WHAT STOPS OUR
DESIGN RESEARCH
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction
1
Human Behavior
4
Development
5
Deterrents
11
17
Mental Motivations
Environmental
27
33
Economic Outlook
Fitness
42
Mental Barriers
43
Wellness Motivations
49
Journey Mapping
57
Surveying
69
Conclusion
78
Interviews
80
Citations
108
DESIGN BRIEF Creating a system that allows users to hold themselves accountable for their new fitness based lifestyle, and motivates them to continuously set and achieve new goals.
ABSTRACT Through this book I explore the uncertainty behind why the human mind works the way it does. What causes the human mind to ‘want v. avoid’ certain tasks and ideas? You can see this information split into two categories in this research document. First I dive into human behavior which is a much more psychological outlook on decision making. I then apply that knowledge of psychology and decision making into a fitness scenario. In the fitness section I pull information from articles, research tools, and interviews to truly demonstrate how different motivations and deterrents affect a person’s ability to commit to a new fitness based lifestyle.
2
2
HUMAN BEHAVIOR HOW DO PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS? I explore a number of sub-categories within human behavior to develop a better understanding of how the human mind develops motivation and deterrents. I also take a look at the way society and the surrounding environment can create and inspire a person’s drive toward certain ideas, but also diminish that motivation as well.
4
4
INHERENT GROWTH
DEVELOPMENT
How do people construct their decision making abilities over time and what factors mold their reasoning?
Herbert Alexander Simon was a Nobel laureate. He was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, psychologist, and computer scientist whose research spanned across many fields. These fields include cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. His research was among many fields including cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics, management, philosophy of science, sociology, and political science. So why is he so important to my research? This well-represented scientist unites all these fields of study by an overall dive into decision making. He was involved in creating almost a thousand highly cited publications and was considered one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century.
“Rationality was mainly motivated by the problems of uncertainty and expectations.” (Herbert A. Simon) Herbert coined the term “bounded rationality”. Bounded rationality is the idea that in decision making, the rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision.
“First, I would like to expand on the theme that almost all human behavior has a large rational component.” (HERBERT A. SIMON) Even in that split second of decision making, our brain is drawing up a T-chart and filling out pros and cons. You may not notice your thought process, but the brain quickly decides the best outcome based on previous encounters and knowledge. A person is limited to the information they have acquired through time, and that information is all they can use when creating those decisions in fractions of a second.
6
DEVELOPMENT
Self-determination theory is a theory of human motivation that differentiates between autonomous and controlled forms of motivation, and it was founded by Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci.
Richard M. Ryan is an American professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester. Richard has been one of the leading theorists of human motivation since the publication of Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, a book he coauthored with Edward in 1985 and which has been cited over 24,000 times according to google scholar. Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci both rank among the top 1% of researchers in the field of Psychiatry and Psychology. In 2012 Richard M. Ryan was selected for the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Network on Personal Meaning.
Edward L. Deci is a professor of psychology whose research on human motivation has been tested and applied from office environments to smoking clinics. He has been named the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences at University of Rochester, and director of its human motivation program. He is well known in psychology for his theories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and basic psychological needs.
The theory has been applied to predict behavior and inform behavior change in many contexts including education, health care, work organizations, parenting, and sport (as well as many others).
“Investigation of people’s inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs that are the basis for their self-motivation and personality integration, as well as for the conditions that foster those positive processes. Inductively, using the empirical process, we have identified three such needs--the needs for competence (Harter, 1978; White, 1963), relatedness (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Reis, 1994), and autonomy (deCharms, 1968; Deci, 1975)--that appear to be essential for facilitating optimal functioning of the natural propensities for growth and integration, as well as for constructive social development and personal well-being.” (Ryan and Deci)
What Ryan and Deci are trying to say is that a person is consistently and constantly striving for growth. It’s a concept that stretches all the way back to survival of the fittest. People are always trying to be their very best to succeed and survive any given scenario. To that end, all research points to three basic needs that every individual has, which together form the foundation for the Self Determination Theory.
“One by one, autonomy is behaving with a sense of volition, endorsement, willingness, and choice; competence is mastering one’s environment; and relatedness is feeling related to others in one way or another” (Gagné and Deci).
8
DEVELOPMENT
“The fullest representations of humanity show people to be curious, vital, and self-motivated. At their best, they are argentic and inspired, striving to learn; extend themselves; master new skills; and apply their talents responsibly. That most people show considerable effort, agency, and commitment in their lives appears, in fact, to be more normative than exceptional, suggesting some very positive and persistent features of human nature. Yet, it is also clear that the human spirit can be diminished or crushed and that individuals sometimes reject growth and responsibility.” (Ryan and Deci) Naturally, the human mind is set on development, improving its current state to become the best it can. This goes hand in hand with evolution and survival of the fittest. It’s a common trait that humans want to become better and can quickly build confidence; however, that confidence can just as easily be destroyed by both external and internal factors. A person can be put down by another person’s negative remarks or the personal thoughts of failing and lack of success.
The mind is developed over the span of a person’s life. the events and occurrences that mold a person’s personality can affect the optimism and pessimism involved in decision making and motivation.
“After early childhood when the freedom to be intrinsically motivated is increasingly curtailed by social pressures to do activities that are not interesting and to assume a variety of new responsibilities.” (Ryan and Deci) First off: What is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
Extrinsic motivation doesn’t always have to be another person, but it is some outside demand, obligation, or reward that requires the achievement of a particular goal. Intrinsic motivation, however, is an internal form of motivation. You strive towards a goal for personal satisfaction or accomplishment.
What Ryan and Deci are trying to explain is that as we grow out of childhood we start obtaining responsibilities we aren’t necessarily interested in, like school and work. With age, external motivations force our intrinsic motivations to vary in order to function in society.
10
DISRUPTION What causes the mind to avoid certain options and veer away from
DETERRENTS
specific ideas?
When it comes to rationalizing decisions, I use the research of Robin Vallecher and Daniel Wegner as reference.
Robin R. Vallecher is a Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. His work centers on the dynamic properties of complex human experience at different levels of reality. The specific topics include the emergence and maintenance of self-concept coherence, the intrinsic dynamics of self-evaluation and social judgment, the dynamics of self-regulation and action planning, the coordination of behavior and internal states in social interaction, intractable conflict, and societal change.
Daniel Merton Wegner was an American social psychologist. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University and a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was known for applying experimental psychology to the topics of mental control and conscious will.
Together Vallecher and Wegner provide insight to the reasoning for our thought process.
“A person may set out to ‘change a light bulb,’ for instance, but unless that action is automated to an appreciable extent, he or she may have to consciously plan and monitor such things as ‘grasping the bulb at its widest point,’ ‘turning the bulb counterclockwise,’ and so forth. Even if the action has become automated through repeated experience, its details might still become proponent if the action were to be disrupted by some means.” (Vallacher and Wegner) What Vallacher and Wegner are trying to say is that people will perform a given task that is familiar to them without having to consider the steps involved. However, once an action is needed that is unfamiliar, the person will need to mentally account for individual steps. Therefore, people are more inclined to perform a task that they are used to and more prone to avoid complicated or foreign actions.
12
EXTERNAL FORCES
DETERRENTS
How other people may not be as motivating as you may think...
Ryan and Deci performed a study on students to evaluate their personal growth when they are being motivated, or influenced, by outside sources like parents and teachers.
“The more students were externally regulated the less they showed interest, value, and effort toward achievement and the more they tended to disown responsibility for negative outcomes, blaming others such as the teacher.” (Ryan and Deci) Those students in the study lost interest in a given task due to their motivation being strictly external. The students didn’t personally enjoy the task, and performed poorly as a result. Additionally, the students attributed their failure to the extrinsic motivators that influenced them to engage in the task, rather than taking on the blame themselves.
“Attempts to foster certain behaviors in others, the others’ motivation for the behavior can range from a motivation or unwillingness, to passive compliance, to active personal commitment. According to Self Determination Theory, these different motivations reflect differing degrees to which the value and regulation of the requested behavior have been internalized and integrated. “(Gagné and Deci). Forcing others to do and feel certain ways will lead to unwillingness or passive drive. Selfdetermination theory, which was discussed earlier, says people need to drive themselves or be shown how to do things on their own in order to find true success and growth.
14
DETERRENTS
“Threats, deadlines, directives, pressured evaluations, and imposed goals diminish intrinsic motivation because, like tangible rewards, they conduce toward an external perceived locus of causality. In contrast, choice, acknowledgment of feelings, and opportunities for self direction were found to enhance intrinsic motivation because they allow people a greater feeling of autonomy.� (Ryan and Deci) External forces have a habit of destroying personal motivations since they are all ideas pushed by external sources. This pressure makes it difficult for a person to remain personally driven and will not show their fullest interest and efforts. However, that feeling of doing something successfully and on your own offers peak gratification.
“If more people can understand how great you can feel from working out, then like I wouldn’t even have to motivate them to do it. If I don’t work out in the morning, then I’m a completely different person than if I did. That’s just because working out can have such a great benefit on your mind throughout the day and confidence throughout the day and focus throughout the day.”- Kevin Rieck Kevin is an ACE personal trainer who works out of an Illinois gym to help motivate clients of all ages using a number of fitness based exercises, from weight lifting to boxing. I felt this quote from our interview, which can be found in the back of this book, was a great example of how he acts as an external motivation for people, but maintains an overall goal of making his clients intrinsically motivated to increase their chances of success. If he is the only driving factor, then his clients will begin to blame him for their discomfort and failures in the gym.
He speaks on the importance of constantly giving good feedback to keep the motivation consistent, which in turn will allow his client to find a personal drive.
I will get more into Kevin’s perspective and experiences later in this book, once the research becomes more focused on fitness, but this idea of self drive being stronger than the external force’s possible negative effects is a great transition to mental motivations.
16
MENTAL MOTIVATION
ACCOMPLISHMENT “People must not only experience competence or efficacy, they must also experience their behavior as self-determined for intrinsic motivation to be in evidence. This requires either immediate contextual supports for autonomy and competence or abiding inner resources.� (Ryan and Deci) According to Ryan and Deci, to get to a state of self determination, the person must gain confidence in the given task, and that confidence only happens when the scenario becomes familiar to the person performing that task.
That intrinsic motivation can be described as a natural inclination toward assimilation, mastery, spontaneous interest, and exploration that is so essential to cognitive and social development and that represents a principal source of enjoyment and vitality throughout life.
Mike Lorenz is a successful business man and father who, for personal and health reasons, needed to change his lifestyle to become healthier. He had a great success in making that change and keeping persistent, so I found his interview very insightful.
