Kale Poland - Proposal for New Years

Kale Poland, my good friend, former classmate, and competitive ultra triathlete posted this on his blog a couple of weeks ago.Obviously most relevant with the general population, it could easily be applied to athletes and young sport scientists / S&C coaches.

In situations like these - it is easy to be critical, however to be critical with no offer of assistance isn't going to help anyone. What newcomers need is help in it's purest form - with no ulterior motive. This is sometimes rare in the fitness industry. Over to Kale:

Resolution Proposal for the Original Gangstas of Fitness
January 1.
New Years. 

Soon, the gym you know will not be the same.
You'll enter at the normal hour, and the treadmill you always use at that time will be occupied.

Flustered, you look over towards the stationary bike you sometimes use, and are frustrated to find that again, someone has dominated your usual machinery.

Glancing around the gym, the scene is the same: sweaty people fumbling with buttons on the cardio machines, constantly adjusting equipment, eyes darting around self-consciously. 

Ah, yes. Resolution Season is almost here.
And this is where I throw you off. 

I've been participating in endurance sports all of my life. I cannot help but notice that the further I continue on this journey of fitness, the more jaded I become. I think this happens to anyone who experiences too much in one particular area. 
Been there, done that, becomes the attitude.

Most Original Gangstas in the fitness community can't help but look at the Posers with disdain and disgust.
It's not because of their weight or their appearance, it's just drastic perspective difference. People that LIVE the fitness lifestyle look forward to and enjoy their training. Resolutioners look at their workouts like a chore, and value their workout about as much as they value cleaning their toilet. This is why they last until about.... mid February at best. As long as the thought of a workout as misery prevails, fitness will not. 

Maybe it's time for a change of perspective for the OGs in the fitness world. It's so easy to be a prick, sitting there glaring at the people struggling to bench a bar with no weight on it.

Instead of counting down the hours and minutes until another Resolution dream is crushed, why not look at the influx of new people in the gym as a chance to create new recruits to the army of the fit? 
I think most give up because they have no idea what they are doing. Ignorance is not bliss in the gym.
Why not give some tips? Exchange email addresses if the encounter is good, and hold them accountable.

I'm not saying make a new workout partner, but shooting them an email asking how their workouts are going once in a while is enough to keep some people going...maybe enough even to get over that mid-February hump. 
One winter, I did something like this, and started a running group for beginners. Some of these people are now very good friends of mine. 
To see some of them now running ultras and becoming serious athletes is more rewarding than my own accomplishments.

We OGs have this foundation of knowledge from years and years of living and breathing and dreaming fitness. Why continue on this odyssey by selfishly withholding information that might otherwise make something click in someone?
Of course, motivation cannot be coached, and some people just don't want it bad enough.
However, some do. They just don't know where to start. 
That's where we come in.

Happy Holidays.
Thanks for reading,

kalerp

Cheers Kale - always someone that speaks from the heart and looks after the welfare of other people.
Check out more of Kale's stuff below.
Website: http://www.kalepoland.com/
Blog: http://endurancegeek-kalerp.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @kalepoland