Manage Your Emotions to Maximize Your Results, by Matthew Romans

Proper exercise can bring about a wide range of emotions in people. I've seen clients exhibit everything including fear, panic, anger, and frustration, sometimes all within the same workout! All of these are normal human emotions, but succumbing to them can make it incredibly difficult to maintain your focus and give your best exercise effort. At Total Results, our goal is to give you the best exercise experience possible; one key to unlocking your body's potential is to be able to manage your emotions.

It is best to keep a calm demeanor during your workouts. Try to avoid giving in to your instincts. Remember, instinctive behavior is normal, but it is not involuntary. By giving in to feelings of anxiety or panic, you can burn off energy that can lead to premature fatigue, thus lessening the exercise effect. This can also lead to form discrepancies that can greatly increase the risk of injury. Above all else, the safety of the client is paramount.

The Total Results exercise studio is designed to be the ideal exercise environment. We have eliminated distractions and maintain a private workout area in order to foster concentration and encourage calm. The client should strive to keep his or her emotions in check so that they can process and execute instructions during each exercise. As instructors, we do not raise our voices, shout, or bark commands. Doing so could put clients on edge or make them anxious. Instead, we use a firm tone but keep our voice volume at respectful levels.

The most important time to keep your emotions in check is when momentary muscular failure approaches. This is when the exercise is uncomfortable, and when you're most likely to experience anxiety or panic. Remember that the primary objective of each exercise is to inroad the musculature, not complete a certain number of repetitions or move a certain amount of weight. It's very natural to have the mindset of "beating the machine", but this means you are fixated externally rather than internally. Remain calm and focus on the targeted muscle; once movement has stopped, just continue to breathe and push for another few seconds until your instructor tells you to ease off the effort. This ensures that you have achieved the best exercise stimulus possible.

What proactive measures can you take to keep your emotions in check before and during a workout? One good strategy is to take a few minutes prior to the workout to clear your head. Don't let work or other distractions interfere with your workout. Try to shut everything else out of your mind for the next twenty minutes, and focus on giving your best possible effort. Second, while exercise is important, don't put any unnecessary pressure on yourself. If you have a subpar workout due to external stress or lack of sleep, it's not the end of the world. All you can do is your best. Finally, realize that you are in a very safe environment under the supervision of an instructor that won't let anything bad happen to you. Total Results exercise gives the body the impression that it is under some sort of external threat, but the reality is that you are safer here than most other places. Even though the discomfort is real, it is temporary. As my friend and former colleague Al Coleman once said, "Don't run from the discomfort, chase after it." If you go into each workout with the understanding that it will be intense but brief, you will be much better able to avoid fear and panic.

Let Total Results help you gain the right exercise mindset. Schedule a consultation or workout today.