The Secret (HAHAHA) To Getting Fit
Human beings are all about shortcuts. And secrets. Super shady spy-like secrets. CIA-level shit.
Human beings who like fitness are even worse. Like, seriously bad. They want the exact x, y, z formula that will help them immediately accomplish their fitness goals. They’re all like, “okay, so 23 kettlebell swings, one glass of wine, the crumbs of a donut, and 4 minutes of wall-staring per day will get me ripped? I’m in.”
From the perspective of a coach, it’s an absolute nightmare. On one hand, I can totally appreciate the enthusiasm. That’s refreshing. But then I’m like…no. Just no. Too much. There’s a reason for that, and I wish it was more obvious.
There is no super secret special sauce.
I know, I know. I’m not the first person to write an article about this, and I won’t be the last. I know that what I’m writing at this moment is notunique. That’s okay — I’m cool with it if you are. Honestly, I just feel like there can’t possibly be too much information about this subject. Plus, I wanna use my own voice. I wanna and I will.
There may not be a secret special sauce, but I’m a big believer in three attributes, traits, or whatever you want to call them that are usually present in those who succeed in fitness.
CONSISTENCY
In my personal opinion, there’s a 99% chance that this is the most important determinant of whether you’ll reach your fitness goals or not. Intelligence is good. Patience is great. But consistency reigns supreme. If you can’t settle into a regular fitness schedule, you probably won’t make lasting progress.
Let’s invade the lives of Bro and Dudette. Bro does his fitness thing when he’s in the mood. Sometimes it’s three times in a week, sometimes once every other week. When he’s in the mood, he’s smart. He hits it hard. Dudette, on the other hand, always does something fitnessy three times a week. She doesn’t always know what she’s doing, and sometimes slacks a bit, but she gets her fitness on consistently.
Unless Bro is incredibly gifted (and he might be), Dudette is going to come out on top in the long run. Being smart and being a hard worker is good stuff. Unfortunately for Bro, it’s not good stuff if you only use it 25% of the time. You have to back up your hard work with consistency.
The Takeaway: Be consistent. For the next month, choose the number of days you’re going to dedicate to fitness. Stick to that number. Seriously, I mean it. Treat that number like it’s your religion (even if you’re not religious). If you make it through the entire month without a major slip-up, try going for two months in a row. Then three. And so on.
WILLINGNESS TO LEARN
Fitness is a learning experience. At first, you’ll learn basic movement skills. That’s a good start. Eventually, you might learn the reasoning behind using Exercise A over Exercise B. Maybe you’ll even learn to write your own programs.
Regardless of how far you take it, fitness learning is important. If you’re not willing to open your mind to the many — so, so many — fitness tools that are available to you, then you’re screwed before you even start. There’s no single path to a fitness goal. You might take the path to the left, while I take the path to the right. And that rando you passed on the street might start left, then backtrack and go right. All of us might reach our goals.
It’s a shitshow. Just like life. But the more tools you have available — the more you’ve learned — the better chance you have of finding a way to your goals.
The Takeaway: Don’t burn your fitness bridges. If you think you hate something, give it a try. Just once. Or maybe 50 times, because you might actually enjoy it. You might surprise yourself and it might rock your fitness world. If you don’t try it, you’ll never know what might have been. That exercise or activity might have become your favorite movement, a staple in your workouts. Be open. Never say never.
GOOD PLANNING
Another one of the biggest reasons that people fail to achieve their fitness goals is because they don’t have a plan. Or even worse, they have too many plans and can’t stick to one for more than a week or two. Both situations suck.
I’m a big believer in doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. That’s important to me and I try to apply it to all areas of my life. It appears to go against the idea of good planning, but hold on a sec. Being a little fly-by-night is cool and all, but even the wildest dreamer hippies among us usually have some kind of framework in place.
Good planning doesn’t have to mean that you have the next six months of training mapped out down to the sets, reps, and exercise tempo. That’s bananas for most people. However, you do need to have some idea of what you want to accomplish — and how you’re going to accomplish it — if you want to succeed.
The Takeaway: Be forward-thinking. Have some kind of plan in place. Don’t go nuts about it, but dedicate some time to outlining two things. First, choose a big goal that you want to crush. It can be aesthetic or performance-related — doesn’t matter, choose whatever makes you happy. Second, figure out how you’re going to make that happen. Ask yourself this question: “What daily or weekly act can I commit to that will help me achieve this goal?”
TA-DA!
So there you have it. The super-duper secret (HAHAHA) to getting fit.
I know it’s not exactly what you wanted to hear. I get it. I would love to tell you that there is a secret — that you can click a button and get fit.
Actually, no…that’s not true. I’d hate that. That would make me so angry and I’d go on a rant and it’d sound something like…nevermind. You almost got me there.
But still, I wish it was easier. I promise I’m not saying that to scare you off. In fact, I want just the opposite. I want you to be like, “oh damn, getting fit takes dedication, let’s commit to this,” or something like that. It may not be easy, but it’s doable.
