The future of fitness

The lookout on a battleship spies a light ahead off the starboard bow.  The captain tells him to signal the other vessel, “Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately.”  The answer comes back, “Advise you change course twenty degrees immediately!”  

The captain is furious.  He signals, “I am a captain.  We are on a collision course.  Alter your course twenty degrees, now!”

The answer comes back, “I am a seaman second class and I strongly urge you to alter your course twenty degrees.”

Now the Captain is beside himself with rage.  He signals, “I am a battleship.”

The answer comes back,

“I am a lighthouse.”

This is often how the future and the past meet, particularly in the fitness industry.  Basic beliefs are held on for so long that it’s not until cataclysmic events threaten that we open our perspective to change with the future.  

Working out has been around since before the Greeks.  The Chinese 5 – 6000 years ago had basic fitness competence tests to qualify for service in the military.  Yet, it’s been in the last 30 years, since the great advent of the Russian scientists to the west in the 1980’s that has led to the great leaps and bounds in available information about working out. 

Many professional sporting teams, including colleges, still train their athletes with outdated methodology and application.  Why such a resistance to upgrading the training methods?

1.     Especially in a sporting program the safe perspective of success is tempting.

a.    If what you’ve always done has always gotten you winning results, why change it? 

2.     It’s difficult to do something new and trust that you will attain your goals.

a.    Without the actual experience of having succeeded with the new methodology, not only does trust get worn away but so could any small window of opportunity to achieve your goal.  

Ahh, but here’s the rub.  You and I are futurists.  If you’re reading this blog, you understand from my posts that I’m intimately interested in improving and evolving my own perspective as well as helping you do the same.  That means we need to embrace change with the understanding that we are process, not result driven.  This is difficult thinking to encourage.

Everywhere we go, we see the results and final products of years’ worth of effort.  From award ceremonies to accomplishments, we see the actual moment of celebration or achievement.  We didn’t see all the hard work that someone put into that achievement to culminate into that moment of success.   We see the result and we (as a society) tend to seek instant gratification.   It’s easy.  It’s accessible.  It’s the happy ending of the movie in which we see a montage capture years’ worth of effort. 

The problem is that real life takes time.   Results take time.

What happens when we seek result driven effort?  Ever hear of the ends justifying the means?   All effort is justified so long as it achieves the goals.   I mean ALL effort.  So, if you’re playing a game how you play it doesn’t matter so long as you achieve your result.  That can (and often does) mean in order to operate with result driven thinking, hurting others can be acceptable. This is known as short term thinking.

All those diet fads out there will always be out there.  Somebody somewhere will always have some quick fix, magic elixir to sell promising the stars but delivering a magic trip nowhere.  I urge all of us to be a futurist. 

Think long term about your fitness.  Work today so that tomorrow is not compromised, but rather complimented.  A little work every day suddenly builds pretty quickly.  I’m always amazed at how quickly time can pass.  Avoid the lighthouses’ of our lives by embracing change:  long term.

Think long term and decide what you can do today and every day to stay active in your life.

Be a Futurist. 

Mo-tate.  Motivate your life to Motion!

If anyone needs help in determining how to accept long term change into their fitness program, please do not hesitate to contact me at: pcmtrain1@hotmail.com