stephen3141
New member
Most of us struggle to achieve our fitness goals for similar reasons. We hit a plateau with our training and find ourselves just going through the motions as our motivation drops off. Even worse, we get injured and struggle to just get back to where we were before.
Here are five points that are crucial to making steady progress and shaping realistic expectations around doing so.
“Your success in training is the accumulation of effort over time. Any time you aren't adhering to a program is wasted time, so start, even if what you start with sucks. There is no optimal program.” — @davecb
You’ve heard it before and you’ve heard it for good reason: consistency is key. Achieving any goal is simply a case of putting in the reps, over and over again. If you want to become a better runner, you must run; if you want to lift more, you must lift more.
Therefore, at any level of training, consistency should always be the primary focus. A good program and hard work are both important but they won’t do much for you if you quit.
The thing is, being consistent is hard. Most people can’t do it. Those who can reap all the rewards.
Whatever your goal, you must be consistent with the process (the set of habits that lead you to progress - more on this in Part 2). If you’re just starting out, set the initial bar low. Don’t worry about the numbers, just focus on showing up and let time take care of the rest. You’re not special - it’s the same formula for everyone.
The mistake people make is wanting to be consistent with too much too quickly. This usually means that in the long run they burn out and return to old patterns of behaviour. Find a rate of progress that you can be consistent with as this will vary based on your prior experience.
If you’re not already in the habit of working out, you can’t expect to suddenly start hitting the gym five times a week.
If you’ve never bulked up before, you can’t expect to start eating an additional 500 calories every day and not get sick of it pretty quickly.
If you’re a beginner getting into the gym, you’re probably going to be weak for the first 3-6 months. If you’re a beginner getting into running, you’re probably going to be slow as hell. Who cares? In a year or two, the difference will be night and day.
Would you rather be impatient and not achieve your goal at all or take a slower approach and actually follow through?
Alongside consistency, you must cultivate a greater degree of patience. Focus on gradual, sustainable improvement and you’ll go pretty far. Focus on immediate results and you’ll probably get carried away - think injuries, think burnout.
It’s easy to get carried away when you’re making progress. When it feels like you’re racing in the right direction, it’s wise to recognise that you’ll probably at some point experience the other side of that coin. Perhaps you don’t need to tick off all your fitness goals in the next three years but over a longer time frame instead.
Impatience can obscure the bigger picture. Realise that as long as you’re showing up, you’re moving towards your goals and as long as you’re moving towards them, they are within reach. So make a commitment to yourself to stick with it; to take your time and to trust the process.
When you’re committed to the long-haul, you don’t care about missing a day here and there. If you’ve been consistent in showing up and patient with your expectations, taking a day to rest when something feels off (or you just don’t feel like training) isn’t an issue - in fact, it’s probably a good thing.
Don’t let perfectionism cloud your judgement. As Tim Ferriss explains in The 4-Hour Work Week, “Focus on great for a few things and good enough for the rest. Perfection is a good ideal and direction to have, but recognize it for what it is: an impossible destination.”
Further, don’t buy into the idea that working hard means resting less - it’s the opposite. Pushing in one direction requires an equal push in the other. You can choose to consciously sustain this balance by taking the time to recover when needed, or you learn the hard way by getting injured. This is particularly important when you’re first starting out as your body isn’t acclimatised to the stress you’re suddenly putting it through.
More often than not, insufficient rest will lead to lower quality workouts which will then lead to less motivation on your part, less consistent effort, and ultimately, less results overall. Think long-term baby.
By lifting with your ego you’re doing your future self a disservice. Using bad form may get you a few more reps today, but usually at the cost of better results in the future. Those extra reps might make you feel like you’re killing it in the moment - but they could also lead to a week off as you take time to recover.
To reach our long term goals, we must place quality over quantity. Take pride in your ability to perform movements well. A clean set of pullups is more impressive than whatever they’re doing over in the CrossFit section. Again, you’re not above the process - using bad form will catch up with you, it’s a question of when it will happen, not if it will happen.
Realise that when you go on YouTube and see those guys making L-sit pull-ups look effortless, it’s because they first learnt to do 1 with strict form. From there, 1 became 2, 2 became 3 and so on. They didn’t bad form their way to perfect technique.
Incremental progress. That’s the key to improving. Progressive overload is about gradually increasing the strain on your body so that it’s forced to adapt and come back stronger, faster etc.
For example, when it comes to lifting, we can do this in four main ways:
- Or at a faster rate for an entirely different adaptation focus.
- Also increasing work density, e.g decreased rest times, or total sets/reps in a given time, or same reps/sets in less overall time, etc.
But if your goals lie outside of lifting (and some probably should for the sake of balance and longevity) the same concept applies - the general idea is to increase the workload (or stress) on your body.
To do this, find ways to challenge yourself ever so slightly. In turn, this will become a habit - you’ll always be looking for small ways to improve and it’ll show in the results you achieve.
EDIT 14/01/22:
I wrote a post a couple months back called ‘We are the average of the content we consume’. I strongly believe in this idea so I’ve created a subreddit around it - it’s called r/OwnYourDay.
The idea is to find and share useful and inspiring content/resources. These can be videos, books, articles or podcasts. In general, it’s for any content that changed your mindset or inspired you to take action.
