Strength training can be one of the most rewarding endeavors one can choose to pursue in life. Getting stronger empowers you in every area of life, and it is rare to find someone that regrets building muscle and creating a healthy lifestyle. However, in the pursuit of strength goals, many people are often surprised to find that their expectations of what it will take are way off. Training requires consistency, hard work, and sometimes is not as fun as it’s made up to be. Fighting soreness, fatigue, and stress from daily life can make training the last thing you want to do no matter how strong your motivation has been.
This is where habits come into play.
When we’re growing up, we’re taught as soon as you get home from school to sit down and do your homework before doing anything else. Sure, you’d rather go out and play while it’s still daylight but doing the homework sooner rather than later gives you reason to be efficient and do it right the first time. As adults, you aren’t told when to eat your vegetables, do homework, or exercise. Nobody else has blocked out the time in your schedule – it is up to you.
Be Consistent
Building the habit to train as soon as you’re able to – be it before or after work – and make a consistent time every day and week to train will be one of the biggest contributors to your success. If you wait until there is magically time in the schedule, your workouts will inevitably fall to the side and at the end of the week or month you’ll be wondering why you haven’t made any progress. If the goal is to transform your body and life, you must train your mind as well as your body. Be consistent. Do hard things when you don’t want to. Voluntary hardship builds character, consistency, and makes you stronger as a person.
One of the best ways to build consistency is to hire a personal trainer.
Having a time to meet with a professional Starting Strength Coach every week to check your form, keep you on track, and lead you in the right direction can be a game changer to hitting your goals. If you’re in Charleston, South Carolina, stop by Cox Barbell Club on James Island, and get a session with Cameron Cox. He’ll help you build a training schedule that is right for you. All you have to do is put in the work!
Long Term Investments in Strength
When you invest in the stock market, would you rather go for the big ticket, high risk items or a steady long-term investment? Sure, the payoffs sound great with the high dollar items but the loss in time and money if it goes wrong could be detrimental and shy you away from investing in the future. A long-term investment will pay you in dividends for years to come and will put your money to work while you’re sleeping.
Strength training is no different. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of fads and diets to follow that promise to be the magic pill you’ve been missing. Whether you’re trying to gain or lose weight, there is a trend for you to follow. They build a promising front with pseudoscience that appeals to your emotions rather than reason and logic. The caveat is that you must buy a cookie cutter plan, program, supplement, etc. for it to work. None of these “plans” are preaching about consistency and hard work. They want you to think it should be easy to achieve results. They want you to think that everyone that has ever gotten strong, big, lean, or muscular has done it without any effort and it’s something wrong with your approach that has caused you to miss out.
I’m here to tell you that they are wrong. There are very few people that achieve results in life without working very-very hard. Strength training is difficult. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. While its popularity has grown in the past few years, we still have a lot of work to do before there are lines down the block of people waiting to squat or deadlift. If you learn one thing about strength training, learn this: it takes time.
As hard as it is to be patient with physical goals, you must be able to put it in perspective. Nothing worth having is achieved in a short period of time. A strong will make your life much easier, and the dividends that this investment pays are in years, not cash. By getting stronger, you’ll improve your quality of life for years to come, and while all of your friend complain about this and that ailment and not being as young as they once were – you’ll be there fit as a fiddle, proud of the time and effort you put into your training.
When you build muscle, it not only makes you strong enough to pick up heavy objects, it effects other health markers like your hormones, metabolism, bone density, blood pressure, and can alleviate many ailments such as arthritis and back pain. If you’ve been searching for the magic pill, the fountain of youth, or the secret that no one wants you to know about – this is it. Strength training is the best investment you can make for yourself today and in the future. So what are you waiting for?
If you want to start investing in your health, contact Cameron Cox at Cox Barbell Club in James Island South Carolina. Cam is the only certified Starting Strength Coach in South Carolina and will guide you through how to lift properly, build a program around your goals, and make sure you stay focused on the journey to getting stronger.