We are big fans of a “strengths-focused culture” at Impact 3 (in short: we don’t have to be the best at everything, which contributes to a much healthier “team” workplace).
And as business owners and experts in the fitness industry, and fellow inherently biased humans, we also need to understand human behavior fairly well if we are running a good business or living a well-rounded life. As practitioners with 20+ combined years of training humanoids, biases are something professionally (and personally) familiar to us.
In terms of bias that shows up in fitness, we know that people who are runners tend to … well, run. Maybe this stems from a natural gift for running. It could be that running offers some type of respite (or that ever-sought-after “runner’s high) from daily life stresses. Maybe they love all the t-shirts and post-run snacks at 5ks. Or perhaps runners [or fill in the blank with bodybuilders, yogis, etc.] are just time-crunched people who already struggle to find a solid hour to exercise a few times a week. When they carve out that hour, they want to do something that makes them feel competent and accomplished. Likely it’s some or all of the above.
And we’re not saying this is a bad thing; we’re just saying that we tend to be biased toward our strengths, or, in the very least, toward the fitness thing we’ve gotten accustomed to doing or that we consider part of who we are, our identity.
But we’ve seen the shortfall of this practice: It can look like bodybuilders who can’t touch their toes, yogis who are very flexy but not very stable, or runners who can’t do a single lunge. While it’s easy to think of this as “normal,” it’s our job to challenge people to do the things that will not only keep them exercising for the long run and also to ensure there’s a well-rounded approach – for health, in large part – and bonus: It also often has the payoff of physique goals being achieved.
Study after study shows that people need resistance training, especially as they age; they need cardiovascular health; and they need mobility. As we said in a previous post, they also need PLAY. We should like a lot of what we do. We’re good at knowing what we like, but we often struggle to find ways of implementing even what we truly enjoy, let alone working on our weaknesses.
Fitness professionals can help by creating a training program that, in a 30-60 minute session a few times a week, addresses most of these facets of fitness. And the accountability we offer at Impact 3 means that your coach is going to not only help you figure out what makes sense for your lifestyle (riding a Peloton on your “off” days, going for a walk 2 times a week when the sun is out, playing with your kids outside) but will regularly ask about it, or, if you need increased accountability, get you into a Lifestyle Management coaching program.
So yes, keep doing what will keep you going. But take inventory of what your personal biases in fitness might be, and we’d challenge you to consider trying something different now and then. If you need help getting started, need some ideas, or are jumping from program to program without seeing results, click here to set up a time to come in and talk, or call or shoot us a text at 217-262-9399.