Why you SHOULD NOT go all in on fitness...
Just from the title I know this article would rattle the cages of some fitness professionals. How could I, a personal trainer dedicated to making people healthier, stronger and more fit, possibly think such a thing? I have my reasons so hear me out and this all comes from experiences I’ve had with clients over the years.
For the average person…
I have had a LARGE number of people walk into the gym with super ambitious goals and a huge gung-ho attitude wanting to jump right into a crazy fitness program. “THIS IS IT. IM GOING TO LOSE THAT 40 POUNDS NOW. IM GOING TO WORKOUT EVERYDAY AND EAT HEALTHY EVERY DAY”. As a trainer, I approach clients like this with caution while still giving them the benefit of the doubt. Before I move on…this is not to say that I’ve never had clients with that attitude that didn’t totally stick with it and get exactly the results they were hoping for; those clients exist and deserve an INSANE amount of credit. I’d never try to discourage anyone from that attitude because I have seen it work miracles.
However, it is very easy to have motivation for an hour or a day or even a month. What most don’t understand is that you need SOME level of commitment for months (plural) or even years (still plural) depending on how ambitious your goals are.
I say SOME level of commitment because to see results long term the average person doesn’t need 5-7 workouts a week with a full blown meal prep to see above average results. Would every client ideally have that obsessive level of commitment and would they see insane results quickly, of course. But let’s be realistic here. People have their own lives, jobs, families and hobbies and for anyone who has taken fitness that seriously, you know how time consuming it really is.
The Burn Out…
Why can’t the average client at least try a very serious and time consuming fitness/meal program? What’s the harm in that? The harm is that it is intimidating… That first week of workouts where they are sore as hell from head to toe, tired, hungry for junk food and the last thing they want to do is go back to the gym for their 5th workout of the week- I guarantee some regretful thoughts start to creep in. “Can I really do this? This is taking up too much time. Meal prepping sucks. I can skip a few days next week. I need ice cream.”
EVERYONE at some point during their fitness career has thought this…me included. This is why it is so important especially in the beginning to ease into your fitness journey. If you are one of those obsessive people who are either all or nothing, all the power to you- go all in if you’d like and you think you can handle it mentally. But, 9/10 people starting their fitness journey will do better with a light(ish) program to start. This isn’t to say it’s not going to be hard, but the important thing is that it is tolerable enough that it doesn’t make you or your client quit. That helps no one in the long run.
The Benefits…
There are benefits to not going 110% into fitness from day one? Yes, believe it or not there are. DISCLAIMER: Don’t mistake what I say here or in the rest of this article as me saying this is going to be easy OR you can half ass this and still reach your goals. If you do start with 2-3 days of workouts a week they still have to be intense workouts. No walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes and calling it a day. This is going to be hard, at points this is going to make you want to quit. That’s unavoidable so suck it up buttercup.
YOU HAVE TIME! The best and worst part about any fitness goal is that this will be, like it or not, a long term commitment. If your goal is to lose 30lbs in 2 weeks…reevaluate and be realistic with yourself. A requirement to the fitness game is dedication over a long period of time. But, this is the reason you don’t need to go out and beat yourself half to death in the first few weeks. Go a month working out 2-3 days a week, cut out some of the obvious crap in your diet and see how you feel. After that first month maybe add in a day or two of light cardio and start dedicating yourself to smaller, healthier meals. This is a building process. Building yourself up to a very dedicated program is 100,000x easier than diving head first into it off the starting line.
ADDED STIMULATION=ADDED RESULTS. When you just start, your body is going to be in shock whether you workout two hours a week or five. Starting slow will benefit your program in the future because when you get used to all the training stimulation, all you need to do is add another day of workouts to avoid plateauing. This will also help your body with general recovery. Just like your body adapting to training your body will adapt with recovery. A few months into your program your body will recover better from 4-5 workouts a week than it would have at the start.
I don’t want to discourage anyone who is looking to charge into a serious program with full dedication. It's not impossible and I’ve seen it work numerous times. I am a firm believer that in this game you only get as much out as you put in. If you think you’re going to see real results from working out an hour a week, you’re not. If you can seriously commit to a 5 day a week program and a strict diet- do it. You will see results very quickly.
This is more to encourage people to not bite off more than they can chew. I’d rather see a client start slow and stick with fitness long term than sprint the first month and burn out. Like I said, this is always a long term commitment.
At our gym we don’t try to sell people on whatever they’ll buy- we try to deliver results in the most effective way we can for that client. We don’t like working with clients that will workout for a month and quit. We like working with clients who come here to change the way they’re going to live their lives. That is a gradual process…build it slowly with a solid foundation and you’ll reach whatever fitness goal you set for yourself.