This for That
By: Nick Lape
I had an epiphany the other day. If you know me, you know that it gave me an immediate headache (just kidding). But it happened during a team workout. I was complaining about flutter kicks, you know, the one where you lay on the ground and hold your legs up and kick them around. Yeah, that one. And this thought crossed my mind, “Good heavens, my legs are HEAVY! I strongly dislike this,” give or take a few choice words not to be mentioned out loud. Although, I’m pretty sure I said a few things out loud because Mike said to me, “You do know you do that to yourself right?” And once he explained what he meant, it made my mind go into a whirlwind of thought. What type of things do we give up in order to train for something specific?
I’ll just start by giving an example of my training goals at the moment. In short, I want to lift weights. Big weights. Weights that truly challenge the structural integrity of my body. We are talking hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Ok, I think you get it. In order to do that, my body has to match my goal. In order to lift big weights, guess what, my body and more specifically my legs have to match. I noticed it most during flutter kicks. My legs have gotten significantly heavier, therefore I have to work a LOT harder to do longer duration exercises like flutter kicks. And here’s the thing, I am MORE than willing to give this for that. I may hate flutter kicks and struggle whole heartedly at holding my legs up, but guess what, it means I don’t have to struggle so hard at lifting 400 and 500 pounds. Now maybe you see where I’m going with this.
We all (hopefully) go into training with an idea of what we want. For me, strength is king. Always has been. For others, maybe athleticism is more of what they are training for. To be agile and quick. If my goals are to lift as much weight as possible, sure I can add some agility type moves into my workout. Am I going to be great at them? No, probably not. I’m going to have a lot more of me to try and move quickly. But remember, that’s not my goal. This could very well be the opposite for someone looking to have the quicker more agile training approach. Gaining large amounts of muscle mass for these people is going to make that type of training more difficult and possibly make them unsuccessful.
Everyone has a different mindset about their training. We approach things differently. But it is ALL fitness. Someone trying to lift hundreds of pounds can easily be looked as fit. Someone that is training for functionality or athleticism can also be considered fit. The things they are good at, are going to differ quite a bit. And that is where this title came from. This For That. It is something until recently, like 24 hours ago, that I never really considered. And honestly, I think it’s something that so many people get caught up in. They want one thing, just to look across the room and want something else, never settling on a path to reach a certain goal. This process can usually lead to people stagnating, or even leaving their path to wellness all together.
When I say give this for that, I don’t want you to think that you can’t train for something and change your mind about what you want. You most certainly can. It’s a matter of finding that one thing you want to train for the most and committing to that plan. That is why nowadays I am OK with struggling at certain things. Some of those things happen to be things that in the past I happened to be good at. I know that those things can help me reach my goal, but I also know that my goal is not to be great at flutter kicks. My goal is to be great at deadlifting and bench press. My goal is to compete with others that have that same goal. As you figure out what path you want to go down on your wellness journey, stop worrying about those little things that have all of a sudden become a bit more difficult. Sometimes those things whether thoughts, exercises or skills, aren’t crucial to you achieving your goals. The real worrying starts when we sit back and allow ourselves to just become mediocre. Don’t be afraid to give a bit of This for That.