Compliance Beats Science for Fitness Success
When you’re getting started with fitness, it is natural to want to find the ideal training program, diet plan, supplement stack, or whatever else you think you might need on your quest to get in shape.
To some extent, this will require sifting through loads of fitness information that is often contradictory and unhelpful.
For example, some experts who look fit, jacked, and have a track record of successful coaching will tell you that you MUST count your macros to improve your body composition. Other coaches who are just as qualified will tell you that you it’s better to just limit your intake of certain foods and follow an intuitive approach to nutrition.
These sorts of debates exist in nearly all areas related to fitness and nutrition, and often result in what is referred to as “paralysis by analysis.”
“Paralysis by analysis” takes place when you have spent so much time overthinking something that you fail to take action on it. In the fitness space, this often manifests itself in program hopping or diet hopping.
For example, someone who suffers from this might start out on a powerlifting style program one week, and then move on to a bodybuilding split the next because they think it will do a better job of providing them with the results they want. On the nutrition side, this kind of person will be all about tracking macros one week, and then swear by the keto diet the very next.
This is a recipe for stagnation.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t try to find the best way to do things. Of course you should. What I am saying is that it matters very little how scientifically perfect your training and nutrition program is if you don’t give it time to work. You have to give things a chance for longer than a week (think a minimum six to eight weeks) in order to really know if what you are doing is effective, and to see any sort of progress.
This also comes down, in part, to what you enjoy. If you are having success with a routine where you only train each body part once a week and you’re enjoying the process of training that way, you do not need to change your program just because a new study says full body training is better. Similarly, if you enjoy distance running and feel like it is beneficial to your health and fitness, you do not have to quit because some Instagram trainer says that cardio makes you small and weak.
What’s trendy in the fitness space is constantly changing and no matter how you prefer to train and eat, there will be some authority that tells you why your methods are less than ideal.
The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of fit and healthy people who follow bodybuilding programs, powerlifting programs, run marathons, do CrossFit, or some variation of the above. The best one of these is not the one that has the most scientific support, but the one that you will stick with for the long haul.
Now, this should not be read as a license to train like an idiot or avoid working on your weak spots. Neither of those things will do you any good. What you should do is a pick a training and eating style that fits your goals, has a track record of success, and that you will enjoy. Then, do not go searching for another method until you let this one work its magic for at least six weeks. If you want to reevaluate from there, go for it. However, make sure you give the training program or diet you selected ample time to work before changing anything up.
In fitness like many other areas of life, you are far better off putting in a good effort on a regular basis than a perfect one on occasion. To get results, you should value compliance over science.
