In your pursuit of health, you have two metrics that matter: # of workouts and PR’s. At RxFIT we tend to measure these metrics one month at a time.
Health is a game of consistency, which is why the first metric we track is “# of workouts/month.” Our healthiest athletes exercise at least 25 times every month (six times every week).
What would happen to your fitness goals if you worked out 25 times this month? Better yet, what would happen to your goals if you did this for three months in-a-row?
That is my goal of this series. I want you to get in the habit of working out 5-6 times every week. In order to help you with this, I interviewed our most consistent athletes in 2020 and asked them what they do. Here are the three most common things they said:
#1. You Don’t Choose to Workout; Your Habits Do
All 10 athletes I called last week said something to the extent of putting the decision of working out on “autopilot.”
Jeremy Halverson related it to high school sports:
“I treat the gym like I used to treat sports practices. Going isn’t a daily choice. With sports I chose at the beginning of the season to play, so I never decided to go to practice–that choice was already made. With the gym I’ve chosen that during this season of my life I’ll go every day. So in the mornings I never choose to go because it’s already on autopilot.”
Marta Aagard said,
“Whenever I think about skipping the gym, I force myself to think about something else. I know I just need to show up and I’ll be happy. So if I don’t overthink about showing up, then I always end up showing up.”
And then Gaby Flores said,
“Once I was super consistent for one full month, it became a habit. Nowadays, I no longer think about showing up–I just do. It feels weird not working out.”
#2. Save The Junk Food For The Weekend
8 out of the 10 athletes said that improving their diet has helped them stay more consistent.
James Clear refers to this as “habit stacking”–if you develop one healthy habit, it is easier to develop another one.
Karli Welch said that she tracks everything she eats in MyFitnessPal. Because she puts effort into tracking her food every day, she feels obligated to also work out.
“If I’m going to put this much effort into eating well,” she said, “I might as well exercise. If I don’t exercise, I feel like my healthy eating went to waste.”
Alopa Tuifua said that she wouldn’t show up in the past on days her stomach was upset from eating too much the night before. She decided to eat smaller meals so she could avoid that feeling in the morning–which would end up helping her get to the gym.
#3. Develop A Relationship With The Coach
All 10 athletes also mentioned developing a relationship either with their coach or another athlete.
One athlete said,
“Coach Tyre has become such a good friend to me now that she texted me last month during the warm-up in all capital letters: ‘WAKE UP AND GET TO THE GYM!’ After sleeping through my alarm, I rushed over and got to the gym towards the end of the workout. Doing the finisher and stretching out was better than not doing anything.”
Another athlete said,
“My consistency has also been aided by those in my class that I feel an obligation towards. The everyday 5:30 crowd has created a really good group dynamic. We’ll pick on each other for missing workouts. It’s positive peer pressure that keeps me interested in being in class with them.”
And finally, two athletes admitted to paying for either their sister’s or friend’s membership so that they would have a daily workout buddy. Both of them were only working out 2 times a week before doing this, and now they come in every day of the week.
Takeaway
Your 2021 goal should focus on consistency. Strive to become the type of person that never misses two days of exercise in-a-row. After you can accomplish this, the next goal is to regularly workout 5-6 times a week.
Do what the most consistent athletes do:
1. You don’t choose to workout. Your habits do.
2. Save the junk food for the weekend.
3.Develop a relationship with your coach.
Remember, health is simply a game of consistent habits.
Tyler
WOD
15 Minute Clock
0:00-3:00
Run 400m
Max Jumping Air Squats
-Rest 1:00-
4:00-7:00
Run 400m
Max Stepback Lunges
-Rest 1:00-
8:00-11:00
Run 400m
Max Jumping Air Squats
-Rest 1:00-
12:00-15:00
Run 400m
Max Stepback Lunges
Other Articles in this Series:
1. New Year, New Me
2. New Year: Consistency
3. New Year: Progress
4. New Year: Data From PR’s