When is the Right Time to Start a Fitness Program

Things that help you stick to a new fitness routine long term:

1. Goal Setting

2. Accountability

3. Getting Started on a Specific Date vs. Anytime

4. Buying a Gym Membership is Not Good Enough

5. Taking Breaks due to Stress and Vacation 

6. Go Slow

1. Goal Setting

When you embark on a fitness journey, it's important to be clear on what you'd like to achieve. Your goal could be to lose 40 lbs, build muscle for a specific reason, manage symptoms of lifestyle illness, pain management, or improved quality of life. The more specific and clear your "why" the more likely you are to stick to the program when your brain tells you to sleep in instead of working out, or pushing off a workout because you're too tired from work or school.

Goals need to be SMART - specific, measureable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Don't just say "I need to lose weight". Instead say "I need to lose 40 pounds in 6 months in time for my wedding. I will do this through nutrition by cutting out junk food and exercising 3 times a week for an hour. I will follow a program designed specifically for me."

What are you measures of success? When it comes to weight loss or building muscle, none of these are a linear process. You may have some weeks where you lose lots of pounds but other weeks where you lose nothing or even gain. It's possible that your clothes aren't fitting looser anymore but you have been working out a lot. Your body composition may still be changing, but it's not going to show up on the scale.

In those moments, we need measures of success that are unrelated to weight or measurements. The result is that you are staying consistent. If your goal was to work out 4 times a week and you still do it in spite of the scale or how your clothes fit, that's still success! Don't ignore the non-scale victories like managing your cravings, or getting into a pair of pants you haven't fit for a while.

Writing goals down where you can see them and marking the things you've achieved along the way is also a measure of success. During your program, did you get a promotion at work or change careers? Did you fight an illness and come out stronger? Was there a personal setback that you overcame? 

When you focus on your health, everything in your life gets better. Your blood tests will read closer to normal and you will have more energy to pursue your ambitions and hobbies. This will also make you more fun to hang around and will improve your relationships with friends and family. Maybe you'll even become more productive at work or school. 

Measures of success do not have to be related to the scale or measuring tape at all. That's why it's a great idea to take before and after photos to see how far you've come. People who set smart goals are 90% more likely to succeed vs people who do not.

There are other frameworks for setting goals like OKR's (Objectives and Key Results), BHAG (big hairy audatious goal), and HARD (heartfelt, animated, required, difficult) that could be used if you are more familiar with these. Whatever framework you choose, remember to be clear on your why, how, and outcome that you want to achieve.

2. Accountability

With fitness trackers widely available to people, fitness has become gamified which means that we have more tools at our disposal to be accountable in an automated fashion. Before smart watches, we'd have to journal or track things in a spreadsheet. Now, we have apps that track your steps, your water intake, calories in vs calories out, heart rate, fitness competitions among friends, and earning badges or prizes for finishing workouts. There's almost no excuse for lack of accountability since that gadget on our wrists is collecting so much data on us and putting it into graphs and charts for us to visualize what's going on.

For people who are not motivated by stats, reports, charts, or graphics, writing things down is another option. You can grab a beautiful journal that you're excited to crack open and write down everything you are doing to achieve your fitness goals. Maybe coloured pens, stickers, highlighters, and post-its are more motivating to a visual and creative personality. 

Friends and personal trainers can also hold you accountable. Working out with a friend offering emotional support and encouragement has been shown to help achieve long-term fitness outcomes. Working out with a buddy motivates you through friendly competition, encouragement when you don't feel like going if you have a set gym date with someone else, and it helps you push harder through the session itself. That's why group training is so effective at bringing in a social aspect to an activity that many people normally do solo.

Scheduling your workouts with a friend or coach is the best way to take responsibility for your fitness. Without a date in the calendar, people make excuses for why they shouldn't work out. They double book themselves over their gym times. Fitness and health are not optional. The sooner you get started and become disciplined about including exercise as part of your daily routine, the more likely you are to succeed. 

3. Getting Started on a Specific Date vs. Anytime

Something we have all experienced is the phrase we tell ourselves when we haven't done something that we should do: "I'll start on Monday." What happens if you don't start on Monday? Push the habit another week...then another week...then another week...until you just stop trying altogether. 

The problem with pushing things off is that generally, other things will get in the way of having good intentions. If you want to get back to your planned activity, tell yourself "tomorrow I will hit the reset button." By not giving yourself the extra leeway, you are more likely to be successful at getting back on track. 

