By Dave Patania
Personal trainer

Q: My trainer has helped me get great results, but keeps pressuring me to compete in a fitness/bodybuilding competition. I am not interested, what should I tell her?

A: Politely tell her to back off and respect your decision not to participate in such an event.

It is quite common for trainers to try and get their clients into whatever they themselves are interested in. I have been guilty of it to some degree myself.

I am bicycle crazy and am always pushing the benefits of riding bicycles, but I shouldn't assume that because I am passionate about them, everybody else should be as well.

It is a trainer's job to motivate you to break out of your comfort zone, try new things and even strive to accomplish things never before thought possible. However, it is up to you to determine what activity/activities you are going to use as a tool for accomplishing your goals.

If you look at any sport or healthy activity, there is always some sort of wisdom and knowledge that can be gained and incorporated into our lives as we see fit.

For example, I have a client who used to be a national-level gymnast and she wanted to get into great shape again. We used many different techniques of strength training, nutrition and fitness/gymnastic strength and conditioning moves. Through that process, she got in great shape, learned new things and even taught me a bunch of advanced techniques that she used to use when she competed. We both learned, shared and incorporated new techniques into our lives.

That is what a healthy lifestyle is all about. It is a constant process of consistency, variation, experimentation and having an open mind.

If you choose not to compete, no matter how awesome your body looks or level of conditioning you reach, that is just fine because there are no rules for true fitness except to safely/consistently participate and use it to make yourself healthy and happy for as long as you possibly can.

Keep doing what you are doing and tell her thank you very much for having confidence in you and when you are ready to compete, you will let her know.

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Contact personal trainer Dave Patania by e-mail: davpatania@aol.com