YOUR EXERCICE ROUTINE CAN BE EXPLAIN BY HOW YOU BUY A NEW CAR

My first big purchase I bought when I graduated from colloege was a car.

Purchasing a new car was for me an unknown zone as all I had driven up to that point was my parents minivan (not a chick magnet if you know what I mean), which was a deathtrap waiting to happen (but it was MY very first deathtrap car, and I loved it) .

A brand spankin new car was kind of a big deal in my book. And after having done a research on a few options within my price range and budget, I elected to go with a Chevrolet Cruze based on its unparalleled warranty and climbing reputation as a reliable car.

I walked into the dealership (with my dad on the phone) and ended up paying what I felt was a reasonable price.

And know I think about buy a new car. The decision didn’t come without any trepidation, though.

You see, I HATE confrontation. My friends makes fun of me, but I’ll avoid confrontation at any cost. Even if it’s something completely benign.

I remember one time, we’ve been out to eat and I’ve ordered a steak with two sides and only one side comes out. Rather than say something, I’d rather avoid the awkwardness and just roll with it and eat what’s put in front of me.

Sometimes I’ll even refrain from asking for help at a store if I see that whatever it is I’m looking for – frozen vegetables, a certain flavor of bread, etc – isn’t on the shelf.

Not that I feel that those situations would be in any way “confrontational” (in the literal sense, anyways), but I don’t know, I’d just prefer to avoid them as much as possible, as ridiculously weird as that may sound.

So you can only imagine what was going through my mind when the notion of sitting in a room negotiating a price for a car with your prototypical, shady car salesperson was running through my head.

All without the help of my dad no less!

To be honest I’d rather jump into a volcano.

In my defense, though, I did a solid year of research reviewing all the cars I was considering (price points, test drives, etc), and even took the advice of several people on blog and forums.

If someone held a gun to me head, though, and asked me to be honest with myself:  What Ireally did was spend a year dragging my heels and opting NOT to have a car payment.  But I digress.

I think to stay loyal and go with a new Chevrolet.

Long story short:  I had to get comfortable with being UNCOMFORTABLE.

Despite being what I felt was well-prepared and informed, I wasn’t comfortable.  Like I said, I hate confrontation and I was worried that I was going to collapse under the pressure, give in, and end up paying way more than I felt was necessary.

But I made a promise to myself that I was going to stick to my guns and be willing to walk if I didn’t get a price which I felt was fair and justified.

And for good measure I made sure I wore a smedium t-shirt to elicit a bit of an intimidation factor myself.  Anything to set the odds in my favor, right?

So what does all of this have to do with fitness and exercise?  Well, it’s simple:  you need to be comfortable with being UNCOMFORTABLE.

As humans we’re creatures of habit.  We like what we like, and more to the point, we like to do what we’re good at or what comes easy.

As a quick example, for many, hopping on the treadmill and watching tv is a helluva lot more easier than spending that same amount of time in the squat rack performing squats.

Squats – when performed correctly, and with appreciable weight (and NOT in a Smith machine) – is a lot more daunting and hard compared to a treadmill or an elliptical trainer or a Yogalates class.

Not surprisingly, those who opt for the former generally have a hard time making any significant progress in the gym.  These are the same people who look the same as they did three years ago and usually complain that, no matter what they do or how often they go, they just can’t seem to lose those last 7 kg.

Typically said while crushing their Starbucks latte that’s bigger than a Car.

I had a guy come in the gym a few weeks ago who, to no fault of his own (he mentioned how he worked with a “reputable” trainer in his hometown) was miffed that he wasn’t making much, if any, progress with his training as of late.

All he really wanted was to get rid of his beer gut, address some aches and pains, and maybe get a little stronger in the process.

As noted, he worked with a trainer in the past who had him do a bunch of machine based circuits for high-reps.  It worked for a while, but he noticed that after repeatedly doing the same thing, for months on end, he kinda stalled.

I won’t go into the finer details of what he and I covered, but I will say that the guy didn’t move very well.  He literally could not perform a lunge without falling over, his squat pattern was less than to be desired, and he could barely eek out five push-ups without puttering out (and making his shoulder flip him the middle bird).

How, then, if he worked with a “reputable trainer” for a number of months, was he not able to do ANY of those things? Like, at all.

While most of the finger pointing goes directly towards the abysmal trainer he worked with prior, some of the culpability should be directed towards him as well.

Why?

Well, despite working with me and some friends for two hours, feeling infinitely better, and actually being able to perform a decent looking squat by the end (although it was damn hard for him), he elected not to come back.

He came the following day to say that he was very appreciative of the time spent, but that he couldn’t commit to a new training philosophy.

Maybe he hated it.  Maybe I was not good.  Maybe any number of other things. I’m not going to sit here and say that my approach and my way of doing things is the bees knees.

But my intuition tells me that he wasn’t comfortable with being uncomfortable.

And that, sadly, is what’s going to hold him back.  And possibly YOU as well.

Just some food for thought.

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