Client Success: The Importance of Self Belief

By: Keaton, South Surrey Personal Trainer

When I first started working with my client Rachael, she had the goal of putting on more muscle and becoming stronger. As we continued working together, she added an additional goal – she wanted to be able to do a full, unmodified push up. While she had been very capable of doing modified push ups, whether they be from the knee or at an incline, as we worked up to completing the full push up, I could tell that she was starting to doubt herself. At one point, she attempted and failed to complete a push up and, in her frustration, said that she does not think she will ever be able to do one. Coming from a powerlifting background before I became a Personal Trainer, I had found out very early on in my fitness career that the moment you start to doubt yourself, you will create a mental block that will take some serious digging to get through.

 Rachael had tried and failed at doing her push up multiple times. I was extremely proud of her for continuing to be willing to try, but the seed of doubt was growing. Knowing that she was starting to create that mental block, I stopped our session to talk about her mindset. I knew that the physical strength was there to do the push up. However, when it came to doing it, she did not believe she could. I talked to her about self-belief and manifesting your success. I talked to her about how, in powerlifting, there is no room for doubt. Even though her goal was different, the mindset application was the same. There is no difference between setting a new personal record on the deadlift and her goal of completing a push up. Both are brand new accomplishments, something you have never done before. While it is perfectly normal and, in many ways, good to fail at things in life, the way we take those failures is extremely important. I could tell that the failing was starting to get to her, especially when she started verbalizing that she did not think she would ever be able to complete her goal.

We spent the rest of that session doing light stretching and talking, and we came up with a plan. Every Thursday we do an upper body workout, so we decided to set the date. Her homework for that week was to think about her push up – how good it would feel to finally complete one, who she was going to tell first. I also asked her to make sure that she has a solid meal the night before and the morning of our next session to make sure she was properly fueled to be able to complete her goal.

When the day arrived, I could tell that she was ready. Usually, our sessions are a little more lighthearted and fun, but today she was all business. I put her through a warmup that focused on her speed and power generation during pushing movements, specifically preparing her to be able to do the push up. Right before the attempt, that little seed of doubt came up again and she said she did not think she would be able to do it. I reminded her about all the preparation she had done leading up to this, and specifically how good it would feel when 30 seconds from now she will have completed her goal. We continued to manifest it until the very moment when she went for her first attempt of the day. She lowered herself at a good speed towards the ground and pushed as hard as she could. She did it! But she was not happy with that. To my surprise, she went down to do another push up, this time going a little lower towards the ground, and she completed this one too. She said she was not happy with the first one – she felt like she did not go deep enough and decided to do another one. From never having done a push up before to doing two push ups at once! She was so proud of herself and spent the rest of our session in amazing spirits, talking about how she was going to tell everyone at work and home about how she had completed her goal. As her coach, I am extremely proud of her for continuing to push herself in and out of the gym, crushing her goals left and right!

It is easy to look at the topic of mindset and self-belief as being very cliché, but I truly believe that manifesting your success and believing you can do anything you set out to achieve, big or small, is not only invaluable in fitness but also in all facets of your life.

Ingredients

• Chicken breast (2.5 lbs cubed, 6-8 breasts)
• Coconut milk (2 13 oz cans)
• Red curry paste (5-8 teaspoons)
• Fish sauce (optional) (2 teaspoons)
• Onion (1 whole sweet onion)
• Garlic (5-8 gloves minced)
• Carrot (1 shredded)
• Red or green pepper (1 thin sliced)
• Ginger (1 by 1 inch piece chopped)
• Spinach (1 cup)
• Red pepper flakes (1-2 tablespoons)
• Honey or Brown sugar (2 tablespoons)
• Salt and pepper (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions

1. Mix all preped ingredients into slow cooker
2. Stir thoroughly
3. Cook on low for 8 hours
4. Stir occasionally during cook time
5. Serve it up and dig in!!

NOTES : Chicken stock can be used to thin sauce if too thick for your liking, Fish sauce can be a strong flavour use sparingly, Chickpeas and brown sugar can be used in place of chicken and honey for veggie option