So, my trainer asked me if I would write an endorsement for him for the website of the gym where I belong and train. I looked at him long and hard and thought perhaps he had lost his mind.
He’s actually the best thing that’s happened to my life in a long time. But since I spend 3 days a week telling him he’s an a**hole and giving him the finger, I wondered exactly how to go about doing this.
I’m 60. He’s 25. He thinks yelling at me like a drill sergeant is funny and motivating. I think it’s stupid. But I do the exercises and machines and weights and any other torture he devises. When I complain, he asks why I’m at the gym. He knows it’s for my son, who is a malignant brain tumor survivor, and because I don’t want to end up on a walker or in a wheelchair like my parents.
Then there are days where I really don’t feel like going. So I’ll text him:
Me: Alex, I’m really busy and I have a meeting. I can’t make it today.
Alex: Give me ½ hour. The exercise will clear your head.
Me: Alex, I don’t feel good.
Alex: Give me ½ hour. You’ll feel better.
Me: I just can’t make it today.
Alex: Get your a** down here!
And so on. And I go. And I work out. And he’s right – I usually feel better.
I like being right. I like making a point. I like making a statement. Did I say I like being right? But I’ve met my match. And it’s good for me. But I try to never let him know that.
It’s the perfect relationship built on trust, skill (his, not mine), knowledge (again his, not mine) and a healthy dose of hate (yeah, the hate is all mine – lol). And the results to date: I have more energy and more flexibility, I’m definitely stronger, and thanks to sets upon sets of lunges, I will never star in a commercial for I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.
So, Alex, you asked for it and here it is – your endorsement. It will probably never make it on the gym website, but I hope it motivates the Thrive Global readers to head to the gym, find someone to hate, and start working on getting healthy.