What's something you wish you started doing sooner/knew earlier in your fitness journey?

@sacral yes! my ability to work out on a consistent schedule improved massively once i started giving myself permission to go "easy". like, okay, you have to get on the peloton, but you can stick to the lower end of the cadence/resistence ranges. or, okay, you have to do a workout video, but you can pick a 10 minute one. but usually i end up really trying once i get started!
 
@sacral last week I decided to hop back on the horse. recommitted to workouts 3x a week, laid out my workout clothes the night before. next morning, I couldn't find my tennis shoes. have been squatting barefoot for a week now, and it's totally fine! so glad I just went ahead and did it anyway.

I just hope they turn up soon so I can start running again...
 
@sacral Yes! I make so much more progress when my goal is showing up then when my goal is looking better. Because a person can go years wanting a better body and working out really hard for a month, then burning out from no progress or training too hard. But focusing on doing a strength program 3 days a week, of an approximatly 45 minute, got me noticable results in 10 weeks. I'm not near my goal or anything, but I can see my muscles coming in. The focus is on doing those work outs, not getting that body, and it's much less emotionally draining.
 
@anon103 how to you work around being a perfectionist in your consistency? i'll try to be consistent about so many. things but as soon as I miss a day or whatever, i give up and/or feel like i have to start over
 
@hamiltonbill Sometimes a small break is beneficial, especially if you're feeling burnt out. One thing I remind myself of: I didn't gain the weight in one night, so a slip up won't cause me to gain it all back. Just acknowledge it happened, and get back to it when you can. My inner critic can be brutal sometimes, but I've learned to switch it to more positive thinking.
 
@hamiltonbill Honestly, if I miss a day, I try to at least do a 15 min stretch watching YouTube or something just to move my body a little. Or a small 15 min body weight workout. But don’t feel guilty for taking a day off of course.
 
@hamiltonbill Flexible days off as part of your plan. Im training for a marathon, my schedule Is 5 days a week. My goals is to do 4 of the 5 workouts. I usually end up doing all 5 but I only have to do 4. And I do even less if im sick or injured, also part of the plan.
 
@hamiltonbill Glad you asked, because there is an easy answer to this!

The whole point of consistency is that no single workout matters much. Being on track for one day doesn't count as success, but the flip side is that missing a day doesn't count as failure.

For example, I missed most of a week this fall, nevermind why. I knew three facts:
  1. I am a person who works out consistently, and a week off doesn't change who I am.
  2. I will return as soon as it's feasible, this isn't the beginning of a slippery slope to laziness.
  3. In a year, I will remember this as "the time I took a couple days off" if I even remember it at all.
You just have to zoom out. Yeah I missed 100% of the workouts I had planned for that day, but I still made like 95% of the workouts I had planned for that year. I'm still working, still getting stronger. A speedbump here or there can't change that.
 
@hamiltonbill Here's a quote that applies:

"Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress."

Any progress is better than none. Waiting for the perfect setting guarantees that you get nothing done, because perfection doesn't exist.
 
@colwyn It has never really been financially feasible for me, even now, but I wish I had taken a month or two to work with a trainer when I started lifting. I guess it wouldn't have really made sense back then because I didn't know what direction I wanted to go in, but I could have saved a lot of time and injuries figuring out correct form right off the bat instead of using youtube and instagram to try to figure it out.
 
@dawn16 I’ve gotten a bit more into running in addition to my strength training and my IT band and hamstrings were killing me just to walk up my stairs. I’ve started adding some short (15 min) targeted yoga for those areas right after my runs and the difference is shocking. 16k steps yesterday and 13k steps today (much of this active jogging) and my legs feel fine. I’ll still rest tomorrow and only walk but I am glad I didn’t wait until I got really injured to start doing this.
 
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