Not the 30 Day Fitness Challenge
Are you getting the results you want from your workouts? If you aren't, here's a great opportunity to kick start your progress and get some support from like-minded individuals as well! Keep reading to find out what exactly the 30 Fitness Challenge is:
Three Factors:
Proper Programming
Consistency
Intensity
Are responsible for at least 90% of your results in the gym.
If you're like most people, you just go to the gym and 'work out'. You really have no plan for what you're going to do when you get there. You might get on the treadmill for 15 minutes, do a few machines, maybe some free weights, do some abs, and then call it a day. Does that really seem like the most productive way to work out? Of course not! Having a plan - whether it's from this website or it's custom designed for you and your goals by yours truly ;) - when you walk in the door is the first thing that you must have if you want to make significant progress towards your fitness goals.
The next big factor that plays into your results is consistency. Maybe you get really fired up and work out four or five times a week for a week or two. You're going to make it work this time and make some progress towards those goals! Then life happens, your enthusiasm start to wane, and you only work out twice the next week and three times the week after that. So we're taking two steps forward and two steps back - and really not making any progress. The key is consistency over the long term - integrating fitness into your daily routine. One big problem is that most people really don't like working out! If you don't like the form of exercise that you choose, you're going to have a hard time doing it consistently and doing it intensely. So the key is finding something that you genuinely enjoy and you'll have a lot easier time doing it on a consistent basis.
The last thing that plays a huge factor in getting the results you want is intensity. Although you may feel better about yourself because you made it to the gym, sitting on the recumbent bike for 40 minutes reading a magazine and then doing five minutes of abs isn't really getting you anywhere. Be honest with yourself; if you want to make significant progress, you have to work hard! The vast majority of people can't push themselves as hard by themselves as they can working out with someone else. So whether you hire a personal trainer or find someone who is just on the same page as you to work out with, you'll thank me for it!
Pretty simple stuff, huh? If you have a plan, you work out on a consistent basis, and you do it relatively intensely, I promise you'll make some great progress in the next month. And so for the 30 day Fitness Challenge: for the next month, do all of these things. Plan your workouts - whether it's using a template from The Fitness Monster or you need my personal help. Be consistent with them - exercise at least five times per week. And work hard - push yourself a little. If you decide to take the challenge, post to the comments section of this post and let everyone know! I'll post once a week for the next month to see how everyone is doing, and you can post your progress in the comments section. I'll even pitch in with some recommendations to keep everyone on track. Hell, I'll do the challenge myself! If you want some anonymity, just use a fake name! Just do the darn challenge! Make this the time you make some real progress, start living the fitness lifestyle, and get some support in the process!
P.S. The comments look a little funny on this post - with regards to dates, times, and individual posting - because I had to export them from another blogging platform. Just FYI - they're real comments from actual clients!
Posts
I officially started with Forest this week and I know that the fitness challenge will be easier knowing that I have him riding me every week. My hardest feat in the past was keeping the workouts going and going at a strong and yet productive pace. Now if only I could have someone to cook for me too! =)
ReplyDeleteTracking the food I ate for only two days did make me more aware of the quality of food i was ingesting. It may be a tedious process to write down what you eat, but after only a couple of days I found I was more aware and trying harder to eat better. More veggies!!!
Writing down what you eat is such a simple and effective way to improve your eating habits - often, I’ve found that just the act of writing it down makes you so much more aware of what you’re eating that you end up losing some weight because you eat less than you normally would! Keep up the good work Ryan
ReplyDeleteGreat, encouraging email! I think you should report out on your progress on your goal to be Kettle bell certified (or whatever you call it). I think you are absolutely right that people do a bit of cardio, some weights, abs and are out of the gym. When you push yourself, it’s a matter of how do you keep the motivation past the point of pain and/or injury. I think that is the hardest part for me. It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s that I have to push past pain to keep going.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pati! I’m glad it was encouraging.
ReplyDeleteSo I’m currently preparing for the RKC kettlebell certification in June … it’s pretty physically demanding so I’m training about 5-6 times a week and almost all of the resistance training I’m doing right now is with kettlebells. One thing I notice is that kettlebell training seems to make me better at a lot of other things …. I feel like I’m running faster and more efficiently, my pull-up count is improving - I was even stronger in the gym when I went back and did some barbell work on Friday. I don’t think you can say that about many other strength tools.
When I first met Forest, I was around 200 lbs, and a body fat of almost 28%. We started working out and in four months I had only dropped about 10 lbs, but more significantly, I had dropped to 24.6% body fat. So when he was explaining his 30 day fitness challenge in our last session, I was all in. I had not been able to lose much weight and was hovering around 195; however I did see a decrease in my body fat to around 22%. I wanted to not only lose weight, but also gain muscle, so the 30 day fitness challenge sounded like the program to get me to my goal.
ReplyDeleteI started focus immediately after he had explained his three principals of results–Proper Programming, Consistency, and Intensity. The first objective for me was to establish my goals. I felt like I not only needed weight and body fat goals, but I also needed some fitness milestones too. Here is a list of my goals for May 1, 2009.
1. Weight 175 lbs
2. Body fat 18%
3. Complete 3 pull ups (kipping)
4. Complete 100 pushups in a row
5. Drop my one minute mile time to 6:30
6. Run my first half marathon
Later, I will explain how I organized the entire challenge.
Those are some great goals, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteIt kind of sounds like the ‘fitness cascade principle’ applies here: When you start working out, you probably have a set of goals that are challenging, but realistic to you coming from the perspective of wherever you’re currently at. Maybe it’s to lose 20 lbs of body fat and gain 5 lbs of muscle, or maybe it’s to run a 5k.
The point is that as you move towards whatever your original goals are, you begin to incorporate fitness into your lifestyle as a whole, get into doing more active things, and as you meet your original goals, you form new ones. In the end, sometimes getting to a goal we have in life - whether fitness related or not - can be more about the process of getting there than the end goal itself.
Looking forward to hear how you’ve organized your routine
Sadly, my schedule has been a monster to maintain. However, even with all that has been going on, I feel like the workouts that I’ve been able to do have been better. I feel like I’m working out smarter and I’m more conscious of how I’m doing while doing it in the gym, running or at home on my own workout machine.
ReplyDeleteI have started the block diet (minus Easter Sunday) and I have to say that I’m enjoying it. I like having the options and working to stick with them. The food has been good thus far and the selection is vast.
My goal in the next two to three weeks is to increase my own solo workout to at least 3 complete times a week; bringing my total weekly workout and/or cardio total to 5x a week. This is not an easy habit to form, but I hope to keep focus and make it routine.
Sadly, my schedule has been a monster to maintain. However, even with all that has been going on, I feel like the workouts that I’ve been able to do have been better. I feel like I’m working out smarter and I’m more conscious of how I’m doing while doing it in the gym, running or at home on my own workout machine. I have started the block diet (minus Easter Sunday) and I have to say that I’m enjoying it. I like having the options and working to stick with them. The food has been good thus far and the selection is vast. My goal in the next two to three weeks is to increase my own solo workout to at least 3 complete times a week; bringing my total weekly workout and/or cardio total to 5x a week. This is not an easy habit to form, but I hope to keep focus and make it routine.
Keep up the good work Ryan! Remember, whatever you can make time for in your schedule is a lot better than nothing. Even if it’s a quick 15 minute interval run or some push ups and sit ups and a couple of yoga poses, you’re getting in a little something. You don’t have to be at a gym to exercise!
ReplyDelete