Editorial by Juan Carlos Lopez

Summer is now here and many shows specially the national level events are on. Many new pros and some old pros will be retiring. Once thing is for sure its a revolving door. But the question is why?

The life span of a competitor is about 3-4 years. Many competitors come from broken homes and try to use fitness as a way to help their low self esteem. So once they have competed and if they don't do well its likely they won't want to compete again. Also its very taxing on their bodies since they have to diet so much. Also the usage of drugs long term will affect their hormones.

At times competitors will want to have families and will surely stop competing for some time but some come back. What is healthy is a competitor that can compete for fun and keep doing it for many years. Personal trainers should be able to compete for many years since they have more time and access to the gym all day. Its also part of their work to do this but again many don't like to diet and they could fall under the same 3-4 years of competing.

Why does a healthy competitor keep competing for many years? Its like a hobby, those of us who play soccer all their life continue until the body no longer can but its a hobby. So you enjoy and love that and will do it out of pure enjoyment. Don't compete if you want to prove something or help your self esteem. We all those girls that when single they compete and when in a relationship they don't. Wrong. You aren't competing for the right reasons. Competing shouldn't be about excesses but about fitness, being fit and healthy.

Ask yourself why do you compete?

JC

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