I thought I’d take a second to discuss my 5 biggest pain points in my training to see if you can relate, and take solace in the fact that I also go through struggles with my fitness.
1) Finding time to train
I’m a business owner and entrepreneur. I don’t have a 9-5 job nor do I ever turn it off. My mind is going constantly, and I constantly stress about what’s next with my business. Being and entrepreneur I also work upwards of 60-70 sometimes 80 hours a week. Not to mention, I have kids who play soccer, go to dance, and gymnastics, and I’d love to spend time with my family. In addition, my busy times in the business is when most other people are off of work, early in the morning and late at night, and Saturday mornings.
Needless to say it’s hard for me to find time to workout as well. Yes I know I own a fitness business but I think sometimes it makes it worse. You see, you leave your job to go to the gym. The gym is my job, it is my office, so many times it’s hard for me to turn it off, go on the floor and just get a workout in. In fact, right now, I had 1 hour until my next consult, I put a workout shirt on, and started to warm up, and then aborted because I had so much to do this morning, so I came and wrote a blog instead.
My favorite question is, ‘what do you do all day when you’re not teaching classes.’ Well…. I run a business. I take care of the needs of 200+ clients, I market, I network, I do consults, and phone calls, etc.
Finding the time to workout is difficult for me to, so I share your pain on that front.
2) Getting motivated
This kind of goes hand in hand with may of the points mentioned earlier. Sometimes it’s hard for me to find motivation to workout when I have so much on my plate at my job which is also the gym. That’s why I also built a gym at my house. Sometimes I will go home and do a workout just to get one in.
Then of course, there’s just normal motivation. The workouts we do are hard. Sometimes I need someone to motivate me to workout. Many times, because I’m coaching the class or trying to spend that time with the family, I don’t get to workout in the class environment. I end up doing these workouts alone, and that’s very tough mentally. Sometimes I need a support system as well.
3) Dialing in nutrition
People think I’m some nutrition Nazi. But guess what guys and gals…. I enjoy sweet things just as much as you do. I haven’t eaten gluten in several years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a cupcake every now and then. I have an inner fat kid that loves to eat sweet and salty things not to mention pizza, so yeah it’s a daily struggle for me as well.
4) Dealing with aches and pains
I have degenerative disc disease in my back. Sometimes is flares up. Sometimes I can’t squat for weeks or months at a time. I still work hard on progressing my fitness. I have an old knee injury that I had surgery on, sometimes it fires up. Sometimes I need to limit what I do and work around it. I try my best not to let that discourage me. I’ve had 5 separate injuries to my right wrist. Sometimes it gets grumpy. I still work hard to work around it and keep progressing. I tore my hamstring once and I still have issues around it. Funny thing is, none of those injuries came from doing CrossFit. There are so many negative connotations around injuries and doing CF but in reality CF has helped me overcome those injuries. The beauty in CrossFit is, I could easily let those things wear me down, but I keep working on and work around them just like we can work around anything you’ve got going on.
5) I’m too tired
As mentioned before I work tons of hours each week just like you do. I have kids at home I like to see. Many times I go home and turn my computer on and get back to work. For example, last night I was up until 11:30PM working on a video that we use to train our coaches. It was the only time I had to work on it, and it had to be done before today, so I had to do it. Then I had to get up at 6AM this morning and be back at the gym by 7:30AM to start work again, so sometimes I’m tired, but I still strive to get it in. No matter how tired, burned out, or exhausted I am, I still feel better when I finish a workout.
My point is this….
We all struggle. We all have issues we are dealing with. I want to encourage you to take the time to make this a priority and you’ll be better for it. Many people think that we don’t have an understanding of what it’s like, but we do. We are human, and these are human struggles. So I’m with you, I’m on your team. Let’s work together to accomplish great things!
3-23-16 WOD
Tall Clean and Jerk
10 x 2
Clean Pulls
Met Con:
Advanced
Muscle
Ups x 3
Box
jumps x 5
50m
run
AMRAP
15 minutes
Intermediate
Ring
Dips x 10
Box
jumps x 5
50m
run
AMRAP
15 minutes
Beginner
Dips
x 10 (upscaled to be difficult)
Box
jumps x 5
50m
run
AMRAP
15 minutes