Values based training

As fitness professionals, we often show the world when we are doing active stuff, because have found value in movement and want to share that, but I also think it’s important to show and model that we aren’t like that all the time. I recently took a little break from structured or planned training because it felt like self care for my mental and physical health and I want to share that too.

For me, as soon as “shoulds” start to come up around training, I know my energy levels are down or something is going on mentally, and rather than “push through”, I back off. I remind myself that in my value system, training is only worth doing when it feels like being on my own side, and I figure out what that looks like right now and respond accordingly.

That’s the opposite of how a lot of us have learned to respond to our bodies, but for me it’s been an important way to check back in with my values and make sure I’m not just going through the motions. Whenever I do this, I come out the other side with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the type of training I love and value. Moving feels like a gift to myself.

Being constantly “fit” isn’t my job (though some people might think it is) – my job is to coach people who want to move to do so in helpful ways, and to support them to have movement in their toolbox of ways that they care for themselves. It’s not my job to teach them to ignore their minds or bodies, and it’s not my job to ignore mine.

So, here I am, on my day off, feet up on the couch, coffee in hand, reminding myself and anyone who’s listening that our fitness and athleticism is not our worth, and not something that we owe to anyone. That if we let our values guide us, we can engage in movement in ways that are meaningful and helpful to us, that we can be flexible about what that looks like in a way that treats us with the respect we deserve from ourselves.