Convenience is king

Last week Elisabeth and I officially moved to Chicago. We’re settling in and coming to really enjoy living in the new city. Around every corner is excitement. In a city of 2.7 million people, there is always something to see. Being right in the city, we get to watch a lot of it from our window.


The windows are one thing that attracted us to this apartment. We get nice views of the city skyline, we over look a soccer field, and we can even see some of the lake. In addition the building has other nice amenities like a coffee machine in the lobby, in unit washer/dryer, and a gas range in the kitchen.


All of this was nice, but what really excited me about our new apartment was the gym. It’s a good sized apartment gym outfitted with sufficient dumbbells, awesome kettlebells, and a very robust cable machine. It wasn’t the nicest gym of all the apartments we viewed, but it is well above sufficient.

​Being able to pop down to the gym and get a kettlebell workout in or jump on a Peloton has been awesome. It’s like when I lived two blocks away from The Body Architect. It’s so easy to jump down for a quick 20 minute workout. No need to drive, park, change your clothes over, etc. . . you just run down and go!


This got me to thinking how convenience is king. There are so many barriers to exercise. Common barriers are lack of knowledge (how to exercise), accountability (it’s easy to blow off), self consciousness (exercise can feel vulnerable), difficulty (exercise is hard), and inconvenience. Just to name a few.


Having a gym right down stairs, or living near a gym, makes that one barrier minute. For me, there is no commute. I just go! I’ve pinpointed for myself that convenience is my biggest barrier. It’s hard for me to go back to the gym after a long day of coaching, but if I can just run downstairs, that barrier is hardly a factor.


I’ve known this about myself for a while. That’s why I’ve always kept fitness equipment in my closet.

​I don’t let lack of equipment be a barrier to exercise. That’s why when we moved, having a good gym in house was important to us.


It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all of the factors that make exercise inconvenient, but I think it is a worthwhile thought experiment to evaluate for yourself what is your biggest barrier. There is no right or wrong answer, but I’ll bet others have the same answers as you. Convenience, knowledge, self consciousness, difficulty, accountability, community, guilt, time. Answers are highly individual and exceptionally important to only you.


My next question in the thought experiment would be, what is one thing you could do to decrease the size of your biggest barrier?


Can you find a friend to exercise with? Would it be helpful to simply write expected workouts on your calendar? Could you find a gym near your home?


Is that enough to get you over the speed bump? Or at least get you started until you can make another small step?


Thinking about many of the clients I’ve had in the past. They’ve figured it out. They found a gym near their home. They settled into a class schedule they enjoyed. They worked with knowledgeable trainers. The list goes on.


In the last couple of years, some clients have figured out how to make it work despite a pandemic. Virtual training proliferated fitness. Miraculously (unfortunately due to a pandemic) the barriers of convenience, self consciousness, time, etc . . . were trimmed down enough by taking to exercise in a new fashion- virtually.


Virtual training offers great benefits. As mentioned previously, many of the objections to exercise are cut down. In addition, you get the face-to-face attention and instruction of a coach more closely than in a gym. You never have to worry about crowds, equipment being available, or distractions in gyms. It’s efficient and convenient.


Convenience is king.


Since moving to Chicago, I do intend to find work at a gym. I look forward to finding some community here through exercise, but I intend to continue with my virtual training. Training clients virtually offers too much value to give up on it and them. As a coach, it is my job to help people live healthier lives, often times that involves helping people decrease their barriers to exercise. I believe with virtually training we’ve opened a new door.


If you’ve never tried virtually training and are interested, I’d love to talk with you about it.


If you have tried it, I hope you can turn a friend on to it who may be halted by these barriers to exercise.


There are many ways to exercise, there are many objections exercise, we are all individuals that need tools to find what works for us!