These past few weeks have been challenging, to say the least. My family and I were hit with some difficult family news that sharply put things into perspective. With what has occurred and what will occur in the next weeks or months has made me expand my thoughts beyond the mundane day to day goings on, and I have thought more about my profession and how what we strength coaches do can effect change in people’s lives.

See, I’m willing to bet that we all put things off that we know we should be doing, especially when it comes to exercise. I am certainly guilty of this, believing that there will always be time later. What about that discomfort you have been feeling in your lower back? Shoulder? Neck? Gut? Knee? What about that ache and pain you’ve been feeling that you know has been there for ever, and you’ve thought about doing something about it, but you just haven’t made time? What about that blood test you had a few months ago that showed your blood-lipid profile to be less than ideal? What about those crappy sleeps you’ve been having and you’ve just convinced yourself that everybody has terrible sleep? Shall I go on?

I guess those whole process has forced me to think about what things I have been putting off that I know I need to do something about. Training is a method that can affect change in multiple areas in your life. I know you think it’s about picking up heavy things and putting them down, and much of it is, but I am constantly reminded of a quote I heard from an exercise physiologist Mark Tarnopolsky, “Resistance training remains the most potent form of medication” (emphasis mine). Nothing: no drug or medication, stresses our body and affects so many systems at once as resistance training. But resistance training is a means to an end. Training has an end in mind; you could pick something from the list I gave above, or you have something else that you know you need and want to work on, and training will help to get you there. The method is what we can work on along the way.

Don’t leave that thing lingering: do something about it. As Aspire we start with an assessment that takes into account that individual need you have, and we use multiple training methods to help achieve that need and goal. Our life is precious, and as Performance Enhancement Coaches, we want you to be able to perform at your best at any given time during that life. Don’t wait, let us help.

Jon Rowe, BKin, CSCS, CEP