My 2022 Gym Stats Are In, But Do They Mean Anything?

My stats are in for the year. Not my lifting stats, but my gym attendance stats. To enter the gyms here, you have to key in a private code and walk through these MI6 style top security pods that only opens on the far side once the first door closes. With that, the gym is able to know exactly when you have entered and exactly when you leave each visit. They then send me a summary of these stats.

It’s great because it enables me to figure out exactly how much time I spend within the walls of the gym. The uncertainty still, however, is how long I actually spend working out and exercising. And that’s not even taking into account how much time I spend chatting, which I do like to do a bit while training. Nevertheless, it’s actually interesting to see a calculated total of time spent at the gym to sort of evaluate how much time I spend there, how many visits and how much time per visit.

My goal this year has been to again try to do less, similar to last year. I had been overtraining or at the very least doing a bit too much training for a while to the point that it became too comfortable. The routine had become somewhat mundane, and as much I enjoyed my training which I can’t even express how much I do enjoy it, I knew that a level of plateau had crept in.

My actual training was good. Aside from a few niggling injury’s, my training was still going well. My numbers were up. I was in a good weight range. I felt good. I believe I even looked good. But even in the challenges that I set my self and the intense exercising, I still felt that it was all too comfortable. Not branching out enough, like clockwork heading to the gym on an almost daily basis and the same again.

I just knew I could rely on my training to sort of clean out the day. It became sort of an excuse for the comfortableness that I was letting settle in, not necessarily for my fitness but for my life in general. So when I did an introspective evaluation at the start of last year, I looked at the amount of time I was spending at the gym, each visit and how many days I attended.

The thing is that life continues to move around us outside the four walls of the gym as well. This happens even while the training is happening. Now, while one of my main objectives for my fitness and training is personal development which includes building my skills, physical and mental strength for when I step back out of my holy temple, otherwise known as the gym, I do need to live some of that life or potentially exchange some of the time spent for other activities as necessary.

This just meant that I would need to find a difference in balance within my life. I questioned if I could get the same out of my training both physically and mentally if I lessened my attendance. I also wondered if I would be okay with it primarily because, although it sounds counterintuitive, I was leaving my comfort zone to have a positive impact and different balance in my life. I would have to figure out a different method to my training to achieve everything I wanted to in a shorter amount of time and less visits.

Thus, as the year ends and I review my annual stats, my evaluation now is to determine if I have been conceptually okay with this change these past years while achieving my objective of doing less. If I have managed to achieve my goals the same as or even more than before both mentally and physically as well as in my day to day life. Determine if I have used the freed up time well, and finally, if I have managed to achieve a good and positive balance.