Wednesday, May 16, 2012

#4 Train Hard or Go Home

Push to fail.

Go as fast as you can until you can't go any more.

Increase the weights until you know you are at your limit.

Try.  If you don't succeed...at least you tried.



The time of the day when I go to the gym I really have to make the mental choice as to if I want to get up or not.  I get up early and I really try hard to get enough sleep so I even go to bed before the news starts and try to start winding down just after my kids go to bed.

Last night I was up with a child for a few hours who just wasn't feeling good.  When my alarm went off I didn't want to go to the gym.  Plain and simple.  My body was tired and I was just plain exhausted from being up so much during the night with him.  Going to the gym was not something that I wanted to do.  If I did drag myself out of bed just so I would go to the gym I know that I wouldn't have worked as hard as I usually do just because I was so tired.  

The phrase "train hard or go home" from Rachel Cosgrove's Fit Female Credo rings true for me.  If I am going to wake up early in the morning there is really only one thing that I should be doing at the gym; training hard.  Training hard was not a possibility for me today.  Yesterday, yes.  Today, no.

I realize that everyone has something that works for them.  Not everyone likes to exercise the way I do.  Not everyone is the same and we all benefit and learn in different ways.  I get that.  I understand that.  Here is what I don't understand...

...those that go to the gym just to say that they went to the gym or those that exercise at home but not as hard as they could.

What does this mean?
Imagine this
...a person on a bike, pedaling AND talking on their phone.  You might think that this doesn't happen...but it really does.  I see it quite a bit.  In fact, there is one person at the gym that I have seen who talks on her phone while on the stair climber, treadmill, bike or whatever she is on that day and is talking the entire time to someone on the phone.  I have even seen this person sitting on the wall at the side of the gym talking on the phone too...not even exercising!



Is that person training hard or should they really just go home?  Not only are they distracting others if they are at a gym but their heart isn't in their workout.  They obviously don't have a plan for that workout and so a phone call easily distracts them from all the pretty machines and weights that could be used instead.

Every individual knows their limit for what they can do and everyone is going to be different.  Regardless of their skill level there is one question we should all ask ourselves each time we workout..."Am I going to train hard or should I just go home?"



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