Speaker 1: It's that time of the year right now where people
Speaker 1: are getting back into fitness, or they're starting a fitness
Speaker 1: routine for the first time, or maybe they've been continuing
Speaker 1: their fitness journey throughout the summer as well. We've all
Speaker 1: heard that, and if you haven't heard, you're hearing for
Speaker 1: the first time that September is the gym's New January.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Transformation Station podcast. I'm Christina, owner, operator,
Speaker 1: and founder of the Transformation Station, and this is where
Speaker 1: we talk about getting stronger while navigating real life. If
Speaker 1: you're trying to stay consistent through the ups and the
Speaker 1: downs and everywhere else in between, this is for you
Speaker 1: because September is technically the new January. We have so
Speaker 1: many people starting from different points, and like I said,
Speaker 1: some people are starting their fitness journey for the first
Speaker 1: time and they're nervous because they're like, well, what if
Speaker 1: I'm out of shape before I enter the room. And
Speaker 1: then there's some people that are thinking about coming back
Speaker 1: after vacation after they've been injured. Some people are coming
Speaker 1: back after they've been away for two, three, four years,
Speaker 1: and there's some times when people have been away, let's
Speaker 1: say for like six months or eight months, something a
Speaker 1: little bit sooner rather than prior. Like if you've been
Speaker 1: a member two years ago, three years ago, four years
Speaker 1: or five years ago, you're going to see some familiar
Speaker 1: faces when you walk through the door, but there's going
Speaker 1: to be all different types of people in front of
Speaker 1: you that maybe you haven't met before, or cross paths
Speaker 1: because times have changed, and maybe they're going to different
Speaker 1: class times, their jobs have changed, whichever. So if you
Speaker 1: are always in the same class time and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: now I'm coming back, and I'm nervous because I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like there's there's this thing where it's like when you're
Speaker 1: when you're new and you're entering the room for the
Speaker 1: first time, it can be nerve racking because anything that
Speaker 1: we the lack of the unknown, I guess is what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. Anything doing anything for the first
Speaker 1: time is going to be a little bit on comfortable.
Speaker 1: My goal is the Jym slogan where you can feel
Speaker 1: comfortable getting uncomfortable when you walk through the doors, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can actually let my guard down in this space,
Speaker 1: so like you are not going to be singled out,
Speaker 1: especially being a big beginner, not ever but a lot
Speaker 1: of beginners are the ones that are like, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be centered out because I'm going to be the
Speaker 1: only person not knowing what I'm doing. That's not true.
Speaker 1: There's also sometimes we throw on a new activity and
Speaker 1: people are like, oh, I've been here for seven years
Speaker 1: and I have no idea what this is. So there's
Speaker 1: always different sides of the spectrum and people are complex.
Speaker 1: Like I always say, so, you're not going to be
Speaker 1: singled out. You're not going to feel stupid standing in
Speaker 1: the middle of room. And we have lots of corners
Speaker 1: of the room because st'y in the corner until you
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. Something else that I don't think is spoken
Speaker 1: about too often because we either talk about people that
Speaker 1: have been consistent or we talk about people who are
Speaker 1: brand new. But what about those who are returning back
Speaker 1: to a room where people know them. Because when we've
Speaker 1: left because we've been injured, or we're coming back and
Speaker 1: we're a little bit more I'm gonna use the word fluffy.
Speaker 1: I don't if that's rude or not, but I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to be kind. There's sometimes people around us where
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, well, we used to be able to
Speaker 1: do that, and we can't work as hard as what
Speaker 1: we used to do because oh my gosh, you had
Speaker 1: an injury in life, did its thing. It's it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay. And I know that when you go into
Speaker 1: a space, like as someone who has gone into a
Speaker 1: space into public gyms back in my time when I
Speaker 1: was just getting back into my fitness zone, I felt
Speaker 1: the need to explain myself because I felt so embarrassed
Speaker 1: because they were treating me like a new person because
Speaker 1: I had no idea what I could do. And it's
Speaker 1: a little bit different a on the ego, but not
Speaker 1: just to be like, oh, I'm showing off to other people.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be like I don't want people to
Speaker 1: think poorly of me, But sometimes it's too our own
Speaker 1: selves because they're like, oh, I feel embarrassed in my
Speaker 1: own wellbeing because now I can't do that. But you're
Speaker 1: not the only person in the room that feels that way.
