Four Observations from my First 18 months as a Gym Owner
It’s been almost a year and a half since I opened Strength For Today. I’ve worked with well over one hundred clients now and have spent countless hours taking people through their workouts inside of these walls. To give you a little bit of insight into my approach, I view each individual client as just that : an individual. Because all individuals are different and have their own wants, needs & goals, it’s my job to cater my service to every one of my clients in a particular way.
That being said, despite the individualization I offer, there are some basic guidelines and principles I’ve found that ring true for every client that I’m working with. Here are 4 truths that apply to every single client I work with:
1. You’ve gotta know your goals to be able to reach your goals
Seems pretty self explanatory, but yet this is an important piece to working out that people miss, especially when training on their own. Many people show up to the gym with no plan in mind or goals they’re striving for, and therefore spend much of their workout aimlessly looking for different things to do. Taking some time to think about what you’re trying to accomplish and then formulating a plan (either by yourself or with the help of a professional) will always give you a much greater return on your efforts.
2. The power of the 90/10 rule
The 90/10 rule is simple: eat the right things 90% of the time, and the wrong things only 10% of the time. All of us know the foods/drinks to avoid: foods that are highly processed, have a lot of added sugars, alcohol, etc. For anyone starting a new diet or trying to ‘lock in’ and ONLY allow them to eat healthy foods they don’t enjoy, they’re eventually going to fault on their diet (usually in a BIG way.) By eating the right things 90% of the time, this allows us to enjoy whatever our ‘vice’ is without guilt. Following this simple guideline makes any diet WAY more sustainable. The best diet is one that you can stick to, and if you never allow yourself to enjoy anything, you’ll never be able to stick to that diet.
3. Discipline > motivation every. single. time.
This observation and the following bullet point go hand-in-hand. If people only ever worked out when they’re motivated, I’d never be able to run a functioning gym. The clients who show up even when they don’t feel like it are the clients who see the most progress every single time. Trust me, it’s not easy: I make my living as a personal trainer and even I’m not always motivated to do my workout for the day. Discipline is hard, but anything work doing isn’t going to be easy.
4. Consistency > intensity every. single. time.
Simply put: the client who works out consistently 3X per week for an entire year will see better results that the client who works out REALLY HARD 1X per week for an entire year. I always tell clients that I don’t have any magic exercises, there’s no real ‘secret sauce’ to my ability to get clients results. Rather, clients who come to me SEE and FEEL results because they’re able to find a consistency they’ve never been able to find prior to coming to SFT. My best advice to find consistency? Put it on your schedule. Make it a recurring meeting on your Google Calendar. Don’t wait and hope to find the time to do it. Plan your day/week/month around it, and find the discipline within yourself to show up even when you don’t feel like it.
