June 10 2015

Every once in a while (which is already to often) someone complains to me that, “That person wasn't doing full reps" or “This person cheated” (Yes, I know when you cheat) -  We laugh a little, roll our eyes, repeat the cliché phrase about them “Only cheating themselves” and move on. But sometimes some people will get bent out of shape and lose focus on what they are even in the gym for in the first place.  I know that I encourage a little friendly competition by saying things like, “It’s a race” or comparing your scores but here’s an inside tip for you:

 It’s all just a tactic to get YOU to push YOURSELF out of YOUR comfort zone and keep things FUN.

Your comfort zone is different than my comfort zone and Sally’s comfort zone is different than Suzy’s but I'll tell you the same thing I tell my kids:

What Sally says about Suzy says more about Sally than is does about Suzy!!! 

I workout with the people I work out with because it's fun to workout with them.  They push me to go harder, encourage me to do better and we have fun – None of us worry for a minute about who beat who or whether or not their or my toes hit the bar in every rep or whatever other standard we are trying to keep. We try to keep our reps to a high standard, stay as honest as possible for the sake of principle and to get the most out of the workout and have a good time.  If any of those things changed I would not want to work out with them anymore, it's just not that serious, of course we are trying to stay honest with ourselves about what we’re doing but we're also not going to lose sleep over it if one of us had to scale a weight or a movement because something changed on us mid workout. This is the kind of environment I would hope everyone in our gym wants as well.

Am I saying you should not do what is written on the board? No, the reps and movements are there for a reason, I believe that if done with the correct range of motion and at the amount of volume prescribed for that particular day you will have satisfied the amount of work to stimulate whichever response I'm looking to get from your body on that given day.  Am I giving you permission to cheat? No, but if you want to pay me to fake your way through a workout, get no results and go home thinking you impressed me, have at it, either way I win.  All I'm trying to say is that if you are more concerned about what someone else is doing in the gym than you are about yourself, you are in the wrong place.  If you think it’s more productive to keep a negative outlook when comparing your score to someone else’s, then you are in the wrong place.  The reason any of us come to the gym should be to have fun, work hard, get better, be around like minded people and encourage each other, either by what we say or by what we are doing.  If you're here for anything else, GTFO......

The quote below is from a coach in the fitness industry that I look up for having a healthy outlook about what we are doing in the gym everyday.  It is repeated and posted in gyms all across the world, I think it sums this up perfectly.  So remember it, print it out, tattoo it on your arm if you want, do whatever it takes to remind yourself to enjoy the little time we have in the gym each week, be honest with yourself, work hard and get fit.

Conditioning:

Teams of 2 complete 10 rounds for time of:

50 Airsquats

20 H.R Pushups

5 Deadlifts 275/185

*Complete full round AFAP then switch partners

Strength:

Front Squat 

3-3-3-3-3-3-3