“I think challenging yourself, like most things in life, challenging yourself in life to improve and get better, do something, create something, I think self accomplishment is a real energizer and I think it creates internal drive to continue to want to replicate that experience.”-Mike Lorenz Mike Lorenz was able to alter his lifestyle significantly (which you can read more about in his interview, at the back of this book). He met Mike Janiak, a personal trainer who introduced Lorenz to TRX, a high intensity training program. When I interviewed Mike Janiak he told me that when Mike Lorenz first started out, he couldn’t do many of the exercises, but after finding success after several weeks, he gained the confidence that enabled him to keep pushing, driving forward to where he is today. Mike Lorenz began by only going once a week, but now goes three times a week and has adopted a healthier diet to compliment his fitness lifestyle.
Self accomplishment can be viewed as one of the strongest motivational factors in any person’s performance of a task and their ability to make the right decisions when relevant to that success.
18
MENTAL MOTIVATION
“Self-perception theory, the true cause of behavior is some stimulus in the action setting; if the actor does not recognize the stimulus as causal, he or she casts about for other likely causal candidates, even inventing inner dispositions if a plausible external cause cannot be found.” (Vallacher and Wegner) This quote from Vallacher and Wegner explains how people look for reasoning to the way they feel about performing a certain task. If a person cannot come up with a reason for that feeling they will begin to search and form their own reasoning to support those feelings.
People develop attitudes and opinions by observing their own behavior and drawing conclusions from it.
Let’s say, for example, that you are a fan of classical music. According to self-perception theory, you didn’t decide that you like classical music because you think it’s the best type of music or because listening to it makes you feel good. You decided that you like classical music based on the fact that you listen to it a lot. People learn about themselves and form self- judgments the same way they learn about and judge others.
This concept of self-perception can explain how people develop different levels of motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic sources by what they witness in their everyday lives. A person will realize what is truly driving their performance toward a specific task and that will determine their level of commitment.
Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, a person will develop a number of motivations to assist in the accomplishment of any given task or goal. The reoccurring theme provided by the self-determination theory says that people are more prone to success when it is assigned by themselves rather than others.
“Self-Determination Theory is an approach to human motivation and personality that uses traditional empirical methods while employing an organismic metatheory that highlights the importance of humans’ evolved inner resources for personality development and behavioral selfregulation.” (Ryan and Deci) Ryan and Deci developed this theory to explain how people begin to drive themselves based off past experience. If there was success in the past, a person will be more likely to push themselves toward success again. Those past experiences help form a person’s personality, and shape future decision making ability by providing a positive point of reference on specific subjects.
20
MENTAL MOTIVATION
FEEDBACK Positive feedback is a key motivating factor in performing any specific task. When they are given positive feedback, a person will feel comfortable doing that task and find future enjoyment whenever that task is performed. That feedback becomes a reassurance from the surrounding environment, and while it can be a great source of motivation, it can just as easily destroy someone’s ability to perform, depending on how positive or negative it is.
Using parent interviews, we found greater internalization of school-related values among children whose parents were more supportive of autonomy and relatedness. (Ryan and Deci) Going back to the study mentioned earlier where Richard and Edward evaluate younger students on their motivations in school, a theme continues where the participants were more likely to succeed when the extrinsic motivation (parents) were supportive of their children developing their own intrinsic motivations (the want for success) through autonomy regarding school.
The feeling a child gets from having external forces believe in their ability to perform confidently on their own is very important for building the type of character that will keep the child growing positively on their own.
“Cognitive evaluation theory (CET) was presented by Deci and Ryan (1985) as a sub theory within SDT that had the aim of specifying factors that explains variability in intrinsic motivation. The theory argues, first, that social-contextual events (e.g., feedback, communications, rewards) that conduce toward feelings of competence during action can enhance intrinsic motivation for that action. Accordingly, optimal challenges, effectance-prorooting feedback, and freedom from demeaning evaluations were all found to facilitate intrinsic motivation. For example, early studies showed that positive performance feedback enhanced intrinsic motivation, whereas negative performance feedback diminished it� (Ryan and Deci) Cognitive Evaluation Theory was designed to explain the effects of external consequences on internal motivation such as feedback, communication, and rewards. These are examples of factors that can build or destroy a person’s self-image and motivation. Taking away external pressures like feedback and evaluation improves the ability to find intrinsic motivations. By removing external influences, a person can focus on the task for personal reasons and gain a sense of competence and more likely gain a sense of self determination through any achieved success.
22
MENTAL MOTIVATION
Commitment and authenticity reflected in intrinsic motivation and integrated extrinsic motivations are most likely to be evident when individuals experience supports for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. (Ryan and Deci) Richard and Edward explain that intrinsic motivations are always the strongest source of drive, but there is a way to apply extrinsic forces without diminishing a person’s personal drive. Supporting a person’s ability to do and understand something can allow that person to take on external forces.
For example, Kevin Rieck mentioned how some of his clients are very consistent and are self-driven, but Kevin continues to provide a source of external motivation to help build upon that existing drive and really keep them striving for success.
Much like Kevin, Mike Janiak told me how he provides positive feedback to his TRX clients to keep them motivated.
“I’ll call and what I used to do is I used to send letters but now I got that fricken arthritis but people love those letters. If they achieve something, back then we were doing bench and stuff. So if someone got over 200 I’d send them a little note. I’d go good job, boom, look how far you’ve come.” - Mike Janiak Janiak showed his belief in positive feedback throughout our interview, explaining how he talks up all his clients to keep them motivated. Furthermore, instead of putting his clients in positions to fail during his sessions, he is realistic with them and has them do very reasonable workouts. This lets them to discover that inner motivation that will keep them driven when things get more difficult in future sessions.
24
INCENTIVES
MENTAL MOTIVATION
“Personal Investment Theory, which proposes that personal incentives, sense of self and perceived options determine behavior.” (Mitchell and Olds) Stephen A. Mitchell was a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst whose writings helped to clarify many disparate psychoanalytic theories and theoreticians. Stephen Mitchell was considered a leader of relational psychoanalysis. His works were referred to as drive/conflict theories, and the later works were termed relational/conflict theories.
Dr. Robert Scott Olds earned his doctoral degree in Health Promotion from Indiana University in 1987. He served on the faculty in health education at Ithaca College in New York for 4 years, and for 25 years at Kent State University’s College of Public Health, where he was a founding faculty member of the Council on Education for Public Health.
“Personal incentives refer to the reasons identified for involvement in an activity, and include such incentives as recognition, mastery, competition and affiliation. Sense of self is comprised of one’s own perceived competence to engage in an activity, self-reliance, goal directedness and social identity.” (Mitchell and Olds) There are five psychological incentives a person may use to drive them to perform a task or make a specific decision. They consist of competition, mastery, affiliation, social recognition, and mental benefits (coping with stress). These incentives can be tied back to Vallacher and Wegner’s discussion into finding reasoning for why a person feels a certain way about a task. They mentioned how a person may search for reasoning when confused about feelings. These five incentives are the most simplified forms of any discovered reasoning.
Mitchell and Olds clarify that a person’s sense of self is determined by their competence in any given task, their ability to perform that task on their own and to be comfortable with the task at hand.
26
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
Environmental and social conditions play a large factor on a person’s decision making ability as well as their performance when partaking in any given task.
“Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function.” (Ryan and Deci) Surrounding conditions may cause a person to feel comfortable and able to accomplish any action they must, but these surrounding conditions can also do the exact opposite and halt any progress toward success.
Ryan and Deci explain in the above quote how a person’s state of mind is heavily impacted by the surrounding environment and people. A person’s past experiences influence any decision they must make in the future and each experience can be altered heavily by the surrounding environment. Therefore, a person’s surroundings will mold their personality over time and create reasoning for their decision making and ability to become motivated.
Below is a quote from personal trainer Kevin Rieck talking about how his clients are effected by their social context and environment.
“Our classes are in this big glass room with this row of machines and weights and ropes and they look in that room and say, ‘No I’m not going in there.’ So getting people to come into that room was the most challenging thing, but once you get people in there, I try to get a guest or two in the room just to make it look like people are doing stuff and hopefully get people to change their lifestyle. But the answer was usually, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready for that, that’s too intense for me, I don’t feel comfortable in that situation,’ and then same with just like a lot of people who just stick with the same routine” - Kevin Rieck Obviously a large factor is the client’s competence in a given task which creates a fear to under perform in front of others. It is that fear of performing in front of others that molds a person’s personality to continuously think that way and avoid being put in the spot light. A lack of confidence is created. That is why Kevin tries to insist that people join them in this glass room to take classes where maybe they aren’t comfortable but they are taking a chance at remolding their ability to try new things in front of other people in a very open space.
Just as a person’s environment can negatively affect their performance, it can also do the exact opposite and help drive a person to do better. If Kevin’s clients were confronted by other people partaking in his classes and insisted that the person making the decision is capable of keeping up with the class, that person will be more inclined to give it a shot. In turn, potentially changing their ability to perform in front of others in the future.
28
SUPPORTIVE
ENVIRONMENT
“Social environments can facilitate or forestall intrinsic motivation by supporting versus thwarting people’s innate psychological needs.” (Ryan and Deci)
I explored the three psychological needs any human strives for when finding motivation earlier in this book (Self determination theory). Ryan and Deci take this theory and relate it to environmental impact. Very much like Kevin’s clients fear to under perform (competence of an action) any of these essential needs can influence or deter a person’s motivational drive.
On the next page is another example from Ryan and Deci’s study into the education system and motivational influences that talks on environmental factors.
“Similarly, studies showed that autonomy- supportive parents, relative to controlling parents, have children who are more intrinsically motivated (Grolnick, Deci, & Ryan, 1997). Such findings generalized to other domains such as sport and music in which supports for autonomy and competence by parents and mentors incite more intrinsic motivation. When children worked on an interesting task in the presence of an adult stranger who ignored them and failed to respond to their initiations, a very low level of intrinsic motivation resulted, and Ryan and Grolnick (1986) observed lower intrinsic motivation in students who experienced their teachers as cold and uncaring. Of course, many intrinsically motivated behaviors are happily performed in isolation, suggesting that proximal relational supports may not be necessary for intrinsic motivation, but a secure relational base does seem to be important for the expression of intrinsic motivation to be in evidence.” (Ryan and Deci) This section from Ryan and Deci’s work brings up a few very valid points. First being the idea of caring versus not caring from an external motivational figure. While independent performance is important for autonomy and competence, it is also key that they receive positive feedback to create successful character growth for future performance and decision making.
The next point from Ryan and Deci’s study was supporting versus controlling influences. Support implies autonomy of the person performing a task where a controlling force intrudes on that chance of autonomy. This is a concept that I have heard a number of times from all of my interview subjects; the idea of a trainer supporting their clients rather than forcing their participation. Both Rieck and Mike Janiak mentioned the importance of keeping their clients happy in order to form healthy habits for a positive lifestyle change. A trainer who only drives you and lacks support will most likely leave their clients unwilling to continue the new lifestyle.
