How good and motivating have the Olympics been!

Just In Time Personal Training Ever since I was a little boy, the Olympics have captivated me! Initially as a kid at primary school, I would watch as much as I could before school, during school whenever I could and then as soon as I got home from school until mum forced me to go to bed! This continued throughout my secondary school days and from then on, I have been hooked! Of course, I have my favorite sports and events but anything that is on (especially with an Australian competing in it) draws me to want to watch. The amazing back stories of the hurdles that some athletes have endured to get to this big stage just take my breath away! I have three kids now and it is great to see them (or two of them in particular) following with such excitement and my six-year-old Beau asking me for the medal table update nearly every 20 minutes! What the Olympics does for so many is an endless list but what I do hope is that it serves as a motivating force. Winning a Gold Medal is an amazing achievement, as is a Silver and a Bronze. Competing at the Olympics is an amazing feat in itself. We may never get close to winning the Southbank Table Tennis competition or the Melbourne Marathon but that doesn’t matter! We can all take steps to get more active and if not aiming to be the best in the world or our age group, we can be better tomorrow than we are today and that is the important message I would like to get across as I write this article. We can walk for five minutes today and 10 minutes tomorrow and build it up each day by five minutes. Equally we could do five minutes every day for a week and then increase that to 10 minutes a day the following week. We can start riding a bike along the Yarra and go for a leisurely 20 minutes each way and increase that over time. We could either join a gym and start a new weights or fitness program or have a personal trainer come and design a program for you to use at your apartment gym. There are so many options, and they only need to start by having a desire to be better tomorrow than you are today. Read that line again. If you don’t have any goals, take the time to think about some and write them down – make them small, really small if you have to and see them grow as you achieve them. I have fond memories of going to a lady’s unit in Pascoe Vale many years ago. Her name was Joy, she weighed 168 kgs and if she walked to her letter box which was around 80 metres away, she would need to sit and wait on her fence for 20 minutes before returning to her home – exhausted. I set her the initial goal of walking up and down her hallway (eight metres) a few times a day and to write it down for me. She did that and then we increased it to up and back four times each time, then eight times … then about three weeks later I remember receiving a call from her to say that she had made it to her letterbox and back and it was easy! Her weight loss and activity increased from there and she lost in excess of 50kgs and her life was changed forever. It all started with her wanting to be better tomorrow than she was the day before. You don’t need to be an Olympian, you don’t need to be the best in the world, but all I ask is that you take some steps to be better tomorrow that you are today – let me know how you go – I would love to hear from you. If this article does what it is intended to do, that is to motivate you! Meanwhile I hope you have enjoyed the Olympics as much as I have. For more information, exercise guidance or if you have any questions, feel free to contact me by heading to justintimept.com •