From 2009-2013 I was still competing at a moderately high level in the sport of CrossFit. That means I was putting a lot of time in at the gym. My typical training sessions were 2 hours long and I worked out at least 5 days per week. I doubt I took more than two weeks off in the year. Let’s say I was training about 500 hours per year accumulating over 2000 hours of training in the 4 year period. And that’s just in those 4 years. I’ve been strength training since I was 12. I’m almost 34 now. I have almost 22 years of fitness experience. There’s a really good chance I’ve trained well over 15,000 hours in my life. I say all this for perspective.

Too often, we forget what our typical gym-goer’s experience level is. Our clients aren’t hitting the 10,000th hour milestone, they’re hitting the 10,000th minute. 90% of our people are beginners or novices in strength and conditioning. And that’s not meant to be a stab at them. It’s just reality. Malcolm Gladwell stated in his book Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours in your craft to become an expert – to perform your craft at a mastery level. If our clients are amassing their first 1000 hours, they are still beginners.

Sometimes I’ll demonstrate a movement for my classes that I coach and someone will comment, “you make that look so easy”. My response is always, “that’s my job”. And it is. My job is to be an expert at exercise, not there’s.

They are bankers, lawyers, nurses, IT specialists, financial planners, teachers, and administrators – not professional exercisers.

I think it’s important for all parties to remember that.

For the coach, give them a break…they’re new at this. They will not move perfectly all the time. They won’t enjoy every workout. They will even skip workouts and short reps! It’s not their job to be the best at exercising. It’s not why they’re here.

For the client, don’t forget why you started this…No one has sat across from me in their initial consult and said, I’m just here to master exercise. We love that you want to improve, but we want you to improve safely and effectively and as long as it aligns with your why. Prioritize your fitness goals with your life goals. If you want to be an amazing nurse, then let your fitness support you in that. If you want to be the best financial planner in your region, then let me show you how your workout can assist in that.

Your workout should support your life. Don’t let your ego or the leaderboard get in the way of that.

Happy Training,

Coach Josh