Albert K. Park

                  I truly believe that I have an innate ability for direction and refuse to use navigation systems and GPS applications. Give me the directions and I am going to find it. I’m sure most of you men out there will share this mentality with me. In our heads we are all Bear Grylls, in reality, well fu*k reality I want to be Bear. Unfortunately, when it comes to locating “baby showers” my powers are thrown off and wrong turns happen.

                        While I was navigating dark residential streets desperately hoping for a main road I couldn’t help but think how much getting off track sucked. You lose time, motivation, and it’s a little bit embarrassing especially for a self-proclaimed navigational expert. Even with the small goal of attending an event, not knowing where the hell I was had my mind running down a list of doubts.

                        Wrong turns on the road are one thing but wrong turns in life can make you want to give up. Giving up has never been in my vocabulary I didn’t say it when I was a kid, I didn’t say it when I had a final the next day and didn’t go to class even once or buy the book, and I won’t say it now. Your success depends on your perseverance and ability to navigate back to the path you were once steam-rolling on towards results.

                        For any individual who has ever tried to get in shape, Nutrition is war. It is a relentless battle that never goes away and will always be ready to attack when you are weak. The truth is you can’t always be strong. Understanding that you will fail every once in awhile is important. So don’t go drink yourself into obliteration because you ate a slice of pizza. Just get back on track with your goals.

                        If you really want to think about it, your chances for wrong turns with nutrition are quite high. They are even higher if you have a lot of friends. Consider what you and your friends usually do when you get together. Eat? Drink? Happy Hour? All of the above? See, there will be casualties in this war. Will power isn’t enough because friends are too damn good with peer pressure and it’s so hard to pass up a good time. What you need to do is strategize.

                        Strategies can win wars. Instead of going out with your friends 3-4 times out of your week for happy hour, limit yourself to 1. Invite them over to your place so you can control what is available to eat and drink. Strategies will always be more effective then will power. Also, drop the friend who has convinced himself that he is the next roommate on jersey shore.

                        The main problem I have seen with training is a lack there of. For 2 or 3 weeks you go 110% because you are excited about the goals you have set for yourself. By week 4 you start trading training days for other things. Your friend is having a birthday, you need to go grocery shopping, and whatever else you can think of. You have to realize that training for goals is not a sprint; it is a long and testing marathon run. Consistency will prove to be your best friend but wrong turns can trigger a barrage of other problems with training, the main one being not training at all.

                        Anyone who trains at Hocevar Performance, has heard me say “How bad do you want it?” once in their life if not a 1,000 times. It’s simple but honest and real. This is why I love saying it. How bad do you want to see your results and watch your quality of life improve?

                        It won’t take Sherlock to figure this wrong turn out. If you’ve stopped training get back on the road the gym and start getting active.

                        A great thing about life is that nothing is for certain. You can sit and plan all you want but there is no guarantee it’s going to happen that way. Odds are they won’t. When you get thrown a curveball, adjusting and adapting is what makes the process truly an art. It’s not about going by the book and following instructions; it’s about carving your own damn path. If you know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you don’t give up on the way.

                        I remember in college I was registering for classes online and I couldn’t get into a class I wanted. I emailed the professor, updated the registry page in hopes of someone dropping, and even got onto the waiting list. Getting into this class became an obsession. It wasn’t because the professor was great or the class was interesting, it was because I didn’t want to stray off my path! (Someone has to do seriously do something about this registration process, ridiculous!)

                        I never got into the class but ended up taking the same class with a different professor at a different time. The professor ended up being awesome and I was 1 of 3 guys in a class filled with 40 girls! Nice! Even though I strayed off my path, I took the opportunity and made the most of it. Turned out to be a pretty good opportunity.

                        After reassuring people on the phone that I wasn’t lost, even though I was, I finally made it to the baby shower. Wrong turns and all, I finally made it. The Baby Shower was executed perfectly and I had a great time. I never knew how much society instills color preferences between genders until now. Fu*kin Pink, no comment. In all seriousness, I was thankful for the wrong turns I took on the way because it reminded me of how things don’t always go according to plan and how we respond to these situations will ultimately determine our ability to achieve goals.