It's very easy to make excuses when our target date is far off in the future. Eventually, you'll lose track of time and kick yourself for not starting something six months ago.

4. Buying a Gym Membership is Not Good Enough

A lot of people have good intentions of finding a gym that suits them. They want to do a bunch of research before committing to something. That's all fine and good. But when you walk out of a facility, chances are low that you will come back. Statistics show that 67% of people who purchase a gym membership will never use it. Or if they buy a gym membership, they are overwhelmed and don't know what they are doing.

Instead of purchasing a personal training package, they flounder by themselves, and then quit after going a handful of times. This is a very common scenario. The failure rate is so high, many people question why they should even bother.

Just because you purchased a gym membership for $20 a month doesn't mean you will use it or achieve your goals. There's no guarantee of achieving anything when you purchase a gym membership. They are notoriously cheap so that you forget about them and the facility continues to charge you anyway. This adds up over time. Cheap does not mean effective -- cheap means cheap. Money is one of the biggest motivators out there and if you feel the pinch on your wallet, you are more likely to take what you are spending on seriously.

In fact, when most people come into Rage Fitness asking to purchase a gym membership, we ask them what they hope to accomplish with that and try to talk them out of it! Unsurprisingly, many people are not used to this type of situation: a gym that doesn't want to sell gym memberships! Open gyms do not care what your goals are because a gym membership isn't designed to help you achieve them. That's the hard truth.

5. Taking Breaks due to Stress and Vacation

It's a well known fact that once you go on vacation from the gym, it's unlikely you will come back unless it's something that you can inherently feel. After 1 week, you will start to notice feeling more stiff and less mobile. You will lose cardio fitness after 2 weeks. Finally, after 3 weeks away, you will lose strength gains at a rate of 10% each week.

But there is a silver lining. Even if you are away from the gym for longer than 3 months, your body retains muscle memory and bounces back quickly once you decide to re-start the habit.

To avoid losing your fitness, try to exercise when you are away. Go for walks, do some bodyweight exercises in your hotel room, and take a resistance band with you which is easily packable. There's no reason to stop all activities even if you are on a beach vacation.

The busier you are at work, the more important it is to get some exercise. Even if you have deadlines to meet and everyone wants a piece of you, moving around can help you manage that stress. Exercise can improve your mood, elevate your endorphins, allow you to sleep, and helps you regulate your internal body systems. You don't need to go into the gym for an hour, but walk away from your desk every couple hours even if it is to walk around the office for 10 minutes. Grab a coffee from somewhere that's not on the same floor as you and take the stairs. 

6. Go Slow

The most important thing to remember is that if you want to be successful at starting a new program, you need to implement it slowly. Going all in too fast is more likely to cause burnout. When you incorporate changes slower, they are less likely to cause your body distress. Try not to exercise and cut calories at the same time.

Maybe start out by going for walks and reducing 150-200 calories each day for a week. When you reach a 500 calorie deficit, try to stick with it for three weeks. You will start to notice a difference in how you feel and you won't feel like you are starving if you start out slow.

Then start increasing your intensity of exercise and add in weights or fitness classes. Hire a personal trainer to help you learn how to exercise and take away the stress of trying to figure out what to do.

Adding a Fitness Program to your Routine Long Term

There's a lot of considerations to keep in mind when you are starting a new fitness program. There's complexity involved in making time for working out and creating a discipline around it. Having a personal trainer can help with accountability and goal setting. Coaches can give you advice on how to train for your specific goals. Going to the gym alone doesn't work for most people, in fact 2/3 of people who join a gym never end up using the membership. What you should be asking yourself is what will it take to help you succeed at your health and fitness goals? 

Getting results only comes through hard work, consistency, and dedication. Unless you are willing to put in the effort, you can't expect miracles. What worked for your friend may not work for you. Unless you are willing to spend time and effort doing something structured, you are fighting a losing battle.

Rage Fitness coaches are here to do an assessment with you to learn about your body and what we need to do in order to get you the results you want. Making drastic changes to your lifestyle without help can be overwhelming and there's no need to do that. We know that gym memberships don't work. Personal training has far better results than working out on your own. Book a physical assessment for $47+gst to get a report on actionable steps you can take to hit your goals, please call/text us at 1-825-945-7733, or fill out the online contact form today!