if working out makes you want to cry
I get it.⠀
If it makes you want to give up—I get it.⠀
If it makes you feel small and incapable and helpless and fearful. If you’ve never done anything as hard as this, and never really wanted to anyway. If you’ve always been "good at doing hard things," but this has caught you off-guard... I feel you.⠀
You can give up if you want, and it wouldn’t make you a bad person. It would be totally & completely understandable.⠀
I am here only because I felt every single one of those things (despite their contradictions) and made a decision, each time, to show up again. When I thought I wasn’t getting stronger, wasn’t building muscle, could never be competitive in the world of physical fitness, let alone teach another person how to fight their own inner battle, I pushed through, and continue to do so, every single time, because it is *never* EASY for me.⠀
Still.⠀
If all this sounds a little far fetched--like, c'mon steven, is it really that hard for you too?--I want you to check out this video of me crying in April 2019:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMiC5_hDgBc/
It’s a video diary I'd never thought I'd share. It's from those beginning days of my training for SFG (that kettlebell certification that pushed me to my limits way back when) where all I had to do was hold a hinge for 1 min 10 times a day and truly, actually, literally thought I might die.
Hopefully it answers that nagging suspicion you have that this really isn't that hard for me.
When I finally went to SFG in October 2019, I defied all expectations I had of myself by kicking ass and completing the snatch test (100 snatches, which is a kettlebell swing that lands overhead with 20kg, 100 times in 5 minutes) in 4 minutes and 30 seconds with the honor of being recommended to assist as a coach at future SFG certifications by my team leader.
Anyway, as most of you know, it wasn’t an easy road for me to get there. If you don’t believe me, I suspect that video may convince you otherwise.
If the idea of accomplishing your goal feels similarly threatening, and you've been thinking about it for a while, it might be time to reach out. I have both one on one and group training spots available--my group training is NOTHING like the group fitness classes you've taken before--and you might find comfort knowing that while I may be your guide, and I've achieved some pretty cool feats of strength and conditioning, it hasn't been easy, and I know what it's like to be there in the thick of the struggle.