Yesterday someone asked me why I train. Caught off guard by the magnitude of the question, I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the answer, it was that I had too many.

I train to become better. Life is too long and too short to settle. My body is whole; it doesn’t come in pieces. My body is my physical, mental, and emotional self. There is no separation. We come intertwined in an intricate meshwork where there is no end and no beginning. Anytime I improve in any facet of my being it’s only going to better the others. Unfortunately, vice versus… If one suffers, the rest of me suffers as well. 

I train for proof that I am alive. As I lay on the black mat sucking wind, I value breath, I value life, I value that I have a life where I have the luxury of being able to focus on physical excellence, not just physical survival. I sweat and bleed by choice, I am lucky.
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I train for challenge. I have no sport, no competition, no impending judgment day. In fact, I continue to seek avenues just to use my training. Challenge is the best way to figure out what I’m really made of. During strife, I lay every strength and weakness before me, my arsenal of weapons. Yes, even weakness can be a weapon; it’s a signifier for my focus. By knowing my weaknesses, I know where to improve, before something or someone can use it against me first. Challenge in the gym I can control, the gym is my training ground to learn how to deal with what may happen outside of its doors.

I train for accomplishment. At the end of the day, at the end of the week, the month, the year, my life… I want to know that I did work. We’re only guaranteed this very moment right now, no more, no less. I want to maximize every single one. Somehow 60 minutes on the elliptical doesn’t seem like a wise use of my ever fleeting moments, nor an accomplishment. Because if I’m not proud of me, it doesn't really matter if anyone else is or not. 

I train for fun. I wish I knew the exact moment in life where movement goes from reward to punishment. If I could pinpoint this time, I’m pretty convinced the cure would be handstands. As children we run, jump, throw, and climb, with no purpose other than to move.  Movement = Play. In adulthood we grudgingly succumb to movement for our health and aesthetics. We have forgotten that this stuff is fun. If you’re not having fun, make changes to your program, make changes in your attitude. Don’t think about exercise as a necessary evil; something you have to do. Think about it as something that you get to do. Find the type of movement that’s going to bring you joy. I’m also convinced that there’s something out there for everybody.

As the moments lingered while I paused to formulate my answer, something became apparent.  All of my reasons were not why I train, but why I train at Flow. For this answer, I knew the recipient was not ready. I reduced my answer to simply “Because I can…” And saved my true response for all of you.

Because what about you?

It’s 2016, what are you gonna do about it?
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Why do you train?

​Wolfie

Acting strong needs mirrors to workout, being strong needs a destination.

Acting strong needs friends to tell them how great they are, being strong needs friends they can help become great.

Acting strong looks around after a PR to see who's watching, being strong puts more weight on.

Acting strong is hurtfully honest, being strong is honestly helpful.

Acting strong is there for whomever is there for them, being strong is always there.

Acting strong waits to see the outcome, being strong makes the outcome.

Acting strong needs an entourage, being strong builds a community.

Acting strong needs applause, being strong needs to make others feel like they are applauded.

Acting strong is the loudest coward, being strong is quietest fighter.

Acting strong waits for a better day, being strong lives everyday like its their last.

Acting strong will bow to a tyrant in hopes they may become one, being strong will rise against one.

Acting strong will pray as a last resort, being strong will pray as a first step.

Acting strong will give opinions, being strong will hear opinions...and keep going.

Acting strong will display trophies of themselves, being strong will display trophies of others.

Acting strong has unending pride, being strong can't be humble enough.
Acting strong joins a team so they can play, being strong joins a team so it can win.

Acting strong interrupts, being strong interprets. 

Acting strong sets standards that value themselves, being strong sets standards that show value in others.

Acting strong is a burden, being strong carries them.

Acting strong fears the strong, being strong fears their own strength.

Acting strong will do anything to be accepted, being strong searches for those in need of acceptance.
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Acting strong needs proof to believe, being strong is the proof others believe in.
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Acting strong has no weakness, being strong is weakness overcome time and time again. 

