oldsuperman’s BodyBlog

You may or my not have noticed, I never say, "I workout"…..What I do is, "TRAIN!"

When most people go to the gym, what almost everyone says they are doing is, "working out". Yet, most, 97% to be exact, will fail at in their exercise and diet program in one year or less.

When you talk to someone who "trains" they have a goal in mind, like to "hit a lift" to improve in strength and virility. Some to get those Brad Pitt abs. Some to compete in BBing or power lifting competitions. There are many other pursuits that are rewarding and challenging for the BBer, like cycling, triathlons, marathons, even a better golf game and etc..

My goal now, for example, it to compete in 2008 NPC Masters Nationals BBing competition and win my class! There are many sub goals in place to reach that goal by a certain time to get to my ultimate goal. Therefore, "I’m in training." I have "trainers" that "trains" me. I have a "training" partner with similar goals!

What I have noticed over the years as I attend many of the same gyms from Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and other major cities foreign and domestic, that I frequent, I see many of the same people, some have improved, some maintained, yet most are newbies that will be gone the next time I visit, never to return again.

At least twice a week or more, someone will come up to me and ask, "How can I lose weight" or "I want to look like you!" Or "get more muscles, but not big like you! Just toned up." or "I wanna lose my belly, get fit, bla, bla, bla…" They are almost always short term lifters. Why? IMO, they come to "just work out." No goals, no vision of what that means. It is more than "just working out," it is a goal, and vision of what you want to accomplish. Therefore, they fail.

I rarely give them advice anymore to the people that approach me because when I do, 98% of them will not put forth the "intensity", or "consistency" or diet to succeed. They come to the gym to "just work out." They lack "intensity and consistency," with no idea of how to achieve the goals they seek. They come to "workout" and "train" for nothing.

Does a runner talk about his or her "working out" for a race, or do the "train" for a race. Do skiers "work out" or train? Do ball players go to "workout" camps or "training" camps? They have coaches and trainers, that train them.

Now, I’m not saying anything is wrong with "working out." I just feel to me, it means two different things, one has a strong commitment to a goal, a vision, and the other terminology rarely does. It just hangs there. To me, it is more than semantics!

So, the question is….. "Do you train?" Or, "Just work out?" ed

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.