In any given day you may be juggling family time, half a dozen meetings, email, travel for work, conference calls, a luncheon, then maybe a networking happy hour. Look, I get that you are busy. Really, I understand. Also a young professional, I often overload myself with commitments and find myself taking a big sigh of relief over my cocktail of choice at the end of the week (to be specific, Buffalo Trace with a splash of soda…). Even as a strength and conditioning professional I sometimes miss workouts or exercise sessions because life is filled with all sorts of wonderful, and sometimes not so wonderful, surprises.
At Orangetheory Fitness I have the pleasure and joy of personally coaching more than 200 of our wonderful members to be better versions of themselves each week. The advice that follows is from the experience(s) that I’ve had with our members, the results I’ve seen them achieve, and what they’ve taught me.
1) Define Your Goal – Our members typically have a specific goal. For some they want to be stronger and have more energy for their 5 kids at home. Others have fat loss goals and some exercise because they have a history of disease in their families. Having a clear sense of what you are looking for will help you determine if a program is a good fit. Knowing your goal will also help you figure out if the package they are offering is a good fit for your needs.
2) Hire A Professional – In the same way you might hire a medical professional to evaluate your health, a dentist for dental work, or a financial planner to help layout your wealth plan for the next 20 years, you should also hire an expert to help you exercise if you have specific goals in mind. If you want to make the most out of your time exercising hire someone who knows what they are doing. Just as the other professions listed we are also masters of our craft.
3) Start Small – Behavior change experts say that the best way to start, learn, and stick with a new habit is to layer just one new behavior at a time. Please don’t try to overhaul your diet, start meditating, exercise 5 days per week, and journal 30 minutes a day if you haven’t done any of those in the past year. Many of our members start out with just two or three days per week because they know that is something they can do. From there your exercise professional can increase your frequency when you’ve got the hang of things.
Bonus tip – It is a journey. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Give your type A personality a break if you miss a workout or have a burger and a beer the next time you’re out. Healthy food choices and exercise will lead to progress over time much like compounding interest in finance.
Stay consistent, and be sure to love yourself along the way.
Orangetheory Fitness offers a special member benefit for all YPAL members. Your first class is free. Mention your YPAL membership and receive a special rate and a free “Core” HR monitor if you decide to join.
Nate is the Head Coach at Orangetheory Fitness – Louisville Highlands. He a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA and will finish his graduate degree in Exercise Physiology at UofL this spring. He can be reached at headtrainer0868@orangetheoryfitness.com
About the Series
The YPAL Get Healthy Blog Series, sponsored by Norton Healthcare, will focus on the health and well-being of our Louisville Young Professionals. This blog series will feature various young professional bloggers in our community sharing their stories on health, wellness, nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles. Want to write a Get Healthy Blog Post? Email Admin@YPAL.org for details!
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