FORGIONE: Work hard and someday you will...

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090421 Rick Forgione by James Neiss

November 28, 2011

By Rick Forgione Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon Nov 28, 2011, 01:55 PM EST

NIAGARA FALLS — CHECK IT OUT: To learn more about ChrisFit Personal Training, 2423 Hyde Park Blvd., call 818-0078 or visit www.chrisfit.net.

There’s a sign hanging inside ChrisFit Personal Training that I am guessing almost every member has looked upon for inspiration during a moment of exercise-related suffering.

It’s a black-and-white poster of a small child sitting on a gym bench and looking up at a barbell with 495 pounds of weight.

At the top of the poster are the words “Someday I will ...”

The message is strategically placed in one of the toughest areas of the gym — a power rack apparatus mainly used for barbell squats and deadlifts, both of which give the Prowler competition as being the most physically exhausting.

I am in direct eyesight of that poster every Thursday and Saturday morning. At first, I found it a tad annoying due to the extreme nature of such a visual. But after numerous tough squat sets, I began to fixate on the message and appreciate it on several levels.

Simply put, it reminds you that potential is limitless and any goal can be attained if you set your mind to it and work hard enough.

So while squatting 200-plus pounds on my shoulders, I began forming my own scenarios.

Someday, I will reach my 100-pound loss goal.

Someday, I will be a father.

Someday, I will learn how to better organize my life and spend more quality time with the people I love.

Someday, I will look upon this time and opportunity as when I changed everything for the better.

Those are just a few of the goals that now run through my mind when I look at that poster.

But recently, my trainer Chris Tybor gave me another one to think about following a bad stretch of days where I gave into stress and took a detour from my nutrition track.

I apologized, but Chris said it was not his life, but mine so the sorry shouldn’t be going to him. He then reminded me that he won’t be my trainer forever and that “someday” I will need to do this on my own.

To be completely honest, it scared the hell out of me and left me a tad depressed.

Don’t get me wrong, I never expected Chris to still be training me decades from now in a senior citizen fitness center, but the realization that someday he won’t be in my ear pushing me EVERY SINGLE DAY just plain stinks.

In many ways, I relate a big portion of my training at ChrisFit as going through kindergarten — except Chris won’t allow nap time and snacks while class is in session and he forbids holiday breaks (i.e. Thanksgiving). He is teaching me the basics of living a healthier lifestyle, so instead of learning the “ABCs and 1-2-3s,” he’s schooling me on counting calories, exercising safely and effectively, and structuring my life overall.

And like most kindergartners, I look up to the “students” at other grade levels who are able to do more than me, and I want to emulate them. I also take comfort in knowing I have a wise and experienced teacher who is not going to let me fail no matter how much I unintentionally sabotage myself.

Is it possible for me to succeed on my own? Of course. But, I have spent a lot of my life trying to be healthy and lose weight and haven’t been able to come close to capturing the level of success that I have these last seven months inside that gym.

On the positive side, I am confident Chris will always be willing to offer advice and moral support following my inevitable graduation. I’ve learned enough from him to realize being healthy is a lifelong process and much more than a year-long one-on-one training program.

And, someday, I will be strong enough and knowledgeable enough to do it on my own thanks to him.

Rick Forgione is city editor of the Niagara Gazette. Contact him at 282-2311, ext. 2257.

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