The Under-Dog

by Gabe Rinaldi MA, FIT General Manager

What makes you tick?

What will it take to get in the best shape of your life? What is required to be the healthiest possible you? The first step many of you have taken is to hire a trainer at FIT to assist in this process. This is the best place to start in my not so humble opinion.

The trainers at FIT have the knowledge and background necessary to help you with your goals. In addition to knowledge we all need motivation and inspiration. Recall from my April 2007 newsletter article on the topic of motivation that motivation is from an external stimulus provided by someone like a personal trainer. Inspiration is something that happens internally from a conscious decision to positively change.

Many people have fear that prevents them from improving or achieving health and fitness goals. This may be fear of failure if they don’t reach a goal such as losing 20 lbs of fat in 4 months or fear of attending a CrossFit workout because it might be too hard. The only way to get past this fear is to develop a burning desire that is greater than the fear. Developing that burning desire is related to inspiration and motivation.

You have to want to reach your goals and you have to believe you are capable of doing so. The point of this article is to suggest each one of you do a little soul searching on what makes you tick. I believe we are all motivated and inspired differently. What works for me might not be the best approach for you. If you have an idea on what might work for you, then communicate with your trainer and give it a shot. Like any other relationship there is a lot of trial and error, but with time you and your trainer should figure out what makes you tick. Combining this with the tools to get the job done should lead to astonishment from you, the trainer, and all your friends and family as you shatter the ceiling of your goals.

It is important to write out your goals so I will lead by example. My next training related goals are to bench 300 lbs, squat 400 lbs, deadlift 500 lbs, snatch 105 kg, and clean and jerk 135 kg all before the end of 2007. These are very lofty goals and quite a bit higher than my all time best numbers. In fact, I’ve shared these goals with some of the trainers here at FIT and they have doubted that I can reach these goals. I did a bit of soul searching and I have come to realize that I am most motivated by someone else doubting me. This creates a burning desire inside of me (inspiration) to prove them wrong. I love being in the underdog role. As an aside, I also love underdog movies. Anyway, I purposely picked very lofty numbers and quite long-term goals because I knew this would lead to more doubt and build up that desire inside of me. That’s my personal story for now.

Think about you and talk with your trainer. If it helps you to get more people involved with your journey, then post up your goals on the FIT forum. Ask your trainer for help if you need any direction with the forum. Here’s to shattering your goals.