Every January, zillons* of people start a new fitness program and the gyms fill up. By February, most of the newbies are missing workouts and by March things are pretty much back to normal (to the relief of the regular gym-goers). It doesn't only happen at the start of each new year, although that's a reliable occurrence. It would be nice to have statistics on the median lifespan of a new fitness routine. I'm confident it would be less than 30 days.
So what goes wrong? Why do so many people quit? Often, it's a case of doing too much too soon.
Slow and steady doesn't win many races outside of fables, although it worked for Cliff Young. (His story is always worth a read.) Starting slow can be a winning strategy, though. (It worked for Mine That Bird.) And since our "race" for fitness is not a competition with anyone else, the most important element is not how quickly we reach any goal but simply that we stay with it. "Life's a journey, not a destination." (OK, maybe Aerosmith didn't say it first but they've certainly stayed with it for a long time.)
For most of us, this "race" lasts a lifetime...ideally. Far more often, it turns into a series of sprints: short bursts of fitness punctuated by (sometimes lengthy) periods of lethargy. When people try to do too much too quickly in a new fitness routine, bad things can happen, just like any untrained sprinter trying to burst out of the blocks.
It's not hard to see how this kind of thing can happen. People get enthusiastic about finally getting back into shape and want to do it quickly. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Fitness adaptations take time to happen. Over-enthusiasm can lead to:
- Training too hard, with overly-difficult exercises, too much resistance, etc.
- Training too long or too often
- Insufficient warm-ups
- Insufficient rest and recovery
Sometimes these are the result of temporal distortions--better known as thinking we're as fit as we were at some point in the past. Trying to do a workout that would have been reasonably hard for ten-years-ago you will probably be too much for today-you unless you've (honestly) kept in shape.
What happens when we are taken in by excess enthusiasm (or delusions of youthful fitness)?
Soreness. It's not a prerequisite for improving fitness, no matter what the "no pain, no gain" folks say. Indeed, it's too often the reason for quitting as people miss workouts because they're too sore from the previous one.- Injury. This is the worst case. One of the very few concessions I make to training these days is that I don't recover from injuries as quickly--not even close. So what to do? Don't hurt yourself! Warm up and do manageable workouts. (Note that not working out at all is not a good way to avoid injury. Weakness is a big contributor to injury, especially weak backs.)
- Frustration. People who dive into a new fitness regimen usually expect results to match their effort. But as noted earlier, fitness adaptations take time.
So the next time you start a new workout routine, be smart and ease into it. As the highway sign in New Zealand said, "Be patient, don't be a patient."
Be seeing you.
-gary
* Rough approximation