Is something that has been said to me on more occasions than I care to remember.
For example, there was the portly lady who said, “You’ll have to stop training when you start placement” (referring to the 24/7 nature of the ambulance shifts I would be undertaking as part of my paramedic course).
Or the same portly lady who two years later when we had nearly finished the course who said, “You’ll have to stop training when you’re qualified”.
Then there was the rotund work colleague who said, “You’ll have to stop training once you’re married”.
And let’s not forget my even more rotund work colleague who said “You’ll have to stop training when you have kids”.
You get the idea.
Suffice it to say, despite working punishing shifts that eventually involved being personally accountable for people’s lives, getting married, starting a business, and siring three children I did not, in fact, stop training.
If anything, nowadays I am training more productively and getting better results than I ever have in the past.
“But Phil, it’s easy for you ‘cuz you are a personal trainer!1!!”
Cometh the inevitable objection from those who ignore the part about the supremely stressful shift work I used to do.
Theirs is a weak argument because it misses (some might say deliberately) how much is involved in running a business, even one as simple and humble as mine.
For example…
* Writing adverts, daily emails, etc
* Setting up payment gateways,
* Managing advertising spend,
* Maintaining a website,
* Reconciling accounts,
And that’s before we get into actually delivering my service by training clients in person, speaking with them on calls, speedily responding to their questions that come in via email, text, and voice note, everything that goes into publishing the books and newsletters that I sell, etc.
Then there is the fact that I also consult on marketing for Jess’ business (she also sometimes pimps me out to her clients for help with their marketing), plus all the other little bits and pieces I get up to that I shall not go into lest I labour the point.
Speaking of the point, the reason I have trained week in, week out without fail (planned rest weeks aside) for fifteen years despite all of this is that I understood from the very beginning that training isn’t something you ever stop doing.
Make easier when times are tough?
Absolutely.
But stop?
Never.
I know mine is a minority view, as a lot of people (even those who take training very seriously) are planning to stop once they’ve hit their desired goal.
I see this mainly with weight loss (i.e. they are using training as a tool to hit their goal weight, incorrectly believing that it is no longer required after that), but those who are more performance minded can fall into the trap as well (mostly or completely jacking it in once they’ve lifted a certain weight, run a certain distance, done a bodybuilding show or whatever).
Alas, it does not work like that I am afraid.
If you want to be strong and in shape, you must train consistently and diligently from now until you shuffle off this mortal coil and hopefully join the cloud of witnesses.
Something that will help you with that a whole lot is a copy of my book “Shift” because it contains a suite of tools for your training toolbox to help you keep going even when you are so busy you are not entirely sure what day it is.
The book was written with shift workers in mind (hence the title), but those who are very busy for other reasons (perhaps running a business or parenting young children) will also benefit from the material provided they actually use it.
I’ve also decided to put it on sale for half the usual price today (17th) because I am feeling very generous.
To claim the discount, enter the code SLEEPY at the checkout and make sure you see the price drop before proceeding with your purchase.
To learn more about the book, go here:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/shift/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman
P.S. This is another one of my books that is explicitly written for “men”.
However, women are welcome to read it too. But only those women who don’t get triggered by books written in the masculine case because they understand there is no meaningful difference between the way men and women ought to train outside of edge cases like elite athletics, the pre and postpartum periods, and suchlike.