30
ENVIRONMENT
“Social contexts catalyze both within- and between- person differences in motivation and personal growth, resulting in people being more self-motivated, energized, and integrated in some situations, domains, and cultures than in others.” (Ryan and Deci) This quote is explaining the potential of comfort. Comfort is a dynamic factor that changes depending on social and environmental influences. It also spans the three essential needs for successful motivation. Different environments and social contexts can determine a person’s success. When a person is familiar, comfortable, or sees potential, they are more ready to excel.
To continue using Kevin’s clients as an example, the clients who constantly look to take his classes in groups have acquired a sense of comfort in an environment that requires the three essential needs. Most people will begin in an uncomfortable state, unsure of their capabilities and frightened by the idea of certain tasks and performances in different environments. Those people have the potential to grow over time to become more comfortable in specific settings by receiving knowledge, positive feedback, and a sense of confidence.
Much like the potential to grow, there is always the chance of a negative setback.
Maintenance and enhancement of this inherent propensity requires supportive conditions, as it can be fairly readily disrupted by various no supportive conditions. Motivation, drive, self-image, and more can easily be torn down with non-supportive conditions going against much more quickly than it takes to build those ideas in a positive manor. (Ryan and Deci) It is key to have that positivity and those three essential needs consistently. People are constantly evolving and changing from day to day depending on the experiences they endure. Unfortunately, those setbacks have the power to temporarily put a person down or even permanently do so.
If one of Kevin’s clients has a terrible day in one of his classes and never receives any positive feedback or help, it is possible that person may lose their confidence, and that can remove any successful growth they have had in the past.
Ryan and Deci explain how important it is to keep the conditions somewhat supportive to maintain that growth and positivity since it is so readily able to be diminished.
32
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Herbert Alexander Simon was the first expert I introduced in this book, back in the exploration of inherent growth. Interestingly enough, he did not only study psychology but spent a large amount of time connecting topics such as economics and decision making.
So why do people make the decisions we do?
“Economics . . . is the study of the allocation of scarce resources among unlimited and competing uses” (HERBERT) Essentially it is the study of wants v. needs and how to allocate resources appropriately in any given situation.
“First, I would like to expand on the theme that almost allhuman behavior has a large rational component, thought process of why we choose the path or actions we do. Rational decision-making.” (HERBERT) This section of my book speaks on the relativeness of economics in human behavior and how the concepts behind economics can be applied in the context of psychology.
Below is an example that Herbert uses to explain rationality in decision making, but more importantly, in approaching the concept of wants v. needs. “Not ‘how much flood insurance will a man buy?’ but ‘what are the structural conditions that make buying insurance rational or attractive?’’ (HERBERT) This quote refers to the idea that people need to back their decisions with reasoning, whether that is based off knowledge learned from prior experiences or simply developed in the mind of the decision maker. In universal terms, fill in the blank below. The question is not why a person should do ______ but what are the reasons they need ______ For example, The question is not why a person should do (yoga) but what are the reasons they need (yoga) -Bad joints -Old age -Not flexible -Need to get active The reasons tend to be more need-oriented.
34
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
To the left is a chart that presents opportunity cost. What exactly is Opportunity Cost?
The basic economic problem is the issue of scarcity. Because resources are considered scarce but wants are unlimited, people must make choices of how to allocate those resources.
Everyone has the same amount of hours in a day, but they all make different decisions about what they do, what they choose to buy, and how they spend their time. Opportunity cost determines those choices.
The chart to the left explains the balance between cotton and wheat production. To produce more cotton, the output of wheat will need to decrease.
How is this relevant to human behavior? Those everyday decisions are based on allocating resources such as time and effort.
For example, a student may have a big test coming up, but they don’t want to miss a day in their workout routine. That student will have to balance the value in working out as opposed to studying for their test. The resource being allocated is time. The more time spent studying, the less time the person will have to work out.
36
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Another concept to consider is the human tendency to outweigh needs with wants.
“As people hear more music, they want to hear still more. They invent a commodity, ‘music appreciation’ (not to be confused with time spent in listening to music), and suggest that listening to music might produce not only immediate enjoyment but also an investment in capacity for appreciating music (i.e., in amount of enjoyment produced per listening hour). Once these assumptions are granted, various conclusions can be drawn about the demand for music appreciation. However, only weak conclusions follow about listening time unless additional strong postulates are introduced about the elasticity of demand for appreciation. Marginalism.“ (HERBERT) In the above example, Herbert explains how music, which is considered a source of entertainment and is therefore always a “want,” can grow to become valued more with appreciation over time. This idea can be applied to any idea or task, but what it implies is that a person can construct a false need for something due to a strong desire.
The below quote is a continuation from the previous one on the left page.
“We might be willing to grant that people would be inclined to invest more in musical appreciation early in life than later in life (because they would have a longer time in which to amortize the investment) without insisting that costs and returns were being equated at the margin, and without gaining any new insights into the situation from making the latter assumption.” (HERBERT) This quote explains how earlier in life, due to having less resources to allocate at any given time, a person can develop their outlook on tasks and ideas. A person may decide lifting weights is great while still in high school. That same person is more likely to pick up weight lifting early and stick with it throughout life.
Both Kevin and Mike Janiak told me in their interview that clients who have a past in fitness have a habit of being able to get back into it since they have already developed an idea that it’s good for them, and they don’t dislike it.
38
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
“The central idea here is that when two or more people interact, each expects to get something from the interaction that is valuable to him, and is thereby motivated to give something up that is valuable to the others.” (HERBERT) In a fitness-oriented scenario, a gym partner motivates you and pushes you in the hope that you will do the same to them. We are always seeking improvement for and out of ourselves. Often, that comes partially from others. Each interaction with another person holds a purpose, whether that be entertainment, knowledge, or something else.
Using the previously explained rule, people have a tendency to rely on each other as a way of finding comfort and reasoning.
“For situations where the rationality of an action depends upon what others (who are also striving to be rational) do again, no consensus has been reached as to what constitutes optimal behavior. This is one of the reasons I have elsewhere called imperfect competition ‘the permanent and ineradicable scandal of economic theory’” (HERBERT) This is the ongoing theory that people never know what the optimal decision is, so they make their decision based off someone else’s instincts, regardless of whether or not that other person knew what they were doing.
More importantly, the above quote explains how human behavior can be effected by other people’s opinions. If one person seems to be comfortable dancing in front of a crowd, another person may think it can’t be too bad and try it themselves.
“I find it much easier to workout with other people than it is by myself. It’s much more difficult to motivate myself when I’m on my own. I just think there is less energy in the room and around you.” (Mike Lorenz) In Mike’s case it can be considered friendly competition at times. Especially in a fitness scenario. One person will be motivated to be better than the others working out, and the other way around as well. This is a perfect example of Herbert’s theory; when people interact with each other, they both expect to get something from the interaction. In this case, Mike and his partners are motivating each other to push harder.
In conclusion, the economic outlook on psychology revolves around rational thinking and the way people tend to allocate their scarce resources (time and effort) to certain tasks and ideas in their life. It identifies the ways in which our rational thinking will direct our intrinsic motivations toward certain ideas over others because of our tendency to find excuses (rationality illusion swaying our decision making).
40
FITNESS 1. What factors predict the activity habits of different age groups in the adult population? 2. What factors explain different levels of involvement in voluntary, health promoting physical activity?
42 42
I have previously explored a number of directions regarding motivation and decision making as broad subjects.
MENTAL BARRIERS
As my overall goal is to discover a method to overcome mental barriers for people who need to alter their lifestyles I will begin to dive into a more specific direction of motivations and decision making within fitness itself.
I will begin with the most basic form of research which is an article that speaks directly on mental barriers at the most user friendly and simple level. Articles like “Barriers to Fitness� fall all across the internet. A person can be exploring the web for fitness tips and every other article will discuss reasons people lose motivation and how to overcome that loss of interest. However, these articles tend to discuss the obvious and people gloss over it knowing that being lazy is a mental barrier. I felt it was important to explore some of these articles before really diving into the area of research.
Barriers to fitness: Overcoming common challenges
Sticking to a regular exercise schedule isn’t easy. Get Practical tips for overcoming common barriers. By Mayo Clinic Staff
• • • • • • • • • •
I don’t have enough time to exercise I think exercise is boring I’m self-conscious about how I look I’m too tired to exercise after work I’m too lazy to exercise I’m not athletic I’ve tried to exercise in the past and failed I can’t afford health club fees I’m afraid I’ll hurt myself if I exercise My family doesn’t support my efforts
Discussion of mental barriers is common and can be found being utilized by many fitness-based businesses to sell products. Fitness models base their programs off the worries and fears of others. Those fears ranging from confidence issues, lack of results, time management, and so on. This list was one that I found discussing potential barriers stopping people from a successful transition to a healthy lifestyle, and one that would provide tips on how to overcome said barriers. The interesting thing to note is these barriers are consistent among all articles, and the solutions are, too. The solutions tend to only make a good read and nothing else. Going outside 15 minutes a day is not a solid solution to being lazy. The barriers are commonly known but why they exist and how to overcome them is the goal of my research.
44
FEAR
MENTAL BARRIERS
“A huge fear is just looking like a goof cuz no girl wants to go try and deadlift if you’ve never been taught how to deadlift.” -Kevin Rieck These quotes from Kevin are just as relevant to the example I have used over and over regarding people working out in the glass room. The most common barrier is the fear factor. The fear of lacking competence and autonomy while performing a task will prevent motivational gain and alter decision making away from exercise.
“If people don’t understand what they’re doing or understand why they’re doing it, they’re not going to want to be there.”- Kevin Rieck That lack of knowledge is what drives people away from comfort. That is why the first few sessions with a personal trainer is so important for a client.
“If people made it through the 22-30 day mark, they’d probably stay with it a bit.” (Mike Janiak) Those beginning sessions are when the trainer needs to hand feed directions until the client understands what they are doing. Before that level of experience, a trainer couldn’t expect their clients to do things on their own due to a natural lack of competence.
“I’d say making the time, people who have very busy lives… I’ve had people, and all they talk about during their workouts is how stressful their life is, so I think that your outside life can be a huge barrier to you getting to the gym and you falling in love with working out, because during your workout you’re all stressed and thinking ‘I shouldn’t be working out right now’’ –Kevin Rieck This is an example of perceived options. Perceived options are the things you could be doing that make you think twice about performing a specific task.
Going back to that economic outlook, perceived options can be considered as the resources that must be allocated in order to make a decision.
Those potential options have a habit of acting as barriers...
“These barriers were lack of time, lack of an exercise partner, lack of ability in the chosen activity, prohibitive financial cost, proximity of facilities and lack of family support.” (Mitchell and Olds)
46
INSECURITY
MENTAL BARRIERS
Insecurity can be classified as a sort of fear but acknowledging it as its own concept is very important since my interviews and research have shown it to be such a vital piece of preventing motivation.
