This is the story of Kristen Peissig, member of the TFW fitness program at SBG Athens.
Before joining SBG, Kristen had trouble motivating herself to work out.
Kristen says she has had some trouble managing her time. Faced with spare time, she preferred to take a nap or binge the latest show on Netflix. “Yet, somehow,” Kristen says, “any time I thought about exercising, I would tell myself that ‘I don’t have enough time to go to the gym.’” She has had success with dieting, but even at a weight she was happy with, she didn’t “feel very fit or healthy.”
Kristen first learned about SBG Athens when a friend invited her to one of the gym’s Women’s Self-Defense seminars. After spending some time at the seminar “it became very clear that the people [at SBG] knew what they were talking about.” Kristen realized that the coaches at SBG might be able to round out her fitness regimen. In addition to being happy with her weight, Kristen wanted to feel stronger, more in control, and better able to defend herself. Right after the first day of the seminar, she decided to commit to the SBG Athens tribe on a long-term basis.
She says that she appreciates that the gym offers multiple programs. Kristen wasn’t ready for martial arts, in her own words. “At the time, I felt like I needed to gain some strength through the TFW [Training for Warrior] program,” before moving into martial arts training. Before joining the gym, she couldn’t do a single push-up, chin-up, or bench more than the bar. Now, she does push-ups in sets of 15, does weighted chin-ups, and keeps adding pounds to her bench press. “These are things that I never imagined I would be strong enough to do, but it’s amazing the things you can accomplish when you put in the effort each week to attain your goals.”
Here are three tips that Kristen wants to share:
- 1. Don’t compare yourself to your teammates—it’s okay to not be able to lift as much as your teammates or run as fast. We’re here to cheer each other on in our own races to improve ourselves, and it’s perfectly fine to be at a completely different point in our race as our teammates. When you realize this, you can focus on how to improve yourself.
- Come to class and do your best—this one seems pretty self-explanatory. Show up to class as often as you can make it. Getting myself to the gym was the hardest part when I was first getting started with TFW because I am very good at convincing myself that I don’t have time or am too tired to go to the gym. But once I got myself in the habit of going to the gym 4-5 times a week, it became routine to the point where if I go more than 3 days without working out, I feel like something is missing. Even more than showing up, though, is actually giving your all to a workout. You’re only going to get out of a workout what you put into it. Focus on doing an exercise with proper form and push yourself to lift just a little heavier, and you’ll notice improvement much faster.
- Don’t worry about the number on the scale—focus on how you feel in your clothes, how you feel after completing a challenging workout, and how you’ve improved from the beginning to where you’re at in your race now. A number on the scale is just a number. It doesn’t show all the hard work it took to get you to the point where you are now.
Do you struggle with some of the same things with which Kristen struggled? You CAN make that change and TRANSFORM your life also!
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