Speaker 1: There's some people that binged on pizza and wings and
Speaker 1: beer and alcohol all weekend and they're wondering if the
Speaker 1: person beside them can see that we are literally our
Speaker 1: worst critics. And when you look around the room and
Speaker 1: you think that people are judging you in our vicinity
Speaker 1: at least, I can only speak on our behalf at
Speaker 1: the transformation station. And I'm not throwing shade to any
Speaker 1: other gym. I'm just saying in our space, we don't
Speaker 1: have that. We literally don't have that. So when you
Speaker 1: come back, you are celebrated. We're so happy to see you.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times you've been in contact with people,
Speaker 1: people know like, oh where is this person, Well, that
Speaker 1: person got hurt, or that person went on vacation, or
Speaker 1: they have a house somewhere and they went there for
Speaker 1: three months. So like, I feel like when we have
Speaker 1: that in our brain, that can keep us truly from
Speaker 1: walking through the door because we're either waiting to get
Speaker 1: fit again and not saying fit again. You'll surprise yourself
Speaker 1: once you get those gears going like, oh yeah, this
Speaker 1: is what it feels like, this is how it is.
Speaker 1: I always will tell people, ease back into it, see
Speaker 1: how it feels. Use the different scalabilities. If you're not
Speaker 1: going to the ground to do a certain movement, use
Speaker 1: the movement that we will give everybody at the same
Speaker 1: time to be standing, and you're not going to be
Speaker 1: the only person that's standing the people beside you, like
Speaker 1: they literally don't have the same life as you, like
Speaker 1: maybe you have one percent something in common or two
Speaker 1: percent or whatever, but they didn't have the break that
Speaker 1: you exactly had. Maybe they weren't away for three months,
Speaker 1: maybe they were away for six months. Maybe you have
Speaker 1: an injury that you have been working on the outside
Speaker 1: of the gym to get back to feeling good and
Speaker 1: to feeling healthy again. The person besides you didn't have
Speaker 1: that exact experience as you have. They might have had
Speaker 1: their own experience and their own injury. I know there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people that have frozen shoulder and people
Speaker 1: are getting back into the rehab and they're doing bicep
Speaker 1: cur instead of an overhead movement, and that's normal in
Speaker 1: our space. But I know, as someone who had to
Speaker 1: do that at one time because I was hurting my shoulders,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I don't want to do that. And
Speaker 1: I would try to explain, like, I know I usually
Speaker 1: do this and I usually go heavy, but I have
Speaker 1: to nurse an injury so then I don't make it worse,
Speaker 1: but I can actually move and recover and heal the injury.
Speaker 1: I've told people like, hey, if you're not doing a
Speaker 1: back lunch because you're not lunging because it doesn't feel good.
Speaker 1: You've got a physio. Do your physio exercise and replace
Speaker 1: of that bingo and if not, here do a leg
Speaker 1: lift or here do a side tap or do a
Speaker 1: side lunch. Some people can do side lunges without hurting themselves,
Speaker 1: never mind back or front lunges. But they can still
Speaker 1: do a lunch in some sort of capacity. So take
Speaker 1: that adjustment, use that tool. But we got to put
Speaker 1: our ego aside, like we have to put that shame
Speaker 1: and that guilt because that doesn't serve anybody. If you're
Speaker 1: miraculously waiting that one day you're gonna wake up orre
Speaker 1: gonna work out hard on your own to get back
Speaker 1: into shape in order to walk through the gym. But
Speaker 1: then that never happens. Because usually that's why people are
Speaker 1: a part of the transformation station is because they're like, well,
Speaker 1: I like the people, I like the workouts. I don't
Speaker 1: have to walk around a gym for three hours and
Speaker 1: do like three things and then call it a day.
