I tend subscribe to ideas, beliefs, people, and blogs that will increase my “personal power” and allow me to get the most out of life.  One of the pages I subscribe to on Facebook, Team Up Personal Training,  is run by a heck of a guy and good friend of ours, Red Smith.  Red is an entrepreneur and certified personal trainer based out of sunny Tampa, Florida.  The page is full of helpful tips on weight loss and overall fitness that is written in freakin’ English for a change… in other words Red just makes stuff make sense but in a clear, kind, and in a “get off your ass” sort of manner.  So I was reading one of the notes posted on the page that really made a lot of sense, like most of what Red says, but this one stuck with me.  I kept reviewing it and reminiscing about my “younger” days… the damn note wouldn’t get outta my head!  Well that’s because it’s that good and I always say we can learn a lot from children…  so I decided to share it here with you and my other readers in hopes that it will strike a chord with you as well.  It’s entitled, “We Were Born To Be Fit” , ENJOY!!!

As I sit here in the International Plaza mall, watching my grandson and about 25 others kids playing at the indoor play area, I realize that we’ve all messed this up.

As kids, we played and we played hard. I’m sitting here watching kids jump off of things that are higher than they are tall, climbing, running full speed, crawling, hopping, balancing, crashing into each other, laughing, smiling, and making new friends.

No matter how hard they play, nobody is gasping for air, sweating, getting hurt, or worried about what other people are thinking. They’re just having a great time.

We all started out this way, but somewhere along the line we just stopped moving. In doing so, we took something that came natural to each of us and made it difficult and uncomfortable. By the time most people are in their mid-thirties they can barely move anymore. Forget about having any balance or coordination. And falling down leads more likely to some type of injury instead of a huge smile on their face. My grandson has falling a minimum of 30 times in less than an hour already. That’s kind of a side effect of running full speed with a big head I guess, lol! But he get’s up just as fast as he falls down and he’s off to the next obstacle. In contrast, it can take clients several seconds to just get their body off of the ground and on to the next exercise during workouts.

My instructor at school used to tell us all of the time, that we are what we do to ourselves. He used that saying mostly when he was talking about muscle imbalance and weakness in certain areas. But I guess it could be said about our ability to move in general. We used to run, jump, hop, crawl, swim, pull-up, push-up, balance, fall and get back up for fun. Now we don’t, so most of us can’t anymore.

We’ve got to stop looking at exercise as something that we’ve got to do and start looking at it as something that’s fun to do. What I wouldn’t give to have a man sized Big Wheel with a power slide break like I did when I was a kid. That surely would keep me in shape. Can you imagine how fun it would be to cruise on down the bike path with a Big Wheel and jammin’ to your favorite music blasting from your Ipod? But you know even if I had one I wouldn’t ride it. I’d be to concerned about what other people would think. In my head all I’d hear is, “Look at that idiot on the over sized Big Wheel!” You know it’s true. That’s what keeps a lot of us that are overweight from going to the gym for a workout now. We think people are going to stare and laugh at us. But you know what? Most of those people are fat, overweight, out of shape and unhealthy themselves.

That makes me think of a something that a financial advisor on the radio named Dave Ramsey used to say. It was something to the tune of, “The average person in America is broke, in debt, stressed out and worried sick. So why do you want be average like everyone else?” So the same could be used in our case too. The average person is in horrible shape, so why do we continue to care what average people think or say?

So to sum this all up, we were born to be fit. We just got in our own way. So now it’s time to do something about it. Like I tell my clients all of the time, I’m trying help you to become more fit. I’m not here to just make you thinner. If I help you to lose weight and all you do is go back home and sit in front of the tv for 6 hours a night. You’ll gain that weight back again in no time. But if I can help you to become more fit and you stay more active, then the weight will come off anyway. Plus then you’ll live a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life.

So keep this in mind when you’re sitting on the couch and wondering if you should get up and go do something today.

“We are what we do to ourselves.” ~ Paul Prather

Red Smith, NPTI, NSCA-CPT
(813) 507-1553
Tampa, Florida
TeamUpInc@Yahoo.com
www.Facebook.com/TeamUpPersonalTraining

There you  have it… Is Red telling the truth or what!?  You can find more of him on Facebook and I encourage to go there now become a fan of his page, Team Up Personal Training…

I’m also very curious to know… what did you like most about what you just read!?  Just leave your response in comment section and don’t forget to hit that little “Share This Post” button below… especially if you’ve found value in it… until next time…

Get the BEST out of life,

Jarmar………………………..