Keeping fit feels selfish towards my kids. It is actually selfless!

I was having a chat with a client of mine yesterday who has recently decided to increase her personal training sessions to 3 times per week. The main reason being that she thought she would never be able to go skiing with her sons again as her knees were always hurting too much. We spent the best part of 7 months working on knee mobility/strength along with losing body fat and increasing cardiovascular fitness, she has just got back from what she thought would be the last skiing holiday they did feeling on top of the world.

There were no knee pains, no aches or injuries, and she even said it was the best she had felt skiing which she has done for 15 years. So the training had worked and done what we set out to do. She then decided she wanted to try do an extra session per week (taking her up to 3) with the theory that she achieved so much doing 1-2 sessions per week last year that if she stepped it up a level then surely she would be able to improve even more and get more results.

Which is correct, I often use the guitar lesson analogy. If you have one lesson a month to learn to play guitar you probably won’t get very far as you have to re-learn every time, whereas if you have 12 sessions over 4 weeks you will learn it a lot faster and be able to improve quicker. So after agreeing this, then came the issue of the kids would have to go in after school club one day per week for her to have her session.

She said she feels awful leaving her kids in an after school club (that they enjoy by the way) so she can come and workout. This is where I told her straight, you are not here to ‘workout’, you are here to improve your quality of life, get fitter and stronger so you can do more things with your sons as they grow up, make more memories that you can’t put a price on, all of which that your kids will thank you for.

Being able to do active things with your children has to be one of the most rewarding feelings in the world, keeping yourself physically fit and healthy will only have a positive impact on your mental health as well. If both your physical and mental health are in check you are going to be in an amazing position to give your kids, partner and yourself the best quality life you can.

We are very good at always putting others above ourselves for the fear of feeling selfish, it couldn’t be any further from the truth. I am not saying you should go to the 10 times per week and never spend time with your family, what I am saying is that it is perfectly ok for you to put your health and fitness as a priority for yourself, especially when it is you and your family who are going to benefit from it.

Trust me when I say your family will thank you for keeping yourself healthy and active.

You could even find a gym/trainer that will train your children with you or allow them in to watch you exercise. There is no better motivator for a child than seeing their parent/parents exercising and looking after themselves.

If you are stuck for a gym that allows this, why not come down to FBC Harrogate and do the classes, or contact me for some personal training where the kids are more than welcome to join in.

Use the link below!