Do you just show up at a gym and do whatever you want? Do you cherry-pick workouts? Or do you pay a coach because he or she has expertise in fitness and has the motivational skills to help you achieve your goals?
Last week I wrote a diatribe about how I hate running and how running hates me. It ended with me experiencing another bout of groin pain that I quickly attributed to running sprints.
The day after I posted that story, my coach came into the gym, and before she even said “hello” she came up to me and said, “Chuckie baby! I read your blog, and you are so full of $*#@ !”
I looked at her with my typical “deer in the headlights” look, and said, “Wha?”
She explained that though she is aware that I do not like running, running was not the source of my discomfort. She explained that with all that I was doing that week (wallballs, thrusters, sprints and more), I needed to spend more time and effort warming up for workouts.
She reminded me that I had increased my level of intensity in recent weeks, and I had jumped into a couple open gym workouts with minimal prep (this woman has eyes like a hawk). I concurred that in my eagerness to get to the good stuff, I had forsaken proper attention to preparing myself for the workout.
She then called one of the male coaches over to me. She instructed him to show me a few dynamic stretches for the adductors. Lachlan showed me a runners stretch, very similar to the video posted below. I did these several times over the next 24 hours, and bingo – the pain was gone and full mobility was restored.
I have faithfully incorporated these movements into my daily stretching prior to workouts, and I have had no reoccurrence of the pain.
I must admit, in recent months I am making much progress. Why? Because I have learned to trust the process, trust the programming, and trust the coaches. My improvements are inevitable when I listen to my coaches. After all, why do you pay a Coach?
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