I have people come into the gym and see other clients doing push-ups and lifting weights. They shake their heads and almost quit on the spot. That’s when I give them my standard advice, “Focus on what you can, not what you can’t.” Sure, maybe you can’t do a regular push-up, but you probably can do a modified one on bent knee. Maybe you can’t do a workout with a ten pound kettlebell, but you can do one with a five pound one.
That’s why a personal trainer is important.
Trainers first assess your overall fitness and learn any special needs, plus your goals. Only then does the trainer create a workout program designed specifically to push you to the limit of what you can do. Before too long, that workout will become easy, which means fitness level improved and another “can’t do” became a “can do.” The longer you workout, the more you’ll see improvement and those worries about not being able to workout as hard will disappear.
If you have physical limitations, there’s still a lot that you can do.
I work with people who are recovering from an illness or serious condition and even people with physical limitations, such as bad knees or back problems. For those people recovering, as long as the doctor gave the okay for an exercise program, I start them off slowly, until they build their strength. If you have physical limitations, I modify the workout so it doesn’t exacerbate the condition. In fact, many of the exercises actually help relieve painful conditions.
Maybe you can’t lose fifty pounds in a month, but you can lose eight to ten.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, don’t get discouraged. Break it down to smaller weight loss goals. Losing fifty pounds in a month isn’t possible to do in a healthy manner. Don’t give up because you have a long way to go. Instead, break it down and work on a goal that’s quicker to achieve. It helps boost your motivation, by giving you success more quickly.
- The older you are, the slower you’ll see the changes. Men in their sixties won’t build muscle tissue as fast as those in their twenties. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get more muscular. It means it will take longer.
- There was a man destined to die because his obesity caused so many problems. He could barely walk a few steps. Every day he took those few steps and soon they became a few more. It took a while, but today, he’s lost hundreds of pounds and is a marathon runner by simply focusing on what he could do.
- If you can’t give up all the food you love to save calories, start by just giving up one of your favorites. Small changes add up to bigger changes down the road.
- At Body Sculptors, we have programs that focus on you and what you can do. As you achieve them and get to the next level, we’ll change the program to match your new ability.