The Resilient Life

I joke with my clients quite a bit, that the personal training they receive from me three days per week is actually FREE! The fee they pay is for the mental and emotional counseling that goes on for an hour each session.

There is a side of fitness that can’t be documented or even really quantified in hard numbers or data. In our fitness life we want to build muscle and lose body fat and make our heart healthier and become more flexible. Those improvements make life-tasks easier and our bodies healthy. What I’ve also seen is resilience in your life that you will build through practicing consistency and the ability to endure. Pushing your body to go a little further, pressing a little more weight than you did last time, setting your goal a little higher and then meeting it makes your mind strong and confidant.

Listening to people’s stories of struggle and victory every day, strangely I find comfort in knowing that everyone is going through something. I have seen people go through so many life events, both joyous and devastating and things that blew my mind while realizing everyone is always dealing with something very personal and all consuming. They recognize that they are able to deal with these events with a clear head due to the resiliency they have developed through exercise. Exercise develops the ability to be broken down and then both mentally and physically recover. Exercise develops the ability to have a positive outlet or coping skill. Exercise develops the ability to be able to focus or compartmentalize events and feelings.

I have been teaching fitness for over a decade, and the one thing they don’t teach you in school, is that fitness (and achieving any goal) is more about the mindset and less about the body. I meet people who CAN’T meet their fitness goals, and I meet people who WON’T meet their fitness goals. The people who CAN’T; I can teach, educate, motivate, inspire and show them how to meet their goals. Those that WON’T meet their fitness goals are those who will not change adapt or take responsibility for what they have learned.

Fitness teaches adaptability, and the wherewithal to assess the situation and make the appropriate changes to achieve the goal. If in a triathlon, you hit a bump in the road and your tire goes flat… you have two choices. You can quit and wait for someone to come by and pick you up, or you can change your tire and modify your goal for the day and feel the greater satisfaction of completing a task through an adversity.

Of course we want each person to build muscle, lose fat and improve physically to their personal best. However, the further reaching effects of exercise on mental health and the ability to remain resilient is a life skill that can help carry you through any life event and situation.

Here’s to reaching your Personal Best.