Fitness Made Simple Part 1

01

It's hard to stay motivated to workout.

One of the biggest reasons we see people fail to train consistently is they lose motivation.

This is completely understandable, especially if you are going at your goals alone.

Here are 3 failsafe ways to not let this derail you.

Have goals that motivate you and remind yourself of them daily

Yes, I am having the goal talk.

If you've read anything about getting fit, you may have seen this 100 times already.

But let me ask you a candid question:

See, most people make "self-discipline" their goal and wonder why they fail.

The reason Lebron James is a great basketball player isn't because he woke up every morning and told himself "I can't wait to build more self-discipline."

Does he value self-discipline?
Absolutely!

But trust me, it was the NBA Championships that fueled that self discipline.

What is your "NBA Championship" and what will life be like when you achieve it.

If you don't know, then start here.

Remember that you'll reach "habit" status in a couple of months

There has been a plethora of self-development books in the past few years that have unpacked the power of developing the right habits in our lives like "Atomic Habits" by James Clear and "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg.

I'll give you the Cliffs Notes.

You can take any repeatable activity and turn it into a habit.

This now means you will use a lot less will power to engage in the activity and you will exert less mental energy while performing it.

Learning to stand up straight can feel like a lot of work at first. But day after day, week after week it soon becomes your new norm.

Trusting that this is achievable with your health and fitness will help motivate you to stick with it.

The day will come where you will look back and think to yourself, "Oh wow, this is pretty automatic for me now."

Willpower is a finite resource. Develop habits and you won't need to rely on it quite as much.

02

No time to workout consistently.

Ask 5 people how they are doing today.

4 of them will tell you something like this,

"Good, but busy."

We live in a fast-paced frenetic culture.

We try and squeeze so much into a 7 day week.

Some of it is avoidable and some of it isn't.

I'm in the same boat myself, if you fall under this obstacle.

Here's a few tips on how to overcome "no time = no workout" syndrome.

Make consistency your goal.

I know, sounds obvious.

But let me tell you what I didn't say:

"Make intensity your goal."

Most people think that not only do they need to train consistently but, they think they need to crush it every single time they step foot in the gym.

Here's the problem with that:

When you don't feel motivated or your schedule is tight you'll end up doing nothing at all instead of at least doing something.

One day turns into 2, and 2 turns into 3, and well...

You get the point.

Every time I personally lose momentum with my fitness, I make sure I do something 4 days in one week, even if it's only a few exercises or a 20 minute walk.

Something is always better than nothing.

Taking a 20 minute walk 3x a week is 52 hours of extra walking per year. If you don't think that you're better off with 52 extra hours of walking, then you need to think again.

This becomes the platform that has spring boarded me to some of the wonderful things I have been able to achieve with my own health and fitness.

Master Raw Fitness Ninja status doesn't grow on trees ya know.

Darren Hardy wrote a great book called "The Compound Effect" in which he starts off asking if you would rather have a penny doubled every day for 30 days or $1,000,000 cash.

Let me ruin it for you:

The penny turns into over 10 million dollars on day 30.

Life is like that sometimes. We seem to plod along and consistently try and develop any particular skill. Yet at some point we find ourselves exponentially more adept when we felt like we weren't making any progress at all for quite some time.

03

Not sure what the right workout program is for your goals.

If you don't know what to do when you train, then you will struggle to be consistent.

You want your body to burn calories, not your mind while trying to decide what your workouts will consist of.

On the other hand, you can have a program you're following, but perhaps you're not sure that it is the right one for your specific goals?

This can feel discouraging and make it hard to stick with it.

Now most people's goals fit into one of three categories

The good news is:

If your goal is any one of these 3, your number 1 priority should be strength training.

If this is news to you then feel free to check out my previous content on The Truth About Cardio For Fat Loss.

Here's the 20% of information on program design that will get you 80% of your results.

First off, train movements not muscles.

The human body has 7 fundamental movement patterns and if you train them all then you will essentially train all the muscles in your body in a balanced way.

This will also make sure that you never lose the ability to perform these movement patterns as you age. They are a "use them or lose them" endeavor.

Here are the 7 movement patterns that make up all of human movement:

To design a really great program I do break some of these categories down a little further like - horizontal pushing (push-up), versus vertical pushing (overhead press).

I believe the purpose of learning is practical application so I've linked to a great beginner/intermediate strength program I have used successfully with many of my clients.

There's even video links to all the exercises, so you can easily follow along with at your local gym or if you have equipment at home.

Feel free to ask questions or modify where needed.

Conclusion

I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog about how to train consistently. I realize how difficult it is to find the motivation to workout and stick to a program.

Remember to take the time to clarify your goals, focus on consistency over intensity, make working out a habit and find a program that is right for you.

With these tips, I know you can find the ability to workout consistently and start seeing the results you want.

If you'd like some professional help with your fitness goals, we have a FREE exciting 6 week challenge we are launching in September.

We will be sending out all the details via email.

Sign-up here if you want to be kept into the loop and grab a limited slot when we go open up registration.

Rooting for your success!