Why I choose to Never Compete in Fitness
I Chose to Never Compete…deal with it
My name is George, I am a Personal Strength & Fitness Trainer and, you will never see me “step on stage” in any capacity to compete in fitness throughout my career in the fitness industry.
I will train hard and train often.
I will apply different periodization methods to my training depending on my goals.
I will progress my training for improvement in all facets and disciplines in order to improve my training state.
I will Try and break my own training records and or PR’s; whatever the kids are calling it these days.
I will even train alongside others who maybe training for a competition
I will never compete in Strength & Fitness.
Why?
No desire to “Prove Myself”
I simply have no desire or drive to compete against myself/others in the realm of Strength & Fitness. There are a lot of people who are professionals and even recreational exercisers that do have a desire to compete; I support your desires but, I will not be joining you. I compete with myself every day, I believe that is enough from me. Nobody can tell me that my best squat doesn’t count unless its on the platform because it does count; I did it, so it counts. Who cares if it wasn’t judged for form or technique by some people standing around me. As long as I can be honest with myself, I know what counts as a quality rep or not.
This might be hard for some to digest, especially former athletes who have lived their lives being being judged by their performances. While I never expanded my competitive sports career past the high school level I really enjoy competition, that does not mean I am always looking to compete in every aspect of my life. Some people yearn for it and are very happy to see that competitive fitness is now a lot more mainstream and accessible. I just do not care for competition in this way.
I just do not enjoy those sports.
There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing. I really enjoy exercising and pushing my limits in the gym. I really enjoy working hard on my career. I really like creating “masterpieces with pencils and a paintbrush. I do not enjoy the sports related to fitness. Powerlifting…nope. Olympic Lifting…nope. Crossfit…nope. Marathoning…nope. Strongman…nope. Bodybuilding…nope. Do i use techniques from those sports in my training, Yes but I do not think they are fun as sports.
I do enjoy some sports but these ones do not do it for me. It is that simple. Some people like Tennis, I do not like Tennis. Some people like like country music, I do not like country music. It is as simple as that. I prioritize my time by things I want or need to do, there just is no time for doing things I have a choice of not doing when I know I do not like the activity. Would I play a recreational sport I enjoy like an adult baseball league or flag football, sure I would consider it. But, only because those are some sports I enjoy and would focus more on the fun part than trying to be the team/league MVP.
It is Not where my Passion for the Fitness Industry Comes From
I didn’t get into the fitness industry to compete in my own training and it has never been a goal of mine to do so. The choice of wanting to compete or not has nothing to do with the quality of service I deliver to my clients, even the ones that desire to compete! There are some trainers that are the opposite and only got into the field of fitness after finding a passion for competing. I think that is great but, it is not where mine came from.
Injury Risk to benefit ratio is not favorable
Is this subjective and strictly my opinion,Yes. So what? Everyone goes through a point where they make a choice; that is mine. In my mind I truly believe that with my past and current injures it would not be worth it to consider competing in fitness competitions where I might excel. Is that a crime? I don’t believe it is. So, when listing out the pros and cons of competing and training to compete, my list is like this:
PROS
Winning
Cool Trophy/metal for my bookshelf
CONS
I already compete with myself
Its Not fun for me
I might lose functional actions in my arms, legs or back
It Doesn’t Improve my craft as a fitness professional
Training and competing can take time away from progressing in my current career and personal life.
You might have a list that looks vastly different and I think that is cool and will accept it. Do you accept my list? I would hope so.
I am a Fitness Professional and so are you
Regardless of your choices to compete or my choices not to compete we are both valuable fitness professionals. We are both correct in our choices and valuable parts of the industry.
However…
If tomorrow I had a chance to compete for a position in something that I enjoyed(football/baseball)…Id fight with myself to not jump all over it. If a sports agent called me tomorrow and said “we saw some of your high school game tape, sent it to some teams and they are interested”, I would seriously consider it on impulse. Only after some rational thought would I bring myself back down to reality. I am Human After all.
Originally published at fitletes.com
Thanks For taking the time out of your day to read.
If you enjoyed it then I hope you follow, It would really mean the world to me.