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Your Elastic Comfort Zone

Your Elastic Comfort Zone

I have a theory about your ‘comfort zone’ – that metaphorical place where we feel at ease. The place where life is a breeze. The place where you don’t have to reach the limits of your capacity.

I believe your comfort zone is elastic.

Personal trainers and fitness coaches are keen for people to leave their comfort zone….

comfort zoneSpeaking of comfort zones, I recently took a group of my Stockport personal training clients through Tough Mudder – described as the worlds toughest endurance challenge.

Why?

It was to get them out of their comfort zone. To show them that actually, they can complete challenges and that with some effort previously seemingly impossible tasks can be overcome.

To complete Tough Mudder, you have to leave your comfort zone. It’s long. It’s muddy. It’s cold. It’s demanding. It requires guts, determination and an absolute desire to finish. It’s a hell of a challenge to complete, especially if it’s your first fitness challenge.

This is me in an obstacle called the ‘Arctic Enema’. Yes, those are ice cubes. It was f*****g freezing!

comfort zoneThe group I took were all fitness challenge virgins. It was unchartered territory for them all.

Usually when we try something new, we start simply. In this case I wanted them to go in at the deep end, ignoring the usual baby-steps approach to a new skill or experience.

I wanted to change their frame of reference of comfort. I didn’t want them to just leave their comfort zone, I wanted them to go so far out of it that their comfort zone appeared as a dot on the horizon. I wanted to change their frame of reference by a factor of a million. I wanted them to go to places within themselves that they didn’t know were there. I wanted them to experience (and overcome) genuine discomfort – mud, cold, wet, fatigue and pain.

Did it work?

Now when we discuss their ‘challenges’ around healthy living, they have a new frame of reference. Is it really difficult to prepare a healthy meal? As difficult as Tough Mudder? Are you really tired after work? As tired as you were at the end of Tough Mudder? It has been a revelation to them, that actually, life is pretty damn easy in many ways.

Previously they may have believed that things were challenging, that they couldn’t possibly push themselves after that tiring shift, or that spending 10 minutes preparing something healthy to eat was a major task. Now, with their new frame of reference they realise that often they were just a victim of their mindset and how much that held them back.

It’s also had a knock-on effect in their training. Having pushed their bodies further than they ever dreamed possible during Tough Mudder, an extra couple of reps all of a sudden don’t seem so impossible.

You are far more resilient than you think. You just need to test yourself.

At the start of the article, I mentioned my belief in the ‘elastic’ nature of our comfort zones. What I mean by that is by pushing and challenging ourselves, we stretch the comfort zone. As long as we keep doing that, we keep the comfort zone wide and open. When we stop however, it will contract back on itself. It will shrink, reducing our confidence and belief in ourselves.

Once you have expanded your comfort zone, keep it open by maintaining those standards and beliefs. Do that little bit extra – be it an extra rep in the gym, an extra half mile on the bike or sign up for a challenge you know will be a real test. It’s the best way to grow as a person and enjoy the improvement in your fitness.

My group of Tough Mudder contestants absolutely loved their day and have been given a new outlook on life and their quest for health and fitness. I told them about how I believe they need to keep challenging themselves to make this a permanent change in their mindset. They have responded magnificently!

We have agreed to do a challenge at least twice per year. Our next challenge is a cycling challenge next year, followed by Tough Mudder again. Hearing the enthusiasm from our Tough Mudder team, others have joined and want to be a part of our challenge group! It’s infectious, this comfort zone-expanding.

comfort zoneTheir comfort zones are expanded and they know that unless they keep challenging themselves, their comfort zones will shrink back to where they used to be, so it’s onwards and upwards!

Do the same. Expand your comfort zone – you won’t regret it!

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Published by

HoylesFitness

Owner of www.hoylesfitness.com. Personal Trainer, Father and fitness copy writer. Working hard making the world fitter and healthier!

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