Train Like An Athlete
Train like an athlete because you are an athlete. At what point do we finally lift enough weight, run fast enough or jump high enough to consider ourselves an athlete? My simple answer: the point when you show up and push yourself to be a better version of the person that walked in the door. Seriously, the fact that you show up and work hard, is enough. The fact that you push yourself into the discomforts of both physical and mental places makes you enough. And it is about time we start looking at the athlete in the mirror and realizing it is us looking back.
And just showing up isn’t going to make you an athlete. Watching other people put in the hard work, comparing your self to other people, or complaining about how you can’t do something. That is not going to make you an athlete. Doing the best you can, that is the athlete. Maybe sometimes you even work harder than you thought possible, that is your inner athlete. It’s time we give ourselves the labels we have earned.
I love to train athletes. I love watching people impress themselves with strengths they never thought possible. I love watching people try something they’ve struggled with in the past, only to have it come easy in the now. The people I work with, work hard…Really Hard. I watch the competitive spark turn to fire as they reach for things they never thought would be possible.
I have a belief that every person has a physical super power. And I truly believe that. The super power ranges from a walking lunging to a competitive game of freeze tag. It ranges from bear crawling up a hill to doing plate pushes across the rubber floors. Every athlete brings with them the ability to excel and exceed at a few choice exercises. Sometimes it isn’t even an exercise they enjoy. But there is that one thing that comes so easy and effortlessly, that thing that both the mind and body connect with, the thing that separates them from everyone else. That thing is their super power. Finding that super power is a little present they get to keep forever.
The biggest part of becoming an athlete and honing in on a super power, is to see your strengths. It takes time and dedication to see what makes you the athlete you are. Putting in that time also helps build confidence and leave behind some of the comparisons that are so easy to take place in fitness classes. It is all too easy to think that because you can’t do a chin up or you can’t run as fast as others, that you aren’t an amazing athlete. It can be discouraging at times to look out at someone else’s progress and think about how some things just seemed to be plateaued in your own training. What most people forget to do is think about all their successes. To take a step away from comparison discouragement and truly = compliment their own ability to show up and work hard. Some of those comparisons will still exist and sometimes comparisons can lead to hard work, but sometimes it doesn’t. And when it doesn't focus on you.
During our circuits I get to watch athletes create their own super powers. My biggest successes as a coach are when the athletes find what makes them stronger, more powerful, and confident. When athletes can own their successes it helps pave the path that makes them excited to show up and train like an athlete. Athletes can have bad days and hard days, but they still show up. And as much as some might think that this whole super powers thing is just a nice way to hand out a compliment, they are real. I am not creating a falsehood, I am just helping people recognize their ability to shine. Their ability to be one bad ass athlete.