The CJ Story: Making Exercise Fun, Effective, and Educational.

This is a true story about CJ that literally wrote itself perfectly during our training session the other day.


It is important to me that I make exercise as fun as possible. Bottom line is, most people do not enjoy exercise. So, I need to find a way to make it fun for each and every person that I work with.

My client CJ loves to shoot hoops(basketball). We begin each training session with the same routine, we go down to the basketball court and begin with a dynamic movement based warm up follow by a couple games of HORSE. CJ loves basketball and would be happy if all we did was just shoot hoops. But, if you know me, I like to do things a little differently. It would bore me silly if we just played HORSE everyday. I also feel that if we are going to be down here just "shooting hoops" I have to make it worth our while by making it motivating, inspirational, or at the least educational. So, it is may challenge each day to find words that will motivate, inspire or pick words that have a meaning or lessen behind them to play HORSE to. We have gone through many words and themes such as, discipline, strength, power, achieve, believe, you pretty much name the motivational word, phrase or theme and we have played HORSE to it.

.....We have been doing a little project with our Team Leaders over the past couple of months called "Keep, Start, Stop". Where each week we chose a team leader to "roast", and tell them a couple of things they should keep doing, things they should start doing, and things they should stop doing. It has been a great project because it really allows for your peers to give you some great feedback to things that you are doing well, and to some things that maybe you are not doing well and need to stop doing.....

I chose this theme to play HORSE with CJ today.

Game 1:
Me: "OK CJ, the first word is going to be "Start"
"But, before you take your first shot I want you to think about something while we play this first game."
"At the end of the game I want you to tell me one thing that you are going to "START" doing this year to make yourself better" "Now, it does not have to be fitness related but you have to tell me one thing that you are going to "START" to make one facet of your live better in 2011"

....game over....
Me: "Ok CJ, what are you gonna "START" doing this year to make yourself better"
CJ: " I want to improve my diet......"
Me: "Hold on there, first of all lets re-phrase that a little. I don't like how you said "diet". "Diet to me seems like somethings short term, kinda fad-ish. Lets say, you would like to improve your eating habits"
"How does that sound?"
Cj: "Sounds great"
Me: "we will talk more about changing your eating habits in a minute, but lets go onto game 2 for now."

Game2:
Me: "Ok, the word for this game is "STOP"
"At the end of this game I want you to tell me one thing that you are going to stop doing this year"
"It could be anything that you think is not making you get better. It could be a time waster that could free your time for something more productive. Just think about it during this game and let me know what you will "STOP" doing this year.

.....game over....
Me: "OK CJ, what are you gonna "STOP" doing this year to make yourself better"
CJ: "I am going "STOP" not eating breakfast everyday."
Me: "That's perfect CJ!!. As a matter of fact that goes right back to what we talked about a minute ago about something you want to start doing. Better eating habits. Lets make that your first new eating habits."
"Improving your eating habits is a little to vague. We need to be a little more specific with that (SMART). If we try to make too many changes at once our chances of being unsuccessfully are greater."
"So lets take what you want to "STOP" doing (not eating breakfast) and make that your first new habit of something that you want to "START" doing (improve eating habits)"
"And lets try that new habit for 2 weeks."
" I want you to start eating a healthy breakfast everyday for the next two weeks."
"After you are successfull at that we will add a new eating habit for you to master."
"How does that sound?"
CJ: "Sounds Great"

Game 3:
Me: "Ok, final game. The word is going to be "Keep"
"And again, at the end of the game I need you to tell me one thing that you are going to "Keep" doing this year to make you better"
"Your shot!"

...game over....
CJ: I am going to keep exercising this year.
"more specifically, I am going to exercise at least 4 days a week......"

We then went on and completed our workout. It was by far one of our best workouts we have ever had. CJ not only had an awesome time during her workout (even though I beat her 2 out of 3 games in HORSE:), but she also left the training session feeling great about her plan to make 2011 her best year yet!!

So, the moral of this story. Whether you are a personal trainer,a coach, or just somebody that wants to get better, be sure you are doing something everyday to make yourself a little bit better. Every activity can be an opportunity to educate, learn and get better! Be sure you have a plan and stick to it. Eliminate excuses. And remember to have fun in your life(or workout)and smile everyday.

If you haven't read Todd Durkins article on 83 ways to make 2011 your best year yet read it now by clicking here

Living Life with No Regrets........No Excuses!!
Scott