* The title of this post was taken from The Dirty Nil song of the same name*
Ah, to be young and fearless again…
Or is that young and invincible?
While I don’t have the lifting background of someone who played sports through high school/college, my body has felt it’s fair share of aches, pains, strains, and other miscellaneous hiccups. You can read about some of the more serious ones here.
In fact, most of my clients are in something of the same boat. A bad knee here, a rough shoulder there, unusual pains in the lower back, hip, elbow, etc. I’m not sure that I have any clients at all (young or old) who aren’t fighting through or around some nagging problem.
To treat each of my clients as if they had no weaknesses would be foolish to say the least. Some people have an innate strength or aptitude that I try to flesh out and improve on. Others have to fight and claw for every ounce of progress they can make. I tend to post a lot of pictures of people lifting respectable weights with a traplift or a back squat. However, I have at least 30% of my clientele who cannot, and likely will not, ever be able to safely perform those lifts.
That’s ok.
Not only do we all have different goals set for ourselves, we have different bodies, with different histories behind them. All of which have a path to forge and it’s my job (and the job of my trainers) to help shine that light.
If you want to get stronger, get leaner, eat more responsibly, balance your training with the rest of your life, we want to see you succeed. No two paths will look identical to one another. No two outcomes will be perfectly aligned.
I’d also like to offer a call to those of you reading this to stay aware of your weaknesses. Sometimes they can be made stronger and sometimes they need to remain subtle reminders of where the body cannot be pushed.
Perhaps the largest offenders of any of this are the weekend warriors and those just trying too damn hard to relive their former glories (When I was in college I could lift “XXX” or run a mile in “YYY”.)
Focus on who you are today.
The person who’s lived a few decades or so under their belt, raised a family, climbed the corporate ladder and maybe suffered some legitimate losses in their life.
We want that person with a few battle scars who’s ready to conquer the next stage of their life. And while you may have weaknesses (we all do), we want to share some of these new victories with you.
You in?
