LIVFIT Murfreesboro isn’t a gym. It’s a mindset program delivering fitness results. One can’t better themselves physically without simultaneously transforming their outlook.

In 20-plus years in the fitness industry, I’ve come to more than appreciate the role the mind plays in performance. High performance in the gym and in our daily lives is always a result of hard work. In a society full of convenience I continually see hard work being devalued. The traveler of the hard road is harder to find, the seeker of challenge even more rare.

“Hard Work Betrays None.” This is a quote of unknown origin but one everyone should live daily. This quote lives on the walls of LIVFIT Murfreesboro for a reason. As most quotes meant to inspire, it’s open to interpretation. My personal take on it would be that regardless of outcome, a reward exists within your own best effort. Being able to look back on a job well attempted can be all one needs to bolster confidence in a task to come, regardless of the end product.

The reason that so many lack confidence is not because they aren’t accomplishing unbelievable feats. We’re just not putting the hard work into all we do. The work is the reward. This is how the skill of hard work or being a hard worker translates from fitness to everyday life.

Most fall short of their best effort when it comes to their fitness or approach to training. Falling short of your best effort daily leaves you with an emptiness you may not even know exists in you. It’s there. Trust me. Our gym lives are filled with mundane practices that are stifling our growth, not only physically but mentally. I’d like you to ask yourself the following question: am I working out or training? These two things are very different. One approach will fundamentally change you. The other might get you sweaty.

Here’s an example. I go to the gym every Monday. It’s International Chest Day. I do five sets of ten repetitions. I do them on the same machine I did last Monday. It’s what I do. It’s my routine. In this scenario my routine is the enemy. I’m working out. I’m not training.

Example two. It’s Monday again. I get to the gym and read what my coach has written on the board. We’re back squatting today. Five sets of six repetitions at 75 percent of my one-rep max. This percentage system isn’t foreign to me because my coach has programmed a 12-week strength cycle. The intent of the cycle is to specifically improve my strength in this lift through progressively heavier training days and repetition volume. I’m working out but, more importantly, I’m training.

When your objectives are clear and you’re training toward an outcome, you can measure success. You have a measurement of your hard work. When you go to the gym and finish your workout, having jumped on machines only when they were available, how is the success of your workout measured? Did you break a sweat? Simply showed up? Anyone can do those things. Not everyone can train. We don’t all possess the ability to work hard.

The ability to work hard is a skill we don’t all possess because it’s a learned behavior. Some of us shy away from it when we’re young. If we’re allowed to slip into a comfort zone void of it, having never experienced it’s reward, we’ll continue to do so into adulthood. People are products of their environment. If our time is spent in an environment where okay effort is acceptable, what would be the reward for effort that’s good? Great? Excellent? If your grades were okay in school but could’ve been better, you’re familiar with this scenario. It may have been the influence, or lack thereof, from your parents or teachers. Either way, you can look back and recognize your underperformance due to lack of effort.

Within the walls of my gym nothing but your best effort is acceptable. Nothing matters more than effort because that’s the determining factor of success. Through fitness I teach the value of hard work. Instruction in the deadlift leads to self awareness. Confidence is built through the rising up from failure, not through quitting. Quitting doesn’t happen here.