Zensah Compression Giveaway

As 2018 rolls in, the New Year brings the usual flurry of resolutions. Every January, millions of people promise themselves this will be the year they lose weight, start exercising, eat healthier, bike to work or run a marathon. And by February, 80% of those people will have abandoned their goals.

Muhammad Ali once said, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Goals are hard. That’s why we have to consciously commit ourselves to completing them. And when the going gets tough, little excuses begin to seem like good reasons to quit.

Seven years ago, I was training to run my first Boston Marathon. Two weeks before the race, I completed my twenty-mile training run without much trouble. I was working as a personal trainer at the time, and the next week, my boss paid me to lead a group of businessmen and women in town for a conference on early morning runs along Chicago’s lakefront on back-to-back days. I had run about ten miles two days before the first group run—not a very long run for my fitness level at that time. And the group runs called for easy hour-long jogs.

But by the end of the first group run, my inner thighs were starting to chafe. My marathon training consisted of running three days a week, supplemented by weight lifting and circuit training. I wasn’t used to running multiple days in close succession. By the end of the second run, I was jogging like I had just gotten off a horse.

If I had been in a different position, say, the first week of a couch-to-5K training program instead of a week out from the Boston Marathon, I might have handled the situation differently. If my crotch had started chafing after two days of running to begin a New Year’s resolution, I might have thrown in the towel right away. It would have been just the excuse I needed to quit. But I had come this far and I was going to find a solution.

That’s when I discovered Zensah’s seamless compression shorts. It was such a simple idea: no seams, thus, nothing to rub against my thighs and crotch as I ran. But Zensah was the only company doing it. I ordered a pair of compression shorts and ran what remains a personal best in Boston.

As Ali rightly observed, when you embark on a new challenge, it usually isn’t the challenge itself that stops you. It’s some little nagging discomfort combined with the thought that this discomfort will linger the whole time you’re facing the obstacle you’ve built up to be incredibly difficult. It’s a pebble in your shoe, chafing in your crotch, tightness in your calf that makes you want to quit.

New Year’s fitness resolvers wake up January 1 ready to tackle their new challenge. Fueled by adrenaline, they’ll plow through the first day’s workout and say “Bring it on!” to the next day. But at some point, jumping straight into a new fitness regime after a period of inactivity will catch up to them. Something won’t feel right with their bodies. Some will push through it for a day or a week. But the vast majority will give up within a month.

So whether you’re diving headfirst into your own healthy resolution or you’re a seasoned athlete, it’s important to prepare yourself for the little, insidious, nagging discomforts that threaten to set you back. It’s important to put yourself in the best and most comfortable position to attack the real challenge ahead of you. And it’s important to recover and prepare yourself for the next day’s battle.

That’s why I’m so thrilled that Zensah has offered to give away one pair of seamless performance underwear compression shorts and one pair of compression socks to a lucky KineSophy reader. It’s the perfect package to keep you comfortable during workouts and help you recover afterward. One person will take home these two great tools to help them prepare for whatever mountain they’re planning to climb. When you enter this giveaway, you’re throwing that pebble out of your shoe so you can focus on the mountain. Don’t make that challenge any harder than it is.