Speaker 1: And also people like to work out with people because
Speaker 1: it's extra motivating. There's awesome energy and you actually make
Speaker 1: the appointment, you reserve in the app and then you
Speaker 1: show up instead of Oh, I'm going to do my
Speaker 1: workout today, but no one knows that, and there's no
Speaker 1: support system, and then one day becomes a week, becomes
Speaker 1: six months, and now it's been eight, nine months, a year,
Speaker 1: and you're like, well, one day when I get back
Speaker 1: to what I was, I'm going to go back to
Speaker 1: the gym. It just doesn't make sense, doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: even when I say it out loud. So in my
Speaker 1: own experiences, I can relate to that as someone who
Speaker 1: had lost two hundred pounds and had to use a
Speaker 1: weighted vest on the highest almost the highest level on
Speaker 1: the step mill and take so much a fedrin and
Speaker 1: caffeine to get my heart rate up. Not condoning that
Speaker 1: that was in my twenties. That was horrible, But I
Speaker 1: know what that feels like to start again after I
Speaker 1: had gained over undred pounds back my mobility, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, fourteen years I kept off two hundred pounds
Speaker 1: and then going through my fertility and going through depression
Speaker 1: and a very not great relationship, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I put one hundred pounds back on. Do you know
Speaker 1: what that did to my joints, my body. It was terrible.
Speaker 1: My ego, my self, love, all of those things all
Speaker 1: wrapped up those all those feelings existed at the exact
Speaker 1: same time. So when I had to step out into things,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I don't love that, especially as I
Speaker 1: was running a gym. So on a different level of experience,
Speaker 1: I can relate to gaining weight and owning a gym,
Speaker 1: and I still got to show up and be the
Speaker 1: person in the center of the room where everybody's looking
Speaker 1: at my body when I'm demonstrating. So in a different context,
Speaker 1: I can understand and owning the gym and being in
Speaker 1: a class and having to change things and not having
Speaker 1: the endurance. Well now I do, but back then easing
Speaker 1: back into my endurance, that's tough. It's very, very tough.
Speaker 1: So I can get it from my own perspective. But
Speaker 1: if you're always just waiting and waiting and waiting, well,
Speaker 1: one year becomes two years, become three becomes three years,
Speaker 1: and like when you're in the room, you can't compare
Speaker 1: yourself to the person who is like, let's say continuing,
Speaker 1: it's somebody else's continuation. I guess for lack of better words.
Speaker 1: That person isn't keeping the score, and no one is like, oh,
Speaker 1: like they notice that I can't do that, and I
Speaker 1: used to nobody cares. So like everyone has their own
Speaker 1: demons that they're fighting their own battle. And whatever you
Speaker 1: have going on in your life, the person besides you
Speaker 1: does not have whatever happened in your life. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of life, life, life. But if I'm going to
Speaker 1: repeat myself, I hope that you understand that, like you're
Speaker 1: you're come back, you're getting back into the groove. It's
Speaker 1: not really supposed to happen before you come through that door,
Speaker 1: because once you make the decision, and I want to say,
Speaker 1: like when you walk through the door, that is your comeback,
Speaker 1: but I think that has to happen deeper, like making
Speaker 1: up your mind and saying this is my comeback, setting
Speaker 1: that boundary. And the more you respect your own boundaries,
Speaker 1: the more you're going to trust yourself, and the better
Speaker 1: it's going to feel. So when you walk through that door,
Speaker 1: that is your comeback, but you have to make that
Speaker 1: decision first. Another angle, This is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a more interesting angle. But maybe when you step foot
Speaker 1: through that door and you make that decision. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: getting back into your routine isn't going to look like
Speaker 1: your old routine. So maybe you were coming five days
Speaker 1: a week and you were used to coming five days
Speaker 1: a week, but maybe as you're easing back into it,
Speaker 1: maybe two or three days, that's going to be more realistic.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not going balls to the wall and a
Speaker 1: power burn class three times a week and not taking
Speaker 1: the variety of movements to moving a way for your
Speaker 1: unique body. Maybe it's not going balls to the wall.
