“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” Wayne Gretzky
How’s it going Biolayne Readers! Today we want to talk about the Evolution of Fitness and where we see things going in the future. This is part one of a two part series so make sure you are on the lookout for part two. Sit back, relax, take some notes, and enjoy the read.
We live in a society where we want instant gratification, quick fixes with minimal effort, and extraordinary results with just a “good” effort instead of a “great effort.”
This is applied in all areas of life such as health, wealth, love, and happiness.
When we say health, let’s keep this in the context of fitness for this 2 part series.
In fitness, we want instantaneous and un-realistic results with putting in a “good” not “great” effort at the gym and in the kitchen.
After working with over a thousand clients online and in person the past decade, having higher level coaches, mentors, self-education and experimentation, and higher level institute education… people’s fitness journeys never end up with instantaneous and un-realistic results with putting in a “good” not “great” effort at the gym and in the kitchen.
In this new era, we are in, with all the technology advancement, social media, and what we like to call “noise,” you should be “great” and play where the puck is going to be. In this case, the puck is heading towards six principles within the evolution of fitness, but for time’s sake and not to sound like a broken record with the same old training and nutrition content, we are going to bring you the other four principles that are going to enhance your overall fitness journey, fulfillment in life, and create a dynamic lifestyle!
You ready?
Principle 1- Developing a Strong Mind
Going back maybe five-six years ago, mentality and focusing on developing a strong mind really wasn’t one of those sexy things to concentrate on.
If there was one person that had the mentality component down, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’d always preach about the mind-muscle connection, he’d always try and mentally defeat his opponents before stepping on stage, he’d always try and better himself not just in fitness, but overall, and he even wore shorts to expose his weak point, which were his calves, to mentally trigger himself that he needed to work on his calves.
Here’s the issue, about six-ten years ago, society wasn’t the way it is right now, especially how fast paced it is, with the whole social media thing going on, and technology advancement. So, It’s kind of hard to compare and contrast to where it is now.
In today’s new era, you need to think about training your mind and giving it a mental workout just as you would your biceps, chest, or glutes. When you give your brain a mental workout it becomes quicker, sharper, nimbler, and hypertrophy’s in knowledge just as you would be adding reps and sets to your body parts to get them to grow bigger and stronger. If you don’t train your mind, it atrophy’s just like your muscles would if you didn’t train them for months on end.
“Everyone wants to be Physically Fit, but not Mentally Fit”
You give yourself a mental workout through having a morning routine, meditation, deep breathing, relaxing in silence for five minutes to let the system reset, having a wind down routine, reading, and more.
Do we have your attention yet?
Just checking to see if you are with us ?
Let’s dig into three different concepts within developing a strong mindset and those are: Fear, criticism, and emotional resiliency.
Criticism
With criticism, just think about how many times you are criticized in your life. This could be going on right now. This could be going on in the past. It could be from friends, it could be from peers, coworkers, family members, gym buddies, etc.
If we have some sort of goal we want to attain, if we want to do a different job, if we want to leave a relationship, or if we want to do a physique competition, we’re always going to have some sort of criticism. Once you get past that barrier of criticism you are going to be able to unlock your true gift whether that’s in your fitness journey or life itself.
Fear
With fear, think about how much fear plays a role into our day-to-day thinking, our goal setting, our intuition, attaining our fitness goals, etc. Fear is like an imaginary wall that’s right there in front of you, that’s just holding you back from just stepping forward and overcoming that barrier and really unlocking your true potential and finding your gift in life.
Again, everyone has fear. We have fear. You have fear. All the greats do. Everyone does. Once you understand that, you can overcome anything and step over and take that leap of faith over barriers and then you are going to do a lot of big things in your fitness journey and in life.
Emotional Resiliency
The last concept is emotional resiliency. If you don’t know what that is, pretty much it could stand for different things, but we like to use it as showing more emotions and being more vulnerable and recognizing those things.
For males, today it’s very hard for us to show our emotions and to be more vulnerable. We must be masculine and strong all the time. It’s almost a sign of weakness if we show emotional resiliency. Again, try to practice that. If you have one of those days where you wake up and you just feel depressed, sad, you think about something in the past, maybe you went through a tragedy… It’s okay to grieve and it’s okay to show those emotions. That’s one thing we struggled with a lot and still struggle with today, even with our father’s passing thirteen years ago. That’s something we’re constantly working on till this day.
The reason this is so important in your fitness journey is because you could be going to the gym and throwing around weights like a mad person for the wrong reasons, you could be doing a diet or contest prep to mask an adverse situation or loss in your life. Or you could be using fitness to improve your body image which in turn you think that will be the hidden answer to improving your self-worth and loving yourself more because social media tells us that our self-worth is measured against what we see in the mirror, right? The main take home point is to practice emotional resiliency to unlock your true purpose, vision, and potential in your fitness journey and in life.
Practical Applications to Develop a Strong Mind:
- Start with developing a morning routine. Take 30-60 minutes first thing in the morning and experiment with silence, positive affirmations, visualizations within your goals, exercising, reading, meditating, deep breathing exercises, or try journaling
- Work on overcoming criticism and fear and work on developing emotional resiliency
Principle 2- Using Personal Development to Enhance your Fitness Journey
We want to give some context on what personal development is in our definition. We’re sure you have a different definition and we don’t think there’s just one right universal definition of personal development.
Personal development is about bettering yourself overall… internally and externally and you’re doing this by seeking wisdom, tools, and knowledge. This can all come from seeking mentors, hiring coaches, going to conferences, seminars, and retreats that specialize in things. It could be through listening to podcasts. It could be through reading. It could be through watching videos. It could be going through meet-ups and conversations with people that are more successful than you, that are at your level, or that are up and comers…you can learn from everyone.
That’s what we think about with personal development and just growing yourself overall, just to be better. You’re trying to create the best version of yourself. The way we look at it is you have one legacy to live, one life. Why not sit there and try to make the most bad-ass version of yourself by increasing your personal development overall?
In the grand scheme of things and the evolution of fitness, if you’re looking to really enhance your fitness journey and get “optimal” results (notice the quotations on the word optimal, because there is no such thing as optimal, but it does lead to us looking for the best solution and getting the best results we possibly can) it should be about bettering yourself overall, not just looking under a microscope with just training and nutrition and being obsessed with your body image.
It’s about enhancing yourself overall as a person, as a human being, learning to be better in relationships, learning to be better in your career, learning to love yourself more. It’s so many different things, and it can just create this huge dynamic person within yourself that you never thought was there.
We wish we would have learned this probably five-ten years ago. But after working with over thousand clients in person and online the past decade and getting great results for them…moving forward, we’re trying to create their best version of themselves with implementing personal development and really pushing them. Not just in the gym, not just in the kitchen, but both mentally in their relationships, their self-love, their self-worth and physically to enhance their overall fitness journey and so should you.
Practical Applications on Incorporating Personal Development to Enhance your Fitness Journey:
- Seek mentors and hire coaches to accelerate the learning curve and so that you can learn from the very best
- Attend conferences, seminars, and retreats to learn, grow, experience things, and be around like minded people
- Read more. Watch more educational videos. Listen to podcasts or audio books. Or set up meet ups or masterminds around your area to learn from others and exchange ideas and concepts
Stay tuned for part II and the other two principles within the evolution of fitness.
