Far too often people see fitness as something that’s going to be ‘just that easy.’
It’s tough to imagine how it could or should be any different. Reality is things are a lot different than what is or has often been advertised. Decades of quick fixes, crash diets disguised as legit plans, dishonest fit reps, pills, powders, and promotions have had a vastly negative impact.
Over the years there’s little question that commercial fitness as a whole has largely been a failure. Pick any date from 40 years ago or more and fast forward and the country’s health is in the worst shape it’s ever been. Meanwhile, athletics hasn’t exactly followed the same trend:
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- Athletes are faster.
- They are stronger.
- Athletes are achieving things that you couldn’t even imagine only a few decades ago.
Is there some kind of chasm between fitness and athletics? Is it a divide or are there parallels?
It’s better than that, and the scenario offers hope. There are similarities that have been, dare I say, forgotten or steered away from for the sake of something other than fitness health.
When an athlete begins their career it’s often in a group. In front of a coach who tells them ‘this is going to be the toughest thing you’ll ever have to do.’ Modern fitness reps tend to tell clients I want to help you and make it as easy and painless as possible.
Athletes quickly discover that what they are working past is their comfort zones. Those elements that keep them from being more and only pain and sacrifice gets them beyond limitations. Fitness seems to be full of products or ideas that offer a diversion from increasing volume or even substituting work for results that often don’t materialize as outlined. Or really at all.
If I were to label the ‘trend’, I might call athletics as truth and sacrifice and the modern fitness trend as seduction and failure.
So, where’s the good news? Is there actually hope for fitness?
Answer: yes.
Because athletics and fitness follow the same universal pattern: challenges.
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- Time crunches: athletes struggle to get in all the work necessary to achieve results just as someone with a fitness goal.
- Cost concerns: athletics isn’t cheap. Food costs, equipment, and quality guidance isn’t free.
- Opposition: athletes and those with a fitness goal will find no shortage of people saying you don’t need to do all that or you’ll never achieve what you desire.
- Pain: athletes carry bandages, both figurative and literally just as those with fitness and health goals know hurt, disappointment and strain.
So, what’s the solution to all these challenges? Find an easier way?
After 22 years in the field my best advice is simple and more trying than could ever be written about or explained. “This is going to be one of the toughest things you’ll ever have to do. Your comfort zones WILL hold you back and derail you. The challenges will cause pain, and I KNOW you can achieve this. Let’s begin, remain committed, and refuse no quit.”
