To paraphrase a well-known saying, the journey to fitness is a bit of a rollercoaster. You'll have your (very high) highs, you'll have your (very low) lows, and, sometimes, you'll find yourself in the fairly neutral middle ground.
For many people, the polarising nature of breaking a personal best one day to then miss out on a long-term goal can be a turn off. Cue either a period of starting and stopping a host of new programmes for months, even years, or just giving up entirely.
Being able to manage this journey, and your own expectations, is key to success. To help, here are 6 mantras to always remember when working out.
1) ALL FEEDBACK IS GOOD FEEDBACK
Let's start off by expanding on what I've just described: the fitness rollercoaster. All of us will experience good times and bad on our quest to 'get fit'. And for most of us (particularly beginners), the temptation is to focus on the failures.
This is only natural, but where a lot of people fall down is that they don't recognise their failures in the right context. Rather than seeing them in a negative light, as is so easy to do, failures in the gym are a great way of keeping ourselves in check. That's because most of the time, our failures are to do with factors we've either overlooked or need to re-assess. Missing a new 1-rep-max for example could indicate a need to switch up a training programme, alter diet or maybe even a need to take some time off.
Equally, the negatives shouldn't be the only thing we focus on. Embrace the positives too: the second you've shaved off that last interval, the 5 reps of a 80 kg bench press you're still hitting, the workout you convinced yourself you weren't going to do today but have just completed. It's all good feedback!
2) Working out should never become 'easy'
Sure, if you keep doing the same thing every time you workout then yeah, it will naturally become easier. But the point is that working out shouldn't ever become 'easy'.
If you're doing it right, working out will always challenge you in some way, whether it be physically – hitting more reps, lifting more weight or running faster – or mentally – dragging yourself to the gym when it's the last thing you want to do.
After all, getting fit is a process of adaptation: your body and your mind changing to accommodate new stimuli. Without challenging yourself, you'll never adapt.
3) The only person you're competing with is yourself
One you've probably heard before, and for good reason – everyone at some point can't help but be tempted to compare their progress to someone else's. Really, this is a totally natural thing to do. You want to know how well you're doing, so what's the easiest way to check? Watch someone else.
But despite how natural it is, it can be incredibly detrimental to both your physical and mental wellbeing. There are far too many variables at play to consider it a good comparison, namely: you don't know how experienced someone else is; you don't know how far through their workout they are; and you certainly don't know how similar their biology is to yours.
Rather than focus on others, reflect on your own performance over time. Are you doing better than you did last time? If not, are you at least doing as well as you were before? In the long-term, this outlook will help you far more than comparing yourself to others.
4) Working out is only part of the solution
Ever heard the phrase "abs are made in the kitchen?" As cheesy (no pun intended) a saying as it is, there's a lot of merit to it.
Think of yourself as a car (bear with me on this one). Working out is like fine-tuning the car, making slight adjustments to the engine to make it run better, and adding slight upgrades to the chassis to make it look better. But without the right tools, none of this is possible.
The 'tools' in this metaphor is your diet. Ultimately, if you aren't getting the right amount of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water, you can work out all day and night but you're only going to get so far. And as laborious as working this all out seems (honestly, it's not even half as bad as you think) it's far more beneficial for your progress in the long run. Here's the first in a series of articles about how to build your ideal diet.
5) The hard parts only get easier iF you do them
We all have those exercises we find far more difficult than others. For me, it was squatting. As a 6" 4' man, my long femurs and relatively range of motion-limited hips make the whole movement quite an awkward experience. But despite my struggles, I wanted to improve my squatting because I knew that it's one of the most important movement patterns we can train. So I started researching. I watched videos of how to squat and started practicing them as much as I could. Nowadays I find squats one of the most enjoyable exercises I do in the gym.
By no means am I suggesting you do an exercise you either literally can't do because of mechanical limitations (there are always multiple ways to do an exercise), or even an exercise that you hate (there are only so many burpees one person can do before they give up and go home). But what I am suggesting is, if you really want to improve a specific exercise or area of your fitness, the only way to achieve this is to practice!
6) Action is the foundational key to all success
You likely spotted this on my homepage, and as such, you can probably tell this is a big one for me.
It's actually a quote from another interest of mine: art. Specifically, it's a quote from Pablo Picasso. Despite it being a quote from a completely different discipline though, its meaning is very applicable to fitness. After all, without taking your first step into fitness, without deciding to sort out your diet, without deciding to do some research into fitness and read some blog posts (see what I did there?), how can you possibly reach your fitness goals?
For me, it's a similar thought to 'doing anything is better than doing nothing'. Even though you might not be hammering out a 1-hour HIIT session, the fact that you decided to go for a 20-minute run or knocked out a few press ups in the morning, the fact that you actually did something opens the door to the rest of your journey and the path to success.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical professional. The information I provide on this website is based on my personal experience and my experience as a Personal Trainer. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. In addition, the information provided on this website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay in seeking it, because of something you have read on this website. Never rely on information on this website in place of seeking professional medical advice.
Comentários