Thank You 2020!

I think we can all agree that very few people are going to miss 2020. I don't care if you won a pro card in 2020, the year was devastating for most people. 

Even though I had an injury that I considered devastating at the time, I didn't have to worry about being sick, had no one close to me (or family) that was hospitalized, didn't have financial problems, and I didn't have to worry about my job (or my wife's job). Still, the year was, at the very least, psychologically devastating and not many people could claim a very good "quality of life." 

Rarely in my 50 years have I said that I wanted a year to end as much as I wanted this one to end. Yes, it was more symbolic than anything else (by saying this), but I think we all hold onto that feeling of a "new year/new start" kind of mentality. I know, I know, it shouldn't take the end of the year to feel like you are making a change for the better, but I still admit that I look back on 2020 with very few positive memories. However, I ALWAYS try to find something positive out of damn never everything, so here are some positives that I found out of 2020:

1. I was able to battle the restriction blues by being able to train consistently even when gyms were closed. I was very fortunate to have the connections that I did (do) and it was a nice distraction from the stress of 2020 to be able to still unload on the weights and focus on a prep phase, thinking that it would be over shortly. Though it wasn't, I'm still glad that I had the opportunity that I did because I can't imagine not being able to destress and focus on something positive that I had complete control over.

2. With every injury I have ever had, I try to come away having learned something and I did this time, as well. While my glute was healing, I was still able to train -- though in only a limited fashion. I found out how incredibly solid sissy squats are for quad development, to the point where I decided to keep them in my toolbox of leg exercises even after recovering from my injury. I am quite certain that they are going to help me to bring my legs back up to what they were prior to all of the back injuries I have had over the last 7 years.

3. For some reason that I cannot seem to put my finger on, business is booming. I don't say this to sound like a braggart because I understand that a lot of trainers took a huge hit in 2020 with some not fully recovering. In my situation, when the gyms started to open up again, I have been crazy busy (in a good way, of course).

4. Right before the restrictions were put into effect, I had decided I wanted to get out of the house (after 18 years of working online, exclusively) and train people one-on-one. I thought it would be fun and allow me to socialize more. Living in South Florida now, I am only minutes from a great gym vs. being an hour away from the closest gym when we lived in the mountains of Colorado for so many years. 

I was unable to take on any one-on-one clients due to gyms being closed but when they opened up, I quickly filled the client slots that I wanted to fill with consistent, reliable clients who are awesome. As luck would have it, I was able to schedule all of these clients on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and all of the sessions are back-to-back, so there is no down time between sessions. You really can't ask for a better situation than that.  It has been awesome and one of the best decisions I have made. I was apprehensive at first because I wasn't sure what it would be like to have to be somewhere on time for the first time in almost 18 years. lol 

5. Last but not least -- though the injury was difficult to deal with psychologically -- it did force me to take time off to allow my body to rest, at first, and during that time I was able to take a closer look at my training to see if I could streamline it and make it even more efficient than it already was. It's funny how when you have a lot of down time on your hands, you can do a lot more reflection and analysis than when you are running non-stop trying to keep up with life. Since returning to my training 100% after my glute recovered, I do feel that my training is more productive now that I have made a few subtle changes that are paying off quite well.

I will not miss 2020, but I would be lying if I said that EVERYTHING about 2020 sucked because it didn't. I anticipate 2021 being even better than it would have been had 2020 not gone down the way it did. There is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

I plan to have a great year and I hope you do, as well. 

I would also appreciate hearing any positives that YOU found amongst the chaos in 2020. Feel free to post in the comment section.

The best knee sleeves on the market are available by clicking the banner below: