This one's been gnawing at my insides for a couple of weeks, so I need to get it out. Consider this my therapy in words. One of my clients told me his colleague came back from some "extreme" class he does and bragged that he only puked twice. What? Really? This is what you're proud of? Look, if someone wants to increase their risk of injury to get results, I can't stop them. But there's no need to kill ourselves in the name of fitness. I'm living proof that you can get the results you want without going to these idiotic extremes. Does it take a bit longer doing it right? Yes. But in the end, you have the same, if not better, results that will last you a lifetime. There's risk every time you exercise (even going for a walk), but why anyone would willingly open themselves up to an increased risk when it's, for the most part, avoidable is beyond me.
We all know the phrase, 'No pain, no gain'. Well, there's a problem with that phrase. Pain means you're either doing something wrong or something is hurting and you need to stop before it gets worse. I offer this correction to the phrase: 'No discomfort, no gain'. Being uncomfortable and challenged is what we want, otherwise we don't get better. Putting yourself in dangerous and painful situations is not what we want. Besides, if you get hurt, guess what? You get to spend weeks, sometimes months, recovering which means no exercising. That means you become deconditioned again which leads to you hitting it harder when you get back, and that means more risk of injury. See the cycle? Exercise smarter. Take the time and effort to get it done right once, not wrong several times until you can't do it anymore. Here's the thing. If you can discipline yourself (yeah, that's a tough thing and you need the right mental state to make it work; that's something for another therapy session) enough to do it the right way, the rest of your life should just be maintaining what you've accomplished. I won't lie or sugarcoat it, the beginning stages are hard and few people like being in this stage because it can be rough and frustrating most times. This is why there is so much failure in sticking with it, and why there are so many 'get fit quick' programs and products on the market. Most of those are there to take your money and that's about it. It's all the same stuff in a new order, slapped with some new, powerful looking logo. They expect you will quit or fail and then start all over again when they roll out their newest product. They keep you thinking you've found the holy grail of health with every incarnation. Have you ever looked up the definition of 'insanity'? If not, go do it now. I say, save your money and take the longer road around. On the other side of all that nonsense is the fit and healthy body you deserve. From there, maintaining your body is becomes much easier and much more enjoyable. To those extreme programs: Here's the number of times I've puked while exercising since I started my journey more than 10 years ago: ZERO. Do they make a middle-finger emoji? End of therapy. Anyone know how much I owe myself?
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