- 27th July 2017
- By Matthew Fever
Body image and self confidence are two issues that certainly dominate the world of health and fitness.
Consider this for a moment.
“Appearance is the consequence of fitness and confidence is the consequence of capability“. Mark Twight.
Have you ever stopped to think about what your motivation might be for training? Is it to look and feel better? Is it to be able to perform a specific task? Maybe you need to be fit for your job or to run around after your kids or grandkids?
What are the consequences of you not being physically fit and in good health?
There are so many things that may be motivating you to work towards becoming a better version of yourself. I always try to encourage my clients to look beyond the superficial magazine covers, six pack abs and the latest bikini body workout plan. Instead of making these things an end goal, I like to make them a product of being able to perform better. A consequence of hard work and consistent dedication to improvement.
The above quote is from a strength and conditioning coach called Mark Twight. Those of you in the fitness game may have heard of him but for those of you that haven’t he is responsible for training athletes from a variety of sports, military personnel and more famously actors, such as the cast of the 300 movie and Superman.
I remember reading an interesting interview with him where he really highlighted the difference between training these different types of people and the general public. The difference was a real consequence for not being fit. Here are some examples.
If you are a professional athlete and you miss practice, take it easy in training sessions and are not where you need to be, you may risk losing a championship game, losing sponsorship or face an injury that could potentially end your career.
If you are a soldier and you are not fit for your next call of duty, it could potentially be the difference between life and death.
Actors working on film roles have to get themselves in incredible shape and keep up with production deadlines and filming schedules to avoid delays, cancelled work or embarrassment on screen.
For these guys, there are significant consequences to them not being fit! For the general public, it’s try again next week.
Now, what happens if you miss your next session? Does that impact on what you will do at the gym next time?
When following a training plan you will find there are consequences to missing your sessions. You simply cannot move on to the next phase of the plan until it’s completed.
If you have ever completed a training plan you will know that each session is important. How can you build on what you are doing and complete this week’s session if you didn’t complete the last one? Having an end goal and working through a schedule is key to further progression.
Enter S.M.A.R.T goals.
- Specific – state exactly what you want to accomplish
- Measurable – how will you demonstrate and evaluate the extent to which the goal has been met?
- Achievable – your goal needs to be challenging but within your ability to achieve the outcome
- Relevant – why is this goal important to you?
- Timed – when will it be achieved? Set target dates and deadlines to ensure a timely completion.
Over recent years, I have found training plans and goals with a scheduled date to be the only way for me to make progress. Sure, if you are new to the gym anything you do will produce a positive result, but only for the first few weeks. After that things have to be a little more carefully planned.
When you follow a schedule you build on what you have done in your previous workout. Each workout is an essential piece of the puzzle that over the course of 6-8-12 weeks etc eventually gets assembled so that you can achieve a specific outcome.
This might result in being able to run a marathon, squat your bodyweight, or even perform your first pull up. These are all things that you can train to do. The key is to start where you can and gradually progress towards attaining your goal, one workout at a time.
Planning is key. You will make very little or no progress by:
- performing a random selection of movements at the gym depending on either what you feel like or what’s available during busy periods;
- working through a workout that was the same as last session;
- participating in a workout designed to suit everyone in the class; or
- performing your workouts inconsistently with no continuity
Completion of a programme should result in you being in a different place now to when you started.
Begin to judge your workouts by what you improved rather than how it made you feel. This is more useful than how hot and sweaty it made you, how out of breath you got, or how sore and tired it made you feel. These things can be indicators of a great workout of course, but they are NOT your overall objective. It’s important to be aware of how your sessions make you feel but just because your legs ache doesn’t mean you are actually making progress. What did you achieve within the session?
Progression is one of the key principles of training. It’s obvious but so frequently gets over looked. Are you doing the same thing each week and expecting a different result?
My advice is always to look at your performance and focus on living a healthy life style. If you are completing a plan that sees you running further, lifting more, performing more repetitions etc then you should be seeing some changes to your body provided you are eating well and allowing for recovery. The fact that you completed a plan, felt like giving up, didn’t, felt like giving up again, and didn’t means you build character and probably a little more self confidence in your abilities.