The power of consistency

In today's society, we are constanly bombarded by ways to improve. Many are useful, but a lot of things are just about how to find the quick fix. Fad diets. TikTok workouts. Everything is about how fast we can get things done, not about the quality of the work or the hours of consistent work it takes to become great. In a world of instant gratification, people don't want to think about the "long haul".

Recently I began training a 72-year old athlete. A former competitive basketball player, he is also currently racing Formula cars and is a cancer survivor. Whenever I start with a new client, I always do a movement assessment that consists of a few exercises where I can see how the whole body works together. For someone who has just overcome a horrible disease and hasn't trained in months, what I saw sent my jaw to the floor. His ability to move his body after all he's been through is nothing short of remarkable. And that was a day after playing 18 holes of golf. I talked to him about how he has consistently taken care of his body over the years, which helped him overcome cancer and get back into the gym as fast as he did.

My point being, we can't look at training as some magic potion that will immediately heal what ails us. We have to approach it with the mindset that it's a life long venture, not something we are doing just to get strong fast. We need to realize that, whether we are training for a sport, or to get stronger, or just to get "jacked", we are all training for the same thing, which is to live a long and healthy life. And the more consistent we are in doing the simple things in the gym, the more consistent we will be training as we get older. Father Time is undefeated, but that doesn't mean we can't give him a run for his money.