Leslie Hooper

How to Make Exercise Suck Less

One of the things I enjoy most about being a Personal Trainer is the variety of challenges I get to encounter with each individual client.

No one comes to me with the same story.

Recently I agreed to take on a 27 year-old female with Cystic Fibrosis (a life threatening lung disease) who would rather slam her hand in a car door repeatedly than work out.

She absolutely hates it.

Like, Charlie Sheen hates sobriety hates it; which sucks, because her life depends on it.

She has an awesome ‪#‎DocWhoLifts‬ (h/t Dr. Spencer Alan) who is constantly reinforcing the importance of exercise for her long-term health, and because I get to see her 3-4 times a week, we spend A LOT of time together.

Photography by Ryan McGuire
Photography by Ryan McGuire

This is the best on so many levels, but mainly because it allows me plenty of freedom to be more creative with her workouts. Instead of hitting the gym and lifting weights for every session, we spend time doing other stuff outside being active that doesn’t necessarily feel like exercising.

In the past month or so, we’ve gone on a ten mile bike ride, played frisbee (err… fetch when you play with me), kayaking, and rock-wall climbing — with a growing list of more ideas to come.

As fitness enthusiasts (aka ‘meatheads’), I think it’s easy to lose sight that what we love to do isn’t necessarily what our clients love to do, so tailoring their workouts by mixing in some fun with the weight-training can go a long way in client satisfaction (and retention).

Is it optimal for their specific goal? Not always, but we can’t dismiss the value of incoporating some fun in the process — even if it means we’ll be taking the longer route.

Or, as I prefer to think of it, the scenic route.

If you need help nailing down a custom workout that considers your individual lifestyle preferences, shoot me an email and let’s have a chat. Exercise doesn’t have to suck. Let me show you how.

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