Overcoming Barriers

In this episode, we talk about overcoming barriers that are getting in the way of your training and exercise (over the long term).

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Want to check out the 'DIY Training For Hiking Course' mentioned in the episode? 

You can learn more here: https://www.summitstrength.com.au/do-it-yourself.html

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Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we are talking a little bit about overcoming barriers and specifically about overcoming barriers, which typically get in the way of your training.

[0:14] Now, when it comes down to things, your training as a whole, it doesn't have to be perfect. A lot of us kind of get wrapped up in this idea of saying we have to be doing these certain workouts. We have to be doing this. We have to be doing that. And this whole all or nothing mindset. And a lot of people fall into this trap of like, hey, if I can't do this one thing, or if I can't do this perfectly, I'm just going to kind of do nothing at all. It's something I see all the time. And as an overarching principle of what we're talking about today, I just want to say from the get-go, when it comes down to your training, some is always better than none. And yes, there are always ways of improving your training and getting your training better and honing in and getting more efficient and getting more specific. And that's the type of stuff we typically talk about on this podcast. But as an overarching thing, some training, no matter what it is, no matter how much it is, is always going to be better than none. And all too often I see from hikers, and I do this myself, is we put barriers in place of our training. We put our own self-imposed barriers, which just get in the way.

[1:20] Maybe we sort of tell ourselves, hey, we just don't have enough equipment. Maybe we've recently moved and all equipment's gone. Or maybe we moved into a smaller apartment. I don't have space for it. Or maybe something closed down, a gym closed down. I don't have access to equipment or whatever may be. And because of that, we're like, well, I can't really train. Or maybe we say, hey, we just don't have the energy. We've got a lot going on right now. I just don't have any energy to spare to do my training. Or maybe the classic one, like I just don't have time. Like I've got so much going on. Like where will I find the time to do a training program or whatever it is? It could be a million and one things. And while yes, you know, all of these things, energy, time, equipment, access, weather, all of these different things, they can absolutely be factors in regards to your training. And I'm not saying they won't affect things.

[2:05] In all honesty, in 99% of the time, barring the more extreme circumstances when we're dealing with, you know, tragedy or major illness or whatever it may be, or like, you know, crazy natural disasters and stuff like that, you know, in all honesty, 99% of the time, this type of stuff, it very rarely should completely stop you or should have to completely stop you. And again, there are situations where we might be like, hey, rest is better, but if this is an ongoing thing, it very rarely should completely stop you. And more often than not, in these types of situations, when it is a longer term thing, it's more yourself which is stopping yourself from training, as opposed to what we say it is, as opposed to the equipment, as opposed to the energy, as opposed to the time. More often than not, it's ourself. Now, to put this into context, and kind of what inspired this episode, is actually a recent review we got from the Training for Hiking Do-It-Yourself course, which if you haven't heard about before, the Do-It-Yourself course is a course I put together last year, which basically teaches hikers how to put together their own training programs for hiking. So, designed for people who may not be super interested in the full coaching I provide, but they are interested in the ideas and the systems and the structures we use. And this course teaches people how to put together their own plan.

[3:21] And essentially, the review was sort of the person said, I'm wrapped. You know, they haven't been able to access my usual group coaching, haven't been able to access my usual group coaching training consistently for a couple of years now and have minimal equipment at home. So I've been, you know, despairing at the loss of strength and fitness. Well, this week I did the DIY course and designed my own routine and I just did my own routine and it was accessible, minimal equipment, and it was really effective.

[3:49] And this in itself is absolutely fantastic. I love to hear this. It was so fantastic to see, and seeing that someone got such quick benefits from the course and all of that was amazing. And I'm so, so, so happy that this course has been the right thing in the right moment for this particular person.

[4:05] And this, but really this highlights an important point, and it's kind of what I'm talking about today.

[4:11] Sometimes when it comes down to these things, where we're sort of facing longer-term barriers to our exercise, and we say, look, I just don't have the equipment to do things, or we say we just don't have the time or don't have the energy. And this is a bit of a longer-term thing, sometimes we just need a little bit of a nudge to get over that barrier. Because more often than not, it's not as insurmountable as it may be, you just need a little bit of a nudge. And that's what I want this episode to be today. If you are the type of person who's like, look, over the last weeks or months or even years, something's just been getting in the way of me being able to have a routine or whatever it may be. I want this to be a nudge. If you don't have access to equipment, if your gym closed down or your trainer moved away or you sold all your equipment or whatever it may be.

[4:57] Then you can still get a really good workout and you can see a lot of improvements just using body weight or even using a backpack. As a hiker, most people will have a backpack lying around and you can do some amazing workouts with just those two things. And I have many of my hikers that I work with directly just doing that.

[5:15] If you don't have energy and you're like, you know what, I'm struggling with energy or whatever it may be, then you don't have to do high intensity training. You don't have to do something that's really draining, but you could just go through and just do something that's lower intensity so if you were doing strength workouts just do light weights and don't exhaust yourself if you're doing cardio just go out and have a walk or do something gentle it doesn't have to be too exhausting if you don't have time and you're like you know what i've got so much going on i just cannot fit in a full session then try doing 10 minute sessions or 15 minute sessions and again i've got so many hikers that i work with that's literally what we do that's how we fit it around their life and their routine. It can go a long way. If you don't know what to do and you're like, okay, that's fine, but I don't know what exercises I should be doing, then take one of my free workouts. I have so many articles on my website. I have so many videos on my YouTube and we've got loads of workouts posted in our training for hiking community group. There's so many options for you. You can just grab one of those and get away. If you don't have space at home to train, you're like, ah, you know what? I've just moved and we've got all these boxes or whatever it may maybe then find a quiet place in a park or maybe get a casual pass in a gym or something like that.

[6:30] For a lot of these barriers, there's always a simple solution. And in all honesty, for training, some is always going to be better than none. So if you're in the situation where you've been a bit out of routine with your training for a while.

[6:42] And you're like, you know what? Maybe this is the nudge that I needed. Just have a think about what have I been saying to myself, which is getting in the way. And what is the most simple solution that I can take to work around it? I promise you, the solution is often very, very simple. And if you can just push through this and get through it for a week or two, it can make all the difference. It can make things get so much easier to fit in and it can make such a massive difference. So that being said, hopefully that's a bit of food for thought for a few people. I know this may not be 100% relevant to every listener because if you're listening to these podcasts about training, maybe you're already doing training, but hopefully this does help a few people. The last thing I will sort of say is if you were listening to this and you were like, oh, I didn't realize you had a course there, Rowan. I haven't actually

[7:28] heard about this before. I wouldn't mind checking it out. If you did want to learn a little bit more about that training for hiking do-it-yourself course, all you need to do is go to summitstrength.com.au slash do dash it dash yourself. On that page, there's a little bit of info about the course, what it's all about, how it all is. It's dead cheap. It's only 47 US dollars, but there's lots and lots of content. It will teach you how to put together your own training plan for hiking, and it's been really, really effective for quite a few people already. So if you want to check that out, go to that website. I'll leave a link in the show notes below, and you can check it out from there. So with that being said, thank you for listening today. I really do hope it helps a few people, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.