Just got back from a great weekend trip to Lake Tahoe with my wife and nine week old daughter.

It was our first time doing something like this with her … we survived and actually all had a great time! A victory for all!! 😉

We were staying at a resort, and on Sunday morning I wanted to get a quick workout in while everyone was sleeping, so I snuck down to the workout room for a lift.

Now don’t get me wrong – the workout area was SUPER nice, as nice as a lot of small commercial gyms.

They even had a few sets of kettlebells to train with, I was amazed!! 😉

BUT … it also made me SO thankful for the training studio we own, where I do the majority of my own workouts now.

See, I worked in a commercial gym enviornment for years, and tollerated it, but I realize now that it was SO not me.

It was a fine place to start, but NOT inspiring … in fact more like energy SUCKING.

The general vibe and workout intensity was pathetic.

The music was always at a very low level, and was usually soft rock or jazz – good stuff, but doesn’t exactly fire you up to train hard 😉

If you lifted heavy weights or grunted or yelled during a set, people would give you dirty looks.

I’m sure it is a fine and great enviornment for some folks, just not me.

Our current studio is bare bones, but it has everything you need.

A couple of power racks, barbells and weight plates, KBs, DBs, battle ropes, sand bags, a few pull up rigs, suspension trainers, and lots of room for body weight exercise.

(We are actually getting ready to move into a bigger and better studio that’s over twice the size in the very near future, which I’ll have more details about for you very soon … and though we’ll have more workout space, more equipment, more bathrooms and changing rooms etc … it’s still going to have the same vibe, just bigger and better!)

Everyone that trains here is ready to WORK every day. Don’t get me wrong, it’s like one big community and a fantastic supportive environment … but you don’t come here to chat through and during your workout. You come here to train hard and get RESULTS.

And, we can play whatever music we want, pretty much as loud as we want, which honestly priceless.

Moral of the story for YOU?

Find what inspires YOU when it comes to training, and do that.

Find a place, a workout style, and people to train with that get you fired up everyday to get better.

Maybe it’s a commericial gym like the one I talked about earlier. If so, cool! Good for you. Maybe you like Zumba. Or yoga. Or any number of other options.

And that is GOOD.  The key is you have to jive with and vibe with the program you choose to really stick with it for a period of time.

Maybe it’s more the style of our little gym that you like. (If you’re in the Sacramento area, we’d love to have you by for a sample workout – just shoot me a message and we’ll set it up.)

Either way, figure out what inspires YOU to get better and work hard day in and day out … because that’s what you need to stick with any kind of training program for the long term.

– Forest

PS – Here’s the workout I did yesterday in case you are wondering:

(warm up – 2 rounds, 30 secs ea)

bw squat
plank hold
leg swing

(pair 1 – 3 rounds)

8 rev lunge to double KB overhead press
3 pull up

(pair 2 – 3 rounds)

8 double KB deadlift
12 close grip push up

(pair 3 – 3 rounds)

5 hanging knee to elbow
5 sit outs

(quick finish – no rest!)

ez bar curls drop set 3×10