Here are five points that are crucial to making steady progress and shaping realistic expectations around doing so.
1. Consistency
“Your success in training is the accumulation of effort over time. Any time you aren't adhering to a program is wasted time, so start, even if what you start with sucks. There is no optimal program.” — @davecb
You’ve heard it before and you’ve heard it for good reason: consistency is key. Achieving any goal is simply a case of putting in the reps, over and over again. If you want to become a better runner, you must run; if you want to lift more, you must lift more.
Therefore, at any level of training, consistency should always be the primary focus. A good program and hard work are both important but they won’t do much for you if you quit.
The thing is, being consistent is hard. Most people can’t do it. Those who can reap all the rewards.
Whatever your goal, you must be consistent with the process (the set of habits that lead you to progress - more on this in Part 2). If you’re just starting out, set the initial bar low. Don’t worry about the numbers, just focus on showing up and let time take care of the rest. You’re not special - it’s the same formula for everyone.
The mistake people make is wanting to be consistent with too much too quickly. This usually means that in the long run they burn out and return to old patterns of behaviour. Find a rate of progress that you can be consistent with as this will vary based on your prior experience.
If you’re not already in the habit of working out, you can’t expect to suddenly start hitting the gym five times a week.
If you’ve never bulked up before, you can’t expect to start eating an additional 500 calories every day and not get sick of it pretty quickly.
2. Patience
If you’re a beginner getting into the gym, you’re probably going to be weak for the first 3-6 months. If you’re a beginner getting into running, you’re probably going to be slow as hell. Who cares? In a year or two, the difference will be night and day.
Would you rather be impatient and not achieve your goal at all or take a slower approach and actually follow through?
Alongside consistency, you must cultivate a greater degree of patience. Focus on gradual, sustainable improvement and you’ll go pretty far. Focus on immediate results and you’ll probably get carried away - think injuries, think burnout.
It’s easy to get carried away when you’re making progress. When it feels like you’re racing in the right direction, it’s wise to recognise that you’ll probably at some point experience the other side of that coin. Perhaps you don’t need to tick off all your fitness goals in the next three years but over a longer time frame instead.
Impatience can obscure the bigger picture. Realise that as long as you’re showing up, you’re moving towards your goals and as long as you’re moving towards them, they are within reach. So make a commitment to yourself to stick with it; to take your time and to trust the process.
3. Recovery/Rest
When you’re committed to the long-haul, you don’t care about missing a day here and there. If you’ve been consistent in showing up and patient with your expectations, taking a day to rest when something feels off (or you just don’t feel like training) isn’t an issue - in fact, it’s probably a good thing.
Don’t let perfectionism cloud your judgement. As Tim Ferriss explains in The 4-Hour Work Week, “Focus on great for a few things and good enough for the rest. Perfection is a good ideal and direction to have, but recognize it for what it is: an impossible destination.”
Further, don’t buy into the idea that working hard means resting less - it’s the opposite. Pushing in one direction requires an equal push in the other. You can choose to consciously sustain this balance by taking the time to recover when needed, or you learn the hard way by getting injured. This is particularly important when you’re first starting out as your body isn’t acclimatised to the stress you’re suddenly putting it through.
More often than not, insufficient rest will lead to lower quality workouts which will then lead to less motivation on your part, less consistent effort, and ultimately, less results overall. Think long-term baby.
4. Quality Over Quantity
By lifting with your ego you’re doing your future self a disservice. Using bad form may get you a few more reps today, but usually at the cost of better results in the future. Those extra reps might make you feel like you’re killing it in the moment - but they could also lead to a week off as you take time to recover.
To reach our long term goals, we must place quality over quantity. Take pride in your ability to perform movements well. A clean set of pullups is more impressive than whatever they’re doing over in the CrossFit section. Again, you’re not above the process - using bad form will catch up with you, it’s a question of when it will happen, not if it will happen.
Realise that when you go on YouTube and see those guys making L-sit pull-ups look effortless, it’s because they first learnt to do 1 with strict form. From there, 1 became 2, 2 became 3 and so on. They didn’t bad form their way to perfect technique.
5. Progressive Overload
Incremental progress. That’s the key to improving. Progressive overload is about gradually increasing the strain on your body so that it’s forced to adapt and come back stronger, faster etc.
For example, when it comes to lifting, we can do this in four main ways:
- By increasing the weight on our lifts.
- By increasing the number of reps or sets in our training.
- By increasing the frequency that we train.
- By performing exercises at a slower rate (i.e. greater time under tension).
- Or at a faster rate for an entirely different adaptation focus.
- Also increasing work density, e.g decreased rest times, or total sets/reps in a given time, or same reps/sets in less overall time, etc.
But if your goals lie outside of lifting (and some probably should for the sake of balance and longevity) the same concept applies - the general idea is to increase the workload (or stress) on your body.
To do this, find ways to challenge yourself ever so slightly. In turn, this will become a habit - you’ll always be looking for small ways to improve and it’ll show in the results you achieve.
EDIT 14/01/22:
I wrote a post a couple months back called ‘We are the average of the content we consume’. I strongly believe in this idea so I’ve created a subreddit around it - it’s called r/OwnYourDay.
The idea is to find and share useful and inspiring content/resources. These can be videos, books, articles or podcasts. In general, it’s for any content that changed your mindset or inspired you to take action.
