Will you Perish or Will you Thrive?
Everybody has their opinion on whats going to happen to society in the distant future. A Mad Max scenario, or possibly the perfect life on Mars idea...
Philosopher entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel suggests, in his book Zero to One, that it likely there are four possible patterns for the future.
This article suggests it will be the same when you walk into a new gym...
What Athlete will you be?
Drops 2 kilos, then goes on a bucks party weekend. Gets their first pull up, break his wrist at soccer...
The Recurrent Collapse athlete is always "back on track". Progress is always fluctuating between different life events getting in the way of consistent training and diet. They attend the gym 37 days in a row, and then disappear for a week and lose it all again.
Does your gym hold you accountable when you miss a few days in a row? If not, your chances of recurrent collapse are far higher...
Loses weight and gets stronger in the first six months. But when looking in the mirror after 2 years, he or she realises that nothing is changing anymore...
The Plateau'd athlete can't go to the next level.
Maybe the coaching at their gym has let them down. Maybe they are the fittest in their small gym and have stopped getting a competitive push? Or maybe they weren't willing to put in the extra work once the 'beginner gains' stopped coming.
This is not always a negative scenario. If you decide you are content with where your fitness is at, and want to focus on other aspects of life, this is where you will reside...
Has your gym led you to a plateau?
Will your health and fitness go the way of Roman Empire?
Ah the Extinct Gym Goer...
An all to common sight. They went in so hard, and no one could imagine them not waking up at 5:30am with 4 pre-pared meals in the fridge. But one day, they hit snooze. They got injured or they simply lost interest. They cancelled their membership, lost touch with their gym buddies and lost all the progress they ever made in a short period of time.
The all or nothing athlete is in particular danger of extinction.
Could you see yourself at your gym forever? If not, you will likely go extinct...
When you first start, this is the hardest of all to imagine. The future is wildly better than the present... But its possible.
The athlete that Takes Off, probably the rarest of the four. But certainly still in existence. Every so often an athlete walks into a CrossFit gym, or visits BodyBuilding.com and never looks back. They become the 'fitness freak' among all their friends, and can still knock out 20 pull ups when their 50 years old.
This athlete simply always wants to get better, and falls in love with the entire lifestyle. They are on the constant search for improvement.
Does your gym cater for continual improvement?
Does your gym recognise what stage you are in?
One way to avoid the pitfalls of the above scenarios, is attending a gym with experienced coaches that can recognise the early signs of all patterns. Signs that are notoriously difficult to see your self.
Look back on your own history in the gym, do you see yourself in any of the four fates of humanity?