What Are You Learning in the Gym? Life Lessons from Your Health and Fitness Journey
It’s easy to look at working out in the gym or changing up your nutrition as a “means to an end”. A way to simply put in the required work or make the necessary tweak with your eyes only on the outcome. When I was younger and just started to lift weights in the gym, I used to do just that. I did only what was required and only cared about if it would bring me the strength, muscles, sport performance, look, weight loss or whatever I was chasing at that moment. Of course, I would still think about other things that I was getting out of it, but at first it was about what the minimum amount of work I could do for the shorter-term goal I had set. Unfortunately, this shortsighted self-focused and quick serving outlook is one that many people take. The gym or the 30 day nutrition challenge is just an avenue to transport from A to Z. However, experience and working with different clients over the years has shown me there is a lot to be learned if you can learn to zoom in and out along the way, looking at both the bigger but also the smaller lessons to be learned along the way.
Many In the health and fitness industry perpetuate the idea and market their services with short-term focused goals without talking about the true magic that occurs in the process. More often you will see trainers, nutrition coaches, fitness influencers, gyms and pretty much any and all services related to health and fitness just talking about as change/transformation or “end goal” as if it’s as simple as snapping fingers or keeping your head down. But what about the actual PROCESS of getting to where you want to go? What is happening during the time you are putting in the work, effort, behavior change, etc? What about the invaluable LESSONS learned AS you move forward or perhaps encounter setbacks or something clicks for the first time? What about taking an approach that is beyond just following a specific workout plan or diet without much thought behind it simply for a result? The “gym” is a prime example and place where the process and lessons often can happen, but this applies to many facets of health and fitness.
Being a forever student: Constant growth and learning mindset:
Some of the things you can learn in the gym or really in any pursuit towards a healthier version of yourself are lessons that apply elsewhere in life. You can get the results you want but also learn and grow in other areas at the same time. Get engaged in the process and draw connections. If you can shift your framework away from just a result or goal and realize there is more to be had, you will begin a constant pursuit of learning and expanding skills and knowledge to all aspects of life. The results will still come naturally and with more ease. I’m not saying that goals are not important. They help orient and drive you. They are often tied to your greater purpose in life or your health and your “why”. However, it is important to also be present enough in the actual process and journey to get the full benefits. This was and is now a very important inspiration for all I do not only in the gym when squatting or making meals for my family but in all areas where there is more to learn rather than just “doing the thing”.
What am I learning in the process as I do something?
Don’t just think of the result, but what are you learning in that process and can you improve or make not only yourself or aspects around you better, but the process better in some way. It may not always be clear especially when something is new and not comfortable yet, but as you gain familiarity and comfort, can you do it better? Is something not as expected? Is there something you don’t know or didn’t realize? Do you continue to learn something new from it even after you became more and more comfortable with what it is you are doing? Does it apply elsewhere?
How does what I learned apply to other areas in my life?
This is the focus. Can you take what you learned grinding through a heavy ass squat, recovering from an injury or illness, or improving your nutrition and apply that elsewhere in your daily life? This is where I feel the magic is and what defines not only really excellent coaching and connecting clients with deeper meaning, but also what keeps you locked into your own health and fitness as a lifelong pursuit rather than a month long transformation.
What Are Some Lessons?
Achievement and growth don’t come without pain:
Whether a bodybuilder, Crossfitter, powerlifter or endurance junky, growth in those areas does not come without some pain. This is even for someone who is a newbie. Experience can show you how to push harder but being new can lead to many new things being tough. Whether it’s physical pain or burn in the moment or soreness later, we must hold ourselves in the uncomfortable, sit there at times, and even embrace it to grow. If it were too easy, our body (and mind) would not need to learn to adapt to it.
If things were indeed “easy”, whether at the gym or when making any change, it would not require the focused effort required for our bodies and minds to imprint that lesson deeply. In short, we need struggle/challenge/difficulty of sorts for many lessons/changes to take hold.
This applies to so many areas in life, whether that be a rough day at work or relationships that challenge us to do the work and be better partners, parents, friends, etc. The toughest moments can often be where there is the biggest times for growth. If it’s not tough, it may not require growth; but if it’s easy, you may not grow at all. Find places both in life and the gym that give you the most challenge and lean into them. Sit in that discomfort and indeed sometimes real pain to learn and grow.
Sometimes you need to know when to listen to yourself:
It’s easy to get carried away and go overboard sometimes; and vice versa, it can also be easy to not put in the work or get a little unmotivated or lazy. There is a balance, and that place involves listening to yourself. We mention pain and challenge being necessary for growth but that cannot be a constant 24/7 pursuit. If you were in the gym pushing all day you would simply breakdown, not improve performance or grow.
There are times when your mind or body may be telling you something that you should pay attention to, but you don’t. It can be hard to know whether this message is one to listen to or not if you are not well in touch with yourself on a deeper level or perhaps block those messages. One of the greatest gifts from curiosity and exploration with your mind/body, health, and fitness is that you can sharpen your ability to know HOW and WHEN to listen. This isn’t “no pain no gain” talk or telling yourself to just tune out and charge anyway. One of the most valuable lessons you can learn is how to listen to what your actual NEEDS are and then act in accordance. This is also a skill that translates to other areas outside of the walls of the gym.