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes too, like we had talked about
Speaker 1: maturity and fitness and adjusting your sales, but I do
Speaker 1: believe that maturity and fitness is knowing when you don't
Speaker 1: have to prove anything, And like when we do talk
Speaker 1: like about progress and like when we add things more weight,
Speaker 1: more reps, faster, harder, more classes like okay, that can
Speaker 1: be a sign of progress. However, there's also more signs
Speaker 1: of progress, And to me, it's taking the option that
Speaker 1: you actually do need without being embarrassed by it. Maybe
Speaker 1: it is not pushing through the pain because you think
Speaker 1: you have to prove something to somebody, Like that's a
Speaker 1: whole nother level of emotion and I'm not a therapist,
Speaker 1: but I know that that's not healthy. If you are
Speaker 1: hurting yourself and like it hurts, but you're pushing through
Speaker 1: pain and you're thinking, well, no pain, no gain, no
Speaker 1: bad pain, no WHENO not great? Like that's going to
Speaker 1: put you out for months at a time and maybe
Speaker 1: even a year at a time because you're not stopping
Speaker 1: before something hurts. But when you have the maturity and
Speaker 1: fitness and you change that mind, it's like, oh okay.
Speaker 1: Then people can see rebuilding and when you when you
Speaker 1: are rebuilding like that to me, when I see someone
Speaker 1: in the room and they I know that they're rebuilding
Speaker 1: and I see them working out smarter and not harder,
Speaker 1: that tells me. I'm like, yeah, man, like they got it.
Speaker 1: Like that is incredible. I am so proud when I
Speaker 1: see people doing that. When I see people that are
Speaker 1: pushing through terrible pain and they're like, no, it's fine,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can tell by your facial expression that
Speaker 1: that's not fine. And then they end up sitting on
Speaker 1: the floor and wrapping presents at Christmas time and then
Speaker 1: they're like, I threw out my back. Well, you don't say,
Speaker 1: because you were trying to go too hard, too heavy,
Speaker 1: too fast. And maybe it's also adjusting the style of
Speaker 1: classes that you're coming to. Maybe you're gonna take it
Speaker 1: a little bit lighter and different, coming to a strong
Speaker 1: fit class, or maybe instead of coming to zumba where
Speaker 1: you're bending all the way over and torking. Not that
Speaker 1: I've seen that in our zumba. Actually yeah, I have
Speaker 1: never mind. You never know what you're gonna get. Zoom
Speaker 1: is super fun. But like if moving in zumba is
Speaker 1: terrible for your back, are terrible for your knees, maybe
Speaker 1: you're gonna do something else, or maybe lifting overhead or
Speaker 1: lifting in front. You're not gonna feel great about doing
Speaker 1: that three four times a week, then maybe you are
Speaker 1: going to come to Zoom. But because you know that,
Speaker 1: you can pick how aggressive you go in that class.
Speaker 1: And I always tell people like, I don't care if
Speaker 1: you need to get back here for your mental health.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you march on the spot for
Speaker 1: forty five minutes. You gotta do what you need to
Speaker 1: do and if that's gonna help your mental health. I
Speaker 1: know being in our space and our music is jamming,
Speaker 1: and the coaches, all of our energies are so fantastic
Speaker 1: and the members are awesome. It's gonna do crazy things
Speaker 1: just for your mood, just to be in that space,
Speaker 1: but you got to learn to let it go. Like
Speaker 1: it like I don't want to tell you what to do,
Speaker 1: but you can't say, like, I'm gonna go back when
Speaker 1: my knee is better take the adjustments. Some people, unless
Speaker 1: you need surgery and you tour things or whatever, you
Speaker 1: can even sit and do your workout. Like I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but if you've ever tried doing a
Speaker 1: seated bicep curl like a legit seated or a seated
Speaker 1: overhead press, seated lat rays, it is so much harder.
Speaker 1: So like there is no shame in sitting on a
Speaker 1: box or a chair to do your workout if you
Speaker 1: need it, Like if you're waiting until you lose ten
Speaker 1: pounds that you put on over summer to come back,
Speaker 1: like you don't need to do that. There's no made
Speaker 1: up prerequisites to stepping foot into the gym and you're
Speaker 1: worried about ten pounds twenty pounds. There's some people and
Speaker 1: a year gained one hundred pounds and they're nervous to
Speaker 1: come through that gym and that I I want to
Speaker 1: tell you it's just one person, but you're not the
Speaker 1: only person. We have so many different people in the
Speaker 1: transformation station. You're not the only person that struggles. Like
Speaker 1: you don't have to come and say, oh, well, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be the slowest. Well, you're not going
Speaker 1: to be the slowest because everyone's going to move at
Speaker 1: their own pace and nobody cares because everyone's getting up
Speaker 1: and down, everyone's going to the walls, everyone's standing, everyone's
Speaker 1: doing what they need to do, so they're not sitting
Speaker 1: there staring at you. Even as a coach, I'm circulating
Speaker 1: the room. I'm not sitting there staring at you. I'm there,
Speaker 1: circling in the room, watching people, also giving you base
Speaker 1: to practice your movements and to find what works good.
