The New Years Resolution

New Year, New You, New Resolutions.

If you’ve decided that this is the year you take control of your fitness and improve your health and well-being, here are a few reasons why joining the functional fitness “cult” should be your first step.

If you ask, almost everybody would say they want six-pack abs and/or a nice butt. That’s not a bad thing, nor a bad goal, but it shouldn’t be the goal.

Most people who get a globo gym membership or start working out on their own with no background in training, quickly find out that a cut six pack doesn't just happen, even after countless hours of crunches, planks, and whatever other isolation movements you might think to murder yourself with.

Without noticeable results it is easy for people to lose motivation, eat a bunch of sugar, and put off physical improvement until next year. Then  when the new year rolls around again they’ll most likely do the exact same thing, and get the exact same outcome.

The great thing about any general preparedness strength and conditioning program, is that the goals all revolve around being able to do things better, to be better at being a human.

Whether you are focused on improving your ability to sprint, jump, lift weights, do pull-ups etc, your improvement is testable and therefore your results can be tracked with your consistency. The more you consistently train, the better you will get, and that’s scientific. Everyone loves science, and everyone loves getting better - not to mention, doing functional full-body movements, paired with a smart diet, will get you all the abs you could ever want.

Probably the most significant difference people find within the realm of group functional fitness specifically is the overarching and ever present sense of community. This is important for a few reasons.

Accountability: 99% of people will push harder, go longer, and endure more if they have someone else by their side doing the same. This why classes are so successful, and why if you are working out by yourself, it is very necessary that you find a reliable and consistent training partner. Being fit is a lifestyle, and surrounding yourself with people who share common goals and participate in the same activities is the easiest way to adopt that way of life.

Self Awareness: I find that a lot of people who join a gym out of the blue are usually looking for something other than just fitness, even if they don’t realize it. Whether they are unhappy or feel stagnate in their work, family, or personal life, a lot of people just want to find a reason for keeping on. The greatest thing about training is that it teaches you a lot about yourself. It shows you what you are good at, what you suck at, what you want to be better at, and how you best deal with adversity. I’ve seen a lot of people begin training, fall in love with it, and then, sometimes quite suddenly, realize that they have no interest in their job, or that some of their relationships offer very little value to their life. What’s interesting is that usually once that discovery is made, the things in life that they don’t like become goals for them to get rid, and they attack them with the same intensity that they attack their workouts. In this system success is almost guaranteed.

Friendships and the tribe: No matter what your backgrounds or physical differences, people in classes together, or training partners in general, almost always form a bond of friendship with one another. The work, suffering, failure, and success that all come with training, when shared, creates ties between people that can’t easily be broken. People who may not come together on their own, find comfort and belonging with one another. Sometimes boxes will refer to their members as a tribe, and this is accurate, since they all regard each other as family.