Is your fitness
slacking too? I've got a confession to make.
So I went for a New Year’s
Day surf and was hugely disappointed in my own ability to surf and manage in
the tricky conditions. You see I've been a full time surfer for around 15 years
and have prided myself for being able to go out in pretty much anything the sea
around the UK can whip up. Not now though, I struggled and just about survived
after a late and slightly boozy night (NYE) with a very early trip to the beach
and I left the water after only 30 minutes instead of the usual 2-3 or more
hours.
You see we've had baby
Nina, now 5 months old, and I'm using this as an excuse for the state of my
fitness. It is just an excuse of course, I've had plenty more opportunities to
workout than I've actually used and now I've paid the price with what I would
say is the worst level of fitness since I was in my mid-teens. A pretty bad
example of a PT for certain.
I have used quite a
lot of my free time to treat my own physical issues with the Biomechanics
Coaching process and massage therapy methods. I do feel so much better now in
myself and in my workouts than I have after suffering a chronic low back pain
issue for 20 years and having none of the other professionals or methods have
any similar level of effect.
So now I've made a
good start to correcting my asymmetries, dysfunctions and weakness’ I can build
my fitness again to an excellent level with less of the recurring injuries and
limitations. Despite this I see no reason to allow my fitness to drop to such a
degree. There are many ways to skirt around the issues I had with correctly targeted
exercises as I would do with my own PT clients.
So my confession, I
let myself slip, didn’t take my own medicine, was a hypocrite at worst and a
fraud at best. I’ve got slower, weaker, fatter and everything in between. Over
the festive season I hit the booze, the sugar and refined junk and did very
little exercise. I’m kind of ok with allowing myself to do that in a no holds
barred way for a while but now I’m over it. So I am now like many others at
this time of year, for the first time in my adult life I’m going to have to
make an effort. Before it was just what I did, how I was, my lifestyle revolved
around sport, exercise and eating very well so it was no effort just to
maintain a high level of fitness.
I hope I have learnt
from this time and experience, I certainly don’t enjoy having such a limiting
level of fitness and allowing my health to suffer like this. It takes a
situation such as this for the level of importance for a change to be realized
and take hold. Out if the two things we know to be most valuable in making such
lifestyle changes; importance for, and confidence to be able to, I know that I
have both now in high levels so it’s going to happen for me. As a PT I’m
excited to find out where other people are at with these as the key motivation
to a successful outcome for the struggling client often lays within these:
How important is it that you make a change?
How confident are you that you can make that change?
Neil ERIKSEN BSc Health & Fitness –
Personal Trainer, Biomechanics Coach, Massage Therapist