“People choke under pressure, suffer from evaluation apprehension, get distracted, lose concentration, revert to old habits, worry about failure, get overconfident, and in other ways manage to approach action with a dysfunctional mental set.” (Vallacher and Wegner) People are always striving to better themselves which can be inferred from my research into Ryan and Deci’s studies. However, that constant drive for growth can easily be dismissed and applied elsewhere if the participant has a sense of insecurity.
“Thus, a person controlling an act with relatively low- level identities (lack of knowledge) in mind is prone toward inconsistent, perhaps even impulsive, behavior and is highly sensitive to social feedback and other contextual cues to higher-level meaning.” (Vallacher and Wegner) What Vallacher and Wegner are saying is that a person with little knowledge of what they are doing is going to be constantly looking for more clues as to better understand what they are trying to do. Meanwhile, that person will also be less consistent with their motivation and won’t always be sure of their decision making process when related to the topic.
A huge theme behind insecurity is a lack of knowledge. If a person understood the process of fitness and how muscle v. fat builds and burns in the body it would, overall, aid their drive and understanding.
“I had someone work their butt off and they looked good in their physical condition, but they didn’t achieve that success… ‘My body fat is still this,’ so they were turned off by that.”- Mike Janiak “When people look at that scale and they don’t see success, that can be a huge barrier for them because they’re working hard but not seeing any change. I always tell clients to focus on how they feel. Because in these first few weeks you might lose some weight but it’s more how you feel than how you look.” - Kevin Rieck A common turn off is these specific details that both Mike and Kevin have witness in their clients. People tend to look at these numbers on a scale thinking that they aren’t losing weight and have been wasting time.
What many people lack is the understanding of how the body processes fat and turns it into muscle. Comparing a sample of fat and muscle that weigh the same, the volume of muscle is half the size. Working out will replace fat with muscle so your physique will appear slimmer but your weight may remain the same.
This was a great example for me to reference for my studies into the area. People’s lack of understanding can cause insecurities and diminish confidence when there is a lack of results.
48
WELLNESS MOTIVATIONS
MIND SET Overcoming those insecurities is essential to gaining positive motivation, but to do so, a new way of thinking is required. A person must think positive to act positive.
“Biggest focus on people is getting that mindset changed because no matter what I do in those couple months with them, if I leave them with ‘oh you lost some weight but oh it wasn’t enjoyable,’ or ‘oh, you lost some weight but in your mind, working out is still a chore,’ then they’re going to lose that motivation. They’re going to go right back to the beginning.”- Kevin Rieck For personal trainers, their ultimate goal is to change their client’s mindset when it comes to anything related to fitness. By feeding their clients positive enforcement and new knowledge to hold onto they may gain the ability to be autonomous in the field of fitness. They will see themselves improving and build a desire for that sense of achievement.
Ultimately, as Mike Janiak mentioned earlier, that 30-day period while a person is entering the new lifestyle is where they will discover the pros and cons to that change in their life. It’s the construction of a new mindset to drive them positively into healthy habits.
At times, working out doesn’t sound like a great idea, but after building that new mindset, a person may allocate their resources toward it regardless of their feelings in that moment. Anyone who has made it through that 30-day beginner period knows there is a sense of self discovered through fitness.
“When all is said and done, perhaps the only enduring characteristic of a person’s identity structure is its potential for change. Yet, no matter how idiosyncratic such changes are, they are ultimately driven by desires common to everyone—to know what one is doing and to do what one can.” (Vallacher and Wegner)
“Sense of self is their own strength, flexibility, aerobic endurance, skill, and ability to perform in front of others, alone and with partners” (Mitchell and Olds) With enough time and dedication to a subject such as fitness, a person will find a stronger sense of self. Mitchell and Olds identify that sense of self as mastering the area of interest. Building those three psychological needs to allow the person to be positively driven toward success.
50
WELLNESS MOTIVATIONS
ADAPTATION An important factor to remember is that this study should not be solely focused on the user, but also the external forces involved at times. Everyone is different and everyone has experienced different events in their life that have built a unique perspective on the concept of fitness. People will always have their own motives and discouragements so adaptation to the person involved is key. Fortunately, I was able to interview both Mike Janiak and Mike Lorenz. Mike Janiak has been training Mike Lorenz for a few years now and on the next page I have pulled two excerpts from their interview to show how Mike Janiak has worked with Mike Lorenz to gradually build his physical capabilities.
“I think a good trainer is someone who listens to what you’re trying to accomplish. And writes a routine that works with your requirements.”- Mike Lorenz
“It’s a lot of adapting for each person, I never treat each client the same at all. Every single client has their own workouts that I’ve written for them, and it’s a lot about gauging them.”- Kevin Rieck For Mike Lorenz, he was simply not being healthy enough, but sometimes people find themselves with health dilemmas and physical setbacks that need correction. There is no workout plan that everyone can use because every person is in a different position in life with varying goals.
“In March of 2014, I was shoveling snow and started getting pains in my chest, so I went to go get a physical. I went to a cardiologist and he told me my heart was good but I should lose some weight because it was going to become increasingly unhealthy. At that time, I start working out with Mike as a trainer and continued that until today... I started going to him 40 minutes once a week, then I increased it to twice a week, and now I do it three times a week with him.” – Mike Lorenz Together Mike Janiak and Mike Lorenz grew their ‘client-to-trainer’ relationship because Mike Janiak would listen and adapt to Mike Lorenz’s requests.
Programs that provide easy and flexible access, encourage goal- setting practices, and that ensure one-to-one encouragement and reinforcement might be particularly successful. (Mitchell and Olds) Mike Janiak made a comment during his interview that he never pushes a client too hard because it will discourage them by preventing potential success. I found that Mitchell and Olds’ comment regarding program practices mirrored Mike Janiak’s program. I was fortunate enough to witness it firsthand when I got to try his TRX program. He would ask me after every exercise, on a scale from 1-10, how I was feeling. That enabled him to gauge how hard he could push me.
52
WELLNESS MOTIVATIONS
FEEDBACK A consistent theme throughout my research has been positive feedback. However, from personal experience a simple “good job” from an iPhone application doesn’t contain much value.
“Recognition for participation in regular physical activity might take several forms, from verbal feedback to family support to extrinsic reward.” (Mitchell and Olds) Much like Alcohol Anonymous programming, continuous motivation requires positive feedback from external figures who hold value in a person’s life. People who care about the person’s wellbeing and people who contain the power to motivate, such as trainers and family, have the ability to give valued, positive feedback.
MOTIVATIONS Many factors play a role in the decision making and the motivational construction of someone’s life. Each of these factors influence each other to ultimately dictate how a person will feel. Momentum and consistency are crucial to success, and to creating and maintaining steady motivation.
However, to get to that level, a person must endure the beginner phases of being uncomfortable and actively seek out the knowledge required to become autonomous.
54
WELLNESS MOTIVATIONS
“I think there are three things that would motivate some of them. First is personal health based issues like what I had, where you’ve got some situation where you know you need to improve or it is going to adversely affect your health. Second form of motivation is that it’s a lifestyle that you grew up with because of your youth and you just carry it through your adult lifestyle. And I think the third motivation comes from someone you care about who will help push you down that path. I think there’s been half a dozen of my friends who have joined into a fitness routine because of me encouraging them to do that. So I think those are the three things that would motivate someone to improve their health and wellness.”- Mike Lorenz Throughout his interview, Mike, in his own way, outlined all of the concepts that are needed to truly drive a person’s motivation, putting into layman’s terms the abstract psychological concepts I had been studying. Rather than labelling a situation as a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, Mike made it clear that it was as simple as wanting to better yourself and having your friends by your side while you did it.
Thus, if the person behaves the same way from one context to the next, it can be assumed that he or she is acting out of personal “causes,� but if his or her behavior ovaries with contextual factors, it can be assumed that he or she is responding to presses in the immediate situation. (Vallacher and Wegner) Vallacher and Wegner are explaining how a person may be motivated with a personal trainer, but lose that motivation once they’re on their own. Each person requires an analysis of why they are doing what they are doing. Is the motivation purely from the trainer or is there a fire burning inside them for success?
56
JOURNEY MAPPING
JOURNEY MAPPING The next few pages in this book are dedicated to the journey of some people who have added fitness into their life. These participants were all generally the same age, college students, and males. However, their time into working out and experience varies. I will analyze each person’s level of commitment to better understand their drive through their daily routine. Using information discovered in my research I will be better suited to discover their motives and psychological standings.
58
JOURNEY MAPPING
COLE “What keeps you motivated and how did you start?” “Well friend, I was a bit of a twig growing up. I was always known as a skinny kid and hated being called that for a long time. But I really didn’t know how to fix it. Fortunately, my friends in athletics helped me eat right and train right and it’s helped me immensely.” Cole was the first person I followed through his workout. He seemed more determined than some of the others. Like there was a real reason other than just maintaining health. When speaking with him I realized that he not only kept to a routine, but he didn’t miss days. When it came to rationality the gym became a priority since he put a lot of value on it. There was a sense of confidence you could read from the way he carried himself. It’s important to note certain interactions throughout his journey. For example, in the pictures to the left Cole was doing arm day which was bicep and tricep. When lifting in a gym that is crowded it’s common that a machine will be taken. A person can either wait for that machine to open or chose a new exercise to substitute for it. Cole seemed to be well versed and acquired the knowledge to jump to different exercises without worrying about not understanding how to do things. He mentioned learning from friends, which is a concept I have realized runs the fitness world. All fitness basics are taught by other people through word of mouth, since teaching yourself can be too difficult and removes the comfort of having a more experienced role model explain things to you. Cole acquired all three psychological needs to drive him through his daily routines but that will never stop him from trying to better himself and grow further.
60
JOURNEY MAPPING
SEAN Sean was the most experienced of all my participants. He had a more complex routine which showed a strong level of competence. He held himself more positively in the crowded environment. That was due to a successful construction of confidence over time. I picked up that Sean wouldn’t stray from his daily workout unless he really needed to, since it had become a huge part of his lifestyle. He knew he wanted to grow and was constantly pushing himself through his wellconstructed workout. Sean acquired the proper mindset to maintain his motivation which is defined by the self-determination theory. He is autonomous, competent, and needs it in his daily routine.
62
JOURNEY MAPPING
ANDREW “What keeps you motivated and how did you start?” “I got motivated to start caring about my body because my dad had a heart attack at the young age of 44. His healthy eating habits after his attack rubbed off on me and I started eating better. Once I cut down fat by eating better, ladies started to notice. This made me start hitting the gym harder and committing to a lifting schedule. To this day I don’t feel good missing a day and each day is brightened after a good lift.” In Andrew’s case, the external force of his dad (someone he looks up to) was his motivation to change his lifestyle and become healthier. His confidence was then boosted by positive feedback from other external forces which led him to be even more driven toward success. Rationality-wise, I have found that Andrew is determined when he is in the gym, but would be more inclined to stay home if something was to deter him. I also noticed a slight lack of knowledge in his routine, which caused some insecurity as the result of a lack of essential information. He has some of the three essential psychological needs to drive his motivation, but he isn’t quite there.
