What will your quality of life be like eight years from now? An anecdote

After reaching middle age, most people will likely see a decline in their physical abilities over an eight year span.  That is not unavoidable. At Austin Personal Training and New Orleans Fitness trainers  we present our clients with challenges they hopefully can achieve.  If you give someone a goal that is not achievable why bother attempting it?  If you have a goal that is not really challenging there will be little in the way of improvement. A good trainer will know where to set the bar.  

Timothy is a one of our trainers, and Leif is one of his clients.  One of the challenges Timothy gave Leif was a static hold on the chin-up.  Timothy had Leif hold himself with his chin above the chin-up bar with his knees bent and held as high as possible for as long as possible. This requires tremendous effort and toward the end it requires every fiber of your being just to maintain that position. This exercise works the upper-back, chest, arms, and abdominal muscles.

Timothy had Leif perform the exercise, maybe not every work out, but intermittently he tested him on this exercise. At first Leif could only hold his chin above the bar for a few seconds before giving out, he worked his way up to 12 seconds, and eventually to a half minute.  Timothy’s goal for Leif was 6o seconds.  Amazingly eight years after beginning the program, Leif held the static hold for 60 seconds. Keep in mind Leif accomplished this when he was eight years older than when he started.  Most people see an appreciable decline in performance over eight years.  Imagine the path Leif might have taken if he has not made that life-style change.  What would his quality of life be like?  Would he even be alive?

When Leif started he was in bad shape. Middle aged, he has diabetes, he had had one kidney removed, and he had had a bypass heart surgery plus he was very overweight. He embarked on a change in lifestyle. He began strength training at our Austin location once a week, he made modest changes in his eating habits, and he used a rowing machine at home.

Any exercise program has to be doable in order for one to stick to it.  If the program is more demanding, say three times a week for over an hour, that's a program you can stick to a few weeks or maybe a couple months. Yes, there are some that can adhere to that program for the long haul, but statistics show that most people don’t. They get burned out, sick, or injured. They end up dreading going to the gym.

Well Leif stuck with it, and slowly the pounds came off. He went from five diabetes shots a day down to one a day. He lost 60 pounds which was a great deal because Leif does not have a large body frame.  Now, health-wise and physically, he's a completely different person. Timothy likes to have him pick up 60 pounds of plates and carry it around the gym just as a reminder of just how much weight he used to have to carry around.

If you ask Timothy if he likes his job he will tell you, “I don’t have a job. It is not work when you enjoy what you are doing”.   It is motivating and gratifying to the see the changes our clients make.  We look forward to seeing them each week, and we are fortunate and truly grateful to have them as friends and clients.