I agree, and over the years I’ve made working out a priority. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 9:30 a.m., I’m at my CrossFit box laboring away.

Unless there’s a snow day for my kids. Or they’re sick. Or I’m sick. Or the doctor/dentist/teacher/speech therapist/freelance client can only meet with me during my scheduled WOD. Or my freelance work exceeds my babysitting/kids-in-school hours for the week.

Most of the time, I can schedule around my workout or move my training to another day. But I won’t feel guilty for the days when I just can’t make it in. I’m tired of being told no excuse is ever good enough.

Editor’s note: This article is an op-ed. The views expressed herein and in the video are the author’s and don’t necessarily reflect the views of Breaking Muscle. Claims, assertions, opinions, and quotes have been sourced exclusively by the author.

Exercise Is Important. So Are Many Other Things.

Believe me, I know the stakes. I had an endocrinologist write out “Exercise 60 min. three times per week” on a prescription pad and hand it to me when I was overweight and near diabetic. He wanted to make it clear exercise was as important to my health as the medication he prescribed.

Another doctor, after my first child was born, shared the beautiful idea that the time we spend exercising and taking care of ourselves is given back to our children over and over because it will make us live longer and more fully. That hit me.

And I’ll stipulate upfront that I’m sure there are people who have oodles of time to spend at the gym, but instead play video games and eat junk. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about people with busy, demanding lives that make it difficult to do laundry, let alone an hour-long workout.

Lecturing [people] about how important it is to prioritize their fitness without helping them find the time is cruel.

But all that “fitspiration” doesn’t even begin discussing what these people experience when they complain they don’t have time. And it makes no mention of what gym owners and trainers can do to help busy clients start creating more time to be healthy.

People work out more when it fits easily into their lives and they don’t have to neglect legitimate priorities like work and family. So how do you know if your gym is a break from the stress or yet another burden to your clients? Ask yourself the questions below:

Are Your Classes in the Middle of Crunch Time?

Do your training sessions all start in the early evening between 4:00 and 6:30? Do they end by 7:30 a.m. in the morning? I have never worked a full-time job that allowed me to take a group class. The typical morning class time didn’t give me enough time to get ready for and commute to work.

Not to mention, as a parent, the normal group class times are actually the busiest parts of my day. In the evening, I’m dealing with cranky, tired kids, getting dinner ready, and taking kids to sports practices and classes. (In a world where most parents work, few kid activities start before 5:30 p.m.) In the morning, I’m getting kids ready for school. I work out in the two-hour window between when I drop one child off and the other comes home, and my husband works out at 9:00 p.m. after our kids are in bed.

Do You Offer Childcare?

My gym doesn’t, and it can be a struggle. I work part-time from home, so if my kids aren’t in school, I either bring them (and their electronic babysitters) with me or I have to leave them with my husband.

Before my gym offered a late morning class, I missed a lot of evening CrossFit classes because my husband had to work late and I didn’t want to drag a toddler and kindergartener to the gym.

Do You Make Feeding a Family More Difficult?

Paleo, I’m looking at you. If you advise your clients who are cooking for partners and children to follow a restrictive diet without showing them how to do it in a way that won’t turn dinnertime into a full-scale nightmare, you are not serving your clients.

I am (mostly) paleo. My family is not. It took me a solid year to figure out how to do that effectively. It is still stressful, time-consuming, and expensive. Cooking for a partner and two, three, or even four children, like many of my CrossFit friends do, is hard enough without having to cook a separate meal for one of the adults.

Do You Offer Family Programming?

Families have precious little time to spend together. It’s easy to write off what parents feel as simply guilt, but I’d argue it’s more like longing. I love my kids and my husband. I want to spend time with them. It brings me far more joy than going to the gym.

If your goal is to get people moving and healthy, consider a yoga class for parents and babies or a playground strength class where older kids can play while their parents workout nearby. The next time your gym runs a fundraiser WOD, consider adding a non-competitive kids WOD so the whole family can attend. Do all the youth sports teams in your town practice in the same area? Try holding a boot camp on the sidelines for the parents while their kids practice.

Do You Encourage a Workout or an Active Life?

With two kids, it’s easy for me to be active outside the gym. We ride bikes, hike, play soccer in our backyard, sprint down the sidewalk, and explore museums. I often do pull-up negatives on the monkey bars when we go to parks. We shoveled a lot of snow this winter. Just because I skipped my workout doesn’t mean I didn’t exercise. Help your clients find ways to be active outside the gym on busy days.

Help Your Clients Help Themselves

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Wake up and go to the 5 a.m. class! Your kids will understand if you go a whole day without seeing them! Exercise at home while trying to keep your small child entertained!” (Side note: If you have never tried to keep a small child entertained while you work out with weights heavy enough to send them to the hospital, you have no right suggesting it.)

