Tough love to raise bar
“IS THAT all you’ve got? Come on! Try harder!”
I was nearly at the end of my ab workout when the yelling began.
“Don’t stop! Come on! You’ve got 10 more reps to go!” I glanced over as I stretched – while the PT yelled, her client (victim?) was busting out frantic burpees as if her life depended on it.
Later that week I arrived at the gym to find the same woman booking more sessions with the same PT.
“Lindsey is amazing!” she told me. “She pushes me really hard – I feel like I get 10 times more out of my workout.”
I was intrigued. From the outside, the session had seemed horrific – but maybe there was something in the PT’s tough love approach.
I thought about it more as I went through the motions of my own workout. Was I pushing myself as hard as I could on the bike? Probably not. Was I lifting the heaviest bar I could manage? Nope. Not at all.
Could a bit of tough love from a PT get me out of my rut? There was only one way to find out.
I signed myself up for 10 sessions with Lindsey Black, a PT and group fitness instructor with 20 years’ experience.
My first session with Lindsey was hard and I was exhausted after the “warm up”.
But did the tough love work? The short answer is yes. I worked harder in my PT session with Black than I had in months.
Perhaps the tough love is effective because it makes the instruction seem like an order. If Black said “Hey Cat, would you like to do another round of burpees?” I’d probably say “No thanks”. On the other hand, “Cat give me 10 more burpees!” had me hitting the floor without a second thought.
But does this tough love approach work for everyone? I asked sports psychologist Jo Lukins how you can tell whether tough love is the right approach for you.
“You’ll know it pretty quickly,” she tells me. “If you feel it enhances your performance, then it will work well for you. The key thing for a PT to consider when including such strategies is an understanding of the client. Assuming that everyone will respond positively to tough love is naive.”
Lukins says if the tough love isn’t working for you, or worse, if it’s making you uncomfortable, it’s best to get out.
“Remove yourself from the situation or tell the person to stop,” she says.
whimn.com.au