I’m not saying anything Earth shattering when I say that one of the biggest challenges that many busy adults struggle with is consistency in the gym. And perhaps this is the biggest issue of all for most of you when it comes right down to it.
Many of you have heard me say before that I believe consistency is really the ultimate key to your long term success and whether or not you ultimately achieve your goals. It isn’t this program or that program, sets, reps, or any of the other “minor” details of programming – the key to success is doing something reasonable, however imperfect, for a long period of time without major interruption.
This really isn’t a big surprise to most of you reading this. I know from consulting with many of you over the years that sticking to any one program for a prolonged period of time is a challenge, and just getting into the gym regularly (regardless of the programming you are using) is not always a given. Even clients who are paying a premium for in-person coaching don’t always make all of their scheduled appointments.
Life gets in the way, and workouts get shoved aside.
I’m a realist with 2 businesses and 3 kids and I understand that sometimes life truly does get in the way of perfect attendance at the gym and 100% compliance to any program isn’t necessarily realistic. However, I also believe that most people are less consistent than they could be if they spent more time thinking about the “why” behind their training goals.
Getting in touch with the “why” behind your training program can help you do a couple of things. First, it can help you prioritize where your training program stands on the “totem pole” of your life’s set of priorities. Second, it can help you align your training program with your “why” or what could also be described as your ultimate goal.
Going through this exercise should only take a couple of minutes. So think briefly about why do you ultimately want to go to the gym and get stronger?
Everyone has their reasons, and not everyone’s reasoning is the same or holds the same degree of priority in their life.
Are you training for numbers?
Numbers give us powerful ways in which to organize our training, but in my experience they aren’t powerful enough magnets for most mature responsible adults. Don’t get me wrong, I still love setting new PRs. I still get excited about putting up big numbers in the gym, however, the 600 lb Squat and Deadlift are not as attractive to me as they used to be. I guess you could say my zeal for putting up new PRs on a regular basis has been slightly dulled by age and responsibility. For better or worse. I have to manage my businesses and my family and this takes priority over hitting some of those numbers that have slightly eluded me over the years.
In short – I’m just not excited enough about hitting certain numbers in the gym to use that as motivation to keep consistent and focused. Perhaps that is because I know that in reality I’m “strong enough” to deal with most of life’s challenges. I can still Squat 500+, Deadlift 550+, and Bench 365+. Perhaps if my numbers were half that then “numbers” would be a slightly stronger motivation for me.
But for me, it’s no longer about motivation. It’s about discipline. And discipline comes from knowing my “why” and reminding myself constantly about “why” I am training as opposed to doing any other number of activities that I could possibly be engaged in.
Are you going to the gym for your health?
Everyone probably says “yes” to this at some level, but how critical is your training to the maintenance of your health? Are you 25 or 65? Are you 5’8 195 lbs or 5’8 and 295 lbs? If you can honestly say that the number one reason you go into the gym is for your health then how important is your physical health compared to all of the reasons you regularly find to skip your training sessions?
Are your kids more important than your health? Yes and No. Most decent parents would value their children’s lives over their own, but at the same time, you can’t be much of a parent if you are sick or dead. I can understand missing a training session for important milestones for your children or your spouse. It’s important to be there for those things. It’s important to spend time one on one time with your kids regularly and to take family trips together. Those things often come at the expense of training.
However, I have some clients who have become their children’s own personal Uber Service for all of their after school and weekend activities. Multiple children enrolled in multiple activities can quickly eat into evenings and weekends and if you are trying to be involved in every activity for every kid you might find that your training time evaporates into the ether.
So you have to ask yourself if you can sacrifice a couple of nights per week to spend on the maintenance of your health at the expense of any of your children’s activities?
If this isn’t an option for you – then what about work? Where does your work stand in relationship to your own personal health? Most people will say that their health is number one, but the way in which they spend their time every day and every week does not reflect this sentiment.
The point is this…..IF you are truly training for your health, there will be very little if anything that stands in the way of getting in a handful of workouts each week. Your “why” behind your training is simply too powerful to ignore. There are serious consequences to ignoring your “why” for too long. Consequences to yourself, your family, and possibly even your income (getting sick and frail is costly).
You may need to remind yourself periodically when you start feeling yourself “drift” out of your gym routine that your training is more than a hobby, it’s an investment in your health that must be attended to every single week.
And you must acknowledge the fact that unplanned missed workouts or weeks can very quickly snowball into missed months or years. The habit is easy to break.
Aligning Your Training With Your “Why”
So what the Hell does this mean? In a nutshell, an investment into your health (from a strength training standpoint) is not an overly time consuming activity. An investment into attaining a 600 lb Squat and Deadlift is far more consuming of both time and energy.
So think about why you are training? Does your investment of time, energy, and focus every week match up with your goals and your why?
If you are truly just training for your health – then do you really need to drive to that hardcore power lifting gym that’s 40 minutes away just because they have bars you like? Do you really need to be performing a 2-hour volume day on the Squat, Bench, and Deadlift? Do you need to train heavy and hard 4-5 days per week?
Why does it sound like I am telling you to do less work? I’m not.
I’m trying to get you to think about removing obstacles to your training when it doesn’t make sense to impose those obstacles on yourself.
Do you regularly miss workouts because you “don’t have time to train?” Well what if your planned workout was only 45 minutes instead of 2 hours? What if you allowed yourself to train at that crappy Anytime Fitness down the street from your house when you don’t have time to make it to the hard-core power lifting gym with all the right bars, the chalk, and the bumper plates. What if you allowed yourself to deviate from the planned 365x5x5 Squat workout and do 315x5x5 because you didn’t sleep well the night before. What if “getting the work in” took precedence over doing the work perfectly?
So here is what I am saying……..the habit of training regularly is more important than the quality or content of each workout if health is your primary goal.
If you’ve narrowed down the “why” of your training to your own personal health and fitness, then compromises can be made to your routine (if needed) to allow you to get more regular with your training.
This certainly qualifies as an instance where we are trying to prevent the perfect from becoming the enemy of the good.
The takeaway is this. If you struggle with consistency, find your “why” (i.e. your reason for training). Is your “why” important enough for you to make sacrifices in your personal and professional life? If not, maybe you should redefine your “why.”
Define what is the absolute minimum amount of time you need to commit to your physical health each week through training and make this happen no matter what. Constantly remind yourself that maintenance of your habits is more important than the content of each and every training session.
Great read Andy!