Speaker 1: I'm there to help with form. You don't even need
Speaker 1: to ask me. If I see something that someone's going
Speaker 1: to hurt themselves, I'm over there. Critique sandwich is your
Speaker 1: best friend, a compliment what they can change, see how
Speaker 1: it feels. If you're a coach and you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: that is a very very good way to help people
Speaker 1: not have hurt egos. Because when we are learning things
Speaker 1: for the first time as any adult in a room,
Speaker 1: a group fitness room, whether it's five people or ten
Speaker 1: people or twenty people, no one wants to feel bad
Speaker 1: or embarrassed. We have a lot of people that are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I really don't care because I'm past that stage in
Speaker 1: life of giving a shit about what other people think.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, there's also people that really
Speaker 1: secretly care because they don't want to be seen as
Speaker 1: unfit when they've been in that room for so long.
Speaker 1: I think the biggest progress is being able to walk
Speaker 1: through the door and maybe maybe not pressuring anybody, but
Speaker 1: I know that this helps a lot of people. But
Speaker 1: when they first come back is they do an inbody
Speaker 1: and they go, ah, shit, well I could have told
Speaker 1: myself that already, and they use it as data and
Speaker 1: they're like, Okay, this is where I am today, and
Speaker 1: that's where I'm going to be starting and coming in
Speaker 1: and facing the music and facing the numbers. Sometimes not
Speaker 1: all the time. Sometimes it can be bad for your
Speaker 1: mental health. I'm not you and you are not me,
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to tell you exactly like you
Speaker 1: must do that. However, I do know in seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of different types of people that if they come
Speaker 1: in and they're like, Nope, this is where I'm at.
Speaker 1: This is just data. Let's jump on that in body
Speaker 1: composition analysis machine. I'm going to get here twice this
Speaker 1: week and that's where I'm going to begin, and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to give myself too much pressure. If this
Speaker 1: resonated with you, I hope to see you back in class.
Speaker 1: I hope that you will feel comfortable walking through the doors.
Speaker 1: And I hope you know that whoever is in front
Speaker 1: of the room as the coach, nobody is judging you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say like, I'm not judging you, but
Speaker 1: I know every single coach in that room doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what time slot you come to, they are going to
Speaker 1: be celebrating you. And they're also going to be giving
Speaker 1: you the space that is required in order for you
Speaker 1: to learn how your body is going to move once again.
Speaker 1: So get through that door, it doesn't matter. I know
Speaker 1: we have a lot of new listeners as well. We
Speaker 1: have hit three new countries. I saw we hit Brazil
Speaker 1: this past week. So you may not be local to Ontario,
Speaker 1: and I know we have a lot of listeners in Canada,
Speaker 1: but I know we have a lot more listeners overseas
Speaker 1: as well. So hello to everybody, and if you're new here,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in wherever you are
Speaker 1: in any capacity. If you belong to a group fitness
Speaker 1: Jim and you have been on a little bit of
Speaker 1: a hiatus, I'll always say, sometimes there's a reason and
Speaker 1: sometimes there's an excuse. Those two things sometimes can collide,
Speaker 1: but they're not the same. If you have a reason
Speaker 1: why you've been away from your group fitness and you
Speaker 1: felt this way, I'm going to challenge you this week.
Speaker 1: I'm going to challenge you. Doesn't matter what daye week
Speaker 1: you're listening to this on, get back into your routine,
Speaker 1: even if it looks a little bit different. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: until next time, thank you so much for joining. I
Speaker 1: hope that you feel brave today to do all the
Speaker 1: things that you need to do and we'll catch you tomorrow.