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By
Phil Stevens |
As the old saying goes; All work
and no play makes Phil unhappy, injured, unmotivated and downright
discombobulated. Make 2010 the year you make a pact to above all bring
fun back into your life, back into your training and nutrition. Fun
or more so the lack of effects your life as it pertains to training
in more ways then you know.
“Troy Paradiso and I acting a fool, Goofing off shooting
a
parody video at the end of a hard training session”
For start let’s look at simple
choices people make on exercising. If you have had the joy to go
and see Charles speak at the Your Work Out Sucks seminar, or more
recently viewed the videos of one such seminar we hosted on Youtube
you’d get this message point blank. One thing I, we, preach
is training above All should be enjoyed. You should love it and
look forward to it. Athletes view call training practice not the
more negative exercise. If what you are doing is not FUN. If you
lack motivation, your training doesn’t leave you with a passion
and something to strive for change. There is more than one way to
skin a cat.
I would urge you first to find an
activity or sport your thoroughly enjoy. Something you have a passion
for. Then once you have that in turn gear your training to it. If
you love Olympic curling great play that its sport it is exercise.
So is tennis, ping pong, flag football, hiking rock climbing, and
many, many more. Then you can gear your training. Your gym time
and the way you eat to become better at what you enjoy.
The gym, training, it should enhance
and better your life and sport, not detract from it. Don’t
let training be an Achilles heel, find a form and activity you enjoy
and make it a pact this year to train for YOU. At what YOU want
for the reasons and the physique you want and get joy out of NOT
at or toward something others say you should want. If you don’t
have or desire to have a six pack, or to be huge and powerful and
lift ginormous loads and be a mass of humanity Fine that’s
great. ID that. You need to train and live for you. Until you do
you aren’t living, you are existing and living for others.
Find what you love, have fun at, and enjoy. Aim your training around
that. Find others and find a coach open minded enough, and smart
enough to help you with YOUR goals for you, not their goals for
you. Once you do that you’ll be amazed at how all the other
stuff falls into place. This in itself will make training more fun.
Like Dan John so eloquently explains
when he speaks of his football players. Some of the hardest and
best work they do is when he purposely lets them PLAY. Once a week
he will have them break up into teams and they will play a game.
Maybe its kick ball, or soccer or ultimate Frisbee. It’s something
besides their sport, and is seen by them as play. Once in action
thought you see it time and time again the players are going balls
out, sprinting faster, running longer and harder then when lined
up and forced to in practice, all the while they are laughing. Why
because they are having fun. He broke the monotony of their practice
that in time can be seen as work up, and added a new element of
fun.
Training SHOULD
be Fun.
You can and should laugh, and have
a good time while you are also busting your butt to get the results
you want. Its shouldn’t be more stress and discomfort then
enjoyment. Go watch some kids run around and play on a play ground.
Running like chickens with their heads cut off not a care in the
world, going up ladders down stairs over monkey bars up a tree,
through a pipe and over a wall. They are in reality, and literally,
training their butts off, but they are having fun and don’t
view it as exercise. You need to find an activity that’s makes
you do the same. If it’s not power lifting fine, that’s
normal it’s not for everyone. Find what does and no matter
what it is, I assure you some type of resistance training can be
used to better it even if it’s one day a week. However, instead
of dreading it you’ll enjoy that as it is part of and to better
something you love.
Nutrition is the same way. I’ll
save a detailed discussion but there are too many diets out there
and they ALL work. If you are getting results but hate your diet,
find a new one, keep looking until you find one you can live with
and enjoy.
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OK, so your training hard. Your
giving it your all and more, Your having FUN and love your
training. You never miss a training session, never take a
break not even for the holidays you LOVE this so MUCH. Yet
your ran down, possibly injured a lot, even if lil nagging
injuries is what ails you. Maybe your having too much fun
training and not enough FUN in other aspects of your life
away from training. Get some other FUN in your life. Whatever
fun is for you be it hanging out with friends, going to movies,
out for the night, a weekend away with NO organized training,
relaxing and reading. Whatever.
FUN away from training can impact
your training, nutrition, and physique in an enormous way.
More than you think. It can impact recovery, both physical
and mental/CNS. Just the act of laughter and joy has a huge
effect on the human body and the way the rest of your day,
week month goes and how the other systems in your body work.
Does your life lack other FUN?? If so you better find some
this year. The harder you work, even if its FUN, the harder
you need to rest and play.
Now let’s go have some
fun in 2010.
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About The Author
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Coach Phil Stevens is an accomplished
strength athlete with considerable experience in both powerlifting
and strongman competition. Phil is the 2007 APA World Champion
in the 242-pound class (total). He currently holds the APF
275-pound class raw National bench, squat, deadlift, and total
records. Phil’s marquis lift was his 700-pound raw deadlift,
performed on February 14, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Phil has been ranked in the
“Top 10” in the deadlift Nationally across all powerlifting
federations, and in addition to his coaching duties at Staley
Training Systems, he also serves as the Arizona State Chair
for the North American Highlander Association, as well as
the founder of Lift For Hope, an annual strength-competition
with proceeds donated to Charity (www.Lift4Hope.org).
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