64
JOURNEY MAPPING
ADAM “What keeps you motivated and how did you start?” “I was always the skinniest kid on my sports teams all the way up through high school. Eventually, I got tired of being out-muscled by opposing players, so I started working out to add some mass to my slender frame. Thankfully, some of my friends had been working out for years and gave me some tips on how to effectively put on muscle.” Much like Cole, Adam was inspired through external forces at an adolescent age. Adam has a background in athletics so I have hope for his continued success. However, Adam lacks initiative in his workouts. Like Andrew, this suggests a lack of greater knowledge, and therefore a lack of confidence. However, in Adam’s case, this initial lack of confidence seemed to serve as an external force that motivated him to learn more about his work outs and begin to take on a more aggressive training schedule. Ultimately, it seems that Adam is trying to better himself by following others’ leads to expose himself to the knowledge and skill sets that he lacks.
66
JOURNEY MAPPING
JOURNEY MAPPING CONCLUSION Journey mapping gave me the opportunity to follow others through the gym and witness their behavior, providing me with a huge amount of data to be analyzed and compared to my previous research findings. These participants varied in experience and that showed their ability to perform in specific environments. Each person has their own sense of motivation but those motives hold varying power in their lives. This experience identified the role of the self-determination theory on my participants. Autonomous, Competence, and Relatedness. Each participant had these but it’s not a sure thing that someone always has control over all three completely. I wanted to note that each person learned from external sources in their life. There is value to that data that needs to be realized. People grow from intrinsic motivations but they find better success when growing in the guidance of others who have already successfully found their drive. While discussing the economic outlook earlier, we found that each interaction between people implies that each person expects to gain something from that interaction. In this case, a beginner could be seeking growth in an area while the other person is gaining a sense of self and confidence by being looked up to for knowledge from the beginner.
68
SURVEY
Survey taken by Fittet which is a sub-forum on the website Reddit who discusses fitness. I found that this survey spans the spectrum of possible basic questions. This is important because it’s a great resource of commitment levels. It uncovers why people workout, where they workout most, number of days they workout, and workout length. Together these questions provide a great wealth of data points to be analyzed when questions arise pertaining to fitness. For example, one question asked how long the participants have been exercising and most answered with less than a year which means most people who took this survey are still trying to uncover their three psychological needs.
70
SURVEY
72
SURVEY
This survey was given out by me to answer some of the questions I had that the Reddit survey did not cover. While some of my data overlaps with the previous survey, mine covers a larger age range and I questioned specifically into motivations, fitness apps, and personal trainers. I was able to get the perspective of many different active participants on subjects of why they are motivated, what deters them, and how they would motivate others. This information that will help me uncover a solution to overcoming mental barriers to entering fitness.
74
SURVEY
76
DESIGN BRIEF Creating a system that allows users to hold themselves accountable for their new fitness based lifestyle, and motivates them to continuously set and achieve new goals.
CONCLUSION WRITE UP Throughout this book, I explore the uncertainty behind why the human mind works the way it does. What causes the human mind to ‘want v. avoid’ certain tasks and ideas? You can see this information split into two categories in this research document. First I dive into human behavior which is a much more psychological outlook on decision making. I then apply that knowledge of psychology and decision making into a fitness scenario. In the fitness section I pull information from articles, research tools, and interviews to truly demonstrate how different motivations and deterrents affect a person’s ability to commit to a new fitness based lifestyle. The resulting conclusion can be drawn that the human mind is extremely complex and each person gains motivation from past experiences mixed with current events. The most notable point emphasized throughout this research was the need for positive feedback and support. Even with negative past experiences, a mind set can be altered with positive reinforcement to allow a person to think with a new perspective. Factors such as environment, support, mind set, and a handful more will drive my search for a system to allow users to overcome the mental barriers that prevent their life style change.
78 78
FULL INTERVIEWS FOR REFERENCE
80 80
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
K: Hi I’m Kevin Rieck J: And you’re a personal trainer where do you personal train what’s your certification
K: I have an Ace certification I was certified last August and I personal train at X-sport fitness in Libertyville, Illinois.
J: So is that like steady clients or do you just kinda get people as they come in? K: I’d say you get 10% of your clients from the company or the manager kind of giving you clients but then 90% you kinda have to go out and get yourself whether is just be like friends that you know or people on the street or gym members
J: No I get that. Ok so that’s background info, how come you became a personal trainer? Is that because of like your background or
K: I mean I grew up a gymnast then after I got injured I really got into strength training and I’ve always just been a fitness nerd so I thought if I’m gonna have to get a summer job, I might as well get something that I’m passionate about.
J: Yea I understand that. So you mentioned getting injured, how did that effect working out before becoming a personal trainer? Like did that force you to go to the gym more or what route did that cause you to take?
K: I had two main injuries, I had a tear in my labrum and then I had a fracture in my L3 it just was a lot of rehab, some of it was done at the rehabilitation center but afterwards I would just have to continue doing those exercises until I was fully recovered. Going to the gym, I had to go there because they had the equipment for me to do my rehab.
J: That makes sense, yeah. How did you hurt yourself? What caused that? K: Two separate incidents, one was like doing what’s called a jam on a high bar pretty much the one where you pop your shoulders like this and I just like popped with my arms way too close together and caused a minor dislocation and later I got an MRI and there was like a tear in it and then my lower back was an injury on the parallel bars where I kinda landed on my head and suit cased my feet into my nose so two big injuries. It definitely, you definitely realize how hard it is to rebuild something it takes like second to hurt something and then it takes a year to rebuild something so it definitely gave me a different perspective.
J: Is there a fear –factor in there like you’re afraid to try things like for instance I
82
told you about how I messed up my wrist the other day and I couldn’t tell you how sketched out the next shoulder day was
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
K: Yea I definitely had a large fear factor for a while especially with squatting or heavy loading. Dead-lifting and squatting is something that I had to ease into and just do heavy heavy research on correct form for like 2 years because every time I tried to squat I could feel my lower back in a lot of pain and I also had my hips, this might have been due to the fracture or just how I trained in general where I had an anterial tilt in my hips so doing the rehab of like fixing that tilt my tightening my hamstrings and tightening my inner stomach and stretching out my hip flexors and lower back that was a huge like yearlong process fixing that just so I could squat properly.
J: Ok I get that. Was the motivation to fix that because you had to or was there like a personal drive in there? I mean obviously people aren’t just gonna not fix something but they could do the bare minimum to get it fixed K: I mean I could have just been like “you know, my back is messed up I should stop trying to squat trying to deadlift but personally like I still love gymnastics and I still love having full capabilities of my body and like try to make it stronger than it ever was. Now my lower back and my shoulders are like better than they’ve ever been. But it was a long process
J: Yea I get that. Did you start out as just an athlete or did you have like weightlifting before that? Like, did you go to the gym at all? When did everything start was it because of your health problems that you had to start going to the gym K: I’d say it was personally just me trying to keep like the strength and physique I had built up over the years through gymnastics, I didn’t want to see like a decline in that. So a lot of my workouts I started off doing all calisthenics and body weight because that’s all I knew from gymnastics and then I got into weightlifting just through just experimenting in the gym. But I wasn’t in the gym solely because of my injuries, I spent a good amount of time in the gym doing rehab work because of my injuries. Like mornings were usually rehab, stretching, and endurance and speed building and then later after school in high school at least I would do strength training.
J: We’re gonna jump back to client-based stuff. I just want to hear
background and like how the injury affected you – so you’re a personal trainer, what kind of clients do you have ?
K: The age really ranges so its either a girl or a guy and the age could be anywhere from 19 to I had a woman who was like 72. So it can be anything I also did group training a lot because I was training for a shorter amount of time its hard to take on clients for a longer period of time because then you have to ditch them in 2 months cuz of school. So I did a lot of group training and group training is a lot of the same thing, a really broad range
J: What did you pick up from that? So like if you’re personal training one person vs a group, is there like a motivation factor in that group like having other people there do you think they like motivate each other? K: Yea, I personally like the group training more because I mean with personal training and individual, you definitely pick up patterns for like what each type of person likes so like if its like a girl who’s like anywhere from 19-30 its all about I wanna lose weight I wanna lose weight I wanna bigger butt, that’s pretty much what you get other than when they have an injury or something like that. If you have guys, its either lose weight or build muscle. And then in the other ages its usually about mobility so its more focus based and then if you’re in the group training its more well I did interval training so it was usually 3 separate circuits of rowing, strength training, and a treadmill cardio mixture, and then I also did groups that were like boxing. And that’s literally just we’re trying to keep your heart rate up and we’re trying to have you get a great workout in so I really think what youre saying is exactly right about people motivating each other. Everyone goes at their own pace but you try to just get everyone to like have a great workout and be in that zone where they don’t really care about who is around them they’re just going all out
J: So you’re like a factor, like the hype man – the personal trainer isn’t just the hype man but you’re also providing like a guidance – I mean this is one of my questions but are there fears people have when they go to the gym and are with a personal trainer or even not, like what are those fears - why wouldn’t they go back to the gym is what I’m asking K: Im gonna add a little bit to my last answer and then ill answer that – also for personal training, it’s a little slower, you get to focus on like that one person, and saying move like this, do this and you can spend a long time teaching each movement but when its group training you try to go to each person and make it clear and concise. Like ok, lift your knee higher, just engage your abs and this is really quick and fast. You always have to be talking to each person and making sure each person is doing it correctly but its not that like really as cohesive as
84
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
it would be an individual and for fear factor was huge, trying to get people to come to a group session was like impossible because everyone sees. Ours is in like this big glass room with this row machines and weights and ropes and they look in that room and be like hell no im not going in there so getting people to come into that room was like the most challenging thing but once you get people in there, I try to get a guest or two in the room just to make it look like people are doing stuff and hopefully get people to like change their lifestyle. But the #! Answer was like I don’t know if im ready for that, that’s too intense for me, I don’t feel comfortable in that situation and then same with just like a lot of people just stick with the same routine, a lot of gym goers hit the stepper for 30 min, hit the elliptical for 30 min, and then walk out because if you’re never trained to use all the other stuff
J: So knowledge is like a big factor K: Huge. A huge fear is just looking like a goof cuz no girl wants to go try and deadlift if you’ve never been taught how to deadlift. You’re gonna build such a greater body and such a greater level of strength doing actual strength movements than you are just on the stepper for an hour a day. Another fear factor is building size – girls have a huge fear factor that “oh I’m gonna get too big” if you were gonna get too big you have a very rare genetic make up
J: I bring a GF to golds every day I go and she’s always like “I don’t wanna get like muscular” and Im like it takes a lot longer for that and if it does, you’ll notice it and just stop if that’s the case. K: For a girl to get too muscular that it’s like unattractive, is like very very challenging
J: She was freaking out because of her weight she was like I haven’t lost any weight but yet im toning – that’s because muscle is smaller than fat – you’re gonna way more but youre gonna look way better – not that I said that to my GF… going back, with your clients I asked which kinds you help, you kinda gave me a range, were any of them medical based other than like older age with mobility issues or K: Ive had a few guys who have back pain – back pain is usually the #1 pain youre gonna run into its usually due to like a problem with muscular imbalances. A lot of times older men they get that pink panther its called so there’s daphne dog and pink panther – pink panther is kinda that rounded back so that just means like your inner
stomach is really tight and your lower back is really loose. And then you have these tight hamstrings that kinda like pull your butt and flattens your butt up so you kinda have that rounded look. So just like discovering those imbalances and working against them to straighten them out and give them that natural large back.
