I love hearing people’s stories about what brought them to physical training (in whatever form that may take), and especially about what made them stick to it. More often than not, these two reasons are very different.

Let’s take a gander at an example that I’ve seen play out on repeat…

You find yourself in the gym because you want to look better. A totally reasonable desire: get “abs”, lose belly fat, have pants fit better, leaner face, whatever. Six months of training go by, habit changes are made, and pants start to fit better, belly fat is lost, and so on. And gradually, the driving force behind training changes. Yes, you look better naked, but now you feel better, too. You wake up with more energy, the discipline you’ve applied to your training and diet has started to carry over into everything else (business, family, finances, personal projects), and you can do things you never thought your body could do. Your original goal (abs) may have kept you in the game for six months to a year. But along the way, you found something bigger.

There are countless other examples, too. Perhaps your doctor told you it’s time to start working out to lower your cholesterol, and you find yourself staying with it because you get a taste of a new kind of empowerment you’d never encountered before. Perhaps you find yourself in the gym because a friend dared you, and found yourself staying because it made you a stronger mother or father to your children. Perhaps you came to build the big muscles and stayed because it’s a bright blip of fun and play in your day that’s otherwise filled with traffic and teleconference calls.

I’m not here to wax poetic about what a physical practice can do for you. But I will say this: be open to the far-reaching change that a movement practice can effect in you. There’s a lot more than just sweat and muscles to be gained here.

- PS

11/6/19

• AMRAP 10

• 10 wallballs (20/14)

• 10 V-ups

• 100m run with medball (20/14)

• 3 RFQ

• 20 single arm bent over DB row (10/arm)

• 10 GHD back extensions