There’s no perfect workout.
There’s no perfect diet.
You won’t make much progress from any one WOD, no matter how intense it is.
The key to progress is really to keep showing up at the gym 3-5 times every week. Each workout will build on the last workout if you do them a day or so apart.
Here’s how to make that easier.
- Start with an appointment. Make a plan with someone else to exercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Book an appointment with a trainer or coach, or commit to a schedule with a friend who won’t let you down. Put it in your calendar.
A goal without a plan is just a wish. If you think to yourself, “I can probably exercise three times a week!” it won’t get done.
But if you make an appointment to meet someone, you’ll do it. Plans get swept aside. If something’s important, it gets an appointment. - Every time you keep that appointment, it will get easier to keep the appointment. Over time, these appointments become habits. You no longer “try to go to the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays”–it’s just what you DO.
- In time, these habits will become your lifestyle. Don’t worry about whether the workout is perfect for you that day–that’s actually an avoidance tactic. Don’t work on your glutes – work on the habit of showing up. When you build a fit lifestyle, you’ll be fit.
The stuff we mostly worry about–“Is this workout the best use of my lunch hour?” “Should I be following a different diet?” “Is HIS program better than mine?” — doesn’t actually matter. These are all just tricks we pull on ourselves. The habit is the answer.
There will always be reasons to not do something that you can talk yourself into. The weather is bad, my bed is warm, isn’t one workout a week enough?
It all boils down to being consistent and showing up. Not getting bogged down on why you can’t or won’t do something, but focus on why you NEED to do this!
My days aren’t always filled with working out and getting fit. I own Marble Strength, but keeping it running and making sure everyone else is getting their fitness in is the priority.
When I was younger, I would wake up at 4am to get to the gym in the City at 5am. My brother, Frank, would wake me up. We would take the train into the city and he would train someone, while I did my workout. Then I would go to school.
I did that every day while in college.
Because that’s what I had to do to stay moving.
Because that’s what we had been doing for years.
Because that was my time to workout and I start my day with the gym.
After working out for 25 years, and coaching fitness for over 10, I promise you this: it’s more important to show up today than it is to wait for the perfect time, the perfect gym or the perfect workout. Habits are more important than any program.