A very common challenge people face in the quest for fitness is sticking with it, also known as being consistent. It's all to easy to set lofty goals, fail to meet them, and then give up. But it's also not helpful.
One option is to accept that "failures" are just steps on the road to success. In her book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success", author Carolyn Dweck discusses a "fixed" mindset versus a "growth" mindset. People with the former tend to believe they have a fixed ability in life and trying to do more will lead to failure. People with the "growth" mindset believe they can do new things and that trying-and-failing is the natural path toward improving. (More on all this in a future post.)
One approach is to accept failures as being part of the process: no big deal. Another approach is to try to prevent failures from occurring to build momentum and confidence. So if you have trouble sticking with a fitness routine, read on.
This is the plan: pick three (and only three) workouts you can choose from: an easy one, a challenging one, and a "medium" one in between.
Easy
The tricky part of this plan is making sure the easy workout is something you can and will do no matter what. Doesn't matter if you're crunched for time, slept poorly, have an unexpected business trip...this is one you can always manage. That means it really does have to be easy.
How easy? That's entirely up to you, but this is not the time to be ambitious. Think "worst case scenario" and make sure it's something you can absolutely, positively get done. Whether that's walking a mile or walking up and down a flight of stairs doesn't matter. This isn't a workout that will get or keep you in shape; it will get and keep you succeeding. You know, doing something. So do some honest reflection on this one. Maybe the most you'll absolutely, positively do is lay in bed and raise your arms over your head three times. It's not really a workout but it's something. Make it something there is no excuse to avoid doing.
One important consideration is making sure to put some specificity on it. Not just "walk" but "walk for ten minutes" or "walk a mile." Not "do some yoga" but "do two sun salutations" or whatever. Something specific and guaranteed doable for you. For some folks, the "easy" workout might be running three miles or doing 100 kettlebell swings. That's fine, too. But again, don't be ambitious: this isn't your "get in shape" workout, it's your "better than nothing" workout.
Challenging
Once you have your easy workout, pick your challenging one. This is where you can be ambitious, but don't get carried away. You don't want it to be something you'll never do because you won't have the time or energy. Make it something challenging that you definitely will do if you do have the time and energy. Like the easy workout, make it specific, so not "lift weights" but "2x5 press, curl, deadlift, and squat" for example. Or "bike 45 minutes". You get the idea.
An additional consideration here is making sure this workout won't incapacitate you. Don't make it so challenging that it leaves you too sore to move the next day (or the day after), or, worse yet, injures you. Be smart. (Or get a trainer to help you.)
Medium
Once you have your easy and challenging workouts set, it's time to create your "medium" workout. This is obviously something in between the easy one and the challenging one. This should be the one you strive to do most often, so make it something both reasonably difficult and something you don't hate doing. (Ideally, it's something you like doing!) As before, make it specific.
And just like that you're done creating workouts! You might be tempted to add some more; maybe some different weight lifting workouts or interval training or whatever. But that's for people who are already in a growth mindset (and with some consistent training already underway). You'll get there, but be patient and keep it simple for now.
From here, the next step is to do one of these workouts per day, six days per week. Simple! The next post will add some details and options, but you already have all you need to give yourself three chances to win!
Be seeing you.
-gary