This post has two focal points today.

Firstly, gratitude.

I can’t claim credit for the thrust of this post.

Rather, the thanks for that goes to one of our teen’s parents, who took the time to share some of his thoughts with me this week.

Come Tuesday, I’d just got back to the gym and said parent was dutifully waiting for his teen to finish getting their sweat on.

This resonated strongly with me. My pops used to do the same when both my younger brothers and I used to swim competitively.

He’d work all day in a factory, come home, pat the dog, kiss my mom, have a bite to eat, then it was off to the pool, where’d he’d sit, patiently, in sweaty hot conditions, while his three boys pulled their best Eddie the Eel impressions.

So, said parent and I got chatting and he very generously shared his thoughts that these posts were having an effect on his psyche. I’ll admit that things got a little misty for a while. It means a lot to hear that my experiences and writings have a beneficial effect on others, so I was suitably humbled.

And that segues us nicely to my second thrust – Why we love to dine out. The conversation with our aforementioned resident super dad moved on to why he wasn’t in the gym more regularly, old injuries playing up. As we discussed this more, it became apparent to me that I hear the same thoughts a lot.

Not from members though, but from Myself! You see, I tend to ‘dine out’ on injuries (my current favourite is my dan carter-esque torn abductor that I suffered a few years ago) in an attempt to legitimise my sometimes avoidance of exercise.

If you haven’t had the joy of hearing this story, form an orderly queue and I’ll happily regale you with its intricacies! But I digress! Avoidance of making a change by over-emphasising the effects or restraints of historic injury is an all too common, and understandable approach.

We’ve all got aches and pains, nibbles and injuries that we use to legitimise inactivity, falling out of shape, or putting on the pounds. My experience with this approach is that I use it more frequently when I’ve had gaps in my training, as going back to training is tough.

You feel out of shape, off the pace and MUCH slower than everyone else.

You know what though, who cares?!

I mean, do you really think the other people who’re knuckles deep in the suck with you really care?!!

They are too busy concentrating on where their next breath, rep, or step is coming from to be standing back and being judgemental at the guy doing just the same.

I finished a wod dead last, last week. In fact, I finished it about 20 seconds after the clock stopped.

Why?!

Because everyone else in the class cajoled, celebrated, supported and shouted at, with and for me to get the work done.

Did I set any records? Not in the slightest.

Did I feel like a million dollars because I was supported by my friends?

You bet I did.

So, the moral of the story, you can always do something. It doesn’t have to be snatching body weight or unbroken muscle-ups.

Get up off the couch and walk the dog, do some push-ups when you roll out of bed.

You get the gist. Something, anything, is better than nothing. That something will soon become a success, and that success will lower your motivation, and on and on.

Then, you’ll be dining out on something worthwhile

Thanks for reading,

Paul