J: Any other injuries? K: I had someone who had an ACL tear so it was just working around that. You have to create adaptations and workouts where like they don’t have the fear of doing it but they’re still working their legs
J: That’s what I was gonna say, there’s a fear – cuz you hurt yourself, you don’t wanna put too much strain on that part. So if there are back pains, how do you go about that, are you just picking your exercises differently or… K: It’s a lot of adapting for each person, I never treat each client the same at all. Every single client has their own workouts that ive written for them and its a lot about gauging them so in those first weeks its like “ok hows your standing posture” and if you see like the mistakes in em you start fixing them, and once you fix them you can get into mobility like how is your posture while moving, and once you get moving then you can finally say “ok now that you can move right, and you don’t have a bunch of muscular imbalances, we can start working on your personal goals and we can start on those goals in a variety of ways depending on what they like. A big thing is it can’t be putting them into workouts where they don’t enjoy it because the hardest thing with personal training is having them come back. People are like “oh I’ll come at 6 am lie I can do that” and like I know you can come at 6 am, but were just not gonna do 6 ams because clientele, the #1 thing is making sure they come. Just finding those times where they’re happy in the gym and doing those workouts where theyre happiest but theyre still getting the gains they wanna get.
J: I know a huge theme is accountability and that’s kinda what ive been focusing on. That’s why my original concept was something that would bring people together and you would hold each other accountable because like if I were to ask you to go to the gym right now and you didn’t show up, I’d be fucking furious and I’d give you a million calls asking Kevin where are you, we had a deal, and you’d be like nah its leg day, im not going. But yea so accountability. K: Accountability is definitely big and if you go into history and look into their history of working out, it’s huge for accountability so like if they played a sport in high school or in college or if they ever had a past history of working out where its like oh yea 2 years ago I used to work out 5 days a week they have such a
86
greater chance of showing up and being accountable every day. Than someone who has like never worked out. If you have someone who has never worked out, and has also had like injuries and no success, its very challenging to get them to go.
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
J: What is your motivation in helping those clients? I know as a personal trainer youre trying to better other people K: I personally work out 6 days a week, sometimes 7 and if I have the time, I don’t do it some much where its like “oh I wanna get bigger and stronger” like, those are part of my goals, but also its just like if more people can understand how great you can feel from working out, then like I wouldn’t even have to motivate them to do it. If I don’t workout in the morning, then im a completely different person than if I did. That’s just because working out can have sucha great benefit in your mind throughout the day and confidence throughout the day and focus throughout the day but people don’t see that. They say ah I have to go to the gym, my biggest focus on people ins getting that mindset changed because no matter what I do in those couple months with them, if I leave them with oh you lost some weight but oh it wasn’t enjoyable or oh, you lost some weight but in your mind working out iss still a chore, then theyre gonna lose that motivation. Theyre gonna go right back to the beginning. A lot of times I talk to clients and theyre like oh I feel so much better after that last session, I felt so good. So I ask how their diet is going and theyre like its been going a lot better, so then Im like do you feel more energized? Because I set a lot of people up on high energy diets where its like they feel better plus the workouts their whole life and mindset so they don’t really see it as a chore but rather its benefiting me in all aspects. So that’s what motivates me is getting people into lifestyles that is optimal for achieving their highest potential.
J: You mentioned that feeling of it being a chore, you’ve overcome that like once youre in the second stage of working out youre like thrilled to go each day – my thesis or the goal of this is to finally figure out what the barriers are in this first stage – to figure out what stops people from continuing this gym going experience, in your opinion what sort of mental barriers are people facing in the gym? People without a personal trainer, obviously that helps but not everyone wants to pay. K: Fear is a mental barrier, like people getting past fear. Id also say the focus on weight nowadays can be a huge mental barrier cuz like you
said shes not losing weight but shes getting fitter, but when people look at that scale and they don’t see success, that can be like a huge barrier for them because theyre working hard but not seeing any change I always tell clients to focus on how they feel like if theyre feeling better because in these first few weeks you might lose some weight but its more of how do you feel and how do you look cuz that’s even easier to see. Other mental barriers injuries are always a big one to get past, id say making the time people who have very busy lives Ive had people who all they talk about during their workouts is how stressful their life is so I think like youre outside life can be a huge barrier to like you getting to the gym and you falling in love with working out because during your workout youre all stressed and thinking I shouldnt be working out right now
J: So youre busy thinking about why you shouldn’t be there, whereas in the second stage youre really happy to be there K: Yea understand that like the time working out will pay off and its ability to teach you to focus and be healthier throughout your day cuz a lot of people if their time is so valuable to them, theyre like “ah I could be doing work but instead im working out and im falling behind” but you have to switch that mindset and say that this workout is worth it cuz it’s gonna make you feel better about the rest of your day.
J: I see it as like an investment in my body – even if im behind on school work like ill figure it out later. So then as a personal trainer, what sort of struggles do you see people facing while with you as a trainer? K: I go crazy in the gym. When I work out im not someone who counts sets perfectly I love drop sets and burnout sets and just absolutely pushing my limits and that’s what I love in working out and that’s what I think feels great, that dopamine release at the end that’s great. Some people though they’ve never been at that stage in their life. Really learning and understanding that I cant push people as far as I push myself and if I do, that’s gonna cause some problems for me in the class.
J: For instance, my GF in the gym being an example, shes doing the same thing I do with lower weights, but the way ill push myself is ill be done and ill stop her and get a lower weight and keep going, now god forbid I try to do that to her where she finishes a set. Now she doesn’t breathe when she works out she doesn’t listen necessarily. That’s what im getting at – do you have defiant clients? You have to reassure them? K: I focus on workouts where they couldn’t do the workout unless I was there to facilitate because if youre gonna do workouts that are just like ok, grab these
88
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
dumbbells lift them to your left and lift them in front theyre gonna think that they could be doing this on their own and they wont wanna pay the 60/month so I focus on a lot of things where “ok, you jump on this ting, throw me a medicine ball and jump off” ill pass you it back and they’ll look at me like uh…. So a lot of times I put them in uncomfortable scenarios and just say trust me and they’ll be like well can we do something simpler first and im like well sure, but at some point youre gonna have to trust me. The biggest thing , a lot of it is trust, especially me being younger. It’s a credibility problem like oh how can he help me. You definitely have to know your stuff so with defiant clients when they start to question things you have to be able to reply with smarter things more than just “we wanna get your heartrate up” something better than that.
K: Key factors that make people succeed in the gym without personal trainers. I say momentum is a cruel mistress – if people feel and see success, then they are just hungry to go the gym but if you are not having any success then youre definitely not showing up as much. If they love the workouts they do, like my mom is all about group workouts, kettlebell workouts and strength training in big groups, she doesn’t even care about what type of game shes in, she just loves the workouts. So if you can get a big group doing something you love, then youre gonna be showing up a lot more. Id also just say though its not so much in the gym, being able to create a diet that supports that lifestyle is huge cuz I know a lot of people who have a real busy schedule and I ask them what they eat and they say “well I had to have this fast food because of my schedule and what not and that hurts them because they know whatever they do in the gym, they can’t match the calories they ate that day. And I say well were gonna have to work on that but for today, you still need to put your heart into it because we need to see if we can match that. You need a diet that supports success, its huge
J: Hypothetically, you haven’t really served people with cardio issues, but id you had somebody who – for instance my design prof, he had a heart attack but he ran constantly and he was considered to be in great shape but after the heart attack, it was harder for him to get back into it cuz he was scared of pushing himself to the point where he’d have it again. So if you were given someone with cardio issues, how would you influence them to continue K: With anything cardio its huge to get the dr to check you first and if he does give you consent, that is challenging. I personally think..
J: Not legal basis, but like theyre afraid, how do you push them? K: Check theyre VO2 max which is like calculating the oxygen your heart can push out per minute and I would just use heart rate monitor to find the heart rate that theyre mot comfortable at and the heart rate that’s just a little too intense. Any client ive ever had, ive had wear a heart rate strap cuz one thing youre saying ok I actually know what youre doing, im gonna put you in a zone where youre gonna to burn the most calories, but im also not gonna put you in a danger zone. If youre a personal trainer and youre working out with someone and you don’t know how hard youre pushing them, theyre gonna look at you like hey I don’t feel good and if you can be like ok but you look fine, theyre gonna be mad but if you can say “I know where your heart rate’s at, I know how hard youre pushing yourself” then it can really calm them down. If im watching them I can be like “ok, youre going too high, lets slow down or youre a little nervous but im watching your rate and you haven’t even gotten into the yellow, and if they get there then they can stay in that zone and if they get too high, tell them to back off. Using technology is a huge benefit, if I didn’t have it I guess It would be a lot of .. a process, fear is something you cant get over in a week. Gotta eventually help them get over that.
J: Is technology helpful? I don’t wanna say fitbit but like heartrate monitors do you think that something that will help motivate you? I know people who have fitbits and they walk all the time, do you think technology would play a huge role though? Like if you gave somebody something that gave them their heart rate in stoplight fashion youre in the green, you can keep pushing yourself, yellow youre getting close, and red youre too far back off K: I think the tech that Ive used J: But it would also have to be simple enough that a random person could use it. K: Yeah, so the technology that I’ve heard of is mostly heartrate stuff most wrist heart rate monitors are pretty inaccurate, this is the most accurate one that I’m wearing and its still pretty inaccurate, this is a polar 360 its usually 40 hbs below your average. It uses sensors like all your wrist ones. Unless youre in a pitch black room and there’s no movement going on, your hb is gonna be off. I always use a chest strap. So I think for motivation wise, if youre trying to burn calories, this can be a huge aid because the way to burn calories and burn fat is to be int hat optimum heart rate, so if I have people who are trying to lose weight and I can keep them in that gold area, its huge for them. Ive had many clients who go buy one of these because they know that when theyre in that zone, theyre burning the most fat so when they workout on their own, they have their chest strap and hr monitor and say hey Kev, look how great I did on this workout, I was in my
90
INTERVIEW: KEVIN RIECK
gold zone for 43 minutes so it’s a huge benefits for those people, but if youre a strength trainer and youre just banging out the heaviest weights for 3 reps and then resting for a minute, that doesn’t matter to them. So tech for those gym goers doesn’t really exist. But for most gym goers who just wanna lose weight and stay fit, I think it can be a huge motivation.
