Training: A word people who exercise don’t understand
“You don’t have to work out, you’re already skinny!”
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard this sentence, or variations of it. I’ve heard it from friends, from partners, and from complete strangers.
What all these well-intentioned people don’t understand is that there is a fundamental difference in mindset between those who exercise, versus those who train, and I fall into the latter.
The difference boils down to intent. My training is goal-oriented. It’s not an ‘I want to squeeze into a size 4, or guiltlessly indulge in a dozen donuts,’ kind of goal. My goals are about pushing my body to the max and doing whatever it takes to get there.
For me, it is and has always been about increasing performance, getting stronger, moving faster, and testing my physical limits. This doesn’t mean I am immune to vanity, it just means I’m not motivated by it.
It stumps me that people are so resistant to the idea that I am not in it for the waistline. I’m also not afraid of being a female who lifts heavy weights and has muscles.
Get over it. I do this for me. I don’t owe anyone ‘pretty,’ ‘skinny’ or any other ludicrous beauty ideal.
The feeling that I get when I reach new personal bests, or the mental strength I gain when I push through emotional and physical breakdowns, is why I do what I do – it’s what gives me satisfaction in it’s purest form. Is training for everyone? Not necessarily, but I am competitive by nature and need goal-oriented challenges to keep me stimulated.
The thought of running on an elliptical for an hour, just for the sake of it, is as unappealing to me as eating month-old army rations.
Exercise, or the lack thereof, is relatively inconsequential. Take a few days/weeks/months off? No biggie. When you train for something, on the other hand, it will be a heinous-suffer-fest-of-doom if your training falls short. Whether training for a marathon, or a figure competition, if you don’t put in the time you a) will not see results, and b) will suffer emotionally or physically.
Training challenges people to wholly dedicate themselves, which can be incredibly rewarding. Beyond the mental rewards, training – and training hard – has allowed me to appreciate my body in a way that I feel many people, especially women, don’t.
Hard work has taught me to be grateful: grateful for my legs for propelling me up mountains, for running farther then I ever thought I could, and for grinding out hundreds of kilometres in the saddle.
I’m grateful for what my body has allowed me to do and see each body part for its strength and ability versus size/shape/fat percentage. Do I have low days where I get self-conscious? Of course! And does my being fit disallow or somehow make my low-days invalid? To some, yes, but for me it’s these low moments that encourage me to find my strength and remember everything my body has done for me. It’s the low moments that keep my humility in-check and keep me wanting to be better, push harder, and train like I’ve got something to lose.
