In my many years of experience working with hundreds of different clients and class partcipants I have come up with three categories of people in terms of work out style. Although the following information might over simplify work out psychology, we all tend to fall into one of the following categories.
Doggers, pushers and fakers.
Let me explain more fully. Ask yourself the questions under each one to determine where you might fit:
A dogger (AKA fucking the dog) is someone who would rather not have to work out. When doggers work out they find it hard to push themselves. They need someone to really push them to see results. Atlhough, they want to be fit, they'd rather not have to endure the discomfort of working out. They don't really enjoy the feeling when muscles burn, when their heart pumps heavily in their chests.
1) Do you complain when being presented something that is challenging?
2) Do you constantly look at the clock while working out?
3) Do you dread working out and often cut your workouts short for no apparent reason?
A pusher is someone who likes the way their body feels when they push themselves. However, pushers can sometimes work too hard and ignore signals from their bodies that tell them they might get injured. Sometimes they push themselves to the point of missing the point of an exercise. Instead of being in the moment they want to see results immediately and think they can do so by beating up their bodies chasing the rush that pain provides. Pushers can push themselves past their limits. These type of people need a little extra supervision to ensure they are doing things correctly.
1) Do you spend lots of time away from the gym and think one really hard workout will make up for time missed?
2) Do you overeat and then try to make up for it by killing yourself with a workout beyond your current fitness level?
3) Do you ignore sharp pains or non-muscular burning while working out?
A faker is someone who convinces themselves they are working hard when they're not. They might even fake it a little with extra grunts or moans of complaint that aren't really warranted. Fakers are sometimes hard to spot unless I get to know them better. They can have a tendency to lie to themselves that they are working hard enough to see results. But unlike doggers they are in a state of denial that they are working hard enough to see results: whereas doggers tend to know they don't like pushing themselves.
1) Do you make inappropriate sounds while working out that don't reflect your effort level?
2) Do you reach fatigue during your strength training sets or stop when you start to feel a bit of a burn?
3) Do you fake anything else in your life?
Each category above presents their own challenges to the fitness professional. As a veteran trainer, once I have a sense of where someone fits, I can adjust my coaching to suit someone's needs. Most of the time I'm right. Sometimes I'm wrong and sometimes people don't like to be called on their work out type. Once you have a sense of what type you might be, it's important to empower yourself with this self awareness and adjust your work outs accordingly. Like self denial in other parts of your life, unless you're willing to be honest with yourself, you will never optimize your time working out. For further analysis and help, don't hesitate to contact me or one of my fab trainers.
Yours truly,
Jane Clapp
www.urbanfitt.com
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