Your program doesn’t matter.

You can have the most perfect, scientifically backed strength program, but if the program just stays on the paper it is written on, nothing happens.

You won’t get stronger; you won’t build a physical relationship with your body and mind. You will stay exactly where you are. You will be sliding backwards.

So, have you been skipping workouts? For how many weeks in a row and you managed to get the two to four workouts a week in that is needed to make progress?

Things get in the way; this is a fact that is unescapable. Work, family, social life and a myriad of other commitments that are just, if not more, important than going to the gym today. But going to the gym is important, but the consequences are not as immediate as if you skipped your mother’s 60^th birthday dinner to go and do a bench press workout. Which I am not suggesting you do, especially if you want to maintain a good relationship with your mother!

The first decision you must make is this one; is the gym going to fit around my life, or is my life going to fit around the gym? Both have their drawbacks; both have their advantages.

If you are going to fit the gym around your life, you might have to work out at weird times, or make the choice that consistency matters more than effectiveness or efficiency. On the other hand, if you are going to fit your life around the gym you might find that you are making sacrifices that other people can’t understand.

You can make that decision for yourself, but either way looking after yourself by lifting weights, eating good food and prioritising sleep and recovery is something that you can’t make progress in unless you make sure that you are doing them most of the time.

The “80/20 Rule”

I have coached many people through this process, and I like the “80/20 rule”. This can work in either direction. So, if you want to fit the gym around your life, I suggest that every time you must make a choice between the “gym” and “life” that you choose the gym 4 times out of 5. This will help you stay consistent; it may also help you realise the areas that you need to make changes in.

If you are planning to go the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work, but every Friday you get asked to go to pub, and you only make it twice that week. Let’s not get into the effects of alcohol on your gains and performance, but if this is consistently happening, you may need to make a change? Particularly if you are finding it hard to stick to the 80/20 rule.

What could that change be? You could;

1. Change your workout days. This may involve rearranging your workout split.
2. Explain to your colleagues that you have other priorities just now, but you still will be able to do it occasionally. Use the “80/20” rule as your guide here.
3. Train before you go to work in a Friday.
4. Remind yourself of the commitment you are making, and that lifting weight can be just as fun as going to the pub.
5. Invite your colleagues to go to the gym with you.

These are just a few examples, and I am sure there are many more you can think of, but the point is that you need to clear the path of obstacles that are making the “right decision” harder to make.

Are you getting in your own way?

So, now that we have begun to deal with the external obstacles that might get in your way, let’s begin to look at the ways that you can be your own worst enemy.

In my experience there are three main types of behaviours that get in the way of being consistent in the gym. If you read this article and feel yourself identifying with one or more of these behaviours. Maybe that is something you need to examine introspectively or talk to a professional about.

1. The Procrastinator
2. The Self Saboteur
3. The Over-Optimiser

Now you might recognise, parts of all three of these as I discuss them, and you might be a blend of all three. Just bear in mind these are not a diagnosis of any sort of disorder, they are purely my observations from years of coaching real people and helping them to get through, around, or over the challenges that they are facing.

The Procrastinator.

“I don’t have time for the gym today because of…. (fill in the blank)”

This is the most common pattern of behaviour I see in trainees. It is the most common pattern I see in my own workout skipping behaviours. I have skipped workouts because;

• I was writing an article, that I “needed to finish”.
• I will get to it this afternoon, and that time never comes.
• I didn’t block time off in my day to get my workout done.
• I didn’t get a good breakfast, so I am not fuelled for my workout.

These are all things that you, or me, have control over. It becomes an issue of priorities, what are trying to do? Or perhaps a better way to think about it is, what are you trying NOT to do?

So, if you were to put a plan together for someone to be in the worst possible physical condition possible, what would that look like?

You would want them to have an excessively high BF%, low muscle mass, low bone density, low cardiovascular capacity, no ability to delay gratification and eating nothing but highly processed foods would all be a good start.

What does this exercise tell us about getting into shape? It tells us we need to the opposite all those things. When we flip that around, we get a formula for “being in shape”, you want to have a healthy body fat percentage, a good amount of muscle mass, strong bones and connective tissues, a strong and capable heart and lungs, the ability to commit yourself to a long-term goal all while eating a well-balanced diet that provides the fuel and energy to perform and recover from the muscle strengthening activity you are doing.

If you are constantly procrastinating in a way that is preventing from you doing those things, then you will have to take an honest look at yourself. Lying to yourself is both the easiest and most nefarious type of deceit. It is easy to not face up to your own bull shit, to give yourself a pass when you shouldn’t. The problem is that you are not the only one that suffers from those actions.

If you spend your whole life being a slob, not looking after yourself, you end up being a burden to someone else. The ones who love you are the ones to take the brunt of your own ignorance. That is if you are lucky enough to have people that care about you that much. If you are unlucky enough to have gone through your life with no children, nieces, nephews, or grandchildren and you haven’t kept yourself in good health, well you are going to have a lonely and unhealthy life, that will certainly not live up to your expectations.