​Wolfie

Breakdown or Breakthrough? I’ve found that these are the two results of a Flow workout. Oddly though, these results aren’t a product of the workout, but rather a mindset established before the clock starts. Breakdown is the little guy in your head that tells you it’s too heavy, it’s too difficult, it’s too exhausting, or it hurts too much. Breakthrough is the little guy on your shoulder that tells you “I’m going to finish today, I’m going to try my best, and I’m not going to give up!”
 
Through observation and learned experiences, I’ve found that training the mind is just as important as training the body. This is because the body can only do what the mind allows it to do. Sit and think of a workout that you felt you could have done faster, or with more weight, and I’m sure you can remember the moment where you decided mentally that you weren’t going to push it. I know it happens to me every time I workout, I think to myself, why am I putting myself through this pain. The answer to this question determines how I finish.
 
You see, the mind is just like the body, it has capacities, and just like the body, it can be trained to become stronger. I thought I had trained my body to what I thought was its limit, but I truly hadn’t. Breakthrough, (remember the little guy on my shoulder?) hadn’t been found yet. Each workout was a battle between my mental and physical capacities, and each time my mind won out and told my body to quit.
 
Don’t over think, take yourself lightly, and take a minute to realize that the work we do is fun. Everyday we struggle with one another to build each other up. As we continue to build our physical capacity, just take a breath to get your mind right, and you will be on track to achieve greatness. Breakthrough mentally.

​Wolfie

The problem with expectations is that when we stop expecting things from ourselves, our expectations of other people go down as well. Here’s an example of what happens when our expectations get significantly diminished. This unfortunate event recently transpired in England(a couple of years ago):
 
Seven schoolgirls have sparked a major search and rescue mission—after being frightened by a herd of cows. The terrified pupils, aged 14 and 15, were on a geography field trip in Swanage, Dorset, when they sent out an SOS. They were dropped off three miles from their outdoor centre and told to find their way back using a map. But the teenagers, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, got stuck on a hill when they came across a herd of cows in a field blocking their way. A coastguard rescue team, police and an ambulance were scrambled to rescue them after one of the girls called for help on her mobile phone
 
I say let the cows eat them. They are already useless, because they’ve been taught—at home and at their ridiculous school—that they can’t do anything for themselves. I say had they been doing a Flow working out, a herd of English cows would not present so intimidating an obstacle. And at this late stage, Flow may be their only chance at a life free from shame and embarrassment.
 
Now, I realize that there are hundreds of millions of individual examples of people throughout the U.S. and Europe who have grown to a ripe old age without having engaged in either hard physical work or hard physical exercise. So why does it matter so much that people are out of shape, especially if it has no apparent effect on longevity? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in being 85 if I have to hire somebody to help me get up off the toilet. Very often in discussions of the public health benefits of exercise, the only consideration is longevity; an 80-year-old man with Alzheimer’s might argue that longevity in itself is not always a benefit, if he could.
 
So let me say something a little meatier: you owe it to yourself and the millions of lives that generated yours to live as though you appreciated it. Over and above the fact that you’re healthier—and as a result cost everybody less money and aggravation while you’re here—there is just something wrong with getting up every day and moving through your existence with the least possible effort. Doing it this way makes you more than merely less than optimum. It makes you afraid of cows, and unable to understand that you should not be.
 
If your expectations are always those of someone content to live without physical challenge, then when it comes time for mental, moral, or emotional challenge, you fail to meet it because you are out of practice. Meeting and overcoming obstacles are skills that can be honed, as opposed to talents with which we are born. The best way to prepare for the inevitable shit that life occasionally hands us all is to live in a way that prepares you for it. If you can treat personal tragedy like a TGU or 50 Burpees, you’ll do better than someone who has never met any challenge. Intentionally placing yourself in the position of having to complete a task when you don’t know if you can is the single best way of preparing to be in that position unintentionally. And that, my friends, is the way your training should be approached, so that you get more out of it than just “wellness.”

​Wolfie