Activity vs. Accomplishment

Probably the biggest concern I have regarding the health and fitness level of the gym-going populace and the standard of practice in the fitness industry is the tendency to mistake activity for accomplishment. Doing something is great... for day one. Or, I might argue, for the first 15 minutes. Past that, let's roll. Don't just do something, do something better than before, be better than before! Walk out of the gym better than when you went in, not just tired or sweaty or sore. The purpose of a gym membership, a fitness "program," working with or even being a personal training is not to simply "be active" That is part of the equation, to be sure, but the purpose is to accomplish, achieve, improve...

At nearly any given gym at any given moment there are piles of people under the impression they are accomplishing what they set out to accomplish and that if they just keep putting in the time they will achieve their fitness goals. The most perfect example I can think of is a gal I've been interacting with recently at the big box club where I train clients. She religiously shows up and "does her miles." She carries around papers to write down the miles she covered on the treadmill and in what time. And she shoots for the miles and time she did previously. It's her "routine." She gets her daily activity and most would hold high praise for a gal in her sixties maintaining a regiment like that. And that wouldn't be unreasonable. But I wouldn't, not high praise anyway, and I've told her that. Because it is the very "routine" of activity that is holding her from any significant accomplishment. Somewhere along the line she was given the impression that she needed to "be active" and "get into a routine." And whomever told her that, sold her short, like so many others.

Even the smallest (or gigantic and glaringly obvious, as it were...) suggestions are scoffed aside because "if I don't hold on to the handles, I can't keep up with the machine." This means she wouldn't be able to walk her usual speed and probably not her usual distance... and the whole thing... the routine... out the window.

And this is not her fault. Not entirely. It is the normal state of affairs at gyms everywhere. You very likely have this same tendency. Doing workouts because they are routine and comfortable and familiar... and, dare I say, ineffective? And it isn't entirely your fault either. You, too, have likely been given the incomplete impression that activity is good.  Just move around.

This low standard of merely "doing something" rather than accomplishing something is a tone set by the gym ownership, management and fitness staff. It is my responsibility as your trainer or even as "the trainer" to bring you to question;

...are you mistaking activity for accomplishment?

Are you getting what you came here for? Can you prove it?

Proof is the difference between "activity" at the gym and "accomplishment" at the gym.

A few laps around the track some "arm exercises" and some time on the elliptical is activity - doing more squats in X amount of time than last time or reading a lower body fat percentage than 3 months ago is accomplishment. You have the proof right there and you very likely did it by breaking the routine, stepping outside your comfort zone, if not... its just another activity.