Proving Fitness vs Improving Fitness

When I first started with my fitness journey, my goal was to get healthy. Drop the weight, lower my blood pressure, get off my path to diabetes, and all other issues I’ve been dealing with. However, after a lot of the weight starting coming off, the goal started to slowly shift away from health and more towards vanity.

I wanted abs.

The shift in my goals were very gradual and I didn’t even notice it at first. My pants went from being too tight to fitting better to fitting great and finally being too loose. Once new wardrobe started coming into the picture, my eyes start shifting to aesthetics. My gym routine started to change to focus more on abs, arms, chest - all of the general muscle groups that are associated with looking fit.

It wasn’t until I participated in my first duathlon where I realized that my training wasn’t as ideally tuned for my goal as it should have been. I finished, but it was a struggle. That’s when I started to ask myself - what am I actually going to the gym for?

To stay healthy.

To prevent injuries.

To be around for my children.

To grow old with my wife.

Abs won’t help me with any of that. My wife already finds me attractive (for some reason) so why focus on anything else other than keeping myself healthy? No reason, that’s why. So back to core, compound, and legs.

Now, this was very specific to me. I won’t go and make any generalized comments for everyone on the same fitness and health journey as I am. This is just a reminder that sometimes your goals may change and that’s okay - just make sure it’s changing for the reasons you really want.