I Want You To Be An Eagle, Not A Chicken

While doing my stretches at the gym, I overheard a personal trainer telling his client: “I want you to be an eagle—I refuse to allow you to be a chicken”.

Say what?

So I started to watch this trainer more closely. He’s the only one who gives EVERY new client the exact same warm up—it’s a very weird-looking march sequence that couldn’t possibly burn any calories.

The clients do it without enthusiasm—looking around to see if anyone is watching them look ridiculous—and inevitably the trainer calls them out on their bad form (to be fair, I only heard the eagle/chicken comment once).

They have to keep going until they get it exactly right and then he praises them while they grin from ear to ear.

Once they complete a few sessions, they never do the march again, probably because they’ve absorbed the lesson and are sweating over cardio and free weights.

After checking this out for awhile, I think I figured out his master plan with the march: he’s building confidence in their ability to work their body no matter who is watching or how weird they feel.

It’s kind of like getting in the habit of putting your authority out for public viewing and comment—you have to get used to looking or feeling a little weird and vulnerable sometimes if you want to keep pushing forward.

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