Use competition to fuel your fitness success
One of them indicated that he’s started working with this non-profit organization (a big one) and that he’s never seen such, in his words, “piss-poor” management. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that around town in regards to this particular branch of that organization.
This branch is in trouble and they’re at risk of shutting their doors. They’ve been in a troubled state for years and with the present economy it’s really looking bleak. Whether it’s deserved or not, it’s being viewed as a management issue.
“Why”, he asked, “can’t they get some decent managers in there?” While I don’t know anything about the inner workings of that particular situation, I can give a pretty good guess as to why they struggle with management. It’s because non-profits, schools, and government positions are low-competition positions. They’re positions where your income is largely subsidized and therefore stable. Sure, it may be lower than in the private sector, but the stability is there. These organizations generally do not (and are not expected to) draw a profit and grow, and people keep their jobs regardless. There’s no danger and there’s no competition.
****Now before anyone gets too upset I want you to know that I’m not bagging on the social services or institutions or the people who work there. There are some extremely competent employees of these companies. However, the extremely competent employees know exactly what I’m talking about.****
So as a result of not having to really worry about producing results or having the next generation run you over, people in positions of power in these organizations don’t often have a need to get better. Without that strong push, they don’t or they progress slowly. These organizations become places where people who can’t or don’t want to compete go to hide.
Ok, enough soap boxing. What does this have to do with fitness? EVERYTHING! Let’s look at the old line of “survival of the fittest” for a second. How about we reverse it a bit? “The fittest will survive”
I like it! True fitness success comes through motivation and focus. Nothing sharpens up one’s focus and motivates one more than stiff competition. If you have to get better, you will get better. Guaranteed. Will you hit your goal? Maybe yes, maybe no. However, there’s almost no question that you’ll be a whole heck of a lot further with some competitive help than if you were just bumbling along at the pace of complacency.
Why do you think shows like the Biggest Loser are so successful? A big part of it is that there’s a competition going on! That’s why these people don’t quit.
Do you have to have someone to compete against? Does every session in the gym have to be a battle against your best friend, worst enemy, or personal trainer? Nope. Those are all great motivators, but you can build your own competition. How many push-ups did you do last session? Twelve? Ok, well then today is the day for thirteen. Competition breeds progress and success. Even if you’ve run away from conflict and competition your whole life, find it in yourself to put a little bit of teeth in your workout today. Compete against last week’s workout and make tomorrow better. You’ll be surprised at the results.
Filed under All Posts, Fitness Articles by 
build your fitness workout journal!
Today we’re going to talk about what you should track in your log book. Realistically, it’s your log book, so you can track whatever you want. I’m going to give some suggestions that I consider “requirements” and some optional information to include. It’s important that you find a balance of recorded information to make it useful to you, but not spend so much time getting bogged down in the data that you waste valuable training time or you just don’t want to bother. The log book is a training tool, not a data recording system for a complex scientific study.
Required Information:
1. Date and Time. Be sure to include the date of your workouts as well as the time. If you have just a random collection of undated workouts then it will be very tough to notice any trends.
Paying attention to the time of day is important as well. When I was an undergrad I trained at 5:15am for about two years because that was when my training partner could fit lifting into his schedule. I got used to it and made progress, but I never really felt good training that early. Now I’ve learned that I’m at my training peak in the mid-afternoon into the evening and I have much better sessions which leads to better results.
2. Exercise Selection, Sets, and Reps. This should be a no-brainer! What did you do during the session? Record all of your activities to spot trends.
3. Notes Section. This could be your “catch-all” area. I like to make notes during a session about my technique, how the exercises feel, or if there’s any extra info from the session. Did you feel like you were coming down with a cold? Well, that could definitely affect your workout so I’d mention it. Are you dieting and you haven’t sniffed a carb in two days? Your performance is going to suffer, no question.
Optional Information:
1. Day of the Week: Not crucial, but I like to know what day of the week a session was on. Some people have bad cases of the Mondays, while others are dragging by Friday. If you notice again and again that a certain day is sub-par then maybe you might want to address why or move your session.
2. Sleep: I like to record how much sleep I had before my session, especially if it happens to be an early session. I do pretty well with 6-8 hours sleep, or a really low amount of sleep, like 3 hours. If I am in that middle range or I get too much sleep then I don’t feel as sharp and don’t tend to be as focused during my workouts.
3. Nutrition: All of my clients log their food intake and some like to include that directly in their journal. That makes it easy to correlate the effects of varying nutritional intake on their exercise performance. This can take up a bit of room so it depends on how you store your log.
What you include in your log book is entirely up to you, those are just some suggestions. Just make sure that it is informative, legible (even when you’re shaking from exhaustion!), and that you’re consistent with it. If you only write down about a quarter of your workouts then you’re not going to really know what’s going on, are you?
photo credit: paperbackwriter from Flickr.com
Filed under All Posts, Fitness Articles by
