Earning Your Right to Train

I was inspired a bit by Jim Laird to talk about this concept. Though I didn’t hear him expand upon this concept much, hearing him talk about telling his people that they need to “earn their right to train” all the time set my mind off into a creative frenzy.

Like much of the nitty gritty details of what we do, it seems as though we should answer start with the mind. In general, our society’s understanding of health and fitness is so skewed that I’d argue that being a skeptic is the first best policy of anything you think about with regards to fitness. In order to make significant progress, then, we are due for a paradigm shift.

One of these misconceptions is that volume and a “never quit” attitude are positive solutions for any fitness goal. The problem with this thinking is that, at least for the motivated segment of the population, folks are attempting to train through poor rest, high stress, cortisol issues, and red flag health problems. Holding true to your Wendler  strength cycle is great discipline, for example. It’s stupid, however, if you’re running on four hours of sleep and a fist full of Advil.

So, when Jim Laid said those words, “earn your right to train,” the light bulb went off. Your success, or lack thereof, in this training facility will only come when you’ve done your homework and prepared yourself to train. This homework I’m talking about is the lifestyle you lead outside of the gym. This preparation I’m talking about is your willingness to sleep, eat, and moderate stress.

Until you’ve taken care of these things, you haven’t earned the right to train, in my opinion. To be honest, this idea is less about earning your right to train as it is about earning your right to reap the benefits of your training. Don’t come around here to throw some weights around on half a night of sleep and a mind full of drama. It’s not helping you, me, or your classmates.

Clean it up. Get after it.

 

Logan Gelbrich