It’s a new week which means it’s time for a new blog! First off, I would like to wish my fellow Canadians a Happy Post Canada Day! As well as wish all my Yankee friends back in the States a very Happy Independence Day! And a big congratulations to the American Supreme Court and the American people for ruling in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide….welcome to the 21st century.

I had a little trouble coming up with something to write about for this week. For the first time in a long time I was left dumbfounded for words. With so many clients away on summer vacation, business has been relatively slow. There were no 3:30am wake up calls, only a handful of bathroom selfies to comment on in my news feed and no one injured themselves doing a ridiculous CrossFit exercise at the gym (that I know of anyways). In other words it was a fairly dull week.

Even my online clients who I work with on their nutritional plans all had perfect weeks. I mean usually someone hits some kind of plateau or falls off the proverbial wagon (or bench press in this case) and we have to go back and fix something or “tweak” the program, however there were no problems to solve. To top it off, I’m in full on training mode right now therefore I haven’t had a drink in over a month. So I’m sure you can only imagine just how slowly the days actually went by.

You would think I would have been content and relieved to have had a stressless and drama-free week. However being the “Type-A” personality that I am, I live off chaos therefore I was left bored and itching for something to do. Perhaps a change was in order……

Now for a normal person a change in their daily routine might mean time off for a vacation, a new outfit, or perhaps trying out a new restaurant over the weekend. For a gym junkie, it means a new exercise program, revamped nutritional plan and a trip to the supplement store for all the latest muscle building and fat loss aids on the market. Being the latter of the two off to the supplement store I went!

First I decided to “switch things up” by trying out a new Pre-Workout mix to go along with my Green Coffee Bean Extract. After lasting only 5 minutes into my workout and spending the remaining 55 minutes on the toilet, I decided this was indeed not the change that I needed to make.

I then figured perhaps that I was long overdue for a cheat meal and that this change in my diet would help reset my mind and body and help me become self motivated again. Another bad decision. That one cheat meal decided to come back on me later on that evening and well…..let’s just say I spent ALOT of time on the toilet last week.

Okay, so with two strikes and no one on base I only had once more chance to make the change I was so desperately looking for in my fitness routine. It was time to transform my workouts. Now like most people, my own workouts are very personal to me. In previous posts over the years I’ve discussed my love affair with Chest Day, my struggles with Back Day, and my anxiety with Leg Day, so I knew that this was something that was going to be a real challenge for me to try and change.

So off to the gym I went with no plan and no clue as to what I was going to do or train (Similar to a CrossFit workout I suppose). Once I arrived at the gym I decided that I was going to work my shoulders. My training partner Robyn and I started with an exercise that we would normally finish with during our shoulder routine. We then decide to add a slight variation to our dumbbell presses that ended up making the exercise much more difficult to perform. As the workout progressed I found myself enjoying the variations and the mix-ups of our typical deltoid routine. I felt stronger on some exercises while weaker on others that I could normally handle with heavier weights. This was obviously shocking to both my muscles and my mind. The result – We were both left feeling extremely sore (in a good way) for days. I hadn’t felt this type of soreness in years. I had been so fearful to try something new and to think outside the box that I was stuck in my old, boring and stale routine.

Now for a trainer who constantly mixes up his own clients’ workout routines on them, you would think that I would have come to this realization years ago. But I didn’t. And what I believe this goes to show us, is that sometimes we can get so caught up in our own daily routines that we become fearful to try something new. I also learned that you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks (incase you didn’t figure it out, I’m the dog in this analogy, not Robyn).

Like an after-school special, I learned a valuable lesson last week. In this case it was with my workout routine. However the real lesson that I learned I feel that I can now apply to my lifestyle outside the gym as well. I learned that it’s important to step out of my comfort zone, try something completely new, and not care whether it works or doesn’t work. And unlike an after-school special this is not a lesson that I will soon forget.

A good friend/client of mine recently told me that the same thing that has brought me to the position that I’m in today (which is a very good position in my opinion) is going to hold me back moving forward tomorrow. This advice makes more sense to me now then it did a few weeks ago.

“Very Good” is okay. But “Excellent” just sounds so much better……

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
President
Forever Fit