Using My Strength

I've been a gym rat for a long time. I don't pretend to enjoy it. I really do. When I am lax I miss it. Only other gym rats understand. It's an addiction of sorts, but of the best kind.

I worked out with a trainer for a long time. Pre-recession, back in the heyday of my corporate stay when disposable income was aplenty. I like to think I learned the "proper" way to workout and that I am strong.

So when one of the trainers in my gym made mention to me that he liked the way I trained I felt pretty good. And when he offered a free session to train with him, who was I to say no?

Being the life long student that I am I know that no matter how well versed we think we are there is always something new to learn. And when he said there was one or two things he could show me to improve upon what I was doing, I had no doubt there was.

What I wasn't expecting was the great big metaphor on my life he would deliver.

"You are very strong. You're just not using your strength as well as you can." 

So that was cause for pause. Because you see  (1) he was right and (2) this was not just about my workout routine.

As I was trying to concentrate on what he wanted me to do, my mind was racing with how easy it is to repeat out of routine. Do the exercises without really doing them. Getting just enough results that we know we are doing well but not stretching to our full potential. What Gay Hendricks calls living in the zone of excellence but stopping ourselves from leaning into our zone of genius in his book The Big Leap.

"Are you OK?"

I think it was the look on my face that made him ask. I nodded yes, and mumbled that he had me thinking about more than squeezing my gluts tighter while swinging the kettle ball.

I left feeling like I had really worked out. And the funny thing was that we had done less than what I would have done on my own, just more efficiently.





Do you know what your strengths are?
Are you using your "strength" as efficiently as you can?