The (Fitness) Cart Before the Horse

It was maybe our third year in business when I had an Intro Session I’d never forget. I met with an eager young man curious about joining the gym and after about 45-minutes of getting to know him and explaining how the gym worked, I had him do a brief baseline workout. 

In those days, the workout started with a 400m run followed by a series of air squats. I’d explain the rest, but it’d be a waste of time. He didn’t make it that far. After a sluggish 400m run and six steady air squats, my guy had to sit down. 

His skin was flushed and clammy. I’ve seen this before. He was rocked. I decided to call it a day and I went to retrieve him a bottle of water and some nutrition to bring him back to life. 

“Just relax here. We’ve got all the time in the world,” I encouraged. “Have you had anything to eat recently?” 

“No, I haven’t had anything since yesterday,” he recalled. 

Since it was 4:45pm, I was a bit taken aback. “Any water today?”

“No.”

“Damn, okay. Drink up, brother,” I responded. “How’d you sleep last night?” 

“I didn’t really sleep last night…”

I restrained myself, but I wanted to offer that the human body requires these things to live. I tell you this story, because it’s not too outlandish for those of us in the fitness profession. 

People put the cart before the horse. 

It’s a bit odd to try to enroll in a training program looking for results, when you’re bathing in stress, sleep like shit, and eat demonstratively less well than our beloved pets. 

First things first, you’ve got to handle the basics if you want a chance as any of this gym stuff landing. Sleep at night, eat the meals, and drink the water, then let’s talk.