Preface: SO, the main purpose of this post is to hopefully help make you aware of what you’re focusing on when training / working out. This will be ironical to some of you because… well you’ll see. 😉
This post (semi-rant) is brought to you by the letter ‘S’ (for Stop It!), and is dedicated to Nelly, and all her negative sisters. haha. I guarantee you know at least one of them! Ya know… they decide to pop up in the locker room, or when you’re resting between sets, or whenever you least expect it, and let you know how terrible their day was, or how terrible their workout is today, or how terrible traffic was, or or or… Sheesh!!
Maybe I’ll start carrying my phone and make them watch this video when it happens. It’s freakin’ HILARIOUS!
Ever heard of the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”? It’s pretty self explanatory… You let garbage in, you get garbage out… That applies to everything… INCLUDING your workout / training.
And don’t get me started on people that watch the news at the gym. There are TV’s in the locker room, and if I walk in and the news is on, I immediately mute it, turn it off, or turn the channel. (Yeah, I like to stay informed, but I am there to train and improve and make myself better. We all know that typically the “news” is not gonna make you feel all warm and fuzzy). Plus, even if you just tune it out, invariably someone says something negative that’s completely unrelated to working out.
Unsolicited Training Tip: It’s amazing how awesome your workouts can be when you leave your garbage / baggage at the door.
Anyway… So I was at the gym the other day finishing up some barbell rows next to the platform. There were two guys deadlifting around 315lbs, so after I finished, I asked, “Hey, you guys want these 45’s?” The response… “No, cuz it would just be another week of failing at 405 pounds.” And then one of them proceeded to demonstrate (without the bar) himself failing. He was really convincing too. It was one of the best pretend failed attempts I’d seen in a while.
Seriously?? No wonder he couldn’t deadlift 405. First he tells me he can’t do it, then he demonstrates “can’t doing it”. Ha! {begin sarcasm font} Nothing like a lil positive reinforcement to get better. {end sarcasm font} I find it sadly amusing and mostly was bummed that I had to walk another 10 feet to put my plates away. ha!
I’m not saying I never have moments at the gym when I say something a bit negative, BUT… I do recognize it immediately and correct myself!
The moral of the story is… If you have pent up anger and frustration at the world or the traffic or whatever, stop telling everyone about it and USE IT TO FUEL YOUR WORKOUT!