People are already stressed out, lacking family time, and struggling to do even basic, necessary things know that they should do. They are beating themselves up because they can’t figure out how to do it all. Lecturing them about how important it is to prioritize their fitness without helping them find the time is cruel. Fitness professionals need to make getting healthy fit into, not work against, people’s busy lives.

Featured Image: Flamingo images/Shutterstock

The post Stop Time-Shaming Clients. Help Them Get the Work in Instead appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I still remember the day my CrossFit coach yelled at me to quit. Twice. We’d spent the first part of the workout testing our deadlift 1RM. I was angry and frustrated. I’d lost a lot of weight over the previous six months and the loss of those thirty pounds had a significant impact on my deadlift. No matter how hard I tried, that barbell was not coming off the floor.

Impulsively, trying not to cry, I started to lift it. Mitch’s voice came screaming across the gym, “Shannon! Chest up!” He walked over and we talked about form, how my lower back was starting to ache, and knowing when to stop before bad form led to an injury. It was time to quit.

The next part of the workout involved kettlebell swings. Every time the kettlebell swung up over my head, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I winced. After a handful of swings, Mitch was back.

“Drop the kettle bell, you’re done,” he said.

He gave me mobility exercises to do while the rest of the class finished the workout, and more to do later at home. We modified my workouts for a week or two, and I was back to my old self in no time.

Mitch, literally, had my back. I was grateful. I knew it could have been much worse.

I thought of this workout the other week when I read Josh Bunch’s essay, It’s CrossFit and It’s Going to Hurt. As CrossFitters, we wear pain like a badge of honor. It’s a sign our muscles are getting stronger, our bodies more flexible, and we‘ve pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone.

But there’s a difference between the aches and pains of a good workout and an injury. An athlete saying, “I’ve never felt pain like this,” should have been a red flag for Bunch. It should have stopped a coach in his tracks. He should have talked to her: What exactly did she feel? Where did it hurt? What was she doing when it started? Was the movement appropriate for her to do in the first place?

Did he really let her just walk out the door?

I came to CrossFit completely out of shape. I had two young kids and hadn’t worked out in over a year. Before my kids were born I was a very slow runner with a handful of 5Ks and a half marathon under my belt. I wanted to do more, I needed to do more, but I had no idea where to start. I would never have even picked up a barbell on my own, because I was terrified of doing it wrong and getting hurt. I needed a coach, and I wanted a community. CrossFit provided both.

I can’t risk getting hurt. I’m a stay-at-home mom to two children. I need to be able to care for them, carry loads laundry, push a vacuum, walk through the grocery store, and drive a car. I want to be an active mother who can run and play with her kids – it’s why I CrossFit. A major injury affecting my ability to do any of those things means more than a break in my training. It’s a serious financial problem for my husband and our family. It would drastically change the lives of my children.

That risk makes me cautious in my workouts, certainly, but it’s also why I choose to belong to a CrossFit gym. I trust my trainers to guide me through difficult movements, to watch my form, give me cues, and help me understand when I’m not doing something right. I trust them to plan workouts that will leave me fatigued, but not at risk for an overuse injury. I usually stop myself if something doesn’t feel right, but I also count on my trainers to save me from my own ego when my pride is stronger than my common sense.

Trainers aren’t helping their clients if they don’t fully appreciate this. Most CrossFit clients are not athletes first. They’re parents, spouses, office workers, laborers, law enforcement officers, and soldiers. If they get hurt, there can be far-reaching, life-changing consequences.

Essays like Bunch’s don’t speak well for CrossFit, either. In my social circles outside the box I constantly fight misconceptions about our sport. Many, many people are fearful of an injury that would threaten their ability to work and a lead full life. My friends in healthcare always have a story of a patient with a serious CrossFit injury. Other people talk about an injured “friend of a friend.” For every “Amy,” there are co-workers, family members, and friends who will hear her story and make up their minds against CrossFit. I can talk about the training my coaches have, how you can scale a workout, and my own injury-free experience, but it usually makes no difference.

I may be more sensitive to this than most people. My mother is disabled, and has been for decades. I’ve seen, firsthand, what it’s like to lose your physical abilities. She’s supportive of CrossFit, and loves that I’m strong, but worries I’ll suffer an injury that will render me disabled. Every time a story like this goes viral, I have to reassure her my coaches don’t want to put me in the hospital.

I love that CrossFit considers every client an athlete. I love that our community shows the same support and enthusiasm for beginners, top competitors, and everyone in between. But trainers need to understand there is a difference between the two. Most of us are looking for functional fitness – a program that will enrich our lives, keep us healthy, and challenge us mentally. We embrace the normal aches and pains that come with it, but we trust our coaches not to flippantly put our health at risk. If I felt any of my coaches saw injuries as a regular and acceptable part of my training, I’d walk out the door and never look back.

Click here to read another rebuttal from CrossFit coach Jennifer Higgins

Photos provided by Miguel Tapia Images and CrossFit LA.

The post Why I Trust My CrossFit Coach Not to Hurt Me appeared first on Breaking Muscle.