Show Your Strong
Coach Caleb’s Corner
Show Your Strong
Do you love your training? I love to train. Even when it’s hard and I don’t “feel” like doing it, I still love it because I know at the end of the day my training is about so much more than what I do in the gym.
Before we had our very own special place to train, I chose to lift at home because I couldn’t find a gym that worked for me. I loved it, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as training at Breakthrough Strength & Fitness is now.
Why couldn’t I find the right gym? Well… The gym culture, especially in Los Angeles, is pretty messed up. I’ve got the impression that Angelinos seem to think that all gym-goers are supposed to be skinny (not necessarily strong or truly healthy, mind you) and they’re required to look and act a certain way. Almost as if you have to get pre-fit before you go to a gym to get more fit. They seem to think that if you don’t look like something resembling a fitness a model, then you don’t belong in a gym. I’ll tell you straight up, I can’t stand this.
One of the big reasons we opened a gym of our own is that we were tired of this culture. As a martial artist, in my younger years I was taught that the martial arts school should be a place of learning; not a place for grandstanding, not a place for egos or getting your aggressions out on your training partners. The dojo, dojang, kwoon, boxing ring or wrestling mat are all places where you are not expected to be good at everything; there is no shame in being a beginner, or hubris for being an advanced student. The school where I first had the privilege to train in martial arts never made me feel self conscious about training there, or trying new things, learning new skills; it was okay to not be good at something because it was understood that we were all there to practice and get better. If we were already so good at all that stuff, why would we need to be there to practice? In a school with this attitude, if you aren’t working on improving your skills, and helping others improve theirs, then you are just showing off or wasting your time.
So why can’t a gym be like that? Can’t we have a school of strength and fitness with this attitude? How about a place where everyone is there to help each other reach their goals and a skilled, passionate and professional staff leads the way? Unfortunately, it’s not how one might describe most of the fitness industry experiences or the gym scene in general.
We know that when you find the right environment for you and your personality, it has the ability to extend beyond just what you experience in the gym. When your physical strength and capabilities are developed, you will find your life improved in other ways. Recently we asked some of our members to share how getting stronger has changed their lives in our “Show Your Strong” video. You can check it out here:
If you want the results training can give you, and you would prefer to learn how to get strong, how to train quality movement patterns, how to become better conditioned and implement the principles of proper nutrition in your life, then you need a school that can teach you. If you want to train in an environment where you aren’t expected to look a certain way, or already be good at “fitness stuff” and you’re not expected to figure it all out by yourself, then you need a place that will support that. I know that I need my gym to be a place for training, coaching, practice, teaching, encouragement and fun! I love the results and I love the training. Find the right place and I know you will love training too!