To Be a Beginner
Before I could read novels, I was learning the sounds of the letters and how they join together to make words.
Before I could multiply, I was learning that numbers represent amounts and to bring those amounts together means to make the amount bigger (addition).
Before I was able to orally speak a sentence, I was learning that sounds have meaning and are a way to access what I need and want.
Before I was deadlifting 200 pounds, I was using 10 pound dumbbells.
Before I was overhead pressing a 16K kettlebell, I was pressing 10 pound dumbbells.
Before I was completing sets of 10 pushups on the floor, I was practicing on an incline.
Before I was walking an average of 7,000 steps a day, I was averaging closer to 3,000.
Before I could run a 5K, I was walking the 5K.
At every stage of our lives, we are beginners. And the road to mastery is wrought with experiences that are sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes require us to dust ourselves off. To make mistakes and to adapt and trial a new way of getting the desired end result. Sometimes we want to quit. But many times, if we push past the point of quitting and allow ourselves to get uncomfortable, that is when the magic and the change happens.
And it's that transformation, that outcome, that is celebrated: by us, by society, by the meda. And so often, when we witness the victory lap of an athlete completing a race, or a business owner hitting a 10,000K month, or a personal trainer lifting a new PR for a deadlift, or nutrition coach making breaking up with dieting seem easy peasy, we are not seeing all the twists and turns and falls, and adaptations that have gone along the way to reach this outcome.
We are only seeing the highlights. And this can make our perspectives of these endeavors on our end feel like we are doing something wrong or that we are not good enough, because we’re grinding our asses off and seem to be not where other folks are.
Just like in my other role as a special educator to support my students learn to read, write, communicate, socialize, and do division, my role as a coach is to support folks with these tough beginnings and middles of a fitness and nutrition road to a goal/outcome.
To celebrate the sounding out of a single syllable word. To celebrate the initiation of an interaction with a peer. To celebrate a client showing up to a class consistently. To celebrate the first wall pushup. To find new strategies to facilitate learning of how to multiply multi-digit numbers. To find new ways to cue a movement. To provide scaffolds for writing a paragraph. To provide exercise variations to meet a person where they are with challenge and support.
Being a beginner is scary. Especially in a fitness world where we are oftentimes only seeing one body shape and size celebrated, where we only witness PR (personal records) successes, not all the attempts leading to the outcome. Where there is a whole lot of special vocabulary and lingo (EMOM, AMRAP, PRs, Oh my!). Where it is cool to be as hardcore as possible, to be flawless in form and to “never miss a monday!” Where images of before and after transformations flood our screens, with no real explanation of allllll the stuff that happens in the middle. Where coaches are put on pedestals as being experts on other people’s bodies. Where the coach and client relationship is often situated in an authoritative manner, just as the teacher and student relationship is most arranged in schools.
Coach Tina and I created Straight Up Strong so folks would have a welcoming and supportive environment and community to explore strength training and how movement feels in their bodies. Where variations are provided and while we encourage folks to try new things, new weights, new movements, we believe in autonomy over ones’ own body. Where folks can move through the workouts at their own pace and with the variations that feel good for you in that training session. We give cues that can help efficiency and safety, but all bodies move in their own ways, so we don’t prescribe a one size fits all form expectation.
We created Fitness Academy for Beginners so women over 40 who have never strength trained before (or it’s been many moons) can create a strong foundation for a lifetime of strength training and feel confidently armed with a toolbox of knowledge and variations to be able to access most group fitness classes safely and confidently. To have a space that welcomes them in, just as they are, and facilitates, not dictates, the learning and practice of movement patterns that are the basis of well designed strength programs and everyday life. That provides the why behind the exercises, not just “because you should do it.”
So, If you are a beginner, in fitness, in work, in a hobby, and are finding yourself feeling lost and discouraged and finding the process to be not enjoyable and even frustrating - I see you. The learning process is not always sunshine and rainbows and great successes! But oftentimes, it’s the difficult and sticky times that make us the most successful in the long run. Keep going. Keep learning. Keep failing. Keep Growing!
If you are seeking mentors and coaches to support your strength training we’ve got you! The next session of Fitness Academy starts February 1st! Jump on the waitlist HERE so you will be the first to know when enrollment opens!