Why Do People Fail At Their Fitness Goals?
These are our top 5 reasons we have seen many people fail at their fitness goals...and how to beat those reasons. If you can get over these challenges, there aren't many excuses left of why you can't accomplish your goals.
1. The commitment and mindset of time
This seems obvious and simple, but this is easily the top reason why we have seen so many people either quit almost immediately or not get started all together. Commitment of time is simple. This is like anything in your life, if you don't put in the time to get yourself into the gym then don't expect to get results. This is a main reason we hate when clients buy 1 session a week, don't come in on their own and then complain when they don't see any results. We are blunt and to the point about this. We have no problem telling people that their effort is the only reason they aren't succeeding and many of the times...the clients appreciate our honesty.
The mindset of time is a totally different ball game. As a trainer, the first thing I try to do with any client is change this mindset. If you have a brand new client who isn't used to working out or has never been in a gym, they more than likely have no idea about training cycles and realistic time spans for actual progress. You have to start thinking about time in much longer spans. What I mean by this is any noticeable change you are going to have is going to be in 4-6 week training cycles. Whether your goals are to lose weight, build muscle, get stronger or run further, you will not see progress in 1 day, 10 days, or 3 weeks. You have to change this mindset and if you don't, it can be the downfall for all of your motivation. However, if you buy into this concept and work to the point of actually seeing real change of your body, it is very addicting and gets easier and easier to continue progressing.
2. Lack of knowledge
*Client buys a single 1 hour session* "So...What should I be doing for the next 6 months to accomplish my goals?"
I swear this situation happens all the time and it is possibly our biggest pet peeve of anything that happens in the gym. If that was a realistic question that could be answered in 1 hour, we wouldn't have jobs and wouldn't be opening a gym. People who don't have the knowledge of what to do think it's as simple as doing a single routine that consists of some cardio and then repeating that for 6 months.
If you are trying to start a fitness program, don't be afraid of not knowing what you're doing but try to be realistic with yourself. Be realistic about your lack of knowledge on the subject and realize it's not as simple as finding a single routine and repeating it. If you go that route...we can guarantee you 1. plateau in training and 2. don't accomplish your goals nearly as fast as you could have. Diversity of training is key to anyone's success AND it keeps things interesting! Who wants to repeat the same exercises for months at a time?
If you don't know what to do, the absolute best thing you can do is hire a trainer. While we realize that this isn't a cheap option and not everyone can afford it, start to self-educate. What are you doing right this second? Reading a free fitness blog on the internet. The internet is flooded with information on working out, losing weight, getting stronger and everything in between. If you choose to self-educate, we highly recommend referencing legitimate sources, use simple exercises with perfect form, and avoid shooting for over ambitious weight, which can lead to injury.
3. What do you do outside of the gym?
You have to be realistic with yourself in all aspects of your life. If you spend 3 hours in the gym a week and the other 165 hours you're on the couch eating pizza (sounds pretty amazing actually) don't expect good results if any at all. Now, if your diet is crap and you're also working out hey, at least you're doing something right. However, that whole concept of time we just went over is going to drastically lengthen if you don't take care of yourself outside of the gym.
A big mistake I've seen people attempt is to try to go from eating whatever they want and not training...to training 5 days a week and going into a full blown meal prep. This is a recipe for losing your motivation and ambition to succeed. Ideally, is this the absolute quickest route for accomplishing your goals? Yes. But the average person trying to lose some weight doesn't want to spend 5-10 hours in the gym and be constantly in the kitchen eating chicken, rice and vegetables.
I'd recommend starting simple. Get in the gym for your 3 days a week, start to cut out all the crap from your diet and get off the couch the days you aren't training. It doesn't take a doctorate in nutrition to know that maybe you should've eaten grilled chicken instead of 2 pieces of lasagna with garlic bread (again, sounds amazing). But these are common sense choices you must make. The days you don't train you still need to burn calories. Even if that means just walking around or just doing anything at all active, it's better than sitting on the couch binge watching Netflix all day.
4. You made it to the gym...but what did you do?
This is another clientele that we have to be brutally honest with. These people either just like to join a gym and hire trainers so they can say they workout or they do not have a concept of actually working hard. This isn't to discourage anyone who hasn't ever worked out before, but again, you have to be honest with yourself and what your capacity is for hard work.
We can tell almost immediately when people are lying to us and to themselves about working hard. We've had clients act like they were just struck by the lightning of Zeus after 10 reps of shoulder press when they easily could've pushed through 5 more. We've had clients come in and complain about us injuring them and when asked, they say their entire lower body. That's called being sore. If you go to the gym for 10 hours a week but work at 20% capacity, you mine as well have not showed up.
Point here being, you're already in the gym...you're already using up your valuable time...so don't turn it into a wasted training session. Whatever your goals may be and whatever other factors are in your life, there is no better tool for accomplishment than hard work. Be realistic with yourself, be honest with yourself and realize maybe you could've pushed through those last reps. Maybe you shouldn't have skipped those dreaded squats. Maybe you should've finished that cardio. If you aren't willing to admit those mistakes...don't complain about the lack of results to anyone but yourself.
5. Consistency
Not going to go into detail here. Don't quit... go back to the idea of the mindset of time. This is going to take a long time. Prioritize it, commit to it, stay consistent with it, don't stop doing it. It's all worth it.