J: How would you go about finding those optimal heart ranges. K: The VO2 max test its called. Also known as .. J: Is this something you do with every client? K: Yea, so every client I start them off checking their mobility, VO2 max, to check the VO2 max prior to tech like this, I had to literally put them on a gas mask sensors and have them run on a treadmill until they literally pass out, that’s how they used to do it- but with this, this can only be 1 or 2 % of the VO2 max and you just lay on your back and relax for a minute. Once ive gotten those, the program itself calculates their optimum, where theyre too high, and then their green zone is like on their way up and theyre blue zone is like theyre pretty much relaxing. Its all based on the VO2 max. and the tech itself calculates that for you. So usually, theres also itll tell you whats the best time to be in those zones during your workout. So it might say you wanna be in your gold zone for like 70% of time or whatever it is
J: What is key advice you give clients to stay motivated? K: To like get them to go to the gym on their own or like even nutritionally, like in good health, you know/Knowledge motivates people, if people don’t understand what theyre doing or understand why theyre doing it, theyre not gonna wanna be there. So I always try to shut up sometimes when theyre just repping something out, but if I have time when theyre in recovering or warming up, then im telling them “oh how have you been eating, have you tried this or that” like knowledge is huge, during workouts keeping them going, I always like to build up, I never start crazy, I like to build them up at the beginning of their workout and coast them through the middle where theyre iun between green and gold and then at the end I like to give them that push because no matter who ive met, unless its like a full blown grandma, they like that. They like to be in that last moment in their workout where theyre sweating and they go damn, like that was an awesome workout if you end someones workout where theyre not
even sweating and theyre just like off to the showers without breathing heavily, theyre just gonna be like “oh that really wasn’t that great of a workout” so that’s a big motivator because if they love a workout, theyre gonna come back for another great wotkout. Outside of the gym, to have them coming back, I just keep them accountable. I text them. Im annoying. I say “hey did you go to the gym today and theyre like “no I couldn’t this morning but I might go later” I really follow up wth them and definitely having another person to hold you accountable and make sure you get workouts in is huge. And alos getting other people engaged. I have another guy who teaches boxing named Q who just does incredible workouts and I set my clients up with people who I know are gonna push them but also who theyre gonna love like I always set up my clients with Q cuz no one really does boxing, because its really intimidating and youre like “why are you trying to put my through boxing” but like its not intense intense, like its intense but youre not learning like actual boxing, hes not going to like critique your form, but he gives incredible workouts and people are just excited to go to his classes. I don’t even have to keep up with them because they already paid the money to come to the class and they know its gonna be a great class, so them not showing up theres just such a little chance of that. If theyre doing workouts on their own, that’s what they don’t show up to. I would say personal training sessions most expensive, they’re gonna show up and youre on their ass keeping them accountable because they don’t want to let you down. Group classes, they paid the money, a little less money, but if theyre great workouts they’re gonna show up, but then going to the gym on your own that’s like that lowest chance of going
J: An example I recently , my dad went to the DR something to do with cholesterol, he approached me so can you write me a workout, how can I go about fixing this, so I wrote him a workout and I found out a week later the man hadn’t started, so I said im gonna start texting you every day, so its accountability, it’s what you do. I started texting him and it took him another week to start but now every time he works out, he shoots me a text and he doesn’t know whether I see them or not, but he shoots me a text every time he works out and that’s was how I kinda convinced him K: That gets the ball rolling, its all about the first step. The first step is huge especially if youre creating accountability, making that first step is huge.
J: It’s one thing to be afraid of going to the gym, but you can build like a positive fear and you’re afraid to upset someone, so I have my dad in a spot where when I come home for thanksgiving break, he doesn’t want me to approach him and be like where are those text messages man, like are you working out? K: Yea you gotta start making him take selfies at the gym, make sure hes being honest
92
INTERVIEW: MIKE JANIAK
J: ok so easy point and I already dry ran them by my friend whose a personal trainer also. So background information, whats your name and how you started
M: Michael Janiak, I was lucky because I started as a physed teacher. Most of these people now are just getting certifications through organizations so their experience is gonna be a lot less. So I taught phys ed and coached football and wrestling for like 4 years. And then after that uh I really didnt like the teaching part. I shouldn’t say that, a lot of kids didn’t want to be in physed. got into, kind of fortunate that back in syracuse personal training just started to get into the light around the mid 80’s. so i was fortunate that i had that phys ed background. so let me try the personal training since its up and coming. i started with one client and boy i dont know I’ve had to seen thousands. i mean jeeze i couldnt even tell you how many I’ve seen.
J: what kind of clients do you see? M: I saw, you know theres the other good thing with the teaching background. i saw a lot of kids in the beginning, mid age, any where from, i started with a kid who had multiple scholosis. he was 8. he was able to actually able to won like 8 medals in those handicap games. he started out now being able to do anything. the age group who had the most expendable income and wanted to take care of themselves was the thirty to fifty. you didn’t get many 20 year olds. 30 to 50 year olds.
J: how come people wanted to take care of themselves? any specific reason? M: I think there was that big personal training boom out west. J: there was, fitness became a huge thing M: to me it became a little too cosmopolitan to the point that i had some people doing it just because their friend was doing it which was.. i wasn’t.. but what you also had too was the group of people who were pretty hard working people who if they were committed to a time, they would make it. if they weren’t committed to a time they would blow it off. so you had that type of person.
J: i know theres accountability is a huge theme that I’ve been looking at. if you had friends holding you accountable like if i went to the gym with someone and they didn’t show up id be upset.
M: which is big now. the group stuff is huge! group is now, if you look at what is happening now people are persay joining clubs, they may join two different things
94
and pay more money like a boaty bar class or a different thing, or a crossfire. so they’ll pay more money and be more specific and thats kinda whats happening now.
INTERVIEW: MIKE JANIAK
J: motivation for working out so in terms of the clients you’ve seen. before we get into medical, just in general. what kind of motivations do you see, do you provide a certain portion of that motivation? do you see people failing where they give up?
M: yeah, not so much now but back in the beginning because I’ve been doing it so long i have a steady clientele but back then you had those people who were doing it because their friends. i had a lady who wanted to fit into.. ok yeah youll fit in the dress tomorrow.. a little bit too much of that and you’re not gonna achieve that, that quick. so that was kinda the thing with people joining the gyms, they said if people made it through the 22-30 day mark they’d probably stay with it a bit. but back then there was the big january thing, people would join in january and be done january 30th. yeah, you have that.
J: yeah I’ve seen that a lot, what sort of mental barriers have you witness, time constraints and what not?
M: yeah time constraints, back when i first got into the business a lot was body fat testing. that was big back then. its becoming big again. ya know I’m not really into that anymore, I’m doing the more specific stuff. that was, to me like i had someone work their butt of and they looked good in their physical condition but they didn’t achieve that “my body fat is still this” so they were turned off by that. yeah the time constraints and also back then gyms were more crowded.
J: so confidence also, being judged M: there you go, they didn’t like the mirrors, some people like mirrors, some people didn’t like them. you had a lot of little variables back then because it was more clubs and gyms and a bit less of that now.
J: Why do you think people come to personal trainers? M: well to me, I’m a little more golf specific and I’ve been doing it for so long now its probably that they’re comfortable with me and we have achieved things and they’ve got the results. i have a large group of.. the oldest lady is 94.. yeah so for a 94 year old lady to be able to pull herself up with those straps or sit in a chair and pull herself up so that age
group i have now is big strong 30-90. so um, and like i said for me now its more like i won’t take any body. I’m not physically able to with the hips and the back and the cancer so its tough where i have to be kind of specific to who I’m gonna take and become a pretty good judge of character to who i think is gonna stay with it. if i someone, i get a good vibe. it took me a lot of years to get that ya know.
J: dont want to be trial running people M: yeah I’ve done that for so many years i can’t do it anymore. you know otherwise i wouldnt do it, id be burned out. how long can you have people come to you and not put the effort into it. and i hate to pre judge but thats what comes with experience but you learn to pre judge a little bit.
J:when you’re helping someone, the struggles you see them going through in terms of.. how do you monitor physical limits. do people ever feel uncomfortable?
M: I think thats the good thing about the TRX J: I also know personally from when i worked with you, the 1-10 thing rating how you feel definitely appealed in my eyes
M: its kind of like when you have pain, i judge the physical the same way. that comes with doing it for a long time. so i have a pretty good feeling and I’ve seen so many different people, i can tell where they are. you know what I’m saying? i used to monitor heart rates and blood pressure and all that stuff and thats probably pretty good, um but i guess when you do it for a long time you already have a feel for that. they will tell me, you know on the poles, like with mike (mike lorenz), he’ll tell me i could probably get ten but i know he aint gonna get ten so lets do 8 good ones. so uh, i just can stress the experience enough.
J: i interviewed my friend and i think he’s less then a year into personal training, and he’s in that stage where they’re giving him people and they come and go. he explained how he puts them on a heart rate monitor since he’s young and they dont necessarily have faith in him so he can say “but look at the watch”
M: thats a good idea, like i said i used to do that and i did blood pressure and i did stretching until all the years i kept reading how, there is no scientific proof that stretching does benefit. am i gonna tell someone not to stretch? no. am i gonna make it a big part of the program? to me thats the nice thing about the trx, it comes with that. its automatically involved so i dont have to have somebody doing this and that and this. so but i used to do a stretching test and heart rate and all of those things
96
J: i do have to get to medical stuff but before i get there i want to jump back, when you coached wrestling, where there a lot of injuries. if someone was to get hurt at a match what would you do
M: you know there really wasnt more, the 4 years i coached, no major
INTERVIEW: MIKE JANIAK
sprains. no concessions, i never saw concusions. mostly strains, few shoulders, ankles, uh, nothing major. couple knees. no blowouts.
J: do you have clients that have medical issues? can you just explain them? i guess, how do you work around that.
M: yeah i get that, too bad you weren’t here this morning. i had a girl who, when she first came to me she literally couldn’t walk. thats how bad it was. and now she’s doing everything that you’re doing. i mean not at your level but an easier level. planks and stuff like that so the good thing about that. working in a physical therapy enviornment i can see what they are doing. thats the nice thing to be able to talk to them, so you know for knees its little different, i won’t let people goes as deep. with shoulders the range of motion is a little off. lower back is, the floor stuff, the plank stuff. tax is great for that. now you dont have your feet helping you. i mean you could probably hold it for ten minutes. but the average person could only hold it for seconds. i mean you could probably hold it for 20 minutes.
