BodyPower,crochet, and being inspired.

I am spoilt.

My wife Helen recently treated us to two ‘power pass’ tickets to the Body Power Expo in Birmingham. This was a truly amazing gift and I was buzzing at the idea! I found myself literally counting down the days until the event.

I was a Body Power virgin and wasn’t sure what to fully expect. Body Power is one of the biggest events in the fitness industry and basically anyone who is anyone is in attendance in terms of fitness professionals. The day is made up of athletes, exhibitors, shows, trainers, seminars, product sampling, competitions, strong men, food & cookery demos, education, live q & a’s, and more.

Upon entry I felt I slightly overwhelmed and almost in awe. The first person I saw, who I recognised from his YouTube videos and work with Mutant Nation, was Rich Piana. Now if you are unaware of this guy, Google him. He is literally physically MASSIVE. Video does not do this or any of these guys justice in real life. I felt small, almost childlike when I had a photo taken with later in the day!

Seeing these people whose work continues to inspire me in real life somehow seems to mean more. It’s like, now I have liaised and spoken with these people, it now seems like their work, ethics, ethos and beliefs mean more having seen it and now heard it first hand.

This also applied when I was lucky enough to have a quick chat and photo with 6 x Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. Dorian is one of my bodybuilding heroes and has inspired a lot of my training style and approach over the last few years. We spoke about utilising time efficiently in the gym and why he was wearing a sock & thong combination on the photo he gave me! He wrote the words ‘To Tristan, train hard! Dorian Yates. Mr. O’. If Dorian tells you to train hard, you train hard!

As the day proceeded we both met with a lot of people who I admire and whose work I follow closely. It was surreal to go from listening to the Paul Mort podcast to chatting to him about his pocket watch in person, or from watching a Rob Bailey interview to then meeting the man for real, or sat listening to Ronnie Coleman talk about his own struggles he overcame to become Mr. Olympia, or having a wee and Mark Coles walks by (Google his work, amazing), or grabbing a drink and Roelly Winklaar swaggers round the corner, or Helen hanging out with Miss O. Dana Linn Bailey(got a great pic of these two together), the list goes on and on….

We where literally surrounded by inspiration all day. From the moment we walked in we could feel the energy, excitement and passion in the room. Energy is contagious and to be part of it is an amazing feeling. The experience was nothing but positive.

Now the main reason I’m sharing this experience with you is that it doesn’t matter if bodybuilding, fitness modelling or even going to the gym is not your thing. What is important, is that these people we where surrounded with, are literally the BEST at what they do. They to serve to inspire and motivate and they do it exceptionally. What I would encourage and invite you to do is find the best people at whatever it is you are motivated by and seek them out and get inspired.

We all need inspiring & motivating, whether it’s to live out our dreams, make a change, start a new relationship, get off the sofa, or just take that very first step. Once you find inspiration and seek out like minded people (like Helen and I did at BodyPower) you will realise your goals can be achieved and you are not alone, there are literally millions of people like you out there who all had to start somewhere. Use this to drive yourself forward.

If you are passionate about something, embrace it! No matter what it is, whether it happens to be crochet or bodybuilding is irrelevant! If crochet is your thing, I encourage you to seek out the best crochet individuals you can and continue to develop your passion!

Whatever industry you work in, whatever lights your fire, seek out inspiration and follow it. Our BodyPower experience has made me even hungrier and passionate for what I do.

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Regards,

Tristan

 

 

 

Why so serious?

Why so serious?

In the current world of social media, gym ‘selfies’, hashtags, so called ‘motivational’ quotes (no pain no gain anyone?) and what seems like millions of PT’s and instructors all ‘smashing’ their workouts whilst competing with each other over who can sweat, bleed, puke or feint the most, major factors are getting lost…………HAVING A LAUGH and making training fun and accessible.

I drove past a very well known gym the other day and saw an advert for ‘Insanity’, the latest in a long line of ‘revolutionary’ fat burning programs (circuit training then), that read:

Insanity…. GET FIT OR GET OUT!

That’s it. Basic? Yes. To the point? Yup. Hardcore? Maybe. Intimidating? Definitely.

Now in terms of creating a demand for such a class, this is very niche market. Insanity is pretty challenging and certainly not advisable for beginners but this marketing is surely a bit strong? I mean how many true hardcore people are out there? 12 – 13% of the UK population are a member of a gym, so the remaining 88% of people out there are going to drive by that very sign and believe that that’s what the ‘gym’ is all about, getting fit or getting out! How many people drove by and thought ‘that sounds great, right up my street, where do I sign up’?!

The thing is most of these classes/workouts and even other instructors seem to be in competition with each other, and by doing so they are forgetting about the average person on the street who is scared of taking that first step. Posting a workout and showing how ‘insane you train’ may impress like minded piers/friends but will do nothing but add to the stigma that is already attached to the ‘gymlife’. Training knowledge and info is important to share but I would challenge at times how it’s delivered and in turn perceived. There’s absolutely no point in a fitness professional appealing to another fitness professional whilst being totally unappealing to the guy (or girl) in the street!

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t know anyone that ever got anywhere (in or out of the gym) without training hard and without being consistent and I do advocate and advise that an individual pushes themselves to their limits, within reason. The key focus here is an individual’s limits are specific to themselves. There is no substitute for hard work and there are no secrets to success, but if you happen to potentially have a laugh along the way, you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) be judged!

What I am saying is that there is far more to getting results than simply ‘going hard or going home’, if you aren’t actually enjoying what you are doing, you are not going to stick to it, simple. You can train hard and still have a laugh! It’s ok! Have balance; don’t substitute hard work for joking around, but likewise its accceptable and essential to enjoy what you are doing, especially if you are just starting out in the world of training.

If you are reading this and you are currently not actually enjoying what you are doing and cannot remember the last time you had fun or a bit of a laugh in the gym, then maybe you need to look at why?

Anyway, thanks for reading, I’m going to go and train insane, take a gym selfie, go hard then go home, then put it all on facebook.

 

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Regards,
Tristan