount of difficult hikes. We ventured on a four day trek through the mountains in Sapa, Vietnam, an eight hour hike through the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand and a two hour treacherous climb in Ang Thong National Park in Thailand. Now, I'm not saying that everyone that took part in these hikes was in great shape. It was actually quite the contrary with many people who I would classify as overweight and even obese attempting these journeys. And, good on them for challenging themselves by taking on these daunting tasks. But what I noticed most is that on all of these hikes, Leah and I would consistently be among the small few who would make it the farthest, and more importantly take routes that would take us to some of the most amazing views you could ever imagine. I'm talking about those "on top of the world" feelings that most people would never dream of trying. For most, the difficult terrain was too much, and generally it could be narrowed down to a general lack of strength and stamina.
So, I started thinking to myself, "can you imagine not being able to achieve something so gratifying because of fitness?" And that is when I realized that why I train myself and others this way and how much of my strength and fitness I have taken for granted. Moreover, Leah and I were probably in the worst shape that we had been in for quite sometime since we decided that we weren't going to try and go out of our way to get to a gym while we traveled and instead just enjoyed our trip. The baseline strength and endurance that we had built up prior to our trip was enough to carry us through anything we wanted to do for the next three months. Now, I'm not saying that everyone needs to go on extreme adventures, but you should ask yourself if strength, health, fitness, or state of mind is holding you back from a certain challenge that would feel so good to accomplish. We do this so that we can enjoy all the natural wonders that this world has to offer...and believe me, they are endless!
