An Individual Approach – Putting the I in Community
To shed light on the current situation we have at hand, I’d like to draw inspiration from the concept of yin and yang. For there to be good, there must be bad. This duality is what makes up the journey of the hero. I’m asking all of you reading this to take on this journey. To see light in the dark, to seek good in the bad and to bring positivity to a situation riddled with negativity. What’s done is done and each new challenge will be followed by another. The current world events are out of your immediate control, they are unknown and uncertain. How you respond to this is in your control. You can control the known and you can bring certainty to your own lives. I urge you to lean on yourselves firstly, to look within for strength, courage and the mental fortitude to push on. When your villain is telling you no, I’m asking you to say yes. And his/her challenges will be consistent, perhaps harder than the previous one. Your willpower and your resilience will also be tested. And there will be times where you will want to give up, place blame on others, feel guilty about your actions, feel unmotivated and perhaps even unworthy of the challenge. We all acknowledge the gravity of the current situation. Accept that this is how it is and continue to put one foot in front of the other. This is when I implore you to continue to push forward. Then when it seems like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, you are overwhelmed by stress and hardship, and you feel like you have exhausted your own source of strength, then I say it’s time we lean on each other. If you need help, seek it, for there will be an outstretched hand on the other end. That hand is us. Our team, our community.
Spotting the Bench Press – How this looks in the gym
When we spot each other on a Bench Press, we do not touch the bar unless completely necessary. We are there for them the entire lift and they of course are aware of our presence. You desperately want to push the weight on your own, but your buddy is right there with you to lend a hand during the toughest portion of the lift (the dreaded sticking point). Only then will we apply a little, or a lot of help to get the bar over the safety hooks. Even if you were to complete the rep solo, you and your spotter feel like you made the lift together Maybe it was the encouragement that got you over the hump, the loud cries of “drive”, “up”, “push”. It all counts. One thing is for sure though, you wouldn’t pick up such a heavy weight without first knowing that you had a spotter there to help you if and when the time comes. That time is now, make sure you have a spotter. Make sure you are there to spot each other.
A Collective Approach – ‘One in all in’
During a holiday to Thailand with my family in 2018, we coined a phrase ‘one in all in’ that soon became a motto for the entire length of the trip. Whenever we would put an idea forward to the family, we boosted the conviction behind our decisions based on this principal. The principal is a bit of an oath to each other if you will. If one of us is going to do it, all of us would do it. If one of us was going down, so to the rest of us. At least there would be comfort in the struggle. We often spoke of this principle in regards to diving into the street food offerings along the streets of Thailand. That way if one of us got sick, we could all be sick together. This was comforting in a way, similar to the type of comfort you feel when asking a friend at school if they had starting their assignment yet, and they respond with a no, just like you hadn’t started yours yet. A sigh of relief, I’m not the only one in the doghouse, we are in it together, ‘one in all in’. This phrase proved true in the end, my brother and I decided to eat out at a coffee shop in Phuket, resulting in a bout of food poisoning, only his was North Pole, and mine was South Pole. Of course, this was not ideal in the slightest. However, it was nice knowing that my brother and I were battling together, only this time we really actually needed the toilet paper.
One in all in – The Perform 360 Approach
When you arrive at the gym to train with a number of other gym goers, you are all signing up to the same level of pain that will shortly be brought upon you. This, I’m sure eases that pain for you. Seeing your workout buddies gasping for air during the late rounds of a conditioner. Watching the sweat drip from their foreheads along with your own. Its comfort in the struggle. Side by side with your team, striving to push through the discomfort so that you all come out better on the other side. We share many struggles. Life is a struggle. This challenge is no different. The pain you feel is likely the pain your friend feels. My advice is that when you don’t feel like doing a workout, you do it anyway, not just for yourself, but for the self that exists within our community of selves. You’ve all spotted each other in the gym, now I’m saying we spot each other from home. Together we struggle, together we triumph. One in all in.
“We have to keep our distance. But that doesn’t mean we have to be disconnected” – Scott Morrison Prime Minister of Australia
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Keep the team morale high!
Zach Maggs
Perform 360 Coach
