A solution for "Not Enough Time to Train"
As a personal trainer, how many clients adhere perfectly to the carefully drawn out program that you create for them?
I
have posed this question to groups of personal trainers all over the
world and it is almost always responded to by a laugh and an
exclamation of “I wish”. On the other side of this coin, how many
clients will point to a scarcity of time as the primary excuse for
their poor of adherence and in many cases, their lack of success in
achieving their fitness and aesthetic goals?
While working on
gathering some research the other day I came across the following US
based statistics that that I wanted to share. I found them to be
absolutely shocking!
- The average household TV is watched for 8:14 hours per day (Nielsen Media Research)
- The average american watches 4:46 hours of TV per day (2nd highest worldwide behind Japan) (Eurodata TV World Wide)
- North America has the highest individual viewing time of any continent in the world (4:28 hours per day) (Eurodata TV World Wide)
To make matters worse:
- The average internet user spends 3 hours per day on line (1/3 at work)
- This directly results in the following:
- A 23.5 min reduction of family time per each hour spent (70 min less per day)
- A 10 min reduction of TV time per each hour spent (30 min less per day)
- (Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society)
Based
on this information the average american is making time for almost 5
hours of TV daily and are still allowing their online time to interfere
less with TV than with their family... that is so staggering I think it
needs to be said again...
The average american is allowing their online time to interfere LESS with TV than with their family!!
WOW! I think I feel sick.
While
you’re digesting that series of stats let me tell you a personal story.
I describe the way my wife and I watch TV as "event behavior". In other
words, it is an event for us to sit down and watch it so I guess based
on the stats above, we are far from average.
Having said that I am a
sucker for championship athletics. It almost doesn’t matter the sport.
The drama and energy of high stakes sports is intoxicating to me and
having played basketball throughout most of my life, this sport is one
of the most potent. Last spring as the NBA Finals reached their exciting
conclusion I found myself at tip-off time with the conundrum of having
not yet completed my workout for the day. Unwilling to miss it
completely but knowing I was unlikely to buckle down after the game, I
committed to doing as many sets and reps of a compound exercise as I
could during every commercial break. Because I am also a bit of a
masochist I selected only one exercise per quarter.
Considering
that every 30 min of TV will include 8 min of advertising and that the
game lasted approximately 3 hours, I got at least 48 min of strength
training in by the time the final buzzer sounded.
In that time I
had done 60 pull ups, 60 TRX deep chest presses, 60 Suspended Lunges
with 40 lb dumbbells on each leg and 40 TRX Side Plank with reach
unders on each side and I WAS SHATTERED. In relation to most americans
I should have been just warming up as I still had 1:45 hours of TV
watching to do!!
So what am I saying?
As
nice as it would be to get our clients to turn off their TVs and commit
to getting outside or to the gym, the research indicates that most
americans are more likely to grow barcalounger backsides. We simply are
not being realistic to expect this and are failing our clients as a
result.
We have to meet them where they are; in front of their
televisions. The issue is much less about time as it is to do with
choice and convenience and while what I describe above is far from
perfect programming, it was highly effective. I had avoided being
rooted to the couch and changed my position frequently as I exercised.
I had elevated my metabolism throughout the event. I had put a good
muscular stress on my body and by the end of it, I felt great!
As we approach the Christmas season and the motivation that comes with New Year's resolutions, there
is a great opportunity for us to use the convenience of the TRX to help
us program commercial breaks and offer some effective solutions that finally bring some results to our long
suffering clients who struggle to pry themselves from the tube long
enough to achieve their goals.
One final stat for you. In
general the average american is exposed to at least 850 commercial
messages daily (about 50 per waking hour)... they are not going to miss
a few TV advertisments which as my wife points out, seem to mostly be
about sugary, fat, greasy unnatural food anyway.
Good luck with your training! Make this year the one where you acheive all of those long sought after goals.