Already Done With Your Fitness Resolutions? Part 1 of 3
It may boil down to poor planning.
As a personal trainer with over 30 years of experience, I have played a direct role in guiding my clients towards health and wellness. I have also witnessed first-hand the challenge of juggling work, family and fitness. In this three part series, I will outline what I consider to be necessary to making fitness and wellness a part of your lifestyle. No quick fixes but rather, a journey towards pain-free vitality. Part 1 will deal with planning. In Part 2, I will provide an introductory, home exercise program and Part 3 will provide general nutritional advice.
Mindset
Enough is enough! You have taken the first step and decided to take action and become more fit. Achieving one’s goals whether they be financial, work-related or personal requires planning. So goes it for “getting back into shape”. The fundamentals of planning are: knowing your starting point, defining the steps to success and choosing an end result.
Know your starting point. Are you overweight? Do you have a medical condition, poor posture and/or chronic pain? Do you enjoy exercise? What actions are you prepared to take to achieve success (in exercise and nutrition)? In asking yourself these questions, you gain a better understanding of your short-term goal, be it weight loss, cardiovascular health, pain reduction and/or muscle tone. Once your goal is set, you will be able to define the steps to success (cutting calories and/or exercise). Keep in mind that different exercises produce different results. Walking or jogging will not give you muscle tone. Correct posture before building muscle. Having an ultimate goal like losing 50lbs or running a 10k is helpful but remember to be prepared to make adjustments if things are not going according to plan and do not beat yourself up for missteps.
Dosage
Whether you are following a food plan or exercise regime, the key to long term success lies in the proper dosage. Too rigid a regime often leads to quitting. Even weight watchers (WW) has understood the importance of a little leeway and has included personalized bonus points in it’s followers food plans. When it comes to exercise, it gets a little more complicated. The nature of the exercise (resistance training vs. jogging vs. yoga) must be considered according to your ability to recuperate. In fitness and wellness: rest, recover, results.
Activity
Running, resistance training, yoga or Pilates. These are but a few of the activites we can choose from. The number one criteria in choosing an activity, as far as I am concerned, would be: enjoyment. If you enjoy what you do, you are more likely to continue. Enjoyment will lead to satisfaction which will lead to adherence and ultimately, success. Part of my success as a personal trainer has been to obtain results with my clients while making the workouts palatable; no easy task when it comes to free weight training.
The take away
Know thyself. Do not engage in frequent high intensity exercise if you are not sleeping. Do not begin yoga with six pack abs in mind. Be wary of eating keto, paleo or vegan as they can be too restrictive. Health and wellness should be a lifestyle and in that respect, a long term perspective should be adopted. Can we get results fast(er)? Certainly, so long as it does not derail the long term plan. There are a multitude of resources such as fitness apps, calorie trackers and web channels available to us to help us along but they do not necessarily provide the big picture. If you are having difficulty figuring it all out for yourself, I would strongly urge you to seek out a qualified fitness and/or wellness consultant to obtain an assessment as well as an action plan. That small initial investment will pay for itself.
Healthfully yours.
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