Prioritizing Fitness Goals: Avoid Failure with 3 Basic Principles of Training
We wish getting a lean body, flat tummy, or fast legs could be done overnight. Seeing the swift runners or chiseled bodybuilding influencers online can make us feel inadequate, and for good reason, too.
We realize there is an untapped, primal potential within us, and the greater realization that we are not living up to it can eat away at our souls. Weight loss is not rocket science, contrary to what many nutritionists and health scientists would have you believe to swindle you into buying their products.
Even after finally making up our minds and deciding to get on a fitness journey, we start thinking that if we cannot lift 100kgs on our first day, we don’t deserve to be there.
WRONG!
Those bulky and hulked-out influencers you see online? Many of them just started with 2.5kg dumbbells. It’s true that you will feel self-conscious about your body the first time you enter a gym, or maybe even the thought might dissuade you from ever entering one. But know this: People go to the gym, the track, or whatever your chosen fitness outlet is to improve themselves, and that starts with taking the first step.
Yes, that masculine lifter was once scrawny. Yes, that toned-out runner was once fat. Yes, that wide-armed swimmer once couldn’t even float in the water. They all were beginners. No shame in starting out knowing nothing. As the old saying goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” As far as reusing motivational quotes is concerned, this one applies pretty well here.
But you know what, maybe you’ve already overcome that part of the equation, started your training, and seen some results, but suddenly everything crumbled one day, and you found yourself at the mercy of your fridge at midnight, regretfully and shamefully gobbling some ice cream down.
Sounds familiar? We’ve all been there… too many times to count actually.
In this post, I’d like to share some insights I’ve gathered from my experiences in the fitness realm in the hopes that it can inspire and help some of you who are struggling with your fitness goals.
Now, I am no health maestro. All the information you’ll read is from my personal experience, so don’t you go quoting some fancy bio-science jargon in the comments trying to prove me wrong.
Anyways, here are 3 steps or principles you can apply to avoid failure in your fitness journey.
1. Understanding Weight Loss
“Long live the dad bod!” is not something we wanna hear, no matter how sexy some people find it. Beachbody is more like it.
Don’t believe anyone who says accepting obesity as a healthy way of life is good, and that you should be proud of it. On the contrary, morbid obesity is often listed as one of the leading causes of early death and chronic illnesses. I don’t have statistics to cite, just my everyday recall and reading. You can do Google searches and you’ll see sufficient data.
Weight loss is very simple to understand. There are easy-to-digest (pun intended) fundamentals to it. You don’t need to go through large chunks of fitness literature to know how to drop a few pounds.
Ready? Here’s the formula:
Calories Out > Calories In = Weight Loss
Our stored fat reserves are nothing but excess energy we didn’t use.
Let’s revisit our natural roots. Humans were never meant to lead a sedentary lifestyle. Our biology is designed for movement and labour. That’s why every caveman is portrayed as a ripped and strong beast of a man. It wasn’t a lifestyle choice for our ancestors, it was their way of existence.
We no longer deal with the threats of lurking predators, so we set up simulations that recreate the stress those environments brought on our bodies, thus the gyms.
The more you allow your body to exert itself without ingesting new calories, the more it will optimize energy efficiency, and that will result in weight loss.
On the contrary, excess energy has no outlet, and consequentially it is stored as your fat reserves. So, don’t complicate the weight loss process. Discipline how much you eat and increase how much you move, eventually you’ll start shedding pounds.
2. Take Small and Scalable Steps
You won’t lift 200kg deadlifts on the first day, and you won’t run 10KMs on the first day. It takes time, and you have to take small steps to reach those goals.
Spend your first week experimenting and setting baseline parameters.
Okay, you found 5kg DBs easy, try 7.5kg, and then 10kg, and so on until you finally settle on a weight that makes you moderately tired, and that’s the weight you will train.
This is called progressive overload: Increasing the intensity of your lifts by smaller percentages over a long period of time, until you reach your desired goals.
It’s something like this:
- First week: 2.5kg
- Second week: drop set* of 5kg-2.5kg
- Third week: 5kg
- Fourth week: drop set of 7.5kg-5kg
*Drop set means immediately dropping down to a lighter weight in the middle of your set once you cannot continue lifting the heavier weight. E.g., starting at 5kg and dropping to 2.5kg.
Oh, don’t tell me you were expecting overnight abs, were you? Well, here’s some bright news, nothing that comes easy is worth having, and everything that’s worth having takes time.
If you are dreading it already, maybe your mindset needs an upgrade. Which brings us to the next point.
3. Mindset Drive: Fitness is for Your Mind
Fitness will improve your health, your quality of life, and in general your overall physical output, but its primary focus is none of those things. Fitness is solely (hyperbole to get the point across) to strengthen your mind.
A weak mind will crumble in the midst of hardship. You undertake a fitness journey to hammer your mind with enough difficulty that it becomes stronger and ready to take on challenges. It is to build discipline and instill the value of hard work in you.
If you are having trouble with it, take a long and hard look at the man in the mirror, and you’ll know what to do next.
Conclusion
I have started my fitness goals too many times, progressed too many times, and ultimately failed too many times. Exerting all that effort and restarting the process all over again have led me to learn a thing or two through personal experience and research.
Don’t overcomplicate the process.
- Move more than you eat.
- Lift small and gradually increase the weight.
- Focus on your mindset and what drives you.
Follow these three simple principles and you will avoid stumbling on the fitness track. I wish you well.
It’s not uncommon to see people struggle with their health, ultimately accepting they are destined to be unfit forever. I felt it important to convey a short piece on tackling some easy-to-deal-with components here. I hope it helps anyone who ventures to read.
To read my other posts, check out my recent articles here:
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- When Life Was Much Simpler
- An Ode to Dishonesty — When Honesty is Not the Best Policy
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