J: yeah i bought the TRX straps because i love the ab workout M: now you get the feel for that, now it becomes a whole different thing. like push up to planks. plank pushups. push up to pike. now you get all these different combinations. someone at the beginning you get a look close at their movements, you look at whether its a knee or ankle or low back. knees, low back, shoulders tend to be issues at this point. people go through these spots or they’re weekend athletes. thats where the issues are.
J: so i talked to a professor of mine and this si where i got inspiration from pushing in a medical directions. he told me of how he had a heart conditions but it came out of no where and was very athletic and ran a lot. but after his attack, it was difficult to recover. it was difficult to push himself. yeah exactly. so is that a common thing that you see where people are too afraid to push themselves.
M: yeah i see a few of those. i dont see that many. i actually have two
cardiologist who work out with me. so that was kind of good fortune where they sent people to me. those people are still with me, the progression of very easy to now pushing them pretty good, like decent push. am i afraid? no. was i afraid back then, yeah. that was where the heart rate and back then we didn’t have the thingy so it was all manual, like the blood pressure cuff but now per say i dont get a lot of that.
J: What is some key advice that you’d give to a client to keep them motivated M: what i would give them is. what i do, now ill tell you, you could ask your buddy what no one does, i call them a lot. i guarantee hes not calling his people.
J: he actually mentioned doing that because its like car sales men, he has to hold his clients since he’s young.
M: like you know ill call and what i used to do is i used to send letter but now i got that fricken arthritis but people love those letters. if they achieve something, back then we were doing bench and stuff. so if someone got over 200 id send them a little note. id go good job boom, look how far you’ve come. what i wish i should’ve done and now i techincally am not good at this stuff, when i sued to teach racket ball wed do like camps for four days and you’d film somebody. i wish i would’ve filmed like mike. if you would’ve seen his first session, i mean i didn’t know what i was gonna do. he couldn’t do anything so i mean if i was to film that first session and all of sudden film 40 sessions later it would be amazing ya know.
J: so stick with it, thats what I’m trying to get to. that stage 1 that people can’t get through.
M: the personal notes are great, i dont do them anymore but if i was teaching someone i would tell them. or now you could send an email but they will still do studies where, in everything coming out, people aren’t personable enough. you take the time, you know thats not everybody but you’re gonna hit a certain group of people that if you take the time to write something to them, i guarantee they will stay with you. if you take the time to call them. you know i have people, who will start with me, they go “jeeze my docter doesnt call me” and ill go you know thats what I’m telling ya, ill call. like mike brought a guy from rochester (jerry). they came in. then ill call them and he goes “you gotta be kidding me” and ill say i wana know how your doing. i gotta get feedback to where you are so i know when i deal with somebody in that situation again so you know the calls to me is good feedback and the writing is good feedback to me.
J: yeah its positive feedback and it shows professionalism. my dad recently asked me to write him a fitness plan because of high cholesterol so two weeks into that
98
i learned that he never actually started but he bought everything and was ready to go but two weeks in i told him he was gonna text me overtime he works out.
M: yeah but you make him more accountable, thats kinda what you
INTERVIEW: MIKE JANIAK
gotta do
J: that little push, I’ve been reading articles on psychology. you can’t push them too hard, they have to be self motivated in order to really get going
M: you have to find the fine line ya know? J: the trick I’m kinda figuring out, you’re self motivated but you need to succeed on your own. once you feel that success you become driven.
M: yeah its like once it starts, it starts falling the correct way instead of “ oh what am i doing with this”
J: yeah so thats all I’ve got for you but i really appreciate your help M: oh of course, keep me posted and if you ever want me to beat ya up again, let me know..
100
INTERVIEW: MIKE LORENZ
M: my names mike Lorenz, I am a you 59. I’m a professional working in the work force. I have two kids, a wife, a dog. That’s pretty much it.
J: to start with fitness history, as far back as you can imagine fitness whenever it came into your life.
M: probably was in high school, not very active, I worked a lot. I started getting more into fitness when I was in college. I loved intramural sports. Graduated the only real activity I did in my early and mid 20s was running. I ran at that point, 3040 miles per week for awhile and as time went on that kind of dissipated. To a very little minimal workout. Up until a few weeks ago maybe running a couple miles, 2-3 times a week.
J: was that all self-motivation sort of thing? M:
I pretty mich was just running in some of the road races that were being held back then. 10 k’s, and 5 k’s, and half marathons.
J: as I was told by lexi, there was a health issue at some point? M: yeah, probably 3 and half years in March of 2014 maybe. I was shoveling snow and started getting pains in my chest so I went to go get a physical. Went to a cardiologist and he told me my heart was good but I should lose some weight because it was going to become increasingly unhealthy. At that time I start working out with mike as a trainer and continued that until today.
J: how did you go about finding mike, did you know him before? M: I knew mike, yeah mike was a local athletic celebrity. He was a professional racquet ball player. He was a good golfer. So I had met him then when I first came here in the 1980’s. The early 5-6-7-5 years ago I ran into him at a golf event and he introduced himself to me and said if you ever wana do some training to get better at golf give me a call. So I just gave him a call
J: so was that straight into TRX? M: yeah he was into TRX back then, it was just one-dimensional. Just straps back in that time frame. I started going to him 40 minutes once a week, then I increased it twice a week, and now I do it three times a week with him.
J: so there is definitely improvement. Do you think TRX is a more successful workout then any other workout you can compare it to?
102
M: I think the commitment to exercise result in me losing 35 pounds.
INTERVIEW: MIKE LORENZ
I did primarily TRX and I would supplement TRX with my smaller workouts. Other then when I’m traveling I try to workout 4-5 times a week. 3 days with TRX/RIP trainer.
J: what would you say keeps you driven? Like a personal motivation? M: I feel better, I just feel. I feel better, I stop drinking. I used to drink diet soda, I stopped drinking diet soda. I began drinking a lot of water now. It gives me more energy. I just have more
J: so it was a total life style change M: oh it was definitely a lifestyle change. I think TRX, the advantage of TRX and now RIP trainer is that you can adjust the intensity of the workout to fit the requirements of the student so you can make it as intense as you want, less intense, and you can do it pretty much your entire life. I think mike has customers who…
J: he was saying he had a 94 year old M: yeah and he’s got kids that are pretty young. Pretty much from middle school to 95 to death and workout with TRX.
J: how does working out with someone else benefit you? Personal trainer or friend?
M: I find it much easier to workout with other people then it is by myself. Its much more difficult to motivate my self when I’m on my own. I just think there is less energy in the room and around you. I think with the trainer its even much better. A good trainer will continue to vary the exercise routine and keep you motivated and push you harder. And can judge by watching what’s happening and keep the flow going much better then if you’re on your own if you are just wondering around. You’d have a set routine and what I’ve learned about staying fit is a lot of it is routine variance. Vary the routine and try to do different things versus doing the same thing all the time.
J: How do you find a personal trainer who fits you well? What makes you comfortable working with mike Janiak?
M: he’s the only trainer I’ve had; I’ve seen a lot of trainers around. I
think a good trainer is someone who listens to what you’re trying to accomplish. And writes a routine that works your requirements. Based on your age, your fitness requirement, your goals, your existing medical issues. Ya know, I have a knee problem, back problem, so I think a good trainer listens and observes and figures out the right way to treat their individual customers. I’m seeing trainers who just put everybody through the same routine all the time and I wonder if that’s effective
J: would you say working out 3 times a week play a role in your daily life, your confidence?
M: I think I made it a priority that whenever I’m in town I very seldom miss a workout. Even when I have work, I do my best to schedule all my activities scheduled around all the slots I have prepared. And if I miss a slot I try to make it up. I think like most things in life if you stay commit to something and work at it you’ll get better and it’ll provide you benefits over a long period of time. If you pick it up and put it down, half commit to it and only do it when its convenient I think you’ll find the benefits much less.
J: this is kind of more general. What do you think makes people succeed in changing fitness based lifestyle. Bringing that into their life. What would make it consistent?
M: I think there are three things that would motivate some of them. First is personal health based issues like what I had where you’ve got some situation where you know you need to improve or it is going to adversely effect your health. Second form of motivation is that it’s a lifestyle that you grew up with because of your youth and you just carry it through your adult lifestyle. And I think the third motivation comes from someone you care about who will help push you down that path. I think there’s been half a dozen of my friends which have joined into a fitness routine because of me encouraging them to do that. So I think those are the three things from my experience would motivate someone to improve their health and wellness.
J: what advice would you give to somebody if you had to give motivation to someone? There is always that stage 1 where people usually drop out. How do you get them through that?
M: I think the best advice I could give somebody is to be realistic regarding what you are trying to accomplish of a certain period of time. I think the reality is that long-term improvements take long term effort. You really get the best gain if you stick at it. Once you get past that first 6-month period when it becomes a routine is when you see benefits pay dividend so that you can maintain. That’s a
104
INTERVIEW: MIKE LORENZ
level of improvement. People say they see weight challenges that take 45 days. In my mind it’s hard to maintain that short-term sprint. You have to realize this is a marathon and I’m going to adjust my lifestyle and as a result of that I will have a longer life, more productive life. And so just build it into your routine. Pick something you enjoy. It could be anything you enjoy. It could be TRX, it could be running, it could be stretching. Something that’s different then what you’re currently doing that will help you feel better.
J: I’ve been reading psychology articles, a lot mention self determination, succeeding on your own will push you on more then if a personal trainer was driving you but you weren’t necessarily, you were just doing it because they said to do it. You wont be as driven. So getting success on your own is beneficial.
M: I think challenging yourself like most things in life, challenging yourself in life to improve and get better, do something, create something, I think self accomplishment is a real energizer and I think it creates internal drive to continue to want to replicate that experience.
106
CITATIONS Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 331-362. doi:10.1002/ job.322 Imgur. “Fit-it-survey.” Imgur. N.p., 04 May 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. Mayo Clinic. “Fitness.” Barriers to Fitness: Overcoming Common Challenges - Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Researc, 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. Mitchell, S. A., and Olds, R. S. “Psychological and Perceived Situational Predictors of Physical Activity: A Cross-sectional Analysis.” Health Education Research 14.3 (1999): 305-13. Web. Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. “Self-determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-being.” American Psychologist 55.1 (2000): 68-78. Web. Simon, Herbert A. “Rationality As Process And As Product Of Thought.” Decision Making (n.d.): 58-77. Web. Vallacher, Robin R., and Daniel M. Wegner. “What Do People Think They’re Doing? Action Identification and Human Behavior.” Psychological Review 94.1 (1987): 3-15. Web.
108 108
JARED KNAPP