                        Oh yeah, I got lost on the way home too. Lesson learned again.

As much as it hurts, people want to feel the “burn”. Are we all just crazy? We all complain about being sore but complain even more when we’re not. Clients come back like addicts to the gym looking for another ass kicking workout. Is this a phenomenon or just plain insanity?

            We identify being sore and feeling the “burn” with evidence of hard work. It’s like a pat on the back for working out and without it, sometimes we get down on ourselves. Have you ever thought that you didn’t workout hard enough if you weren’t sore the next day? Okay, so you know what I’m talking about. When your not sore it doesn’t mean that you didn’t train hard by any means but I have a workout for you to make sure that you feel a burn.

            After being hounded by clients for an ab workout, I finally gave in. I guess front squats weren’t emphasizing the abs enough. The ab workout comes in the form of a “finisher” (finisher = to end a client’s session with immense muscle burning) and the best thing is it only takes 2 minutes.

Directions: Perform as many reps with good form as possible in the 30 seconds for each exercise. Do not rest until you finish all the exercise. Perform 1-3 sets if desired. 1 will be enough.

            At first glance this doesn’t even look like much of a challenge. Well check yo’self before you wreck yo’self. This workout will only give back as much as you put in. This means that if you are slacking in form or intensity, you won’t get shit from the workout. On the other hand, if you push yourself to blow past your pain threshold and dig out reps until you start seeing a bright little light, you will be well on your way.

            I can distinctly remember back to Mrs. Grahams’ 4^th grade class sitting in 4 desk pods pretending to be paying attention. First was the pledge of allegiance, than some multiplication tables, and who knows maybe throw in some stuff about planets. The truth was I did two things. Doodle on paper and look forward to recess (sorry mom and dad). Doodling took care of the boredom during class until our teacher got up and opened that glorious door, our portal to an endless supply of fun.

            Every time that door swung open and she said those magical words that still bring chills down my spin “Class, you are excused!”, I would walk calmly to the door (only because running was prohibited in class) and than break out like a wild ass spider monkey once my foot was outside.

            Compare this childhood excitement for physical activity to what you feel like before you go to the gym. Is working out something you dread? Does it feel like a chore? Do you break out like a wild ass spider monkey when you know you are going to go workout? Training and fitness is a choice we make. It is a choice to improve the quality of your life and make things better. It’s needs to be exciting! An important aspect you have to consider is how much fun you are having working out because even though I am not in 4^th grade anymore, if it’s not fun, I still won’t do it.

            For me, recess was a smorgasbord of sports and activities. It was filled with things like soccer, basketball, wall ball, and random shit that we would just make up. Yes, think back and remember how creative you used to be. Did you ever play chicken wrestling on the monkey bars? Two kids would start on each end of the monkey bars and move towards each other until they were close enough to wrestle each other with their legs. The loser would fall to the ground, laugh, and get back in line. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t judge me.

            The important thing is that no matter what the activity was, recess was fun and we played our little hearts out. I would come back to class literally dripping with sweat and ruining whatever outfit my mom made me wear. To this day, I can’t even look at a turtleneck without squirming. The point is that when an activity becomes fun, you lose yourself in it. Like the 9-year-old Albert, who searched for glory at recess, you need to search for your ability to have fun in a fit lifestyle.

            Before you go back to the gym or go workout, you need to ask yourself if you are having fun. Are you enjoying each opportunity you have to improve the quality of your life? Challenge yourself, switch your routine, or try an activity that has been on your bucket list. Honestly, the clients at our gym that see the greatest results discover the fun effect. The switch goes off in their head and they realize that facing the challenge is part of the fun and not torture.

            As a trainer, a big aspect of program design with everyday people is considering the question, is the workout fun? If people don’t enjoy it, they won’t do it.

                        The fun effect can be the catalyst to helping you achieve your results. Diversify your training to include activities you enjoy. Life is short, enjoy every single moment, even working out. I see too many shows dragging obese clients through a gauntlet of humiliating physical activities. Those people do not look like they are enjoying one second of it. Is this the only way to get results? Heeeellllll no! . Take the 9 year old Albert’s enthusiasm and go do something you like, been wanting to do, or just feel good doing and I promise the results will come.