The other side of this coin is just as bad. If you devote yourself to your family, give up your health and well-being to look after theirs. I can guarantee the following things; they will not respect you, as you are a doormat, you need to set boundaries. Secondly, you will resent them for it. Your relationships with your loved ones cannot be all give, or all take. You must have respect for each other, and respect is earned not given, even from your own blood.

So, for you procrastinators out there, when was the last time you let someone know where your boundaries were? Now, if you are good at this, people learn where they can go with you and where they can’t, maybe you need to relax a little bit and not be so uptight, which is a very real problem. But often I see clients who cannot simply say “no, I am going to the gym”.

Taking care of yourself is the biggest gift that you can bestow upon your children and grandchildren. To live a strong and healthy life, to be strong and healthy as you age is a gift that no one can give but you.

All you must do is start.

The Self Saboteur

Self-Sabotage is a symptom of low self-esteem. Have you ever noticed that you don’t ever really try hard at things? Or even try at all?

Because if you try hard and it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, wasn’t the effort a waste of time? I could have been out drinking, or watching my favourite show, or playing computer games. Or performing whatever task gives your brain the dopamine it requires to medicate yourself into distraction.

So, you just give up. Or you tell yourself that you gave it your best shot, when you didn’t really? You then muddle through weeks, months, or years of mediocre effort, getting mediocre results before finally deciding to quit because you are not getting back what you put into it?

“You can’t be upset with the results of the work that you didn’t do.”

The pursuit of getting stronger requires more than just completing your sets and reps. It requires you to sleep enough and eat enough protein and total calories. It requires you to delay instant gratification and make changes in your life that help you to move forward towards the goal you have set yourself.

It requires commitment. And committing to one thing, means you are not committing to many other things.

Now, trying to do that all at once, could be a bit overwhelming. There may be a few people who can make all those changes all at once, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. You may need to make small changes, so that, gradually, over time, you get closer to lifestyle that you want to live. So, you may have to “triage” your lifestyle. This area is another article all itself, and I will link it here once I have written it, you can join my email list to get it when it comes out HERE

My point is that you need to stop making the same mistakes that have got you in the place that you don’t want to be. Repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, as Albert Einstein said.

So, start taking steps towards sanity.

The Over-Optimiser

Have you ever said any of the following to yourself?

“I didn’t sleep well last night, let’s push my workout back a day.”

“I missed my calories and protein target yesterday, let’s push my workout back a day.”

“I am a little under the weather, let’s push my workout back a day.”

“I had a stressful day a work, let’s push my workout back a day.”

Strength training brings many things into focus. One of the biggest things it will make you do is assess what habits you have that are working for you, and those habits that get in the way of the progress you want to see. And if you keep putting things off because you are waiting for the “perfect time”, well I have some bad news, the perfect time never comes.

Yes, there are better times than others. But starting is always better than not starting. Do not let perfection become the enemy of progress.

So, if you have ever found yourself using any of the above statements as a reason for pushing your workout back a day, then you may need to be conscious about the decisions you are making and environment you are putting yourself in.

“We are all products of our environment; every person we meet, every new experience or adventure, every book we read, touches and changes us, making us the unique being we are.” – C. J. Heck

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey

You are a product of your environment AND your decisions. You can decide to improve your environment, you can decide to put yourself in a position to succeed. To be in a position where success is more likely. The people that you have in your life, are they dragging you down? Or is it your responsibility to help lift them up?

Is it time to set an example for those around you, to show them that things can be better? Call them to do better, but don’t beat them over the head with it, be the example that you wish you had. Leave the world a better place than when you came into it.

 

Missing workouts? Some questions to ask yourself.

I didn’t sleep well, what can I change?

• What time did you go to bed?
• How much coffee did you drink yesterday?
• Does your bedroom have good sleep hygiene?
• What is your pre-sleep routine? Do you have one?

I missed my nutrition targets for the third day this week, what can I do?

• Did you prepare any meals?
• Do you have a health promoting food environment in your house?
• Is it too easy for you to make the “wrong decision”?
• It is too hard for your to make the “right decision”?
• Have you planned your meals for the week, or next few days?

I am not feeling 100% today?

• Are you hydrated?
• Have you eaten enough protein and food?
• Are you getting plenty of fruits and vegetables?
• Are you replenishing your electrolytes after a sweaty workout?
• Is there something you need to get off your chest?
• Lastly, are you going to skip the gym every time you don’t feel 100%?

I had a stressful day at work.

• Have you got a well-defined role and parameters in your work?
• Have you set up professional boundaries?
• Does the separation between “work time” and your “own time” get blurred?
• Some jobs are more stressful than others, how are you going to manage the stress in your job?

These are just a starting point, and this list of “questions” is far from exhaustive. If you find yourself relating to this then you are more than likely not making progress because you are looking for the perfect time to get started. And as I said earlier, there is no perfect time, so go do the thing, do it now. Just one thing that “tomorrow you” will look back and thanks today you for doing.

So, does your program still matter?

Of course, your program matters. But it doesn’t matter until you make the decisions that allow the program to work. The “program” isn’t just the sets and reps in the gym. It is the sleep, the hydration, the rest times between sets, the protein in your meals, it is pretty much every decision you make.

The “program” is your life. And the program is either getting you better, or it isn’t.

The choice is yours. Start making better ones.