With the majority of our clients simply looking to keep themselves generally fit, healthy and lean so that they can enjoy life, keeping their exercise routine as simple as possible is a big focus for us as coaches.
With so much exposure to different training styles available to us on the internet it’s so easy to get caught up in all the advanced and fancy training methods to keep our clients ‘interested’ when in most cases they really need much more basic programs that they can understand, see progression with and get the results that they want.
The more complex you make a training program the less likely you are to see results because you’re unlikely going to be able to stick to it. Paralysis by analysis and mental over-whelm are the most common results of complicated health & fitness routines where people have to work off strict %, weigh food to the gram, track every calorie eaten, etc.
One of the big issues when it comes to these types of programs is that they absolutely work for the right type of person who has more advanced goals and has the skills, knowledge, time and mentality to apply it.
But what I see a lot of the time is people trying to achieve moderate health and fitness goals by following these complex programs that they simply don’t have the ability for at this stage of their journey.
The un-sustainability and complexity of the program is going to be their downfall because its simply not a good fit for them at that time. Maybe down the road it will be if they want to chase higher level goals and they’re willing to commit, but not at this time.
And one of the biggest psychological tricks the mind plays on many people is that it’s much easier to go from being in a bad rut to jumping head first into an advanced program and thinking that it’s exactly what you needed.
The novelty of it, your enthusiasm to change and the quick results often back up that you were right in your choice of program. But this approach always ends up with 99.99999% of the people who take that approach crashing and ending up back at square one or worse.
The real secret to sustainable health, fitness and fat-loss goals is whether or not you can adhere to the program long-term. For a rare few people who decide to take on more advanced goals, they do so with the understanding that the results are not sustainable and they are therefore able to plan for easing themselves back to normality once the program has ended.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need an advanced program that requires you to completely overhaul your life in a short period of time.
Make your first priority to get generally fitter, healthier and leaner. Achieve this by gradually adding sustainable habits into your lifestyle so you never get overwhelmed by taking on too much too soon- exercise a bit more, eat a bit better, get to bed a bit earlier, drink a bit more water, etc.
Ask yourself is what you are doing now sustainable in the longterm or is it so drastic that you feel yourself fighting against it already. If you cant adhere to the demands of your program on a consistent basis then
Remember, there is a time for more advanced training methods, goals, nutrition protocols, etc. and they can be great fun and a worthy challenge but for most people it’s not the route to go. For now, the most important factor is whether or not you can adhere to it longterm.
If you can’t then of course you won’t do it for very long and you’ll fail to realise the results you wanted or if you do, they won’t last very long.
If you need help getting started, our upcoming “Developing An Empowered Mindset For Sustainable Health, Fitness & Fat Loss” workshop on Saturday 18th February 2017 is a great place to start.
Steve McGrath
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