I’m Here for your Excuses

Twist: I almost called this blog post I’m NOT here for your excuses.

Not surprising, I became certified as a Personal Trainer because I strongly believe in the benefits of strength training. I have drank the kool-aid and I am fully immersed in it like hot pink bath water. Most of my friends have at least a general interest in fitness and do their best to eat well and exercise. It always kind of shocks me when I venture outside my inner circle to acquaintances and general public because I hear what I am not so used to hearing…. excuses.

“I don’t have time”

“It’s too expensive”

“I feel uncomfortable in gyms” or “I don’t have any gyms near me”

“I already do enough by riding and doing chores”

“I have zero extra energy to work out”

“I don’t want to get hurt”

I have rebuttals for all of these (most of them actually involve how exercise IMPROVES most of these complains!), but as soon as the excuse comes out, my rebuttal will fall on deaf ears. They aren’t ready to make a change… but I digress, this isn’t a post for my rebuttals.

What this post is really about is WHAT it is I do with my clients, because honestly I think a lot of people don’t really understand what a PT does or the real value in them.

Yes, you can get free or cheap programs to follow online or using AI. Yes, you can absolutely work out on your own. Yes, you can do all the research and make a great program. Yes, you can even use apps to check your form. Yes, you can join facebook groups to share experiences. Nobody actually NEEDS a PT to work out, in fact you may not even need a PT to get some relatively effective results. So what do you need a PT for? Why do I even exist?

EXCUSES

PTs are experts at helping you squash excuses. So much so that we can’t turn it off and lose sleep at night after a conversation with a friend or family member filled with excuses shut down before our best tips could even leave our lips.

Here are a couple of ways your excuses dissolve when working with a PT

1) You have invested real money in it. Once you have invested some of those hard earned $, you have assigned value to your goals. You have raised your hand and said “this is important”. This doesn’t always work, think of those cheap gyms that advertise memberships for $10/month. They profit by you not showing up. They have found a dollar amount you don’t really care about so there is little incentive to show up. PTs are a considerably larger investment, meaning you are more likely to show up and put in the hard work to get your money’s worth. This can be a valuable motivator for many people!

2) There is a REAL person waiting for you. An online program’s feelings won’t get hurt if you don’t show up. Now I am not saying that I shed tears every time a client cancels, but I know my clients are more accountable because we have become friends and we look forward to each other’s company. A real person is highly motivating. I think back to doing some particularly difficult endurance rides where I actually had crew! I remember hitting the hard parts where I wanted to quit, but tears coming to my eyes knowing that I had a TEAM who believed in me and were waiting for me to cross the finish line. As a PT, I am part of your team. I am invested in your success. I believe in you! You won’t let me down when things get hard.

3) We do real life troubleshooting. Excuses change, life happens, the rebuttals to generic challenges doesn’t address your specific situation. Having a conversation with a real person gets you farther than on your own. I am trained to ask the hard questions and help you come up with solutions that work for you. I have experience overcoming obstacles in my own life, and in my clients’ lives as well. I have a large toolkit, I get to know you personally, and creating plans together creates better solutions and further holds you accountable. Asking on Facebook or troubleshooting with AI just doesn’t have the same effect as a real person who knows you well.

So yeah, I am (not) here for your excuses. I hear them, but we don’t stop there. We don’t just accept them as fact and we are not satisfied once they have been uttered. We challenge these excuses and recognize them as limiting beliefs. We work through the process to reduce them from a brick wall to a speed bump. We are always going to have thoughts that make us pause and consider if what we are doing are really worth it, but with more practice and a little bit of help, they don’t keep us from growing and changing.

If you have been wanting to make a change but you are starting to notice the excuses creeping in, consider what I wrote about here. A Personal Trainer may be the missing piece of the puzzle to help hold you accountable and work through your challenges. If you are ready to learn more about how working with a personal trainer can help you reach your goals, please shoot me an email! I offer free discovery calls to see if we might be a good match and if I can help you through your challenges towards your goals.

Until next time, happy lifting and riding!

-Sarah