If you can listen to what lay at the root of a feeling or thought and heed it, you can connect deeper with yourself and others. You can learn more effectively from yourself and others. You can find better balance and shift away from tipping scales to far in one direction or another; and this can be important for longevity in most things in life whether that be the most fit and highest performing version of yourself in sport or sustained health. If you can’t tune in, you can’t best serve your body. When you spend time in the gym you spend time connecting and connecting with yourself.
Patience is extremely underrated and overlooked:
Though this list isn’t in order, this can be one of the most important…period. Often the behaviors or changes you need to employ to see the results you want are much easier than you anticipated once you start to do them. The real challenge can be that they often simply just take a lot longer than you anticipated. You can’t go into a gym for a squat session one day and be instantly stronger or grow the booty you are seeking the very next. You cannot eat quality nutrient dense meals for a week and suddenly solve all your health or weight loss goals. The same can be said for your career or hobbies and passions. Were you able to try them and be masterful out the gate?
So if we use our example of getting stronger by squatting, most strength athletes that have reached the highest heights of strength got there with not only hard work but also patience. If they did not have that quality it would be far too easy to either give up or push to quickly beyond ability and nurse injury constantly. Greater sustained growth and strength will come from patience allowing that person to squat day after day without setbacks sustained from moving too quickly or giving up altogether.
Though we may have ease with some things, the fact of the matter is that most worthwhile change that is lasting takes time and patience. This can be frustrating for many, and without patience it will be extremely difficult to stick to it. The ability to learn patience by understanding that any change you hope to make takes lots of time and effort is invaluable. This is whether that be in the gym, rehabbing from an injury, or even gaining proficiency cooking in the kitchen. It helps you with your patience overall. If you can zoom out and realize that the work is truly never-ending, it can be easier to develop that patience. Once you attain a specific goal, it does not stay there without continued effort either most times. That effort may not be as intense or consuming, but effort is still required, nonetheless. This can indeed be one of the more critical lessons in an age where it seems like many things can be had with the push of a button. Patience is not one of those things; you need to develop it and a great place is through the gym where you can see changes take place over time through your hard work and practicing patience.
Sometimes the things you avoid most may be the things you need most:
This ties into some of the other lessons. When you know how to listen to yourself, have patience, and understand that discomfort is a big part of growth then it may make it more obvious that certain things you shy away from are what you need the most.
It's not a new concept that sometimes we don’t want to do things we “need” for ourselves to be better. However, if you can spend time and effort to see where these things are and why, you may learn from them. The fact that you hate “leg day” or “burpees” may be a sign of something you need to tackle more head on. Whether for you that is stomaching the lesson that change requires discomfort or the possible reality that you need to explore better hip mobility does not matter. The key is identifying for yourself WHY you are avoiding it, and if it is something you need, then pursuing it with that new knowledge and effort.
While there are definitely things in the gym and life that are to be avoided and the aversion to them is for good reason, see if you can get curious about and explore what that avoidance is about to find out if you actually do need something in that area that is missing for you. You may be surprised where this applies.
It’s okay to fail…and then fail again:
A final lesson for this article, but not the final lesson learned at the gym by any means. In fact, the lesson that comes from failing is the failure itself. Failure can teach our mind and body that something needs to change whether that be immediately in the moment or for the long haul. Sometimes it can just be an opportunity to pause and make note or learn. Whether you fail a lift or didn’t meet your weekly nutrition goals is a message and not a judgement or value assignment; and you can look at it that way.
If you can look at your failures as a primer for learning you will then be using them to your advantage and the best way you can. Sometimes the lesson is different too. A failed squat one day may be a completed lift on another more rested day. A week of less-than-optimal meals and snacks may be an excellent middle ground during a week when work is wild. Learning to see and experience failures as a place in time to pause, pay attention and learn or change is a key lesson.
Sometimes failures signal change and other times they don’t, but you can always use them as opportunities to learn and grow.
The list goes on and on…
There are indeed far more lessons that you can learn, and each person has unique lessons that they can and will take away from their own health and fitness journey especially if they remember that it is a journey.
If you are someone that has been only focused on the result like the number on a scale or barbell, a specific look of yourself in the mirror or from others, the other side of an injury that brings you back to baseline rather than beyond, then now is a great time to reimagine what you can be getting out of your journey rather than just the goal. What do you notice when you slow down enough to look at your own process? How do you actually go about achieving the end results you have in mind? Will they truly be an end or part of more?
One thing that can help you get more out of your lessons or how to even find them is having a greater purpose or “why”. This can be as you recover from a setback like a shoulder or knee injury, truing to figure out how and why you want to eat more healthfully, or reasons for getting stronger at the gym. Connecting to a bigger and more existential reason can help you better define goals, but also better connect you to and learn from the lessons along the way.