Thursday, May 16, 2013

Are you looking to shed 15 pounds?  Do you want to run a marathon?  Do you want to hit a new personal best power lifting or weightlifting total?  I have the biggest secret that supplement companies don’t want you to know!  This is so top secret that even big box globo gyms don’t want you to know!  What is even better than the biggest secret in fitness?  The fact that the biggest secret in fitness is only two words!  Two words!  Are you ready for this!?  (Are all the questions annoying you yet?  I’m doing my best infomercial here.)

Show Up.

That’s it.  If you set smart goals then all you have to do is show up.  About 80% of your training is going to be run of the mill, average, everyday work.  You’ll put in the mileage, hang up your shoes, and go home.  You’ll finish your squats, rack the bar, and go home.  You’ll tap out for the last time, pack up your gi, and go home.  It will be a normal day, but when you show up for normal day after normal day something starts to happen.  All the accumulated work from simply showing up starts to create change.  Before you know it, you’ll see the body you wanted starting to appear in the mirror, your times will come down, and your weights will go up.  Sport skills will improve.  It’s uncanny what I see when people simply show up over long periods of time.

It can’t be that easy…

Notice I never said it was easy.  It is simple.  So simple that people think it must be something else.  We love to blame the success of others on luck or cheating.  That guy has great genes, he must be on steroids, it’s because she’s young, she sure had a lucky break.  No one wants to say, “Congratulations, your years of hard work have really paid off in attributes, aesthetics, and skills that I hope to have one day.”  That would be an acknowledgment that you could do what they did if you just show up and work hard.  It’s much easier to blame it on genetics and stay home eating honey buns.