The gym is often a place associated with getting in shape, building some muscle, losing fat and becoming fitter. There’s no doubting what a good training routine can do to you physically, but what lessons can we take from the gym that can benefit us in everyday life?
I have been running a teen training group over the past year and a big aim for me is to help them develop physically but also help them develop some transferable life skills that will help them in their adult life.
Hard Work gets Results – there’s no shortcuts, passwords or ‘cheat’ mode in the gym unlike some popular video games. You get exactly what you earn in the gym. If you don’t work hard, you don’t make progress.
In modern society we tend to be able to get anything at the click of a button. You can stream movies, music, TV shows without having to go to the shop or wait till next week’s episode. You can order things online and they arrive within a few hours. This is not how the real world works though and it’s important that children realise that not everything arrives at the click of their parents fingers.
When it come to the gym, you have to be patient. Increasing strength, losing fat, getting fitter all takes time. There’s no quick fixes or short cuts and this is important for young people to learn for when it comes to ‘adult’ life.
In the gym and in the real world, hard work is rewarded.
Competition is healthy – there’s a lot of talk and arguments with regards to ‘participation trophies’ and awards just for showing up.
Winning and losing is part of life and we should expose young people to this before they go out on the big bad world.
Sometimes, in the gym you won’t be strong enough to lift a weight or someone will be faster than you or beat you because they worked harder. This will happen in life, and it’s important to learn how to react after a disappointment and turn that negative into a positive.
If you failed to lift a certain weight then you can go away, work hard and come back stronger, eventually moving that weight. This is an important lesson to learn. If you are not exposed to these lessons through childhood then how will you react when you apply for that job and don’t get it? How will you cope when you ‘fail’? The gym teaches us that through hard work and perseverance you can overcome an obstacle.
Giving kids prizes and awards for putting in no effort at all will not prepare them for life, it is important to expose them to competition, even if it’s just competing against themselves.
The gym also allows for social interaction with others. It’s too easy nowadays for kids to communicate via social media and the internet rather than in the flesh. They will meet new people, develop new friendships and be exposed to a supportive environment.
A lot of the sessions I do requires the teens to work in pairs and small groups, I encourage them to help each other with their training and allowing them to ‘coach’ others that need their help. This can help develop leadership skills and encourage good communication and team work that can’t be replicated in front of an I pad.
There’s also the little things that all add up – tidying up their equipment after use, encouraging good time keeping, being polite and respectful to others and an improvement in confidence with some of the teens. All these things are going to help develop positive habits for the future.
On top of this there are countless health benefits to the kids from being exposed to exercise, too many to discuss here, however there’s a greater chance of children continuing to live a healthier adult life if they have made it part of their routine as a teenager.
Everything I have spoke about above can probably be achieved through a variety of sports as well. The gym isn’t for everyone and many kids will excel and reap the same rewards from their preferred sport.
The advantage of the gym is that anyone can be great at it, they just need to work hard. Not everyone will have the skill to play football or the technical ability to enjoy tennis but the benefits of the gym can be gained by anyone. Yes, some exercises are skilful and require some coaching but everyone can work at a suitable level and progress at a suitable level for them whilst still being exposed to the benefits of the gym.
Everything mentioned above can carryover to adults and is not exclusive to children and teenagers, however I believe if you get them involved in their early years then you will see them develop into strong adults, physically and mentally.
Coach Milligan 